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I truly appreciate all of you for welcoming me back with open arms. I know the delay was too long, so I hope I'm beginning to do you guys justice.
Any and all comments and feedback is more than welcome. Let me know what you think of Matt and Katie so far! I hope you enjoy what I've got planned!
Also, this story, if you haven't caught it by now, is not entirely militarily accurate. Matt going through all the post deployment junk would just take away from the story, so just try to play along to all you know know the differences.
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The rest of my deployment went by without a hitch. I'd hoped for a calm one and I got it. Sometimes I thought it was too calm, drowning in boredom and my own sweat from being stuck in a desert.
I used to enjoy these. Listen to me... used too... I sound like I've been in for twenty years...
At this point there was only about forty-eight hours until I'd be on a plane headed back to the world, and honestly I couldn't have been any more nervous.
What was I going to do about Katie? I'd kept my promise to her and Ally and been in contact with them more in the last month than I had in any of my other deployments combined. My feelings for her had not dwindled at all. Apparently they weren't just a shower of fleeting emotions. They were here to stay.
I honestly don't think I went an entire hour without thinking of her the whole time I was here. Her beauty, her smile, her laugh, her kiss...
She'd kissed me. That was true. I didn't dream it. That would mean she had to have some kind of feelings for me right? A girl doesn't just kiss a guy for no reason. At least I didn't think so.
Over the rest of the deployment I'd come to the conclusion that I was freaking out over nothing. We'd been best friends since forever, and she kissed me for crying out loud! Regardless, I was still shitting bricks imagining telling her how I felt.
What if I was wrong? What if I she just laughed in my face and walked out of my life? Ok, Katie wouldn't do that, but I still couldn't help but feel like it was a possibility.
Once again, I tried to convince myself it was all in my head, that I was worried about nothing, but it wasn't working. Either way I steeled myself to the reality that I was going to lay it all on the line and find out one way or another. Either I was going to have her, or I was going to lose her. I was either going to hold her for the rest of our lives or lose my best friend.
The thought alone scared me half to death, but I just couldn't go through the rest of my life never knowing if she felt the same way. It scared me how fast and how strong these feelings came over me. They consumed me. It's like I'd been living a lie my entire life and all of a sudden I was brought back into reality. A reality where the only person I wanted by my side was her. The only person I ever wanted to hold again was Katie.
Fuck it. I didn't really have a choice anymore did I? I'd survive the next forty-eight, get home, and pour my heart out to her.
**
"Please put your tray table up and straighten your seat back as we prepare for landing," I heard over the intercom, rousting me from my exhaustion fueled slumber.
I'd flown in to Detroit after leaving post with the quickest debriefing of my life, then boarded the Puddle Jumper to take me to the UP. The instructions from the flight attendant were aimed at me in particular, not because I was doing anything wrong, but because I was the only one on the plane.
In the dozen or so times I'd flown out of or into our small airport this was the third time I'd either had the plane to myself or myself and one other passenger, so it really wasn't uncommon.
The numbers and the calendar were my best friends at this point. Everything had lined up to perfection. I'd gotten back and gotten debriefed, and had thirty days of unused leave, which I was taking now, then it was a flight back to my unit, discharge papers and equipment turn in, and I was done.
Retention tried their best to get me to re-up. Those guys are nothing if not relentless so I'll give them that. My command and my buddies were all sad to see me go, but they understood and I assumed there would be a good few beers drank, goodbyes said, promises to keep in touch, and even a few tears when I finally left the post for good.
I was going to miss it. I knew that for sure. But at the same time, well, I knew I had more important things to do in life at the moment.
I was twenty-three now, having celebrated my most recent birthday in the desert once again. That made it three separate birthdays I'd spent with a rifle in my hand and desert sand on my face. At least my commander usually found a way to find a cupcake for the occasion.
I was ready to settle down. Not the traditional sense of the word, but more of a "be in a single long term relationship with the woman I love, find a good job, get my own place, and have kids before too long" kind of way. Hell maybe I did want to truly settle down...
"Sir?" I heard, snapping me out of my distant mind.
"Yes?"
"You can get off the plane now," the flight attendant with a rather attractive smile.
"Oh!" I exclaimed, fumbling with the seatbelt trying to get out of my seat, "I didn't even realize we'd landed!"
"I figured you were lost in thought," she joked at me. "Just figured you'd want to get home and change."
Due to unforeseen airline issues, meaning they lost my damn personal bag coming back across the pond, I was still in my uniform. It was a clean uniform, as I'd changed before leaving the desert, but it still wasn't the most comfortable thing to travel in, and I couldn't be bothered to go buy civies just for two quick plane rides, and I sure as shit wasn't going back to the barracks to risk getting drug into drinking by the guys, so I worked with what I had.
