At seventeen, Elizabeth had grown into a graceful, willowy young woman. Emma couldn't help but feel that her younger sister was lost and hurt, because her parents couldn't be there for her soon to be graduation. They had been to everyone else's. But Elizabeth handled the loss of he brothers and parents well, only losing herself at night, as Erin mentioned that she cried herself to sleep two nights that week.

Ben was supposed to come home that night from where he was stationed, and Emma couldn't help but have a bad feeling about it. She couldn't lose him, what if he had to go somewhere where he would have to fight and maybe even die? He hadn't been home at all since he enlisted, why now?


"Ben is here!" Jeffrey shrieked as he ran inside with John Curtis. Grandma glared over at him for making so much noise and the boy quietened and sat beside his sister at the table. "Sorry."

Ben strided into the house, and broke into a smile when he saw his wife. "Emma!" The couple embraced, and Ginny clapped her hands from her high chair. Ben kissed his little girl on the head before sitting down. He had dark circles under his eyes.

"About time you are home," Mary Ellen smirked, trying hard to not sound pleased as she bounced around the kitchen with an unusual spring.

"Great to see you, big brother." Elizabeth commented as she finished her homework and helped Erin set the table.

"It was hard to get off training, but I had to come home to tell you the news." Emma's blood ran cold. No, no, no, no. "I'm being sent to Japan."

Grandma took Emma's hand and gave her a look that echoed strength. "Go." That one word said everything. She had lost her husband, her grandsons, her son and daughter, had a stroke, and Grandma shouldn't be as strong as she was. But Emma now realised what she had. The hope and trust in God.

Emma blinked back tears and could only hug Ben close. "I love you so so much... when are you going?"

"Tomorrow..."

John Curtis opened and closed his mouth. "Are you gonna die like my daddy did?"

Mary Ellen enhaled sharply. "No, John Curtis. Ben is going to do just fine." Emma knew what she was thinking-Ben had been the fastest runner in school-he knew how to evade.


Ben and Emma spent some time alone in that much loved shed, before they brought Ginny with them to talk quietly. The man she had loved for so long, he was leaving. Leaving, and he might die. Emma couldn't help but let the tears flow as she held her little girl close, and stared up into Ben's deep blue eyes.

"I'm gonna be strong," She started. "For Ginny, and our other little one." Ginny yawned, and Emma handed her to her daddy, who bounced her up and down. He had always loved babies.

"I know you are, Em," Emma's heart melted just like it had when she was a young girl of sixteen. "See the moon in the sky?" Ben asked. "It's full tonight, so that makes it especially pretty. The moon is in the sky everywhere. So that means that you and I see the same moon, no matter where we are. Em, when I'm away, look up at the moon every night. Remember that I see it too and will be thinking of you, Ginny, and baby. I love you,"