Love and the White Wolf - Book 3

13. Respite Time (Sexual content)

After his parental leave James resumed missions and oversaw the final weeks of construction on the new facility. When Christmas came he was exhausted and I contacted Pepper Stark asking if we could stay at her Maui home. She and Morgan were already going to be there so we were welcome to join them. Nick okayed it and told him to go. I knew it was the right decision the day we arrived and he dove off the board showing Steve how it was done. As James entered the water smoothly Steve dog paddled over to where James came up out of the water.

"Dad!" he said. "Teach me that!"

James flashed his brilliant smile. "It's not easy buddy."

"I want to do that!" Steve insisted.

They spent the whole week in the pool together. Morgan joined them and showed Steve how to cannonball. He became quite good at it and by the last day could also do a basic dive off of the board. Morgan did better with James teaching her how to use the power of the springboard to propel her high enough to do a flip.

"You're a natural teacher, Buck!" said Pepper, proud of her daughter's accomplishments.

"It's just confidence," he said downplaying his abilities.

"Buck, don't sell yourself short," said Pepper. "I've heard how you're in demand all over the place for firearms training. You help people get confident enough to try things, scary things. You taught a toddler to dive off of a diving board, and a six year old to power herself off of the board enough to do a flip. That's teaching."

"You also taught me to fire a pistol without getting angry or frustrated with me," I added. "You prepared me to defend Steve. Whenever you're ready to give me the self-defence course I'm willing to take it."

He smiled and nodded then swam about twenty laps of the pool before stepping out and saying he was going for a swim in the ocean. Steve wanted to look for starfish so we walked down with him while Pepper watched Sam.

"I don't think I could be a teacher with this arm," he said as we walked to the beach. "I think it would scare kids. But I've been thinking about the need for a training officer at the Avengers. I would give up the security head position to switch to mission training. Security head is becoming too time consuming, especially with kids. It might be time to pass it on to someone else, maybe someone living onsite."

He stopped at the water's edge looking out over the ocean. These past few months had been stressful for him as the new facility build came to a close. He totally rewrote the security protocols for it and had tested them during the multiverse incursion incidents. Marcus's accident had also shaken him even though our friend was better. He was happiest at home with the occasional mission and firearms training course. As training officer he could assess people's skills and make suggestions for improvements or acquisition of new skills. People coming off injury could also be assessed as part of their fitness for duty examination.

"Whatever you decide is fine," I said. "But if we have more kids then there will be a bigger need for you to be at home. Wouldn't training officer need as much time as security head?"

"I don't know but I've been giving it some thought," he admitted. "I just have to think it through. Stay with your mom, Stevie. Dad's going for a swim in the ocean."

I watched him wade into the ocean then dive into an incoming wave and swim out quite far. He started swimming at an easy pace laterally to the shore and I followed with Steve on the beach. About ten minutes in we could hear yelling from up ahead and James stopped and looked in the distance. He started swimming faster than we could keep up. By the time we reached him he was helping a man out of the water, blood pouring from a wound on his leg. He helped the man get out of the water then laid him down and elevated his leg while searching for the artery in his leg. Applying pressure with his prosthetic hand he slowed the bleeding while yelling to call 911. Another man came pulling his belt off which James applied as a tourniquet. Then he asked if anyone had a blanket or towel. Someone gave him a beach blanket and he asked the man with the belt to cover the victim who was going into shock. James kept engaging him in conversation to keep him conscious. In the distance we could hear a siren coming closer. The ambulance drove onto the beach and two paramedics jumped out.