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Tom barely slept a wink that night. It wasn't the first time in his life that he spent the night tossing and turning, trying to quiet the thoughts constantly running through his mind, but it was the first time it happened since he got his oldest son back. When Karen told him that Hal was dead, Tom hardly slept for over a week. Denial, disbelief, fear, pain, and grief overwhelmed his body and mind so strongly that rest was impossible. It was only when his exhaustion became so great that he finally passed out.
After the parent realized his child was still alive, sleep came a bit easier. And when Tom finally saw Hal with his own eyes, when he held him in his arms and brought him to their new home, he finally slept well. He may have had a lot of unanswered questions, he still does, and was a little worried about the state his son was in, he could feel Hal's ribs when he hugged him, and could see a little bit of a haunted look in his eyes, but those worries never kept him up at night. After all, Hal was alive, was safe, and was with them. They could deal with everything else later. Then, last night happened.
A blind man could see how distant Hal had become from everyone around him, and Tom wasn't blind. While he wasn't as close to his oldest child as he was to his younger ones, he could easily tell that there was something off with Hal. He just wasn't acting like himself. And there had been times he seemed not only on edge, but a little paranoid and jumpy. Tom had been trying to give Hal some time and space, but after what Weaver and Anne told him last night, it was time to try actually talking to him. It was time for him to approach his son instead of waiting for Hal to come to him.
Once the 2nd Mass leader went outside, he heard a loud commotion coming from the edge of the courtyard and a crowd forming at the opening of an alley. The alley closest to the building Hal was living in. Panic suddenly flooded Tom's entire body and he took off towards the chaos, hoping that his son wasn't involved. He knew that Hal wouldn't do anything that would get this kind of reaction from the people of the 2nd Mass, but that didn't mean he wasn't somehow involved.
Even though a couple of weeks have passed since he and Weaver had brought Hal back to Chinatown and most of the people in Chinatown have quieted down their worries and fears and actually started to accept his presence and stopped gossiping about him, believing he was an Espheni spy, there were still some that didn't. Those people were Pope and his crew. Tom wouldn't at all be surprised if one of them finally decided to act on their suspicions. They had done the same thing to him after all.
Upon reaching the growing crowd, Tom breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that there seemed to be a fight or wrestling match between two soldiers and neither of them was his son. And if the soldiers that were wrestling each other weren't smiling, it would've looked like they were actually trying to pound each other, especially with the crowd egging them. Knowing that even though Hal wasn't involved the fight had to stop, Tom stepped forward and yelled, "Alright, that's enough! Get back to work!"
The crowd immediately started grumbling and groaning in disappointment but followed in their leader's orders, as did the two fighters that were wrestling. As the group dispersed, Tom's gaze landed on a figure standing across the alley almost completely out of sight. It was Hal. The relief the parent was already feeling grew at the sight, but then disappeared when he saw the expression his son was wearing. Hal looked terrified yet distant, as though he was lost in a nightmare or something. Like he had seen something that forced him to recall something terrible, causing the father to walk over to him.
"Hal?" Tom's son turned his head so fast that for a moment the parent worried he would get whiplash. He brushed off that concern though, focusing on the panicked look in Hal's eyes as he asked, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Hal replied, giving his father the reassuring half grin he always did whenever Tom asked about his welfare, the panicked expression disappearing completely behind his well-made walls.
"You just look a little," Tom paused for a brief moment, trying to come up with a word that wouldn't cause Hal to pull away from him before finishing his sentence with the word, "pale."
"Just a little tired. Didn't sleep great last night." Hal explained, slowly losing the smile but kept his expression somewhat chill, clearly making sure that Tom didn't think anything was wrong. It was too late for that though.
"Why not?" Tom questioned, hoping his tone of voice didn't sound like he was trying to interrogate Hal.
"Just one of those night, you know?" Hal responded with a shrug of his shoulders.
Gently placing a hand on the young man's shoulder, Tom said sincerely, "Hal, you know, you can talk to me, about anything."
"I know, but everything's fine." Hal repeated what he had been saying ever since he returned to Chinatown. He turned his body which made it clear to Tom that he was about to walk away, but the father was not going to let the son off that easy. Tom gripped Hal's shoulder tightly, making him turn back to face him.
