Afterglow • Gideon Emery

17

When morning rose Gideon got a call from his boss, Jonathan Irons, and told him that he needed to be seen. Gideon is a early bird so he was awake drinking warm tea when he got this call.

To be professional, he geared up in his Atlas uniform before he went out the front door. When he opened the door what he seen shocked him, he seen Jack Mitchell with holding a bag down his arm unlocking his door. "Holy shit—Mitchell!" Gideon says in shock, he seen his friend jump and turn to see him.

"Gideon-"

"Where the hell have you been mate?!"

Jack stuttered but tried to not be suspicious "I-I-I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Chloe has been worried sick for Hannah! Where is she?!"

Jack smiled a little "she's just fine, trust me." Gideon looked confused "you do not need to worry about anything." He sounded so suspicious and he didn't sound trustworthy, he was hiding something. All Gideon could think of is; where is Hannah's corpse buried?

"You've been gone for fucking ever, Mitchell!"

Smiling again, Jack shrugged his shoulders "I still have no idea what you're talking about." What is this man hiding that he has to play dumb for?

"You've been gone since Christmas!"

Jack smiled and dragged on "nooooo"

Starting to feel very annoyed, Gideon mocked him "yesssss"

Again Jack was in denial even though he knew he was caught red handed. By the look of Gideons annoyed face, the man forgot he had a meeting he had to go to, this was more important. "Mitchell, where have you been?" He asks again, in a tone demanding for an answer. His and his wife's disappearance caused stress on Chloe because she was terribly worried for them both. So the least Jack could do was explain himself.

Looking to both his sides making sure no one else was around, Jack grabbed Gideon by his uniforms collar and he pulled him in close. Gideons face turned red with his eyes going wide looking at how close they were. "Erm—Mitchell—are we going to kiss?"

"what?! No! Dumbass—but we've been gone because Hannah's pregnant. SHHHH!!" Jack could see Gideons eyes light up looking at him in awe "god, you make Joker look smart."

"AWWWWW!! That's my mate!" Gideon smiled he backed away and pat Jacks shoulder "congratulations rookie!"

"SHHH!!!!" Jack hissed looking around again "shut up!" He whispered, why did they want this to be a secret?

"Well I'm SORRY! I'm just so happy for you! Finally you got your dick to work and it's been how many years?" Gideon tried to make a light hearted joke for his friend, instead of laughing coming from his friend he got a annoyed face instead. At least Gideon could laugh at his own light hearted joke.

"Now isn't the time okay? I want Hannah to be close to me right now, then we can surprise Chloe together later." Jack says softly, as if he was begging Gideon to leave him alone, Gideon never heard or seen Jack behave this way so he must really mean it. But regardless, he understood and respected his request.

"Gotcha mate, I'm sorry, but really congratulations. Are you going to meet with Irons too?"

"It's why I'm here, Chloe won't be mad at us and kill us will she?"

"Who? Chloe? Nah. It ain't in her nature to be aggressive. She's gonna cry her eyes out though. Like she's been crying for the past week missing Hannah dearly. "

"Oh-"

Gideon just smiled "before I go, one more thing, is she more of a bitch now that she's pregnant or what? Tell me."

Jack smiled and hugged himself "surprisingly no, she's actually nicer pregnant? I should've done it sooner" after he said that he ended it with a sly wink.

"damn Mitchell—you finally get a break" that time both of the soldiers laughed, they told their goodbyes and parted ways.

• • •

As Jack said he showed up to Irons' office wearing his Atlas uniform, Joker was there with Will waiting for them to arrive. Seeing Jack there shocked Joker, he honestly thought that Jack was dead. Would you blame him though?

"Welcome back Mitchell" Irons says nodding his head, so Irons knew of Jack's hiatus? "Congratulations on your new edition."

"Thank you, Sir."

"WAAAAIIIT, WHAT?!" Joker interrupted the show "MITCHELL, YOUR A DADDY?!"

"Yes, Joker" Jack said casually, he watched as his best friend came by and the two greeted each other.

"Congratulations Mitchell! You deserve it" Will said patting his best friends back, Jack just smiled.

"Thank you, Will" Jack again says calmly, Jack is just a calm guy. He's easy to talk too and he's naturally calm in bad situations, he's the guy that calms down someone in stress with his calm mannerism.

"Now gentleman, I heard word on the KVA planning their attack in Santorini Greece, Hades is going to have a meeting there about our person in interest. He dies, this is done for. We need to dispatch by this weekend—Gideon and Mitchell, can you join us?"

Gideons nerves dropped, he knew he couldn't, he had to stay with Chloe. She's huge and she's very close to popping. The worst thing that could happen is her water breaking while he's in Greece. "I—I can't sir." Gideon says honestly "the missus is going to pop any day now and I cannot be thousands of miles away when that happens. I will gladly assist from the control room."

"Fair enough—Mitchell?"

"I can." Jack says, he knew Hannah would just stay with Chloe since her pregnancy just started. Also with Jack being apart of the mission, it will end faster than without him there.

"Thank you" he nods to one of his best men on the field, then he turns to Gideon. "Thank you for offering to assist us, but I do feel bad for sounding like I was pressuring you to go back out there, Gideon."

"No sir I-" Irons held his hand up and it silenced Gideon.

"You really need to let me talk, soldier." Gideon dropped his head embarrassed "now, if your woman is about to birth you need to stay home. But if you're needed I expect you to come by and assist."

"Yes sir." Gideon said again, his cheeks red from embarrassment in front of his friends and fellow soldiers. "Thank you...sir."

• • •

After the meeting Jack in formed his friends that he and Hannah will be back by later that night to tell Chloe the news. Gideon could only imagine how Chloe's going to feel when she finds out why Hannah was gone. For sure she's going to cry, mostly because she's emotionally unstable at the moment, and because she missed her mom figure more than anything. She was trying to play chess with a dog, she lost it with Hannah gone.

After making plans the men decided that they were going to have a group dinner that night and that's when they will tell Chloe. But for now Jack wanted to stay with Hannah while he still could, Gideon couldn't lie to himself, Jack is a very sweet guy and he deserved everything he's getting and more.