Chapter 21
Hank returned from the main house with the borrowed flag in his hands. As he rounded the barn he saw a very emotional Chet and Julie step out of the barn.
Chet gave Julie a tight hug then responded to the sound of footsteps in the dirt and looked into Cap's eyes.
Chet was clearly closer to and more involved with Frank Dillon that Hank had realized. His friend had been right; he would need to get Chet alone and get him to open up and somehow convince him that he wasn't at fault for Frank's death. Hopefully he would start to unwind after the funeral and his part in it was over.
Hank hoped that he'd be able to talk Chet in to going home with the rest of them right after the funeral even though he still had another shift covered. In Hank's opinion he needed his friends now.
Chet's voice was understandably off when he responded to his Captain. "I'll be up there in just a few minutes; I need to walk Julie to the house."
If it hadn't have been growing dark Hank surely would have noticed the lipstick coloring the lineman's mustache as he walked by but he didn't so he was sure Chet was still reeling from the aftermath of his friend's death.
Chet proceeded to hold Julie tight to his side and offer her whatever body heat was getting through her shawl as they headed for the house.
"Have you told your father about the job offer yet?"
"No, I wanted, needed; to tell you first…Dad's probably in bed already. He has a shipment of salt lick and supplies that's scheduled to arrive around four in the morning. I'll tell him as soon as he unloads that."
Chet just nodded his head in understanding that he'd have to wait until morning to talk with Julie's father.
When they got to the house they heard Julie's sister talking, or rather giving out orders. "Now, brother dear, you need to keep those firemen," she spoke the word as if it were some social disease, "away from Julie whatever you have to do. I'm sure she'll grow to like Roy if she'll just give him a chance. And he'll be much more interested in her if she's not hanging around those smelly firefighters. If we don't do something right now she just might end up married to one of those low life public servants. Just think of what that will do to our family name."
Julie turned to Chet with embarrassment at her sister's words. Chet just smiled at her and brushed her tears away with his fingers.
"We can't choose our family members," he offered up in understanding. "Don't worry about it, I know how you feel about me and that's all that really matters." Chet placed a kiss on her forehead and led her into the house before allowing her to slip up to her room without engaging with her siblings and in-laws.
Chet quickly returned to the bunk house were his fellow public servants were waiting to run through their part at the cemetery the next day.
It had been a while since any of these men had been part of a color guard and they all felt the need to run through the flag folding once or twice as a refresher. The most difficult issue to deal with was the placement of people. This would be the first time they had all been together with Chet Kelly as the head. There wasn't anyone there that had any kind of a problem with this order but it did make it necessary to figure out where the rest of the men would be placed in the formation. All of this took just a few short minutes and as they worked it out they all noticed Chet's less than totally focused attention. Even though it was Chet's first time as the head he knew the commands. All of them did; this was something they did with honor, to show honor and it ment a lot to each of them for reasons that were unique to each of them.
They ran through folding the flag three times before they felt their movements were as crisp and professional as they should be then Kelly recited the words used to present the flag three times before he felt his words met his satisfaction.
Five very tired firemen then prepared to call it a night, each commenting that this was similar to sleeping at the station but they were sure they wouldn't be called out on a fire or anything before morning. It was Cap that set his travel alarm clock and informed everyone that breakfast would be served at 7:30 sharp and that they could expect to be well fed.
Five men climbed into their chosen bunks and the lights were turned off except for a night light to point out the door to the bathroom for sleepy persons in a strange place. One man continued to shuffle with a few things before sitting on his bunk and thinking hard, letting out several quiet but noticeable sighs.
"You alright there Chet?" Cap called out in the darkness but when Chet looked around he noticed all eyes on him.
"Yeah, I um, I just need to find my copy of the talk I'm giving at the funeral tomorrow. I can't seem to find it; I thought I left it right here on the night stand."
"I moved it under the phone book after the breeze caused by us moving our things around blew it under one of the bunks," Roy called out from his bunk.
Chet was able to feel around in the darkness and find the papers. Counting the pages in the dark, he sighed.