"I know it's not Hal. There's something going on with you." Tom told him with a quiet but firm tone, hoping that his child would see that he wasn't going to drop the subject and would open up to him instead of pushing him again and risk causing a scene as they were still somewhat in public.
"Yeesh, I think you're becoming delusional old man, because everything's fine. There's nothing wrong with me." Hal said, his cocky grin returning.
"Hal…" Tom lowered and shook his head, letting go of Hal's shoulder. He stayed quiet for a moment, trying to figure out how exactly to get Hal to open up to him since he wasn't answering his bluntness but the younger man quickly decided to take advantage of the older one's pause.
"Dad." The former history teacher's head shot up at the harshness of Hal's voice and found his normally calm and soft brown eyes hard and cold as he once again insisted, "Everything is okay, alright? Just drop it."
A few tense second passed in silence between the father and son. Tom didn't want to let Hal brush him off again like he had been for the last few weeks, but he knew from the look in his eyes that Hal wasn't going to budge anytime soon, not even to avoid having people overhear them and stop and stare at them. If he dropped the subject like Hal wanted him to though, he wasn't sure what would happen in the long run. The last thing he wanted was his eldest to start avoiding him so that he wouldn't risk having this conversation again.
Before he could decide how to proceed with Hal, he heard Weaver's voice shouting, "Tom!"
Tom turned to look behind him and saw not only Weaver but also Cochise standing beside him several meters away in front of the gate. He quickly yelled back, "Coming!" then turned back to face Hal only to find him gone. He had slipped away completely out of sight in those few seconds when Tom wasn't looking. As much as he wanted to, he didn't try to look for Hal. No, he had to go talk to Weaver and Cochise right now. With a loud sigh, Tom walked towards the gate where the Colonel and the Volm were waiting for him.
"Welcome back Cochise. It is good to see you." Tom greeted the Volm with a forced smile. He was still worried about Hal, but he had to push that aside right now.
"It is good to you see as well my friend." Cochise replied with a pleasant tone before his voice turned a little graver as he added, "Unfortunately, it is not under preferable circumstances."
"What's wrong?" Tom questioned, now feeling a worry of a different kind.
"The Espheni that survived our attack on the base that was assembling parts for the mega-beamer have built another factory in a warehouse in a small town several miles from here that are building more mega-mechs." Cochise informed him.
"That's not good." Weaver commented with a slight shake of his head.
"No, especially since that more Espheni, Mechs, and Mega-Mechs are coming to not only guard the base, but also to join their mission when the new mega-mechs are complete." Cochise continued.
"Let me guess, they're going to attack us." Tom correctly assumed.
"That is correct. And with their added numbers and firepower, they have greater odds of winning than you do." Cochise confirmed.
Tom and Weaver shared a quick look before Tom said, "Looks like we have another mission to start planning."
FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS
Weaver let out a sigh before he brought a hand up to rub his eyes. Ever since Cochise showed up that morning and told Tom about the Espheni's new factory and how they were planning to attack Chinatown again, he and Tom had been constantly on the go. They found the base on the maps, looked at the surveillance photos Cochise had brought, and tried to come up with a plan. They had also done an inventory of all the weapons and ammo they had to see if they needed to scavenge for more, as well as seeing if there was anything else they needed while they were at it. And there was still more to do.
The soldier glanced over at the clock, one of the few ones that were working, that was hanging on the wall. It was past 7 o'clock in the evening which meant he missed supper, again. Jeanne was not going to be happy with him. This would be the third time he had done that this week. Weaver thought about calling it a night, but since Tom wasn't here, having gone with Ben and Deni to talk to the rebel skitters, he decided he should try to get a little more work done.
So, he got up from his spot at the table in the makeshift office to grab the photos Cochise had given them before he left that were sitting on a smaller table in the corner of the room. Once he had them, he turned to go back to his seat, but stopped and let out a surprised gasp when he saw a figure standing in the doorway that he hadn't noticed until now. He started to relax however when he saw it was only Hal.
"Oh, Hal, you startled me." Weaver told him as his racing heart slowly calmed down.
"Sorry." The young man said, looking a little sheepish and guilty.
"Don't worry about it. How can I help you?" Weaver asked, walking back over to the table and putting the surveillance photos down on it.
