Chapter 14
"Yes sir, I've taken the target out!" Ed shouts shooting upright. He looks around his bedroom. His eyes meet his wife sleeping beside him. Realizing that he was only dreaming he wipes his forehead and lies back down. He props his head up on his hand and watches her sleep. Smiling he reaches his hand over and strokes her face.
As she opens her eyes she smiles at him. "You know…" she says stopping to stretch and yawn. "I can't decide whether or not you watching me sleep is incredibly sweet or incredibly creepy." She laughs. Ed pulls back and drops his mouth open in shock.
"I'm hurt, I'm really hurt." He says pouting and rolling over so that he can't see her.
"Oh come on I'm only kidding." She says still laughing and moving towards him wrapping her arms around him. She then rolls him back over so that she can see him.
"You were, were you?" he asks smiling at her and leaning in for a kiss. Nodding her head she kisses him back.
"What are you doing up so early?" she asks looking at the clock. It was only 7:30 am, but for Ed it was sleeping in.
"Couldn't sleep." He says simply, shrugging his shoulders.
"So in other words you had another one of your dreams." She said looking into his eyes. Ed looks down and away from her eyes. "And you are worried about Danny." She continues. Ed looks back up at her and smiles at her.
Leaning back in for another kiss he says smiling, "You always know what I'm thinking."
"And to answer the other question that you are thinking, no I have not heard from Danny; or Delinda for that matter." She says smiling, very pleased with herself. Amazed by his wife he just smiles and kisses her once again.
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Lying in bed she moves slightly and sighs frustrated with the sun peaking through the blinds. It then dawns on her that she doesn't have a window in her bedroom. Opening her eyes all of last nights events come rushing back into her head. Rolling over she sees Danny's nude body fast asleep. Feeling like an idiot for rushing Danny into a situation like this she rolls out of bed and slips on her pants and her shirt.
As she tiptoes out of the room she hears, "Where are you going?" she stops and lowers her head. She then turns around and looks into his eyes. As soon as she did it she knew it was a mistake, but she couldn't help it. His eyes are mesmerizing.
"Danny…last night…" she starts, lowering her head but is cut off by Danny.
"…was my fault." He finishes for her. Looking at him she appears to be confused, but really is just amazed. 'After everything he has been through and is going through how is he, still, such a gentlemen?' she thinks to herself. "You tried to tell me that I wasn't ready and you were right, but I didn't want to listen. I just wanted all of the hurt to go away. This is not your fault and you did nothing wrong." Delinda opens her mouth to talk, but Danny puts his hand up. "Let me finish. I know that you have feelings for me and to be honest I think somewhere deep down underneath all of this hurt I might have feelings for you too. With all of the things that you have helped me through the past few days I think we have just both grown a lot closer to each other, but I'm just not ready for a serious relationship, at least not right now." Taking in a deep breath he stops and looks at her gazing deep into her eyes.
"Danny, I really appreciate all of the things that you are saying, but I can't let you take the blame for what happened between us last night. I mean I was there too and I was obviously not putting up a fight, but I agree we did move way too fast and I am sorry." There is a long pause and Delinda turns around to exit the bedroom.
"D, don't go. I don't want things to be awkward between us. At least stay for breakfast or whatever." He says hoping that she will agree.
Delinda smiles, but is secretly cursing Danny inside for being such a gentlemen. It would be so much easier to just shut her feelings for him off, but when he does things like this she can't help but love him. Nodding her head she replies, "Yes". Walking out into the kitchen she opens the fridge only to find it empty. She then goes to the pantry and it too is empty. "Uh…Danny? I would love to stay for breakfast, but that would be a little difficult considering you have no food." She shouts to him in the other room. Danny smiles as he slips on his pants and walks into the kitchen.
"Oh." He laughs "sorry about that I forgot. When I was deployed I got rid of everything because I didn't want it to go bad considering I didn't know when or if I was coming back." Delinda was smiling up until his last few words.
