Elliott
After the visit from the government, we all felt a little off.
Like they’d show up again. Every night, Ben and I practiced meeting in our dreams, until after a week, we admitted that the nightly connections were making us exhausted during the day.
We were pretty confident we could do it, so we stopped practicing.
In my next therapy session, Gail told me that Dawson refused to leave the ranch, terrified the men would come back and he wouldn’t make it into a bunker in time.
I knew how he felt, and it made me angry that he had to go through it.
He was just a kid. I decided to try talking to him about it, although I wasn’t sure I could help.
I found him in Jeremiah’s bedroom. Jerry just turned five, and because he was passionate about toy cars these days, he’d gotten a lot of them for his birthday. I stood a moment in the doorway watching Dawson playing with him.
Dawson’s head was bent over the cars he was lining up in a row, the sun pouring over him from the window setting his red hair aglow. Jeremiah knelt opposite him, holding a toy truck, watching Dawson’s actions closely.
“Okay…Now!” Dawson called out, and Jeremiah immediately sent the big wooden truck careening across the hardwood floor into the line of metal cars, sending them rolling in all directions. Jeremiah cheered, and Dawson smiled. Looking up, he spotted me at the door.
“Oh,” he said. “Hi, Elliott. What are you doing?”
“I came to see you,” I said. “Having fun, Jerry?”
The little boy’s blond curls bounced as he nodded.
“Dawson’s good at cars,” he said.
Eric, whom I’d spoken with when I came in to let him know I wanted to talk to Dawson, appeared behind me.
“Jerry, come help me with the cake I’m making.”
Jeremiah immediately jumped up, yelled, “See ya,” and ran after his father, who’d started back down the hall toward the kitchen.
“It’s nice of you to play with him,” I said to Dawson.
“Not to be mean, but there isn’t anyone else to play with,” Dawson said, turning to face me, sitting crossed-legged on the floor.
I smiled. “What about Kate?”
“She’s okay, for a girl. I play with her sometimes. She’s interested in video games. But she can’t play the ones I like yet. How come you came to see me?”
The question pierced me with guilt. I didn’t think about him enough.
He was here without his family—except for Nova, of course—and didn’t have anyone his age to hang around with.
Even if there were any kids his age living nearby, he wouldn’t be able to play with them.
Not when his heats could start at any minute.
Dawson was an adolescent, but his freckled face and awkward gestures were completely incongruous with the image of him going into heat and wanting sex.
We omegas tried to do things with him, like play ball or help him with homework, but it wasn’t enough, and I knew I hadn’t been doing my share.
“Any time you’re lonely, you can text me or one of the other omegas and one of us will come and get you. I’m sorry you feel alone here,” I said sincerely.
“Thanks,” Dawson said. He looked at the floor, chewing pensively on his bottom lip.
“Is there something that’s bothering you? Are you upset because those government people came looking for you?”
He shrugged and looked down at the toy car he was fidgeting with.
“Did it scare you? It did me. I was looking for Pickles the goat with one of the alpha ops—Jet. Do you know him? He’s the one with black hair.
We were way over in the far field chasing Pickles when we got the Code Red text.
We had to find the door to the bunker fast. It was well hidden, but Jet remembered exactly how to find it.
And you know what? I was so scared, I didn’t want to be down in the bunker alone, so I begged Jet to go down with me.
He did, and then that big, scary ops guy ended up going down there with us. He really makes me nervous.”
“Do you mean Kirk?” Dawson asked.
Surprised he knew the guy, I nodded. “Yeah. That’s him.”
“He’s kind of gruff,” Dawson said, “but he likes ants like I do, so I think he’s cool.”
Dawson was fascinated with ants and read a lot of books about them. He knew what kind they were on sight and how they managed their colonies. In his bedroom, he had an ant farm on his desk that he could watch for hours. He even took notes on them.
Frankly, I was shocked to hear that Kirk liked ants, too. “Really?”
Dawson nodded. “Yeah. Well, all insects, really. He’s seen my ant farm and my books about them. He promised to take me around the ranch to find different colonies when he has the time.”
Huh. Well, what do you know? Kirk hadn’t been very nice about my panic attack, but maybe he had a good reason for that. People had their bad days.
“The ops guy who really scares me is the one with the scar here.” Dawson pointed to his temple.
“Brandon,” I said. “I agree. He scares me, too, although to be fair, he’s never done anything to me. He used to stare at me a lot, but he stopped doing it after it gave me a panic attack.”
