The Warrior Within -- One - The Home Coming

I needed to come down off the kill, needed to discharge some of the adrenaline pumping through my system, and work off all the tension in my muscles. That meant I needed to be alone for a while, needed to be as far from kin as humanly possible. Somewhere I could be calm, and safe. A place where I wasn’t always looking over my shoulder for the next attack, the next explosion, the next duck-and-cover. Of all the places I’d been I could remember only one that fit that description. Only one place that made me sink into the very veins of serenity and peace. Plus side, it came with companionship. 1

2

My Marco was strong, tall and thin. His skin was dark, like milked coffee, and his brown eyes were huge. When he smiled it lit up his whole face, and when he pulled up to the airport pick up it was that smile I was looking for. 3

4

Marco’s huge white SUV slowed as it neared me, and stopped. I could see him through the window shield; his big brown eyes were dead serious under the line of his black stocking cap. His oversize black aces jacket looked puffy like a balloon full of air and his lips….God did his lips need kissing. They were tight and sharp, no smile there. Unlike the other cars Marco didn’t have to search long to find me. I was the only female blues on the waiting dock. My shoes were shined, my ribbons sparkled, my medal glimmered, my black shoes glistened, and even my snappy little boat had seemed fresh and clean. There was no waiting bay for the Air Force. On the plane, off the plane, out the door – that’s the way we did our business. It meant I stood out, and stood out sharp. But there was no pride in Marco’s big brown eyes when he got out of the SUV, no skip in his step, and he didn’t rush to claim me before any one else could snatch me up. He was distant instead, pulling up his too big black jeans as he walked and slouching a bit with his hands in his pockets. 5

6

My girls would have probably thought he wasn’t glad to see me. Jane and Reena would have been all over him, talking trash and tell him to step. They would have told me to dump him like old socks and move onto a finer model. 7

8

“Latino boys,” Jane would have scoffed. “They don’t understand how to treat a fine milk chocolate sister like you, Lee. Dump his ass, and let’s go clubbin’.” 9

10

Jane had never understood my relationship. She and Reena called my attraction to Marco the ‘Latino Disease’. They had always wanted me to settle with one of their brothers so we could be sisters by blood if not law. 11

12

Fact was Jane didn’t understand. Reena couldn’t understand. They didn’t feel the way Marco’s finger would run through my short brown hair, or taste the way his lips would taste when they touched mine. They had never been stared down by those big brown eyes. And they probably wouldn’t have seen the hint of sweat on his brow. Wouldn’t have heard the tension in his voice when he muttered. 13

14

I did. 15

16

“Hi,” Marco coughed slightly trying not to look me in my green eyes. 17

18

He was trembling with nerves. I don’t know why, but that made me smile. Dropping my duffle bag with a thud I crab him around the neck and tasted him…hard. At first Marco stood surprised, his arms flung out as though afraid to touch me, and then his fingers caught my hips and he sunk his weight into me so I had to brace myself to keep from falling. I never wanted to let him go. Never wanted to end the kiss. Well….actually….I wanted to rip off his clothes and jump him as soon as possible. I wasn’t waiting for him to claim me as his any more. It was time for me to claim him, and I wanted to claim him more than anything else. Being overseas in a chopper that took crap from any hick with a gun for a year had the habit of turning a fine upstanding young lady like myself into an animal. 19

20

Marco pushed away from me finally gasping as though I’d sucked the air out of him. His fingers locked around mine, and suddenly I was aware of people clapping. I glanced around and blushed. We’d attracted quite a crowd in our little area. Moms, dads, grandparents, and even kids were clapping like some stuffed shirt had played some dead dude’s last symphony or something. I swallowed, and tired to tone down the redness of my cheeks. God himself couldn’t have wiped my smile from my face. Marco was blushing too, though it was a little more difficult to tell with him. He was good at keeping the color in his cheeks done to a minimum. 21

22

Leaning forward he kissed me gently on the forehead, and sighed hugging me tight. 23

24

“You’re home,” he whispered. 25

26

I could have cried, instead I sniffled a bit. “I’m home baby, and I’m not going anywhere for a long while.” 27

28

“You’re not even getting out of bed for a long while, Lee,” he replied with a laugh. “I’ll see to that.”