Family Ch. 02

"It's a beautiful dream," I replied, "it should be pursued."

"Once things turn around," she replied as she reached for Cesar's hand, seeking comfort and understanding, "I'll be able to do it."

For the second time in that day, I reached into my pocket and drew another card. Jotting down a number, I handed it to Laura, "this is Edith's number, you call her. Tell her that you want to do that school. She'll take care of the rest." She looked at me in complete shock, "please, follow your dream. It truly is beautiful."

Laura looked at Cesar, a small nod from him allowed her smile to cover her face, her arms again wrapping themselves around me, "thank you, D, thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll make you proud." She kissed me on the cheek before she walked away toward the phone, her face was glowing.

"I think mommy likes you," my nephew said, "I like you too, Uncle D."

"Well, I'm glad you do," I laughed, "now go play with your toys, boy. Daddy and I have one more thing to talk about before I have to leave, ok?"

"Are you going away forever, again?" He asked, tears swelling in his eyes.

"No," I laughed, "I just have to go to work. You'll visit me soon, ok?" He laughed as he hugged me, he also made his way out of the room. "I need a favor from you, brother."

"Anything," he replied without hesitation.

"I need you and your family to be at our parent's house tonight at 6," I replied, "it is very important for me that you guys be there."

"I don't think he wants to see me," he replied, "but if you ask me to be there, you know I will."

"He wants to see you," I replied, "he just doesn't know how to reach out to do so."

"Ok, D," he replied, "we'll be there. What do you need us to bring?"

"Nothing," I replied, "I'll make all the preparations. Call Francisco, I have to make another visit." I stood up from the table just as Laura walked into the room.

"Oh my god, D," she said as she hugged me yet again, "I just talked to Edith, she is such a sweetheart. I told her who I was, and what I wanted, she got me into school immediately. I start in a few days!"

"I'm glad, baby," Cesar said, "you deserve it."

"Are you leaving, D?" She looked at me.

"Yes," I replied, "I have to make another stop, but I'll see you guys tonight. I am glad Edith was able to help you out."

"She was a little mean at first," Laura confessed, "but as soon as I told her who I was, she was a sweetheart. Oh she asked me to tell you she has more numbers to run by you when you get back."

"Ok," I replied with a laugh, "thank you." Both of them walked me to the door, a young man jumped into my arms just before I left.

"Where are you going, Uncle D?"

"I have to go visit another friend," I said, "ask your daddy what you'll be doing tonight ok?" As I placed him down, the smile that appeared on his face as soon as he learned that he would be visiting my parents was priceless. I hopped into the truck and lit a cigarette, I knew that my next stop would not be as pleasant as this one.

The apartment complex was shady. There really was no other way to describe it. Slowly, I made my way to the apartment; I knocked in the door a few times and gave up after getting no answer.

"The lady is still working," an older man replied, he was sitting outside what I assumed was his own apartment, smoking from a pipe. "If you're looking to collect some bill, she won't be back for a while."

"No, old man," I replied, "I am not a bill collector. Where is she working?"

"Why would I tell you? What, are you a cop or something?"

"I've been accused of being a lot of things," I laughed, "never of being a cop." I walked up to him and asked him for a light with which to light my cigarette.

"Well, you look like a cop," he replied, laughing to himself, "damn mud puppy."

"No, sir," I replied, I knew what he was referring to, military police were often called mud puppies because of their acronym, MP, it was from a long time ago and it stuck. "Paratrooper, all around."

"Yeah?" He smiled a little at my revelation, "I was with the old Easy Company, 1st and the 507th."

"I was with 1st Ranger Bat," I replied, "grunt Doc."

"I'll be damned, Doc," he replied, a sudden youth returned to his voice, "she'll be down at the laundry mat. She runs that place sometimes."

"Death From Above, old man," I said as I walked away.

"Down to Earth, Doc" he replied. I liked this old man. The laundry mat was not difficult to find, I walked in and immediately spotted her. She was hovering above a laptop; her belt was adorned with containers filled with quarters. The place was full; a small group of guys was lingering close to her, making small remarks about her. She was ignoring them, but I knew how much they bothered her, at least I assumed they did.

