He had, of course, texted the next day. He wasn't anyone's fool, and Gaël was a hot as hell eighteen year old with a propensity for doing things he wasn't supposed to just for the fun of it. As hookups went, he was damn near ideal - and Victoria calling him late the next night to read him the riot act hadn't really accomplished anything.

Of course, that might have been because the riot act was read between the matinee and the evening performance, and Carlos had already made hotel reservations for rounds two through as many as they could manage before they passed out.

Still, the hotel room had had an odd effect of actually making them talk. They had to have recovery time - which was accompanied by the room service he ordered, the Navy paid him well enough for that sort of thing - and talking meant he realized that he actually might like Gaël past his flirtiness and the fact that he was up for pretty much everything.

So somehow, that night had ended with an invitation for dinner. And here he was, fairly cleaned up and picking Gaël up in his Wrangler on campus. A date.

He hadn't, honestly, done this since before he joined the Navy.

It amazed Gael that no matter how old some of these musicals were, they still pulled a huge crowd. It was probably a little more shocking that he'd landed a supporting role as a freshman, or at least that was what he was told by Calvin Johnson, the lead actor in Hamilton....as Hamilton.

"You did good for the first show," Calvin said after the show, clapping Gael on the shoulder. It made him smile, because well... Calvin was hot. And straight as an arrow. Dennis McComb, who played Burr, followed Calvin out of the green room, shouting a congrates at the freshman as well. Also hot. Also straight.

"Yo, Laurens, get the hell outta here, man." Samuel, the resident Hercules Mulligan shouted at him. Gael was pretty sure that Sam didn't know his name, hence screaming out 'Laurens' whenever Sam saw him, or wanted his attention. Still, he didn't know what he expected with the upperclassmen, and he was the only freshman given a part outside the ensemble.

"Going, going," Gael assured him, as he finished changing and headed out of the theatre. Mm. Well, it was Friday night, and he didn't have a date. And it was only, oh...11. He really didn't want to head back to his dorm, so.

Mm.

It wasn't as if word traveled all the way to the North Pacific where he was floating; it wasn't until the Abraham Lincoln came into harbor that Ollie heard about the miraculous return of one Senior Chief Petty Officer Carlos Sanchez. Of course, once he was on shore, there were plenty of people happy to tell him all about it, and by the time he was sent home for the day he was full of information - Sanchez had been discharged, of course, and he'd moved up to L.A. And of course Ollie'd heard about Gael Shaw's unfortunate accident, right? So Sanchez was moving from SEAL to nursemaid.

Well, Ollie kind of doubted that much...but he was surprisingly happy that Carlos was alive, considering the friction that had always been between them. A therapist would probably have a field day with Ollie's inability to believe he and Ty would have been together if Sanchez had ever made a play. And maybe even more of a field day at the idea that it was easier to deal with a guy living in L.A. with his Hollywood boyfriend than a ghost who'd fallen in Iran.

He drove slowly up to the plot of land he and Ty had gotten, though it wasn't a plot anymore. The house was done. Landscaping was still a little spotty, and it definitely had that new house look to it - but it was done, and it looked exactly like the plans Ty had emailed, with the changes Ollie had emailed back. He pulled his BMW behind Ty's truck and made for the door.

Again, more slowly than he needed to, he thought as he pushed open the door and walked into the house, moving through rooms until he found one with someone in it.

Ty was in the master bedroom, scowling at a wall painted a nice, pale, neutral blue, and Ollie raised his eyebrows.

"What," he said. "Don't tell me you agree with me now that we should have gone with pink?"

Sarah had called him. Told him. The conversation had been painfully short, though. She sounded worried, but Ty never said more than 'thanks' and 'I've got to go'. He cancelled his appointment the next morning, opting to go up to the house and attempting to do something. Mostly he just stayed clear of Poncho and the rest of the crew as they wired the house.

By the end of first day, nothing felt as if it had changed. He felt calm, but perhaps that was just a mask he wore. When Ollie tried to call him on Skype that night, in those rare moments that the ship was close enough to not rely on satellite exclusively, Ty didn't answer. He just let it ring before he pulled on a hoodie and took off to run the beach in the pitch black of night.

Except all that did was bring back memories he didn't want to deal with right then.

For the next week he kept dodging everyone. Sarah, his Dads, his therapist, group meetings,....Ollie. Especially Ollie. It was easier to sit on the balacony of their rental with a case of beer and cigarettes. Everyone else would just ask the predictable- 'are you okay', 'how are things', and his favorite 'do you need help?'.

Maybe if he had asked for it, though, he wouldn't have written that letter to Ollie. He wouldn't had cleaned the house with an insane determination for the last three days. He would have slept. He wouldn't have been focused on the mechanics of how to best just....let it all end.

It was, Carlos thought, an inadvisable thing to do - dating. In another three months, assuming he made it through training, he'd be assigned to a SEAL team and anytime he left home it was with the potential for death. It was why he'd decided against dating when he'd passed the initial exam. There wasn't any need to get anyone else hurt if things went sour.

And yet, here he was, in the bathroom, getting ready to go play miniature golf - which was so much a date that it was basically a cliche.

He frowned at the white shirt he'd put on and tossed it aside in favor of a deep blue one when Ty stepped into the doorway.

"...Hey," Carlos said. They hadn't talked about this yet - because honestly, Carlos wasn't sure why they had to - but Ty had been quiet lately, enough that Carlos wasn't the only one who noticed.

This was the first time Ty and Ollie were hosting anything remotely family related. It had a lot to do with the fact that Ollie was back state side, and the house was finally finished. So it was natural that they were going to host both families for the Thanksgiving holiday, which a part of Ty thought was insane. However, Hadyn and Elisha came through on their end by putting everyone up at the US Grant hotel, one that the Kagan's had bought not that long ago, and left it in Ty's charge as part of easing him into the business.

All that aside, at least it meant that the evening before Thanksgiving was peaceful...ish at the house. "Are you sure we have everything?" He asked as he came around the corner and into the kitchen as he looked at Ollie. "Hadyn wants to know if they really don't need to bring anything, or if you're just saying that."

Reaching around Ollie, he picked up his beer (not caring that he wasn't supposed to be mixing the alcohol and medications). "Also, I vote for only one side or the other next time. I can't deal with multiple sisters- I really can't. Mine is difficult enough." Not that he didn't love Sarah, but she had an opinion about his habit of drinking even with his meds. It was not his favorite thing, not even close. Especially when Sarah brings Izak into it, and the two tag team him with 'disapproval'.

"Also, there is plenty of beer and wine in store room, do we need to put it in the fridge? How much does your family drink, really." He asked, when there was a knock on the door. Moving around the island he set his phone on the counter. "I'll get it, it's probably the take out." Because Ty refused to cook when they were cooking all day tomorrow.

But when he opened the door, all he could do was blink in confusion at the woman and...her daughter. "Uh, hi....can I help you?"