Ethan sat looking at the photo again. Even though he knew that the photo was accurate, he just didn't want to believe that it was. Maybe he was hoping that Adira was just going to pop out of a doorway, and kiss him and drag him off to some dark corner to do things that probably violated so many tenants of the Jewish faith. She had been really good at doing that.
She had also been really good at just sitting there in his arms. The heat and weight from her body reminding him that he was actually safe for once. A reminder that there was something other than blood and death out there for him to want. A chance to have a better life than he had been pushed to, and keep from the mistakes of his own family.
Adira had been the strangest thing to him at first. Here was this extremely beautiful woman, who looked more like a model, than a covert operative. She should have been competing in a Miss Universte competition, rather than planning sniper missions on some old kraut that didn't have the decency to die forty years earlier. She was smart enough that she should have been studying for a doctorate, not spending three days covered in mud with a pair of binoculars next to a dirty mercenary swapping dirty jokes, all while waiting for that perfect shot.
He hadn't deserved her. She deserved a much better man than he would ever be. Hannah should have had a father that was there, and wasn't hated by her grandparents. He had nothing to offer the girl. He was worthless. A cold blooded killer like him never had value to the world. That was the reason that mercenaries were so disposable.
If he was really anything resembling a man, he would have put a round in his skull years ago. He would have actually had the decency to die in a blazing gun battle. He wouldn't be here, with a bottle of bourbon, staring at that picture. Honestly, he couldn't figure out why he cared so much about the little girl that had tried to put a knife in his kidney.
"Hey, Ethan, you awake," he heard Revy at his door.
He grimaced but he was, "Yeah, you can come in."
The door opened, and her and Rock walked in. He recognized their footsteps, so he didn't even have to look up. He really didn't know what they were wanting, and he was actually trying to figure out if he even cared.
"We stashed her in a extra room. Really should have been you doing it, but Heidi took care of it, with more than a few repeated questions that got so messed up, even the ones she wrote out. You're fucked aren't you," Revy looked at him as he wallowed in self hatred.
"Revy what the fuck? He is feeling bad enough as it is, you don't need to add on to it," Rock chastised her.
Ethan looked over at him,"Rock, it's fine. She isn't saying anything that isn't obvious to a person that has eyes. Still, I envy you even feeling like you have a place defending me. But, yeah Revy, I am majorly fucked. I was with Adira for a couple of years, the biggest part of the first, in Brazil, and Argentina. After that, she went into reserve, and I went with her to Tel Aviv. I don't really know what her being in reserve meant, but we didn't leave Israel. I worked for Massod, teaching them things that I had learned being an independent merc, that they wanted to be able to teach to both their special forces and intelligence agents."
Revy and Rock looked at each other regretting getting him started.
"It was a good life. Even given her shitty folks. Her grandparents loved me. Two were from Russia, and the other two were survivors of Auschwitz. Which her mother was too. I don't know how old her parents are, and I really don't care. What I understood, is that her father's father was part of the unit that liberated the camp they were in. They weren't in the big death camp, which is probably why all of them survived. They were in one of the labor camps. One that apparently a little girl was useful in the work for her mother to have survived. So maybe I understand their desire to protect Israel.
Why they hated everyone that wasn't Jewish, I don't know. But yeah, the two men hit it off, and he helped them travel to Russia. Fast forward and the kids like each other, and it is 1948. At the height of the war they moved to Israel, and they win the war. Mossad comes about in 49. Hit the sixties, and both her parents are recruited. Her mother is a mathematical genius, and her father showed exceptional ability during his military training.
Imagine the next couple of years, and they have Adira. She is groomed to be the near perfect field agent from the time she is born. She is charismatic, beautiful, and intelligent. She speaks eight languages, could teach math at a college level, and hard march twenty miles without a break. I can't even do that, though I never conditioned myself to do that because it is just completely stupid.
She goes through training, as she got in through straight nepotism. She completes it, and has impressed the director of the whole agency, so she goes through a more condensed regime to prepare her to lead a mission to kill several high ranking corporate officials that ran many of the labor camps on the periphery of Auschwitz.
They start rounding up a group of mercenaries, because you know, plausible deniability. I'm in that area, and had been used by Mossad before I left South America, not as a wetwork, but as a guide and interpreter. They find a few two bits working the Middle East, and a couple more still in country. So they get us all over there, set us up in Montevideo as our headquarters. Far enough from any strike points to make it hard to track us by law enforcement, but close enough to hit either country as needed.
We get there and I get chosen as the second in command, mainly being the most experienced in the region. I'm not fluent in Portuguese, but I can speak enough to get by. I know the cultures, and I had done ops in Brazil, but had been to Argentina doing protection work. I'm also the best sniper, so I was going to be working with Adira closely either way, as she was going to be working as spotter to get positive ID on the targets."
