I had screwed up the team's chance of going to state finals and winning. I screwed up bad! I had gone to my room right after we got home from the hospital. The pills they gave me had knocked me out, for that night at least. The whole day at school, the team looked at me like I had failed them. I quit the team and someone else was made Captain. Kelly was with me when some of the team looked at me that way and she had chewed them out. Kelly was always my strongest supporter! We were two years different in age and I swear I was in love with Kelly, but I couldn't do anything about it because I was going to join the Marine Corp after graduation. I still thought that if I dated Kelly, Dad would kill me.
That evening, I heard a knock on my bedroom door.
"Come in!" Dad came in and he looked at me.
"Kelly told me that the team was looking at you as if they were disappointed with you, son. It's not your fault! You didn't let anyone down!" I grunted some and slammed my math book shut.
"Dad, I am a fail…" He slapped me harder then normal on the back of the head, then he sat down.
"Tony, I don't want to hear that from your mouth! You are not." He looked at me and I knew better then to lose eye contact with him. "You have made me proud. You got me, son?" I looked at him, shocked. It was rare, if ever, for Dad to say something like that.
"Really, Dad?" He nodded some, then he stood up.
"Come on, Kelly has dinner ready." We headed downstairs and nothing more was said on the subject after that.
My arm healed through the following month and they finally took the cast off. I was glad, that thing was annoying. I had started to ignore the team. My Dad was right, it wasn't my fault. They had made second place at state, that was good enough for me, to know that I hadn't let them down too much. I had gone to the recruiters to talk about going into the Marines or the Navy, after high school. I purposely kept it from Kelly and Dad, I would talk to them when the time came, when I had graduated from high school. It made me proud to know that Kelly was going to graduate with me and she had got a scholarship to the university she wanted to go to.
I had avoided the team most of the time and Kelly was my constant companion. We had most of our classes together. She had a few advance classes that she went to, that I didn't. Dad and I were so proud of her. She was going to be a damn good forensic tech. She had told me that she planned to be a NCIS lab tech and I knew she could do anything she set her mind to. She had dated a few times and I had been jealous but it seemed a lot of them got in the way of her studies so she broke up with them. I shouldn't be happy that she broke up when she actually liked the guy, but hell if I wasn't glad! I started to work harder on my training with Dad, on learning to get my fighting style better.
I went to the range alone now and I worked on my skills with a gun. I wanted to go into the Marines with some experience, so I could make my dad proud of me because I was going to be a good Marine and fight for my country, like he had. Truth be told, I wanted my Dad to be proud of that, but more than that, I wanted to be able to protect and serve my country. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go into the Navy or the Marines, that was still a choice I had time to make. I was a strong swimmer, I had learned to scuba dive early on, and I'd long ago decided that I wanted to either be a Marine or a Navy SEAL. I was going to do eight years, then I was going to come back and join NCIS.
I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I know I could never prove to my real father that I was strong and had good morals, but I could prove that to the family I had now. Kelly walked up to me and smirked.
"So, you're 18 now and we have only about four months until graduation." I smirked to her and sat down at the kitchen table.
"Can't believe you got into that university. I am proud of you, Kelly. You're going to make a good forensic tech when you graduate, and I know your going to get into NCIS." She blushed and she was so cute.
"Thanks, Tony. I am glad you have faith in me. I am nervous about it all." I looked at her and shrugged.
"Don't be. You can do anything you set your mind to." With a goodnight hug we went our separate ways to bed.
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