B r o d i e

I hold my head as high as my confidence can manage as I make my way into work this morning, anticipating the reality that waits for me inside. Murphy and Delk walk beside me, the three of us completely silent as we push through the doors. The sounds of maintenance and manual labor ricochet through the air, and despite the loudness of all the noise suddenly going on around me, my ears just ring with the unknowing.

I haven't spoken to Lelani since she left with Alana, her mom, and Aiden Saturday because quite frankly, I have no damn clue how I'm supposed to navigate this situation. Her Dad has warned me, and I'm not sure how far I'm willing to test that warning given the possibility that she may also be at the hand of his consequences. If I comply with his demands, maybe I can buy myself a little bit more time and come up with a solid plan to mend all of this, but the guilt that tugs at my stomach every time my phone shows a missed call or a text message from her nearly convinces me to just say "fuck it" and go talk to her.

But yesterday, the calls and texts quit coming.

Anger wells up inside of me because I'm suddenly reminded of how all of this started in the first place; Hammond. I've had problems with that asshole since the day I've met him, and he's brought nothing but hell to Lelani and me both. The worst part of it all is that I'm absolutely helpless to give myself an alibi for the things he's accusing me of, and it doesn't help my case any that I've had issues with Sergeant Cambell prior to any of this coming to the surface. Lani's Dad absolutely hates me and knowing the information that he's been presented with- thanks to the worst fucking human being I've ever met- I don't exactly blame him, but none of it has even an ounce of truth and he's not willing to hear me out.

"Dawson," a voice says gently beside me as an elbow nudges me out of the trance of my thoughts. "You alright?"

My jaw is tense as my ears finally register his words, and I release my clenched fists trying my best to find my will to speak. "Yeah," I mutter back quickly. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine," he states bleakly. "Maybe he changed his mind. You know? Maybe he's had the weekend to think on it."

"And what if he didn't?"

"Then I suppose we're gonna have to work out a damn mighty plan to change it for him," Murphy asserts.

My eyes catch sight of Sergeant Campbell's closed office door, a bolt surging through me and convincing me to storm right through it and demand for him to hear me out. Then again, considering his rage towards me from our last encounter, I think staying calm for the foreseeable future may be in my best interest.

I just need a little bit of time to figure this out; come up with a plan.

The climb up the steps leading towards our locker room is agonizing, my mind sorting through all the different ways that this situation could play out as the three of us ascend slowly.

I sigh the second I reach my locker, dread shaking me to my very core as I spin the dial and put in my code. The last thing I want to do is work today, how the hell can I be expected to have the will to focus on anything considering the threat hanging over my head?

The threat of losing Lelani forever. Losing the one person who's brought so much fire and excitement back into my life.

My hands yank my locker open as the thought settles, and I feel my heart drop into the pit of my stomach as a single white envelope falls to my feet. Murphy and Delk must notice it too because they abandon getting dressed in their uniforms, rushing over to me instead.

"Now, what the hell is that?" Delk blurts out, but I'm afraid he and I know exactly what it is.

My pulse is bounding as I reach down and pick it up, my fingers tearing against its edges and revealing the folded paper inside. Reluctantly, I unfold the sheet, my gaze sweeping across its black-inked wording, and verifying what I was hoping and praying it wouldn't say.

"Dawson, what is it?"

But I'm so mad that I can't even fucking see straight, and my sudden burst of emotions has my feet storming out of the locker room and down the stairs. I think a huge part of me was in denial that all of this could really be happening, that I could really be torn away from Lelani so quickly, but the paper now clutched tightly in my hands is proving me otherwise. My eyes plant themselves onto Seargent Campbell's office door the second my feet reach the end of the staircase, my legs refusing to stop moving until I'm standing right outside of it. For a moment I pause, debating whether or not I should announce my entrance before barging in but my frustration answers for me and I yank the door open.

"This is fucking ridiculous," my voice growls out the second I enter the room, but I'm quickly brought to silence as my eyes take in the person sitting behind the desk. Blonde hair and green eyes stare me back, and while I've seen him a handful of times working in the shop, my mind mostly remembers him from the events of this weekend. Robbie, I think? "Where the hell is he? I want to talk to him."

He lets out a sigh before rising from his chair, "Dawson, just take a seat and breathe alright-"

"Take and seat and breathe?" I scoff, slamming the paper down on the hard surface of the desk so that he can see it for himself. "I've got orders to Virginia that have me set to fly out of here next week, I'm not taking a goddamn seat! Where is he?"

Keeping a calm composure, Robbie walks to the office door, shutting it carefully before the men working on the jets outside can hear the commotion I'm making.