“Maybe he does that because he’s too shy to talk to you. You know how Kirk doesn’t say much, and when he does, he kind of grunts the words?” Dawson asked.
I nodded, although Kirk hadn’t had any trouble talking in the bunker.
“Well, that’s because he’s shy. How did he do when you guys were in the bunker? He’s claustrophobic.”
Oh. So, there was the reason for his attitude that day.
“He seemed a little uncomfortable,” I said.
“He waited with me one day while Allen saddled a horse for me, and I pointed out some ants. We started talking about them. That’s how we became friends.”
“Thanks for letting me know,” I said. “I guess I misjudged him.”
“He’s really big and fierce. I feel safe around him,” Dawson said.
I was scared of him for the same reasons.
“Do you think the government people will be back?” he asked me.
“I don’t know. Maybe. But the ops team will see them and send out the Code Red again. We will hide again. When I got scared in the bunker, Jet reminded me that there are tunnels for us to go to the Angels’ ranch. That made me feel better.”
Dawson nodded. “Thanks, Elliott. It helps to know I’m not the only one who’s scared.”
An idea came to me. “Jet’s my permanent security now because it made me uncomfortable to switch every day. Why don’t you ask your aunt if Kirk can be the one to go with you when you need someone?”
I was thinking that maybe, since Dawson liked Kirk so much and was comfortable with him, he might want to leave the house again if Kirk was the one taking care of him.
Dawson’s eyes lit up. “Wow, do you think she’d do that?”
“I don’t know why not. She wasn’t bothered when Gail asked her for me.”
Dawson’s shoulders sagged. “But maybe Kirk wouldn’t like being assigned to a kid.”
“Or maybe he would, since he’s already friends with that kid and they both like ants,” I countered.
“Yeah…” Dawson got excited again. “Will you go with me to ask now?”
“Sure.”
I was confident that Nova and Laura would be on board since they were worried about Dawson.
We left Jeremiah’s bedroom to seek one of them out.
When we peered in the kitchen, Eric had Jemiah standing on a stool at the counter.
The little boy was covered in flour. Dawson and I shared amused smiles, then continued down the hall.
We found Laura and Nova together in the small office at the back of the house.
As I thought, they both immediately agreed to the plan of Kirk being Dawon’s permanent security.
“Make sure he’s okay with it first, Aunt Nova,” Dawson said. “I don’t want him to do it if he’s not.”
“I will,” Nova promised, ruffling his hair.
I spent another hour with Dawson, letting him show me all the intricacies of his ant farm, before I left for home.
Jet was on the front porch waiting for me. I noticed he’d been occupied with something.
“What’s that you’re doing?” I asked. I didn’t feel afraid of him like I had before.
He’d gone down in the bunker because I’d asked him to, and he’d stood up for me with Kirk when he thought Kirk was being a jerk to me.
That didn’t mean I’d comfortable with Jet in all situations, but I was okay standing close enough to talk to him.
Jet looked up at me and then down at what he was holding, which looked like a piece of wood and a small knife. “I’m whittling. See?”
He held up the wood.
“Can you tell what it is?” he asked.
“Uh…is it an animal?” I guessed.
“Right! Can you tell what animal?”
I took a step closer and studied the roughly-carved creature in his hand.
“Sorry, no.”
Looking a little disappointed, he shrugged. “That’s okay. I’m new to it.”
“So, what is it?” I asked.
“A beaver.”
I nodded. “O-oh-h, okay. I see it now.” I really didn’t; I just didn’t want to hurt his feelings. He’d been so nice, and he’d confided about his little brother to me. What a sad story. I saw the pain in Jet’s eyes when he told me.
As he walked me home, I thought about what Dawson had said about Kirk and decided to tell Jet about it. When I stopped walking, he stopped, too, and I turned to him.
Jet listened as I related Dawson’s thoughts on Kirk.
When I was finished, he said, “I guess I misjudged him too. We all have our reasons for the way we act. I feel bad for telling him to shut up, but I didn’t like the way he was talking to you.”
He’d said that before, and just like then, his words felt like a warm hug.
All my friends were always trying to protect me, and sometimes it got annoying.
It was weird, because there were definitely other times when I wanted them to protect me.
Gail could probably explain the reason why that was.
But whether I wanted it or not, my friends’ concern or protection never made me feel like I felt when Jet said he stood up to Kirk because he hadn’t liked the way he talked to me.