Encrypted Connection

Blaise: Two

 "No, Silvo. NO," he said, shaking his head and tapping his fist a little too hard on the wall. "That wasn't the deal. My team. My protection. All here. How am I supposed to trust this...this kid when he's at home? This operation is sensitive and the information we obtain will be classified. I'll get him the best rig money can buy, all the fucking toys he wants, and Randy says the BOA has a basement with a private entrance."

Silvo didn't look convinced, and Blaise rolled his eyes.

"Is it me?" he asked.

Silvo just shrugged. "Yeah, kinda. But I think it'd be anyone. He's agoraphobic."

"Well, fuck," Blaise sighed, shaking his head, "I don't know about this. Can you guarantee that he won't be compromised? Surveillance? Security?"

Silvo just laughed, "So, you want me to back up the team /and/ watch out for Joey? That kid is...I gotta say it, Judge, he's better than me. I could put up the best security system money can buy and give Joey enough time and he'd find a way around it. I can guarantee it."

"So you're saying he's a loose cannon?" Blaise began to yell, "So why the hell suggest him at all? This is some joke to you, Sil? What we do...it's some kind of game? Get your head out of your ass, or that stupid shit you play online and get your fucking head in the game!"

Silvo stood, walked right up to Blaise, and the two men stared at each other for a moment.

"You want something?" Blaise asked, eye level with the man.

"You believe that? That I don't take the shit we do seriously?" he spit out, low and gravelly.

Blaise shrugged. "Sounds like you brought me some kiddie hacker, Sil, and then you tell me he can't be on site. What'd you expect? You really wanna go that hard for this kid? Sounds like we could do better."

Silvo seemed to relax a little bit, but not enough to back down, not enough to where Blaise would back down either. There was a reason they called him the Judge. There was a reason they used words like worthy and brothers and honor.

Silvo knew it. They all knew it.

Blaise didn't take his place in this team lightly. He didn't let shit go. He didn't expect anything out of them that he wouldn't expect out of himself. He pushed them past their limits because he knew what they were capable of, even if they didn't realize it. Yet.

Silvo didn't say a word as Blaise's eyes bore into his.

"He keeps the code. If he doesn't, you pay. Are you ready to lay your life down for him? To give yours for his?"

It was the question they were all asked. It was the question they all had to answer. It was what they lived by.

Silvo only took a half a second before he nodded.

"Then so be it. Get with him. Set him up. He's on screen at the meeting in five days. No exceptions."

"Yes, sir," Silvo answered, and he stepped back first.

Blaise stood his ground, looking around at the rest of the team. All fifteen of them, brothers and sisters, in arms and in life. They fought. They celebrated. They'd mourned.

Sam's place had never been filled.
No one could bear to suggest a candidate.
Some days, Blaise could convince himself that Sam was on assignment or back in D.C. debriefing with the Man.

Other days, like today when Silvo seemed to want to fill that spot, it hurt like it was just yesterday.

"You all good with this?" he asked, his voice a bit huskier than he'd intended.

He gave it a minute, looking each one of them in the eye.

He saw no dissent.

It pissed him off.
So, he was the only one that was gonna uphold Sam's memory? That was fine. He'd do it.

He'd push this kid till he broke, and then when he turned out to be unworthy, he'd take it out on Silvo's ass so that he never, ever thought of replacing Sam again.

"Five days. Randy will send you the address. Dismissed."

When he drove up in the driveway, it only took a minute before three little gremlins burst out the front door, running straight for his truck.

"Uncle Blaise!"

Three mop-headed boys slammed into his legs as soon as he got out, and he picked all three of their five year old bodies up in one big bear hug and a loud roar.

They screamed even louder.

"How have you gotten so biiiiiig!" he roared again, carrying them toward the door. Julie walked out, smiling and shaking her head.

"They're growing like weeds. I can barely keep food in the house for them."

Blaise laughed, setting them down and ruffling all three heads.

It broke his heart to see their faces.

They looked so much like Sam.

Sam and Julie had been high school sweethearts. Little did Sam know, though, that what he felt for Julie was a strong friendship. Julie knew otherwise.

For years, she tried to coax Sam to talk about his feelings, to admit the truth about who he was, who he was attracted to.

But Sam was loyal. He'd married Julie. He'd made a vow, and he wasn't a man who went back on his vows.

That was until he met Blaise.

It happened so organically, their relationship, and Julie had seen the signs long before Sam or even Blaise were willing to admit them.

Blaised leaned over the little guys and kissed Julie on the cheek, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, ushering them all inside.

Because of Sam's job, he'd banked sperm incase...well, in case the worst case scenario happened. He wanted to give Julie options.

And shortly after he died, Julie took those options.

The first transfer had worked and that's how she'd gotten Henry, Charlie, and Jack.

They were the spitting image of their father.

"What did you bring us?" Jack asked, and Blaise knew it was Jack because he had a small birthmark on his chin, like his daddy did.

"What?" Blaise asked, feigning innocence. "Do I always have to bring you something?"

They all screamed in unison. "YES!"

He and Julie laughed, and Blaise shrugged.
"Well, it's not here yet, but it'll be here soon," he said, pulling up a picture on his phone of the coolest, custom designed fort ever in all the fort designs in all the world.

Or at least he thought so.

He held out his phone, showing them the picture.

"I got some guys coming to build this for you three terrors, and you better be good for your momma because if she tells me you're not behaving, well, I"m going to call them and tell them not to come."

They gasped when they saw it, literally flipping their little lids. They swore up and down, multiple times, that they'd be good, then carried off his phone somewhere. He'd probably have to have Silvo ping it so he could find it later.

That was alright.

He and Julie sat down, she put a beer in front of him, and they simply clinked the necks and took a sip.

"Blaise," she said softly, "Silvo already called."

Damn him, he thought.

"It's okay," she said, reaching out and placing her hand over his.

But it wasn't. And it never would be.

But she was right. It was time. He just didn't know if he had it in him to let anyone else in.

Ever.