Chapter Quote:
"Blood does not define brothers."
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Chapter 9: Fratres

Grey

"So what are you going to do when you get back? Any special lady waiting for you, Kennedy?" Tyler Fray asked, his jade green eyes resting on Chris. Tyler lounged in a chair in the corner of our barracks. At twenty-four, he was the newest member of our squad and you could tell. But Tyler was smart and learned quickly. We nicknamed him 'Baby Brother' which he took in stride. This guy would be a hero one day. I could see it now.

"The only special ladies I have waiting for me are my mom, and my sisters," Chris responded.

"I thought Abigail was your only sister?" Frank Dawson remarked. He was just slightly more experienced than Tyler, and he was the clown of the group. He came up with the best prank ideas, and the best ways to keep us entertained when we weren't out in the field or training. The guy was a natural comedian, and it came in handy whenever we had a bad day. He was married to Tasha, and they had a five-year-old daughter named Ariel with another baby on the way, this time a boy.

"Hannah Lee practically grew up with us, she's living at our house, and she's married to Nathan. She's definitely my sister too," Chris chuckled. "Hey MC-squared, what are you two doing when you get back?"

MC-squared referred to our two comrades: Mitchell Collins and Michael Crawford. Mitchell was twenty-seven and had been in the squad for about five years. He'd come in soon after me. He was from Georgia and had that sweet, southern accent, an amusing contrast to mine and Chris's Texan drawl.

Michael was twenty-six, the second youngest in our squad, being only older than Tyler. He was also the shortest which we liked to tease him about, but what he lacked in height, he made up for in strength. He had taken us all down at least once in quite a few sparring sessions. He was extremely driven, and had been top of his class when training to be a Marine. He was currently engaged to a girl named Jacqueline Owens. He'd proposed to her right before we deployed.

"I'm heading home to see my parents," Mitchell replied, swaggering over to join us. "They have a girl they want me to meet."

"Another one?" Michael said, raising his eyebrows and joining us in the conversation.

"Yeah, they want grandkids. They already have some from my sister, so I don't know why they're so desperate for me to have some."

"You don't want to settle down?" Tyler prodded. We all knew he had a girlfriend back home that he was madly in love with. They were high school sweethearts from the first day.

"Nah. The only thing I'm in love with is being a Marine."

"Did I just hear that Mitchell was in love?" Christian declared in surprise as he entered the room with Daryl and Micah. Those three were the oldest in the group, thirty-eight, forty-eight, and thirty-nine respectively. Micah and Christian had trained together. Daryl was our squad leader. He'd been offered promotions multiple times, but he'd refused. He never told any of us why. We all viewed him as a father, but that might've been because he was one. He had been married for twenty-six years, having married his girlfriend of four years after he graduated. She found out she was pregnant right before he deployed for the first time. Now his two sons were about my age, so Daryl was all too familiar with our age's antics. But as long as we did as we were told and completed everything we were supposed to, he let us have our fun, even joining in once in a while, sometimes not always knowingly or willingly.

Christian was like Mitchell in that he'd never married or settled down. He'd been engaged at one point in his life to a girl, but she'd died in a car crash with his parents during one of his deployments. After that, he put his job first, before everything else. We were his family now, even more so than we were before. We were his brothers, and he would never let anything happen to us on his watch. He would rather die first than see any of us go before him.

Micah was a reserved, kind man who treated us like his much younger brothers. He was extremely close with Christian and had been there for him after Christian lost his girlfriend and parents. Micah was married to Farrah and they had a ten-year-old daughter named Sarah and an eleven-year-old son named Jack.

"He's in love with being a Marine," Michael informed.

"I was going to say," Micah snorted. "The day Mitchell settles down is the day hell has frozen over."

"Speaking of settling down, where's Duke? That's the only family man here," Daryl mused. He was speaking of Duke McAllister, the last member of our squad, and mine and Chris's best friend. At thirty, he had a wife named Giselle and a three-year-old daughter named Ella. Duke was a six-foot teddy bear with a gun. He was like Chris, both fatherly and protective, but still playful and had smiles that could light up the world. Duke had been the first person I bonded with because we trained together, and he had been the first to take me back home with him after one of our deployments. I had Jax, but most of the time he'd been on deployments himself before his accident. When we joined Chris's squadron, we instantly became the Three Musketeers. It was what we were often referred to whenever we were seen together.

"He's on Skype with his wife and daughter," Frank said. "Hey Baby Brother, when are you going to propose to your girl? You need to do it sooner or later. She's waited what... six years? She probably doesn't want to wait much longer."

"I know, I know," Tyler protested. "I've been meaning to get a ring, but I can't decide on which one. And I want to make sure I'm financially stable first so I can one day buy us a nice house and a nice car or two and-"

"How are you so smart so young?" Mitchell interrupted, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Not all of us take as long to mature as you did," Michael countered with a grin. Mitchell punched him in the arm.

"What about you Grey? Any special lady in your life?" Tyler inquired before MC-squared got into a fight.

