Join the Club (SWAT Generation 2.0 7)

“I asked him to put his dream on pause.”

I looked over at Booth in confusion.

“What?” I said.

“I asked him not to enlist,” he said. “After he hurt his foot. I asked him to stay here. To always be here for you if you needed it. And then I stayed where I was and lived my dream, while my brother did the stuff that I should’ve done.”

I thought about how, no matter what, Bourne was always there.

Every single time I’d needed him, he’d come.

Every single time there was a bump in the road or a problem I couldn’t solve alone, Bourne was not far behind me, willing to always offer me a helping hand.

For instance, when my father decided that he was going to meddle in my life again. He’d moved me out of my house. He’d moved me into his. He’d given me a place to stay.

And how had I repaid him?

I’d told him that he wasn’t Asa’s father. That he couldn’t make those decisions without me. I told him he couldn’t pick Asa up anymore. Which then caused him to get pissed and leave his own freakin’ house!

I’d fucked up.

I knew it as soon as the words were out of my mouth. But then Dillan and Booth had rubbed that fact in.

“Shoot,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I was terrified, Booth.”

“I was, too,” Booth repeated again as he patted my shoulder awkwardly.

“I need to call him,” I murmured softly.

Except, before I could, the police arrived.

An hour after that, I was still calling people and assuring that all was well.

What I didn’t do was call Bourne.

Not until well into the night after I’d calmed down enough to get my shit together.

Only, he didn’t answer.

Not once.

***

The next day, I was nervous as hell for dinner.

Family dinner at the Pena household was an affair.

Everyone would always meet at Georgia and Nico’s house.

Everyone showed.

Booth and Dillan. Asa and me. Priscilla, Bell, Heath and even Daniella, if she was available.

Who did not show was Bourne.

Not until well into dinner.

“Where’s Bourne?” Booth asked as he walked into his mother’s house with Dillan in tow.

Dillan who still wouldn’t look me in the eye.

She wasn’t holding onto Booth, either, so I could tell that there was something still wrong with them as well.

Hell.

“Not here yet,” Daniella murmured, her eyes going from me to Booth and back. “One would think y’all would know seeing as one of you lives with him, and the other of you lives next to him.”

Daniella had arrived here all smiles and giggles, happy that she’d gotten off bedrest. She’d been spewing sunshine and butterflies ever since.

She was annoying the hell out of me with her good mood.

I gritted my teeth.

“We pissed him off yesterday,” Booth murmured softly. “Said some things in the heat of the moment, and he left.”

Georgia sighed.

“What did you say?” Nico asked, arms crossing over his chest.

Neither Booth nor I said a word.

Dillan, however, didn’t have the same problem.

And neither, it turns out, did Asa.

Asa let it all hang out, telling them everything that he’d heard, and when Asa didn’t say it, Dillan filled in the blanks, explaining it all.

By the time she was done, I felt even sicker than I’d felt before.

Even worse, I wanted to call Bourne again and beg him to forgive me.

After a full night’s sleep, I’d realized rather quickly that I needed to make it up to Bourne.

I needed to say a lot of things, and I needed to apologize for being a complete and utter douchebag. I’d already called the school and fixed my blunder about Asa being able to be picked up by him.

But still, I needed to explain.

Except, I had to get him to answer my calls first.

“So let me get this straight,” Nico said as he listened to it all. “When you couldn’t find your son, you freaked out. When you found him okay and healthy and happy, you freaked out. At your brother, the one man that does fucking anything for you without flinching. Without a single hesitation. The man that’s literally been at your side every step of the way. The man that’s put his whole fucking life up for yours, time and time again?”

Booth didn’t say anything, but I could tell that he felt two feet tall. Because that was how I felt.

Nico’s eyes turned to me.

“I remember a time when you were broken down in the middle of fucking nowhere,” he said. “You called Bourne to help you. Change a tire, I believe? Did you remember that Bourne was running a one hundred-and four-degree fever at the time? But since nobody else could come help you, he’d driven to you? Helped you change the tire? And then he’d had to go to the hospital after passing out when he got home. Because I do.”

I felt sick.