Post by JACOB ANTHONY MORRIS on Oct 26, 2009 16:58:54 GMT -5
Running... for whatever reason, it seemed to be the army man's choice activity for shaking off the haunting horrors of war that followed them home. It was as if when they ran they felt like their worries were whisked away on the wind, at least for the time being, and they could clear their heads and think straight. Jacob Morris had been doing a lot of running lately... and with good reason too. Life certainly hadn't been to kind to him, which seemed quite unfair considering Jake was one of the most loyal and protective guys out there. He really was a nice guy... a little violent since his return from war, but he would never intentionally hurt anyone. He was generally an extremely street smart person. He'd never done well in school, but he would figure out his own way to do things without any of the skills they were supposed to be taught in school. In some ways it was a good thing, but in others it wasn't.
As a kid, Jake had always been getting in fights. Of course, he could never prove that he hadn't started a fight, and because the people he was defending him rejected him because he looked like one of the mean kids, and the mean kids rejected him because he beat them up when they were mean to the other kids, no one would vouch for him. It seemed like every kid in the school had it in for Jacob. Even if he hadn't done a thing, he almost always got the blame for it. When the teacher or principal would ask who started it, everyone would always point their fingers at him. If he'd just been sitting there and one of the mean kids who didn't like him came over and started a fight and he just fought back to defend himself, he would still get the blame. Of course, it didn't help that he was better at hand to hand fighting than they were so they always ended up getting more hurt than him and made it look like he was the one who started it.
When he got into high school it got worse. The older guys didn't like him because he was a ladies man and could get any girl he wanted, even if it was the quarter back's girlfriend. The younger guys didn't like him because he was the hot guy that all the girls flirted with and day dreamed about. He was taller than most high schoolers, having already hit 6' by the time he was a freshman, and he was definitely more fit than most guys his age, and because of his almost Hispanic appearance, he fell into the "tall dark and handsome" category much quicker than most guys did... add in on top of all that the fact that he knew how to treat a girl right since he only had two sisters and his dad was very strict on his "how to treat a lady" rules and had made Jake follow them to the letter since he was old enough to understand what they meant, and he was definitely going to get the girl a lot faster than a lot of the other guys would.
After his Sophomore year, he told his parents that he wanted to go into the army. They had expected it, but not this soon. He was adament though, so when he turned 17, they signed the papers, and Jacob Morris was sent off to boot camp. He spent a year in training, where he met a girl, and absolutely fell in love with. Unlike most girls, she didn't swoon at the sight of him, and he actually had to work a bit to get her to like him. Once she did though, it was instant chemistry. By the time boot camp was up the two of them were practically attached at the hip, which made all the drills a little more bearable. They requested to be put in the same squadron, and considering that the two of them had managed to be possibly the best behaved and the most determined during their training, no one saw any reason not to grant them their request, and they were assigned to Squadron 152, under Sergeant Kyle Slater.
All went well for the first year they were in service, and they made plans to get married as soon as their four year tours were up. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. In a raid, the girl was shot as they exited the building, and moments later, the explosives which Jacob had only just set a few minutes before detonated, killing her, and leaving Jacob scarred with the horrible memory of seeing the flames and rubble engulf her while he was being held down by his Sergeant to prevent him from getting killed along with her. It was definitely a tragic loss, and it got to Jacob so much that he was diagnosed with extremely severe post war trauma, and sent home before he did any damage to himself or to anyone else. He was a danger to everyone in his condition, and it would have been just plain old foolish to let him remain in service in his condition.
When he got back, he had it pretty rough, and ended up unintentionally getting a girl pregnant. Once he found out, they started getting closer until they were in an actual relationship. Jacob had a hard time trusting himself to love again, and his flashbacks and violent outbursts made it difficult for them, but he was slowly starting to get better. That is until their baby girl was born. She was a lot like Jake, with black hair and big blue eyes, and there was no doubt that she was going to be a daddy's girl. But once again, Jake's happiness wasn't to be complete. His girlfriend, and the mother of his baby, Roxanne, left... without a note or a good-bye, she just left, leaving Jacob to be a single dad when he was anything but ready for it. He was still dealing with the loss of Chelsea as well as the flashbacks and uncontrollable violence... he wasn't ready to have the responsibility all to himself.
That was why he was here. He'd dropped the baby off with his parents, and then gone out for a run with his dog, Sasha. He'd been out for several hours, and had worked up quite a sweat and a lot of exhaustion by the time he reached the beach. He stopped there, feeling quite a bit more relieved now that he'd run off some of the stress, and sat down in the sand. The dog which looked a bit like some sort of husky wolf cross trotted up to Jake and nothing short of pounced on him, grabbing his shirt with her teeth and tugging on it playfully but roughly. What the hell are you doing Sasha? He asked the dog with a half smile and a bit of a laugh as he wrestled the material out of her mouth. I'm no drug dealer... and you're not a drug dog anymore, crazy. There weren't many people out on the beach at this hour, considering most people were at work or in school, so it was nice and quiet, just the way he liked it. Of course, the longer he stayed here without talking to anyone about something the more he'd think about the hell his life had become, and the more the stress would build... so unless someone came along, the two of them would be moving on fairly quickly. The last thing he needed was to get more stressed out after finally relieving some of it after so long. It was nice to be home among people who didn't hate him, but at the same time it was just as hard to deal with all of this now than it was then.
