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Post by John S. Rhodes on Oct 28, 2015 5:34:53 GMT
”Are you sure you’re all right, sweetheart?””Christ, Soph, he was nearly blown up. Of course he’s not all right,” James said, looking through his rearview mirror at his wife. ”JAMES! Why would you say such a thing?! Do you know what he’s been through?! This is a delicate matter!””I’m fine.” John said with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes tight as he leaned his elbow against the passenger side door. If anything was bothering him, it was his mother’s incessant badgering. ”Are you in pain? I have your medicine right here,” his mother insisted, reaching an arm up between the passenger and driver’s seats and shaking the bottle of prescription pain meds. Both John and James exchanged a look. ”Keep bothering him and he’s going to want to take the whole bottle,” James said, shaking his head and turning down an all too familiar street. Looking out the window, John felt… odd. He’d hardly been home over the past few years, but not much had changed. He’d visited a few times here and there, but he never really stayed long. Knowing that he was home to stay now just made the end of his military career feel so… final and permanent. ”Really? How can you be so insensitive? He might actually be suicidal, James! Do you know how many veterans commit suicide?” Sophia snapped at her husband. ”Do you?” James asked, pulling into the driveway. As he looked up at the house, John couldn’t help but think about how strange it felt. He’d grown up in this home and knew everything there was to know about it. It had been a constant in his life and now it was the only constant. He didn’t even know himself anymore. As he observed his childhood home, John’s blue eyes narrowed at the sight of the curtains falling back into place as someone peeked through. Probably Ethel. ”Well, I…” Sophia said, her face turning red. ”That’s a no,” James said with a smirk, looking over at his son, both of them chuckling almost identically. ”This is a serious matter! John, sweetheart, you would tell me if you were suicidal, wouldn’t you?” John opened his mouth to respond, but his father interjected. ”I’m ready to jump of a bridge just listening to you hound him.” Shutting off the engine, James climbed out of the SUV and went to grab John’s things from the back. ”I’m not suicidal mom,” John said, opening his door as she rushed out of the back to help him. In a matter of seconds, she was already there with his crutches, doing her best to help him, as she had been doing for the past few weeks. Now that he’d finally been discharged, John could recover in the comfort of… well, his parent’s home. Who knew how long that would last? If he was going to stay in town, John was going to have to look for his own place, though his mother was going to have a hard time letting him go. She’d been all over him from the moment she’d finally made it to him back at the hospital once John had been transported to once he was stable enough. Sophia and James hadn’t been able to get to their son fast enough and it was a miracle they hadn’t lost him after the traumatic brain injury he’d sustained along with a number of other injuries. Though John was healing and looked a lot better than he had, he still looked rather beat up. His leg was in a boot, he had a few bandages, stitches, and healing cuts and bruises… but he was alive. As his parents helped him up to the front door, John’s mind was starting to wander, effectively drowning out the buzzing of their bickering. It was never bad bickering with his parents. Honestly, John had never seen two people so in love. They were always so comfortable with the way they poked fun at and teased each other. John hadn’t exactly expected to be attacked as soon as he walked through the front door. As soon as his father helped him in and he was standing in the foyer, there was a roar of “surprise!” as the lights came on and an annoying party horn going off right in his ear. There were streamers everywhere and even a banner that said, “Welcome Home, John!” on it. ”My ear, Luce,” John said, rubbing it as she finally stopped blowing the horn. He’d definitely been surprised, that was for sure. His heart was racing, but he made a good effort to show that this was a happy surprise. ”You’re home!” his youngest sister proclaimed, claiming the first hug. It was a little chaotic for a few minutes as John tried to get a little farther into the house, going through the crowd of guests. It was… nice to see all of their faces and, after a moment, he was actually rather happy… though he could have done without the surprise. Surprises weren’t exactly his thing… especially now that he was a veteran of war. Still, he was grateful. ”Welcome home, asshole,” Jared said, giving his brother one of those brotherly hugs and clapping him on the back. Eric and Andy were there as well, welcoming their little brother in much the same manner. When John made his way to Mercy and Keiran, it was the first time he’d had the pleasure of seeing his newest niece and nephew. Watching his sister and brother in-law juggling the twins, John smiled and engulfed his little sister and little James, on her hip, in a bear hug. ”Merc, you