Chapter Text
Falling in love with Aaliyah happened quickly and without hesitation. Our first date happened only a few hours after my follow up doctors appointment. Before I picked her up, Aaliyah changed into a short sleeve olive green romper that brought out the green flecks in her eyes and it made me stop to really take her in. After I got it together, I took Aaliyah into town to show her around. I got to show her some of the places I was telling her about while we were in the airport in Spain. Molly’s drug store, Frida’s Mexican Grill, Chandlers Surf Shop. It was a really great day. By the end of it, I felt exhausted, this was the most active I’ve been since I got back state side and I think that Aaliyah picked up on it. As I dropped Aaliyah off at her car in the parking lot, she pulled me into a hug and held onto me tightly for a few long seconds. I didn’t want to let go, didn’t want the date to end, didn’t want to say bye to her.
So I didn’t.
I asked if she wanted to come over.
Aaliyah pulled away from me a little bit to find my eyes. She looked at me for a few long seconds before nodding.
She followed me over to my house that’s not far off base and pulled into the open spot next to my Jeep in the driveway, almost like it was made for her. I grabbed my duffle from the trunk along with my pistol before walking up the walkway to the front door. Before the date, I stopped at our team’s barracks on base to get my stuff from our last trip overseas and to fill Bobby in on what happened at the appointment. I’m still benched for the moment, until Aaliyah gets me in for another scan and follow up with the neurologist here. But that’s a problem for another day.
Aaliyah looked around my little house while I put my stuff down by the door and locked the door behind us. The living room, kitchen and dining room are all open concept making the small house look a bit bigger. While Aaliyah looked around, I went over to the mud room and dropped my duffle bag on top of the washer dryer before unlocking my large gun safe to stow my pistol before locking it back up.
When I got back into the living room, Aaliyah was sitting on the couch with her feet up, leaning against the back of the couch. She made herself at home, looking like she belonged here and I almost teared up at the sight. It took me a few seconds to pull myself out of my stupor, I walked over to the couch and held my hand out to Aaliyah. She smiled as she took it and I led her over to the bedroom. Aaliyah looked around my bedroom, took everything in as I went over to the closet and changed into something more comfortable. I took a large tee shirt and shorts with me when I left the walk in closet and found Aaliyah standing by my desk. She pulled my blackout current open a bit to see my cork board full of photos and work schedule. Her smile was bright as her fingers ran over a photo of Bobby and I from my Force Recon graduation.
I let Aaliyah look at the photos a little bit more before I walked over to her and wrapped an arm around her stomach. Aaliyah leaned into me as I pressed kiss to her neck. When I offered her something more comfortable to change into Aaliyah nodded but made no move to leave my arms for another minute. I pressed another kiss to her neck and finally let go of her so she could change. I tried to give her some privacy as I found my phone from my other pants and plugged it in to charge and turned on the TV before sitting on top of my bed. Aaliyah joined me a few seconds later and it didn’t take long for her to curl into my side while I put on She’s the Man.
“You’re tired after today, aren’t you?” Aaliyah asked as we switched positions and my head ended up on her chest.
“Yea, today was the most I’ve been moving around since coming home.” I answered and felt Aaliyah start to run her hands through my hair. Sleep was already creeping in on the edge of my mind and if she kept it up, then I would be lost in a matter of minutes.
“Sleep my darling, I’m not going anywhere.” Aaliyah said quietly before pressing a kiss to my forehead.
And she didn’t.
When I woke up a few hours later, I was still in Aaliyah’s arms. It didn’t take long for her to wake up after I moved around a bit more. After checking what time it was, pushing midnight, I knew I needed to eat something before going back to sleep for the night. So I offered to make Aaliyah some dinner. She nodded and got out of bed to follow me into the kitchen. She jumped up onto the island while I went through what I had in the fridge, which wasn’t much, and I sighed. I pulled out some cold cuts and some white bread and held it up for Aaliyah to see. She just nodded and smiled as I grabbed two plates and a knife to cut everything up later.
We made dinner together, Aaliyah opting for ham and cheese while I went for turkey and cheese and ate at the island with some chips and soda. After our snack/dinner, Aaliyah went off to the bathroom to get ready for bed while I locked up the house for the night. After she was done, I went in to brush my teeth and found the extra toothbrush I left out for her used and already sitting in the same up as my own. When I got back into bed, I laid down and tried to get comfortable as Aaliyah queued up something else for us to watch on Netflix but I couldn’t settle.
“You okay?” She asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the peace in the room.
“Would you be okay if I slept with my shirt off? I get hot at night and usually don’t sleep with one on.” I asked.
“Do what makes you feel the most comfortable Cruz, this is your space.” Aaliyah said and gave me a smile.
“I know, but I want you to be comfortable here.” I answered. Aaliyah didn’t say anything but just sat up a bit more in bed and pulled her shirt clean off and I had to stop myself from staring.
“I’m comfortable Cruz.” Aaliyah said and hit play on the remote for the movie to start. I pulled my shirt off and threw it on the floor with hers before putting my arm around Aaliyah and pulled her into me. I could feel her take a deep inhale of breath and slowly let it out. On the exhale, she move back closer to me and I pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder blade.
It was the best sleep I ever gotten.
Things picked up from there. Aaliyah went with me to my follow up appointment with the neurologist, helped break down everything that the doctor said after we went over my medical history and scans. Together, the three of us made a treatment plan that should have me feeling better in about a month. I would have follow up appointments with the neurologist regularly once this concussion fully resolves and Aaliyah already has me scheduled to meet my new primary care doctor here as well.
From that moment on, we started to do everything together. She helped me start working out again, getting back up to fitness so I could return to work. Our sunset runs along the river was one of my favorite things we started to do together. It was nice to get to have this peaceful time of just being in each others company doing something that we both enjoyed. Some of those night runs turned into little dates, one of us packing some food in a cooler to eat when we finished up, watching the sun fully set and the stars start to come out.
It was during our runs that Aaliyah actually got to meet the team. Bobby first as she wanted to see how I was coming along and then the rest of the guys when they wanted to get a run in. Bobby took to Aaliyah quickly and they became thick as thieves, always teasing me and riling me up. The boys started to take to Aaliyah quickly too with her quick wit and ability to dish it out as well as take it. It made my heart soar to see the two most important people in my life genuinely like each other. Even though I was still on leave, I was finally cleared to operate again and when I broke the news to the team, they were excited to have me back.
We expected to have another month off from missions before we got spun up again but we still had meetings on base to be kept up to date on the latest intel and troop movement. It was during one of our team meetings when my phone started ringing and it was Aaliyah. Since we got together, Aaliyah and I would text mostly throughout the day. It was easy for her to sneak out a text while she was at work and same for me when I was trying to hide it from the team. So I was surprised while I was sitting in our monthly schedule rundown when I had an incoming call from Aaliyah. I knew she was working a double shift so for her to be calling me instead of sending a text was odd. Bobby noticed something was off and paused the meeting to let me pick up the call. Hitting accept on the call, I was barely able to get out a hello when I heard Aaliyah speak.
“Cruz” Her voice sounded broken and my stomach dropped. I started pulling all of my paperwork together.
“Hey what’s wrong?” I asked trying to be calm but was already freaking out that something was wrong.
“Can you please come get me? I can’t, they won’t release me on my own.” Aaliyah said through an almost sob.
“Where are you?” I asked throwing everything into my bag and looking for my keys.
“I’m at work, in the ER, as a patient.” Aaliyah said and I heard her sniffle.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.” I said and hung up the phone to look for my keys.
“Cruz?” Bobby asked as I looked up at her.
“Something’s wrong with Aaliyah, I need to go, now.” I said leaving no room for me staying in the meeting.
“Okay, I’ll drive, boys lets go.” Bobby said and we all flew out the front door.
I hopped into the passenger seat of my Jeep while Bobby drove, the boys followed behind in a truck as I gave Bobby directs to the ER side of the hospital. The Jeep was barely at a stop before I threw the door open and spirited into the hospital, not waiting for anybody as I ran through the halls to the emergency room. When I got there I stalked up to the front desked and I didn’t even have to say anything before the man behind it spoke and said Aaliyah was in room C7 and gave me directions.
Trying not to run, I walked quickly down the hall and found that the room was actually closed off from the public and a police officer was standing guard in front of the door. He took one look at me, then I’m guessing Bobby and the boys behind me before stepping aside and opening the door.
When I walked inside, I was relieved to see Aaliyah sitting up in bed with a blanket wrapped around her, though her head was down on top of her knees. I made my way to her side and sat on the edge of the bed before putting my hand on her knee. Aaliyah turned her face up towards me and that when I saw it. The red and purple ring around her neck that was the perfect size of a hands, the few steri strip stitches in her forehead along with her left collarbone taped with a gauze pad, dried blood on her cut up blue scrub top.
“Hey” I said and gave her a tight smile, trying to see how her mental state is.
The one word was all it took for Aaliyah to break down, I pulled her into my lap and held her tightly to me, trying to calm her down. Aaliyah hands fisted my camo jacket I was still wearing, almost like she was trying to burry herself inside of it with me. I pressed a few kisses to the uninjured side of her forehead and slowly started to rock the both of us back and forth and Aaliyah’s crying started to slow down. When it finally stopped for a long minute I thought now would be a good time to speak.
“We don’t have to talk about what happened just yet, but would you rather go back to your place or mine?” I asked.
“Yours” Aaliyah said quietly.
“Who do I have to talk to about getting you out of here?” I asked wanting to take her home.
“It’s already done Cruz.” It was then I remembered I didn’t come her alone. I turned and found Bobby and Randy standing just inside the door holding some paperwork and a white paper bag.
“So we’re good to go?” I asked them as Aaliyah slowly untucked her head from my neck.
“Yea, I’ll drive you both home in your car, Randy can take Aaliyah’s.” Bobby said quietly.
“Where’s your keys love?” I asked Aaliyah.
“In my bag over there.” Aaliyah said and nodded towards the small duffle bag on the chair next to the bed.
I slowly stood from the bed and slipped Aaliyah’s shoes into the bag along with her phone and lab coat that was thrown on the chair before Randy took it and I turned back to Aaliyah. She just got up off the bed and I barely let her get any farther then that before I bent down and picked her up in my arms. Aaliyah nestled herself under my chin and I pressed a kiss to her forehead before following the team out of the room and down the halls of the hospital. Aaliyah kept her face tucked into my neck as the team surrounded us from prying eyes. When we got outside, Tucker held the back door open and I carefully slid into the backseat with Aaliyah while Bobby and Tucker got into the front.
The ride home was quiet and slow as Aaliyah was half in my lap. When Bobby pulled up, Tucker got out and unlocked my front door while Bobby opened the door for us. I carried Aaliyah inside and walked right into my bedroom before putting her down on my bed. Bobby followed us inside with my bag and Aaliyah’s. She put them down on the bench at the end of my bed before she went to take her leave. Before she could get out of the room, Aaliyah stopped her, took her arm in her hand then slid her hand down to squeeze Bobby’s hand. Bobby gave me a smile before leaning over and pressing a kiss to the top of Aaliyah’s head with instructions to call her if we needed anything.
