Yo yo yo :D So someone private messaged me and asked me a question that I thought was hilarious. Not gonna say any names. But they asked me if I was white or black. Hahaha I dunno why, it just cracked me up. I guess cause I type like i'm black sometimes in my author's notes. But, just to clarify, I am white. Not that I think it matters, but someone felt it was important to ask haha. And what's funny is i'm like the whitest white girl ever, but I just type and text this way sometimes :D Well, enjoy the story! :)


Chapter 24

He was awoken the next morning, Christmas morning, by Matt and a couple of his other friends singing Christmas carols at 9:00. He rolled out of the bed, quickly waking up, and joined them in singing.

They paraded around their barracks, singing, before they all headed to the mess hall to grab some breakfast. After they ate, the headed down to the local movie theatre and watched, what Ben thought to be, the best Christmas movie ever made; A Christmas Story. By the time it was over and they got back to the base, it was 2:00. When they got back to the base, the postman was just arriving and they all quickly got out and ran over to him.

It took him a while to distribute everything, but he finally got to Ben. He pulled out two letters and two packages and Ben smiled and thanked him before quickly slipping away from the huge group and running back to his room.

When he got back to his room, he looked at his mail and saw who they were from; he had a letter and a package from his father, as well as a package and letter from Allison. Though he was dying to read Allison's letter and see what she got him, he reached for his dad's letter and package first. He opened the package, guessing the letter would say something about the gift.

He opened the package and found something that surprised him; inside was his father's watch. He was surprised; it was his father's favorite watch and he wore it all the time. He reached for the letter and opened it up and began reading,

Dear Ben,

Let me start off by saying Merry Christmas. I hope you're doing well and keeping safe. Did you like your present? You're probably wondering why I gave you y favorite watch, aren't you?

I never told you this, but that watch was your grandfather's. He passed it on to me when I was your age on Christmas day. It was the same situation as this; I was in the Air Force, I was 23 and I was away at Christmas, also. My sad sent me this watch and told me to keep it. It's been passed down through almost ten decades I'm continuing the tradition and passing it on to you. I hope you like it and I hope you'll continue this tradition one day. I love you Ben and I hope you're keeping safe and warm out there. I promise to write soon.

Love, Dad

He smiled and, when he finished reading the letter, he folded it up and put it back in the envelope. He grabbed the package and took out the watch and put it around his wrist. He smiled again and examined it and threw the wrapping away. He turned back to the rest of his mail and smiled, knowing he had saved the best for last. He sat back down on his bed and, repeated the process by reaching for the package. He opened it up and he found something that surprised him even more than his previous gift; inside was a video tape. He was surprised at first, but then grew excited. Luckily, they had a T.V. and a V.C.R. in their room and he quickly crossed the room and popped in the tape and mashed play.


By the time he finished watching it, he had tears in his eyes. He touched the screen, wishing now, more than ever, that he could be with her, holding her in his arms. The tears in his eyes were both tears of sadness and tears of happiness. She had made him a video letter. It started off at her house, in her room. She must have set the camera on her dresser and it started off with just her in the frame, with a huge smile on her face. When he first saw her, his heart skipped a beat, like it always did when he saw her, and he immediately got tears in his eyes,

"Hi, Ben! It's a couple of days before Christmas and I decided to make you a video letter for your Christmas present. So, let's get started!" It turned off for a second then cut back on and Allison's mom appeared in the frame,

"Hi, Ben. Merry Christmas! All is good here and we all hope you're doing well over there. Allison has told us all about what you're doing and we're all so proud of you for doing what you do. Well, I have to get back to baking these Christmas cookies. Be safe over there and have a Merry Christmas! We're all counting down the days until you get back! See you soon!" He smiled again as the camera turned off for a second, before it cut back on and his father appeared in the frame. He smiled, happy to see his father again, and he began,

"Hey, Ben. Hope you're doing all right over there. I get your letters, of course, and you sound good in them. By the time you get this video letter, you'll probably have already gotten your gift from me. I hope you like it and I'm excited to give it to you. It gave me and your grandfather good lick and I hope it continues for you. Well, I better be going; I know Allison's eager to talk to you. I love you, son. Stay safe." He smiled again and the camera cut off. He was wondering if her father was going to come on next, but he didn't. Instead, Allison's sister appeared in the frame. He was surprised; he had never met her before, but was excited to see what she would say,

"Hello, Ben." She looked over the camera, obviously at Allison,

"It is Ben, right?" She laughed and he heard Allison laugh, too. It was the first time he had heard her laugh in almost ten months and he grinned. He missed her melodic laugh and her sister continued,

"I'm kidding; I know your name is Ben. Allison talks about you constantly. But, really, I feel like I already know you and I can't wait to finally meet you. Thank you for what you're doing for our country and I look forward to meeting you! Talk to, and see you soon!"

