The Stars in the Sky

Posted on Fri Sep 11th, 2015 @ 4:17am by Captain Melody Windsor & Master Sergeant Daniel Browden

Mission: First Strike
Location: Observation Lounge

Melody had broken away from the boys when she say Daniel slip out, that mischievous smile on his face as always. She'd tracked him down to the Observation lounge where he was sitting with his feet kicked up on a guard rail. She sat down next to him and kicked her feet up on the rail, "Penny for your thoughts, Ma deuxième papa," She said, sweetly.

Daniel chuckled, "Just an old man, enjoying the stars before a battle." He replied, simply. There was something lost and quiet in his voice, but that smile... that ever present smile.

"Not like you to get all nostalgic before battles," She teased. "Usually you're at the party with everyone else, telling jokes," She said, with a smile.

"Do you remember the first time you called me that? Ma deuxième papa?" He asked her, ignoring her implied question.

She regarded him for a moment, a hint of a smile on her lips, "I do. Papa had come home for Christmas and he brought you with him because you wouldn't be able to get transit home in time. I was... gosh, I must have been 6 or 7?"

Daniel's smile broadened, "Yeah. You spent the week with me, and the last day you called me that. You said, "You're Ma deuxième papa, Danny! Ma deuxième papa!" He said, his eyes twinkling at the memory.

"I remember when you brought us Papa's flag," Melody said, her smile faltering a little. "I was so scared that it'd be some stupid officer that we didn't know trying to pretend to really feel for us... when I saw you..."

"You said it again," Daniel said with a smile. "You opened the door with this face, ready to look whoever it was square in the eyes and show them you were stronger than they were. You saw me... and you said 'No... no, Ma deuxième papa!' and you cried... and you let me hug you and your mother... I hurt so much that day, your father..."

"He was like your brother," Melody said, bringing her feet down and turning to face him, resting her hand on his arm, "Danny, why are you being like this? You're making me nervous," She asked, seriously.

"I don't know..." Danny said, the smile faltering for the first time she could remember. "I just... I got this feeling," He said.

"What... kind of feeling," Melody replied. She knew. She never met a Marine that didn't know what this feeling was... and to date, she hadn't met one that had been wrong.

"Like that planet... that twinkle out there... that's going to be my grave," He said, the smile turning sad.

"Then you stay here," Melody said, urgently. "You stay here, I could use you in the operations side, you could help coordinate--"

"Melody," Daniel said, turning to face her. "No. You know this doesn't work like that. And you know that you need me on the ground more than you need me up here. I'm probably just a crazy old man getting scared before a heated battle, that's all," He said, with a smile, wiping away the tear that had escaped her eye in spite of her best efforts.

"Danny," Melody looked at him seriously and took his hands, her voice was husky. "If you think for one second that you aren't up for this fight tomorrow... you're the best XO I could ever ask for, you're my best friends... you're the closest thing to a daddy I have anymore," She told him earnestly. "You're the last real link I have to my daddy... please... I can't lose you." She said, seriously, her tears were welling up but she wasn't allowing them to fall.

Danny laughed and kissed her on the forehead, "Honey, you always knew you'd lose me someday," he told her. "That's just how it goes. But I don't know about you, but I'd rather die on the field with a gun in my hands, knowing that I'm fighting to keep my friends and family safe than to die , old and crippled in a hospital somewhere. Wouldn't you?"

Melody seemed to consider that for a moment and sighed, "You're just a dumb old man getting scared, you know it?" She told him, grinning. "That's all this is... good lord, you're such an ass for getting me all worked up," She teased smacking him in the chest and wiping her eyes as she let out a choked laugh. "Gah..."

"You're probably right," Danny said with a smile that didn't quite meet his eyes as he looked out at the stars again. "You just do me proud on that battle field tomorrow, you here me? You know your papa's gonna be watching," He teased wit ha smile.

"I know Ma deuxième papa. I won't let either of you down," She said with a smile she didn't feel.

She'd do them proud... but would she have a Danny to talk to about it once it was all said and done?