Free A Marine's Second Chance: A Marine for You/SEALed for You Crossover Novella by Marissa Dobson Page B

he hadn’t realized how much his life would change just hours before he shipped out. Six months seemed like nothing when he signed the paperwork, but now that Wyoming was pregnant it felt like an eternity. He had so much to prove to her, and the distance between them would only make that harder.
    Until the words came out of her mouth that she would be gone before he got back, he hadn’t realized how close he came to losing her. She was everything to him. Before boarding his flight, he clung to her longer than normal, reminding himself that she’d be there when he returned. This wasn’t goodbye. Six months…he’d be back before the birth of their child. Now that the plane was in the air, he couldn’t shake the weight on his shoulders or the knot in his gut. Maybe he was overthinking things, but his gut told him that this deployment wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. He’d have to fight hard to make it back to her. If I make it back to her…no, when I make it back…I’m done.
    His commitment to the Marines was up in ten months and he wasn’t reenlisting. Before he found out that she was pregnant, he had planned to. It was why he volunteered for this deployment. Advancement in his career. Becoming a father would change things. He wanted to be there to see his child grow and he didn’t want to miss all the things his own father missed while he was growing up. No, Jeffrey wanted to be there when his child took his first steps, said his or her first word, and he wanted to be there with Wyoming. They’d find a way through the darkness that had surrounded him since he returned from his last deployment.
    He was willing to admit to himself, if to no one else, that his last deployment changed him. Something snapped within him and what he saw overseas plagued his dreams. Too many of his buddies were injured or dead due to bad intelligence. How he’d managed to walk away unharmed was something he couldn’t understand.
    He made it home to Wyoming because of Gunnery Sergeant Lucky Diamond. They drove right into a trap, but Lucky got them out alive. Most of them, but not everyone, made it. Memories of that mission filled his thoughts as he leaned back against the airplane seat.
    Gunfire broke out in nearly every direction and they were sitting ducks in the middle of the road. He was taking in the situation, looking for possible routes to keep them alive, when Gunnery Sergeant Diamond’s voice crackled over the radio. “Reverse. Fall back. Now!”
    With another Humvee behind them, he hoped they heard the orders and their escape hadn’t been closed off. As soon as he had the clearance, he swung left and turned the Humvee around, gunning it back the way they came, with the third Humvee in their caravan now leading the way. They were taking some gunfire, but the insurgents seemed to be focusing more on Lucky’s Humvee, which had been the lead vehicle. One minute the gunshots were deafening, and then the next the assault subsided. Johnson’s machinegun fired the only continuing shots.
    Had they won? Was it winning if they were retreating to safer grounds? No, it was living to fight another day. He pressed his foot against the pedal a little harder, hoping to put more distance between them. They needed to get somewhere safe and regroup. The battle was ending but the war wasn’t over. Regrouping…
    A bomb exploded, shaking the road under his wheels and for the moment he had to make sure he hadn’t run over an IED. It wasn’t until he checked the mirror that he realized what happened. Gunny’s Humvee sailed through the air for what seemed like an eternity before landing on its side with a thump, thirty feet from where it had been. Something else sailed through the air. What was it?
    “Fuck!” Johnson hollered from the turret, where he was returning fire.
    There was no doubt in his mind that Johnson had seen the same thing. One of their comrades had been thrown from the Humvee, to land hard, and now wasn’t moving.