Sergeant Chandler Harmon--------->

[Jeremy]

"Staff Sergeant!"

I looked up to one of the young privates of my platoon standing in front of my bunk at full attention.

"relax private" I told him. he visibly relaxed. "what do you need?" I asked.

"Lieutenant Peters told to me to inform you that we have our first orders Staff Sergeant" I nodded pulling on my boots.

"thank you Langston" he nodded sharply. Leaving my tent I walked over to the officer's tent. Lieutenant was leaning over a table with a large map. Another officer was with him as they discussed strategies.

"sir" I called from the opening. Lieutenant looked up at me.

"ah, Crawford. Come here" I strode over to the table with him on the other side. He placed an envelope in front of me.

"this is our mission." I pulled out the papers looking them over. It said that we were to infiltrate one of the compounds that the government had lost control of. We were to be the eyes and ears of the town also to restore their homes and stores back up, that and build up so decent law enforcement, so that the Taliban couldn't terrorize the people anymore. It was a five day journey from our base. Once we were in we were to stay for a week or two depending on the progress of getting the people situated.

"the mission is called Operation Eagle. Are you ready Crawford?" I looked up from the papers I met him in the eye.

"Absolutely, sir." He nodded.

"good, gather the men we leave at o1000 hours."

"Sir" I turned and walked out. I told some of the men of our company to get everyone.

Once we were all together we were told to grab our gear and weapons and placed them in the helicopters. We sat in a half circle as lieutenant Peters strolled over to us.

"Morning Echo Company" he greeted. About forty Marines greeted him back.

"we are officially assigned for our first mission men." They cheered. Lieutenant smiled. "out mission is called Operation Eagle. It is a five day journey to our destination. Getting to this town is going to be the hard part. We have been informed that it is heavily guarded by the enemy. They are very skilled shooters and weapon personnel. The big thing to be looking out for is IED's (bombs). We will indeed loose men but we will not let that stop us from completing the mission, right Marines?!"

"YES SIR!" we answered together.

"this is what we are here for, to fight for what's right. They call us for these sorts of operations because we are the best! Am I Right!"

"YES SIR!"

"once we are in, we are to help, meaning if they need money; as in schools, stores, housing. We will help them build up a police force. We are to help them take back what belongs to them at how ever we are capable. Am I understood"

"YES SIR!"

"Excellent. Now let's get out there men" with that we got to our feet and headed over to the birds (helicopters). I strapped on my helmet and clutched at my rifle. Sergeant Chandler Harmon one of my fellow boot buddies I mentioned earlier sat beside me.

"you ready for this" he asked me yelling over the loud propellers of the helicopter. Laughing I nodded.

"I was born ready Harmon, and you" he gave me a smug look.

"hell yeah man, I've been waiting for this for almost a month now I'm itching to get out there." I shook my head amused. Chandler has always been a thrill seeker, he got off on the danger of the situations he's in. he was our professional bomb tech. So he was usually one of the men who found the IED's so we could destroy them, he was a very valuable asset to our company.

The birds rose off the ground soon and we were heading to our start point. I was looking at all the men's faces. Some looked excited to finally be on the field, others had blank expressions possibly meaning that they were familiar to all that would happen once we were in enemy territory. Then there were the men who looked absolutely frightened. These were the ones I had to watch and keep an eye on. They were the youngsters, the first timers. I caught David Brooks the Lance Corporal I met on the bus one of the few scared men.

Sighing I made a mental note to talk to my platoon. Lieutenant Peters was in another helicopter leaving me in charge of this section of men and a few more in another bird. Without realizing it my mind began to wander going back to Kris like it always does. I sent my letter out a month ago. And had yet to receive one back but now that I was on a mission I wouldn't be seeing one for a while till I got back. We had to keep our names off the envelopes so I just put down our address just in case I got a nosy Marine on my hands.

A smile eased on my face as I thought back to when I wrote to Kris about our first time meeting and how I asked him to see me again.

