It takes courage to fight in your own war. Take two minutes, would you mind? In peace may they rest,
It takes courage to fight someone else's war.
Our peacekeepers tell of their own living hell.
They bring hope to foreign lands that hate mongers can't kill.
It's a pittance of time,
For the boys and the girls who go over.
In peacetime our best still don battle dress
And lay their lives on the line.
It's a pittance of time
Lest we forget
Why they died
Take a pittance of time
Please, at 11 am on Nov 11, take time for two minutes of silence to remember those who fought for our freedom.
Lest we forget.
--
The yard was soon filled with laughter and squeals as Brendon and Chloe chased Dante around the yard. Alex sat on the railing, leaning forward, her elbows resting on Cody's shoulders. Harm wrapped his arms around Mac's body and pulled her closer to her. Sarah smiled. It had been years, decades really since she had heard the laughter of children in the house and yard. There was a change in Harm. His smile came easier, his laughter louder. He was happy. Completely and totally happy, and since he had been 5 years old when Harm Sr had been shot down, he had never been happy. He lived life because he had to, because he had shoes to fill, because he had a role to do. And now, he could just sit back and smile.
Before his life and heart was filled with adventure and danger, filling the hole that his father's death had left. Fight pilot, wild chases...he finally opened his heart and let someone in.
Alex shuddered slightly, an almost imperceptible shiver and slid off railing into Cody's arms. He gave her a soft smile and pulled her toque down over her ears and kissed her nose lightly. An unspoken silence of understanding was between them. He pulled her close as she shut her eyes.
Mac looked up at Harm and whispered something to him, causing him to laugh. If you could take a picture of perfection, Sarah thought, this was it.
--
"Supper will be ready in about half an hour!" Sarah called from inside the house.
"Enough time for you to show us around Harm?" Brendon called, Dante swung over his shoulder. "Come on, you have to have some sort of secret hide out or something."
Harm smiled. "Yeah, I have a few." He looked at Mac and Alex. "You ladies be okay here for a few minutes?"
Mac took Dante off of Brendon's shoulder and smiled. "Go."
With a grin, Cody gave Alex a peck on her cheek and ran to catch up with Harm, Brendon and Chloe.
"You okay?" Mac put Dante down and looked at the younger woman.
"Did you hear about the bombing in the Kunduz province?" She dug her foot into the grass. "Three soldiers killed."
"You know them?"
Alex tucked a curl behind her ear. "One."
"Never gets any easier."
"No, it doesn't." She sighed and licked her lips slowly.
"Sean know any of them?"
"All of them. He was in their regiment until he got sent home."
They sat in silence watching Dante dig in the dirt. "Do you think about drinking?"
Mac shrugged. "Not a lot, and not since I've been with Harm." She pulled her jacket around herself. "He's done a lot for me. You?"
"All the time. Whenever I hear about a solider dying. Whenever I have a nightmare." She sighed. "Part of me wishes I was there."
"Part of you always will be."
Silence surrounded them again. "What kept you going?"
"Harm." Mac closed her eyes. "I promised that I would come back."
"And if you didn't...he would come for you." Alex gave a small smile.
"He would come for me. You had people to come back to."
Alex looked down at Dante who was eating dirt. "I do." She knelt down and picked up the boy. "Dante, don't eat dirt."
"They'll never be forgotten Alex."
"Maybe not to us, but I hope that the rest of the world sees the good that we're doing there. I don't want them to be just another number, another list of names."
Sarah poked her head out of the house. "The food is almost ready, do you two want to bring the little man to get washed up?"
"Lest we forget." Alex whispered brining Dante into the house.
--
I know it's short, but it's for Remembrance Day. I'm at the moment holed up in my house since I have ILI...Influenza like Illness. One of the schools I work at got hit HARD by H1N1, though I'm really really really really hoping that I don't have it. We shall see.