I wake up in a hospital bed, my leg searing with pain. The worst of it being on my thigh, but the pain spreading to the rest of my leg. I squint at my surroundings but all I can focus on is the bright light. I groan in pain and close my eyes back. ¨Lauren?¨ I hear a voice and force my eyes open and look where the voice came from. It was Jack. 

My voice barely a whisper and cracking I say, ¨Jack?¨

I feel a hand on mine and he says, ¨Im her Laur. Its alright. You're alright.¨ It sounded like he was trying to convince himself as well as me.

¨What happened?¨ 

¨You were shot in the leg. The thigh, it hit the main artery. The doctor said that if I hadn't gotten to you and dragged your bloody ass all the way to the medic tent then you would've died within a matter of minutes.¨

¨Oh, so thats why my body is hurtin like I just got into a fight with a bull.¨ If you cant tell I have a thick southern accent and Jack has a slight Australian accent. His accent usually ends up kicking in when he gets upset or mad. 

¨Yeah that might be a contributor. I say that with complete love and sarcasm.¨ He smiles. ¨I thought you were a goner.¨

I chuckle, ¨Its gonna take a lot more than a bullet wound to knock me down for good.¨ 

He didn't laugh at my attempt to make the air thinner. ¨Laur, come on dont joke about this, you could've died. ¨

I sigh, ¨I know. What are they going to do?¨
He hesitates before saying slowly, ¨They're sending you home.¨ 

My eyes go wide and my heart rate increases suddenly. ¨What?! No they cant do that. I cant go home! Jack you know why I cant. Convince them to not send me home!¨ I grab his arm a little harder than what I meant to. He winces a but but doesn't pull back. ¨Jack Im begging you dont make me go back there. Dont make me go back to him!¨ I can feel the tears coming on. I close my eyes, and try to breathe before I have a panic attack. 

Jack places his hand on my arm. ¨Laur calm down. Deep breathes. Slow your breathing down. Slow your heart rate down.¨ I nod my head doing as he says. I take deep breathes and I can very  slowly start to feel myself calming down. I pull my hand back. I open my eyes and look at Jack, ¨I cant go back to him. Hes waiting for me I just know it.¨

He looks at me with sympathetic eyes. ¨My family has a cabin up in the mountains in North Carolina. Hell its so secluded that hell never find the road that lead up to it. Im sure my parents wont mind if you stay there for a while. At least until you can find somewhere where you can go. Ill give you the address the day you get sent out.¨ He gets up and kisses me on the forehead. ¨Ill come back and see you again before you get sent out.¨ I nod as he walks out of the room. 

I try to keep my mind off of going home for the rest of the day but the thought sat at the back of my mind. I kept the tears at bay as more and more of my fellow soldiers came in with wounds. Some wasn't as badly injured as others. I had one of my friends come in and visit me with a shoulder wound. We talked for a while before she left to get stitches in her shoulder.  

I laid there in the hospital bed until I drifted off into sleep. My dreams were not dream they were nightmares. Which were filled of Nic, of my love for him, but mostly of my fear of him.