Coming Home

All characters are 18 years old or older.

This work is in honor of both Veteran's Day and the U.S.A.'s withdrawal of its last combat troops from Afghanistan, who arrived back home a couple of weeks ago.

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The first step off the airplane was a doozy. Not because it was steep, or because it had been a twelve hour flight. No. It was because of the enormity of what he had left behind.

It had been nine months since he had set foot in American soil. It had been nearly 13 years since the war in Afghanistan had begun and now here they were, the last combat unit to be pulled out from Afghanistan, setting foot on the tarmac.

As he stepped down from the plane, shouldering his seabag with one hand, he looked up at the sky. It was done. He was home. He had survived five combat tours. Two of them in Afghanistan. He'd served twelve whole years in the Marine Corps. Now, in three weeks time, his enlistment was ending.

A high pitched squeal met his ears and he looked back across the tarmac. A little girl, no more than eight, had spotted her daddy. He smiled and stepped aside, getting out of the way of the Marines behind him as their tear-stained and smiling families streamed towards them.

Staff Sergeant Samuel F. Zwolinski had no one waiting for him.

He made his way alone through the terminal and outside once again. A package of Marlboros had somehow found its way into his hands from one of his myriad pockets. He flopped down onto a bench, dropped his bag at his feet, and flipped his cover from his head, lighting up in almost record time. That first inhale calmed him. The following slow exhale, centered him. It was like some sort Oriental breathing ritual. Finding his center and shaking off the cares of the world. Or something.

Passersby stopped to thank him for his service and he would stand to shake their hands and fake a smile for them. Really he just wanted to finish his cigarette before the long bus ride back to base.

More families would be waiting there. Only a few of them ever came out to the airport. He knew the routine. He'd seen it plenty of times. He also knew that his family wouldn't be there.

His mom hated flying. His dad was trying to run a business. His siblings had their own lives. He'd even stopped telling them when he was due back exactly. Just promised that he'd be home in Idaho sometime in the next month. He'd been serving for over a decade now. This sort of thing was routine by now.

No. He'd finish his cigarette. Go back to base. Finish his enlistment and then go home and try to put his life back together.

He took another drag on his cigarette, savoring it for a moment. Closing his eyes and tilting his head back before exhaling upwards, a geyser of smoke.

"Staff Sergeant Zee?" a familiar voice addressed him and he looked up to see a young Lance Corporal standing at parade rest before him.

"Relax Tompkins," Sam said, waving the kid off. They were off base, he didn't have to be so uptight. "What is it?"

The Lance Corporal gratefully adopted a more natural posture. "I didn't mean to interrupt you Staff Sergeant," said Tompkins, "But there's this really cute girl and I think she's looking for you."

Sam sat up a little straighter and knit his brows. What the hell was this kid talking about? No one in his family even knew when he was getting back.

Tompkins saw the look and gestured over near the terminal. "She's right over there," he said.

Sam stood up and looked over where Tompkins was gesturing. Sure enough, there was a young woman, holding a piece of cardboard with his name scrawled across it in big letters. She looked somewhat distraught, turning about and trying to make sure everyone possible saw her sign.

"Thanks Tompkins," said Sam. "I'll take it from here."

"Of course, Staff Sergeant," said Tompkins nodding before backing away and then sprinting off to catch up with his friends.

Sam approached her slowly. He had no idea who this girl was. Her back was to him now as she stood and tried to flag down a couple of Marines walking by. They weren't paying attention and her shoulders slumped in defeat.

She wasn't a typical Californian girl. She was blonde, naturally so, and fair skinned. No tan to speak of. She was thin, but healthy. Plenty of curve to her body, especially where it mattered. She was about five foot four-ish. Her breasts were small, B-cups at best, but they complimented the rest of her figure perfectly. And that ass was amazing. Just the right amount of curve to it.

Yet, she was dressed rather modestly. A pink jacket, zipped up with the sleeves pushed above her elbows. Her jeans weren't too tight, but fit her just right. They weren't low rise either, hitting her hips just perfectly.

She turned, flashing her sign in his direction.

