#linda058 x OC

[achangeinreality]

Encounters 5

August 11, 2552

Ira sat in front of her computer nervously, waiting for the video call to connect. She played with the ends of her hair underneath the desk, trying to fight the anxiety. Bloop! The video finally connected, displaying a cool and collected Spartan on her screen. Ira lit up and smiled brightly, waving at her in excitement.

“Hi! It’s good to finally see you!”

“Hello Ira. Yes, I’m glad to see your face again.”

The two had been non-stop talking for almost 3 weeks and decided on video- chatting with each other. It was at this point that Linda was finding it harder and harder to keep Ira at a distance, and easier to talk to her. Ira couldn’t be more thrilled, though Sila’s words about never being a main priority haunted her every other day. She tried pushing the thoughts away though and stayed focused on the present. “I’m worried about my mission, it’s a serious one. No one seems to know anything either, it’s all on a need to know basis,” said Ira. Linda frowned in acknowledgment. A few days ago, while Ira and Linda had been going back and forth, Ira had expressed concern over her next mission. Apparently Ira had gone to a meeting with a lot of confidential information that she was unable to discuss at length. According to her, their commander didn’t even seem to know what exactly was going on. “That’s concerning. I wonder why we haven’t been told a word,” Linda replied. “Maybe this fight isn’t bad enough to have Spartans on board with it. There’s no use speculating for now. Any update on Kelly?,” Ira asked.

It had come to Linda’s attention that Kelly was acting weird. Weirder than usual. She had been spending a lot of time on her laptop and asking odd, random questions about Ira. Linda didn’t know if this was her way of trying to get to know Ira through herself or if there was a more nefarious reason. So, Linda did what she did best and observed. Rather than prod Kelly for information, she watched her closely.

”No, nothing new. Just the same weird behavior,” Linda replied. Ira smiled and said, “Well if it would help, I could always reach out to her and start up a conversation!” Linda shook her head almost imperceptibly and said, “No she would not respond well to that. She’s about as bad at talking to people as me.”

”I don’t think you’re bad at talking to me.”

”You’re a bad liar.”

”I’m not lying, have you ever talked to some of the engineers?”

”I doubt they’re as socially stunted as I am.”

”Well then you clearly haven’t talked to them.”

”So you do think I’m socially stunted.”

”Well, a little but at least you try and you’re not creepy. Plus you make an excellent listener.”

”The engineers are creepy?”

”Some of them, yes very much so. It’s like they’ve never come out of their caves to say hi and immediately resort to borderline sexual harassment.”

”Funny, I didn’t take you for a hypocrite.” Ira’s eyes widened and she felt herself get hot. “You remember that??”

”How can I not?”

”I was drugged!” At that, Linda laughed. Ira had never heard her laugh. It was quiet and low, more of a chuckle really. Ira had only seen the Spartan face to face a handful of times but her range of facial expressions were limited and almost nonexistent. Ira stored this new one into her memory banks, audio included. Though Linda’s face seemed to stay unmoving and serious, Ira was getting better at seeing the slight fluctuations. The shock was almost enough to pull her out of her embarrassment.

”I can’t believe you remember that, that’s so embarrassing.”

”Well you know how to make an impression.” This time, it was Ira’s turn to laugh. Though hers was more loud and giggly.

“The ghosts of my youth continue to haunt me.”

”Your youth? What does that make me, a dinosaur? You’re very young.”

”Well I’m way more wise now I mean. And no you’re not a dinosaur, please, more like a gothic cathedral.” At this, Linda laughed again. Ira swore if they were in the same room she would have had a shoe or pillow flung at her. Ira laughed too and added, “I’m just kidding, no you're not old.”

”That’s what I thought.” Ira smiled but could feel a knot in her core forming. It didn’t escape Ira’s attention that there was a considerable age gap between the two. Quite the opposite, it had been one of the first things she noticed about the Spartan all those years ago. It was far from a deterrent, though she chalked it up to having an eccentric taste. Ira wondered though if this played a role in Linda’s reluctance to pursue anything. She had so many questions but feared pushing the issue because quite frankly, this friendship was nice. The last thing Ira wanted to do was lose it. One of her worst traits was her inability to stay quiet about an issue or about something on her mind and this was testing her. She realized she hadn’t said anything for a moment, rather stayed spaced out staring at the side of the screen.

”You’re thinking hard about something,” Linda stated. She had been observing Ira’s posture and the way she was staring which pointed to an internal conflict. Ira’s right eye twitched and finally gave in, “I have a question.” Linda didn’t say anything, but it was clear she was inviting Ira to speak. Ira thought of how to word the question. Underneath the desk, she pulled the bullet that Linda had gifted her out of her pocket and played with it on her lap. She let her fingers run along the engraving before finally settling on, “Did our age gap have anything to do with your decision to not pursue something with me?”

”Yes and no. It doesn’t bother me but I don’t think it’s seen as appropriate. That’s not the reason for it though.”

”Yeah I can understand that. I won’t press it anymore.”

”It didn’t bother you?”

”No, quite the opposite.”

Linda said nothing for a few seconds, just stared hard at Ira. It never failed to surprise her the extent of her boldness. Ira had a habit of saying these things that got under Linda’s skin so easily and often left her at a loss for words. She thought about Kelly’s advice and fought with it further, feeling a strain in her temple. This time it was Linda who wanted to press it. She would be a fool to continue denying to herself that she wanted more with Ira Hagan. Uncharacteristically, she admitted, “You make it hard for me to hold on to my decision.”

”I do?”

”Yes.”

”What does this mean then?”

”I don’t know”

”No, I need an answer. I deserve that.” Linda breathed in and out slowly. She thought, I’ve really made a mess now.

”How would it work? What would a relationship entail? We can’t even see each other for months, maybe years at a time.”

Ira had to hold on to the desk to keep herself from falling out of her chair. Was this finally happening? Did she need to get her hearing checked? Had she finally rolled a nat 20 on her charisma check? Doing her best to keep the feral excitement out of her voice, she responded, ”Well, it would look a lot like this. Yeah it would suck that we can’t really be together in person but this can be a way to bridge the gap. Plus I’d finally be able to tell you all the things I’ve been holding back.”

”You mean there’s more you’ve somehow been able to stay quiet about?”

”Like you wouldn’t believe it.”

Linda had to sit still for a second. Why had she decided to go down this path? What possessed her to reconsider her initial decision? There really was no turning back after this. The situation was making her head spin.

”Ira, I need a day to get back to you. I’m sorry but I will have an answer for you by tomorrow if you’ll let me. I need to clear my mind and think.”

”I… I don’t know that I have a day.”

”Please.”

”I, um.. uh… ask me what I’m doing tomorrow.”

”What?”

”Ask me what I’m doing tomorrow.”

”What are you doing tomorrow…?”

”It’s confidential.”

Linda stared at her with initial confusion but then felt the wave of realization fall over her. Ohh, she thought.

”I’ll get back to you as soon as I can in the morning”

”One more thing, we might be seeing each other soon. I look forward to hearing from you tomorrow, please be prompt. Goodnight, Linda.”

”Oh? I will be, goodnight, Ira.”

Ira shut her laptop softly. What she had hoped the Spartan had been able to decipher was that tomorrow, she would be deploying. Not only that, but she would be landing in Reach. Ira very literally didn’t know if she had a day left to be able to communicate with Linda. This was so fucked. She should be jumping for joy that Linda was finally returning her affections but instead, a pit of anxiety engulfed her stomach. It had been at the last minute that Ira was told the date of her upcoming deployment. This was mainly why she had insisted on talking to Linda through video chat. She wanted to see her face before going off into an unknown battle. It scared Ira to think that she might deploy and never see her face again.

At the meeting Ira had attended weeks ago, she had been informed that some sort of conflict was occurring on Reach. The news was confidential however, so she couldn’t actually tell Linda anything about it other than that she was deploying soon and it seemed like only a handful of people knew fragments about it. Nothing specific was disclosed to her. Just that there had been comm silence in the Viery Territory and it was imminent that they engage the hostiles in the area. It shocked her to find out that Linda was on Reach and didn’t seem to know anything about any conflict there. This raised her concern even more, seeing as it was clear that the UNSC was hiding something. Upon checking the news on Reach, there was no mention of any sort of fighting other than the local rabble rousing. Surely, a conflict that needed a battalion of ODST’s would warrant news coverage. It had ONI written all over it. Even more depressing was the fact that at the end of the day, there was a very real possibility that her chute might not even deploy.

She sat on her bed and laid back, covering her face with her arms. This was not the way she thought the conversation was going to go. But now, with the hope of a better future ahead of her, maybe it would further push her to survive. She wasn’t sure she could bear the thought of getting a yes and then dying. That would be so unfair to Linda and just thinking about it was making her berate herself for being so pushy. Or even worse, what if she survived and experienced a similar… incident like the one 5 years ago? Ira felt herself grow cold. Surely she had attended enough therapy sessions and been through enough psych evals to know that it wouldn’t happen again, right? She had to believe that.

Linda stayed sitting in the same position for a few minutes before standing up, laying face down on her bed, and screaming as loud as possible into her pillow. This proceeded for about 5 minutes before she finally stopped and sat up to stare at the empty screen. She breathed in and out, closing her eyes, focusing on her breath, and- no she needed to scream into the pillow again. This went on over and over until Linda finally felt satiated. Face blotchy, hair ratted, and eye twitching, she walked out of her room and headed to the gym. This was no time to think. This was the time for a long and arduous run.

At the running track, Linda put in some noise canceling ear plugs and set off. It was soothing her to focus on the muffled sounds of her feet hitting the track. Thump, thump, thump, thump. The feeling of the air rushing past her face. All she had to do was make her joints and limbs move in harmony to keep her going round and round and round the track. Her breath started to get harder and her lungs started to get more uncomfortable as the time passed. About an hour had gone by when she finally slowed herself to a walking pace and walked over to her designated locker to pull out a towel and water bottle. She breathed heavily and was covered in sweat but her mind was still screaming. Linda pulled the ear buds out of her ears and closed the locker’s door only to find a pale woman with blue eyes and dark brown hair staring at her in concern, holding a water bottle.

Not now, Linda signed and walked past her. Kelly followed, signing back, are you okay? Linda nodded but said nothing. They walked to the shooting range together. When Linda pulled out an array of handguns, Kelly eyed her a little funny but said nothing. But when Linda put her ear muffs on and started firing them off one by one until they were empty Kelly whipped around and yelled, “Woah, woah, woah okay stop.” Linda put the gun down but didn’t say anything. Kelly took the weapon out of her hand and took the ear muffs off of her.

”What’s going on?,” she asked with concern. Linda stayed silent but looked at her. Kelly didn’t push her though, she knew the words were coming, they were just taking their time. Finally Linda said quietly and slightly unevenly, “I reciprocated my affection to Ira.” Kelly’s eyes widened and she replied, “Come again?” Linda rolled her eyes closed and repeated herself, “I told her I needed a day to give her a full answer though. But she’s deploying sometime tomorrow so I have until morning.”

”A full answer? What the hell does that mean? It’s a yes or a no, Linda.”

”No… I just. I want to… I want to say yes. But I don’t know if I can.”

”Realistically you wouldn’t even be around one another very often so it would be a lot like what you guys are doing now. Lots of texting and video calls.”

”I know that but I don’t want the inevitable to happen.”

”I think the question you should be asking yourself is, is it worth it? Are you able to let someone get close despite the high chances of casualty?”

”I don’t know. It feels selfish.”

”It sounds like it would be equal parts selfish and selfless.”

”Hm,” Linda replied in thought. They stood there silently for a moment longer before she sighed and sat down on the nearest bench. Kelly joined her and asked, “What made you finally give in?” She uncapped the bottle and started drinking. Linda groaned and replied, “I don’t know. She asked me if our age gap had anything to do with my decision to stay friends and then when I asked her if the gap bothered her she said, ‘no quite the opposite-“ Kelly spat her water out and started coughing violently. Linda slapped her in the back and sighed.

”Wow. Well, that’s a girl who knows what she wants,” Kelly said after her coughing fit ended. Linda snorted and said, “Tell me about it.” Kelly giggled a little and replied, “Linda, how did this happen? I think you’re the only Spartan I know who’s been in this situation.” Linda put her head in one hand and signed with the other, couldn’t tell you.

A few hours had gone by and Kelly was getting ready for bed. On Reach, she had her own room and bathroom so there was no need to share or wait. It also meant that she had the privacy to do as she pleased, and as of late she needed lots of it. Kelly had been doing a lot of poking around in whatever files she could access without getting flagged for suspicious activity. Her main goal was trying to figure out what Corporal Hagan had done to receive so many psych evals before getting cleared to return to service. She had made headway in the past couple of weeks and had narrowed it down to a battle 5 years ago. This was before Hagan had been made an ODST and oddly enough, there was no mention of her rank. That had also been redacted. Why???

Her timeline of events was, Hagan being deployed on yet another ground conflict caused by the Covenant 5 years ago. Her rank was redacted, and after the battle ensued a series of psych evals that included mandatory leave happened. Then about 7 months later, there was record of Hagan returning as an SPV. That was odd.

Kelly was aware that this obsession was very odd. She knew this sort of shady shit happened all the time to all sorts of people in the military. But none of them were entangling themselves with her sister and she would be damned if she didn’t do her best to make sure that the Corporal wasn’t bad news. Truth be told, Kelly liked Ira. She had only ever had one interaction with her, but from what she had found in her investigation and heard from Linda, Hagan sounded like a charmer. Blunt, pushy, unintimidated by rank, and courageous. She could see why Linda was so entranced by the woman, for Kelly had never known Linda of all people to initiate conversation, let alone attend social gatherings. Ira’s appearance probably helped her cause too. From the pictures and video footage that Kelly had unearthed, the Corporal had it ‘going on’ as she had heard other marines say about people they found attractive.

Night time came and went and before she knew it, Kelly was waking up at 0500. She got up and rubbed her eyes, yawning as she walked to the bathroom. As she went about her morning, a thought occurred to her. What if she… oh. Oh that could work. If only to at least get her some bits of clarification. Friendly banter, interrogation, what was the difference really? Yes that could work…

“Spartan Kelly, it’s been quite some time since we’ve spoken last. How are you?,” asked a stern but friendly woman in her 30s with a short brown bob and piercing blue eyes.

“Gunnery Sergeant Gutierrez, long time no see. I am well, and you?,” replied Kelly, trying her best to emulate the friendly tone that Sila was using.

