I had brought my mom on set in Chicago for the weekend. The film was a thriller with lots of action and violence. After wrapping up for the day, I took her to the Miracle Mile for girl time and cocktails. Sitting outside, we watched the world go by together and yet both of us were clearly itching to leave. As exciting as the city was, mom and I preferred nature.
“I miss swimming in Spain,” she said holding my hand. “But trekking Thailand was magical too. It's just so loud here and everyone is in such a hurry.”
“Everyone's idea of contentment is different, Mom. Remember Bora Bora?” I asked.
“How can I forget?” she laughed. “I still can't believe you and Ryan got me to climb Mount Otemanu.”
“I don't say it enough, but thank you.”
“Finn – ”
“I'm serious,” I said scooting closer. “Without your support, I wouldn't have any of these memories.”
“If I hadn't had you, I wouldn't either.”
I took mom with me every chance I could and always wondered if my dad had lived, would he have joined us?
“Would dad have enjoyed it?”
Pulling me into her arms she said, “He would have raced you to the top.”
Distance wise, Port Huron wasn’t all that far, but the scenery made it feel like I was traveling the back roads of fucking-nowhere-Michigan and not connecting with civilization again anytime soon. He didn't need to explain where we were headed because I already knew. Seeing me with my mom had him thinking about his own parents. I couldn't imagine being disconnected for fifteen years, but I truly hoped he was welcomed with open arms. He deserved that. Phoenix was quiet and when he wasn’t gripping the steering wheel with both hands, he was scanning the woods.
I had a gun in my lap, his was in the door, but our biggest threat was a deer running in front us not a sniper taking us out. With nothing but trees and time, I asked about them. According to Nix, his parents cut him off in all ways at a young age and the invitation to come home wasn’t a simple one. Apparently, it had conditions. I knew the unconditional love and support I received from my mom was a gift. A gift many never received, so I was glad I would be there to hold his hand. And if either parent got lippy, I’d also throw a punch on his behalf too.
Though we haven’t talked about the physic since the island, it was on both of our minds and her words still sent a chill down my spine so I did my best not to think about it.
I knew we were close because his breathing started to become heavy, anxious.
When the potholes in the dirt road forced us to coast, I asked him to pull over and once in park, I faced Nix saying, “Breathe for me and I’ll breathe for you.”
“I shouldn’t care,” he says trying to calm. “If they turn me away, I shouldn’t care. But, I will.”
“A lot can change in fifteen years,” I say gently. “Breathe baby, nice and slow.” When I see the calm come over him, I nudge him to keep driving and he does.
The driveway alone was at least a mile long and a gorgeous sprawling ranch welcomed us with dozens of oak trees providing us cover. Parking out back by the pole barn, Nix helps me from the car, linking our fingers together.
He was nervous. I felt it more than saw it. Because on the outside, he was a rock.
Scaling the steps to the porch, he raises his fist to knock and pauses to look at me.
“Go on,” I prompt him. “I’m right here.”
When he did, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen or who was going to answer, but then the door opened to the older version of Phoenix.
He didn’t greet us with a smile or even a hand shake. What he did do was say, “Oh, you’re back.” Asshole.
Lifting our joined hands, Nix kisses the top of mine saying, “I believe you said, come back when you’ve done something to be proud of.”
“I remember,” he says with annoyance.
“Dad, may I introduce you to the woman I love and the woman who loves me back, Finn Lee.”
Scanning our faces, his gaze stays on mine and he grates, “You know what he is?”
“While I don’t much appreciate your phrasing, yes, I know who he was.”
“Was?”
“He quit,” I say sliding my hand around his waist to show solidarity. “For me, us.”
He was putting it all together when his mom screamed his name at the top of her lungs. Throwing her husband out of the way, she threw herself into Nix’s arms crying, “Danny, you’re home!”
Raising an eyebrow at Nix, reluctantly hugging his mom, I snickered to myself because he did not look like a Danny. At all.
