CHAPTER FIVE

Mike woke the next morning around seven and fixed himself some coffee and a light breakfast. His sleep had been filled with strange dreams of his kids and people he had lost from the Nathan James. He felt more tired now than when he had gone to bed last night. He sighed and finished his breakfast and poured a second cup of coffee. At seven-thirty there was a knock at his door. He walked over and opened it, moving so Ginny could come in with Wyatt.

Ginny set him down and Wyatt immediately went into this half run half skip routine. Ginny watched him then looked up nervously at Mike. Mike smiled, trying to set her at ease, letting her know that he was okay and that it wasn't an issue for him.

"He does that sometimes. I don't know why," she said absently. Mike nodded.

"Has he seen a doctor about any of the stuff he does?"

"Like what?" she asked defensively. Mike took a deep breath. He didn't mean to overstep.

"I didn't mean anything by it, I was just wondering. But he does a lot of stuff that wouldn't be considered normal. And he's very behind on speech for his age."

"He's fine," she said with a sadness and Mike just nodded. He wasn't going to push her on that.

"I understand," he replied. "How late will you be tonight?"

"It's a shorter day. I'll be home around six."

"Okay. I'll keep the boys here then," Mike said as Wyatt gave up on running and settled on the floor spinning the wheels on one of the toy cars Mike had bought.

"See you at six then," she replied then walked over to Wyatt. She bent down and kissed the top of his head. "See you later, Wyatt. Be good for Mr. Mike."

With that she left the apartment. Mike sat down on the couch and watched Wyatt over the back of it. Wyatt put the cars down eventually and climbed up on the couch and snuggled into Mike, weaving his fingers into the hem of Mike's shirt again. Mike wrapped an arm around him, and they watched the television for a while. Mike felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and he worked it out and looked at the screen. He smiled a little then answered it.

"Hey, Tom, what's going on?" Mike replied.

"Was going to ask you the same thing. Haven't heard from you in a while. Wanted to make sure you were doing okay."

"Yeah, I'm doing okay," Mike said as he looked down at Wyatt who looked like he was slowly falling asleep.

"Things are going good?"

"You worried about me?" Mike said with a chuckle.

"Maybe I am, Buddy."

"Thanks. But I really am okay here. Things were rough to start, but I think I found something to take my mind off of things."

"Oh? You find a job or a hobby?" It was at that moment that Wyatt broke into a hum and jumped down off the couch and went into his routine. Mike watched him with a smile. "What was that?"

"That's what I'm doing," Mike replied. "I'm helping a single mom out watching her boys for her."

"Well, that's nice of you," Tom said. "What's the catch?"

"No catch," Mike said with a sigh. "Her oldest is twelve."

"Same age as Lucas would be," Tom said softly.

"Yep. Youngest is four. Her youngest is different."

"How so?"

"He plays funny, doesn't talk much, does this weird running thing all the time."

"What does the mom say?"

"She says he is fine, so I'm leaving it alone for now. I think it's more that she doesn't have the time and money to take him to be seen. I don't know."

"And you're just helping her out," Tom said but Mike read between the lines.

"It's not like that," Mike said. "I just like having the kids around."

"Well, I hope you know what you're doing."

"Not a clue," Mike said laughing. Wyatt had finished his routine and was climbing back on the couch. Mike opened an arm and the boy curled into his side, settling in.

"I'm glad you're doing okay, Mike."

"Thanks, how are things at the academy?"

"Really well. Still teaching for now."

"And Sasha?"

"Still working intelligence for the Navy," Tom replied.

"Everything good with you two then?" Mike asked. He thought he heard something in Tom's voice.

"It's okay. Maybe just a rough patch, but I'm sure we'll figure it out."

"How are the kids?"

"They're doing good. They're both living in St. Louis for now."

"Glad they are doing good," Mike replied. Wyatt was leaning heavily into Mike's side, and he looked down to see the little guy had fallen asleep.

"Don't be such a stranger," Tom said, and Mike smiled.

"I'll try not to be," Mike laughed. "It was good to hear from you."

"Likewise. Be safe."

"You too," Mike said and put his phone away. Mike spent the rest of the day keeping Wyatt happy before Ty came home. Mike had a few snacks out when the boy got home and Ty dove right into the food. Once he had his fill of fruits, he pulled his notebook out of his backpack and looked at Mike.

"What?" Mike asked. Ty smiled.

"I figured we can work on my research project."

