Clay had just fallen asleep not too long ago, or so he thought, when a loud pounding on his door woke him up. He rolled his eyes as he sat himself up and looked over at the clock, surprised when it read 9:23 am. He thought for sure he had just fallen asleep so was extra surprised to see he had actually slept about 9 hours.
Somewhat relieved he had finally gotten a 'good night sleep,' something that hasn't happened much since Stella left, he stood up, threw on a shirt and walked to the door.
He looked through his little peephole and wasn't surprised to see Sonny on the other side of the door. The man had been there every step of the way, doing whatever he could to help get Clay through his break up.
Clay was grateful for Sonny. The friendship the two men shared was undeniable, even the rest of the team noticed it. It was a friendship Clay thought he would never find again after Brian died, but here it was.
"Good morning sunshine!" Sonny smiled as Clay opened the front door.
"Hey. Everything ok?" Clay asked. As far as he could remember, they hadn't made any plans to hangout that day.
"Yeah, peachy. I was just headed out to the diner down the street, figured I'd see if you wanted to join?" Sonny asked.
Clay looked around his apartment. It was slightly messy, he had planned to clean it once he woke up, but it could wait. "Uh… Yeah sure, let me just get dressed real quick."
Sonny walked in and sat on the couch. He sat there for a couple minutes, looking around the messy apartment. "When you gonna clean this place? It's a freaking mess!" He joked, kinda.
"I planned on doing it this morning till your sorry ass showed up. I'll do it when I get home. Ready?" Clay said as he walked out of his room.
Sonny was about to reply when Clay's phone started ringing. He pulled it out of his pocket and hit the decline button when he didn't recognize the number.
"Not gonna answer it?" Sonny asked.
"Don't know the number. Whoever it is will leave a message if it's important." Clay slid the phone back into his pocket. "Let's go, I'm starving."
As they were sitting at the diner, shooting the shit, Clay's phone rang again. It was the same number. He was about to ignore it until Sonny stopped him.
"Just answer it. If it's nobody important than just hang up and block the number." Sonny insisted. His own curiosity was getting the better of him.
Clay complied. "Hello?" He answered.
"Hey son." He heard on the other end of the phone, causing him to lose all concepts of words.
He remained silent as he tried to figure out, once again how to speak. "Uh hey Ash."
Sonny instantly looked at him as soon as the word 'Ash' came out of his mouth. This was bad. This was real bad. Sonny immediately regretted telling Clay to answer the phone. Clay was finally starting to snap out of his funk from Stella, he didn't need Ash coming around destroying all the hard work he put in to accomplish that.
"Um Yeah. I guess so." Sonny heard Clay saying. He had a bad feeling in stomach. He didn't know what they were talking about, but he fully planned on finding out.
"Alright. Sounds good. See ya." Clay said as he hung up the phone and looked over to find Sonny staring with his 'what the hell was that about look.'
"That was your dad?" Sonny asked.
"Yep. Apparently he's in town. Wants to meet for a beer later." Clay knew Sonny wasn't gonna be happy about that. Clay didn't even know if HE was happy about that.
"And you agreed?" Sonny didn't like this at all.
Clay nodded. "It's only one beer, how bad can that be?"
Sonny could think of 100 different ways it could go wrong. He had never met Ash, never planned on it either, but he has heard quite a bit about him. "I'm going with you." He stated.
"What? No. You're not coming." Clay stated. The last thing he needed was Sonny and Ash going at it.
"I'm going. I'll get there early and sit at the opposite end of the bar, but I will be there." Sonny was adamant about it. He had a bad feeling this, but hoped to God he was wrong.
"Fine, but absolutely under no circumstances, are you to approach us, understand?" Clay really didn't want Sonny there, but he knew there was no way to talk Sonny out of it.
Sonny agreed and as he did so, both of their phones rang informing them of a mission. "Maybe you ain't getting that beer after all?" Sonny joked.
Clay just laughed as they got in his car and drove to the base. In all honesty, he wouldn't be heartbroken if he had to cancel on his dad.
/
Sonny and Clay were the last two to arrive and promptly took their seats in the briefing room.
Mandy had informed them that half of them would be going on a top secret mission in North Korea.
The fact that only half of them were going didn't sit right with Jason. "Why only half?"
Davis pulled up a picture of a submarine and informed them of the reason. "This is why. Say hello to your new home for the next two weeks. You're going to be entering on a submarine. As you know, they're not really known for their space. As a result, there is only room for 4 of you."
"Weeks? Why weeks?" Clay asked.
Davis informed them that because of the pickup location, it would take them almost two days to fly out to a ship where the sub would pick them up. From there it would take another couple of days to reach their desired location within North Korean waters, approximately 2-3 days to complete the mission and gather intel and then another few days to reach their exfil location.
"Well I'll gladly sit this one out. Have fun guys." Sonny laughed. Being in a giant tube underwater wasn't exactly his idea of a good time.
"Actually, you're going. Along with Jason, Ray and Clay." Blackburn stated.
Sonny threw his head back and rolled his eyes. Of course he has to go. "Wonderful." He replied sarcastically, resulting in jabs and jokes from everyone about all his phobias.
"When do we leave?" Jason asked.
"26 hours." Blackburn replied.
26 hours. Sonny looked right at Clay, knowing exactly where his head was. 26 hours meant Clay was still having that beer with his father.
Clay was a bit disappointed that they weren't leaving until tomorrow. He was actually kind of relieved when the mission came about, but since he had 26 hours before he had to leave, that meant he still had time to see his dad.
As soon as they were dismissed from the briefing room, Sonny and Clay headed towards his car.
