The chapter titles from now on will be named after hour-long YouTube pieces, each one with songs like an album. Feel free to check them out as listed: "Heart of Courage" by Best Epic Music; "When You've Lost Everything You Loved", "Heroes Are Not Born Out of Happiness", and "Who Will Remember Me When I'm Gone?", all by Epic Battle; final one is "Woman's Heart" by Epic War Music. :3

Warning: discussions of war, mentions of blood and death, and NO intentions of being political directly. Referenced only.

Chapter One

Heart of Courage, Breath and Life

This war...

Too much blood.

Too much death.

Too many lives lost. Families overseas who would never see them again. And all of this happened because of one man's greed which spread to others. In this case, it was one Hussein. His recklessness, his ambition, and then wanted more when he turned his attention to Kuwait's oil, getting hungry for more, and using the excuse it belonged to Iraq in the first place.

Kaleia Kai and many others called it bullshit because Kuwait was its own country long before Iraq, long ago known as Persia. The seizure roared like a monstrous volcano and dragged everyone else into it, as it always happened.

Was it a surprise America was the loudest? The freest country in the world?

An ultimatum didn't even stop the conflict, so blood it was that lasted over six months.

She had mixed feelings about war, especially thinking back to when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese when her grandparents were young then. All the stories and accounts they shared with her when she was old enough. It made her hate conflict with a passion, but if you saw something not right, you fight for the opposite. The men in her family, before women were allowed in the ranks, had joined the military and Marines, so it was in her blood.

Her grandparents, Mason and Akela, were fearful of her going when she enlisted because the funds couldn't pay for nursing school alone, and that meant the army would. She really needed to make her dream come true and take care of her family and herself. If she could also save as many lives as she could on those horrible frontlines...

If I could make them proud, and Mom and Dad, where they are now.

Thank the gods that Melinda was going with her, but aiming higher for an MD, then someday as a medical examiner.

The US troops were supposed to prevent the first attack, but nothing would ever go as planned, so that meant the battle would begin, and so would the women's work. It also meant America followed into invading Kuwait. Bombings, cruise missiles, maimed and dying brought back to Kaleia, Melinda, and the others...

War was a horror like Grandpa said. He had been right when he said there was nothing fun and glorious despite the epic tales of old. It was pointless and brought on by people not happy with what they had, consumed by greed, and sought to hurt others to get what they wanted, and uncaring if they brought neutrals into it.

The casualties surmounted to thirty thousand on the enemy's side, while theirs was barely three hundred. Kaleia and Melinda both agreed that despite how easy and what child's play this was, it was the beginning of the worst to come that they'd begun to pay attention to.

They agreed they were done with war, though, based on everything they experienced and the men who died on their tables, and their colleagues and most of the serving soldiers who survived shared the sentiment.

The president was to blame for the decision to not depose Hussein. Given Kaleia hated politics and cared only about common sense, that was as far as she'd go with that train of thought. Regime change unpopular with US? Oh, that's just naïve talk. Grandma would say the same.

When the soldiers returned home, so did all doctors and nurses.

Life was precious when you made it through and had someone to go home to, but the same couldn't be said for the families who lost a son, daughter, brother, sister, father, mother...the list would go on.

Akela and Mason were there for their granddaughter when she came home, Melinda with her. Her and her best friend who lost her family and was adopted by her grandparents.

~o~

"Any luck, Mikey?"

He internally groaned at the nickname his mom still called him, even though he was a grown-ass man now. But all they had was each other now, and Henry who looked after them. "Yeah, finally got accepted at the garage shop. Better than nothing and the pay's said to be good," he answered.

Clara set down his coffee in front of him. She didn't have to, but she wanted to. He was the last of her children to live, so he was not going to take her for granted. "That's my boy," she said, leaning over and pecking him on the forehead. "You have any idea how often I've prayed that you'd find something permanent? Something you know you can do?"

Too bad he didn't get an engineering degree, but he learned based on doing things himself. That and Uncle Henry. Juvie on his record made it hard to get into college or something higher, but if he did learn anything, it was that more money to become rich and powerful was just plain soul-sucking. Maybe he just wanted contentment and happiness, but because of...that, he felt like he didn't deserve it. He still had nightmares about Evan and Elizabeth, the latter he wasn't present to witness but could imagine the worst based on what he'd discovered before. He still had nightmares about those children, because his gut told him that William had everything to do with that even though there was no evidence to have his old ass behind bars. Clara knew, too, once she got her eldest and now only son back.

"I'd put the bastard in the ground myself if I could. I lost two of my babies because of those things of his. I won't lose you again, too, Michael. If he comes near us, I'll shoot him myself."

