Page 35 of The Gunnery Sergeant's Ready-Made Family

“You thought right,” Chase said, bending down to Ranger’s height and catching the young boy as he launched into his arms. “Ranger, oh, I missed you,” he squeezed Ranger in a tight bear hug. Over his shoulder, he watched as Stevie snagged another chair for her grandmother to sit on, and a highchair for Finn. Nikki gave him a one-armed hug over the top of Ranger, who was refusing to budge and joined their large table, gratefully accepting a mug of hot cocoa from his mother as the two women settled down to discuss wedding plans. Chase shared a secret smile with Stevie over the table, he suspected that the next six months were going to be busy for her.

They spent the next forty minutes talking and laughing together, as did all of the families around them. They all knew time was running short, it was as if they had to say everything they ever wanted to say to each other in that one hour. Chase knew what drove that feeling, that desperation to not leave anything unsaid. There were no guarantees that everyone would come back home, Stevie and Chase and their families knew that better than most, and they were determined not to take anything for granted. It wasn’t long before Nikki rose and gathered Ranger and Finn together, despite Ranger’s protests.

“I want to stay with Uncle Chase and Aunt Stevie.”

“Darling, you can’t, they need to say goodbye in private, see, even Nanna and Poppy are leaving too.” Chase looked up, surprised to find his parents already gathering items together.

“We thought that we would go home with Ranger and Finn for a bit, maybe Ranger can even come in our car, would you like that Ranger?” His father asked Ranger, earning a loud yes in response.

Standing, Chase embraced his father.

“Be safe, I’ll pray for you every day.” His father said gruffly before nodding and taking Ranger’s hand, leading him out to the carpark. His father had never been big on words, but Chase had always known that he was loved and that his father would have done anything for him. Nikki followed next, a sleeping Finn draped on her shoulder. She hugged him tightly, promising to send regular parcels of her sugar cookies to him, knowing how much he loved them.

“Mom,” saying goodbye to his mother was always hard.

“I love you so much, please be safe and come home to us, we’ll miss you with every breath,” she held him close and he heard her familiar prayer, the one she had spoken over him at every deployment. “Dear Lord, please be with Chase on this tour, please keep him safe and healthy, and bring him home. Lord, this is the desire of my heart, but only You know what is best, You alone know the path we are to walk on. If it is Your will for Chase to return home to You, please be with him at the end, and with those who love him and who are loved by him, please let us see that it is Your will for Your purpose and help us to find the peace in that knowledge. Amen.”

“Amen,” Chase echoed. “I love you, mom.”

Chase and Stevie walked out to the front of the diner, waving to his parents and Ranger as they drove past and peeped the horn, and then to Stevie’s grandmother and a sleeping Finn as they followed closely behind his parents. He was glad that Stevie would have his family to lean on for support as well as the people on this base. His family had lived through a number of deployments over the years and would be able to help Stevie. Although she had seen Kyle deploy before, she hadn’t been in love with him, hadn’t missed him as a wife misses her husband, and Chase knew that it would be hard on her, the worry and the fear. As Chase stood with Stevie in the cold dawn, troops all around them, and eerie silence filled the air as heads bowed and Chaplain Brown began to pray.

“Dear God, please be with the men and women before me now, those that serve in uniform, and those that serve on the home front. I ask that you shield them with your protection, that you be the guiding force that leads them, and the protector who keeps them safe. Please keep them close to you Lord, as they navigate the journey ahead. Help these men and women to walk with you, united, unwavering, and strong. Be with their families Lord, those they leave behind, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fiancés, husbands, wives, friends, and loved ones. Bless them, Lord, be with them so that they may know Your love so that they are not alone. Amen.”

The final orders were given to move out, Chase looked at Stevie and drew her into a tight hug.

“I’ll call you as soon as I can,” he promised her, “but don’t be worried if you don’t hear from me right away, sometimes it takes a few days to set up communications.”

