What If? III

"Could be better." she sniffled lowly, setting her keys down and sniffling.

He sighed when he heard her and stood up, walking over to her. "Lace..."

"Hm?" she asked shakily and bit her lip to keep herself from crying.

"You know I hate this just as much as you do." he said as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I just don't want to lose you." she let her tears fall, burying her head into his chest.

He sighed and ran his fingers through her hair, kissing the top of her head and holding her tightly. "You're not going to lose me. I'm going to come back to you in one piece."

"I get that you're trying to make me feel better... but we both know that's not a guarantee." She bit her lip again. "I don't want to tell our child all the wonderful things about you, I want them to see it for themselves. And I can't do that if something happens to you."

"Nothing is going to happen." he told her firmly. "When I heard our baby's heartbeat the other day, it put a fire in me and I promise that I'm going to come home you both of you. I need to see our baby and be around for the both of you. I'm going to make sure that I keep my promise."

"I need you, Phil." she whimpered.

"I'm not going anywhere." he told her as he rubbed her back.

"I just want to lay down."

He nodded and picked her up bridal style, heading to their room. Once he was in their room, he laid her on the bed and put a blanket over her.

"Lay with me? Please?"

"Of course." he nodded as he laid next to her and wrapped his arm around her. He used his other hand to rub over her belly. "It's all going to be okay, Lace."

"I just want everything to be... normal."

"When I come back, hopefully they will be."

"If you come back." she sniffled.

"No, when I do come back." he told her.

She shrugged gently. She'd already lost hope.

He sighed and kissed the top of her head. "Get some rest."

"I'll try."

He nodded and kissed her cheek, hoping to fall asleep as well.

-

Nine months later....

Punk was in Iraq for the past nine months and the troops were finally being sent home. Unfortunately he missed out on being at the birth of his son, but he was there via facetime, lol. He made sure to be on whenever Lacy had appointments and such, he didn't want to miss anything. Brandon was about three months now and it would be the first time Punk would be able to meet him. He was getting his bags together and preparing to go out and meet Lacy, where all other families and such had to wait. He glanced over at his military friend, Colt, lol. "I can't wait to meet Brandon."

-

Ellie went with Lacy to be there and welcome Punk back. She figured Lacy would probably run off to him the minute she saw him, lol...so she would stay back with the baby in case. She stood next to Lacy, handing Brandon a small toy to play with in his stroller. "How excited are you?" she smiled at Lacy.

Colt chuckled a little. "I know. You've told me about a thousand times." he joked.

--

"Pretty excited." She laughed a little. The hardest she'd ever cried was when she had to see Phil get on that plane to go overseas., and there wasn't a day after that that she didn't cry. She'd sat by the phone everyday anticipating his phone call, and she couldn't help but be overjoyed when she told him that he was coming home. Have Ellie with her while he was gone really helped her a lot, she made sure she ate correctly and did what she was supposed to do to take care of herself during her pregnancy (because anyone that knew Lacy knew that she tended not to take care of herself when she was stressed out). Now the day was here, and she was excited, but she was a lot calmer than she thought she should have been.

"I'm excited, but... I don't feel like it's real." she laughed a little. "It's more of a believe it when I see it kind of thing."

"I just can't wait." he chuckled. "And I'm gonna see Lacy. I may take her right then and there." he joked as they started to leave to head over where the family area was.

-

"Well, start believing." she chuckled. "Here come some of the soldiers now." she pointed as she saw some of them walking out and greeting their families.

"Tryna give her another baby already?" he joked.

--

Lacy looked out for Punk, but didn't see him. It was a little discouraging, seeing all the families greeting each other again for the first time in a long while. She just waited. Maybe he was one of the last ones.