Growing up

by

Vin hadn't thought about how his actions would affect his family. He'd just acted. He looked around at them, unsure if his great idea had been so great.

It had seemed like a great idea, and he had given it lots of thought, just not in terms of what it would mean for his family. And now here they all were staring at him. Great. Why, of all the days for JD to get the mail, did it have to be today?

"Vin," Chris looked at him.

"It's just something I had been thinking about, dad."

"You never mentioned you were thinking about the military," Chris leaned back in his chair.

Vin swallowed hard. "I'm graduating in the spring, and, well, I'm not real good at school like JD is.."

"Vin you are NOT dumb," JD told him sternly.

"No, I'm not, I'm just not good at school stuff. But I can track stuff, live off of what I find, and I'm a good shot with a gun," Vin continued.

Buck and Chris both nodded. They had taught both boys how to use guns and found that Vin was a natural sharpshooter, he had required almost no training and hit what he was aiming at nine times out of ten. As a responsible hunter, if he wounded an animal he tracked it down and put it out of it's misery, as a result he could follow any trail. He had always loved camping and after a trip where a bear took all his food, had found that he was quite capable of living off the land. Vin was without question a nature boy.

"You would do well in the Army, no question, but is that what you want to do?" Chris asked.

"I think maybe so, but I don't know a lot about it, that was why when there was a recruiter at school for the career seminar I asked him to mail me some information. You always say to find out what all is involved before you make a decision about something," Vin reminded Chris.

"I'm proud of you for the way you're going about getting information before you do anything. Are you thinking career military or just something you do for a while?" Buck asked.

"The only area where the things I'm good at are useful are the military and law enforcement. A lot of people go from the military into police work. You and dad both did," Vin pointed out.

Chris couldn't argue, he and Buck had been Navy SEAL's for ten years before joining the ATF.

He sighed and looked over at his son. Vin was a young man now and getting ready to head off into the world. This was part of that, just part he was wishing hadn't come just yet. He wanted to have his boy for a few more years, but no, that wasn't fair to Vin.

"Why don't you bring out what's got on both and we'll take a look at it," Chris suggested.

The military was not an easy life, and not necessarily the one he would wish for his son, but then as he had pointed out, Vin was well qualified for it.

Vin dashed off to his and JD's room and retrieved a folder that had information on law enforcement careers and put it with the envelope that had arrived from the Army. And a tablet of notebook paper listing pros and cons of each. Vin had obviously been thinking about this for awhile.

"I, I wasn't hiding this dad, I just wanted to have more information before I talked to you," Vin looked up at his father.

"I understand, do you want to wait and talk about this later?" Chris asked, wanting to make sure that he was not pushing him.

"Now's fine," Vin smiled at him. He had meant to tell his dad he was thinking about joining the Army, but had never figured out how to bring it up. JD had solved that by shouting at the top of his lungs to Vin, who was in the other room, that he had gotten something form the Army. Both their fathers had come in to find out what was going on.

The four of them sat in the den looking over the materials. Vin sighed contentedly, knowing whatever choice he made, his family would support him in it.