When Love Wins

Chapter 1-2

Being gay had shredded Tyler’s home life when she’d come out to her parents. She’d always been a daddy’s girl, and had, indeed joined the branch of the armed forces that she had because her father was retired Air Force. When she’d discovered she was gay two years into her service, she’d known that it was going to devastate her parents, and likely her large family. It hadn’t been an easy thing to deal with, and it still wasn’t.

Growing up in Port Tobacco, Maryland, Tyler hadn’t really been exposed to anyone who was gay. She’d been a tomboy, but then again, so was her mother, and she wasn’t gay. Her parents had been happily married for over thirty-five years. For Tyler, being back in her hometown always seemed strange, ever since she’d left over twelve years before. Getting out into the world had opened her eyes to many things, being gay was just one of those things. The trip back to Maryland had been the first in five years, the first since she’d finally admitted to her parents that she was gay.

By the time Shenin and Tyler had reached her parents’ house, Shenin had decided to wait to talk to Tyler about the phone call. She easily sensed, from what she knew about Tyler’s relationship with her parents that the gay thing was probably not well accepted. The last thing Shenin wanted to do was to upset Tyler right as she was seeing her parents again. The house they pulled up to was a red brick construction with wood framed windows painted white to match the front door. It was an older ranch style home, with a carport and long driveway. Tyler’s parents came out of the house to greet them. After a fairly awkward round of hugs, Tyler introduced them to Shenin.

“Mom, Dad, this is Shenin, she’s a friend of mine from Nellis, we’re on the security force together. Shenin, these are my parents, Carl and Becky.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Shenin said, smiling and extending her hand to each of them. “Your daughter was my very first friend at Nellis.” Her smile was so warm and genuine that Carl and Becky couldn’t help but like her right away.

“Tyler always did make friends easy,” Becky said, smiling at her daughter.

Shenin looked between them, and wondered how much her parents knew, and how much damage had been done to their relationship if they did know.

Finding out their only daughter was gay had been jarring for Carl and Becky. Tyler had always been a tomboy, but she’d also dated guys in high school. She’d even been engaged, before she’d decided to enlist in the Air Force. They just couldn’t comprehend what had happened to change her so drastically and they still weren’t sure how to deal with her. What they did know was that they loved their daughter and that they would do their best to understand her life choices.

Tyler easily read the resolve on her parents’ faces, they were trying to cope, and she couldn’t help the little flame of hope that started in her heart. They meant the world to her, and knowing that she’d disappointed them or made them ashamed of her, broke her heart every time she thought about it. Sometimes Tyler didn’t think she could handle facing them, but she’d known she needed to. Her father had been having heart problems, and the last thing she wanted was for the last memory she had of him to be their last conversation. She’d told him that she’d had the realization that she was gay; his response was to tell her she needed to stop hanging out with whoever she was hanging out with, that they were being a bad influence on her and would get her thrown out of the Air Force. Her mother had shaken her head in disgust and said, “You’re just letting people tell you that kind of garbage, it’s not true.” They hadn’t understood, and at the time, they hadn’t tried to understand, at least not as far as she was concerned. She’d left that same night and hadn’t gone back for five years, this was the first time since then.

The memory of that last visit had been so clear that when she’d told them she was coming home, and they’d insisted that she stay with them, she’d been fairly sure the priest who’d given her first communion would be there to greet her. Her other thought was that they’d kidnap her and take her to a deprogrammer so they could get her un-brainwashed from that gay cult she’d joined in the desert. Neither seemed to be the case at the moment, but she knew it wasn’t impossible that there’d be a dinner or two with the local clergy.

“So you’re Air Force?” Carl asked Shenin, his look skeptical.

“Yes sir,” Shenin replied. “Airman first class.”

Carl nodded, then looked at his daughter. “You make sergeant yet?” he asked.

“Not yet, Dad, but I’m working on it,” Tyler told him, making him smile.

He looked at Shenin again. “So, you’re on the security force with Tyler?” he asked, again skeptical.

“Yes sir,” she said.

“Little thing like you?” he said, sounding very old fashioned suddenly.

“Yep,” Shenin said, holding back a grin. She could see that he wanted to say something about little girls carrying big guns, or something like it. She’d heard it for years now.

She knew it always shocked people that someone as small as her, at five four and a hundred-thirty pounds, could be in the security force. She actually liked that it shocked people; she liked being more than a pretty face. She knew that sometimes it made her a target too, and that was why she’d become lethal in hand-to-hand combat, with a black belt in karate, and an expert with weapons. Shenin Devereaux could protect herself.

“Well, come on in,” Becky said, gesturing for them to go inside. “It’s awfully muggy out here.”

“Tyler, I put you two in your old room, on your old trundle bed,” Becky said, leading them down the hallway of the house.

Tyler grinned. “Thanks, Mom,” she said.

“Go ahead and get unpacked, dinner’s in an hour.” With that Becky left them to unpack.

