Epilogue
When Jack graduated at the top of his class from boot camp, he received his orders to report to Camp Pendleton in California on the first of September.
Jenna, Lilly, Mr. Zarin, Chief Cunningham, and Mrs. Cunningham were all in attendance to watch him receive his ribbon.
It was amazing to see them after thirteen weeks of only phone calls.
Jenna and he lasted barely five minutes in each other’s presence before he had her pressed up against the wall of a supply closet and was inside of her within six.
No doubt everyone knew what they were up to, but they were all decent enough to give the newlyweds their moment without drawing attention to it.
To his surprise, Mr. Zarin mentioned also moving to the Camp Pendleton area.
But it seemed Jack had missed more than just time with his family, because no one else was shocked by this news.
While military housing was only for spouses and dependents, exceptions could be made.
However, Mr. Zarin wanted only to move to the area so that Lilly was not separated from Jack and Jenna overlong.
Since it was the start of a new year, Lilly would not be missing out on any schooling.
While Jack was still getting his bearings in California and his new post, Jenna was helping Mr. Zarin and Lilly pack up and sell their home in Port Townsend.
She even lived with them for a few weeks in their new apartment before a house opened up on base.
Other than the Cunninghams, there was no reason to stay in Port Townsend.
And everyone could understand why Mr. Zarin was having trouble staying in that house.
On his first day of sniper training, Jack was sitting in a classroom with his fellow soldiers when their instructor walked in. Everyone snapped to attention as they were trained to do.
The man nodded his approval. “At ease, Recruits. My name is Sergeant Taylor. Welcome to Sniper School.”
Jenna did not end up transferring to a four-year college.
After she received her associate’s in arts and science, she decided to put her efforts in elsewhere.
Between helping Mr. Zarin with Lilly, she used a portion of the money her father had tried to bribe Jack with to start up a charity for underprivileged kids.
She would never forget the day she stood in the shadows of a bookstore as a teenage boy had to explain to his little sister that he couldn’t afford to buy her the books she so desperately wanted.
The charity kept her busy and her mind off the fact that her husband was overseas. He’d been gone for nearly six months to the Persian Gulf.
She also used a portion of the money to hire a private investigator to find Carolyn. Unfortunately, he was not able to locate her within a reasonable time and Jenna had to terminate the contract due to the continued expense.
Lilly was getting so big. Mr. Zarin had called Jenna in a panic when she’d gotten her first period and he didn’t have any supplies.
For some reason, that was a milestone Jack was upset he’d missed during their next communication.
That was when Jenna learned about young pre-teen Jack reading about women’s anatomy so he could know how to better take care of his little sister.
Eventually things calmed down and Jack returned home.
Jenna could see differences in him, but it was like he was different around others.
Lilly and Jenna seemed to be the exception.
The first time she heard a fellow soldier call him ‘Steel’, Jenna had been confused.
She thought at first it was because of his eye color but later learned that it was because he was ‘hard as steel’ under fire.
Jenna wasn’t sure she liked that, though she was incredibly grateful that her husband was so well-trained.
It was difficult when he was away. She saw other military spouses having affairs to kill time or because they were lonely and it made her sick.
She could not stomach the idea. She tried not to judge what others did, but it was incredibly difficult to make friends with some of the women who were clearly only with their husbands for the military benefits.
No matter where they moved over the years, Lilly and Mr. Zarin followed them to their post. The only exception was when Jack was posted in Tokyo for nearly six months in the mid-nineties.
It wasn’t worth any of them relocating, especially being Lilly’s senior year of high school, even though Jenna could have gone with him if she wanted.
In June 1995, Jack was able to get leave to attend Lilly’s high school graduation.
The little girl from Port Townsend, Washington, had gotten into Harvard with the intention of attending their medical program in three years.
Jack was beyond proud and had walked into the auditorium just in time to see his little sister cross the stage to get her diploma.
Shortly after Jack returned to his post and Lilly started college, Jenna entered Mr. Zarin’s apartment one evening to start cooking dinner and found Mr. Zarin had not woken up that morning.
The doctors later determined that there was nothing wrong with him and had offered up the possible explanation of ‘broken heart syndrome’.
His heart had just…stopped working.
Jack flew home on bereavement and to bury his father. It was the only time since any of them had left Port Townsend that they’d returned, but it was only right to bury Mr. Zarin next to the love of his life.
The diamond necklace he’d given Mrs. Zarin as a promise to always return home to her was in his hand when Jenna had found him and was still in his hand when his casket was closed.
Military life was not for everyone, but Steel thrived in it.
He loved the order, the command. With each promotion, he knew he had made the right decision all those years ago to enlist. He was going for his twenty years and even took a command position following 9-11.
There were many new recruits after the 2001 Attacks.
