25.

~ She slept for a long time. She knew she had been medicated because it felt like she wanted to wake up, but couldn't. The drugs kept pulling her back under into a world where she washed up on some strange shore. Only now she was truly alone in this desolate, empty place. No one was there to help her or guide her out.

She finally surfaced long enough to open her eyes. The pain in her leg forcing her her out of that lonely place.

Her hospital room was dimly lit. Her body felt too heavy. As if it might crash through the bed. Even her eye lids felt heavy as she could feel the tide wanting to pull her back under and wash her back into the land of dreams.

She vaguely processed that she was alone in a privet room. That there was a figure by her bedside. That his long, lean frame was sitting in a chair and his head and chest was resting on her bed. Trying to sleep in some type of comfort.

She wanted to run a hand over the head of this stranger. A man, a soldier with dark hair. A man she didn't know. She tried to lift her hand but it was too heavy.

"Arthur?" She called out in a horse whisper. For lack of any other words that came to mind.

The soldier's head snapped up. Roused from his own sleep as he looked relieved.

"Ariadne." He sighed as he took her hand in his. His face coming into view.

"Arthur." She cried as she recognized him. "I... I wasn't fast enough."

"It's alright. Your safe now." He whispered as his lips pressed against her forehead.

She asked for water and he gently fed her small sips from a cup.

"My leg hurts." She whimpered. Trying not to cry as Arthur called for a nurse.

Then, she could feel the tide pulling her back into sleep again. Feel her mind leave her body as she washed up on that strange shore again. Arthur fading from her as she let herself become lost in a desolate, empty city.

~It had been a simple ceremony. Arthur received his new rank as well as the distinguished service cross. He was awarded another purple heart and even the bronze star for going after the wounded.

His skinny privet was now a skinny Corporal. The small young man looked pleased with his own medals for valor.
"Sorry your girl isn't here to see this." Cobb said patting him on the back. "Still sleeping?"

"She came out of it last night for a little while." Arthur sighed.

"Well, at least she's still alive." Cobb said to the new Major.

"She's going back to London. Doctor Kikie signed the order before he went home. His heart was giving him problems."

"That's good. It's what you wanted." Cobb said as the two men walked back to the hospital. These days, when Arthur wasn't on duty, he was at his nurse's side. Her heavy sleep keeping her far away from him.

"I guess." Arthur said sadly. He hoped she would wake up before she was shipped back to London.

He wanted her in London. It would be safer. The war was too close here. But he didn't like the idea of not seeing her again. He had to do something.

Dear Beth.

I am sorry I have not written in so long.

Please tell Mother and Dad that I'm alright.

I got another promotion.

I'm a Major now.

Don't tell Mother or Dad.

I've met a girl.

I plan to ask her to marry me.

Arthur.

~ It was morning when she heard Trixie singing and telling her to wake up.
Ariadne still felt exhausted and her body seemed too heavy to move.

"Wake up." Trixie said brightly. "You've been snoozing for three days now. You've missed a lot." The American girl coaxed her out of sleep.

"What happened?" Ariadne said as she realized she was in a bright hospital room. She was the room's only occupant and found even her lungs felt heavy from the pain medication. Her breaths a struggle as Trixie helped her to sit up.

"A bomb almost hit you." Trixie said simply. "Broke your leg. Doctor Kikie had to set it right there in the truck as the Army was pulling out."

"We retreated." Ariadne said lazily as she heard Trixie prepare a warm bed bath for her.

"For now. Your Major was here." Trixie said.
"My Major?" Ariadne asked stupidly as Trixie washed her body in warm, soapy water. Ariadne felt weak as a kitten. She could barely hold her arm up as Trixie washer her and dried her skin. Could barely roll over as her nurse remade the bed with her in it. A large, cumbersome white cast was encasing her leg and weighed her down. A dull pain radiating through her leg as she tried to move her body. The cast hindering her every move. Ariadne's hand went to the cast and she stupidly tried to peel it off.

"Doctor Kikie said it needs to stay on for a few more weeks. Maybe a few months." Trixie said. "It looked like a clean break. No infection which is lucky."

"Is Doctor Kikie alright?" Ariadne said as her memory brought back the image of the older man looking so sick.
"He wasn't doing well for a while. But he's much better now." Trixie said simply. "He's already gone back to London."
Ariadne leaned back in her clean bedding as soon as Trixie put a fresh night gown on her.
"Are you hungry?" She asked.

"Starved." Ariadne said sadly. Part of her glad Doctor Kikie was alright, the other part of her, sad he wasn't here with her anymore.
"Good. I think your Major is bringing you up a tray." Trixie said with a pleased little smile. "He's been here all day. You kept waking up and then fall asleep again."

"My Major?" Ariadne said. Her mind still confused from the drugs.

"Arthur." Trixie said with a smile. "You slept right through his promotion ceremony and everything. He got another purple heart, the cross and a bronze star. He's a real war hero."

Now she remembered. Now she remembered how he had held her in that truck as Doctor Kikie set her broken leg. How he had wanted her to leave on the transport well before the bombing. She remembered the child soldier and how his blood felt on her face when that bomb hit.

"Trixie!" Ariadne almost shouted. "My compact. I keep it in my dress pocket."

"Right here." Trixie said going to a little night stand and pulling open a drawer. She gave Ariadne her silver compact and Ariadne was relived to see Arthur's picture was still safely tucked inside. His handsome face greeting her with an angry scowl.

"It was so romantic." Trixie said with a sigh. "He carried you from the truck right into the triage room so the doctor's here could x-ray you leg and put it in a cast. He made sure you would live before going back for the ones they had to leave behind."

"He went back?" Ariadne gasped at the thought of it. That cold wasteland with monsters creeping closer and closer. Their heavy footsteps like giants marching to them.

She snapped her compact closed and clutched it tighter.

Trixie nodded and looked dreamily out the window.

"He saved over a dozen men. Colonel Burch was about ready to give him up for dead when he pulls back into the hospital. He was so tired he almost fell asleep on his feet. The first thing he wanted to know, was if you were alright." She said.

"He was here." Ariadne said putting a hand on her bed. The place Arthur had rested his head as she dreamed of some strange, forgotten place. She had been safe in her own dreams as he went back into the lion's den to save those they had to leave behind.

"He never wanted to leave your bedside. It was more romantic then Rhett and Scarlet!" Trixie said excitedly as she brushed and pinned Ariadne's hair.

"Wish I hadn't slept through the whole thing." Ariadne said feeling a growl of hunger go off in her stomach.

"That makes two of us." Arthur's voice came from the doorway.

Both women were startled from their secretive talk and Ariadne felt here eyes grow wide at the sight of her newly christened Major.