Chapter Text
It had started at a foster home.
Her current foster parents, Mr and Mrs Sanderson, tried to draw Alex out of her shell by talking about their son, James. He was a Marine, and they were oh so proud of him. Why, look at this photo of him in a training exercise in Australia! Oh, and here’s a framed postcard from Thailand, complete with medal for valor in action! Look how well he is doing, how much people like him, how much they respect him! Why, if you work hard, you too can be like that, you downtrodden little orphan girl!
Maybe I’d stop getting into fights.
Alex was returned to the tender care of Portland’s CPS unit less than a month after that. “Too troublesome for an old couple like us.” was the reason they gave.
They didn’t like her. No-one did.
It was bullshit. They weren’t doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, but for the prestige. They already had a son in the Marines, a Major with the Third Battalion Seventh Marines, imagine how it would look if they also managed to take a lonely, troubled girl like Alex and raise her up to be another “incredible member of society”! A feather in the cap of some white people with no understanding of discrimination. Although the anger (and, deep down, the sadness) at her once again being placed into the care of a government agency that received far too little funding to effectively care for the children in they ways they needed, that idea of having the acceptance and belonging within that organisation, as well as having the respect of people outside of it, had taken hold.
Alex Chen was going to be a Marine.
Maybe then Dad would come back.
Maybe Gabe would stop leaving.
“CHEN! Get your autistic ass over here!” Keep an eye on her, she’s flagging. Need to make sure she gets through. We already have trouble keeping 0311’s as it is…
Even though she could see the frustration within the drill instructor’s (never call them sir or sergeant) mind, Alex still didn’t feel any sympathy. She had very quickly realised that maybe the Marine’s weren’t all sunshine and roses, and even if she was breaking ground due to the small amount of female marines in combat roles, maybe serving in the infantry was a mistake. She tried to keep herself as fit as she could with little access to gyms or other training centers (the best they had at CPS was some old dumbbells), but her running and constant body training had paid dividends in the fact that she wasn’t fucking curled up on the floor in agony, she was still unbelievably fucked.
From the basis of physical conditioning, to the weapons training, to learning to move as a unit, and eventually live fire practice, it was starting to get the Alex.
Her “power” was not helping in this either. It seemed that anytime someone stubbed their god damn toe in San Diego, she got kickback.
Patterson’s wife left him? Alex wanted to punch the fuck out of everyone around her for days.
One of the drill instructors became increasingly depressed as news of his son’s cancer became steadily worse? Alex wanted to hide in a closet and weep. (And most of that wasn’t even power affected.)
By the end of phase 3 of recruit training, Alex was spent. All she wanted was to go back to Portland and cry into her government issued pillow that was actually somewhat comfortable. The rocks they gave you at--
“CHEN! YOU FUCKING CUM STAIN ON THE BACK OF A SLANT-EYED WHORE’S ASSHOLE!”
Yep, there he went again.
Alex redoubled her pace, trying to keep time with the rest of the recruits that have managed to stick it out his far. Sweat poured off of her face as she completed what felt like the eightieth lap of this god damn hangar complex.
Come on Chen, keep the pace! Wasghingon, you fucking dribbler, don’t fall behind!
At least Alex had a chance to look inside of the heads of her instructors. It was a luxury she felt that helped in its own twisted way.
People tended to be honest inside of their own heads.
“Chen, you got a phone call.”
It had been a while since San Diego.
Once she (and the rest of her training unit) passed the final test, she’d been allowed out on ten days of leave. It’s been weird, going back to CPS with a uniform and a tight bun. But, what had been weirder, was going back after she’d been deployed. It felt, well not exactly comforting, but familiar to sleep in a room surrounded by bars.
At least until she was turned out of the system.
Turns out even being a Marine wouldn’t let CPS give two shits about you after you were no longer their problem. So, that meant staying at the barracks over the break periods.
While most of the other soldiers got to visit home, loved ones, hell maybe a stripper or two, little old Lance Corporal Alex Chen was stuck behind a desk, counting the days until she had something to do again. Patrolling the same patch of dirt outside the base, as her team celebrated into the new year. Sure, she enjoyed the company, but she wouldn’t say she had friends. It was surprisingly lonely being a team leader - an excellent first deployment had seen a rapid rise in rank. Turns out following orders is what the brass likes, who knew?
