“Who’s this?” She called herself Momma. “Okay so looks like I have a new—?”
“This is Charlie.”
“Hi Charlie,” Axel grinned at his nephew, the baby grabbed the finger Axel held out and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing on it, a line of drool hanging from the corner of his lip.
“Sorry,” Krystal pulled her brother’s finger out of her son’s mouth,
“He’s teething.”
“I hungry, Mom.” Mikey tugged on her shirt.
Looking at his nephew, Axel tried to make out some of the Givens's features. But all he could see was his mom’s eyes and his sister’s nose. He hadn’t seen Mikey since he was a couple of months old. Now he was four, how the fuck was he four. “Spanish?” The inflection on what Axel meant to be a statement rather than a question made it one anyway. What he hadn’t expected was for the shutters to come down over his sister’s eyes.
“Is that a problem?” Warning flashed in Krystal’s eyes, daring him to say it was.
“What?” He’d missed something, he was sure of it. “Why the hell would that be a problem?”
“What happens now?” Krystal ignored Axel’s question.
“Food, debrief, and you need to contact DEA, what you tell them depends on the other guys who helped us rescue you.”
“Oh.” Krystal’s startled look told them she hadn’t expected for Castello to be so open about who she worked for. “You know?”
“Yeah,” Axel didn’t give a shit, “Don’t care either—”
“Mom.”
“C’mon,” Castello waved his hand toward the door, “Let’s go, I remember what kiddos his age think of being hungry and I am pretty sure I saw some hot chocolate in the kitchen. Whatcha think, Mikey, should we have hot chocolate?”
Axel’s mouth dropped open. Castello had spoken to his nephew in Spanish without missing a heartbeat.
“Yay.” The little boy danced on the spot, he slipped his tiny hand into Castello’s. “Chocolate.”
All of them left the hangar together, Axel didn’t exactly know what would happen now. Didn’t much give a shit either. He had them back, he’d figure everything else out as they went along.
***
Turning over the pencil, Axel used the eraser to smudge out the line he couldn’t quite get right. Waiting sucked. Now he knew why the military bitched about ‘Hurry up and wait’ or maybe it was joked about. When they had finished food, and Krystal had showered, the kids had fallen asleep in a travel cot that Grif had produced from the door to the private quarters of the team who lived here. Did that mean there were kids here? He didn’t know the answer, but if there were it would explain why Rock and Grif were so damn protective of that side of the property. Can you call a dormant volcano
property? Ugh, Axel didn’t know the answer. He tossed the drawing pad and pencil on the bedside table and swung his legs off the bed. It had been hours, surely their debrief had finished already. Other than Krystal confirming that Mikey was Zeke’s kid, she had been tight lipped while they had eaten an early breakfast.
Enough waiting, he was going looking. He got that there were procedures and shit to follow, but damn it he wanted to be where his sister was. Or maybe he could go to the living space and see if there was anything on that massive TV. He hadn’t been allowed in the room where the debriefing would take place, not knowing what was happening a-fucking-gain, argh. Shoving his feet into the boots he had taken off earlier, Axel stood up and took two steps toward the door when it opened.
“Hey.” Castello was already pulling his t-shirt over his head when he turned around after closing the door. “I need a—.” He frowned at Axel, “Are you going somewhere?”
“Krystal and the boys?”
“Sleeping.”
“Oh.” Disappointment slammed into him. He didn’t get it, his fun-loving sister had always been so warm and huggy. Other than the one hug she had allowed him when she got off the helo, Krystal hadn’t looked at him. Over food she had busied herself with the boys, refusing any and all help offered.
Rather than letting him babysit when she was in the debriefing room, she had insisted on keeping the kids with her.
“Hey,” Castello toed off his combat boots and moved next to Axel.
Lifting his hand, he rubbed his thumb across Axel’s cheek. “What’s the matter?” Cas pulled Axel until he could wrap him up in a bear hug. “Talk to me.”
“It’s not—", Axel coughed twice to clear his throat, that fucking lump there was huge. “I thought she would be happy to see me.”
