The airport was noisy – a buzz of chatter and voices that filled the terminal.  The young woman played with the fairly new ring around her finger; the ring that meant she had made a promise, that she was taken.  She looked around, watching other jittery families and people, anxious expressions drawn on their faces.  The woman brushed pieces of her long, honey colored hair out of her face, and checked her watch.
        A hand gripped her shoulder.  The young, nervous woman jumped at the touch.  She turned her head to see her small, plump mother behind her.  
        Her mother flashed a giant, toothy grin.  “Are you excited?”
        The woman nodded, forcing a smile, even though she thought she might blow up from anxiety.  “Of course I am.”
        Her mother chuckled, eyebrows raised.  “He’ll be so excited to see you.  You look beautiful, sweetheart.”
        “I hope so.”  The woman smoothed out her dress.  She stared down at her engagement ring, and began to blush like a teenage girl lost in puppy-love.
        Behind the woman, her mother swore while she tried to get the camera working on her iPhone.  “I don’t know how to work this stupid thing,” she muttered.  “I should just go get a spaceship and try to work the controls on that!”
        The young woman ignored her technology-challenged mother and stared intently at the gate.  Wary passengers began to flood out in waves, hauling bags behind them.  She watched as people rejoined their families, looking absolutely elated. The woman lifted herself onto her toes to peer over heads and bodies, her eyes sifting through faces.
        What if he didn’t come?  What if something happened to him and she wasn’t informed?
        Her eyes stung and her throat swelled.  Her stomach twisted tighter and tighter as she watched what felt like hundreds of people walk by, none of them the person she was looking for. The woman started to come up with terrifying scenarios on why he wasn’t there, drowning her conscience in worry.  She dug her shaking fingers into her palms, tears blurring her vision.
        Her mother still swearing behind her, the woman watched all the happy people around her and thought she might collapse.  Just when she was about to lose her mind, a man appeared from the sea of people.  He was tall and lean, his head looking around the terminal.  A bag was slung over his shoulder, a cap sitting confidently on his head.  Sunglasses masked his eyes, but she knew it was him; his uniform made him stand out from everyone else.
        The woman shouted his name, and his head snapped in her direction.  He took his sunglasses off and grinned.  His mouth formed a word – probably her name, but she was too far away from him to hear.  For a moment her vision tunneled and her mind was foggy.
        A brief moment later – after the feeling in her limbs came back – she was running to him.
They rushed towards each other – a small limp slowing him down – finally breaking the barrier of separation between them.  The woman shattered the shell of hardness and fear she was forced to carry while he was away fighting.  She was so weary of walking around, pretending everything was going to be okay, smiling to hide her emotions, when the thought of her fiancé putting his life on the line every day nearly tore her apart – especially since they were both so young, so much life still ahead.   He held out his arms, a grin spreading across his face.  People had begun to stare over at the pair, but she barely noticed.  Her fiancé let out a surprised groan when she flew into his arms, nearly knocking off his cap, but not a second later wrapped his arms firmly around her. 
        He lifted her up, spinning them as they hugged.  She sobbed into his shoulder, realizing how much she had ached to be held by him for the longest time.  Tears cut paths into her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut, trembling, pulling him as physically close as she could.
        “It’s okay.”  His voice was gentle but firm as he spoke.  “It’s okay.”
She held him tightly around the neck, ignoring the claps and cheers around them.   She was scared to let go, terrified that if she did, he would somehow disappear from her arms, separating them again.  He didn’t seem to want to let go either because he held her tighter, burying his face in her hair.
        She sobbed harder when she felt his breath tickle her ear, realizing that he was really standing there, holding her in his arms once again; that he wasn’t going anywhere for now.
        After a minute or two, he let out a light laugh and his hold on her softened.  “I actually want to see your face, too.”
        She chuckled – it kind of sounded like a mixture between choking and hacking – as she slowly slid her arms off from around his neck, instead holding him at the shoulders.  He gave her a tiny smile.  She knew that he was strong, his hands built for protecting and fighting, but his fingers were gentle as they brushed the tears and hair off her cheeks.
        She stood there patiently, moving her fingers over the rough material of his uniform, as his eyes searched her face, like it was the first time he ever looked at her.
        He was so handsome it made her stomach flutter.  His dark hair was cut short –short hair was required for his job – and it flattered his thin face.  She remembered how his hair used to be long enough to fall in his eyes.  His blue eyes were shiny, his lips pursed.  Dark stubble dotted the area under his mouth, covering a few scars that were recently carved into his face.        She started to become impatient just standing there.  After he took his time studying her, he looked her straight in the eye and grinned. “You’re so beautiful, I can’t stand it,” he said.  “I missed you.”
        He barely got the words out before she flung her arms back around his neck and kissed every inch of his face she could reach.  He laughed in reply, kissing her back just the same.  As they embraced, she could hear people whistling and whooping around them.
For the first time in months, she felt like she could breathe again.  She wasn’t even sure she was breathing when he was gone.  Everything from the past couple of months seemed hazy to her, almost like she was a bear in hibernation – alive and sleeping, but not really living.  But now, holding him again, she felt alert, suddenly aware of the world around her.
        They broke apart, sliding their hands into one another’s.  His fingers fiddled with the ring on her finger and he smiled.  As they continued to stare at each other, she was finding it increasingly difficult to think of something to say.  There were millions of things for them to talk about, but her mind went blank, so she thought of the simplest thing she could.  “I love you.”
“Love you more,” he whispered back with an impish smile, leaning down for another kiss.
        The second before their lips met once again, the woman’s mother was scurrying over, shouting his name.  The man chuckled and let go of his fiancée to hug the technology-challenged mother.
        The mother let go of her soon-to-be-son-in-law and wiped tears – clearly embarrassed – off her cheeks.  After chatting mindlessly for a few minutes the mother held her phone out in front of the couple.  “Lucky for you two, I figured out how to work this dumb thing,” – she gestured to her iPhone – “Now, let me get a picture.”
The mother squinted at her phone, deep in concentration.  After a few long seconds, she swore once more, but then peered over at the couple from the screen of her phone and gave a shaky smile.  “Okay, that was good.  But let’s take another one, and I’ll try to get your heads in it this time.”
         The man chuckled and leaned down to his fiancé.  “Your mother hasn’t changed too much.”
        The woman bumped him in the shoulder playfully.   “Tell me something I don’t know.”       
He laughed, sliding an arm around her, tugging her close.  They turned with buoyant smiles to face the camera yet again.
        The woman let out a sigh of relief she’d been holding for months.
        He was home.