#thomas mckenzie

"Bes, honey!" her mom called up the stairs to her, as she slammed her book closed and came to the threshold to her room, hearing the doorbell ring, "Tommy's here, dear - we'll be eating in a bit though, your father's not home yet!"

"Coming!" Bessie called, a smile riding her features as she quickly turned to the little mirror above her dresser and smoothed out her baby blue dress, fixing the small collar and turned to hurry down the stars like she was a 16-year-old lovesick girl again.

Coming to the front door, she pulled open the golden handle and there stood on the other side was her Tommy McKenzie with that beautiful glowing grin on his face. A smile broke out on her own cheeks as she stepped forward and launched her arms around his neck, pulling him into her embrace, relishing the comfort it brought to have his arms wrap right around her at the contact.

"How's my Bessie Marie?" he whispered quietly in her ear, a small laugh leaving her lips as she gave him an extra tight squeeze before pulling back and resting her hands on his arms, meeting those bright blue eyes that never left her mind.

She was never just Bessie to him - always Bessie Marie. And supposedly, from some of his friends, he'd started calling her Bessie Marie at the end of high school, and they had teased him about it for years. And now she got to be his Bessie Marie.

"Happy. Happier now that you're here," she said with a grin, catching her eyes on the book in his hand, "new book?" Tommy grinned at her, before swooping down to press a kiss to her cheeks.

"Billie wanted to give it to you," Tommy said, pulling the book from hands and gently handing it to her with another one of his winning grins that had quite honestly won her over in the first place, "he knows how much you love to learn more about the lay of the land. You should've seen how excited he was to get it to you. He would've been standing here by my side if I didn't tell him I was going over for dinner and not just a hangout." Bessie broke out into laughter as she looked down to the book cover and found it entitled A Deeper Understanding into the Geography of the Appalachians.

Tommy's 13-year-old brother, Billie McKenzie, was by far one of the smartest people she knew and someone she'd become incredibly fond of with family dinners at the McKenzie's, along with library trips. He always had the best books and it always made her heart warm to know he was thinking of her when getting books out.

"Found it and he swore up and down that he had to give it to you," Tommy said, sticking his hands in his pockets and rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, "you mentioned the Appalachians one time and he zeroed in on it." Bessie let out a chuckle and looked back up at Tommy, reaching up a hand to cup his cheek, her thumb delicately brushing against his soft skin, the quietness of his gaze holding that smile on her lips.

"I love it," she whispered softly, "thank you, my Tommy Dean." And yeah, she got to be his Bessie Marie, but he was her Tommy Dean.

That was their thing with each other. And it felt so sacred and special that she would never let it go.

Tommy smiled at her, and God his smile got her heart going in all sorts of directions, before he reached forward, his fingertips delicately resting on her waist, pulling her closer to him, flush against his tall and broad form, that soft smile gracing his lips.

Gently, he pressed his lips onto hers, and she could feel all her worries about school, what was going on across the Atlantic and Pacific, and every other horror that existed in this world drip away.

But, something in her stomach felt off, something about the hold he had on her, that look in his starry-eyes, like it was the last time he'd see her, made her uneasy. She pulled back from the kiss for a moment and looked into his eyes boring into hers. Her smile fell a bit - despite the fact they'd only been together for a year, they'd been friends, the best of friends much longer, and she could pick out anything that was wrong with him in a second.

"You okay, Tommy?" she asked him quietly, her eyes turning sad with the way he was watching her. Something deep down was telling her something was wrong, but she couldn't figure it out.

Tommy was already set for graduation, alongside her in early May - he was going to get involved in his father's business and go for an even higher degree. And they'd talked about it all - their future, staying in New York City or moving to the suburbs - they'd talked about marriage. All of it. Kids, a family, a black cat named Milo. But something was off. Something that made her want to hold Tommy as close to her as she could and tell him whatever was wrong would make things alright again.

"Yeah." Tommy whispered quietly, the corners of his lips struggling into a smile, "Just…." He stared at her a little longer than he normally did, his gaze roaming every inch of her face, like he was trying to memorize each and every aspect of her face from her lips, to the freckles across her cheeks and nose, to that scar on her forehead from the fall she had taken as a kid when playing with the local kids outside.

"Just what?" Bessie asked him quietly, reaching up to brush a piece of his brunette hair behind his ear - she really loved his hair - soft, lush, always beautifully combed and gelled. She loved him.

"Ask me again later." he said quietly, "Your mother's meal smells delicious." He smiled at that and Bessie couldn't help but feel her heart sag. Her gut was still telling her that something was off, something was wrong and she needed to figure it out.

Bessie smiled at him though, and took his arm, shutting the front door behind her as they waded into the family dining room where her mother was setting the giant roast she had cooked up - beef, carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, with a house-made salad and a champagne bottle to top it off along the table.

