Two mornings later, as he was finishing his training course, two of the three most important women in his life approached.  As he finished the combat shooting course he and Bryan had built, the youngest started to walk through it, when the elder grabbed her shirt from behind, pulling her to a stop.  There they waited until the shots had finished echoing, and the warrior emerged from the tree-studded course.

Black fatigues hid most of the sweat patches staining the clothes, but they did not hide the stench of a hard walkout as he walked up to them and stopped.

He didn’t say anything, just waited, until Olivia spoke up, “So, uhm,,,,uhm, I…..is the offer for the bike still open?”

He stood there watching his daughter squirm, before answering, “Which one?”

“Well, you know, uhm, training, school, and uh, responsibility, and stuff.”   

Amelia spoke, “There’d be one other condition.”

Olivia turned and glared at her mother, “Mum!”

He just stood, with a familiar look on his face, waiting.

“I need to be present for all lessons, except for school obviously when it starts.”

“I’m fine with that.”

“Soooo, when do we start?” the girl asked much more energetically.

“Well, today’s Friday and I need to go to work, and since we need to do this in the mornings, I guess, let’s start Monday.”

“Fine….” she replied a bit grumpily.

“First though, I already saw your martial arts, and, well we obviously need to work on gun safety.”  She started to interrupt and he just rolled right on over her like an avalanche, saying, “and to be a true athlete and have the stamina to be a real professional racer, well, there will be weights and cardio.”  The more he talked, the more mulish his daughter began to look.  “But, you know, swimming is pretty good counterbalance for conditioning and ‘lite’ workouts.  Have you ever snorkeled, free dived, or done scuba training?”

In an instant, her demeanor had changed.  “Sure, I mean, snorkeling, and I know how to swim obviously, and well, I mean, the Australian coast is much more beautiful than this dark water, but, scuba, would be, that’d be great, when can we start?”

“We can start those next week too I guess, but there’s book work for scuba too. And, you need to understand, both scuba and snorkeling, let alone free diving can be extremely dangerous.  You never ever do it alone, always with a buddy.  Even special forces soldiers do it that way. If I ever catch you doing it by yourself, it’s all off, training, the bike, even the racing contract if your Mum agrees. I won’t teach it otherwise. And I’m damn good,” he stated matter of factly. “Agreed?”

“Yea, sure, sure, that’ll be jig.”

When he looked confused, her mum mouthed, “Cool.”

“Alright then, well, training begins at 8 am, after I finish my normal course. Unless of course you want to start at 5:30 AM with me?”

Olivia paled, quickly saying “No way” while her mother snorted in laughter.

The conversation stalled for a second before Amelia said, “Brett…uhm, we normally do a movie night on Sunday, and, well Olivia wants to watch the Die Hard movies again…..Do you want to join us?”

Now it was Brett’s turn to look flustered, “uhm, sure……..do you want to use the new movie room?  I just finished it well, just a few weeks ago, but none of us have really been home much.”

“Has it been used yet? Will we be the first ones?  To break it in?” questioned Olivia.

“I don’t think anyone has used it, we’ve been kind a busy.”

“Great – on like Donkey Kong.”

“Really, you taught her that?” he asked, looking at Amelia.

“Well, I learned it from a great guy a long time ago.”

Clearing his throat, Brett changed tact, “You know, I mean, I know Dryse was supposed to pack up your stuff and William agreed to pay for shipping for everything, but that still takes a long time.  And, well, I know, that APEX’s machine can pretty much make whatever, but, well, what I am trying to ask, is, I guess, tomorrow, maybe……do you guys want to go shopping?  I don’t really have much to spend my salary on…..” before shutting up.

“Shopping, I guess….” muttered Olivia, whereas Amelia brightened considerably.  “That would be wonderful Brett.  Apex makes some great stuff, but sometimes, a girl just wants to try on clothes.”

“Good, uhm, good.  How about we go Sunday morning instead, we can have lunch, finish shopping and be home in time for movie night.”

“The greatest Christmas movie ever!” shouted their daughter.