#crossover ish

The search for Harrow leads the Tree-o to The Hollow Wood in The Moonshadow Forest while there Terry mentions that there is someone who would be able to help them. But when they arrive at the shop the owner is no longer welcoming to Human Customers.

A large Stone Giant protects the shop, and refuses to let Terry in if he's doing business with two humans. She wears a Moonshadow circlet that dispels any illusions.

Corvus being as observant as he is picks up that The Shop Owner had been tricked by a Human Mage who ended up harming her to get some items. Realizing this Human Mage could very well be Claudia he makes the suggestion they check elsewhere knowing that both Soren and Terry could possibly shut down at the idea of Claudia being near or back.

But while they are trying to figure out what to do next they stumble across a patch of Changling Mushrooms (fully taken from Dungeon Meshi for fun). Terry and Soren get the same idea to go back with new forms since technically its not an illusion.

Noah Syverson gave his oldest brother a shove right back. Not that he'd admit it out loud, but no, he wouldn't.

Luck was on his side because later that night he did just that. Allbeit a little less accidental than the first time. "Well, hello again." Syverson came to stand close behind her at the refreshments table.

To her credit she didn't flinch of anything, just turned to face him with a smile.

"So this is why you were in such hurry earlier?" He smirked down at her, his back straight and his eyes drilling into hers.

"Maybe." She smirked back at him before turning back to the table and accepted a glass of punch. "When do you ship out?"

"Train leaves tomorrow mornin'." He shook his head when the woman behind the table offered him a glass.

Joanna nodded, "Two of my brothers are already over there," Her face was softer, her smile a little less bright. "Where are you headed?"

Sy hadn't really thought out what he might talk to her about, but he hadn't expected it to be the war. He gestured off to one side, silently asking her over to a quieter side of the hall. "First to training. Won't tell us anything 'till after we make it through that."

She sipped at her punch and nodded, "One of the ladies at work said you and your brother both volunteered to be paratroopers."

His smirk grew a little wider, imaging the ladies at the courthouse gossiping about the local young men over the clack of their typewriters. "Yes ma'am. Didn't realize it was town news though."

Joanna had the good, Baptist decency to blush and look the tiniest bit embarassed. "Just gossip for now." Her eyes flicked back up to his, such a pretty, Irish, green. She was smirking again against the lip of her glass as she added, "They won't run it in the paper until y'all jump into Germany."

That got an honest chuckle out of him and he liked the way her eyes sharpened as she gave him the verbal jab.

Joanna Garrison had been in the same grade as his youngest brother, Able, both of them graduating high school just last year. He vaguely recalled the few times he had mentioned the Garrison girl. The one that came to mind just then was how Able had told him about her having to stay late for a week during their ninth grade year. She'd been been made to clean chalkboards as punishment for talking back to a teacher, one too many times. She was spunky.

"So how long have you been working at the courthouse?" Noach redirected the conversation away from himself.

"Just since school. Dad pulled a couple strings to get me in the typists pool while we wait to hear back about college." Mr. Garrison was the Sheriff and a military man himself back in the first World War. Joanna followed up her answer with a question of her own, "Why the paratroopers?"

Syverson sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and thought for a minute. "Everyone says they'll be the first ones in." He knew that wasn't much of an answer but he didn't really have a better one to offer her. "You know where your brothers are?" Noah redirected the conversation away from himself once again.

She must have noticed, but didn't say anything. Instead she gave a slight shrug and scanned the crowd packed into the hall. "Junior is in Italy, Greg was in North Africa somewhere last letter we got but that's been several weeks. Then, uh, Sean is in basic training right now and Connor is waiting for orders."

Sy nodded. Wondered what is was like for the parents and the sisters, or the brothers too young. He wondered what it was like for her to have the brothers she'd grown up with all ripped away and thrown overseas. He tried not to think about his own mother. What it meant for her to have her own sons not only to be leaving for war, but to have volunteered for the hardest and most dangerous profession they could.

