Our Bruised Bodies | Bradley Bradshaw

ACT FIVE - PART TWENTY-SIX

So, guys. I have to say, that might be the last chapter for quite a while. I keep getting distracted, so yeah. This is my hobby and my head has moved on to another project, so I am not forcing myself to write anything I don't want to write any longer. Let's see how this will go on from now on. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Cheers!

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"Has it offended you?" Slider asked Grace, who was sitting in a comfortable armchair rather than behind her office desk, her gaze directed towards the clock hanging over the door once more, before she turned and looked at the other Admiral, who had taken a seat opposite her office desk, working through paper after paper.

"The clock, has it personally offended you? You keep starring at it." Slider clarified, which had the younger Admiral huff.

"It has nothing to do with the clock." Grace told him, before she rose from her seat, one hand reaching for the armrest to make it easier for herself while the other rested on her stomach. The hand on her stomach was tale telling and it took him the totality of three days to figure out that the stomach issues she claimed to have, was actually a little something else. Grace hadn't said a word about it and Slider hadn't asked. He just wondered if she was obvious to her own movements, if she didn't even notice that she covered her stomach, her small but growing baby bump with the gentle touch of her hand more often than not. That it became second nature to her.

As far as Slider could tell, he was the only one who had connected the dots, at least here in Washington, but he was also the only one here with whom Grace dared to let her guard down, at least a little bit. He was happy for her, and he would offer all the support he could offer, but he was also worried. The timing was awful, but when wouldn't that be the case in the world they lived in. But right now, he knew that they needed Grace, or they would lose the civil war before it had even started, but Slider also knew that Ice would never forgive him when he would allow Grace to overwork or put herself in danger in her currant state. Slider wondered if Ice knew, if she had told him before she left, if Maverick and Rooster knew. Knowing the Kazanskys, the answer was most likely not.

"What are you even doing here, Grace? All of this..." Slider said while gesturing around. "All this could be a long phone call, made from your office at home in Miramar. There is no need for you to be in Washington." He added, which had Grace snort, before she sat down in her office chair, her hand still on her stomach as she winced slightly, which had Slider instantly on high alert, but Grace waved him off. Muttering something about lady problems, which had Slider raise an eyebrow at her, but she waved him off once more, before returning to the topic at hand.

"I can't work at home. Between Bradshaw and our marriage, the mission and daddy. I can barely hear myself think at home. This is better, this is safe and strictly professional. It's what I need right now." The young Admiral explained, and Slider understood, but that didn't mean he thought she wouldn't regret it in the end that she wasn't present during Ice's last days, that she did not take the time to spend it with her family as long as she still could. They had no way of knowing how this mission would turn out, they had no way of knowing how much longer Ice would manage to hold on.

"What you need is to be with you father." Slider emphasised, which had Grace pick up a stack of papers, all waiting for her to be read and signed off. Most of them new orders for the people following them. A first attempt to bring their own into position before Grace would call their highest-ranking officers together for a war council before the week would be over.

"I can't sit at home, do nothing and wait for what is inevitable. Cain is coming for us, if you haven't been paying attention. He's being trying to get rid of all of us for years and now, he's about to succeed." Grace pointed out, gesturing around with the papers in her hand. "You need me, exactly where I am." She pointed out, almost offended that he thought he could send her away to sit on the bench rather than being the one to lead them all.