"Well then what did you eat yesterday?" she asks changing the subject slightly.
"Your dad and I went out for coffee, I had a bagel there."
"Oh well, it looks like you are going out for breakfast again and after that I am taking you to the grocery store." She says smiling at him. "Now go throw on a shirt and let's go; oh and throw on a hat or something your hair looks horrible." She laughs.
"Oh and like yours looks so beautiful." Gasping Delinda turns to look in a mirror.
"Oh my god, Danny you let me talk to you this entire time looking like this? I thought you were my friend." She says running to his bathroom in search for a brush. Danny couldn't help but laugh as he entered the bathroom after watching her frantically combing her hair. Once she stops to poof it up a little bit Danny grabs the brush.
"Do you mind?" He asks starting to comb his own hair.
"Oh Danny sweetie, it's no use for you. Just put a hat on." She says looking at him without a hint of laughter in her voice. Danny drops his mouth open in shock.
"Oh yeah." He says smiling reaching in and grabbing her by the head giving her a noogy.
Laughing hysterically Delinda screams, "Ok, ok I am sorry." The two continue to laugh as he lets go. She then looks up at him and they both fall silent. He then reaches out and pulls her in with one arm kissing the top of her head and walks her out of the bathroom. He then takes his arm off of her shoulder and walks to the closet. Watching him closely Delinda furrows her brow out of curiosity. Reaching up he pulls out a hat and places it on his head. Delinda can't help but laugh, but stops when she sees him reach back up into the closet. For about a minute or so it is obvious that he is looking for something in particular. He then pulls it out; a hat with a ponytail slot in the back. Walking over to her he sticks it on her head. Laughing she readjusts it and places her hair through the slot.
"Well, it looks like we are ready to go." She says opening the front door.
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"It's 8:45 and she still hasn't called." Ed says pacing the kitchen. Jillian smiles and puts down box of Bisquick.
"She's probably still sleeping." Jillian says walking towards him.
"Well I can't wait anymore I'm going to call her." He says picking up the phone and dialing her cell phone number. As the phone rang Jillian wrapped her arms around him.
"Why don't you just let her sleep? Call her in a hour or two." Continuing to let the phone ring he ignores his wife.
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"Where do you want to go?" Delinda asks getting into the drivers seat of Danny's car.
"I don't know; something easy and something quick. Hey how about McDonalds?" he says looking to Delinda. Delinda laughs and looks at him as she starts up the car.
"Yeah ok." As she continues smiling she hears her cell phone ringing. Looking around she sees her purse in the back seat. "Danny can you get that." She asks looking at him with a pleading look. Danny complies and reaches into the backseat pulling her purse into his lap and searches through it for her phone. After finding it he flips it open and answers it without looking at the caller id.
"Hello?" he says holding onto his hat as they drive down one of the backstreets of Vegas.
"Hey D it's… wait who is this?" Ed asks in a state of confusion.
"Who is this?" Danny asks offended at the sound of the man's voice.
"Danny?" Ed asks after listening more intently to the man on the other end of the telephone.
"Ed?"
"Yeah, why do you have Delinda's phone?" He asks grateful that it was only Danny and not some nut job.
"Because, she is driving and couldn't get to the phone so I grabbed it for her. Is there something I can help you with?"
"Well to be honest I was just calling her to see if she had heard from you, but obviously she had. Why is she with you so early?"
"She found me at Mary's last night and I wasn't feeling so good so she took me back to my place and watched after me." He says hating to lie to Ed, though he was telling him half of the truth he knew that there was no way on the planet that he could tell him what else went on.
"Ok, can Delinda talk at the moment?" he asks wanting to ask her just exactly how he was not feeling good.
"Um yeah we are just pulling into the McDonalds parking lot so hold on a minute." Danny says then handing the phone over to Delinda. Taking the phone she takes the key out of the ignition and steps out of the car.
"Hey daddy."
