"Sorry I'm late…" Jack apologized as he entered through the kitchen entrance, "We were playing football and time slipped away."
"Oh, that's alright…" Gina grinned, "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah." Jack nodded, "Really sorry about losing track of time though…"
"Don't worry about that. I've lived with your grandpa for decades, I know not to take it personally."
Jack chuckled a bit.
"He was almost twenty minutes late to a dinner party in his own house. He was working in the garage earlier."
"Grateful for it, but I have no idea how the two of you ended up together…"
Gina chuckled, "Yeah, me too Jack…
"Are all the others here already?"
"Yeah, your mom beat you by a ten minutes or so…"
"And Metal?"
"You really expect your uncle to be late?"
"No…" Jack chuckled, "Better go announce I'm here."
Gina nodded.
SEALTEAM
"Look who finally showed up!" Rob grinned as his son entered through the open kitchen door.
"Yeah, got terribly sidetracked…" Jack shrugged as he stepped towards Full Metal, he held up a closed fist, ready for a fist-bump, "Good to see you again, Metal."
"You too…" Metal grinned back.
Then he nodded towards Emily by Metal's side and offered his hand for a handshake, "I'm Jack. Nephew of Metal… Nice to meet you."
"I'm Emily… Girlfriend, but you probably figured that much already…" she blushed a bit, "Nice to meet you."
Jack nodded, "Yeah, figured that much…"
Then he stepped back and scanned the room for a free seat. He found one next to his grandpa.
SEALTEAM
"So, Emily…" John cleared his voice, "What do you do for a living?"
Emily glanced over at Metal for a quick moment, "I'm a nurse."
"Right, Full Metal said that…" John dipped his head. "Hospital, right?"
"Yeah." She nodded.
"That's cool!" Jack grinned.
"Hey, future medic… How about getting a… What's it called? RN, BSN? Instead…" snapped his fingers at Jack. He knew his sister didn't want to have another family member who was at constant risk of returning home in a body bag.
Emily chuckled.
"What's it like anyway?" Jack asked.
"Well, that depends entirely on where you work…" Emily shrugged, "Nursing home is very different from the ER. ER is very different from a psych ward. Psych ward is very different from a surgical bed floor."
"Virginia Beach is different from the middle east…" Metal shrugged.
"Also true." Emily nodded.
"What?" Gina scrounged up her nose a little, "I don't follow…"
"I'm a travel nurse. Kinda." Emily shrugged, "The hospital I work in here, has a sister hospital, which I often work at. Kinda like deployments, but not the military."
"So…" Jack looked from Emily to Metal and back a couple of times, "How long are you usually home for at the time?"
"I get to put in wishes. And for once I wished to stay home a bit longer than I usually do." Emily looked over at Metal, he winked back, "But… I've got another one coming up soon-ish."
"But, it's only a few months, and we both have a lot of experience being away from friends and family…" Metal filled in, "If anyone can get through this, it should be us."
Emily nodded, "Bet you never expected to be the one staying at home though…"
"True." Metal chuckled.
"So, what area of nursing do you work in?" Jack followed up.
"Well, I started out in a surgical bed post, with mostly orthopedic patients. Moved onto the emergency/trauma room after a little while. I take extra shifts in… I work with a lot of different things, but my comfort zone is definitely injuries."
"You can work in different areas?"
"You get training when you start a new place. If they only call for an RN, or an RN with a BSN, and you have those qualifications, you can work there. But of course, you've got to learn and be useful as well."
Jack nodded. "Emergency room sounds interesting."
Metal didn't miss the hopeful look in his sister's eyes, which again disappeared when her son spoke again.
"I'll still be gunning for uncle Trent's job, but… Be nice to have something to aim for when I fall into repair-age."
"Kid, you're not old enough to get to mention repair-age…" Rob chuckled.
Metal smirked.