Page 54 of Danger Close
Even when the ghosts spoke louder than the living.
****
The Ridge breathed.
After years of fighting, of missions that blurred into gunfire and grief, of saying goodbye and never knowing who’d make it back, this place finally made it easier to breath.
Ricky stood on the edge of the training field, the early morning light slanting gold across damp grass.Somewhere behind him, a rooster crowed like it had a personal grudge against civilization.Sophia’s laughter echoed from the stables, where Ryan was apparently giving her a crash course in how to bribe ponies with apples and marshmallows.
Celia toddled after them with a crayon in one fist and a suspiciously empty juice pouch in the other.
It felt ...good.
And somehow, in the middle of all that growth and order, they still had chaos.The kind that smelled like burnt toast and kid shampoo.The kind that meant family.
But Ricky had a meeting.And a conversation had in the past that needed to be closed.
Marsh was working in the server room—because of course he was.Multiple screens glowed around him, some showing Ridge security feeds, others pulsing with lines of code and threat detection patterns Ricky didn’t bother pretending to understand.
“Got your message,” Ricky said, arms crossed.“Figured it was time.”
Marsh didn’t look up right away.“It’s overdue.”
Ricky nodded.“Yeah.”
Silence stretched between them like taut wire.Marsh finally turned, his jaw tight, eyes underslept and guarded.
“I was a dick,” Marsh said.
Ricky blinked.“You?Never.”
Marsh snorted.“I said something I shouldn’t have.Back then.Before you left.”
“You said a lot of things,” Ricky said evenly.“But yeah.There was one line that stuck.”
Marsh’s expression flickered.“About you not being stable enough for fieldwork.”
“About not being Pathfinder enough,” Ricky corrected.
He didn’t have to raise his voice.The words landed like a knife between them.
Marsh exhaled.“I was scared, man.You were spiraling after that night Ezra disappeared.Fuck, I don’t know exactly what happened, but I can take a pretty strong swing and hit something.You wouldn’t talk.Wouldn’t let anyone in.I said the one thing I knew would push you.”
Ricky snorted, “Yeah, push me away.”
“Push you somewhere, man!”Marsh snapped.“Anywhere other than standing in the dark with your bleeding fists clenched and your eyes empty.”
That stopped Ricky cold.
He hadn’t realized.
For a long moment, all he could hear was the quiet whir of the server fans.
“You should’ve just told me,” Ricky said softly.“I know what spiraling is, hell we all do.”
“I didn’t know how,” Marsh admitted.“And when I figured it out, you were gone.”
“I carried that for a long time,” Ricky said.“Felt like I wasn’t enough.Like maybe you all thought it, too.That I didn’t belong.”
