Parting Words

As always someone asked for a moment between Donovan's father and Donovan and I was curious about it that I wrote it.


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Donovan folded his white shirt in half, pressing his hand along the edge, making a neat crease before folding it in half again and tucking it into his duffle bag.


"Nervous?" his mother said.


Donovan didn't look at her and reached for another shirt. "No."


They both knew he was lying. He was aware that his mother could tell the state of his nerves by the way he was packing his bag. It was all neat edges and control because right then he didn't feel control. He felt on the edge of an unknown that was too great for him. Not wanting to deal with it, Donovan turned his mother's focus away from him.


"What do you think I should expect with Link?" he asked.


His mother sat in a chair beside his bed, legs crossed, posture comfortable. The sight of her sitting there was a familiar one. When she wasn't in the main part of the house or her office, she could often be found in her sons' rooms, talking to them, listening to all that they would share with her.


"He has only just learned who his father is. For anyone that would set their whole world on its head. It's harder for him since now his world is truly set on its head, he's had to move schools, change his appearance, and have you in his life."


A tinge of sadness entered his mother's eyes and Donovan paused in his work, unsure what the look meant.


"He will hate you," she said.


"I figured."


His mother leaned forward, resting a hand on Donovan's stilling his work.


"No, I don't think you do. It's not you that he will hate, it's his father, it's a life that he didn't ask for, it's the change that he now has to deal with, it's his mother lying to him. All of that will be put on you."


Donovan looked down at the pair of pants he was folding, already feeling the burden of so many emotions aimed at him. "Why me?"


"Because he can't hate his father because his father won't be there often enough, his mother is someone he has always loved so he won't want to take out his hurt on her. But you. You are the symbol of everything that is different in his world. For him, you will embody all the hurt he feels and since he doesn't know you, doesn't have a connection with you, he will hate you and take out his hurt on you."


Already weary, Donovan sank onto his bed and rested his face in his hands.


"How do I handle all of that?"


His mother dropped onto the floor before him, holding onto his wrists. "You take it one day at a time. And you build a connection. It won't happen right away and it won't be easy, but knowing how stubborn and determined you are, I have no doubt you can do it."


Wearing a small smile, Donovan pulled his hands away and met his mother's eyes. She stared back at him and brushed her hand on his face. It was such a tender touch that Donovan felt like a little boy again. He knew if his brothers saw how he let himself be comforted they won't let him forget it, but right then he needed it.


He was leaving everything he knew. For all sixteen years of his life this house, this base, this coast had been his whole world. Now he was going to a world he had never experienced. His world was being turned on its head.


In the moment, he knew a little about how Link was feeling.


Donovan swallowed. "I'm going to miss you."


His mother smiled but there was so much sadness in it that it stole the beauty of it. "I am going to miss you more." She took his hands in hers. "Look, I want you to call me every day."


"You know I can't do that. They would never let me live it down."


"You're not calling for you, you're calling for me. My baby boy is leaving and it's breaking my heart. If you don't want me to die then you will obey and call me."


"Okay, I'll call."


They both knew it was for him. There hadn't been a day in his life when he hadn't talked to his mother, gone into her office when she was done work, sat on the couch and asked her a million questions. She fed him knowledge like his brothers fed him adventures.


His mother cupped his face. "I love you so much and you are being so brave."


Donovan clenched his fists, already feeling homesickness for a home he hadn't left yet.


"I love you too."


His mother kissed his forehead and Donovan knew it was one of the last times she would do it for a long time. As she stood, Donovan's father appeared in the doorway. Donovan glanced up, not sure what his father's presence meant.


"Donovan," his father said, making a curt nod for his son to follow.


Donovan rose and his mother squeezed his hand. Following his father through the house, Donovan couldn't help but take note of everything that he was going to leave behind. The worn carpet, rows of family photos on the wall, nicks and dents in the walls of years of roughhousing, the smell of too many aftershaves with only a hint of their mother's flowery scent.


Outside, his father's truck was waiting. Without a word, Donovan climbed into the passenger seat. The pair drove through the base in complete silence.


Where people had facial expressions to betray their mood, his father had different silences. If you didn't know him, Donovan figured his father's silence would always feel the same, but it wasn't true. Donovan could tell the difference between a thoughtful silence and a disapproving one. He knew when his father wanted to say something and when his father was withholding his opinion for a reason.


Donovan knew the silence unnerved the other Marines. It's why his father made such a good commander, how did a person yell at someone who wouldn't yell back? You couldn't. And the man who was silent always looked in control, no matter what size the guy yelling was.