"You know you don't have to go tonight. I'm sure he'll understand if you tell him we're heading out tomorrow." Sonny tried his best to talk Clay out of his plans.
"You don't him, man. If I cancel, he'll just show up at my door. You know, kinda like you did this morning." Clay joked. "I'd rather just get it over with and be done with him for a few months."
"You love when I just show up." Sonny smirked as he tried defending himself. "What times your date with Ash? I'll make sure I get there a good half hour early.
"6:30. But I'm serious Sonny. Stay away. I don't need any more drama from him." Clay said.
Sonny threw his hand up in surrender. "You'll barely even know I'm there." He said as he got into the passenger side of Clay's car.
/
Clay walked into the bar and scanned the taken seats, first spotting Sonny on one side of the bar, then laying eyes on his father.
He slowly walked over to where Ash was sitting and ordered a beer.
"Hey son. You look good. How have you been?" Ash said with a smile on his face.
"Still breathing, so I'd say pretty well." Clay replied.
"Good. I'm glad to hear. So listen, I'm just gonna cut to the chase. My new books about finished. We think it's gonna be bigger than the first one. I was kinda hoping you would maybe read the manuscript. You've always been good with words."
Clay was a bit reluctant but to keep the peace he reluctantly agreed. He really didn't want anything to do with his father's book, but if it would keep them from fighting before a spin up, he would agree to it.
Ash's phone rang and he informed Clay he would be right back, he just had to take the call from his publisher.
Clay nodded and looked at the TV. He had pretty much forgotten Sonny was even there. As he looked at the screen, he noticed an interview his father had done. "Hey, can you turn this up?" Clay yelled over to the bartender, who then handed the remote to Clay.
Sonny was now laser focused in on Clay. Watching him as they both listened to Ash's interview.
Clay turned up the volume just in time to hear part of his father interview. "My next book focuses a great deal on the missions the teams go on. Missions no one even knows are SEAL missions. For example, just a couple months ago Shia extremists threaten to poison the water supply in Saudi Arabia and it was the SEAL's who solved that problem."
"How do you know?" The reporter asked.
"I have a firsthand account from a SEAL that was there…" There it was. The real reason his father wanted to 'spend time with him.' Clay had heard enough. He turned the TV off, sat back in his seat and glared over at his father.
Clay put his beer down and headed straight for the parking lot. At this point he had completely forgotten Sonny was there. All he knew was that he never wanted anything to do with his father ever again.
As he walked to his car, he felt his frustrations and disappointments boiling over. He should have known his father had an ulterior motive.
He was winding up to punch a tree that was standing in front of his car when he felt a hand grasp his wrist. He turned around to see Sonny standing behind him.
"Now that would leave a mark. Probably not such a good idea before a spin up." Sonny remarked.
Clay freed his arm from Sonny's grasp and shook his head. "I should have known. The second he said he wanted to just 'spend time' with me, I should have known!'
"Hey. Look at me Clay. You don't need him. We all know you didn't tell him about Saudi Arabia. Don't let him get under your skin. We all know he's a shitty dad." Sonny felt bad. Part of him felt responsible. If he would have just minded his own business and didn't have Clay answer the phone, this could have possibly all been avoided. "Come on. There's another bar right down the street. Let's go talk about it over a drink."
Sonny threw his arm around over Clay's shoulder as they headed towards the other bar. Only a few steps from Clay's car and both their hearts dropped.
"Clay! Hey! Wait up!" Ash yelled as he jogged towards the two men.
Clay and Sonny turned around to see Ash running towards them.
"Where you going? You just got here." Ash asked. He had no idea his interview played at the bar while he was on the phone.
"Really? You just invited me here to use me Ash! I saw the interview, you know, about your' firsthand account." Clay yelled out.
Before Ash could even reply, Sonny's fist met Ash's face, taking both Clay and Ash by surprise.
Clay looked over at Sonny, who was shaking his hand out, with a surprised smile on his face. It wasn't the reaction Sonny expected from him, but was glad to see it. Ash on the other hand, wasn't too happy about it.
"You're just gonna let him hit me?" Ash asked, determined to have his son take his side.
"I mean, you kinda deserved it. I'm just sorry I didn't get to do it first." Clay shrugged his shoulder. "I'm done with this Ash. I'm done with you. Find someone else to read your manuscript."
Sonny smiled back at Clay as he finally cut the cord from his father. Ash walked away annoyed and sore. Sonny and Clay continued their walk to the bar, joking the whole way there, as well as the entire time they were there.
Sonny was glad the punch seemed to help lift Clay's spirits. The last thing he needed was the kid going on a super dangerous, top secret mission, with a distracted mind.
They only had two beers each at the bar. Neither one of them wanted to show up the next morning hungover.
As they were approaching their cars in the parking lot, Clay stopped to thank Sonny. "Hey man. Thanks for tonight. Believe it or not, I'm actually relieved to be done with Ash. I should have done it a long time ago."
"Don't go get all soft on me now goldilocks. It was partly my fault you ended up in that situation anyway. I was just righting my wrong." Sonny said.
"Well regardless. Thanks. For everything. Now go get some sleep. We got a big ole' tube waiting for us to grace it with our presence tomorrow deep in the ocean." Clay winked. He couldn't resist the jab.
"Ugh, you just had to go there didn't you? Don't remind me, please." Sonny rolled his eyes with a slight smirk. "I'll see you tomorrow."
They both entered their vehicles and headed home. Tomorrow was gonna come quicker than any of them wanted and they both knew it was going to be a long few weeks.
Hey guys. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. One of my readers messaged me a few days ago with this idea and it was too good to pass up. I really wanted to show the relationship between Clay and Sonny before I started the next few chapters. Anyway, I'm really excited about the ideas for this story so hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.