“I’m good! Just to clarify, this is a friendly meeting right?” -Sila

“Yes, no need for anything formal here. I have been wondering what you have been up to since our last interaction!” -Kelly.

About 2 years ago, Blue Team had actually inserted with Sergeant Gutierrez and her men. Gutierrez had immediately remembered the Spartans and was very emotional after their mission. She thanked them for saving her life all those years ago on Draco III and avenging all of the fallen. Kelly found it easy to talk to her and occasionally messaged her in the spirit of friendship.

“Oh, well I've been preparing my men for the upcoming fights as you know. Being a gunnery sergeant has so many more responsibilities than I realized but I’m more than happy for the challenge. And you?” -Sila

“Yes, so many responsibilities, that I can relate to. I hear that a mutual colleague has also recently been promoted, Ira Hagan?” -Kelly

“Oh yeah she got promoted last year, I was so happy for her! I didn’t realize you were in contact with her.” -Sila

“A wonderful achievement. Not directly, she is very close with my teammate, Spartan Linda 058 as you might remember.” -Kelly.

Gutierrez suppressed a chuckle but the slight shift in her face was enough to tell Kelly that she knew about the situation. Before she could reply, Kelly added, “Very close.” Gutierrez couldn’t hold it in anymore and finally let a laugh out.

“Okay I wasn’t sure if you knew but obviously you do. I still can’t believe the balls on that woman y���know?” -Sila. Kelly wasn’t sure if Gutierrez meant actual physical balls or testes but she was sure that Ira was not in possession of either. She figured it was some figure of speech that she currently didn’t understand but went with it regardless. She mirrored the Sergeant and laughed as well saying, “Yeah I hear you.”

“I mean I’ve met enough Spartans at this point to know you guys are just people, and the best kind, so I’m not outright scared of you. But to be so brazen and just say “I got the hots for you and I know you do too”, that’s some big balls.” -Sila.

Ohhhhh, okay I understand the metaphor, thought Kelly. This time she genuinely chuckled in agreement and said, “Yeah I’ve never seen Linda seem so smitten. But anyway, I got a question for you. And it is not my intention to seem rude.” Sila looked perplexed but she replied, “Oh, yeah what is it? I won’t be offended.”

“Well I couldn’t help but notice that in the last 8 years since I met you and Corporal Hagan, you’ve grown to become a Gunnery Sergeant. It is no small feat that Ira achieved the rank of Corporal, but is there a reason that her rank isn’t higher?” -Kelly

Sila looked a little uncomfortable for a second. She was smiling, looking at her screen and then as soon as Kelly asked that question her eyes darted away and she shifted in her seat. Her smile dropped and she cleared her throat, responding with, “Well you said it yourself, Corporal is a respectable rank. She’s just taken a little extra time to better her skills than I have but I wouldn’t compare us, we’re very different people.” Kelly nodded in agreement and generated a gentle smile to try and ease Sila as much as possible. “Oh, no I didn’t mean it like that. The question comes more from a place of concern, I suppose. I just want to make sure that she is motivated and compliments Linda. You know, I look at Linda as my sister and I want the best for her,” Kelly half admitted. Her intentions were true, she really did just want the best for Linda. But it was clear to Kelly that Ira was more than motivated. “Ohhhh okay I get it yeah no for sure. No, Ira isn’t lazy, she’s just had some… roadblocks,” replied Sila. “Like what? Is she okay?,” Kelly pushed. Sila didn’t say anything for a second but she looked around momentarily and then said in the most conspiratorial, sly voice that Kelly had ever heard, “The situation is confidential, but… what I can tell you is that it’s combat related. You ever wake up screaming and sweating from the nightmares?” Kelly sighed and looked down before replying, “Yeah I know a thing or two about that.”

“Alright so… Ira maybe lost control one day after a bad fight and caused some trouble. She got a lot of help though, so I can say that she’s on her way to moving up the ladder again and in control of herself. But that’s all I can really say,” admitted Sila. It appeared that there was more to the story than that to Kelly, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to get more than that out of the Sergeant. She had heard enough and was smart enough to piece together the puzzle. The records indicated that humanity had lost the battle that Ira was a part of before her records became redacted. Something, maybe the defeat, had caused Ira to finally tick, as many soldiers that Kelly had witnessed over the years had, and did something bad. Alright well, of all the things Kelly had envisioned, this wasn’t all that terrible. It actually humanized Ira more and painted a more concrete picture of who she was to Kelly. And so far, she seemed like a soldier trying their best to stay alive. Something Kelly could get behind. The rest of the conversation with Sergeant Gutierrez consisted of casual conversation that Kelly was desperate to end, seeing as this was her most difficult subject. She admitted to herself this is what she deserved though, seeing as she had quietly interrogated Sila under the guise of friendship. Though after all, she did find herself enjoying Sila’s company, so she supposed it wasn’t all bad.

August 12, 2552

Ira was running to the pod loadouts. Her commanding officer was yelling orders behind her. Boots were hitting the ground, and alarms blared. She got to her pod, filling it with her weapons and equipment as quickly as possible. It couldn’t be. Not here, not on Reach. Ira finally knew what the big secret was. The Covenant was attacking Reach. There had been comm silence not just because of the Covenant but because of ONI and it was imminent that a force be deployed at this very moment.

It was still relatively early in the day, around 0900 hours. Ira had been previously told that a deployment was not going to be expected until much later in the day. But upon waking up that morning, she knew something was wrong. Things must have been much worse than previously thought. She put her helmet on and got in, along with everyone else into their own pods. Ira touched the left breast pocket on her vest and felt for the single rifle bullet. She clutched onto it, praying that the fighting hadn’t spread further than the Viery Territory. Everyone on her team confirmed being in their pods and ready for deployment. The pods were being checked for security and while her team waited, the anxiety in Ira’s stomach got worse. The only thing that was currently calming her was that at least her anxiety over Linda’s decision had been resolved. She had her answer, and that was enough for Ira.

August 20, 2552

”FALL BACK! FALL BACK!,” ordered Ira. The battle was terrible. Worse than she could have imagined. The casualties that the UNSC incurred were beyond devastating. Ira’s team was down to half, and her remaining force was covered in injuries. They needed to regroup and reconfigure or else there was no chance they’d make it. Ira ran fast and hard, almost reaching their checkpoint. She turned to see Rachel, Dal, and Richard following loosely behind but running their hardest. But then, a pair of Elites sprang out of the shadows and attacked. One Elite rushed Rachel with his energy sword but she managed to jump out of the way and Ira concentrated her fire on him, effectively taking his shield down. Rachel and Ira took turns shooting him and evading his swings. Dal and Richard engaged the other elite in a similar fashion. The edge of a swing caught Ira on the side, cutting through her tattered vest. The cut burned and bled but was not fatal. As the Elite zeroed in on Ira, Rachel kicked him in the back of his knees to falter his balance, and went for the head with her assault rifle. The Elite went down, but was frustratingly still alive. Rachel and Ira heard a terrible swish and a blood curdling scream. They turned momentarily to see that the other Elite had managed to run his sword through Dal.

“DAL! NO!,” screamed Rachel. Dal spurted out blood from his mouth and made eye contact with Ira. “Go,” he croaked out as he pulled a grenade from his belt and ripped the pin out with his other hand. “GET CLEAR!,” yelled Ira. Rachel, Dal, and Ira ran west. Rachel turned her head to see Dal one last time before, BOOM! The floor quaked and the trio could feel a wave of heat and dust behind them. Richard fell from the blast wave and Ira tripped on him. Rachel fell on her knees and cried. “Come on, get up we have to go!,” Ira ordered. She picked herself up, offering a hand to Richard and pulling Rachel up from her knees. At that moment, Ira heard the crack of a sniper hit near them. The body of a Jackal fell from the building they were standing next to, directly in front of them. He had landed face down, neck broken on impact, holding a Beam Rifle in one hand. Ira looked around to see the flash of a sniper north of their position. “Thanks Henry,” she said into the comms. This was good, it meant that at least her sniper and spotter were still alive to keep them covered while Ira and her team fell back.

About an hour ago, Ira had received word that the remaining forces were being extracted. The fight was too bloody and it was likely that the Viery Territory would either be glassed or held as a Covenant base soon. Ira wasn’t about to stick around and find out. However, reaching the extraction point was easier said than done seeing as her team had been more spread out than she would have liked. They were close, only about 300 meters left to go but it felt like forever. Ira’s heart weighed heavily. From the get go, it had felt like a losing battle. Trooper after trooper fell before her eyes and she was powerless to stop it. The 105th Division had deployed thousands of men and as Ira looked around, less than half seemed to remain. And now Dal was gone too. Rachel continued to cry next to her and Richard was screaming a litany of profanities. Ira simply stood and watched as the world around her burned. Buildings had been demolished, alien and human bodies were strewn everywhere, and the streets were bathed in blood. So much blood. It was at this point that Ira could feel her heart begin to race. Her eyes seared hot and her left hand started to shake. No, not this. Anything but this, not again, she thought frantically. Ira was beginning to crack, and this was not the time for it.

“Guys, we will have to grieve and hate once we extract, but right now, that’s not a luxury we can afford. Let’s go, I want to see you move,” Ira yelled. Before either trooper could respond, she set off into a run. Fortunately, both were following, but Ira could still hear Richard cursing her and everything around him. Ira focused on her feet hitting the ground and her checkpoint marker growing closer rather than letting her mind wander. 75 meters away, Ira could see a cluster of Pelicans loading ODST’s. They all picked up the pace, desperate to get off the planet. A Warthog drove next to them and the driver yelled, “Need a ride?” Ira nodded frantically and waved to her teammates to get on. As they did, a huge rumble could be felt and heard from the direction that her remaining team had just come from. “What now??,” screamed Richard. They turned to look and saw a massive plasma ball hitting about 100 meters behind them. Oh shit, Ira thought. The heat and blast wave from the plasma was coming towards them. “HANG ON!,” screamed their driver. He hit one of the accelerator pedals and turned the Warthog to go away from the blast. The vehicle sped and raced as fast as it could while they all yelled things along the lines of, “FUCK!!” “GO FASTER!!!” “FUCK THAT’S HOT!” It was too late, they were still too close to the blast. Ira, her team, the driver, and the Warthog, went flying. Ira flew so far, she heard something crack as she landed. But that was the least of her problems, considering that the plasma’s heat wave managed to light her on fire. She could hear herself screaming as she rolled around the ground, trying to put herself out, and hearing the screams of her teammates as well. Ira laid face down, unable to roll anymore. She used the last of her strength to place her hand on her vest’s left pocket, feeling the bulge of the large, engraved bullet through the fabric. The last thing Ira remembered as her mind went black, was the message she had received 8 days ago, first thing in the morning from Linda 058.

Yes.

[achangeinreality]

Here is the second part! I pasted it from google docs and some stuff like italics, bold, and horizontal lines didn’t transfer properly. I tried going through it and fixing that stuff but I don’t think I did a very job my bad lol

Encounters Part 2

Sigma Octanus IV

2552

Linda sighed in relief as the last of those she was responsible for evacuating got on the Pelican. There hadn’t been many to evacuate but any was better than none. She was still covered in both James blood and whatever that hulking monstrosity they came across in the museum’s blood. Of all the funky and horrible variety of aliens that she had come across in her life, this was a new one. It had taken all of her and her fellow Spartan’s effort to bring one down. She was sure that Halsey was going to have a field day reviewing all of their new data. As their pelican linked up with the Leviathan, Linda started to feel a knot in her stomach. Surely they would find a more efficient way to bring down whatever these new creatures were. She wasn’t too keen on the idea of another soldier losing an arm to one of these every time they fought one. Lost in thought, Linda made her way off the pelican. As she got off, Linda looked up to see a squad of ODSTs talking amongst themselves. One of them had an oddly familiar posture. She stared at the soldier and felt thrown back in time when she caught sight of the side of the woman’s face.

“Hagan?”, she inquired incredulously. The soldier spun around at the voice and her mouth dropped as she looked at the hulking Spartan before her. She looked at Linda’s insignia before responding with. “Spartan 058??” She saluted and stood at attention at her superior. “At ease, soldier. It’s good to see you, I didn’t think I’d run into you again.” Ira chuckled but before she could respond, one of her teammates interrupted. “Is there anything you need from Corporal Hagan sir?”, asked a man in his 40s and a rather pointed look. Linda took him in, his posture was stiff, his expression was disapproving, and the way his arms were crossed gave off an air of disdain. It was no secret that between Spartans and ODSTs, they didn’t necessarily get along. Linda never fully understood why every ODST made it their personal mission to act like a thorn in their sides when it would really be more productive to just get along. She sized him up and said, “Actually yes, but that’s none of your concern. Corporal I’d like to talk to you in the mess hall later but I am preoccupied at the moment. Does 2100 hours work for you? I realize it is late.” She could have sworn that a small chuckle started to escape from Hagan’s mouth. The corporal replied with, “Yes sir I will be available at that time. It is very good to see you again, am I free to go?” Linda looked at her and took her in. She had changed over the years. Gone was the naive, young look in her eyes. Rather replaced by the reflections of war and death. A look she recognized in herself and her family alike. She answered, “Dismissed soldier. I look forward to our meeting.” Hagan gave her a small smile and walked away.

Oh my god what just happened, what do I do?, she thought. Ira sped walk to the dorms to get herself cleaned up. Her mind was racing at the encounter she had just had with Spartan 058. There were too many things to unpack. Never in a million years did she ever think she’d come across the Spartan again. Not to mention the fact that she actually remembered her. And to top it off, she wanted to talk to her later? Why? What was happening? Peace with the Covenant seemed more likely than the series of events that had just transpired.

Over the years, Ira Hagan had grown exponentially. Her encounter with death on Draco III had changed her life so dramatically that she barely recognized herself most days. More often than not she dreamt of her friends and family, except they weren’t how she remembered them. They were gory and undead. The massacre she survived scarred her in more ways than she could count, to the point where it twisted and tarnished the faces in her past. It seemed like death was not done chasing her, seeing as just the day of her ceremony, the space station was attacked. This time however, she was not in any condition to fight. She had the marines on the space station to thank for escorting her and anyone else that was at the med bay to safety. Ira had been evacuated to yet another ship, which then engaged in another fight against the CPV class heavy destroyer, The Guiding Light. The worst part about this was that the entire time, she was stuck in a hospital bed with nothing to do but be afraid and think.

