A/N: As mentioned last chapter, FFN email notifications haven't been working so ensure you've read the previous chapters before you start on this one. And if you read my stuff on AO3, I have managed to get my old penname back! I'm now Snapesgirl21 on both platforms.

May 14, 2014

"Do you think we need to worry about Orin?" Kinsey asked as we left work and headed in the direction of the NCO barracks. "He won't like the stuff we said about him."

I thought back to my last life and the blame he had placed on the two of us for breaking up the unit's protection. It was hard to gauge where his head was now because he hadn't suffered the brain injury from last time. It was possible with therapy and medication that Orin could be almost normal.

"Hopefully not."

While the unit was being disbanded because Kinsey and I were leaving the military, Smith had been the one to officially report Orin. He hadn't been part of the group that witnessed the events in my last life. Those of us that had seen it hadn't reported it because we didn't want to have to talk about it. I knew I should have, especially as a sergeant and Orin's team leader, but that had been one of the few times in my last life that I'd taken the chickenshit way out. We were hardened Rangers. We had done and seen plenty of terrible things, but Orin's dismemberment of a dead terrorist and his gruesome monologue about it had haunted me.

I ensured Smith was with us this time as we walked about the large compound searching the bodies of the dead terrorists for information. Orin seemed to relish Smith's attention as he cut the man up with a hatchet and talked about it like a fascinating science experiment. He put on more of a show than in my last life. Smith was the oldest member of the group and was as horrified as the rest of us. It was like watching an over-the-top movie about a serial killer. Smith had ordered him to stop and get back to work. Orin seemed disappointed but moved on as though he'd simply been ordered to stop goofing off.

As soon as we got back to the base, Smith put in a request for an emergency mental health evaluation, and Orin was taken into protective custody hours later. We had been required to provide statements not only to what we had witnessed that day, but Orin's behavior in the years we had served together. Smith informed us before leaving for his new position that Orin was being given a medical discharge and that his mental illness had been considered so severe by the psychiatrists assessing him that his parents had been named his legal guardians in order to send him to a residential treatment facility in his home state because he was a danger to himself and others.

"Let's hope they shoot him full of enough Thorazine that he forgets he ever knew us," Kinsey said as we walked into the barracks.

"Stop worrying about Orin and think about being a civilian again," I said. "In seventeen more days, you'll no longer be property of the United States Army."

Kinsey smiled as he unlocked the door. "And in a couple of hours, I'll be able to say I'm no longer a resident of Fort Benning."

He would be heading out on his terminal leave, driving back to Pennsylvania to stay with his parents for a few weeks while he got on his feet. Kinsey was four years older than me and had finished his apprenticeship as an electrician before enlisting, which was the job he would go back to in his civilian life. He would meet a woman named Jill in the fall and move to New Jersey to be with her. That relationship would last less than a year, but Kinsey would stay in the state, work as an electrician for several years until he decided to open an electrical supply company with another electrician, and eventually meet Amanda Olesen on a dating app. He had a good life ahead of him.

I helped him load boxes into his car before heading home. Kinsey, Tank, Julio, and I were having dinner at 68 X-ray that night. Not only was Kinsey leaving that evening, but Tank had transferred to the 2nd Ranger Battalion and would be leaving on Friday to go to Washington state. I wouldn't see either of them again for a couple of years, but we would keep in touch.

I arrived home before Julio and headed straight to the shower. I only had three more weeks to work before my own leave would kick in and take me straight through to my last day in the Army. I couldn't wait to be done. I'd made the call to my cousin Vicente to ask him about doing bond enforcement and knew he would be calling back this evening to tell me that I had a job waiting for me when I was ready. The only difference in this life would be that I'd be dividing my time between Miami and Columbus because Julio would be staying here until it was time to move to Trenton. I didn't think Vinnie would give me the job if I didn't come to him with actual bond enforcement experience, so working for Vicente was a necessary step. I didn't have the privilege of blackmailing him for a job like his cousin.

"Hey," Julio said, climbing into the shower behind me. I turned to face him and gave him a kiss. "Have you heard from Vicente yet?"

"I probably have a voicemail waiting for me. How was your day?"

"Good. You know I always like the school days."

Julio worked three days a week at the clinic and spent the other two doing physical therapy in schools for children in the special education programs who didn't get outside therapy or who didn't need enough of it to warrant going to a clinic. He loved his job. I was happy for him, but sometimes I was jealous that he had found something he enjoyed so much. I liked owning my company and working in private security, but I'd never loved it or any other job as much as Julio loved his. His face always lit up when he talked about his job and his patients. Given HIPAA laws, he would give them nicknames when he told me about them. One of his current favorite patients was a little girl with Down Syndrome that he called glitter girl because she was always wearing glittery shoes. Today she'd had a tantrum during their session, taken off her glittery shoes, and beamed her mother in the forehead with one of them. Julio had nearly bitten his tongue in half trying not to laugh. Some of the stories he told weren't all that different from experiences I'd had in bond enforcement.

