40.

I turn 40 in a couple of months. Aches and pains plagued and wracked my body since my twenties, and not much had changed. I am nothing more than a washed-up has-been. I used to march with the best of them, and the worst of them. My days as a soldier long gone. sure, I remembered most of the guys and girls I marched with regularly. a few faces were blurry, memories being what they were. as with any other soldier, a few faces always stood out: those we lost. The real heroes, and heroines; the ones that didn't make it home.

I married once, she left me. If I have kids, she never told me. I saw everything with rose colored glasses when I was with her. now, that whole time of my life is viewed through violet. I had been out of the military for only a couple of years at the time. I thought everything would pick up for me then. oh, how fast the candles burned out.

This morning was one of Melancholy. I was sitting on my porch, reading a good book. one I had read before, but a good one none the less. a Checker Giant rabbit sitting calmly on my lap as I stroked his back. the crisp morning air stung my nose, my eyelashes felt wet as they blinked the morning dew off of them. hair, I rarely cut, hung to my shoulders, and felt damp because of the heavy fog that was slowly lifting with the sun. it was a good morning. until the horn blast.

an old friend got out of a car, obviously one of those ride-share drivers, but she got out of the car, and stretched. this was someone I knew well, well, as well as you could know someone who could never tell you their real name. just seeing her, I knew it wasn't going to be a good day, at least not from my perspective. we had different definitions of a good day. she was a few years younger than me, but looked much younger, but she always had. she should be turning thirty-six this year, but didn't look like she should be out of her twenties, if not, just barely.

"Templar!" she shouted.

"Shit." I mumbled, then raised my voice so she could hear it across my yard. "Dame, what brings you here?" I lowered my voice as she stepped across my yard and got closer.

"Orders." she said with a grin. "you were pretty easy to find."

"I bet. its not like I took any precautions. just don't care. pull up a chair, and tell me what you can." I set my bookmark in the book, setting it down on the table between the two chairs, then decide to put Sir Thumpington back in his cage. rabbits being sensitive to mood and all, I really don't want to chase him down in my own yard after whatever this is going to be.

"I need a cover, and I need to stay in this area." she says a bit more quiet, as she sets her suitcase against the chair she just occupied. about that time, the ride-share car drove away.

"I guess I am the cover?" I asked apprehensively.

"you aren't active anymore. so, only if you want to." she gave a half-smile, half-smirk. she knew me well enough to know I would give almost anything to help her, as long as it didn't put others at risk. if she thought this could result in deaths, she wouldn't even be here. that's just who she is.

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"give me more, or I can't." she knows she has me, but I have to at least put up a token resistance.

"I got assigned to investigate poachers in the area, and I need a base, and you have a decent sized house here." she smiles, thinking its already in the bag that she will be here. well it mostly is, but that would be too easy.

"Not my house. and there are three other housemates." I say noncommittally.

"In a five bedroom house, with four guys. it could use a woman's touch."

"it would have to be the smallest of the rooms, if the others agree, and what do I call you, I can't keep calling you Dame, since we are old friends."

"April. And, why the smallest?"

"Because, April,"I said trying to get used to calling her something new, "As you mentioned, there are three other men in this house, we each took a room when we moved in, leaving only the smallest room left. it has built in shelves, but windows that don't open, the ceiling is kind of low, and its on the second floor, so not really in a place where most of us would be comfortable. especially in this old house without an Air conditioner, and only two wall heaters to warm up the whole place."

"Its a start, like I said: Woman's touch."

"April, only one of us has a girlfriend right now, well, technically two, but everyone else in our friend's group is trying to get the second one apart from that." I searched my mind to think of anything other than a profanity to call the woman in question, finally failing, and settled. "that, thing."

"she must be a real 'winner' for you to refer to her like that." she grins, already getting a negative picture in her mind by how I referred to the woman in question, and her knowledge of me.

"Think of every stereotypical abusive behavior men are accused of in bad relationships. she embodies every single one of them. she has abused Brian to the point that I think he now has Stockholm's." I sigh, deciding its a good idea to dump this on her, if she intends to stay, and the others approve. "he has broken up with her three times in the last four months, none of them lasting more than a day and a half. And even after telling him not to go talk to her in person, because she will convince him to get back with her, as that's how abusers work, he goes over there to explain himself, and comes back here, every time, and notifies us he is back in a relationship with her, with more restrictions, restrictions that apparently don't apply to her, as she walks all over them, and him again; having only learned that his 'no', doesn't actually mean 'no'. if you get my meaning."

"ughh. yeah. I hate people like that. Intervention?" she asks in a way to try to lighten the mood.

"Twice, you want to try?" I smirk at her.

"Oh, do I." she says with the first light in her eyes since she got out of that car only a few minutes ago.

I hear the front door open. and one of my housemates steps onto the porch.

"I was going to say that breakfast was ready, but it looks like I need to cook another serving. thinking of staying a while?" Cedric asked.

"Mostly undecided at the moment, I need to stay in town for a while, and knew an old friend was here, so decided to chat for a while." she stated.

"David, bring your friend inside." Cedric said as he stepped back inside, once the screen door was closed, he shouted, "Brian, set another place out, David has a girlfriend over."

I just drop my face into my palm. I watch Dame, April, whatever, laugh as she grabs her bag and goes inside ahead of me. I don't know what she is here for, but my friends won't let me live this down.

"Looks like I am in the door, David." she teases, as she tries out my name, a way to remember names and faces, using it right after hearing it. I know she still sees me as Templar, just as I still see her as Dame. it still made me melt, just a little, okay a lot; hearing those beautiful lips say my real name for the first time in my life. I don't know what I am being dragged into, but it won't be all bad. will it?