fuck it have a lil snippet of dookie and the only person in the entire world who knows who he was before he became legally dead
“well. seems you’ve been moving up in the world, ma’am.”
major- no, sorry, colonel silver knits her eyebrows together and sighs, folding her arms over her uniformed chest. class a’s. might be serious. “i do have a life outside of keeping tabs on you, sergeant.”
“yeah. okay.” dookie rolls his eyes. it’s borderline insubordination but fuck it. he’s already legally dead, what’s she gonna do, court martial him?
she fixes him with a stern look that he can feel even through her stupid sunglasses. her stupid sunglasses that he knows for a fact used to be his. fucking officer klepto.
“just because you’re my responsibility, doesn’t mean i don’t have other responsibilities. you get that, right?”
“but i’m your favorite.” dookie bats his eyes a few times and then pouts his lips in an exaggerated frown. “or at least i thought i was but you couldn’t even be bothered to contact me in the last decade to tell me you got promoted? twice?!”
it’s silver’s turn to roll her eyes. “i’m good at my job. which also means i’m busy. don’t exactly have time to fill you in on every little thing going on. especially when it doesn’t even concern you.”
“ouch, st, that hurts.” he clutches a hand over his chest, playing wounded. “i know we run in different time zones lately, but i thought we had something special. didn’t realize working an ocean away would mean i don’t matter anymore.”
“first of all,” silver holds up a finger to count off, never mind that it’s the middle one, “don’t call me that-”
“what, don’t like your old callsign anymore?”
“second-” she continues on like he hadn’t interrupted, raising her index finger to join the first, “shut the absolute fuck up, sergeant, i’m literally your superior officer i don’t owe you life updates. and third,” finger number three joins the first two, “do you even wanna know why i’m here?”
that gives dookie pause and he eyes her carefully. “go on.” he acquiesces after a moment, unsure and somewhat suspicious. the higher ups basically tend to leave him alone, given the whole, legally dead thing. he’s doing great working with the sas, especially with the 141 and when he gets to work with nik. he’s a good fit here and the last time the force actually bothered him like this was… when they forced the promotion to chief master sergeant onto him. fuck. before he can fully process that, his suspicions are confirmed by silver.
“we want to put you through officer training.”
“no. actually not just no but fuck no.”
“b- dookie.” even after all these years, when things get serious, silver’s instinct is to use the last name that doesn’t exist anymore. “i know. i get it, you’re perfectly content where you are-”
“fuck content!” dookie throws his arms up in exasperation. “i’m fucking happy here, st. and they already got me with too many responsibilities. did you know i have to actually train some of these fuckers? i’m not built for that! i fly, i shoot, and i fix the flying shooting things. i was not meant to be in charge of other soldiers!”
“i know,” the colonel holds her hands out in a placating manner. “i know. believe it or not. that’s why you need to do this.”
dookie shoots her an incredulous look, but she doesn’t waiver.
“i know how important being stationed here has become for you. i know what it means to you, both professionally and… personally.” she can’t say the name that he no longer has, but he feels her desire to in the look she gives him. “dookie, you’ve forged something real here. even beyond the important work you’re doing, you’ve found yourself a family. and i of all people know exactly what that means to you.”
the serious tone in her voice wouldn’t even be necessary. dookie knows that she gets it, that she knows him. he scrubs a hand over his face. “okay. so tell me what that has to do with officer training.”
silver sighs, glancing away for just a second. “you can’t stay stagnant for much longer. i know you’re doing good work but, look, like it or not, you’re an asset of the us airforce, and there’s only one real way military structures determine value.”
“rank.” silver nods in agreement. “if you don’t make moves to, well, move up, sooner rather than later, the force is gonna wonder if your whole deal is actually worth the trouble. dookie they’ll pull you back to the states, away from here, from the sas, from the good work you’ve been doing. from your family.”
“fuck,” dookie let’s out a hissed breath through his teeth, and pats at the pockets of his fatigues in search of his cigarettes. silver graciously allows him the time to pull one out, light it, and take a few deep pulls, not interrupting before he finally speaks up again. “look, i- lara i’m in your fucking debt,” the use of her first name, military formalities dropped in favor of familiarity, makes her visibly straighten. “you literally gave me a purpose when my whole fucking world was taken from me.” he takes another drag, slow and deep. “no one on the entire fucking world knows me like you do, you know? you still know the dead man i used to be, and no one else can say that. which means you know i’m not cut out for that officer shit. so let me ask you this. is that really my only way? to stay here?”
silver gives him a long look, squares her shoulders, and nods. “it is. i wish it wasn’t, because i know it’s not what you want. but it is.” she claps a hand on his shoulder and uses her other to swipe the cigarette from his lips, dropping it to the ground and crushing it beneath her boot. “you’re a unique case, dookie. and you’ve been incredibly valuable to the us military because of that.” her expression grows somber and she squeezes his shoulder. “but if top brass don’t think you’re really worth it? they’ll drop you. and i don’t want that. i’m just trying to look out for you.”
dookie glares down at his stolen and crushed cigarette, then takes a heavy breath and looks back up at the colonel. “i know. thank you, st.”
“seriously don’t fucking call me that.”
dookie snorts, tension broken. “whatever. hey have you met nik by the way? he’s a riot. he would have loved mom, and she would have fucking hated him.”
