Status: Hope you enjoy this! This is an original story that I am working on. Please let me know what you think!

Broken Soldier

Come Back to Me

The hospital machines were screaming with urgency when his heart randomly gave out. Doctors pushed me to the side yelling at us to move and a ‘Code Blue’ being broadcasted on the intercoms. I put my face in my hands and had to lean against a wall to keep from falling to me knees. Jeremy had just returned from surgery after having to have his right leg amputated due to some blood clot that they couldn’t fix. His left leg had already been blown off when his convoy was blown up by an IED when they hit a trip wire. He was lucky to be alive but I knew and his family knew he was going to wish he was dead with the pain and suffering he was going to endure these next few months. Jeremy had always been an athletic active person growing up and not going to be able to go running or anything ever again was going to eat him up alive on the inside. The doctor yelled at us to get out of the ICU and we all complied. I ended up sliding down the wall with my back and sobbing into my hands. I felt hands rubbing my shoulder and someone trying to comfort me with soft soothing coos of encouragement but it wasn’t helping.

“London. Hey now it’s gonna be okay. Jer is a tough guy. We all know that. He will make it. You’ll see.” I looked up at Michael and nodded. Michael was Jeremy’s older brother, but only by two years. At 30 Michael was almost spitting image of his younger brother, or well vice versa since Jer was younger. Michael was a six foot four Army Vet with a degree in Psychology. He now worked with military members overcoming their battles on and off the field of battle. PTSD was at an all-time high these days and Michael was never faced with an easy case but he never gave up on these men and women. I wanted to ask him how he knew Jeremy could pull through but I couldn’t find my voice. I could only nod as Michael slid down next me and I laid my head on his shoulder. Their parents, Martha and Joe, were watching us with tears in their eyes. Their eldest and only daughter, Taylor, was at home with her 2 kids waiting on the news.

Time seemed frozen and it felt we were all drowning in this thick unbreakable goo that didn’t want to let us go. Staring a picture of flowers above Martha’s head became my favorite pastime while we were out there waiting for Jeremy to pull through. My best friend was dying and there was nothing I could do to help him. Michael had nodded off with me still leaning against him. How long has it been? An hour? Two? A day? My body was begging me for sleep as well but my mind was racing too much and my heart felt like it was breaking.

“Mr. and Mrs. Reynold’s?” The doctor came out and I quickly grabbed Michael’s hand and squeezed. His eyes snapped open the moment I touched him, that Military training still at work, and he helped pull him and myself to our feet. Martha and Joe walked over with hope grazing every inch of their faces. I’m sure mine held the same look.

“Is he okay? Is my baby going to okay?” Martha was trying to hold herself together and Joe wrapped his arm around her. Jeremy would roll his eyes at his mother calling him a baby but he was her baby. He was the youngest of three kids. He was their miracle baby. Martha had had a miscarriage the year before and the doctor said she was too old and couldn’t have any more kids. Taylor was really young then but remembers clearly how broken her parents were after all that. Then one day Martha felt sick and went to the doctors where they told her the good news. It was a miracle. Jeremy was her miracle baby.

“He is going to be fine. He is awake now actually which is why I came to grab you. Though, mind you, we haven’t told him his condition yet. We wanted to ask if you wanted to tell him or should we?”

I looked at Martha who was at a loss for words. Joe stepped forward with his wife. “We’ll do it. Thank you Doctor Jenkins.”

Jenkins nodded and moved out of the way for us to pass by. I let his family go before me as I took a deep breath to stall time. I hadn’t seen Jeremey in almost 11 months since he left for this last tour. I remember begging him to see if he could somehow find a way out of it but he wanted to go. He felt needed there. I told him I needed him and he just laughed and gave me a huge reassuring hug. I clutched onto him and put my face in the crook of his neck. I had to stand on my tippy toes to accomplish this mission but thankfully he bowed down a bit to help me out. I only stood at 5 foot 2 inches and it was quite bothersome. We had to let go all too soon but I made sure to keep ahold of his hand for a moment. We smiled at each other as I felt the tears running down my cheek. Even though it was his third deployment it always felt like the first. The fear, the unknown, the distance. Just everything.

“You look so silly in that uniform you know that right Jer? Also handsome, but still more like the dork that you are.” He smiled and wiped the tear off my face.

