A Promise Kept Ch. 01

Just listening to him talk about the type of training we were going to face had a cold chill running up the back of my spine, and yes, it was then that I got scared. However, there was no way in hell that I was going to let that fear control me, never.

"While you here," he began, "We are going to test the limits of your mind, body, and soul. Some of you will make it, most won't. The drop out average here is ninety four percent, and while it does happen, there is no shame in dropping out. This kind of training isn't meant for everyone, or otherwise everyone would be doing it, hence the reason that it is known as the toughest training in the world..."

"...My name is Lieutenant Daniel Reed, and these two men beside me are Master Chief Petty Officer Keno Kaniakoa, and Master Chief Petty Officer Dick Smith. We are you your primary Instructors. I'm your class proctor, which means that if you piss me off in the least, I can, and probably will cut your ass from class. Does everyone understand me?"

"YES, SIR," rang out unevenly across the quad.

"HORSE SHIT!" he yelled, "From now on when I ask you a question, you will answer me in a loud HOO-YAH! Is that clear?"

"HOO-YAH," everyone shouted in unison.

"Good, he smiled, "We'll start the morning off with a nice twelve mile stroll down the beach. Attention!"

"Left, face," he said, as we executed his command, "Forward, March," and we began to march, as a group, away from the quad, heading directly to the beach...and once we reached the surf, ye yelled, "Class One-Oh-Four, Halt," which brought us at a standstill in perfect rows right along the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

For the first four weeks we were separated into six man boat crews, where every group carried, and ran with a fully inflated, almost four hundred pound, rubber Zodiac Boat on their shoulders or over their heads running anywhere between two to five mile stretches at a time. This exercise is designed to build not only strength and stamina, but also a willingness to follow orders under slight duress, not as individuals, but as a team. One thing was repeatedly reinforced throughout that evolution of our training was that if one of fucks up, then as a team, everybody pays for it.

At my request, the five other men in my crew, Lee Campbell, John Brice, Gary Besson, Landon Crutcher, and David Eisinger all decided that we would do our utmost, and very best to keep from messing up. However, if one of us accidentally did, we made a promise amongst ourselves that there would be no animosity toward whoever screwed up when and if the time came for us, as a team, to pay for it. Little did I realize at the time that my instructors were closely observing my every single action?

~~~~~~

HELL WEEK

I was advised by my instructors the previous Friday to go to bed dressed in my BDU's, boots and all, so when the time arrived, I would be ready; because at one minute past midnight of the Sunday of our fourth week, leading into the fifth week of BUD/S, it suddenly seemed like the world was going to hee all around us.

I opened my eyes to the sound of a loud percussion grenade that had been thrown into our barracks, making a loud and thunderous BOOOMMM, Making everyone jump to their feet. Some, who didn't take the advice of our instructors, were all scrambling around in the smoke and teargas filled darkness for their clothing, stumbling and falling into the floor while trying to get dressed.

Me, on the other hand, I followed my instructors commands to evacuate the barracks and run out onto the quad, where there was more smoke, and instructors yelling commands at me to perform one form, or another, of physical training. The only difference was that there was water coming at me from different directions, and at a velocity of no less that a hundred and twenty-five, to two hundred and fifty pounds per square inch.

All of a sudden, I heard, through a megaphone, the command of "Class One-Oh-Four, Attention" making me jump to my feet and stand at attention. It took a few moments, but after the flares had burned out and the smoke had cleared, I saw Lieutenant Reed standing by the raised podium with a self satisfied smirk on his face.

"Welcome to Hell Week," he announced, "This is a new evolution that everyone must endure so; for the next one hundred and twenty hours, we will be assaulting every single one of your senses. This is where this class will diminish greatly. It's not a guess, it's a fact, and almost half of you will be ringing out before hell week has ended. The only question is who; but then again, we'll see, won't we?"

~~~~~~

While we were very well fed, we were still kept cold, wet and awake the entire week. And not more than twelve hours into Hell Week, I saw Lieutenant Reed's prediction coming true. Men began ringing the bell, one after another. However, while I was just as weary as the man beside me, there was no way in hell that I was going to ring out, or be coerced into doing so. There were a couple of times that one or two of the guys in my boat crew wanted to ring out, and one of them came within a hairs breadth of doing it, but because of the support and confidence we tried to boost him with, he stuck it out. As a matter of fact, my whole crew stayed together and stuck it out all the way to the end...but, I'm getting ahead of myself again...sorry.

