[TMW] 2 - Love
Love wasn't really anything I expected to feel. Growing up I really didn't have that structure. It was a firm hand, and a rough beating to get me in line the way the old man liked. My mother either out of pure fear if my father, or maybe she just never liked my ass to begin with avoided me, avoided the whole thing and made me think it was normal. That I deserved it for being a brat kid. So I just never thought much about it.
That all changed for me in June of 83, when I first met Katie Cohen. She worked at a bar that I frequented a bit because an ex friend of mine went there. One she had to kick out several times because he was a complete ass, hence the ex friend part. The way she handled herself caught my attention, not to mention she was sexy as hell. Her kicking guy's asses just made her more sexy. I would sit in the back and watch her, trying to figure out what I'd say to her. Then one day instead of sitting at the back of the bar I went and sat right at the bar where she was. I remember how it all went.
There was a game on so the boys in the bar all had their eyes glued to the television, and when I sat she looked at me. I remember our eyes meeting and my heart just about jumped out of my chest, but I was glad I was trained to keep things like that from showing. She was even more beautiful up close. She asked me what she could get me, and then told me not to say to fix the refs because she'd heard it enough that day. So I had to come back with something and asked about killing them instead. From the very beginning our minds battled the other. That's when she talked about enlisting, and it gave us a common ground to talk about. Of course at first I didn't mention I was in the military until I told her she'd make it through, and she thanked me for my uninformed observation. I was just a Sergeant back then, nowhere near ever thinking I'd be a Colonel. I hadn't gone to be an officer, not like some do. We ended up going back to her place that night, me nervous as all hell because I'd never been with anyone before. I was supposed to be this bad ass military guy that knew what he was doing, and there I was not having a damn clue.
It wasn't the best, but it was still good. Maybe on some level it was meant to be a one night stand for both of us, but somewhere during that night with her I wanted her. I wanted to be with her and I felt something there that I couldn't put my finger on at the time. We were together off and on for eleven years. Though when the unit moved from Boston to Missouri distance began taking a toll. She moved on to New York, and I was away more and more on missions. I went to see her as much as I could, and enjoyed each moment we shared together. I wanted to marry her back then, I wanted to ask her and I was getting clearance to tell her everything. Tell her about what I did. I had a feeling she was getting tired of it all, and wanted to break up. I wanted nothing more to spend a life with her. Then one day she was gone. I didn't know she had been reassigned to field intelligence, and for the next six months after that I kept trying to contact her. I never heard from her again, and I had assumed she finally got tired of it all and didn't want to see mer again. I settled in fully into my work then, hurt at losing someone I had loved. I shut myself down so hard and focused everything I had on my missions.
I made Colonel and the one person I would have loved to share it with wasn't there. I had lost her. I remember that being on my mind a lot. Wondering how she was, what she was doing. Trying to push away the idea of her with other people, people that were able to be there for her more then I ever could. I convinced myself somewhere along the way I was foolish to think I could have a love like that, and resigned myself to never having it. To being alone. The day Matt came into the unit, and Katie came walking back into my world. I didn't recognize her, and I was so much different then she remembered she didn't recognize me either. We had to fall in love all over again it seemed, though it wasn't until we got to talking on a vacation that I came to realize why falling for her came so easy. Why she got to me when I tried fighting it off. It was because she was always there, she never left. I never stopped loving bartending girl back in that bar in Boston. So it's no surprise that I fell in love with her again, or that I ended up marrying her. I just eish it all happened back when I first met her, before I let her down and wasn't there when she needed me most. I know we won't be like other couples and have children of our own, just something that's never been in the cards for us. Even if I think somehow we'd be good parents, and we'd raise a baby a hell of a lot different then either of us ever were, a lot better.
Valentine's Day is coming up, and I plan to make it a special one. To make up for all those ones we lost between the first, and the second time we met. It's our first as a married couple and I do want her to know exactly how special she is to me. She deserves that much from me and she will damn well get it.
Muse | Tom Ryan
Fandon | The Unit
Word Count | 1,043
That all changed for me in June of 83, when I first met Katie Cohen. She worked at a bar that I frequented a bit because an ex friend of mine went there. One she had to kick out several times because he was a complete ass, hence the ex friend part. The way she handled herself caught my attention, not to mention she was sexy as hell. Her kicking guy's asses just made her more sexy. I would sit in the back and watch her, trying to figure out what I'd say to her. Then one day instead of sitting at the back of the bar I went and sat right at the bar where she was. I remember how it all went.
There was a game on so the boys in the bar all had their eyes glued to the television, and when I sat she looked at me. I remember our eyes meeting and my heart just about jumped out of my chest, but I was glad I was trained to keep things like that from showing. She was even more beautiful up close. She asked me what she could get me, and then told me not to say to fix the refs because she'd heard it enough that day. So I had to come back with something and asked about killing them instead. From the very beginning our minds battled the other. That's when she talked about enlisting, and it gave us a common ground to talk about. Of course at first I didn't mention I was in the military until I told her she'd make it through, and she thanked me for my uninformed observation. I was just a Sergeant back then, nowhere near ever thinking I'd be a Colonel. I hadn't gone to be an officer, not like some do. We ended up going back to her place that night, me nervous as all hell because I'd never been with anyone before. I was supposed to be this bad ass military guy that knew what he was doing, and there I was not having a damn clue.
It wasn't the best, but it was still good. Maybe on some level it was meant to be a one night stand for both of us, but somewhere during that night with her I wanted her. I wanted to be with her and I felt something there that I couldn't put my finger on at the time. We were together off and on for eleven years. Though when the unit moved from Boston to Missouri distance began taking a toll. She moved on to New York, and I was away more and more on missions. I went to see her as much as I could, and enjoyed each moment we shared together. I wanted to marry her back then, I wanted to ask her and I was getting clearance to tell her everything. Tell her about what I did. I had a feeling she was getting tired of it all, and wanted to break up. I wanted nothing more to spend a life with her. Then one day she was gone. I didn't know she had been reassigned to field intelligence, and for the next six months after that I kept trying to contact her. I never heard from her again, and I had assumed she finally got tired of it all and didn't want to see mer again. I settled in fully into my work then, hurt at losing someone I had loved. I shut myself down so hard and focused everything I had on my missions.
I made Colonel and the one person I would have loved to share it with wasn't there. I had lost her. I remember that being on my mind a lot. Wondering how she was, what she was doing. Trying to push away the idea of her with other people, people that were able to be there for her more then I ever could. I convinced myself somewhere along the way I was foolish to think I could have a love like that, and resigned myself to never having it. To being alone. The day Matt came into the unit, and Katie came walking back into my world. I didn't recognize her, and I was so much different then she remembered she didn't recognize me either. We had to fall in love all over again it seemed, though it wasn't until we got to talking on a vacation that I came to realize why falling for her came so easy. Why she got to me when I tried fighting it off. It was because she was always there, she never left. I never stopped loving bartending girl back in that bar in Boston. So it's no surprise that I fell in love with her again, or that I ended up marrying her. I just eish it all happened back when I first met her, before I let her down and wasn't there when she needed me most. I know we won't be like other couples and have children of our own, just something that's never been in the cards for us. Even if I think somehow we'd be good parents, and we'd raise a baby a hell of a lot different then either of us ever were, a lot better.
Valentine's Day is coming up, and I plan to make it a special one. To make up for all those ones we lost between the first, and the second time we met. It's our first as a married couple and I do want her to know exactly how special she is to me. She deserves that much from me and she will damn well get it.
Muse | Tom Ryan
Fandon | The Unit
Word Count | 1,043