SAWYERS POV
"Looks like you need a drink." Evan walks into his office. I raise up the glass I'm already drinking. He raises his eyebrows slightly and begins to pour himself one.
"How did you come back?"
"I got caught."
"Were you scared?"
"They didn't know what to do with me. I stayed locked up collecting things to fix the watch. It's why I took long." I laugh, bitterly. The door to Evans office swings open. Joseph walks in, all innocent and puppy eyed. His hands are in his pocket, showing shyness and powerlessness.
I lick my lips before turning back to Evan,
"Joseph, you've been in training. You know it's all about tactics. When the enemy is smarter and has more sophisticated tools, what do they do?" I don't let him answer, "They disappear for a while and they come back to get you when you're blind sided and unprepared. Stab, or shoot you from behind like some brothers." I pour myself another drink and down it.
I get up, and put on my jacket, ready to leave.
"Sawyer, hey, wait. We need to talk." Joseph's voice rings into my ear. I look at him, dead serious.
"I have nothing to talk about with you." I calmly fix my collar. I pour another drink, "Sit down, maybe you should have a drink." I hand him the shot glass. "You to Evan." I hand him one. "Let's make a toast."
Both of them just give me a kind of solemn look and I wait for them to raise their glass, they both slowly do.
"To traveling time and coming back home, wasn't all I expected it to be, but, fuck it, that's life. And to my best friend and loyal brother, Joseph..." I turn and raise my glass to him, "For keeping things here back at home." I down my drink.
I sit back down as Joseph's hands are still in his pockets as he stares me down.
"You're not gonna drink?" I question. "That's saying a lot." I mutter bitterly.
"All right, Sawyer. That's how we're going to play this." He grabs the drink I poured him and he gives a small toast, "To you, Sayer." And he downs his drink.
"Looks like you two need some time alone." Evan stands up, and adjusts his tie.
"Aww, hell no Evan. Come on, no no no. We're celebrating here." I push him back down into his seat. "Me lost in time, almost never returning, my brother Joseph over here looking after," I turn to look at him, "my interests for me." I turn to look back at Evan, just continuing our simple conversation,
"Did you know he was looking after Opal, while I was gone?" I ask Evan, who just stares me down.
"You said one year. We thought you were gone forever, Sawyer. It destroyed us both." Joseph says exasperated almost on the verge of crying, he rushes toward me, we're face to face now. "She was just trying to get on with her life, it was a drunken mistake."
Drunken mistake my ass. I roll my eyes not believing what I'm hearing.
"I bet life is so good for you." My tone dark and serious, with every word I'm saying I hope it's punching him in the gut.
Joseph stands up straighter, "You know you're a rotten and shitty drunk. Always have been." He starts walking out of the office,
"You're an awful brother. But we all knew that."
He stops walking and slowly turns back to me, with one swift motion he's right in front of my face,
"Don't forget you're the one who left her, to fight something that isn't that big of a deal." He points to somewhere behind him as he's talking, seething at me. "I tried helping but you made damn sure that I didn't remember or could go with you. Plus, we thought you were gone." His words get angrier by the second.
I stand up, now I'm at his face, "I almost did die, you fucking son of a bitch!" I yell into his face. "The only thing that kept me fighting was her face, so don't fucking stand here and tell me to act like everything is all right." I continue to shout.
Joseph backs away a bit, his face falling, "Yeah, Sawyer, well I stayed." His voice is smaller as he croaks. "You're the one who made sure I stayed. And some things changed and if you can't get used to it..." he doesn't get to finish, his words boiling my blood by the second.
"Oh, I have to get used to it?" I nod my head, "We will see about that." I can't help my self, my arm flies up into his face.
Jospeh's whole body turns and he falls to the floor, unable to brace the fall. Evan is quick, already pulling me back.
"Get fucking used to that!" I shout, trying to pull out of Evans hold.
Joseph slowly pulls himself up, blood coming out of his mouth and nose. He wipes his mouth examining the blood.
"That was my left hand to." I smirk. He's lucky I went easy on his fucking ass.
Without thought Joseph comes charging at me, pushing both of us over Evans desk. Evans shouting for both of us to stop, not strong enough to stop us.
I punch Joseph a few more times and he gets a few good punches but the rage inside masks any pain I'm feeling.
"You called me an awful brother!" Joseph says.
"Get your hands off of me." I push him away.
"Ow."
"Shit."
We both get a few more good punches in.
"Come on, Jospeh." I punch him one more time in the face and he falls to the floor. We're both bleeding, and I fall to the floor beside him.
We both stay quiet, the only sounds are our moans of pain and ragged breathing.
We both sit up against the wall.
"Sawyer, you're all the only family I have. When you were gone I'm sure it was the loneliest Opal has ever been." He says after a long moment of silence.
"Well shit, now you're really breaking my heart." I bitterly remark.
"If you didn't leave none of this would have happened." Joseph shakes his head.
"Oh so it's my fault." I roll my eyes.
"Damn it Sawyer. I know there's some way we can work this out. Things have to be right between me and you."
"It's never going to be the same." I don't see how he's seeing things can change. Everything is different, everything is all wrong. This was not supposed to happen.
We both hear screaming and Evans office door swings open.
"Opal is gone." Avery screams. "And it's both of your faults." She's hysterical, crying, yelling.
"Hey, shh. I'll find her." I tell her, she calms a bit and nods.
"You don't know where she is." Joseph says and I glare at him.