"Oh, Tommy, how are you, honey." her mother said, coming towards Tommy with open arms, pulling him into her.

Her mother loved Tommy McKenzie with her whole heart - she was always cooking him extra things; just last week, she had baked up strawberry scones, but made an extra blueberry one because she knew it was his favorite. She usually kept old newspapers and cut out different clippings she thought he'd like, along with always setting an extra spot at the table incase he'd be stopping by.

Her father was just as loving towards Tommy as her mother - probably more so. Her father loved having daughters, he always spoke proudly on it, but in a way, it healed that youthful boy part of her father, to have someone who was like a son. They talked politics, baseball, economics - everything. They'd sit outside at night, share a cigar or a cigarette, talking about life. They'd have a laugh and real heartfelt conversations. Her father usually made sure to invite him out when he could, or bring up opportunities that he heard about.

Bessie's little sisters loved Tommy, too. At 17 and 14, Jillian and Krissy Carlisle were always loving on Tommy when they could and if anything, Tommy had taught them the proper way to be loved right back.

"I'm doing well, Mrs. Carlisle, how about yourself?" he said, pulling back and squeezing her mother's arm gently, "Food smells delicious."

"Well, I knew you were coming, dear, and we can never have enough food," she said with laughter that sounded like Bessie's own, "go on, have a seat. Bessie, can you go grab some napkins?"

"Sure, Mom." Bessie said, looking to Tommy with a grin, before she stepped past them and into the kitchen, where she found Jillian and Krissy sitting there and giggling.

"What's got you two all giggly?" Bessie said, coming in and grabbing from the stack of napkins her mother always had in the corner, "Is that Joey Spinelli still coming around knocking, Jill?" Jillian let out a laugh and shook her head.

"Maybe-" Jillian started, but Krissy bounced up.

"He's in love with her! I swear!" Krissy said, "You gotta start asking Tommy what it means when a guy offers to buy your ice cream and not anyone else's - do you think he likes her?" Bessie looked to Jillian and raised a brow, watching as her sister's cheeks turned red.

"He bought only your ice cream, hm?" Bessie said with a smile, leaning back against the sink, "Jillian Cassidy Carlisle, when were you going to tell me this?"

"I didn't think anything of it!!" Jillian swore standing to her feet and waving her arms, "We were in a group, I was near the back, he offered because he was in the group, too. He was just being nice!" Krissy scoffed and crossed her arms.

"Just being nice my ass-"

"Watch your language, Kristen." Bessie said with a look to Krissy who pouted and crossed her arms.

"Ask the romance books, Jilly, you'll see otherwise." Krissy offered back.

"Romance books?" Bessie heard Tommy's voice say as he entered the kitchen, ducking through the entrance a bit because of his height, "Didn't think you'd be reading those yet, Krissy."

"Tommy! Tomo!" Krissy yelled excitedly, forgetting about her previous admonishment with Jillian and racing towards him, and jumping into his arms for a hug, "You won't believe it, Tomo!" her nickname for him, "Joey Spinelli down the street is in love with Jilly and she doesn't believe it!" Tommy let out a chuckle and glanced at Jillian standing there, red in the face and pouting.

"You sure about that?" Tommy asked Krissy who nodded."He bought her ice cream. The only one out of the group." Krissy offered.

"He was just being nice." Jillian surmised and placed her hands on her hips, "That's it." Tommy let out a chuckle, before Krissy let go of him and he looked to Jillian.

"Joey Spinelli, huh?" he asked her and Jillian nodded, "You know, I know his older brother - Luca Spinelli, I could ask hi-"

"Don't you dare, Tommy!" Jillian said, her cheeks turning a deeper red as she reached out and gave his shoulder a shove, "I can't face that." Tommy let out a chuckle as Krissy looked to Jillian with a smart look.

"You know Tommy bought dinner for Bessie that one time-"

"We were already dating, Krissy-"

"It counts!" Krissy said looking to Bessie, "Isn't that right, Tomo?"

"Sure, kiddo." Krissy proudly looked to Jillian.

"Party in the kitchen?" Everyone turned to find her father walking into the kitchen, work bag on his shoulder, suit looking as pristine as ever and a smile on his face.

"Dad!" Krissy called excitedly, as Bessie went over and hugged her father, Tommy shaking his hand and Jillian hugging her father jus as tight.

"How's it going, Mr. Carlisle?" Tommy asked her father as he pulled his work bag off.

"Same old, same old," her father said with another one of his winning smiles that hers looked nearly identical to, "stock market's up." Tommy laughed.

"Always a good day to hear that," he said and Bessie watched her father laugh.

