The Grey Man- Changes Read online

  The Grey Man

  -Changes-

  JL Curtis

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the author, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below:

  [email protected]

  Author’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Available from Amazon.com in Kindle format or soft cover book. Printed by CreateSpace.

  The Grey Man-Changes/ JL Curtis. -- 1st ed.

  ISBN-13: 978-1511531436

  ISBN-10: 1511531436

  DEDICATION

  Dedicated to those who serve behind the scenes. The ‘little people’ who keep organizations running, often with little or no credit.

  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

  Philippians verses 1-4 KJV

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to the usual suspects. I owe my success to y’all.

  Special thanks to my editor, Cara Lockwood.

  Cover art by Tina Garceau.

  Table of Contents

  Prolog

  Pendleton

  At the Ranch

  More Doctors

  Punching Cows

  Wives and Other Issues

  Loadout

  Another Day- Another Arrest

  Court and Other Things

  Boredom

  To the Rescue

  Paperwork Drill

  No More Cast

  Reports and more reports

  Houston

  On Leave

  Back Home

  Christmas Celebrations

  Unwrapping and Wrapping up

  Volunteering

  Back in the Saddle

  Matt and Felicia

  Visitors

  Dinner

  Road Trip

  Rome

  Interpol Conference

  Three More Days

  Bagram

  The Phone Call

  Germany

  Walter Reed

  Tentacles

  Rehab- Try two

  Tying the Knot

  Baby Makes Three

  Chuiloloco

  Touch and go

  Houston Memorial

  Investigation

  Recovery

  Aaron and Jesse

  Epilog

  Prolog

  Billy Moore sat across the aisle from Jesse in his Lear 35. As it hit cruise altitude, he leaned over and said, “Okay, Jesse Cronin, er, Miller you’re twenty-five and now you’re married to your Marine. I know the last few months have sucked. We just can’t leave you alone. It seems like every time we do, you get in trouble.”

  Jesse, young, brunette and in a full leg cast, snorted. “Yeah, you could kinda say that.” Tapping on the cast, she continued, “This is not the way I wanted to start married life. Not burying people I love and getting shot and stomped on. Nope, there are better ways to start out.”

  Billy nodded, pigtail bouncing. “I’m the family lawyer, for better or worse. So I’m going to do the lawyer thing. You’re now an old married woman, so you got to start thinking like one.”

  Jesse rolled her eyes at that but said, “Okay. Do what you gotta do, Uncle Billy.”

  They spent the rest of the flight from Fort Stockton to Carlsbad going over changes to Jesse’s will and powers of attorney. Jesse, trying to get comfortable, finally gave it up as a lost cause and slumped morosely into her seat.

  As the Lear descended into Carlsbad, Billy asked, “You sure you’re going to be met? This is a work day, and the Marines aren’t real good at letting folks off for random trips to the airport or anything-”

  “Uncle Billy for the umpteenth time, either Matt or Felicia or both will be there. In any case, whoever comes will have Matt’s truck so I can stretch out fine. Stop worrying about me. And before you ask, Aaron should be in around seven tonight assuming he doesn’t get too many tickets.” Jesse sighed.

  Billy leaned back in his seat, flicking his gray pony tail out of the way. “Jesse, I’ve been worrying about you since you were born, ain’t a damn thing you’re going to do to change that. Besides, I’m the family lawyer. It’s my job to worry about you and yours, and now that includes Aaron.”

  Jesse shifted uncomfortably again, trying to maneuver the leg cast to a comfortable position, “I know you and Papa were in ‘Nam together, and I know from Aaron and Matt about battle buddies being closer than family, but isn’t this just a tad extreme?” She asked as she reached down and petted Boo Boo, lying on the floor among the many pieces of wadded up yellow note paper and enthusiastically chomping on a dog bone.

  Billy studied Jesse from his seat. “In the ‘I’ll kill you if you ever repeat it category’, if it weren’t for John Cronin loaning me the money, I’d never have been able to go through law school. I used my GI Bill to get my bachelor’s, but I was out of money and working on a damn dry hole rig in west Texas when I snuck off to see John for a weekend. We talked, and he gave me an unsecured loan that paid my way. I told him then I’d be his lawyer for free for life.”

  Jesse sat back mumbling, “Damn, I wonder what else I don’t know about my own family-”

  Before she could finish the thought, the pilot came on and told them to secure the cabin for landing. Billy jumped up to make sure Boo Boo’s kennel was still strapped in, and shooed Boo back into it, latching the door. The puppy whined, and when neither one freed her, she immediately began pouting, and turned her back on them both.

  After landing and taxiing in, both Gunnery Sergeant Matt Carter and Felicia Lopez, holding up a poster that said, “Welcome Home, MRS. Miller”, met them.

  Jesse rolled her eyes, and with Billy and the pilot’s help got down the airstairs, and over to the truck. She marveled again at the pair of them. Matt, blonde, well over six feet tall, and two hundred thirty pounds of Marine and Felicia, a petite Mexican beauty barely five-feet-two and a little over a hundred pounds. She leaned over and hugged Felicia. “You know you’re going to pay for that, right?”

