My mind couldn't help but wander. The emails on my computer screen were begging me to answer them, but I just didn't seem to care at the moment. It was always hard going back to work after a vacation. We'd pull the kids out of school for a week so we could go visit their grandparents, and at the same time I'd work from home. I did the best I could to stay caught up, but there were just too many emails and my brain was in another location the whole time. Yet here I was sitting at my office desk, Sandra at the desk across from me. The kids were in school safe and sound and Logan was at the pier working on some repairs for the boat. Things couldn't be any more normal and everything still just felt weird.

I hadn't fully gotten used to have Logan home yet. It would take a few more days at least, but what was really throwing me off was the fact that even after a three month deployment, things were still just expected to go back to normal. They never gave us a chance to really figure this out, you were supposed to just guess on how it was supposed to work. This time was a little bit easier on that front since we were able to take the vacation right after his return. That wasn't normal.

I felt horrible not working on my emails though, because my boss had been so gracious to let me leave randomly without much notice. I wouldn't have been able to work a job that didn't have the understanding of the life of a military spouse. I didn't want to miss any of my husband's accomplishments, and a normal job just would not understand the need to get the next day off at the drop of a moment.

It was frustrating being involved with the military. I never did understand why they wouldn't just give people notice for things like pinning ceremonies, or even re-enlistment ceremonies. They always seemed to just say screw it we have time in the schedule today so we will just do it, leaving it nearly impossible for any of the wives to go and celebrate with their husbands when one of these ceremonies would happen.

I shook my head trying to pull myself out of my thoughts. Damn it Ari, focus on your work. I told myself. I really did need to catch up. Sandra had done a wonderful job helping me out over this last week. I needed to just focus so she wouldn't have to carry any of my slack anymore. She was always very understanding and usually had a little more notice than my boss would. She was my best friend so I talked to her about everything I could without getting myself or Logan in trouble.

"Are you doing okay over there?" Sandra's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" I question, looking over the computer monitor to see her face.

"You've been staring at your stapler for like ten minutes now, I'm starting to think you want to marry it, or you are thinking about how to destroy it. I haven't decided if the look on your face is happy or upset yet." Sandra had a big smile that was made even bolder with her red lipstick.

"I just have a lot on my mind," I mumbled, realizing she was right. I had been staring at the stapler. I was trying to avoid looking at my emails at all costs and the stapler just seemed like the better option.

She gave me that knowing look. She knew I wasn't telling the full truth and she had intended on getting it out of me one way or another. She got up out of her chair, heading over to my cubicle before sitting on the edge of my desk.

"Alright spill, even when you have a lot on your mind you don't sit there and stare at random objects. I grabbed the stapler and put it in the drawer. I guess if it was causing this much of a problem I might as well just put it away.

"Things have been kind of rough since Logan got home." I didn't know how to finish that statement. It had been, but I struggled with the fine line of what's oversharing and what's healthy venting. I didn't believe in telling my friends about Logan and I's problems. It was our relationship and we needed to figure these things out together.

"Come on, aren't you so excited to have him home?" She paused for a moment. "Or is that the problem, you are too excited to have him home so things have been 'rough' since he's been back." She winked at me. I shook my head, shivering at the thought of her talking about our sex like. Those were definitely on the no fly list when it came to topics to discuss with friends. At least not in a serious sense as she was suggesting.

"No, we've just been fighting more than I expected. I thought having a week together after he got back would do us some good, but all it managed to do was cause him to get in a huge fight with his parents and for me to freak out on him for not helping with the cleaning yesterday. I feel like such an idiot for the way things have happened." I shook my head, feeling the words crash out of me. I couldn't tell if this was making me feel better or worse.

"What do you mean got in a huge fight with his parents?" Sandra knew how his parents treated me. She was well aware of the years of torture I've ensued. She spent countless hours listening to me complain every time they had traveled to visit us. Which was rare, as they never seemed to have the time to make it up to our house, but by god we don't go down there to visit them enough.

