Chapter 43
Alternate Meanings
The cell phone kept catching his eye as he paced, he couldn't seem to avoid it. His eyes were drawn to it; he could feel its silent presence even when he couldn't see it.
Things had been fine, calm. She'd said goodnight to their son over the phone. Cale had gone down peacefully to sleep. He'd spoken to her a few minutes after leaving their son safe in his bed to tell her to "Be careful." He could hear her smile over the phone, whether it was for him or to reassure herself that everything would go fine, he didn't know, but he had heard it.
'Be careful' had always been his goodbye, more than a goodbye, an "I love you, take care, I can't be in the world without you," everything he could never say. Her smile had been her goodbye, her 'I'll be back, can't get rid of me that easily.'
She'd whispered "I'll talk to you soon" this time as her smile finished, "Gotta blaze, the kids are getting antsy."
That had been an hour ago, ten minutes before Cale had started screaming at the top of his lungs at the top of the stairs for him. That wasn't out of the ordinary on any other day but today. Today it had driven fear deep into his heart. So now, he was pacing, his nerves now transferring onto Cale after trying to remain calm at first. He'd failed at that, calm had happened for the first thirty minutes; then the phone didn't ring.
It just stayed on the desk completely silent as he gave up trying to get his son to at least go to sleep on the couch. It just didn't ring.
Twenty to twenty five minutes, that had been the game plan. Based on the blue prints and the intel that had gathered scoping out the place, it shouldn't have taken longer than twenty five minutes if everything had gone to plan. So obviously, something was off…
The phone rang and he let out a deep sigh, until he remembered that just because it rang, it didn't mean it was Max.
"Hello?" he said in a calm and steady voice.
"Fuckin bastard got away."
He smiled at her greeting, never so glad to hear someone curse. "Is everyone okay? Did you get Connor?"
"We're all fine, Alec got shot again."
"Just wanted to catch up to you Maxie" Alec's voice called out.
"Obviously he's going to live" Came Max's dry reply over the phone.
"Dada," Cale cried out annoyed his father was no longer paying attention to him. "Daaa," the long whine followed afterwards.
"Hold on Cale." He said jostling their son in his arms trying to once more get him to calm down.
"Why is he still up? Didn't he go to bed?"
"He decided he didn't like it there."
"Well put him on."
He dropped the phone down to his son's ear, he could hear he soft murmurings of "It's Mommy, buddy go to sleep for Daddy, I'll be home soon…"
Cale's attention quickly disappeared for his mother's voice, at least he had long since learned that she wasn't trapped in the phone or hiding from him. They had learned that the hard way early on when he'd cried until she'd gotten over to the house after hearing her on the phone. He started grabbing at the phone now looking at it as a toy.
"It's me again." Logan said raising the phone up to his ear.
"He try to throw it again?"
"I hold onto it Max." He said smiling thinking of her slightly cracked phone from when Cale had thrown it as they were walking down stairs.
She laughed instead of making a comeback, "We should be back in 3 hours."
"Max, the drive takes four, don't get pulled over." He shook his head, the mission had gone too smoothly for them to get themselves arrested now.
"Hey Syl's driving, anything bad happens blame my sister girl not me." Her voice suddenly grew louder, "Alec stop being a baby and let Krit help you." Her voice lowered as her words returned to Logan, "I should probably go and help."
He chuckled still bouncing his son in his arms, "You do that, I'll see you soon."
"Bye" she said and they both hit end.