The Letters That Saved Her Life (sequel to Dear Niall {A Niall Horan Fanfic})

November 17, 2016

November 17, 2016

Jackie's POV

I'm dressed in my army uniform. The one with the different colored bars on it. I walk up to the small apartment, with my bright blue crutches of course, and knocked. I stood back a little, and stood up as strait as I could, as a man opened the door.

"Hello, is there an Ashley here?" He looked at my funny.

"That's me." I didn't know Nick was...

"Are you Nick's husband?" I ask just for good measure.

"Yes. May I ask who you are?" I take off my hat.

"I'm Private First Class Jackie Dunkle. Nick, he uh, died. I'm sorry for your loss." The tears already start in the corners of my eyes. He looked shocked for a minute.

"Are you sure?" I nod. I hand him Nick's dog tags. He immediately slipped them over his head and embraced me in a hug. I tried to keep composed, but we both ended up crying on each others shoulders.

"Would you like to come in?" I nod and follow him into the kitchen. "Do you want anything to drink?"

"No thank you." I said sitting down at the counter.

"How did you know Nick?" He asked tears still in his eyes.

"He was in my Barracks. We met on the first day. We've been best friends ever since. I was actually with him when he died."

"How did it happen?" He asked sitting across from me, both of us wiping at our eyes.

"We were in the middle of nowhere when some hidden people opened fire at us. He got shot here." I pointed to my chest where he got hit. "Twice, and I got hit in the knee twice. The bullets were so close to his heart that they think one of the bullets tore through the side, and they put a patch on it but it didn't work very well."

"Were you with him?"

"Yes I was with him through it all. You wanna know what the last thing he said was?" He nodded. "He said 'I love you mom and dad. I love you Ashley. And I love you Jackie.'"

"I'm not being mean, but why did he say he loves you?"

"I had just told him how he was like an older brother to me when mine wasn't around. I told him I loved him like a brother." Ashley smiled then hugged me again.

"I should get going. I have to tell his parents."

"Ok. Thank you for telling me. I didn't know the army still does home visits."

"They don't, but Nick wanted me to do one so."

"I know how that is." We both smiled.

"Again I'm sorry for your loss."

"I'm sorry for your loss too. I can tell you two were close. He talked about you in some letters he wrote to me. From what he said he liked you a lot."

"It was nice to finally meet you." He smiled, a forced one, then showed me to the door. All the smiles were fake, on both ends, but that's ok. I walked to my rental car and drove to his parents house. Another depressing house visit.