The next morning came around and from her habitude, Claire woke up a little past 6 in the morning.
Opening her eyes, she took in a deep breath before turning around. It took her a second to remember where she was.
She sat up.
Claire thought of where she could go. She thought of where she was allowed to go. It felt wrong for her to wander to any room other than where the essentials were kept.
Slowly sliding off to the edge of the bed, she grabbed her pair of socks before putting them on.
With that, she began her way towards the door. She needed to put on some footwear. Her shoes were downstairs, by the front door of the house.
Exiting her room, she took a few more steps forward before a deep breath caught her attention. Looking to her right - from where the sound came from - she saw Gabriel, still sound asleep.
The door of his room was wide open as she saw him tucked under the covers. He was on his back with his head slightly turned to his left, facing the open door.
A small smile formed on Claire's lips before she looked down at the ground and continued heading where she originally intended to go. To the main door to get her shoes.
Reaching her shoes, picking them up, she sat on one of the steps and put her footwear on. With that, she stood up and began her way to the kitchen.
She felt no hunger, but yet an odd sense of thirst for a cup of coffee.
'Would it be wrong of me to make a cup of coffee for myself?' Claire asked herself. 'But then again... he did tell me to make myself feel at home...'.
With a gentle sigh, she approached herself to one of the worktops in the kitchen. And there, she began her quest to find a cup, some coffee, sugar and milk.
Finding a sachet of coffee from a tin can by the ceramic canister filled with black coffee, she also managed to find sugar. Milk was the easiest to find, she looked into the fridge.
Looking through the countertops, she managed to find a mug.
With that, she left the mug, carton of milk, sugar and the sachet of coffee on one of the many work surfaces in the kitchen. And from there, she approached a kettle.
Claire twisted the faucet from the tap and filled the kettle up with water. The volume of water poured could have easily amounted to making two cups of coffee, but she disregarded such a fact and placed it over the fire on the stove.
Within minutes, the water heated to a boil. Pushing the kettle off the fire, Claire began by opening the coffee sachet and spilling its contents into the mug on the table. Next, she poured the hot water into the mug and with a spoon, she stirred the dry and the wet together, incorporating them together to make coffee.
She poured milk and sugar to her satisfaction.
Returning everything to its place, she took her cup of coffee and began to walk off.
She looked around her as she entered the dining room.
Then, a big clock in the back of the room caught her attention. 6:32 AM.
Looking to her left, she saw a big glass door. It reminded her, resurfaced her through from yesterday.
'Where does that door lead to?' she asked herself.
Before she could have considered an answer, she began her way towards the door. Reaching it, she slowly pulled the curtains apart with one hand, while in the other, she held her coffee.
Looking out the window, she saw the beautiful view that laid on the other side. A back garden. A big back garden.
Without thinking, she unlocked the door and slid it open. She made a gap just big enough for her to exit. Closing it behind her, she noticed the outdoor furniture the yard contained.
She turned and looked around herself before she took a step forward. Towards the outdoor sofa that sat on the concrete pathway, a step away from the lawn.
Taking her place on the sofa and taking a sip from her coffee, she placed the cup down on the table in front of her.
And for the first time, she looked up and out into the distance. The way Gabriel's house was situated was on a hill. And consequently, one section of his backyard was on a downward slope of where the hill came to an end.
Where Claire was, it was on a levelled terrain with the house.
Such a terrain allowed Claire to see a very beautiful view.
She noted the way the yard sank. It followed the shape of the hill, but within two hundred or so meters from where Claire was, the terrain began to level out.
This plain carried on even beyond Gabriel's yard. It went on towards the very horizon. To the left, the flatness carried on as the outline of the mountains were shown right by the horizon.
While to her right, she saw how the flat terrain ruled the land for a bit before small hills took over. Over the distance, the hills grew bigger. Just like to her left, she managed to see mountains in the background. They rose past the horizon.
Claire looked back to the middle. From both sides, she noticed the way the mountains raced their ways to meet each other. But the closer they got to their meeting point, the lower the mountains became.
When they finally met, the two sides created a valley from where the sun rose and made its way into the sky.
