Deployment Interlude: Part 3

                I’m almost full term now. There are just 4 weeks left but I've decided I hate being pregnant. I’m hot all the time. I don’t care that fall has arrived and the temperature is rarely above 50 degrees. I've started wearing deodorant under my breasts because I sweat so much. I can’t get comfortable in any position and barely manage to get sleep. Not on my side, or my back and forget my stomach. My stomach is so big I feel like I need my own zip code.

                As I heft myself from the bed for my fourth pee of the night, I hear the ding of my computer, announcing that I have a new email. After finishing my business, I lower myself with a groan back into bed, pulling the laptop towards me and booting up my email.

Hello Friends and Family of 7/3

As we discussed in the homecoming brief at last night’s meeting, our soldiers have been extended for a period of 30-60 days. The flight schedules and arrival times will be updated as the dates draw closer. Please do not share this information, especially on social networking sites. Remember OPSEC at all times...

                I stop reading after that. I didn't go to last night’s meeting. Half the time, the meetings devolved into shameless gossip and children running around screaming while their mothers looked on, drinking simsmapolitans. I haven’t bothered attending in months.

                I’m pissed. Ben has been insistent, since he left, that he would make it home in time for our child’s birth. A 30 to 60 day extension automatically puts him past the 4 week window I have left. I know I should be more understanding. I know I shouldn't be mad at him. It’s a promise he never had any control over but it doesn't matter. All that matters is that I will be having a baby, our first baby, alone.

                I close the laptop, sinking back into the pillows and hope that sleep will find me. As heaviness overtakes me, my computer bleeps angrily and rouses me from my semi-conscious state. Speak of the devil. I flip the laptop up and click the answer button but say nothing as Ben’s face fills the screen.

                “I take it you heard?” Again, I say nothing and just glare at him, jaw clenched. I want him to know I’m angry. I’m also afraid that if I stop being angry, I’ll fall back into despair and spend the last weeks of my pregnancy crying over what can’t be. “Han, please don’t look at me like that. I have no say in this. You know I’d be there if I could.”

Deployment Interlude: Part 2                                                                                                                      Chapter 7.4

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Author's Notes:

*This should be the last deployment interlude before we get back to regular (if not regularly scheduled) updates.

*OPSEC - Operational Security. Basically keeping information that could be deemed useful (mission information, deployment locations/timing, personnel transactions/problems, and security information or procedures, etc) out of the hands of potential adversaries by carefully monitoring your communications. Especially important in this day and age because of social media.