Two hours later they had eaten and retired to Tyler’s old room. That’s when the conversation started…

“So you’re gay,” Shenin said, her tone matter of fact.

They were lying in the bedroom Tyler had lived in when she was growing up. They were sleeping on the trundle bed she’d had sleepovers with her friends on years before. Tyler was on the upper part of the bed, while Shenin was on the lower ‘drawer.’ There were a lot of pictures of Tyler growing up, and it was obvious she was not only a tomboy, but also a daddy’s girl. Her father had coached her softball team when Tyler was much younger. There were lots of pictures of Tyler and her dad as she grew up. There were also pictures of Tyler with guys that she’d gone to prom and junior prom with. It was pictures like that Shenin was thinking of when she asked the question.

“Yep,” Tyler confirmed simply, her brow furrowed. She couldn’t tell if Shenin was freaking out, or if she didn’t think it was a big deal.

“Not sure why I didn’t see it,” Shenin said.

“You feel like you should have?”

“Yeah,” Shenin said.

“Why? Because you’re from California?” Tyler asked, grinning.

Shenin laughed, hearing how dumb it sounded. “Well, we are the land of the fruits and nuts,” she said, grinning. “Location of gay mecca, right?”

“What, San Francisco?”

“Yep,” Shenin said.

“Never been there,” Tyler said.

“Oh,” Shenin replied, slightly deflated, “honestly though, I should have sensed it better. How good of a friend am I if you’ve felt like you needed to hide it all this time?”

“Honestly, Shen,” Tyler said, settling on her side to look down at her friend, “I just didn’t want to mess things up with us.”

“What do you mean? Did I seem like someone that wouldn’t like you if you were gay?” Shenin asked, worried that was the case.

“Shen, if I didn’t think you’d like the real me, I wouldn’t be able to be friends with you,” Tyler said. “But you never know with people, especially other members of the security force… you know?”

Shenin thought about that for a minute, then nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’d need to be careful until you were sure you could trust a person not to out you.”

“You got that right,” Tyler said.

“I’m not going to out you, Ty,” Shenin said. “I hope you know that.”

Tyler blew her breath out. “Yeah, I guess I do know that.”

“You didn’t mean for me to find out, did you?” Shenin asked then.

“I didn’t mean for you to find out that way,” Tyler corrected. “I was going to tell you, probably on this trip. I just wasn’t ready for you to find out that way.”

“So Angie is someone you’re dating?” Shenin asked.

“Was dating,” Tyler said, emphasizing the word “was.”

“That must be scary,” Shenin said, “having someone like that just put your business right out there with no idea who was in the car with you, or what they knew about you.”

“Yep, and it’s not something I can forgive. Jealousy is one thing; stupidity and endangering my career are completely different.”

They were both silent for a moment, Tyler was thanking her lucky stars to have such an understanding friend, it had been a concern that Shenin would pull the whole regulations angle, and say she had to report it. Shenin was pretty forthright when it came to regulations, they were, after all, the law on base.

“So, you’re really okay with this?” Tyler asked, with that last thought in mind.

“Tyler,” Shenin said, looking a little surprised, “you’re assuming I’ve ever agreed with Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. It’s complete bullshit, and anyone that believes that it’s okay to treat people like that is dumber than s**t, and not someone I ever want to associate with. I get that it’s a regulation and all, but it’s a dumb f*****g regulation and not one I’m ever going to hold with, I don’t care what it costs me.”

Tyler’s eyes widened at the outburst. “Tell me how you really feel, Shenin, don’t hold back,” she said, grinning widely, even as her eyes shone with a glazing of tears for someone truly being on her side. This girl was one in a million, it was too damned bad she was straight.

Shenin smiled, not commenting on the tears in her friend’s eyes, but touched by it all the same.

“This must have been so hard on you,” Shenin said, reaching up to touch Tyler’s hand. “With them,” she said, indicating Tyler’s parents sleeping in the next room.

“Oh yeah,” Tyler said, blowing her breath out. “They were really shocked, it was hard on everyone.”

“Including you,” Shenin put in.

“Yeah,” Tyler said, “this is the first time I’ve been home in five years.”

“Oh, Ty…” Shenin said, squeezing her friend’s hand. “I’m so sorry you went through that. It’s not right the way this world treats people that don’t fit some crazy idea of normal, but you have to know that they love you. I could see that tonight.”

“I know they love me,” Tyler said, “but they’re having a hard time understanding this aspect of my life.”

“Give them, time, Ty,” Shenin said.

“I know,” Tyler said, sighing, “I just worry about my dad.”

“I get that,” Shenin said, nodding.

Again they were quiet for a while each lost in their thoughts.

“Are there others?” Shenin asked.

“That are gay?” Tyler asked.

“Yeah, in the squadron I mean,” Shenin said.

“What do you think?” Tyler asked.

“You want to test my gaydar?” Shenin asked.

“Well, it failed you on me, obviously,” Tyler said, grinning.