EPILOGUE II
FIVE YEARS LATER
GABE
I press the receiver. “Blackbeard, what’s your position?”
Squawk. “On your six, taking heavy fire.”
I spin around and cop it right in the chest.
Josh comes bounding out of the bushes near the fence, a radio in one hand, another water balloon in the other.
I hold my chest and go rolling along across the grass. “I’m down. I’m down!”
“Serg,” our four-year-old shelter rescue lab comes bounding over to join in the fun. Josh and him give up on me and go squealing into the sandpit where a motley collection of half-chewed action figures awaits.
“Chow time!” calls Jason from the grill. He’s got Shannon’s ‘World’s Okayest Chef’ apron on (thankfully, not naked) and a paper hat Joshua made him earlier teetering on his head.
I stand. Hands slide around my waist.
I give a mock gasp and spin to take Shannon in my arms. “I thought you were Jason there for a second.”
She checks no one is watching before squeezing my cock through my pants. “I should hope Jason doesn’t do that.”
“All those cold, lonely nights down range…” I start.
She slaps my chest. “Can you go attend to our son before he suffocates Serg over there?”
I look over. Josh is practically sitting on Serg, who, funnily enough, doesn’t seem to mind.
I run across the yard and pick Josh up, spinning him in the air before placing him on my shoulders and walking him over to the grill.
Percy’s hobbling behind us.
Jason closes the grill lid and smiles up at Josh with tongs in his hand. He clicks his boots together and salutes. “Master Chief.”
“Peddy officer,” Josh salutes back, still struggling to pronounce his ‘T’s properly.
He is only four.
Shannon comes up beside me. “Mmm, something smells good.”
Josh rubs his tummy. “Sausages, Momma! Yay!”
She stands on her tippy toes and kisses him on the side of his head. “Not too many this time, hey, kiddo. Too many and you’ll turn into a sausage.”
“A sausage boy!” giggles Josh. “That’s silly.”
There’s nothing sweeter than the sound of his little laugh. I could listen to it over and over and over again, but he’ll be five soon enough and that laugh will be gone. My once tiny man will be off to school.
It’s hard to imagine how fast these last five years have gone by. Of course, Shannon and I weren’t exactly planning a honeymoon baby, and I suppose that was the best part of all.
It’s been a blessing in so many ways. Shannon has taken to motherhood so well, not that I should have expected anything less given the other ‘children’ she’s raised, and the others who have joined our family since. I often joke we could start a zoo. “We could cage Jason,” she joked. “He could be our star attraction.”
I was apprehensive coming into fatherhood, worried I’d pass down my more questionable qualities, but as soon as I saw Josh’s face, as soon as I held him in my arms—so, so small—I was completely and utterly smitten.
Shannon says he has a bit of his grandfather’s cheekiness, and I don’t doubt it.
I may have been a bit precious with him at first. “He’s not a grenade,” Shannon used to laugh. “He’s not going to go off.”
His little bottom had tooted in reply. “You sure about that?” I laughed back.
I’ve even considered taking him to see Triss. She’s still in care. I don’t think she’ll ever leave, and maybe that’s for the best. Her problems ran deeper than anyone could have thought, but the medication has helped and she seems to be getting back to some semblance of normal. The rage I saw the day she kidnapped Shannon is gone, the jealousy. She understands, even apologized.
I thought Shannon may have wanted me to stay away at the start, but she’s been nothing but supportive, encouraging me to visit Triss once a week. She even baked her cookies. But that’s Shannon—generous, impossibly kind.
When her former old boss got the boot for skimming company funds, Shannon was the first person the director called to replace him. She was a bit shocked at first, which is understandable, but five years in she has the place running like clockwork. The employees and studios love her, the clients too. Talk is she might be about to step up into the big league, maybe make a move to Hollywood, but I don’t think she’s fussed either way. She knows what’s important in her life right now.
They say a lot of women lose their libido after child birth, but if anything, it’s supercharged Shannon’s sexual side. Experimentation abounds in the bedroom. We don’t have a red room per se, but there’s a box under our bed I sure as hell wouldn’t want anyone knowing about. I think she’s making up for all those years she went without, and who am I to stop her?
