The Bee's Knees

Austria (Part 3)

Ghost walked out towards the woodland intending to find her and get her to talk. It took him a while to locate her, nestled between the roots of a large tree with her bags, her back against the trunk. Ghost sat down beside her, leaning his back against the tree. "How you doing Bee?" he asked cautiously.

Bee looked up at him, her face still swollen and bruised, her eyes red from crying. Ghost felt his heart ache at her obvious anguish. "Why didn't you tell me what was going on, Bee?" he asked still confused and disappointed as to why she hadn't trusted him and asked for his help.

"I'm not doing this Ghost" she said quietly before looking away.

"Bloody hell Bee. I'm sorry I overreacted, but you could have at least told me they were harassing you" Ghost reasoned still feeling guilty at not being there for her.

"It's not your job to look after me, Ghost. I can look after myself, I've always looked after myself" she replied with bitterness in her voice.

"Maybe not, but If I'd have known they were bothering you, I could have stepped in, stopped them from going after you" he said with a sigh. "As I remember, it wasn't your job to look out for me, but you did" Ghost reasoned.

Ghost removed his faceplate and rubbed his covered face. "So you wanna tell me how the hell a little short arse like you, managed to take down two trained soldiers, twice your size? You were even fighting me when I took you to the infirmary" Ghost asked softly and nudging her arm with his elbow.

"I was scared, I had to fight back. I needed to get away. I lost control" she whispered.

"The commander informed Laswell about what happened. I spoke to her too. Something like this happens, first thing I do is check the file, see if there's something to explain someone's actions. Laswell said yours is sealed. You wanna say anything about that?" Ghost asked genuinely wanting to help the young woman beside him.

"I asked them to seal it. Wanted to forget and start with a clean slate" she replied softly.

"Forget what?" Ghost gently pushed.

"I killed someone. I was supposed to go to jail. Laswell cut me a deal to work for her instead. Start fresh" Bee said quietly through the tears that had started.

"Talk to me love" Ghost whispered leaning into her

"Was seeing a guy in college. He started being abusive, got violent, so I broke it off. He didn't like that and was stalking and threatening me. Told the police, but they couldn't do anything. His dad was rich, well connected"

"I quit college, packed up ready to move out, get away. He found out and turned up, trying to get me to stay. He put a gun to my head, held me hostage and threatened to kill me. We fought and I managed to get the gun off him. I shot him" Bee said defiantly, through her tears.

"I'm sorry love" Ghost said quietly, putting an arm round he shoulder and pulling her closer to his side.

"The police weren't going to charge me, but his dad got involved. He said it was my fault and crucified me in court and I was sentenced for 5 years. Laswell offerred me a deal to serve the time with her intelligence unit. I agreed as long as my file was sealed, I'd work anonymously and I could do their training. I needed to protect myself. I wasn't going to let it happen again" Bee explained.