"You sure have a lot of letters to write." Sy gave her a grin, sneaking a look at her, up and down, trying to memorize they way she looked standing there in front of him with a kind smile and those pretty green eyes. He wouldn't be any more forward than that. He had no right to be. He barely knew the girl but she was pretty, and smart and he was leaving tomorrow.

"I don't mind." She cocked her head slightly to one side and smiled.

He caught her giving him a once over of her own and had to fight back the urge to push his luck.

There was no need because she added, "I wouldn't mind writing one more."

Sy nearly broke out in a wide smile at her indirect and nearly cheeky offer. Instead he licked his lips and ducked his head, with his back straight and his hands behind his back, he stepped just a bit closer and stood at her side. "Just be sure not to use any big words. Remember, I'm just a simple, country boy."

She smiled and even rolled her eyes, and boy did that please him. Joanna locked eyes with him, "I'll do my best."

~~~

Noah,

I have to admit, I'm nervous to write this letter, I'm not sure what to write at all if I'm honest.

I realize now that we really, hardly know each other at all. I do hope to change that though, and so I will write. Even if i'm not sure what to say.

Hopefully your training is going well. I read an article in Life Magazine this week about Paratroopers; the training you will have to go through and though it sounds hard for certain, I have faith that life on a west Texas ranch has probably prepared you better than some of your fellow soliders.

You'll have to tell me about them. I have to admit I''m curious what all kinds of men you'll be fighting with. What kind of man decides to go and do this dangerous thing?

As far as home goes, it is mostly the same, and I'm sure not nearly as interesting as the training you are doing.

I hope you are well and I hope you are able to write.

Joanna

~~~

Joanna,

I was glad to get your first letter. Don't worry about what to write. I'll be happy to read whatever it is.

I'm lucky to have a pretty girl from back home writing me. I hope I can keep your attention long enough to get more.

We've been told not to write home about much of what we do but I can say the training is hard yet satisfying and we have a good bunch of boys here. From all over. Country boys like me and plenty from small towns and big cities like Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

I'm sorry this letter is so short. Something you should know about me is I'm not a man of many words. But, I promise I look forward to your letters and will write whenever I can.

All goes well, by the time you receive this I'll be an Airborne Paratrooper.

Noah

~~~

Dear Noah,

I was so happy to receive your letter, as short as it was. There's no need to apologize for that. I can only imagine there's much more for you to do there than just write to me.

I ran into your mama in town the other day and she was beyond pleased to tell me about her sons the paratroopers. She's very proud of you. I iamgine we all are here, in our little town so far removed from what you are about to do.

For what it is worth I am very proud of you.

I feel a little foolish telling you that I'm about to go off to the teachers college in Austin. Considering where you are about to be off to. But I do feel much safer telling you than anyone else, that i'm scared I'll find I'm not as smart as some have led me to believe. I guess we will find out. I've also never been so far from home. I realize how silly that sounds in a letter to you, all things considered.

Truthfully I find some strength in that. If you can go across the country, across the sea to the other side of the world to jump out of planes and fight Nazis, well, then surely I can survive a few years at a big, fancy college.

I'll include my address at the dorms so your letters can still find me. I've read that the paratroopers will be shipping out soon. If that's true I hope that you and the boys are strong and brave and as superior as we all believe you to be.

Until your next, Joanna

~~~

Jo,

We are staging in England for now, more training.

I never would have guessed I'd be jumping out of airplanes. It's terrifying but I enjoy it.

The area we are in reminds me a little of home, except much cooler and greener. But the people are friendly and it's farm country. From here Lord only knows where we will go. There's lots of talk but that's all it is for now.

You'll do fine at college, I'm sure of it. I'd rather jump out of a plane with no parachute. I know you'll do well.

I can see you as a teacher. But if you'd been mine you'd probably get sick of trying to get me to pay attention. None of the teachers I ever had were as easy to look at as you, I know I'd have been in trouble.

I don't know how often I'll be able to write after this but I hope you'll keep writing. It will give me something to look forward to, catching up on all your letters.