“I’ll be okay, Chase, please don’t worry about me. I have my social group and the boys to keep me busy, not to mention gran and your mum and our wedding plans, and Chaplain Barnes has promised to put me in touch with a few of the other wives who are facing their first deployment. We’ll be okay, we’ll miss you fiercely, but we will be okay. Just please take care of yourself, don’t worry about us, just worry about you and getting home safe.”

“I’ll miss you every second I’m gone,” Chase whispered.

“I’ll pray for you every day, please be safe, I love you.”

“I love you.” With a final kiss on Stevie’s forehead, Chase turned and boarded the bus that would take him to the airport.

Chapter Twenty-Three

It had been hard for Stevie and Chase to be apart after having just found each other, Stevie spending all of her free time either writing to Chase or planning their wedding, a task which she had relished. Now, six months after Chase deployed, Stevie was finally about to walk down the aisle. There was a soft knock on the wooden door, Stevie’s grandmother opening it to reveal Susan and Nate, a young couple from Chase’s group therapy, a brightly wrapped gift in their hands.

“Carol, you look beautiful!” Stevie met her new friend’s eye in the mirror, not daring to stand to greet her in case her make-up artist made an error.

“Thank you, Chase wanted you to have this,” Carol passed the gift to Nikki.

“Gran, can you get Carol the gift from the bedroom please?”

“I’ll be right back,” her grandmother smiled at Carol before leaving the room. “Here you go,” she handed over Stevie’s gift for Chase to Carol.

“How is he?” Stevie hadn’t seen Chase all day. Once he had proposed to her and she accepted, he had moved out of their home and into the base barracks, despite being legally married, neither felt it was appropriate to continue living together until they were officially married again, this time for real.

“Nervous,” the young couple laughed, “but in a good way. We better go and finish letting you get dressed, we'd hate to be the reason that you were late for Chase.”

With her makeup finally done, Stevie slipped into the adjoining room to open Chase’s gift, peeling the wrapping off slowly, carefully, not sure what to expect inside the box. What she found brought tears to her eyes, and she carefully lifted it out. Chase had taken one of the pages from his journal he had kept as a teenager and had it framed. Dated over 10 years ago, the page read I saw Stevie today. Every time I see her, I get butterflies in my stomach. I’m shipping out tomorrow, so I don’t dare say anything, to either of them, but I am pretty sure that I am in love with her. Maybe I can tell her someday, and maybe, God willing, there will be a future for us together. Also in the box with the framed journal page was a jewellery box containing a set of titanium dog tags, one of which bore today’s date, the other bore the words with my whole heart for my whole life. Stevie slipped the dog tags over her head and went to join her grandmother and Jenny, proudly showing them what Chase had gifted her with. Stevie’s grandmother and Jenny helped her step into her wedding gown, an extremely romantic off-the-shoulder A-line wedding dress with a delicate floral applique. Her wedding gown was the perfect combination of soft lace, flowy tulle, and precious applique. It was dreamy and Stevie felt like a princess in a fairy-tale when she put it on.

She added her matching veil and a delicate tiara and turned to look at her reflection in the floor length mirror.

“Oh, Stevie, you look absolutely stunning!” Her grandmother said, brushing away a stray tear.

“Chase is going to be blown away, you are so gorgeous.” Jenny leant closer to brush a kiss on Stevie’s head. “I'm so glad you're joining the family.” Jenny and Nikki went to join the rest of the wedding guests while Stevie waited for her cue to start her walk down the aisle. Stevie had chosen to make the walk alone. She had always imagined it would be Kyle walking her down the aisle, but with him gone, it hadn't seemed right for anyone else to fulfil that role. In a way, Kyle was with her today, and would be walking her down the aisle, Stevie’s grandmother secretly ordering a small charm featuring a photograph of Kyle, which the florist had woven into Stevie’s bouquet. There, right at the front of the bouquet, in pride of place, was Kyle’s smiling face, watching over her as he had done his entire life. Hearing her cue, Stevie began her walk down the aisle.

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