Page 99 of See You Soon
He returned my car from the beach and still, no reaction about him being a father. No questions. No yelling. No happiness. Nothing. So, I don't reply.
I walk to the waiting area and the lobby's full of patients. Flu cases have spiked leaving us bombarded with sick families. I open the doors and announce the next patient's name.
"Mrs. Johansson!" I shout.
Everyone looks my way, hopeful for their turn. An older woman who looks to be in her fifties walks towards me. I give her a warm smile while opening the doors to the emergency department, welcoming her in. I walk toward her, offering her my arm. She limps as she walks and she takes my help for balance.
Suddenly, something catches my eye and I look towards the rotating doors of the Emergency Room. I see a familiar stature, walking out of the building and I'm frozen. I know who it is and I refuse to accept it. His back is turned to me and I start to hyperventilate. My chest rises up and down, panting with horror.
Shane.
I hitch a breath as I try to get a closer look to verify my paranoia. I take one step forward to get a glimpse of his side profile view but it's too late. He disappears outside, passing a wall, leaving me horrified.
Chapter42
danny
The entire ride to the beach I'm thinking of how my life's going to change. Kane sits beside me in the passenger seat and I'm smoking a cigarette with the windows rolled down. The smoke lingers in and out of my truck and it sends a painful reminder of my responsibility to quit.
Ari's pregnant.
I would no longer be able to smoke around her and I'm completely okay with it but the shock from her announcement has me lost.There was a point in my life when I did want kids.
When I did crave the sight of my woman swollen with my child. The perfect family picture. That was before I started my career as a SEAL. Before I witnessed with my own eyes the fuckery of evil that creeps on this Earth.
My little Angel is pregnant and that means another soul for me to protect.
The addiction of my career is the only thing that matters. It started when I got my first kill on my first deployment. My lethal skills and mental capacity of knowledge I had influenced the military to brand me as The Grim Reaper. From then on, I’ve been a lethal killer for the Navy and after witnessing the evil that lives in the world, lurking in the shadows, I knew I would never bring my own children into this world.
I didn't want to ever experience the pain of losing a child to something so evil. Or vice versa. My son or daughter worried for their father as he fights the hands of Satan's variants when he's on deployments or missions.
The amount of sick twisted people that I've killed helps me balance out the demons in my mind. But it doesn't deter the scars that get tattooed on my brain and physical body. I have scars all over constantly reminding me of the battles I've faced when I look at them.
The most recent twisted picture that will forever be engraved inside of my mind, was Damon getting burnt alive. I can still hear his screaming, haunting me every day since then.
It's going to be a while before it stops.
I got a scar on my lip from that mission when I got ambushed. When I was forced to engage a terrorist in hand-to-hand combat. Soon after, we discover Damon Hawk's body, burnt to a crisp, his body engulfed in flames.
He was long gone when we got to him and that drives me insane. A brother we couldn't save. Everyone that was assigned to that mission was surprised it hadn't leaked yet. They usually do. The government can remain happier knowing this story was still buried.
It didn't sit well with us at all. But it bought me more time to ignore it and not talk to Ari about it. Damon's family has been notified but I wasn't sure if his girl knew yet but that isn't my business.
We're nearing the parking lot where Ari left her Bronco. About twenty minutes away, I put out my cigarette.
"I'm not drinking ever again. How the fuck are you not suffering right now? This hangover is wrecking me." Kane says, rubbing his eyes, and placing his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose.
"Unlike you, I have a high tolerance you fucking lightweight."
Kane was going to take my truck and I would drive Ari's Bronco to the hospital so she could have her vehicle back and not have to worry about it anymore. I was definitely not happy about her pregnancy. I know that makes me a terrible man but in my own head, it's justified.
She's the only girl I've ever filled up with my come without a condom. I assumed she was on birth control but I guess I was wrong. Still, I didn't dare place blame or fault her for getting pregnant.
I couldn't fathom a future with a child. I was just starting to get accustomed to having someone wait for me to return home from deployments… And now? A baby?
I can't help but assume I'll be a horrible father because my father was.
He's a shitty man, raising me to be just as cold-hearted as he is but my mother made sure I had some sense of humanity.
