The Bounty Hunter's Trilogy: Chosen By Fate

Chapter 23. The Fall of a Soldier

As it turns out, I would be eating my words that very same night, as Charlie was still at the age where he couldn't sleep through the night. I forgot that really new babies go on shorter sleeping intervals. It had been two weeks since we found the kids alone in Denali, but those two weeks felt like an eternity. Once I was finally starting to get Charlie used to a schedule and had my tablet synched with it, things settled down a little bit.

Audrey was ready to go into labor any minute now, and Beverly was finally relaxing around other people. But my nightmares wouldn't stop coming. Which is surprising because I hardly got any sleep with Charlie as my new roommate. They would always start somewhere secluded, and then all of a sudden the boy would show up anywhere I was. He kept trying to convince me of how pointless everything we were doing here was. Just as he would open his mouth to whisper again, Charlie would wake me up for food and a clean diaper. I guess that's the upside to having a one month old baby with you.

I was having a particularly bad dream about being stranded in the middle of a snow storm in Antarctica with the boy when Charlie woke me up, screaming like he never had before. I got up and started preparing a bottle of formula before shaking it up to mix it. I then picked him up and started feeding him. I sat down in my recliner with him to let him eat and started to nod off. Again, Charlie woke me up. It made me jump so my elbow hit the newly installed crib beside me. I bit my lip so I wouldn't yell before looking down to see what was wrong. Obviously sucking on an empty bottle wasn't very fun for Charlie.

"Sorry about that Charlie." I got him back to sleep and put him back in his crib. I went back to bed myself and to my surprise, I had no nightmare. I woke up feeling like I had actually gotten some rest. But instead of the relief I should have felt, I got the feeling that the lack of a nightmare wasn't a good sign. What was he so busy with that he couldn't bother with me anymore?

**********

Carly was watching the little ones with Beverly while Audrey supervised the gun range. She had insisted that it was necessary. Stan stood by her the whole time, being particularly clingy today.

For as long as I had known Stan, he didn't seem like the type to act this attached, not even after being kidnapped and taken up to the enemy's camp, then almost being turned into one of those things. But he just couldn't stop touching his wife for even a second. He'd feel her belly, kiss her an excessive amount, and tell her he loves her, which is all fine. Audrey didn't seem to be bothered by the attention. In fact, she looked like she was enjoying it as she leaned into his touch and returned his kisses. I saw in his eyes how scared he was, though.

I found him alone in the hallway a couple of days later, going through a file. He was tired, shaky, and moving the paper really clumsily. "Stan, are you okay?"

"Yeah, why? What's wrong?" The urgency in his voice told me he was lying.

"You've been seeing him too, haven't you? Last night, he came to you didn't he?"

"He..." He closed the file and hesitated before coming a step closer. "How did you know?"

"He's been whispering to me for weeks, telling me to kill myself, saying that you guys would be better off without me. He stopped all of a sudden a few nights ago and I get the feeling it wasn't because he got bored trying."

"Well that albino...." He caught himself as Carly walked past with Hannah in her arms. "...jerk can go-."

"Still in earshot, Stanley," Carly reminded him.

"Anyways," he focused on me again. "Daniel, he said if I didn't help out more Audrey might leave me, and I know she wouldn't hesitate to take our baby with her if she ever did that. I don't want that. I..."