For two days she wallowed in self pity and trembled in fear at the thought of being boarded and given the same fate that her teammates on Draco III received. On the third, fateful day, that fear almost became reality. The enemy ship must have sent an infiltration team because out of nowhere, she started to hear scuffling and chittering sounds from the next room. Heart pounding and lightheaded, she held her hand to her mouth to keep herself as quiet as possible. She used her other hand to press the comm button on her data pad.

”Covenant in the med bay,” she whispered softly, praying that no one answered back lest she be noticed. She received a text message from the security team that acknowledged her warning. Ira rose up slowly and quietly out of bed. She had been given a few get-well gifts from those onboard and one of those gifts had been a small but effective hunting knife. She gripped the handle so hard that her knuckles went white. Ira got back in bed and pretended to be asleep as she heard the doors slide open. A metal tray clattered to the floor. It almost caused her to jump and reveal her façade but she stayed stone still. She could hear one of them poking the beds with their gun, likely a ranged weapon of some sort. As it got closer to her, the doors opened up again and this time, the sounds of gunfire and human voices flooded the room. Her would-be attacker turned his back to her and screeched. It ducked and held its rifle up to shoot back when Ira turned in her spot and brought the knife down in its neck. It didn’t die immediately but the adrenaline coursing through her was so much that she ripped the blade right out and stabbed, over and over and over again. Her face and hands became covered in dark stinking blood but she was unfazed. Given that the marines had the upper hand in this situation, they finished the rest of the infiltrators. She laid back in bed, shaking and breathing heavily. Every nerve inside of her was on fire and the only thing she wanted to do was keep fighting.

After the fight subsided, a revelation came to her. She must not be so bad at war. She must be more capable than she thought herself to be. Ira realized that her circumstances were sort of incredible. She somehow survived a world wide massacre, was rescued by a team of Spartans, got shot, hit on one of the Spartans, survived the wound, got slam dunked when she tried flirting with the same Spartan again, and then survived another fight against the Covenant while laying injured in a hospital bed. And to top it off, she didn’t want to stop. Ira wanted to keep going. To keep fighting, protecting, and avenging. For when she killed the Jackal, every stab felt like an homage to each of her teammates. And there had been so many more that died than simply 4. It was decided right then and there that she must do better. She must focus on her skills and fight until every last one of the Covenant falls. It was not a better night when she went to sleep later that day. But at least in the morning her conviction was strengthened.

As for right now however, she was as nervous as her first day of boot camp. Surely the Spartan didn’t remember that incredibly embarrassing memory did she…? Of course not, it was silly and surely she had much more important and crazy things happen to her than that thing. Ira cringed heavily at the blurry memory of laying down, covered in grime, high as a kite telling the Spartan she was so so pretty. In all honesty she would actually rather be fighting an alien than be reliving the memory.

After showering, Ira brushed her long, wet, black hair. The UNSC regulations required hair to be chin length or less for women or in a secure hairstyle. Ira’s favorite part of the day was taking the tight bun that she normally wore down. It was so uncomfortable against her helmet that she often considered just hacking off her hair. But it was one of the only ways that she could remember her mother. Ira’s mom had long black hair for as long as she could remember and it felt comforting to keep her own long too. Ira considered leaving it down, since the meeting would take place after hours. But she was technically still on duty and in the presence of a superior officer so… it was a no go. Up it went into a tightly braided ponytail this time. She hoped that the light mascara and tinted chapstick wasn’t too much.

Ira waited so long for the right time to come that by 2045 she was already making her way down to the mess hall. There weren’t a lot of people in the hall by then and no food was being served. Still though, it was quiet and most importantly, she was waiting on someone. Ira walked over to the water fountain and served herself a glass of water. She sat down at one of the corner tables and fidgeted with the glass. After 20 minutes, Ira’s stomach started to twist and turn. Surely the Spartan would be here soon. Another 10 minutes went by and Spartan 058 was still nowhere in sight. Ira felt a tightness in her throat as she started to remember their last interaction. “I would have still meant what I said,” she had told the Spartan. She wasn’t sure what kind of response she expected to get but complete silence wasn’t what Ira thought it’d be. It stung pretty hard then but looking back, it had been completely preposterous of her to double down when she didn’t even know the Spartan’s orientation. Still, Ira would have preferred a strongly worded lecture or even a write up instead of complete silence. Oh to be naive and young again, she thought.

As all hope started to feel lost, an extremely tall and muscular woman walked in. “Corporal Hagan at ease, I apologize for my tardiness. I was detained for longer than I had anticipated. Thank you for waiting,” she said. Ira smiled and fought the urge to wave her over. She had been mid-stand up when the Petty Officer said, at ease. Linda walked over to the table and sat front facing Ira. Ira looked at her and thought, I’m fucked.

Linda was glad to see that Corporal Hagan was still in the mess hall waiting for her. As 2100 came closer, she started to get uncomfortable. It wasn’t in her character to be late to things and especially not meetings that she was responsible for. It irked her that this debriefing was taking so long. Each Spartan had gone in to answer questions at least 3 times, what else was there to reveal? They wore cameras in their helmets for a reason for god’s sake. Needless to say, by the time they were all dismissed, Linda made her way to the mess hall. She greeted the corporal and sat down in front of her. Neither woman said anything for a moment but there it was again, the intense, soul burning stare that the corporal was so keen on using. It unsettled Linda because she struggled with eye contact yet found herself unable to look away. The corporal spoke first. “How are you?”

“I’m good. I was surprised to see you again. When did you become a corporal?” Linda was pretty proud of herself for being able to string more than 1 sentence together this time around. She had been practicing in her head and listening to other people’s conversations in the last few years. It’s not that she found very many people to have conversations with other than her fellow Spartans, but she didn’t like the feeling of being lost for words. It was her choice to be silent and observant, but she didn’t like feeling forced to stay that way simply because her conversational skills were inadequate. She supposed this was one of the biggest hurdles that Spartans struggled with. They were not raised to be socially adept, rather to be lethal killing machines and for a long time it wasn’t something she stopped to ponder on. But surely there was more to life than killing. And right now, catching up with the corporal was her mission.

“A good surprise I hope. I was promoted last year,” Ira replied. Linda tried smiling but it felt unnatural and forced so she let her face relax instead. “Of course. I’m glad to know you have survived all this time, and an ODST no less. You must be proud,” she added. Ira’s eyes brightened and her whole face lit up. “Well I worked really hard to become one so yeah I am pretty proud! What about you, anything new?” Oh this was where conversing got difficult for Linda. Truth be told there wasn’t much she could say about herself. So much of her life was classified that it was hard to answer truthfully. In the last 8 years she had gotten an upgraded Mjolnir armor, seen countless worlds go up in flames, and now she had encountered a new species of the covenant. But none of that was eligible for discussion. Classified. Just like everything there was to know about her. Linda shifted uncomfortably and made an effort to appear unperturbed. Before she could answer, Ira asked, “Classified?” Linda felt herself relax a little and she nodded. However, she was determined to not let herself get tongue tied and so she added, “It’s like you read my mind. But I guess at the end of the day nothing is actually new. Same enemy, same fight as you know.” Ira nodded in acknowledgment. She then asked, “So… what brought this meeting on?” Linda looked at Ira for a second. The woman looked young but there was a hardened, more mature atmosphere to her demeanor than their last meeting. Not uncommon in their line of work, it was a consequence of war. “My name is Linda,” she said awkwardly. It had come to Linda’s attention that she had never actually told the corporal her name. After listening to several conversations over the years, that seemed to be the starting point for most casual interactions. Ira smiled warmly and responded, “My name is Iradell but everyone calls me Ira. Thanks for telling me your name. I was starting to get tired of referring to you as Spartan 058 in my head.” Linda cocked her head slightly and asked, “I’m in your thoughts?”

Ira had been blessed with tan, olive skin that very rarely burned in the sun or got noticeably red. But in this moment she could feel her entire body burning crimson. Her voice hitched in her throat and she inwardly cursed the day of her birth. Instead of running to the airlock for self destruction, she choked out, “I didn’t mean it like that, I just sometimes wonder if you’re out there saving people like you did me.” Linda looked at her confused and asked, “Why are you red? Do you need more water?” It was at this moment that the airlock was starting to sound more and more like a good idea. However, from what Ira could tell, Linda didn’t seem super socially aware. It was probably a byproduct of her career choice seeing as conversation seemed a little difficult for her despite her efforts. It was likely that Spartans didn’t get a lot of down time and so these kinds of interactions were likely not often for them. This could be a saving grace for Ira’s deeply embarrassing slip up since Linda clearly didn’t understand her reaction. “Yeah let me go get more water I’ll be right back,” she said and walked over to the water fountain.

There it was again, the feeling like something had just happened that she was unable to understand. Linda felt like she was squandering this social interaction. Maybe this was a bad idea. Everyone Linda cared about was either dead or at imminent risk of death so what was the point of trying to befriend someone who was likely to meet the same fate sooner than later? She frowned at herself. No, she would keep trying. It wasn’t in her character to give up easily. When Ira sat back down, noticeably less red, she told Linda, “So uh my birthday is in 2 days. My teammates were going to throw me a little party in the evening. Would you like to come?” Linda brightened up, glad that she wasn’t doing as terribly at socializing as she thought. A party? She had seen marines celebrate other soldier’s birthdays in the mess hall a few times before but she never partook in them. None of the Spartans had ever had a ‘birthday party’ either seeing as none of them knew their actual birthdays. Nevertheless, a first time for everything. She answered back, “I’m going to be on this ship for the next few days so I will be available to attend. Thank you for inviting me.” Ira smiled in relief and exclaimed, “Oh good! I’ve been looking forward to it. I’ve been so preoccupied that this is the first time in 3 years since anyone has celebrated my birthday. I’ll be turning a ripe 28 this year!” Linda almost choked on her spit when she heard Ira’s age. Was she old? Ira added, “Can I ask you something?” Linda nodded in agreement. “Is your birthday coming up anytime soon? Maybe I can send you a gift if we’re on other ends of the universe!” There it was. The dreaded question that Linda sometimes found herself wondering as well. Sometimes on particularly difficult nights she thought to herself, is it today? Linda sighed and answered, “I don’t know when my birthday is. I don’t have access to that information.”

Ira fell silent suddenly. She didn’t want the moment to feel awkward but she was also incredibly curious. To not know one’s birthday must mean that something pretty significant must have happened during early childhood. Maybe her parents had passed away? She couldn’t ask that it was too personal a question. Before Ira could say anything Linda followed up with, “I was adopted. The people who took me in never bothered to fill me in on my previous life.” There was something fishy about the answer but Ira didn’t want to push it. “Oh I’m sorry to hear that. Do you know your age at least?,” Ira asked. Finally a question that Linda could answer. “Yes I’m 41.” Something warm stirred in Ira. She pushed it away and stayed focused. “Hey at least that’s not classified! Now I know something about you,” she said, smiling. Linda’s mouth opened slightly. That was not the answer she thought she’d get.

“Yes I suppose that’s true.” She noticed that Ira’s pupils had dilated slightly more than they already were. Was it too dark in the room? She wouldn’t know given her night vision augmentations. But then again she remembered that all those years ago at the award ceremony when she had gone up to Ira to talk to her, her eyes were dilated then too and it was rather bright in the room. “If you don’t mind me asking, are you scared of me?” Linda inquired. Ira looked taken aback and confused.

“No, why would you ask that?”

”Because your pupils dilate when you talk to me and I’ve only ever seen that on people that look at me in fear,” Linda replied. Again, Ira went red but froze this time. I said something wrong didn’t I?, Linda thought. Ira let out an awkward laugh and looked down at the table, closing her eyes. She looked back up at the Spartan who was now looking at her inquisitively. Ira took a deep breath and responded, “I’m not scared of you. I’m attracted to you. I wasn’t going to say anything about it but I didn’t realize my involuntary reactions were so loud.” This time it was Linda’s turn to blush deeply. And once again, a complete lack of ability to respond to the situation. She felt her brain lagging at the words just like the last time. Linda swallowed and was finally able to let out a tight, “I’m sorry, I did not mean to intrude.” Ira closed her eyes and sighed, feeling an old painful tug in her heart. “It’s okay,” she said in defeat. Both women sat in silence for a moment. Ira stayed sitting with her eyes closed and Linda simply stayed looking at her, mind still lagging. Even though the moment was only 5 seconds, for Linda it was lifetimes. Spartan time was something every Spartan II knew how to control to avoid time feeling like it was overly slowed. But sometimes, it was to her advantage that she could experience a moment longer than normal people could. She took advantage of the moment this time to think. This was uncharted waters for her because not only did this woman admit to being attracted to her 3 times by now, but Linda wasn’t entirely sure that she wasn’t. There were so many problems with this though. For one, UNSC regulations did not allow for members of the military to become entangled with another, let alone someone of a much lower rank. Secondly, Linda didn’t have the emotional capacity to let someone other than another Spartan II in. And this was something that she was painfully aware of. Not only that but it would be grossly irresponsible for Linda to allow someone to attach themselves to her when her life was in constant danger. It went both ways but that wasn’t something she was ready to think about. With all of this in mind, why did she feel a warmth in her chest when Ira admitted her attraction? It didn’t make sense.

”Your eyes have also been dilated the entire time you’ve been talking to me. I don’t suppose you’re scared of me either.” Ira’s eyes had opened and she was looking at Linda boldly now. Ira wasn’t a child anymore. Not that she was 8 years ago either but she was certainly more of an adult now. If this war had taught her anything, it was that at literally any point in time, regardless of how prepared or how good your skills were, death could always take you. She had seen so many people of higher and lower rank meet the same fiery, grisly death that she was just happy to still be breathing now. Uncomfortable as the situation had suddenly gotten, Ira wasn’t a child anymore. “This can’t happen. I’m sorry for bringing it up but I know you understand that this can’t go anywhere,” Linda replied. Ira nodded then said, “So you like me too then?” Linda exhaled and rolled her eyes, saying, “I didn’t say that.”

“Then tell me otherwise,” Ira challenged. Linda looked at her with a peeved look. She stood up and turned towards the direction of the dorms. Before she walked away she said softly, “Goodnight, Corporal.”

”Wait-“ Ira began, standing up too but it was too late. Linda’s long legs had already crossed the room and turned the corner. Ira tried to catch up but she had disappeared by the time Ira got to the doorway. She sighed and leaned against the wall with her eyes closed. With heavy eyes and a heavier heart, Ira made her way to the dorms as well, determined to get some much needed rest.

[achangeinreality]

Encounters Part 3

”HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR CORPORALLLLLL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUU!” The ODSTs clapped and cheered as they finished singing Ira’s happy birthday song. Ira laughed and cheered too as she saw her cake. It was obviously made from scratch and not by any baker of known renown. The white icing was messily slopped around the uneven cake and there was an attempt at “Happy Bday” written on top with red icing. Instead of a candle there was a long match stuck right in the middle. She blew it out and everyone cheered once again.

