Breakfast was the usual spread of pancakes, fruit, muffins, coffee and more. It seams that the whole family always shows up when there is breakfast even if they don't live there. We are all sitting there enjoying breakfast when dad walks in.

"Bree Elizabeth O'Brien" dad says which causes us all to stop what we are doing.

"Did he just middle name her?" I ask Connor. He nods.

"Sally's?" I ask. He just nods. With that we all get up and walk out knowing the conversation was not going to go well. As we all past Gran, she protests saying that she is making pancakes.

Connor and I are sitting in Sally's. I am doing some research into PTSD and I have no idea what Connor is doing. I am sitting there in my own thoughts when Connor speaks up.

"Whoa, twelve o'clock." He says, I look over his shoulder.

"No, no, no. Not your 12. My 12, your 6." Sarah looks over at us and Connor does a weird thing with his hand like she is meant to find it flattering.

"What was that?" I ask him.

"What? That's what I alway do."

"It's not that you do it, it's how you do it. It's weird." I tell him.

"It's weird, weird or… weirdly effective?" He says as Sarah walks over to the table.

"Hi" she says

"Hey" I reply.

"I noticed you doing, whatever you were doing at me. And I was so flattered. Out of all the women here, you would make the effort to get to know me, to understand me, and then decide you like me enough to acknowledge who I really am, by doing that." She says as Connor sits there completely stunned. I sit there with a smile my my face the whole time the interaction is going on. I can't help but let out a small giggle.

"I don't think that she liked it." I told him

"Me neither." He replied. I then turn to face her.

"So I called the other day. You didn't pick up the phone, I even left a voice mail but you didn't call me back." I tell her seeing the look of confusion on Connor's face.

"Yeah, sorry about that I was a work and then I lost track of time."

"Wait you two know each other?" Connor asked in confusion.

"Yeah we've seen each other a few times." I told him before turning back to her.

"So, do you wanna get something to eat one night." I ask her.

"You mean like a date ?" She asks

"It would be pretty much a date." I tell her.

"Yeah sure, come by the station tonight." She told me. With that she tapped me on the shoulder before walking off.

I spent the rest of the day hanging around the house with Bree and Jess. I also went for another run which seemed to be becoming a daily thing. Which wouldn't be such a bad thing. I wanted to stay healthy and in shape. Especially since my injury. It also helped take my mind off of things. Unfortunately being an O'Brien we often ran away from our problems.

The time came for me to head off to the station. I walk in and ask one of the guys there where Sarah was. He took me through the station and into the kitchen, dinning and reck room. There Sarah was standing in the kitchen. I was not expecting for her to still be in her uniform. She turns to me and hands me an apron.

"It's a little crowded in here." I say to her.

"Yeah well it's my night too cook so…, plus these guys are like my brothers so, you also need to get them to like you."

"Yeah well they might not like my cooking." I told her.

"Well then we have something in common, they don't like my cooking either." She told me. We cook some simple veggies and stakes. We all sit and tell stories, and I learnt a lot about Sarah.

It reached about 9pm when I decided it was time for me to leave. Sarah walked me to the garage doors.

"Well this was really nice, even if there were a dozen other guys here." I told her stopping at the end of the garage opening. I turn to face her.

"We should do this again sometime. But just maybe it would be possible to do it, just us." I said reaching out to grab her hand.

"I think that could be arranged." She said. We stood there just looking into each other's eyes. She slowly leans in to kiss me. It is a slow and gentle kiss. At first I am okay with it but after a couple seconds I pull away. Sarah looks confused. I whisper an apology before walking off.

The next morning I again go for a run. After the way I left things last night with Sarah there was a lot on my mind. As I head back up to the house I see Bree sitting by the fire pit. I walk over and sit down beside her.

"So how was your date with Sarah last night?" She asked bumping shoulders with me.

"It was going really well. We ate at the station with the rest of the crew because it was her night to cook. We talked and laughed. Then she walked me out. We were standing there and then… she kissed me. And I pulled away." I told her about last night. She looked at me with shock on her face. I didn't know if it was over the kiss or me walking away.

"Why did you walk away?" She asked.

"I thought about Georgia. You know we had a good thing. At least I thoughts we did, but then it ended so abruptly. I don't want to mess it up. I am also going to admit something to you that even I am struggling to admit. I think I have PTSD." I told her. At first she didn't say anything. She then turned and wrapped her arms around me.

"Oh, Kevin. I know how hard that is to admit. But I am really glad you did. Do you think that is why you sabotaged the end of your date with Sarah." She asked.

"I know it was a possibility but I didn't want to admit it. It wasn't until Sarah kissed me that I realised that she was someone I didn't want to loose. And there and then I admitted to myself that there was something wrong even if I didn't want to. So yeah I think it was why I sabotaged the end of our date." I told her. It felt really good to be able to admit it to someone.

"Well I think there is a couple of things you need to do. First you need to call Sarah and talk to her, tell her what's going on and what you are feeling. Then I think you need to talk to someone about how your feeling, now that could be me to some extent, however I think you need to talk to someone professionally." She told me.

I knew she was right. I leant over and hugged her, whispering a thank you into her ear. After a couple of minutes we pull apart.

"Okay I don't know about you but I am hungry, and I think Gran might be making pancakes for breakfast. And I could really do with a cup of coffee." She said. With that we both got up and went inside to eat breakfast.

After breakfast everyone left to go to their respective jobs and homes. I decided to go for a walk down the beach to clear my head and to think about the advice Bree had given me about my PTSD and about Sarah. Sitting on an old log I decided to give Sarah a call. I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial Sarah's number. It goes straight to voicemail.

