[color=8dc73f]>LT. SERENA GOMEZ
>THE SAFEHOUSE
>BLACKRIVER COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
>0900HRS...///[/color]

Serena grabbed another beer and went back to her room to pack, not that there was much to pack. Hell she hadn’t really had the chance to unpack to begin with. She took a long pull from the beer and got on her cell phone to acquire a ticket for the ride back. She hadn’t planned on going home so soon, but to say that she had gotten any information sufficient enough to make much of a plan for was a bit much. She flopped down on the bottom bunk and thumbed her way through the web just long enough to hit the quickest site, [i]Travelocity winning out this time..[/i] She booked the first flight back to LA leaving Charlestown around 11:45 that pleased her. She wasn’t much for transfers and layovers, and this one had neither. She could definitely do for a nap, but she would have plenty of time for that on the flight home. It wasn’t like her mind was going to afford her much rest anyway, not after what happened at [i]“Camp WhattheFuck”[/i], West Virginia. Christ. She took another hard pull from the bottle and set it down as she sat upright, running a hand through her hair. A shower, yes. She stood up quick and dug through her bag as neatly as possible as to not have to repack everything.  She dug out a pair of slim jeans and a plain white V neck  shirt and a clean pair of panties that looked more like kids underwear more than anything and headed for the shower. That’s exactly what she needed. A good hot shower would do her some good…

A good [i]hot[/i] shower might have been a bit of a stretch. It was anything but [i]hot[/i], but she was definitely awake and alert now, [i]almost as much as her nipples were[/i]. She wasted little time in the water and even less time getting dressed, her clothes dampened from her lack of will to fully dry off before dressing herself. West Virginia’s climate was far more brisk and less forgiving than back home. She felt like her lips were turning purple and she developed a trembling which was most noticeable at her knees and elbows as she shivered her way down the hallway. She stopped along the way to grab another beer from the kitchen, at least they weren’t ice cold now. 

[i][color=00aeef]”What I wouldn’t give for some Patron right now.”[/color][/i] she said, popping the top on the counter once more. 

She went back to the room and continued her packing which didn’t take very long. She took a moment to download a few songs on her ipod before heading out for Charlestown. She would have to speed a bit to get there but she could make it. She threw her luggage in the back of the rented Suburban and headed for the interstate, stopping along the way to get a few [i]Red Bulls[/i] and a handful of large Tobbasco flavored [i]SlimJims[/i] to help get her down the road. 

She made it to the airport and returned her rental before checking her luggage and retrieving her ticket from the American Airlines desk. She did so rather hastily before going through the security checkpoint. She made it through with little time to spare. By the time she found her terminal the flight had nearly been boarded with only a handful of people still remaining in line. She found her seat and flopped down, plugged her headphones into her ipad and completely disregarded the flight attendant’s spiel about safety belts and flooding planes and how they should safely exit [i]in the event of a blah blah blah[/i]. Before long the wheels on the landing gear were freed from the tarmac runway and she was on her way back to LA. She promptly hailed a stewardess for a pillow and some top shelf tequila which she immediately disposed of. She downed a second one before tuning herself out in the finest reclined seat that a coach ticket could afford.


[color=8dc73f]>LAX INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
> LOS ANGELES,  CA
>01:45HRS...///[/color]

Some 14 hours later one jet-lagged Serena touched down in Los Angeles. She was absolutely spent. She hailed a cab from the airport back to her home. She accidentally slammed the door to the cab a bit harder than she meant to, and she could hear the cabbie cussing her for all she was worth until he was completely out of hearing range. [i]“Home, sweet home”[/i], she thought as a smile managed to grow on her face. She fumbled with her keys a bit before entering. She slung her keys down on to her new [i]Ikea[/i] nook pub style table and went straight for the tequila in the freezer. She grabbed a glass from the cabinet and poured herself a healthy three fingers. She then retrieved her cell phone from [i]the drawer of no return[/i] in the kitchen. She inserted the battery and sim card and turned the device back on. It promptly went through the annoying start up while she took a sip from the glass, wincing at the awful chimes that everyone dreaded to hear. An odd thing really, something so mundane and nerve racking was also equally as  reassuring and grounding  on the opposite side of the same coin. She was very glad to be home regardless.  She pulled off her shoes and pants and slid under the covers. She took another drink. She thought better of calling her mother and father, knowing full well that if she did she wouldn’t catch a break. She was already two flights and a corpse past that so she decided to call after she got some much needed rest. She opted to text her friend Cindy instead, with a simple message that read:

    “HOME, WILL CALL AFTER SLEEP.”