As a kid, Jake had always been getting in fights. Of course, he could never prove that he hadn't started a fight, and because the people he was defending him rejected him because he looked like one of the mean kids, and the mean kids rejected him because he beat them up when they were mean to the other kids, no one would vouch for him. It seemed like every kid in the school had it in for Jacob. Even if he hadn't done a thing, he almost always got the blame for it. When the teacher or principal would ask who started it, everyone would always point their fingers at him. If he'd just been sitting there and one of the mean kids who didn't like him came over and started a fight and he just fought back to defend himself, he would still get the blame. Of course, it didn't help that he was better at hand to hand fighting than they were so they always ended up getting more hurt than him and made it look like he was the one who started it.
When he got into high school it got worse. The older guys didn't like him because he was a ladies man and could get any girl he wanted, even if it was the quarter back's girlfriend. The younger guys didn't like him because he was the hot guy that all the girls flirted with and day dreamed about. He was taller than most high schoolers, having already hit 6' by the time he was a freshman, and he was definitely more fit than most guys his age, and because of his almost Hispanic appearance, he fell into the "tall dark and handsome" category much quicker than most guys did... add in on top of all that the fact that he knew how to treat a girl right since he only had two sisters and his dad was very strict on his "how to treat a lady" rules and had made Jake follow them to the letter since he was old enough to understand what they meant, and he was definitely going to get the girl a lot faster than a lot of the other guys would.
After his Sophomore year, he told his parents that he wanted to go into the army. They had expected it, but not this soon. He was adament though, so when he turned 17, they signed the papers, and Jacob Morris was sent off to boot camp. He spent a year in training, where he met a girl, and absolutely fell in love with. Unlike most girls, she didn't swoon at the sight of him, and he actually had to work a bit to get her to like him. Once she did though, it was instant chemistry. By the time boot camp was up the two of them were practically attached at the hip, which made all the drills a little more bearable. They requested to be put in the same squadron, and considering that the two of them had managed to be possibly the best behaved and the most determined during their training, no one saw any reason not to grant them their request, and they were assigned to Squadron 152, under Sergeant Kyle Slater.
All went well for the first year they were in service, and they made plans to get married as soon as their four year tours were up. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. In a raid, the girl was shot as they exited the building, and moments later, the explosives which Jacob had only just set a few minutes before detonated, killing her, and leaving Jacob scarred with the horrible memory of seeing the flames and rubble engulf her while he was being held down by his Sergeant to prevent him from getting killed along with her. It was definitely a tragic loss, and it got to Jacob so much that he was diagnosed with extremely severe post war trauma, and sent home before he did any damage to himself or to anyone else. He was a danger to everyone in his condition, and it would have been just plain old foolish to let him remain in service in his condition.
When he got back, he had it pretty rough, and ended up unintentionally getting a girl pregnant. Once he found out, they started getting closer until they were in an actual relationship. Jacob had a hard time trusting himself to love again, and his flashbacks and violent outbursts made it difficult for them, but he was slowly starting to get better. That is until their baby girl was born. She was a lot like Jake, with black hair and big blue eyes, and there was no doubt that she was going to be a daddy's girl. But once again, Jake's happiness wasn't to be complete. His girlfriend, and the mother of his baby, Roxanne, left... without a note or a good-bye, she just left, leaving Jacob to be a single dad when he was anything but ready for it. He was still dealing with the loss of Chelsea as well as the flashbacks and uncontrollable violence... he wasn't ready to have the responsibility all to himself.
That was why he was here. He'd dropped the baby off with his parents, and then gone out for a run with his dog, Sasha. He'd been out for several hours, and had worked up quite a sweat and a lot of exhaustion by the time he reached the beach. He stopped there, feeling quite a bit more relieved now that he'd run off some of the stress, and sat down in the sand. The dog which looked a bit like some sort of husky wolf cross trotted up to Jake and nothing short of pounced on him, grabbing his shirt with her teeth and tugging on it playfully but roughly. What the hell are you doing Sasha? He asked the dog with a half smile and a bit of a laugh as he wrestled the material out of her mouth. I'm no drug dealer... and you're not a drug dog anymore, crazy. There weren't many people out on the beach at this hour, considering most people were at work or in school, so it was nice and quiet, just the way he liked it. Of course, the longer he stayed here without talking to anyone about something the more he'd think about the hell his life had become, and the more the stress would build... so unless someone came along, the two of them would be moving on fairly quickly. The last thing he needed was to get more stressed out after finally relieving some of it after so long. It was nice to be home among people who didn't hate him, but at the same time it was just as hard to deal with all of this now than it was then.