"Come on, baby," one of them said, "I'll show you what a real man feels like."

"Stop being all frosty," another one said, "you gonna end up alone like that." The entire group laughed.

"If you aren't here to do laundry, then you need to leave," she said as the group laughed even louder.

"What are you going to do, baby, kick us out?" The first one spoke, "call the cops?" This last comment brought laughter from the entire group. He stood up and walked toward her, "you know you want it, it's been long since you last had some. We're just offering to give you a good time, no need to turn into a bitch about it."

"Ma'am," I said, "can I speak to you for a second?"

"Can't you see the lady is busy," the guy said, he took a defiant step toward me, "walk away, little man."

"Or?" I answered, he got closer to me, closing the distance between us. This was his first mistake.

"Or, I break your face, little man," he responded. This was his second mistake, with my left hand I pulled the back of his head forward, immediately I drove my left knee into his face. The sound of his nose breaking was sickening, but it served as a signal for his buddies to stand up. The one that had spoken as well tried to tackle me, I simply stepped to the side and tripped him, luckily his face broke his fall.

"You must really want to die," a third man said as he stood in front of me. This one knew what he was doing, he carefully kept his distance from me, his arms drawn up and protected his face and body, some boxing background surely. He threw a right hook to my body, I gently stepped back and launched a straight punch of my own. Mine connected with his right eye, immediately closing it from the swelling. As his hands moved to protect the recently hurt area. His body became unguarded. I delivered an elbow to the solar plexus that immediately brought him to his knees.

"You're gonna die, now" the fourth man said as he too tried to tackle me, this time I delivered a swift kick to the face. A shower of teeth ensured that I was successful in hitting the right spot. Only one more stood, as we made eye contact, he reached into his jacket and drew a small pistol. My instinct took over, pulling the pistol upward I made sure that his fingers were broken, drawing it downward I placed special care in his wrist. A left elbow to the face made sure that his face would feel just as bad as his hand.

"Anyone else?" I asked aloud, the people in the laundry mat continued their business as I broke the weapon apart and placed the lower receiver into my pocket. "Can we speak, now?"

"Yeah, sure," she replied, fear in her voice.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I replied, "no one is going to hurt you. I'm a friend of Francisco, you can call him if you'd like."

"I think I should," she replied, reaching into her pocket and drawing out a cellphone, "what is your name?"

"Just describe me to him," I replied, "he'll tell you my name." The phone call was quick, I could hear her description, then her face went into shock and surprise. While she was on the phone, the men picked themselves up and made a quick retreat from the place. When she hung up the phone, she walked up to me and slapped me.

"Your brother got my husband killed," she said amidst tears and anguish. "It's all your brother's fault that I am alone!" She continued her barrage by punching me repeatedly in the chest, tears flowing from her eyes. "I hate you all!"

"I know," I replied, "you have every right to," I allowed her to continue her abuse. "Please," I continued, "listen to me, Anais."

"No," she replied, "why the fuck should I listen to you people?"

"Because I am here to help you," I replied, "your husband gave his life trying to protect my brother. That is not something that I would forget, and I am here to offer myself as your servant in payment for your loss." I dropped to my knees as I continued, "ask from me anything, and it will be done."

"Anything?"

"If its within my power, you will have it."

"What if I ask you to kill yourself?"

I drew my weapon out and swiftly placed in on the side of my head, "all you have to do is ask." Her hand moved the weapon away from my head.

"It wouldn't bring him back," she replied.

"No," I answered, "but if it will make you feel better, then I will do it. I would do anything for you."

"Why?"

"Because your family shed blood for mine," I replied, "it is only fair that my family do the same for yours. If your husband was alive today, I would call him brother for spilling blood on our behalf. Therefore, I will call you sister, and look after you as he would have wanted." She began to cry more openly, all the pain she had held on to was openly flowing from her body, "did Francisco tell you who I am?"

"Yes," she replied, "you're the Daemon."

