A/N Some mature content
Owen had finished, taking care of the shrubs. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and stretched his back. Cristina came out of the house with a glass of cold lemonade. "Hey, you've done a good job with the shrubs, Owen," she said. "Usually, Paul helps me sometimes in the garden, when you are not here. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him, since the barbecue." Owen tried not to smile, when she said that, but inside, he was laughing, hysterically. He knew why Paul was not hanging around the Hunt household, anymore.
"Maybe he is a little busy or maybe he took a trip somewhere," Owen said. Cristina looked a little unsure about that. "Maybe," she replied. "But if he did, I would have thought he would have told me something. But never mind."
Owen drank the glass of lemonade in one gulp. "That is good lemonade," he said. "You should set up a stand and start selling to everyone in the neighborhood."
Cristina laughed. "I could do that when the kids are older," she responded.
Owen took off his t-shirt and wiped his chest. He was sweating so much. It was so hot. "Hmm," Cristina said, admiring her husband's well defined torso. "You are such an attractive man." She noticed the appreciative stares of the neighborhood women. "Even all of the neighbors are noticing that. I am glad that you are mine."
"Thank you, wife," he said. "But you are the only one I care about to look at me that way." He gave her a kiss. She could taste the sweet tartness of the lemonade on his lips.
"That is really good lemonade," she said. "Are you ready to go inside?" He nodded, as they walked back into the house. Iris and Laurel were helping their mother bake cookies, even though there was more flour on the two of them and on the floor than there was in their mixing bowls.
"Cookies, Papa. We are making cookies," Laurel said. There was a tell-tale chocolate ring around her mouth, an indication that she had been eating the chocolate chips for the cookies.
"Laurel," Cristina said. "You have been eating the chocolate chips. If you eat them all, we won't have any to put on the cookies." Laurel smiled, sheepishly, while Iris gave her younger sister a disapproving look. Cristina checked the cookie dough in their mixing bowls and told them that it looked like it was ready to be placed on the baking trays.
As Owen watched his wife and his daughters get on with their cookie-making, he was overcome by a feeling of great joy. Sadly, though, he knew his time at home was soon coming to an end. In fact, he only had a few days left. This was the best vacation break he had ever had. For the time, he had forgotten that he was in the army and imagined himself as just another suburban husband and father. In a couple of days, he would be feeling the dry heat of the desert of his back and he would be far, far away from this picture of domestic bliss.
It was the day before Owen was going to leave to go back to Iraq. He was going to leave at 7 a.m. in the morning. The family had spent the day together at the beach, having a picnic and playing in the water. It had been a warm, wonderful sunny day. Everyone said they had the best day ever. Since they knew that Owen had to leave in the morning, everyone went to bed early so they would be able to get up the next day to say goodbye.
Cristina and Owen lay on their bed, with his arms wrapped around her. Their breathing was in sync, as they quietly just lay there, listening to the other person breathe. The silence was broken by the sound of a soft sob from Cristina.
"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked. "Are you okay, Cristina?" He gave her a light kiss on her forehead, as he ran his fingers through her lush locks.
"It's our last time we are going to be sleeping together in this bed for a long time," she said between sobs.
"Aw, Cristina, you know that I made a commitment to serve our country," he said.
She buried her face into his chest. "I know," she said. "But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt any less. Sometimes, it sucks to be an army wife. You spend so much time away from us. I get so lonely without you."
He kissed the top of her head and pulled up her up, so he could kiss away her tears. Then their lips met, their tongues and they started tearing off each other's clothes. "Oh, God, I want you so bad," he whispered between kisses. Soon, they were both bare and found themselves, staring deeply into the other's eyes.
"Enter me, now. I want to feel you inside of me," she said, her voice a little hoarse with desire.
There was little fanfare, as he penetrated her. His thrusts were hard and fast, just the way she liked it. She closed her eyes, savoring the feel of him inside of her. It was probably the last time they were going to make love for a long while and she wanted to remember it. She opened her eyes and was struck by the way he looked at her. She was certain she could see the love for her in his eyes. Their bodies moved together in such an easy rhythm, that it almost felt like they were one entity. When she came, he could feel her walls tightening around him and her body shuddering with pleasure. He smiled because it always pleased him that he could move her to ecstasy. It was more important to him than his own orgasm. When he finally came, it was with a deep groan and a sharp gasp. It was sweet release.
"Thank you," she said.
"No," he answered. "Thank you." As they lay together, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, like a little monkey, holding him close to her. "I never want to let you go," she said. "I know I must, but I don't want to do so."
"Yeah, me too," he said. "I will think about you, every day, while I am over there."