[ Past ]

The door chimed as I walked in the small homey looking café; taking a seat in the far corner of the place facing the door. I couldn't stop thinking about him. Yesterday was a very eventful day. I had just left base. I had signed up for infantry training so that when I was deployed I would be part of the infantry battalion to be up and close and destroy the enemy with skills in firing and maneuvering, locating and repelling the enemies assaults with close combat. In other words I would be bad ass! I was only a lowly private wanting a serious challenge. My first deployment to Iraq finished a few weeks ago and after two year over there I was ready to go back.

Trying to adapt to civilian life was a serious challenge for me because I hated that I left men out there fighting. I needed to be there helping, but I needed a bit more training hence the infantry training.

"welcome to café express can I take your order sir?" the waitress came up to me. I smiled.

"a coffee, black" she nodded and left. Turning back to the door I snuck a peek at the clock on the wall. 2:45 ok so I was earlier but can you blame me I'm excited. He made me look forward to this day all night. I know what you're probably thinking. You're in the military and you're gay? Yes I am and its one of my biggest secrets. Being in the Corps is very important to me and I wasn't going to get kicked out because of my attraction to the same sex. This would actually be my first time I asked someone on a date... ever and I was nervous as hell. My best friends Chandler and Jason didn't even know I was gay so doing this was going to be a challenge because I felt like this guy was special; like he meant more in some way.

The clock struck 2:57 and I was staring intently out the glass door. this was sort of a test . I didn't ask for his number or give him mine because I wanted to be sure he liked me. Meaning if he did he would be here at the time I said and if he didn't show it was never meant to be. The door chimed right then and he walked in. Looking at the clock it was one minute to three. I smiled; I guess we were going to make this work.

He looked around the café his brows scrunched up in such a cute way I had to suppress the non to manly exclaim I want to let loose. Finally his hazel eyes met my blue ones. A smile eased on his adorable face. He was bit on the thin side but that could have been from the usual collage diet, which is pretty much anything that's cheap and comes in a package deal; like top roman for example.

"hi" he said a little breathlessly.

"hey" I stood up gesturing towards the chair across from mine. I watched him take a seat grimacing a bit.

"are you feeling better today?" I asked. He shook his head touching at his chest.

"no, I think it got worse" he told me.

"I'm sorry" I apologized. He shook his head.

"for what you didn't do anything.. well besides saving me" he chuckled. I smiled, the waitress came back placing my coffee in front of me and turned towards Kris.

"oh, would you like a coffee sir?" Kris scowled a bit.

"I'm off hot coffee right now." I chuckled. "what about a mocha frappe. Its cold and I like cold" she nodded walking away.

"don't take your frustrations off on coffee" I teased, he shrugged.

"well it burnt me and I'm mad about it. I wouldn't be on a coffee strike if it weren't for that guy who pushed me. I mean what the hell was he running from anyway?" I didn't answer as I brought the hot cup to my lips. I was brought back to yesterday, I had saw that guy run past me causing me to be just a little curious as to why but there were no cries of distress so I thought nothing of it. I had just reached the crosswalk when I saw some guy (Kris now that I know him) lying in the middle of the crosswalk cursing about something as he plucked at his shirt. Then the scream came and I looked over just at the same time as the guy to see a cable car heading his way fast.

All of a sudden I was in Marine mode, there was a civilian in trouble and I just acted without thinking. I dove into the street landing on top of him and rolled just in time before we were both squashed. I had damaged the back of his head when I rolled him. when I leant up inches from him I realized how beautiful he was. His eyes were closed but I felt my heart skip at the moment he did open them.

"so why did you asked me out-" his eyes widened "I meant um- I.. I didn't mean it like that" he corrected himself.

"why not?" I frowned.

"what" he asked.

"why don't you mean it like that" I knew I was embarrassing him but I needed to know if he was into me like I was into him. I think he was but I was going to make sure.

He seemed confused.

