For Karine and Country Ch. 01

"We were lonely... But by the end of that week, we knew nothing was going to come of it."

He remembered how they had spent most of the week crying, reliving the battle, not understanding why they survived. He remembered how they were curled up on the bed, taking solace in the comfort of each other's arms. Then he remembered her pregnancy scare.

Once the tension was gone... we figured we made better friends than lovers or whatnot. Plus the military wouldn't be too happy about a Captain sleeping with a Master Corporal." He took a breath, and continued.

"Karine?"

Karine was now worried at the serious tone of his voice. With a bit of trepidation, she answered.

"Yeah?"

He spoke slowly. "Listen... about earlier in the bar..."

She cut him off. "No apologizing. We'll work it out. Somehow."

Matt's serious demeanour lightened as he ladled the soup into a bowl. He paused to think, then he slid the bowl in front of her.

"Alright," he answered.

*******************

The two of them had finished their food, and now were on the couch in the living room watching a movie. Karine was nestled in Matt's arms, in his army hoodie, enjoying the warmth of being so close to him. Matt was right, he couldn't cook for shit, but he was a master at making drinks. She finished the remainder of her hot chocolate, and placed the mug onto the end table.

"Somebody likes her hot chocolate. That's the third one you've finished."

"Well I'm not the only one that likes it. Isn't that your fourth, soldier boy?"

"Stop calling me soldier boy."

"No. Not until you tell me how to make this."

"It's a recipe that only us army types know... to let an outsider know would be treason."

"I know there's scotch in it..."

"There's scotch in a lot of stuff."

"How did you learn how to make it again?"

"Years ago on my basic training, I was offered a warm drink by one of my Sergeants after a particularly long week in the field. The moment I tasted it, I knew I had to find out what was in it."

His story was interrupted when he noticed that Karine was leaning on him more heavily.

"Go on." She nuzzled his collarbone.

"So, ahh... he wouldn't tell me. Told me to find him the day I returned from my first tour in Afghanistan. That was, what, about two years ago? So I tracked him down, and you wouldn't believe the look on his face when I showed up on his front porch in full dress uniform."

Karine couldn't help but laugh. Neither could Matt. "You are something, aren't you."

"Yes ma'am, I'm one of a kind."

"Yes you are."

They turned their attention back to the movie, Casino Royale. Bond had just been tortured by the villain, and now was in the hospital, falling in love with Vesper Lynd. The increasingly obvious romance between the two only served to make Matt and Karine feel increasingly uncomfortable. It was only a matter of time before somebody spoke.

"Karine?"

"Yeah."

"Do you hate me?"

"What?"

"Do you hate me?"

"I'm in your house, watching a movie while nestled in your arms. Of course I don't hate you."

"I walked away."

"As would have anybody."

"I never tried to talk to you."

"As would have anybody."

"Stop saying that."

To Matt's surprise, Karine sat up straight, and turned so that she was facing him. She looked at him, took his hands into hers and adamantly said "No, I won't."

Matt pulled his hands away gently. "What kind of a man would abandon someone he loved?"

"The same man who thought his girlfriend was cheating on him- Well, knew she was cheating."

"Only that one time?"

"Duh." She leaned back into the couch. "How about you?"

"Huh?"

"Do you hate me Matt?"

Matt took a while to come up with a response, and every second longer he took, Karine grew more and more anxious. He finally replied. "I hate what you did... but I don't hate you."

"That was a fucked up night, wasn't it?"

"Yeah."

*******************

Matt replayed the familiar nightmare. They had been celebrating a friend's birthday at the bar, and over the course of the night, everybody had disappeared to one corner, or another. Some were on the dance floor, some smoking outside. Karine had left for the dance floor at least an hour before, and Matt assumed he simply couldn't see her. At that second booth closest to the door, Matt had been drinking beers when nature called. Making his way to the back, and into the restaurant's washroom, he was at the urinal when he heard a dull thumping, hindered by the music playing outside of the washroom on the dance floor. He then heard grunting and moaning, and finally connected the dots. Somebody was getting lucky in the handicap stall next to the wall.

Finishing his business, Matt was washing his hands in the sink when couldn't help but sneak a peek in the mirror and see if he could figure out who it was. The only clue he had was a black university hoodie hung on the stall door. It looked just like the one Karine wore all the time. She had replaced the drawstring with a red one when it fell out. Most of them had black ones... wait. This one wasn't black.

Matt's heart dropped. Years of football had left him in superior shape, and as soon as he connected the dots, he found himself turning around and rushing towards the door. His mind stopped functioning as he brought his right foot up and kicked the door as hard as he could. The cheap lock on the stall gave way, and Matt stepped in and turned his eyes to the left, to the remainder of the stall.

There she was. Naked as the day she was born, pinned up against the wall with her legs around some equally naked guy. Karine was the first to see Matt, and she screamed once her glazed over eyes made contact with his now vacant eyes. The guy had twisted his shoulders around to see what had just happened. They made eye contact. His girlfriend... the love of his life... was screwing Adam. His best friend.

