The Juxtapose Accentuation

The Ear-worm Stimulation

A/N: Apologies for the delay.

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything related to TBBT that is included in this fan fiction.

Chapter 13: The Ear-worm Stimulation

Brent Matthews is a 3rd class, Petty Officer in the US Navy. For the past year, he's been out of the country, moving from one country to another. Their troop never spent more than a month in one place. He's been in service for at least 5 years now. A few months before the last time he went abroad, he was about to ask his girlfriend to marry him, because he thought he wouldn't be sent anywhere else anymore. The following week after he bought a ring, he received a military order in the mail. He was devastated. He didn't want to go back to service anymore. He lost his best friend in one, unexpected encounter with rebels while in the sea. The incident affected him more than what the people around him knew. He couldn't recount the story, even to Vanessa, when he came back. He saw a shrink before heading back to Texas then, so he wouldn't look like hell when he faced his friends and family. The fear consumed him and at one point, it almost broke him too.

He needed to go on this mission; but he didn't want to leave Vanessa anymore. Not after how he saw what losing a person's other half was, in the eyes of his friends' fiance. The choice between the people he love and the country he loves was weighing him down. Having little time to make the decision, he told Vanessa to go to their favorite place in town; a small chapel near the plaza. The day went in a blur; he didn't know how he managed to break it off with the only woman he loved. He broke things off; thinking that leaving Vanessa like that would make it easier in case something bad happens to him. In case he dies while doing what's right, in the eyes of his country. He sacrificed their relationship, with the hope that he would spare her of the crippling pain she might go through if he never comes back. Little did he know that it wouldn't be that much different. He didn't know until after that day, how it's like to live like a dead person.

Just a few months after he rejoined the Navy, his commanders noticed the changes in him. As time passes, he was being less responsive and have proven to be ineffective with the usual tasks he did the first few years that he was with the team. Things did not get better; no matter how hard he tried to forget Vanessa, he couldn't do it. The more he tried, the more thoughts of her entered his mind. That picture of a broken person that he left inside the chapel that day kept haunting him. Eventually, he was relieved of his duties.

Choosing not to hear any news about Vanessa, he didn't know anything about how equally hurt she was. He didn't know anything about the devastated girl he left who had cried each night, asking, thinking what went wrong. The girl who didn't know what really happened. He didn't know the impact of what he did until Vanessa's father hit him in the face; it wasn't until when he was yelled at to never show up again; it wasn't until he found out that Vanessa no longer lived in Texas, that he knew just how much his leaving affected her. She left. The girl who gave up offers from Universities around the country because she loved her family, her little town, so much; finally found a reason to leave.

Brent did not know where to start, but he knows he needed to make things right. He needed her back in his life. There might be little, to no chance of that happening with the way things are looking up, but this is Vanessa; and he's not giving up unless she asks him to. Right now, there's one person he needs to talk to: Vincent Bennett.

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"Sheldon, what are you having for lunch?" asked, Penny. Sheldon looked up from his laptop to see her pulling her hair up.