Let Me Go

Summary: They were the perfect definition of love. The together forever kind. Then he goes to the army, and their "perfect" relationship is ripped apart by the seams. Three years later, he's home. Can they re-build their scarred relationship? Or will they end up more hurt then in the beginning?

Prologue

As soon as she got into his white Monte Carlo, she was holding back her tears. Her throat was tight and she knew that if she spoke more then a few words, her voice would crack, and the tears would come. So she stayed silent.

He rambled on about random things to fill the silence, and she just nodded at all the right times.

This was it. Within an hour, he'd be on a train, leaving her behind. She'd been dreading this since 2 weeks before, when he had told her the exact day he was leaving.

"I found out when I'm leaving," He told her as they were laying on the couch in his apartment, 12 days before.

She said nothing, but turned her head to make eye contact with him, mentally telling him to go on.

"I'm leaving on the twentieth, in 12 days," He said quietly.

Her eyes widened slightly, and she took a sharp breath.

"When exactly do you come home?" She asked, "You've never made that clear."

"I'm not," He replied, as if he'd said it before.

Her eyes widened even more, they now resembled huge saucers.

"What?" She breathed, barely audible.

"Well, maybe in like, 3 years," He paused as her eyes, unbelievably, widened even more, "I thought you knew that, Riles."

"I knew you were going to be gone for a long time, but I thought you were coming home…in between the different trainings or whatever," She whispered. She was trying so hard not to burst into tears right then.

"Well, I could make the trip home in between, and maybe a few visits here and there, but not very many," He sighed, and kissed her nose, "I'll come home to see you though."

She shook the painful memory out of her head. Those twelve days had gone by so fast, but yet so slow at the same time. She kept hoping that time would just stop, or that they would get in a car accident or some freak accident would happen to cause the trains to stop running. Anything to buy a little more time with him.

"Riles?" His voice snapped her out of her thoughts, "Are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah, of course," She paused and sighed, "No."

He smiled and took her hand in his, without saying a word. The contact comforted her slightly, but didn't ease her thoughts on how she was going to say goodbye to him. How was she going to let the only person that truly made her happy go off and risk his life in the army?

"No, you're not leaving!" She cried dramatically, throwing herself across his lap.

"Ry, I told you I have to leave at 1:00am, at the latest. I still have a lot of packing to do, and it's currently 12:58," Cameron smiled at her.

"Ha! You still have two minutes!" She looked up at him, a triumphant smirk across her face.

"Riles…" He warned.

"Well, you're not leaving anyway," She stated stubbornly.

Cameron raised an eyebrow at her, urging her to go on.

"I'm gonna tie you to a chair, and throw you in my basement, and chain the chair to the wall. I'd like to see you get through that, army boy," She said with an attempted evil laugh, and an emphasis on 'army boy'.

He rolled his eyes at her, as a smile played on his lips.

"If you really love me, then you'll let me go," He said softly, but his voice had a teasing tone to it.

She glared at him, "You cheat! You can't do that! You, Cameron Michael Thomas, are a cheater!" She whined and pointed her finger accusingly at him, but reluctantly pulled herself off his lap.

"And you, Ryleigh Amber Jackson, are beautiful."

His words played over and over in her mind.

If you really love me, you'll let me go.

God, how could he use that on her? The jerk. She made a silent vow not to visit him in Borden once he was allowed visitors. Then she shook her head at her own stupidity. He was right and she knew it. He dream had always been to go to the army. Why someone would actually dream of that was beyond her, but it was what he wanted, and she had to accept it. She had to be strong.

"Stop muttering under your breath and get out of the car, Riles," Her boyfriend's teasing voice interrupted her thoughts once again, as he opened the passenger door for her, "Wow, we actually beat my parents here. My dad was convinced we wouldn't," He continued on, a slight triumphant edge in his voice.

He grabbed his bags out of the trunk, and Ryleigh looked around her, realizing that they actually were at the train station. Time was really limited now.

She shut the car door behind her, and pulled her long , black winter coat tighter around her slim body, as the cold, bitter wind blew through her long brown hair.

They entered the train station and proceeded to the far end, where Cameron had to go to get his ticket.

They stopped in line and looked at each other, taking in each other's features, hammering in each other's face into their mind.

"I changed my mind," Cameron whispered, breaking the intense moment, and looking into her emerald green eyes, "I don't wanna go."

"Don't," She choked out, throwing her arms around him. He dropped his bags to return her embrace, "I'm going to miss you too much."

