#beth riley

You hate Mr Riley for how he treated his sons. You took self defence classes when Beth started dating Tommy, just in case, y’know? You noticed the marks and bruises Tommy would wear to school. Simon hardly attended school and when he did, he wore matching bruises. Sometimes even burns. It boggled your mind that the school didn’t ever say anything.

That’s why it shocked you that Beth decided to date the older Riley brother.

You’re around Tommy when he got addicted to drugs and alcohol, and you saw Simon again, when he was home between missions. He is high up in the army apparently.. He is stand-offish and brutish, you decide. You no longer saw him as the small, blonde child with bruises and marks all over his arms.. he is built like a shit brick house. Still covered in faded marks and scars. His hair is no longer bright blonde, now a much dirtier colour. Seemed fitting really.

You offered Tommy and Beth a safe space in your flat to help with Tommy’s sobriety after years of addiction and to help them get some savings. And to get them away from Riley Snr. Bastard of a man.

Turned out, after 6 months of lessons, you’re real good at self defence and you decided to try out for the army, having had a run of a few bad waitressing jobs and shitty bar work. You got accepted first try.

You visited Tommy and Beth when you could. They were practically living in your empty flat in Manchester at that point. While you were deployed for the first time, Simon apparently returned home and bet the shit out of his dad and threw him out of the family home, so Tommy and Beth wrote a letter to you, saying that they’re moving home, and vacating your flat.

Guess Simon isn’t so bad after all.. good for him, kicking his prick of a father to the curb.

You met Simon properly, again, at Tommy and Beth’s wedding. You were head Bridesmaid. Beth looked stunning, and Tommy stayed sober all night even though the drinks were flowing. Simon acted like he has a stick up his ass the entire night though.. always on edge. He looked nice in his fancy Army suit though.

A few months later, when you returned from deployment, Beth picked you up from the barracks with a blue balloon, and an ultrasound, and a very clearly swollen stomach. She was pregnant with Tommy’s child.

You’d been upgraded to Sergeant. You were one of the highest scoring women to ever reach the rank. You were proud of your achievement. The extra pay check bump got put into a savings account for your little nephew, Joseph. A little boy you’d fallen in love with through pictures and videos sent by Beth and Tommy. They were doing well. You were so proud of them.

You returned from Russia for Joseph’s first birthday. You gifted him his own little mini set of dog tags. “Joseph Riley. Love always, your Tee Tee” engraved on them. Joseph had started babbling. Beth had tried her best to film him saying Auntie. But he only ever managed Tee Tee. That was your title. You’d wear it with pride.

Tommy seemed stressed. Apparently he hadn’t heard from Simon for a while. You tried to comfort him. “You know how it is, he is a lieutenant now. Doing all the important secretive stuff! He’ll be off grid, the only man who could kill Simon Riley, is Simon Riley” you joked.

The truth was, you’d never crossed paths with Simon. Never spotted his towering form, or dirty blonde mop of hair at the barracks. Never recognised his face amongst other soldiers. But Tommy didn’t need to know that. He liked the fact that you and Simon ‘worked together’..

Your leave was set to end the following day but Beth barrelled through from the kitchen, slamming her tea down that she’d made, not 5 minutes earlier, shouting at you for ignoring your phone. “Your army friends are calling you, they have a celebration that you’re supposed to be at. Go. GO. Don’t you DARE miss it because of us!” She practically shoved you out of the house, and forced you to attend the party.

Tommy and Beth bid you a joyful farewell that night. Promising to see you when you next came home on leave. You promised you’d try to get your birthday booked off, but no guarantees seeing as you were a sergeant.

You attended the party at base, and deployed back out to Mexico the next day, feeling pleased that Beth, Tommy and little Joseph were doing so well.

You didn’t know that’d be the last time you’d see them, and that just a few hours after you’d left for the party, your three pillars of strength were assassinated.

It felt like a cruel trick of fate. You broke. Hard. You went off the rails. You crumbled even further, when you learnt that you’d left a couple of hours too early. If you’d have stayed, you could have defended them. You would have fought with your life. You slipped further when you learnt, at their funeral, that Simon had arrived a few hours too late. The window for their murders must have only been mere hours. Simon wasn’t at the funeral. You assumed he was dead. You didn’t want to know how he died..

You felt sick to your stomach.

You threw yourself into your work, getting reckless on missions, but producing noticeable results on the field. You gained a name for yourself. Fearless, brutal and blunt. You didn’t socialise any more. You were there to do a job. That’s all. You had nothing else to live for. No one to return to.

That changed when you’re contacted by Captain John Price. Apparently you’d been headhunted. Who gives a shit? He’d warned you that you’d be thrown into dangerous territory, with sadistic assassins and terrorists. Nothing could be worse than losing Beth, Tommy and Joseph. So you signed up.

That brings you to now. The newest member of taskforce 141.

The two sergeants are too happy for your liking. They are desperate to get to know you. You tried to avoid them, but they stuck to you like glue. Like dogs with a bone. They are fascinated by your fast climb up the ranks. They wanted to know everything.