Noah

~~~

Noah,

College is much different than I imagined. Some days I think I would also prefer jumping from a plane with no parachute. My classes are okay, for the most part. Except for maths, I've never been good at it and to be completely honest could care less. The professor is not my favorite either. That does not help.

I read about the invasion of Normandy in a paper at the Library and I pray that you are well and safe and fighting. It seems to be the only thing people are talking about right now. Part of me will be holding my breath until I hear from you and know that you are safe. As safe as you can be at least.

From what I've heard you were trouble in school to begin with, even with the 'not so easy to look at' teachers we had in our little hometown.

But, I admit I enjoy knowing knowing you seem to think I'm distracting.

Your friend, Joanna

~~~

Noah,

I'm tempted to quit reading the papers because they only make me worry.

You asked me to write and so I will continue to write, until I get a response of some kind.

College has gotten easier, or rather I've settled in I suppose. I've made friends with a few girls on the floor in my dorm. All of them from small, middle of nowhere towns like you and I. They're nice girls and I'm glad I found them.

I'll be going home for Christmas soon and I plan on dropping in on your folks if that's ok.

Will y'all be able to celebrate? Do you even feel like celebrating? Hope to hear from you soon,

Joanna

~~~

Noah,

I think more than anything I'm writing this letter for myself. To say the things I can't say anywhere else.

My brother Gregory has been killed in action.

They notified my parents yesterday morning. Dad called me and had to tell me over the phone.

I've never heard him sound the way he sounded on that call and that nearly broke my heart. Even more than the loss of my brother. Hearing the pain in my fathers voice was so painful I could hardly breath and I feel as though my head is empty. I could not bring myself to go to class today. What's the point?

I'm so angry. I don't even know who I'm angry at. War? Can I be angry at war? I find myself so angry that all I can do is cry. I sob and weep until I feel sick to my stomach and then my head goes all fuzzy and empty again.

I don't know what else to say other than I hope you are okay.

Joanna

~~~

Jo,

I'm sorry it's been this long and I'm sorry to hear about your brother.

I know more than most you see everyday that there are no words. Your brother was a good man and I'm sure a good solider. You should be proud of him and you have every right to be angry. Just promise you will take care of yourelf.

I'm fine. I survived the jump in Normandy and a dozen other engagements since. I was shot in the leg not that long ago in Holland, nothing serious but it got me a scar and a purple heart. It was the stay in the hospital that let your letters catch up to me so I am glad for that.

The way things are going I don't think we'll get much of a Christmas. I hope that you are able to spend the time with your folks and find some peace in that. I

know I haven't been able to write but I do think of you. In the little, fleeting moments those of us on the front lines get. We try not to think about home much, but when I do I think of you. I hope that's okay.

Noah

~~~

Noah,

Your letter was a relief. More than I could have imagined. I'm glad you're okay aside from the new scar.

I leave for home tomorrow morning and won't be back at school until after the New Year. I think the time back home will help but it will be hard.

I'm sorry I don't have much to say this time.

I promise I will write you more when I am home.

And yes that is certainly okay. Reading that you think of me made me smile for the first time in a week. I think of you often and hope to hear from you soon.

Joanna

~~~

Noah,

Merry Christmas!

The holiday has been hard. Church was nearly unbearable with everyone offering condolances. I prayed for you and for the boys. I hope you are all well but especially you.

I went and visited your folks today. I'm sorry, but I hope that's okay. Your mama was sweet and fed me lunch even though I insisted I had just eaten. She told me all about you and your brother the paratroopers. Especially you. She said that I'd like you the best and she'll invite me over for dinner once you're home again. I

didn't mention that we'd been exchanging letters since you shipped off. I'm not quite ready to go back to school yet but I also can't imagine staying home for much longer either.