Most of them were nameless, faceless men and women who were doing their patriotic duty.
There were a few who stood out among the rest, like a pair of best friends from Mount Grove, Pennsylvania.
Both eighteen and fresh faced, but they showed grit and a need to stand up for the little guy that Steel admired.
Shortly after Mr. Zarin’s funeral, Jenna announced her pregnancy. She gave birth to Steel’s first son, Carter Arnold. Just before the new millennia, their second son was born, Jordan Timothy. Steel adored his sons and spent every moment he was home with them.
In early 2002, Jenna received the news that Carolyn’s body had been discovered.
Autopsy showed that she’d been dead for nearly two years.
Foul play was considered but eventually her death was ruled a suicide.
Neither of her parents attended the funeral.
Despite their efforts to reach out over the years, Jenna had not spoken to her parents since before her eighteenth birthday.
Steel had been deployed to Afghanistan when Jenna discovered she was pregnant again.
Unfortunately, the stress of her husband being deployed during wartime, having two young, rambunctious boys at home, and the news that Steel had nearly been killed by a sniper had led to Jenna miscarrying around her sixth month.
Steel absolutely hated that he couldn’t be there for his family.
Mrs. Cunningham, the angel that she was, had flown out to Quantico, Virginia, where Jenna and the boys had been living at the time to help her out.
Lilly also flew down from Massachusetts for a long weekend.
She was in her final year of medical school and would be starting her internship following graduation.
Years later, she accepted a position with Doctors Without Borders and would eventually join the Peace Corp.
Steel was beyond grateful that Jenna had such a support system but was still pissed as hell that he couldn’t be there for her. After the stress of losing the baby and the unknown of what was happening in the Middle East, Steel and Jenna decided that two kids was enough.
But the universe had other plans. One late night, while Steel was on leave and too many glasses of wine, resulted in Jenna giving birth nine months later to Melanie Daphne, Steel’s little girl and the apple of his eye.
Through all of it, every deployment, every joy, every heartache, and every milestone, he never faltered or had any doubt.
Steel had met the love of his life on the sidewalk of a small town.
She’d married him nine hundred and sixty-nine days later and gifted him three beautiful, wonderful, amazing children.
When he retired, there’d been some floundering as to ‘what now’ but there was never a question that Jenna would be by his side when he figured it out.
Then a crazy idea came to him after yet another visit to Mount Grove, Pennsylvania, to visit with an old friend.
Several months later, the Via Daemonia Motorcycle Club was born.
Carter was starting college in Philadelphia, so the location couldn’t have been more perfect.
Steel, Jenna, Jordan, and Melanie moved into a rundown house on the former distillery property that the club had purchased.
While the officers, all veterans, and their two new prospects were fixing up the house, Jenna was busy in town building a children’s consignment store and continuing her charity work.
The kids got older. First Jordan moved out and started college, then Melanie. Fate had intervened again and delivered to them another child. Though not of their blood, Ollie became their son.
It was all so perfect.
Neither of them saw her illness coming. When the doctor gave them the news, it hadn’t even seemed real. Like a dream or a nightmare, neither one knew how to respond.
They were in bed. The shock of the day before still had not worn off. Jenna wasn’t sure if either of them had even slept.
Jack’s voice was rough, filled with such unspoken pain that her own heart shattered at the sound. “It’s not fair. We were supposed to grow old together.”
Shifting on the bed, she turned towards him. She would do anything to take away his hurt. Running her fingers through his salt and pepper hair, she reminded him in a light tone, “We are old, my love.”
“Older.” His lack of emotion on his face told her that he did not find her statement as amusing as she’d hoped.
In truth, Jenna hadn’t been all that amused herself.
Rather than trying to lighten the tension again, she went with logic to try and shake them from their dark mood.
“You heard what the doctor said, Jack. It’s not a death sentence.
It’s just a fight-to-live sentence. Are you willing to fight with me? ”
He turned his head on the pillow to face her. “I always have and never will stop fighting for you.”
Jenna leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. The coarse hairs of his close-cropped beard familiarly tickling her face. “We’ll tell the kids and the club after Christmas.”
“You say that as if there’s a good time of year to tell them your diagnosis,” Jack said with a shake of his head. “Jen, it’s going to break their hearts regardless of when.”
Sadness gripped her. “I know but give me this. In case… I want them to have one last holiday to remember me by.”
His face hardened, turned to steel. “Don’t say shit like that. I won’t hear of it. I have no intention of living in a world without you in it.”
“Don’t be foolish, Jack,” she snapped. “You’ll not abandon our children or this club, regardless of what happens to me.”
“You don’t get it, my love. You never have. Without you, there is no me.”
Though their future was uncertain, one thing was clear: they would face it together. They had eternity after all.