PT: Hey y'all *waves*
MC: Thank you to everyone that reviewed my last chapter, you guys rock!
PT: Jas is back, little bit of male bonding right here...
MC: So, we're not doctors, forgive PT if she gets the medical stuff wrong k?
PT: Yeah, what she said. See you at the bottom!
DISCLAIMER: We don't own these characters, they belong to S. Meyer, we just like to put them in uniforms *giggles*
"They're going to need to leave that ventilator in Jasper, but we'll work out something to help you communicate." The blonde nurse, who had now introduced herself as Rosalie, said with a smile. "Right now all we need is for you to sleep and get plenty of rest. Today is going to have been hard on your body."
Well no shit nurse. I feel like I've been to the war and back, oh wait, I have.
"Emmett is going to be so happy to see you awake, he's been saying what a pussy you are for not waking up sooner." Alice said with a giggle.
Fucking pussy, you try taking a gun butt to the head.
Oh shit. What if....
"It's alright, Jasper, he's fine, just a broken leg, nothing some physio won't cure." She continued as if she could read my mind; answering the silent questions I asked. "I'll make sure they bring him down here tomorrow so you can see for yourself. I'm sure your mom is gonna want to spend time with you. I'll be back in the morning. Sweet dreams, Soldier."
She squeezed my hand and I blinked at her, hoping she'd take it as a yes, after all there was very little else I could do to answer her. Her soft lips grazed my knuckles as she lifted our clasped hands to her mouth. My mother came rushing into the room, apologising that she'd gone back to get me some fresh clothes and that she was sorry that she'd not been there when I first awoke. To be honest it was all a little overwhelming. My mothers' face clearly in front of mine, her fingers on my head as my eyes blinked and fluttered closed. Sleep took over and I was out for the count, Alices' face the forefront of my mind and dreams.
*****
"Shhhh don't wake him up Em, Rosalie said he needs his rest."
I could hear movement around me, along with the constant annoying beep that had lulled me back to sleep surprisingly when I'd woken at some point during the night or day, I wasn't sure of the exact time, there wasn't a clock visible from where I was lying and my mother was asleep in the chair next to my bed. I didn't have the heart to wake her, not that I could have if I'd of wanted to. What was I meant to do to get her attention when I was pretty sure that I wasn't able to lift myself up off the end without help, I couldn't talk because of the stupid fucking tube down my throat and I wasn't close enough the pick anything up and throw it in her direction.
The drone of the machine they had me hooked up to, yes, the one that had been the bane of my existence not 24 hours previous had helped settle me, I'd counted the beeps, and from what I could remember I'd gotten to 183 before sleep had claimed me again.
"Rest? The boy is used to living on no sleep. Oi Whitlock, wake the fuck up man!" Emmett delightfully put as I felt something poke into my side.
I opened my eyes, seeing the pair of them smirking at me. Emmett sat in the chair that my mother had previously occupied, Alice standing behind him, leaning over the top of him, slapping at the arm he had outstretched. I looked down at what he was poking me with only to see the bottom of his crutch digging into the side of my torso.
Really Em? A fucking crutch into my side? I'll kick your ass when I'm up.
"Emmett Dale McCarty, if you don't quit it I'll tell Rosalie." Alice said, sounding like a child. I almost expected her to poke her tongue out at me. It was cute though, she'd said it in a singsong tone, but why she'd brought Rosalie into it confused me a little, which turned to frustration because I just really wanted to talk.
"I'm sorry my dumbass brother woke you." She said addressing me, pressing the button on the side of my bed to put me into a sitting position. "He's been going on about coming to see you since I told him you'd woken up last night. I'll leave you guys to catch up."
And as quickly as she'd come she was gone. She stopped at the door and looked over her shoulder, looking at me, then Emmett, chewing on her lip before skipping out of the room.
"You gave me a shock there, Whitlock. Thought I'd lost you, bro." Emmett said dragging his chair closer to me awkwardly, leaning his hand on my bed next to my arm. "But I promised I'd get you home and I did."
His eyes filled with water and he looked away as the drops trickled down his cheek. Wiping his face on his shirt he looked back at me, trying to take the sadness out of his eyes. I knew he hurt, not only physically, but emotionally, I did too, we'd become close and I'd of been devastated had I of lost him.
"So many of our troop have fallen, we're down to the bare minimum out there now." He continued with a shake of his head. "Oh and these, they were on you when they brought you in, I kept hold of them in case they went missing."
He pulled my fathers' dog tag and my mothers' locket which had been attached to my own chain, I presumed, from around his neck. Lifting it up over his head he placed it in my hand, closing my fingers around the cold metal as the pieces fell through my grip. One of my tags was missing.
"She has the other one. Wouldn't let it go, saying that if she let it go it meant you weren't coming back."
My poor mother, why did she have to go through this again? She'd coped when it was my father, yet this time she didn't have anyone to keep her going. I'm pretty sure had I of met my untimely death she'd of followed so after. The thought was too much for me to bear. I closed my eyes as the tears trickled down my cheek, my fist clenching tighter around the chain.