"Hey, what was wrong with Danny last night?" he asks now worried about Danny rather than Delinda.
"He just felt really lightheaded and was having a hard time sleeping. So I drove him home and made sure he was going to be ok. Now we are going out to breakfast at McDonalds." She says glad that her father cared about Danny, but also sick of always having to explain herself.
"Ok, well I just wanted to make sure that he was ok. I guess I'll talk to you little later then."
"Ok, I love you daddy."
"I love you too sweetheart, buh bye."
"Bye.
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Mike walked through the front doors of the Montecito and into the lobby as he did every morning, but today it was different. Normally he would see Mary's bright face walking through the casino. Today he didn't. He obviously hadn't seen it the last morning or two either; but now, now that the funeral was done, it was really starting to settle in and he didn't like it one bit. Mike knew that he had to be strong not just for the girls but for Danny too.
As he continued to walk through the casino he saw Sam in Cup a' Joe's and stopped dead in his tracks. She wasn't reading her book like she normally did. Today, like Mike had thought earlier, was different. Today she sat at a table in the corner swirling her coffee around in the cup with a swizzle stick, she had her elbow on the table with her hand propping up her head. The look on her face was the same one that Mike had seen early yesterday morning and for a slight second he was sure that he had seen a tear slip from the corner of her eye.
He then made his way up the three steps into the coffee shop and over to Sam's table. When she finally realized that he was there she lifted her head and wiped her eye. This confirmed Mike's observation that she had been crying.
"How are you?" he asked sitting down in a chair opposite her. She looked at him and then to her coffee.
"I'm fine; you don't need to be worrying about me. It's Danny you need to be worrying about." She said trying to focus the attention on someone other than herself.
"Yeah I am worried about Danny, but that doesn't mean I can't be worried about you too."
"Yeah well, don't be I am fine." She says snappily.
"Sam, why do you always try to hide your feelings? It's ok to be sad; it's ok to feel like this." He said reaching across the table and grabbing a hold of one of her hands.
"No, no it's not. I told myself when I started here that I wasn't going to put down any roots and that I wasn't going to get attached to anyone." She says not making eye contact with him.
"Why, why can't you make friends? What is so wrong with that?" Mike asks reaching over and lifting her chin in order to look into her eyes.
"Because…every time I get close to someone something happens and I end up losing them. I have screwed up every relationship I have ever had." She says taking back her hands. Mike is somewhat shocked at her statement.
"That's not true. You have been here for what over a year now; and you have not lost any of us. I am not going to let you push us away either. You know why we are all friends?" Mike asks her taking her hands in his again. Sam shakes her head no. "Because all of us, in one way or another, don't have a real family. Nessa's dad died when she was a kid, Mary was never close with her father, Danny's mom died and rarely talks to his dad, my aunt is always on tour, and Delinda grew up away from her dad for the most part. You see we all have this in common and have formed our own family. Whether you like it or not, you are apart of it. We are a family and we will always stick together." Sam smiles at Mike and gets up from the table. As she stands Mike gets up as well. She then outstretches her arms and pulls Mike into a hug.
"That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me." She says into his ear as she hugs him. "Hey, you want to grab a bagel or something?" she asks beginning to let her guard down a bit.
Mike looks at his watch and replies, "Sorry I can't. I have a meeting with the security staff in ten minutes." Sam looks down kicking herself for allowing herself to be vulnerable. "But, I am wide open for lunch." He says smiling. Sam looks back up at him into his cheerful eyes.
"Ok, how about 11:30?" she asks feeling a little jittery.
"Sounds good; I'll see you there." He says, starting to turn towards an employee door."
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"How are your pancakes?" Danny asks lifting his head up from his own meal.
Nodding her head she replies. "Good. Yours?"
"Good. So what did your dad want this morning?" he asks.
"He wanted to know if you were ok. He told me to call him once I got home last night and let him know how you were, but…" she stops and looks at Danny "…But I didn't call." She finishes.