"Alright, dinner is set, everyone bundle in!" her mother called coming into the kitchen, pressing a kiss to her father's cheek. People chattered as they went to settle into chairs and pulled napkins onto laps, Bessie placing the stack of napkins she had pulled from the stack onto the middle of the table, before everyone was settled in. They said prayer, and then everyone sat awaiting when they would be allowed to dig in.

"May I say something real quick?" Tommy asked from beside Bessie, his voice a bit more solid and confident than it had been when she first had opened the door to him. She watched him for a moment, and her parents exchanged glances with each other before encouraging him on.

"Go on, Tommy," her mother said with a smile. Jillian and Krissy looked to Bessie who could only shrug. Tommy cleared his throat.

"I just….I wanted to thank you all for being like a second family to me. More than anything. Feeding me, taking care of me, allowing me to be with your beautiful daughter, Bessie Marie," he said with a smile, before reaching out and taking a grip on Bessie's hand and squeezing it tight, "and I felt it was important to tell you all this now that we're all here. Because it matters to all of you and to me and especially to Bessie." Bessie watched him.

"I enlisted. For the Marines." he said, his voice sounding slightly constrained in his throat as he spoke, "And I ship out for training in a month."

Bessie woke up to knocking on the door. Her head pounded, her mind was scrambled, and her heart ached. Jack Kidd had come and sought her out with a tapping on the door to the women's barracks, where the front door had an interesting poster saying Silver Bullets.

Marianne had gracefully painted the sign one evening until Frank, that pesky orange cat, had gotten the one corner of it and nearly tore it to shreds. Now, it hungry quite lopsided with teeth marks in the side. Judy surmised that is gave it some character. They all went along with that.

Annie had answered the door, looking half like she had fallen out of bed to get to the door and then had shaken Bessie awake at the call. Bessie came hurrying to the door, sticking her crusher cap on her head and attempting her best to get the tie on herself before following after Kidd to the mess hall.

"What's up?" she asked him - the thing with Jack Kidd was, he was firm, to the point and ironed things out into straight lines - but she had been just the same back to him and had earned the capability to not have to therefore, be so formal. Not everyone was like that but Bessie…..let's just say, she'd attended college before with plenty of stuck up pricks with enough money it was coming out of their eyeballs. Jack Kidd wasn't like that, but he seemed to get along with her capability to maintain herself above water with the higher-ups. Therefore, 'what's up' was probably the most pleasant thing she could've said.

"Seems that making me Air Exec was the most recent decision with that new Colonel Harding showing up - West Point guy." Kidd said and Bessie raised a brow.

"Damn, Air Exec, you look thrilled," Bessie said and Kidd sighed and glanced at her.

"Demoted Bucky then?" He nodded and she made a clicking noise with her mouth and nodded.

"So, what's that gotta do with me?" she asked him, stopping him and looking his way with a smile, "There a reason I'm up as the sun's rising, or is this just for fun?"

"Figured you could give us some extra hands in Operations, flight paths and all. You'll still fly in Silver Bullets, but I trust you more right now than some of these other guys with all these variables moving about." he said, "You'd get a new title, too."

"New title, huh? Which is?"

"Lieutenant. Lieutenant Carlisle. 1st that is."

"Intriguing."

"Take it or leave is, Bes, we got work to do."

"Alright, deal." she said, and followed him towards Operations. Opening the door for her, she stepped inside and removed her cap to find a group of the navigators all awake and huddled around the center table, talking quietly with one another and sending each other looks.

"What's this, Jack, a get-together or an intervention?" she murmured to her side and watched as Jack shut his eyes and sighed.

"Gathered all the navigators up. Seems like in coming missions, they want to go deeper into Germany," he said, catching her eye, "wasn't my plan. Not ideal. But it's what's happening." Bessie looked away from him and caught Crosby's eye, who removed himself from the group and came up and over to her.

"Met Harding yet?" he asked her, giving a salute to Jack, "He's been extra curious about your crew."

"Afraid not, Croz, but if he happens to stop in this morning, I'll be sure to shake his hand and butter him up," Bessie said, before giving him a smile and nodding to the rest of the navigators, "Boys. How's it going?"

"Morning, Bes." A few greetings came as she moved in beside Croz and stared down at the map of continental Europe in front of them and the formations of planes scattered about. For about half an hour, the group went over ideas, as well as drawn-out arguments for what the plan was for the next mission. And it wasn't until nearly about lunch time when they were dismissed, did a runner come in from outside, calling her name.

"Lieutenant Carlisle?" Bessie turned from her conversation with Crosby and walked over to the runner, who held out a letter in his hand and smiled at her quickly, "For you, ma'am, seemed urgent." Then he was gone, the letter was in her hand and her heart was racing.

