Just the Way you Are

Battlefield Memory

From my Whumptober 2021 collection

'Miss Lange? I regret to inform you that my husband, Paul, died this morning.' A woman said.

At first, Hetty was struggling to remember who Paul was, she remembered something from way back when:

Bullets were flying, and Hetty was shocked to see Paul dive in front of her to take a bullet for her.

'Paul!' Hetty cried out.

'I'll live, you go get those documents!' Paul replied, clutching his side in pain from the bullet wound.

It pained her so much to leave him behind, but she couldn't let those documents fall into the wrong hands.

'Ohhh. That Paul.' Hetty thought.

That evening at dinner, Granger noticed Hetty looked a bit, distant.

'Something on your mind?' He asked.

'Not really. Other then someone I knew from my days as a spy dying today.' Hetty replied, dryly.

'I'm sorry to hear. What was his name?'

'Paul Turncoat. At first, I didn't know who he was this morning when his wife called me, then I remembered something that happened a long time ago.'

'Want to take this to the couch?'

On the couch in the living room

'One of our missions together was to retrieve old secret documents from the Russians. We were on an old Russian battlefield when we were ambushed. We fought back as hard as we could, but at 1 point in all the gunfire, Paul lept in front of me and was shot. He told me to leave him behind, I told him I couldn't, but then he said that the documents couldn't fall into the wrong hands. So, I had no choice but to leave him behind to get the documents.' Hetty said, sadly.

'What happened to him?' Granger asked.

'He was held captive for 2 months. We got him out, but he lost 3 fingers and 2 toes. I knew he wasn't mad at me for what he went through, but some part of me felt really guilty for leaving him behind to suffer the way he did.'

'Well, could you carry him and the documents?' Granger asked.

'No.'

'Then you did the right thing by saving yourself. Otherwise, would we be as happy as we are now?'

Hetty smiled. 'Thanks.'

'For the encouragement?'

'And for being a good listener.' Hetty finished.

'It's a specialty.'