Un-betad
Characters aren't mine, that is all.
Word Prompt: Stomp EPOV
Word Prompt: Stomp EPOV
"Hey," Whitlock greeted me as I sat down to eat in the DFAC. I nodded my head at him, but didn't say anything. "Don't stress, you'll talk to her in a few days. Just remember what Mc said, you ain't got nothing to worry about."
I cringed as he referred to McCartney so casually, but I knew he was just trying to cheer me up. Losing people was never easy, but the three we lost today I didn't really know. I knew of them, but didn't actually know them, so it hadn't hit me near as hard as when we lost Mc. Not being able to call and talk to Bella seemed worse to me.
Blackouts normally lasted around seventy-two hours so I knew it would be a few days until I could call, but then we had another incident. This time, I knew them, and that time, it was harder.
Before R&R our FOB was a relatively quiet place on the outskirts of Northern Iraq. The fighting seemed to surround us, yet not come near us, but you could almost feel the air as it shifted. Overall, everyone appeared more tense, even the locals we had coming on and off. The sirens for mortars used to go off weekly were now going off daily, if not hourly. Before we could forgo our IBA in certain areas of the FOB, but now it was required at all times unless you were sleeping or showering. Truth be told, I wore it to sleep a few times.
Each and every day got harder as more of our soldiers died or got hurt. After about two weeks, I felt like I was in a stage of constant numbness. If I allowed myself to think I knew I'd die, if not from an attack, then from my heart being stomped right out of me. I was a soldier and this was my job. I was to do my job and go home. And, I would be going home. I couldn't think of it any other way.
The worst part was filling in the time I used to allot towards Bella. I started writing actual letters to her, but I wasn't sure how long it would take for her to get them. I did receive a few care packages with new pictures and treats, and for that I was thankful. She told me she was well and missed me, but I wanted more. I wanted to hear her voice.
I watched a lot of movies, even some I wasn't too proud about. Sex wasn't something I thought about often simply because it wasn't obtainable, but I found myself almost studying videos that got passed around for the time it became obtainable. Bella would probably cringe if she knew, but I didn't want our first time to be bad, so maybe she'd be thankful. However, after a few days, and a few too many rips to the showers, I went back to action movies. They were less painful to watch.
After the third week and into the fourth, I gave up on waiting out the blackouts. The phones were too busy collecting dust, and I'd detour the area they sat because they were depressing to look at. I wondered how Bella was doing and how her first week of classes went. I feared for how worried she was and hoped she was finding strength in those around her. I hoped my family was okay too, though I knew we could still get Red Cross messages if anything bad happened.
I woke up just like any other morning…to the sounds of sirens. I'd gotten so used to them, I could practically sleep through them, but I waited to hear the explosion before getting ready for work. It was the first day I was in charge of our front gate opposed to my normal tower guard. Whitlock would be on with me, and I felt safer knowing he was at my side. Jasper was quiet, but deadly, and we worked well as a team.
We both walked out at about the same time in our full Kevlar and IBA. As soon as we made it to the front gate, we were briefed on the night shift and relieved the two soldiers before us. Both of us trained our eyes ahead, and the first clue that something was off was how light the morning traffic was. At any one time, we had at least twenty or so local working on our FOB, and most of them drove. However, we couldn't have seen more than ten.
The most difficult part of Iraq was the locals. They were great people overall, but they always had a sense of knowing something was wrong before it happened, but they'd never tell us until it happened. I understood most of them feared for their lives, but a heads up would have been nice. We did have a few working with us, but for the most part, we kept to ourselves and they kept to themselves.
The sun had barely risen when I turned behind me to see our FOB Commander, COL Swan, and Guard Force Commander, CPT Hunter coming up behind us. Even though I knew Bella's father was moved to our FOB a week ago, we didn't dare speak to each other. Most knew who I was seeing, and who she was related to, but no one talked about it. COL Swan showed no favoritism, and I wouldn't have wanted it had he tried.
"Good morning, SPC Cullen," COL Swan called out. I turned my head to address him with a nod because I wouldn't dare salute him in such an open forum. "PFC Whitlock. How has it been this morning?"
Jasper began giving him a rundown when I noticed a white rusty car speeding towards the gate. My blood started to pump harder as I realized it wasn't stopping, and even though I called out halt and shot a warning round, it wasn't slowing. Without thinking I ran for the 50 CAL and landed each round directly into the block of the Opal. It stopped roughly two hundred meters from the front gate, and I heard commotion behind me, but I was too focused in front of me to pay much attention. When the driver opened the door and rolled to the back trunk for coverage, I looked to my left to see Whitlock next to me with his weapon drawn. Before we could blink shots were fired at us, though they zoomed past me on my right. With our weapons firing Whitlock and I returned fire. The adrenaline in my system was on overdrive, and I hadn't even realized I was hit until we confirmed the driver was down. One glance inside his car and we could see the bomb in the backseat.
I immediately ran back to where COL Swan and CPT Hunter were standing, but they had already been moved inside the gate. The second I walked through, the gate was surrounded and secured. I finally looked to my left to see COL Swan screaming at people to back-up.
"Sir," I said as I noticed the blood on his shoulder.
"Don't Sir, me," he stated sharply. "It's barely a flesh wound, I'm fine." When he looked up his eyes went wide, and I finally looked down at my chest. Blood was pouring from the left side where I had taken four rounds…the fourth one hitting skin.
"Medic," Whitlock called, but I started to blink rapidly. Reality wasn't starting to hit, as was the pain in my shoulder, and I remembered falling down to the ground.
