Chapter 4

Joseph could feel the sweat running rivulets down his back as he stood in the hot sun, waiting what he thought was patiently by his Jeep, of course when his mother came by as they walked to their car she smirked at him saying, "You can take the man out of the military, but the military in the man stays."

"I guess you might be right about that mom," Joseph said to her, as he tried to relax himself a bit. He figured she was making light of the fact that he was standing at attention, he couldn't help it really, it was only so many hours since he had joined the civilian life, as he thought of it.

He turned away from their laughter though as he opened up the passenger side door of the vehicle to move his travel bag and the box the GPS had come in to back seat, tidying up the car though only took a few seconds.

Standing back up he turned around, Isabelle was walking towards him. The trees surrounding the parking lot shaded her face just slightly, but he was able to see her smile. Joseph walked towards her as he straightened his coat slightly, he wasn't wrinkled but he couldn't help it, his nerves felt like they were about to fling themselves out of his body.

As they quickly closed the distance between each other, Joe could see the warm sparkle in her eyes that had haunted him since his youth. Those eyes held him as he stopped only a foot away from her and smiled, he couldn't quit doing that it seemed, but then again her smile was worth it.

"Hi again,"

"Thank you for taking me to the reception, I wasn't sure when I looked out into the church if you were going to make it." Isabelle said, returning his smile. She tilted her head to the side for a moment, making a decision on something. Then leaned forward and almost wrapped her hole body around Joseph, resting her head on his chest.

"You made it." she whispered, not explaining what she meant, but Joseph was not going to ask.

Stunned for a brief moment Joseph wasn't sure exactly what to do, but following her lead he wrapped his arms tight around her, his hands resting on her back, he nodded his head into her hair and just breathed in her scent. She was right though, he had made it. He made it home, he made it to the wedding, he made it back to her. 'God she smells like home or maybe like what I want my home to smell like.'.

Pulling away he looked down at her smiling his lopsided grin, he kissed her forehead for a long moment. "You ok Izzy?"

"Yeah, I am now." Slowly untangling herself from Joe, she reached up on her toes to lightly kiss his his lips for the briefest of moments.

He just smiled to her, he wanted to lean down and give her the kiss he had been thinking about since he left for boot camp, but to err on the safe side he released her and gave her a wink.

"Me too! Now my beautiful lady, lets get going before were the last ones to leave. I haven't the foggiest of notions on how to get to the reception. Though I think the she demon does." he said as he opened the door to the jeep. She gave him an odd look as he pointed into the vehicle, at the GPS, "That's She Demon." She just giggled at his comment.

As soon as he got in and started up the Jeep, he smiled over and pointed again to the GPS. "She is evil and never stops telling me what to do."

Turning on the GPS he went into the favorites section and selected the reception hall marker that was programed into it by his parents and smiled, they knew him far too well. Out in the world of bombs and fear, he could get from point A to point B by intuition alone most of the time (it was an uncanny ability of his he didn't brag about but truly loved), in a car though with the urban sprawl of America, he got lost going to the corner gas station.

The first few minutes of the trip went by in a haze of shy gazes and small smiles as they headed towards the hall. Joe just couldn't help but think of how beautiful Isabelle still was, in the part of his brain that often wanted to plague him with doubts he worried sometimes that he was just remembering her in a golden light, and that when he finally saw her again, his expectations would be completely shattered, the glowing smile, the haunting eyes, the sweet loving personality, everything would change and it all would be ruined. He tried to reason even if she turned out to not really be as beautiful as he remembered, he could love her anyways with the person she was. Maybe that was shallow of him to even think, he often thought. When your confronted with war, and the true ugliness that was behind every door, rock or thought; he knew life, fate, karma whatever was out there loved to play nasty tricks.

He tried to reason with himself as they made small talk about the wedding, and the laugh the crowd had gotten from them both, that he had no reason to expect when the topic of whether she had a significant other or not came up that he would not be disappointed if she had one. But he sure as hell hoped she didn't.

Isabelle reached over and very gently tugged on Joesph's shoulder as they pulled into the reception halls lot and looked up to him with her dark blue eyes and gave him a small grin.

"Are you there?" she asked as he shook his head came out of the fog his brain had been in while he navigated the turns and lights by the GPS.

"I spaced out there didn't I?" Joe asked as he smiled back to her.

"Yep. I was busy telling you all about my new pair of undies I got on today, and you just plain ignored all those little stringy parts." She grinned to a opened mouth Joesph. Then poked him hard in the ribs, as she laughed at the unwilling fish impersonation he was doing.

"I am only kidding, you pretty much fazed out on me while we were at a light, and I could tell by your eyes you may have been driving, but you were somewhere way off."

Quickly getting over the joke she had with him, he smiled sheepishly and nodded. "I'm sorry about that, I kinda do that sometimes."

"Were you thinking about the war?" she asked quietly.

"Kinda."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't think you want to hear what I was thinking about, and I'm..." he said then slowly let his voice die out as he saw the look of pure compassion on her face.

"Joesph, I will always want to be here to hear anything you have to say. I am pretty sure that no matter what it is, I can try to understand or at least be here for you."

Joe felt his smile fade slowly till he quietly said, "I was thinking about the people we would see at the reception, and how much they had laughed about us at the wedding, and then thinking I sure did feel stupid to have caused you to be embarrassed, then thinking that it figured, because a person like me really has no dignity left. And that made me think of what I once said to a reporter who was in our camp once, one of those try to make it out to be how horrible it was we were there killing 'innocent people' ... and how I embarrassed her when I said, 'Mam, I have no dignity left, I have to carry my own body bag.'."

Isabelle's smile faded as well now, and as she tried to say something it was as if Joseph could see the lump in her throat, he was sure to have been the cause of. Her eyes welled up, a small tear falling over her eyelid and down her smooth cheek.

Then the one thing Joesph did not expect to happen, happened. Isabelle threw herself across the center console of the Jeep, and wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him as hard as he had ever felt someone hug him. "Oh Joesph." she said faintly into his neck.