Chapter 9 - I Lost The Assignment I Had Been Protecting
The email arrived at 0648.
My next assignment required instructor certification before the end of the month.
The current review meant I would miss the deadline.
Position reallocated.
No dramatic phone call.
No commander apologizing.
Four lines.
I read them in my car.
Then read them again.
I had spent fourteen months trying to get that assignment.
Small training team.
More responsibility.
The kind of work I wanted.
Gone because I had slapped Mason Reed.
Also because Mason Reed had spent nine days building toward a confrontation.
Both facts fit.
Captain Brooks found me outside administration.
“I heard.”
“Everyone hears fast here.”
“You want me to see whether—”
“No.”
She stopped.
I appreciated it.
“I don't want another person trying to fix the consequence before I decide what I think about it.”
Brooks nodded.
“Okay.”
I hated how reasonable everyone became after the damage.
Vale called.
I declined.
He called again.
I declined.
Then one text.
I heard about the assignment. I won't call again unless you ask.
That was better.
Mason did not contact me.
Also better.
At noon Peterson found me near the gym.
The trainee I had put on the floor.
He held an ice pack to one cheek.
“You hit me.”
“Yes.”
He laughed.
“I know.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I deserved some of it.”
“No.”
His smile disappeared.
“You rushed me because Mason did.”
“Yes.”
“That's yours.”
He nodded.
“I wanted him to see me step in.”
“Why?”
Peterson shrugged.
“He runs the block.”
“Not anymore.”
“Yeah.”
He looked toward the training building.
“Room got weird when he liked you.”
“What does that mean?”
“If he liked you, you were safe.”
“And if he didn't?”
“You laughed.”
I stared.
Peterson continued.
“Not because stuff was funny.”
He looked embarrassed.
“Because if you weren't laughing with him, you might be next.”
The current statements had said the same thing.
Hearing it from a twenty-three-year-old with a bruise I gave him felt different.
“Why didn't anybody report?”
He laughed.
“Why didn't you?”
Fair.
I looked away.
“I thought I could handle him.”
“Same.”
He shifted the ice pack.
“Except you actually could.”
“That isn’t the point.”
“No?”
I thought.
“No.”
Peterson looked toward the gym.
“I don't know what the point is.”
“Good.”
He frowned.
“What?”
“Means nobody fed it to you yet.”
He almost smiled.
Then:
“Are you staying on base?”
“For now.”
“What happens next?”
“No idea.”
He nodded.
Before leaving, he said:
“For what it's worth, when you slapped him, half the room wanted to cheer.”
I looked at him.
“That would have been worse.”
He understood.
Maybe.
That afternoon I finally listened to Vale’s voicemail from before he promised not to call again.
Only seven seconds.
Rachel, I’m sorry about the assignment. I know that doesn’t help.
Nothing else.
No solution.
No request.
I saved it.
May you like
Then got angry at myself for saving it.
Some habits survive even when you understand them.
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