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"Ok..." Olivia replied, starting to understand where he might be going with this.
"Well like I was saying, me and Boothes go back. Now he wasn't to enthusiastic about you joining the SEAL program. Not too enthusiastic at all. I on the other hand can see the upside to it. In fact I encourage it. And I'm sure that were I to push the case, I could make Boothes see it in the same light. Do you see what I'm saying?"
"If you're suggesting that I misconstrue the evidence --"
"All I'm saying is that it would be in your best interests to view the evidence through an unbiased scope. If you do that... well there's no telling what your future holds." He finished by flashing her a most obvious wink and exceptionally sleazy smile. He then patted her on the arm, turned and scurried off before she had a chance to say anything.
She was glad that he left in fact because she had no idea what she would have said. His words were loud and clear too. He wanted her to convict Clint. If she did so he would recommend her for SEAL training. In effect he was bribing her.
Usually such an act would repulse Olivia. Usually she would even go so far as to report it. But this time... she had wanted to be a SEAL for the longest time now and despite the help that she was getting from Clint, she never really thought it would be a possibility. But now...
Even as that thought crossed her mind, her thoughts fell back on Clint and what would happen to him if she did bring him up on charges. They might kick him out of the military all together? For someone like Clint, a dishonorable discharge was the worst thing that could happen.
She had no idea what to do. The fact that she was even thinking of convicting Clint made her feel ill. But on the one hand a new path was open to her, one she had never expected. On the other, that path would hurt the man she was coming to love. She had never been so confused in her life and as she made her way back to her lodgings, she had no idea what she was going to do.
CHAPTER EIGHT
It had been three days since Clint had gotten back into Pearl Harbor and taken Olivia on the tour of the USS Arizona. It was probably one of the more vulnerable moments of Clint's life and at the time he wasn't so sure if he had made the right choice in opening up to her like that. But the way that she had hugged and consoled him afterwards alleviated that concern.
In fact following that date, Clint was blindsided by a sensation that he had never felt before and as such had no idea how to classify it. He went to bed that night feeling as light as a feather and woke up the next morning with the eerie sensation that nothing in the world could hurt him. He knew that day Olivia would be busy, so he spent it in his barracks, with the other SEAL's and although some of them made fun of him when he told them about the date, he didn't care. He actually welcomed it as he relished the sensation of their words bouncing off him. He didn't care what they thought. He only cared what Olivia felt.
In short, Clint was in love. He just didn't know it.
What was odd though was that Olivia didn't seek to contact him that night. He assumed that her investigation was taking longer than she had predicted and was thus OK with it. He went to bed with that same light feeling. The next day however she didn't call him and when he tried to call her she didn't answer. He told himself that it was fine, and for a while he truly believed it. But then night hit and he still hadn't heard from her.
But even so, he convinced himself that it was all fine and he was just being obsessive. Although he told himself this, when he went to bed that night it wasn't with the same feeling of self-confidence and belief he had experienced the previous two nights.
Waking up, Clint felt his heart sink when he checked his phone to find that there were no messages from Olivia. And if that hurt, what followed was essentially a kick to the face as he tried to call her only for his call to go straight to voicemail.
He didn't know what was going on. If he should be worried or concerned for Olivia? Perhaps she was in trouble? Perhaps... perhaps it was his story on the Arizona that turned her off? This thought washed over Clint like a tidal wave and suddenly, a moment that had seemed to pure, somehow felt dirty. He had opened himself up, too much by the sounds of it. He had opened up and scared Olivia off...
Clint just couldn't believe that were true. In fact he refused to. The real problem was that he had too much time to think. Since he was brought up on charges he had been put on temporary leave and thus hadn't worked in days. He thus decided that the best thing for him to do was to get to work. Something, anything really to keep him occupied.
He was on his way to his barracks when he got the bad news.
"Clint! Clint!" The voice called out to him from across the dock. It belonged to Hartman, another SEAL on Clint's team. "Wait up!"
"Hartman," Clint offered as he came to a standstill. "What's up? You look nervous." Indeed, Hartman didn't look quite right and nervous may have been an understatement.
"I'm sorry man," Hartman began as he pulled up. "I drew the short straw here."
"What are you talking about?" Clint asked, genuinely having no idea what the heck he was going on about.
"Word just came down. You've been reprimanded for that thing with the Coast G
uard the other day. You're on leave until further notice."
"What?!"
"Yeah, like I said I pulled the short straw here having to tell you. I was also told to tell you that you're on thin ice and one more foot out of line could see you disbarred entirely. Sorry man," he offered, patting Clint on the shoulder. "We all think it's bullshit too. I would have done the same thing were I..."
But Clint had stopped listening. The docks seemed to spin around him as the words sunk in. There was an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach too. One he didn't recognize. One he had never had the displeasure of feeling before. It didn't hurt, at least not physically. But it made him feel ill.
As Hartman droned on about how unfair the decision was, Clint continued to stare off into the distance, out across the bay. The funny thing was that he didn't even care about the fact that he had been put on leave. As much as that stung he knew that it would eventually end.
What really hurt, what made his head spin and what was responsible for that feeling in his stomach, was the fact that it was Olivia who was responsible for it all. She had a choice. She could have looked past his actions. She knew what being a SEAL meant to him. He had told her as much. But even still she chose to prosecute him.
He thought that... he thought that he loved her and that perhaps she felt the same way about him too. Now it seemed that wasn't the case. Not even a little bit.
