Talbert and I walked down the hall back to the main lobby where we would hold most of our meetings, along with where we watched the reel weeks before hand. I was still trying to get my own chest back to normal though the bullet, that was blocked by both my book and the dog tag, made it hard to breathe again. The bruise was growing the more I walked, though my mind was more occupied with Grant and how he was holding up. With a German surgeon now working on him to keep him alive, and with Eugene and Spiers looking after him now. I had nothing else to do, but to find something to do and rest.

Rest, I didn't want to rest.

The lobby lights were on, and I heard nothing at first as Talbert and I walked into the large room. It still looked pristine enough, our boots echoing in the room when we were standing there in the middle. We both passed, seeing and hearing nothing at all between the two of us, or anywhere in the damn area.

"Where is everyone?" I asked in a grunt as I placed my hand back on my chest to feel the pressuring pain that was evident there.

"Out trying to find that Bastard who shot both you and Grant." Talbert muttered back at me, though his eyes were dead ahead as he then looked over next to me, seeing my hand on my chest and how I was getting some pain in my face.

"You okay there, Jem?" He asked me, his face knitted with concern as I was then coughing up a bit because now it was hurting to just breathe normally. He grabbed my arm then pulling me along as there was a small circle of armchairs in the middle of the room.

"Sit down a sec, I'll get you water." He instructed me gently, but it sounded a bit gruff still given the situation. I sunk into the chair now, trying to breathe out again and still feeling the pain there against the skin and the bones. He walked off, probably to another room to get me a drink of water in a glass. Even though it was quiet, I could still hear the gunshot ringing out in my ears and hear how his body hit the ground in a heap.

Leaning back against the chair, I closed my eyes for the briefest moment before I could hear someone was walking down the hallway. I cracked an eye open, wondering who it was that was coming down the hall. It was none other than Martin, whom already looked out of breath himself with Perconte on his heels behind him. They both looked like they were running around looking for something important…or someone. Once they were close enough in order to see me, they both made a beeline for me. I was about to get up, but when I inhaled the pain was still there.

"Oh mother fucker…." I groaned as I finally got myself up from slouching in the chair. They both stood in front of me, and I could see the anger in Martina's face which was no big surprise and the small ounce of shock with Perconte on his own mug of a face.

"You okay, Jem? We just heard what happened." Perconte explained as I moved my hand from my chest and eyed the both of them.

"Who told ya?" I asked them both. But they didn't say anything, only looking at each other to see who was going to break it first. When I heard another pair of footsteps behind me, knowing that it was Talbert, I saw both of their eyes look over at him as Talbert stood next to me with the glass in hand. It was the way they looked at him that made me then sigh as they didn't have to tell me the answer.

"Thanks, Talbert." I grumbled to him as he handed me the glass.

"They had every right to know, Jem." He countered back with me as I took a long drink, seeing both Perconte and Martin look back at me as I was getting the liquid down my throat and not choke.

"You hanging in there?" Martin asked me, his voice was still gruff, but it was also a tad softer because of how he was looking at me.

"I'll live, but I'll have a nasty bruise on my chest for the next week or two. I'm more worried about Grant." I explained to him, seeing him give me a small smile to show that he approved of what I told him. But the optimism was lost in my face when I mentioned Grant, having me suddenly have a wave of sadness come over me then and release another shake breath with a grunt of pain right after that.

"Did they find the guy yet?" I asked them both in a low tone now, since the drunken soldier was now in my head. His face was there, how nonchalant he was when he shot Grant and how he drove off without a second thought on his mind.

"We didn't, no. But the rest of the guys are lookin'." Martin answered, but I still felt a bit of pain there in my chest, now for Grant and less to do with the bruise there, "Where's Doc?"

"With Spiers taking care of Grant." Talbert answered for me as he then got into a chair next to me on my left, rubbing his own eyes in agitation and leaning back though I was still staying up in my chair upright.

"And he's okay with you being here?" Perconte asked in a careful manner though I shot a look over at him. Martin shifted uncomfortably next to him, crossing his arms and giving a nervous cough since he knew what Perconte was talking about, as did I. I didn't think he would, but he did.

"You thought he was going to hold my hand?" I asked him back, almost in a sharpness of a tone. He then saw where I was going with this, and how I was not easily swayed with. Martin's eyes went big for a moment and then Peconte coughed to break the already awkward moment when we heard another couple of boots walking down the hall over to us. Perconte and Martin moved out of the way for me to see who it was.

