It had been three months since Miranda had been home. Three and a half since she’d heard from Callan. She’d gotten emails from him and had responded to them, but she hadn’t heard his voice in three and a half months.
In his emails, he would reassure her that he would be with her again soon and that he missed her terribly. When she would respond she express to him that she missed him a great deal as well and would insist that she needed to speak with him as soon as he could call her. She needed to tell him something important that should never be revealed over the phone.
One evening after she finished her three month check up with her Aunt Kenna, she got a surprise. She was just settling into her room to watch a little TV and relax before dinner when her iPad started making a dinging noise. She reached over to the bedside table to see what it was. It seemed that she was getting a call from a strange number. It was an international number- much like her grandparents cell numbers, though the international code was different. She accepted the call to her iPad. “Hello?” he asked.
“Hey sweet cheeks!” she heard a familiar voice say.
“CALLAN!” she exclaimed excitedly. “Oh my God! I’m so happy to finally hear your voice and see your face, baby. How are you?”
“Not bad. I’m overjoyed to finally hear your voice and see your face again too. How was the play?”
“It was great. We only did a week, but it was totally a blast. How are things in Venezuela?”
“Winding down. Thankfully, this was a peaceful deployment and we didn’t have to do too much in the way of blowing things up.”
“That’s good.”
“So, what was this bombshell that you didn’t want to drop on me through email, babe?”
Miranda took a deep breath. “Callan, I’m pregnant.”
The look on his face was briefly one of shock as he nodded. “I’m glad that you waited to tell me that over a video call rather than in an email. Now, to ask the obvious question. Seeing as we know this child’s not mine because we’ve never had sex, who’s the father? Who am I going to step up and be a man for?”
“My ex.”
“That tool that thought it was funny to hit you in the head at the rehearsal we met at?”
“Yeah. One in the same.”
“Well, I’ll be back in the states in a week. I guess there’s no time like that near future. I’m going to have to stop at home to get some civvies, but that’s all. Well, and I have a little bit of business that I need to take care of. You think your folks would mind me staying there while I’m visiting?”
“I’m sure that they wouldn’t but I’d have to ask. Well, you’d have to ask.”
“You want me ask them now? I can do that now if you’d like.”
She smiled and pushed herself up off of her bed. “Ok. I’ll just have to run down the hall to my Dad’s office. He’s taking care of some business of some sort. I believe it’s all personal and totally unrelated to Reckless Disregard and Unholy Deliverance Records.”
“Well, go interrupt your father’s business and I’ll ask the head of household if I can stay in his house with his daughter.”
Miranda walked down the hall and knocked on her father’s office door with her iPad in hand. “Hey Daddy, can I come in?”
“Come in, Miranda”, he said though the closed door. “What can I do for you?”
“Daddy, I’m talking to Callan and he wants to introduce himself and ask you something.”
Malachai Draiman lifted an eyebrow. “Ok?”
Miranda handed her father the iPad. “Hello Mr. Draiman. I’m Callan Maguire, Staff Sergeant; United States Marine Corps. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, so to speak.”
“Hello Sergeant Maguire. Please, call me Malachai.”
“With all due respect, sir, I can’t do that. Not the way I was raised or the way I was trained.”
Malachai nodded. “Fair enough. What did you need to ask me?”
“Well sir, I’m currently deployed in Venezuela. I’ll be stateside again in about a week. After debriefing, I’ll be heading home for a couple of days to get clean clothes and take care of some personal business. Afterward, I was planning to come out and introduce myself personally to you as well as the rest of your family- including your father. I was wondering, first of all, if that would be ok with you; and second of all, if it would be possible for me to stay at your home while I visit?”
Malachai was impressed. None of Miranda’s previous boyfriends had ever asked permission to come out, let alone to stay at his house. Miranda had always been the one to ask for them. “Callan, it would be an honor and a privilege to have you here. Come as soon as you’re able. Make sure that you give Miranda your flight information and we’ll pick you up from the airport.”
“I’ll do that, sir. Thank you. I would hate this to be a surprise for your elderly parents, so if you could please warn them, I’d greatly appreciate it.”
