guarding the heart

Chapter 14: Coming to Terms

"Are you sure you'll be okay?"

Finn had just come out of the washroom and glanced over to where Carole and Burt stood beside his hospital bed. He smiled a bit and walked over to where they were just about to leave. His left arm was still bandaged up from his wound but otherwise okay so long as he didn't move it too quickly.

It was already late in the morning on Sunday and they had to get back to Lima. Finn had immensely enjoyed their visit the previous Saturday; he even got to introduce them to Graham and Wayfor the evening before when the five of them went to dinner in the hospital cafeteria (if you could call the dinner there 'food', which was a stretch.) His Mom had remarked how happy she was that Finn had befriended genuinely nice kids in such a short time; ones who were conscientious and supportive of him as both a friend and colleague. Finn had to admit, after his mom had said that, he felt pretty damn lucky for it as well.

"I'll be fine, Mom. It's only another week before I come home. I'm sure I can manage with the rest of the training. The only difference is I won't be asked to do all the super-physical stuff this week."

"Considering what's happened here, I'd say you've done enough on the 'physical' side of things." Burt stepped forward and gave him a manly hug. "You take care of yourself, Finn. Don't push yourself too hard with all the bandages and such."

"I won't…can't, really. It's gotta heal before I go back to football." Finn grimaced a bit. "I don't think Coach Beiste will be too happy I missed the training camp because of the National Guard."

Burt shrugged. "Might be surprised. I doubt you're the first senior football player who went and got a summer job… and it's not like your overall physical fitness suffered here."

"We can always tell her you were injured. That's all she needs to know and I'm sure she won't ask too many other questions." Carole slung her purse on her shoulder, then turned back to him and put a motherly hand on his cheek. "I'm really glad you're okay, Sweetie. Do me a favour and don't go shooting anyone else, okay?"

Finn and Burt exchanged a quick glance and both recognized how the other's eyes tightened a bit. Neither had told Carole that Finn had, in fact, done a lot more than just shoot his foe. He had aimed, fired, and killed him where he stood, suffering only a flesh wound in the process. The tall Gleek was still coming to terms with that reality about himself; still trying to accept that he was, indeed, the type of person who could kill another human being when it was required. Before this summer, he would have balked at the idea of being able to point a weapon at someone else and pull the trigger. The knowledge that he could so easily slip into that role and take another person's life in the process absolutely terrified him.

He'd changed a lot over the course of the summer. And he wasn't entirely sure he liked it.

"I don't plan on getting in the way of any other bullets, that's for sure." Finn finally said with his lopsided smirk.

"See that you don't," Carole told him firmly before pulling him down into her embrace. "Be safe, my son. I love you."

"Love you too, Mom. Thanks for coming." Finn hugged her back as well as he could before letting her go. As he watched them move past the doors of the unit he was sequestered in, he ran his right hand over his hair and then turned towards his room to pull his stuff together. Sergeant Banks had told him last night that if all went well he'd be discharged today and return to his unit to help them finish packing up to return to Camp Grayling for the final phase of training. The deployment had gone relatively well for his squadron (minus his incident, obviously) and all out-of-state units were being released from duty as the Missouri National Guard was positive they could handle the rest of the cleanup.