Wildlands (rskde & BurningWillows)

Hugging him back, she kissed his cheek before rummaging through the basket, pulling out a container of grapes and sitting down.

"Thinking about what Alex?" she asked, happy that his first words weren't about the drug store, still nervous to tell him.

He smiles when she kisses his cheek. "It's about us, you and me Serena.. And about what happened."

"I want that baby, with you." He says to her softly while watching her sit with her grapes. "I want to live with you and love you everyday.. I bought this awhile back but I wasn't sure because I thought I had lost the Serena that I had known and loved, but you're back and you're perfect.." He says.

He pulls out that small box and places it on the table. "I was awake one morning and I dropped that box, didn't want to wake you, but I know that you saw it." He says with a laugh. "So of course the question stands."

"Will you marry me?" He asks her.

She drops the grape in her hand, reaching for it then pausing, looking him over with a grin. She set the grapes down and picked up the box, then held it out to him.

"Aren't you supposed to get on one knee and ask?"

His face goes red. "Really? Asking isn't enough?" He asks with a laugh, watching her. "You can't just say yes, or no?"

"Look whether I'm pregnant or not, whatever happens, I want to have this memory perfect. Sex on the beach. Perfect. You on one knee? Even more perfect."

She pushed the box into his hand, smiling ear to ear, "Please?"

He takes the box before nodding, getting down on one knee and opening it for her to see. "Serena, will you marry me?" He asks her, putting all of the emotion he can into it to make it more dramatic.

He raises his eyebrows at her, expecting her to say yes as she had talked about the day being perfect.

She was a ball of joy, grinning ear to ear as she looked into the little black box at the most beautiful ring she'd ever seen.

"God you know how to treat a girl," she giggled, looking into his eyes, "Of course baby. Yes I want to marry you. Yes."

She launched off the chair and into his arms, kissing him hard.

"My ring is so much prettier than Kat or Arya's," she whispered jokingly, slipping it on her finger, "Oh baby, I love you so much!"

Alex laughs when she tackle hugs him, hugging her back and kissing her back before breaking away.

He smiles at her words. "I spent a lot of money on it." He admits to her. "But it's worth it to see you this happy."

Curling in his lap she kissed him over and over, happily his. She was on such a high nothing else could affect her.

"I say we make lunch, then call in and tell everyone the good news," she giggled, "Please?"

He grins and continues to kiss her over and over, feeling himself pushes back on to the ground as she kisses him.

He nods. "I already made lunch, but you're free to make a sandwich or something.. And then we can share the news." He says with a grin on his face.

And they did indeed. After eating the picnic she had made they used Alex's tablet to call the others over Skype and tell them the big news about their engagement. After everyone settled and asked a million questions they signed off, promising to be back in three weeks.

~~

Two weeks later and Serena was aching to prolong their vacation. The sex was phenomenal, and they'd used every condom and then to more packs. Not a single every of the beach house had been left unclaimed, and Serena had the hickies and bite marks to prove it. Aside from that, time away from the States was doing her good. Her nightmares were still horrid, but as long as Alex stroked her hair she could always fall back asleep.

As for the pregnancy scare, they had forgotten about it in light of their engagement. Or at least Serena had forgotten about the test she had bought, until they were cleaning the house one afternoon before heading to the beach for a swim. She found it and paled, realizing she could actually be pregnant. And if she was?

He loves me. I love him. We will love our child.

Sneaking into the washroom she locked the door and took the test out, following the instructions to a tee. And then she waited. And waited. And waited...

"Alex!" her high pitch cry echoed through the beach house, reaching him. She sounded panicked, as if someone was attacking her.

Alex comes running to her, he to has marks to prove the phenomenal sex they have been having, scratch marks on his chest and back, hickies on his neck and collarbone plus some lipstick that had been smeared on to his cheek from the night before, he had been so drunk in pleasure that he had forgotten about it.

He finds her and looks at her, confusion spreading across his face, she didn't look harmed at all.. So what was the problem? "Serena, baby, what happened?" He asks her softly, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close to him.

