Chapter 2: Family

Eric grinned at the three beautiful women that surrounded him at the bar. They were practically falling over him and there was no doubt in his mind he'd be getting lucky tonight.

'Honestly,' a voice behind him scoffed. 'Dress a guy in a uniform and some girls drop their panties no matter what he looks like.'

A giggle and snort followed the statement and Eric whirled around. A blonde was leaning against the bar. There was another blonde girl with her, though her hair colour obviously came from a bottle, and a slick looking guy. The fake blonde was leaning against the guy, obviously already well on her way to becoming wasted.

'Excuse me,' Eric glared at them. 'You've got a problem?'

'Just that you guys are all the same. Think you can get an easy lay by going out in public in your uniform,' the blonde shrugged, taking a sip of her drink.

'And you think I honestly need this uniform to get me a girl?'

'Those three bimbos aren't exactly speaking in your favour.'

'Taylor, lay off him. We're here to have fun not start fights,' her friend pointed out and started walking away, pulling the guy with her.

'Whatever,' the blonde, Taylor, shrugged and started following.

Quickly making up his mind, Eric reached out and caught her arm. Taylor spun around and glared at him. 'What's your problem?'

'Hey, you started picking a fight with me first,' Eric said, raising his arms in defence. Taylor crossed her arms, but didn't walk away. He took it as a good sign. 'I just think this conversation wasn't quite over yet.'

'My friend is waiting for me,' Taylor said.

'I doubt she realised you didn't follow,' Eric grinned and pointed.

Taylor had to stand on her toes to spot her friend, but then she saw what Eric meant. Marissa was getting to know the guy they just met more intimately. She looked like she was sucking his face off and it wouldn't be long before they'd go looking for a place somewhat more private. Great, she was ditched already. 'Yeah, well, your bimbos seemed to have lost interest too,' she retorted.

And indeed, the girls seemed to have given up on Eric and were now talking up three other guys in uniform. Eric looked over his shoulder at them and shrugged. 'I found more stimulation conversation. What's your poison?'

Taylor's eyes narrowed at him for a moment. 'Whatever you're having,' she finally stated boldly.

'So, what brings you to Vegas?' Eric asked after ordering two shots and two beers from the bartender.

'Marissa wanted to celebrate,' Taylor offered vaguely. 'You?'

'We're deploying soon,' Eric pointed to him and the other three guys in uniform. 'None of us had anywhere else to be, so we decided to go to Vegas while the others of our ship went home to spend time with family. Those asshats found out it's my 21rst birthday today and decided that called for a night on the town getting drunk. The uniforms were their idea to see if we could get some discount and ease our way past bouncers.'

Taylor laughed at his honesty. She raised her shot at him and he returned the gesture before they downed the drinks together. Both ended up coughing at the burning in their throat.

'Thank god I'm not the only rocky drinker here,' Eric laughed at her. 'Haven't been 21 for long yet either, have you?'

'Yeah,' Taylor agreed.

'So, since we're both ditched by our so called friends,' Eric continued. 'May I buy you another drink?'

Taylor looked at him for a moment and then shrugged. 'Doesn't seem like I have anything better to do.'

Eric grinned and signalled the bartender for two more shots.

Light flooded through the windows of the motel room and Eric groaned, rolling over and pulling the pillow over his head. Why hadn't he closed the curtains the night before? And why did he have to drink so much? A groan sounded next to him and that's when he realised he wasn't alone in the bed… or wearing anything for that matter.

A string of curses was muttered under the other person's breath and Eric had to smile a little at it.

Carefully he peeked out from under the pillow and spotted long blonde hair spilled out next to him. Taylor, his mind provided in a helpful but sluggish manner. She rolled over and two piercing blue eyes glared at him. 'You were planning this,' she accused softly.

'No,' he contradicted just as softly, though the sound still hurt his head. 'If I had been planning this, I would've made sure I'd have some recollection of it right now. And the last thing I remember we were still at that club.'

Slowly Taylor nodded, but quickly stopped as it hurt her head. Her memory stopped there somewhere too. 'Do you have any aspirin here?'

