Homecoming

[sandi_grl]

She glanced back at the beach and caught sight of her older brother standing where they'd set up the towels and cooler, staring daggers in their direction with arms crossed over his chest. Stephanie was attempting to redirect his attention, but obviously was failing.

Chelsea adjusted her bikini top as Marc adjusted her bottoms before taking the both of them back to shore. She followed behind him as the distance between he and his best friend closed.

She watched in horror as her brother landed two angry blows to the soldiers jaw. Marc stayed so calm. How was he able to do that?

"You were just waiting for her to turn 18," Chas accused, shaking out his hand. "I'm not letting you break her heart like all the other girls in high school." He clenched his hand again.

Chelsea stepped forward and put her hands on her brothers chest and gave a hard shove. "God dammit Charles Edwin Brown!" she exclaimed. "You can't keep trying to control my life. I'm not a little kid anymore!"

"Chels, all he's going to do is hurt you. He-"

"Not everyone is a womanizing asshole prick like you!"

 

[a_libertine]

Marc walked up and stood next to Chelsea, "Chas, until last night, I didn't recognize Chelsea as a woman at all. She was the kid sister. Something happened and my eyes are opening up to just how special she is, and can be."

He looked at her a moment then back to Chas, "I realize that she is your sister, but you will treat her with respect, she has earned that from me, you, and whomever else cares to interact with her."

Chas' overall demeanor hadn't changed much, his fists were still balled up and nostrils flared. Marc looked him in the eye and said in a low calm voice, "You got your two punches, now get a grip. If you swing at me again, I will restrain you, and G*d help you if you hit Chelsea."

Marc switched into a more aggressive stance and finished with, "Because if you do, I will put a beat down on you that dad would have to take notes on how to do it correctly."

 

[sandi_grl]

Chelsea looked between the two men, still keeping Chas at an arms length. As Marc mentioned his father, she couldn't help remembering the numerous times he'd showed up on their doorstep. The bruises were still fresh in her mind. Everyone had a silent understanding as to why he joined the Army as soon as he turned 18.

Stephanie strolled up to the trio, 4 beers in hand fresh from the cooler. She held them out for them all to take one before grabbing Chelsea's hand and giving a gentle pull. "I think we need to let the boys talk this out." She put an emphasis on the word 'talk,' giving Chas a look.

Chelsea reluctantly left the two, walking back down to the edge of the water with the brunette. She looked back over her shoulder at them, anxious.

"Let them figure it out." Stephanie splashed some water at her to get her attention away from them. "They're brothers, sometimes they need to duke it out. Lord knows how many fights I've had to break up with my own."

Chels took a long drink from the beer I'm her hand before giving a sigh. "Yeah, but I don't want this... Whatever this is, ruining their friendship." She wondered if all of it was worth it. She finally got the guy she wanted, but hadn't thought about the possible reprucussions it could cause.

 

[a_libertine]

Marc and Chas both took a beer from Stephanie. Marc watched as Chelsea walked away then turned back to Chas. "Not ideal, I know," he said.

Chas retorted with, "You think? Dude, that's my fucking sister."

Marc took a swig of beer then said, "And until some point last night she was my little sister too."

Chas asked, "What fucking changed?"

Marc looked at Chas then Chelsea and back. He sighed heavily, "Her friend Rachel changed it in part, when she told me some stuff, like how Chelsea felt. Guess it opened my eyes up."

Chas continued beating the only drum available, "Dude, she's my sister."

Marc looked up at Chas and said, "And that is one of the reasons I won't make love to her until it is that on my end as well as hers. "

Chas looked back at forth and asked, "Do you love her?"

Marc looked down, "No, not yet. But I damn well love spending time with her. You were the only reason I came back. She would be the only reason I would even consider staying."

Chas looked at his friend, "Is she enough reason to stay? You hate being here."

Marc shook his head, "No, I hate my folks, the city is no reflection on them. As to if she is enough reason to stay, I have 57 days to find out."

He looked at Chas, "If I have to kick your ass to get you to let us try, say so now so I can get it over with. If you are going to let us try because you love us both, say so now, to her, and get out of the way. The 57 days is a hard cap, whatever I decide on that day is pretty binding."

Chas looked confused, "Why 57 days?"

Marc replied, "I am on terminal leave at the moment, though I have the re-up papers in my room. In 58 days I am out of the army unless I take those to a recruiter. Right now, this moment I will re-up. 57 days gives me a chance to find a job, which I will start tomorrow."

Got it," Chas replied.

Chas sighed heavily and muttered under his breath, "She's my sister." A moment later, "Okay, go for it. If she wants the shot at your dumb ass for whatever reason, I won't stop it."

 

[sandi_grl]

She waded about knee deep in the water, taking another drink. She watched a speed boat zip around a little ways off the shore.

"Do you love him?"