"Jesus Christ, Jemmie." Joe was walking over in a brisk manner to me, clearly not liking what he was seeing and what he heard about me. I had no energy to fight him about the issue since Webster was right behind him and he looked just as pissed as Joe did. Joe stood right in front of me, having me see that he had no idea if he should hug me or just leave me be. I looked between the both of them and how they too looked like they were out of breath and angry about the whole situation.

"You didn't find the guy who shot Grant yet?" I asked them both in curiosity, though Joe was still staring at me and seeing me in pain from the bruise there on my chest. I wanted to hear about the guy, not wanting the attention back on me.

"I think I was more concerned about my sister getting shot at." Joe replied back coolly, though I knew that he wasn't doing that straight to me. He was mostly mad about the soldier who was doing the shooting, he wasn't mad at me. That much I could see, but I still eyed him to silently tell him to calm down.

"How did you even not get wounded?" Webster asked me, the mere mystery of me being spared from a bullet killing me. I reached into my jacket pocket, pulling out the infamous dog tags that were taken off of me by Eugene and I tossed them to Webster. He caught them in midair, looking at the dent there in the metal and Joe looking too. Martin and Perconte watched with their eyes as I leaned back in the chair again, taking another drink from the glass and feeling my breathing was slowly coming back together again.

"Damn, who knew that you can take a bullet twice." Perconte said in a remark, and for the first time that night I grinned.

"The first time being a helmet and now a dog tag, I'm luckier than anything." I replied in a huff as another gush of pain was hitting my chest. I squirmed a bit in my chair from the pain as Joe looked back over at me. I looked back, seeing the flare of hate in his eyes from that fact that I was in pain and someone else made that happen. He walked over to me, Webster still holding my dog tags, and he knelt down in front of me. There was still hate in his eyes, but it was now looking more worried from seeing me in pain there.

"What can I get ya, Jemmie?" He asked me, wanting to be the protective brother again and no longer the hateful brother. I took out a deep breath before answering him, though my voice went low now with how I was feeling about the situation.

"Asprin…and that soldier's head on a spike." I grumbled out to him. For some reason, though, even in the shitty situation that it was, Joe gave me a small smirk on his face. Through the battered brown hair and the look of age on his face, when I saw that smirk, it reminded me of the plenty of times we would smile at each other as teenagers or even kids. He finally smiled, after what seemed like weeks, and it made the pain in my chest go away a bit longer now. I have missed this Joe, even if it was him getting hotheaded for my own good.

"Holy shit." I heard behind Joe from Martin, who was looking over his own shoulder and we all looked too. I stayed still in my spot on the chair as we heard now a swarm of boots hitting the marble floor and walking over in our direction. We all looked, seeing most of Easy Company now coming in what looked like a pack, all huddled together and looking rather grave about something, or someone whom hey were pulling by the straps of his jacket in a threatening manner. I could see Babe, Malarky, Christenson, Popeye, and others within the group of men there. He was handled by Bull and was almost dragged by his feet at this point, but as soon as I saw his face my own heart stopped beating and my face was now feeling so cold over and over again. It was him.

The drunk soldier.

But now he was no longer drunk, it was like he was now afraid of going to be on his deathbed. And who would blame him, since every member, that was in that huddle around him, looked like they wanted to kill him because of what he did to Grant and I. I could feel the hate radiating off of each one of these men, but they were escorting him straight into the room to my right that was left wide open. What were they going to do with him there? I wanted to know, but my tongue was stuck to the top of my mouth as they were walking by with him. He saw me, eyes going wide and making me feel a cold sweat on my brow. As soon as we locked eyes, Joe shot up and blocked him from my sight, protecting me once again from being abused in any way, shape or form.

"Get him in the room," Martin said to Bull, whom roughly shoved him along as the man was still eyeing me in pure shock. I eyed him back, seeing the other Easy members follow him into the room, all but one. Luz was towards the back of the group, and he stayed behind as I saw both Perconte and Martin walk into the room now both were just as angry as the rest of the men.

"Heya, Jem." Luz greeted me, though he kept his eyes on the soldier who was being shoved in a chair. I was about to get up when Joe placed his hand on my shoulder.

"You stay here. I don't want ya in there." Joe wanted me slowly, his eyes on the man and they were filled with hate. I looked up at him now, wondering why he wouldn't want me in there.

"Why?" I asked.

