Hazed

I hope you enjoyed one man's war, this is the direct sequel I've actually had this chapter written for about six months now just waiting to be used. I hope you enjoy the story and please read One Man's War for some context on what is happening at this point also please leave a review telling me what you thought and how it could be improved. I don't own COD but I do own my characters .

I was confused as I came too in a hospital bed in Birmingham, back in the UK. How? I was in Russia not moments before how did this happen? I had a million and one questions to ask but there was no one around me, no doctors, no nurses and no other patients. It was like a bloody ghost story, fucking I am Legend shit or something, I felt like at any second some zombie fucking vampire thing was going to jump out and kill me.

As I laid in the bed I couldn't move obviously the grenade blast had jarred my back enough to stop me from moving. I looked at the ceiling waiting for someone to come in, I moved my arms my forearms had some new lovely scars running down them like daggers from the shrapnel but atleast my fingers looked pretty intact. I looked at my tattoo which ran down my lower right arm it seemed in pretty good nick but my left arm had a large scar in the general area that the tattoo was I'm so luckily I'm right handed.

I could hear the street outside bustling like an English city normally is but I felt really detached being in the hospital. I must have been awake for an hour of two when a nurse came in to see how I was.

"You're awake," She said sounding surprised.

"Where am I?" I asked her as she checked the monitor next to me, I couldn't really turn my head much as I was pretty restrained.

"Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, West Midlands, England," She replied as she looked down at me in the bed, her long brown hair tied up behind her head and her piercing blue eyes looked at me with almost pity.

"What happened?" I asked her as she looked me up and down checking my right leg.

"Erm….. I'm not the person you should ask," She simply replied.

"Where's Soap and Price….. Griggs…. And Gaz… Oh fuck!" I shouted as I remembered Gaz and Griggs had been killed by Zachaev in Russia. As I laid there nearly sobbing to myself two soldiers armed with their SA-80s came into the room accompanying a doctor clad in his white coat and he even had a nice pair of glasses on.

"How are you doing?" The doctor asked me calmly as he waved off the soldiers.

I just stared at the ceiling waiting to compose myself, "What happened?" I asked him as I looked up at the ceiling which had some shitty faded cream white paint on it.

"From what I gather you were on an operation in Russia, you were compromised and from then on you stepped on a grenade," The doctor then paused, I had a feeling about what he was going to say, "I'm sorry," He told me as he placed his hand on the rail on the edge of my bed, "We couldn't save your right leg, we had to amputate," as he spoke those words my heart sank deep into my chest, sure when I was a marine in Afghanistan we joked about losing a leg, losing an arm or even losing your life but to actually have it happen. I just couldn't describe the feeling.

"Well what now?" I asked the doctor with a tears filling up my eyes.

"That my friend is up to you," He told me as he then placed his hand on my shoulder, "You can either, sit and wallow in your own self-pity," He paused again, "Or you could get your arse up out of the bed and prove that you've been downed but your still going to get on with your life," He told me with an ear to ear smile.

He ripped the thing holding my head in place off and I could look around, I was afraid to look down at my leg, I just turned my head to look at the doctor, "How can you say things will be alright?" I asked him on the brink of tears.

"Because I was once you, I didn't believe it either but trust me mate, it gets easier," he told me in his obviously non doctoring voice as it sounded slightly West Country with a mix of welsh. As he walked out of the door I could see a metal rod with a plastic foot attached detruding from under his lab coat.

Two Weeks later.

I was up and out of the bed all be it in a wheel chair, it was great I had my freedom again like I could go anywhere, atleast anywhere Ashley could wheel me. I felt bad that she had to continually wheel me around like some kind of sick puppy but she didn't seem to mine. Although occasionally I would wheel myself around just so she would have too.

She never looked down on me the whole time I was in that wheelchair, well figuratively speaking, as I was at her chest level. Not a bad place to be. I kept up the rehabilitation stuff and even managed to get on a sports team in the rehab centre.

Timmy tennis, I had now found my game, it was fun and the lads who surrounded me were all service men and women who had lost their limbs fighting for queen and country. We all became close; I even managed to rope Ashley into playing a game or two in that week.

On the Friday night when Ashley was wheeling me back to my bed she was explaining about her life in Surrey, it was very normal she thought about normal things, like the bills, family and love. It was so alien to me how things in the civilian world actually affected people. When we arrived back on my new ward, which actually had people on it I think the government finally figured out I wasn't going to talk about anything that had happened and deemed me safe, I was helped into my bed. Well helped meaning Ashley held the wheel chair in place while I lifted myself in.

When I was comfortable and sat nicely in my bed the doctor who had been treating me, Dr. Eric Smith, came into the room. He was holding an envelope which had a red wax seal on it.

"I don't like the looks of that," I said to Ashley as the doctor made his way over to me with the envelope clutched in his hands tightly like it was of the utmost importance.

"Sgt. Jacks, I have a letter for you," He told me as he simply placed it in my hands and walked away as if he knew what it contained.

I looked at the thickened paper on the envelope it was decorated with a few official markings and on the top right hand corner above the address it had the return address of the base at Credenhill. I looked at the thick red wax on the front it had been imprinted by an SAS imprint I could clearly see the winged dagger with who dares wins at the bottom. I tried to pick off the seal with my nails but I didn't have any which made getting through the seal very difficult.

I looked over to Ashley, "Can I borrow your nails?" She looked just as intrigued as me about the letters contents, I gave her the letter and she effortlessly picked the wax clean off the envelope giving both the envelope and the wax back to me.

I slowly started to pull the letter from the envelope it too was printed on the most expensive piece of paper I think I've ever had my hands on it had a large British army crest in the top left corner and a small SAS badge below it to the right of that was all my soldier information like my number, name, rank, platoon and company. I slid it out further to unveil the A4 sized piece of paper folded over twice cutting it into thirds.

