Happy Sunday folks!

So excited to bring you this chapter, it had to come early! YAY!

Enjoy!

~~oo~~

July 30th

Alice was laughing behind me as we rushed up the steps, hearts pounding in joy and excitement for what we held in our hands.

"We should wait for Rose," I wheezed as we neared the bedroom door.

Of course, I knew we wouldn't.

Nothing would keep me from ripping open the letter in my hands as soon as I closed our bedroom door.

"I'm not waiting!" Alice chided and giggled when she heard the paper tear in my hand.

Two months.

Nearly two months we had waited.

All the fear and anxiety that had eaten away at me was instantly washed away with this thick envelope in my hand.

"Bella! Look!"

I jumped at Alice's high-pitched yell, and felt her leap on my bed as I pulled my eyes away from the envelope.

"A picture Bella!" she exclaimed and leaned in close to show me the picture.

Three men, in full uniform. What looked like their battle gear and everything. So much baggage for one man, it must have been difficult to walk, let alone fight with so many bags and weapons!

But the three of them stood there in black and white.

They looked dirty and the picture was a little out of focus.

But there they were.

I squinted at the picture trying to make out the faces a little better. They had dirt or something black marking their faces.

"Which one is which?" I asked, Alice turning the picture around to read the names.

"Jasper is on the left, Edward's in the middle," she said, grinning as she turned it back around to look at the men a little more closely.

"I wonder when it was taken," I whispered and looked hard at the man in the middle, trying to get a better look at him through the dirt and fuzzy black and white image.

He was tall, almost as tall as the man on the right, which had to be Emmett. Edward looked broader than Jasper, but Emmett seemed to be the biggest of all of them.

All of them were smiling, but Edward's seemed a little more reserved.

Shy somehow.

Even out of focus, he seemed a little aloof, and it made me think of his letters those last few days before he jumped. He had been scared, doubting himself and then determined. Which day had this been on?

I squinted again, trying to make out his eyes. His jaw. His face in general behind the blackened markings. His eyes looked to be light-colored, and wise beyond their years, while his face seemed strong and well shaped. It was difficult to decipher, but what I could see was quite handsome.

"Jasper says this was taken hours before their jump," she said, her voice eager as she looked through the long letter she had in her other hand.

I took one last look at the man in the picture and pulled out my own letter, a little dismayed that a picture didn't fall out of my own letter.

Perhaps he knew that Jasper had sent one.

Even so, I had hoped for one of my own.

I let out a soft sigh. I should have been happy for the thick letter. Pictures were hard for them to come by, I was sure.

"We'll share it, Bella," Alice said and squeezed my shoulder before reading some of her letter aloud. "Jasper says it was difficult to get a picture. But promises more."

Then she giggled.

"He also says he knows that Edward would never send one, that he's too shy to do so. Jasper felt it was imperative after you sent Edward yours," she said, eyes shining. "He got your picture, Bella! Jasper says Edward has been all smiles the last few days since getting it! How sweet!"

I blushed and returned to my letter, my heart swelling a little at the idea that Edward was shy, and that my picture had found him. And now I had a very long letter to read.

~~oo~~

June 30th

My dearest Bella,

Dearest because you have drawn me back into the light of life, and managed with your heart and your words to keep me alive. Dearest because I have something to look forward to coming home to, and a reason for being here. You are the dearest to me because I can hope for something. I hope for you.

I can't even begin to put into words how much your letters, and now your picture have made me feel. I know I left you with some very melodramatic letters before I left, and I am sorry if they worried you. Right now I could walk into Hitler's headquarters and end this war, you have given me that much purpose.

Bella, you are my guardian angel. My beautiful angel that seems to offer me strength when I need it most. I haven't slept in days it seems, and arriving back on base today, after doing nothing but holding your letters and your picture close, I feel a sense of ease that I haven't had in a long while.

We got back to base this morning, and there to greet me was a stack of your letters.

But your picture, Bella.

They delivered some of our mail a few days ago in the field, as if some divine spirit knew we needed it.

I needed that picture. I needed your words. You pulled me from the brink, just as an angel would.

Never ordinary, never just Bella. But dearest and most cherished.

You are my beautiful angel.

I won't pretend anymore what you mean to me. Will not push it aside any longer to try and protect you or my heart. You offer yourself so selflessly, so I will as well.

I am yours Bella, forever or when you choose to deny me. Although I pray you never will. You are the light that guides me and I pledge to be everything you need, if you'll have me. I've read every one of your letters several times, and I hope that what I am reading is that your feelings are the same.

I am thick when it comes to romance, so I hope you will be patient with me. Thank goodness you have a brave heart, and that Jasper is a pestering fool who insisted on meddling to make me see the light. I refuse to show him this one, it is between you and me, but no doubt he will figure it all out with the smile I cannot seem to erase from my face.

