Bittersweet | Simon Riley

SEVEN

Ghost stormed through the base. It had been four days since he had seen Belle. Well, no. It had been four days since he had spoken to her, he had seen her of course. He had seen her eating in the mess hall with the soldiers who she'd managed to bond with, he had seen her in the gym between sets and he had seen her as he'd passed by her office time and time again. And yet, he hadn't spoken to her once due to his absolute anger over the entire situation which Soap and Gaz of course found absolutely hilarious. Ghost could kill men with his bare hands, yet he failed to express his anger on the therapist who wasn't even half his size.

"You're acting like you're scared of her." Soap had joked and that had ended up being the straw which had broken the camels back during the drills which Ghost had been talked into joining. Ghost stopped mid rep, turning his head towards the Scotsman with a slight scowl across his face which of course only made Gaz laugh and nearly drop the weights he was using so Ghost glared shortly at him too.

"I will hit you, Johnny." Ghost shot back with a small glare across his face before refocusing on what he was meant to be doing. But the words which Soap had said lingered in Ghost's mind and repeated themselves over and over again every time that he saw the brunette going about her daily business around base. Before long he found himself even searching for her in every room that he entered but she was always with someone else or sometimes even surrounded by other soldiers she'd made friends with. By the fourth day, he got so frustrated to prove that he was not scared of her that he managed to track her down.

Ghost finally managed to finally find her alone as she had been leaving the recreation room, watching her wave to the group she'd been hanging out with. As soon as he saw that no one else was with her, he stepped besides her and cleared his throat. Belle turned her head and looked up at him, the smile which had been on her face falling slightly as she realized who was standing next to her. There was a silence that sat between them, and Ghost stared at her as he realized that he wasn't going to speak to him, so he moved to stand in front of her, making them both stop walking. There was another pause of silence as Ghost looked down at her and she stared up at him, her eyes narrowed, and it was clear she had no interest in him at the moment.

"You're wearing jeans." Ghost pointed out bluntly and Belle looked down at her outfit even though she already knew what she was wearing. She was out of uniform, dressed in jeans and a normal shirt instead of the normal fatigues which the military members were expected to wear. Belle met his eyes again, confused as to why he would stop her to point that out.

"Yeah," Belle nodded a little, taking a small step backwards and her eyes studying what she could see of his face which wasn't hidden by the balaclava. She shifted her stance, crossing her arms a little as she looked up at him. "I'm off duty." She told him with a small frown, staring up at Ghost because she really didn't have time for this. She just wanted to go back to her quarters and take a decent nap.

"Well, I need to talk to you." Ghost said, moving with Belle to keep her attention on him. Belle's eyes narrowed some more because she really didn't want to talk to the man who only seemed to argue with her at every chance he was given. She looked over her shoulder to see that they were alone in the hallway before she looked back to Ghost and shook her head.

"I'm off duty Simon." Belle repeatedly tiredly and Ghost stared at her, not expecting such a push back from the girl who seemed to be so nice to everyone except him. Not that he wanted her to be nice to him, but it was still infuriating. Her arms dropped to her sides after the moment of neither of them saying anything and she stepped to the side to go around him, but he simply followed after her, blocking her way once again. Belle gave him a solid glare.

"You're a shitty shrink then." Ghost said as he looked down at her and Belle tilted her head to the side a little, the frustration evident in her eyes as she looked up at him. He was really pissing her off and she stared up at him.