Ira had requested “shore leave” for this. She was technically not on any sort of “shore”, rather the mess hall, but at least she was technically off duty now. This allowed her to finally leave her hair down and wear something other than grey and camo fatigues. She wore a simple black fitted blouse and form fitting jeans but it made all the difference to her being out of uniform for a day. Not only that but she decided on dark red lipstick as well. Needless to say, her teammates whistled obnoxiously when she came out of the bathroom. The party went on for an hour and it mostly consisted of a bunch of burly men and women eating cake, playing card games, retelling old funny war stories, and- a sudden silence. Ira looked around to see that everyone had suddenly turned around and stopped talking. She joined their gaze and was insanely shocked to see Linda standing at the entrance. Despite their last interaction ending as badly as it did, Ira couldn’t help the huge grin that grew on her face. “Linda you came!,” she exclaimed, jumping out of her seat to run towards the Spartan. The ODSTs murmured in confusion and Ira shushed them. She ran over to Linda and said, “I’ll introduce you to everyone!” Linda awkwardly followed Ira and said, “Happy birthday.” Ira beamed at her and replied with, “Thank you!” She turned to face everyone else and said, “Now I don’t want any of you to be rude or nasty. This is Linda and she’s a friend. I invited her so I expect you all to be nice. Is that clear?” A low murmur of, “Yes, sir” came from the small crowd. Ira frowned and repeated more sternly, “Is that clear?”

“YES SIR!,” they all replied and saluted her. She smiled and said, “That’s what I thought. Okay let’s get back to it!” She motioned towards the cake and asked the red head, “Do you want some cake?” Linda stared at it for a moment and Ira could have sworn she saw a tiny smile start to form before her face returned to normal. Before she could respond, Ira cut a piece and served it on a plate with a fork. “Enjoy!” Linda looked at the slice and wondered when the last time she had cake was. Regardless, she ate a piece and was instantly filled with joy at the memory of her as a kid coming across a stash of sweets that Mendez had hidden in his office. “You like it?” Ira asked. Linda nodded. “Good, these guys made it!” Linda swallowed and said, “Could’ve fooled me”. Ira giggled but then did a double take and asked, “Did you just make a joke?” Linda didn’t say anything, just shrugged nonchalantly. Ira laughed and motioned for her to sit down with her teammates. “Dal what’s next on the itinerary?” Ira asked. Dal, a 30-something year old, rather short man stood up and said to everyone, “Alright guys now it’s time to shower the Corporal in praise. Let’s go around and tell her our favorite thing about her.” The team erupted in several different comments including, “What are we 4?”, “Oooo”, “That’s so lame Dal booo!”, and “No I like this, go on”. One woman, Rachel, hooted, “That ass!” Everyone laughed and some banged on the table. Ira cackled and yelled, “You know it!” Linda stared at everyone in shock in disbelief. She did her best not to look too out of place but this was so… different. Were all parties like this? How was she supposed to react? Never mind that, how was she supposed to focus on the party when Ira looked like… that. Linda had never seen such glossy, long, straight, black hair in her life. An impulsive need to touch it ran through her and she pushed it away immediately. The clothes too, when was the last time she even saw someone in civilian clothing? They were perfectly appropriate and simple but they were, well, very form fitting. She kept her eyes focused anywhere but below Ira’s face. Her face. Was that lipstick?? She had seen it in movies and on civilians when she was on human world infiltration missions but hadn’t necessarily experienced any particular thoughts about it. But right now, she was having a lot of thoughts and a lot of feelings about how it looked on Ira.

”Are you okay?” Ira asked her quietly. No one noticed Linda’s silence but Ira could see that Linda was experiencing some sort of turmoil. Before Linda could respond or react, one of Ira’s teammates yelled out, “Hey hey hey wait we haven’t heard the Spartan’s contribution! What’s your favorite thing about the Corporal, ma’am?” Linda looked at him and then at Ira and replied, “Her audacity.” Hoots and hollers rang out and Ira blushed intensely looking at Linda in surprise. “You got that right!”, someone yelled out. Linda stared straight at Ira and winked in satisfaction. Ira laughed nervously and felt her hands start to sweat but said nothing. The rest of the time consisted of more card games and dumb shenanigans. Just as the night was beginning to come to an end, Richard, the newest addition to Ira’s team, announced, “Spartan Linda, I challenge you to an arm wrestle.” The room oooo’d and some tensed. Linda cocked an eyebrow when she realized it was the same man that questioned her a few days before. Throughout the party he had made several attempts to pull Ira away to engage with her privately. But rather than let herself be torn from the Spartan’s side, she included Linda in whatever he wanted to talk about or do. For whatever reason, it filled Linda with a weirdly odd satisfaction and she slowly started to wonder if the look of annoyment on his face had more to do with Linda being a Spartan or with him wanting Ira’s attention to himself. It greatly annoyed Linda when the man insinuated that maybe Ira would be interested in taking shore leave with him some time. Ira had laughed it off saying, “Richard I see you every day. No offense but if I’m going off on an actual vacation I want to be alone.” He had laughed it off as well and didn’t suggest it any further but Linda could tell by the tension in his jaw that it was not an answer he wanted.

Therefore, when Richard challenged Linda to an arm wrestle, Linda stared right into his eyes, stood up, and despite Ira’s “No no, don’t be dumb Richard!”, proclamations , rolled up her sleeve, and sat down in front of him. Mother of god, thought Ira as she found herself completely unable to tear her eyes away from Linda’s large and muscled forearm. Shamefully so, she felt a hot, sensitive knot pulse below her core. The others sat in a circle around the two contestants. Rachel yelled out, “Wait, wait, wait. This is too good an opportunity to let go of. Everybody place your bets.” A loud rustle ensued as the ODSTs pulled out bills seemingly out of nowhere and threw them into a pile. Rachel took out a pen and jotted down everyone’s bets on her palm. “Mhm, mhm, okay…, alright I got everyone. Okay! Will the winner be, our newest but beefiest ODST Richard, or this mysterious and extremely buff Spartan Linda?,” Rachel exclaimed in the voice of a sport commentator. “Contestants, elbows down. When I say “go” you may begin!”, she added. The two grabbed hands and Linda gave his hand a hefty squeeze. Richard held firm but Linda could see a vein pulsing at his temple slightly. They made intense eye contact, one Linda could hold forever.

”GO!” Richard pushed a huge amount of force into Linda’s hand. She was surprised, it took a lot of strength to make her falter. He continued to push and push and push and Linda let him think it was doing something. Within 15 seconds however, she slammed a fraction of her strength into his hand and it resounded loudly on the table. BAM!

Groans and cheers rang out as Rachel separated the pile of money into even, smaller piles and distributed it to the happy winners. Ira jumped in and said, “Alright guys! Thanks so much for doing this for me. We’ve had a lot of great times and a lot of shitty moments too but you’re my crew and I’m so thankful for you all!” The ODSTs started to disperse and many of them went over to Linda saying things along the lines of, “Thank you Spartan, you have just bought me a taco!” Ira couldn’t help but chuckle but did feel a bit of second hand embarrassment for Richard given that he was obviously not amused. She started to clean the mess up when Rachel walked over to her and shooed her away, “Corporal you’re on shore leave and it’s your birthday. Respectfully, go.” Ira put her hands up in defeat and conceded. “Alright, alright I’m gone. I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Ira said. Linda approached her and quietly said, “I know I have no right to ask you, but can I talk to you privately?” Ira gave her a small smile and nodded. The two headed out of the mess hall and walked a little ways away. Linda stopped and said, “I did some research into the tradition of birthdays and found that presents are a traditional custom. So, I have one for you.” Ira was not expecting that. She asked, “Really? Where is it?” Linda pulled something out of her pocket and gave her a small object wrapped in cloth. Ira unraveled it and found a shiny SR-99 bullet. Upon further inspection, she could make out an engravement running down its length. It read, You too are in my thoughts. Ira gasped softly and felt her eyes water a little as she read it. She looked up to meet Linda’s gaze. “This is, this is amazing. Did you engrave it yourself?,” Ira asked, still in awe. Linda nodded and said, “Yes I have some skill with weapon modification. Sometimes I have to make very small and precise cuts into the metals to customize the weapon to my liking so I applied the skill to writing.” Ira couldn’t stop looking at the words and was at an utter loss for what to say. Finally, she looked up at Linda with a warm, happy smile and said, “Thank you.” The Spartan nodded and held her gaze, responding with, “This wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about but I’d rather go somewhere with more privacy” Ira nodded and said, “We can go to my quarters. I don’t have to share on this ship.”

The women reached Ira’s quarters after a few minutes. She punched in the code to the keypad and the door hissed open. It was very small, so small that only her bed, a trunk, and a small, square desk with a tiny chair fit. “Home sweet home, try not to suffocate,” Ira joked. Linda looked around and wondered where to sit. She didn’t dare try the chair, it looked so flimsy she wondered if even Ira could sit in it without it collapsing. Ira sat on the bed and gestured at her to sit. “It’s sturdier than it looks,” Ira reassured her. Linda sat down and felt a creak below her but that was it. Ira raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She turned to look at the Spartan and asked, “So what is it?” Linda sat quietly for a second, not looking at Ira. She breathed in and out before turning to look at Ira and started, “My job is quite literally my life. It’s not even a job, it’s my purpose. And because of that, I can’t become entangled with anyone, it would get in the way of my ability to protect humanity. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, if you’d like to.” Ira didn’t say anything but she visibly deflated. She looked down at the floor, formulating a response and settled on, “Yeah I’d like that. I understand. I’ve got one question though, do you mean it?” Ira held the bullet out, words glinting in the light. Linda looked at the words with an expression of solemnes and replied, “Yes.”

She didn’t stay long after that, for Linda had an early ship out time the next morning and she needed to rest. Upon returning to her own quarters, she laid in bed and looked up at the ceiling while rubbing the dogtag she wore in between her fingers. Ding! Her data pad alerted her of a message. She looked at it and saw that it was a message from Kelly.

I’m outside your door

As Linda read the message, the door to her room opened and Kelly waltzed in wearing a tank top and running shorts. She signed a greeting at Linda and sat on the floor in front of her.

“So how was the party?”

“Good. I enjoyed myself”

“And how was the corporal?”

“Great.”

“You’re hiding something”

“I don’t hide things”

“That’s a load of shit, you hide everything, spit it out.”

“There is nothing to spit out.”

Kelly frowned in frustration at Linda’s secrecy. She stared at Linda and signed You seem troubled. Neither Spartan said anything for a while. Finally Linda gave in and admitted, “She said she’s attracted to me.” Kelly cocked her head and asked, “Again?” Linda gave a tiny half smile at the memory of the first time it happened and replied, “Yeah but she wasn’t high this time.”

“Ohhhh…” Kelly seemed pensive for a moment before asking, “So what did you say?” Linda threw her arms up in defeat and replied, “I said I can’t make anything of it, I’m not made for that.” Kelly sighed in an annoyment and rolled her eyes. “You’re such an idiot, you’re telling me that someone on this ship likes you and you can’t say it back when you obviously do too?” Linda looked shocked and asked in confusion, “What are you talking about? I never said I liked her in that way. We weren’t made for that.”

“No, we weren’t, and that’s the problem!” Kelly exclaimed. For a moment, Linda swore she saw a glint of hurt in Kelly’s eyes. Whatever was going on there she had no idea about. She almost looked mad at her.

“Don’t you ever think about Maria and wonder what she’s experiencing? Because I do. I would never stop being a Spartan, I love what we do. But sometimes I can’t help but wonder what it’s like to have someone like she does,” Kelly explained. Of all the things she had heard in the last 72 hours, this was not something Linda thought she’d ever hear. But Kelly was right, that was the problem. Linda loved being a Spartan, it was her purpose and she’d never trade it for anything. But what was it like to have someone who was more than a teammate? Her family was dear and close to her but what about a partner? Maria-062 was one of her sisters and when she heard that Maria had left the military to marry someone and have children with them it came as a massive shock. She didn’t understand it then, not at all. None of them had understood, some even refused to acknowledge Maria’s memory after that. But 8 years ago, a young and completely naive Private told her, “had the circumstances been completely different, and my rank a lot higher, I would have still meant what I said.” Something about that statement opened up a new pathway in her head and made her think, what if I could feel that way too?

There were some days when she was on the battlefield, fighting for the people on that planet and she’d see couples clinging to each other, running towards the evacuation zones. Sometimes she’d see widows, holding the dead bodies of their loved one, crying out their names. And every time, she’d wonder, what if I could feel what they feel? There were a few times when she’d see a woman that looked visually appealing and Linda was able to acknowledge that in her head at least. She realized a while ago that men didn’t exactly attract her attention in the same way. That must mean she was in fact able to feel at least a vanity based attraction to others. But to feel something warmer and closer than that? Never. She wasn’t exactly at liberty to approach most of these women and strike up a conversation, there wasn’t ever any time. So what had caused Linda to approach Corporal Hagan and ask to meet with her in the mess hall at 2100? No idea. When she got off the shuttle and looked at Ira for the first time in 8 years, a measure of relief and joy went through her. Maybe it was because most people she encountered often died not much later and it was good to see a familiar face. 8 years was a long time for someone she knew to stay alive. Nevertheless, Linda felt a compulsion to request an audience with her. What she expected out of the conversation was maybe a friendship. But as Linda had sat there and listened to Ira talk, she started to become acutely aware that a warmth was filling her chest cavity. Why? What was that? Was it cause for concern?

Maybe it was the reason why she also found herself completely unable to miss Ira’s party. It would have been a simple matter to just not go. To not sit for an entire day engraving a bullet. To not request another audience with the woman and cause further injury. Maybe it was a good thing that she was shipping out tomorrow. Because regardless of what was causing all of these irrational decisions, Linda recognized that it was happening with a woman that she had only had less than a few day’s worth of interaction. And that was cause for concern.

”It doesn’t matter now, it’s done. We should get some rest.”

[achangeinreality]

Okay Part 4!! I’m struggling with links right now (they’re getting super messed up) so if you want to check out part 1, it’s pinned on my blog and that has the links to part 2&3. Thanks, enjoy!

