He parks our car, with some struggle with the gear shift, in the crowded parking lot, behind a blue minivan with those stickers with a mom, a dad, two kids and a dog. It's kind of cute, but I will never tell Ian that. He glances over to me with a sad smile as we unbuckle ourselves from our seats and leave the car.

I see the top of his fiery red hair walk toward the trunk of the car, pressing a button on the keys for it to open to grab his things. I don't fucking know why he wanted that with the car, but it is quite helpful when you got your hands full with groceries and… other things.

I opened the backseat door to unbuckle our three-year-old daughter Talia from her car seat, she's drooling down her overalls and a little bit into her small, red pigtails. I can't stop myself laughing out loud.

I lean against the car door and face away from the drool monster, still laughing my ass off. Ian comes around the car with his camouflage duffle over his shoulder and backpack with a questioning look.

"What's so funny?" He asks with a small laugh. I point into the car when I hear a big snore come from such a tiny body. Ian laughs, but louder than expected, and she wakes up. Her blue eyes glassed over as she rubs the sleep away from her eyes.

"C'mon man, you ruined it," I say while laughing, walking away from the car to gaze at the depressing crowd of families. Ian shakes his head and unbuckles Talia.

"Why's daddy laughing?" She asks tiredly while Ian picks her up, setting her on his hip.

"Daddy's just being silly, sweetheart," he whispers in her ear. It's adorable how those two can be, wrapped up in their own little world while I peek in. I close the door and follow the two toward the bus where other army men and their families were doing their goodbyes and hugs.

I look back over to Ian in his army fatigues when he places his hat on Talia's head, her giggling at how she tried to be like her papa. I can't believe that we have been together for so long now, we have a kid together and a house in the "new" South Side. Life's been great with us, too fucking great I would say, for a while, before Ian was drafted to go overseas that ruined our moment of happiness. I'm going to miss waking up to his forest green eyes and his messy bed head, how he makes the best pancakes even though it's only fucking flour and eggs. Overall, I'm just going to miss him.

"Can you give papa back his hat?" Ian asks Talia, who's holding the army hat for dear life in her tiny hands. Her bottom lip is poking out, her eyes are glistening. The crocodile tears were coming on.

"But, papa…" she looks down at the hat in her hand. Ian looks over at me with pleading eyes. I nod my head and reach over to grab the toddler from his arms. As a last ditch effort, she grabs his jacket when I try to take her.

"No! Papa don't go. Papa can't go, daddy, make him not go," she begs to me with her puppy dog eyes staring up at me. She wraps her hands around Ian's neck, looking like she could choke him if she wasn't three. I don't how I am going to tell her that papa has to leave and might never come back.

"Talia, I will always come back to you, baby. I will never leave you, or daddy. Here, you can keep the hat." He whispered into her ear, silencing our daughter. Ian hands over Talia into my open arms after kissing her on the head. I cradle her in my arms with her head against my neck, rubbing her back as she goes back to sleep. We continue to walk over to the bus while more cars pull up behind us and families are saying their last goodbyes through tears. God, do I fucking hate it when people cry.

"Mick," Ian peers over to me, bumping his shoulder against mine.

"What?" I look back over to him and find what I didn't see before. His face looks, well, sad. Sure it's expected since he's leaving to do God knows what in God knows where, but this seems to be worse than that.

"I need you to promise me something," he kicks a loose piece of concrete away and looks up at the rusted, gray bus in front of us. He finds his place in line, only two people in front of him.

"Ian, what are you talking about?" I gently shrug my shoulders to not wake the toddler in my arms. He takes a deep breath before staring into my eyes.

"I need you to promise me that if I don't come back—"

"Ian."

"If I don't come back, I want you to move on with your life. Don't let me hold you back, you have to let me go, for yourself and especially Talia." He rubs my shoulder softly with that signature smirk of his. Damn it, I can feel tears coming to my eyes. Why would he say something like that?

"Ian, you're coming back to us. You won't leave." My voice starts to break when the tears begin to fall down my face. He's crying too, guess we look like a couple of bitches, but I don't care.

"Mickey, promise me."

I can't believe I'm doing this...

"I promise." He smiled somberly before kissing me passionately. I grab the back of his neck, clinging to his baby hairs on there for dear life. Hopefully Talia is still asleep on my shoulder because I don't want her to ruin this moment, this moment that could be our last.

It's his turn in line to get on the bus, I let go of his neck and pat his cheek affectionately. He flashes me one more smile before fishing out his identity and stuff to hand to the army dude. I watch him hop onto the bus, he waves at me from inside the bus and blows me a kiss. Classic Ian.

I wave right back to him and saunter back to the car. Talia is starting to get heavy in my arms, but I just want to hold her a little longer. Soon, I won't be able to this for too fucking long, especially walking forever like this.

I'm going to miss Ian, but he will be back sooner than later. At least that's what I hope.

A/N: Might add more...

Tell me what you think!