"I didn't want to offend you" he finally said. I just stared at him

"I'm far from offended. Do you think this is a date?" his cheeks reddened.

"um.. I don't know.... Is it?" he asked me his hazel eyes wide with innocents. Smirking I leant my elbows on the table bringing my face closer to his but not to close.

"if you want it to be" he averted his eyes for a second while sheepishly nodding. "then that is what this is".

He gazed back at me it felt like we were suspended in time. His skin was tan like he was out in the sun, he had this surfer type of look to him. his dark brown hair was cut kind of short but evenly around his head the front was combed upwards. It looked soft making me want to run my fingers through it. His lips were perfect begging me to sample them.

Our moment was ruined what the waitress came back with Kris's drink.

"mocha frappe, can I get you guys anything else?" he shook his head.

"thank you" I said. Nodding she walked off. I took another sip watching him take the straw in his mouth.

"so what is your major in school?" I asked. He shrugged bringing those hazel eyes up to meet my gaze.

"I haven't really decided yet. And you, are you in collage?" I shook my head.

"no" I didn't want to tell him I was in the corps yet. I didn't want him to run off before I got to know him.

"o...k, do you have a job?" he asked.

"yeah but lets not talk about that right now. How old are you" he frowned at how I changed the subject but answered.

"nineteen" I was surprised.

"really?" he nodded before narrowing his eyes at me.

"how old are you?"

"twenty three" his eyes widened.

"wow"

"is that too old or something" I joked.

"well I mean you're like a grandpa at this age" he grimaced but I saw the sparkle of mischief in his eyes.

"oh riiiiight" I rolled my eye.

From there we talked about a whole bunch of things like his favorite color; green. His favorite food; he wasn't picky, how he came to live in San Francisco; scholarship to collage, his greatest fear; cable cars, ironic.

"cable cars?" I asked he nodded placing his now empty frappe down. "well I can see that" I agreed. He shook his head.

"oh it's not because of yesterday I've always had a fear of them since I was young. I had visited down here a lot since my grandparents live down here and one day I thought it would be cool to ride in one since I never really went anywhere when I was down here so I hopped in one. Everything was going fine when some bus comes slamming into the side of our car. I was one of the few who were fine with minor scratches but ever since then I haven't gotten in one and never will; and yesterday proved that."

"your very accident prone aren't you?" I asked. He bit into his bottom lip. Yep I guess I needed to keep a special eye on him.

"if you count two near death experiences in my short nineteen years of life then I guess." He chuckled. I laughed.

We left the café after almost two hours and I walked him home since it was practically around the corner. I looked down at my watch cursing quiet. I had to go back to base.

"I have to go" I told him.

"oh, ok um thanks for today" he said. "the cold coffee and chat" he snickered. Again we were on the steps of his apartment. I did a sweep around out of habit and nodded to him.

"hey" he said right when I moved to leave. I turned to him curiously.

"yeah?" he looked embarrassed.

"can.. I have your....number this time" he mumbled. I grinned leaning close to him, he gasped at our proximity since I was inches from him. he blinked as I reached in his back pocket taking out his phone, unlocking the screen with a swipe of a finger and logged my number in his contacts. I took his hand and placed his phone in it. I was still inches from his face, the warmth of his breath caressed my face.

"t-thank y-you" he stuttered. I smiled slowly moving my eyes down to his lips then back to his wide hazel eyes.

"you welcome" leaning in I pecked his cheek. "don't let that number collect dust" I teased before walking away.

Here goes nothing, I thought as I walked down the street. It was up to him, he had past my test let's see if he passes the next one. Keeping in contact.

=*=*=

The helicopter jolted as we landed at our destination knocking me out of my head. I needed to focus now. We jumped out throwing on our heavy packs. Chandler stood next to me along with Jason.

"alright from now on its real!" I yelled over the bird to the men. They nodded. "Sergeant Harmon I want you and some of the men to start off looking for IED's."

