Not Intended

[Play On Words]

Time Skip Three Years
Henry's original plan had been to enlist for two years. But after he got his degree, he had felt no reason to stick around. He signed up for a three year term, met a girl in the army, and pretended to fall for her. They were both from the same place, where he intended on returning to after his term. Home. He wasn't sure if that word applied to him anymore.

To him, home had always included Sam. He hadn't heard from Sam, but Tara had sent him a couple letters. In the beginning, it had been once a week, until she seemed to give up. The last letter had been after a year and a half overseas, when he'd been shot twice already. But he'd refused to go back home early for medical leave. The letter had told him that not only were she and Sam engaged, but expecting a baby. Good for them. They got happiness. Henry didn't.

But three years, another gunshot later, he was forced to go home. He and Lily went home together, hand in hand. He tried to believe that he wasn't thinking about Brynn, but it was all he could imagine. A week after he returned home, he broke up with Lily. And he was alone in his loft once more, watching the same sappy romance he had viewed on his first night with Brynn. Even the upbeat, happy music couldn't bring a smile to his face. He had changed over his term. His face, once mostly cleanshaven, had given him a short beard, his hair a bit longer. But the weariness was obvious in his eyes, the lines under them. The terror he felt whenever he closed his eyes...​

 

[Anony]

Brynn spent the next three years getting her degree, moving in her parents house, only to move out once she graduated. Rumors had it in town that Sam and Tara were having a baby and getting married. Good for them. Sam would always be a cheater, in her eyes. Henry hadn't been heard from - at all. She couldn't even bring herself to think of him. Because while what he did was wrong, in her eyes, she still did care for him a great deal.


So there she was, a college graduate - now a nurse. She had her own apartment, on the otherside of town. She even adopted a cat that kept her company. While she had casually dated here and there, it had never been anything serious. She was too busy for it to ever be anything serious. As the new nurse, she often got stuck with the night and weekend shifts, which made dating next to impossible.


That's when she heard from an old friend, that Henry was home. Her first instinct was to call him up, but a part of her was still hurt. Hurt that when he was hurting, he decided to throw the fact that Sam was cheating on her in her face. He could say what he wanted about it being Tara's idea, or that she asked. But, as her friend, Henry could have handled it differently. As someone who genuinely cared about how she felt, he should have recognized that it could potentially hurt her to be blindsided by everything. In her own home. He hadn't been sorry though, and had lashed out at her even when she called him out.


One evening, she was in town center, out shopping for groceries to stock her apartment. When she spotted him. He was different. Face a little more worn, he looked older, he looked tathered. He looked like he'd been through war - and he had.


Cautiously, Brynn approached him, her basket of items in hand. "Henry..."She said quietly, in the middle of the milk aisle. "Hey....how are you?"

 

[Play On Words]

Henry had been zoned out in the dairy aisle. It had been the first time since he had returned that he'd left his apartment, but after a while, he'd just gotten sick of being locked up. Every noise made him jump a little, every person looked suspicious.


When he heard her voice, his heart stopped. He had always carried guilt for how he'd handled things with Brynn. It had been at Tara's bequest, but he could've said no. Instead, he gave in to pettiness and jealousy, and he hadn't forgiven himself. When he heard her, it all came crashing back. Along with the milk jug he was carrying, which he barely caught before it hit the ground, blinking with surprise. He hadn't even registered that it was falling before he caught it. He carefully put it in his basket before turning to Brynn.


"Hey." He said, smiling slightly at the sight of her. God, she was still beautiful. He carefully averted his eyes, knowing that she was probably still pissed at him, and probably wanted nothing to do with him. He couldn't really blame her. Still... Just seeing her made his various bullet scars tingle. He had never figured out if he would've reenlisted, if their drama hadn't happened. He probably would've.


"Uh, I'm good. How are you?" It was a rather obvious lie. She'd probably call him out. And he probably wouldn't care.

 

[Anony]

Brynn watched as he practically dropped his milk. He was jumpy. Just like he was last time after he returned home. She knew the things he saw and did got to


Him. She knew that he couldn't easily forget anything that happened while he was away. Brynn did her best not to let those thoughts filter through her mind too much.


"I'm doing well. Graduated college a few weeks ago..." Her eyes fell on him and she drew in a longer breath. If only he knew how much she had missed him. She hadn't called or written him the whole time he was gone. Too upset about the way he had handled things. Sam may have been a cheating, lying bastard, but at least he had cared enough not to hurt her. He cared enough to keep it hidden from her.


And watching Sam move on and be happily married with a baby? Well it sucked too. Because it was s constant reminder of what she had lost. But even that hasn't hurt as much as keeping away from Henry.


"You sure you've been ok?"


She asked him, her eyes flicking over his well defined muscles, swallowing hard.


"We.....we should grab a drink sometime, Henry."

 

[Play On Words]

Henry swallowed, eyes glued on her. She had no idea how often he'd sat down, paper in front of him and pen in hand, and struggled to write to her. Nothing he'd written had ever seemed good enough.


At her words, he flinched slightly. Of course he wasn't okay. He hadn't been 'okay' in years. But he just smiled slightly. "I will be. Just... Takes some getting used to." He sighed, giving a distrustful glare to a man nearby. He swung his eyes back to Brynn when she asked him out. His old grin returned for half a second.


"Yea. Yea, we should. I still have the same number, live in the same apartment. Just... Tell me when you're free." He offered, nodding slightly. He knew he wasn't forgiven. But it was a start, one he had wanted for ages. After all, he was 29. His thirties loomed over him. He wanted to settle down. But he only wanted to do it with her.