  Felicia laughed and returned the hug. “It’s us against them now, Jesse. You and me against Matt, Aaron and the damn Marine Corps. And get used to seeing stuff like this, especially when units come and go. At least you’ll be sleeping on clean sheets, and I washed all the towels for you, since I have no idea when the last time was that Aaron did either!”

  “Oh my God, I hadn’t even thought of that! Thank you, thank you!” Jesse turned her attention to her husband’s best friend. “Hi, Matt. How did you get the time off to come meet me?”

  Matt finished shaking hands with Billy and said, “It’s a quiet morning and I stuck Toad with answering the phone at the range.”

  Billy and the co-pilot lugged Boo Boo’s crate down and set it at Jesse’s feet. “Okay, kiddo, I’m outta here. I’ve gotta go see people, have meetings and charge th
em large dollars to pay for this little trip.” Looking at Matt and Felicia he continued, “Y’all at least try to keep her out of trouble will ya?”

  Everybody laughed and Jesse gave Billy a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, and you don’t have to be a stranger you know.”

  Billy nodded. “I get out this way from time to time. Might need to come check on you. You just never know.” With that, he made a wind it up motion to the pilots and walked quickly back to the Lear, pulling the airstair closed as he boarded.

  Jesse was trying to get the leash on Boo when Felicia took it away, saying, “Hey, I can do that. It really wouldn’t look good for you to do a face plant out here. Hobble over to the truck and Matt can get the rest of this stuff loaded.”

  A half hour later, sitting on the living room couch, Jesse looked at Matt. “Is my being here going to cause any problems? I mean-”

  Matt shook his head. “No, not unless y’all get too loud in there,” he said with a smile. “Seriously, it’s not an issue. And with Aaron deploying next month, you’re going to need some help, whether you admit it or not. Especially walking Boo Boo and getting around to places like therapy. I don’t think you’ll be able to drive until that cast comes off, so unless you’re planning on walking everywhere, you’ll need somebody to go get stuff and do all those little things for you. I had that experience with Aaron, so I have a good idea of what’s in store.”

  Felicia chimed in, “I can help, too. I can flex my schedule some if you need to go to the doctors or something like that.”

  Jesse said somberly, “Yeah, there is that. Thanks, Felicia, but I need to find out how far back Aaron’s seat goes. I might be able to drive the truck if I can move the seat back to get in. Isn’t there a dog park around here somewhere? I seem to remember one.”

  Matt nodded. “It’s a block over, and fenced completely so you might be able to make that. My only concern would be Boo Boo pulling you over. She’s not going to stay a small puppy for long you know. And she’s not trained like Rex was.”

  Jesse nodded, suddenly remembering the bullets that silenced Rex’s bark forever. The tears came unbidden, and Matt handed her a napkin and left the room to give Jesse a minute to get herself under control.

  Six hours later, Aaron pulled into the parking area, hopped out of the truck and made a beeline for the apartment. Coming through the front door, he announced, “I have returned. Now, I gotta go return the coffee I’ve needed to get rid of for the last two hours.” He disappeared into the bathroom. Coming out, he bent and kissed Jesse. “I hope your flight was okay. I made it with no tickets this trip!” Back out the front door he went, and started hauling suitcases and boxes in.

  Matt pitched in. He joked, “Damn, I didn’t think Jesse’d bring half the damn house!”

  Once the bags were back in the bedroom, Jesse and Felicia disappeared into the bedroom. Aaron sat down to a quick meal of leftovers from dinner as he and Matt caught up. Aaron called the duty office, checked in off leave, and was told to report at 0700 for PT.

  Matt left to take Felicia home and Aaron and Jesse finally had a few minutes of privacy, which allowed them to simply hold each other until Boo Boo wanting to be part of the group hug interrupted them. Aaron finally admitted he was tired, and took a quick shower, as Jesse got ready for bed. After getting Boo Boo into the crate for the night, and switching off the light, Jesse turned to Aaron. “Well, here we are. An old married couple. Now what?”

  Aaron pulled Jesse close. “Now, we have to get you into the system. I’ll bring home the paperwork tomorrow and find out what else we need to do. I love you and I want to be happy with you, but I’m afraid the Corps is going to make that a challenge for both of us.”

  Jesse propped her head up. “Why? What do you mean a challenge? I know you have a job to do, and at least for a while I can’t do a whole hell of a lot. I mean I need to get to therapy, but other than that?”

  Aaron replied, “It’s kinda a joke but not, that if the Corps wanted you to have a wife they’d issue you one. And with us getting ready to deploy, we’ve got to do a lot of field training exercises and other shit, and I’m basically running the teams for training purposes. What that means is I’m going to be staying late, and probably leaving early and I’m not going to be able to spend all the time with you I want, or you want, for that matter.”

  Jesse sighed. “Remember for better or worse? Well, this sounds like the not better part. Better to get it done now than later. I love you, too, and we’ll get through this. I mean we’ve already been shot at and hit. How much worse can it get?”

  Aaron chuckled. “Yeah, that is true.” He leaned in for another kiss. “Good night, Mizz Miller, pleasant dreams, no being shot at and hit in the dreams, please.”

