Time Stands Still

Chapter 9

Flashback

            “Tara, can you come out here for a moment?” my mom asked.

            I frowned a little at her tone of voice. Something was wrong. I walked into the living room and saw her sitting on the couch beside my father. He had her hand clasped in his and I immediately tensed, realizing that something really bad must have happened. “What’s going on?” I asked.

            My mom drew in a shuddering breath. “Your brother…” she trailed off and cleared her throat, trying to compose herself. “Connor died in the line of duty, sweetheart.”

            It felt like the floor gave out from under me and I went down to my knees. “No,” I said shakily. “He can’t be dead. There must be some mistake.”

            “There’s no mistake,” my dad said. “I received the call earlier. He’s gone.”

            Sobs wracked my body as the truth slowly sank in. I rocked back and forth on my knees, hugging myself tightly. “He can’t be gone. He just can’t,” I wailed.

            My mom was suddenly beside me, her arm wrapping around me tightly. “He died for his country, baby. We have to remember that.”

            I just shook my head. How could my brother be gone? He was only nineteen, five years older then me. I’d barely seen him in the past year and now I would never see him again. Despair filled me and I threw myself into my mother’s arms. We stayed wrapped in each other, both keening over the loss.

End flashback

            “Baby, you have to come back to me now. I need you angel; I need you to wake up. Please, Tara.”

            I vaguely became aware of Brent’s panicked voice and I moaned quietly as I shifted, wanting to comfort him.

            “Tara? Can you hear me?”

            I managed to open my eyes and saw a pair of very worried blue ones staring back at me. “What happened?” I asked.

            He crushed me to his chest and buried his face in my hair. “God Tara, don’t ever scare me like that again.”

            “Sorry,” I replied. “But what the hell happened?” I glanced around and saw that we were in a small room. I frowned. Where were we?

            “You fainted baby. Do you remember what happened before that?”

            I thought back to my last memory and it suddenly came flooding back. I jolted and pulled away from Brent, frantically scanning the room until they landed on the person I was looking for. A myriad of emotions stormed through me as I looked into my brother’s eyes. “They said you were dead,” I stated.

            Connor took a step forward, but hesitated as his eyes flickered to Brent. “You might want to explain to your boyfriend who I am before he rips my head off.”

            I looked at Brent and saw the anger in his eyes. My hand automatically went up to his face and I stroked his cheek gently. “Brent, it’s okay. He’s… he’s my brother.”

            Brent’s eyes flashed down to mine. “The one who died four years ago?”

            “Yeah.” But then I frowned. “At least, that’s what we were told.” I looked back over at Connor. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”