Disclaimer: Agh, don't make me say it! fine..i don't own flight 29 down or any of the characters.. i also don't own the song How to save a life, that would belong to the fray!
Summary: hey guys, guess what! this is the last chapter! so i hope you like it, and even if you don't review anyway, so that means you have to review after you finish this chapter!! now go read!
Chapter 7 – November 28th, 2020 – The Aftermath
After that fateful day on the island, the day theylost James – among others - , nothing would ever be the same; especially for Jackson and Angelica. James was close with everyone on the island but it was pretty obvious that he was the closest with Jackson and Angie.
Since that day, Angie and Jackson clung to each other, fearing the loss of another dear friend.
Since that day, Jackson was plagued with visions of his best friend, dead, and nightmares of losing Angie.
Callie and Derek had tried to get Jackson out of this depression he had trapped himself in, but it didn't work. The only time Jackson felt like he was truly happy was when he was alone, with pictures of his family surrounding him. Thoughts of regret plagued his mind: why did he even go to war in the first place? All he wanted was to be back home.
"I wish I could leave this place. Now." Jackson said to Angie that day when they were in the tent alone.
"I wish I could too, Jackson. Anything would beat being here, especially now that James is gone. I miss my husband and my daughter, but we signed up for this. We have to finish it."
"I'm starting to think signing up wasn't such a good idea. Then we wouldn't have had to lose James."
"Think of it this way: if we hadn't signed up for this, we wouldn't have met James, each other, or any of the wonderful people here."
"What happens when one of them dies next?"
"You have to stop living in the future and the past. You need to start living in the now. Nothing will ever get better if you dwell on it, and don't start moving on. Who knows how much time we are going to have left with each other, so we might as well make the most of it."
"You're right Angie. I know you are, it's just…it's so hard without him here to keep us all happy, and to keep us all going when things get hard."
"I know it's hard Jackson, but it's going to get better. I promise you."
"I'm going to hold you to that" Jackson said, smiling for the first time in days.
"You do that." Angie said as she got up to leave the tent. "You should write to your family. I'm sure they're really worried about you."
Jackson nodded and got out some paper and a pencil. Oh, where to begin he thought, and began to write…
Dear Mel, Jennie, Andrew, and everyone else,
I'm sorry I haven't written in over 2 months, and I'm sorry if I have caused you any pain (I'm pretty sure I did). At least I have a legitimate reason for not writing, right? For the past 2 months, our site has been getting attacked around 3 to 4 times a day from the North Korea fighter planes. They've been bombing us nonstop, but it finally ended on the 24th.
Sadly, this isn't going to be a happy-go-lucky we had no casualties letter. We had around 10 casualties I believe. A few of the fighter planes bombed the medical tents that we had, and killed many of the soldiers and the majority of the medics. One of them being James. For those of you that don't know, James, Angelica and I had become extremely close since we have been on the island. It was extremely tough for both of us to loseJames, and it still is hard. I loved James like he was my brother, so I have been a little depressed since then, but it's getting better. This really makes me want to be home with all of you, because I don't know what I would do if I lost any you. I wish I was home with you, and I hope I will be with you soon.
How was your Thanksgiving? I hate that I have to miss all of the special days where all of us are together. I hope I will get to spend Christmas with you, or at least get to talk to you then. I don't know what else to say except I love you all very much, and I can't wait to be back home with you.
Love,
Jackson
Melissa had tears running down her face as she read the letter out loud to all of her friends. She had heard a lot about James before this and knew that he had meant so much to Jackson.
"Oh my gosh" Nathan said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group as Mel had read the letter to them. "I can only imagine what he is going through right now."
"I wish we could be there for him" Lex said as he put his arms around Mel, since they were the only ones without someone to comfort them.
"You have no idea how badly I want to be there for him. I almost considered going with him." Mel said.
"Really?" Eric said, surprised that Mel had even considered going to war.
"Yeah. I never told him though, because I knew that there was know way I could. I couldn't leave the kids."
"We should go, and you" Taylor said pointing to Mel, "you should go write him back."
"Okay. Bye guys" Mel said.
She got up and went into her room to write to Jackson. It would probably be the shortest letter she would ever write to Jackson while he's away. But she knows he doesn't need a long, sappy reply. He just needs to know that she will always be there for him.
Jackson,
We all love you, and we are all going to be with you forever. No matter what. Love, Us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ISLAND – NIGHTTIME
The 20 people that were left on the island were all sitting around the fire, reminiscing about all the ones they lost. (Basically James). After they had finished talking about all of the good times they'd had, Jackson got up, walked into the tent and brought back out his guitar. (Let's pretend he brought his guitar with him, okay? K.)
He sat back down and said "losing James reminded me of this song I used to love when I was a teenager. Even though we did have mostly good times, we did have some bad times. Mostly just Fames and I. I felt like he was the brother I never had, and we definitely fought like we were brothers." Everyone laughed at that. "Anyway, this song is called How to Save a Life by The Fray, so here goes." Jackson said and he started to sing and play.
Step one you say we need to talk Everyone was staring at Jackson, so hypnotized by the sound of his beautiful voice. They had no idea how good Jackson was at singing and playing guitar. Except Angie, Jackson had played for her before.
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window on your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend By this time, Jackson had begun to cry, as did all of the women. All of the men looked very solemn, with tears in their eyes, remembering James.
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I know how to save a life.
Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend How to save a life, how to save a life, Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend When Jackson was finished, everyone stood up and clapped – loudly- for him. Angie went over to Jackson and hugged him, wetting his shoulder with her tears. The wind started to blow, and rustled the leaves on the trees, as if they were clapping along with everyone else. But Jackson knew it was James, and right then, he knew everything was going to be okay. He had been told it many time before, but he believed it now. A/N: SO!!! what do you think of my last chapter!!?? don't worry i'm putting up an epilogue...once i get 5 reviews for this chapter, so no reviews, no epilogue!! (unless of course it takes to long to get 5 reviews) so please review guys, i want to hear your thoughts, even if you don't like it tell me what i can do to make it better. Thanks for everyone who has reviewed for my story! you are all so great!
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life.
As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came.
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life.
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life.
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life.
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life.
How to save a life, how to save a life.