Can you tell me anything about where you are and what you're doing? If not I understand. I think I might like to know.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Yours Joanna

~~~

Jo,

I've never been as cold as I've been this winter. I can't write much about where we are without the Army blacking it out or pulling my letter all together. Just know that going is hard but we keep going. A couple of my buddies caught me rereading your letters while we here huddled up in a foxhole trying not to freeze to death. They gave me hell and made me tell them all about you.

It took our minds off things for awhile. They're still riding me about it. About my girl I've been keeping a secret.

I know I have no right to think of you that way let alone talk about you that way. But I do, consider you my girl.

Damned if I hope you don't hate me for it.

Noah

P.S. Everyone here calls me Sy, the only time I hear or see or even use my given name is in these letters.

Noah,

It's funny you should say that. Just the other day, in the library, a girl was sitting with us and prattling on about how she was so scared for her boyfriend who was working as a clerk for some officer in Paris and how he told her he might have to go with him to some station close to the front.

I was sleep deprived from studying and on edge and... well I may have snapped a little. Went off about how my boyfriend had jumped into Normandy with the Airborn and was wounded in Holland so her boyfriend could sit safe and sound at some desk and suck on his paper cuts.

I'm not proud of my behavior I admit, but I will admit I feel better knowing you might not be too awful upset with my actions.

Tests are coming up and I think the stress has been getting to me. I'm almost looking forward to the summer just so I can go back to my job at the courthouse typing in the pool. But then, I suppose, I'll just have to go back and finish the second year before I can work as a teacher. I hope that by then you will be home.

Your girl,

Jo

~~~

Jo,

I probably told every guy in my company about what you said to that girl in the library. Every one of them laughed, even the CO. He says I'm a lucky guy. He's right.

We had a rough go here recently but we are somewhere relatively quiet now and we are sleeping with a real roof over our head. When we cleared the town I may have taken the COs advice and sent you a package. It cost me 2 packs of cigarettes to get it mailed so be sure you let me know that you got it.

I don't think we'll be here long but we are trying to make the best of it we can.

Don't be mad but I did get wounded again, nothing major, just a chunk of shrapnel in my side. It tore through my canteen so it didn't do as much damage as it could have. Our doc fixed me up so I didn't have to go back to aid station.

I'm trying to make it home in one piece. I promise. Noah

~~~

His letters were less frequent after that but they still came and she was grateful for each of them.

She had been shocked when the first package of silver trinkets had arrived. There were several of those through the next year. Beautiful hand mirrors, cups, cutlery and once an ornate silver picture frame that had taken her breath away.

Her roommate had watched her open that package and made a snarky comment. "Does your Lieutenant boyfirend have any fellow paratroopers looking to send some spoils of war home to a nice girl from Dallas?"

Jo had included that in her next letter, smirking as she had written it.

Sy had even responded that she should be careful what she wished for.

There was a long gap in his letters after that. Though she continued to write, knowing from experience that if he were alive the Army would eventually get her letters to him.

Finally one came, shorter than nearly all the others. In it he told her he'd been promoted once again, to Captain now, and he had no idea how or why. The way he saw it he was still just a simple country boy from Texas there to do a job.

In her response Joanna had pointed out to him that if she had to guess, the promotions were becuase he did his job and did it well.

She was in her last semester of college when she got this biggest package of loot she'd yet recieved and quite possibly the longest letter he'd ever written her.

Jo, I

don't have the words to describe to you the beauty of where we are now, but I promise you one of these days I'll do whatever it takes to bring you here to see the mountains.

They're something you have to see to believe.

Some of us have never seen anything like this place. It doesn't even feel like we are fighting a war anymore.

We were able to take control of a town, nearly every house in it was packed with fancier shit than we had ever seen. I won't even tell you what it cost me to send this package but me and the boys, we couldn't help ourselves. As always we were the first ones in and there was no chance we weren't taking everything we could carry.

Some letters from my ma caught up to me here and in every one of them she mentions you. You made an impression.

The picture you sent was a pleasant surprise. Just as beautiful as I remember.

Part of me hopes the war is really over and if I could I'd be there in time for your graduation I would. I'm proud of you.

A few of the guys in my company have had a hard time with their girls back home. Letters stop, or worse a letter comes telling them she's tired of waiting. A couple guys have even found out their getting divorced by letter.

I'm grateful for you and your patience. Believe me when I say that when I come home I'll do right by you. God willing that's soon. It feels like it might be.

Noah.

