He blinked with his eyes, trying to adjust to the light that had finally reached his eyes in days. It felt like years for him. Years that he had seen the beautiful smile of the medic he got so fond of the last couple of weeks.

He blinked one more time, trying to make his view of the room he was in more clear. He saw a person standing next to him, attending to his wounds. He identified her as the medic Molly befriended during her days here at Camp Bastion. "Good morning, Captain", Jackie said, her words followed by a smile. "Welcome back. How are you feeling?"

"Fine. Sore, but fine."

Jackie put the gauze in the bowl she had placed on the nightstand. "I'll see if I can find the doctor for you", she said. "Maybe he can give you something for the pain."

"Thanks." James looked around, taking in the energy and bustle of the improvised hospital. He was looking for something. No, more like someone. The last thing he wanted to see if the end ever came. The medic attached to Two Section. His medic. The medic who looked after his blisters.

To his surprise he found Molly sleeping on the chair next to his bed, the pillow her head rested on against the bed. "She's been here ever since you were brought in. Refused to leave you." James smiled. She looked so peaceful with her eyes closed, like she didn't notice the misery currently present on the ward. "Should I wake her?", Jackie asked.

"No", he said while shaking his head. "No, just let her sleep. She must really need it."

Jackie nodded. "I'll go and fetch the doctor." She looked at him one more time before she walked away, his file in one hand and the bowl, containing the equipment she just used to redress his wounds, in the other.

When Jackie was out of sight, he once again looked at the woman sleeping beside him. He couldn't help but smile. The longer her looked at her, the wider his smile got. Sometimes, before all this happened, he sometimes spent the evenings in his tent imagining how it would feel like to wake up next to her. How it felt like when she would be the last thing he saw at night and the first thing he would see when he would wake up. He never once expected it to feel like these, that it would make him the happiest man on the planet, despite his current injuries.

Slowly, he moved his hand towards her right hand. It took him some effort, but he finally covered her hand with his. She must have felt the warmth that was being radiated from his hand on hers. She started to blink a couple of times before she finally saw what woke her up. "Hey", he said, followed by a small smile.

When she realised it was actually him that woke her up, tears started to form in the corner of her eyes. "How-", she tried to say more, finish her question, but the emotions that were caused by this situation took control over her. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fines, Dawes", he said before he corrected himself. "Molly." He said her name in a delicate way, hoping that she would notice the real meanings behind his words.

She squeezed his hand before showing him something he had missed so much: her beautiful smile. "It's so good to hear your voice." As a response to her words, he squeezed her hand as well, signalling to her that he understood. Oh, did he understand.

When he was fighting for his life, it had felt like he was surrounded by darkness. He was cold, so cold. He couldn't feel the hot Afghan sun burning on his skin. He couldn't feel the warmth that came with it. But the worst part was that he couldn't feel Molly's soft skin, how her lips felt on his. Lady luck had been smiling on him that day, like she was when Smurf got shot on one of their first patrols.

"How is Smurf doing?" Despite what he had said on that bridge, it didn't mean that he wanted something to happen to the soldier. He meant what he said in the debriefing: "One life lost is one too many." And that included private Dylan Smith.

Molly shrugged. "Don't know. Haven't visited him since he was brought in here."

"Why not?"

"Because", Molly sighted while she put her hands through her brown hair. "Because he put all our lives in danger by bringing personal issues into the battlefield. He made you lose focus, which almost got you killed."

He looked at her after she had spoken those last words. The emotions were still visible in her eyes, even though he was alive. She was still shaken up about what had happened during that mission. He intertwined his fingers into hers, like he had done in the medic tent when he asked her to buy him some Rosabaya in London. "But I'm still here", he said, his voice low in volume, since these words were only meant to be heard by her. "I'm not going anywhere. Talk to him. Try to forgive him", he urged her, accentuating on the last sentence.

"I'll try. Maybe I can talk to him later this afternoon."

"Go and talk to him. It's important."

"I know."

He looked at her once again. His eyes started a journey they never should have. Her eyes, containing the beautiful colours of green and grey all mashed together, forming one whole. He noticed a mole on her left cheek, standing out like her personality had done in the first few weeks being deployed with him. She was so different, so incredibly different from the woman who was back in the UK. The woman he once loved.

He smiled at her. "What?", she asked.

"Nothing."

"That smiles tells me it isn't nothing."

He signalled for her to come a bit closer, before he whispered in her ear: "If we weren't in a hospital at the moment, I would be kissing you right about now."

"If you weren't recovering right now, those kisses would be followed by some other things", she said while wiggling her brown eyebrows playfully. He smiled at her cheeky comment.

"You promise?"

Her answer simply consisted of one of her smiles. "Captain", a heavy male voice interrupted them, while the person cleared its throat. "How are you feeling today? Are you in any pain?"

So, what do you think? As always, a review would make my day :) Also big thanks to the two guest reviewers, xtine, Kinders and Lesley. It's really appreciated and am happy you're enjoying this!