Team: Alpha (Knights of Ares) (6 page)

"No," he said unlocking his phone and going to the message reading it. "It's Sphinx," he murmured shooting back a message. Seconds later he got a reply that had his brows going up. "The Colonel needs to talk to us about something and is apparently heading to the farm. He'll be there in three hours according to this."

"Plenty of time to find out what's up and get some work done," Gareth pointed out.

"True enough," he sent a text back and then went to pocket the phone but got another text. Smiling faintly at that one he shook his head, "Honey," he murmured at the looks both Daisy and Gareth sent his way. Digging out the other phone from his pocket he handed it to Gareth just as his text came in.

“I will warn you now.” Daisy rose, rinsed out her glass and put it into the dishwasher before going back to get the men’s plates. “She will text you often. Believe me. She and Penny text practically non-stop. One month that child had more than forty-five thousand texts. And no, I’m not exaggerating. She has that one framed in her room.” She said with a smile. “God I love that kid.” She murmured happily and then shook her head. “Anyway. Just be prepared.”

"It's fine," Gareth said sending a text back before pocketing his phone. "She's welcome to text us all she wants. She will just have to remember that we won't always have cell service especially out on Mik's farm. But we will reply when we have a chance to," he smiled at her.

“You might want to tell her about the lack of cell service, or she will think that you are avoiding her and it will hurt her feelings.” Daisy murmured as she cleaned up the dishes. Finally when she heard the bathroom door close, she looked at both men and asked, “Are you sure that you are going to be okay with this? Gareth I see that you are. I swear I don’t think that I’ve ever seen you happier.” Then again she had really only known him the space of a few days. “But Mik, you still look like you are ready to hurl, you okay?”

"Of course I'm good with this," Gareth grinned at her before looking over to his friend.

Looking at them both Mikhail shrugged, "I don't know, I just feel like," he paused and chewed his lip. "I feel like I'm out of place, like I'm the extra appendage that has no purpose," he told them both honestly. "I've never been around kids, you both know that, hell I barely remember most of my childhood and what I do remember of it was working the farm or studying. I'm worried that I won't fit into all this and end up hurting her or you in the process. And I feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark without a clue as to where I am or where I'm going."

Daisy sighed and shook her head. “And if she had looked just like you instead of Gareth, would you be feeling the same way? If she had been your biological child would it have made a difference to you? I want to know.” She said simply. “I know that it’s a lot in such a short time but that little girl in there is totally over the moon for you. For both of you. She finally has in her life the two fathers that I’ve never kept hidden from her. She loves you, without strings, without wanting anything from you. All that child wants is to be loved back and some of your time. If you can’t do that, then I will explain it but it’s going to break her heart and I think yours as well. Mik I think you need her more than you even realize.”

"I'd still feel out of place even if she was mine biologically," Mikhail told her honestly. "I've never felt right anywhere in this world. The closest I've ever come was in the military but even there it was still not quite right. I want to know her, to be in her life but I honestly don't know if I'm the sort of person that should be in her life Daisy. I'm honestly scared that I'll hurt her in some way and that is the last thing I want."

Daisy reached out and put her hand on his much larger one. “When we were together you worried you would hurt me too, remember? You didn’t though. You would never, ever hurt that little girl and you know it. Admit it, you know that she’s every bit yours as she is Gareth’s. Yes she looks just like Gareth, but tell me that you don’t feel something profound for that child, something you’ve never felt before.”

"Terror," he nodded slowly turning his hand over and held her hand in his. "But we both hurt you Daisy, maybe not physically but we hurt you emotionally," he looked into her eyes. "You can't say we didn't," Mikhail pointed out softly.

“You both utterly destroyed me.” She didn’t even hesitate to tell them. “My father tried to get me to abort Honey but I refused. He disowned me that day and put me out with nothing more than a suitcase of clothes and my mother’s necklace, which I had hidden. It didn’t matter though because even though you were gone, I had a part of you. I loved her the minute I saw the ‘pregnant’ on the stick. I’ve never regretted a moment of the time I spent with you. I know that to you I was just a naïveté eighteen year old but I had fallen for you. Both of you. I loved you both more than you could ever know. But that was then. This is now. Now Honey is my love. She’s my everything, and I will do anything I have to in order to protect her. Even if it means that I have to break her heart a little and explain to her that one of her dads just doesn’t want her.”

