Chapter 9: The Funeral

The next morning Ray left early to go to his apartment to pick up a few things. He had succeeded in not waking Liz when he got up and he hoped to be back before Sam and Liz were going to have breakfast.

Ray had gotten a phone call a few days earlier, saying that one of the men he had served with in the Marines had passed away. He wasn't particularly close to the man but he wanted to attend his funeral anyway. So Ray was going to pick up some things, one of them being his navy blue dress uniform.

He took the hanger with the uniform out of the closet and looked at it. Memories came flooding back straight away. He stood in front of the mirror, holding the uniform in front of him. He knew he'd still fit it as he had stayed in good shape over the years.

After grabbing a few more items he headed to his car hoping he would still make it back before breakfast.

When he got back to the house there was nobody downstairs yet, so he went up to his room to put away his belongings. He had just stepped out of his bedroom when he heard Sam come out of his.

"Good morning" he said as he walked up to him.

"Morning, Ray" Sam responded, "Is Liz up yet?"

"Erm, I don't know, I got up a few hours ago to go to my apartment and she was still asleep then"

The two men chatted while going downstairs to have breakfast. They were about to tuck in, thinking Liz wanted to have a lie in, when she walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning", she said and immediately continued, looking Ray in the eye "Where were you this morning?"

"Good morning to you too" Ray said, but before he could give an explanation, Liz's rant went on.

"I woke up this morning, thinking my bodyguard would be right there, when he wasn't", giving Ray a questioning look, "So I thought, he must be in the bathroom, but he wasn't! Care to explain?"

"Calm down, pumpkin, give Ray a chance to respond" Sam said between chews.

"Well, I actually got up early to get some things from my apartment"

"And you didn't bother to tell me that?! I thought you were supposed to protect me, to be there the whole day, every day"

"Liz, please. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you last night, but I didn't leave you unprotected, okay. I asked one of the guards at the gate to stay in the house to keep an eye on things while I was out. I was only gone for a little over an hour"

"Still, you should've told me. I woke up and got scared when you weren't there…"Liz went from nearly screaming at Ray, to whispering. She hated to admit that she couldn't go without his presence anymore.

"You're right, I should've told you. I told Sam but I totally forgot to tell you and when I realised last night, you were asleep already"

"Maybe you should tell Liz why you had to go home so early in the morning?" Sam said, trying to help Ray out.

Ray looked at his plate, "I…I need to attend a funeral today, so I went to get my uniform. A guy from my team passed away last week"

Liz now looked guilty for getting angry with Ray about where he was and Ray picked up on that.

"Look, Liz, you have every right to get mad at me for not being there, okay? You're right, I should've told you but I hoped to be back before you woke up"

"So, what time do you have to go to the funeral?" Sam inquired

"It starts at 1 o'clock, but it's an hour drive from here so I'd like to leave at 11:30.

Liz, I don't want you to stay here on your own, so I will arrange for someone to come over to look after you"

"So I'll need to stay at the house the whole day again? I was hoping to be able to go out for a bit" she said disappointed.

"I need to go to that funeral, Liz, I'm sorry. The only way you can get out of the house would be for you to go with me and I doubt that that's what you want"

Liz didn't even have to give it a thought. She desperately wanted to get out after being at the house the whole day yesterday and she was very curious about attending a Marine funeral.

"Okay, I will. What do I wear?"

She totally took Ray by surprise by agreeing to go with him. "Ehm, a black dress will do", he said, not sure what to think about Liz going with him.

Sam went off to work and Ray did a check around the house before going upstairs and trying his uniform on. He was just checking himself in the mirror when he heard a knock on his door.

"Ray, can I come in?"

"Yes, of course"

Liz walked in and Ray turned from the mirror to face her. The moment Liz saw Ray in his uniform her jaw dropped and she was just staring at him, mouth open.

She stood there watching him for a moment, before Ray started to smile "What can I do for you, Liz?"

It was like his voice snapped her out of her trance and she closed her mouth and cleared her throat. "I…eh…I was just wondering whether you could have a look at my black dresses with me. I'm not very good at this whole funeral thing"

"Of course. Just not sure I'm much of an expert when it comes to dresses" he laughed, trying to lighten the situation a bit. He couldn't help but feel flattered by Liz's reaction though.

They went to Liz's room and entered her massive walk in closet. Ray noticed that she had all kinds of coloured dresses. So instead of a black one they settled on a beautiful navy blue dress that was elegant and not too sexy and revealing.

After Ray went back to his own room, so Liz could get ready as well, she sat on the edge of her bed. How embarrassing was that?! She recalled seeing him, standing there in his uniform and didn't quite know how long it was before Ray asked her why she was there. It was all a blur.

He looked so amazing in his navy blue uniform that seemed to fit like a glove. He looked so smart and dapper. And she had to admit that he looked really hot in it. When on earth did it happen that she started feeling this way about a guy 20 years her senior? She never imagined it was possible.

She shook her head, thinking to herself that she shouldn't be ridiculous and that staring at a guy in a uniform didn't mean anything. She got up and started to get ready.

When she was ready it was almost time to leave. Liz had spent way more time than usual getting ready because she wanted to look perfect, knowing that Ray did too.

When she came down the stairs Ray was already waiting there for her. Now it was his turn to stare at Liz. She looked stunning. Ray felt a lucky guy, getting to spend the day with this beautiful woman, even though the occasion wasn't very pleasant.

