Category : Books-Fiction

Sub Category : Romance

Gabe's POV

Two uneventful weeks had passed since my two day quarantine with Ella, and things had seemed to fall into an everyday flow. Just like that, Ella had become a part of my life and it felt as if she were here to stay. It had been a month and a half since she'd entered my life again and to me, it felt natural. Each day started the same: I would tease her and she would be flustered and stomp off. This day started no differently. I watched her stomp off, as flustered as always, and chuckled to Captain Cooper, "Isn't she cute?"

"Her face is fairly symmetrical," he mused. "However, she has a freckle by her right eye. Her eyes are also very large on her face. Her left breast also appears to be smaller than her ri--"

"Jesus!"  I rolled my eyes. "Why are you looking at her breasts? This guy..."

"I was simply being observant," he patted my shoulder. "After all, you have no chance with her anyway."

I scoffed and patted my chest, feigning hurt, "My heart...you've shattered it."

"Get a room," Private Morgan snorted, approaching us from the mess hall. She was still braiding her long, strawberry blonde hair into it's usual French braid. "Good morning, Captain!" She cheerfully saluted him.

Captain Cooper nodded in greeting, avoiding eye contact with her. I grinned, smugly, "I'll be the only one getting a room with the captain at this rate."

"At least I'm not head over heels for a nurse that wants nothing to do with me!"

"Ella and I are just...touch and go!" I snapped back.

"Yes," she nodded her head, snarkily. "of course."

Captain Cooper chuckled and slung his arm over my shoulder, putting me in a small headlock. "Only three and a half months until we go back home. I'll take you out for a drink so you can forget the series of rejection."

"What rejection? She's just playing hard to g--" 

I was cut off by Dr. Bradley, rushing towards us, calling frantically, "Smuggler! We found the smuggler!"

Captain Cooper released me immediately and began to jog to Dr. Bradley, me on his heels. "In the MTC?"

As we arrived, Ella greeted us, clad in a medical gown, and ordered us to put on the precautionary medical gowns and such. She led us into a quarantined room where the tuberculosis patient was being treated.

"Nurse, what happened?" Captain Cooper asked as he stepped into the room. His eyes moved to the child, who sat curled on the bed, his head buried in his knees. "Did the child do something?"

Dr. Scott spoke up from in front of the bed, "We caught him this morning, in the cabinet where we keep the narcotics."

I raised an eyebrow, "This kid was trying to steal narcotics? That doesn't make sense...he wouldn't know about narcotics."

Dr. Scott nodded, "He also had a key ito the cabinet."

Captain Cooper frowned, "Did somebody send this child here to smuggle narcotics?"

Ella was squatted by the child, smiling at him and trying to get him to lift his head out of his knees. She was whispering soothing things in English, rubbing his back. I smiled as I watched her, "Hey, love, it's okay. We just want to ask you some things. We know it isn't your fault, sweet. Just talk to us."

"He hasn't said anything?" I asked, gesturing towards Ella and the child. 

Nurse Lee shook her head as she began to fuss with the IV drip, trying to get the child to allow her to insert it in his arm. "He hasn't said a word since he tried to attack Brandon."

"He tried to attack you?" Captain Cooper turned to Dr. Scott, who nodded.

"He panicked when I found him and tried to bite me. It was actually kind of scary, he kept screaming "alee-koo-wa da-ka-ta-ree! alee-koo-wa da-ka-ta-ree!" Luckily, Keith was there to yank the kid off me."

"Alee-koo-wa da-ka-ta-ree?" I muttered. "What could that--"

The child sobbed loudly, finally lifting his head, "Alikuwa daktari! Alikuwa daktari!" He shouted that over and over as Ella leaned in to whisper soothingly to him. He began sobbing and shaking as another coughing fit racked through his body. Ella glanced up sharply, "Everybody except for Whitney, get out. The patient needs rest."

I nodded and followed Captain Cooper out of the room into the hall. We stood just outside the door, still watching the child through the window. "Did you hear what he screamed?"

"Alikuwa daktari? Do you know what that means, Sergeant?"

I nodded my head, "He was a doctor."

"Does that mean--was that child--"

"Ordered to steal by a doctor? I think so."

~oOo~

Ella was washing her hands after dinner when I jogged over to her, smiling. She looked up and smiled as well, pushing a stray lock of dark hair behind her ear. "Miss me?" I grinned.

"I was wondering when you were going to bother me today."

I smiled down at her, "I'm not sure if I should make fun of you for being short or for having freakishly small hands."

"I'm not that short," she scoffed. "You're just oddly tall." 

"But you didn't deny your hands being freakishly small," I teased, grabbing her hand and intertwining it with mine. "But it's okay, because see, it fits perfectly in mine."

She flushed and didn't try to yank her hand away, "You're a moron, did you know?"

"A moron that makes you blush. Now come on," I began to pull her after me towards the humvee garage. "I've got something to show you."

"Where are we going?" she asked as I helped her into one of the humvees. She settled herself in and clicked the seatbelt. "Safety first."

"Yes," I chuckled. As I climbed in and started the humvee. "Safety first. And where we're going is a surprise."

She rubbed her hands together in excitement as we tore out onto the open roads, "I love a good surprise--and potatoes."

"Potatoes?" I laughed. "How do you get from loving surprises to loving potatoes?"

"I was thinking about how great it would be if somebody surprised me with potatoes," she stuck her hand out the window. "It's not that weird."

I laughed again, glancing over at her. Her dark hair was blowing behind her and around her face. She was smiling, holding her arms out to feel the wind as we rocketed down the dirt roads. Against the orange stained sky, she looked like a beautiful picture--one that I wouldn't soon forget.

After a couple minutes of silence, I pulled the car over near a pile of large stones. I helped Ella out of the humvee and watched as she took in the view. "We're in the middle of nowhere, it's so quiet... Don't you dare kill me," she added as an afterthought. I rolled my eyes and began trying to help her climb the pile of rocks, but she pushed my arm away. "I can do this myself!"

I grinned and stood back, watching her struggle up to the top, she sat at the top and looked down at me. "Aren't you coming up too?"

"I am," I called up. "I was just too busy checking out your ass to climb."

Her jaw dropped, "P-pervert! Don't just--"

"There wasn't much to see," I teased as I climbed up, sitting beside her. "And do you really want to start accusing each other of being perverts because we both know that you're--"

"I think that I've done it."

"Done what?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Sorted my thoughts. Realized how I feel. I know now," she breathed, turning towards me. "I want you--I mean us. I want this," she gestured frantically between us. "to work. I just--I want--"

"Shut up," I muttered, pulling her into a tight hug. The sun was setting in front of us, and that's why I took her out here, but I quickly forgot about the sunset as I got lost in her warm embrace. "It took you long enough."

"Shut up," she pressed her lips against mine, wrapping her arms around my neck. 

We both smiled into the kiss.