The car ride on the way home from the Veterans Ball was a quiet one for Jackson and Chris. Neither one knew what to say to the other. Chris stared out the window and Jackson kept his eyes on the road.
Jackson remembered the first day he had seen Brandon. Tall, lanky kid who literally got off the bus with a scruffy bag on one shoulder and a huge chip on the other. Jackson couldn't figure him out. He had volunteered, yet he acted like being there was something he didn't want to do.
Jackson believed that is what initially intrigued him about the young man. He looked over Brandon's files. Born and raised in Boston, father unknown, mother gave birth rights over to her sister and her husband when he was six. He had a few hospital records. Broken arm, bruises, stab wound to the left shoulder. Jesus, this kid had been through quite a bit.
So instead of going the old "hard ass" Lieutenant route, Jackson was nice yet stern with Brandon. It seemed to break down a few walls this kid had up that no one else could get through.
Jackson had never had a son, and figured if he had, his would have been very different than Brandon, but there was something about this kid that touched him. And he was so serious all the time, but when he smiled, it would make whoever was around want to smile too. Why the hell had everything gone so wrong?
When Jackson and Chris reached the house, Chris turned to him and asked, "Do you want me to go look for her?"
Jackson sighed and shook his head 'no'. "She's with him. And he can get out of control sometimes. I wouldn't want anything to happen," he said, exiting the car.
This was killing Chris. He wanted to go find her. He didn't want her being hurt. He had seen how she crumpled to the floor when he had taken the phone away from her at the hair salon, and how devastated she had looked when she saw Brandon earlier tonight with another woman.
When they entered the house, Jackson walked into his study and shut the door. He sat down and put his head into his hands. He just wanted everything to stop. Or for things to go back to a more comfortable time. When Sienna was a young girl, and Brandon was a young hot headed kid who would listen to his every word.
Why couldn't he turn back the hands of time to those days? Before shit got so complicated.
But there was something else plaguing Jackson. He had tried to block it out, but he had heard Brandon say it loud and clear. 'You don't want me as a part of your family anymore, huh?! Well, I just might be in nine months, motherfucker!'
Jesus, all of this was happening way too fast. Sienna had just delivered a massive string of tantrums because he threatened to pull her tuition, yet obviously, unless Brandon was bluffing, she might not even be going to school due to other complications. He was so confused. He couldn't think about that anymore.
But deep down Jackson had to face what he feared the most. Why he objected to Sienna and Brandon's relationship. In Sienna, he saw his ex-wife. Someone who made impulsive decisions without thinking and ruined their family. Over his dead body, would be the only way Sienna would follow that path.
***********************
"Screw your stupid ass friend!" April hollered across the crowded bar to Terry.
"Honey, in this crowd, you're going to have to be a little more specific," he laughed in her direction, while taking another sip of his beer. He had a lousy time at the veterans ball, and stopping at the usual dingy bar seemed like a welcome change to the stiffs he was forced to be with earlier that night.
April staggered over to him, obviously drunk out of her mind. She tried to lean against the counter but fell more on Terry than her intended target.
Terry gazed down at April's sweaty smiling face. She was a pretty woman. Well, when her hair wasn't matted and her eyes weren't blood shot red from drinking.
"So what's new, April?" Terry asked, taking another sip.
"I hate BT. He's such a piece of shit!" she slurred, while almost slipping off the counter again.
"What has captain crazy done to you now?" Terry inquired, turning back to nurse his beer, completely uninterested. Nothing April ever said was worth anyone's time. Now if she took her top off and told him, maybe he'd be a little more enthusiastic to hear.
"I can't believe, he is--he is, um, so fucking stupid. He kicked me out of his house for--for that young black bitch! Ain't she related to someone high up or somethin'. Little slut," she slurred, eyes half closed.
"What are you talking about?" Terry turned to her a little more interested since he believed that it was Sienna she was referring to.
"She shows up at his doorstep (hiccup), no doubt a few minutes too early for their little(hiccup)--little, whatever the fuck they have. I think it was her birthday. Yeah, eighteenth. Anyway, after that asshole fucks me, he picks her up and walks her back to his room and kicks me out!!" she yelled.
Terry's mind started rotating and plotting. He remembered all those years ago when he first met Brandon Temple. Immediately, he didn't like him. He just seemed too fucking cool and crazy. That kind of guy you wish you could be if you weren't scared of consequences. Terry knew it was probably jealousy that coursed through his veins, but he didn't care.
And for some reason, girls seemed to love BT. They would flock to him in any bar, in any country they traveled to. He'd act so uninterested in them, but their panties seemed to drop. Clever, how that worked.
But most of all, Terry hated the way the Commander seemed to love everything about Brandon. He'd seen BT fly off the handle more times than he could count due to his temper, but Commander Branson was always there to back him up.
Once they were on a mission, and they had been given direct orders not to get involved in any civilian warfare. They were there for a specific reason, and they had to get out once their mission was complete.
They had come across two men who were beating this young female and ripping her clothes off. Terry wasn't going to lie, it was hard to watch, but that wasn't a part of their mission. Commander Branson told them not to engage.
But out of the corner of Terry's eye, he saw Brandon raise his gun slightly and pulled the trigger twice. In an instant, both of the men's brains exploded onto the back of the wall and the young girl took off running and screaming.
Commander Branson had seen it too, but when they got back to base for their debriefing, Brandon got away scott free. That had bothered Terry. A lot. He figured if another man had done it, the Commander would have had his ass for disobeying a direct order. But BT was special for some fucking reason. He truly resented that.
And it wasn't just those moments. Terry recalled another time when he had been flirting with this hot little waitress at a local bar. He was checking his jeans to make sure he had a condom, when he saw BT walk up to her, whisper something in her ear, and the girl followed him out. Terry was literally standing there with the world's hardest hard on watching Brandon score with the woman of his dreams. Or at least the woman for that night.
Oh yes, that happened more times than he wanted to admit. Including with Terry's own on and off again girlfriend, Alice. She had wanted BT, but settled for him instead. But he still believed that Brandon had fucked Alice. He couldn't prove it, but she seemed to get flustered whenever she saw BT or when Terry mentioned his name. Slut probably did, now that he thought about it.
He wished he could just grow some balls and confront BT, but that was easier said than done. BT was an intimidating guy. When you call his name, and he turns to you, nailing you with his glare, you forget what the fuck you were going to say. So Terry never got up the nerve, and BT thought the two of them were friends, so probably better left unsaid.
Maybe they were friends, but Terry wanted for once, Brandon to get what should have come to him a long time ago. Payback was definitely a bitch.
"So, you sure this was the day of her eighteenth birthday? Could it have been earlier?" Terry asked, bringing his wandering mind back to the present and April's long, rambling story.
He looked down at her, and she was asleep on his shoulder and drooling. He quickly nudged her off. "Wake the fuck up."
"Hey, what the hell?" April yelled, almost tipping over.
"Could it have been before her eighteenth birthday?" he asked again.
"Um, no, I don't think so. I don't know, I was kinda out of it, you know. No, it was definitely her birthday. Or someone's birthday," April answered, scrunching her nose up trying to remember.
"But it COULD have been earlier, right? I mean, did the two of them seem to already have a relationship? Did he sleep with her that night?" Terry prodded on.