Anyway, back to the story. At seventeen hundred hours, five o'clock, the following Saturday afternoon, we heard the command from Lieutenant Reed that said, "Class One-Oh-Four...Secure from Hell Week." A loud cheer came from those of us left standing, which had now diminished to less than forty men; thirty-eight to be exact. However, we still had dive phase to do, and that lasted nine weeks, and from what I understand, it's supposed to be as scary as hell. It is a well known fact that people have died from training accidents while going through BUD/S. It was nobody's fault actually, it just reinforces the fact that this type of training is not meant for everyone, only a select few.

"Were you afraid, Michael?" Kara asked me as I was telling her about this stuff, "I would've been, that's for damn sure."

"Hell yes, I was afraid," I grinned, "You'd have to be crazy not to be."

"Humphh," she playfully snorted, "It sounds to me like you have to be crazy to be there to begin with."

"Yeah," I grinned, "A little bit maybe."

"I'll bet that you were really worn out after Hell Week," she smiled, "Huh?"

"Oh, hell yes," I told her, "I slept for eighteen hours straight."

~~~~~~

Chapter Thirteen

Any way, when dive phase was over with, and we all did well, it came time for tactical training, like using explosives, specialized hand to hand combat, as well as how to approach buildings etc, without being detected. I'd already earned my black belt the year before I joined the Navy so; it was great difficulty every time that Lieutenant Reed tried to teach me something, I had to explain that I already knew it.

"Bullshit," he growled, "You're too fucking young, boy."

"Maybe I am," I replied, "But I earned my black belt almost a year ago, sir."

"Is that right?" he snarled, "Why don't we just see about that right here and now. Come on kid; show me what you got."

"I can't do that, sir," I respectfully explained, "I don't want to be charged with Assaulting an Officer, Lieutenant Reed, sir," which elicited a big round of laughter from his fellow instructors just then.

"Take off that shirt, boy," he loudly challenged me, taking off his cap that showed his rank, and handing it to Masterchief Kaniakoa, "It's just you and me now, no rank, no nothing, just someone who's gonna kick your young smart ass."

"Alright then," I laughed, taking off my shirt and duty belt, leaving me in a white tee shirt, my BDU pants, and my boots, "You asked for it so; don't take this ass whipping personal, sir."

"My ass," he growled, and then took a swing at me. Of course I saw it coming, and after tightly grabbing his fist and arm, I simply continued the motion that his body had begun, and ended up flipping him over my shoulder and onto his back and ass, but not before delivering a light stinging punch to the nose, which, while the punch was neither hard enough, and minimally connective, none the less, Reed's nose began to bleed, right before I let him back up.

"You little motherfucker," he angrily snarled, wiping and observing that his own blood had been spilled, "I'm going to really hurt your ass for this, you little snot nosed, oooff," I'd placed a sharp snap kick to his solar plexus while he was ranting, the force of the blow bending him over ninety degrees. I didn't want to hurt him, but I damn sure didn't want him to get back up either so; I quickly locked him up in a sleeper hold, which after only a few seconds, had him slowly dropping to the ground, passed out.

"Nitey-Night, Sir," I laughed, as I stood up after making sure that he didn't crack his hard ass head when I let go of him.

"I'm not going to catch any shit over this, I asked my other instructors, "Am I?"

"Not even a spec, kid," they were now openly laughing, "But you can bet your ass that Lieutenant Reed is going to catch all kinds of hell from all of us Frogs over this one."

"Class is dismissed for the day," Masterchief Smith laughed, "Walker, stick around for minute, would you?"

"Sure, Masterchief," I smiled, putting the rest of my uniform back on, "What can I do for you?"

"I just want to let you know a little something about Lieutenant Reed here," he chuckled, "When he wakes up, he's gonna be pissed as hell at you for this so; you'd better watch out."

"I don't understand," I replied, "He started this shit, not me. Besides, it's not my fault that he got his ass whipped; and if my memory serves me correctly, he swung at me first."

"I know, and you're right," Smith chuckled, "That's just how he is so; take heed, kid. Oh, and by the way, you did real well, way to go, Mike."

"Hoo-Yah," I grinned, then made my way back to my barracks to shower and get cleaned up.

