sixwordstories | (no subject)

You too, huh?

[Tara offers a nod.] Yeah.

Well, I don't know you and you don't know me, but if you need someone to vent to. I've got nothing but time on my hands, now.

As much as I would love to vent, there are just somethings I can't talk about. [Like all the shit going on with the MC, that kind of stuff wasn't really for sharing.]

Hell, if you need to lay it on me though. I can at least lend an ear. [And maybe get her mind off everything that's happening around her.]

Realizing I should've kept my mouth shut. [Andrew chuckles humorlessly taking a drink of his beer.]

I wanted a change in my life, so I reenlisted. Now here I am completely separated from my sister and just missing everything.

Not like you could have known. [Tara points out with a faint smile, her own beer sitting untouched.]

Aren't you allowed phone calls and letters? That doesn't completely cut off ties from you sisters. [A beat.] How long you got left?

Two years.

And yeah, I call her and I email - at least a time or two a week. But it just reminds me that I'm in the wrong.

I re-upped because I thought she didn't need me anymore so I should get back to living my own life. Turns out I'm the one that kind of needs her. And here's the kicker, her boyfriend is one of the guys I'm serving with so if I tell him any of this he's probably just going to chew my ass out again.

You did what you figured was right. That doesn't place you in the wrong, just makes you wish you didn't do what you did.

[Somebody is speaking from experience and it shows. While she doesn't have advice to offer (since she can't even follow her own), she can sympathize with him.]

Yeah.

[A slight nod.]

I thought I was wasting away. Working my office job while my sister went off to school and started dating and moved out - thought I'd just sit there and become irrelevant.

Now I feel like an asshole again.

[He feels this way often. 'Asshole' may be his other middle name.]

[Absently, she pulls the sleeves of her jacket down to cover her hands while taking into account his words. A simple nod of understanding being the only thing she can give him.]

You feel like an asshole because you left? Felt like you were doing what was best?

...My sister and I have kind of a long story together. I raised her since she was a pre-teen. Then I shipped off to the Marines and left her behind.

We just reunited about a year ago, when she moved out to be with me. And then here I go now shipping off again.

[Tara's lips gently part as if to offer some advice, though in the end they just fall closed in a thin line as she reflects back on her own problems. While they were different, way different from the man's before her she could relate to the feelings he was going through.]

You need to get out.

[It's the only thing she can think to say.]

I don't know. Because I don't want to be the one left behind either. She's got her own life, now, and I know she's hoping that Michael is going to ask her to marry him someday - though I doubt he will - and I don't want to go home and be that guy sitting around waiting for her to call.

At least as a soldier I'm doing something for myself, too.

You know, I said the same damn thing when I wound up back home after becoming a pediatric surgeon.

[A sigh.]

That I was doing something for myself too, I was helping to save these tiny lives and yet at the same time I got drug back into the same shit I left to avoid. In the end, after these last few years I think coming home was a mistake.

I could have easily went to any other hospital and yet.....

[She shakes her head.]

Sorry, anyways - you don't see her boyfriend as the marrying type?

No. He was married for a long time before, and his wife was murdered two years ago. I don't see him being willing to ask Tess to marry him so soon after, especially when they've only been together a couple of months.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if marriage was something he never wanted again. [A faint shrug of her shoulders, which suddenly slump.] We both have a shitload to deal with, huh?

Sounds like. Can I get you another drink or something? [A short nod.] And I know. It's rough for me to watch, because she's crazy about him, and he's a good guy - more than good enough for her. But she doesn't know about Kerry, and I doubt Michael is ever going to tell her. I don't talk about our parents either.

No. Haven't even touched this one doubt I'd touch another. [Though she did appreciate the offer.] Seems there's a lot people'd rather not talk about these days.

At least for me, it's because I'd rather forget it. Focus on the here and now.

Which is understandable. I guess I'm just not a fan of secrets.

[Even if she has kept a few of her own.]

Mine weren't my choice, I'll say that.

[First his parents being murdered and then realizing he was bisexual. Not things he would have chosen for himself by any stretch of the imagination.]

I'm Andrew, anyway. Should've introduced myself a long time ago. What should I call you?

[She nods.]

Tara.

Nice to meet you, Tara. Though I wish it were under happier circumstances.

Did you always want to be a doctor?

Actually, for the longest time I wasn't sure what I wanted to be. Don't think it was until near the end of high school that I had my heart set on becoming a doctor.

I enlisted for emotional reasons but it's all I've ever known. I've been working as an investigator for a law firm, but it was getting kind of tedious.