Chapter Two: Introduction to Crazy

Rosalie watched as the season started to change and the leaves with it into brilliant fire colors that lit up when the sun started to set. She had gotten a job with a nearby pizza place and was already into her classes at the local technical college earning her degree in web design. A handful of her friends from back home started to reach out to her to check on her, but for the most part Rosalie kept to herself and made sure she was always busy so she wouldn't have to think. Her stomach had expanded a little barely hinting that she was pregnant, she still wore oversized shirts to hide the fact. Rosalie still wasn't ready to explain to people where the father was and why they weren't together. Daniel had really hurt her in ways that cut to her soul.

Rosalie sighed heavily sitting at her desk staring out her window watching her dad do some yard work in the back yard. She had to get ready for work soon, something she wasn't looking forward to. The other girls at her job were bossy and rude, always talking down to her over some small thing. Her boss though always sang her praises and gave her more and more responsibilities. She enjoyed working in the kitchen, the fast pace kept her mind busy and focused. As Rosalie got dressed for work she started to realize how lonely she really was and decided maybe it was time for her to move on since Daniel had so easily before she even knew they were over.

She tucked her shirt in quickly making her way over to her computer before clicking open her instant messenger and clicking on her friend Tanya's user name. Tanya still lived in Washington, and it seemed a little strange to be looking for someone to date across the country. It didn't seem strange to be asking her friend such a thing, she wasn't going to stay in South Carolina forever after all, she did plan on moving back once she was able to get on her feet and used to being a new mom.

Rosalie typed out a quick message to Tanya, asking her if she knew of anyone who was single and that she was headed to work she'd call when she got off. Her friend was quick to reply with a short message, "Will ask around and ttyl. Love you."

Rosalie smiled as she slipped her shoes on and grabbed her car keys. Maybe things were looking up after all.

Emmett sighed heavily as he dragged himself up the stairs to his barracks room, completely exhausted from the day's activities. Royce King prattled away next to him excitedly waving his around as if to emphasize every word. His new friend was short, standing at only five-foot-seven and obviously full of himself country boy, though he couldn't understand this part seeing as Royce was from Washington of all places. Bringing up the rear was their friend Jasper Whitlock, a tall blonde haired, blue eyed pure country boy from the south. He was lanky and stood at the same height as Emmett did, his southern drawl was thick adding a sort of charm. Royce was rambling on about something, Emmett half listened as he and Jasper exchanged looks rolling their eyes at their friend while Emmett retrieved his keys and they entered his room. Jasper set the beer down on his desk before tossing one to Emmett and then one to Royce.

"Royce, do you ever shut up?" Jasper asked cracking open his beer with a wicked grin crossing his boyish face.

Royce glared at Jasper cracking open his own beer and taking a swig, Emmett laughed cracking his open as well and let the bitter liquid run down his throat. He immediately started feeling a light buzz since none of them had thought to grab anything to eat and they hadn't had anything since noon and it was now eight o'clock at night.

Emmett did feel sympathy for his friend Royce, though. He was only twenty-one-years-old and already going through a divorce. Emmett had been engaged once in his twenty-four years, it didn't end well. He had been burned badly when he came home from work one day to find his fiancée in their bed with another man. Worst part of all of it, he had been supporting her so she didn't have to work. Emmett shook his head when Royce's phone rang.

"Hey Tanya!" Royce listened intently as this girl Tanya talked his ear off, adding in words of agreement here and there. "Wait, was she that one that was spending the night at your house when Maria and I came over to get ready for the ball? The really cute tiny one?"

Emmett's interest suddenly shifted, maybe this was the thing that would stop Royce's ever diminished mood.

"Yeah I remember her, what about her? She is? What happened to her?" Royce's face scrunched up in irritation. "Wow, he did that to her? Well yeah I'm interested, give her my phone number. Okay, I'll talk to you later, bye beautiful."

Royce hung up his phone and immediately turned around and started up Emmett's computer.

Emmett and Jasper stared perplexed at their friend waiting for an explanation of their friend's phone call. They watched as Royce pulled up his social media page and started scrolling through his friends list. Emmett and Jasper came up behind him and watched and Royce navigated his way through his friends list until he stopped on Tanya's profile. Emmett watched curiously as Royce then started going through Tanya's friends and finally stopped on one of her friends' profiles and clicked it, bring up this girl's page for full view. Emmett glanced at the name before Royce started scrolling once again to possibly gauge who this girl was. He was able to catch her first name, but not her last.