Her face was slightly familiar and yet completely unknown, all at the same time.

She caught sight of him. A smile spread across her lips and she dropped her sign.

"You're home!" She shouted, drawing the attention of several nearby Marines. She sprinted the last few steps towards him and threw her arms around him.

Sam looked up. The Marines were looking at him, some had even paused mid-conversation. Since when had Staff Sergeant Zee ever had anyone waiting for him?

"Um, yes...I am," said Sam doing his best to disentangle himself from her arms. "I uh..." he was lost for words as he pulled her off of him and stepped back slightly. "I'm sorry but, who are you?"

His men were used to him being calm headed, stoic, and cool under-pressure. Right now his face was red with embarrassment.

The girl looked at him. She was startled at first. He got the feeling that he should recognize her. She clearly knew him. Her forehead scrunched in frustration and disappointment as she looked up at him.

That look.

He knew that look. It reminded him of another young woman. Another blonde haired, green-eyed woman. His ex-wife had looked so much like this girl when they'd first met.

Their divorce had been amicable. They'd remained friends and her family still supported him. He'd even given her his blessing when she got remarried.

But this girl.

This girl had been his pen pal for years now. The gangly little sister of his ex-wife. The nerdy-bookworm of a teenager that had been a bridesmaid in their wedding. She'd written him for years now. She'd even asked him when he was going to be home in her last letter. She was the only one he'd told. He'd completely forgotten about it. In his mind she was still the same wispy little teenager that hadn't gotten her driver's license until she was eighteen.

This gorgeous young woman in front him was...what? All of twenty-three years old now? She'd become a full on goddess now.

But if she'd changed this much, then surely he'd changed too. How had she even recognized him? He'd lost a lot of weight since they'd last met. He was balding early but kept his hair buzzed to try and hide it.

He could see it in her eyes. She was studying him. His face, every little detail. For a brief moment a sadness flashed in her eyes and then was gone. What had she seen?

"Penelope?" he said at last, still slightly dumbfounded.

Her eyes brightened instantly and a smile spread across her face.

"No way," he said incredulously. "You're...you're so...I mean..." he struggled to convey his thoughts without putting his foot in his mouth.

"So what?" she asked, looking up at him with those soul-piercing green eyes.

"Just...Wow!" he blurted out.

She blushed and looked down.

"You look pretty good too," she said. "Glad to see you didn't get hurt." She paused and shut her eyes, sighing deeply before speaking again. "I was stupid to come down here. I'm sorry. Just, when you didn't get off the plane right away I was worried something had happened."

Her eyes threatened tears and he panicked, grabbing her tightly in a hug.

"I'm alright. I just didn't think anyone would be waiting here for me, least of all you. I didn't realize..." his voice trailed off as he remember a line from her last letter.

See you when you come back!

She was being literal. Realizing he was still holding her, and that little Zee was threatening to stand at attention and salute her, he pulled back somewhat suddenly, and tried his best to adjust his uniform as he changed the topic.

"So, how's.. how's school? You're - what, a junior in college now?" He looked around now, realizing with much relief that everyone was back to paying attention to their own messes.

It took her a minute to regain her composure. Coming here, she was a college student, her third year respected among her peers and currently holding a job as night manager at a local hotel. She had her shit together. When she met up with him again, she was back to being that little teenaged girl who had a crush on her big sister's husband.

She knew, thanks to a class in psychology, that with friends and family you were always treated as the age that the two of you met. In that line of questioning, she'd always think of him as a hunky man who was not right in the head for marrying her sister, and he'd always think of her as just a nerdy confused girl with a cute crush.

That's what psychology said, but his eyes said something else.

The way his letters had read too, once a week at least, for the past three years. Double when he was deployed. He always treated her as an adult, as her own person. Respected her for her choices, and never mentioned her sister.

He couldn't keep his eyes off of her, and kept trying to pry them away to see what everyone else was doing. Moving slowly, waiting for the buses.

"Wait one," he said holding a finger up to her before she could answer, and headed over to the gunnery sergeant in charge of the 'operation.' Quickly ascertaining that he had time for a meaningful conversation he approached her again, all smiles.

