Christmas morning had come although it wasn't the same as most were used to. Waking up in a warm bed at 6:30am to the sounds of children giggling and laughing about how many presents were under the tree was definitely more enjoyable than waking up on a hard, cold floor in a room with hundreds of others due to a random blizzard that started at 3:30pm and had everyone locked down between the main building and chow hall which again-was connected by a simple folding wall that slid on a track hanging from the ceiling and into a small crevice so it wouldn't be in the way. It definitely opened the room up more and made things easier so everyone could stay together. True that it might not have been a Christmas at home with hot coffee and watching everyone open their presents but it was a perfect Christmas never the less because of the fact Hector had his family, friends, and girlfriend all in one place and best of all: he knew they were safe. Hector slept all night from about 8:45pm to 9am without a problem-at first his family and friends were worried that he slept over 12 hours but then he woke up and the relief washed over them as he sat up.
"Morning, Hector. Merry Christmas," Astrid's voice greeted him gently.
"Same to you babe," Hector offered a smile as he leaned over and kissed her gently as she blushed lightly when he pulled back then stood up to stretch his body then looked to see the everyone else awake-was he the last one up? "What time is it?" he asked.
"0900 dude," Thax chuckled.
"I slept for twelve hours?" Hector asked as his friends nodded to him, "Fuck, you should've woken me up..." he mumbled.
"We knew you were tired so we let you sleep," Tallon told him.
"There he is. Happy Christmas to ya, lad," Cody greeted as he hugged Hector.
"Merry Christmas, Cody," Hector replied to him while the others walked over as well, "How's the storm?" he asked quickly.
"It's over. Four and a half feet outside according to news reports that we checked from our phones-can't get the door open either so we're in here a bit longer. We got power back too-called for help from one of the closer islands to dig us out. They should be here shortly," Drake informed.
"Hungry?" Alex asked, "Everyone else ate already,"
"Nah, I'm good right now. I can't eat as soon as I wake up," Hector replied gently.
"It's good to have you home this year, son," Val said as she hugged him tightly and kissed his forehead.
"I'm glad to be home-nothing beats this," Hector smiled after hugging her back and then hugging his father, brother, and sister. Hector looked at Tallon who was just sitting against the wall quietly, he walked over to him calmly and put a hand on his shoulder. "Not gonna join the festivities?" he asked.
"I will, just thinking is all." Tallon replied to him.
"About what?" Hector asked lightly now.
"How broken my family is. My Dad is going to prison, my mom could probably careless, and with Tori living with her sister along with Jade-I'm likely not to see them again either because they live on Visithug," Tallon sighed.
"Your family isn't broken, Tallon," Hector told him as Tallon arched a brow.
"How so?" Tallon questioned now.
"Because we're right here dummy. You forget who else cares about ya? Thax, Vik, Ry, Ev, and me." Hector reminded him as he pulled Tallon to his feet while the others came over now and surrounded him with warm smiles on their faces.
"Hector's right, Tallon. You are our brother," Evan nodded.
"And we're here for you," Ryan added next.
"We always will be," Viktor smiled.
"We have your back," Thaxter put a hand on Tallon's shoulder now-shaking him a bit.
"We'll never leave you. That's a promise, Tallon. My promise and you know I never break them-I'd sooner die before breaking a promise. You are my best friend in the entire world-first real friend I ever had. You know know how much that means to me that you accepted me when we met at Reception Week and that we became friends. Those people who hurt you this way-who betrayed you. That's not family. Family are the ones who stand by you, support you, care for you, and never abandon you. We might not be related my friend, but believe me, we are family." Hector told him.
"You really mean that?" Tallon asked.
"Have I ever lied to to you or given you reason to doubt me?" Hector arched a brow at him while smiling. Tallon shook his head now as Tallon was smiling wider now. "We are, we are. Not your ordinary fama-mily. But we can all agree that-we are, we are-close as close can be," Hector started.
"So it don't matter what it looks like-we look perfect to me. We got every kind of lover. We're so lucky indeed. They can keep on talking-it don't matter to me cause: we are, we are...family," Thaxter, Evan, Viktor, and Ryan sang with him. "We are are are are (We are). We are are are are (We are). We are are are are (We are). We are, we are family, family, family. We are, we are family," they sang together while smiling as Tallon's smile grew and laughed a bit.