"I don't want ya to see." He merely replied, walking away and closing the door behind him now. I was left in the room with Talbert and Luz, the three of us were watching in silence for a moment or two through the glass doors and hearing the men started to punch the soldier, one by one and hearing him cry out. Talbert did an intake of breath and I squinted from hear the first blow.

"Where did you find him?" Talbert asked as Luz was pulling a round table over to the middle right in front of me and then dragging another chair to sit there. He looked out of it took as he got out his cigarettes and placed one on his lips.

"He was stopped by his Captain, then Lipton picked him up and dumped him with us before he went off to check on Grant with Winters." Luz explained as he lit his cigarette and inhaled. he shaved, but his hair was once again getting long enough to be floppy, though his face too looked uneasy about the whole situation and no longer light. Luz's gaze went over to him, in which I was still sitting in the chair and squinting from time to time from the massive bruise there on my chest. But it was when I looked down when I saw that my chest was swelling, from where the bullet hit. This wasn't a good sign, since I didn't expect swelling this bad. So it was then I reached up carefully, touching my skin with my fingers underneath the skin and I gasped out in pain. Both Talbert and Luz shot up, seeing me in pain. I thought it was a massive bruise that was beyond normal, but from what I was feeling against the skin, it was a fracture.

I fractured a bone.

"What happened?" Talbert asked me this time, having me look up at the both of them.

"Sternal fracture, not even that since it's barely a fracture." I explained roughly, though I touched it once more to make sure it was what I thought it was. Once I made contact with it again, I cried out in pain and I slammed my fist over my mouth from the pain there.

"Don't touch it anymore, Jesus!" Luz said in horror as I pulled my fist from my mouth.

"I need ice….ice to get the swelling down." I explained to him, seeing Talbert shoot up from his chair and rush out of the room once again as Luz then reached into his pocket, fishing around a bit before pulling out a blue pill bottle.

"Here's some aspirin." he said to me, taking out two pills and then handing them to me. I swallowed them, hearing another round of the men hitting the soldier over and over, all of them yelling at him and asking why he did it.

"How is it that have you have pain killers?" I asked him coyly, though he then gave me a nervous grin.

"I was gonna give it back, I had to borrow it for my hangover the other day since I drank too damn much." Luz explained to me roughly, having me grin at him and then hear another blow to the guy's head. I looked over at the door, only seeing through the glass some of the backs of the men in there, nothing more. I coughed again, the pain was still there from trying to breathe in and out.

"Where's Doc when you need him." Luz said in a worried manner as he was watching me getting my breathing back to normal. I grinned from hearing him mention Eugene, and I knew he did that on purpose since he had some kind of inkling about the pair of us. He grinned back at me as Talbert jogged back into the room, a towel filled with ice in his hands and he gave it to me.

"Thanks, Talbert, you're a gem." I thanked him as I got the towel with ice on my chest and felt some relief there. He grinned at me nervously, sitting back down in his chair and sighing in relief.

"Let's play some cards, come on." Luz urged us, having me see that he was trying to get our minds back on something simple instead of what was going on behind the closed doors. I sat up to play, though the aspirin was making the pain more bearable at this point, but now I was conceded about the boys in there with the soldier. Why are they going to kill him? How far were they going to go with him until it was too far? I wanted to ask, hell I wanted to see. But for some reason, I stayed in the chair and not moved one bit from it. Talbert and Luz played a few rounds and I just sat there in the chair, icing my chest and feeling the swelling dying now and my head getting a bit heavy from the sheer energy loss. But it was not enough to get me to sleep, since I was now wanting to go into the room and see what they were doing to the man in there.

"Jesus, get me another hand," Luz said with a grunt as he threw the hand he had down on the table. Talbert shuffling a bit but with roughness in it. I could hear it in how he was handling the cards, he was worried too. I looked back at him, Luz eyes Talbert as he was shuffling, "I don't know who's taking a bigger beatin': me or him."

"Wanna play a different game?" Talbert asked him, though he was still occupied with something else.

"No, just shuffle the cards and play the game." Luz advised him, though Talbert was still agitated with how he was handling the cards and the knitted look on his brow, "You alright?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm alright." He replied back to Luz, though he looked back at the scene one more time behind us,

"You wanna go and join in?" Luz asked suspiciously from his spot across from him, not moving a bit as I looked over at Talbert too.

"I should go in there and stop this." I could hear the pain in his voice, and Luz just gave him a reassuring look to both tell him that it was okay and he didn't have to do anything at all.