After the team left, I locked up while Aaliyah got settled in bed. Even though it was barely three in the afternoon, I knew we wouldn’t be moving from bed. So I changed out of my camos and into pajama’s before joining Aaliyah in bed. So once in bed, I pulled Aaliyah close and just held her tight in my arms for a while. Her breathing slowed and evened out so much that I thought she fell asleep. But when she started to speak, I knew she just needed some time to calm herself down to a point where she would be able to speak about what had happened.
It was still the beginning of her shift when she started to evaluate a patient who was 19 and came in for an infection after having top surgery. Aaliyah just finished her exam with them and was starting them on medication when the patients father came in with a knife, unhappy that their child was non-binary and was able to have the surgery in the first place, making threats against the patient. While trying to talk him down, the father flipped and went towards the kid with the knife. Security didn’t get there in time so Aaliyah put herself in the middle trying to protect the kid.
Even though Aaliyah tried, the father was still able to stab his kid before turning the knife towards Aaliyah when she pushed him away. He got a hand around her neck and squeezed before he tried to stab her, only getting a slash in when Aaliyah kneed him in the groin and he dropped to the ground for security to tackle and deal with. Aaliyah turned and started to pack the wound for her patient and held pressure on them until they went back into the OR for surgery. It was only after Aaliyah got off of the patient that she realized she was slashed and a few other trauma doctors rushed to her aid.
Hearing it all, made my blood boil to no end. But I knew the feeling well, even though it was a disappointed mother instead of father. It took myself a few seconds to separate my feelings about the abuse I suffered at the hand of my mother and what happened to Aaliyah’s patient today. But I also had to tell Aaliyah I was proud of her for standing her ground and trying to save her patient. She did everything she could in the moment to save her patient and if she didn’t try to push him away, the father could have done a lot more harm to everyone in the ED.
The next few days after the incident Aaliyah didn’t want to leave my house. I stopped over at her condo once for some of her clothes and things to bring over so she would be comfortable, even though she ended up stealing my clothes most of time. Like all bruising, it got worse before it got better and I knew she didn’t want people to see the hand prints around her neck. But after a week of hiding out at my house, not wanting to anything but just sit back on the couch, I knew I needed to get her out again.
On my way home from a meeting on base I had to attend, I swung by the hospital. Sitting behind the front desk of the ER was the same guy from the other day. When I asked about the patient Aaliyah was protecting, he gave me their room number and told me that they will most likely be released tomorrow before asking how Aaliyah was doing. Other then saying she was at home resting, I didn’t say much else but thanked him for the information.
When I got back home, I found Aaliyah on the couch with her laptop on her lap with some music coming from it while she had the TV on mute. I sat down on the coffee table and once she realized I was here, she closed her laptop lid and gave me a smile.
“I want to take you somewhere.” I said, the smile slowly fell from her lips as she clenched her jaw.
“Do you trust me?” I followed up and held out my hand. Aaliyah softened as she took it.
“Of course I do.” She said quietly. I brought her hand to my lips and pressed a kiss to it before letting her get up to get changed.
When Aaliyah returned to the living room a few minutes later, it was in one of my old worn out Marine sweatshirts, jeans and running shoes with her hair down framing her face to try and hide the bruising. She grabbed her bag while I got my keys and locked up as we walked out of the house together. I held her hand as I drove us over to the hospital, rubbing my thumb over her knuckles to try and sooth her nerves.
After I parked the Jeep, I got out and held the door open for her. Together we walked into the hospital hand in hand as I followed the instructions I got earlier to the right room. Aaliyah gave me a questioning look as I knocked on the door before pushing it open a bit and walking inside when I heard a voice saying to come in. When Aaliyah laid eyes on her patient in the bed, looking pretty well after surgery and battling an infection, her legs almost gave out. But I was right behind her to catch her, to hold her steady.
“Doctor Amrohi” They said and sat up a bit more in bed as I helped Aaliyah sit down in the chair next to the bed.
“It’s really good to see you doing well Logan.” Aaliyah said, even though I couldn’t see her face, I knew that she was trying not to cry.
“Thank you for saving my life, if you didn’t get in the middle, I don’t know if I would still be alive.” Logan said and held out their hand. Aaliyah took it in hers and held it tight for a while and nobody had to say anything.
We stayed with Logan until visiting hours ended, just talking and getting to know them. When Aaliyah introduced me as her girlfriend, I felt my face blush. It was the first time we gave this thing between us a title and a swarm of butterflies took flight in my stomach. As visiting hours came to an end, Aaliyah gave Logan her phone number with instructions to call or text her if they had any problems with post surgery care. As we got home that night, the light was back in Aaliyah’s eyes.
With the new title as girlfriends, our relationship really started to take shape. Just like our connection from the airport, it only got stronger the longer we spent together. At this point Aaliyah was spending most of her nights at my house instead of her own. We went grocery shopping together, all her fancy soaps were in the shower in the bathroom next to mine, her clothes starting to take up about half of the space in my closet, extra pillows started to appear on my couch along with a very soft fuzzy blanket that we now love to curl up under when we watch movies together.
Slowly, we started to learn about each others past. My lack of family life and the abuse from my mothers hand, stripping to make ends meeting then living with my ex in his shitty house with the mattress on the floor. How he also raised hands to me. How I sat there and took it for too long. My run for freedom ending by crashing through the doors of the Marine recruiting office. Then the start of my career in the Marines until I wanted to move on and then went out for Force Recon school.
Aaliyah’s story was well different from my own. Growing up wealthy, with enough money for a few life times over. How she had to get along with the people her family socialized with. How she made a few friends in those inner circles, who I’ve actually got to meet recently when they visited Aaliyah for the first time. Malika, Nashwa and Nala came to visit and check in on Aaliyah to make sure she was settling in okay. Aaliyah also thought they were going to report back to her family how she is but the women didn’t bring up their life in Saudi Arabia at all while they were here. The girls were here for a week and while Aaliyah was at work, I tried to show them around a little in between my own comings and goings. While I don’t think I was there biggest fan, I like to think that I grew on them over the course of there stay.
After they left, Aaliyah told me more about her family, the siblings she doesn’t get to talk to anymore for the fear that her parents will cut them off as well. Her mother, who refused to see her the last time she was in there family estate because she did not believe Aaliyah should have refused the marriage brokered between her and another wealthy family in their circle. How the shame Aaliyah brought to her father’s name was too much and she was going to be shut out. Her father, refused her calls and refused to see her while she was at the estate as well made Aaliyah feel heart broken. She was always closer to him then her mother so when her father also shut her out, it really hurt.
Aaliyah wanted to go to college and when she got her degree, it wasn’t just going to be for show, she wanted to use the skills she learned over the past almost ten years in practice. That’s when I met her, on her final flight out of Saudi Arabia. The reason why she was looked upset and put off was because her five siblings were texting her to try and get her to change her mind about the marriage proposal. She tried to call them after she got settled stateside but her calls were ignored so she tried to start moving on from them.
Neither of us have strong family relationships anymore but I also think that is what drew us closer together. Being able to share and know the others pain and heartache has only made our bond stronger. Together, we started to build the family we always wanted.
At around the three months of us being together, I finally just asked her to officially move in with me. She already had a key, I gave it to her the second time she stayed over. It was stupid of Aaliyah to continue to pay for the condo she wasn’t even living in most of the time. After taking the key from my hand, Aaliyah told me she already put the condo onto the market. There was a few people that made offers and she just had to make a decision on who to sell too. That night, sex was more then sex, it was so intimate it felt like our souls found home in another.
A month of us officially living together in our little buddle, it finally popped. The team was getting deployed on a month long mission overseas and I only had three days to get my life together before I needed to report to base for the flight. It was a shock when I told Aaliyah I was getting spun up after being stateside for almost six months. There were tears, a lot of them when I couldn’t really tell her anything about the mission or where I was going to be in the world other then in a desert.
The morning I was leaving for the deployment, Aaliyah drove to me to base to meet up with the team. After we hugged and kissed for a few long minutes, I pulled something out of my pant pocket and pressed it into her hand. When Aaliyah looked down and saw what it was she started crying.
“You’re the Queen of my heart, I want you to keep this safe.” I said as I looked at the Queen of heart playing card I put in her hand. Aaliyah threw her arms around me again and held me close for a long minute before pressing a kiss to my neck and pulling away.
“I love you Cruz, please be safe and come home to me.”
It was the first time I left base with a reason to come home alive.
Our one month deployment got extended to for another when Major Joe McNamara showed up in person for a morning briefing at the base we were working out of in Jordan. And because we weren’t allowed to use the phone because of our location, the only thing I could do was give Joe a letter I wrote to Aaliyah for her to mail when she left for another base, hoping she wouldn’t be too upset about the extension.
The mission here in Jordan wasn’t bad. The first month we were here, our team was mainly set to work as base security. One of the more dangerous details while working on a base. Luckily we weren’t posted to gate duty a lot, we mainly worked in pairs around the perimeter. We had a few fire fights but nothing to extreme. Nights were the hardest though, even though we had a pretty nice barrack to stay in, it was hard to sleep without Aaliyah’s warm body next to mine.
The second month away we had an actual mission to prep and execute when Joe returned with orders. Bobby quickly figured out that this was why were extended, Joe was waiting for the powers at be to green light the mission. So we were sent here to Jordan to work as base security so we would be ahead of the approval so we would already be in place, ready to execute the orders instead of having to wait for a team to get in country, train and then deploy for the mission.
For the mission, we were being sent into Syria to extract and asset for the state department. The team had about a week to prepare and get a mission plan together before we had to move in. We Helio jumped into country under the cover of nightfall and made our way on foot to retrieve the asset. The mission went smoothly. The asset was where he said he was going to be and we were able to find our exfil vehicles without issue to drive back into Jordan to base. We stuck around on base for another week while the asset was cleared for base security and then we were on a plane home.
When I tried to turn my phone on when we landed in the states, I found it was dead so I just hitched a ride home from Bobby. It was pushing midnight when Bobby pulled up in front of my house and I saw that Aaliyah’s car was in the driveway. I wished Bobby a good night before grabbing my gear out of the bed of her pick up before walking up the walkway to the front door. As I put my gun case down on the floor to have a free hand to unlock the door, it flew open to relieve Aaliyah. I barely had time to drop my duffle bag before she launched herself into my arms.
“Hey baby” I said as I held her tight and spun her around in my arms.
“Welcome home Cruz” Aaliyah said and pressed a kiss to my neck.