"Ok, dude enough. We don't need her full fucking biography," Revy finally shouted.
Rock and Ethan looked at her and the mercenary asked, "How the hell do you know the word biography?"
"Fuck you, I went to school. Occasionally. Just get to the point, asshole."
"Needless to say, we both spent prolonged periods of time in hides. I was the shooter, so I didn't do as much ground work. That is where the other ten came in. Gathering info, and confirming AOs. Unless we had a definite target, me and Adira didn't leave the compound we were sat up at. A cluster of warehouses owned by a coffee company, that was in turn owned by Mossad. Have to finance black ops somehow.
Anyways, put a couple of twenty somethings together that really don't have that much to do, with two different sets of equipment in their pants, and you can figure out where that was heading.
The deal is, while we did fuck a lot, we also just talked. Got to know each other. I had thought she was some stuck nepo baby, because a couple of the managers talked about her getting the mission because Daddy pulled the strings. After working with her, and banging her, I realized that she was actually good at what she did. The only fault I found with her, is that she wouldn't kill anyone herself.
She had a good reason though. She was the head of the op, so she needed as little tying Mossad to the deaths as possible. I take a round to the dome, and she gets away, they are pretty sure that is was business or political. She even gets seen, and it could cause an international incident. A weapon got dropped, a casing absently handled barehanded. It could cause problems. So she would be there, but she never touched a weapon the entire time.
I respected her. She respected me. She also went from virgin, to things that they wanted to put in the next edition of the Kama Sutra really fast. It's amazing Hannah isn't ten years old. Through all that, we never fought. The highest stress time, and we never fought. Fast forward to us having an apartment together, and a few months before she kicked me out, we suddenly start having arguments, and they aren't ending up like a porn movie.
Adira didn't wear underwear. She couldn't stand the feeling of it. So the day that a pair of very flimsy, and sexy panties showed up under the edge of the bed, all hell broke loose. Her parents had come over to help her move some things to a storage unit as there was a plan to dispatch her to Jordan on an intel mission. I had worked there before, no surprise, and worked there again later.
I come home from a briefing on any cultural shifts that had happened since the last time I was there. She is sitting in the living room naked, except for those panties. I found it weird, knowing how she feels about them, and that I would rather just have everything on display anyways. She asks if they look better on her. I'm confused and ask better than who. She goes ballistic. Usual break up stuff. I always lived light, so I'm out the door with everything I own. Her old man is leaned against his car. He gave a smirk as I left, and it all made sense."
Revy looked at him like he was stupid, "My brain is leaking out of my ears. Just say, her pops set you up, and fucked your relationship up. We don't need the details, fuck the details. You fucked your boss. You fell in love with your boss. Your boss' folks hated you. They framed you for fucking around on her. See easy. It didn't take ten fucking minutes. Fuck, hand me that fucking bottle."
As Revy started chugging the booze Ethan looked at her with dead eyes, "Yeah, so short version , yeah. I never talked to her again. I wanted to for a while, and then I just wanted to fucking forget her. It hurt too damn much. I just went back to straight mercenary work, fucking whoever I could, and seeing how long I lived. It's probably been six years since I even said her name. Now Hannah."
"I can't sleep if everyone is yelling," a small voice said from the doorway.
"Shit, I'm sorry. We will keep it down the best we can," Ethan stood up and walked over to her.
The girl looked up at him, "So, Mommy was a spy, like Grandpa? I only ever remember her working at a restaurant."
"Restaurant? Doing what," Ethan asked confused, and remembering how little patience the woman had shown for stupid.
"Cook."
"Cook?"
"Yes, Sir."
Ethan looked over to his friends, "Those poor people. Adira could not cook to save her life. Until we broke up, I did all the cooking."
"Oh God, is there anyone that bad," Rock looked on with horror.
Ethan, could cook. The question was if you really wanted to eat the result if you weren't facing complete starvation otherwise.
"Mommy was a good cook. She said she wanted to apologize if Daddy ever came back. Why did you never come back," the adults couldn't help but be surprised at how well spoken the girl was.
"I, didn't know how to. It wasn't so simple as I just walked out the door. Your grandfather pulled a stunt, that, hurt me and your mother. There wasn't really a way for me to come back, and I guess there wasn't really a way for her to tell me I could. I just disappeared back into the world. I thought about her for a long time, but I had to end up forgetting her, so that I stopped torturing myself," Ethan tried his best to explain.
"What did you need to know that you had to make yourself tell you," the girl's next question was weird, and awkwardly put together.
Ethan looked at her unsure, "I'm sorry?"
"Torture is how you gain information, so what did you need to tell y2ourself," she replied.
He started to mentally make plans to visit Tel Aviv.