look great… don’t worry about the baby weight. Lots of women blow up to the size of elephants when they have kids.” He was teasing her of course. Mercy didn’t even look like she’d been pregnant at all. ”You’re an asshole…” Mercy said affectionately as John laughed and moved on to Keiran and then Elizabeth and Ethan. Once he was finally done being welcomed home, John found himself in the kitchen, leaning against the counter as he talked to his family and friends. In all honest, the party was probably just what John needed. He couldn’t help but smile as his best friend’s boys ran by, shooting each other with Nerf guns. After a few minutes though, a rather pregnant Cian was consoling Alexander who was crying about having been shot in the eye by his brother. Kol, meanwhile, turned his Nerf gun on John, shooting him in the shoulder, honestly not too far from where a bullet had actually hit him. John felt the foam bullet bounce off of the picture in his chest pocket and feigned injury just to make the kid laugh. ”OH! You got me!” he said, picking up Alex’s discarded Nerf gun and shooting it at Killian while Cian tried to explain to her younger son that he didn’t need to have his eyeball taken out like Ethan and Liam had insisted. Eli, meanwhile, came up beside John and handed him a bottle of beer. ”Good to have you back, kid,” his uncle said, offering him a broad smile and a pat on the back. Eli was a lot of things to him… as his father’s best friend and his cousin’s father, Eli had always been extremely close to the family. After he and Elyse had finally tied the knot, the whole uncle thing really became official, even though John had always seen him as such anyway. The man also just so happened to be the father of his ex girlfriend though. He was actually waiting for the man to start telling him about what douchebag Kat was dating now. It wouldn’t be the first time. That, or he was expecting him to start going on about Kat’s daughter, Elia. Though John had never met the little girl himself, his family was as close to her as they were to their own. It was something that cracked the man’s heart a little. He didn’t wish the child any ill will, but Christ… knowing that Kat had a kid with someone else had always sort of bugged him. To think, if he’d just had the balls to ask her to marry him instead of chickening out, that little girl could have been his. ”Thanks,” John said, about to open the bottle when his mother came swooping in. ”I don’t think so! You can’t drink with all the medication you’re on!””Mom-“”Don’t you ‘mom’ me, young man! Do you have any idea what you could do to your liver?”John rolled his eyes as Eli looked at his phone, as if he was waiting for something. ”I’ll take that,” Ethel said, coming up and taking the bottle from Sophia. ”Pansy ass, can’t even stand up to your mommy.” She walked by John, giving him the stink eye. ”Back when I was in Nam-“”Grandma, we’ve been through this,” Eric tried to explain, standing next to Aiden and Lydia as the triplets were practically being passed around. ”You were never in the Vietnam war. You were never even in Vietnam.””You shut up, I don’t even know you.””I’ll be right back,” Eli said, his eyes on his phone before he and Sophia exchanged a look. John didn’t even notice when his mother slipped off behind Eli. He was too wrapped up in enjoying himself.
”You made it!” Eli said with a suspicious exuberance as he walked out the front door and to Kat’s car with Sophia following behind him. ”Thank god, I thought I was going to have to walk home.” This definitely wasn’t Eli behavior and you would have to be blind to not see that he was up to something as he walked up alongside the driver’s side to talk to Kat through the window. ”Come in, we’re having dinner and a bonfire,” Sophia insisted, opening up the back door and undoing Elia’s car seat before Kat could protest. That had been the plan. Once they had the kid, they were golden. ”Granny, I’m hungry,” Elia insisted with a sly smile as Sophia pulled her out of the car. ”Has your mom been starving you again?” Eli asked his granddaughter. Elia, of course, nodded. ”I haven’t eaten in a billion years,” the little girl insisted, her blue eyes wide. ”I can fix that. Granny has all sorts of goodies for you inside,” Sophia said, already carrying her up to the house. ”I have something for you too, Kat. Hurry up.”John[/b][/b]
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Post by Katerina M. Montgomery on Oct 29, 2015 2:14:07 GMT
Katerina looked in the rearview mirror back at her daughter, a smile on her face. Looking at her watch she sighed it would be too late to cook anything by the time they got home.”Looks like its eating out for us again tonight. Where do you want to go to this time?” She asked Elia, glancing back at her daughter as she stopped at a stop light. Her phone chimed from its spot in the cup holder as Elia said ”Chik-fil-a!” Glancing at the light and making sure it was still red, Kat grabbed her phone and checked the message. Seeing that it was her father she opened it and shook her head. ”Looks like we have to go get Grandpa first, then we can get chik-fil-a.” She said even as she typed on my way into the message box and hit send, just as the light turned green again.