And while people at home spilled rivers of ink and days of TV broadcasts debating the point of the war, Alex didn’t care. She knew, intellectually, that the war had been horrific for Afghanistan. Hell, it had been tough on her, and she only had to live here once every couple of years!
Some good was being done though. Some women in the big cities were happy to move around by themselves, even without the standard dress that the more conservative population of the mountains favoured. Children could play without the risk of a bomb going off, and received an honest to god education!
But, there were signs of what was boiling underneath. The Taliban, long thought destroyed, had been rallying for the past few years. Attacks of provincial capitals and the Ring Road increased, and while direct assaults on Coalition forces had decreased, the ANA was being torn apart.
“Chen, get your brooding head out of your ass and answer this goddamn phone.”
Sighing, Alex finished cleaning her small doll (Shu-Shu almost didn’t survive San Diego, but Alex fought tooth and fucking nail to keep her only friend with her), and took the Sat-phone from a frustrated looking Corporal.
“Lance Corporal Chen speaking.” In the distance, she could see a mechanic teaching his two Afghan students how to properly clean an Apache’s nose-mounted cannon. Not sure why I’m teaching them how to clean equipment they’ll never fucking use, but whatever… Yeah, you and me both buddy.
“Alex Chen? Yeah, I’ve got a message from a, uh, give me a sec…” Tapping her foot on the ground, she waited for the operator on the other end of the phone line to figure his head from his ass.
“Ah here it is. Yeah, I’ve got a message from a ‘Gabe Chen’? Says you two are related?”
No fucking way. “Sorry, can you repeat that? I’m not sure what the first name was?” Ohmygod what the fuck it’s been fucking YEARS where have you been gabe what are you doing what the hell
“Yeah, Gabe; Golf-Alpha-Bravo-Echo, Chen. You know him?”
“Uhh, yeah, he’s my brother.” Running her hand through her hair Alex put all of her weight against the plywood and metal wall of the sleeping quarters. It didn’t seem real - Gabe found her? After all of this time?
“Well, he left a number, and an email, and told you to try to contact him when you get state-side. That’s all I have for now, have a good night Lance Corporal.” click
The bus trundled along the winding mountain road, and although the scenery was insanely beautiful, Alex couldn’t focus.
Only a week after finishing her contract with the Marines, and she was on a bus headed to a town in Colorado that no-one in her team had heard of. It was insane. Even more insane than all of the shit she had seen overseas. It was straight out of a children’s novel.
The long lost warrior, torn apart after years of war, hears from their lost family, and reunites with a tearful… uh…
Fuck.
That was the problem, her lack of focus.
She’d never struggled like this before, even in CPS. She always had a goal, whether it was surviving day-to-day in Portland, or even that dogged focus on counting down how many days she had left until she could finally peace out of the Marines.
Sorry Gunny, but I don’t think reenlistment is for me. Well, not for now at least.
Now, it seemed that she couldn't knuckle down and relax. She was out! Free! Seeing her brother! Alex couldn't parse it.
Why do I feel so fucking nervous?
Finally, the bus wove around the final corner, and Alex got her first look at Haven. It was a small town, nestled in the mountains of Colorado's snow-capped peaks. A remainder of the old colonial past, wooden houses seemed to be the norm.
She could see a bridge covered in flowers that’s the one gabe is waiting for me on oh god and the river flowing into the large lake at the back of the town. This was it.
All she had was some old clothes, her uniform (the boots were comfy at least), and some random stuff she had collected over the years (mostly Shu-Shu and some photos, although the occasional medal and souvenir had made it in). All of it was stuffed into an old kit bag she had managed to get at the PX.
Not her guitar though - that had gone missing almost as soon as she left for San Diego, the way the other kids would tell her. Her records had managed to survive the trip, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear them - they had sure as shit gotten warped by the multiple years spent in hot-as-fuck barrack rooms.
Pretty sure that Stevens spilt some cheap booze on them, but he never owned up to it. Prick.
Coming to a shuddering halt, her last obstacle had moved aside. The door of the bus swung open, and Alex Chen began her new life.
sigh
Fuck me. I should’ve stayed at Pendleton.