Chapter 35 #2
We walked through the door of the club and the first thing I noticed was how bright it was in there. Had it always been like this? The permanent shadows that seemed to overtake my life had slithered off into nothingness somewhere along the line.
Toxic was hanging out near the entrance.
He walked over and bumped our knuckles together.
“Glad you made it, Brother. Good to see you, too,” he said, turning to Jordan.
He gave her a sly grin. Jordan blushed, then narrowed her eyes at him.
She wasn’t about to talk about seeing him naked, which I was grateful for.
It had been bad enough that it’d happened, I didn’t need the reminder that my old lady had seen some of my brothers bare assed.
“Everyone’s in the bar.” Toxic led us to the bar where everyone was gathered. “Hey Shep, look who I found.”
Sitting at a table, surrounded by everyone, were the last two people I had expected to see in here.
My jaw dropped and I stood there in stunned silence for a few heartbeats before shaking off my immobility.
“Chief Sheppard? Captain Walker?” The words fell out of my mouth before I knew I was saying them.
Sheppard stood up from the bar and walked around, shaking my hand before pulling me into a bro hug.
“Don’t be so formal. I'm retired now. It’s just Mark and Jen.” His smile was infectious, I was grinning, in fact my smile was so large it was hurting my damn face. “We want you to meet someone.”
Jen was standing slowly. Wrapped in her arms was a happy, giggling baby. “Ricochet, meet Tyler. Tyler Gage Sheppard,” Jen said with a smile.
My mouth opened and closed several times but nothing was coming out. Jordan nudged me in the ribs, snapping me back to reality. I left Mark standing near Jordan and approached Jen and Tyler. “Could I…”
“Of course!” She plopped Tyler in my arms so fast, it startled both me and the baby.
He studied me with inquisitive blue eyes before he gave me a drool soaked smile. I bounced him and looked back at Jen. “I can’t believe you guys are here.”
“Don’t you look fucking natural holding that kid,” Smokehouse said with a laugh as he and some of the others walked up. “Ready to have some of your own?”
“Damn right I am,” I told him, my gaze sliding over to Jordan. Her cheeks were pink and she was staring wide eyed at me, as though she couldn’t believe I was saying this in front of the others.
“Better you than me, Bro,” Smoke said, leaning in to tickle Tyler under the chin. “I’m staying far away from the likes of you,” he cooed.
“Can’t believe you don’t already have twenty the way you whore around,” Hush said with a laugh.
Smoke joined right in. He loved the ladies and they were infatuated with him. “You know how it is.”
Looking over as Lockout walked up, I shook my head in amazement. “What are the odds that you all know each other?”
“Deployment is a small place,” Lock said, handing Jordan a beer. “You know that.”
“True. Also, Mark, Jen, this is Jordan. Jordan, Mark and Jen were in Afghanistan at the same time I was. They helped me out when I was in a spot of trouble.”
Mark grasped my shoulder and squeezed as I handed Tyler back to Jen. “He’s got it backward. He saved my ass when I got into a spot of trouble.”
We all sat at the nearby tables while Mark went through the story. He and Jen were both pilots. He flew Apache attack helicopters and she flew Black Hawks, for MEDEVAC and search and rescue. Up until today I had no idea that they were in a relationship.
His helicopter had some malfunction that had caused him to crash land in hostile territory.
I was with Jen in the chow hall when she got the news.
I didn’t have time to call back to my command, I just followed her out of the chow hall and into her helicopter.
Together, with her team, we went out into the desert and found Mark and his copilot.
“So Jen flies in right above us, Artie and I grab onto the hoist cable and up we go, Jen flying out of there like a bat out of hell. Imagine my surprise when we get into the bird and we see this guy behind a machine gun.”
“Well, I owed you.” I told him. Shep smiled and gave a subtle nod. He could see the appreciation in my eyes. Shaking off the downer mood, I pointed to little Tyler. “So what's the rest of the story?”
Jen answered. “When the deployment was over Mark put in his retirement papers, then we got married and well…” She held up Tyler as evidence.
“Really Ricochet, I don’t know that I can ever thank you enough for that day.
” Her eyes were so bright and full of love, I knew she meant it.
And I was thankful I’d been there to help.
Without Shep, I might not have been. Then who knew what would have happened to him and Jen during that incident.
She and I had fended off insurgents together on the ground while we searched for Mark and his co-pilot.
It all came around full circle and I just chalked it up to the fact that we were meant to have met each other.
Maybe Jack had sent Shep to me. Who knew?
I didn’t really believe in all that occult and ghost shit, but after seeing Jack that night with Sean, I wasn’t ruling anything out.
I’d talked to Hush about it later, since he’d mentioned once before that he’d sworn he’d seen his late wife.
I tried to play it off, but Hush had just shrugged and said something along the lines of, “Fuck if I know what’s really out there.
Far be it for me to turn away help.” Then he’d gone back to drinking his beer.
I decided then and there to take a page out of his book.
Likely, it was just my memories clashing with reality, like they often did, but this time had seemed different.
I wanted to believe it was. That Jack was helping me out, yet again.
A band of emotion squeezed around my heart.
The things I owed to that man were immeasurable.
It was time to do what I should have done long ago.
But first, I was going to spend a fun night with my brothers, their old ladies, and the woman I loved.
Toxic and Hush stole Mark and Jen away to tell more war stories, apparently Hush had saved Mark once as well. Deployment created an unbreakable bond for those of us lucky enough to have met each other a half a world away.
Jordan and I sat back as the convo moved across the room. She grabbed my hand, getting my attention. “You told Mark that you owed him, what did you mean?”
There was no holding back now, not if I wanted to keep her. “I met Mark after the darkest night of my life. It was right after my best friend and teammate Jack had been killed.
“Between Jack being killed because of me, and having killed a kid, I was spiraling bad. I was ready to shoot myself. Literally. I couldn’t face my team, couldn’t face Jack’s family, I felt I had let them down and didn’t deserve their help.
I didn’t dare ask for any. I hid myself from my team to stop them from trying.
And even though I’d talked to Gwen, I was still struggling.
I’d made her a promise, but I wasn’t sure I could keep it.
I was in the chow hall, sort of a last meal, but really a last ditch effort before I…
gave in. I saw Mark at a table with his crew and well, there was something there in his eyes. It was a look I recognized.”
Emotion flashed over Jordan’s face and her eyes filled with tears, but she didn’t stop me, so I continued, “Crazy thing is, he recognized it in mine, too. He invited me over to their table, so I went. And little by little, I talked about what had happened. I’m not really the type to lay my troubles on the table, but he was just…
He knew. He knew somehow that I was hanging on by a thread.
He stayed there with me until well after the chow hall had closed.
But by the end of it, I was stable. I was still wracked with guilt, but he’d talked me off the ledge.
I think he would have sat there with me all night if I’d needed it.
Without him, I wouldn’t be here today.” There were many sitting around these tables who’d done the same in the months and years afterward, but he’d started it all.
“Looks like I owe him a debt of gratitude, too,” Jordan said.
Her voice was thick with tears. “Look at those people in there, Ricochet. Look at the lives they're leading, that baby. It’s because of you. That guilt you were carrying; you don’t deserve it.
You’ve been hanging onto it so tightly that you don’t realize all the good you’ve done; the lives you’ve saved.
You’re a good man, you deserve your own happiness. ”
I pulled her into my lap and kissed her, fucking grateful for her, and for all the people surrounding me. Somehow, I had every single person who I owed my life to in one room. It was a cleansing for a darkened soul and I’d never felt so light.