~~~~~~

"I'm all unpacked, you guys," Jayne smiled, "And for letting me stay here, I'd like to cook dinner for you guys tomorrow night, if you'll take me to the store, Kara; that way you won't have to do it tonight."

"Come on, sweet girl," Kara excitedly grinned, quickly snatching my keys off of the coffee table, "We'll take Michael's car."

"Really" Jayne sheepishly asked, as I nodded my head, "I've always wanted to ride in a Corvette Stingray. This is going to be so exciting."

As the girls headed out through the back door, I smiled at how something as simple as riding in a car like mine brought such joy to Jayne's pretty little face, which is why I did what I did the next day. And because I knew that she would absolutely love doing it, I told my beautiful Kara, that night before we went to sleep, of my plan.

~~~~~~

The next day, which was Friday, was an easy day for all three of us. The only classes that Kara and I had was the Karate class, which, because of mine and Kara's schedules, began at one o'clock, right after lunch.

Jayne had no classes that day, and so I invited her to come with us to the gym again. And of course, once again I seated her in the same place as before so that she could watch every move that was made. The reasoning behind my doing that was because I planned to have Kara start Jayne's initial under-belt training on that coming Sunday before school began on Monday.

Kara had no afternoon classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and I only had two classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That way one of us could always be there to teach her five days a week. I had a feeling that the accelerated training schedule would be ideal for her because of her more than evident high I.Q.

~~~~~~

For dinner that night Jayne treated us to Beef Wellington, and I must say that it was one of the tastiest dishes I've ever had. She'd wrapped several asparagus spears, with salt, butter and minced garlic, up in aluminum foil and cooked the whole thing on my Jenn-Air™ grill, and to say that it was simply good would be a huge understatement, Hell, it's because of Jayne that I will even eat asparagus today. But it has to be made the same Jayne did it that night, hence the reason that I made her teach Kara how to do it just like she did.

Because it was Friday night, Kara and I were about to get up and clean the kitchen when Jayne informed us that besides the dishes on the table, everything else was already clean. So, the three of us together, made very short work of what was left on the table.

Kara and Jayne put the left over food in the refrigerator while cleaning off the table, my job was to gather and wash the dishes, and then the girls dried them and put them away. It also gave Jayne an opportunity to learn where everything in the kitchen was located.

After we were finished, I opened another bottle of the same Merlot we'd had with our dinner. It was fun sitting around while Kara and I took that opportunity to get to know Jayne a little better while she, too, took the same opportunity to get to know us better as well.

This is so cool," Jayne beamed, the wine loosening her up a little bit, "I never thought that I'd be living with my two favorite teachers while I was in college. Kara and Michael, you guys are the best."

"Why, thank you, Miss Jayne," I gently replied, "Kara and I think you're pretty special, too."

"Oh, I got a hold of four of my family members," Jayne suddenly said, as if she were going to forget what she wanted to tell us, "They said that they will all pass the word and everyone will be at Mom's house one week from tonight. I told her seven o'clock, I hope that's alright with you?"

"Don't worry, Jayne," I smiled, "Seven O'clock is perfect..."

"Tell me Michael, or at least give me hint," she gently pleaded, "What're you going to tell us? And then her eyes suddenly lit up, and then looking at me like she'd seen a ghost, she quietly gasped, "You're going to tell us about Danny, aren't you? Come on Michael, you already told me that you knew him. At least give me that much of a hint; I promise not to say a single word to anyone...please?"

"Alright," I conceded, "I knew him, but that's it. No more until next weekend, okay?"

Jayne slowly walked over to where I was seated next to Kara on the couch, after which she knelt on the floor so that she was eye-level with me. Then she very gently placed her arms around my neck, and right before she fully hugged me, she placed a very tender, and very gentle kiss on my cheek and said, "I have the strangest but overwhelming feeling that what you tell my family is going to have a very profound, but very good impact on each and every one of us so; allow me to be the very first member of Danny's family to say thank you, and I love you, Michael Walker," and ten after saying that she suddenly looked at Kara and began to stutter, "I don't...I, I mean I didn't."

"Shh, it's okay," Kara gently quieted her, placing her finger to Jayne's lips, "I know exactly what you meant, baby girl, and we love you, too."