Chelsea looked over to Stephanie as she walked out next to her, a little dumbstruck by the somewhat forward question. Marc had been like a brother to her, the nicer one. He wouldn't tease her quite as badly as Chas. Then as she got older, feelings changed, grew into something different, something more.

"Yes. No," she back peddled, trying to get her thoughts to line up. "I don't know. He's basically been a part of our family for forever, so of course I care about him..."

" I get it, you don't have to explain." The 20-something wrapped her arm around Chelsea's shoulders. "Let things come naturally, and it will all fall into place. Don't worry about what you don't know or can't change. I'll talk with Chas to help get him off your case," she offered. "He's been having a hell of a time winning my brothers over," she added with a grin while looking over their shoulders back at the two young men. "Looks like they may have come to an understanding."

Chelsea looked back as well, both of them looking more relaxed. "I hope he keeps you around," she admitted. "You can actually get through that thick skull of his."

The girls headed back to shore. "You guys squared away now?" Steph asked, mainly to Chas.

 

[a_libertine]

Chas nodded and quipped, "Yeah. After all, if most of the happy memories of his miserable life came from my family, it would be pretty horrendous of me to stop it now, right?"

Marc snorted as he walked up to Chelsea, kissing her on the corner of her hips, he joked, "No French kissing until the bruises Chas gave me subside."

He continued on toward the cooler, dropping his empty next to it and grabbed two more. Handing one to Chas, "Well, now that the drama is over, let's get to the business of having fun."

 

[sandi_grl]

Chelsea tilted her head slightly and give her brother a curious look, but kept her mouth shut. Why beat a dead horse.

The rest of the day was filled with laughter, more drinking, a few games of chicken out in the water. They all piled back into the SUV as the air got cooler and the sun set. Chelsea leaned against Marc and drifted off to sleep

 

[a_libertine]

Marc wrapped an arm around Chelsea as she slept, chatting with Chas and Stephanie. Before long, what warmth the spring sun had given was taken away by the night. Marc swept her up in his arms and carried her to the Explorer while Chas and Stephanie got the cooler and empties.

All in all it had been a good day. On the way back, Marc position Chelsea so that her head was in his lap as she slept fitfully. The motion and bouncing of the vehicle making for a hard ride to sleep.

Chas dropped Marc off at his motel, and he slid out from under Chelsea trying not to wake her.

 

[sandi_grl]

Brows scrunching together, Chelsea gave a groan of protest as Marc attempted to slip out from under her head. "Sorry." She blinked the sleep away as she pushed herself into a sitting position, then looked out the open door, realizing they were at the motel. Leaning over, she kissed him softly, trying to be mindful of the bruising cause by the altercation earlier. "See you... Later? I guess?" she said with half a laugh, her mind finally coming out of the fog from her short nap.


Chas drove the remaining three back to the house once they'd said their goodnights, and Chelsea left the two love birds in the driveway once he parked thr vehicle. She tossed her wet things into the hamper and took a quick shower to wash the lake water out of her hair and off her skin.

Opening her laptop, she sat at her desk, resolving to do some studying for a psychology exam she had later that week now that she was wide awake... She scanned the syllabus' curriculum schedule, seeing that the following week they were going over PTSD, which made her remember Marc's comment about him having a lot of issues.

She knew some of them had to do with his home life growing up. But she couldn't help but wonder what he brought home with him from deployment. She started searching and getting lost in the Internet, falling into the rabbit holes of numerous websites, filled with studies and theories and speculations...

 

[a_libertine]

Chas went to his room, took a shower and dressed in pajamas and a tee shirt. He ordered a pizza to be delivered, then kicked on the TV to watch the local news, reacquainting himself with everything that was going on.

He had kept up with everything, more or less, when he was in training, but once he was deployed into the desert, it fell off the things to do. Surviving took too much effort, and was too important.

After a while he drifted off to sleep and dreamed of Chelsea, and nightmares of war and dragon fire.

In the morning he walked the mile or so to the library, and jumped onto the internet looking for a job as a police officer. It was a career he enjoyed and wanted to continue, one way or another.

 

[sandi_grl]

Chelsea struggled to focus in her math class.

Partly because she stayed up way too late, and the alarm on her phone rudely awakened her at 7:00am. She was tempted to hit snooze and skip class, but midterms were coming up fast. She did her best to copy the information being written on the board, knowing she was going to have to go over it again later to help commit it to memory.

And partly because her brain kept going back to all the information she'd read the night before. She wasn't sure if she got more clarity or more questions.

 

[a_libertine]

At the end of the day, Marc made his way over to Chas' and Chelsea's house waiting for Chelsea to come home. When she did, she looked tired and haggard. He walked up and gave her a hug, "Are you okay? It looks like you went through hell and back today."

