"Episode 43 - Adopted family."
Me: Are you with me? If I knock on your door tonight, would you open?
Princess: I trust you. :( I just hope nothing happens to you.
Me: That's all I need. Eat something okay. I'll see you soon.
I quickly put my phone away when I entered the West Wing in the morning to find Capone sitting in his lounge with his face wrapped in white bandages.
"Your secretary has postponed your meetings and the resort investment is a go." I informed him.
He remained silent for a long time. "That bitch really killed, Dex." He was finally coming to terms with reality.
"He's body is gone."
"I was told. You fucking made him disappear." He winced. I guess he was trying pull a facial expression. "How many times have you done that before?"
"Too many to count."
His eyes cut to me, eyes slightly darker than Lydia's piercing eyes. He tried to nod but stopped.
"Fine, go."
I made my way to Jake, reliving him of his job with Oliver entered through the main door.
"Thanks man, you can go home now and get some sleep. I really appreciate it that you took the night duty from now on." Usually, it was him who was monitoring the security room during the day and Oliver, during the night and both on special occasion but after knowing about my relationship with Elena and the truth, he was determined to help.
"You saved my life." His sombre confession dragged me back to the old days. "Thank you." He gave me an annoying hug before walking away.
When I was adopted by the Dixon family at 14, he felt so lost when he was put into another foster home while I was doing better. I had a brother, a family to lean back on but I always felt like I was a burden on them. An outsider. I could never fully integrate with them, never felt like I belonged anywhere or with anyone before Elena.
I knew how much it hurt Elisa and George to see me not accept them. It's not like I didn't want to, I just emotionally couldn't connect. I never once took their kindness for granted. George, once told me that it was okay to live a little, to go to late night parties and sneak in like David did when he turned 17. Instead, I shook my head no "I don't want to be disrespectful to you for treating me kindly."
His eyes had lowered immediately but not before I caught a glimpse of tears in his eyes. He felt so guilty for our first encounter, that he always tried to make it up to me by over compensation it.
Somehow, David was never jealous of that. He pitted me till the day I left and showed me utter kindness until then. I didn't speak much at first, especially when I was recovering but the adoption papers were signed, I realised that they really were serious, I started to open up a bit more.
George even gave me a summer job at his store and it took me couple months before I had the stomach to eat again from his store even at his insistence. He often took David and I to football games, camping and sometimes the shooting rage.
That's when I found out I had a talent. The manager of the gun range was a war Veteran. He was an ex sniper and taught me everything I needed to know about target, wind speed, trajectory and perfect aim before I even signed up for the NAVY.
Elisa, on the other hand, never failed to say I love you to me since she brought me in to her home. Sometimes, I used to cry in my room at night because she'd made my favourite dish for dinner. She'd always complain that I was too skinny and scoop seconds and thirds on my plate. Her kind smile and unconditional love made me want to live again. She didn't approve of George for teaching us to shoot but didn't object.
I had never heard George and Elisa fight, until I came home from school one night and told them about joining the NAVY. She just stared at me, dumbfounded. David just sighed while George tried to talk me out of it. When I told him that I was to leave after graduation and it was a done deal, Elisa stood up so fast that the chair tipped and smacked against the floor.
George of course followed her and that's when the shouting match started. David didn't blame me, he just finished his dinner and told me to stay alive before retrieving to his room. He had a girlfriend back then, he didn't really care much for what was going on around him.
Elisa blamed him for taking me to the gun range and I -still to this day- remember it clearly when he said "This is the only choice he's ever been allowed to make in life. Don't take that away from him." Luckily, no one was around to see the tears forming in my eyes. He understood without me having to explain it to him.
That night, George came into my room while I was playing with my Gameboy and asked only one question.
"You'll keep in touch with us, right?"
Suddenly, my stomach dropped. Even though they were just memories, I finally felt like I could connect with them. I found myself reaching for my phone on auto pilot and dial the home phone.
"Hello." An upbeat familiar voice floated through the speaker. My chest constricted.
"Hey, its me." There was a stunned pause. It had been over six months since I spoke to them and nearly over a year that I had seen them. When I returned home, injured, they came to see me at the hospital in California, where I was based. They couldn't keep going back and forth from Oklahoma to California but they did come to see me again when I was at the rehab facility.
I kept my promise to George, I stayed in touch. No matter how long I kept silent, they always greeted me with the same level love. That, never wavered and it hurt.
"Oh honey, ohh you sound so exhausted." I chuckled at her depiction. Even though she didn't give birth to me, she wasn't any less of a mother to me. "Is everything okay, son." I allowed myself to feel all the emotions that I locked away for so long. I got lucky where as so many others didn't. Including Elena and Jake.
"Work is a bit stressful, that's all. How are you guys doing?" I sat down throwing my arm over back of the sofa.
"Oh, as usual, George just complains about retirement so I sent him off the garage to play with his machines." I could imagine her shaking her head. "Anyways, tell me about this new job, how's the security thing going?"
"Er, I actually took another job, it's head of security for this billionaire." I explained feeling guilty that I didn't call them sooner. Heat trickled down my spine, a sense of awareness of someone watching me. I turned, trying to suss out someone to find the staircase behind me empty.
"Oh, Gabe that's such a good news. Let me go get George, he'd be so proud." I tried to ignore the hitch in her voice. Exhausted, I dropped my head back.
It was a while before I heard some commotion and George's voice.
"Gabriel, so good to hear from you, how's your knee." I subconsciously touched my knee, feeling hardly any discomfort.
"Nah, it's better now. How's your new project coming along?" I wondered. He was always trying to invent new things.
"It's good. David wouldn't let me anywhere near the store anymore, says I should rest. I'm sick of resting." He complained.
"He's doing well at the store?" I wondered. I remember him saying that he didn't really have any goals in life and considering he's worked at the shop for so long, it seemed like the right thing to do.
"He's doing very well actually, we're trying to set him up with someone but he just refuses. I swear we will die without ever seeing a grandchild." He complained making Elena's face flash before my eyes. I had never thought about kids or want to but to spend a lifetime with her felt like a blessing that I'd been waiting for since my real parents died.
I cleared my throat. "Erm, I actually... erm... met someone." I sat forward, waited for him to respond. Hearing Elisa gasp I realised I was on speaker.
"You did, oh honey that's so wonderful, when so we get to meet her?" I knew she was going to ask that.
"I would love for you guys to meet her. She's actually wonderful." A warm feeling bloomed in my chest.
"Oh, thank god. Do you have a lot in common?" I thought about her thirst for blood, shoving the knife into Dex's heart and the undeniable passion we had. "What does she do?"
"Yes, we do. And she's an artist."
Suddenly, my disposable phone started to buzz. Fuck.
"Damn, I have to go now, sorry dad. I'll call you back later."
The minute I dropped the call, a sudden realisation hit me like a speeding truck. I just called George dad. Fuck.