"So what-we don't look, we don't act, we don't walk, we don't talk like you do. So what if we hang just to hang and no shame, we both do what we want to. Cause we come from everywhere. Searching for ones to care. Somehow we found it here. We found us a home!" Hector sang as others in the room started clapping to the imaginary beat of the song since there was no music.
"We are, we are. Not your ordinary fama-mily-but we can all agree that: we are, we are. Close as close can be! So it don't matter what it looks like we look perfect to me. We got every kind of lover. We're so lucky indeed. They can keep on talking-it don't matter to me cause: we are, we are family!" the five guys sang together-this time Tallon joining in too.
"Okay, so the links in our chains makes us strange but really they make us stronger. And no one would replace not a thing: mother or father. Cause we," there was a pause from Hector and then smiles before they began again,
"Cause we come from everywhere. Searching for ones to care. Somehow we found it here-we found us a home!" the group did together.
"We are, we are. Not your ordinary fama-mily-but we can all agree that: we are, we are. Close as close can be! So it don't matter what it looks like we look perfect to me. We got every kind of lover. We're so lucky indeed. They can keep on talking-it don't matter to me cause: we are, we are family. Family. We are, we are, we are, we are family..." they finished as Hector put his hand up and Tallon brought his up and connected the two firmly.
"I love you guys," Tallon said.
"We love you too," they replied all bringing their hands together.
"INFERNO!" they shouted together releasing their hands and laughing. The sound of choppers overhead was heard and people began to get curious as to if these were the people coming to help them or not-hopefully it was but for Hector, he didn't care if they had to stay longer. He had all he needed right here with him already. Family, girlfriend, and amazing friends who were just as much family as his parents and siblings were. Hector ended up eating something while they waited and after another two hours-the door was finally opened letting in the sunlight and a chill from outside. For close to another hour bringing it to about noon time before the male who opened the door and came in with a few others returned with Drake, Alex, and Cody.
"Colonel Gomez has informed that it is now cleared enough and safe for everyone to return to their vehicles and go home to enjoy Christmas! Please do not rush the doors and stay together with your families, be safe while driving home," Drake announced to everyone. The Inferno unit said their goodbyes to one another and headed out with their respected families towards the parking lot. It was going to take them three or more hours to get home with how the roads were. Hector led his family out slowly, Tallon with him while they reached their cars and Hector's truck. When they were ready, they all left Fort Striker and headed back to inner Berk.
(Three Hours & Ten Minutes Later)
Finally reaching the Haddock household-they couldn't have been happier to be home. The town already took care of clearing them a place to walk to the front door, and driveway to park in. Hector sent the others home and said they could all get together again tomorrow so he could see Astrid and Gobber for Christmas but he knew he'd see Drew, Freddie, Mandy, Danielle, Reina, and Trent too because Darius and Heather wanted to see their friends for Christmas celebrations of their own. It was a no brainer that Hector would likely have Skylar, his aunt May and Uncle Simon over in an hour or so because the counted as family and it was a family Christmas dinner. Once everyone was in the house and warming up by the fire-Val and Spencer started on dinner. After all it was 3:20pm already and a lot to do before the Jorgenson's came over for dinner.
"Hector?" Tallon said lightly.
"What's up?" Hector replied now.
"I just wanted to say thanks for what you and the guys did earlier at Fort Striker-it really cheered me up and reminded me that you guys are my real family and friends. And thank you for carrying me through the snow when I got hit with that hail," Tallon told him.
"You're welcome, Tallon," Hector smiled with a nod. "Gods, it's good to be home..." he sighed out.
"Seriously, right. That floor killed my back," Darius mumbled.
"After sleeping on the ground in Iraq-nothing bothers my back anymore," Tallon chuckled.
"Amen to that my friend," Hector laughed some. This felt right, to be home for Christmas and he got to spend it with his best friend. That wasn't to say that the others of Inferno weren't his best friends but Tallon was his first friend when he joined the military and Tallon would likely always have a special place in Hector's heart and life. Though everyone was smiles though-Hector's inner thoughts weren't happy because he had a lot on his mind regarding Astrid, also his brother's and sister's friends who were trying to be buddy buddy with him. Hector knew they were trying to be his friend but Hector just couldn't get past them only wanting to be his friend after they discovered he was in the military-when they saw how cool he was and realized he'd actually been this way all along and they never gave him a chance because Hector wasn't really one to show off.
