{ON HOLD} Where My Loyalties Lie (Vanoss Crew Fanfic)

Chapter 24

A few days after my talk with Haley in the gym, I met with Jonathan and told him to organize a scavenging party. Because I had been dumb, careless, and distracted, I hadn't even bothered to give the order to head back to the Pillbox Hill Medical Center to grab the supplies those teens had had stashed in the backroom. Because of the delay, the medical supplies probably weren't there anymore, and the fact that Bobby had lost his life because of that made it even worse. Nevertheless, Jonathan just silently nodded and left to gather the team, but the thought of me going back to that place left me with a dreaded, haunted feeling. I didn't want to go back to the place where somebody part of my group – my family – had died under my watch, having already experienced that a few times back in the day.

I walked into the armory, leaning against the doorframe, and found Marcel, Jonathan, and Brian grabbing weapons, ammo, and some other supplies. Marcel glanced over at me and gave a subtle nod before returning to putting some bullets into a pistol magazine. David was also in the armory with Sam and Craig getting ready for their shift on guard duty. Sam and Craig were quietly talking to each other as they each grabbed a rifle off the wall while David stood to the side, checking over the AK47 he was cradling in his hands. He came over to stand beside me, watching Sam and Craig converse as they gathered their ammo; Craig must've said something funny because Sam laughed a bit, her blonde hair bobbing up and down as she laughed. David nonchalantly commented, leaning towards me, "They make a good couple, don't they?"

I shrugged and frowned slightly. "I don't know. Do they talk a lot together?" I gave the slightly taller Irishman a sideways glance. "I haven't really been paying that much attention to Craig and Sam honestly, you know, having been distracted with all this training with Haley and shit."

David's face split into a grin, and he enthusiastically said, "Fock yeah, the two of them talk a lot. You can pretty much see 'em together all the time." He frowned and furrowed his bushy eyebrows. David gave me a concerned look and asked, "Evan, are you okay? I know that you've been distracted these past weeks, but you've been more distracted than usual. What's goin' on?"

Shaking my head, I turned towards Jonathan's direction to avoid the Irishman's eyes. I sighed in resignation, "It's just that I've had a lot on my mind David."

"Oh, don't give me that bullshit." I turned back to face David in time to see him roll his eyes and say, "We all have, but every time in the past, you've managed to take care of everything without a hitch. But now, you're missing a bunch of details that are obvious to pretty much all of us. You'd never do that back when we were still involved in crime." He placed a hand on my shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. "There's no way in hell this would happen unless you were really distracted with something, so why don't you just go ahead and tell me?" When the only answer he got from me was a stiff silence, he just sighed and removed his hand from my shoulder and said, "Whatever it is, you don't need to hold it in Evan."

"I know," I replied quietly, crossing my arms across my chest; I knew that he was right, but I really didn't want to address the problem with him at the moment. Jonathan caught my eye and glanced at me with a quizzical look in his blue eyes. I gestured for him to join me, and he gave me the universal "one minute" gesture and went back to finishing check over his weapon.

David glanced over at Jonathan and gave me a barely perceptible nod. "If you want to vent to anyone Evan," he said, beginning to walk out of the room, "just remember that the crew and I are there for you." Sam and Craig filed out of the armory past us, too preoccupied with talking with each other to notice David and me.

"I know," I repeated and forced out a smile. "Thanks David."

He returned my smile, turning around and calling over his shoulder, "No problem. That's what family's for, isn't it?"