They had to put on their armor for the last time. One last time for the welcoming on earth. After that, they would have to give back their armors to the army, so that other soldiers could wear them. Soldiers coming freshly from Basic.
Simmons felt nervous, nauseated. He was trembling slightly. He knew his family would come. Surprisingly, his dad was still alive and obviously agreed to come and welcome him back on earth. Somehow, the cyborg was sure his dad only came to see if he could make him to his loyal servant. He was old and needed someone to look after him. His mom deceased long ago of cancer. Simmons had still been in Basic back then.
Simmons felt a reassuring squeeze of his right hand. Grif. They all were wearing their armors, bare of their helmets. He could see the small smile he gave him. Everything would be okay. That was it what this smile meant. Simmons smiled back, squeezing Grifs hand back as the voice of Four Seven Niner came out of the speakers. "We're entering the atmosphere in about two minutes. Landing in fifteen. Please go to your seat and fasten your seatbelt. It could get a little bumpy." The last word was dripping of glee, Wash commenting that with a groan.
"Something the matter?" asked Grif casually, mustering the Freelancer beside him.
"I already had this conversation with her and Carolina." Giggles from the cockpit floated over. Carolina and Four Seven Niner obviously had their fun. Like back in the good ole days, Carolina took over the place of the co-pilot.
"Uh-hu? And what happened?"
"Four Seven Niner let the Pelican fall freely from two thousand to two feet. Saying it could get a little bumpy. Explanation enough?"
"I said crashing." Corrected the pilot the ex-Freelancer, beginning to laugh again as Wash only groaned. "Please don't say crashing!" The passengers of the Pelican, the Blood Gulch Crew and some other soldiers, began laughing.
There were about two Pelicans landing on the military base on Washington D.C.
Funny incident though Simmons, while following Grif and the others out of the plane. These two ships brought only the soldiers going to America from their ship. There will be others coming and bringing more soldiers to earth when other Ships from other places in the galaxy arrived.
The first thing Simmons did was looking up to the sky. He missed the way the terrestrial sky looked. How familiar the feeling under his boots felt. Together with the other soldiers, they waited until the president in person welcomed the first ship. After they dispersed, along with their families, it was time for them to be welcomed back home. Standing in a row with the other soldiers, they all snapped to attention, their helmets tucked under their right arm as of military regulation. For once, even Grif followed orders.
Grif could see different faces and people standing there. Most of them were unknown. Except of some few. There was his dad, why ever he came, there was Kai bubbling at the side of an elderly woman. Then there was a young woman. She looked almost like Ala, so Simmons assumed that it was Kristina, her younger sister.
The others were unknown to him.
Simmons played along with the speech of the president, answering when he was calling his name, accepting gratitude, but that was about it. No medal, no honor, just the thanks of the entire planet and human race for his duty. As if he could buy himself something of that.
Since he was together with Grif, he wasn't such a kiss-ass anymore. He distanced himself a bit from military high-ups, because every high-up he met mostly had something bad in mind or was generally crazy as fuck. Even Sarge.
After the welcoming, one of the Pelicans, missy, got dragged to the hangar. Four Seven Niner told them to also stay here, maybe open up a flight school or instruct the soon-to-be pilots of the military.
All the soldiers went to a barack on their right side, changing from their armor to their normal civilian clothes. They left the armor there, now exiting the building. Grif was wearing an orange hoodie over a black shirt, together with blue jeans.
Simmons decided to wear black jeans with a white shirt and a black leather jacket he got from the girls of his squad back on chorus.
The others also were also mostly wearing jeans and shirts, together with jackets or hoodies. It was cool here, even for early fall.
Joining the group, Simmons could see Kai running towards Grif, flinging her arms around his neck. "Dex! You're home! Finally! Now we can go surf again!"
Grif laughed, returning the embrace. "Yeah Kai, sure as fuck we're going to go surfing again!"
Immediately after, Kai went over to Simmons to fall around his neck. "And you moron will learn how to surf!"
"Uh, I think… I'm better staying out of water." Replied the cyborg, face red as his armor had been.
Kai put some distance in between them, Simmons thanked her for that in his mind, mustering him. "What? You anxious you would rust?" loud laughter erupted from the Grif siblings as they imagined the pictures of a rusting Simmons.
"Uh! No! But I drown like a stone!" tried Simmons to retort, only making it worse. "And rust then?" again, both laughed, Simmons sputtering something incoherent, but not really able to form a retort.
