Chapter 2
Cleo groaned as her alarm went off at 8am the next morning. It was bad enough her alarm was going off on the first day of summer vacation but especially after the day they had had yesterday. She didn't need to get up this early but the sooner she did her work the sooner it was done. A few months ago she had quit her job at the candy store as her soccer coach had offer her and some of the team a job working for her husbands family company. The company completed around a thousand plumbing jobs across 6 states and each week the jobs needed to be ticked as completed on the computer, which is what Cleo had to do. Sit and go through the jobs allocated to her and tick if they had been completed. It sounded easy but right now it was the last thing on her mind as she trudged downstairs to get her work laptop. She quickly made herself some juice then stuck her headphones on as she sat at the kitchen table to work.
"Cle." Gunner's voice appeared as one of her headphones was lifted away from her ear.
Cleo almost screamed as she jumped at the sound of his voice. She took the headphones off her head and turned to face Gunner as he was hysterically laughing.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Cleo asked as her heart slowly went back to normal rhythm.
"Just trying to get your attention." Gunner laughed as he sat down next to her. "Should you be listening to music when you're working?"
"It helps me concentrate." Cleo said as she turned to look at him. "What are you doing up so early?"
"Early?" Gunner looking at her confused. "Cle it's almost noon."
"Is it?" Cleo asked him confused.
Gunner nodded his head at her as she checked the time on the computer and seen that it was almost noon. She had been so focused on getting her work done that she had completely lost track of time.
"Surprised I lasted this long without breakfast." Cleo laughed turning back to him.
"Me to." Gunner smiled at her. "How did you sleep last night?"
"Slept all night but had a very strange dream." Cleo smiled back at him. "Did you manage to get any sleep?"
"My buddy Jackie D put me to sleep on the couch for two hours." Gunner chuckled. "Headed upstairs and crashed on and off all night."
"Good you got some sleep." Cleo yawned. "You going to see Caesar later?"
"Yeah think the whole team is coming. You wanna come?" Gunner asked.
"Maybe." Cleo smiled back. "I still got some work to do and I was going to meet a friend for a Starbucks. If I'm free ill come."
"Sorry Cle." Gunner sighed. "Leaving in half an hour."
"Can't go." Cleo pouted knowing she couldn't go. "Tell everyone I say hi."
"Will do." Gunner replied as he kissed her cheek and left the table.
Cleo smiled at him as she turned her attention back to the work she had left wanting to get it done as quickly as possible. She put her headphones back on and went back to work. Gunner had waved at her as he left so she knew she was alone in the house. She finished her work, showered and headed to Starbucks to meet her friend and she had a good time reminiscing and laughing. It almost made her forget about what had happened yesterday. Once her friend left, she had text Emily and Sam but neither replied so Cleo decided to head home and once there she picked up her PS4 controller and started playing the last game that was in the console. She wasn't sure how long she had been playing for but the sound of the front door slamming shut told her Gunner was home.
"Hey dad." Cleo called without pausing the game.
There was no answer from him but she heard the sound of the fridge and cupboard doors opening and closing with the sound of heavy grunting going with the banging of doors. Cleo knew something bad had happened when he didn't reply to her, so she paused the game and went through to the kitchen to see what was going on. When she got to the kitchen, Gunner was sitting at the table with his head in his hands and next to him was half a bottle of vodka and a full bottle of Jackie D but there was no glass.
"Dad." Cleo said to get his attention.
Gunner slowly took his head out of his hands to look at her. "Oh hey."
"What's going on?" Cleo asked sitting down beside him.
"I'm celebrating." Gunner smiled as he took a gulp of vodka straight from the bottle.
"What are you celebrating?" Cleo asked again knowing he was being sarcastic.
"We are celebrating that the bastard Barney has shut down the expendables without talking to us and throwing us all away like pieces of trash." Gunner smirked as he raised the vodka bottle in the air before taking another drink.