"He won't be in today," he finally answers me, taking his spot behind the desk again. "Look, I'm not trying to get myself stirred up in all this mess because quite frankly who knows what the hell to believe-"

"Believe what I'm saying," I assert, "because it's the truth. Hammond lied. He knew about Lelani and me, and he didn't like it so he-"

"I said that I don't want to be involved in all of this, Dawson," he interjects me mid-sentence, waving off my explanation. He stays silent for a few beats, shaking his head and looking as though he's trying to figure out what to say next. Taking a breath, he finally speaks up again, "But what I will say is that if you don't want things to get any messier than they already are, you'll be compliant in all this."

"But I didn't do anything! All I ever did was love her and I'm being punished for it," I argue. "I don't want to be compliant anymore. This is bullshit."

"What's bullshit is that pictures of my best friend's daughter are being spread around here at work. I heard you say myself that you had them on your phone, did you not?"

"It isn't like that."

"I don't care about the logistics of it, alright? I care that my goddaughter is being dragged into a mess that she doesn't deserve to even be associated with. I care that all of this may very well challenge and ruin everything she's worked so hard for."

"I care about that too," I say, the tone in my voice finally softening. "I'm not trying to get her in trouble. That's the last thing I would ever want to do-"

"But you already have, do you not see that? You started some stupid ass fight Saturday, and that alone could have stripped her of the title she won out in the water that day. What if somebody recorded it, huh? What would have happened then?"

"I- I don't know," I think out loud, suddenly becoming more aware of the damage I might have caused by engaging in a fight with Hammond.

"I've known that kid since she was a baby, and all she's ever wanted to do with her life is surf. Don't steal this opportunity away from her."

"Can I not at least talk to her? Please," I beg, feeling guilt over the thought of being responsible for robbing Lelani of the one passion she loves the most. "I know that I may never be able to convince you or Campbell that I truly am innocent in all of this, but I have to at least make sure that she knows."

"He'll never let you do that. This isn't his first rodeo, Dawson. He's been through a situation like this before and it nearly cost him everything."

"This isn't like the last time," I breathe out with vexation, sitting down against the seat behind me and trying to get my racing thoughts in order. My face falls into my hands as more dread starts to set in and no matter how many times my mind seems to run through it, I can't wrap my head around the idea that in a week's time I'll be in a totally different part of the country, thousands of miles away from Lani. I may never see her again.

Lifting my eyes to Robbie, I promise, "I swear it isn't."

"You're telling me all this like you think I have a say in anything. I don't," he insists, his rising stress evident in the wrinkles etched into his forehead. " Matt has made up his mind, and if there's anything that I've learned in all the years of our friendship, it's that only a goddamn miracle would be able to change it. He's protecting her the best way that he knows he can, and as you can clearly see, he doesn't speak empty threats."

Rising up from his chair and snatching the paper with my permanent change of station on it, Robbie circles around the desk to me.

"I hate to say this, I really do- because nobody knows the full truth behind all of this shit- but I know Matt better than anyone and I can tell you that he's going to do everything in his power to control this situation before it has the chance to manifest into an even bigger issue. So you have two choices from here on out; You can either be compliant and leave quietly, or you can make a fuss and cause things to be a lot messier for yourself... A lot messier for Lelani."

"I can't leave without telling her goodbye," I mutter, cutting my eyes to the floor and feeling completely numb with helplessness.

"You can," he says back, taking steps towards the office door. "You have to. If she knows the truth, it'll only hurt her more. Please, don't drag her down with you in all of this." He locks his eyes onto mine, and I can tell they hold the greatest sincerity for Lelani as he hushes out one last time, "Please."

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"Dawson, open the door!" A voice shouts from outside of my dorm room, but I ignore it like I've done all the other times I've heard it this evening.

I don't wanna open the fucking door.

Another set of determined bangs ricochet through the air. "So you're just going to ignore us now? Is that how this is going to go?"

Rain pours against the single window of my room and my ears do their best to focus on the steady drumming of the raindrops outside, rather than the two men looming in the hallway outside. Unfortunately, the distraction only lasts a few seconds before Murphy's voice threatens from the other side of the door, "I know how to pick a lock you know?"

With a heavy groan, I force myself away from the stack of clothes I'm working on fitting into the suitcase laid out against my bed and will my feet to the door.

"What?" I bite out harshly as I open it slightly ajar.

They look at me with worried and confused eyes and Delk asks, "What the hell happened? You left work today without saying a word. What the fuck was that for?"

"You know exactly what it was for," I retort.

"No, actually, I don't because you didn't speak to either one of us when you came out of that office this morning. What did the paper say?"