It took a few minutes for Aaliyah to release me enough so I could grab my bags and bring them inside. I threw my bags into the mud room for now before heading over to the bathroom to take a shower. After I finished up and changed into pajamas, I met Aaliyah in the kitchen. She was standing in front of the oven looking at a frozen dinner she pulled out of the freezer. Aaliyah is in one of my too big tee shirts and boxers with her hair thrown up in a bun. The sight of her took my breath away. When she turned and saw me staring, she gave me a big smile before putting the frozen dinner down on top of the stove as I came up to her. I easily lifted her in my arms and placed her on the island.
My hands wrapped around her sides, holding her body in my hands again made me feel like I was home. When I looked up from her lap, Aaliyah’s bright blue eyes were locked on mine. She wrapped a hand around the back of my neck and played with the loose damp strands of hair.
“I love you, so much baby. I’m really happy to be home.” I said softy getting choked up.
Aaliyah only smiled before pulling me into her. Our kiss was heated after spending two months apart but it didn’t cross the line into sex, not tonight. I needed a few days at home to get back into my normal routine of being home before I could be intimate like that. Aaliyah was patient as ever, never pushing me into something I wasn’t ready for, gave me space the first few days I was home because she remembered what I said about how I liked to have a few days by myself when I first get home from deployment.
It was during one of those moments by myself that I came home and found Logan sitting on our couch with Aaliyah and a mid sized mix breed dog sitting in between them. I was kind of surprised to see them here but remembered what Aaliyah said about getting to know Logan outside of the hospital. The two shared there own bond and I came to find out that while I was away, Aaliyah hung out with Logan a bit. They were finally settled in a new apartment about fifteen minutes from here. They would usually catch up over dinner but since Logan was in the area, they stopped by. Logan is a good kid and to see Aaliyah really bounce back after what happened made my heart happy.
After about a week of being home, things started to feel normal again. Sunset runs, grocery shopping, odd hours while we are both working. Life was good. We got to spend a few of our off days at the beach to whined down the summer and welcome the fall. Missions would pop up every once and a while but I as only gone for two weeks at the longest. I knew it wouldn’t last and another deployment would be coming around the corner but I just tried to live in the moment with Aaliyah. It was the one thing being with her started to make me realize about life. Just taking each day as they come in the presence of the love of my life.
That also became pretty clear the longer we were together. Aaliyah is the love of my life. Nothing and nobody could get me to say otherwise.
As the first real chill of October started to roll in, Bobby started to act twitchy. It’s almost like her tell, the team was about to be call on for something. So I made a decision. After our last briefing for the day, before I went home, I stopped at a jewelry store. Only once I started to look at the rings did I realize that I had no idea what size Aaliyah is. After I started freaking out, an older women who worked for the store took pity on me and pulled me aside for a minute. When I explained the situation, she just took my hand in hers and gave it a few pats to get my attention.
“Hon, the actual ring doesn’t matter. The way you’re talking about this girl, the only thing that’s going to matter is that you are asking for her hand. Rings can be replaced, resized and exchanged. The only thing that can’t is the love that they stand for.”
It took me a minute to wipe some tears away after she said that before we took a look at the engagement rings. Taking what the sales women said to heart, I looked at the engagement rings she brought over first. They were all simple diamond rings, nothing to flashy but it didn’t feel right. So when the sales women saw my indecision, she pulled me over to another case of rings. This case, there were different color stones in different cuts. She hung back while I looked through them all before on caught my eye. When I pointed at it and asked to see it, the women pulled it out of the case and let me hold it to get a better look. The garnet stone was in an emerald cut with three small diamonds on both of the longer side of the stone in a white gold setting.
It was the one. I bought it on the spot and brought it home with me. Aaliyah was working overnight tonight and wouldn’t be home until tomorrow afternoon. So for now I put the ring box in my nightstand draw and made myself dinner. The rest of the night was quiet and after a shower I went to sleep and dreamed of Aaliyah wearing a white dress, waiting at the end of the aisle for me.
The next morning when I woke up, I texted Aaliyah and asked when she thought she would be getting off work. When I got an answer a little while later saying she would probably be home by 2, I started to come up with a plan. With the weather being a nice warm October day, I thought it would be nice to have a picnic at the end of our running trial. So I went around town, got our favorite things for lunch and packed it all up in my truck before getting home. Just as I slipped the ring box into my pocket, I heard the front door open. A smile graced my lips as I leaned against the bedroom door frame and found Aaliyah stretching out her neck in the doorway. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her and she leaned into me.
“Tired babe?” I asked quietly as I ran a hand through her hair.
“So tired, I can’t wait to sleep.” Aaliyah said quietly.
“Any chance you can delay some sleep for a picnic?” I asked trying not to be suspicious.
“I’m really tired Cruz, I was in surgery most of the night from back to back trauma’s.” Aaliyah said a bit more firmly.
“Alright, food first then we’ll get you to bed.” I said and pressed a kiss to her head changing my plan.
“I’m going to shower, I’ll be out in a few minutes.” Aaliyah said and covered her mouth when a yawn escaped.
I grabbed Aaliyah’s duffle and walked it into our bedroom as she started up the shower. Next I went out to my truck to bring everything inside and put the spread out onto the table. Just as I put two bottle of water onto the table, Aaliyah came out of the bedroom and gave me a lazy smile as she walked over to the kitchen table. Thinking my feet, I rushed over to her and took her hand in mine, stopping her from sitting down. Aaliyah gave me a questioning look before I knelt down on one knee.
I always thought that if I loved someone enough to get married and I did the proposing I would be nervous. But right now, kneeling before Aaliyah, there were no nerves. Just love. Taking the ring box out of my pocket, I opened it for Aaliyah to see, our other hand still connected.
“I did want to do this somewhere a little nicer, but this just feels right. Aaliyah, the day we spent in the airport together in Spain, it felt like I met my other half. When we both went our separate ways, all I wanted to do was chase after you. You’re the first person to love me, truly love me for me, scars and all, and I love you more then words could ever describe. I know this might be too soon, only knowing each other less then a year, but this feels so right. My heart and soul is yours. I don’t know what the future holds but the only thing I see when I think about it, is you standing by my side. Doctor Aaliyah Amrohi, will you marry me?”
By the time I finished speaking Aaliyah had tears running down her face. She just nodded and knelt down on the floor in front of me before pressing her forehead to mine. I took the ring out of the ring box and slowly slid it onto her finger. Somehow, the ring was a perfect fit.
It took us a few minutes before we were able to get up off the floor and have dinner. I could barely eat because of the smile on my face. While we eat dinner, Aaliyah told me about her long night in a few different operating theaters because of the massive pileup that happened on the highway. After I told Aaliyah about the women who helped me pick out the ring, she wanted to go to the same jewelry store so she could pick me out a ring as well. I blushed at the thought of wearing a ring from Aaliyah and buried myself into my burrito bowl. As we finished dinner, I put the leftovers away while Aaliyah got ready for bed. Even though it was only just a little after five in the evening, I joined her in bed after pulling the curtains closed.
Aaliyah rolled herself into my arms once I laid down and got comfortable. My arms held her close to my body and I felt Aliyah relax into my arms. We were quiet for a few minutes but I could tell something was preventing Aaliyah in falling asleep.
“Something is going on, isn’t it?” She asked quietly. I sighed and pressed a kiss to her head and held her tight for a minute before relaxing.
“I honestly don’t know, Bobby has been acting weird the last few days, in the past whenever this happened, we were sent on a deployment, like a proper one, at least six months.” I answered.
“Alright” Was the only thing Aaliyah said before pressing a kiss to my chest, right above my heart before settling and falling asleep.
Sometime during the night I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, Aaliyah’s morning alarm was going off. We spent a lazy morning in bed together as Aaliyah had the day off and I didn’t have to be on base today. When we eventually got out of bed and got dressed, Aaliyah asked if we could go out for breakfast. It’s something we don’t get to do often as we usually try to make food at home and with our crazy schedules, we mostly don’t have the time to spend together. So once dressed, we went to a breakfast place called The Twisted Fork in town. As always, the food was wonderful and it was so nice to see the ring shining so bright in the sun coming in from the window.
When we finished up, Aaliyah and I took a walk through town, our hands intertwined the whole way, as we walked in and out of a few shops to pick up a few things. The only time we pulled apart was when we had to get back into the Jeep to drive home. Aaliyah took to putting everything away as I started a load of laundry. Just as I was leaving the mud room, my cell rang and pulled it out to see a notification from command instructing me to come to base. I tried to keep the emotion off my face when I walked into the kitchen but when Aaliyah looked up at me, she knew something was up. When I told her I was needed on base, I knew I saw nerves in her eyes. We both knew something was coming. So I pressed a kiss to her lips, grabbed my ID and left.
When I got to base and found the meeting room, it looked like everyone was waiting on me. Bobby was standing in camo with Major McNamara standing in front of the room. I took my seat and once I opened my notebook, Major started speaking. The team was being deployed for a long term assignment in Jordan on a much more dangerous mission. We were set to be away for eight months. I clenched my jaw so hard I thought I cracked a tooth. Listening to the mission objectives, I knew these eight months were not going to be like the last two we spent in Jordan.
The meeting was long and the longer Joe talked about what we were going to do, the more I kept thinking of Aaliyah. At the end of the meeting, Major McNamara gave us our deployment date. We had a week before we needed to report. When we were finally dismissed, I ran out of the room like it was on fire.
Just when I finally found my happy ending, I might lose it.
I stayed in my car in the parking lot for a while on base before finally going over to our barracks to review all of my gear to see if anything needed to be ordered and replaced. I was moving on autopilot working through my gear, my mind elsewhere. It took a while to go through everything so when I got into my Jeep I wasn’t surprised to see the sun was starting to set. Pulling into the driveway I sighed before grabbing my bag and walking inside. Aaliyah was in the kitchen on the phone with someone when I walked in. I put my keys in the bowl by the door, hung my bag on the hook above the table, kicked my boots off and stowed them under the table before finally turning to Aaliyah.
Aaliyah took in my expression and quickly hung up the phone as I walked over to her. I stood next to her and looked down to see the red of the garnet staring up at me. Tears started welling in my eyes as I took a deep breath to try and steady myself.
“The team is being deployed.”
“How long?” Aaliyah asked, her hand position changed, she’s gripping the counter now, her knuckles starting to turn white.
“I’ll be gone for eight months, I have a week before I have to go.” I answered.
The white knuckles gripping the countertop now turned into a fist. I didn’t bother saying anything else, there was very little I could say right now that could make this better.
“I need some time to process this. I’m going into the backyard.” Aaliyah said before picking up her phone and walking out the sliding glassing door that led to the backyard.
I couldn’t watch Aaliyah leave. Having zero appetite, I went to the fridge and grabbed the remaining four bottles of the six pack of Budweiser before sitting down on the floor of the kitchen, back against the island, facing the back door. From where I saw sitting, I couldn’t see Aaliyah but just knowing she was out there was enough for me. I chugged the first two bottles of beer, needing something to numb this pain I had inside. The third went down in three gulps. By the time I twisted the bottle cap off the fourth bottle, my phone vibrated on the floor next to me. When I flipped it over I saw it was a text from Aaliyah asking me to come outside. With the open bottle in tow, I went outside and found Aaliyah sitting in the grass of the backyard.
