[attr="class","CONTENT"]

His eyes narrowed into humored slits; with a plastered grin on his face he responds.”Come on’now I am not that old yet..” 

He laughs before continuing. ”Although age feels a lot different when you’re in the military.” He sighs having another swig of his beer, staring down at the can and spinning it around in his hand he pushes on the aluminum can which makes a crinkling sound - it’s almost soothing to his ears, but most likely annoying to others.

”I thought about going home.. I guess I wasn’t ready to look back there yet.”  

The one thing about Adam was how quiet he was about his past - anything about his family, or if he had friends. His whole idealism was to keep his head in the game, he went from this rebellious kid to the disciplined Soldier overnight that he didn’t have time to consider meeting a proper middle, and while he is capable of communications and humor he had a tougher time having personal conversations like this. His sense of duty always outweighs his personal life, but there’s that part of him - that rebellious part that is still attempting to reach the surface, and it is possible his discipline wasn’t safe from it either. 

”My Fault…living in a rural area all my life you kinda think the rest of the world knows a thing or two about their living spaces. Two thousand verses twenty thousand has a big part of knowing who’s who and all the inner workings of that space more difficult.”

He almost sounded like he was rambling, and he took that bitterness on his tongue as a reason for that; nothing harsh from the current conditions of the world - well maybe there was some part of that bitterness but mostly it was the sweetness from the beer just hitting his senses; it made him relax just a tiny bit now. He inclines his head to tilt towards the direction she reclines getting more comfortable, that was a good thing, and he felt it too that the awkwardness was subsiding faster than expected - but still they did need to address it somehow, but at what point do they, and would it cause a rift to grow more between them; it was no one’s fault but in the confusion he thought he could do more to help his brothers and sisters in arms but his injury made it difficult. 

”Most of us were misfits. Do you ever get up that way now, to escape for a few minutes?”

Of course that was a tough question, and with everything that happened it made it hard to get away from their current affairs to have a moment of pleasure.

[attr="class","TAG"] Brooke Hastings

[attr="class","CONTENT"]




Adam spent the better part of the morning in the infirmary; mostly for means of getting a better night’s sleep - since lacking sleep - his recovery time appears sluggish and his response time slower - something a Soldier didn’t need on their back while having other men’s lives on the line. Although, this time, it wasn’t the same, not like wartime; the war was different, and nothing he ever expected to see - even if they did train for it and often prepared for every scenario; ready for anything - they could do it all, but doing it all didn’t stop the nightmares, and pain of the stress carrying on their backs. He’s learned to hide it - pain can be controlled and often ignored - even sleep where training to deal with harsh conditions and the lack of sleep from it.

But this time, the nightmares were causing more problems than he usually can handle, and the phantom pain in his arm reminded him of his injuries he sustained in Iraq. He can’t just get over some things that happened there; the shock of the injury and how worse it could have been; especially considering the type of attack it was, and Adam thought he got over it, but it still appears he had demons yet to heal. Although, he was living just fine with it until he first saw her. Staff Sergeant Brooke Hasting, he was in her unit while they were stationed in Iraq, the war, the fighting, bombings and overall hellish condition was something you just don’t forget. Since he saw Brooke the nightmares always ended up the same, however, he would always wake up when a bomb was going off next to his head which sends his body into shock.

It was hard to ignore her - being this close in The Barracks or The Mess Hall - eventually they would cross paths here at the base, and the last thing they needed was tensions of what happened in Iraq leaking into their present missions out there in the city. The sleep medication he was given he considered to put it to the side and look more for a proper means to getting a better night sleep then drugs. He was hunched over in thought, mansplaining, forearms resting against his sweatpants; his dog tags hung without restriction of a tight shirt loose around his chest. He had a look a lot of men and women in the Military had sometimes - the thousand mile stare.

His name called and it was like being hit with an order, and an automatic response he snapped out of it and looked up and saw Hastings. He came to stand and stood erect. “Ma’am” The response was robotic but natural. Her comments made him lower his eyes to the floor but a clear smirk in place meant he wasn’t at all as uptight as he appeared to be in that moment. ”Depends on your definition of action, Ma’am - and that could go against regulations - to fraternize with a higher ranking soldier.” He tried to remain that soldier - forever staying on as most did but not everyone was as serious as him.

Now he sits back down and smiles down at the beer placed at his feet, he looks up from under his eyelids and nods. He accepted it and decided to enjoy her company, maybe that is what he had to do to get over these nightmares but facing what caused them; really it wasn’t her fault that this happened but, it was a heavy reminder. Facing it with her was probably the best option he had - and he wasn’t about to take sleeping pills either. ”Actually, I was sent here after coming home..after my injury.”

He takes a swig of the beer and tilts his head looking around The Barracks before casting his light hues on her and half-smiled in her direction. ” I kind of found a soft spot for this place, I thought about moving here after I retired... “ He chuckles awkwardly, another swig and another look over the crowd of men and women who were his family now. It wasn’t just the nightmares from his past when he faced Brooke, but what they were doing now - this wasn’t what he signed up for. ” - but that changed..but I guess I can’t complain I am living here..” He can feel their conversation was still at the awkward stages; both were avoiding talks about what happened in Iraq.

His lip curls again. ” So.. that means you have pretty high authority in grounds and mapping while out there in the field? - probably know about some places that not even our boys know about, huh?” He did remember briefly about her home being here, but at the same time his memory fogged sometimes, but this he found interesting to consider for future missions.

[attr="class","TAG"]Brooke Hastings