~~~

It's the week of the county fair when Sy finally comes home. HIs older brother is the one that convinces him to put their uniforms on and go to the street dance that night. He wouldn't admit it but he was looking for her the second they stepped out of the old truck. He and his brother had been bogged down by boys and men alike shaking their hands and wanting all the stories. Sy let his brother do most the talking, that's how it had always been, and that gave him the chance to look around.

When he finally saw her she was with a group of girls off to the side, a big group 7 or 8, most the girls hanging on every word some weak chinned little privates were spewing. Not her though, she was sipping her punch and smiling politely, eyes glazed over and a million miles away. Setting his jaw he gave his brother a pat on the back and headed that way.

She didn't notice him right away, not until he came to stand behind the privates and straightened his back. "You boys given these ladies a hard time?" One of them turned around to smart off but they both immediatly snapped to attention and answered, "no sir" Sy nodded his head to the side and they slunk away, defeated. The women fawned and blushed, everyone of them batted their eyes and given him their prettiest smile. Not Jo though, her eyes were narrowed, then flicked briefly back behind her eyelids as she smirked. She did blush after he'd held her gaze a little too long but on her it was the most beautiful damn thing. "Miss Joanna, I was hopin you'd walk with me a bit, maybe let me have a dance."

After they had left the gossiping group of girls safely behind them, Joanna spoke, "I don't know how many letters I wrote you but now I feel like… with you here in front of me I don't know what to say." She chuckled a little at herself.

"You don't gotta say nothin' if you don't feel like it. I'm perfectly happy to just walk with you."

She blushed again, smiled and looked down at the ground, "So am I."

They had walked the length of their little hometowns main street and had turned around again. The music growing louder as they came up to the edge of the crowd. Joanna looked up at him almost shy, "You mean it earlier when you said you'd like to dance?" Sy had pushed her around the street to the next song and his chest puffed out when at the end of that song she had shooed away a young man asking for the next dance, wrapping herself around Sys arm instead.

This song was slower and Sy took the opportunity to finally get her talking. She'd always had so much to say in her letters and he had looked forward to hearing her ramble on the way he knew she would. Thus far she'd been holding back on him. "Y'know I bet I hadn't been home half an hour before my Mama was tellin me all about that good Garrison girl down the creek that had been stoppin' by."

Jo laughed and rolled her eyes a tiny bit, "Is that so?"

"It is." Sy tugged her a little closer, "Tellin me all about how pretty she was and sweet, smart too, sayin' she's just graduated from the teachers college and everything."

"Sounds like a hell of a girl." Jo was fighting back a smile, her cheeks still the half embarrassed pretty pink color they'd been since he'd stood in front of her earlier.

"That's what I said." He was grinning now. "She backhanded me for cussin in the house but she said she's plannin' on inviting this girl to dinner Sunday after church and I better be on my best behavior."

That finally got a real laugh out of her, "And how did Captain Noah J. Syverson take that?"

The song stopped but he didn't let her go, "Like any good southern man would," He paused not able to hold back his smile, "I said yes ma'am" Both of them laughing he guided them out of the crowd to a quieter spot against the brick wall of the bank. He watched her lean back against the wall and tilt her chin up at him smiling and her eyes bright. "God you're gorgeous." He pulled his lip between his teeth and studied her intently, "I was worried, it had been so long maybe I had built up this…fantasy of you, readin' your letters and thinkin' bought you."

Joanna's eyes went wide, her heart pounding all the sudden.

"You're so beautiful Joanna, I mean it."

She shook her head, her words not coming right away and Sy had got the slightest bit nervous, "You called me Jo in your letters." She smiled softly and his nerves settled

Understanding Sy nodded, 'I'd like to come by tomorrow, visit with your folks. Would that be okay?"

"Why you wanna do that?"