"When do you think you'll start working for Vicente?" Julio asked as we dried off. "Are you going to wait until you're officially done with the Army or start once you're out on leave?"

"After I'm officially out. I cashed out my leave last time, so I worked until my last day. I'll look for an apartment while we're down there for the reunion. That way I'll be set up starting in July."

Mariana had convinced Julio that we should come to Miami for our tenth high school reunion in June since I would be on leave. In a moment of lust-induced temporary insanity, I had agreed to go, and while I wasn't all that interested in seeing people I went to high school with, it would be helpful to get ready for my new job.

"Here's his message," I told Julio once I'd checked my phone. I turned it on speaker phone and listened while I grabbed clothes from my closet to get dressed.

"Hey, primo. It's good to hear from you. Congrats on getting out of the Army. I bet you can't wait to be done saluting people," Vicente said with a small laugh. There was a long pause, and I reached to check my phone to make sure the voicemail was still playing. Just as I had it in my hand, Vicente spoke again. "Listen, I—I'd love to give you a job, but I, uh, I don't really want to get involved in the family fight. I'd never hear the end of it from Maria or my dad because they'd say I was picking sides. I'm sorry, man. But if you still want to work in bond enforcement, I know people all over the country. I'll hook you up. Just let me know."

The room was completely silent once the voicemail ended. I stared at my phone in shock for a minute before looking up at Julio. He had paused in the process of getting dressed and was looking as shocked as I was. I'd told him the job with Vicente was a done deal. I'd never questioned it going any other way. I hadn't considered the changed dynamics in my family might impact it.

"That motherfucker," Julio muttered with a disgusted look on his face. "What a pussy."

I couldn't believe it. I sat down on the bed with my jeans in hand and stared at a point on the wall by the bathroom door. I had been careful to do everything right to make sure I ended up on the same career path and never doubted that it would work out in my favor. Now the foundation of my post-military career had shifted beneath me. I was in shock over Vicente's refusal to be seen picking a side. I'd talked to him a couple of times since my family learned about Julio. He had always been supportive and told me he couldn't wait to meet Julio. He always said to wait it out, that everyone would get over it eventually. I never would have predicted something like this. I felt betrayed.

Julio sat down on the bed next to me and put an arm around my shoulders. "Sorry, baby," he whispered.

I shrugged and pulled on my jeans. "Doesn't matter. There's nothing I can do about it. We need to get ready to leave."

We drove to the restaurant in silence. If it hadn't been for Kinsey leaving tonight, I would have rescheduled. Or if Julio hadn't been with me, I might have been tempted to order a drink. A whiskey sounded like a good accompaniment to my evening, but I'd given up alcohol to support my partner and certainly wouldn't drink in front of him. We found Kinsey and Tank already at the restaurant when we arrived. I put Vicente and the job I wouldn't have with him in a mental box to sort through later. Tonight was about saying goodbye to my friends.

"If I say I'm going to re-up after this contract, one of you has to shoot me," Tank said halfway through the meal. "I can't believe I signed up for another two years and now I'll be getting rained on every day."

"I was out there for two years," Julio said. "Yeah, it rains a lot, but there's a lot of other stuff that makes up for it. Nicer facilities and better mountain views."

"It'll be like living in a swamp."

"We've been there several times. You never complained before," I reminded him. Listening to his bitching and moaning wasn't improving my mood.

"I wasn't gonna have to live there," he replied.

Kinsey rolled his eyes and shook his head. "All the shit we've been through, and this is what you're complaining about."

"You've been complaining about living with your parents for three months. What's your excuse?" Tank asked.

"You haven't met my dad. You'd understand if you had."

"He can't be worse than mine."

"If we're playing the who has the worst dad game, I'm winning," Julio said. "My dad is a piece of shit."

I kicked him under the table and gave him a meaningful look. If we had to start talking about our fathers, I was going to drown myself in the Chattahoochee. My day had been bad enough.

Julio directed the table's attention to one of the large televisions behind the bar which was tuned into the Atlanta Braves' away game in San Francisco. Talk turned to baseball, stats, and who we hoped to see win the World Series, and thankfully stayed on sports the remainder of the evening. Julio was the most social person at the table, so he kept conversation flowing.

"Did you talk to your cousin?" Kinsey asked as we were paying the bill. "Are you going to work for him once you're out?"

I saw Julio wince and I held back a groan. "No. He left me a message, said he doesn't want to be seen taking sides in the family rift."

"Damn," Tank said, clapping me on the back. "That's rough."

"What are you going to do?" Kinsey asked.

I shrugged. "Don't know yet. I just got the message before we came here, so I haven't thought much about it."