I sat down on the grass next to her and offered her opened bottle. Aaliyah took it and finished what was left in a few sips.
“Do you think you’re going to be gone longer then the eight months?” Aaliyah asked once the beer was gone.
“There’s always a chance, but I don’t know.” I answered and reached out to her, not sure if she wanted my touch right now. My hand sat next to hers in the grass for a long while before she put her hand on mine and moved closer to me. She leaned her body against mine and we spent an hour outside before the chill of the night started to get to us.
Together we got ready for bed and went to sleep together, holding onto each other tightly. The next two days were tense, I was busy on base in intelligence meetings and getting things together and Aaliyah was at work. That night when we laid in bed together I couldn’t sleep. All the information we learned today had me on edge and my mind was spinning. But because all of this was going on another thought popped into my head and my brain wouldn’t let it go. Finally I turned to look at Aaliyah and I knew she wasn’t sleeping either.
“Aaliyah” I said getting her attention. When Aaliyah turned her head towards me I could see her blue eyes shining in the little bit of moonlight coming through the window.
“Marry me” A blush lightly colored Aaliyah’s cheeks before she lifted her hand so I could see her engagement ring.
“I think you already asked me that darling.”
“No, like, marry me, for real.” I said a bit more seriously. The vibe changed quickly after I said that.
“You leave in three days Cruz, we’ll get married when you get back.” Aaliyah said and took my hand in hers. A lump formed in my throat and I turned my head towards the ceiling to try and keep my tears away.
“I know, we can have a big party when I come home, but, this deployment, it’s going to be very dangerous Aaliyah. I want to be upfront with you about that. We are going into a dangerous area for missions that I could easily get me injured or make me come home in a box at worse. I want you” I had to stop speaking for a moment. The wave of emotion that ran through me was something I never experienced before.
“Aaliyah, if something does happen to me, everything, I have, I want it to go to you. If something happens to me, I want to come home to you and only you.”
I was barely able to get it out at all. It felt like my heart was breaking trying to convey how much this would mean to me. The tears finally came, I couldn’t hold them back anymore. Aaliyah’s my home, has been since she stayed over the night of our first date. Being married to her, even if it does only end up being for a few days, there would be no bigger honor in this world for me. To have finally found love in the world that has been nothing but cruel to me. To have Aaliyah as my wife. Wife. Some how I was able to find my voice again while Aaliyah remained silent.
“I’m sorry for springing this on you, I understand if you don’t want to go through with this, if you rather not get married, if you want to give the ring back. But I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least ask.”
Swallowing the lump in my throat was so hard to do, I honestly thought I was going to throw up. When silence still greeted me from the other side of the bed, I had to get up. I couldn’t lay here in silence anymore. Just as I pushed myself up, Aaliyah grabbed my wrist and pushed me down in bed before straddling me.
Her hands cupped my cheeks and forced me to look up at her. The turquoise eyes I love so much are surrounded by a ring of red, an unreadable expression was on her face. I couldn’t bring myself to touch her right now, unsure if I could handle the rejection.
“I knew when we met in the airport, you were going to be important to me Cruz. It didn’t take long for me to realize how important that was until now. I want you to come home to me too darling, no matter what.” Aaliyah said and bit her lip as her eyes watered again. I took a deep breath to let some air into my lungs finally before swallowing again and putting my hands on her waist.
“Tomorrow?” I asked.
“The day after, we need rings and I want to get henna done.” Aaliyah answered.
I could only nod as Aaliyah wiped away a tear that fell. She pressed a featherlight kiss to my forehead before she settled down mostly on top of me. With her weight on me and the blanket that she pulled up to cover our feet, I was finally able to get some sleep.
The next morning after breakfast, Aaliyah and I spent a good few hours filling out all the forms online for the marriage license and made an appointment for the in person ceremony for tomorrow. After all of that was done, we went down to the jewelry store where I bought Aaliyah’s engagement ring. The saleswomen who helped me pick it out was there and she helped us out today. I picked out a hammered white gold band while Aaliyah went with a ring that complimented the engagement ring. After the rings were secured, Aaliyah met up with Logan to go find a dress while I had to go to base for another meeting.
My day was long as we made our final gear prep for the trip. Once it was all packed up, Bobby took inventory before having the aircrew of the plane come and collect our gear trunks so they could put them on a pallet for the flight. By the time I got home it was already after five but I was happy to see Aaliyah sitting on the couch with Chinese take out on the coffee table with some more beer. I quickly showered and changed and met her on the couch.
“Do you have someone who you would want to be witness tomorrow?” Aaliyah asked as I dove into the boneless spare ribs.
“I can ask Bobby, I’m going to have to change all my paperwork anyway once we get the marriage certificate.” I answered after swallowing my mouth full.
“Okay, I asked Logan if they would be a witness when I saw them today.” Aaliyah said and took a sip of her beer.
“That sounds perfect baby.” I said and finally got to see the Henna that Aaliyah had on her hands. Whoever she went to to have it done, applied it beautifully. The intricate pattern on the back of her hands wove up her wrist to look like bangles. The inside of her hands and fingers were done up as well. “I wish I could have gone with you” I said as I took in both of her hands.
“We’ll have the chance to do it again, when you come home.” Aaliyah said as I pressed a kiss to her palms. We had a quiet night after that, we finished up dinner before heading to bed.
The next morning I sent Bobby a text and asked her if she was free for a few hours today for the wedding. It didn’t take long for her to agree and told me she’ll be free of meetings until lunch time. Aaliyah and I had breakfast together before we started to get ready. I showered and grabbed what I needed and brought it out to the living room to get changed. Aaliyah then locked herself in the bedroom to get ready.
I slicked my hair back in a high bun, only leaving a few strains out before pulling on the black vest and slacks I had in my closet before slipping into a pair of dress shoes. Once I was dressed and ready, I grabbed the wedding bands from the island and slipped them into my pocket before finding my IDs and wallet.
Our appointment is for 11am so I knew I had to rush Aaliyah a little bit so I knocked on the door to let her know we needed to hit the road. Aaliyah appeared a few minutes later wearing a white jumpsuit and it made me almost fall to my knees. She looked like a god. Her hair is perfectly curled down her back and finished off the look with a pair of heals that almost made her my height.
“You look so beautiful.” I said and finally found her eyes again. She gave me a smile before she took my hand in hers.
“You ready?” She asked.
We left a few minutes later after we double checked that we had everything. After parking, Aaliyah and I made our way up to the court house and found Logan waiting outside in a simple suit and with a bowtie that has astronauts floating in space on it. Aaliyah left me to hug them when I found Bobby waiting on the steps of the courthouse in her Marine uniform. She smiled when she saw us but decided to wait up there for us.
It didn’t take long for us to walk down to the courtroom we were instructed to. When we got there, there was only one other couple waiting ahead of us so we all took a seat in a row together.
“For you both, something old, they were the first I got after getting out of boot camp.” Bobby said and pulled her hand out of her pocket holding two challenge coins. Aaliyah and I each took one and slipped it into our pockets.
“Next for something barrowed, two of the pins I was wearing the day I went to the ER.” Logan said and held out pins, one of them was a black dragon holding a rainbow heart and the other is a smaller pin with a rainbow background that says Gay and Adorable on it. Aaliyah laughed and picked up the Gay and Adorable pin before pinning it to my vest. Bobby couldn’t help but laugh as I followed suit and pin the dragon pin to Aaliyah’s jumpsuit.
“And finally something blue, the boys wanted to come and crash but since you didn’t specifically invite them, they wanted to be here in spirit some way, so I present you with these.” Bobby said and pulled out two different color blue pocket squares. Logan took one from Bobby and fluffed it up before putting it into one of Aaliyah’s breast pockets before doing the same to me.
By the time we were finished, our names were called and we all stood up. Bobby took her place next to me while Logan stood on Aaliyah’s side. The judge gave us a smile and confirmed everything on our paperwork before going right into the ceremony. The judge was nice and it didn’t take long for her to realize the gravity of our situation when the tears gathered in my eyes as we repeated her words, in good times and bad, in sickness and health, until death do us part, I had to bite my cheek to stop the tears from falling.
When the judge asked for the rings, Aaliyah’s eyes widened before I smiled and pulled out the box from my pocket. She looked relieved before hitting me in the bicep and I couldn’t help but chuckle. We exchanged rings and I couldn’t help but smile at Aaliyah.
“And now by the power vested in my by the state of North Carolina, I now pronounce Doctor Aaliyah Amorhi and Cruz Manuelos married, you may now kiss your bride.”
Our first kiss as wife and wife was everything I thought it could be and more. Our sealed commitment to each other. A promise that I’m going to do everything I can to come home to her, whole, and in one piece. The biggest milestone in building our family. The start of the future we want to have in each other. After we broke away from one another, Aaliyah put her head into the crook of my neck and I could feel the tears flowing from her eyes. I couldn’t help my own anymore and I just held her tight for another minute before bending down to whisper in her ear.
“We need to finish up here, my wife.” Before pressing another kiss to her temple. Aaliyah slowly pulled away from me before nodding and I helped her wipe away the tears from her face. Once she was as put together as she could be, we signed the last of the paperwork from the judge and watched and Bobby and Logan sign as our witnesses.
With all the paperwork in hand, we left the court room and walked down a few halls to the court clerk to have the marriage certificate filed with the courts and getting a few copies made. As we made our way out of the courthouse, we said our goodbyes to Logan and Bobby before getting into the car. On the drive home, I went through town and stopped at the bakery. Aaliyah clung on to me when we got out of the car and walked in.
“What’s your favorite cake flavor baby?” I asked her quietly as we looked through the cases.
“Chocolate, always chocolate my wife.” Aaliyah said and kissed my bare arm. My eyes watered at her words as I went up to the counter and picked out the best looking chocolate cake in the case.
With the cake in hand, we drove the rest of the way home. When we got there, a bottle of champagne was sitting on the front step with a note attached, celebrate on us ~the boys. Aaliyah opened the front door while I had the cake and bottle. We stayed in our outfits and had cake with champagne on the couch that night. The bubbly helped sooth the pain behind our smiles and after we finished our fill of cake, we moved the party to the bedroom and only came out of it to get some more cake for dinner before returning.
The next morning, I had to go to base to have all of my paperwork updated. After I finished everything, Bobby and I walked it over to Major McNamara so it will be filed for when we have to leave the next day. When I got home a few hours later, I found Aaliyah in bed still having a lazy day. As I started to get my stuff together to pack, Aaliyah got out of bed to help me get everything I needed together. I told Aaliyah what I needed and she would grab it for me while I rolled everything up to pack it as tightly as I could together in my duffle bag. Being only allowed to bring this and a backpack, I needed to conserve as much space as possible.