You always brighten my mood and I hope I do the same for you.

I'll make mistakes. I'm not very good at my feelings, and this war doesn't help. But I am driven now. I have a month or so here before I go again to wherever they send us. Maybe the war will be over by then.

I hope so. Because I cannot wait to come home.

I'd like that dance.

All I can think about now is your beautiful smile, and how much I look forward to seeing it in person.

I want to make you smile and laugh.

I want to see your eyes glimmer as they do in this photograph, because you look as if you are so very happy in this picture. I have memorized every curve, every shadow and it has taken a hold of me in the best of ways.

You had my heart with your words long before you sent a picture, but now I want so much more. Your picture stays close to me always, and is a reminder of all that is good and beautiful in this world.

You are so very beautiful to me, Bella, and I am yours.

We just have to get past this war.

We saw a lot this last month, but everything that we do is one step closer to ending this war. I don't know what they show you in the newsreels, but we got through relatively unscathed. Emmett and Jasper and I are all right. A lot of men lost their lives that first day, and more since. We were isolated for a while, and that was what really makes it so hard. Not knowing what is happening elsewhere. We only know what we are told. And many times it is nothing, just in case we are caught.

I do not like how long it will be in between letters while I am out in the field. I am sure that the wait for you is maddening, with not knowing. It must be so much easier for me, knowing that you are safe and at home, but you must worry with that unknown. I am so sorry for that.

It distresses me that you look for my name on those lists. I wish I could promise I will never be on that list. I asked to come here. I felt it was my duty, and with that duty comes that risk of never returning. I have a purpose now, more than ever. I will do what I have to- if only to know that you are safe and reading to those soldiers back home. I think you are brave and amazing for doing that.

But please don't look for my name. I don't want you to worry over me. It is too much for me to know that you will in any case. I have never had someone care for me such as that, except perhaps my parents. I know I ask a lot of you to do this for me. As I said, you must have it so much worse not knowing. Just know that I promise to get home to you to the best of my ability.

I will try my best to write again while I am on assignment, but the mail runs a lot slower now with our forces spread out. If it takes a while for me to write, please don't worry. Your kindness keeps me safe.

Thank you for your letters. You and your friends have made this unit's morale certainly soar in the face of this mindless situation. You have given me so much to look forward to, I intend to see this to the end and come home.

You are my beautiful angel who keeps me in the light.

Yours forever,

Edward

~~oo~~

I sighed and held the letter close to my heart, an incredible weight lifted from my chest at reading his letter. I didn't care that my tears were running down the sides of my face. I didn't care that Alice might be concerned.

Edward was alive. And he had called me beautiful.

I'd still worry over him, he was silly to think otherwise.

But he cared as I did and that took over my heart and made it pound with excitement and something more.

"I think I'm in love," Alice moaned dreamily from her bed. Glancing over at her, she looked much as I must- letter clutched to her heart, happy tears running down her face, and the most ridiculous smile on her face.

I hummed in contentment, knowing already what she had just discovered.

I had felt it for sometime, but was afraid to say it out loud this last month.

Was afraid that his earlier declaration might just be the nerves talking. But deep down I had known, I just needed to know he was all right before I admitted to even myself.

Now I knew for sure.

I was in love with Corporal Edward Masen.

~~oo~~

AN: Such an incredible time back then, when written word of letters moved people so much. So many instances of people falling in love through letters- some who had never met before. So romantic. Especially given the time it took to receive letters!

Of course, people fell out of love just a well. Dear John letters were very common, and many men would offer condolences to those unfortunate men who received them. Brotherhood amongst men in the units was a strong bond. Not of blood shared, but of blood and sweat spilt.

You had to trust the men of your unit, know them better than they knew themselves. Those men shared more with one another than perhaps a man shared with this wife, or his parents. Bonds in war run deep, and we still that today. You put your trust of your life in their hands, you can't step away from that. Men knew everything about one another- names of children, girls back home, what crop was being planted, and what plans were for when they got home.

On more than one occasion, when a brother in arms fell, it was up to those left alive to carry on- for some this meant going to tell the families personally the tale of their lost son or husband. Some felt it out of a sense of survivors guilt, others out of duty to their brother. So many feelings and emotions run deep through these men, the bonds of war truly never faded, even years after.

I am so in awe of the kinship of these men, so many years later. They meet every year, saddened when one does not come because he has been lost to the fight. Stories are told of their fallen brothers, and new stories are shared. I can't tell you how much I have bawled over some of the reunion photos, especially todays, when these heroes are becoming so few. They still make the trek to see their brothers, they still remember.

History living and breathing in their presence. Every one of them.

I know that Edward, Emmett, and Jasper will have that kind of bond. And that kind of history. I see them in all the pictures of those men that fought. Both old and young.

Hope and faith.

More soon my dears! Hope you have a wonderful day today!

MWAH!

steph