"Sorry. Just making sure we had time to catch up here."

"Oh.. Oh! Well, I have the next few days off, and can afford to skip a couple classes, so I was going to follow you back to base and - uh.." She trailed off.

He smiled. "That's very sweet of you Penelope. You didn't have to come down here - waste your free time on an old marine -"

She interrupted him rather quickly, "You're only 30."

He chuckled sadly, "Feels like 82."

He gestured to a nearby bench and sat down next to her, about a person and a half away from her. "My knees are shoddy, back is killing me, the hand where I was hit with that shrapnel aches any time there is rain, and pretty sure my intestines have turned rebellious on me as well." He sat back and watched her eyes as she took all that information in.

"You're right. You are old," she grinned.

He playfully poked her in the side. He did treat her like the adult woman she was, but there were some mannerisms that couldn't be helped. He paused and realized it was inappropriate, trying to apologize she stopped him with a very contented smile.

"I'm actually glad, I was afraid this was going to be awkward. I... I know it has to be for you, to talk to me after you and my sister split ways. And you could've always turned my letters down and just ignored me. But you always wrote back, even during the complaints and long winded rants about math professors being immensely boring or my chemistry teacher being excessively grabby-"

"Remind me to beat him.." he said with a suggestively violent tone.

"It was a her."

His head shot back to look at her and judge if she was pulling his leg. Nope.

Trying to alleviate the awkwardness he decided to push it into full on awkward mode. "Oh.. So.. Take pictures then?"

"She was about three hundred pounds," She said trying to keep her face void of any expression but a hint of a smile still crept onto her face.

He threw up his hands in defeat. "Damnit, so, back to beating some one up then. You ok from that - uh.. Teacher?"

"Oh yeah, no harm no foul. We all get a little lonely."

And that just brought his thought train full circle back to the train station.

"Yeah, speaking of.. I have to say I was replying mostly in a... selfish manner. I don't speak with many people outside of work and.. Not much family these days so, yeah. Touch bit of the loneliness. I'm sorry if you think I took advantage, but you weren't the only one feeling a bit lonely."

For a brief moment he thought the revelation had killed her respect for him. But her hand intertwined with his suddenly brought a new spark to it.

"Of course you were. Sam, I.." She grinned and looked away from his face and down at her feet. "Of course you were. How could you not be? It's a very lonely job."

Wise beyond her years. He thought to himself as he looked around him. Three hundred something marines on that deployment, and except for a few joking buddies and the conversations to get them all through the day, he had been completely alone for the better part of the deployment. Only time he had felt like he belonged in quite possibly a long time, was when her hand was in his.

"I uh..." He tried to breathe and found it a bit hard for the air to find his lungs. "You uh.. Tell your sister you came down to see me?"

"She encouraged it. She knew I was writing you, was a bit shocked a couple weeks ago when she found out that what started when I was still a kid, writing you whenever you were deployed had increased to being your pen pal no matter where you were, and still were. Regardless of both our jobs and other work." She didn't finish with what her sister had said to her, and flushed red with embarrassment at the words of 'encouragement' she had uttered.

"How is she? I mean really, she tells me some things but I think she tries to shield me still so I don't worry."

Not really wanting to talk about her sister too much, she gave up some information but told him that otherwise she was doing fine, trying to keep his attention focused on the here and now, just like Julie had told her.

"You have leave for a couple days after this right?" She asked quietly. It took him a minute to realize just what exactly she'd said.

"Yes, just gotta get out of the formation then out of this uniform then I'm home free for a couple of days before I gotta go back and finish signing my gear back in. Getting out in a couple of weeks."

"Mind if I keep you company?" She stated. It was a bold statement but it was obvious from the way she held herself, she was struggling to keep up her persona of having everything together.

"I'd love that." He said without thinking. Though, he couldn't even pretend to think he wanted to retract those words. He did have to give her the heads up though. "I uh.. You can't stay on base though and I would rather not stay on base anyways -"

"I have an apartment - um.. A couple hours away." She offered, then suddenly came to a really awkward thought.

"Good, can I crash with you for the next few days?"