"So my leg," He said looking down at it and tapping the cast with his fist, clearly trying to brighten up the subject a little and cut the atmosphere that had grown so thick with tension you'd of needed a saw to slice it. "Some little piece of shit took liberty to shoot me in the fucking leg as I carried you back towards base. I wasn't giving up though. He went down with more than a bullet to the leg. I then may have kinda dragged you and my sorry excuse for a leg the last part of the way. Sorry for the bruises and damage dude. It was the best I could do."
I tried to smile, but it's fucking hard when you have a piece of plastic shoved down your throat; instead I moved my fingers to squeeze around his hand. Any other situation I'd of felt uncomfortable squeezing some dudes hand but it was all I could do, and come on, he'd saved my life, if I could have hugged the big oaf I would have.
"Turns out bone shatters when it gets pelted with bullets, who knew? " He shrugged. "I had like the most awesome hole going on apparently, but they stitched the bad boy, flew us back here, pinned me and put me in plaster. I've got to have some physiotherapy because I can't walk on it with these at the minute, nerve damage or something, but I'll be back on the line before we know it. "
I admired him; he'd taken a bullet but was willing to be back in the line of fire without a second thought. He was always the most headstrong soldier we had in our troop and it the lesser man they'd of taken it as their call to leave, hoping they'd be discharged for ill health, no, not Emmett, there he was already planning his way to get back.
"They drove us back to base; I refused to get treatment until I knew what was happening with you. They didn't want me to fly back here with you, but I wasn't giving in. You're like family and I wanted to make sure you were ok. They finally gave in and flew us back here. The whole time you were unconscious and all I could think about was your Ma." He said with a shake of the head. "She was in pieces when we got here, but she came by to visit me everyday, bringing me pie to say thank you for bring you home. I wish I had a Ma like yours."
My Ma, I'd yet to actually see much of her, she'd been asleep when I woke, and she wasn't here when I woke again. I was worried about what she was doing with the house back home, and how she was coping if she'd been here everyday. I searched the room with my eyes trying to see if she was outside. More than anything, I wanted her to kiss my head and tell me everything was going to be fine.
"She's just taking a shower and gone to wash some clothes, she only leaves here to go to the bakery at the end of the street or to walk with Alice. She'll be back before you know it." Emmett answered for me. "Do you remember much about what happened?"
When I didn't answer because I really didn't know how to, my face scrunching up as much as possible with frustration, he sat there and laughed at me. Like a full on belly laugh, shaking my bed when his fist pummelled onto the mattress where he was leaning, causing my head to shake a little from the vibrations. Man that shit hurt, my head already felt like I had a mini army fighting in there, throw in the shaking and the blinding pain shot through my eyes causing the white flashes to pass in front of me. Closing my eyes and gritting my teeth around the plastic tube the monitor next to me beeped faster.
"Shit. Doctor, Nurse." Emmett called, scrambling up to hit the alarm button above me I presume.
"Jasper, honey, calm down for me." Rosalie reassured for me, smoothing a cool damp cloth across my forehead. "It's alright. Is it your head, it's hurting? Squeeze my hand if I'm right."
Her cool soft hand slipped onto mine and I squeezed it as well as I could, she let go of my hand and reached for a button on a pad that was attached to another machine to my left and pressed it.
"It's some morphine, Honey; give it a couple of minutes and it'll help. Emmett, seriously, what just happened there? What brought it on? I need to know."
"I'm not sure, one minute he was fine, I asked him a question and he didn't answer, then I realised I was waiting for him to talk, but of course he can't so I may have laughed a little, or a lot, y'know." He shrugged.
"Loud noises shouldn't affect him like that." She said talking to herself. "Although, maybe they do...."
"I may have been leaning on the bed."
"Did you rock the bed around? Emmett McCarty, he has a head injury, you can't be shaking him around like that you fool." She said slapping his arm. "You can do him seriously damage if you're not careful. Do you want him to go back into a coma?"
I'm not sure what was more amusing, a grown man getting a mouthful from this woman that had given me the drugs to stop the war in my head or the fact that they were, yet again, talking about me like I wasn't in the fucking room. This shit was getting old. I reached up to the apparatus in my mouth, it needed to go, and they were taking far too long getting it out. I was pretty sure I'd be able to breathe on my own, just give me one of those frigging air things that pump air up your nose.
How do they take these things out? Do they just pull them and hope for the best? Or is there some special way of doing it?
Guess I'm just about to find out.
Giving it a hard tug, well, as hard as I could when you have the energy of a fucking half dead fly, I pulled at the cord. It made me gag like I had something stuck and it was making me choke; I grasped at the sheets around me as everything went in slow motion. I heard Rosalie screaming no and saw her slam her hand onto the alarm button and Emmett looking like I was a crazy man. I could feel my chest getting tighter, the way my lungs felt like they were the size of quarters and how the pain in my head intensified by my movements, which now included what felt like some form of fit as I tried desperately to breath.
