The Commander's Choice, finale

    Tija relaxed in one of the deck chairs situated outside of what had become her favorite barista stand, quietly reading and sipping at her coffee.  She found that dairy didn’t bother her like it did some droog and had discovered on her own that she enjoyed her coffee with milk and caramel in it… and certainly not brewed as strongly as Mark seemed to like it.

    She stretched and sighed contently, then leaned back and just let the sun warm her fur for a time.  The rainy days had finally past which just made the sun feel that much nicer to her; it had definitely been time for a change.

    Sitting up again, she scrolled onto the next page and nearly jumped in surprise when the unit started chirping at her signaling an incoming call.  She smiled when she saw it was Mark, but her smile faded slightly on answering it.  He looked upset.

    “Tija… where are you at?”

    “I’m having lunch.  Why?  What’s happening?”

    Mark looked like he had to swallow hard before continuing, “How quickly can you be back at your place and ready to go?”

    She gave him a quizzical look, what was going on?!  “I…  ten minutes or so I guess.  Mark, what is going on?”

    His voice cracked slightly as he answered her, “Cap-  Captain Brandmeyer had a massive stroke last night.  His ship is going as fast as they can to get him back to Ares station for treatment… but they’re not expecting him to make it.”

    Her jaw dropped slightly, no wonder he was upset… all the stories he’d told her, the two of them seemed to have quite a bit of history together, “Mark… I’m so sorry.  That’s terrible.”

    He shook his head at her, “Not for you it isn’t.”

    She nearly blanched in surprise, “What?  What are you talking about?  How could it-“

    He stopped her, “Tija.  They were trying to get Brandmeyer to retire, Yajmir was supposed to take his place.  He got tired of waiting and pulled some strings to get the 92nd instead.  Don’t you see?  The 53rd doesn’t have a commander, there’s no replacement at hand, a bunch of admirals wanting to know why, and HR holding the bag.”

    She blinked as it all sank in, this could be…

    Mark continued, “There won’t be another test for months… and you’re a qualified captain.  But we have to hurry, they’re desperate and as soon as word gets out…”

    She finished for him, “They’ll come crawling out of the woodwork…  Okay, I’ll see you in a minute?”

    He nodded and dropped the connection.  She sat there for a moment in disbelief.  She had all but given up hope that…  

    Bolting from the chair, she hurriedly gathered her things into her bag and paid for her meal.  Her mind raced, trying to think of everything she needed to do before leaving.  She nearly ran back to her apartment, Mark’s red car pulling into the parking lot just as she was letting herself in.  She waved to him and left the door standing wide open as she ran inside.  She ran for her bedroom, shedding her clothes as she went and leaving them strewn in a trail behind her.  Pulling her uniform from her closet, she stripped the plastic off of it and dressed hurriedly.  She’d lost the position once because someone got there before her and she wasn’t about ready to let it happen again.

    She heard Mark enter the apartment, “Tija?”

    She pulled her shoes out from under the bed, hastily wiping the dust from them, “In here, just a minute…”

    Slipping them on, she ran for the hallway, skidded to a halt, and quickly ran back into the room.  Tija nearly pulled the drawer out of the desk in her haste and retrieved her orders and file packet from where she’d stashed it over a month ago.  She never would have guessed that she would’ve needed these again…

    Making some last minute adjustments to her uniform, she walked back into the living room.  Mark had gathered her clothes up for her and neatly stacked them on the couch.  He looked really sad to her… she guessed it was the loss of his old commander, but there was something knawing at the back of her head that there was something more.  Something, closer…

    She took a deep breath, “Okay, how do I look?”

    He smiled at her, “Like the commander of the 53rd SAR.  Come on, I’ll brief you on the ‘who’s who’ and TO & E on our way there.”

    He put his arms around her and held her for a moment.  She could have sworn she heard him choke down a sob.  Finally, he pulled back and looked at her, “We should go.”

    Taking her hand, they headed out the front door toward his car.  Tija gasped and stopped in her tracks, the realization hitting her like a freight train, “Mark, wait!  The 53rd SAR?  That’s your unit… if I take this posting…”

    Mark smiled sadly at her, “Tija, don’t hold yourself back for me.  I’m just some bum from the sticks of Arizona who’s managed to keep enough people fooled just long enough to get a little bit ahead.  You… you can really soar if you let yourself.”

    She shook her head slowly at him, full of dismay.  He was the one who had grounded her, given her a place in this world and a chance to move again.  She knew that she had been falling for him for a while… She knew if they could stay together that…  maybe…

    But her career… this was the move that she’d literally traveled light-years to take.  She had left her entire world behind her just for this one chance; and if she didn’t take it odds were there wouldn’t be another one.  

    Mark pursed his lips and swallowed hard before finally saying, “Tija, you need to make a choice.”

…

    Sam grinned and took another drink, “Aww, she must’ve really liked you.  What happened?”

    Mark looks into the bottom of the glass, a little saddened at the memory, “Oh, same thing that always seems to happen with these things.  She got her deployment orders and I got mine.  We just couldn’t find the right string to pull to land us together again.  Last I heard she left for an assignment on Prime years ago…”

    Sam looked up at him with drunken sympathy, “Ahhh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

    Mark shrugged and nonchalantly took a drink from the glass, “Why?  It wasn’t anything.  Just a fling, that’s all.”

    Sam stirred the top of his glass with his finger, wistfully looking at Mark, “Doesn’t sound like it was nothing…  It sounds like-”

    Mark tensed up and looked angry all of a sudden, but not at Sam.  He snapped sharply at him, “Well it was, okay?  I’m sure she’s moved on.  She doesn’t need some go-nowhere bum… hanging around…”

    Mark had to hold his breath, every muscle in his face and neck was straining.  He quickly wiped his eyes with one finger, clutching the glass tightly with the rest of his hand.  He suddenly took a long drink, draining the glass, then angrily filled and drained it again.

    Startled at the sudden shift in his mood, Sam lifted himself up off the table a bit and tried to talk to him, “Mark, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

    Mark interrupted him sharply, practically yelling at him, “What?  You think I want to settle down with anybody?  EVER?  It was being stupid for a woman that got me in the service in the first place, idiot that I was.  I don’t need anyone holding me in one place.”

    Sam looked away from him at the floor, and leaned heavily on their makeshift table, “No… I suppose not.  I guess some of us will spend our entire lives wandering alone, right?”

    Mark exhaled loudly, then nodded firmly and punched him in the shoulder, “Damn right.”

    Sam looked up at him slightly and managed a weak smile, but it didn’t feel like a victory.  He sat there in his melancholy for a moment longer before shrugging and sitting up again.  Shaking his head he asked, “Now, wait a minute.  What about Leanne?  I thought…”

~fin