Chapter 153: Shipping Out
*First General Order of the Navy: To take charge of this post and all government property in view.*
The plan was to take JD to breakfast at the usual Saturday café before they dropped him off at the recruiting office. The café had set a room up just for them and planned for an open buffet. Several of the princesses had already texted stating that they had already arrived.
Jaxon had said that they were headed out and would be there shortly. Jolene said that they had just left the house. JD sat in the living room of Reese and Helen’s house, waiting for Dean to join them. He stood up and began to pace between the kitchen and the living room.
Reese watched the young man with a fresh haircut, wearing new jeans and a royal blue polo shirt and well-worn running shoes. He knew the nerves that the other man was feeling. He had experienced them himself. And they were being amplified by the fact that Dean was refusing to come out of her room.
Kissing his wife on the temple, Reese stood up and walked across the driveway to the other house. Dean was on her bed, curled up around Monster. Her face was buried in the dog’s fur as she held him close to her body covered by her dark gray terry cloth robe.
Sitting on the bed, a large hand began to rub the back of his niece. “Talk to me, princess.”
“He’s leaving.” She sobbed as she rolled over and rested her head on his thigh.
Moving her hair away from her face, he looked down at the teen as her heart was breaking. “You’ve known this since before you met him.”
“I didn’t know him then.” Came the quiet admission. “I didn’t love him then.”
“Do you love him now?”
“Yes.”
“I know he loves you.”
“I know.”
“What’s the problem?”
“What if he meets someone else and loves them more?”
Reese couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him. “I can almost guarantee you that he’s *not* going to meet someone in boot. He’s going to do good to get time to think about anything other than getting his ass yelled at.”
“What about after?”
“What about it? After his time in Great Lakes, he’ll go to Gulfport. He’ll have a little more freedom then and we can go see him.”
“He’s older than me.”
“I’m older than Helen.”
“But both of you are old.”
“Thanks.” Reese chuckled. “I was thinking about ordering me a walker.”
A small laugh escaped Dean as her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “I didn’t mean like that.”
“Tell me what you did mean.”
“Grown, I guess. You know what you want.”
Smiling down at the young woman who looked so much like his sister at the same age, he squeezed her arm gently. “And you don’t know what you want?”
“I want JD.” Came the whispered admission.
“Sweetheart, Denise,” he urged her to sit up and look at him. “He went with me to go see Sy. That man of yours worked for hours the other day, melting metals, polishing, learning new shit. Did he tell you that he helped make your ring?”
Dean shook her head as tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.
Her uncle gave her a soft smile as he brushed the tears away with his thumbs. “That man is in love with you. I’m not going to say that it’s going to be easy. No relationship is easy. They all take work. But you don’t need to make it any harder than it already is.”
“I don’t mean to.” She sighed and a sob escaped out of her.
Pulling her into his lap and cuddling her close just as he did when she was younger, he brushed a kiss on the top of her head. “I know. But you’re going to end up making this harder on both of you if you don’t get your fear under control.”
“How?”
“For the next ten weeks, he needs to focus on boot, not on you leaving him. If he’s focusing on that, he might wash out. You don’t want to be the reason that he comes home early do you?”
“No.” shaking her head she gave the soft confession.
“What do you want?” Reese asked looking over her head at the door.
“To be the reason that he comes home.”
“Dean, baby,” JD said as he sat on the edge of the bed. “You’ll always be the reason that I come home.” Reaching out, he cupped her cheek. “Our home, here. The one that we’ve made together over the past how many months.”
“Eight.” She said quietly and he smiled at her.
Reese stood up and placed Dean in JD’s lap. “I’ll tell everyone that you two needed some time alone this morning. Just don’t… don’t stay too long. You have to be at the recruiters at noon.”
With the subtle reminder, he left the room, calling Monster to go with him. The door was closed, ensuring that the couple had some privacy, and he didn’t hear what was going to happen to his niece. He had a pretty good idea.
He knew what he would do if he were a nineteen-year-old boy alone with his girlfriend in her bedroom.
After all, he had a daughter from being alone with his high school girlfriend shortly before he left for boot camp.
Now, he had his daughter, bonus kids in her half-brothers and Helen’s kids, Dean, and three newborns. Life could not get any better.
Monster went into his run and headed straight for the annoying squealing pig toy that he adored. As Reese filled the water bowl, he wondered if the pig could drown. Looking at the dog as it happily bit and shook the hell out of the squealing toy, Reese decided with his luck, the pig would not die.
“Stupid bastard would probably like waterboarding.” He muttered as he walked out of the pen and headed for his house.
“Is everything okay?” Helen asked as the front door opened.
“They need a little time together.”
“You don’t think…” Helen let out a deep sigh, “you don’t think that this fear of hers is because she lost her mom? She’s just saying that he’s going to leave her but she’s afraid that he’s not going to come home?”
“I hadn’t thought about that.” He admitted as he pulled her to her feet. “I’ll talk to her some more later.” Guiding her out to the car, Reese added, “In the meantime, we’re going to pretend that they’re just being typical teenagers and are having sex.”
“Reese!” Helen squeaked with laughter.
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