"We never meant to hurt you," Gareth said softly reaching out to rub his fingers up and down her arm lightly. "And if we'd have known you were pregnant Daisy, there is no force on Earth that would have stopped us from being with you for the duration. Well, maybe the MP's when they came to drag us off to Leavenworth, but that's beside the point."

"Still wouldn't have stopped us from being there," Mikhail said softly as he looked at Daisy. "I will work on it D but I can only give what I have to give, and right now I don't know what it is. I'm very willing to get to know her and have her around in my life but you can't ask me for something I don't have either."

“I know,” Daisy sighed and nodded, “Just be yourself Mik, she won’t be able to help loving you.” Daisy smiled sadly. “I know her mother couldn’t.” Rising she looked to Gareth and smiled, “Thank you for that Gareth. I think that I needed to hear that I wasn’t just another port in the storm for you boys.” Lifting her hand she shook her head. “Little ears coming our way.”

Mikhail squeezed her hand and stared at her, "Never think that Daisy," he murmured holding her gaze for a long moment. Turning he looked to Honey and smiled slightly, "You ready to go to school
sladkaya
?" he asked her quietly.

“What does that mean Daddy Mik?” Honey asked and slipped her hand into his. Giving her mother a smile she said, “Bye mom. I will talk to you tonight. Oh, and tell Aunt Penny that I said thanks a bunch for finding my daddies for me.”

Daisy smiled and nodded, “I will tell her Honey. Now go before you are late. Thanks guys for walking her to school. It means that I get to go to bed earlier.”

"We'll talk to you later Daisy," Gareth said getting to his feet as Mikhail did the same.

Moving for the door Mikhail waited for Gareth to catch up with them. "It means sweet in my father's native language," he told Honey quietly as they waited. "Do you need a jacket?" he asked her as he looked down at her.

“She’s going to tell you no, but yes she does need one,” Daisy spoke for Honey. “And yes Honey I will tell Penny. I want to know how she found them myself.” She was leaning against the door watching her daughter with her fathers and felt an ache in her heart. Her baby was growing up, and it was killing her.

Nodding Mikhail grabbed the little jacket she pointed out and held it for her to slip into. Crouching, he zipped it up part way and stood taking her hand again when she stuck it out. Waving a hand to Daisy he left the house with Gareth to walk Honey to her school.

Chapter Seven

Staring up at the stars from where he sat on the steps Mikhail let his mind drift back over the meeting they'd just had with their former CO. Apparently there were a bunch of nut jobs on the loose; seriously off the wall nut jobs and he wanted their help. Yes they were retired. Yes they were no longer a part of the military but that was all to their benefit really.

"Are you as freaked by all that as I am?" Gareth asked as he moved to sit next to him handing over a bottle of beer.

Taking it, Mik rolled it between his hands, "Likely more," he murmured. "But considering where my father and his father grew up and the crazy shit that government did, it's actually not all that odd. Fuck, that government did some shit that even I never want to know about I'm very sure. What I do know freaks me out."

"I hear ya there," Gareth nodded slowly. "Do you think it's real though? All he said, do you buy it?"

"Given some of the folks we've run across in our lives let alone our careers, hell yeah," he nodded slowly. "What worries me is what he proposed for the team. I mean, its major surgery and then recovery and that's all time we're going to miss out on with Honey. We can't tell her or D about it, it's so fucking top secret I doubt we should even be discussing it out here," he waved a hand at the dark land of the farm. "You know if we don't come up with something big and major to explain our absence, then Daisy's going to think we ditched out."

"I know and that has me worried too. But I think we should talk to her this weekend when she brings Honey out," Gareth suggested. "We talk to her and let her know that the boss wants us to look into something for him on the D.L. and that we'll be out of communication for a time. It's the truth and, if we go through with it, we actually tell her the truth before we do it. Not all the freaky bioengineering crap with shit straight out of nightmares of course, but the part we'll be playing in it all. She deserves that at the very least."

"True," he nodded. Their former CO wanted them to meet with the doctors, do the tests and physicals and then there would be about a week to ensure that the chips were adjusted according to each of their own personal biology - or something like that. "Alright, we tell her we are going to do something for the CO and give her the time frame. We come back, find out the results and then sit down with her if it's what we all decide to do."

"You got it," Gareth nodded. "That way we're keeping her and Honey in the loop and when we know if it's even an option we bring her in fully. She needs to know we're not just running off into the wilderness."