"I am," I replied, "and like I said, you are now my family. You are welcome into our home whenever you would like to visit. Please, let me look after you."

"Thank you," she replied, "life has been hard."

"It won't get any easier," I replied, "but I promise you, you will always have someone to rely on in the darkest nights. Now, let's get your things, you won't live here anymore. I can't have that."

"Ok," she replied, "I thought I was all alone. I have no one."

"Not anymore," I replied, "you have sisters to meet, brothers to annoy, little cousins to raise. You will never be alone, ever again." We quietly walked to her apartment, I helped her pack her meager belongings, the Old Man smiled at me as we walked away.

"Doc never stands taller than when he kneels to save the wounded," he said as we walked away from that horrid place.

"It's almost time, sir," Francisco said, "are you sure you want to go at it alone?"

"I have to," I replied, "he won't try anything. He is a man of his word. I need a favor, though."

"Anything, boss," Francisco replied.

"Go down to the pound," I replied, "find a dog that would be suitable for my father. He needs a companion, something to keep him going in life."

"Any particular breed?"

"Pitbull," I replied, "they are as loyal as we are. Just as dumb too," I replied with a laugh.

"Sir," he said, "I wanted to thank you for bringing Anais here. I have been trying to look after her, but..."

"Don't mention it," I replied, "it was the right thing to do. She will be well looked after for here."

"Still," he continued, "you didn't have to do that."

"Yes, I did," I replied, "family has to be the most important thing. There is not much loyalty in this world, my friend, when you find someone loyal, you hold on to them. There is no greater mark of loyalty than shedding blood for someone else. Always remember that, my friend."

"I will," he replied, "still, thank you."

"Go find my dad a dog," I replied, "watch the house while I am away. Especially, Edith. She has a tendency to get into trouble at the most inappropriate of times."

"Yes, sir," he replied, "I am taking Jessica with me. She is awfully green, there is a lot of training to get her through before she is ready to protect anyone."

"Do what you need to," I replied, "if there are any issues, let me know."

"I thought you said we would be alone," I said as I looked over the grill at the two walking figures.

"No," Elvis replied, "I told you to be alone, I never said anything about me being alone as well. Besides, this here is my partner, Davis this is D."

"Beer is in the cooler," I replied, "help yourself."

"There's an awful lot of people here for you being alone." Davis said, his face was expressionless, but the tone of his voice betrayed the annoyance that he was feeling.

"It's funny," I replied, "I was thinking the same thing. You wanted D's Kitchen, this is how D's Kitchen works."

"It's fine," Elvis replied, "we won't be here long anyway. Just wanted to know why you are here in town, you are making an awful lot of people nervous."

"Yeah, about that," I replied, "why does the CIA care so much about what a private citizen does?"

"We care when a highly trained private citizen such as yourself decides to join a large criminal enterprise and begins to make moves within the community," Davis said, "and because of that private citizen I have to spend my time in this piece of shit town, talking to a piece of shit person that clearly has forgotten what it means to be a patriot."

"D," Elvis interrupted, "the FBI is currently looking at a few of the organizations in this place. You know this is a huge corridor for illegal weapons and drugs flowing into the country. Hell, your brother is in jail right now because of gun trafficking, as soon as your name came up. Well, the FBI reached out and brought me in as a consultant."

"That is funny," I replied as I laughed, "we both know that my brother was set up, if you had taken the time to look into the flimsy case, well you would know that as well." I took a sip from my beer before continuing, "did they bring you in because of our shared past?"

"Yeah," Elvis replied, "even if your brother was setup, D, someone has to go down for that. There are a lot of weapons in the streets that don't need to be there. Don't get me wrong, it makes me happy to read when scum kills each other, but more and more innocent people are getting caught in the middle. So, I'll ask you, man to man, brother to brother: why are you here?"

"Do you know where they are keeping my brother?" I looked at Elvis, "your so called 'patriots' won't tell us anything about it."