It took about an hour and a half to get everything packed up. Once I had everything I needed, I put the duffle by the front door to be ready for tomorrow. The rest of the day was peaceful, Aaliyah and I made dinner together before spending the rest of the night in bed.
Our final morning together was quiet. After getting up, I went to take a shower before getting dress and only got to stand under the spray for a minute before Aaliyah was in front of me again. We showered together, not wanting to be away from each other. When I was done, I dried off and got dressed in my camos. Before I could slick my hair back, Aaliyah stopped me and had me sit on the floor in front of the bed. She sat behind me and carefully worked my hair into a French braid while I spun my wedding ring around my finger.
When she finished up, I knew it was time for me to start heading over to base to confirm my new paperwork was filed with command. So Aaliyah got dressed while I gave the house a once over to make sure I didn’t leave anything behind. Once I was sure I had everything, I put the letter I wrote Aaliyah on my nightstand for her to find later. On the envelope I wrote, open when you need me. I don’t know if we will be able to get a chance to use the phones when we get over there and an eight month stint without any communication is going to be hard. Next, I grabbed my notebook that contained anything and everything I could think of about the house and put it on the kitchen island for Aaliyah to find. The notebook was a collection of different phone number for Aaliyah if something were to break and just general house stuff like how to flip breakers back on in the electrical panel if the power were to go out.
With my duffle and back pack ready, I took my house key off the key ring with my truck key and walked outside. The chill of fall started to make her presence felt as I zipped up my outer jacket while putting my stuff into the trunk of Aaliyah’s car. Aaliyah joined me a few minutes later and we were off to base.
The ride over was tense, Aaliyah’s hand tightly held mine until she put the car into park in the parking lot by the office building where I needed to meet Bobby about my paperwork. Aaliyah took a deep breath before she took my hand again and put something in it.
“The last time you left, you gave some a piece of your heart. This time, I wanted to give you a piece of mine.” Aaliyah said as I looked down in my hand and found the dragon pin that I pined to her jumpsuit for our wedding. “It’s a piece of me that will keep you safe over there.”
I ran my thumb over the rainbow heart in the middle before putting the pin in my left breast pocket. When I looked at Aaliyah she reached down and pulled an envelope from between her seat and the door before handing it to me.
“I also know you left your phone at home, I wanted to give you this to have as well.” Aaliyah ran her hand through her hair while I pulled the lip of the envelope open and turn it upside down. Out slipped photos, photos from our wedding. There wasn’t a lot, about ten in total from various parts of the ceremony. But being able to physically hold them in my hands mean the world. Our wedding was a real, tangible thing. The rings, the pin, now the photos. God.
I couldn’t say anything, my throat was burning from trying to keep my emotions together that I knew if I opened my mouth right now, the only thing that would come out would be a sob. Careful not to bend any of them, I put the photo’s back into the envelope and leaned over the center console to take Aaliyah’s face in my hands to bring her lips to mine. The kiss was everything I couldn’t say with words.
When we broke apart, I pressed one more kiss to her forehead before getting out of her car. I grabbed my duffle and back pack before closing the trunk. Aaliyah was waiting for me, standing outside her car. I put my stuff down on the floor before pulling her into a bone crushing hug.
“My beautiful, intelligent, kind, amazing, wife. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I love you so much. I’m going to come home to you my love, come hell or high water, I promise you that.” The words tasted like fire as they finally sprang from my throat.
“You’re the center of my world Cruz, please come home to me. I love you too.” Aaliyah finally said back and pressed a kiss to my neck.
When I finally pulled away from Aaliyah, I grabbed my bags and turned to walk into the building. I couldn’t look back. Tears were streaming down my face as I scanned into the building and made my way to Bobby’s office. She didn’t say anything as I stood before her to report for duty. She told me that Major McNamara confirmed with her that my new paperwork is now on file. I could only nod and grab my bags to make my way over to the plane that is going to take me half way around the world while my heart still lays bleeding here in Aaliyah’s hands.
The flight was long. I think Bobby told the boys to leave me be because they didn’t bother me once after they all said hello. When we landed in country, we didn’t have long to get settled before we set on rotation for base security. Just long enough for us to get our gear in order, prepped and assembled to be worn before we were given our posts for the night.
Time works differently while stationed in the desert. It was always hot, the sun always unyielding, sand was in every single item of clothing no matter how many times it was washed. Days felt like a mirage, just bleeding into each other. Slowly I started to remove bricks around my heart around the team again. I couldn’t be a complete robot while I’m here. We are going to be here too long for me to keep this up. Not being able to call home helped. After getting our initial intel briefing when we landed, we learned that calls home would be hard to come by.
After our first month of settling in, we were given our real mission for being here. Our main purpose here was for gathering intelligence, but if there was a situation that called for it, our team would be called upon for search and rescue missions since we are considered mission ready being here.
December started with a length intelligence gathering mission in plain clothes. We needed to blend in with locals. Which really meant I would be working a lot with Tucker as we blended in better then Bobby, Randy, Tex and Two Cups. They would be following us in vehicles and other hold up points. Tucker and I were able to gather a good amount of information regarding a new human trafficking ring setting up shop in the area. This ring would take mostly women and young girls while on vacations in the middle east and then sell them to the highest bidder anywhere in the world. The more American women they trafficked, the higher the payments they would get for them.
Tucker and I were set up in a hotel in the middle of the city, watching and waiting for the ring to strike. While we were playing the part of a newly wed couple, the rest of the team was working behind the scenes in the hotels in the area. It was a long three weeks of getting to know people and trying to put together who the more important players are in the ring.
By the time it was decided we got enough intel and were called back to base, it was already the week of Christmas. When we got back to base, as a reward for the intel we managed to get, we finally got clearance to make phone calls home on the encrypted SAT phone. Everyone wanted me to take the phone first but I hesitated, unsure if Aaliyah would be at work and would even be able to answer the phone. A little extra poking from Bobby finally made me pick up the phone and call the only person I’ve wanted to call.
Dialing her number I walked out of the common area of our barracks and moved towards my bunk for a little bit of privacy. The phone rang a few times and I let out a sigh thinking she wouldn’t pick up. Then the call connected.
“Doctor Amorhi-Manuelos.” Her voice brought tears to my eyes.
“You decided to hyphenate our names?” Was the first thing I could say through my tears.
“Cruz!” Aaliyah almost yelled into the phone. There was some more yelling on her end before I heard a door open and close. “Cruz!” Aaliyah said again.
“Hey baby” I said and sunk down to the floor.
“Hi my love, are you okay, how are you doing?” Aaliyah asked sounding a bit out of breath.
“I’m fine baby, I promise, all good, how are you? Where are you?” I asked wanting to shift the attention off of me.
“I’m okay, I’m good at work actually but I don’t care, I rather talk to you.” Aaliyah said.
“You were in the middle of a surgery, weren’t you?” I asked and sighed.
“Yes, but that is why we have multiple surgical residences who can take over, so if you have a chance to call me again, do it, no matter the time alright.” Aaliyah demanded.
“Yes ma’am” I said and chuckled.
We got to talk for an hour just catching up. Of course I couldn’t say anything about where I was or what I was doing, but hearing about how work has been going, her weekly dinners or lunch dates with Logan are, just the happenings of home lifted my spirits. But of course all good things must come to an end. At the hour mark, someone started to bang on the door Aaliyah was hiding behind. At first I didn’t want her to hang up because I didn’t know when or if I would be able to talk to her again while on this tour, but she needed to go. So I had to say goodbye for now. It was already a Christmas miracle that she was able to stay on the phone as long as she could while at work.
The rest of December was spent on base security in full gear. Some of the intel we gathered showed that our location wasn’t as hidden as we thought it was. It was kind of hell. There was one close call, a few people started to get close to the perimeter, looked like they were digging up some sand, then the next then we knew, we were all knocked back because of the shock wave of the explosion. After pulling ourselves together to return fire, it took about an hour of a fire fight before the last of the enemy was taken down. After that night, Joe had pulled us from base security for a few nights to recover from the shock of the moment.
Ringing in the new year, we got another recon mission to work on. This time the guys went to work at a high end poker game while Bobby and I spent the night a few hotel rooms above them recording everything in ear shot of them. The poker night was an invite we got from one of the guys Tucker chatted up at the hotel when we stayed there in December. The man that invited us really only wanted Tucker to come and I was more then happy to stay behind in the hotel room with Bobby. Between cloning phones and recording conversations, we had a lot of stuff to comb through when we got back to base.
From the intel we gather and put together, command was going to have a big decision to make on our next move with this ring. They are started to get bolder in there attempts of taking women and from the intel we gather, we knew that they would be having an auction soon. So while command worked behind the scenes on the intel, our team was rotated to base security for almost all of February.
As the first week of March came, command called us in to brief us on the mission they wanted us to run. A high skates rescue mission to try and free people from the human tracking ring in the neighboring country. Now that they received some more intelligence that the auction is going to be taking place in two weeks, it was our time to move.
The mission would be hard and fast, we were expecting a lot of resistance from enemy forces so we packed a lot of magazines. Instead of jumping, we would be driving into the country, moving through back country roads to reach the village. When we got to the village, we would break out into two teams to breach the target building and rescue the hostages before driving back to base.
Once the plan was hammered out and planned pretty much to the tee, we started to get ready to move. The drive would take about two hours to the village from base and we would be moving out at 23:00 hours. So now, we all went back to the barracks and got geared up. We all went through final weapons checks and then we split into our teams in the trucks and moved out.
The ride was long. The cab of the trucks were only two seaters so I was in the back of the truck with Tex during the drive. We knew we were going to cause a lot of nose on the way in so once we started rolling through the quiet village streets, there was no turning back. Randy drove the truck I was in following closely behind the one in front of us. Once we got close enough to our target building, we all sprung from the trucks and started moving. Tex and I took out two guys outside of the house that were on security before Two Cups and Tucker breached the door. We pushed inside and made quick work of the light crew inside the house, careful to keep in mind that there are civilians inside.
As we made our way through each room, we found more civilians then we thought we were going to find. After we cleared the house and finding no more enemy combatants, the hair on the back of my neck started to stand but, something was wrong here. We were expecting the force of a small army, not a skeleton crew.
“We need to move out, fast.” I said into the comms as I started to ask the women I found to gather themselves so we could get them to safety.
“Agreed, as quick as possible, get everyone back into the trucks, Cruz on me.” Bobby said from a few rooms away. The guys started helping everyone into the trucks outside as I made my way deeper into the house to find Bobby. Her flashlight was on, looking at the walls.
“What’s it say?” Bobby asked, and that’s when I noticed the black writing on the walls. I took the flashlight from her hand and rolled it over the whole wall to make sure I had everything before I started to translate it back to her. Even though a few guys on the team could speak Arabic, I was the only one fluent in reading it as well.
“You think you are smart, but we are smarter.” I said.
And that’s when all hell broke loose. Explosions rocked the building, pitching both Bobby and I onto the floor.