The pinky-orange clouds made their presence in the atmosphere, as they sailed from one side of the sky to the other.
"Claire?".
She jumped in fright as her head darted to the voice beside her. Gabriel.
She let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was him.
Placing one of her hands on her chest, she felt how hard her heart pounded against her rib cage.
Gabriel let a small smile form on her lips upon registering such a reaction. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he began. "I am surprised that you are up this early.". Slowly, he made his way towards Claire before taking a seat beside her. He placed his mug of coffee beside hers.
"I-I got used to it from home.". A pause. "Each morning, by this time, I needed to get up and get ready to go and help my parents with harvesting grapes and olives.".
Though Claire had her eyes pointed towards the horizon, by the mountains. Gabriel lifted his gaze to her.
"Harvest?... So do your parents own a farm?" He asked.
From the rugged terrain, she looked at Gabriel. She saw the way he looked at her. His eyes glistened with curiosity.
"I mean... I wouldn't call it a farm. We don't have any livestock. All we have are two fields for, like I previously mentioned, grapes and olives.". A pause. With a deep breath, she continued from where she stopped. "At this time of year, my father would begin making his own wine.".
Another stop followed.
"But I guess this year might be different. Both my brother, Garrett, and I are off. Usually, it was Garrett and I around our father, assisting him. But ever since Garrett joined the army, it was only my mother and me. Now that I am gone too, he only has my mom to help him. But she has to look after the bar.".
Claire let out a gentle chuckle. "Everything seems to be all over the place...".
"You are not wrong there," Gabriel spoke up, he had his gaze out towards the horizon, but then returned his eyes to look at Claire. "You know... your parents sound like very hard working people.".
His words caused Claire to lower her gaze to her hands, to her thumbs as she twiddled them. A small smile grew on her lips before looking back up at him. At first, she nodded. "They... they are. They really are," she replied.
From there, once again, Claire quickly dropped her from him as she felt her eyes fill up with tears.
"I already miss them so much..." she spoke softly.
"That's only natural," Gabriel began. "Say, were you ever this distant from your parents?".
She replied by shaking her head, wiping an odd tear or two that managed to escape her eye.
"I have never been this far away from my parents... and... and I hate the fact that I don't know how my brother is doing or where he is right now...". Her words caused her heart to sink ever so slightly as more tears filled her eyes despite all her efforts to stop their further accumulation. "I just hope that, if I don't manage to find him in time, he makes it back home safely.".
"You seem very family-oriented," Gabriel voiced.
At first, Claire smiled at his words before she nodded. She looked at him. "So, it really is that obvious.".
Upon picking up on her sarcasm, Gabriel, too, had a small grin grow on his lips. He spectated the way she bent over ever so slight and collected her cup into her hands before taking a sip of her coffee.
"You know, I like that about a person," he began. "In my opinion, family comes before everything. That is love, family and health come before everything.". A brief stop occurred. "To me, family is the most important thing in the world.".
Claire nodded along to his words. She still had the cup of coffee in her possession as she took another sip. Moments later, Gabriel followed her lead, he too took his cup into his hands and consumed his coffee. Keeping the cup in his hands, he looked back out towards the horizon.
"You know..." Gabriel began, breaking the silence that was present between them. "Every morning, I love to sit out here and look at the beautiful sunrise. But I feel like today is a special morning...". By saying such words, he noticed the way he grabbed and kept Claire's attention. "Because I have someone to share this absolute gift with.".
Once again, a smile appeared on Claire's lips as she took a brief sip of her coffee.
"It is..." she responded, nodding. "It is very beautiful...".
***
Some time passed before they both decided to move back into the house.
They both had breakfast before getting ready. Claire was just about to go into the room she just spent her night in when Gabriel called her name. "Claire?".
At first, she replied by looking at him. "Yes, is everything okay?".
"I just wanted to tell you to...-" he began but stopped himself. A sheepish smile evolved on his lips. "Never mind... sorry.".
Claire furrowed her brows. "Is everything okay, Gabriel?". It felt so wrong for her to call Gabriel by his name. But she wanted to obey his words from yesterday.
