Diana smiled humorlessly to herself as she drove away. J.D. had finally remembered everything and was now probably looking for her phone, which was in Diana's consol. The image of her naked on the doorstep made her want to laugh and berate herself at the same time. She took her own phone, put it in the holder on her dash, and asked Google to call a familiar number. The phone rang once and a deep, male voice answered.
"Hi, sweetheart! How's my favorite girl? Did you miss me?" Then after a pause, "Are you driving?"
"I always miss you," Diana answered. It was an exchange they made every time they spoke. "Yes, I'm driving, but I have you on speaker." Diana rushed forward. "Do you remember me telling you about that girl who did me wrong back in college?"
"How could I forget, sweetheart?" The voice answered. "You were pretty upset."
"Yeah well, I ran into her again today," Diana sighed.
"Should I be calling an ambulance, or a lawyer, or both?" The voice asked, only half teasing.
Diana laughed, "No, she'll be fine... Eventually." Diana continued, "But that's not why I'm calling. Come to find out she's one of yours. Her name is FDO J.D. Lewis."
After a considerable pause on the other end, the voice asked in a more serious tone, "And where is the Lieutenant now, dear?"
"Ummm, she's indisposed, a little tied up, to my bed, well, was..." she murmured and then realized how he had addressed J.D. "Wait, you know her?"
"Turn the car around right now Diana!" The voice commanded. "Lieutenant Jane Lewis is the best FDO I've ever had the pleasure of teaching, not to mention the leader of the best field artillery team in the entire U.S. Army."
"Wow. I only circled the block, I'm coasting into the driveway now," she answered, chastised. "I wasn't planning on leaving her there. I just needed to teach her a lesson."
"Jesus, Diana," the voice came back, exasperated. "The lieutenant has to be at the base early in the morning for briefing. The team is being deployed to Iraq."
Diana's heart skipped a beat and she paused halfway out of the car. "What? When?"
"In five days," the voice said softly, recognizing the emotion in her voice. When Diana said nothing, the voice asked, "Are you ok honey?"
"No. I'm not done with her." Diana said, her voice hitching with unshed tears. Then she called him by a name she hadn't used in a very long time, as the tears overflowed her eyes. "Oh Daddy, I think I'm falling in love."
J.D. sat on the bed for a moment trying and failing to come up with a plan that would get Diana back into her arms. Her mind replayed the night that she had first met Diana over and over again. Now that Diana had unblocked the memory, it wouldn't stop. She deserved Diana's anger and this twisted revenge, but she wanted, no needed, to explain things. She had no idea whose house she was in and she didn't have her phone.
"Maybe there's a house phone," she said to herself. The hoarseness of her voice reminded her that she also had a desperate need for water. She walked downstairs in search of the kitchen. She took a glass from the dishrack and filled it from the tap. She gulped down the first glassfull and refilled the glass. As she sipped, she went looking for a phone. She spotted one on a table next to an antique chaise lounge. The next thing she spotted almost made her drop the glass. It was a photograph, a studio family shot, in a fancy silver frame. There was Diana, at about the same age as when J.D. had first met her. On the other side of the image was a dour, unsmiling woman, who was obviously Diana's mother, same auburn hair and the same eyes. But the figure that had made her heart stutter was the stoic gentleman in the middle. Gray hair, piercing blue eyes, stiff as a board, Army dress blues and one single star on each of his shoulders.
"Oh shit, oh shit," she whispered, panicking as she found more and more pictures framed throughout the great room, the truth becoming more and more obvious. Diana's father was none other than Brigadier General Saul "The Rhino" Rogers.
Retreat, retreat!
Her voice screamed inside her head. She quickly washed the glass and returned it to the dishrack before jogging to the door, her brain a ramble of disconnected thoughts.
She gently closed the door behind her and took a deep, cleansing breath.
Gotta find Diana. Explain
, she thought to herself before taking in her surroundings, only to find her target standing 20 feet away.
Diana stood, leaning against the Mustang parked at the far side of the wide driveway, holding her phone in front of her face. J.D. didn't hesitate and began walking toward her, rambling.
"Diana, please let me explain," she said breathlessly. Ignoring the shake of Diana's head and the warning in Diana's eyes, she continued while closing the distance, "I was afraid of hurting you because I was your first and I was going..." She was cut off by a very familiar, deep, male voice that emanated from Diana's phone.
"Lieutenant Lewis," the voice commanded.
