A/N: Not mine. Couldn't leave all my wonderful readers hanging for long. I got a ton of reviews yesterday and today, yea! Thank you, everyone! Especially those that said they cried. That means I'm doing something right.

Chapter 11 – 3rd person POV

"Emmett?" Bella whispered, before her eyes turned back into her head and her body dropped toward the floor. Luckily, Emmett had very fast reflexes, and managed to catch her before she hit.

"What the hell??" screamed Rose as she and Alice came barreling through the front door. They had seen Bella being cradled in some guy's arms, clearly unconscious, through the windows of the diner. "What the hell do you…" Rose trailed off, finally getting a good look at the soldier holding her friend. She whispered, "Emmett?" just as Alice whispered, "Jazz?"

At the guy's nods, the girls flew into their arms, squeezing for all they were worth, though Rose had a hard time getting around the still-unconscious Bella.

"What the hell is going on here?" Charlie snapped, coming through the kitchen door with Sue trailing behind him.

Rose looked up at Charlie with tears streaming down her face, hanging tightly on to Emmett's neck. "It's the guys, Charlie. Emmett and Jasper. Edward's buddies. They've come home," she said before burying her face into his chest once again.

"What happened to Bella?" Charlie asked, though he had a pretty good idea what the answer was.

Emmett shrugged as best he could and answered," She fainted when she realized it was me."

Charlie nodded in acknowledgement. "Are you hungry? Why don't I make you some lunch and you can take it to the house to catch up," Charlie suggested, glancing at the girls to make sure they were okay with it. If the girls trusted the guys, he would trust them as well. At their nod, he returned to the kitchen as Sue picked up where Bella had left off.

"How is she?" Emmett asked quietly. He could see the toll Edward's death had taken on her. She looked like a shell of the person he'd seen in Edward's pictures.

"Slowly getting better. We were so worried about her that first week."

"What did his parents say? Did they give her any details?"

"She hasn't heard from them at all. We found out at a football game."

"What?? What do you mean they never contacted her? And how did you find out at a football game?"

"Just that. They never contacted her. We were in Forks for the game, and Bella was supposed to hopefully meet his parents there, so she was keyed up big time. She couldn't sit still all week. Then, at the game, they were reading off a list of the local Vietnam dead, and they said his name. Emmett, she fell apart. Completely. She was catatonic for a week, didn't eat or drink, barely slept. Even now, she screams in her sleep from nightmares, though she won't tell us what they're about."

Emmett ran his free hand over his face and through his hair. "Jesus, that is so wrong. I can't believe they didn't contact her. Edward specifically told them to do so if anything happened to him. He tried to change his emergency contact information to her but they wouldn't let him since they weren't at least engaged yet."

"Do you know what happened? She's going to want to know, no matter how painful it is to hear."

"Yeah, we know," replied Jasper, who'd been quietly following the conversation. "When she's ready, we'll tell all of you. I'd rather only have to relive it once." The girls nodded their heads in agreement as Sue brought them a huge bag of food for them to take. "Ma'am, can you get Charlie to help us get Bella into the car? Neither of us can carry her with our injuries." It was only then that the girls noticed the bandages both guys were wearing.

"Oh my God! Are you okay?" Alice exclaimed, running her hands down Jasper's face and chest, as if she were looking for additional injuries that she couldn't see.

"We'll be fine. We just need some time to heal. And maybe a couple of beautiful nurses to distract us from the pain," Emmett replied, dropping a wink at Rose, who smiled and blushed. With that, Rose went to bring the car to the front of the diner while Alice went to get Bella's stuff from the back. With Charlie's help, they got everything and everyone loaded into the car.

"How do you plan on getting her into the house?" Charlie asked.

"We're going to my house. The guys are staying in the guest house out back for now and Dad'll be there to help." At Charlie's look of confusion regarding the housing arrangements, Rose explained," We talked about it via letter. They planned on at least visiting here when they were allowed to come home. I talked to my parents about it, and they agreed to let the guys stay there as long as they wanted. My dad thinks Emmett has a calming influence on me," Rose said with a smirk while rolling her eyes. With that, Charlie laughed and tapped the top of the car for them to go.

*****

It was almost an hour later when Bella opened her eyes to find herself lying on a bed in a familiar bedroom. She rubbed her face, trying to figure out what happened. The last thing she remembered was twinkling brown eyes and dimples. Slipping off the bed, she wandered into the next room where she heard voices.

"Finally! I was afraid you were going to sleep all day!" Alice exclaimed, jumping up and pulling Bella into a hug. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just confused. What happened?" Bella looked around as she asked, before focusing on the two men resting on the couches. It took only a moment for her memory to return and for her to realize exactly who she was seeing. "Emmett? Jasper? Is it really you?" she asked, flying into Emmett's arms, beginning to cry.

"How come he gets all the hugs?" Jasper muttered to himself, before grinning as Alice plopped down beside him. She would have climbed into his lap, but concern for his injury kept her from it. The worries about whether the two couples would actually want to be together after meeting had proven to be in vain. Their physical connection had been immediate and deep.

