A Marine's Second Chance: A Marine for You/SEALed for You Crossover Novella

T
his is a work of fiction
. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to actual person—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Dobson Ink. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

M
arried life hadn’t been
everything that Wyoming Dorset dreamed of. She thought she knew what she was getting into when she fell in love with a Marine. Training and deployments were the least of their problems. What she couldn’t deal with was the distance that Jeffrey put between them. Only a shell of the man she fell in love with stood before her.

Five years—that’s how long they’d been married. As Jeffrey prepared for another deployment, he thought of Wyoming and wondered how much of their marriage he’d been there for. How much had he been gone for? The divide between them seemed to appear overnight and now he wasn’t sure how to fix it.

When unexpected news arrived hours before his deployment, somehow he convinced her to give him a second chance. She doesn’t know why, but he believes that even with miles separating them, he can convince her that they haven’t lost their chance. She’s not sure if she believes him, but he’ll be back in six months. That isn’t too long to wait for her husband.

P
regnant
?
Wyoming Dorset sat there staring at her husband, waiting for him to say something. Saying anything would be better than silence. This would have been happy news if it was earlier in their marriage, but now…now she didn’t know. Their marriage was on shaky ground, and the wall he threw up between them became thicker with every deployment. How did this happen? They had taken precautions. She was on the pill, never missing a day even when he was gone, because she never knew when he’d return.

“Damn it, Jeffrey, say something.” She couldn’t take the silence any longer. If he was angry, then she wanted him to rage. If he was happy about the pregnancy, she needed to hear it. Whatever was going through his mind, she needed to know because the silence was torture.

“I…” He dropped his bag on the bed. “How far along are you?”

“Don’t you dare, Jeffrey! You might not give a shit about me or this child, but don’t you dare ask me to have—”

“Is that what you think? That I don’t care about you?” In a quick stride he came around the bed and touched the side of her face, caressing her cheek. “Damn it, Wyoming, that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“You have a funny way of showing it.” She fought against the instinct to press against his hand and enjoy the sweet caress. How long had it been since he’d touched her like that? How long had it been since the romance left their relationship? She could pinpoint the date and time she noticed the first change in him, but how had she let it get so bad?

“Wyoming, I—”

This time, she cut him off. She couldn’t take one more excuse, or another one of his halfhearted apologies. “It doesn’t matter. Things changed and we’re just too different now. It’s too late, but please don’t ask me to have an abortion. Let me hold on to some respect for you.” She took a deep breath because the moment she feared was there in front of her, and nothing could stop the outcome. “You don’t have to worry about it. We’ll be gone when you get back.”

“Fuck!” Dropping his hand away from her cheek, he took a step back.

The absence of his touch made her heart ache. Even after everything, she still loved him. Tears pricked behind her eyelids, and she blinked them away. There was plenty of time for tears later, but she refused to cry in front of him. She didn’t want him to stay out of pity, or because of the pregnancy. Love and romance, that’s what she wanted.

He stepped back farther until the back of his legs brushed along the edge of the bed and he sat down, letting out a deep sigh. “That’s not what I want. Abortion never crossed my mind.”

“Then why ask how far along I am?” Maybe she jumped to a conclusion without giving him a chance, but it was the first thing that popped into her thoughts.

“It’s September. If you conceived six weeks ago, that would be July.” He glanced up at her, the corners of his lips pulling into a smile. “Everyone in my family who got pregnant in July had a girl. But if you’re further along…”

“Nine weeks, but it will be a few weeks before we know the sex.”

“Stay.” He shot off the bed and came to stand in front of her. “Don’t leave. This mission shouldn’t take long, and I’ll be back soon.”

“I don’t know.” She wanted him to wrap his arms around her and tell her that everything would be fine. It wasn’t that simple, especially not between them. She had a stable career, and she could provide for her and the child if he wasn’t in the picture. Would she have considered leaving him if a child wasn’t involved? She wasn’t sure. Their relationship had been shaky for more than a year but she hadn’t thought of divorce until she found out she was pregnant. There was no way she wanted to raise a child in a house filled with the tension that surrounded them.
I’m doing this for you, little one.
But was it the right thing?

“Even if you don’t anymore, at one time you loved me,” he said. “We owe it to our child to find that love again.” He took her hand in his and dragged his thumb across her wedding band. “My feelings for you haven’t changed. They’re still the same as the day I put this on your finger. I know I haven’t been the best husband, but let me prove to you that I want you in my life. I can be the man you need me to be. I can be the father to our daughter that she deserves. Don’t give up on me.”

“We’ve got to go, you need to be at—”

“Screw it,” he snapped. “Damn it, Wyoming. I love you. I’m an asshole and I don’t deserve you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you.”

Tears filled her eyes and this time she couldn’t blink them away. She wanted things to be different, but wasn’t it too late for them? Did they have a chance to fix whatever was broken between them? Could they do it before the baby was born? She wanted her child to grow up surrounded by love.

“Don’t cry, baby.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against his chest. “I never wanted to be the reason you cry. If you don’t love me, I’ll support your decision but—”

“Damn it, Jeffrey.” Tears came faster and her chest tightened. “Loving you was never the problem. I’ve always loved you.”

“Then stay.” He loosened his embrace and leaned back so that she could look at him. “Give me time to prove to you that I can be the man you need, and a good father to our child. We’ll make this right. Give me a chance.”