"You know I meant what I said this morning right?" he questions her looking into her eyes to let her know that he was serious.
Once again nodding her head she replies, "Yeah, I know, but I meant what I said too." She then puts down her fork as she finishes up her breakfast. There is a short pause and she then changes the subject. "Are you almost done?"
"Yeah I am done." He says placing both of their plates on the tray and getting up to throw them out. Delinda gets up behind him and then follows him out to the car. "I am ok to drive; really." He says getting into the drivers seat. Delinda sticks out her lower lip as if she was pouting.
"I liked driving your car. I had never driven it before last night."
"Yeah well I can't let you get to comfortable in it you might try and steal it." He laughs starting up the car. As he backs out of the parking spot he steps on the break, staring at a car a few spaces down. At first Delinda is confused and has no idea what he is looking at. She then follows his line of sight and sees the car. It looks exactly like Mary's. She sighs and looks back to Danny who has now realized that she caught what he was doing, continued to back out and head out of the parking lot.
"The same kind of thing happened to me yesterday." She says, not quite knowing what to say or if she should say anything at all. "I found one of her purses that I had borrowed in my closet and I thought to myself that I should return it and then it dawned on me. I guess things like that are going to be happening for a while." She says hoping that she hasn't said anything that would upset him.
"Yeah, I guess." He says not really wanting to talk about it at the moment. He had been having a good time and didn't want the pain to come back just yet. "So do you want me to drop you at your house? Or do you want me to take you back to your car and then you can drive home from there?" he asks. "Because I am assuming that you would want to take a shower and get a change of clothes."
"Um…why don't you just drop me off at my apartment." She says thinking that she could then go and pick up her car later giving her an excuse to see Danny and check up on him. Danny then nods his head and makes a few turns and arrives in front of her building.
"You want me to walk you up?" he says unbuckling his seatbelt and going to open his door.
Putting her hand out she replies, "No it's ok."
"You sure? It's no big deal." He asks again hating not to be a gentleman.
"Exactly, I am only walking to the door. God you are so like my dad sometimes." She says smiling.
Smiling back at her Danny says, "Yeah well I will take that as a compliment."
"It was meant as one." She says turning and heading to the front door of the building. Once Danny saw that she had made it in the building ok he started up the car again and took off. As he came to a stoplight he took out his cell phone and dialed Ed's cell number.
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Jillian jumped at the sight of the woman barging through the door on the television. Ed tightened his grip around her and smiled as she snuggled in closer to him. "What is this movie called again?" she asks.
"Misery; why do you ask?"
"Because this guy that plays the writer is kind of cute." She says giggling.
"Hey now, you can't say that kind of thing in front of me, or at all for that matter." He says jokingly. He leans in to kiss her, but is interrupted by the sound of his cell phone ringing. Laughing he gets up and makes his way over to the kitchen table and picks up his phone. Looking at the caller ID he looks to Jillian and furrows his brow.
"Who is it?" She asks.
"Danny." He says answering the phone. "Hello?" he says into the phone.
"Hey Ed, it's Danny."
"Yeah, I know. What's up?" he says trying to get to the chase to make sure that everything is ok.
"A little snappy this morning are we?" he says laughing. "Nothing's up I just wanted to call and say hey and see if you guys wanted to go out to lunch or dinner or something." Sighing in relief Ed looks to Jillian and shakes his head as if telling her not to worry.
"Um hold on a second and let me ask Jillian. Jillian do you want to go out to lunch or dinner with Danny today?"
"Yeah, of course how about dinner?" she says perking up a little. She had always liked Danny and new how much he meant to Ed; even though he didn't like to show it at times.
"Yeah we'll meet you for dinner. Where do you want to go?" he asks.
"Well I was thinking about just having you guys over to my house for a barbeque and have ribs or something."
"I don't know if that is such a good idea. Can you even cook?" Ed teases.
