The daughter of a soldier

Fighting ghosts

Machine gun fire, explosions, cries of pain coming from every direction. Amelia, eyes wide, suppressing her panic, raises her rifle, aims, and squeezes the trigger. But instead of a man dropping from her shot, a small child fell to the ground. Amelia was thrown sideways from another explosion, but she picked herself up. She turned to run back to safety, but was confronted by another child. She turned away, choosing a different direction, but soon found another child, this one aiming a pistol at her. She lifted her rifle but couldn't pull the trigger. The kid got in first. Just as the bullet was going to impact Amelia, everything vanished. Hospital staff talking, machine beeping sounds.

Amelia woke up screaming. Whilst she'd been drugged she had been stuck in a never ending nightmare. She was drenched in sweat and was crying when she woke. She was so distressed that she didn't even realise it was the first time in days she'd been awake. She felt something grab her arm and instinctively pulled away, not realising it was her mum who was trying to hold her or comfort her. It took ages for the hysteria to subside, and there was n thing anyone could do to help Amelia. She had to fight it alone.

For some time, Amelia was restricted to no visitors, aside from jade who outranked almost everyone in the hospital. Jade had to continue working but every night she drove down to Amelia's hospital. Eventually, Amelia calmed down, and jade was able to hold her. The doctors worked to help Amelia get better, but they were unsure about her psychological wounds. Amelia spent most of her time staring off into space blankly. When her mum spoke she answered, but couldn't hold the conversation, usually breaking off mid sentence. It broke jades heart to see her daughter like this. It continued for about a week before jade managed to establish what had happened, and what was going on in Amelia's head.
"Amelia baby, I have to get going again." Jade said, squeezing Amelia's hand. Amelia looked at her, scared.
"Please don't leave me." Amelia whispers.
"Then tell me what's going on baby." Jade says, hopeful. Jade was fully aware of what had happened to Amelia, it was what she was thinking she wanted to know about.
"Every time I close my eyes, there's a child with C4 running at me....." Amelia whispers , a silent tear running down her cheek. Jade gets in the bed beside Amelia and hugs her.
"You're safe here. You have to tell yourself that." Jade reassures her.

A short time after jade left, abbey enters the room with a large folder.
"Hi Amelia, how are you?" She says.
"I'm fine." Amelia says back, uninterested in Abbey's visit.
"Clearly your not, because your giving me your standard I'm not interested response. And your file also tells me that you were recently involved in a suicide bombing, which is why your here. Let's talk about that." Abbey says firmly.
"Yeah, sure, whatever." Amelia says, not making eye contact with abbey. They talk long into the night and through the early hours of the morning.

Several days later, Amelia is well enough to go home. The house that she was living in with her mum just before she was deployed stands before her, Amelia just looking and thinking. After some time, she heads inside, unlocking the front door. Everything is just as it was left. Someone had, however, been in and bought fresh groceries for Amelia prior to her arrival. Amelia decided she wanted some fresh air, so she went for a walk around the base. Amelia stood at the observation post near the flight line, watching the PC-9 aircraft land and take off, training pilots for the F/A 18. Both F/A 18 squadrons were deployed in Iraq at the moment, but other squadrons on different bases were still in Australia. Amelia looked down at an aircraft that had just landed, and she recognised the pilot. One of the females from the recruit course she was in charge of before she left. The pilot noticed Amelia and waved, and Amelia waved back.

A voice from behind stirred Amelia from her plane watching.
"Given up fighting wars hey flying Officer?" Captain Wolfe said, grinning. Amelia turned around to face him.
"You might want to try again, Captain." Amelia says with a low growl. Her eyes had a hint of humour, but the Captain didn't notice.
"My apologies Flight Lieutenant. I was unaware of your promotion, congrats by the way." Amelia just looks at the ground, unsure of herself still.
"Hey, what's wrong?" The Captain asks with concern. Amelia bursts into tears, and the Captain embraces her, holding her tightly against his chest. She snuggled into him, letting the tears flow, holding him just as tight. After a short time, she says quietly,
"Come back to my place for a coffee?"
"Of course, lead the way." The Captain replies, releasing Amelia. Amelia smiles and takes his hand, leading him away.