[[ NRPG : Hiyas Krister! Welcome to the team. Looking forward to our first case together. ]]
Location : Columbia, South Carolina
The sky was overcast when Leo's plane touched down at the airport in Columbia, South Carolina. A light mist began to fall when he drove out of the airport in his rental. As he maneuvered the car through the traffic, Leo couldn't help but reflect on what happened on this past case.
Upon returning from Santa Fe, Leo spent the rest of the night in the office doing all of the necessary paperwork that had to be done. In some ways, it was a sort of eye-opener for Leo, seeing how he had changed so much over the past year since he quit the military. Originally, he left in order to exact revenge on Docker for killing his family, but over the time he spent looking for Docker, and joining the FBI, somehow his outlook changed. Back in Black Ops, he was as ruthless as they came. Do the job, and get out as soon as he possibly could. Let no one get in your way, and if they did, run them over or kill them. The dead didn't matter to him, until the day his wife and child joined them.
As he parked in the parking lot of Frannie's Flowers, his mind turned back to the case in Santa Fe. How many times did he have a chance to end the case early with a lethal shot to either Ted or Rebecca Cross? Why didn't he do it? At Rebecca's house, while the fire was raging, after the shotgun blast through the front door, Leo had a semi-clear shot at Ted running towards his car, but the fire distracted him. At the Blue Lake house, he didn't have a clear shot at Ted, but he had a nearly flawless shot at Rebecca's face. Why didn't he pull the trigger then? He could've taken her out, and then shot Ted in a non- lethal place. But no, the only thing that was on his mind was the safety of Zenya, standing near the window. When Ted and Rebecca came crashing out of the garage, Leo could've easily taken out the tire or the driver, but all he kept thinking about was the fallen figure of his fellow agent on the ground. Do the job, get it done... what happened to him? Had he gotten soft, after all of these years?
After talking to Frannie, an old friend of Jennifer's for a long time, and picking up 2 dozen roses, Leo left and headed out towards the Memorial Cemetary, the final resting place of the most important women in his life. As he drove there, flashbacks of his wedding day with Jennifer came to mind. The joy that he felt with this beautiful woman by his side. More memories came to Leo, the day they moved into their bright yellow house, the day Jenn told him that she was pregnant, the ice-cream and pickle runs during her pregnancy, the birth of Andrea and how tiny she was when he carried her for the first time. Watching Andrea take her first steps, her first words, Jenn wanting to have another child.... and how sweet it was trying.
With tears in his eyes, Leo pulled into the parking lot, took the flowers he had bought, and started off in the direction of his wife's and child's graves. The path was automatic to him, having traveled it so often after they had been murdered by Docker. Damn him! His wife was only 30, his daughter was going to turn 12 when their lives were cut short by Docker. Leo had come home to find their dead bodies, Andrea in her room with a pillow over her head and a bullet in her brain, and Jennifer, tied to the bed in the master bedroom, her body sliced to ribbons, left to bleed to death. After the autopsy was done, it was found that Docker had repeatedly raped Jennifer before cutting her and leaving her to die. Leo had vowed that Docker would die by his hand, no matter where he hid, no matter how long it took to find him. Docker would be his!
The rage of memory within him almost made Leo overshoot the gravestones of his wife and child. Looking down at the final resting places of his family, Leo laid the roses down in front of each gravestone. As he knelt there, weeping, Leo came to the realization of just how lonely his life had become. He knew that no one could replace the love and happiness that his family once gave him. He didn't say a word as he knelt there, crying, letting out all of the pain and anguish the days brought him since their death, knowing that he'll probably be alone for the rest of his days, or until their deaths were avenged, whichever came first.
It was nearly 20 minutes later when Leo's tears dried up, only to be replaced by the South Carolina rain. He stood up and dusted off his jeans, a very subconscious thing knowing how Jenn hated grass stains on his pants, and gave the headstones a light caress.
"Oh god, how I miss you both." Leo whispered. "I love you both"
Leo then turned away and walked back to the rental, the rain falling over him lightly. He would be returning to D.C. in a few hours, and hopefully there would be a new case waiting for them, his new team, the closest thing he has to family now. When he got back to the rental, he turned to look back at where he came from, only to be greeted by a light breeze that caressed his cheek, and ... what was that? It almost looked like a woman and child waving to him from the mist that had suddenly moved in. Blinking, Leo looked once again, and the vision was gone. With a quizzical look on his face, Leo drove off with a renewed feeling of calm within him.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jeff Uribe
SA-1 Jeff Calderon, Team Bravo SA-2 Leo Jones, Team Zulu