CHAPTER 3
"My brother and I used to come out here all the time as kids, drove our parents crazy. They'd want us for something and we'd be nowhere in sight. They never did find us either."
"Sounds fun," Le laughed.
"It was. I doubt they ever knew we came out this far though, much further from the cabin than we were supposed to be I'm sure too, but we got curious and wanted to know what else was out here. As we got older we could go farther faster and they didn't think much of us playing out here."
"You've lived out here your whole life then?"
"Not my whole life. It used to be my grandfather's, but Sinj and I liked to come out whenever we could. When he died, he left the cabin to my brother and I. Our parents used to bring us out occasionally, but I think they preferred the city. After they… after they drown, we went to live with a family friend, Dom. We shared a room in his apartment for a while, but by the time Saint John was twenty he went off to war. I joined him as soon as I could and spent most of my three tours stationed in Vietnam. When I came back without him…" his voiced trailed off, giving way to a moment of eerie silence that settled between them before he continued. "I couldn't stand going back to the room we had shared, and I didn't have any real money of my own so I went to the only other place I could and preferred to remember the happier times."
Or at least try to, at times that was pretty difficult to do. But he wasn't ready to give up hope yet, and from Lexa or not, there was a new clue, renewed hope.
"What about you?"
"I don't remember a lot," he admitted, knowing nothing he had to say would help him establish his brother's identity nor completely confirm that he was his brother's son. I was born in near Saigon before it fell, don't remember my father, and whenever I tried to ask my mother she just cried, she cried about a lot of things. I came to America with my Aunt Minh and Darren, and lived with them until I can to live with you."
Not exactly an easy childhood either. And now he had to wonder, was adopting the boy such a great idea? It was a big responsibility, and neither his job for Santini Air and especially not the FIRM was exactly low risk. He had the means to support the kid, and he definitely wanted to, but finding someone to watch him without asking questions and often without much warning while he was off shooting up things on the other side of the world wasn't always very feasible though. He didn't want it to come down to that, but if it did, would he choose to keep looking for his brother or take care of his nephew? It was no easy choice, and he could only pray that it never came down to that because honestly he wasn't sure which he'd choose.
Turning his thoughts to the quickly darkening world around him, he decided they had better get a move on or they would be pitching their tent in the dark.
\A/
"No luck, Dom, he's not there."
"Let's just hope those camping plans went through after all."
"What if they didn't?'
"Then he's probably about to do something really stupid. The Lady hasn't been out in a while and needs a thorough check over before going out again. Any machine does, especially her being a one of a kind. String is a one of a kind too, only he doesn't have any armor plating, and there's no way he did a good inspection and rearmed her alone before leaving."
"He wouldn't do something that stupid though. Would he?"
"I'd like to think I taught him better survival skills than that, but I know how he gets when someone mentions Saint John, all logic and reason goes right out the window."
"So what can we do to help him? There's got to be something."
"If he's already gone then he's on his own."
"What if he didn't? You said he was planning on taking Le camping, maybe that is where he went. It would explain him not answering the radio at the cabin."
"Maybe."
"Do you know where he was taking him?"
"Somewhere not too far from he cabin, but I don't know exactly where. I'm not even sure he really knew; it sounded kind of like they were going to take it how it came because he didn't know exactly where they were going of when they'd be back, not super long, but a couple days excursion."
"We could take a chopper up first thing in the morning and see if we can spot them from the air," Caitlin suggested.
"I doubt it would work. He did hint about stopping by one of the places he and his brother used to play as kids, but none of us ever did find out where it was; we could look for hours with no sign of them, then both boys would show up right as rain just in time for dinner."
"So we're just stuck here wondering until he shows up again?"
"I'm afraid so."
