Here we go again! My many thanks to EllieMayy and Ber1719, they are truly amazing.
I may sound like a broken record but reviews are always appreciated ;D Adios!

-Carlene

...

"It's still there.." Eugene sighed, rubbing his thumb over Katharine's knuckles.

"I'm sorry Eugene.." Katharine looked up into his eyes as they walked along the rivers edge.

"It's alright, at least I get to stay here with you." He smiled, nuzzling his head into her hair and moving his hand from hers to wrap it around her waist.

"Why do you want to go?" Kat said, biting her tongue quickly after the words had come out.

"Why? Well, I guess since both of my grandpa's fought in the civil war. And with Edward being a second lieutenant in the army now. I just feel like it's necessary that I go. Ed said anyways that life would be more beautiful for me if I became an officer like him."

"I just don't want you to leave, for what happened in my dream to become reality." Katharine shook her head, her vision becoming blurred with tears. The dream had come back the night before. It was identical to the first.

"Katharine, that's not going to happen." Eugene stated, stopping where he stood, pulling her to face him. "I promise, if I were to sign up, I'd go, and do my duty. Then I would come right back here, to be by your side, to maybe even be your husband."

Katharine's heart raced at the last word that left his lips.

"That is, if you wouldn't go off and find some boy that swept you off your feet.." Eugene smirked, leaning his forehead on hers.

"A certain boy already has." Katharine's face lit up with a warm smile.

"God, I love you Katharine." Eugene looked into her cerulean eyes, the sight taking his breath away like it always did.

"I love you too." Katharine breathed, leaning in to bring his lips to hers. Everytime their lips touched sent electricity through her, making her shudder against his every touch.

Eugene pulled away to catch his breath, and to move to her neck, placing kisses up and down her throat. He went down to her collar bone, enriched in her scent, sweet pea soap and a gentle citrus perfume perfume.

"Gene.." Katharine moaned, feeling the pang between her legs and wanting to wrap them around his waist. Eugene pulled away from her neck, fingering the top of her dress.

"I can't believe your mine." He smirked, pushing his finger up and over her shoulder.

"No silly, I believe that's my line." Katharine smiled, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his lips to hers once more.

...

"So... what are your plans for tomorrow?" Katharine asked Gene, swinging their hands between them, Eugene's house coming into view.

"Hmm.. well I've got to go into town with my dad to get the car fixed, then I have nothing. What do you have on your plate?"

"Well, I'm helping my mother clean the house, it's such a mess. Then mother and aunt Cindy are going to Fairhope to do some mega shopping for furniture and such, Cindy and Mark found a house just down the street from us, its the Leopold's old house. So Cindy, Cole, and of course Alex are still going to be almost living at our house." Katharine laughed.

"Well, I'm happy they found a house. I'm also happy they'll be near by, I'm afraid Cole and Alex would kill one another were it not for you." Eugene nudged her in the side.

"Yeah, probably so." She shook her head.

"Yeah, they really love you though Katharine. They look up to both you and Sid. Your great with kids."

"I guess. I just do what I can to make sure they don't do anything to kill themselves or one another. I love Alex and Cole." Katharine smiled, thinking of the other two boys in her life.

"Does that mean I have competition?" Eugene joked.

"Oh yes, you have very tough competition." Katharine laughed.

"Hmm.. I'll have to prove I'm better. Better than two boys." Eugene tapped his index finger on his chin.

"That'll be hard to prove."

"Hey!" Eugene's mouth hung agape before Katharine took off for Eugene's backyard, he followed very closely behind. She ran as hard and as fast as she could, grass tickling the bottom of her bare feet. Katharine quickly ducked behind a large weeping willow to no avail, Eugen ran around the same tree, dodging some roots, and all but tackled her into the grass.

Eugene rolled over, laying back on Katharine and looking up at the clear Alabama sky.

"Eugene!" Katharine shouted, pushing on his back with no success.

"Hmm?" He asked, not moving an inch.

"Hm, a password maybe? Hm I love you, I love Eugene."

"Nope." He shook his head.

"I love Eugene Bondurant Sledge... hmmm..."

The two jumped when they heard someone clearing their voice, Eugene looked up to see one of their servants, Lucas, standing above them.

"Mr. Sledge, your mother said to come get you for dinner, she said Ms. Phillips may join us if you wish."

"Okay, thank you Lucas." Eugene waiting until he was out of eyesight, "Do you want to stay for dinner?"

"Uhm. Actually, I can't. My aunt Cindy wanted my family over at their new place for dinner, kind of a huose warming party or dinner or whatever. I'm sorry." Katharine sighed, standing up and brushing herself off.

"No, no. It's fine. I'm sure you'll have fun with your family. Maybe we can see each other tomorrow?" Eugene's eyes lit up with hope.

"Maybe. If you want to hang out tomorrow, just stop by the house. I'm sure I'll be home all day."

"Okay, I'll be sure to do that." Eugene grinned, placing a soft kiss on her lips.

"I love you Eugene." Katharine smiled as he pulled her into a hug.

"I love you too Katharine. So much." He squeezed her tighter, letting her go and placing one more kiss to her lips before she made her way to where she knew the trail to her house was.

...

Katharine strolled along the trail she knew better than the back of her hand, thinking. She was thinking about the future. What she wanted to be, where she wanted to go, when she wanted to settle down. She knew she wanted to be a nurse, or maybe even a teacher. She knew she wanted to stick around Mobile, maybe living in one of the suburbs, Fairhope, Daphne, Silverhill or maybe even to quiet Stockton.