Her mouth opens and shuts over and over, cradled in his arms until finally she squeaks it out.

"I'm pregnant."

He raises his eyebrows and laughs. "How is that so bad?" He asks her. "Didn't I tell you I wanted to have a baby with you? To live with you?" He asks her while continuing to hold her.

"You're going to be a mother, Im going to be a father, none of this could be more perfect." He mumbles to her, kissing her ear softly as he speaks.

She looks up at him, the man she loves and idolizes, her chocolate brown eyes wide eyed. She'd expected him to panic more, but he was calm and it soothed her. Then a devilish grin stretched along her face.

"Does that mean we don't need condoms?" the excitement is evident in her voice, "Oooooh this means I can eat whatever I like."

While she pondered over the positives, her brain returned to the main fact. She was pregnant. She had a family.

"I'm not even twenty one," she exclaimed, looking up at him, "My birthday's in a month, and I'm engaged and pregnant. Hey, this means no alcohol for the next year. Damn it."

He laughs at her comments. "I guess we don't need condoms." He says to her with laugh. "And no, for all I know you'd want to eat the blue sponges out of urinals, you're gonna eat healthy so that our baby is healthy." He says to her with a chuckle.

"Would you have prefered to waited until I was thirty five and you were in your late twenties?" He asks with a grin. "Alcohol isn't worth it, everyone hypes it up for no reason." He explains to her

"Alcohol is wonderful," she stuck her tongue out at him, "Just because you can't hold your liquor doesn't mean I don't like it."

She was refering to a certain christmas party over a year ago.

"When we get back to the states I'll see a doctor. Uh and Alex?"

She'd been wanting to talk to him about this for a few weeks now, but she didn't know how. Now was the best time as any. Pulling him to the couch, she sat down next to him, intertwining their fingers.

"There's this town outside of San Francisco. It's only an hour commute into the city, and the town, its a military town. Everyone there has a spouse whose worked or deployed in the military I hear. I...well I can't stay in the city. It depresses me. Being away has really helped, and I'm scared going back will worsen me. I was wondering, since we are going to have a child and get married and everything, if we could...move?"

She looked down at her lap, "I know everyone lives in our apartment complex now, but eventually everyone will need to move to bigger places. And I, I can't even walk down the block without cringing."

"I can hold my liquor, I was just messing with you.. And it worked." He says with a laugh, remembering the Christmas party in Bolivia like it was yesterday.

"You shouldn't be drinking now or then." He says with a giggle.

He walks over to the couch with her and sits down, holding her hand and listening to what she has to say before nodding. "It would have to be somewhere small, and we'd have to visit the crew every once in awhile but we could make it work." He says with a smile.

She smiles, "I already have a house picked out and its on the market."

Grabbing the tablet she pulls up the site, showing him pictures, "It's a four bedroom and two bathroom. And it has a big backyard. It's beautiful isn't it?"

He looks at the pictures and nods. "It looks like a nice place to raise a kid.. Or kids, we still don't know how many you're carrying." He says with a chuckle, his arm wrapping around her and pulling her against them.

The paused movie he had been watching is still on the screen. "I was watching a war movie, you wanna watch with me?" He asks her.

"A kid," she glares at him, "One. Just one. Please."

She says it lightly though, then moves on to the movie, curling up in his lap to finish watching it. By the time the movie is over she's fast asleep in his arms, dreaming peacefully and happy about whats to come.

"I always dreamed of two." He says with a shrug before turning back on the movie. He lets her curl up against him, his head resting against hers as the bloody movie ends. He turns off the TV and picks her up wedding style, walking with her back to their room where he lays down next to her, his arms wrapping around her as he falls asleep.

Another week passes and they are on the plane back to San Francisco, only this time they wouldn't be going back to their apartment, but to their new home in the military town.


Kyle was having a shitty day. Not only was his fiance's request to go to Germany denied, but he was put on patrol his first day.. But that all seemed to turn around when he meets one of his newest teammates.

