The worse day in history.
5 am, the sun is barely up and Daniels' alarm goes off for his typical Monday morning. Laying next to him is his wife Claire. To Daniel, Claire is the most beautiful, strong but soft and independent. Claire and Daniel met when Claire finished high school. Daniel went into the military at the young age of 18 years old and moved from station to station for boot camp and technical school. When Daniel finished and was stationed at his first duty station in Texas, he met Claire at the age of 18, who was in town on vacation with her family for the summer. Claire did not come from a wealthy family. Claire had one younger brother who was still in high school, and a mom who, for most of Claire's life, was raising her kids on her own after two failed marriages. When Daniel met Claire, you could say he was head over heels in love with her. Claire was of average height 5'6, not super skinny but a healthy medium with long, very long dirty blonde hair. Claire's hair was so long she had to braid it to keep it from blowing everywhere. Daniel also comes from a broken family, which is why he joined the military. Daniel wanted better than what he had in his childhood. Daniel is older than Claire by 6 years, so Daniel had already had a good start to his career in the military. Claire had plans to join the local community college in her town, but after meeting Daniel and spending months talking, Claire decided to move to Texas and marry Daniel. Sure, they had a rough start to their marriage, a new town for Claire, and they had never lived together until then. Claire also moved to the most western part of Texas, where the most common languages are English and Spanish, which Claire did not speak. However, despite all the challenges, Daniel and Claire had a mostly happy marriage and welcomed three beautiful children. Faith was born just 10 months after Claire and Daniel were married. Three years later, they welcomed Elizabeth, then 5 years later they had Jaxon, who was the last baby they planned to have. Daniel decided after 10 years in the military he wanted to settle down and enjoy his life with Claire. They moved to Claire's hometown in Florida near the Alabama line and Daniel started a government contracting job which meant he could be home and more involved with his family. Just as things started to fall into place for them, something would come to change the world they had created.
After kissing Daniel goodbye like Claire did every morning, Daniel made his way down the hall to kiss each of his children who were still asleep peacefully in their beds. Claire lay in the bed just to enjoy the quiet before starting her day as a stay-at-home mom in the summer. Although Claire had an associates degree, she started going back to school online for her bachelors degree. With the kids still young, Claire and Daniel decided that, since he was able to provide for the family, that Claire should stay at home for the kids since they were still so young. Knowing that both Claire and Daniel wanted to provide what their parents couldn't, she did just that. Every day, she was home caring for her kids and the home they bought together. However, today would be the opposite of the average day that the family had. Working on a military installation had both pros and cons for Daniel. Daniel was doing the same job he did while on active duty with more pay. The con, however, is that the threat still stayed the same. What would have been a regular day became the last day he would see his family. Daniel would always rely on his military training when threats became a reality and, as much training as Daniel had, it wouldn't save his life when the very threat was already in the building before any alarms were sounded. Daniel closed his eyes and the last thought he said was his family. Daniel died with the images of his wife and kids playing in his mind. Happy though not sad, he knew his wife was the best mother and that all her years as a military spouse taught her how to be strong and survive.
While cooking dinner, Claire, who was expecting Daniel home any minute, heard a knock, which was odd because Daniel had a key and the door wasn't locked. Claire gave Jaxon another piece of his snack and walked to the front door. What Claire expected was not what she received. Claire collapsed by the door and the tears came running down her face in such a rush she couldn't see straight. Claire sent her oldest daughter to get her phone and call her grandmother while she held her middle daughter close to her chest. When Claire's mother arrived, they sat down with the strangers who explained what happened to Daniel. Claire cried louder and put her hands on her head. She knew that Daniel had done everything he was taught in his training about active shooters. But Claire also knew that once the threat was inside it would be almost impossible to survive. Claire's mom insisted that she and the kids come stay with her for a few days, but Claire wanted to be home. The home she and Daniel spent time with together in their home was more important. Claire agreed to at least let the children go while she arranged Daniels' funeral. However, with the training she had while being married to him, she knew Daniel had already given her the pans he wanted for himself in the event that Daniel passed.
Claire spent days getting everything together and spent time putting herself together because she knew she would have to explain to her kids that their father was not coming home anymore.
Claire and her children, along with most of Claire's family, attended Daniels' funeral and laid him to rest that Sunday, and that would be the beginning of a long and painful recovery for her and her children. Claire started a job 35 days later, working horrible hours to make ends meet so that she could keep her home that her and Daniel bought together. The mortgage was insane, and the bills stayed the same. Claire made barely enough to cover everything by herself working as a bartender at one of the local bar and grill down on the beach. Although they each had a life insurance policy, Daniels was only enough to cover the debt that Daniel mostly collected other the 10 years they had been married. Because Daniel was the sole provider, nothing was really in Claire's name. After paying off most of the debt, her van and selling a Daniels 3500 High Country truck, there was not much left to fully pay off the mortgage on their home, so Claire had to work to continue the payments or them to keep their home. Claire and Daniel bought a simple 4 bedroom 2 both home. Nothing fancy, but the home was a newly built home on the Florida panhandle, so naturally, the cost of living is high. Claire's mom watched the kids on the nights. Claire had to work, which was 6 days a week with only one day off. Claire felt like her childhood was now being relived by her kids and that broke Claire's heart even more than losing her husband. One night, while on shift, Claire was serving a man who came in all cool and sexy. Claire had no interest in this man, but he had an interest in Claire. This would be her biggest mistake.
