Return to Sender - 10. Chapter 10 - Kai

CHAPTER 10 - Kai

I wanted to call Adam the minute I woke up.

We’d talked for three hours last night, and when we finally disconnected - because his phone was almost out of juice and Arya had begun making a racket because it was time to go on a ‘walkabout’ as Adam called it - I was tired, yes, but also lay there with a smile on my face that just wouldn’t go away. And I slept like a log.

What an amazing man.

His letters had already shown that but when speaking to him, that was pure joy. Very inquisitive and interested - he wanted to know everything and anything - and reciprocated in kind, answering all sorts of questions, very animated and descriptive. He had great intellect but didn’t go out of his way to show it. More of a matter-of-fact sort of way, where he’d talk about something and you’d realize gradually that he knew the subject back to front and sideways. And if he didn’t, he asked. He flat out said something was beyond his knowledge, for instance - he had many questions about the Navy, how things worked, command structures and so forth. And I might have been mistaken, but I think I heard him scribbling as I explained things.

He became quite upset when I spoke about the crash and the journey after to Germany and then the States, the recovery process. And I learned why he wasn’t keen on meeting me before Friday - he disliked hospitals, never been to one except when his nan died. Very adamant - ‘I don’t like hospitals. People die there. No, I can’t. Don't want to go near them.’ It was sweet in a way, though I really thought it’d be better for us to meet first. You know - to see if we really did connect. But he wouldn’t hear of it. Stubborn man.

He also wanted to know everything from my childhood, growing up in that house, playing in the woods, boating and swimming in the lake and about my parents, and of course Megan and Kellan (whom he’d actually met, but totally forgotten about). I teased him with that for a while, but he took it in stride. He didn’t seem to mind at all. We talked about a lot of things, answering topics from my last letter and the one he’d prepared. He wouldn’t send it though - he’d put it in my room, instead, so I could still read it. But he feared that if he sent it now, it’d arrive while I was coming here… which made sense.

Picking up my phone from the nightstand, I went to my contact list. And there was the smile again when I saw his name - and the very first contact in my list. Glancing at the alarm - it was 8:16 am - I dialed.

“Hi Kai,” He answered, chuckling, “you hear? It rhymes.”

I smiled. “Good morning, Adam.”

“Hello. You’re awake early. Did you sleep well?”

Early? I'm usually up at the crack of dawn, Mister! “Very well, thank you. You sound chipper!”

“I’m always chipper. I’m with Dolly Parton on this - if you see someone without a smile, give ‘em yours.”

“I’m smiling. Can’t you tell?”

“I can,” he answered with clearly a smile in there, “I may have to cut away suddenly - they put me on hold.”

“For?”

“I’m calling some agency to rent a hospital bed. Apparently, I’m one of many calling because she put me on hold almost right away, and I called at 08:01am.”

“Adam, you don’t have to…” but he cut in.

“Shush. I want to do this - let me do this.”

“Alright, alright,” I snickered, throwing up my hand, though he couldn’t see that. I give. You do you. (One of my sister’s favorite sayings, and I found myself quickly adapting it.) Speaking of the devil…my phone beeped because of an incoming call. “I’m sorry, I gotta hang up - my sister is calling me.”

“Alright, enjoy your day!”

I wished him the same and took her call, putting it on speaker. “Hi M….” I got no chance to say anything more than that - she immediately went off.

“Kai, you tell that asswipe of a doctor that he left his reading glasses here,” she sniped, “and that I’m folding them into a new form of art as we speak.”

“And good morning to you, hon.”

“I can barely walk.”

I snickered. Oh boy. “Fun night?”

She sighed, then chuckled as well. “Best night of my life, actually. But don’t you go telling him that!”

“Not a word.”

“Ahuh. Same as me telling you not to and then still giving him my number? That kind of ‘not a word?’”

I grinned. “I’m not the one who gave my address to him. Willingly.”

“Oh shut up. He comes in here, hits it off with Nik like he’s suddenly Daddy Daycare - she went to do her homework without so much as a protest - and sits down and puts on the game like he owns the place.”

“Did he bring dinner?”

“Enough to feed a halfway house.”

“Beers?”

“That halfway house would be completely sloshed by midnight.”

“Soooo….what’s the problem? Other than that he’s my doctor?”

“The man is as inappropriate as all get out. He literally says anything he thinks. Anything! He thinks it, it comes out. You wanna know what he said about you coming to live here?”

I just waited. She’d spill it without me prompting her in a second.

‘You going to put up your brother in this chicken coop? Where? The closet?’

I snorted. She did a passable version of Doc, saying that.

“So I showed him the spare? He says ‘the dude would have more room at Gitmo.’ The balls on that guy, seriously!”

Ahuh. I also knew that the more she railed against him, the more she liked him. That’d been the case since we grew up. The harder she dissed a guy, the more she liked him. And with Doc? She went off the scale. But her choice in boys, and later men, had always been the meek ones, following her lead. If any showed some spine, she ran the other way.