Matt's face said everything. Part shock, part horror, part anger. Karine threw her legs down and pushed Adam away from her as if he were a disease. Adam twisted around while putting his hands up defensively, and backed as far as he could away from Matt.

"I swear man.. she came onto-"

Adam didn't get a chance to finish his sentence, as Matt smashed his face in. His body, suddenly limp, collapsed onto the ceramic floor, blood and sweat pooling in a puddle. He looked pathetic. Matt turned his eyes back to his girlfriend.

Well somebody that used to be his girlfriend. He took in the sad sight in front of him. Her makeup was smeared, and her face covered in beads of sweat. Was that cum dripping from the corner of her mouth? There were bite marks around her nipples, her breasts were red as if they had been grabbed, and hard at that. Cum dripped from her pussy onto her inner thighs. She slumped onto the wall, slid down, and started crying.

In a broken and slurred voice, she tried to speak. "Matt-"

Matt interrupted her. "Don't."

Matt then looked back at Adam, and decided to give him another kick for good measure. The body groaned. Good. He wasn't dead. He then looked back at Karine, and found himself unable to be in the same room as her at that point. He did a 180, and then walked out of that bar.

Matt's friend saw him walk back to the booth. But there was something different. His eyes were vacant, the thousand yard stare present in them. He walked past the table, not even bothering to collect his jacket, and out the door.

Little did anybody know that there was an engagement ring in that jacket.

*******************

"You were really drunk, weren't you?" Matt stopped the movie.

"Shitfaced. I don't remember much, but I somehow made it out of that washroom. Didn't make it too far, and Sarah had to drag me back to her place and get me to wash up."

"Massive hangover?"

"You bet."

"How'd you feel?"

"Confused. I didn't remember the night, all that I knew was that I had too much to drink and Sarah had just dragged me back to her place. I called you. But I got your answering machine. I texted you after that so many times."

"I know."

"I.. I was sore all over, but as the day went on, the soreness... down there... remained. It wasn't part of my general soreness... it was specific... as if something bad had happened. Then it came back to me. The washroom. Him. You kicking in the door. You looking at me like something that crawled out of the sewer."

Matt couldn't sit back anymore. He pulled Karine into the crook of his arm, and hugged her reassuringly.

"Karine, you don't have to-"

"No Matt. I want to."

Karine took a deep breath, and continued.

"I started crying, and the more I tried to reach you, the more I realized you didn't want to do anything with me. I told Sarah what happened, and while she was mad with me, she tried to help me find you. But everybody said they hadn't heard from you. I checked your place. Nobody was there."

"I moved out a week after."

"Did you?"

"Yeah."

"You never told anybody what happened?"

"Figured nobody needed more drama. I did tell a few shrinks... but it only sorta helped."

"I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that."

"No. No, I won't."

Karine was breaking down. But she soldiered on.

"So just when things were a disaster, they got worse. I started throwing up in the mornings. Turned out I was carrying his baby. Mom and dad weren't too pleased, and wanted me to get an abortion. Some religious parents they were... hypocrites. Stopped talking to them. I decided I would do something right for once."

The room was quiet once more, with the exception of their breathing. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she spoke up.

"Then that December... maybe few days in... Sarah was driving me to the doctor's. Nice, sunny morning. Some day it turned out to be. We hit a patch of black ice, and she lost control of the car. The last thing I remember was seeing a bus coming at us... I don't remember being cut out of the wreck. I don't remember the ambulance. All I remember was waking up in that hospital, and being told I lost my baby."

Karine finally lost it, and started sobbing. Matt wasn't much better off. His pain seemed very, very unimportant now. He remembered how he used to comfort her when she was at her worst, back when things were happier. He hoped that it still worked, for her sake. He slowly and softly kissed the top of her head, and did so until she managed to slow herself to sniffles. It had been over three hours since they had started watching the movie. Three of the longest hours of their lives.

"Don't go any further. Please. Please don't do this to yourself."

"Matt, I need to get this off my chest. I've waited for five years, for my sake, just let me finish."

Matt decided to not push the matter, and pulled her in closer, yet again. She continued.

"Those were the worst months of my life... I mean, I wasn't that badly hurt, Sarah was alright... but I just didn't want to live anymore. I went in and out of my paces, went to work, sat around at home, and went to see the doctor. Sometimes I thought about jumping off a bridge."

She felt Matt tense up and his heart beat faster. It had been getting faster all night, but it was at its peak now.

"Then one day, the May after, while waiting for my counsellor at a hospital, I saw him in the lobby. A soldier in full dress uniform, on crutches, and in pain. Missing his leg."

Matt had a brief flashback to all of the men he had lost on his tours. Men who didn't deserve to suffer.

"There was this sort of a shop in the lobby next to the office, and the soldier stopped to buy a candy bar. He was the last one in there, as they were closing. So as he made his way over to the office, I could hear someone running. A boy. He wasn't older than ten. Ran around the corner, saw the place closed, and you should see his shoulders slump.

Karine paused.

"The soldier heard him too. He turned around and waved to get the boy's attention."

