Shaded Soldiers || Gay MxM || Omegaverse

21. Glimmer of Hope

The next several days were uneventful. We didn't get any news about the nightclub shooting, or how Lonnie Hill and his terrorists were able to vanish into thin air right in front of our eyes. Most of the guys on my team went on to work on other missions while I was stuck indoors. At least I wasn't bored.

Captain finally started my training. Or at least the theory part of it. It wasn't the most exciting thing to do, but at least I had something to do. He mostly focused on teaching me about protocols, how missions were shared, and, most importantly, how to use our computers. Again, not the most interesting stuff, but at least I could say my training had started.

Whenever I wasn't learning with Captain, I was accompanied by Reid. He wasn't really big on talking at first, but as the days went by, he warmed up to me enough to tell me stories about his past missions. He didn't share much about his personal life, though, but neither was I. And he refused to talk about his previous partners. If he accidentally started a story of a mission he'd had with one of them, his eyes would turn sad, and he'd fall silent.

There was so much pain in him I doubted he would ever be ready to talk about any of them. I swore to myself I'd never ask. I couldn't even imagine his pain. Three partners, lost in action.

And I knew he feared I would be next.

I did get to see the base a little as well, but only when Captain was accompanying us. I really didn't mind having him hovering around, mostly because I was still getting a lot of unwanted attention. I got stared at a lot wherever I went, and I had the feeling they wouldn't stop staring at me anytime soon. It was easy to ignore it, though. And that had a lot to do with the two large alphas who kept a close eye on me.

But there was one thing that did bother me a little. At first, at least... Neither Captain nor Reid said anything about the people who'd bought me as a baby. Not even once. They both acted like they weren't even aware of my past. Even Reid. So did that mean...? Did they already find them...?

No... No. I chose not to think about it. Captain said he'd deal with it. They were letting me move on, and I gladly took that opportunity.

Besides, I had bigger concerns in my hand.

The alpha kid did not show up at a hospital. Not that we were aware of, but I'd kept a close eye on Mercer's house, and I'd not seen the kid leaving it. Hell, even Mercer didn't step a foot outside. It was the second in command, Francis Andrews, who seemed to deal with The Boss' errands. I even spotted him bringing groceries to the house.

But finally, almost a week after the nightclub shooting, Captain was going to do something about it.

"Tomorrow I have to go run some errands in the city," he said when I asked if we were just letting the kid stay with the mafia. "If the kid hasn't shown up anywhere by then, I'll go see the situation myself."

I let out a deep, relieved breath. "Thank you."

"I'm just as concerned about him as you are. I am not letting this go until I can see he's safe with my own two eyes," he told me. "And I am concerned. That kid needs professional help. I trust Michael has treated him well, but he is not capable of offering the kind of help that boy needs."

"Agreed," I said.

I chose not to let him know I feared we were too late, and instead, turned back to my computer. I had one of the pictures of the kid on my screen, and I sighed when yet another attempt to find him in our database showed up as a failure.

"Maybe tomorrow we'll learn more about his identity, too," Captain said to me.

"I hope so... I can't believe there's nothing about him..." I muttered.