Enter Doc.

It was kind of funny: she’d always come to me talking about guys, from high school up to right now. She had girlfriends to talk to, and probably did, but the real intimate stuff she discussed with me. Maybe it was because we had something in common - men. I never really questioned it - it was just that way. I also saw her grow up while I was a young adult and our parents older. She couldn’t really talk to them as her generation was of the faster variety. So she talked to me, sharing experiences and asking for advice. Her letters always detailed developing relationships as those were happening.

“You like him,” I said.

She sighed again. “Yeah, he’s so damn cute. Best sex I’ve had in…well, ever, really. Man knows his way around the bedroom…living room…kitchen,” she snickered.

Damn Doc!

“I’ll tell him,” I snickered as well.

“Don’t you effing dare! He’ll show up here again.”

“So?”

“Too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing. That guy is a bit too much male for me.”

And there she went again, running the other way.

“Ahuh. As in you can’t control him. Man’s got a spine and doesn’t let you get away with your shit.”

“Hey! What happened to you being in my corner?”

I grinned. “I’m always in your corner - you know that. I just happen to think Doc’s a good guy.”

“Nik said that she liked him before she went to school. And that he made her sandwiches.”

“He did?”

“Apparently. He cleared out of here before I woke up. She usually does her own thing these days. You know how she is.”

At 14, my niece was used to making her own lunch and going to school by herself because Megan worked nights as well. Until two years ago, there’d always been a sitter spending the night, but at some point, Nikki convinced her mom a sitter was no longer needed. They tried it for a week, with a sitter as backup - and after some rules (don’t open the door to anyone, whether you know them or not; always call before you go to bed; no sleepovers), they made it work.

“They had a whole conversation but she wouldn’t tell me about it. All she said was that she liked him. Said he was cool.” Megan hesitated then, before continuing. “You know that I don’t have any guys over here during the week. Never. Only weekends. And if I do, she’s always at a sleepover.”

“I know.”

“She met maybe one or two of them, because she returned sooner or whatever. But she’s never said that about a guy before. And she never met one before she went to bed and after she got up. He was here both times.”

“It’s a good thing then, that she liked him.”

“They guy is intense, Kai. Like - very. I got his life story before he even took his shoes off…”

“He took his shoes off?” I laughed.

“Oh yeah. I told you - sat down here like he's never done anything else. Nik went to bed, he kicked his shoes off and pads beside him like I’m the wifey.”

“What’d you do?”

“I sat down!” She snickered, “like the dumbass that I am. I dunno, he’s charming, in a disarming sort of way. Don’t tell him that.”

“No promises,” I answered, smiling. Doc. Dude…nice goin’!

“You’re such an asshole sometimes. You’re my brother.”

“And I wish only the best for you.”

“That the best you could come up with? Deadpool’s brother? The bad one?”

“You could do worse. The man’s a surgeon.”

She grew quiet again. “He was in Afghanistan. His back…my god…”

“Bad?”

“You’ve seen Deadpool, right? It’s the face - but on his back.”

Dayum…

“The mouth is very much the same, though.”

I chuckled.

“I think he’s a good man, Meg. Maybe you, for once, don’t do you?”

I said that carefully - we were always honest with each other, but on this subject, I didn’t really know how she’d take it.

There was a knuckle rap on my door then, and talk about the devil…

“Mornin’ Doc,” I greeted, loud enough so Megan could hear. I heard her gasp and mutter something.

“Soldier.”

Walking to the back of the bed, he grabbed my chart and reached to his breast pocket. Alright, this was serendipity.

“Looking for somethin’, Doc?”

“Hold on,” he answered, padding his other pockets.

And from my phone came the distinct sound of a waste disposal, grinding something that definitely didn’t belong in there.

“Woops! Now how on earth did that get in there? I’m so sorry!” Megan spoke, sounding anything but sorry.

Doc’s head whipped up, eyes narrowing. And then a real, shit-eating smirk.

“Is that you, sweetheart?” He said, using a tone I’d never, ever have associated with him. Deceptively kind.

“Damn straight, Baldy.”

“And were those my glasses going down the disposal?”

“Got it in one, pumpkin.”

He snickered and mouthed to me ‘What the fuck!’

“That’ll cost you, baby,” Doc spoke up.

“Don’t call me baby.”

“Whatever you say, Lover Girl. See you t’night.”

“No you’re not. I’m working.”

“Doubt it. Schedule on the fridge said you’re off and the kid has a sleepover,” he fired back, a little smug. “Be ready to pay up. Tonight.” She just broke the connection. “Your sister is a bitch.”

All I could do was laugh and nod. Yes, she could be. And clearly he could handle her. This one she wouldn’t be able to get rid of so easily.

“You really going over there again?” I asked.

“You better believe it. That woman is awesome.”

Nice!

“They’re your balls,” I shrugged.

But I admired his conviction.