  Jesse smiled and snuggled as well as she could with the cast and drifted off to sleep in Aaron’s arms.

  Pendleton

  Aaron was up and out the door at 6:00AM, leaving with a quick peck on Jesse’s tousled head and a whisper that Boo Boo had been out already. Matt’s banging around woke Jesse again shortly afterward, and she maneuvered out of bed and into the bathroom. Giving herself a sponge bath and cussing the pain and the cast, she cast a longing look at the bathtub and wondered how pissed they’d be if she got the cast wet.

  Sighing, she finished her ablutions and dressed in sweats. Stumping down the hall to the kitchen, she found a half pot of coffee left and poured herself a cup as Boo Boo danced playfully around her feet. Easing herself onto one of the counter stools, she picked up the TV remote and thumbed it on, wondering what to do.

  After a half cup of coffee, she drug her laptop out, plugged it in and started researching Pendleton and the surrounding area. She found the dog park, found a link to base services, and was reading through that when her phone rang. Looking at it, she didn’t recognize the number, but did see that it was just 7:30AM. Thinking it might be Aaron, she hit speaker and set it next to the computer, “Hello?”

  A nasal, Boston-accented voice said, “Is this the new Mizz Miller? This is Marlene Eberhart and Darlene Brill.”

  Jesse replied, “Yes, this is Jesse Cr- Miller. How can I help you?”

  The nasal voice continued, “Darlene and I are with the enlisted wives club on base and figured your hubby has deserted you and reported in to work. Right?”

  Jesse sighed. “Yes, ma’am, he has, but he’s supposed to be-”

  A cackle came from the phone, followed by a deep Southern accent, “Honey, this is Darlene Brill. We know the situation and figured you need all the help you can get. If you’re presentable, we’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

  Jesse glanced down at her sweat pants, frowning. “But, I just got here, and I don’t-”

  The Boston accent was back. “We know the situation. Master Guns briefed my hubby and we know you’re in a cast and basically immobile. This is what we do, take care of the home and hearth and pick up after the idiot men in our lives. And we also know how to navigate the perils of the Corps, so we’re on our way. Have you had breakfast yet?”

  “No, ma’am,” Jesse said.

  “Bacon, egg and cheese biscuit alright? Coffee? OJ?”

  Jesse’s stomach rumbled and she replied, “Yes, please. I have coffee.”

  “We’ll be there in fifteen,” Darlene said and they hung up.

  Jesse stumped back into the bedroom, looking frantically for something more appropriate to wear, and realized she didn’t have anything but a sundress, but it was warm enough so she quickly changed into that, then hobbled back into the bathroom and brushed her hair. Looking at her watch, she just threw on lipstick and called it good. As she stumped back into the living room, Boo Boo started growling in the direction of the door, and Jesse continued on to the front door. Looking out the peephole, she saw two women coming up the walk with a McDonald’s bag in hand. As the bell rang, she picked up Boo Boo and opened the front door saying, “Hello, I hope you’re Mizz Eberhart and Mizz Brill.”

  Both women laug
hed and Marlene said, “That we are, for better or worse. But we have food. Pretty puppy!”

  With Boo Boo squirming in her arms, Jesse backed cautiously into the apartment and let her jump down after the door was closed. She immediately went to both women, and started wanting to play. Jesse told her no and invited the two women to sit, but Darlene said, “Where’s the coffee? I need it, and you sit and eat. You go by Jesse, right?”

  As she rummaged through cabinets to find more cups and poured the last of the pot into the cups she asked, “Where do you keep the coffee?”

  Jesse said, “I think they have it on the third shelf on the left.”

  Darlene opened the cabinet and cussed, “Damn asshole men, always putting shit where we can’t reach it.” She came around, picked up a chair and climbed on it to get the coffee.

  Jesse laughed, and looked at Marlene, who was playing with Boo Boo, much to Boo Boo’s delight. Marlene said, “What you see is what you get with us. Too damn many years around Marines, so we tend to cuss like ‘em too.”

  Marlene took a cup of coffee from Darlene and continued, “Just so you know what’s going on, Darlene is president of the enlisted wives club for Pendleton and I’m the vice-president this year. My hubby is the Pendleton base sergeant major and Darlene’s is the first sergeant in your hubby’s command. We kinda combined all the wives clubs here to make things a little easier for everybody, rather than each command having their own and not having enough leverage with the base to do things. Each command has functions for just their wives, but those are few and far between. Dammit, I forgot the paperwork in the car.” Jumping up, she went back to the car to retrieve it.

  Darlene smiled and said, “We’ve been doing this a long time. Marl and her hubby have been married twenty-nine years, and me and mine have been married twenty-seven. This is, I think, the fourth or fifth time our husbands have been stationed together. We’ve been with them in war and peace, and a lot of shit in between and between us, we’ve probably been stationed at every base the Corps has. Now, I’ll tell you, neither of us wears our hubby’s rank. We don’t play that like some of the officer’s wives, but sometimes you do get bitches like that in clubs. Just a word of warning.”