Encounters Part 4

July 24, 2552

0500

Ding. Ira groaned at the sound that woke her up so early. She wasn’t normally awake until 0600 hours and always cherished any little sleep she could get. After all, Ira could be in deep sleep and still be woken up by a fly on a wall. But as she rolled over to check her datapad for whatever the cause of her early wakefulness was, she felt a surge of energy course through her as she saw: S-058. Ira opened up the encrypted message which read, Good morning. Ira looked at the message and smiled. Then she looked at the top of her screen to see urgent notifications. She opened up her emails to find an encrypted email sent to all ODST team leaders notifying an emergency meeting to be set for that day at 0700 hours. She replied back to her: Good morning! I hope you slept well. A few minutes went by as Ira went through the rest of her emails and notifications. Ding. S-058: Yes, I slept fine. How are you? Ira replied with, I am happy to wake up to a message from you.

Ira giggled a little to herself after hitting send. The day that Linda had shipped out, Ira was devastated. She had spent the day moping around and finding comfort in the bullet that she now carried on herself at all times. Though, a message from the now Gunnery Sergeant Sila Gutierrez also helped. Sila had messaged her, Hey, Happy belated birthday! Sorry for the late message, I just got back today from the jungle. We had no damn connection other than local comms. Hope you had a good birthday! Sila had done exceedingly well in her career, having continued to climb the ranks throughout the years. She was often unavailable to talk however as she was often sent on lengthy operations. But Sila always responded to messages, even if it was a few weeks late sometimes. Ira considered calling Sila to vent about her romantic mishaps but did not want to bother her. After a few minutes, Ira decided she had no one else to vent to who could understand where she was coming from and initiated a video connection with her.

”Ira! You look good! What’s up? How was your birthday?”- Sila

”Hey Sergeant [insert salute] thank you, thank you. You look alright I guess. My birthday was good. How was the jungle?- Ira

”Hey take that slander elsewhere! But yeah no it was fucking awful. I’m covered in bites on every possible inch of my body.- Sila

”Oh god that sucks, I don’t envy you. But hey uh can I talk to you about something?”- Ira

”Yeah, what is it? What’d you do this time?”- Sila

”You can’t tell a soul. It’s nothing illegal, but it is super personal,”- Ira

”As long as it’s not court marshal worthy I won’t say a word,” -Sila

”No of course it’s not. But uh, well…. Do you remember Spartan 058… you know, the Spartan that saved us on Draco III?”

”You mean the one that you hit on while you were high and then tried again the next day and failed again?” -Sila

[Through gritted teeth] “Yes that one.”- Ira

”What did you do?” -Sila

”Uh…. I ran into her and tried again.” -Ira

”Dude are you actually numb? Like do you need a brain scan? Cuz I can’t believe what just came out of your mouth. Is this like a weird humiliation kink?” Sila

”EW no! No it was different this time, hear me out. I was on Sigma Octanus IV, came back, was standing around with my team, when all of a sudden I hear my name. I turn around and she’s right there! She remembered me! So then she asks to meet with me in the mess hall at 2100 hours and obviously I said yes. So-

“Wait wait wait wait, she saw you and recognized you? But you’ve gotten so old and ugly since the last time she saw you, how is that possible?” -Sila

”Hahaha very funny, jokes on you, you’re older! Anyway, I get there and she starts talking to me, tells me her name. It’s Linda by the way. And I’m trying to keep my chill but you know me, I kept embarrassing myself. Anyway, I invite her to my birthday and she says yes. Then she called me out on my big ass pupils and I thought, well the gig is up, fuck it. So I tell her I’m attracted to her and she did not respond well. But I called her out too and said, hey your pupils have been blown this whole time, what’s up with that? Obviously that also didn’t go well either and she said this wasn’t going to go anywhere and left. SO- Ira

”Oh my god you sly sick bitch. Damn you called out a Spartan? And accused her of having the hots for you on top of that? Let me take notes, damn. Anyway, continue- Sila

”Yeah I know I’m a little unhinged but anyways, get this. She comes to the party!! She actually shows up even after all of that!- Ira

”OOOOOO she came?? Girl she’s in trouble that’s all bad. Wow I’m so proud of you! So what’s the problem then?” -Sila

”Well, it was all good and she even gave me a present that she customized for me. It was so sweet I almost started crying. So then she says she wants to talk to me in private and here I was thinking I was about to win the universal lottery. But then we go to my room and she says, “My purpose is to be a Spartan so this isn’t something I can entertain. I want to stay as friends.”- Ira

”Ohhhh come onnn. No no no no, Ira no, that’s so bad! Wait, what was the present?”- Sila

”I’m not telling you it’s personal! But regardless, she tells me that-“ Ira

”No! What was the present? You’re already telling me the whole hoot and holler, what’s one more detail?” -Sila

”Don’t tell anyone about it,”- Ira

”I already said I’m not opening my mouth about any of this,” -Sila

Ira pulled the bullet out of her pocket and shined it with the cloth that it came wrapped in. She put it up to the screen and then put it close up to the camera so that the words were legible enough for Sila, despite showing up backwards through the video. Sila said nothing while deciphering it and then gasped.

”Oh honey. Oh lord. Oh my god she likes you too,”- Sila

”Do you think so?” -Ira

”No I don’t fucking think so, I know so. That’s such a genuine thing to do. Wow go Linda! Okay so what’s the current update on this?” -Sila

”That’s it. She shipped out this morning to Reach.” -Ira

”Oh you sad sop I bet you’ve just been moping around, woe is me-ing all day huh? Well let me tell you something. It sounds like if you keep pushing it, you’re gonna be entering a whole world of pain. Even if you did enter into a relationship, you would always be her 2nd priority. She clearly values her position very highly,” -Sila

Ira said nothing for a second. Just sat in silence until she nodded in agreement slowly.

”But I know you’re stubborn and your audacity knows no bounds so let me follow up with, if you’re going to push it, I can see a sliver of success.” -Sila

”Really? How?”- Ira

”Well she obviously likes you but she’s way up in the ranks so this is super unorthodox in the UNSC. If you can find a way to stay in contact, you might be too difficult to forget. But, don’t make the first move. You’ve already done the heavy lifting of a lifetime with this. Lay low for a few days and then throw a fishing line in if you’ve only gotten comm silence.” -Sila

“I guess I don’t really have anything else to go on. Thanks Sila, I knew you’d say something helpful.” -Ira

”Yeah well don’t say I didn’t warn you if it all goes tits up. But hey I gotta go, I’m getting summoned to debriefing. I hope it all goes well, keep me posted, bye!”- Sila. Ira waved goodbye as the video chat ended.

This conversation had taken place 3 days ago. It helped Ira feel infinitely less alone knowing that someone in the universe cared to hear her woes, a luxury that many people didn’t have. The next day came and went, and Ira focused on her team. They were excellent, but their newest recruit, Richard, had some difficulty collaborating with the team. Oftentimes, any mistakes or issues that they had encountered on the battlefield originated from a lack of communication and this was something that Ira hoped to tackle. Ira had come up with an exercise: Everyone one, except one person, would be blindfolded and tied to each other with a rope that allowed 3 ft in between. The person in the front would not be blindfolded but still tied. It would be their job to scout the room for hidden, but visually findable booby traps that Ira had asked an outside personnel to rig. The traps were lightly painful but non-lethal and the goal was to make it around the room without setting off one. The person in the front then had to pass down where and how to step around to the person behind. That person would then pass it down, until it reached the end. They would all take turns being the person in the front and Ira would give them 2 tries each to get it right once. The exercise had been going well, most of her team members succeeded at least once. Only Richard had failed twice. To say that he threw a fit was to put it lightly.

”This is fucking dumb Corporal, why did I even need to participate in this? Is this some sort of hazing ritual?”, he exclaimed. “We are doing this to improve our communication skills. Over the last few skirmishes that we’ve been in, there’s been mistakes left and right. It’s my job to make sure we improve,” Ira replied sternly but evenly. Richard continued. “But why this? Why can’t we just watch our tapes back and learn that way?”

“We tried that already and it didn’t work. It’s like all my pointers went in through one ear and out the other. I have talked to you about this before, you’re our weakest link. You’re impulsive on the battlefield and disregard every other order. That shit won’t fly much longer so I’m giving you the chance to improve,” Ira stated. The rest of the team did their best to look uninterested but Ira could tell they were all intently listening. “Oh okay communication is my issue then alright. Maybe I’ll take a little lesson from you and that Spartan that you’ve been fooling around with. You two sure seem to have plenty to talk about,” Richard shot back. Absolute silence filled the room. You could have heard a pin drop and locate its exact location after that comment.

“Excuse me? I don’t think you understand your position, trooper. My personal life is of no concern to you and if I ever hear you voicing any sort of comment on it, I will personally make sure that you never drop from a pod again. Do I make myself clear?” Ira’s tone could have cut glass. Her stare was cold, unwavering, and occupied with an empty, soulless void that threatened to consume him if he spoke anything other than “yes, sir”. Richard seemed to shrink in size and looked anywhere but back at her. “Yes, sir,” he replied quietly, still looking away. “Good. And unless you show improvement on our next mission, you will not remain on this team. Dismissed,” Ira barked. Everyone shuffled out of the room uncomfortably. Rachel stayed back after everyone had left to say, ”So… we’ve all been wondering something. This is probably not the best time but I’m gonna ask anyway,” Ira glared at Rachel, knowing exactly what the question was going to be. “I’m gonna stop you right there Datz. Go, that’s an order,” she seethed. Rachel put her hands up and scuffled out. Ira sighed, knowing damn well the topic of conversation amongst her team was going to be ‘what’s up with the corporal and that Spartan?’ And the answer was, nothing. Absolutely fuckig nothing, that’s the problem. Nothing was going on between her and the Spartan. She leaned against the wall and covered her eyes. Get a grip you idiot, she thought.

Ira was walking to the showers when she heard a Ding! Looking over at her data pad, her jaw dropped to the floor upon seeing the name of the recipient: S-058. She opened the message up and read, Hello, I am hoping you are well. Ira fervently typed back, Hi! I am now. And yourself?

This had been the beginning of their back and forth messaging which had now been going on for 2 days. It was only 5-6 messages a day, but they meant the world to her. So really, being woken up a little too early to the first one of the day wasn’t too bad at all. She was mostly surprised to have received any sort of communication. But for now, she had to start her day and see what this meeting was all about.

I am happy to wake up to a message from you.- Ira

Linda felt her eyes widen a little at the message and an increasingly more familiar warmth radiate in her chest. It had been 2 days since Linda gave into the nagging thoughts and decided to reach out to Ira. She knew it wasn’t necessarily a good idea but managed to convince herself that this was how to maintain a good friendship. Kelly was the only one who knew that Linda was in communication with Ira. She had given her an approving look at the news.

”Glad to know my advice is taken seriously around these parts,” Kelly touted. Linda rolled her eyes and replied, “Yeah alright settle down. We’re just friends.” Kelly huffed loudly but said nothing else. Later that day when they were finishing up at the shooting range, Kelly had asked, “So how’s the friendship going?” Linda looked around annoyed to make sure that no one was listening to them. She answered back, “It’s going fine. Do you need an hourly update?”

”I’m just saying, I’d support a partnership. I know some of the others wouldn’t approve but since when do you care what others think?,” Kelly pressed. Linda sat down at one of the tables nearby to take her sniper apart. Taking the weapon apart to clean it was incredibly soothing for her. Focusing on that made it easier to have this conversation. “Kelly I know you mean well but you can’t be serious. There are so many reasons to not go there with her. Not to mention I’m 13 years older than her. I don’t know much about this stuff but I know that’s weird,” Linda stated. Kelly snorted at the comment and said, “First off, we’re not ancient. Secondly, I don’t think that’s an issue she’s concerned over, otherwise she probably wouldn’t be all heart eyes over you. Fuck the rules anyway you’re both adults.”

”Exactly, I’m an adult and I’m making a responsible, adult decision to keep her at an arm’s length. It’s the best decision for the both of us,” Linda continued, firmly. Her tone was even but Kelly could tell that she was tense. Regardless, she pushed back, “Well she’s an adult too and I’m sure she knows what she wants.” At that, Kelly walked out of the room, leaving Linda to continue her cleaning. Click, click, click, snap, snap, click. The pieces all fit back together perfectly and cleanly. If only her current situation was so easily assembled.

She needed to meditate and there were too many people around. So, Linda made her way to the base’s quiet room. This was where soldiers and military personnel could go to pray, soak in silence, or meditate in Linda’s case. Not every station or base that she went to had one of these but when it did, Linda was grateful for it. Linda’s home base on Reach had everything she could want and this was one of her favorites. The room was different in more ways than one. It had a skylight that allowed sunlight to gleam through and illuminate the room softly during the day and moonlight during the night. The corners of the room however, remained in shadow. This was the only room on the base that did not have any artificial lighting and it brought a certain peace to the atmosphere, unlike any she had experienced before. Linda grabbed a mat off the shelf and sat in the back right corner of the room. She sat down and closed her eyes, breathing slowly, feeling her mind lifting off.

1200 hours

Kelly finished her run. These new headphones that she had gotten amazed her, as they had managed to stay on her head the entire time. Music was a joy that Kelly had discovered years ago. It allowed her to stay focused and pushed her to move faster and faster. According to John, her choice of ‘classic rock’ was archaic and noisy but she liked noisy! Better to have catchy lyrics blended with ‘noisy’ drums and guitar sounds as opposed to screaming, explosions, and death. The sounds of war. Though the sounds of gunfire weren’t necessarily ugly to her. They were, in a weird and sad way, comforting to her. Not comforting in a conventional way but rather, in a predictable way. In other words, Kelly knew where gunfire came from and what it did. She could distinguish the type of weapon that every gunshot came from and smell their differences. This was not necessarily an exceptional ability but rather one shared between many of her siblings. And right now, there were too many new and uncertain things happening that Kelly didn’t have explanations for.

In the last 24 hours, Kelly had grown concerned about Linda. Linda, it appeared, had grown oddly attached to Corporal Ira Hagan, ODST. Kelly had done some digging into Hagan’s file and found some impressive accomplishments. Upon further investigation (light hacking), she found a concerning detail about her. The Corporal had been subject to several psych evals. Not a good thing in their line of work, or probably in any. The cause for the several evals was…. REDACTED. How interesting, she thought. What could the Corporal have done to receive so many psych evals and then the reason for them be redacted? Moreover, should she tell Linda? Maybe not yet, after all, Kelly had encouraged Linda to reach out and embrace a ‘friendship’ with Hagan. She wanted to be on their side and support whatever this was, but Kelly couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off about Hagan. And here was the proof! But maybe it was a misunderstanding, maybe she was looking too much into it. And right now, she had nothing else to go on.

