So far Emmalin Holden's stay with the Sherwood's hadn't been bad, her first afternoon in their home could be considered a success. Mrs. Sherwood's dinner had been excellent, Major Sherwood was friendly, and Jeremy had been fantastic. Around nine, the seventeen year old excused herself to finish her last minute Anatomy homework. After a grueling two hours of awful Anatomy work to finish an upcoming essay, she drifted peacefully to sleep.
At the ungodly hour of four in the morning, the seventeen year old was stirred from her light slumber. Strangled noises roughly hung in the air, disrupting the early morning silence. The brunette briskly peeled back her bedcovers. The cold South Carolina air sent chills on her newly exposed skin, leaving a trail of goosebumps along her body. The thin tank top and cotton sleep shorts she slept in weren't much defense against the frigid air.
Emmalin took soft footsteps across the floor of her temporary room and slowly entered the hallway. The deep, throaty shouts were significantly louder now. The Army Brat pressed her ear to Jeremy's closed bedroom door, the hard wood felt cold and uninviting but the noises only got louder.
She gently pushed the door open, not knowing what lay behind it. Her eyes widened as they rested upon Jeremy's sleeping figure, tossing and turning violently between his sheets. From her place in the doorway she could hear his struggling groans much more clearly, the sight of him in his terrible nighttime slumber made her heart wrench and almost brought tears to her eyes. She was frozen in her spot and she didn't even flinch when she felt Major Sherwood's presence behind her, his trained eyes watching his son carefully.
"Don't get to close. He almost strangled me in his sleep the first time I found him like this. Dr. Burton says you should never wake someone with PTSD, it's dangerous." Frank warned, despite his advice she could tell he desperately wanted Jeremy's nightmare to end.
"Is it like this every night?" She whispered, biting her nails as she watched Jeremy shout in his sleep.
"Almost. He didn't tell anyone, I heard him when I got home from work one day, I don't know if it's always this bad. He won't talk about it." The Major explained, gripping her wrist loosely, "You can go on to bed and I'll make sure Jeremy's okay."
"No!" She said firmly, ripping her wrist from the blonde and slowly stepping closer to Jeremy. Emmalin was careful not to wake him, she had heard horror stories about sleeping soldiers hurting people, but she stood near his bed being sure to stay out of arms distance if he reached out toward her.
The two watched in silence as Jeremy slept, their hearts pounding as he talked in his sleep, softly now instead of his loud rugged shouts. Without warning, Jeremy shot out of his sleep, his eyes instantly alert as he surveyed the two people watching him. A thin sheen of sweat cloaked his body, making the sheets stick to him. His blanket had roughly been kicked away during his sleep.
"Did I wake everyone?" Jeremy asked, his body trembling and his voice unsteady. Emmalin couldn't control her own body as she moved to the bed, her knees resting on the edge, almost touching him but not quite. It was the hospital all over again, something unknown force kept pulling her to him like gravity, and in a small way it was sort of pissing her off. No one said anything as she pulled her self behind him, her long slender legs resting around his frame. She felt all of his muscles tense as she pulled him to her gently, Emmalin couldn't resist the urge to hold him. When she was little she always wanted someone to hold her when she had a nightmare and now the seventeen year old wanted to comfort the soldier.
Her arms wrapped around him from behind, supporting his body between her knees, her hands softly stroking his bare chest. Emmalin murmured softly in his ear, kissing every inch of exposed skin she could reach on his body. She pulled his back to her chest, small hands gripping his clammy skin, rosy lips brushed down his unclothed neck and shoulders. Jeremy was trembling, even though he wasn't crying he was obviously shaken by his awful nightmare, his breath was coming in deep pants.
He roughly pushed her away at first but she would just pull him closer to her, the sweet nothings she whispered into his ear where slowly beginning to comfort him. The nineteen year old had never been a fan of being coddled, he usually didn't like being comforted through his pain, it made him uncomfortable. But nonetheless Jeremy reluctantly relaxed into Emmalin's soft figure, resting in-between her slender legs , feeling the soft fabric of her nightclothes against his bare back, basking in the tender kisses she was giving him. The seventeen year old kissed his cheek warmly, her hands wrapped around him to grip his broad shoulders. Neither of them were aware of the Major's gaze, following them like a trained hawk making sure their cuddling didn't escalate. She comforted him in silence for a few moment. Emmalin slowly whispered against his ear until his trembling stopped. Slender, feminine fingers (with awful nails) stroked the dog tags that hung from his neck.
"Mmm. Jeremy, do you wanna talk about it?" Emmalin whispered softly to the solider, kissing the hallow behind his ear. Her soft lips trailing down his neck and shoulders and her fingers stroked his buzz cut softly. She was pleased to find some very interesting tattoos on his back and quickly began kissing the dark marks.
"No. It was nothing." Jeremy persisted, obviously not wanting to talk about it.
"It was not nothing. You were talking in your sleep, it sounded horrible. Tell me, please." She whispered, pleading with him to talk to her, kissing Jeremy's temple.
"It's nothing anyone should ever tell you about." His voice sounded dead serious, but not cold. The horrible things he had seen, the awful things that replayed in his nightmares were not things an innocent girl like Emmalin Holden should ever know about. The nineteen year old gripped one of her hands tightly, just holding her small hand in his large one calmed him more than he was willing to admit. His rough thumb stroked the back of Emmalin's hand gently. She was nice enough not to say anything but Jeremy knew that Emmalin was aware of how viciously his hands were shaking.
