Tough Love (ManXMan)

Chapter 5.

The same night of the mission.

Elijah

On graduation day from the Academy as officers we swore to be good leaders, Unbiased decision makers, and sources of inspiration to whoever we came across. However no theory in this world can prepare you for the actual practical on the battlefield. Theory is the best case scenario of something, but nothing is ever in the 'best case scenario'.

This mission is going to go down in history as one of the worst ever and my name would be stamped on it in bold letters, Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Charles Johnson, worst commanding officer ever. I just lost 23 servicemen in total, The son of the secretary of State and a fellow officer is being held hostage and speaking of hostages, the actual mission was a fail.

I watched Suzanne Feldman leave the room as the senate defense committee started their questioning on what happened to propel that kind of loss.

I answered their questions diligently which ranged from everything and we've been at it now for about 3 hours. Calls were going in and out, wives/husbands that couldn't reach their partners so were calling the base. If it was this difficult for me to bear then I wondered how hard it was for the spouses to know that the love of their life was killed in combat.

"So Colonel how do you plan to deal with this mole in your battalion?" the bald headed senator asked looking at me quizzically.

"I'm working on a plan for that in collaboration with the commanding officer of the Seal Team here. I'll keep you posted on that."

"Well that concludes this meeting, take heart Colonel." The other bald headed senator from Virginia said.

I closed up the computer and walked out of the briefing room to see Feldman coming towards me.

"What did they say?" She asked me and I began to relay everything to her. She was the next in rank to me and therefore had to be kept in the loop of everything going on.

"Well for what it's worth, I think you're doing an excellent job Colonel, just keep me posted okay?"

"Of course Suzanne." I replied her and she gave me a smile before walking away. I watched her retreating figure and noticed a lot of mud on her boots, that's weird but I shrugged it off since I had more things on my plate than a muddy boot.

Anytime we had a mission this hard and I felt it could have gone better, Roman would be the one to cheer me up with his very creative insults that'll make anyone laugh. As a matter of fact to make this deployment more 'fun' he would organized this friendly duels/games every night like who could tie their boots the fastest while blindfolded or who could do the most push ups on one hand. Just something to keep us all entertained. I miss his him and I'm going to do everything in my power to get him back which is why this plan with Colonel Gallows had to work.

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The Next Morning

Roman

I woke up startled as the armed man made his way to the window adjacent to my position to open it. The light blinded the eyes a little as I've adjusted tot the darkness surrounding us. I took the opportunity to study my environment weeing the things Callum mentioned the night before and maybe anything I could use as a weapon.

My eyes landed on the crying princess huddled up against the wall beaten and bruised, his hair covered his face as he slept. To my right was Callum just laying on the floor staring at the ceiling.

The window man stepped out and another one came in with three toothbrushes, a bottle of water, and a tub of toothpaste. Wow we three had to share a bottle of water to brush our teeth.

Callum collected his toothbrush and the toothpaste and I watched the man walk over to my crying princess and kicked him in the shin to wake him up. Brutal,  I could see the fresh set of tears stream down his now visible face with the hair moved out, and dare I say he's gorgeous.

"Don't be a coward by hitting someone that's harmless, he's done absolutely nothing to you." I said to the idiot thereby directing his attention towards me.

He looked to his partner who stood at the door and that one told him something before he moved towards me and kicked me right in the solar plexus. Ouch that fucking hurt. "Ouch"

"Would you be nice enough to release the chains so I can brush my teeth too?"

He looked towards his partner again, great so he didn't understand English I'm guessing, the partner translated what I said and he walked towards me to release one part of chain. The key had a black indentation among the bunch.

We brushed out teeth quickly in silence before handing our brushes back to Mr kick-everyone-I-see. He bound my hand back and locked the door before leaving. Damn it if he wasn't armed I would have kicked his ass four ways to Tuesday.

"Thank you." Crying Princess speaks, he speaks, hallelujah he speaks. I wasn't the only person surprised apparently because Callum jumped up in surprise too.

"You speak? We've been in here together for a week and you never spoke to me. I thought you were mute." Callum said in one breath.

I sensed the apprehension on his beautiful face as he took us in before huddling himself more into the corner. Looking at me and Callum we did look intimidating to someone who's barely even 5 ft 3 inches maybe 100 pounds . I was 6 ft 4 inches, 215 pounds and Callum seemed to be about 6 ft 1.

"What are you thanking me for?" I asked him softly as his hazel eyes focused on me, specifically my torso area to avoid my eyes I guess.

"For standing up for me." I notice a hint of accent in his English like Australian or something.

I usually thought I had a type, like the broad shoulders, muscled, authoritative in reality but submissive in the bedroom, buzz cut, adventurous kind of bottom. This beautiful man was none of those things, Long hair, No meat or muscle just bones, slim and petite.

"I'm Roman Butler what's your name?" I glanced towards Callum to see his mouth agape as he watched the interaction between me and beautiful crying princess.

"Jalil, Jalil Khalifa is my name." I liked it unique, never even heard it before but it was cute for a cute boy.

He didn't strike me as a talker so I'll keep the questions of how he ended up here till a later time so I don't make him uncomfortable.

Meanwhile in Washington D.C.

Third Person pov

News just got to him that his son is being held captive by terrorists.  Ever since his first wife died and he married her best friend three years later, his son bore deep hatred for him. Hatred that will rival the pacific ocean in size. How could you explain to a thirteen year old that love is a complicated thing and you can't help who you fall in love with. The whole thing went to hell when Daniel was born. He hadn't spoken to said son in about ten years now but he kept tabs on him, his deployments, promotions, relationships or lack of it.

Why Roman? What efforts are in place to get him back unharmed? What is the demand? were the questions he thought to himself as he dialled a very good friend who was also the secretary of Defense.

Roman was the only tie he had to Eloise and damn him if he let anything happen to his first son that'll make Eloise disappointed in him from her resting place.

"Why aren't they making any demands yet Dustin?" He asked his friend Rt. General Dustin Kane.

"We don't know yet but we hypothesize that they should in the next 72 hours, who, what when, why, we don't know the answers to. Just take it easy Dave" His friend tried to pacify him but every parent out there knew nothing could pacify them when their child was being held hostage by terrorists.

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Adios E.A.