The entire drive over to Sophia’s house Katerina wondered why her father had texted her to pick him up instead of Elyse. It would have been a lot quicker for her step-mom to pick him up than her. She was definitely going to ask him when she picked him up. Her stomach rumbled and she realized that she hadn’t eaten anything but a granola bar and one of those chocolate protein shakes at lunch. Kat rolled down the window as she pulled up into the driveway of Sophia’s house and texted her father to let him know they were there. She caught the whiff of food cooking and her stomach growled even more. Her father was crazy. Why would he asked to be picked up when Sophia was cooking, that woman’s food was amazing.
As her father came out, followed by Sophia, Katerina frowned at him and how he was acting. ”Why didn’t you call mom to pick you up?” she asked him as Sophia went to the passenger side and opened the door. ”No-“ Her protest was futile though as Elia was unbuckled and lifted out of her carseat. ”traitor.” Kat said under her breath as her daughter latched onto her grandmother, eager to go inside and see what Sophia had for her. Between Sophia and Kat’s father the girl was spoiled entirely too much. Sighing Kat unbuckled and rolled up the window before cutting the engine and getting out of the car. ”Fine, but I’m only doing it because you said something about dinner and I’m starving.” She said locking the car as she began to walk towards the front door with her father. The two of them were being weird, but then again Katerina was used to them and their weird tendencies. ”What could you possibly have for me?” She asked Sophia, her curiosity peaked.
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Post by John S. Rhodes on Oct 29, 2015 4:26:42 GMT
"She's busy..." Eli said to Kat when she asked why he didn't just call his wife. Of course he was lying... Elyse was inside the house with everyone else. "Getting her nails done or something, I don't know." Sophia, meanwhile, skillfully evaded Katerina's question by busying herself with talking to Elia. As they approached the front door, Eli purposely walked behind his daughter, effectively blocking her escape once they were in the house. If Kat had been suspicious before, the fact that the house was full of their family and friends probably only added to it. Of course, probably the biggest giveaway as to what was going on had to be the giant "Welcome Home, John!" banner that was hanging up.
"A PARTY!" Elia exclaimed, squirming with excitement now as Sophia set her down. All it took was a matter of seconds and Kol and Alexander were already recruiting Elia into their game, running off like wild animals. Even Ethel, now wearing an army helmet, had grabbed a Nerf gun and was running after them, shouting battle commands and such. She was probably having one of her self-proclaimed Vietnam flashbacks.
"Oh, I forgot to mention we have a few people over," Sophia said to Kat, giving her a smile. That was certainly an understatement. Lord forgive her, but this moment was long over due. "Mom, I think grandma stole my-" John started to say as he rounded the corner with his crutches. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the woman by the door though. The same woman whose picture he'd carried in his pocket through every deployment and ever mission... He'd held onto that picture through everything, relying on it to get him through his darkest moments.
Eli and Sophia slowly backed away, silently observing their children and hoping to get away before they noticed them. "I'm just going to go check on the cake... make sure Ethel didn't hide it under the bathroom sink again," Sophia insisted, scurrying off as John gave her the evil eye. Eli sheepishly said something about getting another beer, leaving the two of them to themselves. For a moment, John didn't know what to say. This was the girl who he'd planned on marrying once. This was the girl that was always on his mind and the girl that he'd once known like the back of his hand, who could make him smile no matter how awful he felt. But this was also the girl whose heart he'd broken.
"You uhh, look great," John finally said, rubbing the back of his neck. That was real smooth... but it was all John could think to say. In the years since he'd last seen Kat, John had definitely filled out. Sure, he'd been a strong looking guy the day he broke up with her after graduating from the military academy. Now though, he looked a little stronger, more rugged, and well seasoned. Marine Captain John Rhodes was definitely not someone you wanted as your enemy.