"You better had," she said, with a laugh. "Because I will be thinking about you, every day."
"Cristina, I have a confession to make," he said. He decided that he was going to come clean about Paul. He didn't want her to think that it was her fault that Paul was not coming around as before. He lifted his head to look at her. "It's about Paul."
"Paul?" she queried. He nodded. "There's a reason he hasn't been around, lately," he said. "I had a little chat with him. Paul had ulterior motives and I needed to protect what was mine."
Cristina gave him the most incredulous look. "What? How do you know that?"
"He didn't deny it, when I confronted him," Owen told her.
"So did you threaten him?" she asked. "I do have to face him every day when I go back to work at the school in the fall."
"No, not really," Owen said. "I just told him that I knew what he was doing and to stop trying to be a husband to my wife, especially since his own wife was serving our country."
"Oh, now I get it, why he left the barbecue, so swiftly," she said.
"Are you mad?" he asked. She shook her head. "No, you were just looking out for our family," she responded. He laid his head against her and listened to her heart.
"Cristina, knowing that you and the girls are waiting her for me is what keeps me going across there," he told her. "Amidst all of the death, injuries and sadness, just knowing you are here makes me feel better."
"You're doing noble work across there," she said. "But as sad and as hard as it is for me and the girls to have you gone, we understand the sacrifice of what military families go through. We may not like it all that much but we understand."
"Just know my heart is always with you, wherever I am," he said. She nodded and said softly, "I know."
It was very early when everyone got up. Owen's bag was already packed from the day before, so they left the house to grab breakfast at the closest IHOP before they headed to the airfield where Owen was to pick up his transport back to Iraq.
"So I guess this is it," Owen said, his eyes were already wet with tears. As if on cue, the two little girls grabbed on to his legs and started crying. He picked up Laurel and gave her a kiss and a hug. He told her to have a good time at pre-school and to be a good girl for her mom. He put her down and picked up Iris, who wrapped her tiny arms around her papa's neck.
"Be good, Iris. Take care of your sister and I want to keep hearing those great reports from school about how well you are doing," he said. "Help mom around the house, too." He wiped her tears away before he put her down. He opened his arms for his wife and she ran into them, hugging him tightly.
"Goodbye, Cristina," he said. "I love you more than anything else in the world." She sniffled, as she rested her head against her husband's shoulders. The tears were coming down her face.
"I love you, too, Owen. You have to remember that you have to come back to me," she said, looking up at him. He took her face into his hands and kissed her, deeply. It was like it was just the two of them, even though there were hundreds of families around them, saying goodbye to their loved ones. Their kiss was only broken by the sound of someone, advising the soldiers that they should get on board. With a final kiss, he turned and walked away, looking back several times at his family.
Cristina and the children went back home. It was a quiet drive back.
The girls were tired, since they had gotten up at an hour that was earlier than they normally did, so they went back to sleep, as soon they got back to the house. Cristina sat in her kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee. She couldn't believe how empty the place felt without her husband. She had him for one whole month and now, she and the children were going to face months without him. She wasn't kidding when she said it sucked to be an army wife, sometimes. She went to the living room and looked at a picture of her husband and touched his face.
Somewhere over the ocean, Owen had taken out his new Ralph Lauren wallet and opened it to look at the picture of his family. "Nice wallet," the guy next to him said. Owen laughed. "Yeah, I got it for Father's Day," he told him. "My wife had it personalized with my name, so there is no chance I will lose it in the desert."
"So you got kids?" the man said. "Me, too. So hard to leave them behind."
"You know it," Owen said. They both shared pictures of their families with each other, each admiring the other's family.
"I see you got two girls. Are you going to add anymore?" the man asked. "A little boy you can play ball with?"
"Well, we were trying for another one," Owen said. "I guess we will know in a couple of weeks if we were successful. But it doesn't matter if we get a girl, again." He tucked away the picture of his family in his wallet and put his wallet away. "Yeah, in a couple of weeks," he repeated to himself.
The phone rang and Cristina ran to get it. She didn't want the ringing to wake the children. "Hello," she said, breathlessly.
"Cristina, are you running?" she heard Bertha's voice say. "You sound so out of breath."
"Bertha, how are you?" Cristina said. "How's dad?" She said it with a bit of trepidation, given the state of her father's health.
"He's taken a turn for the worse, Cristina. I think you and the girls should get here as soon as possible," Bertha said. "He wants to see you, one last time."
"Oh, God," Cristina said. "Okay, we will leave as soon as possible. Thank you, Bertha, for calling. Goodbye." She hung up the phone and then, fell to the ground and wept.
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