The Marine Ch. 07

"So will the GFA hold?" I wondered.

There was a sea of shrugged shoulders. "No fuckin' idea, sir. To be honest, most people just want to be able to lives in peace. Let them hate each other, but from a safe distance. I think Belfast will always remain divided. The hate runs too deep. But if the peace holds, we won't be required here for too much longer, so we'll be sent to some other shithole instead."

In six months, I think we barely fired our weapons except at the range. We mostly provided support to the police service, who would soon have a new name, as their old name of the Royal Ulster Constabulary simply had too many negative connotations nowadays. We barely had any contact with the IRA or any other paramilitary groups. There were still incidents that we had to attend, and we focused more on crowd control and support rather than focusing on any 'enemy'. As far as we were aware, there no longer was an 'enemy' as Northern Ireland was supposedly finally at peace. I didn't know enough to have any real opinion, but there were a few cynics under my command.

I won't say the six months flew by, but we were kept busy as though peace agreements had been signed, it still had to be maintained, and the thought that the place was a tinderbox did ring true. It was amazing to see just how separately the two sides lived, based on some many different ideals, it was hard to see how the country would ever truly unify. Though I knew that led into further arguments about Northern Ireland existing itself. So I just thought I was a Royal Marine, I was doing my job, and I'd leave politics to others.

Stepping off the plane back on the UK mainland, plenty of families were waiting for us to disembark. I was pleased to see my grandparents had travelled to come pick me up, as I did plan on spending a couple of days with the family before returning to the barracks. It was only them. No surprise there was no sign of Hannah. After the phone call we'd shared after three months, I knew she wouldn't trust herself, even in the presence of others.

Sitting in the passenger seat as my grandfather drove, he eventually asked, "Heard from Hannah much?"

"Not in the past couple of months. No real surprise as it was always going to happen eventually. I let her go to ensure she was happy."

"We've met him," Grandma said, "He seems nice."

"That's the only thing that matters. Long as he treats her right."

"How are you holding up?" Grandad asked.

"I'm fine. We'd spoken about it more than once. Me leaving on a six-month deployment brought home the reality of the situation, of my life, of her life, and she couldn't do it. Northern Ireland seems peaceful, but between you and me, the tension definitely remains. The Union areas didn't mind us being on the streets. Republican areas? Two years ago, we'd have been shot at constantly. Now they watch us warily but we're simply patrolling. They know that so left us alone. Most of their ire was still for the RUC."

Returning to their house felt like normality restored, most of the family visiting over the next couple of days to say hello. Emma must have learned through the grapevine that I was now completely single, as she didn't say much but her body language was rather obvious. It was enough that her mother told her to knock it off, though I found it both amusing and arousing. She wasn't shy, that was for sure. But I wasn't ready for anything else just yet.

Hiring a car to take me back to barracks, I took the M6 south before switching to the M5. It was a long drive, and approaching the exits for Bristol, more than once I flicked on the indicator to suggest I was going to leave the motorway. But I flicked it off each time and continued on south. It wasn't a wound for me, I'd accepted it. But I wasn't sure how she'd react to seeing me so soon. So I kept on motoring all the way back to camp.

Settling back into daily life rather quickly, I was simply waiting for the next exercise or assignment. We wouldn't be deployed anywhere else again for a little while, or that's what I assumed anyway. So I focused on training, lessons, keeping fit and active, weekends with the young lads, and enjoying life as a Royal Marine. Sure, going to bed alone every night sucked, but I had no real reason to complain. Life was pretty good.

September 11, 2001, changed everything.

*****

A/N -- I've kept the dates mostly vague but the one above is one of the turning points in the story.

As for 40 Commando in reality, they were deployed to Northern Ireland in 2000, two years after the Good Friday Agreement. This was in addition to four deployments during the 1970s when 'The Troubles' were at their height and Northern Ireland was a battleground.