Karine looked up into Matt's eyes, then back down. There was a new emotion in her eyes, one he wasn't sure of.

"They talked for a bit, then the soldier reached down gave him his candy bar. You could just see that boy light up, and after thanking him, he ran back where he came from. The soldier turned back in my direction, and made his way into the office. There was something different about him though. He was happy. Full of hope, full of life and it was right there and then that I decided that despite what happened to me... I had the rest of my life in front of me."

She smiled, tears in her eyes.

"Eventually... I did get my life back together. Started going out with friends again. Started talking to family again. Learned to love every moment. But there was something missing."

"What?"

"You."

"Is that why you were at the bar tonight?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't know if I was coming."

"I hoped that you would. It just seems like something you would do."

"Am I that predictable?"

"Oh yeah."

They both laughed, the first time in a while. Their moment quickly died.

"But I know it can't happen."

Matt's heart stopped. Confused, and stunned, he pressed.

"Why?"

"You said so yourself, in the bar. I nearly got you killed. I was the reason you were out there in the battlefield. Now look at you. You could have any woman you wanted. Why would you want me, the girl who broke your heart?"

"Do you remember what the last thing I said in that bar was?"

"Go to hell." Karine sighed dejectedly.

"Before that."

"You were thinking of killing yourself."

"No. That was me being a drama queen."

"Then, I don't remember."

"I said it was all because I still love you."

A pause.

"I'm sorry I kept you waiting."

Matt was confused. Karine sensed this.

"Sex."

"Oh. A lot of girls do wait, you know."

"I wanted to wait for the right person. Until I was married. Like a proper Catholic girl."

"It's not like you deprived me."

They shared a fond memory. She remembered tearing off his pants and taking him entirely into her mouth whenever she could. He remembered the way she and that ponytail would bob up and down as she quite literally fucked him with her mouth, and how she'd always swallow and look up at him with a mischievous smile.

"Blowjobs aren't sex."

"That's not the point. Sex gets boring if you don't feel anything for the other person. You made it personal."

"I guess I did. You know I got pretty horny too." She giggled.

Incredulously, Matt replied. "Really?"

"Totally."

"I wanted to go down on you."

"I know. But it got to the point where I was fighting with myself over if I should have just gone and slept with you... Part of me wanted to wait like I had been taught growing up. Part of me just wanted to throw you down and have my way with you."

"You know that counts as rape right?"

"No jury would every convict me."

"Not that I would have minded."

Karine gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, and continued.

"Eventually horny me won out. A cucumber can only go so far."

She thought she felt his cock twitch as she looked up at his reddening cheeks, and laughed. She then continued in a more serious tone, her eyes falling back to the floor. "Unfortunately, it was when I was shitfaced."

Matt spoke flatly, not happy to remember the night. "I remember. Whatever happened to Adam?"

"Adam? He fucked the wrong woman, so I heard."

"How?"

"Her husband was a cop."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. Drugs got planted, a 'random' search occurred, next thing that bastard knows is that he's bitch to a guy named Bubba up at Kingston. Ten years."

Matt couldn't help but smile as the man he had once considered killing was going to be facing such an ironic punishment.

"Matt?" Karine looked up at him again.

"Yeah?"

"Where do we go from here?"

Matt didn't know how to answer that.

"I don't know. I guess slowly. We'll figure things out." He looked at the clock, and continued.

"It's nearly one. Guess if we figure out anything, it'll be tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'm kinda sleepy. I'm sure we can wait."

"I'm going to take a shower. I'm sure Jacalyn won't mind if you sleep in her room, she tends to be a lot more laidback than I am. I've put your clothes up there."

"Including my panties?"

Matt stammered. "Yes, including your panties. Luckily Jacalyn won't know you went commando in her fatigues."

Karine blushed. "Thanks for everything."

"Don't mention it."

*******************

Matt was trying to dry out his ears as he entered his bedroom. He never was one for a short shower, despite the trouble he got into with the army for it. It gave him time to think, and he had no shortage of material to digest this hour. Stopping in front of his bed, he threw the towel onto the computer chair.

His room was a simple affair. In the center was his bed, and to the right was a large desk against the wall with his computer, as well as a bookcase. To the right was his army gear, stored neatly. Some of his gear, such as his helmet, was on a mannequin- Wait, where was his helmet?

He sensed he wasn't alone. His suspicions were confirmed as he heard his door swing and click shut. He turned around as fast as he could, and suddenly, lost the ability to say something.

A foot away from him was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was wearing his helmet, the sweater from earlier... thin pink panties... and nothing else. Her arms were by her side and she was looking into his eyes. He saw her soul. He was incapable of speech. She spoke instead.

"So I got to my room... got into bed... and decided that I didn't want to wait until tomorrow."

Matt was finally able to speak. "The helmet?"

She stepped closer to him, to the point where they were touching. Her arms came up to grab his arms, and she slowly caressed the tanned skin. "I'm willing to fight for you, no matter what."

They kissed.

*******************

End of Chapter 1. Jacalyn will play an important role in Chapter 2. Thanks for reading. Constructive feedback is always welcome.

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