“Bobby, Cruz!” I could hear Randy’s voice through the comms as I crawled over to a window to try and see where the explosions came from.
“Make sure everyone is ready to move Randy! We’ll be out in two minutes!” Bobby yelled just as we started taking on gun fire. I ducked down as the glass blew out from the window. I could feel the sting of some pieces cutting into the exposed skin of my face.
“Cruz, see if you can find anything intel related while I distract them.” Bobby yelled and threw a grenade out the window.
The blast shook the walls as I scrambled away from the wall and looked around at a few tables around the room. There wasn’t much to grab, a few cellphones, one laptop that I didn’t think was going to be worth the time and some documents off the wall. Once I had it in my bag, I hit Bobby on the shoulder. She was in the middle of reloading and once she was done, we radioed the team that we were coming out and make sure everyone was ready to move.
The guys turned the trucks around while we were inside so all we had to do was cross the street to them. They were returning fire and Bobby and I were cleared to move. Once we made it to the front door, I made a move to exit first. Then all of a sudden, I felt myself get shoved back through the door frame and Bobby stepped out the front door, taking multiple rounds to the chest.
What happened next felt like an out of body experience. I screamed at the guys that Bobby was hit as I scrambled to pull her back inside the house away from the line of fire. The boys were all yelling that they found the shooter and took them out, that we were clear to move again. With no time to waste, I put my arms under Bobby’s and dragged her outside to towards the waiting trucks. The guys were firing in every direction, trying to distract from the situation happening right in front of the enemy. But everyone in the Marine’s knows Murphy’s Law. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time.
Just as I got Bobby into the middle of the street, I heard someone yell RPG. I had no idea what direction it was coming from so I tried to pull Bobby faster across the street to safety. But we were still too far from the trucks and too far from the house to turn back around, the enemy got us where they wanted us. Exposed with no cover. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground, my ears were ringing, Bobby wasn’t in my arms anymore and my left leg felt like it was on fire. It took me a second to get my bearing’s but once I did, I found Bobby not far from me. So I stood back up on shaky legs, grabbed Bobby and rushed as much as I could to the trucks. Tucker was there waiting for me and helped me load Bobby into the back of the truck and we were off.
Together, Tucker and I started to pull Bobby’s gear off of her to try and find the entry wounds. Once we found it, I got light headed and had to sit down. There was actually three, one in her left shoulder that looked like caught the edge of her vest, another just on the other side of her shoulder strap for the vest that most likely shattered her collar bone. Both were threw and threw. The third is the one that was scaring Tucker. Just below the vest on her left side that was pouring blood out. While I worked on helping stop the bleeding to her shoulder area, Tucker tried to stop the blood from pouring out of her stomach.
That’s when one of the women in the back of the truck put her hand on my shoulder. I looked at her and she pointed to my left leg. That when I noticed it. I didn’t get away from the RPG blast unscathed. My calf and part of my thigh is burned badly, shrapnel imbedded into my skin but I couldn’t feel it right now with my focus still on Bobby and my ringing ears.
“Tuck” I said when I found my voice. He looked up from Bobby’s stomach and the women pointed at my leg again.
It was at that point, my body started to come back to me. Feeling the truck speed over the desert sand, hearing the hushed voices of the people we just recovered from the house, the smell of my burnt flesh, feeling light headed. All of it started to crash on me and when I looked down at my hands to find them covered in Bobby’s blood, the world titled and I passed out.
The next thing I remember was waking up in pain. My whole body hurt. My left leg felt like it was on fire. When I opened my eyes, I was met with concerned looks from someone I didn’t recognize before a medicated fog rolled over my brain and I was sleep again.
Waking up the second time, there was still pain. Not as much as I was in the first time, but everything was numbed around the edge. When I finally opened my eyes, I could tell I was in a hospital somewhere. The room was still but as I looked around, I found someone sitting in a ball wrapped in a blanket in a large armchair close to my bed. Slowly, not to cause myself more pain, I reached out and touched the persons leg as it was propped up on the bed. They grumbled but slowly started to move out of the ball they were in and turned to look at me.
When her blue green eyes found mine, I knew I was home. Aaliyah was staring back at me like she saw a ghost but quickly got up and leaned over the bed to press a kiss to my forehead. After she pulled away she squeezed my hand before leaving the room. She was only gone for a minute but returned with a few doctors. Somehow I lost Aaliyah in all of there questions and tests but when they started to press along my left leg I had enough and pushed them away and yelled Aaliyah’s name.
She was right in front of me a second later and the rest of the doctors left the room, leaving us alone again. Once they were all gone, I held tightly to Aaliyah’s hand, afraid if I let go I would be back in the back of the truck with Bobby bleeding all over me. Bobby. My eyes snapped open to Aaliyah’s and she just pointed to the other side of the room. I whipped my head over and saw Bobby sleeping in the bed next to me.
All of the fight left my body as I took her in. She was hooked up to a lot of machines but she’s alive. When I turned back to Aaliyah, she gave me a smile and sat on the edge of the bed. Her free hand moved some fly aways out of my face before pressing a kiss to my temple. I sagged even more into bed now that she was so close. All I wanted to do was pull her down next to me and sleep. But there were a few questions I needed answers too first.
“How bad is my leg?” I asked quietly, my voice horse from lack of use. Aaliyah sighed and pulled away from my forehead to look me in the eyes.
“Bad my love.” Aaliyah answered and ran her hand through her hair.
“Was my leg the worst of it? I, I couldn’t really feel anything until we got to the truck.” I asked pushing through.
“You have another concussion from how close you were to the blast and from hitting your head on the fall. Not that bad, but enough for some concern. Minor bumps and bruises.” Aaliyah answered.
“How’s Bobby?” I asked wanting to push past my own issues for now.
“If Tucker wasn’t as good at his job, Bobby would have died on the way back to base. She’s alive because of him and you, trying to stop the bleeding from her shoulder.” Aaliyah said.
“So she’ll be okay?” I asked still worried about my friend.
“She might have some serious damage to her shoulder, but she’ll be okay in the long run.” Aaliyah said.
“Alright, come here, I want to go back to sleep.” I said and moved over a bit in bed to make room for Aaliyah. Aaliyah didn’t question it as she kicked her shoes off and got into bed next to me. Mindful of the machines I was connected too, she laid her head down on my shoulder and I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her in. I pressed a kiss to her forehead before settling into sleep.
My stay in the hospital was for about a month. Time moved quickly as I was mostly in and out of it, especially the first two weeks there. Between the pain medications and the heavy duty antibiotics I was on, you probably could have told me the sun was purple and I would have believed it. During one of my more my lucid moments, I had my debrief with command. Major McNamara came in one day and we spent a few hours going over what happened from my point of view. Bobby was out of the room at the moment in a follow up surgery to correct her collarbone now that she was stable. Once Joe got what she needed, I was doped up again when the last dose of pain meds started to ware off.
It was during a second moment of lucidity that I really started to understand how Aaliyah undersold how bad my left leg was burned. Third degree burns covered a good portion of my calf. It was during that moment when they asked for my consent for a skin graft to help the area heal. The donor skin would be taken from my right thigh and fit nicely over the worst of the burned area on my lower leg. Aaliyah was waiting for me when I got out of that surgery and was there most nights when I went to sleep.
Aaliyah was my rock. Even though I only got to really see her a few times during the first two weeks, just knowing she was here, watching over me, helped give me some kind of peace. The second half of my stay was more of pulling me off the heaviest of the pain medication to see how my body would respond. It really sucked, but having Bobby here in the same boat as me, helped a bit. After her second shoulder surgery, the doctors were confident in releasing her but when Bobby said she lives alone, they agreed to have her stay for another week to help her heal some more before letting her go home.
The week Bobby went home, I was alone. Aaliyah was working while I was in the hospital and once I would be released she was going to take some time off to help me at home. So other then the normal nurses and doctors, I was left on my own for a good chunk of the time. I did have a surprise visitor in Logan during the week and it was my biggest highlight. They filled me in on everything they did with Aaliyah while I was away and it made happy to know that the pair grew to have this beautiful friendship after such a horrific meeting.
Then finally, I got the best news from the doctors that I was going to be released. The skin graft was healing and surrounding skin was taking to it. They wanted me to do a little PT to get up and moving again as I really haven’t been out of bed much at all since I got here. I asked the doctor’s not to tell Aaliyah yet and they only gave me a smile before nodding they would keep it a secret for now. That night when Aaliyah found her way into my room, she gave me a smile before laying down next to me.
“April 23” I said as she got comfortable next to me. Once she did, she turned to look at me.
“That’s three days from now.” Aaliyah said.
“I know, it’s the date I get to go home.” I said with a smile on my face.
Aaliyah almost jumped out of bed when I told her the news barely able to contain her excitement. The next few days were full of movement. After not being up on my feet for a while, working with the physical therapists here was hard. Every session left me hot and sweaty as I started to regain my mobility.
Then finally, three hard days later, I was free to go. Aaliyah wheeled me out of the hospital to find the team waiting outside. Getting to hug all the guys was such a welcomed moment of freedom. It also gave me a minute to check them over and make sure they were okay. A few healing scraps on some of them, but they were all okay. Looks like Bobby and I were the only two who took the brunt of the attack.
The boys helped me into Aaliyah’s car and then put all my bags in the trunk. Then Aaliyah and I were finally on our own. Before Aaliyah even started to drive, I requested we stop at Frida’s for burrito’s on the way home. Aaliyah only laughed and gave me a kiss before driving off. We did get the burrito’s and they were the best burrito’s I think I ever had.
Finally, a month after the explosion, I was home.
The spring sun shine was doing wonders for my mood as I got adjusted to being stateside outside of the hospital. Aaliyah was given a month off through the Family Medical Leave Act to help me at home. Our usual nightly runs now looked like little strolls along the coast as my leg healed some more. Bobby was around a lot now that I’m home, we would often just sit on the patio chairs outside in the backyard together and just relax. It was during the time alone outside that I could finally ask her about something that has been weighing on me since I really started to come around.
“Do you know what happened to the people we managed to pull out of the house?”
Bobby turned in her chair a gave me a smile before turning her face back towards the sun. Her toothpick was in her mouth and she seemed lighter then I have seen her in the past few days.
“Major McNamara and command worked double time and got every person taken reunited with their families. Those that were taken also gave us more intelligence about other house’s like the one we raided and there locations for additional raids to rescue more that were taken. The guys are being attached to another recon team to assist in those runs.” Another weight lifted off my shoulder at her answer.
It took a while for me to really feel comfortable with walking long distances. It also helps that my wife happens to be a doctor and was constantly checking my leg to make sure the skin graft didn’t get rejected and the skin was healing correctly. While Aaliyah was still home from work, we actually started to plan a reception to celebrate our wedding. It wasn’t going to be that big of a party. We are going to be renting out a local Italian restaurant not far from the house. The restaurant, Umberto’s, has a large room for parties so we are going to be using that room for a reception. Aaliyah actually managed to extend her leave from the hospital for another month so we had the time to plan everything together.
