Welcome Home, Soldier

This is a prequel to my story "Oh Suzannah, Don't You Cry for Me". I didn't intend to write this but since Travis didn't have much of a spotlight in the other story and this idea wouldn't stop bugging me, I had to write it down. So, enjoy! :D

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Welcome Home, Soldier

June 1943

Someone broke into their house.

Travis Barnes sensed it the moment his key slid into the lock of the front door and did not hear the familiar 'click' of the bolt retracting.

Behind him, his sisters tensed, their expressions puzzled when Travis turned around.

Becca, the youngest at sixteen, and four years Travis's junior, adjusted the strap of her school bag slung diagonally across her shoulders. "What is it?" she asked.

"Someone's here," Travis said, his voice low in case the burglar could hear them.

Ever since Bucky left for basic training at Camp McCoy in middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin, Travis took over as the 'man of the house'. Stepping into the role, every day he picked up Becca from high school and walked Suzie home from work since the Brooklyn harbor she worked at had a bit of a rough reputation. Ma—and Bucky—would kill him if anything happened to the girls, so Travis fulfilled his duty with all the gusto of a nineteen-year-old man.

He would've enlisted in the army just like his older brother. He'd tried of course, but the government refused to accept his application. Being the only male relative in his immediate family, the higher-ups didn't want to risk losing him, too, in case something happened to Bucky. Bucky would be fine, though, because nothing could ever hurt his older brother.

"Did Steve come over?" Suzie asked. Her steel-blue eyes, a copy of both Ma's and Bucky's, peered past Travis. The gap in the living room curtains offered a small peek into the house but not enough to see anything other than the couch.

"He's not visiting 'til this weekend," Travis replied.

Steve operated on his own schedule, and they hadn't seen much of him since Bucky had left for Wisconsin. He'd visit once a week now if only to have Ma's homecooked meals on Sundays.

"Maybe Ma came home early," Becca said. Her fingers played along the edge of the pink ribbon in her sandy-brown curls—a nervous tick of hers.

Oh boy.

Becca worried a lot, just like Ma. Suzie usually handled stress better than her sister, but she tended to rush into trouble. A strange man breaking into their home would send them both over the edge—Becca into a nervous breakdown and Suzie into a protective rage.

Unwilling to cause his sisters to panic but also wanting to be realistic, Travis shook his head. He shifted on the porch and winced slightly when his weight caused the sun-kissed planks to creak.

"She said she'd be late today, remember?" Travis pointed out.

At that, Becca's brown eyes widened and she took a tentative step toward her older sister. Suzie, eighteen yet already confident in herself, flipped her dark brown ponytail over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes.

Matching his sister's bravado, Travis steeled his nerves and faced the door. Rolling his shoulders, he turned the doorknob and slowly pushed it open to peek inside. Finding nothing amiss, he reached around the coat stand to grab the baseball bat they always kept near the door before stepping inside.