"Thank you, I'm just going to slip this in the inside pocket of my dress uniform." Chet got up and slipped into the closet, closing the door behind him and turning on the light there. John and Roy each gave a sorrowful smile at the memory of Frank in that very closet. They had already discovered that it was the only one with a light inside.
They all watched until Chet returned to his bed and since he was aware that they were all watching him Chet did climb under the covers and lay as quietly as he possibly could. However he did not go to sleep, but fought to keep his breathing slow and even for the sake of all those he knew were watching him. His mind however was going at full speed. What if Julie's father felt the same what her sister did? Was he good enough for Julie in his eyes? Of course he wasn't, no man is ever good enough for your daughter. Could the guy really say no when someone asked for his daughter's hand in marriage? Well now, all Chet had to do was think about the guy his daughter brought for her sister to meet this time and what he over heard about the men that had been brought for her to meet when her brother announced his engagement. He sure hoped the father had the right to say no. If it was his daughter, he'd want the right to say no.
Did he deserve Julie? That was a heavy question. He wanted her, he loved her but was he so selfish that he would come between her and her family?
Between her and her sister, yes, at least until she learned to accept Julie's wishes. But Julie truly loved and respected her father even if she acted otherwise from time to time. They were close, they didn't always agree but they could talk things over and accept to disagree. At least they did when it came to her accepting custodianship over Frank.
Did he meet with her father's approval? Was there something he could do to change things if he didn't?
In the next bunk Captain Stanley was also slow to get to sleep, he could tell that Chet was stressed but then he had every right to be. The death of a young man he had grown close to and speaking at his funeral, were very stressful. He had to somehow talk him into going back with them after the funeral so that he could have the support of his firefighting brothers to help him deal with everything and get his life in order again. He knew that he personally needed to spend some time with him and convince him that answering that boy's question in no way made him responsible for Frank's death.
Chet must have finally drifted off to sleep; in his sleep he drifted into a dream where he and his crew mates were standing before Chief Houts. There had been a lot of talk that was mumbled and indistinct then the high Chief pounded his gavel on his desk. 'Alright, everyone, since there seems to be an agreement The man previously known as Roy DeSoto will now be known as Chester Bernard Kelly, and the man previously known as Chester Bernard Kelly will for now on be known as Roy DeSoto. Unfortunately, parties named JoAnne DeSoto, Christopher DeSoto, and Jenifer DeSoto are outside the Los Angeles County Fire Department jurisdiction so the party now known as Chester Bernard Kelly may no longer claim, JoAnne DeSoto, Christopher DeSoto, and Jenifer DeSoto as his family.
This leaves the party now known as Roy DeSoto to be their legal and lawful responsible party and since according to this legal decision, Mr. DeSoto, you are already legally bound in marriage and you are therefore not available to take Miss Julie Clark as your legally wedded wife.
"But I don't want him to be my daddy he had hair on his face," the little blond girl stood on her chair to scream.
"I don't want him to be my dad; he's just a fireman he doesn't save people, my father is a paramedic," the boy next to her started yelling.
"Now wait a minute, I agreed to let him have my name but not everything else."
"You can't expect me to sleep with that, that, that…fur rug."
Chet's eyes finally flew open but he felt as if he had been trying to get them to do that for a while. As his breathing calmed down he felt grateful for the darkness and the complete knowledge that what he was opening his eyes from was a dream, a totally ridiculous dream.
When his breathing was finally down to normal Chet pulled the covers up to shield the light from his watch. It was two a.m. Julie's father would be getting up to accept that shipment in a couple of hours.
Chet looked around the room to make sure he hadn't shouted out in his sleep or something to wake everyone else up. No one moved so he carefully sat up and placed his feet on the ice cold floor. He managed to ever so quietly slip over and into the closet where his clothes were kept and turning on the light he was able to get dressed in the warmest clothes he had brought with him.
Pulling the extra blanket off of his bed as he walked by, Chet wrapped it around him and as silently as he could Chet made his way down to the kitchen and sat in a chair at the table where he could see the Clark house across the open area of the compound.
