Eight Weeks Later…

Charlie woke up to the beep of her laptop as well as her daughters' game of soccer inside of her, "God who calls at 7 in the morning?" groaned Charlie more to herself than to anyone else. She slowly got up out of bed, which took her a few attempts since moving with an eight month pregnant belly was far from easy. She opened her laptop to answer, "Hey Niki!" she said when she answered.

"Hey honey," said Nicole, "How are you?"

"Pretty good. And the twins say 'Good morning Mommy,'" said Charlie.

"So how have things been at home? I haven't been able to talk to you in a couple of months," said Nicole.

"Pretty boring. The other girls have been planning my baby shower. Roxy's a little too excited about it," chuckled Charlie.

"Well that sounds exciting," said Nicole and looked down, "Um, how's Mrs. Clarke doing?"

Charlie sighed and said, "She's doing okay I guess. She still talks to me sometimes about what happened and I can tell she's still hurting. She doesn't show it to anyone else but I can see past the fake smile. Sophie says that she still finds her alone crying sometimes. But in all, I think they're healing. They've been having lunch with all of us so that's a good sign."

Nicole smiled a little, "What did you tell the other wives?"

"I just told them Jackie wasn't feeling good. I mean it wasn't a complete lie," said Charlie.

"So they didn't know," said Nicole.

"Jackie was going to tell them about the pregnancy but then the miscarriage happened and we kept quiet," said Charlie, "Just out of curiosity babe? It just hit me that I didn't tell you any of this so how do you know about Jackie's miscarriage?"

Nicole looked down sheepishly, "I could tell something was up with General Clarke, especially when he asked if we could talk about personal things. I thought it was going to be something God awful like our girls or my being gay. But it was about that. He needed a shoulder to cry on and he figured since you knew, I knew or at least could know."

"Wait a minute? General Kevin Clarke? Crying?" asked Charlie shockingly.

Nicole nodded, "Like a baby."

"Wow, I guess he has more of a heart than we thought," said Charlie.

"Hey everybody loves their spouse and kids right?" asked Nicole.

"We sure do," said Charlie.

"Well I've got to go. I have guard duty in twenty-minutes," said Nicole, "I love you."

"I love you too," said Charlie, "And Hannah loves you. And Alyssa loves you."

"Mommy loves you girls too," said Nicole.

"Babe go! I don't want to get you in trouble," laughed Charlie.

"Talk to you later," said Nicole and the screen went blank.

Hump Bar…

Charlie walked into the Hump Bar for lunch but no one was in sight other than Jackie. She looked up and smiled at Charlie, "Hey Charlie."

"Hey Jackie, where's Sophie?" asked Charlie.

"She went out with Emmalin," said Jackie, "You know shopping, gossiping, normal stuff we did when we were teenagers."

"I second that," Charlie laughed, "My sister would have to flirt with every boy in the mall."

Jackie chuckled lightly. Charlie could tell she wasn't having a good day, "What's up Jackie? How are you doing?"

Jackie looked down, "Okay," she whispered, "It's just that around this time I would've been finding out if the baby was a boy or a girl."

Just then Roxy and Gloria came out from the back, "Hey guys. Um, where's everyone else?" asked Roxy.

"I guess they're all running late," said Charlie.

"No it's just that I had to pick up Denise and there's an accident on the major road here," chuckled Claudia Joy and Denise came in behind her with an Oriental Trading catalog.

"Roland can't be here, he has to work," said Denise, "But honestly I don't know how much help he would be here."

"Help with what?" asked Charlie.

"Planning your baby shower of course!" said Gloria happily, "I mean there are the decorations, the cake, the games, the gifts, and lots and lots of pink!"

"Hence the catalog?" asked Charlie to Denise.

"Hence the catalog," said Denise and opened it to the section devoted to baby shower items. The wives happily conversed about their ideas for the shower as Claudia Joy wrote everything down, being the most organized of everyone.

"You okay Jackie? You've been kind of quiet this whole time," said Gloria.

Jackie sighed, "Yeah I'm fine. I just… I need to get home," she said, "It was nice seeing you all."

"What's up with her?" asked Roxy after Jackie left.

Charlie bit her lips, "All of this baby shower talk is probably too much for her to handle," she spilled out.

"Wait why?" asked Claudia Joy.

Charlie took a deep breath and said, "Jackie found out she was pregnant right before our spouses deployed. Only Kevin, Sophie, and I knew," said Charlie and sighed sadly, "She had a miscarriage several weeks ago."

"Wait a minute. So when you said that Jackie wasn't feeling well she was really…?" asked Denise.

"Yeah," said Charlie.

"Why didn't she tell us she was pregnant?" or that she had a miscarriage?" asked Gloria a little hurt, "We could've helped her."

"She was going to tell you guys. That weekend it happened actually," said Charlie, "She just thought it would be easier if she didn't say anything."

"I know what she's going through," said Roxy, "That is not the kind of thing you should be going through alone."

Claudia Joy grasped Roxy's hand, knowing she was remembering her miscarriage, "Well we won't tell Jackie you told us this, but thanks for at least letting us know what's going on Charlie."

"You're welcome," she said.

"Yeah I mean we're always here for each other right?" asked Roxy.

"Us army wives have to stick together," said Denise taking Claudia Joy's hand.

"Agreed," said Gloria joining in the circle. They all looked at Charlie.

"Agreed," said Charlie completing the circle, "And for purposes, let's say Roland and Jackie are agree too."

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