"Mmm...I'll break it to your mother. Promised your dad I would anyway." He said with a chuckle as he kissed her again,
putting off that moment, and the phone calls that would have to be made (not only his own passport issues, but get
his house opened up and stocked....last thing he wanted to do when he got back was grocery shopping).
She smiled against him. Answered his lips with her own. It wasn't fair to ask him to talk to her mother about this. She'd
take care of it herself. But not just yet. Just for now there was only him. Only Hector. Her Hector. And that was just the
way she wanted it to be.
He chuckled and laid back, taking her with him. He could be just as sneaky as her sometimes, when he wanted to be.
He kissed her and stroked her hair. "Get some sleep." He said, knowing, somehow, that she was far more tired than
she was pretending to be. That was an old trick he was familiar with, had ployed it quite a few times himself.
The sleep was like soft mud. Just waiting for her to lay flat so it could wrap around her and soak her in. She tried to
fight it. She'd already slept. And she'd spent so much time awake when she wasn't where she wanted to be. It seemed
wrong to waste her sleep now that she was where she belonged again. She managed a quiet protesting noise but he
stole it away with the touch of his mouth to hers. Her lips curved against his as she whispered her accusation:
"Evil..." Which ended in a surrendering sigh as his hand moved through her hair. She hadn't cut it the way she usually
did. Not since she'd met him. Liked it long... more for him to touch...
She murmured something intelligible as she fell asleep in his arms. Recriminations against his character or a prayer of
thanks. Or both. And than her entire body relaxed into his and she was sleeping.
Hector laid there for a few minutes, and it stretched into almost a half hour, fighting his own urge to sleep, and she
wasn't making that easy. But finally he eased his way out of the bed and came out of the tent and grabbed Molly.
"Sit with her." He asked her. "If she wakes up before I get back, just tell her I'm taking care of a few passport things,
okay?"
Molly nodded, glad to be part of such a romantic entanglement, since 'Romeo' back home hadn't panned out as
Hector went off in search of Mrs. White.
Janette had ensconced herself in the clinic again. She liked being able to see where so many of her daughter's
stories over the phone took place. And she loved the children. She thought that was her own secret trick to loving the
people she was sent to take care of. She just saw them as the little children they'd once been.
Sean was off in another tent entirely talking to Mike about whatever men liked to talk about when they didn't have to
worry about women overhearing. She suspected it was most likely sports. Sean had a strange passion for American
baseball.
She was just in the process of listening to the children repeating a song about Moses and the Red Sea she'd taught
them earlier when a familiar shape moved into the edges of her vision and the edges of her lips curved slightly. She
thought she was learning what her daughter said when she'd called the young man 'familiar'. She wondered in one of
those ways humans weren't quite able to comprehend, if he'd always been there. Just at the edge of her vision until
she finally noticed him. Believing in the unseen made simple miracles like that easy to believe.
She turned her head and looked up at him with a smile. Holding out her small hand.
"What are you doing still awake, bebe?" She asked warmly.
Hector took her offered hand as she glided easily out of the chair she had been, with supernatural grace she had
passed onto her daughter. "I don't require as much sleep as everyone else thinks." He said with a grin and a shrug.
And he truly believed that too.
"But Andi's exhausted, and we haven't had much chance to talk since she came back, so I thought I'd take the
opportunity. Unless you're busy?" And he was suddenly nervous about this whole thing, more nervous about this tiny
woman than he had been Andi's large father.
She pressed a kiss to two of her fingers and pressed it to one of the children's heads. Telling them without words that
lessons were done for now and they scampered off to share their new song with the adults. Whether the adults
wanted to hear it yet again or not, Janette thought with a chuckle. Indulgent, she tucked her hand into the crook of
Hector's arm and shook her head.
"No. I'm not busy now." She looked up at him. Saw the nervousness at the edges of his dark eyes. And didn't think it
was a bad thing. "Did you want to take a stroll with me?" She offered. "Or did you have somewhere in mind you
wanted to sit and talk?"
"A walk would be good." Hector said as he led her out of the tent. He really hadn't gone for a 'stroll' lately. Besides,
walking was always a good thing. "Andi sure has been through the wringer." He said once they were away from most
of the people, incase she decided to go into lecture mode, or worse. He ran his free hand through his hair. "So have
I." He admitted, nearly reluctantly. "So..." now how to put this? Coming out and saying it with Sean worked actually
pretty well. But this wasn't Sean.
"I'm taking some serious leave time." He said. Besides, he knew, he just knew there would be a psych eval off this
one. "Decompress, kick back. Relax. And Andi's going with me."
He looked so heartbreakingly knotted up inside. Janette rubbed her hand soothingly against his arm.
"Of course she needs a rest as well." She agreed. "You both do. You work so hard already and this..." her free hand
made a releasing gesture. "I would worry if you were not both going to escape your jobs for a while. I would expect no
less from you two. Our home may not be large but it is thick with peace. There's a great deal of healing that goes on
there." She let it sit for a moment, walking next to him with wide strides because it was so like walking next to her
husband's long legs.
"However," she stated, tapping at her chin, brow thoughtful. "I have been doing some thinking. I am not sure you
would approve. I know you already have your plans and your heart set on coming to Zaire and seeing my husband
hunt for kangaroos. But still, I am a mother and I can't help thinking." She stopped walking to look up at him. Touched
his cheek gently with her fingers and her eyes softened. "Would it be horribly, terrible of me to ask you to take her
back to your country with you? Just for a short time? I think a change might actually be more healthy for her than
returning to the familiar. It’s an imposition I know. And I will understand if you say no. You should know by now I would
rather have you in my house. But - I have been wondering."
Hector was thrown for a loop again. He hadn't expected this. Either this woman came up with this on her own or Sean
let her in on something. Or she was just crafty in ways he couldn't begin to understand.