“It’s not always that easy.” She took him in and tried to decide if he was willing to listen to her, or if he’d shut her out again and close off communication like he always did when she tried to talk to him about something like this. “There’s a wall between us now, and every time I try to breach it, you reinforce it. We never even talk anymore. You always made me laugh but now…”
There’s only tears.
She couldn’t bring herself to say the last part. It wasn’t only his fault. Maybe she could have done something different, something to get him to open up to her.

“Give me another chance.” He cupped the side of her face, brushing his thumb along her cheek, wiping away the tears. “The man who made you laugh is still there, just buried, but I can find him again. This deployment is short. I’ll be back before you know it and I’ll prove it to you. Stay, baby.”

She wanted to believe him. She wanted the man she fell in love with back again. Was it possible? She didn’t know, but she was willing to give it a chance. Maybe she was clinging to her dream of the perfect family, but she believed their son or daughter deserved to have both parents. She wanted the happy family home she’d envied as a child. A mother and father who actually got along, the two and a half kids, and the white picket fence. “I’ll be here when you get back.” She could give him that long and see how things went.

“Promise?”

“Yes.” She met his gaze and nodded. After five years of marriage, they deserved this chance. She wasn’t willing to throw away all their time together, their memories, and the love she had for him if he was willing to try. “Now, we should get on the road.”

“I promise you’re not going to regret this decision.” He pulled her back against him. “I love you, Wyoming. Things are going to be different, I promise.”

She wrapped her arms around him, returning his embrace. How long had it been since they shared an embrace like that? In her gut, she knew the answer—just before he’d deployed a year ago. Just before the change in him. Since then, any time they held each other, it was short and his body felt stiff. He closed her out. Maybe he’d do it again, but she had to give him the benefit of the doubt that this time would be different. “I love you, too.”

T
he volunteer deployment
had seemed like the perfect opportunity when Jeffrey agreed, but 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. Whoever it was might not be alive but they had to do something.

“Dorset!” Doc, their corpsman, dug into his field bag, preparing to respond.

“I know.” Jeffrey slammed his foot down on the break. “Johnson, watch our backs and shoot anything that moves.”

He grabbed his rifle from the rack near the door hinge and headed to assist. Doc needed to patch up whoever was still alive and they needed to get out of there before the insurgents opened fired on them again.

“Shit, it’s Phillips.” Even from this distance he could recognize Private First Class Phillips. Blood spilled along the sand, coming faster than it could be absorbed, making him wonder if Phillips was even alive.

With a jerk of his head, Jeffrey let go of the memories, but he couldn’t shake the images of Kyle Phillips’s mangled body. The young Private First Class had been new to their unit and with his presence he brought a new ray of hope. He was lighthearted and happy-go-lucky, something the whole unit needed.

Refusing to allow the memories of the last deployment to set the tone for this one, he turned his thoughts to his wife and unborn child. If he had to, he’d fight harder to make it home to them. He was going to be there when his child was born, and he wouldn’t be like his absent father. He’d be in their life from the beginning, never missing an event, and making sure they knew he was always there if they needed him. He’d prove to Wyoming that the love they shared was still there and strong.
How? I don’t know, but I’ll do it.

T
he first day
of a deployment always seemed to be the hardest for Wyoming. Other wives felt the opposite, that they could picture their spouse on duty, so the first day wasn’t as difficult. That it was later in the deployments that things became harder. For her, the minute she walked through the front door of their house, it sank in that it was the first of many days she’d be alone.

She sank down on the sofa and stared up at their wedding picture. It was a simple affair with a justice of the peace marrying them in a nearby park. Their parents, her sister, and a couple friends were there to witness their special day. Everything was so perfect, giving her the hope it would always be that way.

“I miss the way things used to be.” She grabbed the throw pillow and hugged it to her chest, thinking of the early days of their marriage when he returned home at the end of the day and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. The sex had always been good, but back then they’d cuddle in bed or on the sofa as they watched a movie. Now he sat in the recliner, leaving her alone on the sofa. In bed, he stuck to his side of the mattress and kept his back to her. The lines between them were drawn firmly, making her doubt that things would be different when he returned.

Our parents.
Dread settled over her shoulders. With him gone, she was left to tell them the news of her pregnancy alone. Having family get-togethers were never the highlight of her day. They always seemed to turn into a disaster as her parents couldn’t even stand to be in the same room together, let alone get through a whole meal peacefully. Her mother-in-law didn’t make the situation easier by butting in with her comments about how she’d never put up with the way Wyoming’s father treated her mother. Halfway through dinner, she was ready to scream for everyone to get out, but Jeffrey always had a way of keeping the situation under control.

“Maybe I can video chat them?” She wasn’t sure it was the best way to tell them, but it certainly was the least stressful. Before she had time to consider it further, her cell phone beeped, alerting her to a text.

Come for dinner? 6? I’ll chill the wine.
Her best friend Alessa, already reminding her that she wasn’t alone. Both military spouses, they stuck together when their husbands deployed. Being in the same unit, they were normally gone together, giving her peace of mind knowing that Jeffrey had someone watching his back. It also kept her from feeling like a third wheel.

Needing to be alone, she shot back a quick text.
Thanks, but another night. I’m tired. Lunch tomorrow—usual place.

Before she could set her phone down, a reply came through.
See you then.

With a smile, she put the phone aside and stretched out on the sofa. Before she told their parents or her sister, she’d tell Alessa. Even though Alessa and Steve had been trying to get pregnant for the last two years, she knew her best friend would be happy for them.
Happier than my parents.