Wait for me to come Home

Chapter 38

Jennie was pulled from sleep by a startled shout. Instantly wide awake, she turned to Lisa, whose chest was rising and falling rapidly as she sat with her head in her hands. Hesitantly, Jennie put her hand on Lisa's shoulder, and Lisa covered it with her own, giving it a reassuring pat.

"I'm fine," Lisa mumbled, letting go of Jennie's hand and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She sat with her back to Jennie for a few moments.

"Lisa-" Jennie whispered.

"Go back to sleep, Jennie," Lisa said, standing up in one fluid motion and crossing the room to her door. She slipped out silently, leaving Jennie staring at the door with a helpless expression on her face. After Jennie unfroze, she quickly scrambled out of bed and followed after her.

Lisa was gone by the time Jennie made it downstairs, and Kuma was gone too, leaving Jennie to assume that she'd taken him outside. Grabbing her coat, and slipping on the first pair of shoes she found, Jennie opened the front door and slipped outside. It was still dark outside, and the sky was only just starting to lighten on the horizon as she looked around. Jennie squinted as she tried to make out Lisa in the dim light, but she could only make out still, dark shadows.

Jennie couldn't find her, so she sat down on the porch swing, tightly hugging her coat to herself as her breath came out in clouds before her. She sat there shivering as she waited for Lisa to come back, her stubbornness kicking in as she refused to wait inside in the warmth. She sat outside for almost an hour before Lisa came back, watching the sky lighten as she sat huddled up on the swing, but eventually Lisa came into view, with Kuma padding along beside her with a stick in his mouth.

"Oh! What're you doing out here?" Lisa asked wearily climbing the steps and frowning as she spotted Jennie.

"I was waiting for you to come home," Jennie stammered as her teeth chattered together. Lisa walked over and sat down next to her, picking up Jennie's hands in her own and grimacing at how cold they were.

"You're freezing," Lisa murmured, raising Jennie's hands to her mouth and blowing and rubbing them to warm them up. "You should've waited inside."

"Where did you go?" Jennie asked, taking in Lisa's slightly flushed cheeks and the locks of sweat soaked hair stuck to her cheeks.

Lisa shrugged halfheartedly. "I just went for a jog to clear my head."

They were both silent for a moment, and Jennie stared down at their hands, watching Lisa gently rub the warmth back into them. "Lisa... I just-, tell me how I can help you, please," Jennie whispered.

"You can't," Lisa sighed, letting go of Jennie's hands so she could cup her cheek. Leaning in, she gave Jennie a quick kiss. "I'm fine, I promise."

"This is the second time you've woken up yelling," Jennie said, frowning in concern. "I can't know what it's like, and I don't want to push you but..."

"It's like this whenever I come home. It's like everything catches up with me, like I have time to think about everything that happened over there," Lisa whispered, surprising Jennie by her reply. "Over there I don't really think about everything; I'm always too busy doing my job, and then when I finish for the night I talk to you and then I go to bed and I'm so tired that I don't even remember dreaming half of the time. And then I come home, and I there's nothing to do and I'm not exhausted when I go to bed so I dream. And I dream about the bad things, and I see the faces of the soldiers that I've seen die, and I can hear the explosions."