Shot Throught the Heart

eighteen

Both Morgan and myself actually slept completely through the night and only woke up in the morning when my alarm went off. I was able to snooze it once and when it started to go off a second time, I knew we needed to get up and get moving. Morgan hopped into the shower first while I got my cammies together for going to base later. I actually couldn't find my hat so I broke out a spare and asked Morgan about it when she came out of the bathroom.

            "You didn't have one on when you came off the plane yesterday." She said as she started to get dressed.

            I face palmed myself and picked up my phone to give my mom a call. She was awake and picked my call right away.

            "Hey mom, by chance, have you seen my camo hat anywhere?" I asked and made my way into the bathroom.

            "Good morning chicken, and yes, you left it on the banister yesterday, we only saw it when we got back from base. None of us thought it would have taken you this long to realize you left it here." Mom said.

            "I only really looked for it now. Keep it by you, I have a spare I'll use till I come home and get it. I do have to go get in the shower because we need to get to base. I love you mom." I said.

            "We'll keep it safe chicken, have a good day today. I love you too." Mom said and we hung up.

            I jumped into the shower and quickly finished getting dressed. When I was done I finally picked dads letter up off the floor and put it on my desk. It took me a minute to lace up my boots before I went over to the bathroom to fix my hair. After I was all put together I went downstairs to find Morgan already dressed and ready to go. Before I did anything I went over to her and gave her a kiss. Just as I was about to move away, Morgan put her hands on my waist to hold me in place. I stood still and watched as Morgan pick something up from the counter top. The clinking of metal gave away that she was holding onto my dog tags. I let her put them over my head and she tucked them away under my undershirt.

            I gave her a kiss on the forehead before I started to move around the kitchen to get breakfast together. This morning was simple, just some cereal and coffee as I didn't want to cook again. It didn't take us long to finish off breakfast. When we were finished I took the bowls to the sink and turned back to face Morgan.

            "Can you bring your gear and get your rifle and pistol to bring it to base with us?" I asked.

            "Sure" Morgan said and went off to her room to grab everything I asked while I washed up the breakfast dishes.

            When Morgan returned with a full duffle bag and a gun case I grabbed my wallet and sunglasses from where I threw them on the table yesterday and the keys to the truck. With one more look at Morgan, I knew she was ready to head out as well so we locked the door behind us and went out into the garage. I hopped into the drivers seat and started up the truck while Morgan put her gun case into the bed of the truck. When she got into the passenger seat I hit the button for the garage door opener and wanted until the door rolled up before putting the truck into drive.

            The drive over to base was short and quiet. Both of us were too in our heads about this meeting to really speak about anything. I drove us right over to the side of base were my team's cages were and parked in the lot. Morgan grabbed her duffle while I grabbed our cases from the bed of the truck before we started to make our way to the cages. I scanned into the building and Morgan followed my lead as we walked down to find my teams ready room. I scanned my badge and walked inside with Morgan following behind.

            I was happy to see that none of my team was here yet. I wanted some time along with Morgan to get her battle ready without anybody else seeing. I grabbed Morgans gun case from her hand and put it down on the large meeting table in the center of the room along with my own. Once they were there, I walked over to my cage and unlocked the padlock I had holding the door close.