The last thing I told COL Swan before I left was that his daughter was going to kill me.
I was immediately put on a morphine drip and transferred to the medical facility in the central part of the country. In reality, I thought they were overreacting, but I knew they wanted to make sure I wouldn't lose my arm. Thankfully, it was my non-dominant arm, and after two days of constant pain killers, they finally listened when I asked for them to not give me anymore morphine.
"Is there anything I can get for you?" PVT Joviac asked, so I told her I needed a phone. She nodded and told me that she'd see what she could do about that. I needed to call my parents and Bella. I knew the Army wouldn't call over something as minor as this, but if rumors had gotten out they would be so worried.
The knock on my door shouldn't have surprised me, but it did when COL Swan walked in with nobody at his side. He held some papers, but I wasn't sure what they were for until he handed them to me.
"Is your top in the closet?" he asked, and I nodded. When he went to grab it, I looked down at the papers, but was confused by what I was reading. "Congratulations Sargent, I know it's not much of a ceremony, but we can officially pin you if you want some pictures later," he informed me as he ripped off my shield and placed a patch with three chevrons in its place.
"Um, thank you, but…" I tried to explain, but he kept talking.
"I know a battlefield promotion is more a Marine thing, but it can be done in the Army, and has been done. Both you and SPC Whitlock were promoted this morning on paper. When the paperwork for your stars goes through we can have one big ceremony…" COL Swan kept talking, but my head hurt too much to focus. I wasn't sure if it was the pain killers or just that everything he was saying sounded so foreign. "You look confused," he finally managed, and I nodded.
"Sorry, they just pulled me off the morphine and my ears still ring a little. I'm not sure I understand, why a promotion, and what star?" I flat out asked. I knew I had been injured, and I knew it would be a few weeks before I could go back to my FOB, but I didn't do anything special. I did my job.
"Son, the driver of that vehicle was a little more than a suicide driver. In his car, we found enough explosives to light up the front half of our base, but they weren't just bombs. They were chemical bombs, which could have easily affected the entire area. Your quick action, not only saved my life, but the lives of just about every single person on the FOB.
"As a result, you've been approved for a battlefield promotion; you'll be getting a CAB, Purple Heart, and a Silver Star with V Device. It's not much, compared to what you did, but it's the highest I could do. Look, I'll never admit to talking like this if asked, but you have no idea how much your action meant to me. You acted before anyone else knew what was going on, and that was our fault for pulling SPC Whitlock away, but you still stopped him, and it was your round that killed him. So, you've earned it.
"I'm going home to my wife and daughter because of you, plain and simple, Edward."
I nodded my head slowly even though it still hurt to move. My arm was slinged up, and the doctors had told me I wouldn't lose it, but would need to work on stretching it the next week with the hopes of getting back out to my job the week after. It had only been two days and I was itching to get out of the hospital bed.
"Well, thank you, Sir, and you're welcome, I guess," I muttered, and he chuckled. "How is your arm? I remember the blood."
"It's fine, just a small graze on the top of the skin. It looked a lot worse than it was," he explained, and I nodded. "Have you talked to Bella yet?"
"No, I asked for a phone, but they haven't given me one yet," I explained, and he nodded as he fished in his pocket for his cell phone before handing it out to me.
"I need to check on a few more things, but I'll be back in a bit," he informed me, and I nodded.
"Charlie, is Whitlock okay? He didn't get hit did he?" I asked quickly, but he shook his head no.
"No, no one else was hurt thanks to you. And, with the information we found in the car, we think we know who's been leaking information now so they're working on tracking that at the moment," he explained before leaving my room. I hadn't even taken notice that I was in my own room until the heavy door shut, and I wondered if he had something to do with that.
However, I wasted no time in thinking about anything else before I dialed Bella's number. I didn't even think about the time difference, but when she answered my heart skipped a beat.
"Edward?" She said into the phone, but it sounded like a question.
"Hey, baby, it's me," I replied back, though my voice still sounded a bit groggy.
"Oh my God, I've been so worried about you," she rushed into the phone.
"I've missed you too," I evaded. "Bella, I have some good news and some bad news."
"Okay," she drew out.
"The good news is I got promoted, and I didn't even need that stupid board book," I tried to joke, but Bella immediately asked for the bad news. "Well, the bad news is I'm calling from a treatment facility, I may have gotten a tiny injury."
"WHAT?" Bella screamed, as I pulled the phone away from my ear.
Aren't you glad I'm not one of those writer's who takes like a month to write 500 words? Yeah, me too, though I love those authors too, but this is the last update of the day. Now you know what's happened, and gotten into Edward's mind a bit more. Was some of this vague-yes, did I have to make it that way-yes, did my husband go through this-no. He has been blown up a few times though, but I thought it would be mean to blow Edward up, especially in 04-05 because we didn't have MRAPs yet (the vehicle that now exists and the only reason my husband made it through a few road side bombs and can live to tell you about it and still be alive).
Before anyone asks, notifications work a little different when it comes to injuries. Unless it's Serious Critical level, families aren't notified. Some injuries you don't even leave your FOB for, but if you need to go to Germany or Walter Reed your family will get a phone call versus a knock on the door. In Edward's case, he's listed as a non-serious (because it's not life threatening) therefore it would be his decision what to tell his family. And, no, at this point, Renee is clueless! Each couple I know had it's own set of rules-for me and my husband it's full disclosure, I know what i can as soon as he can tell me. I can tell you how many times he's been shot at, blown up, shot back...etc. On the flip side, my bff wants to know absolutely NONE of that. it really varies per couple.
Anyhow, I'll update again tomorrow!