Kinsey and Tank expressed their opinions on Vicente's decision as we made our way to the parking lot. I tried to change the subject, but they kept coming back to it. I pointed out the time, which was already past when Kinsey said he wanted to get on the road. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I liked my friends, but I'd never been so glad to see them go.

"What are we going to do?" Julio asked as he drove back to our apartment. "Are we going to move to Trenton earlier? Do you think you can start working for Vinnie now?"

I shook my head. "He doesn't need any new people right now, and he sure as hell wouldn't pay me twenty percent with no bond enforcement experience."

"You've been dragging terrorists out of holes in the ground for the last seven years. Doesn't that count for something?"

"Not to Vinnie."

I could practically hear his annoying nasally voice telling me that he didn't care if I'd personally found Bin Laden, he wasn't paying me more than ten percent without experience. Asshole.

"Are you going to take Vicente up on his offer to help you find something?"

"I don't know."

"You should. It's the least he can do for being a dickhead," Julio replied. "Did you ever do bond enforcement anywhere else?"

"No. Just Miami and Trenton."

"Maybe he knows someone around here. Did he ever talk about knowing anyone around Columbus?"

My head was starting to throb from tension, and I wasn't sure how much more I could take.

"I don't know, and right now, I'd rather go kick his ass than talk to him."

"It's okay if you can't find something right away. We can get by on just my income. I'll be your sugar daddy," he replied, giving me a wink. I waited for more, but he had turned his attention back to the road.

"That's it?"

"What?"

"I figured you'd use some dirty pickup line on me. That's what you usually do when you think I'm in a bad mood."

"Well, I can't do it when you're expecting it. You have to be surprised."

I shook my head and stared out the window. "This isn't a change I could have predicted," I admitted after a few minutes. "It's a ripple effect of other things, and I never considered it. I don't know what to do." Acknowledging that was one of the hardest parts of the whole situation. Plenty of family members weren't speaking to me or were pretending to be the human embodiment of Switzerland when it came to the whole ordeal, but I hadn't expected Vicente to be one of them. Having my plans changed so dramatically without me directly changing them had rattled me.

Julio reached over and took my hand. "Is bond enforcement necessary to build your company? Or is it just to help Stephanie?"

"Both. Bond enforcement gives me access to people and places I wouldn't interact with otherwise. It's just like the Army. I know what to do and what to avoid this time, but I still need it on paper and I have to develop those relationships with people. I have to show experience with everyday criminals and not just religious fanatics. I need to get to know the police and the criminals in the area, make a reputation for myself, and develop a network of acquaintances who operate in the legal, extralegal, and illegal sides of life while I build my business model and earn as much money as I can while I do smaller jobs that lead to bigger jobs. I had a silent partner last time who helped me expand, but I'm hoping to go it alone this time. If I can get one contract earlier on that I missed out on last time, I'll be able to. But I'm worried how much this changes things and if I'll run into other issues because I won't be working in Miami."

"All that on top of helping Stephanie?" He sounded incredulous. "How did you do it with all the crazy shit she got into?"

"First of all, I was single, so I worked all the time and didn't have someone waiting for me at home. I won't have to work as much because I know what works best for me and can focus on that rather than a bunch of risks that hit dead ends. Secondly, I wasn't as involved in her life in that first year. I showed her the ropes, but that was it. By the time I was more involved my business had grown enough to not be affected. I plan to be more involved early on so she's better trained this time, and either makes better choices or moves onto a different job so I can step back."

"What about giving her a job at your company?"

"Tried that. She wouldn't do it all the time but would if she needed the money or if I asked for her help. She hated office work, but I also couldn't put her in the field unless she was with me. My men didn't trust her after she fell asleep on a job one night with Tank and he got shot in the leg."

Julio stopped at a light and looked at me in disbelief. "No shit. I wouldn't either. Hell, I don't trust her to work with you after some of the stuff you've told me."

"She's a good person. She smart, intuitive, good with people, resilient. She's quick on her feet when it comes to talking her way into places or getting information out of people. But she is impulsive and reckless at times. She's also stubborn as hell and gets defensive quickly if she thinks you're trying to control her. But she's a good friend, and I want to help her."

Julio drove on when the light turned green and was silent for the next mile, but I could see the tension building in his shoulders and face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He shook his head and made the turn into the drive to the complex. "I wish you didn't have to get involved with her again."

"You know why. I don't know what would happen if I didn't."

He pulled into the parking spot and turned off the car but didn't move to get out. He leaned back against his seat and blew out a sigh. I reached over and squeezed his leg.

"Stop worrying. I know what to expect this time, and I know Stephanie's habits. I can prevent a lot of it. Besides, the worst injury I ever got when it came to her was when that guy kidnapped Julie and he was holding the two of them in her apartment. That wasn't her fault."

