He wasn't biologically my son but I was damn proud of him for protecting Kelly like that. I was dreading them getting together at some point. I could see the look in both their eyes, they thought more of each other than just friends and not as siblings. But they were both blind to each others feelings in that way, for now. I know there was more jealously to punching that kid out, who was trying to kiss my little girl. Before Tony, whenever I went to work there was always a passing thought about the day that my mother-in- law would die and Kelly would be home alone. But, after Tony became part of the family, he became protective of Kelly and I was glad he would be here when I wasn't. He went on those runs but we both knew that Kelly had some training to protect herself, she also knew were the gun was.
Some people would call me a bad father for teaching my children to shoot a gun, and how to use it to protect themselves, if they needed to. I told them to always try to see firing the gun as the last resort. But, in my line of work, I had people that hated me and would use my kids to get to me. They were both damn good with a gun and their fighting skills were good too. There was one thing that both scared me and made me proud of both of them, they both wanted to protect and serve in some way. Kelly said she wanted to become a forensic lab tech. That was safer and I knew and appreciated it, but I also knew that Tony wasn't the type to be tied down to a lab, he would want to be on field duty.
What scared me even more was Tony was either going to go into the Military or become a damn cop. I was not going to stop my son from doing what he wanted to do. I would be proud of whatever he chose. But there was nothing wrong with praying that he chose to be a cop over enlisting in to the Military, when he graduated from high school. That was the onely thing different between Kelly and Tony. They both made good grades, Kelly was a straight A student, she loved science and loved to learn, whereas Tony made A's and B's but he preferred sports and I couldn't seen him going to college. Kelly, on the other hand, was already looking at getting into a good college for forensics.
They both could get scholarships to college, Kelly's would be academic and Tony could get a basketball scholarship. The boy was the best and had made Captain of the varsity team already and I was damn proud of him. He had told me once that he wanted to stop things from happening, like kids going through what he did and he wanted to get murderers off the streets to make them safer. God, I hoped that meant he wasn't going to enlist. I came home that night and I could smell the fried chicken! Tony sure was a good cook.
"Guys, I'm home!" I smirked as my daughter hugged me. I walked into the kitchen where Tony already had some coffee made, he handed me a cup. "Thanks, Tony!"
Tony was cooking when he spoke.
"Hey, Dad. I was wondering if I could drive to New York City this weekend. I want to use my money to buy a ticket and go and see Green Day." I looked at him. Knowing Tony, he had probably already got the ticket. I leaned against the counter.
"You get one for Kelly, too?" I saw him freeze for a second, then he nodded.
"Yeah, I did, Dad. Please?" I smirked at him again.
"How about this. We all go and you two can go to the concert. I'll find something to do. We can get a two bed motel room. You and me can share a bed and Kelly can have the other bed." He knew I wouldn't go with them to listen to some music that would just piss me off. Kelly launched herself into my arms.
"Thanks, Dad!" I laughed and Tony smirked some.
"Yeah, Dad, thanks. It's going to be so cool, we might even get us an autograph." I smirked back. They were good kids, they were more grown up than some but they also could be normal teenagers as well. I let them. I knew they were more grown up because since my mother-in-law died, they'd had to take care of the house and each other. Most kids had at least one parent raising them. I was raising them just not as much some did but, truth be told, it didn't effect them. They were not bad kids, they would make any parent happy.
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