This is my second attempt at a story. Longer this time.
I don't own anything.
Their deployment had ended, days of debriefs at the DIA completed, and a celebratory farewell dinner with most of team finally concluding in the early hours of the morning. The only person missing was Preach, who had awoken from his coma after a few days in Turkey and was currently recovering in SoCal with his family. The doctors were anticipating a complete recovery. So while Preach wasn't with them, they had made multiple toasts in his honor, celebrating into the early hours of the morning.
Not enough hours later an alarm went off. Jaz turned it off and then slowly rolled out of bed, started the small coffee pot in the hotel room and then hit the shower. When she came out she nursed her coffee for a good ten minutes before she started gathering her things. She quickly packed up, checked out and headed to the airport. Still nursing a headache she quietly boarded the commercial flight from Washington DC to LaGuardia, New York. As soon as she took her window seat, she rested her hands in her lap, crossed her ankles, angled her head towards the window and promptly fell asleep.
As the wheels touched down she woke up, sighed and closed her eyes again. It would be another ten minutes before they reached the gate. At least her headache had improved. After deplaning she grabbed her bag from baggage claim and then hailed a taxi to take her home in Brooklyn.
Jaz rented a small apartment, top floor of a converted warehouse. She didn't have a lot of stuff, and just needed a home base for when she was not on deployment. She was a New Yorker, and couldn't think of any other place she wanted to live.
The building superintendent was friendly enough, and accommodating. He allowed her renew her lease early if it was going to expire when she was on deployment. And when she was on long deployments she would sublease her apartment. Of course she always gave him a nice tip before and after her deployments, which always helped smooth any problems along.
She climbed to the third floor and unlocked the door swinging it wide. A cleaning company had been in the previous week, so the place was clean. She had learned her lesson after her second sublease, coming back to a filthy place that had then stood locked up for a month. It took her three days of cleaning before she decided that it was fit for habitation, and considering some of the places the team had to take shelter in, that was saying something.
She walked in, dropped her bad and then crossed through the living room and opened the large window. Even though it had been cleaned and aired out the week prior, there was something about opening that window, climbing out onto the fire escape, and taking in her city that made her feel like she was finally home. After a few minutes she re-entered her apartment, secured the window, walked around checking to make sure nothing was out of order. Then changed and headed back out.
Jaz went to the local grocery store for basics, and then stopped by the local Chinese take-out. Came home, put the groceries away, then took the pint of chicken and broccoli, chop sticks and a can of soda to the window and climbed back out onto the fire escape. As she ate she took in the sights and sounds from the street. It was the beginning of adjusting back to civilian life. She was lucky, her apartment faced the street, not an alley or another building, so she could watch the people and traffic go by. After her lunch she cleaned up and then headed back into the basement.
In addition to renting the apartment, Jaz rented a small storage space in the basement. It took her multiple trips, each time bringing up a large green bin. The first two bins she unpacked were a combination of linens and towels packed around dishes and glassware to help prevent breakage. The next had some picture frames and her coffee pot bundled in with her comforter. The next two bins she opened were clothes, mostly winter wear, which she put aside for later. Four hours later, everything was unpacked and put away.
She heated up a pint of chicken lo mein, grabbed a beer and her cell phone, and headed back to the fire escape. Time to check in with her guys to see how their travel faired, and how they were settling in and adjusting to civilian life again.