And that was true-before the military, Hector had all the skills he did now. He was strong, smart, talented, and had a wicked sense of humor but he didn't care to show it off and no one gave him a chance, they just saw a quiet loser and treated him as such too. Hector would agree that joining the military gave him more confidence to be himself-to stop caring what others would think about him. His friends taught him that and with them around-Hector really just didn't care what happened because he knew they'd be there for him if nothing else. But he stood firm on his statement to Jessie-Hector never tried to hide who he was, the others just made their assumptions and never bothered to see the real him because they didn't care but now they did and Hector just couldn't get over the fact they only saw the real him after seeing him on TV in uniform, wielding a gun, and getting shot. Great way to be noticed, right? Hector knew they were walking on eggshells with him and it was because of him admitting that how they treated him back then almost drove him to kill himself.
He almost had-he just got so sick and tired of everything. Being bullied, teased, picked on, heartbroken once by Astrid, then the hypocrisy of his brother and sister being nice at home but assholes in school, his parents uncaring, too busy, neglectful behavior. Yes, Hector got very fed up after it had been eight years of it all. But the day that he was gonna say fuck it since he was evidently a nothing and his life was going nowhere- he met Cody outside the main office and the offer of joining the military got him to think that if his life was going nowhere now then why didn't he change it. He was a nothing and a nobody to everyone so he had the chance to become a somebody and do anything. The military did that for him-it changed his life and opened doors he never thought possible and he was a lot happier now than he was two years ago. He still couldn't believe he'd already been in the military this long. He joined as an official member at the end of February 2016. Now here they were in December of 2017-just about three months shy of being in the military for two years. End of February 2018 would mark two full years that he'd been in and he still loved it.
"Hector, you alright over there?" Heather asked curiously, "You're awfully quiet,"
"I'm fine, Heather. Just relaxing," Hector replied calmly.
"Well, Mom and Dad say it's time to come in the dining room to get ready for dinner. Uncle Sam, Aunt May, and Skylar will be here in about ten minutes," Darius informed. Hector nodded and got up to start getting ready which was really just change his clothes to something a little more dressier.
"Can I...do anything to help?" Tallon asked.
"Mom and Dad have it all set. Thank you though," Heather smiled as Tallon nodded then went to follow Hector downstairs feeling he should look appropriate for dinner too. Once in the basement, Hector changed into a pair of khaki pants, black shoes, then a tucked in button down that was red. Tallon changed into his class A pants-the gray ones with his black shoes then went to put on his green shirt but Hector offered him green one with red lines going through it and Tallon smiled as he put it on and tucked it in.
"Thanks," Tallon said gently.
"No problem," Hector replied.
"You sure you're okay. I gotta agree with your sister, you seem really quiet right now," Tallon said putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm alright bud. Come on-let's get upstairs," Hector smiled. Tallon knew his friend was holding back what he felt, no one on Inferno had forgotten Hector's outburst of rage on his birthday when Jessie started with him. Tallon knew full well that Hector wasn't glad to be spending time at home-sure he was happy to be home but the pain everyone inflicted on him still remained and Hector was pushing it aside to avoid drama or worry for him wellbeing. It was Christmas so he didn't want to be the one to ruin it by revealing that everyone around him with the exception of Gobber and the guys of Inferno had a part in Hector's depression and ultimately forced him into making drastic choices just to change his life so he wouldn't feel the way that he did anymore. No one knew why he joined other than he wanted to, and said it was something he had to do-that was all they knew on it. None of them knew it was there faults for all the put him through over the years that made him want to change his life and get away for a while.
"Hey," Tallon said before Hector stepped on the stairs, "Just want you to know how grateful I am that you've been letting me stay with you all this time and when we were on leave. Means a lot to me to know I've got my best friend through all this bullshit who is willing to give up half his room for me,"
Hector smiled to him, "Told ya. Always gonna have your back," the two of them now made their way upstairs to see that the Jorgenson's had arrived. Hector sighed and put on the smile to greet them-the holidays were the only time Skylar wouldn't pick on him because the families were there and he tried to pass himself off as the innocent one who would never do anything wrong. Hector tried many times to tell his father and mother growing up that Skylar was a bully but his parents just pushed it off as nothing more than Skylar playing with him. It infuriated Hector to no end too. Honestly, he'd rather be anywhere else but where he was right now-having to fake being nice with his cousin around.