J.D. stopped just feet from Diana and her face fell before she automatically responded.
"Sir, yes sir!" She barked, looking at Diana with eyes full of fear.
"At ease Lieutenant," General Rogers spoke from the phone. A frustrated, yet resigned sigh followed.
"I'd like to personally apologize for my daughter Diana's foolish behavior," he stated matter of factly. "I hope that you are in good health?" Diana looked stricken.
"Yes sir," J.D. confirmed.
"Well that's a relief," he replied. "So I can expect you on base, ready for duty, at 0600 sharp?"
"Sir, yes sir!" J.D. confirmed strongly.
"Diana?" The general requested only a tad more softly.
"Yes sir?" She asked meekly.
A very heartfelt, sad sigh came over the phone's speaker. "Don't make the same mistake I did."
A tear slipped down Diana's cheek. "I love you Dad," she said, voice hitching.
"I love you too sweetheart," he replied with feeling. "I'll see you both in the morning."
Diana lowered the phone and slapped J.D.'s hand away as it came to wipe the tear off of her face.
"Oh no you don't, Lieutenant Jane Lewis" she growled. "I still need answers."
J.D.'s face paled at the use of her first name. "I was going away to Basic and then to OCS and then to God knows where," J.D. said hurriedly. "Maybe to die. I'd rather you were angry than grief-stricken."
Diana put her hand up for J.D. to stop. "I know all that. Tay spilled her guts about five minutes after I pushed her into a corner and pretty much threatened her life, and I forgive you for being as stupid as she was with your silly little game," Diana explained. "And my father just told me what happened to your parents, so I understand your state of mind and why you enlisted, even though you still should have given me a chance to make up my own mind." Diana paused as J.D. stood in front of her looking pitiful. "What I don't understand is how you could forget me so easily. I certainly couldn't forget you," she finished in so soft a voice that J.D. could barely hear her.
This time when J.D. stepped closer, Diana didn't stop her. J.D. took her face and wiped the tears that were now streaming down her cheeks. She took Diana into her arms and started to explain.
"I met you about six months after my parents died," she began. "I had accelerated through my bachelors degree and immediately applied to OCS. I was accepted and told to report to Basic at the end of the Summer." Diana started to protest. "I get that you know all of this. Let me finish," J.D. admonished. "I was raw, completely raw. I went to that bar every night for almost three months and got hammered and played Tay's 'silly little game'. All I wanted to do was to get my bars and get overseas where I could get revenge for my parents. Where I could fucking annihilate the terrorists who planned that attack, who took them away from me," she growled. She took a deep breath and continued, "and then I met you. You were like a breath of fresh air. So sweet. So open and carefree. You scared me, because of how I felt, how happy I was sharing all of that with you. And when you told me I was your first, I simply couldn't do it. I couldn't risk putting you through the same grief that I was suffering." She paused, and looked into Diana's eyes, "It was foolish of me to assume anything about you, but I was foolish. To a fault. I left the very next day, came here to Fort Benning, sold my car, and buried myself in my revenge." She took a deep, ragged breath. "It took me a long time of single-minded focus to bury that memory, but if I didn't I would have surely gotten myself, and possibly my team, killed. I didn't want to leave you, Diana. But I felt like I had no other choice."
J.D. stepped back and held Diana at arms length. She looked the beautiful woman up and down and said, "And as far as recognizing you," she said smiling, "you have to admit you look quite a bit different now."
"I've lost a few pounds," Diana said shortly. "That's no excuse."
"A few?" J.D. laughed at the understatement. "You could probably kick my ass in hand-to-hand and you stopped dying your hair."
"I already kicked your ass," Diana said smugly.
"That you did, and I must say you're the first person I've ever wanted to thank for it," J.D. sighed. "But now we're back to square one."
"What do you mean?" Diana asked, obviously confused.
J.D. looked at her with the saddest expression she had ever seen and said softly, "I have to leave you tomorrow. Again."
J.D. could feel the tears threatening and she bit them back. In that moment Diana forgave J.D. for everything. Diana stepped forward and kissed her tenderly.
"No. We have five more days," she said, smiling softly. "Or should I say nights. I'm sure your days are going to be full." Diana apparently read the sudden question in J.D.'s eyes and answered it. "Your team is being deployed to Iraq."
J.D. inhaled sharply. "How do you know this?"
"My father told me," Diana said looking at J.D. with extra care.