"He did what?" Cleo said not believing what she was hearing.
"Yep." Gunner grunted. "Decided the rides over without asking us so fuck him."
"I'm sorry daddy." Cleo smiled at him a little happy that the team was over so he was safe now. "Is there anything I can do?"
"Nope. The Viking can look after himself." Gunner smiled at her.
Cleo could smell from his breathe that the vodka wasn't the first drink he'd had today and knew how moody he could be when he was drunk so she knew to stay out of his way.
"Ok Viking." Cleo replied as she got up from the table. "I'll be in the living room if you need me."
Gunner raised the bottle in her direction as a reply before taking another swig as Cleo headed back to her PS4. Just as she picked up the controller, she heard the front door being slammed then the shed door being slammed closed. Gunner kept a punching bag in there for when he needed to let of steam but by the sounds coming from the shed, it wasn't just the punching bag he was hitting.
As much as she wanted to go and hug him, she knew there was nothing she could do right now to help him. He was pissed off and quite rightly so. It wasn't fair for Barney to just shut down the team without talking to them about it first. She knew he was feeling guilty about Caesar but the team had been in this situation before and they always bounced back, stronger than before so why was this time different. Before she started playing again, she sent a text to Jason asking if he was free later to either call or facetime. Just as she was about to hit play on the game, Emily called her.
"Hey." Cleo greeted her as she answered the phone.
"Hey. Did your dad tell you the news?" Emily asked when she answered.
"Yeah I can't believe it. How's your dad handling it?" Cleo asked wondering if Toll Road had hit the bottle to.
"Pretty bad. I had to leave to check on my brothers but when I left he was slumped on the couch with a six pack of beer." Emily sighed knowing her dad would be unreachable for a while to. "How was yours?"
"As you'd expect." Cleo said knowing Emily probably already knew the answer. "He got a bottle of vodka and Jackie D from the cupboard then disappeared to the shed. He's been in there ever since hitting the punching bag and breaking shit. Not that I'm surprised so I'm just leaving him to it."
"You think he'd relapse?" Emily asked trying not to sound insensitive.
"No he won't." Cleo chuckled. "He knows that if he does, he'll lose me again. He'll be grumpy and drunk for a few days but he won't go that far."
"That's good. I need a break from everything. Want to go to the mall tomorrow?" Emily asked just wanting to feel like normal teenagers.
"Sounds good." Cleo replied. "I'm running in the morning but I'll text you when I'm done. Maybe grab lunch?"
"Sounds good." Emily said as a loud commotion sounded in the background. "Listen I gotta go but I'll text you later."
Hearing the noise, Cleo knew she had her hands full. "No worries. Talk to you later."
"Bye." Emily almost shouted as she hung up.
Cleo smiled as she hung up the phone imagining what her brothers were doing to torment Emily. She put her phone down and started the game again, wanting to go into her own world and not think for a while.
The sound of her stomach rumbling made Cleo stop playing and when she looked at her watch, she seen she had been playing for three and half hours and it was just past 6pm. She checked her phone and Jason had replied saying he would text her when he was free to talk. As she walked into the kitchen, she saw from the window that her dad was still in the shed laying into the punching bag, so she decided to leave him a bit longer as she set about making their dinner.
"Dad, there's a plate of spaghetti and meatballs on the counter for you." Cleo text him so he knew there was dinner for him.
Cleo sat at the table with her dinner as she seen that Gunner had read her text but hadn't replied. After five minutes of waiting, Cleo was to hungry to wait any longer and ate her dinner on her own. Once she was finished, she did the dishes, wiped everything down and put Gunner's portion in the fridge encase he wanted it later, knowing he would be starving later. When everything was clean, she went back to the living room and put Netflix on. She wanted to watch an episode of the show that her and Jason had been watching but they had swore not to watch it without the other one, so she searched for something else to watch.