"Rosalie," he seemed to just breathe her name.

"Yup," Royce replied, popping the end of the word. He scrolled back up clicking on her profile picture, allowing the picture to be enlarged and take up the whole screen. Emmett had to stop himself, this girl was gorgeous and something in the back of his mind was tugging at him, screaming for him to remember something. Jasper let out a low whistle as Royce began clicking through her pictures. With each one, she became more and more engrained in Emmett's memory. At that moment, Emmett became a little jealous of his friend.

Royce's cell rang again, shattering the silence that had enveloped the three soldiers that had crowded around the computer.

Royce flipped it open, "Hello?"

Emmett was close to Royce so he could only hear a muffled portion of the conversation coming from the other side of the phone call.

"Yeah Tanya asked if I remembered who you were and I do, how have you been gorgeous?"

Adam rolled his eyes at how thick Royce was laying it on. He didn't know this Rosalie girl's story, but he knew how his friend was.

"Yes I heard, I'm sorry that happened to you. How far along are you? Three months? So you just passed the first trimester then?"

Emmett let out a low whistle, she was pregnant! She was gorgeous and she was pregnant. Emmett stared at his beer, listening absent mindedly while Royce continued his conversation. An empty crumpled beer can hit him in the chest, and when he looked up Royce was still on the phone, but Jasper was staring at him intently. Emmett shrugged and tossed him another beer.

"Okay beautiful, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Call me when you get out of class," Royce snapped his phone shut and leaned back in the chair, taking a long swig of his beer.

Emmett stared at him for a moment, his brow creased before he pulled out his pack of Marlboro reds and made his way to the door. He could hear Jasper and Royce gulping their beers down before setting the cans on the desk and following him outside. The air in Fort Hood was dry and still hot, even at this late hour in the day.

"Well?" Royce asked looking excitedly between his two friends.

"Well what?" Emmett responded slowly, dragging out his words in the hopes of not revealing that he knew what Royce was talking about and that his interest was certainly peaked.

"Aren't you going to ask me about my new girl?"

Emmett could feel Jasper's eyes on him, staring at him trying to gauge a reaction from him. He took a long drag off his cigarette, exhaling slowly, "What about her?"

"So get this, she was dating this guy back in Washington, I guess they were engaged and she caught him cheating on her after they found out she was pregnant. So now she's living in South Carolina and going to school to get her degree in web design and she's working too. Apparently, she and Tanya went to school together back in Washington and she's ready to start dating again."

Emmett took another drag, Jasper did the same with his eyes still glued to Emmett. He nodded his head, "That's cool."

"Maria is going to be so jealous when she hears about this," Royce snickered.

Emmett clenched his fist that was inside his pocket, trying hard not to react to what Royce had just said. He was just using this poor girl to get back at his wife. She obviously had been through, and was still going through, a rough time. She definitely didn't deserve that.

"Well I don't know about you guys," Royce flicked his own cigarette over the balcony. "But I'm going to head in. Night."

Emmett stared intently at the ground, smoking his cigarette almost down to the filter. He could still feel Jasper's eyes on him.

"Do I have something on my face?"

Jasper took a drag before rushing the smoke out of his mouth in a loud exhale, "No, but somethin's botherin' you."

Emmett flicked his cigarette over the edge, "No, nothing's bothering me."

Jasper cocked an eyebrow at him, taking his last drag off of his cigarette and followed suit flicking his over the edge of the balcony.

Emmett grew irritated at Jasper's constant stare and prodding question, "It's nothing!"

Jasper shrugged and started walking away, calling over his shoulder, "See you tomorrow, hopefully by then your panties will be out of the wad they're in."

Emmett huffed in annoyance and went back into his room slamming the door and throwing himself on his bed. He stared at the ceiling angrily, not knowing why it really bothered him the way Royce had talked about this girl he knew nothing about. He reached out and turned the bedroom light off and noticed a blue glow still filling the room. Looking around, Emmett noticed that his computer was still on and when his eyes finally focused saw that it was still open to a picture of Rosalie. He slowly got up from his bed making his way over to his computer and slumped in the chair at the desk, staring intently at it. She was gorgeous, that he knew. She had been hurt, she was alone and pregnant trying to make her way in the world. From that he deduced she was a lot stronger than most out there. To be so shattered and still try to move on, he knew the feeling. He knew how it felt to be barely able to breathe and still force yourself out of bed in the morning. What was he saying?! He didn't know her, he only knew what Royce had told him and it was second hand information from Royce's friend Tanya. Emmett slammed the screen shut, sighing heavily and rubbing his eyes tiredly in the palms of his hands. He needed to get a grip on his sanity, and quickly because Royce already had her eating out of the palm of his hand.

