Dear Robert

The Call

It was a beautiful Saturday morning and the Sullivans were enjoying their day at a park. Robert and Andy were sitting on a park bench watching their 4 year old daughter, Abby chase a butterfly around. The two watched in delight as the little girl's face lit up in excitement when she finally caught it in her chubby little hands. Abby smiled as she ran over to her two parents shouting, "Mommy! Daddy! Guess what I got!"

Robert removed his arm from his wife's shoulders and picked the little girl up to place her in his lap. "Let's see what you got." Robert said as he peaked between Abby's little fingers. "See isn't it pretty Daddy?" she said staring up at her father. "Not as pretty as you sweetheart." Abby just blushed and smiled as she peaked into her own hands. "Do you wanna see it Mommy?" Andy smiled and said, "Of course baby," but Abby opened her hands a little too wide and the butterfly quickly escaped from the little girl's hands. "Oh, no!" Abby shouted as she got up from her father's lap and ran after the butterfly once more.

Roberts broke a little as he watched his little girl unsuccessfully jump up in an effort to catch the butterfly before tears began to form in her eyes. "My butterfly got away," Abby began to cry as she ran into her father's arms. "Oh, princess it's okay. I promise, one day soon we'll take you to see all the butterflies you can imagine at the Butterfly Sanctuary in the Zoo." Robert gently kissed the top of his daughter's head as she buried it into his shoulder. "Promise?" Abby's small voice broke out after a few moments. "Promise!" With that Abby's head popped up as she started pushing to be released from her father's arms. Robert laughed as he set down his daughter to go play again, before turning to his wife who was giving him a stern look.

"What?" He asked, even though he had an idea of where this was headed. "You can't just promise her something like that without consulting me too, what happened to 'We're a team, we make decisions together'" Andy asked after her daughter was out of earshot. "Andy, it's a trip to the butterfly sanctuary, it's not like I'm promising her a pony or something." Robert said, trying to hold back laughter as his wife rolled her eyes. The last thing he wanted was to piss her off, the last time that happened he ended up sleeping on the couch for a week. Something his back really didn't appreciate.

"I'm sorry, you're right. I guess I'm overreacting. I just don't want to let her down you know? I hate seeing her so sad." Andy said looking down to her feet. She had no idea why she got mad at him for making a simple promise to their daughter. She actually thought it was kind of cute how he handled the situation. Robert saw how sad Andy looked, so he reached up to grab her chin to force her to look up at him. "Hey, it's okay. I'm going to keep my promise. I hate it when she is sad too." Andy nodded and placed her head on her husband's chest. "I swear, if you break that little girl's heart I'll-" but Robert cut her off. "You'll what?" Andy removed her head from his chest to look at him in the eyes. "Make you sleep on the couch?" She giggled. He laughed too and pulled her back to hug her once more. The two stood hugging for a few moments until Robert's cell phone rang. He reached into his back pocket to take it out and to see who it was. He didn't recognize the number but he still answered it anyways because he thought it might be work related. "Robert Sullivan speaking. How can I help you?"

"Robert Sullivan, This is Sergeant Crawford speaking from the U.S. Marine Corps." As soon as Robert heard the word sergeant he smiled at his wife before stepping away, trying his best to convey that everything was fine. In reality, he knew by the sound of the sergeants voice it was far from fine. "I am calling because the U.S. Marine Corps is requesting your presence to train Marines with your Sniper skills in an undisclosed location. While we know this is sudden, we need an answer by the end of today. If you accept you will be leaving early Monday morning from your local airport to an undisclosed military base before being shipped overseas." With that, the phone call ended as abruptly as it started. For a moment, Robert stood in the same spot, lost in his thoughts. Had that phone call really just happened? How was he supposed to say no to the Marine Corps? Before he could think anymore on the subject his wife and Daughter came over, both demanding to be fed lunch.

"Hey, I think it's time we go home and have some lunch. Who was that anyways and what did they want?" Andy asked, but Robert was still lost in his thoughts. "Babe, you okay?" she said putting a hand on his back to bring him back to reality. "Oh, yeah sorry. I just uh- it was nobody. I'll tell you about it later" he said not wanting to tell who it was in front of Abby. "Come on, let's go eat." he said as he grabbed his wife's hand in his right hand and his daughter's hand in his left one.

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When they got back to their house, Abby ran upstairs to go play with her toys while Andy and Robert began to prep for lunch. The three decided to keep it simple and to have soup and sandwiches. Robert rolled up his sleeves and started to work on chopping the vegetables for the soup while Andy prepared their BLTs and Abby's grilled cheese sandwich. "So, are you going to tell me about your mysterious call you received at the park or are we going to act like that never happened?" Andy asked, looking up at her husband who was chopping fairly aggressively. He didn't say anything to her. He just kept chopping away getting madder and madder with each slice. He was frustrated with the whole situation. How on Earth was he supposed to tell his wife that he had to leave her and their daughter in less than 48 hours?

"Robert! Robert!" Andy said rather aggressively to get his attention after watching him chop the vegetables for quite some time. That seemed to get his attention as the knife dropped from his hands. She watched as her husband's hands began to grip the counter. "Babe, you're scaring me, what happened in that phone call that has you so worked up." As the last bit of words left Andy's mouth, Robert turned around. She could see unshod tears forming in his eyes. A sure signal the phone call couldn't have been anything good.

"The Marine Corps wants me back, to train snipers." Robert stated, trying his best to keep his composure. Both for his wife's sake and his own. "They want me to give an answer by tonight. If I accept, I'll be leaving early Monday morning." Robert spoke silently, watching as his wife's face fell. "You're not going to agree to go, are you Robert? Tell me you're gonna call them back and say no." Andy said, as her own tears began to spill from her own eyes. Robert's heart broke at the sight. He knew deep down, as much as he wanted to tell the Marines No, he had to say yes. "Andy, it's not that simple. You can't just say no to the military and expect them to back off." Robert began, watching his wife's face fall even more than before. "Yes, Robert, you can. You have a family who needs you. And I'm not just talking about me and Abby. The department needs you too." At this point the tears were fully streaming down his wife's face. All he wanted to do was hold her in that moment, and tell her everything would be okay. But, the truth was, he wasn't sure if that would be the case. Before either of them could say another word, the sound of small footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs.

"Mommy, Daddy, is lunch ready?" Abby asked as she entered the kitchen. Andy glanced up at her husband before walking over to her daughter, planting a kiss on the top of her head. "You know what, mommy isn't that hungry anymore, so daddy is going to feed you while mommy goes to rest." Andy spoke in the most cheerful voice she could muster before leaving her husband and daughter alone to go lay down in the bedroom.