Bella soon disengaged herself from Emmett and moved to give Jasper a long hug, as well. Her tears wet his tee-shirt, but he didn't care. He knew that it was likely that his shirt would become much more damp with the story that they had to tell soon. "Eat your lunch and we'll talk when you're ready, okay?" He knew Edward would have been overwrought to see her look so devastated, and furious at how she had learned of his death.

Bella nodded and went to get her lunch from the kitchen. Sitting in an arm chair flanked by the couches on which the two couples sat, she gathered her thoughts and asked, "How badly are you injured? Do you have to go back when you've healed?"

"Neither of us has to go back, though not just because of the injuries. It's a part of the story we'll tell when you're ready for it. I was shot in the shoulder, which will take a while to heal and get back to normal. Jasper was hit in the knee and will likely limp the rest of his life."

"Emmett saved my life, a couple of times. He caught sight of the sniper before I did and pushed me out of the way, which is when he got shot. I got hit trying to drag his ass back behind a large rock. I owe him." Jasper's tone was matter of fact, though that didn't stop a tinge of pink from blooming on Emmett's face.

"I figure it's even. You saved my ass more times than I can count. That time was just literal instead of figurative."

Bella had finished her food by this time and squared herself in her chair. "Okay, tell me what happened." Alice and Rose got up from their spots and sat on the arms of the chair Bella was seated in, each holding her hand. Rose reached over and grabbed a box of tissues. She knew this was going to be hard.

Emmett and Jasper looked at each other, as if bracing each other for the coming pain. Taking a deep breath, Jasper asked, "Did you get Edward's last letter? Did he say anything about going on a long mission?" At Bella's nod, he continued. "We weren't told much, just that we should plan for being out for several weeks and that we would likely see action. The first two days were uneventful. The third day, though, we came upon a clearing. Edward was assigned to flank to the right, with us about ten feet behind him. I don't know if he hit a trip wire or what, but there was suddenly a huge explosion about fifteen feet in front of us. Edward was blown into the trees. We both rushed forward to get him when the bullets started flying.

It was a trap, and the enemy had been laying in wait for us. Emmett and I were hit during that brief firefight. We soon realized we were surrounded, and were taken prisoner. We were able to get Emmett's wound to stop bleeding fairly quickly. It didn't hit any bones or major blood vessels, so that was good. My knee was a different story. I lost quite a bit of blood before they could get it to stop.

We were forced to start marching, heading toward a POW camp. They'd taken our boots away from us to make it harder for us to escape, so it was really slow going. Emmett dragged me every step of the way, which is how he saved my life a second time. If I had lagged behind, they would have finished me off. Two days into the march, we were stopped to rest near a stream when we were suddenly under attack again. This time, it was our side doing the attacking. Base camp had learned of our capture and sent another two units out to try to get us before we reached enemy camp. They succeeded.

After the fight was over, every one of the enemy was dead, and the rest of us were rescued. There were only 20 men left of the original 35 in our company. They couldn't fly us out of that location, so we had to march all the way back to base. We got them to detour to where the original attack had occurred to see if anyone was left alive. When we got back to that site, we were stunned at what we found." At this point, Emmett took over the story. The telling was clearly draining Jasper.

"The enemy hadn't stopped at just taking us prisoner. They had left a few guys behind to strip the dead of valuables, ammo, etc. Typical actions during war. Even our side does it. Usually they just leave the dead where they land, but this time, they'd piled the bodies and burned them. There was nothing left of the men we'd lost. Even the dog tags were unreadable. I searched the area where Edward had been blown to, and found some blood and your ribbon." Emmett pulled the ribbon from one of his pants pockets. It was nearly black with dirt, soot, and dried blood. Taking if from Emmett, Bella grasped the ribbon to her chest as her sobs overtook her again. Once she had herself under some semblance of control again, she nodded at Emmett to continue.

"We'd hoped he just been injured, maybe knocked out, and overlooked. But when I saw the ribbon, I knew that he was gone. He wouldn't take that off for anything. And believe me, he got ragged about it a lot when we got to 'Nam. He just grinned, shrugged, and walked off." They were silent for several minutes, absorbing the information they'd been given.

"So, you said that you're back permanently, but not necessarily because of the injuries?" Alice asked, sitting down next to Jasper to hold his hand cradled in her own.

He nodded, saying," We were prisoners of war, POWs, for two days. POWs can choose to leave the service immediately, and we get full benefits for life. We don't necessarily have to work for the rest of our lives because of our experience, though we can if we want. We both chose to end our service and come home. We both wanted to come here, though we'll need to go visit our families soon, probably over Christmas. Rose, is the offer for the guest house still open-ended?"

"Absolutely. You can stay here for as long as you want. Rose, Bella, and I will be moving to Seattle come June, but you can stay as long as you want."

"Actually, we were thinking that we would join you at UW. The military will pay for our education, as well, so we're going to take advantage of it. We've already contacted them, and secured our spots." Alice squealed her excitement and happiness before almost knocking Jasper to the floor with her exuberant hug. Rose's reaction was more reserved, gently touching Emmett's face before leaning in for a hug. Bella's smiled and looked away. She was glad for her friends, but it was bittersweet at best.