The Captain is a gentleman, an authority figure who treats you like what you are. A soldier. A comrade. He instructs. You follow. He respects you and you respect him. It’s a mutual understanding.

Ghost avoids you. He has grunted at you twice in 3 months. He hasn’t taken that damn mask off either. It reminds you of the one that Tommy wore in the photographs of him as a child. Every time you see the Lieutenant, your stomach drops, as it reminds you of … them. They’re gone forever, your brain kindly reminds, as if you would have forgotten.. You get up and leave whatever room you’re in whenever he comes near. It seems like another mutual arrangement as he does the same to you.

What you didn’t know, however, is that Simon has spent years training his facial expressions. He almost gave it all away when Price came to him a couple of months back and told him of a new member. He almost fell to his knees in anguish when Price slapped a picture of you down on his desk.

His hand flew to his chest when price closed the door behind him, and he clutched his dog tags tightly, gulping.

Simon had seen their corpses that night. He could tell someone had been there. 3 cups of tea. Joseph was too young to drink tea. They weren’t even cold. The blood hadn’t dried. He should have guessed it was you. Auntie Tee Tee. Worn firmly round his neck, attached to his own.

Simon was sick that night, as he removed the tags from Joseph’s neck. He closed Tommy and Beth’s eyes, and moved Joseph so he was cradled by his mother’s corpse. Comfort in death, he thought. He fled the scene, after saying his final gut wrenching good byes. He was going to kill whatever bastard did this to them. He promised himself he wouldn’t stop until they were dead.

Tommy had told Simon that you’d joined the army. Simon never corrected him when he mentioned, constantly, that they were colleagues. He had never seen you in a crowd of new recruits. He would have noticed you.

But here you are. In front of him. Looking… awful. Dark eyes, that were once so bright. Slumped shoulders, that were once so happy to grab Tommy and Beth in for hugs. A scowl, instead of her perfect smile…

A far cry from the bridesmaid he had kept an eye on all evening at Tommy and Beth’s wedding.

You didn’t seem to realise that Ghost and Simon were the same person. That suited Simon down to the ground. John clearly picks up on something but decides not to mention it.

The team were working well together. Simon must admit, your style on the field is ruthless, not too dissimilar from his, but where he uses brute strength, you use the element of surprise and your brain. Smart girl.

What do we think??

Okay so, as for a lot of the Riley family thoughts I had when I was drawing this artwork. These may kinda be in random order..

So I'm imagining this pic was taken at Simon's mom's house! She had a friend over (or something) when Tommy, Beth(Tommy's wife), baby Joseph, and Simon, who's been visiting for the past week or so, come over.

I'm imagining this is several months post-Roba, but the Roba stuff is still pretty recent. Simon is still wearing the mask because he doesn't want his family or others to see his facial scars too often, but I imagine on some occasions, if it's just him and his fam, he's okay taking it off, but bc they're visiting the mom and she has a friend over he keeps it on.

So I think this is his second time visiting his family post-Roba? He's done some healing, and recovery since then, so he's more stable visiting his family, though I imagine it's still a weird experience for him but he's trying to get better. And yeah he's visiting for a couple weeks here. I wanted him to seem kinda slimmer tho, like he's not hugely bulky bc I imagine he lost a lot of weight in captivity and is still putting weight back on.

Also this is a total side note, but I really love the idea so much that baby Joseph brought Simon out of his shell a lot more post-Roba? Like I imagine he had a really hard time initially learning to bond again and heal, but having little baby Joseph who's too young to judge him and is so innocent, is good for him? 🤣 So on Simon's time visiting his fam he spends a lot of time with baby Jo. I think he'd thank Joseph a lot for helping him come out of his shell post Roba.

Okay, but yeah for the photo!! So Simon , Tommy and them go to visit the mom, maybe to help her move some things, or bring her over some stuff. Simon, who's staying with Tommy (bc he doesn't like to stay at his mom's house as much bc it's the childhood home) comes over too. Maybe they end up all sitting and chatting together, and then maybe Simon's mom asks if the friend can take a family photo of all of them? Bc I bet they have like, so few family photos of them as adults, if any. And so Simon, who I hugely hc hates photos being taken of him 😂 agrees ofc for his mom bc he loves her and wants to make her happy ahaha. And so they all pose for the pic together.

I think Tommy and Simon also look pretty similar, just have different hairstyles/ colours and eye colours. They're unmistakable as brothers if you see them side by side tho lol. And Beth, I imagine she met Tommy when he was in recovery, maybe they were both in some therapy program together (I don't think I hc her as a recovering addict like Tommy, but she had other reasons for being in therapy at that time in her life) and they hit it off. She has red hair bc that's the colour hair she has in the comics, and I like to imagine she's just super radiant and pretty, and maybe a little punk too? XD Or she was in her past, hence the piercings and tattoos. She's also just the coolest lady and happiest mom ever.