"I always know where she is." I softly mutter and head out.
OPALS POV
All the yelling and screaming and fighting I needed to leave. With both of them there I know I'll never be able to talk and tell my side of the story. God, what did I do?
I sit on the grass and look out into the ocean. I hear the sound of his feet crunching on the grass. I know who it is and I don't bother turning,
"I saw all your clothes. You're packing." I state.
"I found something."
"What kind of something?" I question. He found something so he's leaving again.
"Top secret." Sawyer bitterly says.
"You're traveling again. It's dangerous." I continue to stare out at the lighthouse. He slowly sits beside me.
"Joseph isn't with you?" I question, looking around. "How did you find me?"
"Is that why you're here, you thought he would come?" He asks, almost defeated. "He's probably cleaning up the mess we made." He says with a shrug. "Who do you think showed him this place?"
I turn to Sawyer and grab his hand, "I wasn't looking for Joseph." Sawyer turns to me, our faces mere inches from each other.
"I can't let you leave without you understanding something." I tell him. He nods slowly,
"You don't have to explain anything to me." He pulls away from my hold.
"I do. You're making it seem like I don't love you."
Sawyer stays quiet and softly snorts at what I say.
"I should have stayed in time. When I got caught by those people, I was tortured and beaten. I made it my mission to come back. To make sure you were okay. You kept me going. God, I prayed everyday, like a damn fool. All I wanted was to see you one more time." He's breathing hard and I'm not sure if he's on the verge of tears.
I can't look him in the eye, the guilt eating at me. I finally have the courage to look at him, his eyes water.
"It was worth it." He sadly smiles. "But I'm going to have to walk away, and I won't ask you for anything, but I just want to know why. Just tell me that, why?"
I breathe out, a tear escapes my eye. I'm not sure I know why? I was drunk. I was stupid. I missed Sawyer. I don't know. This is all too much, I'm overwhelmed.
"I don't feel good." I say out loud and I immediately throw up. Sawyer doesn't say anything and I wait until the nauseousness goes away and I turn back to him.
"It's probably my fault for getting attached to you." I say and look at Sawyer but he can't look at me, "both of us knew you'd leave eventually." He looks down at me, concern etched throughout his features, almost as he never meant to hurt me the way he did.
"I mean, really. We were bound for nothing to ever happen. I guess I kind of just hoped that maybe you'd love me enough to fight against leaving." I chuckle, hiding the fact that my voice just cracked. "Everyday I wake up and wonder why. Why it went wrong, why it happened, why I had to be the one to get so attached. It doesn't seem fair because I'm the one still hurting while you're off time hoping, doing God knows what and with God knows who." I let my little insecurity slip and hope he doesn't catch it." I pause and breathe out, and with a shaky breath, "I'll love you my whole life." I whisper.
Sawyer doesn't say anything and I know this conversation is over. He just came to make sure I was okay. I slowly get up and leave.
Sawyer doesn't come back home until a few hours after I do. I'm sitting on the couch when Sawyer finally comes in, he makes quick eye contact with me and then starts talking to Evan.
"You're staring again." Avery says.
"I'm not. I simply just gazed in the direction he so happened to be in."
"Then why was that look on your face?" She asks.
"What?" I ask, "what look?"
"You look a certain way when you see him." She says, "You look at him and it's like you're staring out the window on a rainy day."
"And?" I shrug, she looks down at me.
"You love rainy days." She declares.
Before I can answer the front door springs open and a few army people come in.
"Where is Joseph?" One of the men asks.
"Yes Major?" Joseph immediately come out of no where and stands tall and salutes him.
"You're needed. You fly out in an hour." The leader I'm assuming says, he hands Joseph a piece of paper.
"What for sir?" Joseph asks.
"Ask the Colonel." He says and they all leave.
Joseph reads the paper and quickly turns to me almost sad, my face falls. He's leaving again.
Before we know it, we're all at the airport. This seems serious. No one is talking and Joseph is in his uniform.
"This is dangerous isn't it?" I ask Joseph.
"You know the only thing that scares me..." Joseph swallows hard, "is that you might love him more than you love me." He says, and my smile falls. This was supposed to be a sweet goodbye. I turn away to look at Sawyer who is watching us from a few feet away.
"Close your eyes." He says and I look at him confused, "close them." He says with a small laugh. I close them and hold onto him for balance. "I want you to envision your wedding day and who you're hugging. And the day you are expecting, who is comforting you during pregnancy? Now envision the day you give birth, whose hands are holding you and encouraging you to push? And when your child hits all those milestones in their life like learning to walk, talk, and use the potty." He stops when he hears me laugh at his choice of the word potty.
"Shh." He says and I stop laughing and just smile, "who is by your side, laughing, excited, and equally as emotional?" He asks and my smile falls, "because if in any of those scenarios into your future, you did not picture me once as that man, then I need to let you go and find the woman who does." He softly says. I don't know what to say or do.
"Joseph, don't do this to yourself." I pull him into a hug. "I'll be here waiting for you to get back." I squeeze him harder.
He softly pulls away. "I know. It's okay." He smiles and kisses me on the forehead. He walks over to Sawyer, they exchange words, they both hug and Joseph taps Sawyer on the back, as if telling him I'm all his.
Sawyer walks over to me as we wave Joseph's plain goodbye.
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Heyy!
How is everyone?
Why does life seem busier with covid than before everything happened?
Hope everyone is safe and doing good.
Enjoy 💕❤️💕❤️💕