"Oh yeah, that," Mike said with a sigh. "Where do you want to start?"

"Well, the first thing I need is a little background on you personally. The teacher said we need to build the character then tell what they did."

"Okay," Mike said, he wasn't really keen on talking about his personal life before the plague, but he knew he had to give the kid something. "What's the internet say about me?"

"I looked you up today in class because he had to work on it, and I didn't want to tell the teacher that I had a different source."

"Appreciated," Mike said. "So, what did you learn?"

"Father of three, married. From Chicago Illinois."

"Yep," Mike sighed.

"Did all your family really die from the flu?"

"I know my son did for sure. I don't know what happened to my wife or daughters," Mike replied sadly. Memories hit him and he stared at his hands.

"That's hard. I wish my dad was still around. You really from Chicago?"

"Yes," Mike said. "I was a homicide detective while I was in the reserves. Then I went full time into the Navy."

"Okay," Ty said as he wrote that down. "Did you like being a homicide detective?"

"Yeah, but it was tough. I mean I had to figure out who killed people all the time. Got old, so I joined up with the Navy full time."

"And you made it to the Nathan James?"

"Yes. I started as the XO on the James."

"XO?"

"Executive Officer, second in command."

They continued to talk as Mike loosened up a little and started to enjoy the chat with the boy. Ty was genuinely interested in his life story, and it made this a little more bearable to Mike. They moved on from the pre–Red Flu era and Ty started to ask about what it was like on the ship during the red flu.

"Well, when we went to the Artic with Drs. Scott and Tophet, we had no clue what was going on in the world."

"Really?"

"Really. As far as we knew we were on a top-secret weapons training mission. We were at EMCON Alpha, so we had no outside contact."

"EMCON Alpha?" Ty asked. Mike nodded slowly.

"Yes. It means the highest restrictions for communications. We are not allowed to have any transmissions so that the ship cannot be tracked that way. It keeps our location secure."

"So, you can't talk to your family while on the ship?"

"No when at EMCON Alpha we can't. Generally, it's not like that, but this mission it was. So, we went four months with no contact with home."

"That's really crazy. So, by the time you found out about the virus?"

"Things were in really bad shape. But Tom Chandler kept us on track and saved the world."

"Why do you say that? Didn't you do anything?"

"I'm sure I did. But I wasn't in charge until after the cure was made and brought back. I just followed orders."

"Can't you give me anything? I mean come on, I need something to make my paper stand out," Ty said pleadingly. Mike sighed and then gave Ty a few stories that would be suitable his paper. Ty was happy with the stuff he gave him. "Okay, what about your medals? I need to put that in too."

"I earned two purple hearts," Mike said his hand absently touching the spot on his stomach that still held a pretty hefty scar. "Bronze and silver star, I'm sure you can find those online."

Ty seemed to understand that Mike was tiring of talking about it all and he closed his notebook and looked over at his brother. Wyatt was spinning the wheels on the toy cars while lying on the floor watching the television.

"I can make do with what I got. Thanks, Mike," Ty said as he smiled at Mike. Mike nodded at him.

"Good," Mike said with a sigh. He got up and walked over to Wyatt and squatted down. "How are you doing, Buddy?" Wyatt didn't answer him but did put the car down and run Mike's shirt through his fingers. Mike settled on the floor leaning against his couch as they all watched the television.

Mike noticed it was getting close to six, so he stuck a pizza in the even for the boys and the set about making a dinner for him and Ginny. He figured she would be tired, and it would make her evening a little less stressed. The boys were eating the pizza and Mike was just finishing up the dinner for them when there was a knock on the door.

"Come on in, it's open!" Mike hollered. The door opened as Mike set the plates down on the table. Ginny looked at him a little bit confused and Mike gave her a small smile. "I made dinner, so you didn't have to. Boys are feed too,"

"Thank you," she said softly as she sat cautiously before a plate.

The conversation was light during dinner and Ginny asked Ty about his day. He gave Mike a knowing smile when he brought up starting his research paper. Once they were done eating Mike went over and gathered Wyatt up. He handed him off to Ginny with a smile.

They made plans for the rest of the week on when Mike would have the kids and then they were gone, and Mike was alone again. He sat on his couch and the thoughts of his family intruded once more. He blew out a breath and stared at the wall as he worked to push down the guilt and pain of losing them. He finally grabbed the remote and found something to watch on the television before falling asleep on his couch.

To Be Continued…