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Post by Katerina M. Montgomery on Oct 29, 2015 6:11:32 GMT
Katerina barely made it through the front door before she stopped dead in her tracks. If her father hadn’t been standing behind her with the front door closed she might have bolted back out… not that she would have actually gone anywhere, just gone and sat in her car because lets face it, she wouldn’t just run away and leave Elia there. Sophia’s smile made Kat want to shake the woman for tricking her the way she had, her and her father. The bastards.”A few? The whole family is here Sophia, how can you ‘forget’ to mention that?” She asked, though she already knew full well that neither of them had “forgotten” to tell her anything, they had done it on purpose. If she had had any idea that John was home she would have stayed far far away from this house. And they knew it.
Katerina’s whole body went stiff, though it felt almost like jello, at the sound of his voice as he came around the corner. God how she had missed that voice. All at once the pain she had been hiding the past five years came rushing back, and she had to fight a mini panic attack going on inside her head. As Sophia and her father made excuses and fled the area, Kat clutched her keys in her hand like they were her life-line instead of tossing them in the dish on the table beside the door with everyone else’s. ‘Breath Kat, it’s not like you didn’t know this day would come eventually’ she said to herself. Though it was easier said than done. This man had broken her heart and she still hadn’t gotten over it, just had buried it the past five years.
As he spoke, Kat watched him as he rubbed the back of his neck, a habit of his that had apparently not gone away over the years. Briefly, she wondered what other habits he still had from when they were dating. She pushed the thought away as she finally made herself drop her keys in the dish, there was no way she was going to be able to leave any time soon anyway. Sophia would probably hold Elia hostage until she was satisfied with things. Kat’s eyes didn’t leave him as she did this though, she didn’t feel ashamed in taking in his appearance. He definitely looked like he had had better days, but he was still hot as hell. ”You don’t look too bad yourself, considering…” Kat said finally, glancing at his crutches.
She held in a sigh thinking about how awkward this was, things never used to be awkward between the two of them quite the opposite really. And Kat knew that she would have to tell him the truth eventually especially since he was staying. She just had to… ease into it. Forgiving him for breaking her heart was going to be heard, but she had to start somewhere. ”Why don’t I grab us a couple of beers and we can go somewhere and talk?” She suggested, though she really didn’t know what they would talk about, she wasn’t ready to tell him the truth about Elia, though she knew he deserved it.
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Post by John S. Rhodes on Oct 29, 2015 22:43:57 GMT
She wasn't as beautiful as she had been the day he broke up with her... somehow, she'd managed to go beyond that. The young woman standing in front of him was nearly six years more mature, in only the best ways. "You're just saying that. I look like I was nearly blown to pieces," John joked, giving her that devilishly handsome half smile of his.
It was almost a relief to hear her willingly suggest talking to each other. There had been a time in his life when Kat had talked him out of some awful and dark things. She'd helped him through a time when he had hit rock bottom. John wasn't ready to admit that that was exactly where he was spiraling to again. He had no idea that what he had been feeling lately was just the tip of the iceberg. Seeing Kat right in front of him just made him wish that he could let it all out so that she could make it all go away. That wasn't going to happen anytime soon though. He'd already started to bottle things up.
"You really do know the way to my heart," he said, motioning his head for her to follow him. As they went by, John caught the look Mercy gave him while she was changing his nephew on the couch.
"Get that dog off my couch!" Ethel said, effectively drawing Mercy's attention away from John and Kat as she shot her senile great grandmother a look.
Once Kat had the beers, they stepped out the back door, onto the back patio. It was a little chilly out, but he didn't mind this at all as he sat down by the fire pit, figuring he could get the fire going... perhaps entice her to stay a while. The idea of trying to win her heart back had always been on John's mind, but now he had the opportunity to make that a reality. The fact that she had a kid might make that a little harder, but John wasn't going to let that get in his way. Breaking up with Kat had been the worst mistake of his entire life... next to going into the building in which he'd nearly been blown to smithereens. Maybe that wasn't the worst mistake ever though, considering it led him back home, to the woman he let slip through his fingers.
"What have you been up to? How's nursing going for you?" John asked her, setting his crutches aside and tossing the nearby wood into the pit. He busied himself for a moment with getting the fire going before he settled into one of the patio chairs.
