Growing Hearts (Purple Hearts Fanfiction Luke Morrow/Cassie Salazar)

1. Welcome

Breathe in, breathe out. I kept telling myself just to focus on my breathing while I was standing here. At this metal gate waiting. Waiting for my husband. Husband. That word still felt weird, even after everything that happened. But it didn't feel weird because it was wrong, it felt weird because it made me so happy. I would have never thought that someone other than my mom would ever make me feel this way. That I could ever love someone so much and hard like I did. I smoothed over my short black dress as I walked slowly towards the now opening gate. There he was, standing on the other side of the date in his camo uniform a small smile on his face framed by two military police officers on either side of him. My Luke, my husband. My heart jumped up and down in my chest while our eyes met. It had only been three months, half of the time we were supposed to be separated. But Luke's dad had pulled some strengths to let us explain our situation again, explain that this was a real marriage, real love. And they listened to Luke and me. He was released some detention early and was supposed to report back to duty in a week. They wanted him to serve out his six year contract. My stomach went into knots by thinking about that, five more years of service. Five more years of this life. We would figure it out, together we could face anything. I was barely able to tale one step toward when the gate fully opened and the MP officers signaled us to move before Luke swept me up into his arms and our lips met. I felt his warm and plum lips pressed against mine and I never wanted this moment to ever end. I wrapped my warms around his neck and pressed him against me. Our tongues starting a dance inside my mouth as it felt like fireworks in my stomach of excitement and happiness. Finally after what felt like forever Luke let go off me. I smiled up at him as he let me back down and brushed some of my hair out of my face. "Hi" he smiled at me and I couldn't do anything but smile back "Hi husband!" Luke took my hand and grabbed his large green duffle back from the ground next to him "Let's go home!" I nodded and together he walked over to my small brown car. Luke sat down in the passenger seat and took off his hat. ""Let's get out of here!" I started the car and pushed down on the gas.

Back home Luke stood in the living room, holding his hat in his hand and just looking around. "Peaches it at your dads!" I told him as I noticed his searching eyes. Luke smiled at me and put his hat on the couch. A lot had changed since he left. With the help of his dad and brother I moved all of Luke's stuff into our place. I had painted both mine and his old dresser grey so they would match better and when I was done with that I didn't like the bed or bedside tables anymore so I just went ahead and painted them as well. Luke's dad even showed me how to corner the bed the Marine-way and put up some shelves and clothes rail so we could hang up more of our clothes and had room in the closet to put all of Luke's Marine gear. "You changed some stuff!" said Luke as he stepped into the bedroom looking over the now cleaned up conservatory part of the bedroom. Now it housed my piano, a desk, Peaches dog bed and a comfy cold chair. I let my fingers run over the soft red fabric of the chair and smiled at Luke "Your dad said it was your moms!" Jacob had told me that his wife used to sit in the chair and knit before and even during her chemo therapy, she would sit there and look out the window. "I thought maybe you could sit here and listen to me play!" Luke smiled and walked over to me. He kissed me "I love you!" He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close again. "Did you do all of ths by yourself?" he asked and pointed to the wall over our bed. I had painted the entire room grey with his dad put up our pictures for me. Frankie's mom had painted us a beautiful picture of the beach right outside our apartment which was framed by pictures of us other, with our families and some childhood pictures. "Your dad helped a lot!" Luke looked surprised and I smiled again. Together we walked into the living room and I pointed to the stove "Your dad even fixed the stove and Sophie helped me find a new couch and goodwill that your dad and brother had to carry all the way up here!" Luke looked even more surprised and scratched his head. "You guys spend a lot of time together!" I laughed and nodded "We did, we all missed you so much! They even came to some of my concerts!"

Luke's family had been a major support system for me in the last few months without him. Up until now it's only ever been my mom and me but now there was Luke and his family. Our family and that made me so happy. We had all come together to support him and made life a little easier from him while he was away. It had almost felt like another deployment, just knowing that he was safe and nothing could happen to him. As we were standing there still entangled in our living room was a knock on the door. I pulled away from Luke and walked over to open the door. A young guy stood there Chinese food in hand. "Uhm delivery for Murrow!" was all I could make out before he blushed. I smiled at him and took the food from him, handing him three ten dollar bills. In the meantime Luke sat down on the table and looked up at him "You made dinner!" he laughed and I laughed with him. "I did honey!" I said in a sing-sang voice and pulled out some plates. After we both cleaned off out plated and Luke was munching on one last spring roll he looked at me and suddenly his demeanor changed. "We need to talk!" is all he said before grabbing my hand. I held his hand in mine and tried to smile too but my heart sank.