A doctor came running into my room as Emmett moved himself out of the way; Rosalie was trying to attach an oxygen tube up my nose and telling me to calm down as I basically had a panic attack at my own stupidity. The doctor spoke calmly to me, telling me that he needed me to cough so they could take it out without me causing any lasting damage. I did as he asked and coughed as the smooth tube slid free from my throat. It burnt, and it made me want to cough a little more. Rosalie held a glass of water to my lips, telling me to sip through the straw. I did as I was told, only to cringe at the pain it caused as the cool wet fluid slipped down my sore, scratchy throat.
The doctor checked some of my vitals, filled in the chart at the end of my bed, tutted and mumbled under his breath about how patients never let them do their jobs. Seriously, like give a dude a break, I wanted to talk, it wasn't all that much to ask for was it? He finished by flashing a light into my eyes and telling me to try and get some rest and not to talk too much.
Erm main reason I took the bloody thing out was to talk.
"You do realise that you could have caused permanent damage by doing that don't you, Son?" The doctor chastised me. "There are procedures to doing this kind of thing."
I gave him a bleak smile in return, not wanting to apologise because I truly didn't think I was in the wrong, but not wanting to frustrate the man that had helped keep me alive on my return.
"We'll have to keep an eye on you, more so now than before." He grumbled, "I'll be back to check on you later. Don't go removing other equipment please Lieutenant Whitlock."
I rolled my eyes and sighed. There was nothing else for me to remove; just the monitor thing that was inanely beeping still, and there was no way I was pulling those little sticky pads from my chest any time soon. Guaranteed they'd be stuck to the little bit of hair I had scattered across my chest, and I'm no fan of self inflicted waxing.
Rosalie fluffed the pillows behind my back, pulled the comforter up over my legs where I'd kicked it off during my panic and told me to sip at the water when I felt ready. As she walked out of the room she gave Em a pointed look and told him to take it easy on me. Girl had him by the balls and it was hilarious to watch.
"So, let's try this again huh? Do you remember what happened?" Emmett asked once I'd settled and looked in his direction.
"Not much, just the kid coming towards me, me pulling my gun back to shoot, you were calling my name and the weight of him against me. Oh, and the motherfucking pain against the side of my head." I said hoarsely.
It hurt just to say those few words, why had I been in such a rush to take that pipe out again?
"Well I took him down in one shot." He said proudly, though I knew through his courage he'd never want to kill another man, sometimes it was just the necessary evil on the battlefield. "It was my fault he fell onto you like he did, but there was no way I could have stopped him using the butt of that gun. I'm sorry I couldn't get there quicker."
"McCarty, you saved my life, regardless of how, it's down to you that I'm here."
"No one was taking you away from your Ma. I made you a promise and I wasn't breaking it." His voice broke a little and it was then that I realised that he'd truly been scared of losing me.
"Thanks man. I owe you my life." I whispered.
"No biggie, Bro. It's what we do right? You'd of done the same for me." He shrugged it off like it wasn't something important.
He was right. I would have done the same for him, I'd of dragged him miles to the nearest medic if I needed to, in fact, I'm willing to put money on the fact that I'd of taken a bullet for him just the way he had for me.
"Your leg, you'll be able to go back?"
"They seem to think so. As long as the physio works out I'll be fine." He said looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was around. "But Jas, I'm not sure if I want to go back."
"But earlier you said that you were ready to get back out on the line."
"It was all big man talk. Have you not seen her? She breaks my balls, Man, she keeps me on my toes and I'm besotted. I don't want to go back to Jacksonville, let alone back to fight. She's the first person in my life that has given me something to look forward too. Don't get me wrong, Alice was always my main concern, and always will be for that fact, but now, I have someone to be a better man for."
"You and Rosalie hey?"
"Not yet, but I'm working my charm on her. She said she's not at liberty to date a patient. I asked what happens when I'm no longer a patient. She said I'd have to wait and see."
"Em, have you ever not got a girl you wanted?"
"We'll see, she's older than me. I'm not sure how she sees me, but regardless, I'm not giving up. I want her more than I want to live."
"What about Alice?"
"What about her?"
"She's ok with you chasing after a nurse?"
"She's more than ok with it. She's grown up a lot whilst I've been away, more than I care to admit if I'm honest. She's hoping that there's someone else to take care of her now..." He said looking away. "I just hope he doesn't break her heart because he's too blind to see what's in front of him."
I went to answer his question, wanting to know more about the girl he held so dearly to his heart and about the new girl in his life, but my train of thought was broken as I saw my mom hugging Alice outside my room. She looked so at ease around Ma, like they'd really got to know each other and I smiled. Emmett caught my eye line and followed it, he too smiling at the scene of Ma and Alice in their embrace.
"She's a good kid."
"I hope to find out for myself some time." I whispered with a nod, ignoring the pain that shoot through my head, because it was true, I really did want to get to know the girl that had brought me back from the brink just with her voice.
PT: So, watcha think? Let us know maybe?
MC: Thanks again to everyone that reads, reviews and adds us to their alerts, we're forever in your debt.
PT: Guess we'll wait to hear from y'all... *waves* byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
MC: See ya next week *skips off into the sunset*