Peyton Brooks

Peyton was born one cold Chicago day to Daniel and Amelia Brooks and it was good. The family had all ready had one son, but they had decided they wanted a fairly big family – two kids sounded just perfect, if a bit challenging. As much as Amelia wanted more, they had to take into account that she was a career soldier, often having to go overseas when the time came for it. They needed to keep in mind that Daniel was going to be more or less raising the boys on his own. It was fine; they did all right. Peyton grew up happy and loved...and then his dad got word that Amelia had been killed in action. It had just been a routine thing,, they had been told, but there had been an ambush by those that hadn't wanted Americans on their soil and she had been one of causalities. Though it had been a struggle to accept, to realize that she was never going to come back, Peyton was now with out a mom and his dad was officially a single parent. They still got by, but things were...heavier now. Things felt a bit harder to get through, but get through they did. When Peyton's dad announced he was dating someone, Peyton felt insulted and hurt on his mom's behalf – they had been in love, right? They had vowed forever, Peyton knew what marriage was about. How could his dad be dating someone else? He was determined to hate Ness...except Ness was really nice. Ness said she didn't want to replace Peyton's mom, just like she didn't expect Daniel to replace the father of her kids. It turned out that Ness' oldest son, Tibby, had been ready to be angry too...only for them both to find out the other was the same age and they got along swimmingly. Even Tibby's little sister, Minty, seemed relatively okay. By the time that Daniel had decided he was going to marry Ness, Peyton had accepted her as his mom and was happy with the family they built.

Family settled, Peyton began to heal from the death of his biological mom. The problems came when he began to build her up in his mind – she was a hero, he had told Tibby and Minty while showing pictures. She went out and helped save people, she had been fighting for freedom. That was what people said of the army; they were always fighting for freedom and safety and if you looked it at from a stand point of people, they just wanted to help. And Peyton, too, wanted to help. Through out his school years, he worked towards the goal of being a career soldier. He was going to be a soldier from the very first chance he could until he retired, it didn't matter what his dad said, it didn't matter that everyone thought it was realistic. When he graduated from high school, he went to enlist...only for his father to stop him, to say that he wanted his son to get a degree first, something to fall back on. Just because Peyton wanted to be a soldier didn't mean he would; there were a lot of factors, not just that maybe he would one day not want to be a soldier. Reluctantly, Peyton went to school, he went and got a degree in accounting. It wasn't his favorite of all things, but it felt like it went by fast and there was always a job market for it, he was sure. But as soon as he graduated, he enlisted. Despite his family's hope, Peyton was taken in and began to go through basic training. Despite everyone hoping that it would turn out to not be what he wanted, Peyton continually became invigorated by the work he was doing, the hope that he was going to help people.

The first few years were fine. He was doing exactly what he had planned for it – he went out into the world, got to see things, got to experience things he never would have back home. He was helping people and keeping them safe, even when he couldn't speak the language. But, despite the good he was doing, things began to wear on him. Some of the people that were coming in seemed to have different ideas about the army; they seemed to be there for some purpose of they just wanted to fight, they wanted an excuse to find violence. It was becoming more and more stressful to be away from home, to be in different places all the time. He felt worn out and tired because the longer he was in the army, the more he moved up, and the more chance there were to rotate him in places where violence was becoming more and more common place. By the time Peyton turned 37, he decided he couldn't do it anymore, he was burned out. He finished up his last rounds of duties and returned home to Chicago. The problem was that retiring didn't fix everything. He had essentially been living out of his parents' home because he had never had a need to stay anywhere else, his romantic relationships had all dwindled because he had been out on active duty, and he just didn't feel any better. For a few months, his family worried because all he seemed to do was sleep. Eventually, though, he got up and started looking for work. He moved in with his brother Tibby rather than his parents, got a job, and he tried to get on with his life.

The rest of Peyton's story is explored in the To the Moon, Through the Stars story, The Stars Were Right.

Playlist

Trivia