The Space Between

Chapter Two: "Hold Me Soldier"

Sean didn't get out of bed until noon. He kept expecting Mark to check on him. Getting up, Sean trudged his way to the kitchen to make himself some coffee. Sean kept telling himself that he was fine, but his heart was twisting in his chest. He was happy for Mark, but now he felt like he'd never see him. Staggering to the couch, Sean dropped down on it and clicked on the TV absently. He needed noise. The house was just too quiet without Mark. Chica hopped up with him, distracting him for a bit as he pet her. Smiling to himself, he told her sweetly. "We'll just have to make our own fun for two months, right?" Chica whimpered, tucking her nose between her paws. Stroking her head, Sean softly admitted. "Ya. I miss him already too." His attention was then called to the TV as the reporter started in casually. "In other news, at midnight last night NASA intercepted an unidentified transmission from Space Station one. While they assure us that the transmission is nothing to worry about. They are happy that the Space Force has been made official. Meanwhile, people are getting excited that one of the first missions could very well be a first contact situation. Let's go to Marshall and see what the public thinks about finally making possible contact."

Sean grabbed the remote to change the channel. The people they were interviewing were alien fanatics. People that either couldn't wait for aliens to come fix our planet, or people that felt alien contact was a bad idea. There was even one guy who didn't believe it was aliens at all but a transmission from the future from the team that would be sent up there to investigate. Rolling his eyes, Sean changed the channel and told Chica numbly. "People watch too much TV. Don't you think?" Chica didn't move or answer. With a heavy sigh, Sean removed Mark's note. Carefully opening it, Sean tried to hold back tears. On the note it read; 'I will be thinking of you. I'm sorry to leave without saying goodbye. But I couldn't think of a way to say it without crying. I miss you already. I love you, Sean. P.S. If you run into trouble, I left phone numbers on my bedside table. Take care of Chica for me.' Sean folded the note, laying back across the couch. For the first week, Sean spent his time eating cereal and watching TV shows. Whenever he got bored, he'd go for a swim in the backyard and workout in Mark's home gym. After the first week, a letter came from in from Mark.

While eating more cereal because he was too lazy to cook, he read the letter and felt his heart ache. Mark was doing horrible. In his letter, he talked of how the instructors were almost cruel and degraded him every chance they got. The training he was going through made things worse. For all the fitness stuff he had been doing to get in... They claimed that he still wasn't good enough. By the end of the letter, Mark was thinking about giving up and coming home. Sean folded the letter. According to Mark, he would only be allowed to send letters. Getting to his feet, he found some stuff to send a letter, but as he sat down to write it... he drew a blank. What could he tell him? This was everything Mark wanted. Deciding to keep things positive, he wrote back to him by telling him to hang in there. That they might be being cruel to weed out those that aren't dedicated. He made sure to write that he believed in him and would be waiting for him. After finishing, he pulled another piece of paper closer and began to write silly smut about them being in Space. It was stupid and awful, but he felt like Mark might enjoy taking his mind off training to read something stupid. To finish it off, Sean thought of a movie he had seen and rushed to his bag.

Removing his spray cologne, he went back to the letter and sprayed the corner lightly before sealing it up. He had seen in the movies that women sprayed perfume to help their warring men think of them. So, he wondered if it would help Mark through boot camp. Sending out his letter, he went back into his daily routine of working out to pass time. He was thankful that Mark had a delivery grocery service to keep him from trying to figure out a way to go shopping. Allowing him to not worry about how he'd feed Chica and himself. Every so often, Mark's mom would call him to reassure him on what was probably happening with him. She even applauded him on keeping his letters positive and loving. The months seemed to fly by, and Sean found it weird that he enjoyed hanging around the house. He blasted music and stayed up late to keep himself going until he was too tired to think. Then the day of Mark's graduation finally arrived. Mark's mother stopped by to watch Chica, allowing him to get a ticket for a bus down to the Space Force base in the lower part of California. Signing into the base, he managed to book a hotel.