Was Mr. Powers in real denial about Ty’s death? His mother had made that slip up when we were talking but I didn’t realize Mr. Powers actually denied Ty’s death so fervently. I mean, it’s not as though I saw Ty die with my own eyes but c’mon. There’s no way he survived. The last time I laid eyes on Ty he was dropping Hannah into my arms and being hoisted up into a helicopter by two Fear Division rebels. There’s no way he survived. Hell, we barely did.
It was a treacherous three week trek out of that desert shit hole. A few local people took mercy on Hannah and me along the way and sheltered us during the day as well as provided food and water to keep us sustained throughout the night. It wasn’t as though we could call for help. There was no one to call. The Fear Division rebels were everywhere and I couldn’t risk them tapping into my satellite phone. Finally, after three weeks we reached an interim safe zone set up by the Swiss government and we were home within 24 hours.
During my debriefing I learned that I would be “quarantined” for an undisclosed amount of time—until it was deemed safe for me to resurface—I also learned that there was no word from Ty. That was obviously not a good sign. Of course it was common for EFP’s to go off grid for a short amount of time but a month later, still nothing. As a team we mourned Ty Powers, he was a great soldier and he was our brother, he really was my best friend.
I spent those two years doing nothing but working—I had to make the time pass until I could get back to Honor, she was all I thought about—so I joined a team of counter-terrorist specialists and we worked day and night to monitor and plan attacks against The Fear Division. We’d been successful on many occasions, too, if I wasn’t so focused on the love of my life I would have been ready to jump back into the field and take down these fuckers myself. But they’d robbed enough of my life from me. It was time to get back to my girl. I just hoped she hadn’t forgotten all about me. Or worse, moved on.
Even though I was anxious to get back to Honor, my first stop was to pay respects to my fallen brother and his family. I just couldn’t believe that I was now standing in front of a father so stricken with grief that he would not accept his son’s death even two years later.
Mr. Powers shook my hand again, patted me on the back and then leaned in so that his wife couldn’t hear, “take care, son, and don’t forget to tell Ty that I am proud of him.”
“I will, sir,” I said awkwardly and turned away as quickly as I could.
Poor guy, I thought. I made my way to my Chevy pickup with my head hung low; it was sad to think that Ty’s dad was still in denial after all this time, he just couldn’t accept his death. My thoughts were interrupted by a white piece of paper on my windshield. I’d gotten a parking ticket while visiting the Powers.
“Dammit,” I breathed out.
I reached out to pick it off the windshield and realized that it wasn’t a ticket after all but a note. I opened it and smiled, “If you hit on my sister while you were at my house I will punch you in the dick. TP.”
“He made it,” I beamed as I looked up to the sky and smiled, a small tear of joy welled up in my eye. “I can’t believe it. He made it.”
Thirty
Honor
“Walker what d’ya say we head to the beach?”
My handsome boy, with his blue-grey eyes, just like his daddy, smiled and clapped in agreement. He was already fourteen months old and although he had only had mastered a few words I felt as though we communicated perfectly.
He was my little sidekick and I was with him practically all the time so there was no need for words—I smiled at that thought, it had been the same with me and Axe, there was no need for words. I suppose at some point I was going to have to let go of the dream that he
was coming home. Sometimes I lay awake at night trying to imagine what had happened to him. Then there were the nights when those thoughts were just too much of a nightmare to handle.
Of course, because of Axe’s position in the Elite Force Protectors, there was no public announcement of his death, or his capture, or whatever had happened to him. There was nothing, no closure, just emptiness punctuated with unanswered questions. And sooner or later the friends and family stopped asking “are you okay” because they’d moved on with their lives and after all, they didn’t even know Axel. Everyone was just eager to throw me baby showers and pat my belly. After a while, the world just doesn’t want to hear about your broken heart anymore…
So I tucked it away. Besides, Walker needed me to be strong. So after months and months of torturing myself with horrible scenarios of what might have happened to the father of my child, I resigned myself to the fact that he just wasn’t here anymore. He was a hero that I knew for a brief time and that was that. There was no sense in delving deeper and besides, Walker was the most important man in my life now and I had to focus on that.
We walked the long way down to the beach with Walker tripping over his feet but loving every step of the way. I held his bucket and shovel plus snacks and a huge beach towel as Walker clutched his water toy, a frog he called WaWa, as he babbled to himself happily. Finally we reached the water’s edge and I straightened his sun-hat before letting him roam just a little along the tide with WaWa.
“Don’t go too far, Walker,” I said as I sat down and pulled out a magazine to flip through. I knew he was much too young to be left unattended so I looked up about every two seconds to keep an eye on my little guy as he squealed at the gentle lapping waves on his toes.
“WaWa!” he laughed to himself as him and his froggy toy walked along the beach’s edge.
“That’s right, baby!” I laughed.
Without meaning to I got caught up in an article and took my focus off Walker for a second longer than I meant to. When I looked up he was gone. My heart stopped.
“Walker!” I screamed as I jumped to my feet and frantically looked around the beach.
Nothing.
Oh my god.
How is this happening?
I swear it was only a minute, not even.
“Walker, where are you?” I practically bellowed as a couple of onlookers turned their attention to me. I didn’t care. This was my worst nightmare. This simply could not be happening.