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We spoke for a long time before I sighed and said, “I have to get some laundry done tonight. And get some food. And a haircut. All of this needs done in the next few hours or I’m going to get my ass handed to me.”
She chuckled. “Call me back if you can?”
I promised I would, then did what I told her I was going to do.
But when I had time to call, it wasn’t Delanie that I called, but my brother.
“So I had an epiphany,” I said to Booth the moment that he answered.
“Yeah?” Booth chirped. “When was that? In between no sleep? The superiors yelling in your face?”
“Actually,” I said, “it was when we were testing the tear gas masks. I had all this time to just sit and think, and so I started thinking about Jason.”
There was a long, lengthy pause.
“Jason?” I asked.
“And Ellie,” I confirmed.
“Okay.” He paused. “What was it that you got to thinking? And how much longer do you have?”
I looked at the fucking clock in the corner that the douchebag Sims had put there.
“I have all evening, actually. Lights out at eight, though. Meaning I have a little over three hours to figure this shit out,” I said. “And you’re gonna want to figure this shit out.”
There was a long pregnant pause and then Booth said, “Hit me.”
“Okay,” I said. “So, Ellie sent me some paperwork on David a few days after Jason died. I gave them to you before I left, remember?”
“Yeah,” Booth said. “I’ve gone through everything in there. There’s nothing.”
“I know,” I said. “But anyway, that’s what I’m getting at. There’s absolutely nothing in there. There’s some stuff, yes. But not enough. I don’t think that she gave me everything she dug up on him.”
I could practically hear Booth frowning over the phone line.
“So what are you saying?” Booth asked. “That there’s more to this story? That she didn’t give it all to us?”
“Exactly,” I said. “I’m not sure if she found something that she thought was too dangerous for me to have, or if she’s sitting on the information… but there was something there. I feel like I only got a bit of the report… and now that I have all this excess time to think and twiddle my thumbs, I’m thinking that there’s something there.” I paused. “And I think that whatever she found, she’s trying to figure it out on her own. Did Delanie tell you that she’s spending time with Ellie?”
“Yes,” he answered. “I’ll look into it.”
I knew he would.
“Any news on the David front other than that?” I asked curiously.
“None,” he admitted. “Absolutely none.”
Sadly, after talking to Delanie once more, then Booth again, as well as my parents, we never found anything else out about what I wanted to know.
The next week was more of the same.
And the week after that.
And the week after that.
And, two weeks after that, when graduation was finally a day away, I was waiting anxiously for my woman and family to arrive.
They didn’t disappoint.
Once our superiors allowed us to go to our family, I couldn’t stop the fuckin’ jovial smile that spread across my face.
Delanie found me before I found her, and she hit me like a small freight train.
Wrapping her arms around me, she held on tight and pressed her mouth to mine.
I might or might not have groped her ass before I pulled her in tight and returned the kiss with fervor.
“Let’s not ever do this again,” she ordered, her hands going to cup my face. “When can you grow that beard back?”
I chuckled as I stared deeply into her eyes. “I’ll have the beard back by our wedding. Don’t you worry. I know how much you…”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Bourne Pena,” my mother’s unamused voice filled my ear.
I turned to see her standing there with Asa holding onto her hand, and a smile on her face despite her serious tone.
Putting Delanie down, I gathered my mother into my arms and hugged her tight.
She returned the hug just as tightly.
“Now, let’s never do this again, okay?” she asked.
I laughed. “You’re the second woman to tell me that in a matter of minutes. I’ll try my best.”
Asa squeezed his way in between us, then tugged on my shirt until I looked down at him.
“Uncle Bourne, can I hold your hat?” he asked, his eyes gleaming.
I handed it to him. “Don’t lose it. I have to put it back on when I get outside.”
He wore it like he was proud as fuck. Which made my fuckin’ heart do funny things.
“I’m going to go into the Air Force just like you,” he announced.
“Not the Army like your daddy?” Booth asked, sounding sad.
Asa, very seriously, looked him in the eye and said, “The Army is for pussies.”
Delanie gasped.
Booth looked at his kid in shock.