She was an awesome mom, but it didn't stop William from manipulating his sons against each other just because he could. Or maybe she knew exactly that but couldn't do much about it. Now he knew the answer to that: no, she couldn't do much until she got away from him, except it didn't have to happen the way it did. Clara was something of a ghost when Henry got Michael away from juvenile detention after he was deemed not guilty of Evan's accidental death, and away from a hateful William. She slowly came back to life when Michael began getting his shit together, even going to night school and getting his GED.

Didn't do much for him in the workforce department for several years after, until now.

"Just know you're nothing like that jackass," Clara told him, rubbing his shoulder. "That makes me proud in more ways than one." She never blamed him for what happened at the old diner, because it was said that a mother knew. "You're making it up to Evan and Elizabeth by being the best man you can be."

Damn it, men didn't cry. Michael could feel one in both corners of his eyes.

"The old shit try to reach out to you these days?"

Clara had gone over to the navy blue kitchen counter for the breakfast plate she made for him, halting with a huff and sputter. "Michael, language!" she scolded, laughing before getting serious and turning around. "But then again, you read my mind. And no, the jackass hasn't tried again. Think he all but gave up now, not that I'm surprised. Half of me was afraid he'd kill me himself if I left him." She shook her head, snorting. "Glad his ass is getting handed to him with all those lawsuits."

The lawsuits from the parents of the missing children who haven't been found even now. Michael felt the chills thinking about that. He should just leave it be. He'd gotten out of Hurricane with his mother after the trial was over, adopted her maiden name just as she'd taken it back when the divorce was over, so why should he care?

Because he still felt guilty despite being told over and over again the opposite.

Michael took his first bite of that good old crispy bacon and moaned. "Thanks as always, Mom." Then the sound of static and the familiar words of the news reached his ears. "What's the latest?"

"Desert Storm was a success," Clara answered, "as usual. But damn Mr. President's decision. If there's one thing I would have agreed with your sperm donor on, it's this. William might not have been born in this country, but he'd damned well question what he was fighting for. Son of a bitch." She reached for the tea she'd brewed over the stove. "Too early for a smoke."

"Doubt Dad would have given a shit. Maybe he'd just bitch that he'd missed out on the 'fun'."

Clara glared at him over the rim of her cup. "There's nothing entertaining about someone getting killed in front of you." Ain't that the damned truth? "I don't need to be a soldier to know that, young man."

Michael looked down at his dish to finish before he got sick and lost his appetite. His new job started tomorrow, but even so, his subconscious whispered to him that he should show William Afton how he'd finally gotten something with his life after several years of stress, rejection, sneers, and secret tears.

~o~

A small gathering was planned for her and Melinda as soon as they came home. It was near the end of winter, so there was some snow on the ground. It was sad because a luau would have been perfect if not for circumstantial timing.

Still, it was a happy occasion to be home with family and friends. Enjoying great food and drink - though she and Melinda weren't old enough to indulge in alcohol just yet even though the war made them grow up fast - and then a few days of rest before the real work at home would begin, but that also meant help and counseling in case they ever needed it.

The whole shrink thing was a mixed bag because some people were uneasy due to the negative reception for the worst of humanity.

We're back at nursing school, and hopefully, we don't get drafted again.

At the dinner table, Grandma and Grandpa gave her the updates that were in the latest letters she'd read before the plane landed. Their garage shop had gotten a new hire who would start soon, and based on what Mason explained, Kaleia felt a slight sense of wariness. "He's been on odd-end jobs for several years now, and not many people gave him a chance. But during that one interview, he seems like a good kid."

~o~

He could drive himself, but his mom needed the car, so that left Henry to help him out.

"I know it's nothing like I had it before," his uncle figure was saying as they neared their destination, "but it should be enough for you. Maybe if you get lucky and last here, you'll someday amount to something."

"Pretty soon, Michael...no one will even remember you existed."

Yeah, famous last words from the sperm donor. Telling him he was nothing, not a son anymore, that he was dead to him as much as Evan was. But here, Henry was telling him the opposite just like Mom, again. Told him he was finally starting over and that everything would be okay. The nightmares would someday be a distant memory.

Michael looked upon Kai's High Garage. He chuckled at the overstated name of this family-oriented place, which at the same time looked capable of fulfilling its customers' needs. He prayed that it would be safer than where he was before and that his coworkers and bosses wouldn't give him shit, or much of it.

Every protagonist needs a bestie, and in Kaleia's case: Melinda Warner is named after the SVU medical examiner herself of "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit". :D Perfecto, and add that she herself is said to have a background of two tours during Desert Storm.

Speaking of Desert Storm, I'd watched the YouTube video "What Happened in the Persian Gulf War? | History" on the History Channel. That helped start my understanding, so I've only scratched the surface of the events. My late dad had been there during those days, then later Iraqi wars. :'(

I also know Saddam Hussein got what came to him in the end.

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