Despite bearing differences from their late father , Alex still feels aspects of Jesse that linger directly beneath his skin. All Manes men were born with the capability to be VIOLENT and brutal. Merciless and absolutely TYRANNICAL. It lives in his veins , but Alex believes that he may have gotten a lower dosage of such traits when he was born. Too much heart and emotional intelligence made him STRONGER than the evils that Jesse had tried so hard to influence upon him.
Both Alex and Gregory are of the same coin , more similar than their other two brothers. They are both DAMAGED from their childhoods that were ripped away with such force that it left them stumbling for stability. All his life , for ten years , the military has been all that he’s known. Without it , Alex knows he wouldn’t be the person he is today. As much as it’s shattered him , it’s shaped his entire world.
A smile spreads across his features at Gregory’s compliment and a chuckle resonates from him. Truly , he had been riding the high of having accomplished such a task that had seemed so DAUNTING to him in the past. He doesn’t regret it ; how could he? Technically speaking , the world is once again his like it had been before he enlisted. “ Yeah , I know I should be parting from the Air Force. Maybe that’s just a sense of security for me , but I’m good at codebreaking and hacking. I don’t know if I can ever set that aside for a more domesticated lifestyle yet. ”
He slightly leans his head back to relieve a minor ghosting ache. Alex can still feel the sensation of Jesse’s fingers DIGGING into his throat , threatening to SUFFOCATE the life from his lungs. He can still feel it , pressure being steadily applied to his supple airway. Alex gently wraps his free hand around the location where his father’s own used to lay. His jaw clenches tightly.
“ I… know he’s dead , but I can’t shake him. ” Alex clears his throat before removing his hand , letting his wrist rest on his left knee. He downs the rest of his beer with ease and sets the bottle aside. He abruptly changes the subject , the demons in his head swirling and whispering in his ear. “ How’re you injuries? ”
GREG SHRUGGED AT Alex’s admission that he should be leaving the Air Force. “I don’t think there’s anything that you should or shouldn’t be doing,” he reasoned. “That’s sorta the whole point of this, isn’t it? That you get a choice, no one pushing their agenda on you? If you like that security, the predictability, knowing where you stand— hell, I get it. You’ve worked hard at your job and you’re good at it. Really, really good from what I hear.” He may have not been as familiar with the ins and outs of Alex’s position, especially since Greg was both out of the military and had been in an entirely different branch — their paths never crossing — but he had heard some things, at least. When Flint bothered to return a message, or when Alex would let him know that he was getting a commendation or had gotten yet another award for his work. And though the military had turned out not to be the place where he thrived, Greg could understand someone liking their position there.
“The idea of you hacking and stuff is scary,” Greg admitted. “I think about the movies and stuff of you getting kidnapped because you know too much. Did you know that I’m on the watchlist because of my role? And I wasn’t even in it for very long.” He wasn’t as high up as the detonations specialists in any given branch of the military — those engineers were about as high on the watchlist as someone could be — but the fact that he had been an intelligence officer did place him somewhere within the realm of being a potential threat to something-or-other. “I can’t imagine what Uncle Sam would do if someone with your talents suddenly craved the quiet life.”
He leaned back in his chair, looking out at the way the fireflies flickered against their Roswell backdrop. He wished he was back on the Reservation where the memories of his father never seemed to follow him. He wished he hadn’t needed to run away when he was eighteen, but he had, and he’d found a good life. He wished so many things, and now that he was older, there were holes in his life he needed to patch... to make better. Though he had only been a kid himself, and even the counselor he’d seen when he’d returned from his last deployment had tried to convince him that it couldn’t have been his responsibility to be perfect as a teenager who had been scared and exhausted in his own house... there was that feeling as a big brother that still managed to make him feel like a complete failure. Talk of their father felt necessary, but it still felt like Jesse was haunting them, ruining even more nights between brothers.
“Oh, they’re fine,” he replied. “I’ve got a harder head than it looks like. Plus, I’m not massive, but I’m taller than most of the guys around here.” he flashed a tired smile. “Gives me a leg-up on the competition, you know?”
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