Kelly wandered into the mess hall, looking around for Fred-104. He was serving himself whatever horrible soup was getting served that day. Kelly always hated soup. She wandered over and sniffed it, feeling a nausea in her stomach.

“What do you want, soup hater?,” Fred inquired dryly. Kelly signed to him, need to talk. He lifted an eyebrow and looked at her, signing back, urgent? Kelly rolled her eyes and said out loud, “What do you think?” Fred sighed and asked, “I’ll eat, you talk.” They went over to the most secluded table in the mess hall that they could find. Regardless, it was full at the moment and so, it was improbable that others would hear their conversation. Kelly sat down and waited for Fred to start eating. She thought about how to phrase her question. Fred asked, “Well?” Kelly leaned back in her chair and asked, “Do you remember Margaret-053 and Otto-031?” Fred looked at her seriously but said nothing. He swallowed the next spoonful of soup and answered, “Of course, Black Team. Excellent Spartans.” Kelly’s face dropped and she looked at him in annoyment, “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about.” Fred sighed loudly and replied, “What’s your point? Why are you bringing that up?” Fred was of course talking about the incident when they were kids where the 2 aforementioned Spartans were found out to be entangled with one another. The rest of the Spartans did not take kindly to the news and well, essentially assaulted the pair. The fight had ended with Margaret losing an eye and retaliation on behalf of Black team which then ended in 2 more weeks of trouble for everyone.

The motivation behind the attack had been a misplaced belief that the Spartans had not been taking their training seriously. This of course came from the brainwashed idea they held at the time that any semblance of romance was a detriment to them all. That was until Kelly grew up and could see that the instilled belief had been a way to control them and further them away from their humanity. It was effective of course, for to be attached to someone else romantically was to be distracted from their missions partially. And as weapons, that just wouldn’t do. Still though, when Maria-062 retired to create a family of her own, it made Kelly stop and think. What could compel someone like her to turn away from their purpose and create her own? It seemed that love indeed was a powerful motivator, and their instructors were right to steer them clear of it. But instead of erasing Maria from her memory, Kelly felt an enormous amount of respect for her. For though the life of a Spartan was the only one Kelly could want, who was she to judge another for wanting more? She certainly had had her fair share of little crushes here and there but couldn’t ever act on those feelings. There just wasn’t ever any time for that. And people were too scared of her and the other Spartans to ever initiate conversation anyway. Kelly couldn’t blame them of course, but it got lonely at times. So when she heard Private Hagan admit to Linda that regardless of their circumstances or rank, she would have still called her pretty, Kelly was flabbergasted. Not only did this Private have the chutzpah to hit on a Spartan twice, but Linda’s lack of response had been very telling. If she truly had no interest in this woman, surely she would have reprimanded her or sent an official complaint to her new team lead. At least a write up or something. But instead, she was frazzled into silence. Linda wasn’t one to get cowed, the woman was incredibly scary. Kelly’s suspicions had only been reaffirmed when 8 years later, aka a few days ago, Linda had come to vent about a very personal meeting she had had with a certain Corporal.

“You don’t still feel that way about relationships right?,” Kelly finally responded. Fred looked even more confused now but replied, “No not entirely. I think we were immature at the time but- wait why are you asking me this stuff?”

”Humor me. Say hypothetically, this was happening now, and you found out that Otto had a lot of psych evals but the information on those were redacted, what would you do? Would you tell Margaret or dig deeper?,” Kelly inquired. Fred looked beyond annoyed at this point but rolled his eyes and answered back, “I wouldn’t get involved.” Kelly exhaled exasperatedly and said, “No you have to answer, just humor me.” Fred thought for a few seconds and replied, “Well, telling Margaret would only lead to her asking Otto about it and he can’t talk since the information is redacted so then he’d be compromised. I suppose I’d dig deeper then.” Kelly smiled at him, content with the answer. She stood up and said, “Enjoy your soup, I’m going on another run.” Fred frowned and yelled, “Wait no what’s going on?!” But it was too late. Kelly had already sped out of the room as quickly as she had come, leaving Fred to wonder, do I even wanna know?

[achangeinreality]

Encounters Part 6

Lil heat towards the end there if you catch my drift;;;)))

August 24, 2552

Reach

Linda ran into the hospital, where soldier after soldier was being dropped off to receive immediate medical attention. Somewhere, a huge fight must have taken place, for the last few days, Linda had noticed an influx of air and ground traffic on her base. Nothing was being said, but it was clear that somewhere, whether on Reach or on a nearby planet, a massive fight had occurred. The base’s hospital was being overrun by horribly injured soldiers and the only thing Linda could think of was Ira. Almost 2 weeks ago, Ira had deployed at a confidential location and was clearly still unavailable, seeing as she hadn’t said anything since then. The tip off that Ira had given her about seeing each other soon told Linda that the conflict was either on Reach or another nearby planet. Surely it had to be somewhere else, nothing was being reported at her home base. She hadn’t heard anything about a fight on Reach; Linda was certain that her team would have been involved if that were the case. Regardless, she had to make sure Ira wasn’t one of these unfortunate souls being rushed in. Linda went up to the front desk and told the receptionist, “I need to see a patient, her name is Iradelle Hagan.” The receptionist, a man wearing the insignia of a Private and with a name tag that read, Morr, looked up at her with tired, gaunt eyes, and typed the name into the system. He replied, “Room 6D, on the 4th floor. That’s the intensive care unit so you will need consent to see her.” Linda’s heart sank. Morr has just confirmed Ira’s attendance and intensive care was not good news. It took the strength of a Spartan to keep her voice low and even as she answered, “Private Morr, I need to see Iradelle Hagan right now. Do not make me pull rank.” He sighed and Linda could see that he was exhausted, likely having been doing this for days. His shoulders slumped and his eyes closed momentarily. Did he just fall asleep?, she thought. “Private!,” Linda barked. Pvt. Morr jolted and jumped, looking around in fear. “Uh hello, how can I help you, ma’am?,” he yelped.

“You were in the middle of sending over a consent to visit the intensive care unit for me, Spartan Linda-058.” The man instantly saluted her with shock in his eyes and said, “Yes, ma’am, name of the patient?” Linda smiled a little inwardly and replied, “Iradelle Hagan.” The man nodded, looking down at the still open tab which displayed Ira’s file. He clicked through a few things and gave her a badge that read ICU Visitor. Linda thanked him and went on her way to room 6D. She didn’t have the patience for an elevator so she ran up the stairs.

The ICU was filled with staff and visitors, though slightly less chaotic than the front lobby had been. She went up to the clerk at the counter and showed him her badge saying, “I’m here for Iradelle Hagan.” He looked up at her, less tired than Pvt. Morr, typed Ira’s name into the system and gulped. The name on his tag read, Adam. Adam looked up at Linda and said slowly, “Are you aware of her condition?” Linda could feel her heart beat racing faster now, a heat beginning to form behind her eyes. She said, “I need to see her, now.” The man sighed and hit a button, which opened up the door behind him. “Room 6D, no need to knock, just head in.” Linda nodded curtly and walked in, looking for Ira’s room. She reached it and wrenched the door open.

What lay before Linda was far from anything she could have imagined. A person wrapped in half bloody bandages from head to toe on a ventilator lay on the hospital bed. Her torso was wrapped in a white cast and the only skin visible were her eyelids. The bandages around her nose, mouth, and ears had holes in them. Tubes were attached to her nose and mouth. At the sound of the door opening, Ira’s eyes opened. She locked eyes with Linda. Her eyes watered, but they seemed to turn upwards as much as possible. Linda couldn’t take it, not this. A tear streamed down her face and she felt an immense pain overtake her. Ira mustered enough strength to move her right arm to the right slowly. She pointed at something behind Linda. Linda turned around to find Ira’s burnt uniform in a pile on a chair. She eyed it and looked back at Ira. Ira kept looking in the direction of the pile and blinked several times. Morse code for, look inside. Linda picked up the pile and heard a small clink. It was a vest, likely the same one she had worn on the battlefield. It was burnt and barely even wearable at this point but it had a pocket, and this is where the clinking sound originated from.

A long, slim, shiny bullet popped out of the pocket, half covered in cloth. Linda’s breath hitched in her throat as the overhead light caught on the bullet’s engravement. Her hand shook as she held it and more tears fell down her face. Ira’s pointer finger crooked towards her and she blinked again, come here. Linda looked at her, shaking hard and walked towards her. She fell on her knees and gently placed her hands on Ira’s bandaged face. Linda lost it and she dropped her head beside Ira. Ira's arm retracted slowly and wrapped itself around Linda’s head. A horrible grief filled her entire being and she could feel herself losing it. She cried for longer than she had ever allowed herself to, for this time, Linda had no control. Ira cried as well, though was unable to make any sounds due to the tubes that were keeping her breathing.

The door opened and a middle aged doctor wearing a protective cap walked in. “Hello I am Dr. Rashel, I’m here to check on Ms. Hagan.” Linda looked up at him with red, wet eyes and sniffed, correcting him, “Corporal Hagan.” He smiled gently at her and replied, “My apologies, you are correct. Now she is not in the best condition, but she is recovering. I believe she is ready to be taken off the ventilator, this is a very good thing. Her right lung was punctured by one of her broken ribs but we managed to take care of that and now her lungs are strong enough to work on their own!” As he was speaking, the nurse went over to Ira’s left side and began unwrapping her arm and leg bandages. A lot of the skin was burnt and bloody but there was no bone or tissue showing. The doctor continued, “Corporal Hagan has suffered a mixture of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree burns. She was far enough from the blast and put herself out quickly enough to mostly have 2nd degree burns. However, the mix of burns cover 60% of her body, so it is impairing her ability to recover faster.” Ira’s eyes widened and filled with more tears. “Pain, Corporal?” She blinked again, indicating a yes. Doctor Rashel sighed and said, “I can order more morphine.” He looked at Linda and said, “Unfortunately, I must ask you to step out. We need the room to start taking her off the ventilator. Nurse Brenda here can notify you when the room is available for visiting again.” Linda nodded and stood up, looking at Ira again, and placing the bullet in her right hand. Ira’s eyes seemed to upturn in a smile again and she curled her hand around the bullet.

It had been hours since Linda started pacing in the waiting room. First she sat, then she paced, sat, paced, and sat. Now she was pacing again. She denied herself the ability to think, rather she forced her mind to clear. Linda had been solely focusing on her breath, willing calm to flood through her system. But no matter what technique she tried, clear mind or not, a heavy ache rested in her chest. Suddenly, a genius thought came to her. Halsey. Linda pulled her datapad out of the backpack she had brought with her and sent an urgent message to Halsey. Some time elapsed when Nurse Brenda popped her head into the waiting room and said, “Spartan Linda 058? Ira is awake and able to talk now. She is requesting you.” Linda might as well have run to room 6D for it only took her a few seconds to reach it. Ira’s face was still bandaged but her lips and nose were now free. The skin looked red, but not beyond repair, and was covered in some clear gel.

”Hey good looking,” Ira slurred in a raspy, low voice. Linda felt another tear fall down her face and she inwardly berated herself for it. This was not the time to show weakness, she needed to look strong for Ira’s sake. Linda walked in and made her way towards Ira, sitting on the rolling stool that had been added to the room. “Hi,” she replied unevenly and quietly. “I’m high,” groaned Ira. This time, a small smile reached Linda’s face. She replied, “I’m Linda.” A raspy, rumbling laugh sounded from Ira. Slowly but happily said, “You’re my hot, Spartan girlfriend.” Another tear fell down Linda’s face but she smiled bigger this time and replied more evenly, “I sure am.” A ding came from Linda’s datapad and she reached for it, seeing a message from Halsey which read, I am in a difficult situation at the moment but I will do what I can. Linda felt a measure of relief.

”Who that,” Ira slurred. Linda looked at Ira’s visible features and realized that the woman was pouting. Out of all the things to be pouting over right now, this was at least something Linda could fix. “A very important Doctor who’s going to give you the best possible care,” Linda replied. Ira didn’t respond right away, letting the words make sense in her drugged brain. “She not trynna steal you then?,” Ira inquired hopefully. Linda sighed and thought, she already did. “No, Ira. She’s going to help you,” Linda reassured her. “Oh that’s so nice!,” Ira replied happily.

Linda stayed with Ira for as long as she could. She was refusing to leave the hospital though, rather opted for staying in the waiting room while visiting hours were over. That night, Linda sat on the floor in the back right corner of the waiting room, meditating. Then, the familiar voice of a woman could be heard approaching. Linda stood up immediately and poked her head out of the room to see Doctor Catherine Halsey pushing a large, rolling cart with medical equipment on it. There were 2 other medical personnel helping with the cart as well. She stayed silent and did not make her presence known, simply waited and watched. Halsey and the other 2 people entered Ira’s room along with the equipment. After several hours passed, Linda couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in there.

Finally, at what must have been 0400 hours, Linda heard someone walking out of Ira’s room and making their way to the waiting room. She had, by then, retreated back into the waiting room to continue her meditation. The door opened to reveal Halsey, standing with a clipboard in her hand. Linda opened her eyes to look at her and asked, “How is she?” The older woman entered the room and sat next to her before replying, “In much better condition than that idiot doctor previously had her in. She should reach a functional recovery in a few weeks.”

”A functional recovery? What does that mean?”

”Well if she so wishes, she will be able to return to service within 2-3 weeks. But a full recovery will take her at least 4 months.”

”That seems a very short time for the trauma that her body suffered. What did you do?”

”I cloned a lot of her skin and replaced it. Only the 3rd degree areas though, the rest will heal on their own. There were some complications that I was not expecting so I was forced to use an, experimental, substance to prevent her death.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry, she will be alright. I will be back tomorrow to check on her recovery and administer more treatment.”

Linda didn’t want to feel or seem ungrateful for the help, but experiments and hypotheses were not what she had requested when she’d reached out to the doctor for help. She knew that Halsey meant well, but that was the problem, Linda was also a result of a ‘meant well’ experiment . And it was not a life she would wish on anyone, especially not Ira. Halsey placed a hand on Linda’s shoulder, breaking her out of her spiral. She said, “Linda, I did not turn her into any sort of Spartan. I gave her an excellent chance to survive, you’ll see tomorrow. You should get some rest.” Linda said nothing but nodded. As Halsey got to the door, Linda finally said, “Thank you Doctor.” Halsey turned to look at her and gave her a rare warm smile. She asked, “This woman must be very special. What is she to you?” Linda looked up at her and said nothing again, unsure of the doctor’s intentions. After a full 2 seconds, she finally answered, “My girlfriend.” A knowing look crossed Halsey’s face and she replied with a hint of pride, ��I thought so. That makes me very happy to hear, I’ll see you soon Linda.” And with that, Halsey walked out of the room. Not sure what to think of that, Linda walked back to the corner of the room to sit, lean her head against the wall, and let her eyes close.