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Post by Katerina M. Montgomery on Oct 30, 2015 4:45:30 GMT
”Well now that you say it, yes you do…” Kat made a show of looking at both sides of his head before adding ”you still have both ears though, so I think you’ll be fine. Your face was always the part of you that got you everything anyways.” Was she actually joking with him? How was it that after five years of avoiding everything about this man, save for his family and his daughter, she was still able to easily fall into joking with him and even… flirting? God she was still hopelessly in trouble it seemed. This man had broken her heart to bits, but all those broken pieces still loved him, that much was obvious with the way he affected her. She was glad when he took her up on the beer and talking… so sue her for wanting to have a conversation with the man that fathered her child, that was natural right?
Katerina laughed as he spoke and followed him into the kitchen, catching Ethel yelling at Mercy to get James off the couch. ”I swear that batty old woman has gotten more and more eccentric each month.” She said, though there was a definite affection in her voice. She had known Ethel as long as she could remember and honestly couldn’t begin to imagine life without the woman. As they passed the fridge Kat grabbed a couple beers before following him out the back door. It was getting a little chilly as the sun began to set but having dressed for the fall weather it didn’t bother her too badly, though she was glad that he was going to start a fire. Just looking at the fire pit and the chairs scattered around it brought back memories of their time together as a couple and even the years before when they were just friends. Even then Kat had noticed a pull towards John, there was always something about him. Apparently it hadn’t disappeared during his time as a Marine either.
Kat settled herself into the chair beside him and handed him one of the beers she held before popping the cap off of her own. A lot of women liked to tease her about drinking beer as most of her friends preferred wine but when it came to alcohol Kat was kind of like a garbage disposal, she could drink whatever was available. She took a drink before looking at him and saying ”You mean Sophia, or even Eli, hasn’t kept you informed over the years?” She laughed slightly as she said it too, knowing full well the two of them probably had kept him informed on most things. That would be just like them. ”Honestly though, I’m mainly working and taking care of Elia. That child definitely knows how to keep me on my toes, but then again they always say that they will be worse than you were as a child.” Katerina told him, answering the first question without trying to go into too much detail. She knew it was inevitable that he ask about Elia’s father, but she didn’t know if she could tell him just yet. So instead she quickly pushed on to answer his other question. ”And nursing… nursing is a great. I get to work with children every day, I get to help them feel better, see the smiles on their faces. Makes me feel like I’m actually doing something right with my life.” She said, smiling genuinely. She loved her job almost as much as she loved her daughter, though Elia would always win out over Katerina’s profession.
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Post by John S. Rhodes on Oct 31, 2015 2:57:04 GMT
Popping the cap off of his beer, John tapped his bottle against hers as if to say "cheers" before taking a long drink. "Let me know if you see my mother peeking out. She has me on suicide watch and thinks a few beers are going to kill me," he said, glancing at the back door. Sure enough, he saw his mother peek out, but she refrained from opening the door o interrupt them. Both his father and Eli appeared beside her to peek out as well. When John gave them a pointed look and motioned for them to go away, all three of them disappeared and he turned his attention back to Kat.
"Oh, believe me, they have," John reassured her. "I probably know your history of boyfriends better than you do since your dad has complained about just about all of them to me. They made sure to tell me every time you broke up with one of them too." John hadn't had many steady girlfriends since he broke up with Kat. There were a handful when he wasn't overseas though. What he did have was plenty of one night stands. He'd been a bit of a womanizer before his relationship with Kat and that had only picked up again after he broke up with her.
Taking another drink of his beer, he smirked at her comment about kids being worse than their parents. "If there's any truth to that, I'm screwed. I was an awful kid. Ethel used to swear that I was Satan, remember? I swear, when she took me to the circus one time, she was trying to sell me. If I ever have kids, I guess they'll be the spawn of Satan..."
Hearing how she talked about her career as a nurse helped to warm John's heart as he poked at the fire with a long stick. "You were always good at making people feel better, KitKat." He meant it too. John didn't know where he would be if it wasn't for her convincing him that Charlie's death wasn't his fault.
