Ad Astra Per Aspera [2] - Band of Brothers

50 | world

" Words are not enough to express the unconditional love that exists between a mother and a daughter."

- Caitlin Houston

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Hazel and Joe came giggling from her bedroom, into the open back room which lead out towards the balcony that overlooked the mountains. 

Hazel's smile slowly fell and Joe softly let his gaze rest on her as she took a few tentative steps forward. 

Lena stood back at the kitchen counter, a few plates in her grasp as she watched Hazel slowly step out onto the balcony again fro the first time since 1942. 

Hazel slowly stepped over the threshold and suddenly felt a warmth touch her soul. Her hands gently lent against the wooden railing and for a moment she looked up and towards the Appalachian mountains - they weren't the Alps - they weren't European. 

They were American. 

She was home. 

She was here and she was home with Joe and her mother and Daisy. 

She was home.

 Hazel felt her hands tremble slightly as tears threatened to fill her vision as suddenly each and every memory of war rushed her system. Biting back her lip, Hazel stared forward, her eyes welling with tears. 

How could one be so happy one second and then so ungodly emotional the next? 

It was because the last she had looked upon these mountains, she had been a different person. She hadn't known what a war could hold, she hadn't known what a war could take and take and take. She hadn't known any of it. She had been simply a young girl, with the want to change the world. Now, she stood a completely new and changed human being in this dark and scary and cruel world. She had seen what humans can do to each other simply because of the thirst for power. 

So brainwashed, so inhuman. 

Lena softly let the plates down onto the table and hurried forward past Joe and Daisy towards her daughter. Lena could sense when her daughter was upset, even without seeing her face. Lena softly approached Hazel watching as Hazel stood, like a young girl again, staring out at the mountains which glowed with light. Lena softly let a gentle smile blossom over her lips and placed a gentle hand on Hazel's shoulder. 

Hazel immediately softened at the touch of her mother. 

Hazel always knew when it was her mother's touch. A touch she hadn't felt in so long. Hazel let a small sob past her lips, as she looked down, shaking her head. 

And for Lena, her heart broke. She hadn't heard Hazel cry in 3 years - but she hadn't forgotten it, what her daughter had cried like before. And it didn't take long before Hazel had all but turned and let herself be curled up in her mother's arms. And Hazel broke, she shattered, she felt herself fall apart in a flood in her mother's arm - the touch which had been her only comfort for 13 years and had never stopped being her comfort in this horrid world.