A/N: ALL READERS; PLEASE TAKE AWARENESS OF THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE.

Ahem, now that I have your attention, I have a few things to say. It has been brought to my attention that this story is very popular, seeing that it's amount of subscribes has surpassed that of my previous popular story "Another Day, Another War", and has tied it's amount of reviews before it's even finished.

As a response to one of the reviews I recently received by an anonymous reviewer, I will be writing another multi-chapter story soon. But I need my readers' help. On my profile, I have a poll with a quite a few pairings listed. Many of them are very different pairings, straying away from the mainstream things like UsUk, GerIta, Spamano, etc… Again; I need your guys' votes on this poll to decide what pairing I am to write with next. After the pairing is decided, then I will put up a poll questioning the genre of the new story. Please, head over to my profile and cast your votes in the poll. It would be very helpful.

Also, for this chapter, I have a little theme song for it. It's "Remember When" by Future World Music. Do try to listen to it. It is a very good instrumental song.

Note the fact that this is going to be a rather short chapter, but please, bear with me. The next chapter is going to be the last one, and I plan to make it at least 4,000 words.

Now, let's get to the story.

xxx

I remembered everything so vividly, even when I was bleeding to the point of what I assumed was death.

I had gotten up after a large helicopter had crashed and caused an explosion that killed many almost instantly. I looked around a bit, went towards the center of camp, unknowing of an injured Långtradare with a knife waiting to strike. He had jumped from his cover, stabbed me in the abdomen, then had tried to retreat. But then Berwald went after the man, and had gotten into a fistfight with him. Berwald ended up pinned down, being beaten the living hell out of. Under my own sheer will to not let the last thing I saw be Berwald, whom I thought was just a regular soldier at the time, get killed; I, with much effort and struggle, pulled the knife from my abdomen, threw it, and nailed the Långtradare on top of Berwald right in the neck. Berwald, after a few moments, got up and hurried over to me, crying out my name and pleading for me to live. After a minute or so, I fell unconscious in his arms. I, for one, thought I was dead.

But I was wrong.

I slowly opened my eyes, only to be blinded by the brightness of an incredibly white room. I immediately noticed that there was a tube down my throat, connected to a machine which was breathing for me. Machines around me beeped and whistled as I stirred to consciousness, almost causing me to panic. But then I heard a familiar monotone voice.

"Calm down, Tino, you're safe now." It was Lukas. With half-shut eyes, I looked to him. He pressed a few buttons on the machines then meandered over to me.

"Listen, you have a mechanical ventilator providing your breath. I'm going to take it out, and you'll need to start breathing on your own; which you haven't done in two days. Your throat will most likely be sore, but you should be able to do just fine." He explained. He placed one of his hands on the ventilation machines tube and placed his other one under my chin, tilting my head back. He pulled the tube out and I found myself coughing, which hurt like hell.

Once I stopped, I got a good look at the room around me. There were quite a few machines sitting around, many attached to different IV's in my arms. The white room that surrounded me was definitely a hospital room, most likely a room in the Intensive Care Unit. I glanced over Lukas as he disposed of the used breathing tube, realizing that he was in doctors' scrubs, but was also bandaged up from wounds he had sustained.

"… What happened to you…?" I asked, my voice hoarse and raspy. I hadn't spoken a word since I had fallen unconscious in Berwald's arms, I expected to sound pretty horrible.

Lukas chuckled a bit.

"Out of all the things you could ask right now, you ask about my injuries? You're a very considerate person Tino. But if you must know, when that helicopter crashed into the camp, the explosion was very close to my tent. I got burned, but not very badly. I also got cut up a bit from shrapnel, but it wasn't major whatsoever. Worst I received was a second degree burn on my right arm."

"… Lucky you… Where's…. Where's Mathias? Is he okay?" I questioned.

"Mathias is doing alright. A piece of metal that came off of the helicopter shattered his knee, and he got a few burns. He's currently on crutches, and his burns are healing very well so far." Lukas responded. "But enough about mine and Mathias' conditions. How are you feeling right now?"

"I'm in some pain… But it's nothing I can't handle…"

"You're very lucky, you know. The knife that man used caused quite a bit of damage to you internally. Your lung was hit and it collapsed; luckily we were able to repair it. You also were mere ounces of blood loss away from death. You were bleeding a lot internally, and externally. Most people don't survive a stab wound like that. I would have hated myself if I wasn't able to participate in aiding your recovery. Once I was treated for my wounds and your surgery was complete, the Finnish doctors were able to pull up my medical credentials on an online database and I was given full jurisdiction over your recovery."