“One of us will be sure to tell them, Callan. Have a good night. It is night there, isn’t it?”
“I’m in Venezuela. I’m about three hours ahead of you in Colorado, I think. If it’s evening there, it’s likely that it’s night here.”
“Gotcha. Have a good night Callan. Semper Fidelis.”
“Oorah.”
Malachai handed her the iPad back and she kissed his cheek before heading back to her room with a smile. “I think he likes you.”
Callan laughed. “It’s the Irish charm and the fact that I called him ‘sir’. I’ll guarantee it.”
“Whatever the case, I’m glad he likes you, because I would hate to have to fight with my Dad to let you come out.”
He flashed a grin at her. “What’s not to like? I’m a Marine on active duty. I asked his permission to come out and see you. I asked his permission to stay at his house. I get the impression from the look of shock that crossed his face that none of the other guys you’ve brought home have ever done that.”
“You would be right. You are the first.”
“YES! This means I’ll have permission to make you my wife in no time!”
---------------
“Dad, the kid is impressive”, Malachai said when he went over to visit the following day.
“What did he say that impressed you so much?” David asked.
“What did he say that didn’t impress me would be the better question. He called me ‘sir’, introduced himself, giving name and rank followed by branch of service. He asked my permission to come out to introduce himself in person and to stay at my house while he was visiting. I was shocked.”
“He sounds like a very well rounded young man”, Brie said as she sipped a cup of green tea.
“He does seem like it. I can’t wait until he comes out in a week.”
“You certain don’t seem like you can. Have you ever heard of the concept of being calm, Malachai Aaron?”
“I have, but I’m stoked about this kid. I really am.”
“We can tell”, David said. “When can we expect him?”
“He and Miranda discussed his flight arrangements and he will be here in the late morning in about 9 days from last night. He’ll be flying in from New York.”
“Pretty cool. We can’t wait to meet him.”
“Neither can I.”
---------------
He did everything he said he was going to do. He went home- which was in North Carolina- to get civilian clothes and drop off his uniforms to be washed. His mother always washed his uniforms. He wondered what she was going to do when he got married and they moved him to Okinawa. That was to be his duty station after he made Gunny. They needed an EOD man out there and he was more than happy to give it to them. Japan was the perfect duty station. It would be interesting to have his wedding there- his beautiful bride wearing a flowing silk kimono with her hair artfully done. The thought made him smile.
But, before any of that could happen he had something he had to do. He had to let the douche that was with the girl he wanted before he was know that if he came near her again it would be the last thing he would ever do. It was rather important to him to let the piece of shit know that he meant business.
He’d had his brother following him for a week. The douche seemed to have a pattern that he followed every day. When they last spoke, his brother told him that the guy he was after was at dinner with a few guy friends. It had been right as he was getting off of the plane at LaGuardia. It was time to do what he had to do.
After catching a cab, he called his brother to make sure that the guy was at the same restaurant. It turned out that the men had women join them and it seemed to be a big party. He knew he needed to hang back until the drunk bastard emerged and he would say what he needed to say. He debated on whether or not to kick the guy’s ass. He’d decided when the time came.
“Kade, what’s up here?” he asked as he walked up to the restaurant where the tool was eating dinner. His brother was standing outside.
“Well Cal, he’s being a typical spoiled rich kid.”
“Watch that shit. She’s a rich kid.”
“But she’s not spoiled. I know who she’s related to. You really lucked out, Cal. I’ll give you that.”
“Yeah. Miranda’s one of a kind. That’s for sure.” They stood there and watched in silence. When the guy got up to step out of a few minutes to smoke, Callan Maguire moved to the door. “Hey, are you Zack Winfield?” he asked. He was approaching the guy like he was a fan. Or in Callan’s case, a heckler.
“Yeah.”
“Is there any way we can talk in private?”
“Sure.” He led them into the alley as he lit a cigarette.