Rosalie hung up the phone with a small smile on her face, maybe there was hope for her after all. She and Royce had talked for about forty-five minutes just catching up since the last time they had seen each other and she had been up front and honest about her situation. He had called her beautiful and gorgeous, something she had rarely heard in her life. She looked exhaustedly at her bed, but wanted to see his social media page to see where he was now. So she jumped quickly on her own page and pulled up his profile, sending him a friend request before beginning to scroll through his pictures. He was still cute, and charming. The last time she had seen him, she had been at Tanya's spending the night with her and her sister Kate when he had come over with his wife Maria to get ready for the military ball and he had needed help getting his uniform on. He had looked at her in earnest with a smile that made her swoon, but she had to quickly remind herself that he was married. She was the only one that had been left in the room, because Tanya, Kate and their mom had gone with Maria to go help her with getting her dress on and fitted. She had reached up with shaky hands, straightening his tie after buttoning the tops buttons on his shirt and the proximity to him had made her dizzy and breathless and he had noticed, but said nothing. Just reached up with his own hands grasping hers and thanked her. Now they were getting a divorce and he was showing his interest in her, something she still couldn't seem to wrap her brain around.

Rosalie didn't try to think about it too much as she clicked through picture after picture finally stopping on one of him and two other guys.

"Oh," she immediately felt a sense of familiarity looking at the photo at his friend with the darker hair. He was handsome as all hell, his smile reaching from one ear to the other. You could tell his friend was genuine in this smile because it was the type that reached your eyes, which she noticed his were an icy blue. A really familiar icy blue. Rosalie gasped, her hands flying up to her mouth as her brain finally caught up with what her mind was trying to tell her. It was the guy was she plowed into at the airport and had caught her before she fell!

Rosalie searched to see if Royce had mentioned in the picture caption what his name was, and he had. Rosalie finally had a name to put to the face and it was Emmett. She shook her head in disbelief and put thoughts of him in the back of her mind, tucked away in a small box. She sighed, the compulsion to pull up her ex-fiancée's page was overwhelming. Ignoring the voice in her head she clicked open his profile page and saw his main picture had changed to one of him and the girl he had left her for. Rosalie felt her heart shatter seeing this send covered her mouth with her hand to muffle the sobs that betrayed her determination to move on. She shut down her computer then crawled into bed crying softly into her pillow vowing to forget about him and throw herself into this new relationship. It probably wasn't the smartest of things to do, but given where she was at in her life she just wanted to feel loved. She wanted to heal, and hopefully this new relationship with Royce would do just that.

Rosalie reached over and turned off the light and silently cried herself to sleep that night trying to fight the ache in her chest. Though her night of sleep was fitful and wracked with some of the craziest dreams she had ever had.

One vivid one had Daniel smiling cruelly at her shoving her away, leaving her asking him where he was going and watched as he walked over to this new girl and started kissing her passionately in front of Rosalie. She then felt a tug at her arm and turning around she was face to face with Royce, who leaned in and kissed her with just as much passion, but when he pulled away he had morphed into his friend Emmett. Emmett leaned forward, pressing his forehead to hers making her feel completely at ease and whispered to her, "I'll always love you."

Rosalie woke up gasping, "What in the world was that?"

She glanced over at her alarm clock, her eyes trying to adjust to the dark. The clock read that it was three in the morning. Rosalie quietly got out of bed and silently made her way downstairs to the kitchen to get a glass of water. She gulped it down, her mind replaying dream Emmett's words over and over in her mind. She chalked it up to her mind just playing tricks on her with a combination of pregnancy hormones. When she was finished she stood there in the kitchen, the only sound was that coming from the kitchen clock. Sometimes the silence was better than all the thoughts that ran through her head. After giving herself a moment to collect herself, Rosalie made her way back upstairs crawling under the warm covers and hesitantly tried to force herself back to sleep.