Chapter Notes
Disclaimer in Chapter One
TW: Attempted rape and harmful language
See the end of the chapter for more notes
May 18, 2005 — Undisclosed Location, Iraq
The sun beat down on Emma's neck as she sat by the lone water pump in the middle of an out-of-the-way village. Their latest assignment was to provide protection to some big shot American developer seeking ways to modernize third-worlds. In layman's terms: protect the rich man as he drilled for oil. That wasn't what they told the locals, though Emma knew they weren't stupid. Doing some researching; paying it forward; whatever they wanted to call it nowadays. It wasn't like either party had a choice in the matter, and if the locals did, what tiny village would fight against a bunch of strange men armed to the teeth with guns and ammunition?
The good part, though, was that in exchange for their forced hospitality, their team was scheduled to erect a mosque for them in the coming months. Some sort of hospital would have probably been more beneficial, but what was she gonna do except follow orders.
While she waited for instructions, she sat on some boulders by the pump and read through Regina's latest letters. She had received a bunch of them, both from Regina, August, and ones here and there from Ruby and Tina and even one from Mr. French saying the delivery was successful and that her next order would be on the house for her sacrifice serving for their country. She grinned at that one.
Getting in contact with Game of Thorns seemed nearly impossible when the idea sprouted in her mind. She'd asked August to handle the wire transaction while in Boston, but the fifteen minute phone call to the florist felt like asking a girl's dad for permission to date his daughter. It was nerve wracking explaining the delivery to Moe, and Emma wasn't sure if he was willing to do it or if it was going to work, but reading Regina's latest letter, she knew it had been worth it.
You never cease to amaze me, the letter had said. I absolutely had no idea what was happening when Felix showed up at my door — he's working the shop now, did you know? But it was lovely. I'm not sure if you planned it, but the flower arrived the same day as Henry's birthday party. We had been watching your video message over and over. Happy coincidences, perhaps, but it certainly felt like two Mills were celebrating their birthday that day.
I haven't stopped thinking about you either. Come home safe to us.
And I love you too.
Regina
The smile unconsciously broke out over the soldier's face. Those three words felt like energy coursing through her, backing her up and pumping her up, ready to take on anything. It amazed her that although that little rose and less than five-hundred word note had been the only thing Emma had managed to send since their stolen week in Boston, three months later she and Regina were still going strong.
A young woman dressed in an abayah and carrying a long pole with two buckets on either end approached the pump and bowed her head, averting her gaze from Emma. The blonde had been used to it by now and had long ago stopped taking offence to it. A woman could get stoned to death for just being polite to a soldier. In their eyes, she was the enemy. She was the alien coming into their land and destroying their livelihood. It made her wonder what peace she was really bringing about.
"She's kinda pretty, isn't she?" Kennedy sat down beside Emma and motioned to the young woman struggling to pump the lever. Every time she pushed down only a splash of water dropped out before having to do it all over again.
Emma glanced up briefly, noticing the tanned skin of her face, the only visible part of her body. She appreciated their dedication to their religion and culture, even if she couldn't understand most of it. After the Johnson's, Emma swore off religion of any kind, having seen too much bad to believe any god would allow the world to fall like this, but the good that she'd seen, in the beauty of landscapes, in her travels, in people, there had to be a greater force out there.
The girl glanced up under their gaze, and in an uncharacteristic move, smiled shyly at them before returning to her task of pumping water. And there, in that young woman's smile as strangers stepped onto her land, into her home, threatening and imposing, Emma believed in the good of the world.
"Yeah," she nodded. "She is."
"So," Ken drawled. Emma glanced at him only to be met with a shit-eating knowing smirk. "Would you do her?"
Emma rolled her eyes and moved to stand up, but the letter in her palm slid out of her hand and landed on the boulder beside Kennedy. He was too quick for her to snatch it, and Emma scowled as he blatantly read her letter with an impressed grin. "Woah oh oh, you love her?"
Emma snatched it from his grip, wincing when she heard a rip as he held on. Her own half was balled in her fist, and she didn't even want to think about the state his portion was. She wrestled the letter out of his grip, and it took a bony elbow to his ribs and a stomp on his boot to get him to let go. The letter was completely torn. The words were crumpled. Regina's elegant script looked like it had been nothing more than a hastily taken note on a napkin. The dirt on her name, the tear through the 'love', a written confirmation that another human being felt for Emma ripped and dirtied. She saw red.
"You dick!" She snapped, shoving him hard off the rock. The thud as his shoulder connected with the ground startled the young woman at the pump, and though she had filled only one bucket, she lifted it and the empty and scurried away.
She kicked the fallen man once for good measure before turning away, muttering curses under her breath as she tried to push together the two halves as if it would magically repair itself. "Fuck," she whispered to herself as she smoothed out the paper. "Come on."
A heavy weight collided against her back and her hands shot out instinctively to brace her fall. Emma had never understood the expression to eat dirt until now as she spat out a mouthful of mud and crawled forward and away from the body on top of her. She got far enough to free a leg and caught Kennedy's shoulder with a heavy boot. He yelled out in pain. "Bitch!"
He grabbed her ankle and pulled. Before long, both soldiers were fighting to straddle the other, to get the upper hand. Punches were thrown, guns tossed to the ground. It was a schoolyard fist fight, and Emma was the scrawny kid held down by the bully, forced to say Uncle and submit.
Kennedy was heavy on top of her. He held her jaw away and gripped hard, enough to choke the blonde. Instinctively she tried to pry his fingers off her neck, but a moment of clarity offered her a solution. Learned from a self-defence class taken in her freshman year of high school Phys. Ed, she held onto his right wrist, locked her ankle around his right leg and thrust and angled her hips upwards. His eyes widened as he lost his balance, and Emma used that moment to elbow him in the pubic bone, headbutt his nose with her helmet when he crouched forward in pain, and stood to just kick the living shit out of him.
"Fuck." Kick. "You." Kick. "You fucking." Kick. "Dick!" Her heavy boot aimed right for his already bruised crotch and he howled in pain, breathy gasps coming through his groaning as he writhed on the ground.
"Swan." A forearm came around her from behind, and she was chucked to the ground behind her to see Cabrera, eyes stormy and pissed. "The fuck you think you're doing?"
"He started it," she spat.
"I don't give a damn who started it. You fight in my squad, you put me and my team in danger and I don't plan on dying due to your oversized ego," he warned.
She wanted to argue, wanted to yell that he had it coming, that he was messing with her on purpose. But she held her tongue and nodded. At Cabrera's raised eyebrow, she tightened her jaw and muttered a begrudging, "yes, sir."