fire and rain // forheadedrose

62. What's left.

D E J A

I sniffled quietly as I rang the doorbell to the farmhouse that was no more than ten minutes out of the nearest town.

I heard indistinct talking before a woman with light hair answered, "Hello dear, how can I help you?" She asked with her curls in a tousled braid.

Her apron was messy, covered in some flour and what looked like frosting.

"Hi, um, are you Anne?" I asked as Danger hung loosely onto my leg.

"Yes ma'am. I'm sorry, have we met?" She asked with a sincere smile.

I inhaled deeply, "I-I married your son. Riggs-- Martin Riggs." I spoke softly, almost inaudible.

She gasped happily, "You married my baby? Oh, goodness!" Her smile was wide and her cheeks pink.

"Ted, Ted! Come quick!" She hollered for her husband.

"What's wrong? What is it?" A kind looking man came around the corner quickly.

"Nothings wrong, Ted. Our crazy son of ours went and married this beautiful girl." She gushed after hugging me tightly.

"Martin? Our Martin?" He said with raised eyebrows.

I nodded softly, smiling before I chuckled.

He hugged me and before he let me go, and then Anne asked the question I've been dreading, "So where is he? Hiding in the car?" She asked as Ted and I broke apart.

I looked over at her, my eyes already leaking those salty tears.

Danger watched as I broke down once again.

--

"So you call her-" "-Danger." I finished for Anne as we watched her play in the backyard while we sat on the porch.

"And she's 2?" Ted asked and I nodded as I sniffled.

"She's the only part of him I have left." I spoke softly.

Both of the parents had red eyes and pink noses.

"I'm so sorry." I inhaled sharply, "I should go-- this must be so much to take in."

"No, no, you need to stay here, hun. You can't be alone right now." Anne insisted as she rested her hand on my shaking one, her sweet southern accent was evident and soothing.

"Besides, we're family." Ted said and I looked up at him.

----

"Roger, I'm really okay. Please stop calling me. I just needed out, alright? I'm fine, Danger's fine. Just please, give me time." I spoke breathlessly to my father who kept calling after hearing I skipped town for the southern life.

He asked a million times where I had run off to, but I insisted I was safe, and that I would come back soon enough.

"Mama!" Danger came into the kitchen where I was standing, "Hey babe, do you wanna talk to grandpa?" I smirked before telling him that I loved and missed them, then I handed the phone down to my gibberish-speaking, hyper little girl.

She spoke without pronouncing any words like they were supposed to be.

"Deja, you're up early." Anne greeted me with a small smile.

"Yeah, it's hard to get any sleep when you're 7 months pregnant." I said as I ran my hand in a smooth circle on my belly, my second miracle child on the way.

As we talked, like we do every morning, there was a knock on the front door of the large farmhouse that we've been staying at for the past 6 months.

I insisted on answering since Anne already had a million things going on, I opened it and my smile fell.

"Deja Riggs?" A soldier said and I slowly nodded, thinking I was done with this.

"We've been trying to contact you, but I only just got back to El Paso a few days ago." He explained.

I tried to regain my thoughts as I invited him in, we sat across from one another on the couches.

"I was stationed with Riggs." He spoke as he sat a backpack beside him, "All he would talk about was his girl's." He said and I slightly smiled.

"You and your daughter were his world. You get that, right?" He asked and I slowly nodded.

"Anyways, I noticed he had left this back at base camp, it's full of his belongings. I would've returned it sooner but I couldn't send anything from camp for the last several months." He explained as he patted the backpack.

"I only heard about the crash a month ago--" He stopped as he looked at my face, I quickly wiped the tear that fell down my cheek.

"I'm so sorry, Deja." He sighed, I sniffled, "It's fine-- I'm fine." I lied because none of this was fine.

"I can take it." I spoke quietly as I ever so slightly nodded, "I mean, I can't. But I can." I said before breathing shallowly.

I glanced at the backpack, wondering what he left behind.

"Your husband saved my life." He spoke abruptly, I looked up at him, my lips slightly parted.

"I-I mean he saved dozens of guys. He was reckless and oblivious to dangerous situations but he had everyone's back. And-and you'd just have to sit with him and he'd go on and on about his daughter and his wife. Your husband loved you so much." He said and I sat across from him, tears rolling down my pink cheeks.

Past tense. Past tense. Past tense.

"He was our hero back at base.. And you were his." He said and I slightly sobbed, I covered my mouth from my sudden outburst.

My body literally reacting to what my heart felt.

"I've never loved someone so much." I cried, "Whenever something happened- good or bad; I'd look for him and he'd be there. He-he saved my life. He made me realize how much I wanted to live, to have a life, to be loved. And he loved me.." I spoke quickly as I cried, "He loved me and he died." I looked up at this man I barely knew.

"He left me alone with a daughter and another kid on the way." I said with my hand over my stomach.

"He died. My husband died-- I'm a widow." I cried, my body shaking with sobs.

A/N this story is coming to a close 🙃