All Her Broken Pieces

Chapter 14

Update Time! Kind of a filler chapter, but dates are on the horizon now :) Happy Reading!

*Sean*

I'm going to kill him.

Our fearless leader has officially had the stick removed from his rectum and it's totally backfired on me. Currently he's regaling Sang with stories of my juvenile delinquent phase, and he's brought in pictures. It's about a million times worse than your mom showing your date all your naked baby pictures, because those are taken when you had no choice in your life, but my smoking-black-wearing-angry days were entirely my choice. I never wanted my Pookie to know about my days at rock bottom, let alone to have her see visual proof of what a prick I was.

"This one was taken the first week after he quit smoking, let's say he was not as...pleasant to be around as you know him to be." Her sweet as apple pie giggle is literally the only thing stopping me from strangling him, so I settle for a hard glare.

She turns to me and giggles again when she sees me, I am practically pouting here. "Sean, I'm really proud of you for quitting, and a little crankiness is to be expected." Walking over to me, she takes my hand in hers and squeezes, giving me the opportunity to pull her into my lap. That giggle is like music to my ears, and my heart warms when she makes no move to pull away, in fact she relaxes into me. All my irritation at Owen fades to nothing and contentment fills me with my girl in my arms, no judgement whatsoever in her gaze after hearing about rougher times.

"Thank you, Pookie." I whisper in her ear, kissing the top of her head.

"For what?" She asks, and I smile into her hair.

"For being you." It's true, by just being herself she's made my family complete, and every moment with her I see my brothers healing and becoming better people. Only she could make that happen with a smile, a giggle, and a bit. of what I like to call the Poole Touch. Hell, she's even got North and Raven to the point where they almost like each other, something I never thought I'd see.

My words make her blush, and both Owen and I chuckle at her bashfulness. She can stand up to everyone of us and take down grown men, but the moment she gets a compliment, she gets shy. My god, how I love her.

It's been two weeks since she's scared the crap out of us us and impressed us in equal measure, and so far everything has gone swimmingly. Last week was Thanksgiving, and we've each been busy with missions and family obligations so there hasn't been any time for dating or our budding relationship just yet; and while it had been everything I'd hoped for, Sang with our entire family eating and cooking and generally enjoying ourselves, I'm glad it's over. Now I'm just waiting for the opportunity to steal her away to visit the babies at the hospital. The future Mrs. Green seems like the kind of girl I could actually share that with and she would appreciate it, so unlike any other woman I'd met in my life.

Laughter brings me out of my mushy thoughts and I see Owen hand her another picture, this time I just sigh in resignation. I suppose I deserve this after the pictures I'd broken out of hiding last week of all the guys, Owen included.

This particular shot is of me scowling hard enough to give North a run for his money while flipping off the camera, that was the day I'd thrust myself back into my studies after Owen had knocked some sense back into me. It was also after he'd gone and said I told you so...let's just say he wasn't my favorite person at that moment.

I groan goodnaturedly when Sang collapses in giggles looking at the photo, and Owen looks decidedly smug. "Really Owen, that one too?" I ask, only half serious for all my grousing, this is just payback.

The bastard smirks at me. "Yes, really, Sean. This is the least you deserve after the pictures from that mission you showed her." Sang and I laugh together when his cheeks tint pink with embarrassment. It really was a bad photo, after all, not every man can pull off a sparkly pink speedo with the words "sweet cheeks" bedazzled across his rear.