"Floyd, let's just play cards, alright?" He said carefully now, Talbert nodding his head as he was dealing out the cards between them. I reached over and squeezed his arm in my hand, seeing him do nothing over to me but then again he was still arguing about it in his head as they went to start a new game. They were about to when the double doors, that were coming into the room, opened, revealing both a pissed Spiers with a pistol in hand and Eugene right behind him, looking less angry but still on the edge. Talbert, myself and Luz got up from our spot and I placed the towel of ice on the floor as Spiers looked to the three of us.

"Where is he?" He asked calmly.

"How's Grant?" Talbert shot back with his own question.

"Where is he?" Spiers asked again, walking over to the door a bit.

"Is he going to be okay?" Talbert asked once again, not wanting to answer the captain back.

"WHERE IS HE?!" Spiers yelled now, glaring at the three of us now for some kind of answer. Talbert looked at the same door where the men where, Spiers looking too and he started walking over there. I was about to join him when Eugene already walked over to me, lacing our fingers together and seeing the wet patch on my chest, getting the notion that I had to ice my chest and he was about to panic.

"What is it?" He asked me in a hushed tone as I heard Spiers opening the doors to go inside with Luz and Talbert behind him.

"Sternal fracture, but it's minor." I explained to him as he was eyeing my chest, but not in the way that would make the both of us blush. Eugene sighed, closing his eyes in defeat since I knew this whole night was going to be too much for him now. He must have been worn out to the point of passing out, not only from almost seeing his girlfriend die again, but then seeing another comrade with a brain injury. Poor Eugene, he didn't deserve this. I just pulled him close enough for me to kiss his hair, humming against his skin and then pulling away before we would get caught.

"Come on." I urged him, the both of us walking over to the other room. The sea of Easy Company men was crowding around the soldier, whom was sitting in a chair now in front of Spiers and was already beaten to a pulp. Eugene kept his hand closed around mine as we walked in, behind Spiers and next to Bull and Joe. They all were watching him now as Spiers was towering over him with his Captain stature back on him.

"Where's the weapon?" he asked in a staggered tone, trying too hard to control his anger. We all watched him as the soldier was still coughing and staggering in his breath, eyeing Spiers with his cool eyes.

"What weapon?" He gasped out, then receiving the butt end of a pistol to the face. The sound was loud, having some of me squint from the sound and my grip on Eugene tighten from the sheer thought of it all.

"When you talk to an Officer, you say 'Sir'." Spiers advised him in a cold tone, Joe next to me looking down at his boots and grimacing a bit from the sheer tone that Spiers gave. Eugene scooted closer to me now, but my eyes were on the soldier and seeing him look at all of us like he was about to see the end of his life. I had to remind myself that he was the one that shot Grant in the head, that shot me without a second thought to it, and just wandered off like it was nothing. That's what my brain was telling me, that he deserved this, but why was my own heart hurting for him? Even Babe looked squeamish as the soldier was now coughing again. It was when Spiers cocked his pistol that I looked over at him, wondering what he was doing and how this was going to solve anything.

Spiers then aimed, which made the rest of us back up a step or two after seeing the gravity of this situation. He was holding a loaded gun, barrel front, to a soldier's face. I pressed against Eugene, who placed his other hand on my arm to keep me there as some of the men chose to look away and the others looked right at the soldier now with hesitance. Wasn't he going to do this…was he? I wanted him to point it away, though the long the held it, the less convinced I was. He kept the gun aiming right at his head, and I could feel myself trembling now at the sheer thought that I would once again see someone get killed in front of me.

"Look away, Jem." I heard Eugene whisper to me urgently, having me slam my eyes shut and lower my head over to where his head was, our heads touching and he was still not moving. He didn't want me to see, not wanting to have another thing to dream about and wake up screaming too. Mere seconds went by, nothing happening and I wondered when I would hear the trigger being pulled.

But nothing came, and I opened my eyes slowly to see Spiers lowering the pistol and then looked back at me now. The hate was still there on his face, but why was he looking at me now? The soldier was gasping for both air and in a panic as Spiers eyed me up and down. It made me realize what he was doing, he was silently asking me if this was right. He knew I was the Moral Compass in the group, and now he wanted to use that on me. So I had to be the bigger person, shaking my head slowly at him. This was not the way to do it, not to me. No matter the fact that he did shoot at me and almost killed Grant, that he caused two Easy members harm without a second thought, he was still someone who deserved to have some kind of justice to him.