He was sure Julie's father wouldn't refuse him his daughter's hand in marriage just because his name wasn't Roy. Would he?
Chet sat at the table thinking of Julie's father standing in front of him as he mentally rehearsed how he would word his request for his daughter's hand in marriage. Was he supposed to get down on one knee to talk to her father? They don't show this part in the movies.
Sitting at the table, Chet was afraid to go back to bed for fear that he would fall asleep and miss Julie's dad getting up to accept the shipment. So there he sat, wrapped up in a blanket, thinking and rethinking every word he wanted to say 'til he had no idea what he was going to say.
Chet did manage to lay his head down on his arms and soon he felt a hand on his back, rubbing.
"You need to get some sleep there, pal. If you don't you'll be yawning." Cap continued to rub Chet's back. "Now this is something I would never do on the job but under the combined circumstances here I'm going to make a huge exception."
Chet felt his captain take a hold of his hand and place something inside of it. "Looking down he saw a mini bottle of whisky. "If you take it now it will help you get some sleep but you'll have slept it off before you have to give your speech at the funeral. We'll all make sure you don't do any driving."
Chet just couldn't believe what was happening. He blinked his eyes and rubbed them a little to make sure he wasn't just having another dream. That was the moment he noticed the light come on at the Clark house and knew Julie's dad was getting ready to accept his shipment.
Chet glanced at his watch and it was only a quarter to three in the morning. What was he supposed to do now? The only thing he was sure about was that he didn't want to be under the influence of anything when he talked to Julie's father.
Growing more and more nervous Chet noticed the door to the house across the way opening and a loan figure coming out pulling his coat tighter around him and walking slowly toward the barn.
Chet slipped the bottle in his pocket. "Cap, I think what I need right now is to go for a walk."
"Now! Chet, I know you've not spent a lot of time around here but it's cold out there this time of night. A lot colder than it gets in Southern California."
"I've been here for several days now, Cap," Chet whispered in an attempt to keep from waking anyone else. "I know how cold it gets. There's some heavy coats in the barn; I'll borrow one of those. I just need a little fresh air and if that doesn't work I'll take your advice. Just promise me you'll wake me up in time to get ready in the morning."
Before his caring captain could talk him out of it, Chet slipped into the frigid night air promising to be back in half an hour.
Carl Clark heard the footsteps on the stairs coming from the bunk house and waited to see who would step into the moonlight. He guessed one of two people and he was right, the only other person he would have expected was Henry. This time it was Chet and he was pretty sure the man needed to talk to him.
"You're going to freeze to death in that California jacket." Carl pulled him into the barn and tossed him one of the coats hanging on the wall. It was common to work up a sweat while mucking the barn and be in need of a dry coat so several older ones were kept there for that reason. Carl then moved to a bench in the barn in an area that was warmed by the body heat of the animals and patted the other end inviting Chet to join him.
"Looks like you're having difficulty sleeping tonight, too," Carl opened up the proverbial conversation floor.
"Kinda." Chet realized now that there was no time left for rehearsing, no second guessing and he couldn't remember what all he rehearsed any way.
"Mr. Clark, there's something I need to talk to you about."
Carl turned to the man sitting next to him with excited anticipation and a mournful sense of loss. "You've got my undivided attention, son, what's on your mind?"
"You know as well as I do that Julie makes up her own mind and pretty well does whatever she wants but my mother raised me to do things properly so I'm…" The words were trying to freeze in his mouth and freeze his mouth and vocal cords with them but he had to get it out. He'd deal with the aftermath later.
"I would like to ask your permission to ask Julie for her hand in marriage." There he said it, now what was Julie's father going to say.
Carl looked at Chet for a few minutes without saying a thing. Then he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees before sitting up straight and looking at Chet again.
"What if I were to say no?"
Author's note: My beta is in need of some time off for some medical reasons. Is there anyone out there who would be willing to help me finish this story? I'd appreciate it.