“I can always count on you to joke at a serious situation London.”

I chuckled and rolled my eyes. “Do you have everything? Anything you forgot let me know and I’ll send it over immediately.”

“Yes mom. Of course mom. Whatever you say mom.” He was basically making fun of me and I jokingly and lightly punched him in the shoulder telling him to shut up. I smiled sadly at the ground for a second before reaching into my purse and pulling out a photo. It was a picture of the two of us at the country fair in front of the horses before their show. He was on one side of the beautiful chestnut brown thoroughbred holding its harness while I was on the other side smiling at the camera mid rub on the giant beasts nose. Jeremy was laughing at me in the photo because the horse had just tried to eat my hair and he was blaming it on the fact that my shampoo I had been using smelled like green apples. This was my favorite photo of us and it only took my 5 months to get it developed. I handed it to him.

He smiled as he looked at the photo remembering that moment as well. He flipped it over and saw my quick message on the back. ‘Come home soon! Love and miss you Jer Bear! Thinking of you! Love, London.’

He leaned in and kissed my forehead and I swear my heart melted. He then turned and left looking back once before walking over to his platoon to get into formation to enter onto the giant flight craft that was taking him to Afghanistan.

I heard talking near me and I blinked the memory away quickly rubbing at my eyes to rid my face of the tears. Now was not the time to be wimp. I needed to be strong for Jeremy and I couldn’t do that crying all over him. I was about to turn and enter the room when I heard a loud and anguished cry of shock. Shit shit shit! They told him and I wasn’t in the room! I felt like I should flee because this was a family matter and even though I was basically already a member myself from all those years of friendship it still felt like I was intruding. He’s moaning though broke my heart and then I didn’t care if I was intruding or not.

I walked into the ICU and saw Martha sobbing into Joe’s arm and Michael hanging his down as Jeremy tried to get up. It looked like he was trying to knock things over in his anger but because of his legs missing he couldn’t move from the bed without potentially falling on his face. I ran over to the bed and quickly grabbed at him to pull him back before he ended up doing just that.

“Jeremy stop! Stop it! You’re going to hurt yourself!” I yelled at him as he tried to push me off. He was still drugged up so didn’t have much strength. Eventually he stopped and just leaned against me and started sobbing. To see a grown man who was as tough as damn Superman break down and cry like he did would kill anyone on the inside. I didn’t bother holding back my tears this because there was no way I could if I tried. I just started saying things to calm him down as I ran my fingers up and down his arm whispering to him how it was going to be okay. I kissed his forehead as he grabbed onto me and held me close to him. And we stayed like this for awhile.

“London?”

I blinked in shocked as he spoke to me. I had been standing and holding him to me for over an hour now and he was silent the whole time just listening to my heartbeat with his head on my chest. “Yes Jeremy?”

“Will you stay with me tonight?” He voice was so empty and dull of any emotion I thought I might start crying again or ask them to put him on suicide watch. Which would come first I didn’t know. I looked over at his parents who were talking with the doctor again and Michael who was sitting in one of the chairs watching us. He nodded at me and got up to go tell his parents and the doctors I was staying.

“Of course Jer. I will never leave you.” I crawled into the hospital bed with him and curled up into his side laying my head on his arm as he wrapped it around me. I could tell he was there physically but not so much mentally. He was in his own dark thoughts and I needed to be here to bring him back to the light.

“What am I going to do now.” I looked at him confused as to what he meant. It was more of a statement than a question.

“What do you mean?”

“I have no legs. I’m half the man now than when I left.” His voice choked up and I wanted to slap him but held back.

“On the contrary you are now more of a man than when you left. You survived. Jeremy YOU survived! You came back to us. To me. As for what you can do there is nothing holding you back. They do make prostatic legs. We start with the basics like learning how to use them and before you know it you and I will be running that death trap of a trail you like so much with me being left behind cursing at you for making me do it. It will be just like old times.”

“London things will never be the same like old times.” He whispered into my hair. I tilted my head up to look at him to argue with him but he was already asleep. I sighed and kissed his cheek.

“You’ll see Jer. You’ll see.”
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This will be a flash into what happened after the accident before I go straight into the story line and work from there. Next chapter will be 2 years later. Hope you enjoy.