"Just answer the question, asshole," Davis said, "or maybe we should take that young woman you keep around, Edith, and ask her." He didn't even have time to react to the punch that struck the side of his face, immediately his body went limp as he fell to the ground unconscious.

"Yeah," Elvis said as he looked at his partner, "he did have that one coming. Your brother is in one of the Federal facilities in New Mexico, we are looking after him now. After your talk with Officer Sandoval, people started looking more and more closely at your brother's case. You are right, there is a lot of evidence that could be construed to support the theory that there was a setup. But D, your brother is almost as stubborn as you are. He won't tell us anything, and like I said, someone has to go down for it."

"The sleeping beauty is waking up," I said as Davis began to stir, "if there is nothing else, Elvis, then I guess we got nothing more to say."

"D," he reached down to help his partner stand, "I don't want to go to war against you, but if you are on the wrong side of the law there will be no other way around it. I will take you down, and I will take you down hard."

"You'll try," I replied, "you know, people always wondered who between us is better. They actually used to cover our stats and argue about it constantly."

"Yeah?" Elvis replied as he began to walk away, "and who do you think is better, D? You? Or me?"

"I wasn't the one that broke out in tears after 6 days in the cage," I answered, this was one of our many shared memories. We were taking part in the military's version of interrogation resistance training, one of their more particularly brutal exercises was called the cage, It was a small cell small enough for one person to be placed with no room to move. The height of the cell was short enough that you had to crouch in order to avoid hitting the top part of the cage, yet the walls were so close that you could not sit or even lay on the ground.

"No," he coldly replied, "and I wasn't the one that needed rescuing when my team was ambushed." He was referring to a time in Iraq when that very thing had happened to my team, three of us had gone into a small complex in order to apprehend a high ranking clergy member in the city. The villagers ambushed us just as we were leaving the complex, they wanted to kill this man and there was nothing that we could do to prevent it from happening except try to speed away. We almost did too, but an IED flipped our vehicle. We held our own until a small group of operators that had been tasked to a nearby area provided us with relief.

"Good times," I replied, our mutual psychological game play was still as sharp as I had remembered it being. "Make sure Snow White there gets a cold pack on that jaw, some Midol will help him out too." Elvis laughed at my comment, "I'll see you around, Elvis."

"If I want you to," he replied, "you will, D."

"How did it go?" My father sat in the table as he watched my nephew and his new dog playing in the backyard. Again, my father's face held a smile, the thing that he had been missing for a long time.

"As well as it could have," I replied, "what did you name him?"

"I think your brother named him Jessie," he laughed, "the dog is Doc."

"That's a good name," I replied, the meaning of the name more than obvious, "have you spoken with Cesar yet?"

"Yup," he replied.

"How did that go?"

"As well as it could have," he replied, "did you learn anything from that friend of yours?"

"Angel is in New Mexico in one of the Federal buildings," I replied, "CIA is watching him. They are trying to get him to be more cooperative in their investigation."

"Might have better luck squeezing water from a fucking rock," he said, "I don't know who is more stubborn between you two."

"That's what he said as well," I replied, "pops, I'm gonna need that back room of yours. And I'm gonna need you to patch things up with Cesar and mother. They are going to be staying here for a while."

"The room is ready," he replied, "there is no ill will between your brother and me, son. I will be cordial with your mother, but don't ask me to be a loving husband to her. Not yet."

"No, pops," I looked at him, the smile was still spread across his face, it was good to see the old man smile again. "You'll be seeing a lot of CIA around the neighborhood," I continued, "they'll be keeping an eye on you."

"Yeah, I've seen them about," he replied, "saves you from having to put some of your men here at least. Keep them close to you, son. Whatever hive you are going to put to flames next is gonna come at you fast."

"Gotta clear the rats out before I can build a vineyard," I replied, "you taught me that."

"Your brother and his wife are in the room talking with your mother," he said, "if you're done cooking I would like to eat."

"Yes," I replied, "I'll get them." As I walked away, even as this shit storm that was certainly brewing around me I found a sense of relief. My father was once again smiling, at least I had managed to take care of that problem so that I could focus on the looming threat.