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Post by Katerina M. Montgomery on Nov 1, 2015 3:48:48 GMT
At John’s words Kat turned to look, knowing full well Sophia was nosy when it came to pretty much everyone, not that Kat minded it. It was just Sophia’s way of showing how much she loves you. Of course Kat did mind noticing that her father and James were right there with her in her spying. Sophia and her father were probably wondering if she was going to spill the beans to John about Elia. Geez he just got home from being almost blown to bits and they wanted her to practically drop another bomb on him. Katerina told herself she was doing it for him, letting him get settled in first before dropping news like that on him but deep down she knew she was doing it because she herself wasn’t ready. Five years of not telling him didn’t make it easier to get up her nerve. Once the snooping party vacated their position Kat laughed and looked bak at John. ”I think you’ll be fine with one or two, and that’s the nurse in me talking.” She said taking another drink before setting the bottle down on the table beside her.
”Oh really? I’m sure my father even got background checks done on them, knowing him. I’m sure you’ll also know that none of them lasted very long and none of them got the privilege of meeting Elia. I definitely wasn’t going to parade men through her life if they weren’t going to be there for the long haul.” Kat told him, in a way she was letting him know for later when he did find out that he was Elia’s father that Kat hadn’t just let any guy off the street around their daughter and that the only men in her life were her family members. There hadn’t been that many boyfriends anyway as she spent most of her time at work and home instead of out on dates or with friends.
Katerina smiled at him when he mentioned how terrible he had been as a child. He was right, he had been a living terror when he was younger and it had taken a long time for Kat not to hate him and his pranks. Now though, when she looked back on those memories she thought of them fondly as she did all her memories with him in them… even their breakup however heartbreaking it had been because that was also the day she had found out she was pregnant. ”I don’t know, you were so horrible something good has to come out of it. Maybe you’ll get lucky and your child will at least just be half as bad as you were instead of worse.” She said, of course speaking from experience. As of right now Elia was no where near as bad as John was.
Her heart warmed unexpectedly at his use of his nickname for her and her stomach flopped. She hadn’t been called KitKat since he had broken up with her. It was a nickname that only he ever called her. ”I haven’t heard that one in a while. A good five years maybe.” She said giving him a half smile. A good part of her just wanted to touch him or something but that other part was telling her to be careful, that he had already hurt her once… if she opened herself up to him again he could very well destroy her. The real question she needed to answer was… was she ready to risk that to have everything she dreamed of before he broke things off with her?
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Post by John S. Rhodes on Nov 3, 2015 4:01:12 GMT
John nodded in understanding when she explained that she had never introduced any of her boyfriends to her daughter. For a brief moment, he felt a pang of worry. How far was she going to let him back into her life? Looking at Kat, John wanted nothing more than to punch the sorry bastard who left her all alone with a baby to care for. If she'd been pregnant with his child, he would have done everything he could to make sure they were taken care of. Honestly, things would have turned out a lot differently if that were the case. He would have stayed... and not just because there was a baby in the picture but because he loved Kat and could never leave her on her own with a child to care for. Not for the first time, he felt the wave of jealousy over the fact that her daughter wasn't also his. He didn't trust himself to comment on any of that though.
When she mentioned that his child might only be half as bad as him, he couldn't help but smile. "I hope so. I can only imagine what it would be like trying to get a babysitter for a kid that takes after me..." There was a time in his life when John had wanted nothing more than to marry Kat and have children with her and that hadn't exactly changed. He'd been so stupid, getting cold feet and thinking the married life wasn't for him. It wasn't just that though. The very thought of dying overseas and leaving behind a wife and kids had terrified him.
He was about to open his mouth and say something else when he heard the sound of the back door sliding open and then closed. "Mommy!" Elia cried, running over to her with a Nerf gun in hand and tears in her eyes. "Ethan shot me and it really hurt." John had watched her run across the patio and it was honestly the first time he'd ever seen the little girl. He'd had brief glimpses of pictures, since his mother's house was littered with them, but he'd always tried to ignore them. Why would he want to torture himself by looking at the daughter of the love of his life and some asshole who had squandered an opportunity John would have died for? That wasn't Elia's fault though and he knew that.
"Where did he shoot you?" John asked Elia who looked at him with wide eyes. She looked so familiar to him, it was odd... but he told himself that it was just because he'd had brief glimpses of pictures of her. "Here," she said to him, pointing to her forehead. John leaned forward in his chair and lifted her chin, taking a good look at it in mock concern. "I think you'll survive. Do you need to go to the hospital?"