Eric chanced a glance around the room and groaned. 'Actually, this isn't my motel room. Guess we spontaneously booked a room somewhere for the night.'

Taylor glanced around too. 'Yeah, not my room either.'

Reluctantly she pushed herself up, pulling the covers with her and wrapping them around her body. Eric quickly snatched her pillow to cover himself. 'Hey!' he protested and winced at the sound of his raised voice.

Taylor gave no reaction, other than a wince herself, and continued slowly making her way around the room. After valiantly drawing the curtains, she started picking up her clothes. Eric watched her go, barely daring to move while she was still in the room. Once Taylor had her clothes together she moved to the bathroom to get dressed, but dropped her clothes with a yell when she spotted the paper laying on the table she passed.

She rounded on Eric, an angry fire burning in her eyes. Eric was glad for the pillow covering him. That look suited her a little too well and he felt his body reacting to it.

'This bloody motel room isn't the only spontaneous thing from last night,' she growled at him and gathered her clothes back up before fleeing into the bathroom.

Somewhat reluctantly, Eric got up from the bed and pulled on his pants before walking over to the table to investigate the offending paper.

It was unmistakable. At the top of the paper in bold lettering the situation was made crystal clear: Marriage Certificate. But another thing caught Eric's eye and it took him a moment to register what the paper was telling him.

When the bathroom door opened again, he rounded on her, anger and betrayal coursing through him. 'You're 19!'

Eric sighed as he looked at the offending marriage certificate. He rubbed his forehead and took a swing from the cheap vodka bottle in his hand. With an angry grunt, he dropped the certificate into the box of Lieutenant Earhardt's belongings and kicked the box into the back of his closet. He'd never been lucky in any of his relationships, but this one really took home the gold for how messed up it was.

Taking another swing from the bottle, Eric left the crappy bedroom of his newly acquired bungalow and intended to settle on the worn-down couch with his bottle and probably drain it before passing out.

The phone ringing interrupted his plans and after a moment's consideration, he changed direction and took the horn of its cradle on the wall.

'Myers,' he grunted.

'Well, hello to you too. You know that's kinda confusing sometimes, right?' a somewhat bright voice answered him.

'What do you want now?' Eric demanded, not in a mood to play any games.

'Okay, sorry,' the other person deflated a little. 'Look, I know we aren't close or anything. So, you're free to turn me down. But… Well… I'm set to graduate my criminal justice bachelor in two weeks and I thought… actually I hoped… it would be nice if…'

'You want me to attend your graduation, Rhett?' Eric sighed.

'Yeah,' the man on the other end of the line let out a breath. 'I understand if you're too busy. But… I thought it'd be nice to see you again. It's been a while. I called dad and he said he'd come.'

'Yeah? And how is the Rear Admiral? Would he really want his screw up, high school drop-out son to attend your graduation?'

'Eric, he's proud of you too. He's proud of both of us and what we became, despite everything that's happened. And you know he just wants a chance to be in our lives.'

'I'll see what I can do,' Eric promised. 'Where were you attending again?'

'Berkeley,' Rhett answered quickly. 'You won't even need to leave the state yet.'

'Yet?' Eric asked, narrowing his eyes, though he knew his younger brother won't be able to see.

'I passed my LSATs too,' Rhett explained. 'Got accepted into Harvard.'

Eric let out a barking laugh. 'And you tell me I'm not a screw up while I don't even have a high school diploma and you're off to Harvard.'

'Diplomas and degrees don't measure success, Eric,' Rhett told him. 'And we've always been two different people. You're good at what you do and that's something to be proud of. I know I'm proud to tell people my older brother serves with the marines.'

'What have you been sniffing?' Eric joked.

'Nothing,' Rhett laughed. 'Look, I have to go. I'll see you at my graduation?'

'If it means all that much to you, I'll make it happen,' Eric promised.

They said goodbye and Eric hang the horn back on the wall. He took a look at the bottle of vodka still in his other hand and sighed, looking for the cap instead of taking another swing. If his brother wanted to be proud of him so badly, he might as well try and live up to that image.

A/N: This chapter just wrote itself. Don't expect too frequent updates for this story, but yeah. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.