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GISELLE
Ghazni, Afghanistan
“You,Captain, have got to be kidding me… right? AZoomie? Are you serious? We areArmy, Logan. We don’t mix oil and water together – and we sure don’t cross the streams, buddy.”
“Gretchen, look… I know the guy and he’s a decent person – or at least one that I’d want on my side in a fight,” Captain Logan was speaking in hushed tones to her new boss at the remote Army clinic, Gretchen Perry.
Giselle hadn’t had much time to get to know the other woman – and hoped she was super nice because there were very few of them stationed out here. In fact, all twelve women on base occupied one small barracks room that was once an office. They had bunks, lockers, and a small bathroom that had been renovated for them all to use.
She was an Army Medic Combat Specialist… and loved it. Helping people was what she always wanted to do, yet eight to ten years of college was not in the books because of finances – or lack of.
The youngest of eight brothers and sisters, it was always assumed everyone would make their way in life. She had two brothers who were tradesmen, one that went into the Navy, one paratrooper, and then her sisters held different customer service jobs back home near Wichita Falls, Texas.
Giselle was the ‘baby Army brat’.
No matter the care and caution they took in the war zone, she would always be her Daddy’s girl… and getting caught eavesdropping would put her directly from one war zone into another one, unarmed and alone.
Standing there, she listened to them whisper to each other.
“I never took you for sexist – does Juliet know that?”
“Who do you think taught me?”
“I doubt that…”
“Seriously, Gretch… I’m not taking anybody from your team. I promise,” Captain Logan was saying in a hushed voice. “You just got here. We’ve got enough of a headcount. I’m not going to do it because I know what it feels like to have someone yanking people out from under you.”
“Why then, is it one of my girls?”
“Because they are girls… duh?”
“Don’t ‘duh’me, Logan – and it doesn’t work out every time. I mean, Randy and I were at each other’s throats at first.”
“It worked out just fine – and yeah, Lily’s track record is stellar.”
“But she’s not organizing this one…you are!”
“I can do it. How hard can it be?”
What are they talking about?
Is he taking one of the team?
They were already running around like crazy trying to keep everything operating smoothly like it did when Houghton was here.
She already missed the grizzly man.
He treated her like a kid sister and could get awfully grumbly, but usually smoothed things over with sneaking them treats or getting the commissary to make something special for them. He had strings that he pulled all over the base and no one ever argued with him.
I want to be respected like that someday,Giselle mused, still listening.
“It’s a pen pal, Gretchen. How hard can it be just to befriend someone?”
“You have a reputation, Logan – and my marriage is a direct result of it,” Gretchen chuckled.
Giselle’s eyes widened in shock.
Everyone on base heard about the ‘Romeo Squad’and how if you made it on the squad, you’d be married and outta there in under two years flat. There was only one straggler that made it to three years - and even he fell ‘victim’to his pen pal.