Even now, standing here watching her, I’m getting hard thinking about her beneath me tonight, her fingers clawing at the sheets, my back, the way her toes curl and thighs clamp around me when she comes. I suppose I’m blessed in the bedroom then, too.
Immediately after the incident with Triss, I was lost. Without an enemy to fight, a mission waiting, I felt like I didn’t have a purpose, that everything was so trivial. The sex helped, but not as much as having Shannon’s support.
When I bumped into my one of my old commanders and he suggested Veterans Affairs, I almost laughed him right out of the room, but three years in I couldn’t be happier. It allows me to remain in the service, but not in service, so to speak. The real battle happens back here at home. Triss showed me that. PTSD is real and this country’s not doing enough about it. The small advice I can offer, a friendly face provided, makes a genuine difference in the lives of these heroes.
I think Shannon was worried I was going to be chained to a desk shuffling papers and slowly going insane, but my workload is mostly made up of house calls, especially for the older veterans who don’t have family or someone to lean on. I sometimes take Buffy or Angel, Aragog from time to time if I’m really looking to make an entrance. It helps, having an animal there to break the ice, and our ‘kids’ are the cutest damn kids in the world.
Even poor Matt got roped into a pooch by his fiancée. She’s a sailor, believe it or not. I guess that’s what he gets for spending so much time with us down at The Hole. She’s a fierce one, too, damn near demanded a ring, but she’s good for him. I know it. The wedding’s going to be in the Bahamas. I’m already dreaming about those balmy nights with Shannon… provided Little Man sleeps through.
I open the grill, smoke wafting out. “You cooking sausages or charcoal tablets there, Petty Officer?”
Jason starts to pluck the sausages out one by one. “It adds to the flavor, my friend.”
I look over to the others gathered on the deck, the rest of our squad who’ve decided to come out for this Fourth of July celebration. Three of us are missing, but they’re here in spirit nonetheless.
Josh, always my shadow, helps me take the food over to the table.
I help Josh up and take my own seat. “Dig in, everyone.”
I take the tongs and plate up for Josh, Shannon’s hand hot on my thigh under the table. “Sausage?” I offer.
Her hand slides downwards. “Oh, I think I’ve got more sausage than I can handle, thank you very much.”
*
I’m hunched over Shannon’s back, driving into her hard from behind. She braces herself against the headboard.
“Oh, god. I’m going to—”
I place my hand over her mouth so she doesn’t wake Josh. She has become rather vocal of late.
A finger slips inside her mouth. She lightly bites down, her pussy squeezing my cock in a quick flutter and tipping me over the edge.
I run to the end of her slickness.
We come together, breathless, one.
I pull out and collapse onto the bed. She falls on top of me, her head cradled against my arm and shoulder, her hair matted and sticky.
Outside, a sea breeze is blowing in from the balcony. A bottle of champagne sits empty in a bucket by the corner.
“So,” I ask, still breathing hard, “are you enjoying the Bahamas?”
She takes hold of my still-hard cock and lightly pumps it. “I am, and it would appear I’m not the only one.”
“You know, if you keep doing that I’m just going to have to make you come again.”
She rolls and comes up onto her knees, straddling me. “That sounds like a challenge.”
“I do like a challenge.”
“Hmm,” she pouts. “Now where have I heard that before?”
She slips me back inside her pussy and begins to grind down on me. I hold her face in my hands still spellbound by her beauty, the way she glows in this emerald light.
I always equated home with happiness, but it’s only recently I’ve come to understand what the true definition of home is.
It’s family—crazy, wild, how-am-I-going-to-survive-this family. Our house is full, and it’s due to hear the sound of another set of pitter-patter feet in nine months’ time.
Our house is full, and so is my heart, because the woman of my life, the woman I married, means more to me than anything. She has given me a son, deep and profound happiness, and true purpose. She might be a civilian, but she’s no less of a fighter. That shy girl I first met in The Swinging Dick is all but gone. In her place stands a strong and determined woman completely unfazed by the world.
And sure, I know there are going to be trials, but I say bring them on. After all, a smooth sea never makes for a skillful sailor.
With Shannon by my side, anything is possible.
Our love may have started as a hustle, but what we have now is more than real.
It’s passion—hot and wet and all-consuming.
It’s a partnership—true and tested.
It’s the best god-damn feeling in the world.