"No, she'd never forgive us a second time," he murmured quietly. Looking at his friend, Mik shook his head, "She's going to think we've all gone off our fucking rockers and ban us from Honey's life anyway you know that right?"

"We've never lied to her despite what she thinks Mik," Gareth said.

"Says the guy that said we couldn't get her pregnant," Mikhail muttered rolling his eyes as he took a long drink of the icy beer.

"The odds of me getting anyone pregnant are astro-fucking-nomical asshole," Gareth growled at him. "And we know that yours," he made a scissor motion, "fully took after all so it wasn't actually a lie."

"Except for the fact that you now have a daughter," Mik said smiling darkly at him.

"Shut up," Gareth pushed to his feet. "I'm grabbing a hot shower and I'm going to bed. This has been a long fucking day."

"Night," he murmured over his shoulder before staring at the sky once more.

*****

Honey looked up at her mother with a smile on her face and happiness bubbling over. “Are you sure that you can’t stay mom? It’s just the dad’s.” She said as if they were just a part of their normal everyday life.

“Yes Honey, I’m very sure. You need this time to get to know them. It’s time that you spent some time with your fathers so that you can learn to love them as well.”

“Well, duh mom. I already love them. They are my DADS after all.” She rolled her eyes at her mother. “But have you seen them? Everyone in school was talking about them. My dads are hot mom. I mean HAWT.”

Daisy rolled her eyes and grinned, “Yes Honey your dads are very hot, but you are their daughter and not allowed to think of them like that. They are your dads and you will love them, no matter how they look.”

“I know that mom, but seriously, I mean they are really hot. Ms Albers, the librarian, said she would like to nibble on them. She didn’t know that I could hear her when she was telling Mr. Jacoby that.”

“Well Ms Albers is a beautiful woman; it could be that one of your dads will hit it off with her. Honey just because they are your dads it doesn’t mean that we will be a family. You know that right?”

“Do you not love them anymore?”

Daisy sighed, ‘I wish.” She whispered. “I will always love your dads honey. Always. But they are grown men, and when we met I was just a kid. We all grow up Honey, it’s just a part of life. They were able to go on with their lives and its time for me to go on with mine. Now scoot before they try to figure out why I’m keeping you in the car.”

Honey frowned at that and shook her head. “I dunno mom. I think that on this one you might be wrong. Weird I know, but I think you might.”

“Don’t think so Honey.” Daisy said and got out of the car and walked to her daughter’s side. Opening the door she said, “Come on.”

“Will you get my suitcase mom?” Honey asked when she saw Mik open the door and step onto the porch, racing for him as she did so. “Daddy Mik!” She shouted and tossed herself up the steps into his arms.

Grunting as he caught her he swung her up in his arms and settled her on his hip. "Have you grown since I last saw you?" he asked moving down the steps and to the car. "I think you've grown," he murmured. Looking to Daisy he smiled slightly, "Hi D," he murmured quietly. "Can you stay for a few minutes? Gareth and I need to talk to you about something."

"Mik, where the ever loving he...llo," Marius said as he came around the corner of the house. "Ma'am," he nodded to her before looking to Mik. "Where's the chainsaw at?"

"Viper had it out in the grove over there," Mikhail pointed towards the main gate to the property. "He was working on clearing some of the dead trees out the last time I saw him."

"Right," he muttered and grinned at Honey, "Welcome to the middle of nowhere little lady. Ma'am," Marius said to Daisy again and then jogged off muttering under his breath.

Honey wiggled out of Mikhail’s hold and went racing after Marius. Slipping her hand into his the last thing Daisy and Mikhail heard her saying was, “I’m Honey. Since you live with my daddies that means you are my uncle and you get to show me how to use a chainsaw. What’s your name? And what kind of name is Viper? Is he a snake? Oh no, he’s a car isn’t he?”

Daisy groaned and shook her head, “Did I mention she’s fearless?” Looking to Mik she frowned, “You look like you aren’t sleeping. You okay?"

"No," he said on a sigh. "And no, it has nothing at all to do with you or Honey it’s," he trailed off on a sigh. "Come inside for a minute. Sphinx will keep her out of the way of the chainsaw. He's got nieces that are like Honey, hell they probably could operate a chainsaw," he muttered. Holding out a hand to her he waited, "Will you come inside for a few minutes? Please."