"Yea I'd have to say these aren't the most comfortable things to travel in, especially since I've been going for two days now..." I sighed as I stood.
I'd been traveling, save for the few hours I spent debriefing, for close to two days now including layovers. We'd landed and went straight to debrief, and those who were taking leave were able to immediately leave, which I did, finding a plane ticket and getting my ass out of dodge.
"I'll bet they're more comfortable than what we have to wear," she laughed. "But our shifts aren't two days long so what do I know?" She added with a smile.
She looked familiar. Like eerily familiar, but I couldn't place it. I didn't fly enough to personally know any flight attendants, so I figured I'd either have seen her in passing at an airport somewhere, or my mind was playing tricks on me.
"Either way, I'm guessing the first thing either of us will do when we get home is forget we ever have to wear these things," I replied, doing my best in my tired state to create some humor.
"Amen to that," she smiled again.
By then we'd made it to the front of the plane. I was one step closer to home, and to my bed.
"Thanks for the safe flight!" I said kindly, stepping off the plane, "you guys have a great night!"
"You too Matt!" She called back, making me stop in my tracks.
"Do I know you?" I asked, hoping it didn't sound as rude as I thought it did.
"Not me, no, at least not any more than in passing, but you know my brother," she explained with a smile.
"Your brother?" I asked in confusion.
"Mark Shmidt?"
"Oh my god that would make you Sarah!" I exclaimed at the realization hit.
I hadn't seen her brother, or her for that matter, since high school. I'd graduated with Mark, and while we weren't the best of buddies, we were still friends, as most everyone seemed to be with everyone in a town this small.
Sarah had been a few years behind us, though I couldn't remember how many. She was a scrawny teen the last time I'd seen her, so that would explain the fact she seemed familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it.
"How's Mark doin? I ain't seen 'im since high school!"
"He's doin' good," she replied, stepping towards me and gesturing for me to keep walking. "I'm done for the day so we might as well walk so they can close up the plane."
"Fair," was the only response I could come up with as I turned and started up the jet bridge.
"But no, Mark's doin' good, just got promoted at the Mill." She continued.
"Paper or Lumber?" I asked.
Around us, the main jobs people did was either working at the mine, or either the sawmill we had right in town or the paper mill about forty-five minutes south of us.
"Paper," she confirmed. "Been there since y'all graduated."
"Good for him," I said, then gestured to my uniform, "I'll be done with this in about a month and was gonna apply at the mill, so maybe I'll see him there."
It may sound like low work to some, but around us, the mills or the mine workers made a pretty decent living. The cost of living up here was pretty low, so sixty-plus a year was like six figures in a lot of the rest of the country, and probably more closer to a quarter million in the cities. I'm happy I'd never have to live in one of those cesspools.
"Yea give him a call and he can tell you all about it," she said with another smile. "You have someone to pick you up?"
"Oh shit yea thanks for reminding me, I gotta call my brother to tell him I landed!"
Due to the near two days of travel and my after midnight arrival time, I'd neglected to tell anyone I was coming home a day early. Not because I didn't want them to know or wanted to surprise them or anything, I just wanted to sleep, and I know if they knew, it would be a party, and I wasn't up for that tonight, so I'd just told my brother and he said he'd keep quiet and come get me.
"If he hasn't already left I can run you home. I'm still living with my parents so it's on the way." She offered, "as long as that's alright with you and not overstepping anyone," she quickly added.
"You sure it's no trouble?" I asked.
"No not at all," she assured me.
By then we'd reached the main part of the "terminal", which is being generous because it was basically just a room with a bunch of seats and 2 gates, since that's all we had at the little airport, and one of the crew already had both my duffles brought up so I didn't have to wait for baggage.
Sarah quickly ducked into an employees only room to clock out and I stepped into the bathroom to relieve myself. It definitely was a stroke of luck running into her since it was close to one in the morning now and I knew my brother had school in the morning, so at least he didn't have to wake up to come get me, since I'd told him I'd call when I land, and if I don't call it means I either got delayed somewhere or found another ride.
Shooting him a text that I knew wouldn't wake him up I told him I'd landed and found another ride, just in case he started to worry for whatever reason, and stepped back into the waiting area to, well, wait for Sarah.
It wasn't but another minute later when she came back out from that room and walked over to me.
"Ready to go?" She asked.
"Let's hit it!" I laughed and I threw one duffle on my back with the backpack straps and grabbed the other in my right hand, carrying it between me and Sarah.