As she stuck friends on, she wondered if her dad was going on a bender. The last time he went on a bender was when her mom died and it took the teams intervention to get him back on track. This time would hopefully be different as one of the conditions to getting Cleo back was not to relapse on drugs again. Cleo didn't mind the drinking but if he got hooked on drugs again she would be heartbroken. Hopefully after a day or two he would get out of his slump and find something to do with his new retirement.
Just as a new episode started, her phone started ringing and when she pulled it out of her pocket, she couldn't stop smiling.
"Hey." Cleo greeted down the phone.
"Hey baby." Jason greeted back smiling down the phone as well. "You manage to sleep last night?"
"Yeah slept all night but was having weird dreams. What about you?" Cleo asked not wanting to ask him about the team right away.
"Slept straight for the four hours I got and luckily today wasn't as busy as we thought it would be so got a nap around four this afternoon." Jason replied wishing he was down with her as she sounded down.
"That's good babe. Just lucky there was no training today or that I still worked at the candy shop anymore or I'd be sleeping standing up." Cleo laughed glad of her current situation.
"True babe. Any change in Caesar?" Jason asked laughing to.
"No." Cleo sighed. "Still the same which I suppose is good. Probably why your dad did what he did"
"How'd you mean?" Jason asked confused as to what she meant.
"Caesar getting shot probably made your dad come to his decision." Cleo replied wanting to know what Barney's decision was.
"What decision?" Jason asked again.
"I'm guessing he didn't tell you." Cleo sighed knowing by Jason's tone that he didn't know what Barney had done. Cleo could always tell by his voice when he was lying but just now he wasn't.
"Tell me what?" Jason asked genuinely not knowing what had happened. "Babe what's happened?"
"Barney told the team that he closed down the expendables without talking to any of them. Not even Lee."
"What!" Jason almost shouted at the news.
"Yeah I never thought this day would come so soon." Cleo sighed again.
"Me either." Jason replied. "How did the team take it?"
"Sam is still feeling like shit with her dad plus he wouldn't know anything yet." Cleo smiled back. "Emily's been at her mom's today to look after her brothers but says Toll Road was in a funk when he came home."
"What about your dad?" Jason asked knowing he wouldn't be handling it well.
"Pissed as you'd expect." Cleo sighed knowing he was more concerned about her than him. "Took a bottle of vodka and Jackie D into the shed and been hitting the punch bag and breaking shit ever since he came home."
"You think he'd take more than just booze?" Jason asked trying to be as sensitive as possible.
"He knows that he'd lose me if he took that stuff again. I trust him. He'll just be grumpy, drunk and a pain in the ass for a while." Cleo chuckled back trying to laugh off the lack trust people had in her dad.
"Remember the second apartment is always free." Jason said not meaning it the way it came out.
"Jase." Cleo started to say but Jason cut her off.
"Don't Jase me Cleo." Jason said trying not to sound controlling although he was. "I've seen your dad when he's drunk and the strength he has. Promise me if he keeps drinking and still breaking stuff you'll go to Tool's."
"Jason i…" Cleo replied but again Jason cut her off.
"Cleo promise me." Jason said knowing what Gunner was capable of regardless if Cleo was there or not.
"I promise." Cleo sighed wanting Jason to feel better but always knowing it was necessary. Gunner would never hurt her regardless of how much drink he'd had.
"Thank you." Jason said relieved that she had agreed.
"Have I told you that you're a pain in the ass sometimes?" Cleo smirked back.
"Yeah you have." Jason laughed back at her. "but I know it's another way of you telling me that you love me."
"No babe it isn't." Cleo laughed back knowing how wrong he was.
"Really?" Jason asked pretending to be hurt. "Well then I guess I'll just need to make it up to you for being a pain in your ass."
"Oh yes you do." Cleo purred back. "You've got two weeks to think about the best way to do that."
"I already got one way." Jason purred back.
"Do tell." Cleo whispered seductively.
"Remember I said I was coming down for the weekend." Jason said starting to think of what he wanted to do to her.