"You actually think that Grey Stone has decided to let a lady into his life? The guy who is completely oblivious when we walk down the street and girls are turning their heads watching him go by? I can't believe it," Frank piped up, giving me a teasing smile. Chris, Duke, and I shared a glance with each other; they both wore smirks on their faces. They were the only ones who knew about Abigail.

Pulling a major poker face, Duke said, "I'll make a bet. Twenty bucks says that Grey is dating someone."

"All right, I'll take that bet," Frank agreed. All heads turned to me to see what my answer would be. My eyes met Chris's; he was barely holding back his laughter through pursed lips.

"You can do the honors, Chris," I chuckled.

"Pay up Frank. Grey is dating my sister," Chris announced. MC-squared's mouths fell slightly ajar. Tyler's and Christian's eyes widened in surprise. Daryl and Micah were smiling proudly. Duke and Chris were laughing. Frank looked offended as he began to realize the bet had been rigged.

"You knew?!" he demanded.

"Of course I did. Since when do I ever make bets?" Duke laughed. Holding out his hand, he added, "Pay up."

Grudgingly, Frank pulled a twenty out of his wallet, placing it in Duke's hand. Micah said, "Is that why you kept sneaking off to talk to on your phone?"

"Yes, sir."

"How could you keep this from us? I thought we were your brothers, man," Mitchell complained. "Also, how scared are you to be dating Chris's little sister?"

"My sister can make her own choices. Besides, she's just as oblivious as Grey so if a guy catches her attention, he must special."

"Okay, don't be giving him a big head," Duke joked.

"Congratulations, son," Daryl said, patting me on the back. "I have a feeling this is a special girl."

"She is," I confirmed, an image of my girlfriend flashing through my mind. I couldn't wait to see her. I still had a few months to go, but my heart fluttered every time I thought about getting home to her. I smiled whenever I thought about her. She made me a better person. I had never smiled so much since my mom died five years ago, not when I was back home at least. I felt like I had a family with her, and even though we'd only been dating a few months, with only a handful of those months with me being with her physically, I had already started thinking of proposing to her. But I didn't want to rush anything. Abigail wasn't one to dive headfirst into a situation, especially something that would change her life forever.

"Boys, as nice as this is, we need to get going. We have a briefing we need to attend," Daryl informed, his tone much more serious. Our faces fell into hardened expressions. We'd been expecting a big mission since we'd arrived. I think each one of us knew that this was the beginning of that mission.

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I woke up in a mild panic in a sheer sheen of sweat. Luke lifted his to look at me to see if everything was okay. I sat up to stroke his head to get him to go back to sleep. Looking to my left, I found Abigail sleeping peacefully next to me, moonlight shining on her blonde hair. Her arm, which had been stretched across my torso, now rested in my lap. I took her hand in mine as a silent way to reassure myself that I was still here with her whilst avoiding waking her up. But as if sensing my gaze, or maybe sensing my movement, Abigail's eyes fluttered open.

"Hey," she murmured, groggily pushing herself up into sitting position. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just a dream," I told her softly, kissing her on the forehead.

"Of your squad?" she queried.

"Yeah... how did you-"

"I've heard you mention their names a couple times in your sleep. I figured you were dreaming about them."

"Just memories. Flashbacks of our last deployment. Nothing else." I lay back down on pillow, gently pulling her down with me. We lay on our sides, facing each other.

"If it's ever anything more, or something you don't think is normal, let me know."

"I'm fine, I promise," I told her with a reassuring smile. I knew she was worrying that I might have PTSD, but I'd read up on it. So far I wasn't exhibiting any known signs or symptoms of it other than survivor's guilt which was to be expected. I did avoid telling her, however, how severe my survivor's guilt was. It had escalated even before I came home, especially after those last few days I would ever have with my brothers... "We should get back to sleep. You have work in the morning."

"Ugh, I don't want it to be Monday," she groaned. I reached out to cup her face, still trying to reassure myself this wasn't some dream and that I wasn't going to wake up in rubble surrounded by my dead comrades again. Abigail's eyes met mine for a brief moment before she leaned over to kiss me. Even now, almost six months later, I still got that feeling from the first time I kissed her. It was a mixture of love and awe. I loved Abigail, there was no denying it. The awe came from the shock that a girl like her- bright and pure- would ever love a guy like me: broken and beaten.

I deepened the kiss and felt myself shift so that I was on top of her, our bodies pressed against one another. She'd been gripping my hips, but the tips of her fingers, feather-light to the touch, began travelling up my back. But even that slightest touch hurt one of my worst wounds on my back, which caused me to arch into her ever so slightly, but she still noticed.

Breaking off the kiss, she asked worriedly, "Did I hurt you?"

"It's okay," I said, brushing her hair behind her ears. I kissed her again before she could argue with me any further about the subject because I didn't care that she had hurt me. If she had, I would've said something. I trailed kisses from her cheek and down to her neck. By this point her hand had woven itself into my hair. And for the rest of the night we forgot about our troubles, our worries, and our pains.