Authors note - This story is completely fiction but roughly based on what I believe is real people in just such a real unfortunate situation, once. All characters involved in sexual activity descriptions are over 18. I have exactly zero personal experience in any police job activities, but I was able to find some generic info about the St. Louis County Tactical Operations Unit and situated the whole story there for other reasons. And we've all seen enough cop shows...
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I was finally going to be happy again.
About time, damn it.
My "dear Hubby" John came home early from work today. Early! Like, first time ever - the jackass whose job always came before me.
I was just finishing up getting ready for my date tonight. Yes, an actual date with a real sensitive man - not just a night out with my girlfriends like John thought.
He walked in the house with an attitude - grabbed me by the arms and screamed "Who exactly are you seeing tonight and where?"
But I was tired of his bullying. I looked him right in the eye and told him off, "I'm seeing Jack Carter tonight for dinner and drinks and whatever. And whatever just might mean I'll thank him just like I once thanked so many nice young men in college. Jesus, I need some real sex for a change."
That got him. He let me go and actually said, "My wife has lost her mind..."
And THAT absurdity flew all over me. I was as mad as I could ever remember in my life and started screaming right back at him.
And then he said something like "Charlie was right all along."
That asshole. That little wormy nothing asshole. I called 911 on his worthless ass and I also called Jack to come and protect me.
Finally a patrol car showed up but so did two of his friends. Where the hell was Jack? That's who I wanted and needed right now.
Then my Mom and sister Janice also arrived and John finally left. Finally!
I cried and cried in their arms as they comforted me. Maybe my nightmare marriage was finally ending and I had a chance for some happiness. But I still felt some deep, deep sadness watching John walk out that door. Just residual feelings from the ever deepening unhappiness I had been feeling the last six months...
*******
"Jesus, what the fuck is going on?" I thought to myself.
Brandon, my number 2 in any tactical situation that might arise, had quietly asked me to join him for a cup of coffee in our dingy break room.
He looked glum and then said, "What the hell is going on with Jack?"
Jack Carter was my oldest friend on the unit and basically my number 3, but was working hard and wanted a shot at being a sergeant as soon as possible in the St. Louis County Tactical Operations Unit. Basically he wanted MY job, Sgt. John Thornton's - and I hoped he got it. After I moved up at least one notch myself.
"Jack Carter? What do you mean?"
"He's talking a bunch of shit. About you - and Susan..."
"Suzy? My Susan???" I asked incredulously.
"He's more than hinting he has a...a very personal relationship with her. And he's going to beat your ass because YOU have been abusing her basically your whole marriage."
My mouth was open. Literally open because I was so shocked and speechless.
"What the fuck?" is all I could think.
Brandon continued, "About half the guys in the unit just believe him. Me and a couple of others who have spent the most time with you guys - you and your family - don't. It's just not possible. But I'm afraid this kind of personal crap in the unit could end up - dangerous."
No shit. We all had guns, and one cop screwing around with another's wife and family, even if he wasn't actually screwing her, could cause some REAL problems in any kind of action we might all get involved in. Not to mention some old West style 'mano y mano' shootout craziness.
"Fuck," was about all I could say. This had to be addressed but should I talk to Jack or Suzy first? Was Jack making a play for Suzy, and she had totally rebuffed him, so he's acting out this kind of chickenshit male ego puffery? I'd known Jack a long time, since our Army days, and he was a bit of a dick sometimes, especially around women, but otherwise he was stable enough I never had any doubts about him having my back when the shit hit the fan.
Christ, I'd spent a LOT of time with him drinking after his own wife dumped him because of the combination of job stresses and his necessary work absences away from home. But also because he had a slight problem resisting all the temptations fit men in uniform faced from the occasional "very grateful for all you do" female public. And Connie had found out about it. And at least on two separate occasions. And she had packed their two kids up and headed back home to Chicago. That was tough for Jack in a lot of ways. Still...my Suzy??? And me???
I had had my own temptations but as leader of this unit of 9 officers, I thought I had better try and set a good example. Plus I loved my wife and our four kids and sure as hell couldn't afford a divorce. I didn't make enough now to make Suzy happy much, even working private security overtime about as much as I could. Suzy and Jack Carter? I couldn't see that either.
Our marriage had always been a tad rocky. For the life of me I don't know why she basically chose me. We all went to the same Junior and High Schools, but she was 2 years younger than me and her brother Charlie. Charlie and I were best friends, even though we lived in different neighborhoods and social strata. My family was strictly working middle class. Paycheck to paycheck. The Scrantons were pretty well off, not "rich" rich - but they had money - and they knew it and flaunted it. Specially his parents and the brat - Suzy.
But Charlie wasn't like that, we both played the three major sports in HS. Baseball, basketball, and football - lettered in all 3 and by our junior years both of us started on the baseball and football teams. He was a receiver and I was a fullback. He was a pitcher and I was a catcher. He was flashier, and I was a blue collar plugger. But we were still very close, on and off the field. He was smarter than me and with his family money definitely going to college. I was going into the Army - "to be all I could be" - and to get the college benefits that would follow giving them 4 years of my life.