"Hey Sarah, it's Kevin. I was wondering we were able to catch up, there are somethings I need to talk about. Give me a call when you get this. Thanks"

I continue my walk for a bit. After awhile my phone buzzes. I pull it out seeing Sarah's contact show up. I answer her call…

"Hey"

"Hey, so I just go off work and even though I kinda hate you right now and just want an shower and my bed, I am willing to hear you out. Where are you right now?" She asked not giving me much chance to speak.

"I am down the beach" I told her.

"Okay, I will meet you there in a bit." She didn't give me a chance to respond before hanging up. I found an area where she would easily be able to find me and waited.

After about 15 minutes she showed up and sat down beside me. We sat in silence for a bit before I spoke up.

"Look Sarah I just want to apologise for the way I acted last night. I shouldn't have acted like that after you kissed me, it's just…" I struggle to find the words to explain what happened without sounding like a complete asshole.

"I recently got back from overseas. I was in the army. And I got medically discharged. The convoy I was in on the way back to base ran over and IED. It took out half of my unit." I took a deep breath trying to control my emotions, I looked over at Sarah and she had a soft expression on her face.

"We lost contact with the base. We were then missing for another three days. Unfortunately about 3 miles before the accident we lost our GPS signal and we had taken a different route back to base. I honestly thought I was going to die. I didn't want to be stuck out there alone without being able to say goodbye to my family." I felt Sarah put her hand gently on my knee.

"I had a girlfriend at the time. She was another army medic. I never told my family about her, it just never felt right. So she came storming into the house, took over my medical care when I got home. Once I got better she went back over and we kind of just drifted apart. We the just stopped talking. That was only a couple of weeks ago." I told her

"I think I have PTSD from the accident, and I need help. I was also overwhelmed when you kissed me. I have to admit that I like you so much and I don't want to screw this up."

"Kevin, I am so sorry for what you went through. I know what it feels like to loose someone. I lost my husband. He was in the Navy. His unit was ambushed, there was nothing anyone could do. But I also like you so much, and I also don't want to mess this up. So I am going to offer you this. And this is a one time offer. If you agree to get help, I will be there to support you, and we can continue our relationship, but you have to let me in and talk to me and let me help you." She tells me.

"And what if I don't take this one time offer?" I ask her.

"I will get up and walk away right now." She tells me which causes us to both giggle.

"Well I will gladly take up your offer. Because I want to make this relationship work. Which say it now I cannot believe that we are in a relationship." I told her us both smilling. We both lean in for a kiss. It was short and sweet, and I didn't completely freak out this time.

By now it was around lunch time. So I decide to invite Sarah back to the house for lunch. We walk up the beach hand in hand with smiles on our face. It was a slow walk back to the house but we didn't mind. Walking in I was surprised that there was on one there. I pulled some things from the fridge to make sandwiches.

We sat on the back deck and ate our lunch. We made small talk not wanting to talk about anything big after what we had talked about whilst down the beach. After a while of small talk Sarah brought up the elephant in the room.

"So, I think we need to talk about what is going to happen from here on out." She said turning to look at me.

"Yeah, so I went to the doctor the other day and he gave me some pamphlets about PTSD, and some therapists I could talk to. I am going to look into it a bit more." I said.

"Well if you need someone to talk to remember I'm here for you." She told me. I then turned to hug her. She leant into the hug resting her head on my shoulder.

"Thank you, for not walking away when you found out about my past. I know how hard it must be, being with someone who has a similar past to someone you loved." I told her.

"I once lost someone I loved, and I don't want to loose someone else. Even if your not over there I don't want to loose you from what happened over there. So, I'm serious, I want you to talk to me when you need, and when your ready to, I don't want to force you, but I want to be able to support you." She told me.

We sat on the porch swing just talking about different things here and there. We eventually lost track of time and before we knew it Jess was walking up the back steps of the house with Bree and Connor after spending the day in Baltimore. I decided to invite Sarah in for dinner. They typical O'Brien family dinner had the long table on the deck full once again.

Many laughs were shared and stories were told over dinner. Sarah sat back in silence only contributing to the conversation here and there. I think she was just trying to take in what was happening. I did warn her about how these family dinners went, but I don't quite think she believed me, until know, so I think she was feeling a little bit overwhelmed.

After dinner, I helped mom and Gran take all of the dishes in, before we all decided to watch a movie to end the night. Popcorn was made and well all took our spots on the couch. We were about halfway through the movie when I felt a weight on my shoulder. I looked down to see Sarah pressing her head on my shoulder with her eyes closed. I moved to stand the others looking up at me.

"I'm going to take her up to my bed, she got off of shift this morning and we talked about some heavy stuff today, so I think she is a bit tired. So I am going to take her up and head to bed myself. Night guys." I said. I then reached down to pick Sarah up bridal style. She stirred slightly before settling her head on my shoulder.

I made my way upstairs and settled her on my bed, I then went to my dresser and pulled out a shirt. I walked over to Abbys room where she was sitting on her bed working and asked for some pj bottoms for Sarah. I walked back to my room to see Sarah had not moved. I bent down and ran my hand through her hair to wake her up. She woke, I then helped her get changed.

As she settled in my bed she reached her hand out to me, so I quickly got changed and hopped into the bed next to her. She rolled over and curled into my side resting her head in the crook of my neck. It took me awhile to fall asleep, but eventually my eyes drifted closed and my breath evened out.