Breakfast With The Family

[NS]

“Doesn’t Daddy look nice in his uniform?” Rebecca Faraday asked their young son, Michael Junior, or Mikey, as the family called him, when Lieutenant Faraday emerged in his “dress grays.”

“Hm, mmm,” the little boy nodded, his eyes wide in wonderment.

Since the Senior Michael’s duties required him to be off-planet most of the year, their home was on the opposite coast from the FTL (Faster Than Light) Space Port. Rebecca’s family had settled in the general vicinity of the Faraday’s current house, and her mother lived just the next town over. If he would have been assigned to a normal ship in the Solar Guard, he and his family would have sought base-housing, or rented close to the Space Port. Solar Guard spaceships generally deployed for two to eight weeks at a time, with equal amounts of time planet-side between cruises. But the EX’s “went deep” for six to eight months a clip. If his wife and son were to be separated from him for that long, they might as well have the closeness and moral support of Rebecca’s family.

Which accounted for the look of awe on Mikey’s face. Even though the boy had “born in the service”, he rarely saw a Spacer other than his father. And when his father was home on stand-down leave, he only wore his uniform coming from and going to the airport.

“That’s why I married him,” she said as she sat a plate of eggs and sausages in front of her husband. “Because he looked so dashing as Midshipman.”

As she leaned forward to place the food before Lieutenant Faraday, he whispered in her ear so that his son who had nearly finished eating could not hear. “I thought it was because I would go down on you for hours when we were dating.”

Rebecca flushed but said nothing. She did not have to, the smile on her face said it all. She sat down with her two men to eat her breakfast.

“Mikey, finish eating,” she had to tell the lad. He had just been sitting there clutching his half-empty class of milk in both hands, staring at his father’s tunic and ribbons and insignias.

Afterwards, Rebecca put the dishes in the dishwasher but did not turn it on. She would do that when she got back from the airport. Instead she returned to the bedroom to dress and afterwards dressed Mikey while Lieutenant Faraday took his luggage out to the hover-craft.