"Shut up and be here by around five." Danny says laughing.
"Ok see you then." Ed says also laughing and hanging up the phone. "Well it looks like we are going over to Danny's for a barbeque tonight." He says to Jillian making his way back over to the couch.
"Is anyone else going?" Jillian asks.
"I don't know actually. I didn't ask."
"Men, you guys never ask the right questions." she says shaking her head and pressing the play button on the remote.
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Danny pulls his car into the parking lot of a u-haul store. There is a man standing on the corner next to the building. Danny knows he's there but does not let the man know he is aware of him. The tall marine walks into the store and can see the man begin to fallow after him. As he walks into the empty store the bell goes off and an employee walks out of the back room.
"Hi, what can I do for you today?" he greets Danny.
"Hi, I need a dozen moving boxes and a box of bubble wrap." He says getting right to the point. On the counter there is a glass case full of some special moving supplies. Danny looks to the glass case and can see the man from the corner in the reflection behind him.
"Ok, no problem. Do you need someone to help you with your things out to the car?" the employee asks interrupting Danny's stare into the reflection.
"What? Oh uh, no I am fine thanks." He says grabbing the bubble wrap off the counter and heading to the car. As he turns around the man from the corner was on an isle near the door pretending to look at some moving supplies. 'Coincidently' he finished looking at the supplies at the same time Danny exited the store. Danny walks over to his car, leans over, and places the bubble wrap on the passenger seat of his car. He then turns back around and starts to head back to the store. This time he lets the man know he is aware of him. As he walks by he turns his head and looks the man straight in the eyes. The man freezes and says nothing. The look he is getting is not a pleasant one. It is a look that lets him know if he tries anything there will be no hesitation on Danny's part and he will lay him out. Danny continues towards the door and then opens it. He walks back over to the counter and sets down some money on the counter. He then turns around, picks up the bundle of boxes and heads out. Placing the boxes in the back seat he can hear footsteps coming up behind him.
"Look buddy I don't know what your problem is, but you can stop breathing down my neck." He says turning around to look at the man.
"Lieutenant McCoy?" the man asks extending his hand.
"It's Danny." He says furrowing his brow in confusion and reaching his hand out to shake the man's hand.
"Lieutenant, my name is Captain Woodrow, I have been sent here by the United States Military to discuss with you the possibility of a special ops career." He says showing Danny a badge. "I have been informed of the work you have done for your country in the past and I would like for you to hear me out." He says making direct eye contact with Danny.
"Captain, any other day I would be more then happy to hear you out, but I have only been home for a couple of days and I have already been through so much."
"Lieutenant, when you enlisted in the core you knew what you were getting yourself into. Our boys have been coming home in body bags, so don't you tell me you have been through a lot. You are still alive and back home!" the man says starting to raise his voice.
Danny's blood pressure starts to boil and he can feel himself begin to lose it. "With all do respect Captain; you have no idea what I have been through. You are right about one thing I am alive and if I could, I would trade places with any one of my men. When I was over there each and every one of my men died. I then came home to propose to my girlfriend, who I have known my entire life, I had the ring in my pocket and she was killed in a shooting at my work right in front of me. So don't you come up to me captain asking me to do something for you and tell me that I don't have a right to be angry. I have every right to be angry!" Danny yells now up in the man's face.
There are a few people around them who are trying not to stare, but can't seem to help it. "Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go and pack up my dead girlfriends things." he says turning and getting into his car. Speeding out of the parking lot he wiped the sweat off of his brow. He couldn't remember the last time someone had made him so furious. Normally he could control his temper, but this, this was just too much. Especially after everything he had been through in the last couple of days.
As he continued to drive he couldn't help but begin to wonder what captain Woodrow was talking about; a career in special ops. What the heck did that mean? Was he talking about the CIA or a new unit? He didn't know; what he did know was that this man was able to find him at a u-haul store so he knew he would be seeing him again; whether he liked it or not.
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