"I mean just that, while we were at his parents house, we went to the zoo, she called me weak-"

"Oh no! That lady has no right to say anything of the sorts to you. Did you punch her right then and there?" Sandra cut me off, her personality overtaking the conversation even if just for a moment.

"No, I didn't, I actually had had enough of the whole situation so I ended up running away from them and going to sit and look at the sharks by myself while I took a breather." I needed a breather now. "She was so infuriating that I just couldn't take it anymore and I needed to get away from the situation. Soon enough Logan came to my rescue and we got in a fight over his mother's comments as he was still saying he never heard any of them."

"How could he not?" Sandra asked, and I realized I may have just created an echo chamber. She hadn't met Logan's mother, so how could she form an opinion of her without actually knowing her? I realized I was making Logan's mother out to be the villain of my story, but maybe she wasn't quite a villain, just a somewhat annoying side character.

"Anyways, we went back to her house for dinner and Peter came with one of their kids. He didn't bring his wife because she was home sick. The other kids decided to stay with her to help her out. So it was mostly just us with Peter their parents. While we were at dinner she started making comments again about how I was weak and that Logan deserves so much more than me. Logan had finally heard one of her comments and decided that enough was enough."

It felt strange recounting the events of that night to Sandra. Logan and I haven't even talked about it. Every time I tried to bring it up so that we could discuss it he would get upset and say he wanted to just hold off on that conversation for a little while longer. I couldn't blame him, I just wanted to talk about it so I knew how he was feeling about fighting with his parents.

"Long story short, after she made her comment her and Logan got into it and his father had to step in to defend his wife, and Logan rounded up the kids and we left early. We went back to the hotel and loaded all of our stuff up and left the hotel so that we could get as far away from them as Logan felt we needed to." Sandra seemed like she was soaking in all of the the information. A shocked expression took over her features.

If I hadn't been there myself I would have never believed it either.

"That's insane!" Sandra shouted, a little too loud for an office environment. Other employees turned to look at us giving us dirty glances. "We need to talk about this more at lunch." Sandra whispers this go around, learning from her mistake previously. I nodded my head, turning back to my computer as she left my cubicle and went to sit at her very own desk.

"Okay Ari, time to actually focus and get some work done." I whispered to myself, feeling like a psychopath for speaking out loud.

Opening the first email, I formulated a response, marked the info down in my notes, and moved it to the appropriate folder. Finally one of them out of the hundreds was done.

~*~

Logan had beat me home, which shocked me because he very rarely left the shipyard before I was off work. The kids were already at the house and they seemed to be acting strange when I walked through the door.

"What's going on here?" I questioned, looking around for the booby trap that was bound to walk into. I didn't know what movies and games they had played on Sunday and what kind of ideas they could have gotten.

I set my stuff down on the side table and headed for the kitchen. I would need to get started on dinner soon if these kids were going to be fed at a decent time. Standing in the kitchen when I walked around the corner was the tall man I had married more than ten years ago with a large bouquet of flowers.

"Okay, I'm going to ask again, what is going on here?" I couldn't help but smile. Logan closed the distance between us, pulling the flowers to the side before grabbing me with his other arm to hug me.

"The kids and I wanted to do something special for you to show you that we love you. You do so much for us and we would be nothing without you. I can't even begin to thank you for all that you've given up and done for this family. So these are for you." He hands the flowers to me and only after I grab them out of his hand does he start searching for a vase to put them in. I chuckle, pointing to the cupboard under the sink.

He grabs a vase, filling it up with water and placing the flowers gently in it.

"They are so beautiful! Thank you for that." I take a moment to smell the lillies propped up in the greenery. He remembered my favorite flower.

"Also, I ordered dinner and it's on its way. That one is to simply say sorry for not helping out yesterday, even after you yelled at me for not getting any help you still turned around and made dinner for this family. We didn't talk much the rest of the evening, but I knew I needed to do something to make it up to you. I obviously don't know where enough of the dishes are to cook myself, but wanted to do somet-"

I cut him off by kissing him.