The little girl shook her head at him as if the idea of going to the hospital scared her even more than being shot. "Good, it's boring there. Trust me, I just got out. I was shot too."
Elia laughed at that. "You're just joking, right mommy? He's joking."
"I'm not, I swear. You want to see where I was shot?"
For a moment, Elia narrowed her eyes on him suspiciously before nodding her head. At that, John set his beer down on the patio beside his chair and shrugged off his jacket. Pulling off the white shirt he wore beneath that, he felt the heat of the fire a little more on his well formed chest and the chill of autumn on his back as his muscles rippled with movement. His dog tags clanked together, their weight so familiar against his chest since he hardly ever took them off, always feeling so naked without them.
"Right here..." he said, pointing to the sutures that kept the still healing wound closed. He'd been shot in the shoulder, just above his heart. The bullet had even pierced the picture of Kat he'd always kept in his pocket. Sometimes it was the one thing that got him through his ordeals overseas. Elia gasped, covering her mouth in shock. "Who shot you?" she asked in disbelief. "You should tell my pops or grandpa... or even my uncle Eric. They can arrest him for you." John tilted back his head and laughed at this. He just couldn't help it. It was the most innocent, adorable thing he'd ever heard. "It's okay, I don't need them to arrest the guy for me."
"It's so gross.... can I touch it?" the little girl asked, looking hesitant. John nodded his head and she lifted a tentative hand to touch the sutures. She'd barely even touched it before she squealed and practically jumped into her mother's lap, all grossed out as John put his shirt back on. "Mommy, can't you fix him and make him feel better?" Elia asked her mother, looking up at her with those blue eyes that looked so incredibly like her father's.
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Post by Katerina M. Montgomery on Nov 5, 2015 22:56:44 GMT
Katerina smiled at his comment, about to reply before she heard Elia calling to her. He chocolate brown gaze slipped from John’s face to that of her daughter’s as she ran over to her, one of those nurf guns Killian had bought for the kids in her hand and obvious tears in her eyes. Her… their daughter always wanted to play with the boys even though they didn’t usually play fair. Then again, she took after Kat in that way. It had gotten her in a lot of trouble at time, playing with John, Eric and the guys but that hadn’t stopped her and Mercy from joining in on the fun and games. As John watched Elia run across the patio it hit her that he had never actually met her in person… just seen the millions of photos of her in the Rhodes household.
Before she could even ask Elia if she was okay, John began talking to her and Kat just sat there watching the exchange. There was one big reason she hadn’t ever come around while John had been home the few times he had gotten leave… and that was she secretly feared he would take one look at Elia and just ‘know’ that she wasn’t the child of some other man… that instead she was his and Kat had knowingly kept it from him. She knew it had been stupid, everyone had told her that except Eric, oddly enough he had been the first one to be behind her on the decision. But Kat had been too heartbroken to listen to any of them. In her mind at that time, she was protecting her unborn child from a father who would only break their heart by leaving. And then once she had realized that that was a stupid reason, she told herself that she would wait until he came back… and reason after reason until it just seemed easier to not tell him at all and risk his anger. He had every right to be angry after all.
Watching John with Elia in that moment, getting her to touch his stitched up wound and watching her squeal in disgust, part of her wanted to just come clean right there. But telling him at his welcome home party was hardly the right time… she didn’t want to make a scene after all. Katerina’s eyes lingered helplessly on his exposed chest, more than well muscled, more toned than the last time she had seen it. She was only able to get herself to look away as Elia asked her a question and he began to put his shirt back on. Playing with her daughter’s hair as she sat in her lap Kat smiled at her question. Trust Elia to think that Kat could do much more to help him heal than a doctor could.
”I’m sure he has enough meds to make him feel better sweetie, but if he ever needs my help feeling better all he has to do is ask.” Kat told her, looking up from her daughter’s blue eyes and into her father’s identical ones. Of course she actually meant that. She would never turn him away if he needed her help… no matter what that ‘help’ was. The image of his bare chest had always been seared into her mind but now she had a fresh image to replace the old one and she quite liked what she had seen, despite the obvious injuries he had sustained over the years… he was still one sexy man. Kat would have definitely voted him Sexiest Man Alive if he had been in the running. ”Is your forehead feeling better now?Why don’t you go back and get Ethan in the forehead too, so that he knows he hasn’t beaten you.” She suggested deviously knowing full well Elia would enjoy getting back at him.