The smile remained on his lips as he looked up at her. Then he nodded. "Yes. Yes, everything is fine. I spoke before thinking.".
Claire's eyes traveled down his body and continued to the ground. A small smile too grew on her lips. "Okay.".
With that, Claire turned around and walked into the guest room. She saw the way Gabriel looked at her, but their eye contact was broken when she closed the door.
Looking at the closed, white door, the smile disappeared from his face. It was to be replaced with a worrisome expression as his head sank ever so slightly. "Be careful when you are out there, Claire..." he muttered under his breath.
***
Minutes passed before both Claire and Gabriel were ready. Claire wore her clothes from yesterday while Gabriel wore his Captain uniform.
Gabriel was the first one to be downstairs with Claire walking out of her room.
Immediately, she sensed a scent in the air. She didn't know if it was aftershave or a cologne, but she knew it was from Gabriel.
She made her way downstairs and to her left, she noted a large figure. Gabriel.
His back faced her. She saw that he wore an attire which was olive green in colour.
He felt her presence and slowly turned around, when their eyes met, that was when they both froze.
Claire looked at the way Gabriel's hair was neatly combed to the right, his face cleanly shaved. With his uniform, he looked sharp.
"When we reach the base, follow me. You will need to get some clothes from there and you have to change into them.".
She nodded to his words.
"Alright. Where's your luggage? We have to get going.".
***
Exiting the house, Gabriel took a hold of Claire's baggage and placed it back into the trunk of his car.
With both Claire and Gabriel in the car, he powered up his car and began his way back towards the base.
***
Arriving to the car park from where they left last night, Gabriel shut down his car before they both hopped out of the vehicle.
Before Gabriel managed to get to the trunk, she managed to open it and take her luggage. "Gabriel, it's fine, I can carry it by myself.".
"Can I at least be a gentleman one last time and carry your luggage just like I did back in my house? Come on, I insist," Gabriel replied.
Claire kept her gaze in him. "You really don't have to, you know that?".
"I wouldn't be offering if I didn't want to," he began as a small smile evolved on his lips. "I want to be a true gentleman one last time...". He paused as his smile began to recede ever so slightly. "... Because after this, I feel like I wouldn't have a chance to do so for quite a while. On top of that, last night, they took at the suitcases and whatnot from the rooms, so now I need to give yours in too.". With that, he took a step forward before taking her baggage.
Claire looked at him, brows furrowed, confusion slightly evoked from his words. But before she could have questioned him further what he meant, they had to make a move.
Entering the base, Claire did as she was told. She followed Gabriel.
They stopped right in front of a room. "You may go in here and change. To your left, you will see a wardrobe of uniforms. They are all identical. Find your size and get it dressed...". He paused, looking at his watch. "You have 20 more minutes left before we all meet up in the courtyard, I'll be waiting you here. Now get dressed.".
She did as she was told and within a handful of minutes, she opened the door. Fully dressed.
Gabriel looked at her, gazed at how the uniform looked on her. A smirk appeared on his lips. "You are ready to go. Now, go and join the group, you know there the courtyard is, yes? It's where you went yesterday to meet up with Lieutenant Mason for your tour. I'll join you all in a minute.".
She nodded to his words, but then. "Captain! Wait!".
Just as he was about to walk off, Gabriel stopped and turned around. "Yes, is everything okay, Miss Emerson?".
"I-I would like to return my clothes into my bag. I also forgot to get something.". Approaching her Captain, he allowed her to stow back her clothes and get whatever it is she needed. Into the main pocket, she stored back the clothes she just worse. From one of the front pockets, she extracted the money her mother and father gave her. She placed them money into the pocket of her uniform.
Standing back up, her eyes met her Captain's once again. She saw the way he had a soft smile on his lips. "Alright, is that all?".
"Yes, Captain.".
"Alright then. I'll see you in a bit then," Gabriel replied and turning around, he walked off, holding her bag.
Claire spent a second or two more, looking at his back before she followed Gabriel's instructions to get to the courtyard.