In A Time of War: An imperial Love Prequel (1)

Chapter Seven

The training was definitely going to be tougher, the girls especially were going out of their way to help the men, Ciera and Violet were helping them out as much as possible. While Mabel was being a little bit more aggressive than they were. She had no problem being mean and had no problem showing them a little tough love. She had no problem telling them that they needed to toughen up, she had later gotten into trouble with Violet, and Simon thought she was just mean. But Mabel didn't care, she knew who she was.

Meanwhile, Ciera on the other hand was always more loyal and calm when it came to her patients, she also spent some time with Jamie, because they were growing to become close. Almost too close, however. So when Violet found out about the two of them, she didn't know how to feel about it, especially when she had recently found out that Ciera was married and her husband was fighting in the war. Violet told Jamie and when he found out, he didn't care, and that was something that had her lose respect for Jamie and Ciera. And when she told Mabel, she was disgusted and mentioned that Karma was going to hit the both of them, and it was going to be entertaining, given Jamie's ego. Mabel knew that Jamie wouldn't care, given how his personality was, the only person he really cared about was himself and his pleasure.

"That's just horrible..." Mabel said, "Ciera is married, she should be with her husband."

"That's what I told her." Violet responded,

"And I'm not surprised Jamie is giving into that," Mabel said, "He's such a goop."

"I know..." Violet added, "But there are other things that we need to worry about right now, and not about Ciera's affair with Jamie."

Violet and Mabel laughed, as Ciera came into the tent that they were in.

"Have a nice ride?" Mabel asked, Violet, spit out her drink and started laughing loudly, "I'm sorry I had to..."

Mabel started laughing and looked at Ciera, and then Mabel mumbled the word "Slut" 

Ciera looked at Mabel and rolled her eyes, and then looked at Violet hoping that Violet would defend her, but the laughter grew louder. Ciera immediately stormed off, annoyed by her. But as Ciera left, both girl's laughter started to die down.  

Violet started to look down at her drink and sighed, Mabel immediately started to notice that something was up, Violet never is down and is never showing anyone that she is upset about something. So Mabel immediately asked her if she was alright, and Violet lied saying that she was fine. 

"Violet. You want to talk?" Mabel asked,

Violet still hadn't said a word. 

"Violet..." Mabel called

"I'll be fine." Violet said looking at her,

"Are you sure?"

Violet nodded. But Mabel wasn't taking no for an answer, because she knew that something was up with her. Mabel saw as Violet stared down at the ground and sighed.  But then Violet started to feel like someone had punched her in the gut. Mabel didn't know what to do, helping people wasn't her forte. And she didn't know how to help. So she reminded Violet about how bad the war was becoming and that it wasn't going to be any better going forward.

Each day was proving to be harder and harder. The training days were even proving to be too much for some, John was willing to help everyone out, even William who was struggling to become better. And Violet was spending most of her time trying to help William but most of the time he wasn't accepting the help that he needed. Which was something that was starting to scare her a bit. Because he wasn't getting better and was in denial about how bad things were getting with him.

 And some of the girls that were nurses were struggling to help, especially, Violet, Ciera, and Mabel. But Mabel was the only one that was trying to keep everything together.  So then nobody else, especially the ill men, didn't get too distressed. Because everyone knew that things were getting worse.

Violet then started to remember the conversation with John that she had, and she thought about how he helped her.  

She remembered why she enlisted and why she took over most of the time. 

She wanted to make a difference, which was her main purpose. 

She remembered every detail, she remembered her family, and then she started to think about John, she started to think about how when she spoke to him, it helped her calm down.

And she just needed to get her emotions out. To stop her from holding back her tears, she asked Mabel to help her calm down, who she felt she was closest with. 

Mabel reminded her that the war was taking a toll on everyone, including herself and some of the strongest men. Violet mentioned that she didn't want John to see her cry because she didn't want him to see her as weak, but Mabel reminded her that there was no such thing as weakness. Hearing Mabel say that was something that was unexpected from Violet, given how Mabel was always rude and aggressive towards everyone, but then Mabel said that Violet was the only one that she actually liked, she thought everyone else was just irritating.

"This is rare for me to be comforting you know," Mabel said,

"I know..." Violet said taking a deep breath.

"I think out of everyone, you have been the strongest out of anyone," Mabel said, "I don't show it, I like to be tough."  

Violet then looked over, and noticed that Mabel was right, Violet had no problem stepping up as the leader, but she was worried it was going to prove to be too much. Mabel was worried about the same thing. 

"You know, you're one of the strongest girls out here." Mabel said, "You really are."

Violet felt a tear stream down her cheek and looked at Mabel.

"I don't feel it right now," Violet said.

For the first time in a while, Mabel started to feel pity for someone, and Violet was one of Mabel's only friends out there, she didn't have a close bond with everyone else. She was picky with the people she spent time with, and Violet was the only one that didn't get on her nerves and she wanted to show her that. 

Mabel may have been one of the colder girls, but she understood everyone quite well. Even Violet. She just wanted to understand more. 

She didn't know how to understand.

But she needed to.

Because when in a war, nobody ever knows what can happen, and sometimes the stronger ones don't survive. And she had also seen things. Really bad things, almost like Violet did. Some of them were even worse than the things that Violet had seen and she had prayed to God that nobody else saw what she saw.

She wanted everyone to be alright, and she wanted everyone to survive, and so did Violet but they both knew that it wasn't possible.

The war was taking a toll.

On everyone.

Including Mabel.

Including Violet.

Nobody knew how long they were going to continue being in the war, nobody knew how long it was going to last. But everyone wanted the war to end soon.

Violet did spend time thinking about what would happen when the war was over, and how everyone would be celebrating. 

Cheering, and dancing and would no longer be living in fear.  

Violet often had that dream, but then she would wake up and remember that it was just a dream and she was still in the war. Looking around and hearing screaming in pain and sick and wounded people all around her.

It was like no matter what the circumstances. 

The war was not going to end.