Rose didn’t bother looking up at the sickly sweet introductions of Edouard, not in the mood to play hostess. Her partner Samson, however, wasn’t nearly as prickly, offering a hand to the two men. “Sure thing, help yourself. Once the others catch wind that food is ready, you’ll be lucky to get any,” he joked as he passed over two of the ugly packets. Rose offered them cups of bad instant coffee as well.

“Do you trust your intel?” she asked harshly, cutting straight to the chase. 

Samson tskd at her, his lips pursed. “Come on now Rose, we can talk shop later. We have a long enough walk ahead of us tomorrow. This is Private Rose Lehman, one of the best damn medics I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. She’s not always so rude,” he said, now addressing the other two. “I’m Private Samson Reddington, infantryman. I’ve never seen such an unusual makeup of people before,” he started, motioning to the other partisans. “Normally you get one or two different groups together, but your lot,” he said with a dramatic whistle for flair, “that’s something else. 

Rose, picking up an MRE and coffee, stood up abruptly, not in the mood to make idle chit chat. She had no interest in getting to know anyone at the moment. No, she had to deal with Josh before it got taken any further. That was the second time today Connor had to stand up for her. Any more, and there was no doubt she’d be seen as even weaker by her squad than already. She already had her gender fighting against her, she wasn’t going to let some prick intimidate her. 

Samson gave her a questioning look, but she didn’t give him a chance to talk her out of it. She quickly left the cabin to find Pittman who was still probably looking for a transmission signal. The young woman wasn’t surprised to find him leaned up against the side, smoking and staring up at the sky. Based on the amount of butts littered around him, he had been there for a while. She quickly placed the food down by him which he payed no mind to. She watched as his jaw clenched in anger, and his breathing deepen. 

“I know I fucked up. I know it should have been me who lost their throat today…” Rose finally said, her arms defensively crossing in front of her. 

“Go...away….” Josh gritted through his teeth.

“No. Not until I finish saying what I have to say…” she spat back. In an instant, Josh leaped up at her, knocking over the food and coffee. His hands wrapped tightly around her neck as he swung her around, and pushed her hard up against the cabin wall. Rose’s hands went to grasp around his wrist, but he was to strong. 

“You just couldn’t leave her alone could you!” he started to scream. Rose had only been half heartedly fighting back, mostly to just keep breathing. But part of her had felt she deserved whatever Josh was going to do to her. But yelling was putting everyone else in danger. She already killed one person today, she wasn’t going to get everyone else hurt. She slammed her knee hard up against Josh who quickly let go of her as he grasped himself in pain. Rose bent over coughing hard as she tried to gasp for air.

“No I couldn’t leave her… she looked hurt. She was hurt…” she said painfully in between wheezing breaths. “I was doing my job…”

“Just fucking go you bitch…” Josh said glaring at her, still obviously in pain. 

“I killed him. I know that. I’ll live with that. But you don’t get to bully me because he was your friend,” she said defiantly. She didn’t want to be afraid of him, but she was also looking for a fight, punishment for killing Vincent. Part of her knew she was riling him up again. He didn’t take the bait though, choosing instead to send an icy glare her way, before pulling out another cigarette and sliding back down to where he had been sitting previously.