She smiled and waved and the camera cut off again. He smiled, knowing he was going to like her sister when they finally got a chance to meet. There was a clamor outside of his room and he turned his head to see what it was, but he didn't see anything; only a couple of men running by. When they camera back on, he turned his attention back to the T.V. and saw Allison back in her room, where the video tape had begun. He smiled; he had smiled more in the last few minutes than he had in almost ten months. She was sitting at her desk and from her chest up was the only thing in the frame. She smiled and it immediately made him smile. He touched the screen where her face was and smiled, wishing more than anything that he could see her and hold her in his arms.

"Hi, Ben. It's a couple of days before Christmas, as I already mentioned. I'm going to try and send this tomorrow so, hopefully, it will reach you on Christmas day. If it's a couple of days late, I'm sorry. I hope you like your present; I thought it would give you some love from home and to see that we haven't forgotten about you in these long months. Like my sister said, she's really excited to meet you I've told her all about you." The smile slowly faded from her face, and it began to get serious. He suddenly felt a little nervous.

"You're probably wondering why you didn't get a video clip from my dad. A couple of days ago, we had to take him to the hospital. He was coming home from work and he called the house on his cell phone and I answered it. He told me that he was having massive headaches and that his vision was getting blurry and he could hardly see. I immediately told him to pull off of the road; he couldn't keep driving like that. I told my mom that my dad told me and she told me to tell him that we would come get him and take him to the hospital. When we got there, we pulled off of the road where his car was and…we thought he was just taking a nap in the seat, but he was unconscious." She took a deep breath as a tear trickled down her face and gave a small laugh,

"I'm sorry, this is supposed to be a happy Christmas present and I' turning it into a sad one. But I want you to know; my dad told me after you left that he really liked you and that you two bonded. We took him to the hospital and he gained consciousness shortly after he was admitted. He's still in there and we're waiting to get the results of the tests they ran. He was upset that he wouldn't get to do a little video clip, but he told me to tell you hi and that he hopes you're doing well." She smiled,

"So now it's my turn to have my little video segment." He smiled as she started,

"Should I start off by telling you how much I love you? Or that, in these ten months we've been apart, it feels as though we've brown closer? Checking the mail is something a lot of people don't think about, but it's something I look forward to every day. Writing letters to you is so romantic and I'm so happy I'm experiencing it with you. I love that you're on the receiving end of my letters and that I'm on the receiving end of yours." She smiled,

"We only have eight more months left. We've got this, Ben. Eight more months until I see you; eight months until you take me in your arms again. I've never told you this, but, when I'm walking, I suddenly feel your hand in mine. And whenever I smile, I immediately think of you; I smiled and laughed more in those two weeks with you than I had in a long time.

My mom used to tell me to never wish my life away but, since you left, I've found myself wishing these eighteen months away. I know that I shouldn't and these past ten months have already been really eventful. Like I told you, I moved out of my parents' house and got accepted to UNCW; I'll tell you more about college in my letter. I'll be doing an internship at the hospital in a few months and I'm really excited. But, even though all of this has happened, I still wish these eighteen months were up. I'm still counting down the days and I will until August 5th. We still have a little ways to go, but I believe with all of my heart that we can make it. I love you so much Ben and can't wait until I see you coming towards me again. I hope you like this." She smiled and waved before kissing the lens and cutting the camera off.

When it was over, he cut it off, with tears in his eyes. It was a perfect gift; probably one of the best gifts he had ever gotten. He smiled and popped the video out of the V.C.R. and put it back in the package. He then sat down on his bed and opened up her letter,

Dear Ben,

Merry Christmas! I don't know if you've already opened your present or not; if you haven't, I'm sorry for spoiling it. You should probably stop reading this and open it.

It you have watched it, I hope you liked it. Like I said on the video, I thought it would give you some love from all of us here. I hope this reaches you on Christmas day, if it doesn't I'm sorry.

