7.807 miles apart

Phone call amidst a war

Two weeks after Henry was admitted in, two weeks, that's how long it took for Alex to finally hear Henry's voice again and to his surprise it was a video call as well!

Henry looked well, or as well as can be expected when you're fighting for your life everyday in the war. The phone call wasn't the best, it was an hour max call, and that without all the pauses in the meantime due to the bad connection. Not only that, but the call was far from private.

Alex in his research about everything concerning how the English military worked and the war rules about phone calls, didn't remember even reading about video calls happening so soon after demployment. Usually, in light of what Alex had read, video calls after demployment happened (only to spouses or close family members) close to over a month later, not that Alex was complaining or anything it just kinda caught him off guard and terrified if he was being honest. It was a good thing and a miracle in Alex's eyes, that his sister had come down to Texas for a few days to see him before flying up to New York for some magazine related thing Alex didn't even bother to understand. He was in the middle of signing in some new voters when June came running full speed towards him with his laptop in hand howling his name like the end of the world was upon them! The next thing he knows he is handed the laptop and the zoomed in blurry photo of Henry was staring back at him. He didnt know what to believe, was this real? Was Henry really video-calling him right now? Was everything ok? Did something happen? Why was Henry video-calling him no more than 2 weeks after he got the news from Bea that he was demployed? Alex couldnt calm his mind down, his thoughts were going a 1000 miles an hour without the sense of stopping. Thank god June was there and was able to calm him down enough, take him in his office and get him to press the answer button on his computer.

The call was no more than an hour long, blurry and prone to pausing Henry mid sentence due the bad connection but still, Alex couldn't have been happier that he got to hear from Henry so soon, and it was not because he was hurt or anything like that. The call was also not private since as Alex learned there was a limited number of computers on base, all packed up in a small room and every soldier got about an hour to video call a loved one. Alex could see about four other soldiers behind Henry talking to their own people.

Alex though, couldn't care less about the bad connection or the other soldiers around, when he was talking to Henry it felt like they were the only two people on earth at that moment. They talked about every little thing imaginable. Alex told Henry how his mother's campain was going, how his sister had just come down to Texas for a visit and if it wasn't for her he would have probably missed the call. Henry in his turn told him everything that happened in training and the last two weeks on base, he told him of a couple friends he made so far and though he missed Alex a lot, talking with the guys at night seemed to minimise the longing just a little bit. He told him about how much he missed their constant emails to each other and wasn't used to not talking to Alex every day. Alex then told him how much he missed him as well, how he would have loved for Henry to be there with him in Austin and all the things they would be doing together, followed by some not so innocent comments from Henry that left Alex more than a little speechless. "You know I'm incorrigible so don't 'incorrige' me" Alex thought but didn't say it out loud. For a split second he thought of sending his thought as a seperate text to Henry as they would often do when they talked on the phone and a stray thought came to ones mind, but then remembered that Henry was in the English Military Base and this video call was the only way they could communicate at the moment.

They kept on talking for a little while after that, about everything and nothing, but their time was almost up and Henry remembered the main reason they were allowed to make this video calls today. As it turns out, in two days time the whole team that were in base as of now would be shipped off to the heart of the war in Afghanistan. The news came early that morning, that the war was becoming more and more serious and unpredictable as it went on and the teams they already had there, were not enough to fight the enemies off. Henry didn't like that word "enemies" he didn't know these people, they never did anything to him personally, but he supposed it helped to think of them as enemies if he was to kill any of them. Not that he wanted to, but what else was he supposed to do right? Alex didn't take the news very well and he tried his best not to show that, but, Henry being Henry and knowing him better than he knew himself took to calming him down the best he could through the camera and the last few remaining minutes of the call. In his effort of calming him down he promised to text and email as much as he could, now that he would be allowed his phone, at least for the nights they would be on camp. Hell, he even promised to send letters if the emails and texts wouldn't go through, and that in turn reminded Alex of a song he'd had stuck on his head the last couple days "Timeless? By Taylor Swift?" "Since when do you listen to Taylor Swift?" Henry exclaimed a little too surprised for Alex's liking but he laughed anyway! And it wasn't that he was wrong, the opposite, Alex didn't much listen to Taylor Swift he liked her enough, it just wasn't his style of music, but this song just stuck to him for some reason, something about the lyrics just spoke directly to his heart. "The lyrics, huh?" "Since when did you become the poetic one?" "I thought I was supposed to be the writer and the poet between the two of us!" Henry got to pulling his leg now and Alex in his slightly embarassed state started laughing, thinking this last few seconds felt the most like the two of them than the rest of the call had been.