“Not unless I’m ordered to.”
She studied his profile, the rigid set of his shoulders. “Not even if you wanted to?”
Ghost went still for a beat, like he was fighting some reflex to answer differently. “Want doesn’t factor.”
The fire behind them snapped, tossing a few sparks up before the night swallowed them. Frost and Echo murmured near the comms tent, their words carried thin by the wind.
Rachel looked back at Ghost. “That’s a shitty way to live.”
He turned his head finally. Just a little. Just enough to see her. “It’s a clean way to survive.”
Rachel held his stare. “That why you don’t let anyone in?”
Ghost held her gaze.
She looked away first, back toward the ridgeline, she sighed. “My brother used to talk like that,” she said quietly. “Before he enlisted. Said the military gave him clarity. Purpose. Bought into it hard.”
Ghost turned fully to face her. “What was his name?”
“Daniel.”
His posture changed by degrees, a subtle easing in his shoulders, as if he understood more than he intended to show. “How long ago?”
“Six years,” Rachel said. “IED just outside Fallujah. The report said he died instantly. I hope that was true.”
Ghost gave a short nod, nothing dressed up, just acknowledgment.
She appreciated that more than she could say.
“That’s why I started going into conflict zones,” she said. “Not because I wanted to chase adrenaline. Because I needed to know what he saw. What it felt like. So I could tell the truth of it. For him.”
Ghost's gaze held on her a moment longer this time, unwavering in the firelight.. The firelight carved shadows across her jaw, softening the hard edge she usually wore around the team.
“Why photography?” he asked.
She smiled faintly. “Because words can be twisted. Cropped. Rearranged. But a photograph? It doesn’t care about spin. It just shows what was.”
He didn’t answer, but the look he gave her held a new found focus, as if he was slotting the information away.
She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The gesture was quiet and thoughtless, but his eyes flicked toward the small movement, quick and sharp, like he couldn’t help it.
“You’re good at the silence,” she said, not looking at him.
“I have to be.”
“I mean it,” she added. “Most people try to fill it. You just... let it happen.”
Ghost leaned forward slightly, forearms braced on his knees. “I don’t mind quiet. I mind useless noise.”
Rachel smiled into the dark. “We agree on more than I thought.”
That earned her a glance and a slight curve to the edge of his mouth.
She looked at him then, really looked. Shadows emphasized the scar above his brow and the veins still standing out on hisforearms despite his stillness. He appeared calm and grounded, but his eyes told a different story, the fine lines around them revealing barely controlled tension.
He caught her watching and their eyes locked.
“Ghost,” Echo called from the other side of camp. “Perimeter check’s in ten.”