"yes Staff Sergeant!" he said. I nodded looking around as more men piled out of the other birds. Reaching down to my vest I pressed the button on my walkie.

I asked. There was a bit of static before he answered.

Turning to the twenty or so men in front of me,

"lets move Marines!" I called out to them.

"Ooh-rah!" grinning widely I turned around and we moved slowly down the road fanning out a little as Chandler and the men he pick took the lead to signal for us to stop when needed. I positioned my rifle holding it close and scanned the area, Lieutenant Peters group of men doing the same behind us. The sun was beating down on us through our light brown camouflage uniforms. It was quiet besides the crunch that our feet in the sand. We walked for a good two hours.

Chandler held up his hand. He had found an IED. This wasn't good if we were being watched they could blow it now and kill a few of my men or injure them. I slowly walked up to him.

"these rocks are arranged in an abnormal pattern Staff Sergeant" he told me pointing to the array of rocks. "this could be a marker" I bit my lips in concentration at what to do, looking up a few feet from us was a small village.

"alright are there any other IED's that you can see from here?" he scanned the area carefully.

"no" I nodded staring out in the distance for unnatural movement. There were none

"ok, I want you to get ready to disable this. I'm going to get the platoon behind those walls."

"yes Staff Sergeant" he said. Turning I motioned for the men to move carefully over and follow me into the small village. Staring down at the ground I pulled out our portable metal detector from my bag. The men followed my every foot step as we made it in to the compound. I motioned them to hurry behind me. There were a few on lookers who were standing by their houses watching us. I called one of our translators over.

"tell them to go back in their houses" I told him. he walked over to them they hurried insides as Chandler came rushing towards us.

"get against the wall!" he yelled. We did as instructed sitting down, our backs pressed against the dirt wall. We cupped our ears waiting for the explosion. A few moments went by till the ground shook and a loud deafening boom sounded. I watched as a few sharp pieces of shrap metal fell from the sky. Once it was safe I told the guys to ask anyone who's willing to talk if there are any more IED's in the area.

I headed over to Lieutenant Peters.

"what do you want to do sir?" I asked him.

"our destination is three days past this compound we can clear this one out of all the bombs then move out as soon as possible.

"yes sir I've to told the men to ask the people if they know where any of the IED's are." He nodded. he opened his mouth to say something esle when shots were fired. Peters and I ducked down fast. One of the men had been hit and was laying on his back holding his side.

"GET DOWN!" I screamed as men dropped down for cover. "I'm heading for the roof!" I yelled to Peters. Crouched low I ran up to the roof of one of the houses, running up the stairs they had. Lying flat on my stomach I positioned my rifle on the edge of the roof and looked at where the shots were coming from.

"there coming from the north west!" someone yelled beside me. I looked through my scope finding the movement on the other side of the field. About a hundred meters from where we were, I started to fire in their direction. My ears were ring from the loud bangs from the guns around me.

"get our RPG's (rocket- propelled grenade) on them!" I yelled down to the men on the ground. The rushed around quickly loading the weapon.

Bang!

The Grande was lunched; there was a cloud of dust after the RPG hit the ground. The firefight went on for a long forty-five minutes; when all was silent indicating that the enemy had either been finished off or they gave up. The day was quickly ending so I rushed down the stairs to help with the wounded. There were five men total two had been killed and the others seriously hurt.

"call in the medics." Someone quickly did as asked. I looked at the other men crouched around the wounded. "once they're here we get them on the bird as fast as possible, the enemy could be lurking, waiting to catch us exposed, am I understood?" they all nodded quickly.

When the helicopter arrived we carried the men out there as fast as possible before rushing back to the safety of the compound to check if any of the civilians were ok. Luckily there were no attaches on us the rest of the night. we had one of the poeple let us borrow their place for the night. laying on the hard dirt floor I stared up at the ceiling for the longest. All this that we were trying to do was to keep these people safe along with other countries and with that thought I felt better because I was doing this for Kris too.