Spiers looked back at the soldier, who was softly laughing that he was not dead. Spiers wiped the butt end of his pistol, which was covered in blood, on the soldier's uniform and then moved away from him. We were all still quiet from what happened, not having the right words to say anything.

"Have the MPs take care of this piece of shit." Spiers instructed us as he moved back out into the first room where Luz was.

"Grant's dead?" Talbert asked one last time.

"No, Kraut surgeon says he's gonna make it." He replied back Talbert softly again before walking out of the room with the pistol still in his hand at his side. I sighed in relief as Joe grabbed the soldier roughly, getting him back up once again. Luz exhaled his cigarette and watched me as Eugene nudged me with his shoulder.

"Come on, let's head back to your room, okay?" Eugene urged me softly, having me nod and we both exited the room as they are getting ready to leave the room. We started to walk and Luz joined us.

"I don't wanna be a part of that shit." Luz commented, having me smile and nod in agreement.

"Come up with us, I can read us a book, okay?" I explained, seeing him smirk at me with the cigarette still between his teeth.

"Better than being around these guys, I swear."

Luz fell asleep on my couch, softly snoring as I draped a blanket over him and got the cigarette from his fingers to squash it in the ashtray on the coffee table. After we came back to my room, the three of us lounged in the sitting room as I read some more from the T.S. Eliot book Eugene gave me, which was a nice change of pace compared to the previous event with the soldier. Eugene wanted me to rest, but I wanted to so something else than rest, since I would dream about being shot again.

Walking back over to where I bed was, I saw Eugene already sitting on top of it, looking at my jacket that I draped off and I paused from walking, staying near the archway into the room to watch him. It was like Little Joseph all over again, how he was holding the jacket with pure curiosity on his face and his fingers going over the stitching of the fabric. But Eugene was looking at the bullet hole in the jacket, where I got shot, and I slowly walked over to him without making a sound. Just seeing the look on his face and how he looked confused as to why I was not dead, it made my heart ache for him.

"This should have….this should have killed ya." Eugene stated out in the open softly, not understanding the whole thing and I nodded in agreement, sitting on the bed across from him.

"It was the book that slowed the bullet," I explained to him, seeing him look at me with his eyes but he kept his head down on the jacket, "If it wouldn't have been for the book, I think I would have died or worse with the dog tags in my chest." Eugene slowly lowered my jacket onto the bed between us, seeing him then place his eyes once again on my chest where the injury was. I just waited there, not moving but just breathing again as he then pointed there.

"Let me see it." He said gently, though I knew he was silently ordering me. I had no need to argue with him since I have done it so many times in this war that I was fine. No, he had a right to see it since he was a fellow combat medic and my boyfriend. To be fair, I did put him on enough to get him to go crazy. So I lifted my shirt over my head slowly, though the blush and the thought of practically stripping in front of him were going to make me want to faint. I had to remind myself, he was looking at my wound, not at anything else….please for the love of God nothing else. I was never showing this much skin before in front of the boys or anyone in the war. Then again, when I almost died in Foye, they probably had to take some clothes off of me to get to the wounds, but not all my wounds. Thank God.

I sat there in front of him, in my brassiere and my pants, my hair framing my face in somewhat a messy state and I could already feel my skin getting hot in how his eyes got slightly big from what I did. Did he think I was simply going to just lift the area of my shirt for him to see? I should have done that, shit. Was he going to blush now, seeing me in my bra and my new exposed skin? I as expecting him to do so, but he didn't. Eugene was professional as he could ever be, scooting closer to me and having me suddenly wish I was fully clothed again. I wasn't big, but I was curvier because of the muscles I developed during the war. But that wasn't the concept that wanted me to cover up.

It was the scars.

The thick one along my hip bone to my midsection, along the side like a sword sliced me. The infamous scar that signified that I was almost lost in the elects of war. I hated that scar, it made me see myself as something was far from being pure and good. I had little scars here and there on my stomach and chest from the previous battles, but that one scar on my body made me hate myself when I looked in the mirror.

Eugene looked at the dark purple and blue shading on my chest, near my collarbone and how the middle of it was still a bit swollen from the bullet. He carefully reach out, though I stayed so still to not break the moment, and he touched the outlining bruising from the bullet and I could feel the hot skin on his fingertips touching my own. I shivered, trying not to show it in front of him and he then looked over at me with his dark eyes. They were still blue, a haunting blue that reminded me of the sky after a storm, near the dead of night and how beautiful it was to look at. That's what Eugene is, the after storm that was beautiful to look at.

