She stopped in the corridor at the sound of her son’s voice. She didn’t want to interrupt and didn’t intend to eavesdrop, but as she hesitated out of sight, he and Pierce kept talking.
Once she started listening, she couldn’t stop.
“Hey, Pierce. Help me out?” Brandon asked. Jacquie heard him leave the couch and cast his earphones aside. Pierce was probably checking his messages at the kitchen counter. He often perched on a stool there.
“With what?” he asked, sounding distracted.
“I kind of suck at cleaning this,” Brandon admitted. “I thought you might have some tips.” There was a sharpening in the atmosphere, which Jacquie associated with Pierce. She leaned back against the wall, guessing that her son was asking about his gun—and that he had Pierce’s undivided attention.
“Does your mother know you have this here?” Pierce asked carefully proving her suspicions right.
“Are you kidding?”
“No, I am not kidding. You’re in her home,” Pierce said sternly. “You owe her that truth, as her guest.”
“Hey, it’s my home too.”
“You don’t live here anymore.” There were a few clicks. Jacquie knew that Brandon had his stubborn look. Pierce would be impassive and he had to be looking at the gun. “When did you last clean this weapon?”
“I don’t know. A couple of months ago.”
Pierce didn’t reply but his disapproval was tangible.
“What?” Brandon asked.
“I have no right to give you advice.”
“I’m asking for it, though.”
“Okay. If you possess a weapon like this, you have a responsibility. You have to know how to use it, you have to know how to maintain it, and you have to have a schedule for both. You also have a duty to ensure the safety of those around you with regards to the weapon. Do you have a gun safe?”
“No. Hey, Liz knows more about guns than I do.”
“Have you taken a course?”
“No. Liz’s dad took me up to their hunting cabin and showed me how to shoot.”
“Do you regularly go to a shooting range to practice?”
“No.”
“Then you should get rid of this,” Pierce said. “Sell it or take it back to wherever you bought it. It’s a good gun. They’ll give you something for it.”
There was another long silence, then Brandon cleared his throat. “What if I want to keep it?”
“Why would you?”
“Because I come home alone late at night—well, early in the morning. It makes me feel safer to have the gun.”
“But if you don’t know how to use it, then you’re just providing an opportunity for any assailant to arm him or herself.”
“You don’t know that...”
“I do, unfortunately. Possessing a weapon and being unfamiliar with it is just an accident waiting to happen.”
Jacquie could envision Brandon’s expression. The rebellion, the annoyance, and the rejection of what he was being told. In some ways, he was still that wild teenager.
Then he surprised her. “What if I want to learn?”
Jacquie was so focused on the conversation that she was barely aware of the bathroom door finally opening.
“You can take a course.”
“But I’m here now. And you’re here. And I think you’re probably a better teacher than I could find anywhere else.” There was another silence, then Jacquie’s eyes widened in surprise as her son continued. “Please, Pierce. I need to be able to take care of Liz. I thought you’d understand that.”
Pierce exhaled. “Are you going to marry her? That would be a more effective way to support her and the child she’s carrying.”
Jacquie felt her mouth drop open in astonishment.
Then Elizabeth touched her elbow. Jacquie spun and one look at the younger woman’s delighted smile told her the truth. She pointed to her belly and grinned, then Jacquie caught her close in a congratulatory hug.
Brandon sputtered. “How do you know that? Did she tell Mom?”
Elizabeth stifled a giggle against Jacquie’s shoulder.
“You must have noticed that your girlfriend has violent morning sickness between five and five-thirty.”
Jacquie had been missing things by sleeping in. She looked at Elizabeth who nodded ruefully and grimaced.
“I’ll take care of her...”
“Okay,” Pierce said, interrupting him calmly and firmly. “You asked for my advice, so you’re going to get it. The decision of what to do is entirely up to you. I don’t know anything much about marriage, but I do understand teamwork. And when you’re on a team, when you’re committed to that team, actions speak louder than words. On a team, you share rations when there aren’t enough. On a team, you go back for anyone left behind, even though it’s always easier to keep going. On a team, you play for everyone, not just for yourself. So, to me, if you love a woman enough to conceive a child with her, then she and that child are your team, and it’s your responsibility to protect them, even in your potential absence. Not with a gun, because most people don’t face violence often in their daily lives. It’s your job to protect them financially or ensure their welfare in your absence.”
Jacquie had never heard Pierce utter so many words in succession.
“I’m not going to die,” Brandon said.
“Everyone is going to die, and no one knows when. Preparing for the worst-case scenario is just planning ahead, so nothing takes you by surprise.”
“You don’t have to get married to take care of someone.”
“Not while you’re alive. But the law is very traditional, and marriage is a public record of your team. Here’s an example. On my second tour, there was a soldier who was in love with his girlfriend. Martinez. Nice guy. They’d been together maybe six months. We were about a month in when she told him that she was pregnant. You never saw someone so thrilled as he was. He was over the moon.”
“I can totally relate.”
Elizabeth hugged Jacquie at the sound of Brandon’s pleasure.
“It was all he talked about. And then we had a mission and we took heavy fire, and Martinez
