A Soldier's Promise

Chapter Ten

Jonathan collapsed on his cot, completely exhausted. Albert did the same beside him. They had just got off watch duty. They had both been on for the last 24hrs and felt like zombies. As Jonathan leaned over to untie his boots, the necklace Evelyn gave him right before he left fell out of his shirt. He slowly sat up and fingered the heart as he thought of her. He missed her so damn much. He'd been gone for over a month now and so far, he had not been able to communicate with her. Jonathan knew Evelyn was probably out of her mind with worry, but there was nothing he could do about it. He picked up the dog tag, placed a soft kiss on it, then tucked it back inside his shirt. He knew he should probably go take a shower, but he was just too tired to care.

"I miss her, man." He heard Albert murmur from his cot. Jonathan turned his head towards his friend and sighed.

"Me too."

"I just wish I could at least hear her voice, you know? We've never been incommunicado this long during a mission."

Jonathan rubbed his face tiredly, "I've never had anyone I cared to communicate with besides my family. Now that I have Evelyn back home...it just makes this so hard. Before her, I didn't care how long we were deployed. Now, I can't wait to get back home."

"If we could just talk to them..." Albert sighed heavily. "This is excruciating."

"Bishop," a fellow soldier stuck his head into their tent. "Commander is requesting to see you." Albert rolled his eyes and sat back up in his cot. He pulled his boots back on and quickly tied them. He re-tucked his t-shirt and headed to see the Commander. He had been gone for over thirty minutes when he came back into the tent. Jonathan was almost asleep, but Albert shook him awake.

"Hayes, the Commander is asking for you now." Albert sat down on his cot and began taking off his boots again. Jonathan rubbed his tired eyes and pulled his boots back on. He didn't even bother putting his t-shirt back on. When he walked into the main tent, he looked around for the Commander, but he was no where to be found. He frowned, scratching his head. He was about to look for him somewhere else, but he came up behind him.

"Hayes," he began. Jonathan stood up straight and saluted him.

"Commander, you wanted to see me?"

"At ease, Hayes." He looked down at a file he was carrying, then looked back up at him. "You've got half an hour."

Jonathan frowned in confusion, "Half an hour, sir?"

His commander pointed across the room towards another area of the tent that was separated from the main area by a sheet of canvas. "Communications has been set up over there. You have half an hour to contact someone back home. Make it count, there are other soldiers who are waiting." Jonathan's eye grew wide in surprise, and he couldn't fight the grin that spread across his face. He was so stunned, he didn't move, "Hayes, do you or do you not want to speak to someone back home?"

Jonathan finally began moving towards the other room, "Of course. Thank you, sir!" His Commander simply grunted and carried on about his business. Jonathan pulled back the curtain and saw a laptop set up on a small table in the corner of the room. He quickly sat down at the computer and dialed Evelyn's number. His heart hammered in his chest as he waited for the call to connect.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~

Evelyn sat at her laptop, trying her best to write. Before Jonathan left for deployment, her writing had been flowing so easy. She'd get pages and pages written in one sitting. Since he'd been gone, she'd only managed to write twenty or so pages. She felt like banging her head against her desk in frustration. Evelyn missed Jonathan so much, and she worried about him constantly. Since he left, she hadn't had any type of communication from him. She took a sip of her fourth cup of coffee and started to give up to go watch some sappy movies on Netflix. Suddenly her laptop began to beep saying he was getting an incoming call. She didn't recognize the number, but she decided to answer it anyway. Evelyn tried to quickly brush her hair with her hands in case it was a business call. She pulled at the t-shirt she was wearing. It was Army green and it had Army written in bold black letters across her chest. She cleared her throat and hit accept. It took a couple seconds before the call connected. When Jonathan's face appeared on her screen, Evelyn inhaled sharply. Her hand flew to her mouth, and her eyes swam with tears. She quickly blinked to clear her vision so she could see his face.