"Well," Hal started, then glanced down at the papers, maps, and photos on the table. Quickly realizing that the Colonel was probably doing something important, he asked, "You're not busy with anything, are you?"
"Not at the moment. Sit down." Weaver replied, gesturing to the seat closest to Hal while he sat down in the one closest to him. The dark-haired man looked very unsure, but Weaver gave him a reassuring nod, telling him that it was okay. Slowly, Hal walked over and sat down in the chair across from the older man.
"So, what's on your mind?" The Colonel wondered once Tom's eldest son had settled in his seat.
"You were in the military, before the aliens invaded." Hal stated, looking over at him but not meeting his eyes.
Weaver felt his muscles tense up when the younger man said that. He never really liked talking about his military experience, but at the same time, he knew that everyone that was close to Hal was trying to get him to open up, to trust them, and yet, it seemed like he had chosen to talk to him. He just didn't fully know or understand why. While a part of him didn't want to talk about the topic that Hal had brought up, he did want to help him. So he answered, "Yes I was. I did tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq."
"When you were there, did you," Hal suddenly broke off, staring down at his clasped hands that were resting on the table.
Weaver gave him about a minute to gather his thoughts and continue, but when he didn't, he prompted the eldest Mason child, "Did I what?"
"When I was gone, when I was in the, ghetto, there were some, things that happened." Hal told him, not elaborating on anything or explaining anything.
"Okay." Weaver said with a slightly confused tone, though he didn't try to get more answers. He knew that Hal would open up more if and when he wanted and it was best to just be patient with him right now.
"It's just, there was so much going on, and so much that I wasn't aware of and so much I still don't know and it's like I can't understand everything that was happening and," Hal suddenly stopped when he saw the extremely puzzled expression on the older man's face and realized just how fast he had been talking and how confusing it had to sound to him, "I'm not making any sense, am I?"
"Could use some better wording, but I understand what you mean. I think." Weaver replied before he said, "You're basically saying that whatever happened in the ghetto has you confused about, something, and now you're trying to figure out what exactly was going on."
"Yeah, something like that." Hal somewhat confirmed, still not giving up any details.
"When I came back from finishing my tours, there were times it was difficult for me to know what was real, and what wasn't. I kept having, really vivid flashbacks, because of my PTSD." Weaver informed him, this time not being the one meeting the other's eyes, "And there were times, when I thought about what I went through, that I had a hard time knowing what all happened. There were a lot of things that happened that though I remembered them as clear as day, I somehow wasn't fully aware of what was going on."
"How did you get through it?" Hal wondered.
"I focused on what I knew for a fact was real. That I had two daughters that I loved. That I was fighting for my country, and fighting for innocent people. Focusing on that, cleared my mind a bit. It was still hard, but eventually, I got through it." Weaver explained, finally raising his head to meet Hal's gaze.
"Does this, have something to do with Karen?" Weaver questioned hesitantly, knowing that the human Overlord was most likely still a sensitive topic for the person across from him. Normally, he wouldn't even bring her up, but something about the way the young man was speaking and acting that made him suspect it was about Karen. Hal instantly tensed up and lowered his head when Weaver asked that. Though he never actually said so, his response told the Colonel that the answer was most definitely a yes.
"I know that, you probably still have a lot of mixed feelings about her Hal. But, I don't,"
"I've got to get going." Hal suddenly cut him off and stood up before he added, "Thanks for the talk Weaver."
Hal was out of the room so fast that Weaver didn't even have time to think of some kind of response. As he stared at the door his best friend's son just walked through, he lifted his arm to put his elbow on the table before placing his chin on his fist. He knew that could have gone better, and knew that he probably shouldn't have brought up Karen, but at least Hal had started to open up, to try and talk about what was bugging him. Despite that though, he knew that they still had a long way to go before they found out the entire truth and could fully help the young man.
FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS
It wasn't overly late by the time Tom, Ben, and Deni got back to Chinatown, but it was definitely past supper time. After sending the teenagers off to get some food, the Mason patriarch started making his way to the office where he assumed Weaver was, that's where he was when Tom left a few hours ago. If his friend and fellow 2nd Mass leader wasn't there, odds were that he would be with his daughter Jeanne. It wouldn't be that hard to track him down.
