Cowboy Casanova

21

Before we left to go our separate ways after dinner, dad told me that Uncle Tom wanted to see me. That in itself was concerning, but the look in my dad's eyes was even worse. He looked sad. Which was not good. The next morning, I drove to his house, where Aunt Sarah opened the door to greet me. She threw her arms around me, excited that I was there. It had been a while since I had seen them. Too long. "Oh, my sweet girl." But when we pulled back from the hug, there were tears welling up in her eyes and my heart broke. I knew what was wrong.

"It's come back?" I asked her, tears starting to fill my own eyes. She nodded. I gave her another hug, holding her tightly as we both cried softly. There was no need for Uncle Tom to hear this.

"No one but your dad knows. There's nothing else that they can do. Even speaking is painful now." I turned my head, looking at the table full of photos. Most of them were of his family: his parents, his kids, his wife, himself. But there were two or three of us. One was when I was a little girl, black pigtails and sitting on Uncle Tom's lap. I had a model plane in my hand that he had gifted me that year for Christmas. I think I still had it somewhere but I wasn't sure. Another was a picture of us dancing at my first Naval ball - probably one of the few good moments I have from one of these balls.

"How long does he have?" That was the one question she didn't answer, and I didn't blame her. "I'm so sorry, Aunt Sarah." She pulled away from the hug. She wiped the tears from my eyes, giving me a small smile.

"He's right through there." She pointed to his office, down the hall. "He'll be so happy that you came." She walked away, probably going to take care of something, or maybe to cry privately. This was a lot for just one person to handle. I hesitated at the door, not sure if I was ready to see him, to see how he looked. I pushed the door open slowly, seeing him sitting at his desk, computer in front of him.

"Hi, Uncle Tom." I smiled as he turned towards me. He gave me an even bigger smile, standing up to give me a hug. Despite his age and his cancer, his arms wrapped around me tightly, as if he didn't want to let go. I didn't want him to, but he wanted to say something and he needed his hands for that. So he sat down at his desk, and gestured for me to sit down across from him at the chair.

Talk to me about training.

I sighed, looking back at him. "Do I have to?" He gave me the same pointed look that my dad always gave me and I rolled my eyes. "I thought you were supposed to be the fun uncle." He gave a little laugh that made him cough and I passed him a glass of water. "Training has been good. I'm still a little upset that I wasn't able to beat my dad at dogfighting." He nodded, and shrugged. "I'm guessing you heard about the incident." He nodded, making me sigh. "I'm sorry. He was just being so... I hated what he said about Goose and that he said it to Bradley. So I slapped him." Uncle Tom raised his eyebrows and I huffed. "Ok, I slapped him twice. I know that it was wrong to hit him." He started typing something else, so I stopped talking.

Be the Nicole Mitchell that we know you are: smart, strong, dependable, and a less hot-headed. I know I taught you something when you were a kid.

I smiled at him, reading it twice through. "I tried to be ice-cold like you, Iceman. There's too much of my dad in me though. It's not always a good thing." I looked back at the words. "I'll do better, sir. I promise." He started coughing and my heart dropped. Each cough was a reminder that he was dying, that his cancer had come back, and that there was nothing that any of us could do to save him. And I hated that feeling. As he took a couple sips of his water, I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my legs, folding my hands together. "I'm scared, Uncle Tom." He looks down at me with sad eyes, placing his hand on my knee. "The world is a better place with you in it. And not to mention everything that you've done for me and for my dad. Lord knows he wouldn't have a job without. The man's pissed off way too many admirals." Both of us share a laugh, but both of our eyes are still sad. "You've been there every moment that I needed you. And don't think that I don't know that you are the one that vouched for me after Kelly's accident. I was a wreck after that. They shouldn't have put me back on a jet. But you were there." I sighed, feeling the hot tears run down my cheeks. "I don't want to miss you like I miss Kelly." He started typing away.

You are so much stronger than you think you are.

I didn't feel strong. I didn't feel anything other than sad. He stood up and brought me in for another hug, squeezing the life out of me, but I was ok with it as I rested my head against his chest, hearing his heartbeat. It was probably the last chance that I would get to do this. "Your team needs you on this mission." His raspy voice spoke, clearly struggling to speak. "And as much as you are your father's daughter, you're mine too. That's why you're the best pilot in that group. Because you're my girl. Make sure you tell that to your dad." I laughed, and felt him laugh as well.

"I love you, Uncle Tom. Is there anything that I can do for you and Aunt Sarah?"

"Get on this mission and come home alive." He kissed the top of my head and I nodded. That was definitely something that I could do.