They pulled away just as Cameron's parents, and two sisters spotted them.

"Ryleigh!" His sister, Anna, cried as she ran up and gave Ryleigh a hug.

His other sister, Iza, was right behind her.

"How are you, Ry?" Iza asked, as they hugged.

Ryleigh snorted, "Been better. You?"

Iza smiled, weakly, "Same."

Ryleigh shifted her gaze over to his parents, Alice and Dean.

"Hi, how are you?" Ryleigh asked politely.

Dean just smiled at her and pulled her into a brief, slightly awkward hug.

"Well, I'm not really sure. My son's about to leave for the army," Alice was much more open about how she was really feeling, "mixed emotions, ya know?"

"Yeah," Ryleigh nodded slowly, "I gotcha."

Cameron finally got his ticket, and joined his family and girlfriend where they were standing at a big pole.

They all talked for a few minutes about random things that Ryleigh didn't pay much attention to. She was still trying to figure out what to say.

"All passengers of Train 75, on the deck please," The feminine sounded voice rang out over the big speakers, "All passengers of Train 75, to the deck."

Ryleigh sighed sadly and followed the family outside to the deck, where the devil train was waiting to take away the love of her life.

They all stood awkwardly outside for a couple of minutes until that damned voice sliced through the air again.

"All passengers of Train 75, begin boarding please. All passengers of Train 75, begin boarding."

Ryleigh's heart began pounding harder and harder, until she thought it was going to pound right out of her chest. This was it. What the hell was she going to say?

He hugged his dad. Different goodbyes raced through her mind, at lightning speed. Then he hugged his mom. Goodbye or just bye? She thought for a moment, then decided on goodbye. Bye definitely sounded too casual. Iza's turn. I love you or I'll miss you? Both? Anna. God dammit, she was next. Anything that she'd thought of saying (which wasn't very much) all flew out of her mind.

She looked up into his dark brown eyes, as her emerald ones filled with tears.

She put her arms around him and gently kissed his lips, then buried her head in his neck. She tried to speak, she really did, but no words came out, but he understood all the same.

"I love you too," He said, although she hadn't said anything. He pulled back to look into her eyes, "I'm coming back, you know."

Her vocal box still refused to co-operate, so she just nodded her head and embraced him one last time.

They pulled away, and he took one last look at the people he loved the most, before turning away to go stand in the short line waiting to get on the train. The wind was blowing, but the dog tags that Ryleigh had given him the night before sparkled in the dull, January sun.

Ryleigh almost jumped as she felt someone link an arm through her own. She somehow tore her eyes away from where Cameron stood in the line, and looked to her right, where Cameron's mom was standing, clutching onto Ryleigh's coat sleeve, her red, painted nails sticking out slightly from her black fur coat.

"Don't you start now, missy!" His mom exclaimed playfully, trying to lighten the mood, "I was doing just fine until you started with the water works!"

Ryleigh managed a slight smile.

Cameron stepped onto the train, and the five of them moved down the deck to left, where they could see him waving wildly through the tinted window.

His mom let go of her arm, as Iza put her arm around Ryleigh's waist, showing her the support that they all needed. Ryleigh slowly placed her arm around Iza's waist in return, clutching Iza's white coat with all she had, as the train began to whistle.

She didn't notice the tears rolling steadily down her cheeks, as the train slowly began to move. She did notice, however, that she was holding her breath, but didn't let it out. Tears were streaming down Iza and Anna's face too, while his parents seemed unresponsive, with exception the the sad sparkle in Alice's eyes.

It was completely silent as the train began to move faster, almost out of sight now. The only thing that was heard was the train's whistling, and the wind's taunting blows.

Ryleigh stared at the train as long as could.

3, 2, 1. It was out of sight.

He was gone.

A/N: So, what do you think? I don't know how to do the lines across the page, separating the flash backs from the present, so if someone could tell me how? Also, I apologize if the italics in the flashbacks didn't work, I used to post some stories on FP a long time ago, and I know then that there was a certain thing you had to do to get it to work, and I don't remember what.

This chapter is basically written from real experience, although names have been changed. A lot of the flashbacks further on in the story will also be written from real experience, but the plot is completely original, if that makes sense.

It's really hard for me to post this up, and I've been debating about it for a long time, since a lot of it is very personal. So please, don't be too mean. )

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.

Chapter one is written, but not typed, so it should be up soon. )