"Coffey residence, Jennifer speaking," the teenager's voice through the phone made his throat dry out a little.
Ethan took a deep breath though, "Hey Jennifer. I need to speak to our folks. They around?"
"Not tonight, or the next week. Mom's birthday is in a couple of days, and they decided to make a trip to Bangkok. Why? I don't know. They are old enough that it shouldn't be for hookers and blow," he may not have known her that well, but he knew his family's sense of humor.
"So, they are seriously here in Thailand," he asked.
"Here? Wait, you live in Thailand? Why did no one say anything about this? I would have liked to know where my older brother lived, I may want to visit. All I knew is that you lived in a city that had a high mortality rate," the girl replied through the reciever.
"Yeah, you are never coming to this place. I don't even want Mom and Dad here. This place is the worst hellhole to ever exist. Do you know where they are staying, or anyway to get a hold of them?"
"Uh, I think they said something about an orient," he was beginning to wonder if the information broker was playing with him, or didn't pay that much attention to what was going on under her nose.
"The Oriental by any chance," he said dryly.
He could hear the dissapointment in her reply, "Yeah. Damn it. I wanted to make you sweat a little. Why do you need to speak to them? I know that you kind of made up with them, but, I don't know what you would actually need from them."
"Jennifer, I just need to talk to them right now. It is a big thing, that I don't know how to explain to you. I just, thank you. Hey Jennifer," he said.
"Yeah?"
He was surprised that he was able to say the next words so easy, "I love you, and I will try to see you again someday."
About three hours later, he was waiting in the lobby of the single five star hotel in all of Bangkok, and possibly Thailand. He had been there doing bodyguard work, but he had never actually had a chance to just take in the sights of it. Next to him sat Hannah, looking at a magazine that he knew she couldn't read, but she seemed to enjoy the pictures.
"Caleb, I almost didn't believe that we see you again. This is the best birthday... Who is this," his mother came walking over extremely fast, and almost fell over on noticing the young girl.
Ethan stood up, "Uh, Mom, can we go get something to eat while we talk? Also where is Dad?"
Delilah Coffey took a second to return her attention to her son, "Oh, he had an oyster that didn't agree with him, and he may not be joining us down here. I told him, seafood hates you as much as the taxman. Oh, yes food. My treat."
When they had gotten sat down, and food was ordered Ethan finally answered his mother's question, "Mom, this is Hannah. She, is my daughter."
"You're my grandma? I'm pleased to meet you," Hannah was polite as she addressed the, very shocked woman.
"It would have been nice it you let us know about this, when you were in Dallas. Yes, I am. I am very pleased to meet such a well spoken young lady. Her mother must really be something," she looked over at her son.
"She was. Mom, I want you to take her back to the states. I don't live in a place that I can raise her, and make sure she is safe. I don't know how to be a father, and I don't know if I am even going to be alive next month, hell in three hours in Roanapur. She already knows. I really need to speak to Dad too, because I know this-," his mother held up a hand.
"Will you be coming with her? It doesn't matter, of course. She is your child, our grandchild. We aren't going to abandon her. Those people are long gone now, and they are never coming back. Caleb, please, it would mean so much to us, and no doubt to Hannah here, if you came with us. Please," her words did hurt a little.
Ethan looked over at Hannah and saw a look that was hopeful that he would. He, somewhat wanted to now. Now that he had a reason.
He couldn't though, "Mom, I don't know that I could live a peaceful life anymore. I don't belong in polite society. Hannah, you have a chance with them, that I can't give you. I know that you have only known that I am your father for about a day, but this would be for the best."
"Hannah, we won't be going back to America until next week. Would you like to stay with your father until then," Delilah turned to the girl.
"Can I? I, do want to have some time with you. I just, got you," Ethan could see the tears forming in the girl's eyes.
"Alright. Mom, why Thailand? Are you stalking me or something," he had to know.
She looked at him confused, "No, your Russian lady friend offered to treat us to the trip as a thank you for your father playing marine during her rescue. We didn't even think about you being just hours away. Or else we would have tried to find someway to come see you. Just enjoy this time with her, and think about coming home. Family, has become one o f the most important things, and it would make our family so much more whole, if you were there."
A/N: This story, is at a really difficult point to write. I'm not going to give up on it, I just didn't expect to have to portray an Ethan that is a complete mess. I know how everyone loves the side characters, so I will do my best to give a good Hannah based chapter before she leaves Thailand. I can't give any kind of an ETA though. Thank all of you for enjoying this story, it gives a person a good feeling. Also to the jackass who keeps review bombing with bible verses: you are the kind of person that gives Christianity a bad name. This is a fictional story, that is partly about a man who has now lost something he loved dearly. Learn to read between the lines. Ok, I'm going to shut up now.