"Kaikaina! Let this poor boy be and make some space so I can welcome my boy!" Kai immediately stepped aside, only to be replaced by a massive woman. She was even shorter than Grif, but as twice as wide as he had been in his best days.
"You look good my dear." These words were directed to Grif, after his mom pulled him in a bone crushing hug.
"Thanks mom. You too. Still working at the circus?"
"Na, I'm fed up with that. I found a work at a bar in Honolulu. Kai is living with me." Grifs sister grinned widely.
Instead of saying something else, the eyes of Grifs mom settled on Simmons, who was standing a bit behind his fiancé, waiting nervously to move on. "And who is this handsome boy my girl greeted some minutes ago?"
Simmons turned bright red again, sputtering some incoherent words. "Mom that's Richard Simmons. Simmons, that's my mom, Moana Grif."
"Nice to meet you boy." Before Simmons could say something, he got pulled into a bone crushing hug by his soon mother-in-law.
Breathing in a huge gulp of air as she let go of him, he suddenly felt how someone grabbed his right hand, accompanied by an surprised exclaim of Kai. "Not true!"
"What, honey?" that was Ms. Grif.
"Here! Look mom!" Simmons arm got yanked around in an unnatural and painful position, making the cyborg yelp in pain.
"Careful sweetie, don't break his arm." Kai let go of Simmons, letting him rub away the pain, before again taking his hand. This time more gentle and careful.
"Here! Look mommy!" again making her look on Simmons hand, before she turned around to Grif. "You finally got off of your fucking backside?"
Grif grinned embarrassed, scratching the back of his head. "Well yeah, obviously."
The chattering went on, his mom happy with her son finally getting married. She seemed to be a very open minded person, as she didn't freak out because her son was going to marry another man. Okay, considering the Grif family, it wasn't so surprising anymore.
Looking around he saw his dad scowl at him, shaking his head before leaving without a word. He didn't even come over. Simmons heart sank. "Hey, come on. Let's go to the airport. Our flight awaits us soon. " muttered Grif, pulling him away. They walked to a waiting cab together with Grifs mom and Sister. "He's not worth that you feel down. Remember what he did?"
"I know what he did. But he's my dad after all."
"No he wasn't your dad. He might be your begetter, but he's not your dad." Simmons sighed, leaning his head against Grifs shoulder. "Yeah, you're right."
The cab pulled out into traffic to bring the Grifs and Simmons to the airport. Grif and Simmons didn't had much left. To be honest, they mostly only had what they were wearing now. They would need to buy the rest. Luckily it paid out to be a space marine as they both had enough money to set up a whole new life.
Simmons wouldn't also want to take something from his old life into his new. He would leave everything behind and start new. With his family. The Grifs.
Ala hadn't been able to relax after the president was gone, as her sister already flung her arms around her neck. "Sis!"
"Kris?"
"Yeah it's me! Don't you recognize me?"
"You had been twelve when I left for military!" laughed Ala holding her sister on arm's length to look at her before pulling her back into a hug. "You look great sis!"
"You too!" Laughed her sister, before they both finally separated.
Before Kris again could say something, Ala shortly motioned over to Wash, standing beside her. "Kris, that's Wash. Wash, that's my sister Kristina."
"Nice to meet you Kristina." Greeted Wash her, shaking her hand politely.
"No need to be so formal. Just call me Kris. Nice to meet you." Kris replied the shake of their hands.
"If I knew that there are so much nice guys around in military I would have joined too!"
"Kris!" exclaimed Ala, feeling her face heat up. She had almost forgotten how much Kai and Kris were alike sometimes. At least when it came down onto hitting on guys bluntly.
"Well, not every guy in the military is like me." That was just one sentence, but it sounded completely different for Ala and for her sister.
"Besides, he's already taken." Cut Ala in, before Kris could start another attempt, and showed her the ring she was wearing.
"Wow! Congratulation! Come on! Let's go to the cab. Your flight is going soon."
"Don't you come with us?" asked Ala, a bit sad to leave her sister again.
"Sure I come. That's why we need to catch the cab. My luggage is already in there."
Alas face lit up, but still she wasn't moving.
"Don't you have someone waiting for you Wash?" she asked her fiancé, now standing beside her.
"My parents died soon after I joined the military. And I don't have any siblings or grandparents. So there's no one waiting for me." He sounded casual, but Ala knew he was sad about it. It hurt to see the families of all the others welcoming the others soldiers happily, knowing exactly no one would be waiting for you.