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Post by John S. Rhodes on Nov 6, 2015 2:19:28 GMT
John smiled almost sadly at the exchange between mother and daughter, his heart seizing. He could see just how much Kat loved Elia and he hated that he couldn't share in that. When he looked at that little girl, he saw another man's child... one that couldn't be his. She'd been left... abandoned to walk the world without the guidance of a father who loved her unconditionally. This time, when he thought about tracking down the man and hitting him, it was for Elia's sake and not Kat's. It was then that he really let the fact settle in... if he was going to try to take back his place in Kat's life again, he was going to have to accept that she came with a package... a very short and adorable blue eyed package.
When Kat mentioned him needing her help, his eyes met hers and he felt shame in the pit of his stomach. He didn't need help. He shouldn't need help. He was a United States Marine through and through... Marine Captain John Rhodes was supposed to be strong of body and mind. John couldn't go crying to his ex-girlfriend that things that transpired over seas were eating away at him. He didn't say any of this to her though and his expression remained rather impassive. Instead, he took a drink of his beer, relishing in the taste and the chill of it as it slid down his throat. He was fine. He was going to be okay, once he was situated and assimilated back into civilian life. The flashbacks would stop.
Leaning forward and setting his elbows on his knees, John held his beer bottle between his hands and smiled at Kat's suggestion. "I'll give you a dollar if you can get him right between the eyes," he said, smirking. It served Ethan right considering he was a teenage boy picking on a little girl. "Five dollars."
"Three..." John said, narrowing his eyes as this little girl was haggling with him. Sliding down off of her mother's lap, Elia held out her hand.
"Deal," she said with a devilish smile as he took her small hand in his and shook it. He'd just been weaseled out of his money by a five year old. His gaze followed her as she ran off, running back into the house to hunt Ethan down. "She's cute..." John finally said, his eyes still on the backdoor that she had disappeared through. Knowing that this little girl was so close to his family while he had been gone made him feel so disconnected. More had changed than he realized. There was a longing in his voice that John hoped Kat didn't pick up on. If only he'd married her like he'd intended. Then that little girl would have been his. There was a familiar feeling about her though and he just couldn't shake it.
"Mom's bragging didn't do her any justice. You have a great kid there, Kat..." Eyes leaving the door to meet hers, he meant what he said.
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Post by Katerina M. Montgomery on Nov 6, 2015 4:10:01 GMT
”Elia! Kat said as her daughter haggled John into giving her more money to do something she probably would have done without the suggestion. She couldn’t help but laugh as Elia took off back inside the house to go find Ethan and earn her three dollars from John. Kat had known that their daughter was a good mix of the both of them, but it wasn’t until that moment, seeing the two of them together that she realized just how good of a mix she was. God why couldn’t she just get up the nerve to tell him right then and there? Outside and away from everyone so that if he did blow up at her, at least it was privately… But she was a big chicken when it came to actually getting the words to come out of her mouth.
Katerina shook her head at him calling her cute. ”Don’t let those innocent looking blue eyes fool you, she’s smarter than she lets on most of the time. That haggling? She learned that at three from Eric and Mercy and uses it on Sophia, James and dad all the time. She said, a genuine smile on her face despite how sick she was feeling at keeping such a secret from him when he was right there. How long would it take for him to put the math and the obvious fact that she looked a lot like him together? Would one of his family members spill the beans before she got the chance to tell him herself? They had gone all these years keeping the secret but one never knew what would change now that he was home for good.
Changing the subject she asked ”So how long do you think you’ll last being smothered by Sophia before you give up and move out?” She laughed as she said it, knowing full well that no one really got away from Sophia’s smothering no matter how far you lived from her. ”If you ever need a realtor, I can lend you mine.” Kat added pushing a thick strand of hair back behind her ear before picking up her beer again and taking a drink. As she did, she let her eyes discreetly wander over his body again. Was it wrong of her to be wishing that they weren’t in such an awkward place so that she could take him into one of the guest rooms and make out? Probably. But damn, she hadn’t ever gotten over this man… he was her other half, her soul mate even though some laughed at the notion of such things.
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