intermission: the peculiar wartime romance of Tyler Jackson and Maya Bunch

November 2083- February 2085. Tyler Jackson was 21, Maya Bunch was 24.

* nevermind that I changed Tyler's hair in the middle of this. Let's just pretend he needed a haircut at a few points over the year, lol! 


Tyler Jackson and Maya Bunch first met in Fort Palmetto, and then continued to get to know each other while they were both stationed at the Lunar complex. In the early years of the war, casual dating was quite common on base, and even allowed as long as both people did not work in the same department and signed a consent agreement. In the early days, the Lunar complex was far removed from the frenzy of what was going on with the Jupiter stations, which made it easy for people to mingle in their downtime.

Tyler met Maya over a game of chess in the common room. She won, and she won hard. Tyler was intrigued. Tyler was a newly recruited patrol shuttle scout. Maya was a aerospace engineer. They were a curious pairing, to say the least.

Drown #6: homecoming, part 2

October 2084. Keri Riley is 23. Justin Kim and Stephanie Day are 24. Willow is 2, Lily is 18 months.


One morning that week, after Justin went to work, Keri went to Stephanie's house. She was unsure whether this would be a necessary conversation or just a very bad idea. But there were things that needed to be said.

Drown #6: homecoming, part 1

October 2084, Keri Riley is 23. Justin Kim and Stephanie Day are 24. Jeremiah Day is 27. Willow is 2, Lily is 18 months.

* immediately prior to this chapter in the timeline would be Keri’s flashback story, “change my world”:  (never mind that I think I wrote that Madison had been up once before in April already—that piece had to be moved in the timeline a bit in revisions.)


Before he left with Keri's family to pick her up at the landing site in South Carolina, Stephanie told him, "I shouldn’t be there. It’ll be weird. It’ll be weird enough for you already."

She was right. It was weird. Medical staff were looking over the newly arrived earthlings, checking vitals, giving them juice to drink out of sippy pouches. The ones who had been up there a year took the longest to check out. They could have one family member present until they were cleared. Keri chose her mom, so Justin waited with Lily and Bryson.

Seeing his wife in the flesh left Justin feeling stumped. She looked exactly the same as when she’d left last year, yet he knew she’d become so much different. There were tiny scraps of some kind of feeling when he first saw her at landing—a thousand feelings battling for his mind and heart. He thought of what Stephanie said to him, “What took you so long?” What ever had him so enamored with Keri that he couldn’t see Stephanie standing right in front of him his whole life? Stephanie hadn’t been the kind of girl a typical teenage boy notices—she was reserved, tall and boxy, hidden under sweatshirts and baggy pants—and maybe he’d been entirely typical to fall for Keri who had sex written on her forehead. Well now he’d grown up and Stephanie had grown up, and he knew that what was hidden underneath all of those sweatshirts and baggy pants was wonderful. Now that she was married to someone else, and so was he. To think it could all be decided and over with before he even turned twenty. That wasn’t fair.

Drown #5: everlong, part 2

April 2084 — Stephanie Day and Justin Kim are 24.

*soundtrack: "Everlong" by Foo Fighters

** warnings: NSFW


Stephanie was skeptical of the strange concoction Justin had made for dessert. "Lemon, chocolate sauce, and mint?"

"It’s gonna be good, wait and see."

She didn't know though. "Remember that time in seventh grade when you dared me to drink pickle juice from the jar?"

"Are you saying my ice cream will be as bad as pickle juice?"

"No, I guess it can't be that bad. You first."

"Together," he said.

"Okay."

"On three. One. Two. Three."

Drown #5: everlong, part 1

April 2084 — Stephanie Day and Justin Kim are 24. Keri Riley is 23. Jeremiah Day is 27.

*soundtrack: "Everlong" by Foo Fighters


Justin woke up before Stephanie did. He hadn't slept so well in a very long time. He watched Stephanie's face change as she dreamed, and perhaps he'd never done that before. If he had, it hadn't been since they were children. He couldn't remember seeing the way her mouth pinched in and out of a frown and her brow furrowed with worry. He touched her arm. She breathed deeply once, exhaled, and then the furrow faded.

He wouldn’t kiss her again because he was angry. Stephanie should never be kissed out of anger.

Drown #4: these bones

April 2084 — Stephanie Day and Justin Kim are 24. Keri Riley is 23. Jeremiah Day is 27.

* soundtrack: “See These Bones” by Nada Surf
** briefly NSFW


Stephanie opened her email and froze when she saw Jeremiah's name. He was already back on Europa after his patrol duty, and she'd forgotten to write to him the whole time he was out. She felt like a monster.

She opened the message.

Dear Steph,

I guess I know now why they called up the coast guard reserves. We’re just out here sitting in ships, waiting for something to happen. Most of the time, nothing happens. Some day something’s going to happen and I wonder if we’ll know what to do.

Why aren’t you writing? I’ve been out for weeks and come back to nothing? That really sucks, when all the other guys have something to read and I have nothing. A guy’s gotta have something to look forward to, you know? To make it all worthwhile. Don’t you miss me? I sure as hell miss you. Write me or something. Send a pic of Willow.

I love you,
Jeremiah

Drown #3: teach me how to dance

* you’ll have to excuse the stingy lack of toddler pictures, for obvious reasons. I photoshopped one for this chapter, and just that one took me a couple of hours, so that's all you get! :p

** soundtrack: “Fireflies” by Owl City


February 2084. Stephanie Day is 24, Willow is 2. Justin Kim is 23, Lily is 15 months.


"We can't make it by today," Stephanie's parents would say on those rare days that neither of them could make the twenty-minute errand out to Lakeside Heights to make sure Stephanie was still alive. They acted like they'd left a small child at home and not a grown woman. "Do you have enough grocery money? Did you pay the electricity bill? Have you showered? Have you left the house this week at all?"

"I'm fine," Stephanie assured them.

"Maybe we'll send Aunt Sophie over to check on you."

"You don’t need to," Stephanie insisted. "I’m fine."

Although Stephanie had some doubts, they were mostly about color—buttercup or coral? She'd never decorated a room in her life, and she hadn't asked permission to decorate this one. Justin’s mother took the girls for the afternoon so that Stephanie wouldn’t have them crawling around the living room. It was cold outside, but she opened the windows and aired the room of paint fumes. She picked a brighter color. Her mother would probably hate it, but Stephanie wasn’t asking. It just felt like something that needed to be done, so she would do it. She would paint the living room yellow.