 

[sandi_grl]

"You're supposed to say 'Wow, you look gorgeous', but we'll keep working on that," she sassed back. She dropped her backpack to the floor once she got through the front door. "I was just up late studying. And I made the mistake of having an 8am math class, anatomy and physiology at noon, followed by psychology at 3.“ She rubbed the sides of her forehead, trying to keep a headache at bay. "It's just been mentally exhausting."

She gave him a quick kiss before turning his head slightly to the side to look at the bruising her brother had left... It wasn't as bad as she'd thought it would be, but still looked like someone got a good hit in. "How was your day? How's your jaw?"

 

[a_libertine]

Marc smiled as Chelsea inspected him, "Not as hard as yours. I went to the library to see if there were any police jobs available, and the city isn't hiring for 3 months, so that is likely out."

He shrugged his shoulders, and for a moment remembered this was almost the exact same spot where he had told Chas that he had enlisted. Shaking his head mentally, "I wondered if you would like to go to dinner with me tonight? You will have to drive of course, but I want to take you someplace nicer than McDonald's."

 

[sandi_grl]

"Police?" She wasn't really surprised. "Did you look to see if the state was hiring troopers?" she tossed the idea out there, even though she was sure he'd probably checked and doubled checked all the options.

"Dinner sounds good, I'm starving." She wandered down the hallway to her room, figuring she should probably change into something a little nicer than the Nike leggings and tshirts.

 

[a_libertine]

Marc watched as Chelsea walked down the hall. Despite what he said about her being haggard, she was still beautiful. He found his mouth watering a little and shook his head, trying to clear it.

Chelsea's mom came by and they chatted a couple minutes until Chelsea walked back down the hall.

 

[sandi_grl]

She strolled back out, having changed into a pair of jeans and a long sleeved green top with cut outs at the shoulder. "Ready."

Hrr mom gives them that look again, like she'd been waiting for this for a long time. "It's so great having you back home Marc. You two stay out of trouble."

"I make no promises," Chelsea joked, giving her mom a kiss on the cheek before leading Marc out the door to the Jeep. She pulled the driver's side door open, asking, "So where are we going?"

 

[a_libertine]

Marc patted her ass affectionately as he reached around and opened the door for her. "See," he whispered, "Isn't it more fun with me opening the doors?"

He closed the door and walked around to the passenger side. Getting in, "Let's go to the Italian place that you like."

 

[sandi_grl]

She swatted at his hand, an automatic reaction to the playful affection. She half rolled her eyes at the comment, shaking her head with a laugh. She forgot about that rule. "Yes."

The teen drove them to Dino's, a small Italian restaurant downtown. After a few minutes of waiting, they were seated, told the specials and left to browse the menu while the waiter went to fetch them some water. Being as hungry as she was, everything looked delicious. Particularly the man sitting across the table from her. She stared for several moments, silently wondering what would've happened had she not been home, or had they not gone to the party...

 

[a_libertine]

Marc perused the menu quickly and made his mind up pretty quickly. As he finished, he glanced at Chelsea and saw she was staring at him. He snaked his arm across the table and caressed her hand a moment.

His eyes found herself and asked, "So, this isn't a dream, right? I am not back in the'stan and will wake up soon. Right?"

 

[sandi_grl]

She interlocked her fingers with his on the table top. "God I hope not."

The waiter came back with a couple waters for them and took their order.

"Speaking of..." she started, looking down at their hands. "How long are you home for?"

 

[a_libertine]

Marc caressed the back of her hand with his thumb. "That kind of depends," he started.

Looking up at her, "I am on terminal leave, which is like being on vacation for the last 2 months of my enlistment. I did it to see what it was like being back and if I could find a job. If I couldn't find one, I can re-up for another four years and hopefully be stateside for the tail end of it."

He shrugged, "Other than you, being back is rather disappointing. My folks haven't changed, neither has Chas really."

"The military has been really good to me so far, and for once, I feel like I have a reason, a purpose, and a place of belonging." He smiled warmly and spoke so softly that it came out almost as a whisper, "The only other place like that, is right here, right now, with you."

 

[sandi_grl]

Her heart thudded hard in her chest. Jesus, she wanted him to stay and the thought of him being gone for another 4 years was depressing. She figured his family, mainly his father, wasn't going to be any reason for him to stay.

But the rational side of her didn't want him to stay on her account. Everything with him felt right, but it was all still so new.

"Well I guess we'll just have to see how the next two months go then."

 

[a_libertine]

Chas nodded, "Yeah. One option, if I re-up is for you to come with me."

He grinned in an impish, lopsided way, "I bet the would fuck your brother up."

He continued caressing her hand and asked, "What are you majoring in?"

 

[sandi_grl]

"Go with you?" she asked, obviously confused. How would that even be an option? Unless they got married, but it was way too soon for that. Or she enlisted too? But there was no way of guaranteeing she be deployed with him.

"I'm undeclared right now... I was thinking of going for nursing." Shrugging, she took a sip of water.