Ghost stormed through the base. It had been four days since he had seen Belle. Well, no. It had been four days since he had spoken to her, he had seen her of course. He had seen her eating in the mess hall with the soldiers who she'd managed to bond with, he had seen her in the gym between sets and he had seen her as he'd passed by her office time and time again. And yet, he hadn't spoken to her once due to his absolute anger over the entire situation which Soap and Gaz of course found absolutely hilarious. Ghost could kill men with his bare hands, yet he failed to express his anger on the therapist who wasn't even half his size.

"You're acting like you're scared of her." Soap had joked and that had ended up being the straw which had broken the camels back during the drills which Ghost had been talked into joining. Ghost stopped mid rep, turning his head towards the Scotsman with a slight scowl across his face which of course only made Gaz laugh and nearly drop the weights he was using so Ghost glared shortly at him too.

"I will hit you, Johnny." Ghost shot back with a small glare across his face before refocusing on what he was meant to be doing. But the words which Soap had said lingered in Ghost's mind and repeated themselves over and over again every time that he saw the brunette going about her daily business around base. Before long he found himself even searching for her in every room that he entered but she was always with someone else or sometimes even surrounded by other soldiers she'd made friends with. By the fourth day, he got so frustrated to prove that he was not scared of her that he managed to track her down.

Ghost finally managed to finally find her alone as she had been leaving the recreation room, watching her wave to the group she'd been hanging out with. As soon as he saw that no one else was with her, he stepped besides her and cleared his throat. Belle turned her head and looked up at him, the smile which had been on her face falling slightly as she realized who was standing next to her. There was a silence that sat between them, and Ghost stared at her as he realized that he wasn't going to speak to him, so he moved to stand in front of her, making them both stop walking. There was another pause of silence as Ghost looked down at her and she stared up at him, her eyes narrowed, and it was clear she had no interest in him at the moment.

"You're wearing jeans." Ghost pointed out bluntly and Belle looked down at her outfit even though she already knew what she was wearing. She was out of uniform, dressed in jeans and a normal shirt instead of the normal fatigues which the military members were expected to wear. Belle met his eyes again, confused as to why he would stop her to point that out.

"Yeah," Belle nodded a little, taking a small step backwards and her eyes studying what she could see of his face which wasn't hidden by the balaclava. She shifted her stance, crossing her arms a little as she looked up at him. "I'm off duty." She told him with a small frown, staring up at Ghost because she really didn't have time for this. She just wanted to go back to her quarters and take a decent nap.

"Well, I need to talk to you." Ghost said, moving with Belle to keep her attention on him. Belle's eyes narrowed some more because she really didn't want to talk to the man who only seemed to argue with her at every chance he was given. She looked over her shoulder to see that they were alone in the hallway before she looked back to Ghost and shook her head.

"I'm off duty Simon." Belle repeatedly tiredly and Ghost stared at her, not expecting such a push back from the girl who seemed to be so nice to everyone except him. Not that he wanted her to be nice to him, but it was still infuriating. Her arms dropped to her sides after the moment of neither of them saying anything and she stepped to the side to go around him, but he simply followed after her, blocking her way once again. Belle gave him a solid glare.

"You're a shitty shrink then." Ghost said as he looked down at her and Belle tilted her head to the side a little, the frustration evident in her eyes as she looked up at him. He was really pissing her off and she stared up at him.

"Fine." She said after a moment before turning on her heel and Ghost once again followed her, easily able to keep up with her pace due to his height advantage. She led him to one of the many empty meeting rooms, not feeling like walking all the way back towards her own office and stuck her head inside to make sure it was empty before moving to take a seat. Ghost walked behind her and allowed for the door to swing shut, watching as she took a seat, and he stood by the door. He didn't think this far ahead. "Go ahead." Belle motioned to one of the many chairs which were empty and across from her as she made herself comfortable in her own seat. Ghost slowly moved to sit in one of the chairs directly across from her, the table once again acting as a barrier between the two of them. Ghost's mind raced as Belle stared at him, waiting for him to speak but no words came from the man. "Or just stare at me." She scoffed a little, leaning back in her chair and checking her watch.

"I'm thinking." Ghost said with a grunt as he stared at her, and she met his eyes once again. Belle couldn't see it but in Ghost's mind he was reaching for anything to talk to her about, to prove to himself and the other members of his unit that he was in fact not scared of the girl who'd been assigned to them. Belle raised her eyebrows a little and Ghost's hands formed fists under the table. "Your eyes drive me insane." He said and immediately Belle's eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm sorry that my eyes drive you insane." Belle said slowly, the sentence sounding more like a question instead of the apology, a hint of confusion across her face as she apologized for something she couldn't even control. While Ghost hadn't wanted to say that out loud, it was the truth. The way that Belle always seemed so aware of her surroundings, so aware of the people around her and the emotions which they showed, it drove him absolutely insane. He was used to being not paid attention to so having someone watch over his actions, having someone actually try to talk to him about emotions was strange and new. He didn't like it.