Daisy nodded and lay her hand into his. “All right,” she murmured. “Why aren’t you sleeping Mik?” She asked softly and moved in closer to him. “It’s not good not to sleep and you know it.” She whispered quietly as they stepped onto the porch.

"None of us are sleeping, well, maybe Sphinx but he could sleep through a tornado even as he was thrown around," he muttered leading her into the house. Shutting the door he guided her to the kitchen where Gareth sat at the table. Pulling out a chair he held it for her, "Did you want something to drink? Water, juice, coffee?" he gave her a few selections.

“Water would be nice please; no coffee because I had far too much of it at work last night.” She murmured softly and sighed. “And because I want to have a very clear idea of just what you have to tell me, because I know that whatever you have to tell me its going to be very bad indeed and that has me very, very worried.”

"It's not bad exactly," Gareth told her reaching out to touch her hand. "Our CO was here a couple days ago and something from our former lives has cropped up. We need to head out for a few days up to a week to deal with this. Depending on how bad it is, which he couldn't really say while he was here, it's not exactly a secure location," he let out a sigh. "Depending on how bad it is we could end up having to go back for a longer stretch later when the committees and such get involved. We don't know yet but because of this we won't be able to have Honey out next weekend, and given we'll be in a secure building…" he trailed off.

"We won't be able to take her texts or calls," Mikhail supplied setting the bottle of water in front of her before he sat at the table with them. "We're hoping that it's just this one trip but given how our CO was acting, it could be bigger Daisy. We just wanted to let you know so that when we told Honey that you could help us deal with whatever she's feeling after the fact."

"We're worried how it's going to look to her Daisy," Gareth said quietly. "We don't want her thinking we're ditching her. We're not, not in the least. But we can't sweep this under the rug either."

Sighing Daisy nodded and cracked open the bottle of water. “It’s going to hurt her.” Daisy didn’t even try to hide the feelings that her daughter would have. “I think that we need to explain this to her together. As long as you are able to see her as soon as you get back that would be wonderful. She loves you guys so very much already that it’s totally crazy, but yeah.” She murmured. “Somehow we will have to figure this all out. I don’t want her thinking that you are abandoning her because we know that you aren’t, but that’s what she’s going to think. We need to assure her that you aren’t going to leave her for good.”

"It won't be for good," Mikhail said touching her arm lightly. "But if we don't deal with this now it could endanger our relationship with her later and neither of us wants that D. So any help you can give us in explaining this to her in a way that doesn't make us sound like total assholes would be helpful."

“I will do all that I can in order to ensure that she realizes that this isn’t your choice.” She smiled and nodded, “Don't worry. I will make sure that she knows that you aren’t leaving her by choice, and that you will be back.” She looked up between both men, “You will come back, right?”

"Every time." Mikhail said softly as he ran his fingers over her arm. "For both of you," he murmured quietly. Looking up as he heard the door open he sighed, "Looks like we need to do this sooner rather than later," he smiled as Honey came racing into the room.

Honey bounded into the room and smiled, “Did you know that these guys are all like real life G.I. Joe’s?” She moved to Mikhail and climbed up into his lap and then reached out for Gareth’s hand. “My daddies are real life G.I. Joe’s mommy. Did you know that?”

“No honey I didn’t but that’s okay. Your daddies and I need to talk to you Honey. They have a very important meeting that they have to go to. They need to go and make sure that some people are safe
Honey, but that means that you won’t see them next weekend and maybe the weekend after. With where they are going they won’t have cell service, and won’t be able to text you or call you.”

“But.” Honey turned her water filled eyes up to her father’s and frowned, “But you won’t forget me, will you?”

Shaking his head Mikhail hugged her to him, "We could never forget you Honey," he said honestly. "We're hoping it only takes a week but we can't be sure. If this wasn't so important, and a personal favor to our former CO, we wouldn't be going. But it is and we have to," he murmured resting his cheek to her hair.

Honey nodded and hugged Mikhail back. “Promise Daddy Mik?” She asked with tears shimmering in her eyes. “Cause I need to know that you won't leave me forever. I just am getting to know you both, and I really don’t want to stop getting to know you or my uncles.”

Nodding he held her close to him, "I promise
sladkaya,
we'll both be back," he whispered quietly against her cheek. Rubbing her back he leaned back to look at her, "Just keep track of everything you do while we're gone so you don't forget anything. We'll want to hear everything Honey," he said before letting out a breath. "Go and give Gareth a hug too," he said softly easing his hold on her.