"You're always saying that changing things too much can make it worse. What if it does? What if you get hurt worse or killed this time?"

"I'm going to be very careful with what I change. It won't be easy to stand by and let certain things happen, but it's too risky to overhaul everything. I don't want repeats of Rachel or the helicopter crash."

Julio played with the keys in his hand and chewed on his bottom lip. "What if—," he began, swallowing hard before continuing. "What if you're around her and it makes you want to be with her again?"

I took him by the chin and moved his head to look at me. "That won't happen," I said.

"You can't know that," he replied sadly.

"In my last life, Stephanie was the person I loved the most. If I'm honest, I even loved her more than Julie. No one meant more to me. But in this life, you're that person, and even Stephanie can't compete with you."

He visibly relaxed and squeezed my hand. "You're all I've ever wanted and I'm always afraid of losing you."

"Babe, the only way I'm leaving you is when they put me in the ground."

"Just promise me that'll be when we're old and not in three years because Stephanie did something stupid, and you died trying to save her from it."

"I promise I won't get killed helping Stephanie. I might get shot working in security. I could fall down the stairs and break my neck, but I promise I'll always be careful."

Julio nodded. "I'm gonna hold you to that."

Once we were inside the apartment, I took my laptop to the couch and started googling bail bonds offices and private security companies in Columbus. When I'd worked for Vicente, I also had a part-time job working at a security company in Miami. It had helped give me more insight into the business. I learned what clients valued and what didn't seem to work. It had led me to the model I ultimately developed. As a result of my work in security and bond enforcement, I had been able to get an easy foothold in the Miami security scene when I started expanding into the area. Since I wouldn't have that, I would have to rethink my business plan. I still wanted to operate in Miami but would likely have to wait until I had an established firm with a good reputation in other areas before Miami would be willing to look at me.

My internet search provided the names of eight bonds offices and ten security companies in the city. Not bad, but I wasn't sure how well I'd be received without a referral from Vicente. Even though the security companies would be willing to hire me based on my military experience, I'd learned early on that bail bonds agents liked to hire people they knew personally or who were vouched for by people they trusted. They put a lot on the line when it came to the people who hauled in their customers and didn't usually like to take risks with unknown people.

I was making notes on the various companies and reviewing their websites when Julio came to sit next to me on the couch.

"That's a lot of names," he said, indicating the legal pad I'd been writing on. "That's a good sign."

I tossed the pad of paper and pen onto the coffee table. "I don't know if I'll be able to get in the door of one of the bonds offices without Vicente's help. I don't know if he knows anyone in Columbus, and even if he does it doesn't guarantee there's work. I might need to get a full-time job doing security and do bond enforcement on the side in somewhere like Atlanta. I figure he knows at least one person up there. But right now the last thing I want to do is call him up and beg him to help me."

"We're gonna figure it out," Julio said. "We'll move if we have to. We don't have to stick around Georgia just because of my job. It's more important that you're prepared for Trenton."

I leaned over and kissed him. "I promised you we were staying in Columbus until it was time to move to Trenton, and that's what we're doing. My life last time didn't have anyone else to consider at this point, and our lives can't always be dictated by my knowledge of the future. I'll find something local for the next couple of years. It'll be fine. Besides, I heard a rumor that I might have a sugar daddy."

Saying it out loud to Julio made me feel better. I was disappointed in Vicente and the whole situation, but I would find something else. I'd try on my own, but I would call Vicente if I needed a referral. I also didn't want Julio to think that everything I was doing was solely to help Stephanie. I wanted to stay on this path because it led me to my company, which gave me the resources to provide a comfortable life for a family, which I hadn't taken advantage of last time.

"I heard that too," he said. "I also heard we were playing a game tonight. You'll be the chicken, I'll be the egg, and we'll see who comes first."

My laughter was quieted by Julio's mouth on mine as he pushed me back to lay on the couch. I had never been with someone who cared this much about making me happy.

And I was determined to make him happy as well. Not just in our relationship, but in life. He wanted children someday, and I wanted to give him that. We had discussed using the same egg donor, but each of us would father a child. It was an expensive process, but we'd be able to afford it once my company was up and running. Although I would work a lot in the beginning as I set up my business, I was determined that I wouldn't be the ninety-hours-a-week workaholic this time around. I wanted to have a life and not just watch other people live theirs. I wanted to enjoy time with friends, catch an occasional Knicks game, and spend evenings with Julio and the kids we hoped to have. Work would wait until the next morning unless it was a true emergency. I was already planning for that, rethinking the way I structured the company. Implementation would be the real issue for a control freak like me, but I was determined to do it so I could have the life I wanted with Julio.

A/N: I forgot to put this at the end of chapter 11, but almost all of the dirty pick-up lines Julio uses in the story are from a TikTok page called Tarablairball and her series "Horrifying my husband with dirty pickup lines".