The Fighter

Chapter 40

We left on Monday for Virginia. Pete has been down there since it happened. We took two truck full of members down. Our chaplain, Dave was doing the service, and my Papa the chief, was leading the color guard. It was Harry, Bill,Ray, Jake, John, Kyle, Jet, and I in the color guard. We got a hotel for the 10 of us. I had an adjoining room to Kyle and Jet, but other than that I was alone. I rode down in Jet's truck with Jet, Kyle, John, and Jake. The others rode down in our fire truck, pickup truck. We got down around dinner time, so we met up with Pete and went to dinner. He was happy to see us all and honestly seeing him made me feel a little bit better. I left dinner early so I could shower and call Avery. "Hey Mickie!" She answered so happily. "Hey girly, how are you?" "I'm okay, I miss you!" "I miss you too! How's school going?" I asked making silly small talk. "Good! Are you okay? I heard about Greg's accident." "Yeah, I'm okay." I teared up when she said that. "You'll see him and mommy again someday." "I know it." "I've got to go to bed. But I love you, and I'll see you when you come home." "Okay, I can't wait. I love you too." I got off the phone with Avery and took my shower. I am not ready for this, not ready at all.
I was dressed with a towel on my head when there was a knock at the adjoining doors. "Who is it?" I asked "There is only so many people who would be knocking at this door." It was Kyle. "True, but you never know who's trying to get into my room." I opened the door. He came in and closed my door. "How are you doing?" He asked giving me a hug. "I don't know, I'm alright right now. I'm just trying to keep busy, because when I stop that's when I start to think." " Mickie, if you were alright then I'd be worried. You loved him, a lot. I know you did, we all know you did." " I know and the last thing he said to me was that he loved me. Ky, I don't think I can do this." I started tearing up. "You can, I know you. You can do anything. You're a Phoenix, remember?" "Yeah, I'm burning right now." "I told you if you were okay, I would be worried." He hugged me again. I was ready to break down and cry and scream.
"I have an idea, let's go get ice cream. You, me, and Jet we'll go get something sweet. That always makes you feel better." Ky smiled and I nodded. So, we made Jet drive us to get ice cream. Virginia is not home, so trying to navigate around was exhausting. We got lost. "Guys, I have no idea where we are." Jet looked around the parking lot. "That's okay, we'll just go back the way we came from." Kyle shrugged. " And, what way is that?" I asked. "Okay, that's fine. I have my phone, we can use the GPS to get us back. Does anyone know the name of the hotel? Or the address?" Jet asked. "Nope!" Ky and I shook our heads. "Shit." He laughed. "We've gotta call one of the guys...." I sighed. "Which one will be less annoyed with us?" Jet asked. "I'm calling Chief." I took my phone out and called him. "Hey, you guys okay? You've been gone for a while" he asked. "Yeah, we're fine. Just a little lost.... Can we have maybe the name and address of the hotel?" "Yes, I'll text it to you." "Okay thanks. Love you!" "Love you too" he hung up and sent me the address and name. "Alright, Jet. Type this in." I showed him.
We finally got back to the hotel and it was time to try and get some sleep before the worst day ever. But the problem was, I couldn't sleep. I just laid there staring at the ceiling, my mind going a mile a minute and it was not stopping anytime soon.
In the morning, we got to their fire house and parked our truck next to theirs. Both of his fire departments were represented. We walked over to where the tent and the chairs were set up. Then there was a table with the urn on top. There he was. My eyes filled up with tears and it hurt so bad. Ky put his arm around my shoulders.  Greg's step mom, Sara came over to greet all of us. She got to me and pulled me in for a huge hug. She started crying and so did I. Pete came over to greet us all too. He smiled, but you could tell he was trying his best not to fall apart. Pete introduced his oldest son Peter Jr. He shook my hand and smiled. He just looked at me and I knew that he knew about Greg and I.
We marched over. We held our heads up and I walked next to Ky. Our Chaplin stood up and started talking we were standing in front of our truck. As he spoke, all of these memories ran through my mind and my heart was breaking with every thought. How could he leave? Why did he do this? As I was standing there it felt like something was in my hair and it kept checking but there wasn't anything. Greg liked to play with my hair and I knew that it was him. He was telling me that he was here and that he wanted me to stop my crying. We walked through when the service was done and hugged the family. Cam held on to me and cried. He didn't want to let go and I didn't either. I got to Sara and she hugged me. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." I couldn't stop crying. "It's okay, it's okay. He loved you." She held on to me tighter. "I loved him too." I forced myself to speak back. I got to Pete and he kissed my head and hugged me. I turned around and looked at the urn. I saluted and mouthed, "I'll see you later." I walked out of the tent and hugged Kyle. I cried so hard and I could barely stand.