In the car Liz asked about the man who had died and Ray told her a few stories about Glen Carter and their team. Glen apparently had been very valuable to the team cause he always knew how and where to find people.

When they arrived, Ray parked the car and they walked towards the building. Liz placed her hand in the crook of Ray's arm and Ray placed his hand on hers briefly. He bent his head towards her before whispering, "Thank you for coming with me"

Liz smiled up at him "No problem"

The service was beautiful and Liz was glad she had joined Ray. Not only to experience such a special funeral but mostly because she felt like Ray needed her support. Even though he had told Liz that Glen hadn't been a close friend, he was still upset.

During the service at one point, Liz had put her hand over Ray's, which was lying flat on his thigh. Ray responded by turning his hand and squeezing hers lightly, not averting his gaze.

After the service a few of the men were standing together, talking and Ray told Liz that he had to go and say hi. He expected her to stay and go fetch a coffee or something but instead Liz walked with him, not wanting to leave him alone.

When they reached the group, everyone welcomed Ray with big cheers. "Hey, Ray! Good to see you man!"

"Hey guys, how are you? Long time no see" Ray responded, clearly feeling a little uneasy, "This is Elizabeth" he said, introducing Liz.

Liz nodded to the men, giving a slight smile "Hello"

"Nice to meet you, Elizabeth. What has this guy promised you, huh? You could clearly do much better than Ray" one of the men joked, prompting the others to laugh.

"I….eh…Ray works for my dad. He's just looking after me" Liz tried to explain. She wanted to go on when Ray put his hand on her arm and shook his head "Don't even try to explain. These guys are just making fun of me"

Liz blushed "Oh, okay…. I see"

"So, how have you been, Ray? Haven't heard much from you after you ended up in the hospital. How long were you in there again?"

"Almost 6 months" Ray responded, hoping that his answer would be enough and they would move on from their conversation, but he had no such luck.

"6 months…right. Well, good to see you back on your feet, man. How's your back now? Does it still bother you?"

"No, it's okay. It doesn't really hurt anymore"

Liz saw her chance to get to know more about Ray's burn scars on his back.

"So, what happened", she asked carefully, fully aware that Ray didn't like to talk about it. But she still wanted to know.

"Oh, nothing… Just something that happened on one of our missions" Ray said casually.

"What? How can you say that? It wasn't nothing, you were an absolute hero!" one of the men said.

"Yeah, man, you even got a Navy Cross for it. You only get that for extraordinary heroism. So don't say it was nothing" another guy said.

Ray looked at the ground, not sure what to say.

"Okay, so if Ray won't tell you what happened, we will because we were there"

"No, guys, don't. I can tell her myself, I don't need your help" Ray pleaded, but it was too late, one of the men had already started talking.

"Well, we were on a mission in Iraq and one day we were out, going through the streets. It was a quiet day, nothing had happened for a while. Suddenly we heard a loud bang, like an explosion, not too far from where we were. We decided to check it out and a couple of streets from where we were we found this family home on fire. Turned out that there had been a gas explosion."

Upon hearing this, Liz already started to feel a knot in her stomach, anticipating what she was about to hear.

"There was a woman outside, badly burned, screaming. Our translator said that she was saying that there were kids inside the house. One of us tried calling our back up team and neighbours started throwing buckets of water through the windows. We were all just waiting for our other team to arrive with supplies when suddenly our Ray here decided he wasn't going to wait any longer and ran into the house"

Liz looked to her side at Ray, who was standing there, his eyes closed, his hands balled into fists, breathing deeply through his nose. Liz took one of his fists between her hands and started stroking the back of his hand.

"We were screaming, thinking that there was no way he would survive it. He was in there for maybe a minute but it seemed like hours. Then suddenly he came running out of the house, holding something in his arms, wrapped in blankets. His clothes on his back were on fire and thankfully there was a neighbour with a bucket of water, so we threw that over him as he was kneeling on the ground. That probably saved his life. We unwrapped the blankets and there were 2 little kids in there"

There was a silence after the guy had finished his story. They were all looking at Ray, some of them patting him on the shoulder.

"Don't ever say it was nothing, Ray, you saved 2 kids that day" the guy said before giving Ray a hug. "Okay, who is up for a few drinks in the bar?"

Ray and Liz said their goodbyes to the men before walking back to the car. Ray hadn't said a word.

"If you want to go with them, I understand. You might feel the need to get drunk with your old buddies" she smiled.

"No, I'm good. Let's go home"

Ray was very quiet on the way home and it was the first time she felt uncomfortable in Ray's company.

"Look, I'm sorry I asked about what happened, but I really wanted to know" she started, scared to even look in his direction.

"Why? Why do you even care?" he snapped angrily.

His reaction made Liz angry as well "Why? Because I care about you, Ray. And because I want to know things about you. We spend every day together. Is it so bad to get to know each other a little bit? Besides it is a heart-breaking story, nothing to be ashamed of. You're a hero!"

"You shouldn't know things like this about me. And I'm not a hero, I did what every human being would've done"

"What every human being should have done, but nobody else did. Only you did! You are a hero in my eyes, no matter what you say…deal with it!"

With that their conversation ended.

That night Ray couldn't help but think about what Liz had said to him. It might have been in a rage but she had said it. She told him that she cared about him.

He knew that no matter how hard he tried to deny it, he had started to care for her as well. He tried not to, because it wasn't professional, but he couldn't help it. He loved how soft she could be, and then hard, and then soft again.

He let out a heavy sigh. This could prove to be a difficult situation….