Hudson's jaw tightened. He hit the FaceTime button before he could think better of it, because texting wasn’t going to work. Shaw was going to keep lying and Hudson needed to see his face.
Shaw answered after three rings, face filling the screen. His eyes seemed tired, hair slightly longer than the last time Hudson saw him. His mouth was clamped shut like he was already regretting answering.
"Hale," Shaw said. "What are you doing?"
"What areyoudoing? You called me, then hung up on Marcus, then ghosted me."
Shaw looked away from the camera. "Who's Marcus?"
"Just a guy."
"Right." Shaw's voice was flat. "Didn't mean to interrupt."
"You didn't interrupt anything. I was in the shower."
"Sure."
Hudson wanted to reach through the screen and shake him. Wanted to tell him to stop being such a fucking coward and just be honest for once. Instead he said, "Elliot. What the hell is going on?"
He was quiet for so long Hudson thought the image had frozen.
"I'm deploying."
Hudson went still. His heart climbed into his throat. “When?"
"Wheels up in eighteen hours."
"Where?"
"Can't say. But it's—" Shaw stopped, jaw working. "It's not exactly a milk run."
Hudson knew what that meant. High-risk. Combat zone. The kind of deployment where you wrote letters to your family just in case.
"How long?"
"Four months minimum. Maybe longer. I'll be dark most of that time."
Hudson sat down. Four months of not knowing if Shaw was alive or dead. Four months of checking the news for reports of casualties and wondering if one of them was him. "Okay."
"Yeah."
Hudson tried to read Shaw’s expression through the screen, but he wouldn’t quite meet his eyes.
"You could've texted me that," Hudson said. "Why'd you call?"
Shaw's throat moved. "I don't know."
"Elliot."
"I should go. I've got—there's a lot to prep."
"Wait—"
"Take care of yourself, Hale." Shaw's voice was rough, almost breaking. "And your—Marcus. Hope that works out for you."
The screen went black before Hudson could respond.
He stared at his phone, trying to catch up. Shaw had called to say goodbye. He had wanted to actually talk to Hudson before deploying somewhere dangerous, somewhere he might not come back from. And then Marcus had answered and Shaw had?—