Once we locked in a date with the restaurant, we had to send out invites. After coming up with a list, we both realized the reception wouldn’t be this big event. We both had our own small community of people around us and together, if everyone said yes, there would only be about fifty people at the reception.
Now that the location, date, menu and were picked out for the reception, it was time to decide on what we were going to wear. It only took Bobby and I one trip to a dress shop for me to leave thoroughly grossed out and wanting to dress in the same jumpsuit I wore to our wedding ceremony. On the other hand, Aaliyah went out with Logan to find a dress. She wasn’t sure what kind of style dress she was going to get but I knew the night of our party, she would be the best dressed in the room.
While we were planning our reception in the background, I was still going to physical therapy to try and gain the strength I lost in my leg back. From the beginning, my doctors already told me that this kind of burn could take a full year to heal to a point of normalcy. Even if the doctors do consider me fully healed, I don’t know if I’ll be able to return to Marines. The trauma my body went through along with the lingering mental after affects have left that part of my life in question. While my heal slowly healed from the concussion, I still have a light ringing in my left ear from being that close to the explosion. I’ve been getting headaches from prolonged loud noises and too much light. My neurologist is having me come back in monthly now to monitor what symptoms I’m having to see if there might be something else going on under the surface.
Too me, I think my body finally hit it’s limit. And on the flip side of that coin, I think I’m ready to accept my fate if it is. Medically retiring from the Marines. I’ll finally have my happy ending.
I’ve also learned that Bobby isn’t have the best time either during her PT. Now that she is off the heaviest of pain medicine, her shoulder throbs at all hours, worse after a PT session. She’s trying not to take the medicine but that level of paint has been forcing her hand. While the wound in her gut healed up nicely, it looks like her shoulder might force her to medically retire as well.
I’ve tried not to think to much about my career right now. My mind is just focused on trying to get my body feeling well again and our upcoming reception.
The week of the reception, Aaliyah came home from having her dress altered with a big smile on her face as she sat down next to me on the couch. I paused the episode of The Sopranos I was slowly working my way through to give her all of my attention.
“I know it’s not really your thing, but I booked us a spa day!” Aaliyah said with huge smile on her face. She’s right, just hearing the word spa is making my skin start to crawl but I’ll do anything to see that smile on Aaliyah’s face right now.
“Well, unless you count crawling under barbed wire through the mud a spa day, I’ve never had one before so I can’t say I don’t like it yet.” I said trying to show I was going to go even though I rather just lay on the couch.
“Ugh, I don’t know how you did it. This will be better then that, facials, massages, getting our nails done. You’ll be so relaxed, you’ll fall asleep. Then then we are all done, we are going to see my girl for Henna.” Aaliyah said with a smile.
I couldn’t help but smile at her in return and pulled Aaliyah into me. We spent the rest of the night together on the couch relaxing. The next morning, Aaliyah got me out of bed early and we went out for breakfast. Our usual breakfast spot was quiet this morning so Aaliyah and I got a table by the window so we could people was in the quiet moments. One thing that was a constant throughout breakfast was Aaliyah’s hand in mine. Her engagement and wedding right shining brightly in the sun coming through the windows on this beautiful May day.
After breakfast was over, Aaliyah drove us over to the spa she goes too. Her job is stressfully enough so usually once a month, I would book Aaliyah some kind of treatment at the spa she likes. A lot of the time, I change it up depending on how she is feeling. One month I booked her an extra long pedicure when she came home complaining about how bad her feet were hurting from running around the trauma floor all week. Another month, I booked her a hot stone massage to help release extra tension from her back and neck after having to help carry a lot of my stuff around the house when I came home. While I was deployed, I pre-booked a few treatments for her to try and help her relax while I was away.
But now we are in her happy place. All of the workers know her by name and once we walked in, we were brought back right away into a room to start. Our facials were first and it took me a little while to get used to the extra hands on my face but once Aaliyah told me to breath, relax and trust her, I was able to enjoy the treatment a bit more. Next were our nails. Since I didn’t have a choice in getting them done, I went with a black polish to match my jumpsuit while Aaliyah went with something called a French tip look.
After our nails were done, we moved over to another room where we would be having massages. The women tending to us left us then to get undressed and under the towel on the tables. Aaliyah had to help me get comfortable with my leg and she promised me that if I was uncomfortable, all I had to do was say stop and they would. The women working with me also knew not to go near my left leg. So once Aaliyah pressed a kiss to my temple, she got onto her own table next to me and the women walked in a few minutes later.
It didn’t take long for me to be able to relax on the table. The women was pulling all the knots and tension out of my body, I quickly started to realize why Aaliyah liked coming here so much. I got so relaxed that one second I was feeling the women start to pull the tension out of my upper back and the next it was too Aaliyah saying my name right in front of me. So relaxed I ended up falling asleep. Aaliyah was smiling at me when I turned my head to face her, her hand started to run through my hair.
“We are all finished my darling wife.” Aaliyah said quietly. I could only stare at her in wonder at her beauty for a few long seconds.
“How’d I get so luck?” I said quietly, mostly to myself.
“I don’t know, I think I’m the luck one with a wife who always treats me to treatments here. I wanted to return the favor.” Aaliyah said quietly before pressing another kiss to my forehead.
We stayed in this quiet moment for a few more minutes before I finally got up and slipped into my sweats. After we left the spa, it was well into the afternoon and on the drive home, Aaliyah took a detour and we ended up at Frida’s for dinner. We’ve started to come here so often that the staff behind the counter knows our names and usual orders. It was during dinner that Aaliyah let me know that her friends flew in for the reception. I was a little surprised to hear the news, given as we didn’t give much time before the actual date from when the invitations went out. As long as Aaliyah was happy that they’re attending then so am I.
On the way home from Frida’s Aaliyah told me that we also have an appointment to get Henna done before the reception. I don’t pretend to that I don’t know much about all the rituals and customs that come with marrying a Muslim women but I was happy that Aaliyah was sharing this part of herself with me. Since we started living together, I very rarely saw practicing. Only a few times would I hear her prayers in Arabic after a very bad nights at the hospital. She did explain that getting Henna done would have usually been a whole night affair with a party for all of the women involved. But since Aaliyah’s family is not going to be here for the reception, Aaliyah only wanted for me to get it done with her. After we finished up our dinner, we headed home for the night and I slept the best I had since I came home.
When I woke up the next morning, I almost felt like a new person. A lot of my aches and pains were gone and my body felt loose for the first time since I was a teenager. It made me want to go out in the backyard and just play like a kid. When I did go outside with my morning cup of coffee, I ended up pulling one of our patio chairs into the sun and sat down with my face up. Aaliyah found me a little while later still sunning myself. She called me inside for breakfast and while she made herself some eggs with vegetables, I went with three Ego waffles with syrup.
Next was a shower, which we ended up taking together before Aaliyah gave me instructions to wear an old tee shirt and dark colored pants. Once I was dress appropriately, we grabbed our things and were out the door. The drive was shorter then I thought it was going to be and soon we pulled up outside someone’s house. Aaliyah held my hand as we walked up to the front door. She only had to knock once before the door was pulled open to reveal Doctor Ghorbani, my neurologist. I looked over at Aaliyah and she only smiled before letting go of my hand to hug the man.
When she let go, she took my hand again and pulled me inside his house. They didn’t say anything as we walked inside, he just led us through the living room into their kitchen before sitting down at the table.
“So, I think I owe you a little bit of an explanation.” Aaliyah said and took a seat next to me.
“Maybe a little?” I asked still confused as to what’s going on.
“You remember our game in the airport? When you asked why I wanted to get out of practicing in New York?” Aaliyah asked and ran a hand through her hair. I just nodded as my mind took me back to our day in the airport in Spain that kind of felt like a life time ago now, let alone it still hasn’t even been a year since.
“Doctor Ghorbani was actually the reason why I left New York. We met while I was studying in England. I took all of the classes he taught because of how much I like him as a professor. So needless to say when he asked if I was going to go to medical school and I said yes, he offered to write me a letter of recommendation, I was surprised. While I was studying in England, whenever I needed a little taste of home, I went to his office hours. From there we started to build a friendship. It took me two years to learn that he is a world renowned neurosurgeon who took a few years off to teach in England before returning to the states but that’s a story for another time. Anyway, as I was finishing my residency in New York, I reached out to him, missing that piece of home and he told me to apply here. Fast forward to now, we are here.” Aaliyah said and flashed him a smile. Doctor Ghorbani sighed with a smile before sitting down in the chair next to Aaliyah.
“Your wife fails to tell you Cruz is that while she was studying in England, I took to her and much as she took to me. I was a bit disappointed when I found out that she didn’t match with the hospital here, but I knew one day we would be reunited and I am a patient man.” Doctor Ghorbani said and smiled.
“It’s the thing I love most about him.” A women said walking down the hallway and into the kitchen. The older women put a large bowl down on the table before giving me a smile. “My name is Zara, Mohammad’s wife, it’s lovely to finally met you Cruz, Aaliyah talks about you all the time, so it’s nice that she finally brought you around. Mohammad, it’s girl time now, I’m sure you can find a football match to watch.”
Zara gave Mohammad a pat on the shoulder and he gave her a loving smile before removing himself to the living room. Aaliyah sat quietly and watched as Zara laid stuff down on the table as the noise of a TV played in the background. It didn’t take long for Zara to prepare everything she needed then took my hands in hers. Before Zara began, she asked if I could remove my wedding ring, so it doesn’t get dirty. I agreed and pulled it off my hand before attaching it to my dog tags. Aaliyah actually gave me her rings as well to where for now. The afternoon was full of stories of a younger college student Aaliyah as she made her way through school, Mohammad and Zara becoming a safe place for her to land when she needed it.
All of the stories distracted me from watching Zara apply the Henna. I could feel the cool paste slowly being applied to all different parts of my hands and wrist but I tried not to look, wanting to just see the final product. The more stories that were passed around throughout the afternoon made an image start to take shape in my mind of a very stressed out Aaliyah, taking as many classes as she could during each semester, afraid her father would suddenly pull the money funding her education. Mohammad and Zara became the loving parents Aaliyah needed in a time when her real ones would barely pick up the phone to call. It made warm my heart to hear that Aaliyah was able to find support in Mohammad and Zara.
Then finally Zara finished. She pulled away from my hands and gave me a smile and nodded to look. Still, my eyes went over to Aaliyah for approval, when she nodded I looked down and gasped. The dark Henna covered trailed from my fingertips to my palm then formed rings around my wrist and ended about six inches above it. My hands almost mirrored each other in design, only a few difference in the layout to make each flow perfectly.
When I finally looked up from my hands Aaliyah had a soft smile on her face. I could tell her mind was elsewhere, thinking about how things could have been different if her family were more accepting of her wanting a career. How much having them here would have meant to her. So I let her have her moment. When I looked over at Zara I could tell she was thinking the same things as she cleaned up her hands and prepared more Henna for Aaliyah’s turn.