Dinner went through as it always did. Light conversations and eating before cleaning up and making their way to the living room to open presents. Hector got some drawing things: pencils, erasers, drawing pads, colored pencils. He also got some clothes and notebooks but nothing much else which was fine with him. Hector got Tallon a few things too-he didn't want his friend to feel left out so Hector had gone out and got him a $15 iTunes card, few of his favorite snacks, and two hoodies that Hector knew Tallon loved to wear no matter what the season was. Hector also got something for each of his family members-even Skylar just so he didn't look like the ass. Val silver bracelet with the birthstones in it-each stone representing one of the Haddock family members so Spencer, Hector, Darius, Heather, and then herself. Hector got his Dad a new watch, then for Darius and Heather he got them both a $20 iTunes card. For his uncle, Hector got him a new hunting coat. His aunt May got some knitting needles and yarn. And Hector got Skylar a coat to match his father's for hunting. Everyone got something from him, it was the right thing to do.
"What a good Christmas with everyone," May said lightly from the love seat where she sat with her husband. "And we're very happy to have you here with us, Hector. Didn't feel right last year," she added.
"Yeah, felt the same way when I was deployed..." Hector answered with a smile.
"Did you guys get to do anything to celebrate?" Simon asked now.
"We set up some decorations, had a good meal, did a little caroling but otherwise just sat in the barrack and enjoy each other's company," Tallon shrugged with a smile.
"No missions to do?" Skylar asked.
"We had a guard earlier that day but no-Christmas night was quiet," Hector replied next. There was a knock on the door as Val went to answer it to see Astrid and the others with her.
"Hi, Mrs. Haddock. We're sorry to disturb the family but I wanted to give Hector his present tonight instead of tomorrow," Astrid smiled to her.
"Oh it's no trouble at all dear, come right inside. It's chilly tonight," Val smiled and stepped aside as they came in now smiling and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. Hector got up and greeted her with a kiss as she handed him the wrapped gift.
"You didn't have to get me anything babe," Hector chuckled a bit, "But this works out because now I can give you yours from me," he added moving under the tree and locating it-then he handed it to her as she smiled softly.
"Well, open yours," Astrid told him.
"Ladies first," Hector insisted to her. She blushed a bit and unwrapped the gift and opened the sky blue velvet box to reveal a few pieces of jewelry. Earrings, a bracelet, and necklace all in with her birthstone-Aquamarine because her birthday was in March. "Hector...these are beautiful, thank you," she said as she hugged him tightly and he hugged her back.
"Matching set. You have no idea how many stores I had to go to to find that with your birthstone," Hector chuckled some as she blushed then motioned for him to open his, he got the picture and undid the wrapping paper on the gift and saw a brown box-he pulled off the top of the box and saw a wallet sitting inside. It was an army one-colors matching his ACU. On the front engraved on it was Haddock III, Hector and A.I.M-B.A.
"You kept saying you needed a new one," Astrid blushed a bit.
"I love it but not as much as I love you, Astrid," Hector said as he pulled her close with his arms going around her back-then he kissed her deeply.
"I love you too, Hector," Astrid replied. It was the first time either of them ever said it to one another-the last three months of them being together they'd never said the words I Love You but that changed today. They'd said it and neither of them questioned it. They broke the kiss after Hector saw a flash go off-he rolled his eyes while Astrid laid on his chest. Nothing else really mattered to him right now, Astrid loved him and he knew he loved her too and now they'd said it to one another. Okay, now it was officially a good Christmas. Hector helped Astrid put on the bracelet and necklace and she did the earrings while he put all his stuff from his old wallet into the new one. They hung out for a while, having a good time before the others left. Astrid was last to go after her and Hector made plans to meet up the next day for a date and more Christmas celebrations. It ended up being a great Christmas after all and Hector was actually glad to be home this year-turned out to be the best one in a long time.
