Semper Fi: Always there for you.

8. Greeting from nowhere 2/2

Snowball eyed his mates and cleared his throat. He was by far the coolest of the gang, the one you call when you don't want things to get worst.
God, he prayed that Cal wouldn't lose it when he saw the pics.

"It all started two years ago. You were... locked up and all and... my sister got this postcard from Jay, Vermont, a few miles from the Canadian border."
Snowball opened the folder and handed a first postcard out to Cal, pointing at the stamp and the postmark at the back of the card.

"What the f..." Cal yanked the card from Snowball's hands to study it more closely.
His eyes instantly filled with burning tears, leaving him blind for a moment. He swiped his face furiously and tried to focus on the handwritten message. Even blurry, he could recognize it.

GREETING FROM SOUTH
CAL IFORNIA. XOXO.

Oyster. Oyster's fucking chicken scratch.
Oyster was alive.
And he got back in touch.

It could have gone unnoticed by the common people, law enforcement mostly.
But for him. For all of them. For Oyster's best friends, for the ones who had known him from kindergarten. For the few people who knew his real name.

Your Teddy.

Cal covered his face with both hands, fighting the tears that knocked behind his eyelids. In vain.

Jessica scooted closer and gently hugged his arm, aware Chris could explode any moment.
She was torn. This was good news, she knew how close the 2 brothers had been, what they went through, how bad Chris was coping with his little brother's situation. He was alive, good news.
But Oyster giving proof of live was also dangerous. For all of them.
Cal never opened himself on that day he broke his brother out, she didn't know the details of the operation but she was not stupid. Far from it.
She got to know them all, the way they worked together, the unbreakable bonds that tied them. All the boys sitting around the table were involved, in one way or another.
Guilty your honor!

They all had alibis for that day, Chris made sure of that, he saved their asses and took the blame. Alone.
Now, Oyster was back -kind of- and everything was jeopardized.
Mostly Chris' commitment towards her.
She was put on the spot, Oyster vs Jess, and she wouldn't give much of her chances.
Oyster might be back in Chris' life, she might be out.
Shit!

When Cal's sobs calmed down, Snowball spoke again.
"Theresa first thought it was a mistake, but..."
He turned the postcard still in Cal's fingers. On the other side, a bunch of coloured Teddy bears were having a snowball fight.

"She came to me. The underlined letters, Cal. Teddy. Snowball. Oyster must have asked someone to cross the border and have the card posted from the U.S., not to arouse suspicion around a letter coming from Canada. We couldn't talk about it. To anyone. Not to Jeager, because of Claire. Not to Milk, not to involve his family.
Much less to you."

Smart ass. All the clues sounded so much like that little bastard. They knew they've been under surveillance since Cal alone broke his brother free. The police had not been fooled, but there was no trace, no evidence they actually helped him.
Their phone calls, mail, e-mails, whereabouts had been listened to, read, noted. The slightest blink coming from Canada and half of the police department would have barged in, tore their places to pieces until they got Oyster back in jail forever.
Theresa afforded the passes and codes for Oyster's flee, she was involved as much as everyone else in this room, but the cops had ignored it.
Good call Teddy.

"Six months later, she got another one." Snowball put a second postcard before Cal's sigh.
"Posted from Berlin, New Hampshire, near the Canadian border again."