"That I'm gone," I spit back with a harsh tone, not meaning to take my anger out on them but feeling too caught in my emotions to stop the words from spewing out of my mouth. "He's shipping me off to Virginia in a week."

"Virginia?" Murphy repeats, wearing a dubious and confused expression on his face.

"You're messing with us," Delk insists. "That's not funny to joke about, man-"

My jaw clenches tighter because God, do  I wish I was joking. "Does it look like I'm kidding?"

"Let us in," my dark-haired friend orders, pushing the door open slightly further.

"Not right now," I bite back, attempting to push it closed again.

"Yes, now," he protests, wedging his foot in between the door and doorframe so that I can't close it anymore. Murphy and him work against me, shoving the door and me back as they force their way inside. I shake my head as I give up fighting against them, watching their reactions as their gazes lock onto the suitcase and piles of clothes strewn across the mattress of my bed.

"What the hell is all of this?" He challenges me, pinching the end of one of my folded shirts before flinging it carelessly onto the floor. "You're not going to Virginia, dammit, this is ridiculous."

"Hate to break it to you, but these orders say otherwise," I counter, grabbing the sheet off of my nightstand and holding it out for both him and Murphy to see.

They squint as their eyes take in and read the black text running down the paper, and my ginger-haired friend is the first to speak up. "They can't do this... can they?"

"Apparently if you're Lani's dad, you can do whatever the hell you want."

"This is insane," Delk remarks, "Have you talked to her?"

"It doesn't even matter-"

"Have you talked to her?" He repeats.

"No."

"What the fuck do you mean no?"

"I mean no, I haven't talked to her. He won't let me, Delk."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he exclaims sarcastically, "I forgot that Sergeant Campbell was in charge of anything you do outside of work."

"Delk, you heard him this weekend, and I don't know what fucking strings he's willing to pull if I try reaching out to her. I don't have shit to lose, but she does. I'm not going to screw things up for her."

"So that's it? You're just going to leave without even saying a word to her. You can't do that to her. Hell, man, you can't do that to yourself."

"Don't you think she'll eventually find out that something is up?" Murphy mentions. "You haven't texted or called her back all weekend after spending months talking from sun up till sundown. That girl is too damn sharp to believe that you would have just ghosted her."

"Exactly," Delk agrees. "I've seen the way you are with Lelani. She makes you smile and laugh like a little ass kid. I can tell how crazy you are about her just by the way you look at her. Don't be an idiot and leave here without even talking to her one last time."

"And what if that gets her in more trouble than I've already gotten her into? I don't want to do that."

A hard palm meets against my head, and I wince, my head ringing with the shooting pain that it leaves behind. "What the fuck man?"

"Get your shit together, Dawson," he commands, taking my head in his hands roughly and forcing my eyes to look at him and hear every single word that is about to come out of his mouth. "I don't give a shit what Campbell said to you, do you understand me? You don't leave that girl without the decency of giving her a goodbye. I can promise you that she would be more hurt by you failing to give her that, than by any of the trouble that could maybe- and that's a big fucking maybe- come from it."

"Well,  hot damn, if I knew Dawson was going to be getting an ass whooping this evening, I would've brought some popcorn," Murphy jokes beside us, trying to lighten the mood.

Delk releases his hold on me and places a rough smack against his head next. "And as for you, you can shut up. You're one of the reasons we're in this mess in the first place, chicken shit."

"Ow," he groans, rubbing his head. "That was just hateful."

"You've had it coming," Delk fires back, shutting him up for good before returning his attention to me. "Dawson, don't be an idiot, alright? I know you've got a brain somewhere inside that big ass head of yours. Use it and go tell her what's going on."

My eyes go to my suitcase on my bed, and now all I can seem to think about is how damn fast this week is going to pass me by. And then my gaze lands on the karaoke machine that lingers in the distance behind it, making my mind remember the beautiful smile that came to her face when she saw that I had it restored for her.

The cogs in my mind start turning, and suddenly I realize that this can be my excuse for breaking her Dad's final rule. Quickly, I fetch the ringlet of car keys off of my nightstand.

"I need both of your guys' help."

"Help with what?" Murphy questions.

I cross to the karaoke machine on the other side of the room, earning weird looks from the two of them as I begin pulling it towards the doorway, the smallest sliver of hope fueling my muscles to keep tugging the heavy machine. Through labored breaths, I answer, "Carrying this out to my car."

"Why do you want us to help you move that fucking dinosaur right now? Lelani is the objective, remember?"

"I know that," I tell them, knowing this is the only shot I have at getting even a single word in with her because after this weekend, I'm not so sure she'll answer my calls and who knows the things her Dad has told her.

"I'm taking it to Lani."

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