The flight to Hawaii was silent in many ways. Most of the people were sleeping, because the whole stress and the standing for hours exhausted them. The family members were either sleeping or doing something to get the time around. Ala soon fell asleep, her sister following shortly. During their drive to the airport, Kris told them that she was living on Oahu, one of the smaller islands, using the return of her big sister to make holidays in D.C. before returning to the island. At least they would be able to see each other more often like this.
The first sunrays painted the sky in a faint pink as the plane landed. By the time they got out of the airport, the sun was shining brightly. The cabs there brought them to the military base they would stay in until they found their own home. The family members got transferred to a close-by hotel.
Just before Wash and the others took off to meet their families and friends again Ala shortly called the broker, appointing for the next day. He would have to search houses in close by ranges to the beach for all of them. At least it would be a lucrative assignment. To be able to sell four houses in one go was a rare opportunity. Sarge and Tucker decided to rent an apartment, whilst Carolina would use the base as her home, just like Four Seven Niner. They both got job opportunities to train recruits, which expected from them to travel around the world, maybe to some close-by planets in space, which got colonialized by humans.
The next hours passed by in a blur. Ala, Wash and Kris were chatting about their lives, what they saw and what their plans were. Ala and Wash decided to keep the secret about Alas pregnancy for themselves. At least there were still more than two months to go until the critical three months were over.
As the sun set, Kris left for the airport to fly back to Oahu. She had to work the next day and wanted to shortly go home before leaving again for her shift.
Ala and Wash decided to go back to the base and start organizing everything for their new life.
They were sitting in a restaurant close to the military base. Grif again inhaling the food in an alarming pace, Simmons trying to coax him into at least using his table manners. But of no avail. Grif was eating as shitty as ever, Kai laughing her ass off and Simmons huffing frustrated. Grifs mom observed the three of them. Her long hair was almost white by now, wrinkles and age marks were beginning to appear.
The life span of a human got increased massively by now. They were able to reach the age of 150 without problems by now, the oldest human had gotten almost 200. Luckily the evolution granted that most of the life you look as young as thirty-five, maybe forty.
Grif and Simmons just had reached the first third of their life span. Grifs mom obviously was in the last part, what made her look older. Simmons guessed that she was around 120i, maybe a bit older.
"Hey mom, what's with this change of heart all of a sudden? When I was drafted you were an alcoholic, working as freak for the circus and a slut."
"Grif!" hissed Simmons, looking at his fiancé with exasperation. They just had met and he was insulting his own mom already with such harsh words.
"It's okay Richard." Waved the elderly woman her soon to be good son off. "I deserved it. Besides, I taught my children to be honest." Simmons wanted to say something about the harshness of her words, but she made him shut up with a kind smile.
"I'm dry for more than ten years now. It was also the time I left the circus and went back to Hawaii to get a real job. After Kaikaina suddenly left to go after you, I thought a lot about you two and my role of a mother. And I realized that I did more wrong than right."
"You're telling me." Snorted Grif, slight anger underlying his words.
"I know you had to rise your sister and yourself alone for most of the time, and I'm sorry about that. That's why I decided to change myself. That I at least can be a good mom when you return safe and sound."
There was a long silence settling in, Grif only observing his mom attentively, slight anger sparkling in his eyes. "You know that I can trust you so easily again." It was a statement. No question.
"I know my dear. But I hope nonetheless you're willing to give me a chance."
"We will see. First you have to prove yourself."
His mom nodded, accepting the condition of her son.
Simmons observed these two, how they went back to discuss a more lightly subject, avoiding the one which could cause them to walk on dangerous ground.
Even Kai sometimes gave her opinion about the subject, making the three discuss avidly.
Simmons looked out of the window, thinking of his father. He didn't change at all. He might have come to the reception, but he left as soon as he saw that his son hadn't gotten straight during the military. He even seemed furious as he saw that Simmons was engaged to another man.
A hand waving in front of his face drew his attention back to reality.
"Hey, earth to Simmons. You there?"
"Yeah, sorry Dex. What did you say?"
"I asked if we all should go outside, have an ice cream and have a walk on the beach. Kai came up with the idea."
"Not true!" cut Kai in, but was ignored by her brother.
"Oh yes, sure."
After they paid the bill, the four people left the restaurant, getting an ice cream and made their way down to the beach to enjoy the setting sun.