What a pompous prick, Callan thought as he watched from behind. I’m really going to have to give the jack ass an attitude adjustment. When Zack stopped and propped against the wall of the building, Callan pulled the cigarette out of Zack’s mouth and proceeded to beat the hell out of him. Once the douche was significantly invisibly bruised and broken Callan stopped, pressing the guy’s face into the side of the brick building. “You and I have someone in common. Miranda Draiman. This is a warning, you son of a bitch. Come near her or the baby she carries again and you won’t live long enough to regret it. I will kill you on the spot. Believe me; I know how to make you disappear. Something tells me that you won’t be missed. To recap, stay away from Miranda Draiman and the child she’s having by you. You’ll die and I might take my time and enjoy it. Are we on that same page? Good. Have a nice life, Zack Winfield.” He dusted his hands off and walked back toward the front from the alley. “Ok, Kade. Let’s head over to your place. I have an early flight to catch and I’ll be meeting Miranda’s Dad. I need to have plenty of rest to impress Malachai Draiman when he and Miranda pick me up at the airport in Denver tomorrow.”
“Good luck. Let me know if you meet anyone interesting while you’re there. It will be awesome to hear the stories when you come back to see me.”
-----------------
Miranda was having trouble containing her glee as she got dressed to go to the airport to pick up Callan. She put on some music when she showered and sang along as she washed, her hand caressing the small bump that was starting to develop in her abdomen. It wasn’t big, but it was there. She was glad that Callan was going to be the man she knew he was and raise the baby she was carrying. It made her proud to be able to introduce him to her family. Luckily, her grandparents were still in the country because she really wanted Callan to meet her Gramma and Grampa.
As she dug through her closet, she couldn’t decide what to wear. The biggest problem was that she had to start buying looser clothes because her belly was starting to expand. She hated being pregnant. She didn’t believe in abortion, though. She believed that women had to right to choose and her choice was to have the baby and raise it. Just because the father was an ass didn’t mean that she had to kill the child they created together. She knew that it was the way the parents raised the children and the support they had in their lives that made the difference.
She finally settled on a pair of jeans that were relatively loose in the waist and cute top that was off the shoulder with a pair of flats. She loved her heels, but she knew that they weren’t good for her back, especially pregnant. She really didn’t want to hear her grandmother gripe at her about wearing heels while pregnant and how they only accentuated the postural deviations that were natural to pregnancy. It was time for her to wear flats and she knew it.
She walked down the stairs to meet her father. “Ready to go, Dad?” she asked.
“Miranda, sit down and get something to eat. The boy’s probably just getting in the air right now. Is it a straight flight or does he have a stopover somewhere?”
“Straight through.”
“Sit and eat something and we’ll leave after you finish eating. It will take an hour to get there and we’ll have about fifteen minutes to wait until he shows up. I know you want to meet him at the gate, right?”
“Of course. This is my man, we’re talking about Dad. He’s not the boy that we picked up a few months ago.”
“I got that impression when I talked to him a week ago. Now, sit down and get a bite of breakfast in you really quickly and we’ll go.”
Miranda sat and ate the waffles that he mother made that morning with turkey bacon. She always enjoyed her mother’s cooking and had picked up a lot of tricks from both of her parents when it came to getting down in the kitchen. Once she’d eaten all that she could without the worry of having to throw up, she looked at her father. “Are we ready to go yet?”
“Yes”, Malachai said, shutting off the android pad he was using to read the paper. “Eli and B are going to follow us up. Eli wants to meet Callan before he gets anywhere near Gramma and Grampa.”
“Really? Why is that not a surprise?” Miranda rolled her eyes and grabbed her purse. She just wanted to see Callan. She needed to feel his arms around her again. She missed that quiet strength.
They all walked out the door to see Eli and B standing outside. “So, there’s a new guy in your life?” Eli asked his big sister.
“Yep. There’s a new guy. I think you’ll actually like this one, little brother. He’s a Marine.”
“Nice. Will he be in uniform?”
“No. He’s on leave. He just got back from Venezuela.”
“Fun. Let’s get out of here so I can meet this guy. We’ll follow. If any of the trips wanna ride with us, they can.”
Once Jenni, Shawn and Kelsi were all loaded into the cars they were going to ride in, the whole family took off to pick up Callan and meet the man that had not only won Miranda’s heart, but was willing to be a father to the small addition to the rather large Draiman family.
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