Afterglow • Gideon Emery

5

Chloe woke up the next morning with Gideon gone, as expected. His Atlas uniform and his guns are missing so it's safe to assume he was dispatched to Greece.

With all the soldiers dispatched the hallways of the apartments feels like a ghost town. As Chloe and Hannah were the only means of family to any of the soldiers, Jack and Gideons.

Knowing she's alone Chloe walked down the hall to the Mitchell's apartment and rapidly knocked on its door. Hearing the sound of Icebreaker barking and growling showed her that he wasn't alone.

Hannah opened the door and rubbed her eyes, in her pajamas it was evident that Chloe just woke her up. "What the fuck man..." she yawned

"We're alone"

"Yeah...." she sighed letting Chloe and the German Shepherd inside. In the kitchen the women made breakfast for themselves, who doesn't love good toast and eggs?

The atmosphere around the two seemed to derail since the soldiers dispatch. There wasn't eye contact or very much communication between them. They just missed their men is all.

Placing down two plates Hannah left both the girls some eggs and Chloe handled the toast how they both liked them. Hannah liked buttered and grape jelly toast while Chloe preferred strawberry jelly.

The dogs sat down by their owners stools looking at them with tilted heads shaking their tails, they wanted attention and they showed boredom in fighting. They showed little excitement when the women would even give them a side eye.

"What are you reading?"

"Jack wrote me a letter before he left." Chloe looked down at a empty envelope that sat in front of her mother figure. Written in red ink read when you feel lonely. And a very small drawn heart at the corner. "Did Gideon write you one?"

"No..." she felt a little sad with her answer, Jack was thinking about her so did it mean Gideon wasn't thinking about her before he left?

"Oh." It was awkward silence now. What was there to even say?

• • •

The women watched tv in the Mitchell's living room for a while, any regular action tv show that would come on occasionally throughout the week while having a good 10 O'clock wine.

With the wine made the women more talkative, much more than before. "What did you two do before he left?" Hannah asked taking a drink. She is leaned back on Jacks leathered love chair with Icebreaker laying on her lap, his furry body was like a blanket for her.

"We had a date. He cooked my favorite dinner...then..." she blushed looking away.

"Ooh?"

"Stop it"

"Interesting....so he's not a virgin?"

"What?! No!"

"Interesting..."

"I can't with you...what did you and lion hair do then?"

Hannah hummed and tilted her head to the side "Hmm.." she thought then she blushed "dinner obviously, then wine and bath full of rose petals."

"Rose petals?"

"Well what did you want us to use?! ASHES?!"

"Actually—" Hannah rose her eyebrow at this girl's sarcastic remark, but again Chloe chooses life and cannot make Hannah angry. That's her biggest fear is making Hannah her enemy, because she knew this woman would end her even when she loved her "I'm kidding, it's adorable."

"That's what I thought, child."

"Hey" Chloe pouts "I said it was adorable can you be nice to me for one time?"

Hannah tilts her head as if she was thinking long and hard on what she should reply with "ehh—no"

"Okay..."

• • •

Chloe returned home with Dempsey later that night feeling sad and tired. Spending the day drinking with Hannah was needed but it didn't help enough like it should've.

She set down the room keys on the snack bar and what caught her attention surprised her. She seen taped paper on her microwave, walking up to it she pulled it down. It was from Gideon.

"You're doing so well already, I will be home before you know it just stay strong, stay beautiful, and stay gold" written in cursive handwriting and drawn in golden heart beside it. Then under it "I love you, honey. Enjoy your breakfast I made for you" and a heart eyed face drawn in after that. Breakfast? Well damn. Chloe looked up and opened the microwave and seen that he'd made her pancakes before he left, logically he made himself some too.

It was around 11 o'clock so the pancakes could be like 11 hours old, so it wasn't good to eat. She felt guilty when she had to throw the wasted food away. If she only she'd come to the kitchen instead of instantly going to Hannah's place.

But what she did eat is leftover lasagna and garlic bread from last night, she wasn't going to pass that dinner up again. She's tipsy hungry right now.

With Dempsey eating with her she stared down at the letter laying flat beside her napkins. Feeling her heart beat a little faster than before thinking that Gideon did think about her, she felt terrible for doubting him. She knew her Gideon would always do something like that for her before he left, and even if he couldn't he would always try his hardest too.

Dempsey looked at Chloe with his head tilt just watching her eat as if he didn't just eat his bowl. "What are you looking at, boy?" She said, the dog shakes his tail when he grabbed her attention. "Oh, you want a cookie?" Cookie in Dempsey's language means dog treat.

Dempsey barked at her as if to say yes so once Chloe finished eating she got up and walked to the cookie jar and handed him and bone shaped dog biscuit. Dempsey ran over to his dog bed in the corner of the living room and ate it in peace.

Chloe walked in to watch him be so happy with his treat, but her grand piano caught her attention. Then remembering Jacks song while he played it. The memory got her wondering...

Sitting down on the bench the glossy wood felt cold to her thighs. She remembered watching his fingers hit each piano key while she paid attention to his words.

She hit the keys that she remembered Jack pressed, and she started to remember more as the music became more familiar. It wasn't perfect but there's no reason that Jack couldn't teach it to her to make it perfect.

"Pretty..." Chloe thought to herself as she kept hitting the right keys. "The words? Umm..." she thought about it again, trying to remember Jack singing the song with the visions his fingers pressing on the keys.

"Wait...you're in this desperate fleeting time..." she tilts her head nodding to herself, she got the first part right. "Time has never been a friend, my love, a lonely thief that robs our hopes and dreams" that's right, but not in the right order.

Chloe lets out a sigh laying down on the couch watching whatever came on her tv. "Dempsey, come cuddle with me" She pat down the free space in front of her so Dempsey jumped up and curled up in the free space. Leaving his back straight against her gut. "Great, so much for cuddling" she thought, she expected him to put his head on her somewhere while she pet him to sleep. But this is fine.

If Chloe remembered everyday Gideon was dispatched, she remembered that he was either gone for a day or more than one day. It always depended on what kind of mission he was up against. And hearing that he has to save people, she prayed for his safety but she also prayed for a quick and safe return as she drifted back to sleep.