Sy smiled, "You've had the last few yaers to get on my family's good side, I got some catchin' up to do."

~~~

He didn't really have that much catching up to do.

When he showed up at the ranch in his uniform with his paratrooper patch, captains bars, jump wings and ribbons, that had been enough for her father. And lord knows every 'yes ma'am' and clumsy wink as her mother refilled his coffee cup was gaining him ground.

Sometimes Jo would get twisted around. They'd been writing like sweethearts for years, but now every time they were together she felt like a silly, little girl. Nervous and blushing. She'd nearly forgotten how tall he was and how handsome. He'd put on muscle too and his face had changed. Not the look of it but his eyes mostly, the way he set his jaw and the way his eyes were a little harder than other boys in town. The ones that hadn't seen what he had.

It felt like they were getting to know eachother all over again, only in person this time. Syverson was a patient man though, and gave her time. He'd known he was gonna marry her from that day in the freezing fucking forest of Bastogne. Swore up and down to himself that if he made it home, he'd marry her.

She came around fast though, got more comfortable with him. Soon she was rolling her eyes at him and cracking jokes.

She was the one that kissed him first even.

They'd gone to the next town over for dinner and when he'd opened the door of his truck for her she turned. Her hands grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down to kiss her.

Sy had been nothing but a gentleman those first few weeks but when she pulled that stunt his resolve faltered.

WIth a groan, one hand still braced on the truck door, he wrapped his free arm around her and held her close. He felt the air rush out of her as she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. When she opened her mouth to his he groaned again, nearly a growl, and she gave up the sweetest little moan when he had backed her up against the seat of the pickup truck.

WIth both hands he touched her. Some decent part of him reminding him to keep it together. Only holding her hips or her waist, until one hand vetured up to softly cradle her neck. His touch there made her moan again and this time he felt it in his fingertips.

Finally he pulled back and just looked her over, his thumb under her chin keeping her face tipped up towards his. Her eyes opened slowly and when they did, and met his, she grinned. Biting her lip she tried to look away but he brought her right back. She licked her lips as she fought to hold his gaze.

"C'mere darlin'." Sy watched her eyes slip close and her mouth open before he could even claim her lips again. The way she let him press up against her and nipped at his bottom lip was driving him crazy.

The sound of a slamming car door down the street startled them both but all Sy could do was laugh. Looking over his shoulder to locate the source of the sound before ushering her up into the seat. His broad back blocking her from view he stole one more kiss. "Could do that a long time." He murmured against her lips.

Jo kissed him back but looked a little bashful again. "Yeah?"

Cautiously, he put a hand on her thigh and gave it a squeeze over her skirt. "Mhmm." He took another quick kiss. When he pulled back, looked her in the eye, she was smiling. "I love you, know that right?"

She reached a hand up to his jaw and ghosted her fingers over the scruff of the beard he was growing, "You sure?"

He chuckled, grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss into her palm, "Pretty sure darlin'." Sy winked at her and forced himself to step back, close the truck door and walk around to the drivers side.

When he climbed in and pulled his door closed she slid across the bench seat and kissed him again. This time her hand was braced on his thigh and Jo took charge. Sy let her, with a groan and a hand on her waist to keep her steady as she very nearly was in his lap.

By the time Joanna pulled back Sy was trying to catch his breath and his dick was getting hard, so close to where her hand laid on his thigh. Lifting his hand to her face he pulled her back, "Damn baby," He kissed her, sloppy and quick, and pulled her closer. "What's that for?" He swiped his tongue into her mouth, letting her know he wasn't complaining.

Her lips diverted from his and settled near his ear while her hand left his thigh to lay flat against his chest, "Love you too." Then she sat back and stopped touching him entirely.

WIth a groan Noah clenched a fist around the steering wheel and fought the urge to adjust himself in his pants. When he looked at her she was just stilling there, middle of the seat looking pretty and sweet, innocent as could be if it weren't for her swollen lips and flush on her neck and cheeks.

"Not sure if that was you being sweet or bein' real mean sweetheart. But fuck if I didn't like it." Sy laughed and started the truck. He smiled when she laughed too, not flinching at his foul mouth.

She simply slid back and closed the little distance between them on the seat. Settling into his side as Sy started the truck up and draped his arm over the back of the seat and around her shoulders. "You better get off your ass and marry me soon then Syverson."

Sy barked out a laugh, taking his left hand off the wheel to shift the truck into second gear rather than move his right from around her shoulders. Steering properly again he looked over at her, "Oh yeah? Or else what?" He tugged slightly at the end of her braid where it hung long and neat over her shoulder.

"Or else I'll start bein" really mean." She winked at him, before kicking her long legs up on the bench seat and leaning back against him.

Taking his hand off the wheel again to shift the truck up into third as he got them out on the highway, he smiled when he felt her lace her fingers through his and he gave them a squeeze. "Roger that."

