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Fifteen years later
We were dropping Kaleb off at a military base not too far from us for the start of his time in the army. I’d been sidetracked by an old team member and had been catching up explaining that we were here dropping my eldest son off.
Kaleb would be here for fourteen weeks doing the training that is required by all that enter our military.
Being at the base was bringing back lots of memories of when I’d first arrived for my training. Although I’d arrived with a lot less fanfare. We were garnering lots of attention as the whole MC had ridden to drop him off. Reaper still had contacts, and he’d gotten special permission to have us all here. How he did it I have no idea, but he did.
It was nearly time for us to go, and Kaleb had made the rounds saying goodbye to everyone. His younger sisters and brother were over by the cars waiting to go. The girls had been crying, I could tell by the redness in their eyes. They were staring over to the right; I turned my head to see what they were looking at. What I found was my eldest son with his mum in his arms, holding her tight. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head as she cried in his arms. He was tall, taller than me. I guess he gothis height from the giant relatives. He was a well-built boy; he’d started training from the age of five in the gym with Ben and Carly. I had no worries about him passing the physical side that he would be put through and he’d ace the hand-to-hand part.
Excusing myself, I walked over to where Kaleb and Avy were standing.
To hear him murmuring to her, “I’ll be okay, Mum. I’ll contact you when I can, okay.”
She nodded her head against his chest and her eyes opened as I walked up to them. The agony in them nearly had me telling Kaleb that he couldn’t stay, but we’d already asked him to wait until he was eighteen before joining, he could have joined at sixteen if he wanted.
Stepping up, I put a hand on the back of Avy’s neck, threading my fingers through her hair, wrapping the other arm around Kaleb, pulling them both into my embrace.
“He’ll be fine, Avy,” I whispered against her hair. She nodded, her head still against his chest.
“I know, but he’s my first baby.”
I knew what she meant; he may not have come from either of us, and we didn’t love our biological children any less than him, but there would always be that something a little special about the love we had for him.
I heard the call go out that we had to leave. Kaleb pressed a last kiss to Avy’s head before passing her to Reaper, who had walked up to us when the call went out but not before telling her that he loved her.
Knowing Reaper would look after Avy while I said goodbye, I pulled Kaleb into a hard hug.
“Take care of yourself, son, and don’t forget you need us, you call us. We’ll be here.”
Nodding that he understood, he hugged me hard one more time, whispering softly, “Love you, Dad. Thank you for taking me in and loving me.”
I closed my eyes against the tears that threatened and hugged him harder.
“It was no hardship, son; you were always ours.”
Letting him go, I took Avy from Reaper and pulled her into my arms. Kaleb was the last to walk away. We waited. He stopped at the top of the stairs leading into the building, turning he saluted as we’d practiced, tapped his fist to his heart, kissed his fingers and blew a kiss to us. Before turning and disappearing.
“Fuck,” I whispered tightly, as Avy sobbed in my arms. Turning us, I walked us back to the cars, glad that I’d not ridden my bike. I’d wanted to spend as much as much time with Kaleb as I could.
Helping Avy into the car, I buckled her in and checked on our other three in the back seat. They were subdued, and the girls were silently crying. It wasn’t just us that would miss him. Kaleb was a great big brother.
The brothers were on their bikes, waiting to leave. Walking around to the driver’s side, I was just about to get in when one of my old army buddies stopped me.
“He’ll be fine, Hawk. If he’s anything like you, he’ll thrive. Tell his mum I’ll keep an eye out. I know what happened to him when he was a baby, we all do. It was all over the news, any of us that knew you were hoping that you would find him. Had a party when you got him back. Your MC has a lot of history in our ranks. I get that it’s hard for her to see him leave. We’ll keep him as safe as we can.”
“Thanks,” I said, clasping his hand and shaking it.
It took a lot to leave that day and the visits after were few and far between. Kaleb leaving left a big hole in our family, we all felt it.
But he loved being in the army. In fact, he thrived in the military, taking after me he ended up training as a sniper. He stayed in for four years and he shone all that time. I often got updates from old friends still in the army about him, how he was a chip off the block, a great team member, easy to get on with, fiercely protective of his female counterparts. Every update I got made us prouder and prouder of him.
After the fourth year when it came time to re-enlist, he decided not to. He missed his family too much and decided that he’d hand in his twelve-month notice.
Avy had screamed out loud when he’d phoned to tell her his news. Her screaming had us running to find out what the hell was going on. A few tears were shed, knowing that we now had an end date that we could look forward to. A calendar was drawn up, and we marked down the days until he was home with us.
The day he arrived back home was one for the memory books. There were a lot of tears, laughter, and a party in his honour.
It was strange to see him so grown up. I was proud of the man he’d become.He’d left us a boy, a serious boy, but still a boy, and while he was still serious, his eyes now held a darkness that hadn’t been there when he’d left us. Thrilled that he was home, ready to make his place in the MC, whatever that may be.
That night in bed, in the darkness of the room that was our sanctuary from the chaos of our family, I whispered to Avy, “My heart is complete again.” She hadn’t asked what I meant because she knew. “Yeah,” she whispered in agreement.
Rolling over, I settled between her thighs, kissing her long and deep, loving her as I always had and always would.
*THE END*