"I'm going home." I said out of the blue to him, though my voice was soft enough to be heard between the both of us. His eyes softened a bit as he pulled his hand away from my now, the warmth was gone as he was reading my own brown eyes to make sure I was telling the truth. I just gave him a soft smile, thinking now it was a good time for me to tell him.

"You decided?" Eugene asked me, "When did you do that?"

"When I saw you after I woke up," I explained calmly, his eyebrow knitted together in confusion as to what I was trying to say, "When I saw your face, and how you were scared that I wasn't going to make it…I decided that I didn't want to do that to you anymore. You don't deserve to think that I'm dead all the time, Eugene. So I might as well go home and be safe, and no longer making you petrified for me."

I did feel bad, when I woke up and saw his eyes pouring into my own. He looked worried, scared shitless that I was once again gone and away from him. If there was one thing about this whole war that I wished I changed, it was the fact that I always scared him and made him think that I was dead. The bullet shot to the head at Market Garden, him seeing me with me Epilepsy for the first time in Bastogne, the Aid Station explosion in Foye, my seizure in front of him in Landsburg. So many times and incidents where I made him panic, gave him worry and pain, and Eugene Roe was the last person on this planet to deserve it.

"I admit I was scared for you, Jemima," Eugene explained to me softly now, after a moment of silence between us as I watched him with my own eyes, "But then again, I think I was less worried about you with this incident."

"Why?" I asked him, in disbelief, "I literally took a bullet to the chest."

"But you survived. You were still breathing when they found you on the road and brought you in," Eugene answered me calmly, "And besides, I kind of gave up in trying to protect you all the time because I know how you are when it comes to stuff like that." He gave me a small smile to show that he meant it. I grinned back at him, seeing that he was taking this beyond well and I had nothing else to be worried about.

"I never wanted you to give up on protecting me, it's what makes me like you so much," I stated back at him softly, seeing him slightly blush from what I told him.

"So you're okay with me leaving you, Eugene?" I asked him carefully as I reached over to grab my shirt to get it back on before this became even more awkward than it was.

"I just want you to be safe." Eugene simply answered though I grinned as I held the shirt in between my fingers.

"Haven't ya heard? I'm not safe at all, and yet you still like me." I reminded him, seeing him shake his head as I was about to get the shirt back on.

"That's where you're wrong." He stated as more of a fact.

"Oh really? How?" I asked him nonchalantly as I got my head on the shirt and my arms as well slowly.

"Well, I don't like you. I love you, actually." He stated in his bold tone, having me feel the blush come on me again on my cheeks and along my arms as I looked back at him now, shirt back on and seeing him slowly reach over to lace our fingers together gently and the warm glow on his face that he would have whenever we would be this close.

"You love me…scars and all?" I asked him coyly, seeing him roll his eyes and moved even closer to where our knees where touching and almost our noses at this point. Even with Luz dead asleep in the next room, I didn't mind doing this with Eugene now. I have missed this with him, out playfulness with each other and now we could just make each other content and happy like this.

"You're still beautiful to me, scars and all. And as my first real and serious girlfriend, I wouldn't trade ya for anything in the world." Eugene stated to me, having the blush flood my whole face and made me feel like a puddle on the bed. He could still see the hesitance in my face on how he was telling me I was beautiful, so he leaned in a kissed me softly on the lips and without hesitation there. I held the kiss, feeling him still holding our hands together in the middle of us. I always thought of myself as a strong person, but not as strong as Eugene was. He was stronger, 100 fold. He was willing to see past my flaws and my scars, seeing the radiance there when all, I could see, was the broken and the shattered. It was his soul that made him that way, how he viewed me and saw me as something worth saving, that made me fall in love with him over and over.

"Marry me." He whispered against my lips, having me grin as our lips were still touching.

"Yes," I said without a second thought, feeling his fingers going up my arms slowing in a torturing speed to touch my neck.

"I don't have a ring to give ya, not yet."

"I don't need one right now, I just need you." I reassured him as he framed my face in his medic hands and made me see how bright his eyes got within that moment. He asked me to marry him, and there was nothing else in the world that I wanted more than to marry him and call him mine. I no longer cared about the war, I cared for the man in front of me that wanted to call me his wife.

Within a chaotic world, this felt perfect.