This letter is going to be kind of short; I said a lot in the video letter. But, like I said, I'll tell you what's been going on in college. My teachers are wonderful and they've given me great advice. They're really supportive and have actually recommended some extra cases and programs I can take. I'm really excited about all of it; like I said I'm going to start an internship at the hospital in a few months. I'm going to a meet with one of the pediatric doctors in a couple of days to talk with her. I'm really excited and I'm really looking forward to it.

Well I better get going, I'm writing this at my parents' house and I have class in about an hour. Oh, and I forgot to tell you, I found a car that's perfect! I've been saving up for a long time and I found one for a good price and I'm probably going to be getting it soon.

Like I said, I have to go to class, so until next time, I love you and promise to write soon.

Love, Allison

When he was finished reading, he folded it up and put it back in the envelope. He smiled, thinking that with these gifts he now had the strength to make it through these final eight months.

But, at that moment, Matt busted through the door with a nervous expression on his face.


"Matt, what is it?"

"Did you hear a lot of people in the hallway?"

"Yeah, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to it, why?" Matt took a deep breath,

"General Roberts is dead" He raised an eyebrow, shocked,

"What?"

"He was in his office when it happened. Somehow, one of the Iraqi snipers got in and took him out. I don't know what happened, but the whole base was scrambling. Luckily, it was only one of them and about forty guys took him out. But now everyone is on high alert, waiting to see if they're going to attack again. I came in here to get you; we're all going to get our mission plans. They're busy writing them up right now; my guess is we'll probably be sent somewhere to take someone out. We better be heading over there, you coming?" He nodded as he stood up,

"Absolutely, let's go."

When they walked out of their room, the entire hallway was full of men rushing to the same place they were headed. Ben and Matt followed them when a voice came over the intercom,

"Everyone please report to the mess hall at this time."

When they got there a couple of the lieutenants were standing at the front. Everyone took a seat and one of the lieutenants stepped up and greeted them,

"As you know, a tragedy has struck us. One of our Generals was shot and killed by an Iraqi sniper. Now we don't know how he got into the base, but we're quickly trying to get to the bottom of this." Then, a man walked up on stage and whispered in the lieutenant's ear. The lieutenant thanked him and turned back to face them,

"All right, we just found out that General Roberts was executed by one of the Iraqi soldiers under one of the men who had tried to take over the city of Tehran. That's all the information we have right now, but we can tell you, you better be ready to move out. We're pairing up with the marines and the Iraqi's are going to pay."

When he said this, the whole mess hall started to clap and yell in agreement. The lieutenant smiled and nodded,

"Okay, okay calm down. Head back to your barracks and get some sleep; I have a feeling some of us will be heading to Iraq in the next couple of days."


The next couple of days were quiet. Ben guessed they were still in contact with the marines and were probably making, and coming up with, battle plans. On the 29th, four days after Christmas and after the meeting, they were all called into the mess hall once again.

The same two lieutenants that spoke to them a couple of days ago were standing up a t the front where they were at when they last talked to them. When everyone had sat down, the lieutenant stepped up and quieted everyone.

"Okay, as you know, we've been working with the marines these last couple of days and we've come up with our plan. A couple of you were supposed to be going with the marines in the air, but we've canceled that mission and those that were going on it are being transferred to this mission.

We did some tracking and we located the man who's responsible for killing General Roberts, as well as trying to take over Tehran. He's in Fallujah, which is a city in Iraq. The marines have some undercover spies down there and they were able to find out where he is. We have a list right here of the men being sent on this mission; Tyson Hitter, Alex Jones, Greg Wood, Matt Sterling, Ben Carter, Carl Kuney, Kyle Johnson, and there's a lot more. The list will be up here; for everyone who's going, get a good night's rest. We head out bright and early tomorrow morning."

The next morning he was awoken by Matt at his bedside,

"Ben, wake up."

"What?"

"Come on, we're being sent out." He sat up, still half asleep,

"Right now?"

"Yeah, come on, we're loading up. And you, my friend, are flying today."

"Really?"

"Yep, they just announced it this morning; we're being transferred to a base near Fallujah where the guy is. You're flying us down there, big fella, so come on."


Hmm hope you guys liked it! I thought the video letter was pretty cool :D I hope these chapters of when he's away isn't too boring, I didn't want to be like "oh he goes back for eighteen months" and then the next chapter, or paragraph even, be that he's already come home. I wanted ya'll to experience kind of what they're both going through in being away from each other. I try to make it as interesting as possible for ya'll. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it! Please review!