"It's a compliment." Ghost grumbled, not quite looking at her. He was regretting this, he should have just stayed in the gym and continued doing his drills. He shifted awkwardly in the chair which Belle was so easily able to be comfortable in. He glanced at her face for a second, only seeing that her previous frustration was replaced by a look of suspicion confusion. Not the reaction he was expecting nor the one he wanted, then again, he didn't know how he would even respond to that.

"You're complimenting me?" Belle said, not believing him at all. Her eyes remained on Ghost's face as he tried to find literally anything else in the room to focus on other then Belle who was sitting across from him with a small unbelieving look across her face. She honestly didn't believe that the hardened veteran was even able to compliment a person if it was going to save his life.

"I can be nice." Ghost said, his own eyebrows furrowing at the fact that Belle was plain out refusing to believe that he was giving her a compliment. Ok, maybe it wasn't a perfect complement, but it wasn't an insult. It's not like he would ever say something like that to his friends or colleagues. He met her eyes as she continued to give him that look which said she didn't believe him for a second and he frowned slightly. "Don't give me that look."

"I'm not giving you a look." Belle argued immediately, now her turn to look away to try and regain her composure. Ghost watched as she tiredly ran a hand over her face, trying to keep her annoyance from her work even if that was extremely hard when Ghost liked to make everything an argument. Ghost could see she was exhausted, studying her as she looked away from him. There were a few loose strands of her long dark hair framing her face as she tried to refocus on the topic at hand which was Ghost talking to her since he had insisted, she needed to do so right at that moment.

"You're meant to be a shrink right now." Ghost simply said as he leaned back in his own chair across from her and Belle glanced back at him, an annoyed flare in her eyes at how he seemed so insistent on calling her a shrink. Ghost paused and rolled his eyes as he saw the annoyance and let out a breath. "Therapist, same thing." He said with a small shake of his head, his eyes not moving off of Belle for a second as his words clearly didn't dissolve the annoyance in her hazel eyes.

"I'm not paid enough for this." Belle mumbled under her breath as she reached down to grab her notebook from her bag, pulling out a pen right after. She clicked the pen open, and Ghost watched as she flipped through the pages, wanting to see what had written but not moving from his own spot.

"If you wanted to be paid more then you shouldn't have joined the military." Ghost told her and she shot him a small glare as she came to a stop on one of the pages. Her eyes looked away from him and back to the book and she took a small breath as if to recollect herself as she quickly read over what was already written.

"Says you." Belle simply says which was true, neither of them got paid enough to deal with each other's bullshit yet here they sat together in a room. Belle held her tongue when she wanted to say that she wasn't getting paid to sit here and talk to him, not really wanting to speak to him but she knew that Price would be happy that Ghost was getting at least one step closer to being cleared for combat. She tapped her pen against the book before meeting Ghost's eyes again. "You still angry about the meeting?" She asked, turning the topic to the meeting which had happened days before.

"Very." Ghost didn't hesitate to answer, his look darkening at the mention of the meeting where she had gotten him in trouble. It wasn't like he had exactly punished or anything for arguing with the girl during the meeting but the teasing comments from his friends and the disappointed look from Captain Price had been punishment enough for Ghost. Ghost had never been one to cause issues in meetings, that had always been the others, yet it seemed that Belle was changing that. There was a beat of silence as Belle waited for him to elaborate but when he didn't, she huffed a little.

"I'm not going to sit here during my off time if you're only going to give me one word answers." Belle told him with a small glare and Ghost felt a small frown form on his face as he stared across the table at her. The silence fell around them again and Belle made a motion with her hand, showing that she was waiting on him. "Talk."

"I don't," Ghost started to say but then caught himself, the frown on his face growing a little as he tried to think over what he wanted to say. He had only hunted her down because he wanted to prove to the others that he didn't mind talking to her since they all seemed to like her so much. He stopped talking and Belle waited for him to go on. "Never mind." He said and went to stand up which made Belle scowl.

"You don't, what?" Belle asked, getting to her own feet, and looking at him from her side of the table. She was so frustrated by this man because while she could so easily talk to all the other men on his team, he wanted to make it as hard as pulling teeth. He acted as if talking to her was some sort of torture he had to endure.

"Don't understand you." Ghost responded, putting his hands on the table, and leaning closer to her. Belle could see the frustrated scowl which was on his face even though most of his features were hidden behind the black cloth, his eyes gave his emotion away. Belle's frown only grew as she tried to process his words, staring up at the man who easily had twelve inches of height on her. "I don't like it." He finally said before pulling away and leaving the room, both Belle and Ghost more frustrated with each other then they had been earlier in the morning.