Blue Skies (23 page)

But where is Jett?

Slowly, she sat up; surprised to be just in her basic olive green flight suit. The shooting finally registered and she jumped to the conclusion that Jett had met hostile fire. Lying next to her was her survival vest and she withdrew the 9mm Beretta.

Determination overruled pain as Sydney lumbered to her feet. However, it didn’t stop her body perpetual sweating. Realizing time was of the essence; she picked up her pace as she edged toward the sound of gunfire. If she were lucky, the element of surprise would be on her side.

Fact of the matter remained that she unable to move swiftly and she feared by the time she did arrive, it would be too late.

Turned out: she
was
lucky.

An American soldier with an Air Force Special Operations Command seemingly appeared out of nowhere and shouted through the deafening sound of the HH-60G hovering approximately a hundred feet above ground.

“Are you, all right?” the man shouted.

She nodded and nearly collapsed in the man’s arms. From there, she had a devil of a time remaining conscious, but she must have been hoisted over the man’s shoulder because the vision she had was of the ground but watching booted feet run across green grass. She blacked out, but came to, when she was being clipped to some type of hoist.

Black out.

Hands pulled her into a hub of a helicopter. At the back of the hub, another wounded soldier was being strapped into some type of apparatus.

Jett.

She sat up, rooting like a personal cheerleader inside of her head. But then she watched in horror as a Korean soldier closed in behind Jett and took aim. One bullet hit above Jett’s knee. He stumbled and another bullet hit him in the back and spun him around to take a final bullet in the chest.

“No!” Sydney screamed until this time, she welcomed the darkness.

Epilogue

“Love is a fragile thing. You never know where you’re going to find it or even when you’re going to lose it.” Sydney sniffed and then drew encouragement from the tightening grip on her hand. “The easiest thing to do is to take love for granted.” She glanced up at Steven—her brother, best friend, and diary all rolled up in one. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be babbling on about this. What time is the limousine coming?”

Steven pressed back the sleeve of his black suit and glanced at his watch. “Don’t worry. We have more than enough time.”

Sydney nodded, but then removed her hands from his. For a long moment, they sat in silence while she composed her thoughts. “Daddy was the first man I ever fell in love with,” she began. “For the longest time I didn’t believe that anyone could ever take his place in my heart—so I didn’t really bother to look.”

Suddenly feeling foolish, she laughed at herself before glancing around her father’s old private study. Her mother had kept everything pretty much the same. The old, grainy brown and white photo of her grandfather stared back at her. Underneath that one was picture of her father, handsome and debonair as always. Next to him was her military photo. She’d stared solemnly into the camera determined to display the very definition of an Air Force airman.

Sydney lowered her hands and navigated her electronic wheelchair around the room to take a closer look at her picture. After a long inspection, she sighed and leaned back in her chair and chuckled. “I was so full of myself. I was always so...”

“Serious?” her brother supplied.

Her smile split wider. “Yeah. Too serious.”

Her brother joined in on her amusement. “You’re just now figuring that out? Appears I’ve been giving you way too much credit. I thought you were quicker than that.”

She smiled, and then turned her attention to the collection of model airplanes setting on bookcases and shelves. “You know, I need to add a few modern planes. The HH-60G and the A-10 Thunderbolts II. After all, they did help save my life.”

“No. No.” Steven rushed up to her chair with his handkerchief at the ready. “No crying today.” He kneeled down beside her and gently dabbed her eyes. “It breaks my heart to see you cry.”

Sydney glanced up at her brother while he fixed her face. Steven’s strong resemblance and matching baritone briefly transported back to when her father had said those very words to her and more tears rose to the surface.

“Okay. I think you’ve sprung a leak.” He hopped up and rushed toward the door. “I’m going to get mom.”

Before she could stop him, Steven was out the door and she was left to fix her own make-up.

Less than a minute later, her mother made a light tap of the door and then ducked her head inside. “How’s my little angel doing?”

“Fixing my leaky pipes before Steven completely freaks out on me.”

As Bethany Garrett eased into the room and approached her daughter, she held the same magnanimous smile she’d worn since the day Sydney returned from Korea. It didn’t matter what shape she was in, or how many surgeries she had to endure, or how many nights she cried into her pillow from the one wound doctors couldn’t fix, her family was just happy to have her home.

Sydney turned away from her mother and stared at the empty space next to her military picture. “There’s another picture that should be up here.”

Sydney sucked in a deep breath and raged a war against an Army of tears. “As ready as I’ll ever be.” She shifted the remote and chair wheeled around and rolled toward the door.

At the stairs, a newly installed electronic apparatus aided in Sydney’s decent down the stairs. In foyer, her supportive family, including Uncle Jimmy surrounded and bestowed warm kisses and encouraging hugs.

It was a beautiful day. The grass was green, the clouds so white, and the sky a beautiful shade of blue.

Xavier Colton fidgeted in his black suit, trying his best to keep it together. His heavy heart was filled to capacity with guilt and regret. There wasn’t much in his life he was proud of; there were plenty of times he’d let his younger brother down—too many to count.

But today, he was finally going to be the big brother he should have always been.

“The limousines are arriving,” Valerie, his ex-wife and his brother’s childhood love, informed as she entered the room. “Everyone is getting ready. Don’t you want to go downstairs and greet the guests?”

Xavier hesitated.

Valerie moved to his side and slid an arm around his waist. “Stop punishing yourself. The past is the past. There is nothing we can do to change it.”

He knew she was right. Jett had pretty much told him the same thing at their father’s funeral three years ago, but their was something about the sadness and grief of his brother that day that made it difficult for him to believe that he’d truly been forgiven.

“Those are code words for the United States Air Force. You forget my father served.” She winked. “Come on. Let’s take our place.”

As her black limousine rolled to a stop outside Atlanta Baptist Church, Sydney was nearly a basket case. She was feeling so many emotions at one time she didn’t know she could possibly go through with this.

She nodded and watched as he turned and climbed out of the limo. In the brief moment, it took from him to make it around; she managed to wrangle a better control of her jittering stomach. The driver opened her door and she noticed he’d extracted her wheelchair from the trunk.

“That’s not going to be necessary,” she said, accepting her brother’s arm. “I’m going to walk in there on my own two feet.”

This time when she glanced back at her brother, tears shimmered in
his
eyes. “Shall we?”

“We shall.”

Ever so slowly, they walked toward the church doors. When they reached the top stair, the door swung out and The Wedding March began.

Jett sucked in a deep breath at the sight of his beautiful bride walking down the aisle. He was just as stunned as the crowded church to see her without her wheelchair. Due to their injuries in the North Korean
incident
, the past four months were incredibly hard. Somehow the three bullets he took all missed major arteries, but because the Air Force medical staff was unaware of their marriage status, it was weeks before either of them was able to get word about the other. By the time, he was able to locate Sydney she’d feared the worst.

And so did he.

As for Sydney, her leg did develop infection, but the excellent military doctors were able to remove the rest of the scrap metal from her legs and treat the infection before it had spread. After three months of intense physical therapy, she was now able to walk down the aisle so they could have an Elvis-free wedding.

Jett’s smile beamed as he stared as his bride and his chest swelled with pride as well. He spared a brief glance over at his brother slash best man and winked. He was happy his brother accepted the invitation and hoped that today would not only mark the beginning of a new life with Sydney, but it would also be a foundation for a new relationship with Xavier.

On Saturday November 11, 2006 at Atlanta Baptist Church at 1400 hours
Sydney and Jett sealed their love and life with a kiss...for the second time.