Birds of a feather
Chapter 6
She couldn't believe it.
As she stood in the kitchen Vanille continued to listen to Nora go on and on about how Ms. Farron came over for dinner. She wasn't mad about it. Hope could do as he wanted. He could invite whomever he wished to dinner. She wasn't mad but….
"Oh mommy do you know the best part?"
She didn't want to know the best part. "No dear what's that?"
"Daddy didn't know I invited her!" She started giggling. "I told him after school." She smiled broadly.
"Baby you shouldn't just spring something like that on your father. People don't like to plan things on short notice."
Nora's smile faded and she looked to the ground. "Oh. Well I think they like each other so I was just trying to help." Something came over Vanille. She gritted her teeth. There was something welling up inside her.
Nora looked up apologetically. Vanille was quick to hide her feelings with a smile. No matter how she felt right now, her daughter's feelings came first.
"It's ok baby. Everybody had fun right?" She stroked Nora's hair.
"Yeah it was a lot of fun."
Vanille smiled sweetly "Then there, problem solved. Just make sure you plan a little further ahead. 'Kay." Nora nodded as Vanille walked to the fridge.
"I hope a frozen meal is ok tonight. I'm tried from work."
"Yeah that's fine. You don't have to cook every night. Oh and if you want I can make it, ya know so you can rest."
Vanille let out a small giggle "You are so sweet. I don't know who you get it from." That's a lie. She knew who she got it from. "I'll heat them up; you get started on your homework. If you finish it before dinner there might be some ice cream waiting for you."
She clapped her hands once "Ok! When's dinner!"
"Six." Nora gave a thumbs up and headed to her room.
Dinner came around and Nora walked into the kitchen. She stood proudly with a hand on her hip holding out her completed homework. It always amazed Vanille at how good Nora was a school. Hope never did an ounce of homework during school. Vanille herself did enough to stay on the A B honor roll. Even so she wasn't a model student in her day. She really didn't know where Nora got this from.
"Well looks like you get some ice cream after dinner." Nora pumped her fist in a victory celebration.
After dinner Vanille showered and changed into her pajamas. She sat on her bed with her laptop. She opened and searched the files and found the one she was looking for. It was an older folder, one she feared losing, she had it backed up on a separate hard drive just in case.
She opened it.
She scrolled through the pictures and videos of Hope from his military days. They kept in touch as much as possible when he was deployed. She was sure to screen record all of their video calls. She told him it would be a great thing for them to look back on some day. She picked a screen recording of one their video calls and began to watch it.
All the memories and feeling of that call came flooding back as she watched. Hope seemed so young, going by the video date he was around 20. She noticed herself in the corner. She looked like a hot mess. It was during her college finals in the video and Hope was giving her words of encouragement. If anybody needed those words it was him. He was nervous in the video, not overly so but she could tell it. His unit was going over the top in a full out assault against the army of Pulse. He never spared details about how awful trench warfare was.
It always left her sick with worry. But somehow he always ended on a positive note to help her worry less. The video ended with them swapping 'I love you' and touching the screen. Vanille found herself reaching out to the old video. She closed her hand and pulled it back.
She went video to video. So many memories and emotions hitting her like a truck. The pride she felt when he got his first bronze star. She was always proud of him. She would brag about him every chance she got. Doubly so when he became Special Forces. She wanted so badly to tell people he was in L'Cie. But she never did, she was under oath, even if she wasn't out of respect for Hope she never would have.
She stopped watching the videos. She was nearing a certain time frame she would rather not remember. She started looking at the pictures instead.
She stopped on one. It was her, Hope and a little two year old Nora. They were in a military hospital. This was when Hope had been shot in the leg and hit by shrapnel. Vanille was so terrified at hearing the news. She feared the worst when she got the call. Her heart sank just remembering that day.
Her phone began to ring and brought her out of her reminiscing. She looked at the caller I.D. It was Brad. He was probably looking to hook up again.
She reached for the phone and picked it up. She held it and rejected the call. He sent a text soon after. She deleted it and tossed her phone to the foot of the bed.
She curled up and put her head on her knees.
Why?
If she had had just bared with the lonesomeness of Hope being deployed, then she wouldn't have to be without him now.
Authors Note
Waz up! Thank you for the review CrayonCalendar! I am so glad you are enjoying this story. I hope you'll stick around to the end! I originally was going to make this chapter longer and have more plot in it, but I decided it would flow better if I split it into parts. At the least it will comprise of chapters 6 & 7 but 8 could be a part of it as well. Hopefully it won't take to long to get the next chapter, but I be busy sum timezzzzz. But yeah anyways what does every body think about me making Hope ex-military and older than Lighting? I haven't seen anyone do that before and thought it would be neat. Lightning being ex-military is a given in most fics, their age varies fic to fic so that's not new. Again thanks to all who followed, liked and viewed the story.