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“Don’t sell yourself short,” Chris chided. “Yes, okay, so you’re Jamie Barratt and you’re President Barratt’s son and that holds a lot of weight. But you could have chosen not to go. You could have said that it wasn’t your problem and just stayed home. But you went, and you talked to those people, and you inspired them, and you showed them solidarity. That was all you, and that counts. No matter what you think, that counts.”
Chris looked at him and smiled warmly, and Jamie couldn’t help but grin back.
“Careful, Roberts. You’ll inflate my ego.”
“Maybe it needs a little inflating,” Chris replied teasingly.
Jamie started to laugh again and shook his head. He didn’t know why it was so important to hear Chris say something like this to him, why this meant so much to him.
“You’re such a punk,” he said fondly.
Roberts smirked. “Are we stopping for Starbucks on the way home or what?”
“Hell yeah!” Jamie replied. “What day would be complete without it?”
Chapter 5
It rained heavily for the whole of Saturday. Chris and Jamie attempted to go for a run along the beach with Boomer, but the rain pierced their clothing like a thousand needles and had them shivering and sore and, honestly, quite miserable. It took a couple of cups of coffee before the numbness of the February weather left them.
Andy came over that evening and the three of them ordered Chinese food and drank beer from the bottle and swapped stories about Afghanistan. Andy had served with Chris but had rotated out three months before Jamie rotated in. The two had never crossed paths, but Chris was thrilled that they were already getting on like a house on fire.
“…and Captain America here, well he busts down this door and he runs into the burning building and everybody thinks he’s dead because he’s in there forever and the flames are getting higher and the roof is coming down, and then suddenly he jumps out of the second-floor window with three Afghani schoolgirls in his arms, lands on his goddamned feet and just casually walks back towards us like its nothing and deposits the little girls with their teacher. And then he dusts himself off and is all, ‘So, are we going to stand around all day then, or are we going to get on with the patrol?’”
“You’re kidding me?” Jamie laughed, his blue eyes wide.
“Not at all,” Andy enthused. “You couldn’t make this shit up!”
“I’m sure it didn’t quite go down like that,” Chris protested, slightly embarrassed at the portrait Andy was portraying of him and flustered by the mixed look of amusement and awe that Jamie was giving him.
“Oh, no, it absolutely went down like that.”
“Wow.” Jamie took a sip of beer. “I mean, I had heard that I had big boots to fill, but I had no idea. I feel like an inadequate commander next to you.”
Chris gave a short laugh and shook his head. “Seriously, Andy’s exaggerating!”
“I’m not,” Andy said seriously. “But you did great, Barratt. I know a few from the 85th who sing your praises from the rooftops.”
Jamie shrugged. “Well, I couldn’t have been that good if I managed to get my whole squad captured by the Taliban and detained for three months.”
Andy and Chris exchanged looks as Jamie took another sip of beer. Jamie felt guilty, Chris realized, felt like it had been his responsibility to protect his soldiers and he had somehow failed them.
He shook his head. “That wasn’t your fault…”
“I know,” Jamie said, giving them a blindingly beautiful smile that didn’t quite coincide with the look in his eyes. “The air support just didn’t reach us in time.”
Chris put down his chopsticks and frantically searched for a subject change, which thankfully Andy found.
“So, are you thinking of going into politics like your mom?”
Jamie shrugged again. “Ah, I don’t know. I don’t think I’m cut out for it.”
“I don’t know about that,” Andy argued with a grin. “From what I heard at the VA the other day, you’d be perfect at it.”
“I don’t think I could handle the stress.” Jamie said and laughed.
“Didn’t you do politics at college?” Chris asked, picking up his chopsticks and digging into his dinner.
“Kind of. I did modern languages with political science.”