I spent a lot of time at Charlie's house in high school and it was always pretty obvious Susan didn't really like me, at all - plus she looked down on my - situation in life. In high school it was the same. She ran with a whole different "rich" crowd, even as a sophomore. The crowd Charly should have been part of but really didn't bother with. I had an OK just casual date with me at my senior prom - doubling with Charlie and his more special girlfriend. Suzy as a sophomore showed up on the arms of a typical rich asshole jerkoff senior - as expected.
After high school Charly headed to Notre Dame and I headed to Fort Benning in Columbus GA. for BCT - Basic Combat Training, boot camp. I eventually became an MP and with some special further training in "Intelligence" and spent two tours in Iraq. Interesting work. Not a lot of fun. And I survived.
Four years later I'm back in St. Louis and on a waiting list to maybe join St. Louis City or St. Louis County police departments and attending junior college working on some academic credentials in "criminology" - all kind of a joke to me based on what I had already learned in the Army. But one has to play the fucking game.
Charlie and I had kind of stayed in touch thru occasional letters and emails - and he was coming home for the summer before starting law school. We finally hooked up one night at just our old friendly neighborhood bar and juke joint. And Suzy came along with him. She was really quite a stunning young lady now and the most surprising thing was just how friendly to me she was.
It was actually a very pleasant evening all around just getting caught up. Charlie had some funny college stories but Suzy didn't say much about herself. She seemed mesmerized whenever I talked about my own experiences in Iraq. When we finally left the bar she actually kissed me on the cheek and said, "So great to see you again. Please stay in touch."
"Who was this girl and what happened to Susan Scranton?" I asked myself in just amusement.
The next day Charlie called me again and basically finally said, "Listen, Susan really likes you. Basically she had a crush on you all thru HS and you never paid any attention to her. Bet that surprises you, eh?" And I could hear him grinning on the phone.
"You could have fooled me," is all I could say.
"Yep. Sometimes girls and women are a little strange that way. But she did and she still does - and she's had a rough couple of years. She basically just couldn't handle college, too many parties with too many rich privileged assholes. Too much booze and too much ecstasy. And too many asshole dicks, I'm afraid. She had to leave school and just got out of rehab and doing her 12 step stuff now. IF you call her, just be gentle, OK. And I hate to say this about my own sister, but you probably shouldn't get serious about her...but last night was a lot of fun and let's do it again soon, OK?"
And we did. It became pretty much a weekly thing all summer and sometimes Suzy came with him and sometimes she didn't. I found I was missing her when she didn't show up and finally gave her a call - on some pretext or other - and we ended up with just a lunch date. She eventually started talking about herself a little more and was opening up. She couldn't apologize enough for being "such a little bitch" to me in HS. I merely said, "You should be apologizing" rather than the somewhat cooler truth: I had never really noticed and wasn't bothered about it back then.
But she WAS pretty, even beautiful now and with a much more pleasant personality.
Eventually it developed into a dating relationship. Then finally, sex and a definite exclusive thing between us. Sex with Suzy was incredible. She might have flunked out of college, academically - but she emerged with a graduate degree in "sex". Probably most of it was natural talent - but all of her knowledge and skills couldn't be. I wasn't a virgin, myself - not since my junior year in HS. And I'm SURE being a starter on that football team - and a regional winning squad, at that - had nothing to do with it...and I had had more than a few hook-up encounters with women in the Army. Some of those girls were quite talented themselves. But Suzy was in a whole 'nother league. Maybe out of my league but she always seemed satisfied quite enough with me.
So, despite her parents reluctance, if not outright objections. Susan married me as soon as I was accepted onto the St. Louis County police force. I don't actually remember ever asking her - her more dominant personality traits were re-emerging. Whatever Suzy wants, Suzy gets.
She got pregnant almost immediately and Kimberley, our first daughter was born just about one year after our wedding. Two years later. John James Thornton was born, my firstborn son. Three years later, our second daughter Parker, and finally, 4 years later, little Abigail. All our kids are just average beautiful and normally healthy, thank God. After each birth, Susan had a bit of postpartum depression for a month or 6 weeks. Otherwise, she was just a great mother and loved our kids wholeheartedly. She never worked outside the home - but working IN the home with young kids is hard and worthy work and I never doubted it. After Parker was born, Suzie started the Pill again for birth control, as she had in her senior year of HS and all college.
And her personality seemed to change just a bit. Just not quite as stable and calmly satisfied, day in and day out. By then I was gone from home more than I ever wanted to be. But I was in the TacOps Unit now and training and night shifts and call outs took a lot of time from home life. I don't quite know if she came off the pill purposefully or it just "failed" but she became pregnant with little Abbie and then obviously stopped taking them. After Abbie was born almost 5 years ago, she just got her tubes tied, and nursed Abbie for about 18 months. And then she really started changing.
