Page 76 of Dangerous Chaos

“Hey,” Wit called out. He didn’t want to cause a scene, but he wanted to be loud enough so that the man would hear him. When the man looked back over his shoulder, his pace picked up, and Wit knew he did indeed hear him.

“Hey, man,” Wit said again, but the man kept on, so Wit increased his pace as well because the man didn’t stop.

When Wit reached Rainy’s room, he stuck his head inside and saw her sleeping peacefully, Hen and Ashlyn nowhere to be seen. The beeping monitors let him know she was okay, but the flowers on her bedside table were new. He didn’t remember them being there from before, and nobody knew Rainy was even there. He quickly went after the man who’d just rounded the corner at the other end of the hall.

When Wit got to the corner, he cautiously rounded it so as not to walk into a trap or ambush. But he found the man, still walking, not seeming concerned that Wit was on his heels. Then it struck him. He was following the man who’d been at the crime scene and saved Ayelish and Rainy.

He knew because he felt it. Something about the man’s swagger, the way he casually looked over his shoulder, his sense of calm. The man was familiar and didn’t feel like a threat, yet Wit couldn’t put his finger on why… until he saw it. A ring on the man’s finger. He’d seen it before.

“Cormack,” Wit called out.

There was a slight hesitation in the man’s step –– barely there, but Wit saw it and picked up his pace because the elevator ahead had just landed on their floor, and the doors opened. The man was headed straight for it.

Wit threw his only hail Mary and took a chance. Maybe his only chance.

“Dad,” he called out. The man stopped, and his head dropped.

Wit was a handful of feet away when the man turned on his heels and looked at him. It was like looking at himself in the mirror twenty, maybe twenty-five years from now. There was warmth in his eyes but pain in his expression. He was worn, exhausted maybe. The faint lines on his face were a roadmap of his hard life. All Wit could do was stand there, speechless, and stare.

It was as if the men were saying all that they needed to at that moment without saying a thing. Memories suddenly flooded Wit’s senses. Memories of his childhood and seeing this man on various street corners. Memories of combat and seeing him on the battlefield. Memories of missions for Safe Haven and seeing him in the distance. Memories of fighting Chalice and seeing him in the distance on a dock, or in a building, or boarding a chopper on a random rural airfield. A memory of seeing him only an hour or so earlier, passing him in the hall as he left Killion’s side, sparking concern that anyone could be roaming the halls. It was his dad. He’d gone to see the babies, or baby, through the glass… his first grandson. Tears stained his cheeks as he thought about the flowers he’d just seen in Rainy’s room. A father visiting his ailing daughter he’d fought so hard to protect. The man who less than a day before had saved Wit’s entire world from a monster determined to destroy it.

The man, Cormack Chester Roosevelt Meyer, his father… was standing in front of him. And he smiled back at Wit as a single tear streaked the proud man’s face.

Wit whispered, “Thank you.”

Cormack nodded. Then he turned on his heels and went to the stairwell next to the elevator and left.

Wit was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of water splashing, and he noticed he was spilling Ayelish’s water. Quick to correct, he wiped away his tears and headed back to Ayelish’s room, stopping at a nurses' station to let them know there was a puddle in the hallway. The nurse panicked, assuming it was from a mother in labor.

“You okay, Wit?” Ayelish asked when he entered her room. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

He snickered as he climbed in the bed next to her and wrapped her gently in his arms and held her.

He kissed the top of her head. “I did, darlin’. I did.”

At that moment, as she snuggled into his side, he realized everything was right.

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