Tom never got to the building. Before he could reach it, he saw Hal walking out of the place he was going and towards the courtyard. The sight stopped him right in his tracks. For a moment, Tom watched his son, wondering what he was doing in the office building and if he should go talk to him. Quickly remembering what happened this morning when he tried to talk to his son, he decided against it.
Even after Hal disappeared from sight, Tom didn't move. It had been weeks since his son returned to the 2nd Mass but he was still so distant from everyone. There were times it was as though Hal wasn't there even though when he was literally right beside them. And nobody, not Tom, not Ben and Matt, or Maggie knew what to do about it.
"Tom, you okay?" The dark-haired man inwardly jumped in surprise, but he managed to keep it from showing as he recognized Weaver's voice. Looking over to the right, he saw Weaver coming over towards him with a concerned expression on his face.
"I tried talking to Hal earlier, and nothing. He just, kept insisting that everything was fine and said something about me being delusional for thinking otherwise." Tom informed him. Weaver nodded, letting his friend know that he heard him, but before he could actually respond, Tom continued, "I just don't know what to do. Talking to him before the invasion was already like talking to a brick wall. Now, somehow, it's worse. And it's not getting better. If anything, it's going downhill."
"Tom, the first thing that you have to understand, that everyone has to understand, is that whatever happened was clearly traumatizing to him. All the signs are there." Weaver told him after a minute or two of silence. The teacher looked over at the Colonel with a pained expression, clearly hurting at the thought of his child being hurt and traumatized before he turned to stare back at the ground again.
"Knowing that, getting him to talk about it, is going to be hard because in order to do that, he has to let his guard down."
Tom stiffened a little when the man said that, then looked over at him again and with a slightly defensive tone, he asked, "Are you saying he doesn't trust me?"
"I'm saying that Hal has constantly tried to be strong around you, around everyone because he doesn't want anyone to think he's weak, and he has to be strong in order to help you and the people he cares about. In his mind, admitting that he's struggling with something, is doing the exact opposite. It's going against all those instincts." Weaver tried to explain, tried to tell his friend that it wasn't his fault, or at least, not all of it. After all, Hal getting the feeling that he couldn't talk to his Dad didn't just show up one day but at least Tom was trying to fix that.
"So, what am I supposed to do?" Tom questioned, his voice filled with frustration. He was so desperate to do something, anything that could help the situation his found himself in with Hal but was at a complete loss as to what.
"Honestly, I don't know." Weaver replied. For a moment, he debated on whether or not he should tell the father about the conversation he had with Hal just a few minutes ago, but quickly decided against it. Hal had come to him, trusted him enough to start talking about what happened, even if he revealed very little. If Weaver told Tom and Hal found out about it, odds were he'd never tell him anything again and right now, trust is what they were trying to get from the young soldier. It wasn't worth the risk, not yet.
"Maybe, try talking to him again, in a different setting, in a different way." Weaver suggested. Tom nodded his head, but didn't say anything else for a long moment, clearly deep in thought.
"Maybe what he needs is to do something that's normal." Tom suddenly came up with another idea, "That mission we've been talking to Cochise about, the Espheni base we're planning on destroying, maybe I should get Hal to come on that. It would get him out of Chinatown. I could partner him with Maggie, and his brothers. It might help him, connect with them again, in a way."
"It could. But, hasn't Hal, kind of seemed to want to keep his distance from the fight?" Weaver recalled how Tom's oldest had been acting when it came fighting the aliens that had invaded their planet.
Tom again nodded his head before he said, "I'll mention it to him. If he says he doesn't want to go, I won't make him."
This time, Weaver was the one who nodded, agreeing with Tom's plan. While Tom was getting to the point where he just wanted to confront his son about what was going on with him and what happened during those months he was separated from his entire family, especially after he saw Hal nearly freak out at the sight of those two soldiers wrestling earlier, he knew that wouldn't help. If anything, it would just make it worse. Hopefully, Hal would agree to come on their planned mission and they could get some answers.
Like he had said to Weaver, if his oldest child didn't want to go, he wouldn't make him, but Tom knew Hal better than most people gave him credit for. He knew that if he asked in the right way, the young man would agree because he would feel like he had too. Though he knew that it was a bit manipulative of him to do that to Hal, Tom was just that desperate. Hopefully it would work, because the parent had no idea what else to do if it didn't.