"Hmm." Cleo answered back.
"I managed to get more time off so I'll be down for just over a week." Jason replied. "Does that make up for it?"
"It's a good start." Cleo purred. "Now you can start thinking about how else you can make up for it in the week your here."
"Yes Ma'am." Jason chuckled back. "I'll get right on it."
"You better cowboy." Cleo yawned back. "I'm gonna head to bed. Talk to you later?"
"Yeah baby." Jason yawned. "Going to sleep to. Talk to you later. Love you."
"Love you to. Bye." Cleo smiled down the phone.
"Bye baby." Jason smiled back.
As they both hung up the phone, both were counting the days until they seen each other again.
Cleo turned off the TV and went back to the kitchen to get juice to take upstairs but when she turned the light on, Gunner was slumped at the table eating his dinner with a note pad and pen in front of him.
"Hey dad. Didn't hear you come in." Cleo said as she got a cup from the cupboard.
"There she is." Gunner smiled when he looked up at her. "My shining star."
"What you writing there?" Cleo asked giving him a weak smile back knowing he was drunk and emotional right now instead of drunk and angry but luckily Cleo preferred him that way.
"Making a list of stuff to do with my retirement." Gunner said taking another swing of Jackie D.
"That's good." Cleo smiled back glad he seemed to have turned a corner. "What you got so far?"
Gunner held up the notepad to show her. "Spend more time with Cle."
Cleo smiled again as he read out his line. It would be nice to spend more time with him but not 24/7. Having spent a lot of time on her own, she did enjoy having her own time.
"That's a good start. Now that it's summer vacation, I got loads of free time so what do you want do?" Cleo asked hoping that he had something fun in mind.
"Thought I would join you on your run tomorrow." Gunner smirked like he thought he was a genius.
"Sure." Cleo stuttered hoping that wasn't all he planned. "Anything else?"
"No that's all I got so far." Gunner replied still grinning.
"Ok. We leave at 8am doing a minimum of three miles." Cleo smiled back. She knew that he would be to hung over tomorrow morning to run anywhere and maybe he'd have something more fun planned for them.
"Yes boss." Gunner replied holding the bottle of Jackie D up to her. "I'll be ready.
"Good. So your ready you better get some sleep." Cleo said as she got her juice and stood beside him.
"Gees you sound just like your mom. Bossing me around." Gunner laughed as he turned to face her.
"Like she always said. She was just making sure you didn't do anything stupid." Cleo laughed back knowing how true the statement was right now.
Gunner laughed as well before his smile quickly dropped and he pulled Cleo into a hug.
"If only Barney had done this three years ago." Gunner said as he held her tightly.
Cleo used every bit of strength that she had not to let her tears fall down her face reminding herself that Gunner was just emotionally with all the booze he had drank.
"Can't change the past dad but we can move forward." Cleo said as she held him tightly to.
"I love you Cle." Gunner said as he pushed her to arms length.
"Love you to papa." Cleo smiled back before turning serious. "Now get to sleep for your run tomorrow morning."
"Yes Captain Jensen." Gunner saluted her as he kept laughing.
Cleo rolled her eyes at him as she headed out the kitchen and went upstairs to get ready for bed.
It had been another long draining day but hopefully now that her dad had worked out all his angry this could be a new beginning for them. Gunner had considered retiring when her mom died but he missed the rush that mercenary life brought and he would be wondered what the team were doing without him. Now that Barney had closed down the team and it wasn't Gunner's choice anymore, he might feel different about it now. He would need to find other things to do and he had the rest of the team to plan things with so he wasn't alone.
Whatever the outcome was, Cleo knew it was now her time to be there for her dad as he had been there for her so many times before.
Cleo got changed into her pyjamas and crawled into bed, hoping that this was a sign that good things were still going to happen and as soon as her head hit the pillow, she was asleep.
TO BE CONTINUED.