Through Thick and Thin (Anthony Rizzo)

Fearless

Anthony

Once Jazmyn gets released from the hospital she had a day at the apartment to relax before her family was in town. It was no easy task getting them here, four of her five brothers have spouses and three of them have families. Getting them all here for a little vacation wasn't easy. But I make sure they had a nice place to stay and easy travel and everything else.

Once they were settled in they come on over. And while the penthouse was larger than life, her family was even larger than that. And just as funny too.

"Whats up dumbass" her brother Malcom asks her as she rolls her eyes. He hadn't even stepped in the door before he started coming at his sister as she stands there on her crutches.

"We're starting this already" she asks.

"You got out of a war only to try and attack a active shooter in the city. Therefore you have earned the title dumbass" he explains himself.

"The only thing that makes me a dumbass is inviting you and your family here when it should have just been your family" Jazzie counters.

"Anthony!! Good to see you" her mom says trying to cut up the bickering already.

She pulls me into a hug and I happily hug her back. She smelled like pecan pie and it made me really happy. "It's great to see you too" I smile.

"You're so handsome" she claims and I start to blush.

"Mom, please" Jazz begs.

"No, let her continue" I smirk.

"Oh this so called vacation will never end" Jazz mumbles. I wrap my arm around her and kiss the top of her head. She smiles up at me as she relaxes under my arm. The last thing I wanted was for her to be stressed out. She had enough to worry about with her leg healing and not being able to get around so easily.

So we all go to the living room and sit down. I meet her giant family and I felt right at home. I myself had a big family, not an immediate family like this but between my parents there's a lot of cousins. And they might be loud and intrusive but her family loves her a lot.

I let her sit there and catch up and I go grab a drink. I hear someone come up to me and I see Frankie standing there. He was the one I had gotten closest with because he was Jazzies father figure. He knew the most about her and what I could do to make her happy so I talk to him about as much as I talked to my own brother.

He had it all figured out, he loved his job and his wife and his kids. I wanted my own version of what he had and he knew what I needed to do to get there.

"How have you been" he asks me as I sigh. "I know we're all worried about Jazz and her leg, but I know this hasn't been easy on you either. So I wanted to make sure you're okay too" he explains.

I'm not sure I could compete with this man, he was kind of perfect.

"I've been better" I admit.

"I know she can be a handful sometimes. Even when she was a kid she was pretty reckless, always fighting the bullies who had a good foot on her or sticking her neck out for those who looked up to her. But her heart is  in the right place" he defends.

"She's fearless, she's not scared of anything. And in that way she's lucky, because I'm not fearless. I don't throw myself into things not worried about what happens after the fact. I'm scared of a lot of things in this world, but none of them is bigger than getting a phone call like that where she is gone and I'm left here, alone. Lost. Hurting" I list off.

"I know what you mean" he says and I turn to him. "After dad died Jazz was my responsibility. Of course she was already serving when he passed, but she was still only 19. She still needed someone to remind her that she's not immortal, she's not indestructible. But something in her doesn't seem to care, she values others lives more than her own. That's why they said she was "the perfect American solider". You tell her she was helping people and she would do it.

Some months she wouldn't write and I felt like we were worlds apart. I thought she wasn't coming back, that the next time I would hear from her is when her dog tags arrive on a folded flag. I was terrified... but she always came back. And you have to trust that she will always come back to you too" he insists.

"I would rather be fearless, like her" I admit.

"You're attacking a gunman" he asks and I laugh.

"Hell fucking no" I shake my head. "But to not be so scared of losing. I want that."

"She is scared of losing. She's scared to lose you" he claims.

"She is" I ask.

"Scared enough to text me before we were all here and make sure the other brothers were in line because if they said something stupid in front of you she was personally going to kill them" he says and I laugh.

"Well I'm not going to run into gunfire so she doesn't have to worry about that" I joke.

"Good. I already got one person in my life doing that, I don't need two" he laughs.

We grab some drinks for everyone before passing them out. I sit next to Jazz and pull her leg into my lap like I had to protect it with my life. We just talk like we were all old friends, even though this is my first time meeting them in real life and not on zoom.

"So when's the wedding" Stephen asks and my eyes get big.

"I'm sorry what" I ask.

"My brother thinks everyone in the army gets married within a few months" Jazmyn explains.

"I thought that was just a myth" I admit.

"Sadly it's not. I know a lot of guys and girls who got married before being shipped out. Everyone always seemed in such a rush to tie the knot and they never got to experience falling in love. Truly falling" she claims.

"Well I'm happy I got to experience that with you and you didn't run off before we had the chance" I admit.

"So you're getting married" her mom asks and my eyes go big.

"Mom" Jazz gasps. "We never said we were getting married. We just said that our circumstance is different than most" she argues.

"I'm not hearing a no" he mom claims.

"We haven't even really talked about that kind of stuff. We're going to be together forever but the middle of a pandemic isn't exactly a ideal time to be planning a wedding" Jazz defends.

"So you'll think about it" her mom questions making her daughter roll her eyes.

"We'll talk about it" I promise her.