Six Letter Word [Kaylor]

November 2016 (Part 1)

                 

trigger warning: very slight reference to past self-harm

I realized that I'd missed Halloween when I woke up November first to tons of messages on tumblr about how it was the first time in ten years they hadn't seen my costume. I'd been so caught up in getting cleared to be with Karlie that I'd lost complete track of the date. I hadn't even thought up a costume, so I guessed we were just going to have to wait for the next year to come up with a cute couples' costume, but Karlie pulled out a pair of fox onesies she bought on clearance at Target, so I gamely put one on so we could snap a couple selfies lying on the bed. She posted the one where we were both cracking up and captioned it "Turns out the fox says  HAHAHAHAHA." Which was adorably like three years too late, but kinda fitting since our three year anniversary is this month. I posted one where we were cuddled up and it looked like Karlie was sleeping with the captions "We are the foxes, and we...nap." Next year we'll be creative, maybe a superhero couple or something. This year, I was lucky to have any photos to even pretend we'd done Halloween.

Now that I knew what the date was, I realized that unless we wanted to go to Nashville on election day to vote, we needed to figure out if early voting was still going on. We'd both registered when we got our licenses, but we hadn't thought to get absentee ballots sent. It turned out there were only three days left, so for the first time since the wedding, I called my pilot and requested the plane be brought into the New York area so we could fly into Nashville and vote. Then I called my mom to tell her we were coming and see if she wanted to do dinner with us that night, and if maybe we could stay with her. She was thrilled to hear from me, and absolutely ecstatic that we were coming. She said she wanted to cook for us, since we were only going to be in town for one night. Once those plans were made, I called Dad to see if he was also in Nashville or if he'd gone back to Tampa. The flights aren't that different to get to New York, so I wasn't sure. He was staying at his Nashville place, so I asked if he wanted to get brunch with us the next morning before we left for New York. he made a show of pretending to be offended that we'd asked it as a question instead of just telling him he was getting brunch with us since he for sure wanted to see his daughters if they were in town.

We grabbed some casual clothes and tossed them in a bag along with basics – toiletries, phone chargers, my meds. It was weird not packing contact stuff, but I wasn't allowed to even try to wear them for at least another week. Karlie remembered that I needed my medical card. Flying private isn't the same as taking a commercial flight, but on the off chance I had to deal with security the last thing we needed was me setting off radiation detectors. I realized that we should probably pack pajamas since we were staying at Mom's. I mean, we're married, so it's not like she doesn't know we have sex, but still, it's my mom's house. There's something kind of weird about thinking about having sex there, even now. Maybe if she hadn't walked in on me when I was seventeen with my girlfriend, but that's neither here nor there. I know she loves Karlie and I together, she's loved Karlie from the very first time I introduced them. She didn't tell me until later, but she got the feeling Karlie was the one, and for the first time, she actually liked someone I was dating, even though she knew the risks involved. I know she's not happy about the circumstances, but she's thrilled that Karlie and I are married, and that I have her to support me.

Karlie spent most of the flight working on business e-mails and submitting some code she'd written for Data Systems, while I got to just sit back and read a little, sneaking glances at my wife as she worked. She's so cute when she concentrates. I tried to read my book, but there are few things in the world more compelling than Karlie. Even a good book pales in comparison. I'd done something a little reckless with this trip. I'd left security at home. My guys all have lives and families, but it's easy to lose sight of that since they're with me almost all the time. All I was doing with this trip was visiting my parents, voting, and going home. Since the announcements that I'd gotten married and had cancer, the threats had gotten much less scary, and my team had agreed that I would probably be just fine, as long as I did exactly what I said I would. It was incredibly bizarre to walk off the plane and get into my own car, with my wife, and drive to Mom's. I realized even in the moment how weird my life is that that was an odd and slightly uncomfortable experience to drive my wife to my mom's house, myself.