A Doll's Soldier

"You know I'm being deployed tomorrow, Annie."
She sighed and hugged her knees closer. "I know."
He brushed back his brown locks and glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Her short ginger hair was tousled from the wind. She looked like a doll, what, with her petite limbs curled up around her torso. Her polka-dotted blue camisole caused something to click in his mind and he stifled a laugh.
She turned to him. "What?"
"Nothing." He had to turn away from her so she wouldn't she the look of humor on his face.
"John Marcus Hill, I will tell your mother." She attempted to look threatening, but failed beyond proportions.

"Alright, alright... Raggedy." He smirked at her.
The freckles on her, now scrunched, nose contorted at the sound of her nickname. Marcus and Annie had been friends for as long as they could remember. He had always teased her about her fiery hair and affection for the famous ragdoll.
"Hey. No faces or I'll snatch that ring off your finger." He warned, teasingly.
Her right hand involuntarily flew to her ring finger.
"If you do, you'll be fiancée-less."
"You should know that's not a word, Raggedy. You are a teacher."
"And you're a marine." Annie's brown eyes lost their humorous glow "Whose leaving for six months. Promise me you'll come back in one piece."
Marcus held her left hand and brushed his thumb over her ring. To him the ring was a promise in itself that he would come back.
"Promise."

"...ok, Annie? Annie! Annie Lynn Mitchell!"
Annie blinked a few times to snap herself out of her reminiscence. The sky was bright, but the wind was blowing something fierce. She was at the local port with Marcus's brother, Derek. Loved ones of other marines flooded the port as they all waited for the people they were searching for to walk down the ramp.
"Are you ok, Annie?" Derek asked, genuinely concerned.
Besides the fact that she had an afternoon class to teach in an hour and that Marcus was not walking onto the port, she was just peachy keen.
"Yeah." Her voice was barely audible due to the doubt lingering in the back of her mind; doubt that he had come home.
She looked around. While some people were cheering and hugging, others were breaking down and holding the last object their marine held themselves. Annie didn't want to be one of those people.
"Annie!" A voice called.

One of Marcus's friends was walking down ramp with Marcus in tow.
"Raggedy, you brought my brother." Marcus grinned.
Annie was so euphoric that she didn't even have time to register the nickname before she hugged him with all the strength in her petite frame. When he barely returned it, she took a step back and took in his appearance. Her eyes first went to the top of his neatly cut hair, then to his shining black shoes, and then they acknowledged his arm wrapped in a splint and sling.
Her eyes flashed between worry and panic. "Were you shot? Did someone attack the ship? What happened?" She asked frantically.
"Yeah, Marcus," His friend jested him. "Tell Annie what happened."
"It's not that important." Marcus looked off to the side.
"John Marcus Hill, I will tell Mom." Derek told him with more threat in his voice than Annie could have mustered.

He cut his eyes at his older brother. "Well..."
"He was running through mess hall, slid on a mopped floor, hit the mop bucket, and then he fell." His friend finished for him, barely able to contain his laughter.
Annie promptly hit Marcus on his good arm.
"What was that for?" He asked.
"You were supposed to come back in one piece."
"I am in one piece, Raggedy. I'm just sprained."
"Well, I prefer for my presentations to be intact, thank you."
Now it was Marcus's turn to be confused. He turned to his brother, dumbfounded.
Derek feigned shock. "You didn't know? Annie's kindergarteners are having show-and-tell today."
"Oh, Annie, no."
She smiled a Cheshire grin. "Oh, Marcus, yes."

"...and that's what it's like being a marine. Any questions?"
A few chubby arms flew into the air as soon as the words left the injured marine's lips. He sat on the edge of Annie's desk and looked at the nametags on their desks.
"Josie, yes?" He said.
"What happened to your arm?" Her eyes shone innocence, but Marcus had a inkling that Annie had put her up to this.
He narrowed his eyes at Annie as she repressed a laugh. "That's a very good question. Next question! Bradley."
Josie huffed in her seat when he didn't answer.
"Why are you marrying our teacher?" He asked.
"Because she's very pretty." He glanced at Annie and saw her cheeks tint the same color as her hair.

Before any more hands could be raised, Annie looked at clock and interjected. "You guys can tell me your questions tomorrow and I'll tell him, but now it's time to go."
A few cheers were heard as the class ran out of the door, but Josie walked up to Annie's desk. Her face was excited, rather than huffy.
"Mommy helped me make this when I heard you were a marine." She handed him a lopsided pink heart and skipped out of the room.
"What's it say?" Marcus asked.
Annie, being used to mentally correcting spelling errors, smiled warmly as she read the heart.
"S-I-M-P-U-R F-I. Semper Fi."