I unfolded the paper and revealed a brief set of words which made my heart sink into a pit of despair the likes of which I had never felt.

Sgt Arthur Jacks,

I can regrettably inform you that you are being medically discharged from her majesties armed forces under grounds of ill fit for service. However due to your outstanding contribution to the crown, the army is continuing to provide funds for your treatment,

Yours faithfully, Major Alistair MacMillan.

"What does it say?" Ashley asked me as I looked down at the piece of paper in front of me feeling a tear roll down my face.

"I've…. I've….. Been booted for my leg," I told her as I wiped the tear from my face and looked at her.

"I'm so sorry, Jacks," She told me as she grabbed my hand placing it in her warm comforting hands, "Is there anything I ca do?" She then asked as I just kept looking at the piece of paper expecting its words to change.

"Get me a phone please," I said to her calmly. She didn't ask why? She just did it for me, about two minutes later she returned with a small black cordless phone.

She gently handed it to me and then asked, "Do you want some privacy?"

I shook my head and simply dialled in the number which I knew all too well but had not used in months, maybe even years. I waited for the dialling tone to go through and eventually after what seemed like minutes I heard the other end get picked up. "Hello, who is this?" A female voice echoed down the phone piercing my soul with the comforting sound.

"Hey Mum, it's me Arthur," I said into the mouth piece calmly.

"Oh my god, Arthur, are you okay?" She replied frantically, I couldn't blame her I hadn't spoken or seen her in about a year ever since I signed up for the SAS, it was the day I had signed the papers for selection was the day I last spoke to her.

"No… I'm really not okay," I told her as I started welling up, Ashley passed me a tissue so I could wipe my face but it felt like it was too late.

"Why? What's wrong? Where are you? Are you even in the country?" She then asked sounded more and more frantic.

"Calm down," I simply told her, pausing realising how much I sounded like teenage me growing up in Essex. "I'm in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, I want you to come down," I said to her as I calmed my body through awaiting her response.

"Yes, I'll get your sister to drive we'll be there by morning." She told me sounding almost excited.

"Okay mum, I'll see you soon okay?" I told her quietly.

"Yes, we'll get there as soon as possible," She then told me as I could hear her talking to my sister in the background.

"Okay, well I love you and I'll see you soon," I uttered as I almost completely let my emotions roar.

"Okay, see you soon, I love you too, bye," She replied as the phone hung up.

"Are you finished?" Ashley asked as I wiped my eyes clear again. I just nodded at her as I gave her back the phone which she ran off to where she found it. I looked back at the piece of paper but just as Ashley came back I slipped it back into its envelope she had been gone maybe ten seconds. I placed the envelope behind my pillow and then moved my leg over the edge of the bed so I was sitting facing Ashley who was stood up in front of me.

"Well don't just stand there," I told her jokingly moving my head to the side gesturing that she should sit on my bed with me.

"Oh okay," she laughed as she tucked the hair on the right side of her face away and pulled herself up onto the bed next to me. "So that was your mother?" She then asked me as I looked over to the clock, it was almost eleven pm.

"Yeah it was," I replied as I looked down at her legs and then at mine it just looked odd seeing three legs and not four.

"How long has it been since you last saw her?" She then asked.

"You are an inquisitive person aren't you?" I asked her but I didn't expect an answer she just blushed, "It's been about a year, I joined the regiment and then we pretty much stopped talking, I just think she was afraid of something like this happening. She was right to be."

"No she wasn't, you shouldn't block people out just because they're doing something that you disagree with and besides your taking it rather well, I think," she then told me.

"So when do you clock off?" I asked her thinking that it was getting late for a nurse to still be in the hospital.

"An hour ago," She told me, "I had to beat you at tennis first, and I don't know why I'm still here to be honest," She told me as she looked down at her legs and placed her hands in her lap.

"Well in that case what do we have around here for fun?" I asked her as she simply looked at me with a grin on her face. She scampered off into the office where she had retrieved the phone from and after a few minutes of her scuffling around she came back with a small cardboard box. "Now what have you got there?" I asked her as she came back clutching it like her life depended on it.

"Chess," She told me excitably.

"Chess are you being serious?" I asked her as she opened the box and laid the board on the bed next to me and then sat next to the board.

"Why not are you afraid of losing?" She then asked me as she gave me a snarky grin on her face.

"I accompanied and learned my trade off one of the best officers I have ever know you don't have a chance against the strategy he taught me," I laughed at her as we started to arrange our pieces on the board, I hadn't ever really played chess before, I knew the pawns went at the front but after that I was completely looking at what Ashley was doing.

About two and a half hours later I had lost three games straight, and I was no closer to winning in every game, I was enjoying every minute of it however. We were just setting up the pieces for a fourth game when the doctor came into the room bearing his white lab coat and had a clipboard in one hand.

"Sergeant, you have a visitor," He told me as I heard the clicking of heels behind him down the hallway where I knew the reception was.

"Ah good," I replied to him as Ashley shot up from the bed firing the chess pieces everywhere.

"We could have still played that," I laughed at her as she turned bright red in the face moments later a small statured woman walked into the room her shoes were newly polished her trousers marks on them from a day at work and her shirt did not scream of her wealth but as soon as she looked at me her expression became one of relief but also sorrow. I could feel myself welling up inside like I was going to boil over, I could see a lone tear rolling down Ashley's face but the woman showed no signs of tears she just stood there. I decided to speak first.

"Hello Mum."

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, the first of many I hope I know where I'm going in this story now there is a plotline I am going to explore but please leave a review telling me what you thought of the story and how I could improve it further I really do like the feedback anyway until next time ….PEACE!