But just as he was going to launch into a mentally rehearsed argument against returning to Zaire, she flipped like a
coin and suggested his very idea.
He even needed a beat to recover where he blinked and thought what to say in response to this turn of events.
"Well," he drawled out. "I was actually going to suggest that...seeing as Andi's already agreed....but yeah. I can take
her back to Louisiana easily enough." Wow. And Sean made this sound so terrifying.
The smile snuck at the corner of her mouth. She knew, that deep down, she carried a seed of pure evil inside.
Because she had far too much enjoyed the look on his face when he'd realized what she was saying. She supposed
he would have had the same look if she'd hit him on the side of the head with a cricket bat. But this had been more
fun.
She was glad she wasn't Catholic and so didn't need to confess her sin to anyone but God. That way she could laugh
about it while she did so.
She chuckled.
"I had hoped it wouldn't cause you problems." She stated. "You had better let me tell Sean though. He will likely be a
bit touchy on the subject." Her face softened and she put her arms around him suddenly, standing on her toes to do
so. "But oh, bebe." Her eyes teared then even if she didn't let them fall. "I am going to miss you both so. I am going to
miss you, Hector, my Hector." Her son. Found and now lost again. Just like her daughter. He knew she would miss her
daughter. But he should also know - "I will miss you so very, very much."
"I wouldn't, so much." Hector said after Janette had released him. "You never know if any of the shadows might be
me." It was true, he was good a sliding through shadows and appearing where least expected. Her daughter should
be able to tell her that much!
"Guess I should make my phone calls then, huh?" He said. "I think Sean will take it well. But that might just be me."
Janette chuckled quietly.
"Oh, you'll be back. So will my daughter. But I will miss you while you're gone. Both of you." She took his face gently
between her hands and met his eyes. "You're a part of this family now too, bebe. Whether your heart knows it yet or
not. And we don't lose each other. Ever." She pressed a kiss to his forehead, having to lean up to do so. "Now go
make your calls." She stepped back with a smile. "And if you see Sean before I do make sure you set up a good time
for our weekly call from Andromache." She started to head back toward the clinic and than stopped. Turned her head
to look at Hector over her shoulder and her smile was crooked, touched with smugness at the edges. "And tell him, if
you see him first, that he should really know better by now."
Hector had to chuckle at that. He should have known, at the very least Sean should have known! but instead the
bigger older man had basically left him to the wolves. Luckily for him, this particular wolf happened to have a soft spot
for him.
He went into the communications tent, without authorization of course, but Sam shouldn't mind. Was for Andi after all.
He should have called his sister, but instead he called his friend. "Tommy. Yeah I know what time it is there. Oh it’s a
school night? Sorry, man. Anyway...coming back for a while. So....yeah. No, I can't get a hold of Cassie. Don't tell
anyone I'm coming back yet, yeah its been a hard time. Just need some rest before I slap the smile on. Key's in the
same place it always is. Just the staples. And the stuff for gumbo. Okay, I'll pay you when I get back. Good. See you
then." He hung up the phone, that had gone easy.
Then he called his commander and hashed out the details for his passport. Technically speaking, he'd never left the
US since he went from the continent to a base, and his ops didn't count. And on military flights he didn't need a pass
port, though he had one. But not on him. So he had to secure a diplomatic pass from Africa to the US. It took a bit of
wrangling, and some phone tag and constant transfers, but soon he was headed back to the tent where Molly was
keeping an eye on Andi.
In the darkness of the tent's interior Andi's eyes were glints of light when he came in. Open and watching and when
she saw his familiar silhouette her body and face relaxed and she shifted the protective arm she'd moved across
Molly's sleeping form. Her own lean body was curled in a protective half circle around the smaller nurse who was
sound asleep and smiling slightly tucked up against her. Andi offered Hector a soft smile of her own and her hand to
draw him close.
"Productive?" She asked in a whisper, edges of her lips teasing. Because he had that look about him. The one he got
whenever he was in the middle of something and it was going along smoothly.
Hector took her hand and perched on the edge of the bed, since it already contained two people. "Very." He said with
a nod. "Talk to your mom, called a friend, got everything set on that end, got a pass so I can legally enter my own
country." He had to chuckle about that. Where would they deport him to, anyway? "Even got a flight. A lot of
transfers," but that was to be expected. "But we're all set." He smiled a bit looking over at Molly. "Seems everyone's
tired today."
"I wore a lot of people out." She answered, not without her fair share of guilt for what she'd put everyone through. Still
holding his hand she maneuvered over Molly with practiced ease and joined him, sitting so the outside of her thigh
could touch his along its length. Her lips curved.
"And you didn't have to talk to Mum. I would have taken care of that. I'm not entirely helpless. Just a bit - slower than
usual." She chided gently, touching the tip of his nose with a fingertip. The sheer amount of things this man could get
done in a very short amount of time was amazing. She supposed it came with his job but she still couldn't imagine how
he knew exactly how to cut to the root of everything and deal with it all so quickly. "Though you've probably endeared
yourself even more to them now because you talked to them instead of simply whisking their daughter off into the
wilds of America. Mum is probably going to adopt you, you know. Mum didn't cry, did she?" The only thing both her
father and her truly feared, her mother's honest tears.
"Well, you needed your rest." Hector said. "And a lot of the stuff was mine to take care of," like the passport, etc, "so
why not take care of the rest of it while I was up and about? I didn't see her cry, and she knew what I was going to say
before I said it." He still had to chuckle at that. Crafty woman, indeed.
She looked better. Not well, but better, now that she had slept, and eaten, and knew everyone was here. She was like
him in that regard, having to know where everyone he cared about was to ease his own soul.