Catherine Halsey was more than thrilled. Finally, a viable test subject. The devastation of the front lines, fight after fight, was one of the many issues that the UNSC was dealing with in the war against the Covenant. The issue wasn’t conscription, plenty of people joined the military, but they were dying en masse. What if the solution lay in the current living soldiers? Out of the many scientific creations she had been a part of in the last 30 years, this one had always been on the back burner. What with her Spartan II program and now Cortana, the serum was not the highest on her list of priorities. It was mostly complete but had never entered the experimentation phase.

It felt like a stroke of good luck when Linda 058, of all people, contacted her asking for help. I need your help. Iradelle Hagan is in the Reach General Hospital, ICU. Please help her, she had sent. The message immediately caught Catherine’s attention for several reasons. For one, Linda 058 had never sent her a message or request of any sort. Secondly, who was Iradelle Hagan and why was Linda begging her to help this woman? Third, ICU meant that this woman was not in good medical condition, would she be in bad enough shape for her serum trials? After checking her file, Catherine decided that Iradelle Hagan was the perfect candidate. She suffered severe, full body burns, broken ribs, a punctured lung, a brain bleed, and was unable to breath on her own. She was suffering from so many maladies, that this would really be the true test of the serum’s effectiveness.

Serum H was essentially a regeneration serum. She had formulated it to target the patient’s immune system, DNA, and metabolism. It was meant to allow the patient’s body to heal itself from major damage. The serum wouldn’t be a save all however, but it would buy the patient enough time to receive adequate medical attention post fight. And what better candidate than one who had several life ending injuries, was close to her lab, and was being looked after by one of her own Spartans? It was a win-win situation for everyone. That is, if it worked. And Catherine knew it would, save for the possible… side effects. Serum H needed to be administered in 2 parts. One, to introduce it into her system. And the second one, to reinforce it permanently.

She had sort of lied to Linda about having to use it due to a complication in the surgery. It wasn’t a total lie, there were several complications treating Ira, the woman was basically on death’s door. But she hadn’t used it as an ‘in the moment necessity’, this was premeditated. It felt disrespectful to lie to Linda, but she was so uncharacteristically distraught and unfocused that Catherine felt it would be nicer to feed her a white lie. Her girlfriend huh, she thought. Her Spartans never failed to surprise her. They had exceeded all of her expectations and now she was seeing them grow into their own people. The effects of the Spartan augmentations had severely lowered their libido, not to mention the psychological aspect of their training. They had been taught that love and relationships were not for them. But despite all of that, Linda still found someone to create a partnership with. How very interesting. She would have to start keeping a log of how many Spartans were displaying these kinds of emotions, seeing as the count was now 2 in their adult years and 2 in their teen years.

Catherine was an opportunist, though she was not without guilt. Despite doing the galaxy a service by creating Spartans, the cost was so very high. And if any of them ever asked her for help, who was she to deny them? She would make sure that Iradelle survived the procedure for Linda’s sake. Even if it meant turning Iradelle into an experiment. Interestingly enough, the woman had a number of redactions on her file, and what was one more? After looking her up, Catherine saw several psych evals and contradictions throughout her military service. In order to make sure that the woman was at least psychologically sane enough to go through the possible side effects, she overrode the confidential nature of certain incidents and found that Iradelle was getting more interesting by the moment. 5 years ago, after losing yet another battle, Sergeant Hagan, ODST, suffered a debilitating mental breakdown where she woke up one night convinced she was on the battlefield, and attacked those on the base. The attack left many severely wounded but luckily, no one died. Hagan was stripped of her rank and forced to take mandatory leave for 7 months, where she also attended mandated therapy sessions. After her 6th psych eval, she was finally allowed back as a Private First Class.

An interesting lady, to have been through such an ordeal and still be allowed back into the ranks of the prestigious ODSTs and then climb to the rank of Corporal within the following 4 years. The resilience and perseverance of the human mind never failed to surprise Catherine Halsey. Some possible side effects of Serum H were grandiose delusions, suicidal ideations, manic episodes, increased agitation, etc, etc… But, it was very possible that Iradelle wouldn’t even experience any side effects, given that her formula was nothing short of perfect. Now onto more pressing matters….

Ira woke up feeling… not nearly as horrible as she had in the past few days. She wasn’t sure if last night was a dream, a medication related hallucination, or just another sign that she was losing her mind. Sometime after falling asleep, Ira had woken to the light being turned on and a trio of medical personnel entering the room with a huge cart full of some sort of equipment. An older woman with short, black and grey hair had smiled at her, and then put something in her IV bag that made Ira fall back asleep. And now that she was awake, she was suddenly able to move her arms and legs without being in unimaginable pain. Not only that but breathing was so much easier and less heavy than yesterday when the ventilator tube was finally removed. To top it off, a completely different doctor came in and introduced herself as Doctor Amada. She told Ira, “I will be taking over your care along with Dr. Halsey. She will be coming in later in the day to take a look at your progress.” Nothing was explained to her though. No mention of why she had suddenly improved so much and didn’t feel on death’s door anymore.

Never mind that, Ira couldn’t believe her eyes when Linda came to visit her. Let alone the fact that Ira had even survived the plasma blast. It seemed like luck was truly on her side now. Even if Ira didn’t improve, all that mattered to her was that she got to see Linda in person one more time. Her eyes must have shot out of her head in the shape of cartoon hearts when Linda walked back into her room at 0800 hours.

”You came back!,” Ira exclaimed. She couldn’t believe the lack of pain she was feeling. The doctor hadn’t even given her nearly as much morphine today too. Linda looked exhausted, as though she hadn’t slept all night. The black shadows under her eyes contrasted heavily with the paleness of her skin. She gave Ira a tired smile and replied, “Of course I did, I never left. I hear you are on the mend.” Ira felt terrible that she was the cause of Linda’s exhaustion but also incredibly cared about. After all, her entire team was dead again and almost every family member was also gone so it felt good to have at least one person who cared. “Oh no I’m sorry if you didn’t get any sleep, you should go home to rest, don’t worry about me. See? I’m barely even in pain right now!,” she said. Linda sat down on the same rolling stool as the day before and placed a hand on Ira’s shoulder gently. “Not a chance, you’re stuck with me. Even if you get up and walk right now I’m not leaving until I’m ordered to or you’re discharged.”

Ira stared at her in disbelief and felt her eyes start to well up. The grief and pain that she had been feeling since waking up days ago was now being felt much more clearly due to the lessened dose of narcotics. She wasn’t so loopy and out of it now and hearing Linda say that to her only made the emotions inside of her burst out. She started crying, softly at first, and then lost it and ugly cried for what felt like forever. Linda looked confused initially but then thought back to what Ira had been through and understood.

One of the biggest differences between the pair was the way they expressed their emotions. For lack of better words, Linda didn’t. She felt them, but very rarely did she let them out. Yesterday was a rare occasion. Ira on the other hand was a crier. She cried left and right about anything big or small that tugged at her heart strings. And this time around, her heart felt like it would implode. All that fighting for nothing. All of it only to still lose the battle, the territory, and her team. She wasn’t even sure how much of the battalion was left if anything. In the days that she had laid in bed covered in bandages, unable to move without excruciating pain, unable to breathe on her own, Ira felt her lowest laying there, truly defeated and useless. And then a light. She had been incredibly doped out when Linda had walked through the door yesterday, but even so she felt her spirits lift into the skies.

Linda took one of Ira’s bandaged hands and held it gently, not daring to put any pressure on it. She wasn’t very good with comforting words and touch wasn’t her area of expertise, but silence she could offer. Ira sniffled and raised her unoccupied, shaking hand to wipe away the tears. As they sat there, a knock sounded at the door. Ira croaked out, “Come in.” She gasped.

The same doctor that Ira thought she’d hallucinated the night before walked in with a lockbox and data pad. Ira eyed her and the box. “Hello Iradelle, my name is Catherine Halsey. I’m sure you have some questions by now. Good morning Linda,” the woman said. Ira looked between the doctor and Linda and saw the recognition in Linda’s face. She seemed a bit tense but comfortable with her presence. Linda nodded at the doctor and squeezed Ira’s hand gently.

“I remember you from last night… I thought you were a hallucination or something. What did you do to me?,” Ira asked warily, feeling suspicious.

“I gave you a fighting chance. This conversation needs to stay in this room. Do you understand?,” Halsey replied. Ira raised what she assumed was still her eyebrow as the realization that there was indeed something sinister about the doctor settled. ONI, she thought. She answered, “Yeah I understand.”

“Good. Now, Linda is the reason I am here. She called me to your aid so, know that this is in your best interest,” Halsey started as she set the lockbox down and opened it. She kept talking as she pulled a large clear vial and syringe out of it, “You are the first ever patient to be the recipient of this, Serum H. Its specifics are classified but know that you are going to be a very difficult target to kill.” Halsey had filled the syringe and was now attaching it to Ira’s IV bag. “I have been monitoring your vitals overnight and saw the results of the tests that Dr. Amada did. My serum is working just as I predicted…,” she trailed off as she pulled the syringe out. A cold, horrible blast started to wash through Ira’s body. Her eyes bulged out as whatever the hell this Halsey had entered into her system made its way through her veins. She gasped, hyperventilated, and thrashed. Linda’s eyes widened but she held firm onto Ira’s hand. She looked up at Halsey and asked, “What’s happening to her?” Halsey put her hand up and replied, “The serum is making itself permanent in her system. Don’t worry, she should pull through.”

“Should?” Linda asked incredulously. Halsey answered back, “Yes, should. I told you it was experimental but this was the only way I could help her.” Ira continued to gasp and shudder violently, feeling the simultaneous sensations of blistering heat and agonizing cold pulsing inside of her. She screamed, feeling herself come apart and together over and over again. Ira could no longer hear anything except the thunderous pounding in her head and her vision was covered in black and white stars. There were no thoughts anymore either, just pain. Somewhere in the distance, an alarm was ringing. It didn’t matter though, all that did was that Ira was now drifting off into a slumber, finally free of her torment.

The last hour felt like an eternity for Linda. She had refused to leave Ira’s room after she’d coded. Halsey had stabilized her and was now running some tests but Linda still had to focus on her breath to calm her mind. Halsey walked over to Ira and began to undo the bandages on Ira’s arm. Her skin was… almost normal looking. It was lightly scarred but completely healed. Linda gasped as Halsey made her way up to Ira’s face and uncovered it as well. She largely looked the same, albeit with much shorter hair and no eyebrows. According to the previous doctor, Ira’s large bun had caught on fire but that and her helmet had largely protected her head. This left her with a choppy, uneven pixie. The rest of her body was largely the same, scarring in several areas but completely healed. Some parts of her body didn’t even have any scars, Linda figured that was the skin that Halsey had cloned and replaced.

Ira woke up, covered in sweat and… only a hospital gown? She lifted her hands to her face, where were the bandages? Was she healed?

“You’re awake! Oh wow,” Linda said in surprise. Her eyes were purple. Ira’s once hazel eyes were now several shades of purple, like amethysts.

“What happened? How am I alive?,” Ira inquired, now sitting up. She was sore but nothing compared to what she had been dealing with the past few days.

“I told you my serum was in your best interest. In short, it rewrote your DNA to repair itself whenever you’re damaged. You’re not immortal though, take enough damage and you’ll still die. But it will take a lot more than the average amount of wounds to do the job. You will still need to rest for at least a few weeks before you’re cleared for any fighting though,” Halsey told her. Ira couldn’t believe her ears. This was insane. She looked at Linda in disbelief. Linda was looking at her with a growing smile. She looked at Halsey and said, “Thank you doctor. Is she going to have any side effects or problems?”

“Well there’s always a possibility of side effects, in her case it will be psychological. There’s a chance she will be suicidal, overly agitated, experiencing grandiose delusions, that sort of thing. But if they don’t manifest within the next 24 hours, she won’t experience them at all.”

“Oh fuck me, I’m already a nut case. I’ll never be cleared for combat if I crack again,” Ira blurted out. Linda looked at her and raised an eyebrow, “Again?”

Halsey looked between the two and sighed, saying, “She had a nervous breakdown and injured several people. Technically confidential but so is everything we just discussed here so I trust it won’t leave the room. I’ll be back later to check on you Iradelle.” And with that, the doctor walked out. Ira seemed to have sunk in her bed slightly. She looked at Linda glumly and said, “Well, now you know.”

“What do I know?”

“That I’m crazy.”

“I already knew that.”

“I’m serious, what I did was really bad and I’m ashamed of it!”

“There’s no reason to be ashamed. We see a lot. It’s okay, I'm just happy that you’re alive.”

Ira said nothing back, just looked at Linda. She reached up to her face and slid her fingers down Linda’s cheek slowly. Linda caught her hand and held it to her face. The two maintained eye contact and Ira asked quietly, “Can I kiss you?” Linda wasn’t sure what to expect but this was something she knew she wanted and nodded. Ira leaned in and kissed her.

Linda had never been kissed before. That wasn’t really part of the whole Spartan package. But to have been deprived of this experience was a crime. Her whole body felt warm and radiant. She kissed back, copying the movements that Ira’s lips made. When Ira pulled away, Linda stopped her and went in for another kiss. Ira gasped and slid her fingers into Linda’s hair to deepen the angle. At this, something else triggered inside of Linda. Something foreign. A desperate need awakened, reminding her of the occasional, unexplained sensations she experienced during her puberty years. They pulled away again and Linda found herself unable to look away from Ira’s amethyst orbs.

Ira could have dropped dead this very second and she would have died happy. She had been yearning to kiss the Spartan for so long and it had been everything she wanted. If it weren’t for how weak and sweaty she was, she would have pulled the woman onto the bed with her. But for now, she was exhausted and seriously needed a shower. Before Ira could say anything, Linda quietly said, “You’re really beautiful Ira.” Ira’s eyes almost flew out of her skull. She asked, “Even though I’m all burnt and bald now?” Linda replied dryly, “I’d say it’s an improvement.”

”Shut up!” Ira laughed. Linda gave her a smile and kissed her on the forehead. Ira closed her eyes, holding onto the warmth and joy that flooded her chest. Finally, after enduring so much, she could finally bask in love.

