When Love Wins

Chapter XV

"How's our girl doing?" Richard asked entering the lounge where his wife was busy tucking Luna in under the comforter again.

"She is still pretty disorientated, but she is a whole lot calmer than she was before surgery yesterday morning." Lila said. "Titus loaded the twins into the car as well when he got Ruan and Ruach in for their playschool day. He didn't take Cartia's whiny tears about not wanting to go into her car seat. Chloe was super excited about getting to go for a drive just out of the blue."

"Isn't she always?" Richard said and he took his hat from his chair when they heard the car doors. "Well duty calls. I will see you later, love."

"Have fun." Lila said. "And I am attempting some croissants again for lunch, I found a different recipe and this one talks about thin layers of cheese in between the layers of flaky dough, plus I am going to make some apple pie for afternoon tea."

"Sounds amazing." Chase said coming in.

"Chase. What are you doing here?" Lila asked and she went to her grandson and hugged him.

"Had a bit of an accident in the field and as a result of that I had a major flashback, and some really rough anxiety attacks every time I went back onto the field." Chase said and he hugged his grandfather as well.

"Well we have been praying that they would pick up something before you go on active duty, because the family knows it isn't going to be a good ending if you go, either because the PTSD you had will resurface, maybe ten times worse, or even worse." Richard said.

Chase nodded and he pulled his uniform shirt off and placed it over the back of the couch, and he pulled his t-shirt off and then showed his grandparents the large band aid going across his ribs. "It's not as bad as the one on my side, but we had a fight out in the field between the acting captain and the guy who thinks he is the best and should've been made captain. Rich spoiled brat, if anyone asked me, and the rich guy pulled his knife out and threatened the captain, and I stepped in. Probably should've stayed out of it, but yeah, I didn't so I got hit by another knife."

"If you had stayed out, would you have been able to live with yourself if the captain got hurt?" Richard asked. "Or if you had stayed out and gone to active duty, would you have been able to live with what you see on the battlefield, if you lived to return home and tell the stories?"

"Probably not." Chase said and he pulled his t-shirt on again. "Anyway, I had the best sleep I have had in about two weeks while I was on the plane back home, and I had a mild anxiety attack back at the base here in Texas, so the general in charge of this base made sure I was labeled as psychologically unfit for active duty before he gave me the month's pay I had to get and then told the officer who brought me through to get me on a bus back home as soon as breakfast was over. That was at like five this morning, so I sent Titus a message saying I was back in Texas and that I would let him know when he has to fetch me from the bus station."

"Well I am glad to see you are back home." Richard said. "We have to go and get the cattle moved some more. We have snowstorm warnings out for the weekend, so we have to get them into their winter paddocks and get the calves into the barn."

"Isn't it a little early for snow?" Chase asked.

"It is, otherwise our cattle would've been much closer to home already." Richard said. "Titus, let's go."

"Yes sir." Titus said and he hugged his brother. "You are on pick-up duty. Faye will be done at two and I arranged for the kids to stay until then as well. Your SUV is already fitted with snow tires because when I did it, I didn't know you would be back so soon, so you will have to take moma's car."