It didn’t take long for Zara to get ready for Aaliyah’s turn and shortly, her hands were in Zara’s, the dye already starting to stain her fingertips. As Zara finished up Aaliyah’s fingers on her left hand, I asked if these designs had meaning. Zara gave me a smile before launching into what each part of her craft met, it was during this discussion that pulled Aaliyah from her head and she started to talk about the simpler design Zara did for the ceremony on Aaliyah’s palms. As Zara worked, I could tell she was giving Aaliyah the same patterns as our ceremony, just now she had the time to build on them, making them grander.
The three of us talked here and there while Zara worked. It took about two hours for her to finish up Aaliyah’s arms and I could only smile as Aaliyah took in the designs. The warmth and love that radiated from Aaliyah made me tear up. We almost didn’t get to have this moment. I wish things could have been different, wish that I didn’t rush the wedding before I left so we could have had this bigger ceremony, one that Aaliyah deserved. I bit my cheek and pulled myself from my head when Mohammad walked into the kitchen to take a look at his wife’s work. Zara cleaned up the table a little and gave Mohammad her things for him to put away. When he came back into the kitchen, he stood in between Aaliyah and I and put a hand on each of our shoulders while Zara took our hands in hers. Together they said a prayer for both of us, blessing our union with health and longevity.
When they were done, Mohammad pulled out some food from the fridge and went outside to start up his grill to prepare lunch for us. This was news to Aaliyah and she tried to get out of staying but Zara just forced her to sit still while the Henna dried up. I leant a hand in preparing a few sides and it wasn’t long before we were eating. Lunch had a nice family atmosphere to it. While Mohammad knew a lot of my medical history and my career, he never brought that home, so Zara asked us a lot of questions on how we met and how I’ve been doing since I came home. This was the closest I’ve come to meeting someone’s parents and it definitely felt like it while Zara and Mohammad were asking me questions about myself. After lunch we finally bid them both a good rest of there day before going home.
The rest of the week was surprisingly peaceful even though Aaliyah’s friends took up a lot of her days before the reception. The three of them were staying at a high class hotel not far from here so they spent two days together, giving her a bachelorette party. My only request was that I did not want to get a phone call in the middle of the night saying they were arrested for doing something stupid. Aaliyah hit me in the shoulder when I said that and laughed but didn’t agree to it as she just gave me a kiss and slipped into her car to meet them at the hotel.
My own bachelorette party, well, you can’t really call it a bachelorette party. The guys were home from another successful raid and they picked me up with Bobby and brought us over to our favorite bar for a night of drinking and bar games. I even called Logan and asked if they wanted to come out with us as they most definitely wouldn’t be having that much fun with Aaliyah’s friends. They agreed and met us at the bar. When I formally introduced them to the guys, it took a might for them to get there pronouns right, but once the drinks started flowing, the guys pulled Logan right into our group. And because we spend a lot of money at the bar and we know the bartenders, they slipped us extra drinks for Logan.
The night was a blast. When I woke up the next morning on the couch in guys house with Logan asleep in the arm chair next to me, I kind of wondered how we even left the bar. We were all pretty drunk and I couldn’t really remember much of what happened after Logan and I won the second round of pool against Tex and Two Cups. Needless to say, we didn’t move much after we woke up. Once everyone was awake and the hangovers really started to settle in, Randy told us that he got us all home by piling us into the flat bed of Bobby’s pick up. Randy also started to cook up a storm as he wasn’t as hungover as the rest of us. Once we all consumed his famous hangover cure green juice and fed, Bobby drove Logan and I home.
Aaliyah got home a little after I did and she could only laugh at my misery as she joined me on the couch. It didn’t take long for her to pull out her phone to show me video’s I sent her last night, of all of us with Logan jumping around the bar to the song we couldn’t even hear in the background. The next video she showed me was just me confessing my love to her over and over again. When she tried to show me a third video, I flicked her phone out of her hand and just pulled her with me to lay back down on the couch. She couldn’t stop laughing as I held her close and it didn’t take long for me to settle down enough for a nap.
Then finally the date arrived. Our reception was going to start at 4 in the afternoon. Aaliyah and I were going to spend a lot of the day apart. Her friends were going to come and pick her up to get ready with them, while Bobby was going to be coming over later to give me a hand. We started our day together though, slowly waking up, jumping into the shower, then had breakfast. As we were finishing breakfast there was a knock at the door and Aaliyah jumped up to get it. When she pulled the door opened, Logan stood in the doorway with a garment bag in hand and a large smile on their face. Aaliyah pulled them inside and the two of them came back over to the island where Aaliyah whipped them up some eggs for breakfast.
Just as Logan finished up, I heard a car horn from out front and I knew that it was Aaliyah’s friends coming to pick them up for the day. So with a long kiss and a hug from Logan the pair was off. I didn’t get much time to stick around the house as I had an appointment to get my hair done. It’s been a long time since I had it cut and styled so I thought, why not. It took about an hour at the salon to get my hair the way I wanted, a nice trim of a few inches then a blow out. Even though I wanted to try and get my hair to curl, I knew it wouldn’t hold.
After I finished up at the salon, I went back home and relaxed on my own for a bit before Bobby showed up about an hour later. She plopped right down on the couch next to me and we just sat in the quiet for a while. I had some thoughts swirling in my head about everything that happened on the last deployment and how my leg still feels on a day to day bases.
“Hey Bob” I said and turned my head towards her. Bobby did the same and lifted an eyebrow to show she is listening. “I think I’m done”
Confusion slowly took a hold of Bobby face as I clenched my jaw. It only took a few long second for Bobby to understand what I meant because her face softened. She slid close to me on the couch and put her good arm around my shoulders and pulled me into her.
“I think I’m done too kid” Bobby said quietly.
Nothing else needed to be said. I put my head on Bobby’s shoulder and could feel a few tears fall from my eyes as I’m finally coming to terms with the decision to leave the Marine Corp. Looking back on it now, I always thought I would be a lifer. I had nothing else to live for so I made my peace early with that thought that if I died for this country, then at least my life would have been worth something. But then I joined Bobby’s team, I finally felt like I had a family for the first time since I was a small child and then came Aaliyah and now my life looks completely different from when I joined scared and broken about twelve years ago.
I know that for Bobby this decision is harder. She is a lifer, been in since she was eighteen. Worked her way up the ranks in a time that being a women in the military meant you couldn’t work in the field the way she does now. Once the ban on women in combat roles ended in 2015, Bobby forced her way onto a force recon team and did what she did best. Beat all the guys at there own game and command finally gave her a team of her own to lead. But of course they set her up to fail multiple times. Sometimes it was sabotages from within her own team, other times it was with no overwatch on missions that would have gotten her whole team killed. It didn’t take long for her weed out the bad seeds on her team and get guys in that would have her back like she would have theirs. Then Joe came along and that was it. Bobby could finally breath and would have the support in command she needed. Once she got Joe support in command, her teams mission success rate was nearly perfect. She’s been in the Marines for almost twenty five years now, I wouldn’t doubt that if she does follow through with leaving, it’s going to be a harder adjustment then I think she realizes.
As three o’clock rolled around, Bobby and I untangled ourselves from each other on the couch and started to get ready. We quickly realized though that we should have probably had another person here with us because between the two of us, we had three functioning arms and three functioning legs. I couldn’t bend down to tie my shoes and with Bobby’s arms, she couldn’t either. At least we were able to both get dressed properly though. I helped Bobby into her uniform and buttoned her up before helping her into her sling again. I only put on a little bit of makeup and as I was leaving the bedroom, something metical caught my eye. When I walked over to Aaliyah’s nightstand, I saw the dragon pin. Since I got home, I still haven’t had the heart to look through my stuff from overseas. I didn’t even know the pin made it home, I honestly thought I was lost in the desert on the ride back to base. I couldn’t help but grab it and walked over to the mirror and pinning it to my vest.
Once I walked back into the living room I heard a car horn out front and I knew that was our ride to the restaurant. I grabbed my phone, wallet and keys before Bobby and I were out the door. We got into the back of the black town car for the ten minute ride over to the restaurant.
“I called Tucker, he is going to met us outside to tie our shoes.” Bobby said before tucking her phone into her pocket.
I couldn’t help but laugh and the rest of the ride over was short. Just like Bobby said, Tucker was waiting for us outside when we got out of the car. He made quick work of our shoes before offering an arm for me to hold. I took it and then also took Bobby’s as well and the three of us walked into the restaurant together.
Most of our guests have already arrived so they all gave me a cheer when I walked inside the room. Looking around, I found Logan and Aaliyah’s friends already here so I knew she would be walking in right behind me. Both Tucker and Bobby gave my arms a squeeze before leaving me standing alone at the front of the room. Our Emcee got everyone’s attention for a few seconds before introducing Aaliyah. The door to the room opened again and in walked Aaliyah on Doctor Ghorbani’s arm, wearing a white dress that made my legs weak. The white dress was a beautiful mix of tradition and American wedding dresses. Aaliyah simply glowed in the dress. Her hair was styled in a bun with a few strains of hair out of it to frame her face, the Henna could be seen through the mesh sleeves of the dress and all I could think was that I was the luckiest women on the face of the planet to be able to call this women my wife.
I took Aaliyah’s hand in mine and we moved to the center of the room for our ‘first’ dance as a married couple. A cover of Stand By Me by Florence and the Machine was played as I took Aaliyah into my arms and we swayed back and forth surrounded by the family we have together started to build here in our life together.
“I don’t have words for how beautiful you are.” I said through tears, not able to hold them back any longer.
“I see you found the pin. It looks better on you anyway.” Aaliyah said and pressed a kiss to my jaw. I managed to spin Aaliyah out and then pulled her back into my arms to hold her even closer then before to look in her eyes.
“You know I never thought I would have this, this sense of family and love. Over the past two months I realized that I now that I’m home, I don’t ever want to leave again baby. I almost lost you once when we barely started to get our enjoy our lives together. I don’t want anything to come between that again.” I said feeling the need to get this off my chest now so I could enjoy this night together.
“What are you saying Cruz?” Aaliyah asked, hope in her voice.
“You’re my home Aaliyah and I’m never going to leave you again. I’m going to retire from the Marines.” I said and gave her a smile. Aaliyah returned one back to me and pressed her lips to mine as the song continued to play in the background. When she pulled away, she wiped away some tears from my cheeks.
“I love you so much Cruz, thank you for bumping into me in the airport.” Aaliyah said quietly, just for me to hear.
“I love you too my beautiful wife. And get ready to work some longer hours, I think I’m about to embrace being a trophy wife.” I said and gave Aaliyah a smile.
Aaliyah burst out in laugher and I couldn't help but smile as the song faded out behind us. I knew the future was going to have some bumps in it, but I know here and now with Aaliyah by my side, I’ll be able to make it through anything.