Lucas

8:47PM. We'd spent the day driving around the city, shopping for things I'd need on the deployment. It wasn't much, but it had to be done. My shoulders felt so much lighter after our talk that morning. I brought her to base to show her where the shop was and the barracks where I slept. When I felt like I'd shown her everything, I drove us off base and parked us in the empty field just a few miles away where we could see the planes taking off above us.

It was so cold outside that my face stung from the air as I moved around to her side. I brought an extra blanket and grabbed it from the back of my seat. "What are we doing here?" she asked, her cheeks that perfect shade of pink from the heater again. I wondered what she'd look like when she was older. Would she wear her long hair up or cut it short? Would her eyes be wrinkled from a lifetime of work, or maybe from the tiny troubles of children? Would any of those wrinkles be mine?

I opened her door and she stepped out into a big pile of snow. The light from my truck was all the light there was around us. She giggled and kicked the snow, much like a little kid would and my heart ached with the thought that I might not get to see her play in the snow ever again. I left her door open behind her and set the blanket on her seat.

I could hear the crunch of the snow beneath her boots as she danced around just outside the reach of the truck light. I laughed to myself and turned to try and watch her. That's when it happened. That's when I was hit with it. It was the sudden realization that my plans needed to be revised because we didn't have much more time--and a giant snowball right to my forehead.

"Bailey Athena! You did not throw a snowball at me!" I shook it off and took off running after the crunching sound in the dark. I heard her shrill scream and then the sound of her giggling, which filled my chest like the tiny bubbles of champagne.

"Lucas Kratos, I believe you are mistaken," she laughed, changing direction and leaving small footprints in the new snow. "I most certainly did hit you with a snowball!"

Once she was in my sight she didn't stand a chance. I reached around her waist and pulled her against me, spinning us around so that I could fall down and bring her with me into the snow.

"Lucas! We're going to get all wet from the snow!" she wiggled and giggled, but couldn't break free.

"You should have thought of that before you started this war." I reached for some snow and tossed it up so that it landed on her. She tried to move out of the way, but I was holding her in place.

"I hope you know this will make you the villain of the story, not the prince when I tell our grandchildren!" I knew she was teasing, but her words flew straight into my chest and wrapped their warmth around my heart. She had no idea how badly I wanted our story to have little ears to hear it. I wanted those little ears to belong to the children of our children. I wasn't ready for our story to be over.

I moved her off of me and onto her back in the snow. "Say it again," I pleaded above her beautiful face. The face that I'd be thinking about every minute I was away from her. She smiled at me as I held her still in the snow.

"Our grandchildren," she repeated, moving her face up quickly to capture a kiss from my lips before giggling as she melted into the snow again. I was speechless. She was everything to me. I moved in slowly this time, kissing her lips and releasing one wrist. When I moved back to look at her again, she pushed her glasses back up her nose and the last little part of my heart that had been holding on to reason fell for her. She had my whole heart.

"Marry me, Bailey."

9:02PM