"Yes.. I.. umm.." She was going to mention she only had the one room, and just a small twin bed and a recliner chair, but thought that she'd tackle that problem when they got down the road.

"Good to go, Penelope.." He paused and looked around. "Give me the address, and I'll meet you there? I've got quite a bit of work to do when I get back to the base before I dismiss myself."

"Sure, of course!" She nearly blurted excitedly. Pausing and clenching her fist around her jeans she tried to get her shit together. "I'll text it to you." She said then gave him her information, and in exchange he gave her his.

With that, the buses arrived shortly after, they said their goodbyes and he impatiently road out back to the base and retrieved his gear. Where as the last couple of deployments had always gotten him down from their distinct lack of anyone giving a shit about him coming home, he couldn't stop but keep smiling to himself as he was dismissed from formation. He couldn't stop smiling as he put his gear away and returned to the Bachelor's Enlisted Quarters and dressed into something a bit more comfortable and packed enough gear for the weekend.

Reclaiming his phone and putting it on the charger was his first priority. Secondly he packed as he waited for it to get enough of a charge before he placed a call to an old contact he had kept in his phone for five years but never once used.

"Hey, is uh.. Julie there? Yeah? Hey - it's me. Uh - Sam. Nice to hear your voice too Julie" he said in reply to her shock and compliment.

"Hey Sam? What's going on?"

He felt like his red face could be seen from the moon.

"I um, well ok - I just got back home. And your sister was there to meet with me and she invited me to her apartment to stay the weekend, and I don't think anything will happen but if it makes ANYTHING at all weird between us, or God forbid between you and her I'll step aside right now and tell her I can't -"

"No. No Sam, I told her to ask you out. You guys have been corresponding for how long?"

"On and off since you and I were married, but it got really serious about three years ago, when she started college and needed advice - I.."

"You were lonely. And she was lonely and needed help. And she went to you because she loves you."

That last sentence just about hit him harder than two megaton neutron bomb. "She.. Uh.. What?"

"Oh hush, you know she does. Hell you probably love her too, just won't admit it because you don't want to hurt her. I really missed that about you. Chivalrous to the end."

He was speechless.

"Trust me, nothing is weird between us. I gotta go, my wife just came home and needs help with the groceries. I love you Sam. Keep safe ok?"

The silence after the phone call was just about deafening. What was even more maddening was Julie's last couple sentences of encouragement. The questions resounding from that last paragraph of dialogue between he and his ex-wife rattled through his head. Did she? Really? Did he? Really??

Of course he did. The answer was quicker than he expected, and he wasn't half as blown away as he thought he'd be by it. And she did too. It was obvious to everyone except him apparently. He finished packing the few shirts and pants and clean underwear he head kept in his locker in the shop, and headed out.

He knew where the area was, and hitched a ride from one of his co-workers to about halfway there, before he got a cab and went the rest of the way there. Texting her when he was about ten minutes out.

He got out of the cab, stumbled around lost for a bit before being flagged down by Penelope in her second story apartment window. He all but flew up to the top of the stairs and before he could knock she opened the door and greeted him with a feast for his eyes.

Her hair was let down and loose from the pony tail it had been in earlier, coming down to her shoulders, and almost resting on them. Her dress on the other hand. Blue as the sky, and while parts of her shoulders were exposed the dress had sleeves which came up to between her forearms and elbows, the blue in the dress itself amplified the blue in her eyes and accentuated the very female forms of her body, and there he was standing stupidly at the door, pretty sure his mouth was ajar and his tongue hang lying on the floor.

He was wearing a polo shirt and some beat up old jeans while she had dressed up and definitely been planning this for sometime. He felt so completely out of place and that Penelope was undoubtedly out of his league.

And there he was, rocking some of the best fitting jeans she'd ever seen. His shirt was ironed and crisp, he smelt of a fresh shower and definitely the hint of some nice aftershave.

He'd even gone and shaved the stubble he'd gained from the flight over from Europe. And here she was, in a hand me down dress she'd managed to borrow from her friend Tracey at the last minute. God, she felt so out of place and there was no doubt that Sam was completely out of her league.