CHAPTER 18
Sean
Two days later
I pack up my seabag and give the house one last look.
Isabella’s mom already came by and picked her up. Check.
Bills are all paid up in advance for the next six months. Check.
No visible signs showing that no one’s home? Check.
Everything’s completely turned off? Check.
I sit down on the couch and call a car. They’re busy, but they’ll do the best they can to get a car over as soon as possible.
I can hear the clock ticking on the wall. It adds an eerie stillness to the room…a room without laughter and life. It’s been that way since she left.
And now six more months are going to go by.
She’ll move on, and when I get back I’ll have two and a half more years of this. It’s just Isabella and me from now on.
I love my little girl and I’m at peace with it just being the two of us again, but I really thought I had something perfect. Everything was so right, until it all came screeching to a halt. Now it’s gone. Who am I fooling? I’m not at peace with any of this.
The doorbell rings. Well, at least I don’t have time to wallow in my misery. I grab my seabag and head for the door.
I take one last look at the inside of my house, and then open the door.
I’m expecting to see a man who drives for a living, but I’m greeted by just about the exact opposite.
“Brittney?”
“Hey.”
“Are you okay?”
She pauses, not answering my question.
I toss my seabag back inside and grab her, holding her in my arms.
“Can I come in?” she asks in-between tears.
I carry her across the threshold and sit down with her on the couch. I’m holding her tight, trying to will the pain away. I never want to see her like this. Not now. Not ever.
She buries her head in my shirt, and I can feel the wetness from her tears. I reach for the bottom of my shirt, trying my best to dry her eyes.
“What’s wrong, beautiful?”
“I’m…not…beautiful,” she says in-between sobs as her chest heaves.
“You’re always beautiful to me.”
“I’m ugly and I’m fat and I’m…pregnant,” she says.
“You’re not,” my mind freezes. “You’re…what?”
“I’m pregnant, Sean! And I don’t have anywhere to go and no one to turn to.”
“Brittney,” I say. My mind goes blank. It’s such a shock. I just can’t put what I need to say into words.
“Are you…going somewhere?” she asks.
The doorbell rings as a man knocks on the door. It’s still half-open.
“Sir. I’m here to take you to the airport. Sorry, but we’re on a tight schedule. If you’re ready we need to go right away.” He sees we’re having a moment. “I can wait three minutes,” he says, and I hear the sounds of his leather soled shoes tap the concrete quickly as he scurries away to give us space.
I would have dismissed him if he would just given me a second to reply. No way will I be ready in three minutes. I can’t go anywhere. I need to be here with her. I don’t care about the consequences. The Marines can write me up for disobeying a direct order if they want. They can say I went unauthorized absence for not showing up at my next duty station on time. I don’t care. All I care about is her.
“Go,” she says. “I’m sorry I bothered you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I say. “You’re having my baby and that means more to me than anything in the world.”
I see her head turn to look up at mine. The river of tears turns into a flood as her arms wrap tightly around my neck.
I hold her so tight I can feel her heartbeat…unless maybe it’s a whole other heartbeat I’m feeling. The heartbeat of my child.
Our child. The child with the only woman I want. The only woman I want to spend the rest of my life with, no matter what.
“But you have to go,” she says quietly into my ear as her cheek squishes against mine.
“I’m not going. I’m not leaving you. I’ll always be by your side, and you by mine.”
“But you’ll get in trouble.”
“Punishment from the Marines is one thing. Punishing myself for the rest of my life from walking away from the woman I love is the worst kind of punishment I could ever imagine.”
Her sobbing grows louder and louder.
Suddenly she pulls back and then her lips come at mine harder than they ever have.
The rap of knuckles against wood fills the room. I look up expecting to see the driver, but instead there’s a Marine in his service “c” Charlie uniform.
“Warrant Officer Verlander, Sir.”
“Yes, Lance Corporal,” I say addressing the young Marine standing tall and proud in my doorway.
“Sir, your orders have been changed at the direction of the Commandant.”
“Where to?” I ask.
“I don’t know, Sir,” he says.
“Can you read them too me, Lance Corporal?”
“Lance Corporal Washington, Sir. Yes, Sir.”
The young Marine removes the single sheet of paper from manila folder he’s carrying.
“Chief Warrant Officer, Verlander. You have been reassigned. You are to report to your new duty station by 0800 on the morning of—”
“Tomorrow, Washington. I can figure it out. Just tell me where.”
I watch as Lance Corporal Washington’s eyes skim the paper. “NCIS New York, Sir.”
“Thank you, Lance Corporal Washington.”
“Yes, Sir,” he says. He slides the paper back in the envelope and I motion to him that he can leave it on the table.
“Thank you, Washington.”
“Am I dismissed, Sir?”
“Washington, if you make it a habit of brining good news like this…well then I think you can come and go as you damn well please.”
The slightest of smiles tries to make its way out of the corner of Washington’s mouth, but he quickly suppresses it. He performs an about-face and takes off back out into the hustle and bustle of New York City.
“But isn’t NCIS New York—” Brittney begins before she’s cut off.
“Sir, we have to go now,” the driver says. He’s standing in the same spot Washington was not seconds earlier, yet looking nowhere near as buttoned up as the young Marine. The driver looks fine, but there’s something the Corps does to young men that takes them to the next level.
I’ve been giving my all to the Corps for years and today she gave something back to me. Something that will help me take my life to the next level. Scratch that…our life to the next level.
“Young man, there’s a hundred dollar bill inside the first drawer right there next to you. It’s yours for the trouble.”
“You won’t be needing a ride today?”
“Not today and not ever. I’m staying right here…to start a family with the woman of my dreams.”