The first half hour of our visit was spent watching his mom flutter around the kitchen throwing together snacks and making coffee. She was nervous, sad, happy, wondering if her son was really here and why.
His dad, however, hasn’t said a word. Instead, he glares at Nix, at me, and even his own wife for being hospitable.
Tired of the drama, I ask him, “Do you fish?”
Blinking as if he hadn’t heard me right, he grunts, “Of course, I fish.”
“Have you ever been dolphin fishing?” I continue on, so he can’t say anything. “My first time was two years ago. I chartered a boat. It was on my bucket list and a lot harder than I thought it would be.”
“You catch anything?”
“Yes. One decent catch, actually. She was probably three feet long and fierce as hell.”
“How’d she taste?”
“Delicious. Danny,” I say, remembering to use his given name. “Told me when he was young you two used to spend hours fishing.”
Glaring at his son, he mumbles, “Always did like killing things…”
Pushing away from the table, Nix announces, “I need air.”
His mom gave a distressed cry, while his dad rolled his eyes. The second I heard the door click, I was out of my seat and in his face. “It will be detrimental to your health to disrespect him again.”
“He’s a killer,” he yells right back in mine.
I refused to argue with his dad about his own personal issues with his son. But, in my opinion the world needed people who were wired differently. Because if you think interrogators, snipers and the like, are like the rest of us then, you're crazy. To do their job, they can't think like us. The world needs people like them just like it needed men like Nix. And nothing and no one would convince me otherwise.
“And you’re an asshole,” I counter. “Difference here is, he’s changing and you refuse to.”
“Figures he’d saddle himself with a fellow killer.”
“I’m a professional stunt woman, fuck you very much.”
Blinking, he asks, “Stunt woman?” Clearly, a trait Nix inherited from dear old dad.
“How exciting!” his mom says, clapping in actual enthusiasm which was better than her crying.
“Look,” I say, focusing solely on him. “I noticed your medals, plaques, and swords.”
“So?”
“So, it tells me you fought proudly for our country.”
“That’s what a man does,” he grunts, really annoyed with me now.
“I don’t disagree. What I’m having trouble with is how you can justify killing for your country on your government’s order, but frown upon your own son who followed in your footsteps, only he didn’t wear a uniform with his name on it when he did it. I don’t have kids, so I don’t know what it’s like to be in your position but it took a lot for him to come here. He walked away from everything he knew, for me. He treats me like I’m the most precious thing in his world. I am just as protective of him. And if that means I have to knock his old man around so that he sees sense, I will.”
“What kind of stunts?” he asks, totally ignoring my rant.
“Pick one and I’ve done it,” I roll my eyes my now. “God, it’s scary how much he takes after you.”
“I’ve been saying that for years,” his mom smiles handing me a cup of coffee.
“Thanks,” I say, accepting as I stand. “I’m going outside to check on him. When I come back, I hope I don’t have to get physical because if I do, you'll lose.”
I was closing the door behind me when his mom laughs, “I like her.”
Sliding my arms around him, I felt his tension and knew words weren’t what he needed. Staying quiet, I listened to his breathing and the sounds of nature. So slowly you wouldn’t even had seen him move, Nix alerts me to trouble. “Go inside,” he says firmly. “Protect my parents.”
Thanks to a seriously bright motion sensor, I see a giant silhouette come into view and knew immediately, “That’s Vulture.”
“Finn, my parents.”
Without another word, I went back inside and before his mom could speak I held my hand up demanding silence. His dad knew, I saw it in his eyes. His mom did not and I saw that in her eyes too.
“Take her and hide,” I point at him. “No matter what happens, no matter what you hear, do not come out unless he or I come and get you.”
“What’s happening, Finn?” she asks, trembling in fear.
“Take her,” I threaten him. “You stay in plain view, you’ll both die.”
Grabbing his wife, he ushers her toward the basement and before he disappeared, he asked, “Where are you going?”
“To save the man I love.” But I did stop for weapons first.
Why? Because I was a God damn professional.