AN: This takes place before JJ and Beth's wedding. There's no baby, and Beth still goes to college and lives with her parents. This is what I thought should have happened. Probably won't be good…but I wanted to write something to remember American Dreams.
JJ stared at his desk at the Recruitment Center. JJ's mind wandered off into space and he thought about his life, or what was left of it. He and Beth had never gotten back together and they just stayed friends. Her pregnancy scare had brought them together, but only left them split further apart. Oh how he longed for those days when they were still in high school and life was simpler.
"Pryor!" JJ snapped out of his daydream to see his fellow recruitment officer standing in front of him.
"What are you doing? You're staring at your desk like it's gonna spout the great knowledge of the universe."
"Oh, yeah, sorry. I guess I just got caught up in my daydream."
"Yeah I noticed. Whatcha daydreaming about anyways, if you don't mind my asking?"
"Oh, just stuff." JJ left it at that and started to shuffle the papers on his desk to keep his friend from asking further questions.
JJ wanted, more than anything, for things to be like they used to be. Just him and Beth. He wanted life to be easy again, not the way it was now. With him working a desk at the Recruitment Center; with Meg getting in trouble with that Chris kid; with the war escalating to what it was.
"Well Pryor, it's Five o'clock and time to go. You wanna lock up or you want me to?"
"I'll do it. It's gonna take me a while to hobble out of here anyways."
"Yeah, good point. See ya tomorrow then".
"Yeah, see ya tomorrow." The officer walked out the door as JJ grabbed his jacket and hat. He turned and looked around the office and shook his head. What was his life coming to? Sending boys like himself off to war to possibly not return? But it was what he signed up to do.
Shoulda gone to college. Shoulda not broke my ankle in high school. Shoulda shoulda shoulda JJ thought to himself. It was always shoulda.
JJ walked out the door and locked it behind him. He slowly walked to where his car was parked to take the drive home.