This was meant to be posted on Veteran's Day but my cumputer wasn't working so..yeah. Enjoy!

I always knew it would happen, someday, somehow, I knew it. It's just scary to see your thoughts come true. I knew it would happen, and even though I knew the worst was yet to come; I still let him go. Because somewhere in the back of my foolish mind I thought it would all be okay.

That he would return to me and never leave. "It's a great honor to serve for my country." He had said to me and with that I let him go to war.

He was fresh out of high school and we were newlyweds. He left before we could have our honeymoon, promising to have it the second he returned. "Troy I love you." I had said as he walked out the door. He left me behind, his wife, and Bailey, his now two year old little girl.

His little girl, who has to suffice with only seeing pictures of him and hearing his voice through the scarce letters he sends a few times a year. He left before I found out I was pregnant ,so he still doesn't know about Bailey.

As I see the two soldiers clad in black , I know it has happened; he's dead. I'd known it all along, a few months ago the letters had stopped coming and I feared the worst but now these two soldiers walking up my path confirmed it.

I recognized one of the solders as Ryan, our dear high school friend. He too had gone to war, along with our other friend Chad. And another soldier, his head bowed down. I didn't quite recognize him but their expression held the same emotion: grief.

Ryan's long blond hair had been cut like a buzz cut and his once innocent green eyes were now darker, almost blue. Though his body looked calm his eyes held a look of sheer terror, oh I could only imagine what he had been exposed to over seas.

I hadn't even noticed I was crying until a tear drop fell on my arm.

"Mommy why you crying?" I looked down and smiled. Bailey's worried eyes looked up to me.

I gave her a watery smile, "Honey, daddy's friends are coming to tell me that daddy is moving away."

"Where?" I looked at her, she was no innocent, so small, so young and it brought a pang of guilt upon me. I was suddenly feeling selfish because I would have many more wonderful years with Bailey while he died without having even one.

"He's going to heaven, baby." I caressed her soft cheek.

"He going be happy?" Oh, bless her!

"Yea, Bailey, yes."

I heard the knock on the door and yelled "Come in." not bothering to look at who was at the door, I already knew. I winced at the way my voice cracked from crying. I dried my sweaty palms on my pants and ushered Bailey into the kitchen to play with her dolls.

I heard Ryan's melodic voice. The same voice he used to star in 15 musicals alongside his sister, Sharpay, in high school. He was talking to the other soldier. Ryan walked up to me with a sorrowful expression. The other soldier stayed back, he looked out the window, giving us the privacy I needed when Ryan would tell me the horrendous news of my husbands death.

Ryan took my hand in his and slipped something small and cold into my hand. I started crying and looked at it through blurred eyes. My husband's dog tag. This was it; this is what it felt like to be a widow. It hurt, but what hurt even more was that I was a widow with a child who would never met here father. Bailey didn't deserve this she deserved a father. I wiped my eyes and looked at the tag with clear eyes.

"What? What's this?" I asked as I read the name. The name of a man who is not my husband.

Name: Danforth,Chad

Social Secruity: 111 22 3344

Blood Type: O negative

Religion: Roman Catholic

If this was Chad's tag then that means that he's...no he can't be!

"Gabriella, as you probably already know, we are here to inform you of Chad's death. He was saving some children from a burning building when it exploded with him in it. He managed to save 14 kids but he wasn't as lucky."

"Oh poor Taylor! Does she know?" He nodded glumly. "We're going around informing friends and family,"

I nodded, "But if that's Chad then what about-"

"Gabriella?" The voice came from the other soldier who was still unidentified and there for not far as important as what Ryan was telling me now. I looked up at him and under the brim if his black hat I saw piercing blue eyes. The blue eyes I never thought I'd see again. "Troy!"

Troy looked so different. His brown,once shaggy, hair was cut short with spots of silver speckled here and there. His face with a dark layer of his freshly sprouting beard. His face and his hardedned features, he was no longer the teenage boy I married but a well grown man.

Ryan watched with a small smile as we hugged and kissed. He was obviously still grieving the loss of one of our best friends, as we all were, but he was happy to see us reunited once more.

"Bailey, sweetie, come here." I called for her. Troy looked at me with a puzzled expression. She came from the kitchen, where she was obediently playing with dolls. She skipped into the room and stopped a few short steps in front of me and Troy.

"Troy, I'd like you to meet Bailey Marie Bolton. My- I mean- our daughter." He smiled from ear to ear. He picked her up and swung her around. We were a real family, for once.

But our happiness was short lived because two days later was Chad's funeral. Taylor was a weeping mess, along with the rest of us. As I watched his coffin lowered into the ground I said my final goodbyes and wished he wiuld finally be at peace.

We took Bailey, her dressed in a simple black dress with black shoes and white tights.

"Who's Chad?" she asked me that morning as I was dressing her. I smiled and answered
"A friend, a dear friend."

Months have passed and our hearts are still wounded. I have no doubt that they will stay wounded for many years to come, but at least I have my family to help me through my struggles. I have Bailey, and my patriotic hero, Troy.

Hope you liked it.

~ Kiki xoxo :)