One Bedroom Apartment

Wedding Bells

Three weeks later...

"IED! MOVE!" Avery sat up from the couch with a start, looking around. Their heart was racing, and it took a few seconds for the blinding desert to turn back into the quiet, dark apartment. It was hot, too hot, Avery needed air. They stumbled getting off the pull out, hitting the floor harder than they were expecting. Avery pulled their crutches over and pushed themselves up, making their way as fast as they could to the patio door. Jim was hot on their heels, meowing loudly at them. They fumbled with the lock for a moment before throwing the door open, collapsing onto one of the patio chairs with a sigh. It was the middle of the night, and the wind was turning chilly. Jim hopped up in their lap, rubbing his head against their face and making biscuits on their shoulder, purring loudly. Avery pet him, hands still shaky

"I'm home. I'm at our apartment. I'm safe," Avery whispered, letting out a breath. They were getting married in twelve hours, and they were really hoping they could avoid a night terror tonight. Maggie rushed to the doorway and crouched in front of her.

"Hey, you alright?" She grabbed both of their hands. Avery gave her a shaky smile.

"Yeah, just the bomb dream again. Sorry, I got hot and needed some fresh air," they whispered hoarsely.

"Dinnae apologize, you cannae help it when these things happen," Maggie said, rubbing her thumb over their knuckles. "I was thinkin' of getting a little lamp or nightlight for the living room? So tha' way you can see when this happens?"

"Can I get one of those fun ones? Like a dinosaur or a cowboy?" Avery tried to joke, voice still shaky. "I missed my crutches while trying to get up, sorry if I woke you up."

"You did, but I'm glad because now you don't have to be alone," she reached up and stroked her cheek. "I will absolutely get you a cool one," Avery leaned into her hands, sighing at the feeling.

"I always wake up right when the bomb goes off, probably because I don't remember anything after that until I woke up in the hospital. Tanner said he had to run out and drag me back into the chopper. We didn't have an extra bed, so he strapped me to a moving board on the floor," they said softly, eyes closed and holding Maggie's hand to their face. "He joked that he was surprised by how much blood I had left considering the mosquitoes were eating us alive out there."

"Can I ask you something about it that you dinnae have to answer?" She asked, looking a little conflicted. Avery nodded, kissing her palm.

"You can ask me anything."

"What happened leading up to it? Like what were you doing?" She asked softly. Avery swallowed, mouth feeling dry. "You dinnae have to answer, we can also just go back inside once you're cooled off."

"No, it's fine. Our squadron was about thirty-seven miles outside of Kabul headed back. We were getting supplies from an air drop that had gone off-course. We were in communication with the base when the first bomb went off. Al-Qaeda troops had staged an ambush, and hit the humvee in front with an explosive. Two dead right off the bat, and three more injured. We ended up getting pinned down into a firefight. It was supposed to be routine, for all of us, but nothing's ever routine out there," they shook their head. "Lieutenant Danvers was critically injured in the initial blast, and we could only do so much. We called for medical evac, and our pilot brought the helicopter. It took him about ten minutes to get there. We also called for backup, but they were going to take even longer. Tanner and I dragged him to the chopper, it had the big red cross on it which showed we were medical. You're not supposed to attack medics, it's actually against the Geneva convention, but those guys didn't care. All they needed to know was we were Americans," they leaned into Maggie, hearing the gunshots in their head. "They started firing on us. I told Tanner to get the lieutenant secure and went to provide some covering fire. We had no idea where they were shooting from. I heard a thud next to me and saw the IED. I tried to run back to the chopper, but I wasn't fast enough, and it detonated when I was in range. Then everything went dark," Maggie nodded.