.5.

Isabelle couldn't contain her excitement as she went through her mailbox this morning. She had always been so excited every morning just in case another letter came by.

After she received Tommy's first letter, she had written him back immediately, wanting him to get the chance to read it just in case. It had been 6 months since then, and it had been a whole year since Tommy first enlisted. In the past year, a lot had happened back home.

Isabelle had left school, she had dropped out. She had her 17th birthday without Tommy and she even had her first school dance (before she dropped out) without Tommy. All of the things she use to experience with Tommy she couldn't do that anymore and it pained her. She just hoped that he was doing okay.

There was a small, insignificant part of her that believed for Tommy to died, there really was, but they would've been informed if it had happened, so she kept her hopes high every day, even if it did usually make her crash and burn from the agonising wait.

She missed Tommy dearly, and she just prayed he returned to her soon.

________________________________________________________________________________________

He had done 6 whole months of active duty for the army and they had finally let him go back to the training camp. In those 6 long months, a lot had changed for him. For starters, he had grown facial hair. He had a full goatee on his face rather than the stubble he had developed his first few weeks in the camp. He had grown a full 4 inches over the course of the 6 months, and he had definitely gotten some more defined muscles.

Tommy had so many memories from his time in the front line, some would haunt him forever, but the remaining few, they would show his growth from the scrawny, lanky 16 year old he was when he first enlisted to now, him becoming a war veteran. It had been quite the year if you ask him.

Sadly though, Clay would not be returning to the camp with him. That was one of the hardest parts Tommy had gone through during his time in the trenches. Sure, he had somehow managed to survive going into no mans land more times than he should've and sure, he may have killed a lot of innocent people who were only fighting because they felt like they were obliged to, but at the end of the day, that's what they were all doing, they were only human after all.

His second Commanding Officer, Blake, was watching him as he gathered his things, including all of the mail he had received from Isabelle and his family, and he was soon ready to leave this place. He felt a bit like Captain America, he did. He shouldn't have survived going over the front line, theoretically no-one should but there were survivors (even if they did end up losing an appendage or two). Believe it or not, it wasn't actually that uncommon that families would reunite with their loved ones from the army, regardless of their state of mind or of their health.

Taking a deep breath, and trying his hardest to not flinch at the bangs from the guns firing away, he stepped out of the bunker and followed Blake further away from the mayhem, but a little step closer to home.