Accidental Penpal

York takes a deep breath as he steps off the plane. The flight had been long and he could barely stand sitting any longer. His leg was still sore from the injuries a few months back and Maggie had told him that it was still going to take time to heal; he just hadn’t believed her until now. He had a slight limp to his gate now that he was told wasn’t ever going to go away even with all the therapy he was signed up for now that he was back in the States.
 
After he had gotten released from the hospital with a clean bill of health, his Commanding Officer had called him into his office soon after. When he had walked inside, he knew what was coming. Who wouldn’t? His leg was never going to be the same and he wasn’t going to be able to use it like he used to. So after getting a honorary discharge, he packed his bags, said goodbye to his team, and got on a plane back to California.
 
And that’s where he found himself now, in the heart of LAX walking through the insane crowd toward the baggage claim. All he wanted to do was get to the baggage claim, get his bag and get the rental he had ordered ahead of time. He already knew the first place he wanted to go now that he was discharged. Ever since he heard the words that he was done, he knew what he was going to do when he was going to get home.
 
As soon as he got his bag, he spun on his heel and headed toward the rental car place. He knew the airport like the back of his hand and so he easily found it and walked up to the front desk to sign the papers. It seemed like forever but finally he was handed the keys to the car and made his way outside toward the car lot to find the car.
 
When he was inside and pulling out of the parking lot, he pulled out into traffic and made his way towards the address that he had memorized on the flight over. He had all Kendal’s letters tucked neatly inside his carryon bag since he had refused to put them in his other bag since they could get lost. His bags had gotten lost before and he didn’t even want to risk that happening since they were so important to him.
 
The whole flight home he had had this nagging feeling that something was wrong. After Aaron had sent the letter, which York hadn’t had a chance to read so he honestly didn’t know what his best friend had said, there had been no reply a few weeks later. York was just hoping that the mail was running late and told Aaron to keep an eye out for it and send it right home as soon as it came, but honestly, something was telling him that there wasn’t going to be another letter. And York knew that that meant something really bad was happening.
 
Thankfully his destination wasn’t as far as it would have been if he had been beginning from home so in a matter of a half hour, give or take a few extra minutes, he was pulling into the unfamiliar parking lot that belonged to the apartment complex in front of it.
 
Finding the first parking spot he saw, he turned the car off and grabbed the keys getting out and trying to find the right building. When he found it, he jogged over to it pulling open the door and rushing up the stairs to find the apartment he was looking for. Nearly running down the hall, he found a faded number twenty on the door and took a deep breath before raising his hand and giving three short knocks to the door.
 
He could hear rushed footsteps from the other side and the door opened quickly and a strawberry blond stood there with wide worried eyes. “Oh,” she said when she saw him standing there. “Well crap. I thought you were someone else.”
 
“Yeah sorry I know you probably have no idea who I am.” York said as the girl quirked an eyebrow and looked him up and down.
 
Her eyes grew wider as she looked back up to his face and gasped. “You’re the guy that Kendal has been writing to.” She exclaimed as he shrugged and nodded. Ok so it really wasn’t that hard to guess. Maybe the fact that he was still wearing his uniform was the giveaway, but York really wasn’t in the mood to decide how she figured it out. All he wanted to do was find Kendal.
 
“Yeah and I need to see her. Where is she?” He asked and instantly caught the worried expression come back on the girls face.
 
“I-I don’t know,” she whispered as tears filled her eyes. “She left me a weird message on my phone and then I called her to tell her I was coming over and she didn’t pick up. And when I got here she was gone. I honestly have no clue where she is.”
 
York shut his eyes and forced the panic away. That didn’t mean what he thought it meant, for all he knew the strange girl could just be out giving herself a little alone time. But, her apartment was empty. She had plenty of alone time without going out. Oh God, did that mean his suspicions were right then?
 
“You’re Molly right?” He asked as she looked up and nodded. “I thought so, Kendal told me a lot about you. I’m York by the way, the guy she’s been writing to after you dared her to write that drunken letter. Thanks for that by the way.”
 
Molly managed a weak smile as she stepped away from the door to let him in. “You’re welcome I guess.”
 
“Do you have any idea on where she is?” He asked as he stepped inside and noticed that the apartment was strangely cleaner than he expected. It was almost as if Kendal had prepared for all this to happen. Like she had planned this all along.
 
“No, and I’m really worried. This is the worst I’ve ever seen her. I know she cuts and is depressed but Bret and I have always been able to pull her out of her funks. After you didn’t reply she just got worse and worse and we haven’t managed to pull her out yet. I feel like this is it for her. That she’s going to do something bad.”
 
“Wait what? When I didn’t write back? I couldn’t, I got hurt but my friend wrote back for me. She should have gotten in.” He replied as his blood ran cold. She didn’t even know that he had forgiven her. She didn’t know that everything was ok between them and that he promised he would be there for her. She was all alone and no one knew where she was. This was just confirming his fears all along. She was going to really do it this time. She was really going to kill herself.
 
As if she knew what he was thinking, Molly was already walking into the kitchen toward a stack of neatly sorted mail. “You really did write back?”
 