 

[Anony]

Brynn watched as he reacted to a man in the distance, as if he were some sort of threat. When in reality, it was just some innocent man just picking up groceries, likely for his kids. It made her realize that Henry wasn't okay after his deployment. Not really, anyways.


"Alrigt, Henry. Awesome." She smiled at him, before shaking her head. "I live on the otherside of town. I work a lot of nights, so it'll have to be on one of my off nights." She informed him, knowing that her schedule could be a little hard to work with, the comings the goings, the rarely being together. It was part of the reason her relationships since Sam hadn't worked - she was always coming home when they were going to work, and it made a stable relationship difficult.


Resting her hand on his elbow, she leaned up and kissed his cheek. "It's so good to see you back here in town. I waasn't sure I'd see you again." She gave his arm a tender squeeze, before she pulled away from him and started to head to the front of the store to pay for her groceries.

 

[Play On Words]

Henry tore his eyes from the other people when she spoke, and faked a smile quickly. "I'm always free. Haven't really... Settled back down yet." He looked down at his slightly shaking hands and stuffed them into his pockets, hiding the evidence. When she kissed him, he froze slightly.


"I wasn't sure you would either." He said quietly, scratching at his chest through his shirt, right where the first gunshot scar was. God, that day haunted him at night. Like every day over there did.


"Blake! Take Livingston, go check out that building!" Henry nodded, grabbing Michael Livingston and following the instructions. They had hardly crossed the doorway when Henry noticed a man with a pistol in the corner.


"Down!" He shouted, jumping in front of his comrade as Michael hit the deck. The bullet took Henry in the chest, and he groaned, refusing to fall. He had barely been overseas for six months. In an instant, the sound of another shot rang, and pain hit his thigh. He crumpled, struggling to breathe. Michael fired off three shots, each hitting the assailant, before falling beside Henry and trying to stop the blood.


"Stay with me, Blake! I need a medic!" Michael's loud voice bellowed.

 

[Anony]

Henry was on her mind the rest of that evening. He was home. He was safe. He was alive. It felt like that should have been all of the unresolved business they had - hell, they'd only slept together twice. But it didn't. It didn't solve their unresolved business at all. Brynn was still really hurt by his actions, more so than he was hurt by Sam's actions. But she still couldn't shake him even after all this time.


That night, she laid on her bed, trying to figure out whether she should text him or not. What did she say without seeming desperate? Without seeming like she had been waiting for this for three long years, but he'd never so much as picked up the phone to call her.


Finally, she settled on sending him a text. "Want to grab that drink?" She texted him, before following it up with yet another text. "You can come over if you want, drinks on me." She followed up with another text with her address, figuring it was probably the best way for them to talk without someone to over hear any conversation.

 

[Play On Words]

Henry was lying on his bed, eyes wide open. He couldn't close them. He couldn't bring himself to see those images. Brynn probably hated him. Of course she did. It wasn't like he had kept up with her life. But he also hadn't exactly had phone access, and he had doubted that she wanted to get a letter from him.


He jumped when he heard his phone go off, grabbing it. He smiled slightly at the words that Brynn sent him. He didn't hesitate, grabbing his phone and wallet, shoving them in his pocket with his keys, and jogging down to the garage. Luckily, he knew where that address was.


Just a few minutes later, he was parked outside her place. He cut the engine of his motorcycle and walked to the door, knocking after a second's hesitation. He had cleaned himself up a bit during the day. Trimmed his beard back to stubble, cut his hair back to how it'd been. He looked almost normal.

 

[Anony]

Brynn was excited when Henry said he'd head over. It was nice to know that he was willing to hang out with her, despite everything. They had a lot to talk about, and a lot of trust to rebuild, but she did miss his friendship. After Sam and her had split, not a lot had remained from her friend group, and she had distanced herself to focus on school, so it would be nice to have a familiar face who had known her since she was younger.


When there was a knock at the door, she headed to the door, and opened it, before smiling. "Welcome." She told him, before stepping out of the way so that he could step into the living space of her apartment. It was a nice apartment, but she also worked incredibly hard to show for it and it had finally paid off. It was mostly white, with accents of Brynn thrown in with the colorful pillows on her grey couch, and pops of color everywhere on her granite counters in the kitchen. It was more of a home than an apartment.


"I'm glad you could come over." She told him, an honest smile playing across her lips as she shut the door behind him and went to the fridge, pulling out a beer for each of them.


"So how have you been, really, Henry?"

 

[Play On Words]

Henry smiled when he saw her, and looked curiously around the apartment. Much nicer than his own, that was for sure. He accepted the beer when she offered it, opening it and taking a sip.


"You know. Just... Hard settling back down. Hard getting a job. Hard being normal." He shrugged, eyes glued on her. Why had she wanted this meeting to be here? Why not at a bar? He cleared his throat quietly. "I know you probably expect an apology from me... But you won't get one. If I had done what I did in any other way, you wouldn't have believed me, or you would've taken him back. You were firmly in his trap. Hate me for it if you want." He shrugged.


He couldn't help but think about Lily. She'd known about Brynn, she knew that Brynn was the reason he ended things. After all, in the beginning, they had just been hooking up. But he had cared for her. Deeply. It just wasn't anything compared to how he felt for Brynn.

 

[Play On Words]

(Bump...)

 

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(Assuming that you dropped this.)