As they drove, Donovan didn't ask questions about what his father had planned. There was no point, his father would talk when he was ready. Instead, Donovan took in the sight of the line of barracks, mess hall, airfield, row of garages. Everything that would no longer be part of his life.


His father turned the car into a parking spot outside one of the gun range buildings, still Donovan didn't say anything, simply jumped down and followed his father inside.


After each getting a set of headphones, protection glasses, target sheets, clips, and guns, they walked into a room that was half a block long with divided sections. It was empty and Donovan wondered if this was for a reason. Knowing his father, it probably was.


Choosing one of the sections, Donovan clipped his target sheet up and sent it whizzing away from him, far enough away that when he hit it, his father would nod approvingly. He loaded his clip into his gun, but before he raised it, his father placed a hand on his arm.


"Disassemble it and reassemble it," he said.


Donovan dropped the clip out and started rapidly taking part the gun.


"What is the number one rule of protecting someone?" his father asked.


"Always know where your charge is," Donovan said, his answer quick and concise.


"What do you do if you think someone is tailing you?"


This was an answer Donovan had thought basic a week ago, you use reflective surfaces to check, but he had been wrong.


"Stop, turn around, face them so they know that you could identify them. If unclear whether I am being tailed at all, this action will let me see if anyone quickly turns away or acts at all suspicious."


The gun lay in pieces on the table before Donovan and he reversed his work, connecting everything together once again. His father watched his progress without comment, his arms tucked behind his back.


"Three elements to spotting someone more than once?"


"Once is common, twice is coincidence, third is intentional."


"Protocol for walking with your charge in public?"


"Always keep them on the inside, that way my body is between them and a sniper or an attack from the street."


Donovan slid the last piece of the gun into place, raising it and aimed it at the target sheet.


"Again."


Donovan lowered the gun and repeated the act of breaking it down.


"What is your role?"


"Shield, protector."


"What is your main goal?"


"Keep my charge alive."


Donovan's fingers seemed to fly over the pieces assembling it again.


"What is fear?"


"A chemical reaction in my system warning me that danger is near?"


"What do you do with fear?"


"Use it to keep me alert for potential attackers."


"Can you erase fear?"


"No, but it can be used to make me faster, stronger, prepared."


"Whose life matters most?"


"My charge."


"If there is a bullet fired, who takes it?"


"I do."


Donovan raised the gun, aimed it at the target and fired three times, each shot finding its mark. When he dropped his arms, he felt his father's hand on his shoulder and faced him. For a long moment, they stood eye to eye in silence.


It was a silence that felt new to Donovan. It was one of pride, but of something more. There was a depth to it that spoke of his father's love for Donovan but something else, almost like sadness but not one of grief but of missing.


His father gripped his shoulder and Donovan knew right then he wasn't reading the silence wrong, his father was going to miss him.


Then the most shocking thing of Donovan's life happened, his father hugged him.


Donovan tensed, completely thrown, but then he hugged his father back.


The hug didn't last long before both of them backed away. His father placed both his hands on Donovan's shoulders and Donovan could feel the weight of what was coming next and knew that it would be what he needed to hear. Knew it would be the thing that would help him get through the hardest days with Link. Help him face complications head-on.


"I love you," his father said. "And I am so proud of you."


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Come any closer and I'll tackle you...
(With a hug! (>**)> )


If you have any thoughts, ponderings, wonderings, or musings leave them here! 🗯🗯💭🔫


Okay, I had so much fun writing this one shot because the dynamic between Donovan and his father was so interesting to me! It's so different than Carter's and Steve's! I mean they leave each other for work and school and say I love you, but Donovan's dad has barely said it.


But even with him not saying 'I love you' a lot I still felt this bond between them. Anyways, it was a blast to write and I hope you enjoyed it! 😄


❗️Before you go! ❗️I have something to ask of you, A Secret Service can't win a Fiction Award this year cause it won last year, but my other books can! So I'm asking if would you go and nominate Holding Back for Best Friendship Arc in the 2020 Fiction Awards?


This is how you do it:
1. Go to my wall and my latest announcement and click on the first link. (It will take you to the Best Friendship Arc page)


2. Scroll down till you see the spot with all the inline comments.


3. In that section comment this: Haley and Jace Holding Back @joymoment


4. Post and you're done!


If you chose to do this then thank you! If you don't want to that's okay, I thought I would ask ☺️


Vote, comment, follow but only if you feel lazy.

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