"… I'm glad I survived… I'd hate to leave Ber… Wait, where's Berwald? Is he okay?"

"Don't fret, Tino. Berwald is fine. He's beat up, but he's alright. He lost one of his bottom teeth, got a split lip, had his eye swollen shut yet again, had his hand broken yet again, and had his ribs that were fractured were broken. But even with the physical pain he was in, he refused to accept treatment here in Oulu until he knew that you were going to be okay. He's a tough man, and his recovery is going smoothly."

"Where is he…?"

"In a different room. He's been instructed not to move around too much with his ribs the way they are, but if you'd like, I can assist him in visiting you."

"That'd be great if you could…"

"Alright. Is there anything else you would like to ask before I go and get him?"

"What was the outcome of the Finnish attack on Pajala?"

"A victory for the Finns. Remaining Finnish Forces raised a Finnish flag over Camp Låssmed, and burnt the Swedish one."

"… What happened to the Danish forces in Pajala?"

"What's left of the forces that were originally there have been reinforced by extras, and are now keeping the camp secure."

"Who's commanding them if Mathias is injured?"

"Another high-ranking Dane. Mathias is still the highest ranked Dane in this war, but there were a few that were close to his rank."

"Okay… Well, you can go get Berwald now… I don't have any other questions."

"Alright. I'll be back up with him in maybe five minutes." With that, Lukas left the room to go get Berwald.

When he came back, I smiled widely as I spotted Berwald walk in after him. Berwald, the ever so stoic man I fell in love with long ago, grinned. He was delighted to see me alive.

"Moi, Berwald." I greeted as he approached.

"Hej Tino… How're y' feeling?" He asked, grabbing my hand gently with his uninjured one.

"… Like hell… But I'll survive. What about you?"

"I'm alright… I've just been worried about y'… I thought y' had died…"

"… I thought I had died too, but we were both wrong, luckily."

"I'm so glad… I don't know how I would have continued without y', Tino… You're m' life… You're everything t' m'…"

"I know… I'm extremely grateful that I have a man like you… I love you so much…"

"I love y' too, Tino… I love y' too…" He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead, and then placed one on my lips. I felt so grateful to receive both, knowing that they were more meaningful than they looked. Two days ago, I was on the borderline of being dead. Now I was alive and recovering, and these kisses symbolized something far more than just our love, but also our survival.

"Well, well. Looks like we've got the whole group together again." A familiar Danish accent made both Berwald and I look to the door. Mathias had entered, on crutches of course.

"Long time no see, Mathias." I said, smiling at the Dane.

"Yeah. Is Luke taking good care of you?" He asked.

"Yes, he is." I replied. I could have sworn I saw Lukas smile, but maybe it was just some blurriness in my vision caused by side-effects of anesthetics they had used on me that made me think that I saw him smiling.

I remembered all the times I had seen Lukas, and he simply seemed so composed, so unmoving, so distant. But he was human, just like the rest of us. If that was a smile on his face, it was because of that fact.

"And you Berwald? How are you doing?" Mathias looked to my Swedish lover.

"I'm great now that I'm with Tino…" Berwald replied with a smile.

"He's a lucky guy to have a man like you. I've never seen someone with so much dedication to their lover; that is, other than Luke and I." Mathias said, laughing a bit. Now I was sure I saw Lukas smile.

"I personally think that Lukas is extremely dedicated to you, Mathias, but is even more dedicated to his profession. The only times I've ever seen his is when he's in some form of medical area." I commented.

"Yeah, that's probably true. Good thing is, if I get injured when we're at home, I don't have to go very far to get the necessary medical treatment. Our house back in Norway is like a hospital itself."

"That's because you're clumsier than a drunk wearing his shoes backwards." Lukas spoke up. Mathias laughed.

"Haven't I done that before? You know, be drunk and wear my shoes backwards?"

"You're such an idiot… But you're my idiot."

Mathias grinned as the Norwegian, whom normally showed little to no affection in public from what I had observed, turned to him and placed a kiss on his lips.

"Jeg elsker deg, Mathias. Always."

"I know. I love you too."

Xxx

And the ending is full of DenNor. Woohoo.

Attention: Again, please visit my profile and answer the poll. That will determine what pairing I am going to focus on for my next multi-chapter story.

Thank you, and please review.

~Raivis-Latvijas