She had no idea that [i]WILL CALL AFTER SLEEP[/i] would translate into two days later. Forty eight hours of blurry and negligent bliss had befallen her. She barely recalled much of anything save for a few trips to the fridge and the bathroom, and a few dreary visions muffled by low ambient television chatter, but that was about it. Having fully reacclimated herself she made her rounds on the phone first, of course. She called Cindy first, a lengthy conversation about absolutely nothing, full of “oh my god, girl” moments, with a sparse peppering of teasing comments about how clandestine she was being, but it was a short lived inconvenience, and she was happy about that. They had made plans to go out the very same night for a good meal and some much needed self loathing that only neon lights and dim lit bar tops could deliver. Then came the dreaded call home, which wasn’t nearly as bad as she had thought it was going to be. She was more than likely spared by the short span of time she was gone, and she now thankful for that. She also called to check back in with her Unit Commander Bill.  Higgins was glad to hear from her, and in such good time too. She promised to come by, but Higgins made sure that she not rush back in before getting some rest in. She reassured him though that she would surely come in before the week was out. She then spent the rest of the afternoon at her mother and father’s home, enduring a healthy pelting of unwanted cheek kissing and overly amorous behavior from her mother. This was to be expected though, and she was surely not disappointed. 

Cindy and Serena then went to their dinner, lots of drinks and laughter. Serena was very glad that this hadn’t changed. Cindy was only annoying in the best of ways, and she was a decent friend. That was a lot to ask of people in this day and age. They then went on to a bar not too far from their neighborhood and tore in proper like. She ended up with some nameless guy in his apartment afterwards. She had decided that she wouldn’t be bringing any strays around her new place, especially not since she had acquired this [i]“second job”[/i]. It just wouldn’t be wise. She had a scheduled meeting with her shrink for the following Friday but she moved up a week. Apparently cheap drinks and cheaper sex wasn’t going to clear her mind from the download strain she acquired in West Virginia. Her psychiatrist, [i]Angela Baker[/i], was a nosy bitch. Serena had known this for some time, but it was much more irksome now that she had some shit to hide. Mrs. Baker had been assigned to everyone on her unit after the [i]”incident’[/i] with the midget tribe of Bundys, and she pried persistently about that already. This was going to be a problem.. [i]she was going to be a problem[/i]. She was already asking questions that Serena didn’t know how to answer. This would need to be remedied. 

Serena made her way back to work the same day, and greeted Higgins straight away. There was an oddness looming about. It was as if nothing had changed, at least on the surface, but there was an air about him now. In fact, she noticed this distance with nearly everyone in her unit. She went to the gym at least twice a week for the first month. Faces masked by gestures of greeting and good fortune that didn’t quite cover the edges, letting their deceit, imagined or not, show through. This only compounded Serena’s desire to be reclusive, which Mrs. Baker had already confirmed wasn’t healthy behavior, nor was it beneficial. Serena cared little. She wasn’t going to fall apart, was she? 

She continued to meet with Cindy at least once a week as well, perhaps the last bastion that remained of her humanity in social terms. She also ordered a pair of tail lights, and a new spark plug and starter cap upgrade to go on the Camaro. A personal project or two would surely help to fill in the gaps from her deteriorating social life. She had also taken to surfing a great deal in the morning times. It was about the best thing that her shrink had suggested thus far. She got into the habit of getting up semi early and grabbing a sixer on the way to the beach. She wasn’t much for actually surfing, but she did enjoy sitting in the water on her board with a six pack to take in the ass of the sunrise several times a week. The salty smell of the foaming tides did her a lot of good, but then so did day drinking. She did enjoy it a lot, all jokes aside. Her parts came in several weeks later and they sat in her covered drive for several more. She had also ordered a home gym from [i]Amazon[/i], as going to the gym was becoming uncomfortable. It wasn’t like she was doing anything to create this new distance from her unit, it was mainly due to her being outside of the loop within the group now. This was to be expected though. 
She did her best to cope with it, and still managed to make it to the gym to train with the group once a week.  She continued to work with the unit without much of a problem, and regular operations came and went uneventfully. What didn’t come and go were the thoughts of what went down in West Virginia, that was a looming constant. She’d be lying if she said that she wasn’t yearning for more though. Everything else seemed so drab in comparison. She was already an addict, and she was already looking for her next fix. 

Her uncle had also gotten locked up in the beginning of May, and this also caused a bit of problems with her in the workplace. He’d gotten caught with a stolen vehicle and other stolen goods at his shop downtown. It wasn’t like they didn’t know who he was or what he was into, but the side jokes were straining her already fragile social status within the group. She had made it to two more meetings with Mrs. Baker before she called Dr. Laine.  She hadn’t tried to call socially at all since they left West Virginia, and she was a bit embarrassed to be calling in a favor. Dr. Laine was able to help her out, and set her up with a new psychiatrist who was more [i]suitable[/i] to her current needs. This one, a man named Chris Bower, was much more acclimated to clients who had certain clearances and jobs that were a bit more secretive in nature, and knew only to pry where it actually mattered, on a personal level, outside of the workplace. She met with him twice between May and June and found him to be more than tolerable. She had also finally managed to add the lights and spark plugs to her Camaro with help that came in the form of heaps of domestic beer. She and Cindy would spend the next two weeks riding the coastline and hitting the boardwalks and bars, and things finally seemed to be falling into place for her back home. She had also managed to finish unpacking most of her shit, and her domicile was now starting to actually look like one. Now, if she could only maintain this drinking habit she might just survive, but her thoughts were still heavy with West Virginia.. And her new acquaintances therein.