All at once I felt Jayne begin to tremble in my arms, which let me know that she had begun to cry. Not knowing exactly what to say to her, I simply held on to her and let her get it out of her system.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" I gently asked, once Jayne had calmed down, "If I said something to upset you, I'm really sorry."

"Oh, gosh no," she smiled, wiping her eyes, as she leaned away from me, still in my arms, "If anything, I think that my family is about to finally get some closure on Danny's death, especially Uncle John and Aunt Etienne."

"It' getting late," I sleepily smiled, "I think it's past my bedtime."

"I've got some studying left to do before I go to sleep," Jayne smiled, "You guys don't mind if I study at the table, do you?"

"Good Lord, no," Kara grinned, "That's probably the best place in the world to study, pretty girl. Go right ahead..."

~~~~~~

"There is something I want you to do for me, tomorrow," I told Kara, "And it just so happens that what I want you to do is right down your alley."

"Let me guess," she knowingly grinned, "You want me to take Jayne out tomorrow, and more or less give her a makeover." You know me well, my love," I smiled, kissing her lips, "But her some new clothes, some nice pants, a few nice blouses, and maybe a couple of really nice dresses that she can go out in...Oh, and don't forget to get her some shoes, too."

"And I suppose you're going to want me to put it all on your credit card," she teased, "It's not even Christmas yet, Santa Clause."

"Ho, ho, ho," I grinned, "I think it's about time that Jayne had a taste of something nice in her life, don't you?"

"Of course, I do," Kara softly replied, holding me closely, "God certainly knows that she could sure use it, Michael...you're a good man, baby, and I love you so very much."

"You're my heart, baby," I told her, "And a man can't live without his heart now, can he?"

~~~~~~

The next morning, Kara and Jayne were gone before I was even out of bed. Of course I always slept late on Saturdays, and this one was no different. It was only nine-thirty when the telephone woke me up. Otherwise I would've still been asleep.

"Hello," I said, "This better be good."

"Oh, shut up, ya big baby," giggled a voice I would know anywhere, "Why're you still in bed, big brother?"

"Hi, Brit," I replied smiling, "How're you feeling today?"

"Lonely," she pouted, "I'm sitting in this damn hospital room all by myself with nobody to talk to. Will you please come and see me, big brother...please?"

"Aw hell," I swore, hearing a slight but knowing squeal from my little sister on the other end of the phone, "Give me about forty-five minutes, okay ya pain in the ass?"

"I know I'm a pain in the ass," she penitently replied, "But I love you with all my heart, Mikey."

"Enough," I laughed, "I'll see you in a little while...bye, Babes," and then I hung the phone up and immediately got out of bed

~~~~~~

I got showered and dressed, and right before I left the house, I wrote Kara and Jayne a short note, telling them where I would be and how long I would be gone...

~~~~~~

"It's about damn time you got here," Brittany squealed, delighted to see me, as I hugged her, "I've really missed you, big brother."

"You look good," I smiled, noticing that the post surgical swelling and bruising had gone down considerably, "How're you feeling?"

"Like I said on the phone," she told me, "I'm bored and lonely. How're you and Kara getting along? Mom and Dad told me that you two have moved in together."

"Yes, we have," I smiled, "And I love her very much."

"I knew that was going to happen," Brittany proudly smiled, happy tears beginning to fill her eyes, "All you had to do was give her a chance, Mikey."

"Which reminds me," I knowingly grinned, "How is it that you two became friends after I left to join the Navy?"

We've always been friends, silly," she knowingly laughed, "You were just too tied up with Jenny Meyers to notice...speaking of which, I hear she's pregnant and you're the father."

"So she says," I nonchalantly replied, "I'll know better after the Doctor gives her an amniocentesis to determine paternity. So;" I said, changing the subject, "When are you supposed to get out of here?"

"The Doctor said that I've got one more surgery to go through and then he'll see," she sighed, "I'm getting so tired of being here, Michael, please take me out of here for a little while...please?"

I'm not sure about that Brit," I uneasily replied, "I mean what about the I.V. in your hand?"

"You're about half assed goofy," she laughed, "I wasn't talking about taking me away from the hospital, I was talking about taking me out on the grounds here. I've got to get out of this room for at least and hour or so."