Chapter 5 The Return Home

Elias stared at the doorframe of his house, the sight and sound flooding his senses with a confusion of emotions. The late afternoon sun stretched long shadows over the lawn and the bloom of perfume jasmine wound around him in a warm embrace. The only thing never felt so pleasant yet with guilt and heavy than remembered where he used to be.

"Home sweet home," he said quietly to himself, trying to shrug off the end of day weight of duty that clung to his

shoulders of a load too heavy to lug. His pulse quickened with a cocktail of dread and excitement, fuelled by the memories he'd brought back with him from his recent time overseas. The world he had left behind felt like another time, another place, disjointed, but now it all came together here, in this time.

Elias was overcome with déjà vu as he entered. Clara walked in, her face blazing with surprise and joy. "Elias!" she cried, running toward him, arms outstretched. Her arms wrapped around him, and for a split second, the last vestiges of a soldier dissipated. In her arms, he felt peace flicker the kind he believed he'd lost for good.

"Clara," he gasped, seuqestering his face in her shoulder. It was a gesture that felt like it closed whatever chasm they had spent years apart from creating, years that had been filled with uncertainty and struggles that were magnified by the coming home of him away from the people he loved.

Clara finally pulled back after a moment, her blue eyes searching his. "You look different ... in a good way," she smiled, but her smile turned to concern almost immediately. "Are you alright?"

Elias nodded, but the stray echoes of the past were scratching at his resolve. He had transformed, but uncertainty still lurked beneath. He was on the verge of comforting her when his phone buzzed insistently in his pocket. The moment fell apart, the dread of the upsetting call to come.

"Sorry," he told her, retrieving the device. "I've got to take this."

Turning away from Clara, he answered the call, heart racing at the voice on the other end. It was his superior, feeding him vague news so vague it left the ground shifting beneath his homecoming of an unusual military recall. As anxiety coiled in him, drowning out the pleasures of re-encountering Clara, he could hardly register the details.

When he hung up and re-entered the room, Clara was sitting up on the bed looking worried. "What is it?" she asked, in a quiet voice, as if she already knew the answer.

"Just... military stuff," he said grudgingly. "Nothing I can't handle." However, beneath the surface, he could feel the tension peaking, the fight starting to boil once again him. He could sense the gravity of duty calling him back into the trenches of war and chaos beyond, and it led tentatively in the opposite direction as if Clara was the bastion he wanted to cling to.

"Duty?" No," Clara said, shaking her head slightly. "Elias, you require rest, not more burden."

Before he could answer, his father arrived. William David, even-tempered and deliberate, had a steadiness that quelled some of Elias's storm. The older man looked at his son like he already knew, like he could see it hiding in his heart.

"Son, it's healthy to talk about these things," he said, then reached over to pat Elias on the shoulder. "You've been through a lot. Know that you are not alone in this."

A flood of emotion swelled inside Elias. "I don't know how to do the balance thing, Dad. "I want to be here, with you and Clara, but it seems they will always drag me back."

William smiled gently. "We all have our responsibilities, Elias, to ourselves as well as others. But you choose how you want to fulfill them."

As the words hung in the air, Elias bit on a sliver of hope. Perhaps he could create a world in which duty and love could merge, where returning home was not the end, but rather the beginning a way station for the soldier and the man searching for redemption.

With Clara and William by his side, he was inspired with purpose, prepared to face whatever was coming. Elias understood that home was more than a place; it was a lifeline that connected him to the love and strength that would help him face harder challenges down the road. And in that instant, he chose that he would not just survive, he would discover a path to thrive. A future of possibilities opened up, and for the first time in many months, it felt bright enough to want to embrace it.

Laughter soon enveloped them, weaving an unsteady fabric of healing promise between them as they stood together. Elias had felt free, prepared to confront his crossroads with the knowledge that family and love were the bridge that would connect where he had been with where he needed to go.

He was home again, for the first time, and tonight was only the beginning. Elias said this is the beginning of the journey, after all They have a family dinner, as he was having a dinner with his family he got a call from his Commander that he was only to spend a week at home after all "CALL OF DUTY".