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Clint waited outside Olivia's apartment for exactly two hours and fifteen minutes before she came back. He had no idea where she had been. And really he didn’t care. She may have been at work. She may have been training. She may have even been with another guy... although that possibility he preferred not to think on. All he cared about right then was why. He just wanted to know why.
"Clint?" Olivia said when she spotted him, waiting outside her door. She was staying in a small hotel lodging just off the Naval Base. Clint was slumped against the wall in the hallway, leaning against her door. "What are you doing here?" Her voice was shaky and uncertain. You would think that two hadn't been sleeping together for the past week.
Spotting her, Clint slowly climbed to his feet, using the wall to balance himself. He wasn't drunk, or even tired. He was just weak, as if his whole body had given up. "Hey," he said, trying to act as normal as possible. "I've missed you."
"Oh right... yeah I've been busy,' she rushed through the words as she made her way to her door. And as she pulled out the keys, she fumbled with them, trying to unlock the door. "What have.. What have you been up to?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all," he said. It was as if they were two strangers, talking for the first time. Clint could feel the tension between them. He knew what she had done and she knew that he knew.
"Did you want to --"
"Actually that's not entirely true," Clint cut in. As Olivia went to go inside the room, Clint stepped in front of her, blocking her off. "I was down on the docks earlier. I was going to run some drills with my team."
"Oh?" Olivia offered ducking under Clint's arm as she stepped inside. Clint didn't follow. Instead he leant in the doorway, watching Olivia nervously wander through her hotel room. She walked from the kitchen to the bed and back to the kitchen, playing with her hands the whole time as if trying to think of something to do with them.
"Yeah, it was funny though. I got down there and I was told... they told me I was on leave. Isn't that odd?" He was still in the doorway, watching her.
"Haven't you been on leave all week?" She asked, still not looking at him.
"Well that's what I thought. But then they confirmed that this was official. Turns out I've been brought up on charges. I'm on leave now until further notice. Until they know what to officially charge me with."
"That's... that odd --"
"How could you!" Clint suddenly exploded, storming into the room as he made for Olivia. "How could you do that to me?" He grabbed her by both arms as he reached her, forcing her to face him.
"I had no choice!" She wailed, tears beginning to brim beneath her eyes. "Randall he... he..."
"What? He ordered you to charge me? He forced you to disbar me?" His voice was shaking as he tried to control himself. He wanted to yell and scream in her face. But he couldn't. Being this close to her hurt to much. "I trusted you..."
"He promised to help me," Olivia admitted, full fledged tears streaming down her face now. "He promised to help me become a SEAL."
Clint let her go as if she had suddenly caught fire. The look he offered her was one of disgust, because indeed that was how he felt. "So what? You turned on me so you could become a SEAL? That means more to you than us? Than what we... than what we had?"
"No of course not! You're not in that much trouble. I made sure to keep the charges light. All you have to do is behave and you'll be fine. It's – it’s a slap on the wrists," she stuttered through the words. To Clint it sounded like an excuse. It was poison to his ears.
"Just a slap on the wrists?"
"Yes!" She exclaimed.
"You don't get it. It had nothing to do with the punishment. It's... never mind." Clint was done. He didn't want to stand there and argue semantics with Olivia. He didn’t want to explain the betrayal and how much he hurt. So he didn't.
As Olivia fell to the floor, weeping openly, Clint turned and left. He could hear her crying as he stormed down the hallway and a part of him wanted to turn back and console her. But another part of him didn’t. That part never wanted to see her again.
CHAPTER NINE
Olivia hadnt' slept at all the previous night. It was probably the worst night she had experienced in recent memory, which was saying a lot as she was also coming off what had previously been the best week in living memory. How could things turn around so quickly?
The worst part was that she only had herself to blame. When Lieutenant Randall had approached her with the deal, she had initially considered telling him to go to hell. That would have been the right thing to do. If she had done that she wouldn't be feeling as awful as she currently did.
But she was weak. She saw her end goal, so close and for the first time actually tangible, and she couldn’t say no. So she told herself that she could have her cake and eat it to by bringing Clint up on lesser charges. She had convinced herself that he would be OK with it. That if she explsained the situation he would be fine and nothing would change between them. But as witnessed, that wasn't to be. Not even close.
When he accosted her, when he yelled at her, she knew that it was all her fault. Like a knife driving into her stomach, she had never felt such pain. She spent that entire night, curled up in a ball on her floor, crying her eyes out. She considered calling Clint maybe one hundred times, but never did. She was just too weak.
Her only consolation, if it could even be called that, was the fact that soon she would be entered in the Navy SEAL training program. That was all she had to hang on to. That was the only thing that got her out of bed. And as such, that was where she was headed. She had an hour before she had to be on a boat back to San Diego, so before she made that journey, she just had to confirm with Randall that their deal was still a go ahead.
Lieutenant Randall was just about to leave his office as Olivia approached him. In fact, when he spotted her heading towards him, he seemed to pick up speed, quickly locking the door and rushing from his office as fast as he could.