"You don't have to give me any gory details, just talk to me. Let me comfort you." Emmalin kissed the corner of the soldier's mouth, not quite lip kissing but still sending a rush through her body. Suddenly she realized she had never kissed him on the lips before, the thought of their lips brushing gave her stomach butterflies. Sadly though, she realized now was not the right moment for a first kiss.
"It was of Iraq. The nightmares they're always the same couple of ones, I'm back in the Middle East and something goes wrong." He answered bluntly, wanting to close the subject.
"What goes wrong, Jeremy?" She mumbled against his ear, sucking on the tip while her arms wrapped around him even tighter, petite hands tracing his hard earned muscles.
"It depends, sometimes I just see what really did go wrong."
"Your friend?" His father asked, startling the two in bed. Both of their eyes jumped to Frank with the sudden realization that they were being watched.
"Yeah, Rison." He murmured.
"Do they happen every night?" Emmalin questioned, kissing Jeremy's forehead despite being all too aware of the heavy gaze coming from the Major. She pulled Jeremy's deep blue comforter over both of their bodies, more for privacy than warmth since the soldier's skin warmed her to the bone.
"Only the night's I'm sober. I don't want to talk about it." He gripped her hand tighter, his elbows resting across her knees. The Army Brat tenderly suckled on his collar, slowly leaving a dark violet hickey, Emmalin was nervous but Jeremy wasn't telling her to stop. Her experience with the male species was pretty limited, she had never even gone to second base before and now she was cozying up to a PTSD-diagnosed soldier. God, what would her father say? Hell, what was Jeremy's father going to say?
"Your chest looks better." Changing the subject before there was time for any awkward silence to fall across the room.
"I just got the stitches out." Jeremy's voice sounded grateful, he was glad she wasn't going to push him. His nightmares where not something he wanted to discuss, especially not with his father present.
"And the bruises are fading. They'll be gone soon." Her free hand drifted from it's place on his shoulder, to gently caress the dark marks, they had faded from purple and black into a sickly yellow. While Private Sherwood's chest still looked cringe-worthy it was a great improvement from when she had seen it in the hospital three weeks ago. Though he was pretty messed up from the gun wound and bruises, and the bullet removal/rib repair surgery, Emmalin couldn't help but find the soldier's tanned, muscular chest to be otherwise attractive.
"Yeah." He said, Emmalin's index finger went to trace the angry red scars on his chest, but the nineteen year old gently pulled her hand away, "Not yet."
"Does it hurt?" She trailed kisses on the nape of his neck, brushing the fine hairs there.
"Sometimes." Gripping both of her hands now.
"Sorry to interrupt but we've got to get ready to see Dr. Burton, you both need to shower and Emmalin's gotta go to school." Major Sherwood announced, declaring the time. It was six in the morning now, Emmalin was shocked that she and Jeremy had been like this for two hours.
"Yeah." Jeremy released Emmalin's hands and pulled himself free of the covers. He slide off of the mattress and stood next to his father, still clad in his boxers. Emmalin followed suit, tugging her now heavily-wrinkled sleep shorts and tank top back into a semi-respectable state when she stood.
"You wanna shower first?" Jeremy offered, his hand reaching out to brush through the ends of her messy long hair.
"If you don't mind?" She questioned.
"No. Just try and save me some hot water."
"No promises…and Jeremy, the girl posters on the wall need to leave. They're tacky." She smiled, leaving the room to shower before he changed his mind. She closed his bedroom door on her way out, giving the father and son privacy.
"So… you're still not dating?" Frank asked casually.
"No." The nineteen year old insisted, knowing his father wasn't going to drop the subject.
"You're sure? Cause that was borderline intimate."
"There wasn't any sexual intent, Dad."
"I know but intimacy isn't limited to sex." The Major corrected.
"Well she's seventeen so there's no intimacy here. I didn't even kiss her."
"Yeah well her hands certainly did travel. Honestly I thought your mother and I raised you better than that, could've sworn I taught you to wait till at least the third date before you let a girl feel you up." Frank teased.
"Ha ha ha. Very funny, Dad." His voice sarcastic now, knowing the last thing his father would approve of is a relationship with another of the Post Commander's daughters.
"And I like the bikini girl posters, that and the Playboys in the closet." The Major teased, the lack of seriousness was very uncharacteristic of him.
"You've gone through my closet recently?" Jeremy asked chuckling.
"I was looking for my Playboys, I've hidden them from your mother so well that I've also hidden them from myself."
"In the attic, the box labeled 'Christmas Lights', Dad."
"You gone through my attic recently?" He mocked, rubbing his son's short hair fondly.
"Well someone's gotta hang the Christmas Lights when you're gone, and it's definetly not gonna be Mom."
"Oh. Now I remember why I hide them there. Hop in the shower after Emmalin, then we'll head off. Emmalin's gotta be at school before 7:30 and we've gotta get to Dr. Burton's."
"Kay." With that his father left him alone in the confines of his room, which till now had never seemed so empty. Sighing and without an actually reason, Jeremy pulled down the posters Emmalin had deemed 'tacky'.