“Yes, as soon as I got the letter and Aaron read it to me, I told him what to write. She should have gotten it by now.”
 
She continued to sort through the mail until she stopped at one particular letter and York noticed the familiar chicken scratch of his best friend’s handwriting. “Aha! Here it is! And it’s not open!”

“This isn’t good, I knew that something was up. Molly do you have any idea where she could be?” He asked as he turned her to face him again. He saw the tears building up in her eyes once again and before either of them could say anything, someone called Molly from the doorway and they both turned and York saw a guy standing there.
 
“Hey Molls, have you heard anything from-” the guy started but stopped when he saw York standing there. “Molly who is this? Don’t you think we have more important things to do that talk to random guys? Our best friend is out there somewhere and we can’t just give up on her.”
 
Molly shook her head. “No Bret, this is York. The guy Kendal-” and before she could even finish what she was saying Bret was closing the distance between them and bringing his arm back to punch York.
 
York easily ducked out of the way as Bret swung and his hand made contact with the wall behind him. Molly gave a startled scream as Bret went to try to swing again and York ducked behind him grabbing the boy before he could try it again restraining him.
 
“You jerk! Let me go! You’re the whole reason Kendal is a mess to begin with!” He was screaming as he fought against York’s hold on him and yelled every profanity he could think of at York. “You’re such a jerk for not writing her back! Why didn’t you? Huh? Did you get sick of her? Did you think she was a broken piece of junk after you read that letter that she wrote you spilling her guts about everything from her past? Is that how heartless you are? Playing a girl like that and just throwing her away like trash?”
 
By then both Bret and Molly were crying and York couldn’t help but want to also. Even if he had never met her, he was just as worried about her as they were. All he wanted to do was find her. All he wanted to do was save her.
 
Molly was screaming at him to calm down and York was still trying to keep him still as he struggled against him more. “You’re a heartless person! You should have just thrown away her letter when you first got it back in February! You shouldn’t have lead Kendal on like that! It’s all your fault that she’s missing and probably about to kill herself! Just go back to wherever you came from! Just leave us alone! You’ve done enough damage!”
 
“Would you just calm the hell down and let me explain?” York roared at the boy and he stopped struggling for a split second before trying to get out of his grasp again. But York knew it was useless, he had a good couple of pounds over the boy and was used to this sort of thing. The Army had them practice hand to hand combat during their training so it wasn’t that hard to keep the boy restrained.
 
“No! Just let me go and leave you worthless piece of crap!”
 
“Shut up,” York pulled him a little tighter and the boy cried out in pain. He only held on for a second before letting him go, only wanting him to understand that he wasn’t joking around about him calming down. Molly seriously didn’t need to see this, she was a mess as it is and this wasn’t helping her one bit.
 
Once he finally calmed him down and was able to have a civil conversation with him and proving that he did write back after showing him the unopened letter that Aaron had sent, he finally understood. It was a complete misunderstanding and they needed to find Kendal as soon as possible before she did what they all feared she had gone to do. York only hoped, no, prayed that they weren’t too late.
 
“Do you guys have any idea where she could be?” York asked as Bret shook his head. There were all standing in Kendal’s living room trying to brainstorm on ideas. Well, Bret and Molly were, they had been friends with Kendal for much longer so they knew her better. York was just trying to keep himself calm and not thinking about what Kendal might be doing at that moment. He couldn’t think of that. Not right now. Not while they needed to focus on finding her.
 
“We’ve looked everywhere that she might be. Her parents place, her favorite café, everywhere. We have run out of ideas.” Molly explained as York ran his hand over his face trying not to snap at the girl. Obviously they hadn’t looked everywhere since Kendal was still missing.
 
Then it hit him and he wanted to kick himself for not thinking about it sooner. Kendal had even written about it in a few of the letters she sent him.
 
“What about the park?” He asked and was met by two blank stares. “Ok I take that as a no. Where is that park with the old bridge that Kendal likes?”
 
“Just down the block,” Bret replied as York turned towards the door. “You honestly think she’ll be there?”
 
“No I know she’ll be there. She wrote about it in one of her letters to me.” He pulled the door open mentioning that he would be back soon and ran down the hallway to the door.
 
When he got outside, he followed the brief directions Bret had given him and ran as fast as he could toward the park. He prayed that he wasn’t too late. He needed to find her, to tell her everything that he had said in that letter he had written. She needed to know that she was going to be ok.
 
Entering the park, there was a sign conveniently placed close by mentioning a bridge that York prayed was the one that she had been talking about. He almost ran into a family as he began running again following the signs toward the bridge reapeating the same prayer he had been saying since he had gotten off the plane.
 
Please God, please let me not be too late. Please don’t let her do anything stupid.
 
When the bridge came into sight, he picked up his pace and began to see one lonely figure standing on the bridge. No, not on the bridge, on the ledge of the bridge staring at the water flowing under it. There was a good hundred some feet between the bridge and the water and York knew that if she jumped there was no way she would survive it.
 
“Kendal!” He screamed as he forced his legs to go faster. “No Kendal! Don’t! Please!”