Her name is Rosaline, although everyone calls her by her last name which is Farner, Kyle and her talk often on patrol, and when he comes back he tells Arya all about her, how she had played with Max and had kept him entertained while they were walking around Baghdad.

Arya's first request for Germany was denied, partly because she put no effort into it. She didn't want to go, as much as Kyle tried to pressure her. But after a month at camp she was beginning to reconsider, growing quickly tired of the same day-by-day work. Other than a few rare cases, all her patients were the same. In Germany she'd be seeing bigger cases, and more variety. And she'd still be close to Kyle.

So she reapplied the week before Kyle came back from patrol. Arya was sitting in her tent finishing some paperwork with an open letter on her bed when Kyle came in, talking up a storm. At first, she thought it was simple excitement from being back, but she hadn't gotten a word, or for that matter a hug before he went into ranting about the new girl. And the more he talked about it, the more it stung, the jealously quickly growing in her stomach, listening to him go on about how well she was with Max, and how much fun it was with her around.

It's like I'm not even here, she clamped her mouth shut, trying not to get upset, Does he even understand that what he says hurts?

When he said she entertained him, at first Arya's mind went blank, and then it spiraled, thinking of all the things this girl could have done to 'entertain' him. Tears pricked her eyes and she swallowed them back, trying to remind herself that she might be overthinking it all.

"I'm glad you made a friend," she murmured, cleaning up her paperwork with her back towards him, "Sorry Kyle, I need to run. I'm still on call."

She fled past him, escaping her tent and rushing back to the medbay. There was no way to explain how she was feeling, not without causing a fight.

Maybe they are just friends. Maybe I am overreacting.

"Dr. Culling, patrol just came in, we need a checkup on Farner. Seems she got a rather nasty cut on her arm that's infected."

Her breath sucked in, knowing she couldn't have worse luck then needing to patch up the girl hitting on her fiance.

"Thank you Officer," she nodded, slipping past him and putting her things down before finding her patient amongst the beds. She was praying this girl would have bad teeth, or acne, or anything superficial to make her feel even a touch better. But on the contrary, Rosaline Farner was gorgeous. She had sunkissed copper hair pulled back in a pony tail and blue eyes, with faint freckles along her cheeks. She had a model look about her, and when she greeted Arya it was sincere and pleasant. She was a nice person, making Arya feel worse and worse.

Sucking up her pride, she patched her up, asking how she got the scratch. Rosaline launched into a long story about her patrol getting caught up at a trench and her teammates dog tripping her when she tried to sneak up on her closest team mate. Instead she'd slipped into the small trench and cut her arm on wire.

"He helped me up of course, and bandaged me up best he could. But its still infected. He did his best though. Hey you've been hear long enough. Do you know Officer Wetsworth? Is he single? He didn't talk much about his home life, he preferred talking about the job or Max."

Arya's eyes widen and she choked on her words, trying to look like she hadn't just swallowed poison.

"Uh I think he's taken," she stammered, cursing herself for sounding so unsure.

"I guess I should just ask him, right?" she smiled, "Thank you for bandaging me up Doc."

As Rosaline walked away, Arya heart plummeted, unsure of what she had just done. Had she just encouraged someone to ask her fiance out? Why hadn't she just said he was dating her?

Kyle furrows his eyebrows together as he watches her go, deciding to just head into his barracks to get some rest. He lays down on his bed and pulls his cap down under his eyes, sighing as he falls asleep with Max at his side.

Rosaline went back to the barracks, finding Kyle and Max, and giving the dog a good pet.

"Hey Kyle," she grinned, waking him up, as she sat on the edge of his bed, "Look, all bandaged up."


Arya retired for the night after two more patients, taking her stuff into her tent and changing. Her heart still hurt, unsure how to fix the mess she had made. And worst yet she didn't know if she had time. The letter had come in and she was being deployed to Germany at noon the next day, giving her only a few hours to speak to him, if she had the chance.

She lay in bed and thought it over, wondering if it was smarter to just let things slide or tell him how she felt.