Grace took Kaylee by the hand and tried to keep herself together. Grace could feel the anger welling up, the anger at whoever had sent the orders down. It was just part of how she dealt with things. Though she hid as much of that she could from Kaylee. There was no reason to upset the girl more that her dad had left. Grace ran a hand through the girl's hair. "Hey. You and I will have a lot of fun together, just like we did last time." Well last time they had given Disneyland a visit. It wasn't a habit to go visit such a place without Matt along but Kaylee would still talk about it and that brought a smile to Grace's face.

Busy in her head trying to figure out how to keep themselves busy was never an easy task. Grace had just spent 6 months away from Matt while she'd sold their house back in California and now she'd been here less than a month and they were shipping him overseas again. She was used to it but it never lessened the feelings she had to sort. She would be hounded by questions of 'when is Daddy coming home' and 'can I go visit' for months.

Grace put her hat on Kaylee's head and forced a smile. If she wasn't careful she was going to be in tears again. "What do you want to do for dinner munchkin?" Days like this Kaylee got to pick. That's where Grace put all her energy right now, was her daughter.

"Chuck E Cheese!" The little girl squealed. Grace shook her head. She supposed that taking her into Knoxville later that night could be managed. It was going to be a long night, the first of many.

Tag: @drea

Andy wasn't so selfish to believe that she was the only MilSO who was walking away from the TSA line upset and angry and sad. She hated that she couldn't wait with him in the terminal though, that she had to walk away when he had just a few minutes still in the same town, but she never really knew what happened past TSA, anyway. Briefings, last minute things among the team... things that she didn't have clearance to know about.

Sometimes, at least back in California, the planes would take off from the base and she'd get to walk with him to about a hundred feet away. It always depended on the mission, too. If they needed to stop anywhere else first, it would be a commercial flight. If they were heading straight over to wherever, they'd leave from base. 

Andy'd walked with him as far as she could, waving goodbye as he stepped past the TSA check and out of her sight. When they first started living that life together, she would always wait a few minutes to see if he would come back, because she always had hope that maybe the mission would be canceled last minute, but she stopped doing that to herself a long time ago. Now, once he disappeared, she walked away.

She spotted a couple of familiar heads ahead of her on the way out of the airport and sighed, picking up her face to catch up. Matthew Cole must have been further up in the line that Logan had been, but she hadn't really been paying attention. Frankly, selfishly, she was glad the Cole's were PCS'd to Tierney, too. Coming to town with a familiar face from the teams in California was a huge help, especially considering her husband was being deployed just four months after moving in. She didn't know Gracelyn super well, but still, a familiar face could do wonders on a heavy heart, and she knew they were both already missing their husbands.

When she got closer, she heard part of the conversation and fell into step next to the blonde woman. "Hey," she said softly, more to announce herself, and and then looked over at Kaylee, on the other side of her mother. "Chuck-E-Cheese? Are you gonna go in the ball pit after you eat pizza? The ball pit's my favorite."


Gracelyn Cole

Grace wasn’t really paying attention to other faces in the crowd. She didn’t know anyone, it wasn’t like she could just find her best friend or something. California wasn’t next door anymore. She wasn’t exactly the type to call and spend hours on the phone. Grace’s life was Matt and Kaylee. Everything revolved around them, making friends wasn’t exactly Grace’s forte. She always felt like it would hurt people again when she moved. Sure she was nice to everyone and there wasn’t a person she’d met she didn’t really like.

The happy go lucky attitude though was far from enough to fight off the loneliness that came with deployments. She heard a familiar voice and turned over her shoulder. “I know Miss California didn’t come all this way to chase me down.” She was joking of course. She’d called Andrea Miss California since she’d met her. Sure it was brief but it was a compliment to calling her pretty.

Grace didn’t question whether Logan was gone too; she could just tell. Grace knew the look behind her eyes. It just went unspoken. Kaylee bounced up and down. “Mommy likes the ballpit too!” Okay, well her child side had just been outed by the eight year old.

Grace looked to Andrea and smiled a bit. “You are welcome to join us if you want.” Grace knew what it was like to go home and just want to crawl in a hole. Sometimes, the first night was the hardest. None of them were easy but routines were hard to change. Grace just opted for distractions; no matter what they were.

Tag: @drea

"Nah, you were just an added bonus to seeing Logan off." Andy smiled, hands shoved into her pockets while she tried to keep herself together. Over the years, she'd gotten really good at seeing Logan off with a smile and a kiss, and waiting until he was gone to break down in tears. It was one of the things she learned early on as a military girlfriend: it was her job to make things as easy on Logan as possible. Don't tell him negative things, don't cry in front of him... all things she'd gotten really good at. When he was gone, or when he was leaving, he needed to focus on his job, staying alive, and keeping his team alive. He didn't need to worry about her. 

She didn't exactly want to break down crying in front of an eight year old, either, so she didn't mind the walk with Grace and her daughter back to the parking lot. 

At Kaylee's excitement, Andy laughed and looked at Grace. "Oh, do you? I don't know, I'm more of a Skiball kinda girl myself." She really wasn't expecting Grace to invite her along, nor was she fishing for that kind of invitation, and force of habit had half of a declination out of her mouth before she stopped herself. What was her other option... heading home, alone, and looking at whatever pieces of Logan were scattered around the place? His god awful sandals by the door, laundry in the basket she needed to do, wine glasses from the night before in the sink. None of it would get done tonight, either way, and spending some time with a child having fun and another woman who knew exactly what she was going through sounded infinitely better. There was plenty of time ahead of her for the loneliness to take hold.

"You know what? That sounds great. I would love to join you both. I have a weak spot for their pizza, anyway." 


Gracelyn Cole

Grace too was decent at hiding the whole goodbye scenario. Though Andy’s smile made one of her own creep on her face. Grace had the type of smile that could light up a room no matter how small her’s was. Though much like Andy she was really trying to keep her mind off of things. It was just the way of things, something you became practiced at for society; but at the end of the day? The military spouses knew how hard it was on each other.

Kaylee still cried on occasion so Grace had learned to get her mind on something else. “Ballpit! Ballpit!” Kaylee squealed. The little girl rose a brow at the whole skiball thing. She really had no idea what that was. Well more so because she just didn’t play much of it.

Grace wasn’t sure she was ready to go home to the empty house either. That’s when it always hit. In fact, she thought about going home to her dad’s house instead after the night was done. She’d never had that option before now, but she knew he would understand. But right now she had a pizza night to focus on.

“Welcome to Tierney by the way” Grace offered as she felt Kaylee grab hold of her hand and drag her towards the car. “Whoa whoa whoa Kaylee slow down, they aren’t going anywhere” she laughed a bit.

Tag: @drea
Ooc: Sorry took so long work keeps me pretty busy now