~~~

Joanna wiped the ornate, silver frame gently with the rag in her hand. Thinking about how far the thing had traveled and how it had came to be in a little farmhouse in Texas. Taking a moment she looked at the picture in it. Noah in his uniform, pressed and sharp, decked in ribbons, and her in her wedding dress. Her mind wandered and she didn't hear him come up behind her.

His arms wrapped around her waist and his lips landed on her neck, "What you doin' darlin'?"

"Thinkin'."

He kissed her neck again, "'Bout what?"

She set the frame, stolen from some Nazi's home in Austria, gently back on the shelf. "What if I hadn't ran into you leaving the courthouse that day?"

Behind her Sy stood up straight, turned her around and set his hands low on her hips. "What'ya mean?"

"You barely knew me from Adam." She looked up at him, set her now empty hands on his broad chest and appreciated the way he had filled out in the years he'd been home. "If I hadn't come down those steps and bumped into you, we might never have been here."

Sy sucked his bottom lip between his teeth, as he often did when he had to think on his feet, "I'd have seen you at the dance."

"But you'd seen me at dances before. I know it. You never spared a look at a me." She arched her brows and challenged him.

"Now that," He reached down and grabbed a handful of her ass, "Is not true." He drilled his eyes into hers and leaned in close. "I spared you plenty of looks before. You, on the other hand, didn't have the time of day for me 'till you saw me in uniform." He gave her ass a swat this time as he chuckled.

She shoved at him playfully but licked her lips and met his gaze headon, "That…" she started before cracking a laugh of her own, "Is beside the point."

"I knew it!" Sy barked as he grabbed her up by the thights and carried her to the dining table, where he set her down and stepped between her legs. His hands stroking up and down her thighs as he leaned back down to kiss and nip at her neck. Smiling against her soft skin as his beard tickled her there. "All I know," He began still mouthing at her neck before moving up over her jaw and across the apple of her cheek. "Is I'm damn glad it all happened how it did."

Jo smiled against his lips as he kissed her deeply. She smiled even wider as she felt his hands slip under her sweater and his thumb stroke over the very beginning of the swell in her belly.

~~~

If he were honest, her question a bit ago had thrown him. What if she hadn't bumped into him that day?

Given the time to think about it later, with his pregnant wife naked and dozing draped across his chest, her hand resting on the scar in his side. She always paid the most attention to that one, and her fingers always found it as she bregan to drift off.

He wondered if he would have had the guts to approach her at the dance. He liked to think so.

Sy wouldn't ever tell her, but in his mind if she hadn't bumped into him on the courthouse steps that day... well... He might not have spoke to her ever. And when he thought of that he always wondered if he even would have survived the jump into Normandy. Or would he have froze to death in a foxhole without her letters to give his mind a break from the looming dispair.

Would he have been the leader he was if she wasn't on the other side of the world to be proud of him? Would he still have been the man that could charge German lines and command the respect of men enough to do the same?

Possibly worst of all he thought would have been if he had survived the war, but not had her to come home to. Would the nightmares and the lonlieness been too much for him alone?

How could another girl who hadn't been with him through it all understand the way he could stare across the pastures, not really seeing? Would another girl have tolerated the nights laying in bed beside him shivering, his body still thinking he was in that frozen forest? Or the way even now he would still sometimes flinch at a loud noise, expecting and incomming round that never came? Could another girl stand beside him at a funeral of a brother that came home but never really came home?

In her sleep Jo's hand flexed at his side and it brought him out of the spiraling thoughts. Instead he focused on her steady breathing and peaceful face. When he fell asleep that night there were no dreams, just the warmth and comfort of her beside him.

~~~~ The End ~~~

This is the first time I've written for Sy and i'm very attached to it! I have a few other ideas for him floating around so if y'all might be interested sure to let me know!