Okay, so thank you all to reading my previous Band of Brothers fic! I wanted to try a more modern story so I thought why not write for Generation Kill? And I suppose this is what I came up with! I hope you all enjoy it; I had an immense amount of fun writing it. I'll get started on chapter 2 ASAP.
Thank you! -Shifty

Iraq was hot. Not the type hot where in Alabama cooling down consisted of jumping into the nearest pond. It was hot as in "stripping down and covering your body in ice" would not cool you down nearly enough. With her eyes drooping, and the blazing dun beating down her neck, Addie Wilkins stared past the barbed wire fence and looked out to the endless Iraq desert. It was an ocean of sand that absorbed anything and everything; consuming years of someone's life, wasting away without anyone there, dying alone. She remembered sitting on her grandfathers lap years ago, listening to the stories of a war that changed the world. That's she joined the marines, not because she necessarily wanted to kill, but rather to preserve the world and all that it was. To keep the human race from further self destructing; but looking back at the reasons now, she hardly believed that their cause was just. Her arms were crossed as she fiddled with her left ring finger, where a ring had previously made its home until a year and half ago. The emotions flooded her mind as memories came back to her mind like the sun rose in the sky in front of her.

"Sergeant Wilkins!" A voice came from behind her. Addie spun around on the heel of her combat boot and came face to face with her Lieutenant, Nate Fick. Her arms were stiff by her side as she spoke, "yes, Sir!" She replied and looked directly at him.

Chuckling a bit to himself, the Lieutenant nodded, "At ease, Wilkins." Nate shook his head and wondered what in gods name had her up this early, especially on a day where they had no training but time to do what they please. "What are you doing up so early?" He watched her turn back around to face the fence and watched her sit down. "You do know it's a free day today... Clean your equipment, wash your clothes, relax. Really whatever you need to do." Watching her fold her arms across her legs, he chose to sit down next to her. "What were you doing exactly?" He turned his head to face her.

Looking out at the empty desert, she shrugged and continued to watch the sun rise. "I just couldn't sleep, a lot of thoughts running through my mind, I suppose." Her tone was emotionless as an orange glow was cast upon the sand before them.

"We've been in the same unit for half a year, and I've been you're commanding officer the whole time, it is okay for you to tell me what's going on." He turned her heard and looked at the way she kept her eyes from squinting as the sun continued to rise.

It seemed as if his words went through one ear and out the other of hers. Shaking her head, Addie never once took her eyes of the sunrise. "Sir, please just leave it alone. It's nothing of importance, okay? Just drop it."

The tone she took with him, was beginning to agitate Nate. All he wanted to do was understand. Ever since she had joined this Battalion, he knew she was different. Yes she wanted to be here just like everyone else, but he suspected those reasons were different than anyone's. She was different. Not different in the strange, outcast sort of sense, but the different that intrigued everyone and kept them on their toes with what move she was going to do next. Finally being fed up enough with her, his voice took a turn in the serious tone. "As your commanding officer, I order you to explain to me what is going through your head at this very moment." Nate knew that he was more than likely abusing his CO power, but he was tired of the shit she was pulling, it was damn too early for it. Ever since he met her, not once had she spoken of home. In fact, he never recalled her receiving or sending a single letter out. He never once remembered of her getting packages.

Before speaking, Addie bit her lower lip, wondering what to say. A part of her knew, but the dominant part told her to never bring up the past, it had only ever caused her pain. "I..." She began to speak but her words trailed off, "I'm not sure." Addie knew that if she spoke of her past, she'd be letting someone in; something she promised to herself over a year ago that would never happen again. "Sir, how old are you?"

Raising an eyebrow, he looked at her with curiosity and wondered where this conversation was going, "I'm twenty-five. And you can call me Nate, Addie." He emphasized with her name.

Addie nodded and pursed her lips, "And I'm twenty-two." Looking down at her ring finger, twirling the imaginary ring that resided there, she wondered how exactly she would explain to him what had happened. "When I was eighteen, fresh out of high school, I married my best friend. He was perfect, and I loved him with everything I had in me. We were young, and we were in love."

The way she continued to twirl her ring finger mesmerized Nate and helped him from letting his mouth drop. But the way she spoke in past tense had him wondering what happened. "So," Nate began awkwardly, "did you two end up going your separate ways?"

Her head quickly turned so she was making direct eye contact with him. "He died a year and a half ago. Doing exactly what I'm doing now," the tone she replied in was neither upset nor offended, she sounded as if she were merely replying to a CO, not a friend.

"What was his name?" Nate asked instinctively. He had to jump at the opportunity to learn more about her.

Before responding to him, Addie's face broke into a small smile, "his name was Chris but we called him CJ for short. He was amazing, and I miss him everyday."

Watching her head drop into her lap again, Nate gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"Addie!" Another voice beside her yelled in her ear and Nate began to shake her body. "Addie wake up! Your times over!" The voice yelled again and seemed to be getting louder. "Wilkins, wake the fuck up!"

"Get the hell our of my ear." Addie groaned as her eyes slowly fluttered open. "I'm up, Ray. Fucking Christ, could you yell in my ear a bit louder though? Hell, I think you broke my eardrum." She flung open the Humvee's back door and got out.

"Well, sorry, princess. I need ta take a shit and you've got Frosty the Snowman out cold in the front and then that shit who's trying to write about us passed out in the back." Ray grumbled as he grabbed small box and some toilet paper from the back. "I'll be back in a few honey, don't miss me too much." He smirked at her as he threw the box over his shoulder and walked off to a more secluded area.

"Don't get shot in the ass by a haji, you sack of shit!" She called after him and leaned against the Humvee, yawning widely. It seemed that her 'conversation' with Nate had been a dream, or it could be classified as a nightmare in her book. But if she were being honest with herself, she was glad it was all dream, because like she learned with Chris, opening up to someone just led to more pain.