Chapter Eighty-Four: Restoration
Kentares IV, Draconis March Federated Suns, August 9th, 3018
"Alright David, seeing as it's your fifth birthday tomorrow, I'm going to need you to get up a little early." I told my soon to be five year old.
"What are we going to be doing dad?" David asked me. "I don't like waking up early."
"I know that you don't like waking up early." I responded while ruffling his hair. "You mom doesn't much care for it either, but if you want me to take you on the trip that you've been asking for…" I trailed off.
"You're taking me hiking!" The five year old cheered! "Are we going to set up a hunting stand too?!"
"Now hold up a second." I raised my hands in a stopping motion. "We're going to go hiking in the mountains like you've been asking, and if I stress the if, we see a decent spot for a hunting blind, I may mark the location down to set up a blind later."
"But dad!" He whined. "You never take me hunting with you."
"Fine," I sighed. "When you turn six I will take you hunting." I raised my hand to stop him from speaking again. "But you have to do extremely well in your schooling before I will let you even think about it."
"But why?" He asked me. "Melissa is already learning how to shoot and do things like that!"
"Melissa Steiner," I repeated. "Is also seven years old." I reminded him. "And she's not my child on top of that."
"I miss mom." David finally said what was bothering him. "I barely remember what she looks like without the pictures."
"I know, son." I knelt down and drew him in for a hug as he burst into tears into my shoulder. "It's okay to miss her, I do too." I picked his head up off of my shoulder to make sure he could see my eyes.
"But you don't seem like you miss her." David continued to cry into my shoulder. "You're always busy or with me."
"Because that's how I cope with missing her." I explained to him. "Do you know what the word cope means?"
"Uh uh." He said, shaking his head.
"It means that's how I handle Nat being gone, I bury myself into work and playing with you." I smiled at my son. "It doesn't mean I miss her any less, it just means that I'm grown up enough to handle it better than you."
"There's snot on your shirt." David said after he was finished crying.
"There is?" I asked with a wide eyed expression on my face. "Who could have possibly put it there?" I tickled him a little bit now that the sad moment was over with.
"Now, let's get you tucked in." I scooped him up to peals of laughter and carried him over to his bedroom. I helped David get dressed in his night clothes and made sure I read him a story before getting ready to leave.
"Dad, I'm scared." He told me before I left the room.
"What are you scared of, son?" I knelt down beside his bed.
"I'm scared of the dark." He told me in a whisper.
"Why are you scared of the dark?" I asked him.
"Because I can't see in the dark, and there might be monsters out there." He finally said after a pause.
"There's no monsters out there," I chuckled.
"How?" He asked me, his question cut short by an intense yawn.
"Because Mathis and I already killed all of the monsters." I told him. "And the few that are left live very far away."
"How far away?" He asked.
"Far enough away that you'll be a grown up before it's your turn to fight the monsters." I kissed him on the forehead. "Now get some sleep, we've got a big day tomorrow."
August 10th, 3018
"David," I gently shook my sons awake. "It's time to get up and dressed, if we're going to hike into the mountains we've got to drive there first. "
It took him a good five minutes to be fully roused from his slumber and into the set of hiking clothes we had picked out the night before.
"We've got everything packed and ready to go." I said in between bites of a waffle. "If there's anything else you want me to bring, speak up now or it'll get left behind."
"But we could send someone back for it." David said in response.
"Nope, this is a hiking trip the old fashioned way, we're tackling a mountain that we haven't fully surveyed yet." I told him with a grin. "
"We get to be explorers?" He asked excitedly.
"Yes David." I ruffled his head full of red hair. "We get to be explorers."
After we had finished our big breakfast, and packed up our hiking kits. (David's only had our small picnic supplies.) We loaded them up into the SUV we were taking to the mountains. Mathis would be shadowing us a decent ways out with a guard detail, but for the most part it was just going to me and my son enjoying the wilderness.
"We could find buried treasure!" David said as I loaded him into his car seat.
"Anything's possible." I agreed with a shrug. "But we'll just have to see."
Three hours later…
"David, we're here." I woke up the five year old. "You ready to get started?"
"Yes!" He cheered as he unbuckled his five point harness and helped me unload our packs. "Let me try to pick yours up dad." He said as I went to get my hiking kit out of the SUV.
"Okay." I laughed. "If you're sure you can handle it." I picked it up by the top handle and lowered it into his arms, careful to control the weight so he wouldn't get all of it until he was ready.
"I'm super strong dad!" He did a small muscle flex after he showed me that he could hold the pack in place.
"You sure are." I agreed as I slung the pack onto my back and clipped the straps across my chest and hips to distribute the weight. After thinking about it for a second, I reached into the SUV and grabbed a handgun and carbine to bring with us.
"Why are you bringing those dad?" David asked me.
"Because it's better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them." I told him the nugget of wisdom. "These may not be able to stop a massive predator, but they'll make them think twice, and that could save our lives should we stumble onto a bear or something else."
I loaded up some extra magazines into the hiking pack,
"Ok. " David agreed. Just happy to be going on a trip with his dad.
"Come here." I pulled David over to me and made sure everything was strapped in properly and distributed evenly. "Let me know if it gets too heavy, okay son?"
"I'm super strong dad, it won't be too heavy for me." David puffed his chest out. "One day I'll be stronger than you."
"I'm counting on it." I ruffled his hair and we set off on our adventure.
Author's note: Quite a bit of the conversations in this chapter were based on real conversations with my 4 and 7 year old Foster children.