24 Rushed Hours

Lately my life has consisted of one dramatic change after another. Today was no different. I know find myself married at age 18 as of yesterday evening at 1735 (5:35 pm) on July 1st,2007. Kai and I always knew we would end up married to each other, we knew the moment we met each other back in Arizona while he was working the cash register at Walmart and I was paying and on my way out. What we didn't know was how soon it would be.

And now my husband has been taken from me today.

When I came home from my camping trip, Kai wasn't home which was odd since he always is at 10 in the morning. I found my dogs in the bedroom and it was then that they told me that Kai never came home from work on Friday and that he hadn't been home all weekend. That wasn't like him.

On the answering machine, there was a message from Kai. He said that he was okay but that he was being held for questioning by NTAC.

How could this be happening?

The reason Kai was being held was because an Anti turned him in. Kai works at the rehab center at Seattle Memorial Hospital and he gives people their limbs back and helps them readjust to it. The doctors and patients there love him- not just because of what he can do with his Promicin ability but also because of the kind of person he is. They don't think that because he took Promicin that makes him a criminal.

One patient thought otherwise: a twelve year old boy who lost both his legs in a fatal car accident that killed his brother. Kai told me that the patient was giving him a real hard time- telling him that using abilities in public was illegal and all of that stuff you hear in the news. Well unfortunately the kid went back to his room and dialed the police instead of the security guards, who in turn dispatched him to NTAC.

Jed Garrity and Aaron Roy were the ones called since Tom and Diana were working on a case involving an elderly woman.

Instead of going in like I was supposed to, my only reason for showing up at NTAC was to see my boyfriend.

Before I could see him, Director Doyle pulled me aside and told me that the US Army was taking Kai's case and that Kai would no longer be in NTAC's custody after 15 hours.

I could not believe this! The US Army will be sending Kai to the front lines as a medic in Iraq. His mission: Any soldier to loose a limb while in the line of duty, Kai will be there to use his ability and replace their limbs, leaving the soldiers to be in combat longer and not have to worry about being taken out of the force and then back to the states for treatment and rehab. He will be deployed for 6 months. And where does that leave Kai? He is using his ability and helping others but over all he gets nothing out of it.

Because of this new change, Kai and I decided to call a Catholic Priest to come and do a small ceremony for us. It wasn't our dream wedding but what could we do? It was either get married now or wait for six months until he returned. We both knew we couldn't wait that long since we had started planning the wedding for August 1st.

For a few hours, they released Kai and we had time to ourselves. He left at 4 a.m. this morning.

It's a late Monday evening and I sit here alone in my apartment. I go over some case files to try to keep my mind off things but my mind always goes back to the last 24+ hours. Other than my dogs, I am now alone. I have a husband but no husband to come home to.

I have now become what most would call "An Army Wife."