She was thinking maybe 24-25 to settle down, have a family. But the way things were going with Eugene, maybe it'd be sooner than just five years before she settled down. But what if he left for war, and found himself some native girl and marry her. Who knew, nobody that was for sure. Katharine kept walking, imaginging what a family with Eugene would look like.

Maybe two or three kids, a boy and a girl or two of either. They'd have either blonde or red hair, maybe strawberry blonde. She wondered if they'd have curly hair or straight. If they'd be more on the pale side like Eugene or tan like her. Her thoughts trailed on and on until she saw her house come into view, something seemed wrong.

There were no lights on in the house, nobody was outside, even the wind was still. Katharine tried to hold back from running inside to see if anything was wrong, but couldn't. She jogged through the lawn, through the flower garden, up the back porch and into the laundry room.

"Hello?" Katharine called, hearing her voice almost echo through the house.

"Katharine.." Katharine looked up from the floor to see her father standing in the doorway. His blonde hair looking very chaotic, his whole demeanor looked dishelved.

"Dad, is everything okay?" Katharine walked towards him, putting her hand on his forehead.

"I'm fine sweetie," Her dad sighed, grabbing her hand in his. "But honey, I've got some bad news." Katharine's mind started to race, it ran right to Sidney.

"Not Sidney.." Katharine whispered.

"No, darling, it's not Sidney. It's your uncle Charlie, it seems he was killed in action, on Guadalcanal. His plane was shot down."

"Oh my god.." Katharine felt herself shaking like a leaf. Uncle Charlie always did everything right, he never made a mistake. He was near the bottom of the list on people she thought would be killed. This couldn't be, it had to be a misprint, a mistake.

"Honey, I'm sorry." Her father pulled her against his chest, holding her tight. Katharine didn't feel any tears falling, shock she thought, it was just the shock of the news.

"I- I'm going to go- go lay down, okay dad?" Katharine asked, pulling away from his grasp.

"That's just fine sweetheart, I'll be here." Katharine forced a smile on her face, standing on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before walking upstairs. She collapsed onto her bed, thoughts swirling in her head.

How could he just be gone like that? He'd sent her a letter for her birthday, even a gift, a necklace with a small diamond pendent that made a vertical squiggle. It was her favorite necklace. Charlie was Katharine's god father, he was around all the time when she was growing up. He told her all about the airforce, he was a pilot. He'd play whatever game her and Sid wanted to, hide and seek, cowboys and indians, catch, he even sat around for Katharine's occasional teaparties. Katharine looked over to her nightstand where she knew the photo was.

In the photo was Charlie, with a diaper wearing Katharine on his shoudlers. She was wearing his garrison hat that hung way over her eyes. She had her head tossed back, laughing like mad. Charlie was looking up at her with such care and love in his deep brown eyes.

Katharine felt her vision blur, she rolled onto her side as tears slid down her face.

...

Katharine had tossed and turned for around six hours, thoughts swirling, tears flowing, she didn't even feel hunger from missing dinner. She looked up the to the clock on her wall, the arms telling her it was 11:30. Everything in the house was silent, her dad's soft snoring coming from the room down the hall. She knew now would be the time to put the plan she thought of around 9 into action. She silently padded to her window, undoing the latch and slipping it open, the cool night air hitting her strongly.

She lifted herself through the window, stepping onto the rough shingles with her bare feet. She stepped over to the porch roof, knowing it was lower to the ground. She held onto the roof as she found the column she was looking for, sliding down it to the ground.

Feeling the grass on her feet, she bolted for the entrance of the trail, thanking God she knew it so well. She slowed to a quick walk once she was in the safe cover of the woods. It wasn't long before a well recognized white house came into view. She looked up to the window that was Eugene's, she tossed a few rocks, getting no response.

Katharine sighed in near defeat, looking for something else to through. Then the lightbulb went off. She looked over to the side of the house to see a large tree. She snuck over, hoping to not be seen and climbed the tree. She tried her best to keep her footing on the roof as she slid over to his window.

Rapping her knuckles softly on the window, she saw Eugene stirring. She knocked a little harder, finally waking him up. He looked around curious, until his eyes finally landed on her figure in the window.

"Katharine?" Eugene asked, sliding the window open.

"Hey..." Katharine smiled, shivering in the wind.

"Come on." Eugene moved some papers on his desk for her to have easy entrance into his window. "Can I ask the meaning behind the honor of your presen-" Eugene stopped mid sentence when he looked back to her, a stiffled sob escaping her lips. "Oh my god, Katharine what is it?" He wrapped her in a hug, pulling her onto his bed.

"My- Uncle Charlie. He was killed on Guadalcanal." Katharine whispered, trying to be as quiet as she could.

"Oh my.. Kat, I'm so sorry." Eugene squeezed her tighter.

"I couldn't sleep, I'm sorry for waking you up." Katharine wiped her eyes, trying to blink back the tears that wanted to flow.

"Darling, it's fine. I'm happy you did. C'mon, lay down." Eugene pushed gently on her shoulder, allowing her to lie down besides him, snuggling into his chest.

"I'm sorry, I don't want you to get in trouble." Katharine sighed, trying to pull away.

"Katharine, I won't get in trouble. My parents would understand, and anyways, who says we'll get caught."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, now just sleep Katharine, you need it." Eugene pet her hair, feeling her breathing gently slow down until he knew she was asleep. He pulled the covers over them, finally allowing himself to drift off, holding the love of his life in his arms.

...