[caffeineyum]

AHHHHHHH I’m screaming!!! This is fantastic! THE BULLET IS SUCH A GOOD GIFT! Love the way you write Linda, it’s so her :)

Encounters Part 3

”HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR CORPORALLLLLL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUU!” The ODSTs clapped and cheered as they finished singing Ira’s happy birthday song. Ira laughed and cheered too as she saw her cake. It was obviously made from scratch and not by any baker of known renown. The white icing was messily slopped around the uneven cake and there was an attempt at “Happy Bday” written on top with red icing. Instead of a candle there was a long match stuck right in the middle. She blew it out and everyone cheered once again.

Ira had requested “shore leave” for this. She was technically not on any sort of “shore”, rather the mess hall, but at least she was technically off duty now. This allowed her to finally leave her hair down and wear something other than grey and camo fatigues. She wore a simple black fitted blouse and form fitting jeans but it made all the difference to her being out of uniform for a day. Not only that but she decided on dark red lipstick as well. Needless to say, her teammates whistled obnoxiously when she came out of the bathroom. The party went on for an hour and it mostly consisted of a bunch of burly men and women eating cake, playing card games, retelling old funny war stories, and- a sudden silence. Ira looked around to see that everyone had suddenly turned around and stopped talking. She joined their gaze and was insanely shocked to see Linda standing at the entrance. Despite their last interaction ending as badly as it did, Ira couldn’t help the huge grin that grew on her face. “Linda you came!,” she exclaimed, jumping out of her seat to run towards the Spartan. The ODSTs murmured in confusion and Ira shushed them. She ran over to Linda and said, “I’ll introduce you to everyone!” Linda awkwardly followed Ira and said, “Happy birthday.” Ira beamed at her and replied with, “Thank you!” She turned to face everyone else and said, “Now I don’t want any of you to be rude or nasty. This is Linda and she’s a friend. I invited her so I expect you all to be nice. Is that clear?” A low murmur of, “Yes, sir” came from the small crowd. Ira frowned and repeated more sternly, “Is that clear?”

“YES SIR!,” they all replied and saluted her. She smiled and said, “That’s what I thought. Okay let’s get back to it!” She motioned towards the cake and asked the red head, “Do you want some cake?” Linda stared at it for a moment and Ira could have sworn she saw a tiny smile start to form before her face returned to normal. Before she could respond, Ira cut a piece and served it on a plate with a fork. “Enjoy!” Linda looked at the slice and wondered when the last time she had cake was. Regardless, she ate a piece and was instantly filled with joy at the memory of her as a kid coming across a stash of sweets that Mendez had hidden in his office. “You like it?” Ira asked. Linda nodded. “Good, these guys made it!” Linda swallowed and said, “Could’ve fooled me”. Ira giggled but then did a double take and asked, “Did you just make a joke?” Linda didn’t say anything, just shrugged nonchalantly. Ira laughed and motioned for her to sit down with her teammates. “Dal what’s next on the itinerary?” Ira asked. Dal, a 30-something year old, rather short man stood up and said to everyone, “Alright guys now it’s time to shower the Corporal in praise. Let’s go around and tell her our favorite thing about her.” The team erupted in several different comments including, “What are we 4?”, “Oooo”, “That’s so lame Dal booo!”, and “No I like this, go on”. One woman, Rachel, hooted, “That ass!” Everyone laughed and some banged on the table. Ira cackled and yelled, “You know it!” Linda stared at everyone in shock in disbelief. She did her best not to look too out of place but this was so… different. Were all parties like this? How was she supposed to react? Never mind that, how was she supposed to focus on the party when Ira looked like… that. Linda had never seen such glossy, long, straight, black hair in her life. An impulsive need to touch it ran through her and she pushed it away immediately. The clothes too, when was the last time she even saw someone in civilian clothing? They were perfectly appropriate and simple but they were, well, very form fitting. She kept her eyes focused anywhere but below Ira’s face. Her face. Was that lipstick?? She had seen it in movies and on civilians when she was on human world infiltration missions but hadn’t necessarily experienced any particular thoughts about it. But right now, she was having a lot of thoughts and a lot of feelings about how it looked on Ira.

”Are you okay?” Ira asked her quietly. No one noticed Linda’s silence but Ira could see that Linda was experiencing some sort of turmoil. Before Linda could respond or react, one of Ira’s teammates yelled out, “Hey hey hey wait we haven’t heard the Spartan’s contribution! What’s your favorite thing about the Corporal, ma’am?” Linda looked at him and then at Ira and replied, “Her audacity.” Hoots and hollers rang out and Ira blushed intensely looking at Linda in surprise. “You got that right!”, someone yelled out. Linda stared straight at Ira and winked in satisfaction. Ira laughed nervously and felt her hands start to sweat but said nothing. The rest of the time consisted of more card games and dumb shenanigans. Just as the night was beginning to come to an end, Richard, the newest addition to Ira’s team, announced, “Spartan Linda, I challenge you to an arm wrestle.” The room oooo’d and some tensed. Linda cocked an eyebrow when she realized it was the same man that questioned her a few days before. Throughout the party he had made several attempts to pull Ira away to engage with her privately. But rather than let herself be torn from the Spartan’s side, she included Linda in whatever he wanted to talk about or do. For whatever reason, it filled Linda with a weirdly odd satisfaction and she slowly started to wonder if the look of annoyment on his face had more to do with Linda being a Spartan or with him wanting Ira’s attention to himself. It greatly annoyed Linda when the man insinuated that maybe Ira would be interested in taking shore leave with him some time. Ira had laughed it off saying, “Richard I see you every day. No offense but if I’m going off on an actual vacation I want to be alone.” He had laughed it off as well and didn’t suggest it any further but Linda could tell by the tension in his jaw that it was not an answer he wanted.

Therefore, when Richard challenged Linda to an arm wrestle, Linda stared right into his eyes, stood up, and despite Ira’s “No no, don’t be dumb Richard!”, proclamations , rolled up her sleeve, and sat down in front of him. Mother of god, thought Ira as she found herself completely unable to tear her eyes away from Linda’s large and muscled forearm. Shamefully so, she felt a hot, sensitive knot pulse below her core. The others sat in a circle around the two contestants. Rachel yelled out, “Wait, wait, wait. This is too good an opportunity to let go of. Everybody place your bets.” A loud rustle ensued as the ODSTs pulled out bills seemingly out of nowhere and threw them into a pile. Rachel took out a pen and jotted down everyone’s bets on her palm. “Mhm, mhm, okay…, alright I got everyone. Okay! Will the winner be, our newest but beefiest ODST Richard, or this mysterious and extremely buff Spartan Linda?,” Rachel exclaimed in the voice of a sport commentator. “Contestants, elbows down. When I say “go” you may begin!”, she added. The two grabbed hands and Linda gave his hand a hefty squeeze. Richard held firm but Linda could see a vein pulsing at his temple slightly. They made intense eye contact, one Linda could hold forever.

”GO!” Richard pushed a huge amount of force into Linda’s hand. She was surprised, it took a lot of strength to make her falter. He continued to push and push and push and Linda let him think it was doing something. Within 15 seconds however, she slammed a fraction of her strength into his hand and it resounded loudly on the table. BAM!

Groans and cheers rang out as Rachel separated the pile of money into even, smaller piles and distributed it to the happy winners. Ira jumped in and said, “Alright guys! Thanks so much for doing this for me. We’ve had a lot of great times and a lot of shitty moments too but you’re my crew and I’m so thankful for you all!” The ODSTs started to disperse and many of them went over to Linda saying things along the lines of, “Thank you Spartan, you have just bought me a taco!” Ira couldn’t help but chuckle but did feel a bit of second hand embarrassment for Richard given that he was obviously not amused. She started to clean the mess up when Rachel walked over to her and shooed her away, “Corporal you’re on shore leave and it’s your birthday. Respectfully, go.” Ira put her hands up in defeat and conceded. “Alright, alright I’m gone. I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Ira said. Linda approached her and quietly said, “I know I have no right to ask you, but can I talk to you privately?” Ira gave her a small smile and nodded. The two headed out of the mess hall and walked a little ways away. Linda stopped and said, “I did some research into the tradition of birthdays and found that presents are a traditional custom. So, I have one for you.” Ira was not expecting that. She asked, “Really? Where is it?” Linda pulled something out of her pocket and gave her a small object wrapped in cloth. Ira unraveled it and found a shiny SR-99 bullet. Upon further inspection, she could make out an engravement running down its length. It read, You too are in my thoughts. Ira gasped softly and felt her eyes water a little as she read it. She looked up to meet Linda’s gaze. “This is, this is amazing. Did you engrave it yourself?,” Ira asked, still in awe. Linda nodded and said, “Yes I have some skill with weapon modification. Sometimes I have to make very small and precise cuts into the metals to customize the weapon to my liking so I applied the skill to writing.” Ira couldn’t stop looking at the words and was at an utter loss for what to say. Finally, she looked up at Linda with a warm, happy smile and said, “Thank you.” The Spartan nodded and held her gaze, responding with, “This wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about but I’d rather go somewhere with more privacy” Ira nodded and said, “We can go to my quarters. I don’t have to share on this ship.”

The women reached Ira’s quarters after a few minutes. She punched in the code to the keypad and the door hissed open. It was very small, so small that only her bed, a trunk, and a small, square desk with a tiny chair fit. “Home sweet home, try not to suffocate,” Ira joked. Linda looked around and wondered where to sit. She didn’t dare try the chair, it looked so flimsy she wondered if even Ira could sit in it without it collapsing. Ira sat on the bed and gestured at her to sit. “It’s sturdier than it looks,” Ira reassured her. Linda sat down and felt a creak below her but that was it. Ira raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She turned to look at the Spartan and asked, “So what is it?” Linda sat quietly for a second, not looking at Ira. She breathed in and out before turning to look at Ira and started, “My job is quite literally my life. It’s not even a job, it’s my purpose. And because of that, I can’t become entangled with anyone, it would get in the way of my ability to protect humanity. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, if you’d like to.” Ira didn’t say anything but she visibly deflated. She looked down at the floor, formulating a response and settled on, “Yeah I’d like that. I understand. I’ve got one question though, do you mean it?” Ira held the bullet out, words glinting in the light. Linda looked at the words with an expression of solemnes and replied, “Yes.”

She didn’t stay long after that, for Linda had an early ship out time the next morning and she needed to rest. Upon returning to her own quarters, she laid in bed and looked up at the ceiling while rubbing the dogtag she wore in between her fingers. Ding! Her data pad alerted her of a message. She looked at it and saw that it was a message from Kelly.

I’m outside your door

As Linda read the message, the door to her room opened and Kelly waltzed in wearing a tank top and running shorts. She signed a greeting at Linda and sat on the floor in front of her.

“So how was the party?”

“Good. I enjoyed myself”

“And how was the corporal?”

“Great.”

“You’re hiding something”

“I don’t hide things”

“That’s a load of shit, you hide everything, spit it out.”

“There is nothing to spit out.”

Kelly frowned in frustration at Linda’s secrecy. She stared at Linda and signed You seem troubled. Neither Spartan said anything for a while. Finally Linda gave in and admitted, “She said she’s attracted to me.” Kelly cocked her head and asked, “Again?” Linda gave a tiny half smile at the memory of the first time it happened and replied, “Yeah but she wasn’t high this time.”

“Ohhhh…” Kelly seemed pensive for a moment before asking, “So what did you say?” Linda threw her arms up in defeat and replied, “I said I can’t make anything of it, I’m not made for that.” Kelly sighed in an annoyment and rolled her eyes. “You’re such an idiot, you’re telling me that someone on this ship likes you and you can’t say it back when you obviously do too?” Linda looked shocked and asked in confusion, “What are you talking about? I never said I liked her in that way. We weren’t made for that.”

“No, we weren’t, and that’s the problem!” Kelly exclaimed. For a moment, Linda swore she saw a glint of hurt in Kelly’s eyes. Whatever was going on there she had no idea about. She almost looked mad at her.

“Don’t you ever think about Maria and wonder what she’s experiencing? Because I do. I would never stop being a Spartan, I love what we do. But sometimes I can’t help but wonder what it’s like to have someone like she does,” Kelly explained. Of all the things she had heard in the last 72 hours, this was not something Linda thought she’d ever hear. But Kelly was right, that was the problem. Linda loved being a Spartan, it was her purpose and she’d never trade it for anything. But what was it like to have someone who was more than a teammate? Her family was dear and close to her but what about a partner? Maria-062 was one of her sisters and when she heard that Maria had left the military to marry someone and have children with them it came as a massive shock. She didn’t understand it then, not at all. None of them had understood, some even refused to acknowledge Maria’s memory after that. But 8 years ago, a young and completely naive Private told her, “had the circumstances been completely different, and my rank a lot higher, I would have still meant what I said.” Something about that statement opened up a new pathway in her head and made her think, what if I could feel that way too?

There were some days when she was on the battlefield, fighting for the people on that planet and she’d see couples clinging to each other, running towards the evacuation zones. Sometimes she’d see widows, holding the dead bodies of their loved one, crying out their names. And every time, she’d wonder, what if I could feel what they feel? There were a few times when she’d see a woman that looked visually appealing and Linda was able to acknowledge that in her head at least. She realized a while ago that men didn’t exactly attract her attention in the same way. That must mean she was in fact able to feel at least a vanity based attraction to others. But to feel something warmer and closer than that? Never. She wasn’t exactly at liberty to approach most of these women and strike up a conversation, there wasn’t ever any time. So what had caused Linda to approach Corporal Hagan and ask to meet with her in the mess hall at 2100? No idea. When she got off the shuttle and looked at Ira for the first time in 8 years, a measure of relief and joy went through her. Maybe it was because most people she encountered often died not much later and it was good to see a familiar face. 8 years was a long time for someone she knew to stay alive. Nevertheless, Linda felt a compulsion to request an audience with her. What she expected out of the conversation was maybe a friendship. But as Linda had sat there and listened to Ira talk, she started to become acutely aware that a warmth was filling her chest cavity. Why? What was that? Was it cause for concern?

Maybe it was the reason why she also found herself completely unable to miss Ira’s party. It would have been a simple matter to just not go. To not sit for an entire day engraving a bullet. To not request another audience with the woman and cause further injury. Maybe it was a good thing that she was shipping out tomorrow. Because regardless of what was causing all of these irrational decisions, Linda recognized that it was happening with a woman that she had only had less than a few day’s worth of interaction. And that was cause for concern.

”It doesn’t matter now, it’s done. We should get some rest.”