26 February, Military Base, City K

Lexi paused, and said, "We will take you up on quickly cleaning up but join the group or lunch."

Matthew nodded, and sat quietly waiting until they reached the stopping point. As they reached there and unloaded from the bus, they saw he could see the other group's buses coming into the distance. Matthew, headed to the guides, and quietly said "I will show my wife and stepson to the mess, but we are going to quickly change before joining you."

With that Matthew turned to Lexi and Dominic before motioning to Lexi to follow him. Matthew quickly lead them away from the group and out of sight of the group, before Matthew headed directly towards a building sitting at one end. As the neared the building Matthew said, you will need your passes here. Matthew paused as Lexi drew them from her pocket. As they reached the door, the guard moved over and asked "Sir, who are these people."

"My wife and stepson," was Matthews immediate response.

Lexi quickly pulled out the passes Matthew had given her, and the guard took them and placed them on a scanner. It immediately pulled up identification details for Lexi and Dominic, and the guard moved away to allow them into the building.

Following Matthew, they moved through the building and into Matthew's Office. He carefully opened the hidden door into his personal bathroom, to Dominic's shout of "Cool, Daddy Matthew."

Matthew, said "Lexi, head in. Dominic and I will use the bathroom after you." With that he handed Lexi the clothes that had been handed which were waiting for her, while placing Dominic's clothes on his desk. While Lexi was in the bathroom, Dominic, kept wandering around Matthew's office and repeating "Cool Daddy Matthew," while he just watched.

Meanwhile, Lexi quickly hopped under the shower and silent tears started to roll down her face. She was losing her son, to his biological father. She had sacrificed herself so much, taken the beatings, being r*ped within her marriage and all the abuse Richard had given her for Dominic. She built a career to ensure that separate to any family money she would always be able to support him. Matthew forced her into a marriage and within weeks, Dominic gravitated to him to her exclusion.

Lexi realised that she needed to change things, or she would end up being a bit player in Dominic's life. That she did not want, because for her own selfish reasons to deal with what happened with Richard she needed to be away for years. She changed her business to be the main person in Dominic's life, and now she questioned was it worth it.

Thinking on that, it then made her think about how things would have been different if she and Matthew had married. Would she have taken the path she did? Would she have shown to Dominic that you can achieve anything you want? Would it have survived to this point in time? Could she have coped with being a military wife? How did she feel now about Matthew?

That question as it ran through her mind, made Lexi pause. Over the last almost two months, Lexi knew within herself that despite her treatment of Matthew he took it, almost always without reacting to her, and in his actions told her that he still cared for her. And, she knew, standing under the shower in the bathroom attached to his office if she was honest with herself, she still had feelings for him. He was her first love and in being honest with herself, he was her only love. They had a chance for what they wanted when they were teenagers and being honest, she wanted to grab that chance to see what they could have. But, at the same time she was worried that if things went wrong how much Dominic would be hurt. Could she risk Dominic for that chance?

Finishing off in the bathroom, Lexi headed out as she was concerned about delaying then from heading for the meal with Dominic's class and found Matthew drying Dominic's hair, with a towel meant for his sitting on his desk.

"Where did you two shower?"

"Mummy, Daddy Matthew took me to a locker room like at the gym at school."

Lexi paused and looked at Matthew, and said "And you thought that that was a good idea?"

Laughing, Matthew said "Lexi, it was safe, and I was with him. Do you think any of those serving under me would hurt Dominic? Plus, I heard his stomach growling, so I figured he wants lunch as soon as possible."

Before Lexi could respond, Dominic's stomach growled again, drawing laughter from Matthew and Lexi, before she said "I guess you were right on that. This little man wants his food."

Dominic looked back and forth at Matthew and Lexi before saying "Are you two trying to be mean to me?"

Lexi quickly responded "No Dominic, I was about to say something more about what your Daddy Mathew had done, when you proved his point. That is why we both laughed, as we are the silly ones, not you."

Dominic quickly grinned and said, "Well I want to eat."

Shaking his head, Matthew quickly grabbed the towel on his desk and finished drying his hair, before tossing the towels into his office bathroom. As they left his office Matthew quietly asked Warrant Office Wang to see to tidying up his bathroom.

Within a couple of minutes, Matthew was leading Dominic and Lexi to the Mess Hall. Matthew looked at Lexi and knew that she wanted to join the rest of Dominic's class rather than the privilege that they could have used in the Officer's mess.

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