Slowly, she looked at the front and there it was, her name, in his handwriting. She hadn't realized she missed until she had started getting his letters and seen him signing it as Bessie M. Carlisle. She didn't realize she'd been standing there frozen until she was heading outside and peeling open the letter in a rushed frenzy just to read it.

Dear Bessie Marie,

Just staring at those first words, she couldn't remember the last time she'd gotten a letter from him. A few weeks? Nearly a month? He had said the fighting had been bad. She didn't know how bad, he never did tell, probably not to freak her out or get her riled up. He knew that sort of stuff always did her in. He knew her too well sometimes. But just seeing those few words at the top had her breaking out in a wide grin, knowing he'd held that paper, writing to her, in that delicate bit of handwriting, just for her eyes to read. He usually always got that grin she wore right now on her face, even when he wasn't around. Even halfway across the ocean.

Dear Bessie Marie,

I'm sorry it has taken me a bit to find some footing and get to some letter writing. The war out here has been downright horrid and I wouldn't even want to try describing the horrors we have encountered here to you. I have no doubt, telling from your last letter, that you are experiencing the same in your own ways, if not worse in those flying birds. No doubt I must have worried you, and I'm sorry for that. As I sit and write here now, one of our younger guys, Armstrong, is sick with a fever and the shakes - he tells me he's been trying to write to his family, but he can't seem to think straight or hold a pencil long enough to get his thoughts out. I've been helping him the best I can, especially at night and usually the letter writing takes a whole lot of time then. But a lot of the guys just want to get those letters out, just want to make sure their families know they're okay. So, I didn't mean to worry you, Bessie Marie, just know I am safe.

I got a recent promotion; my Senior Officer thought I'd be suited best for moving up in the ranks. You can consider me your Lieutenant Tommy McKenzie now! I still have my guys with me - Armstrong and Godfrey included, those two goons, but I enjoy their presence so. As well as all the others I've been with. I think it's because of how fast we lose guys out here, they can't be switching you all around, up and down, sideways and back. They keep you where you're comfortable for the time being.

I hope you've been doing well though, my Bessie Marie. I know I write it every time, but it is me in my truest form that I can not wait to get back to you in Brooklyn. Just the two of us, in our own home, going about our everyday lives side by side. I wish things were that simply again, back home. I guess as a kid I thought going out and fighting this sort of war was all I ever wanted. But I think what I wanted most was just for things to be normal again. For you and I to have our own place, start a family, finishing out schooling, get comfortable. Dance at night, have dinners together, have our friends over, spend our nights side by side. I wish I hadn't wanted to race into my adulthood as fast as we both seemed to.

I hope your crew is doing well - Annie Bradshaw sounds like she's got herself in order to be leading the plane, especially after what happened to your Birdie. I'm really sorry again for those circumstances, and if I could hug you from this island I'm on, I would. Bradshaw sounds good though - I don't think the Air Force would make the same mistake twice. Tell the other women I said hi, and let Judy know that Godfrey's been enjoying the book she recommended. Little Women I believe? He found it on the shelves out here when he was sent on medical for a little while. Came back raving about the March family, he loved it I must say!

Bessie Marie, please know I count the days until we can be together again. For now, stay safe, write back whenever you possibly can, and know I am thinking of you across this war-torn sea. I love you with all of my heart and there isn't a day that goes by where I don't think of you. Stay safe in flight, my love!

Yours,

Tommy McKenzie

Bessie stared at the letter with an onslaught of wet tears in her eyes, but unable to keep the smile from her face and truly feel those grieving emotions previously. Even if she couldn't look upon him fully, she could still see his face in her mind and that look he always gave her. Tommy McKenzie would always find a way to make her laugh even if she couldn't see it on his face. She smiled, wiping at the emotions crawling down her cheeks and let out a shaky sigh.

"Hey, Carlisle, you okay?" Bessie looked up and found Crosby coming towards her, hands shoved in his pockets, a concerned look on his face as he approached - if anything, Crosby was one of her closest companions outside of the girls and someone who looked out for her on the daily.

"Yeah, yeah," she said quickly, wiping carelessly at her cheeks again and letting out a sigh, "what's up?" Crosby watched her for a moment and then quirked out a grin.

"I asked you first." Bessie stared at him; she rolled his eyes and stepped forward to wrap an arm around his shoulders as they walked back towards the door to the inside of Operations.

"Must it always be how I am, what about you, Croz?" she said, squeezing his shoulders lightly, "Please, enlighten me." Crosby looked over at her and shrugged.

"You were the one outside."

"You were the one that came to find me."

"Key word, Carlisle; I came to find you." Crosby said with a chuckle, before his face dropped, "Seriously what's up." Bessie watched him for a moment as they continued to walk and then sighed.

"Nothing." she surmised, "Just….a letter from Tommy that's all." Crosby caught her gaze.

"Good, I'd assume?" Bessie smiled and nodded.