Storm Of Pain

chapter 10

"I don't get it..."

We've been spending a total of twenty minutes explaining the situation to him, trying to get him to understand what we're trying to do for Jennifer here, but something just doesn't want to click and we don't know why,

"Yesterday you were ready to get rid of her Calleb, why the sudden change of heart to help her? And to find her brother no less,"

"I wasn't ready to get rid of her! Who the hell said that? I said some people think it's a waste of time, but I didn't say I thought she was. General please."

"Why do you boys want me to help her fly?"

"We want you to talk to her about what happened, not just help her fly. Calleb and I will help her still in the simulator, but we want you to please talk to her and take her out to sit in one of the jets, talk her through some stuff she might face up there again, play out different scenarios,"

"Namely the one she went through,"

"Yes, Sir,"

"No. That event traumatized her enough, I'm not putting her through that shit again,"

"Sir, with all due respect-"

"Joshua, it's clear to me you two have her best interests at heart, but think of what it'll do to the girl,"

"We're not asking you to bring it up on the first time, we're just asking for you to talk to her about it eventually,"

"And you think me talking to her about it in one of the jets that got her injured an her brother to be either dead or lost is the best place to do that?"

"Yes,"

The General looked me and Calleb up and down, thinking of our proposition and strategy and sighed glaring at the both of us, "She needs to see a therapist, you know that?"

"And we'll get her to go to the one here on base, we promise,"

"You know that this is the stupidest thing I've had to do in a while right?"

"Sir, you would be helping Jennifer, she did save your life. You owe her this much at least," Calleb argued to make his point stronger and it seemed to have worked when he let out a final sigh and a nod,

"Fine, I'll do it, on one condition... If it's messing with her head in the slightest of way that's negative, I'm stopping this and sending her to get treatment. She was supposed to inform her previous commanding officer when she started remembering what happened so she could've gone for evaluation, which she didn't. I'm doing her favor by not reporting it,"

"Thank you, Sir! You won't regret it!"

With that said Calleb and I moved to go back to the apartment to talk to Jennifer about her sessions with the therapist. When we opened the door she was sitting at the table filling in a few papers with headphones blasting music so loud that I could hear it faintly from here. Jennifer seemed to notice us as we made our way over to her and paused the music,

"What's up, guys?"

"So don't get mad..."

"What did you do?"

"We had to tell General. BUT for good reason. He's the only one that knows what you told us because he asked us when we asked him for help,"

Jennifer seemed to go tense but nodded for us to continue, staring us down. I sat down next to her and Calleb took a chair in front of her, "So, the General has agreed to help you with your flying in ways that we won't be able to-"

"Okay, wait. Again, why is he so willing to help me? You said it yourselves, waste of time remember?"

"You're not a waste of time, I said some people said it's a waste to try and get you to fly again. He wants to help you because..."

"Because?"

"You saved his life..."

"W-What?"

"The deployment you told us about, you saved his life when you shot down one of the attackers. He's more than willing to help you, but you would need to go for therapy sessions three times a week as a start and slowly going to once a week,"

"I'm not doing that," She said immediately and with finality. "Jen, I know it's intimidating but it will help,"

"Help them say I'm crazy, or suffering from PTSD or-"

"Stop that. Therapy isn't something that makes you seem crazy. Jennifer, You've seen some screwed up shit and it would be reckless not to go. I've been to therapy. Calleb has been to therapy, almost everyone here on base I can tell you has been to therapy at least once,"

"And if I go what would I even talk about?"

"I don't know, stuff that bothers you? The deployment for one definitely, then how about your siblings and your dad?"

"And say what? I tell him or her that my dad wants me to give up on the military or he'll take them away and keep them with him. Then they'll most probably ask why it bothers me so much, and then I'll have to them what the bastard did, or what he does, then what comes after that is lawsuits, he goes to prison and whoop-dee-doo, he gets to stay behind bars rotting for the rest of his life,"

"If he did do stuff that's as bad as you say, why does it sound like you don't want him in prison?"

"He doesn't deserve to get off that easy. Not even death will give him what he deserves. The man that calls himself my father deserves endless nights off torture until he won't be begging to stop, instead he would be begging for death,"

Calleb and I looked at each other in shock as Jennifer spoke. She sounded like she would kill him herself; she sounded murderous and vengeful as she spoke about what she wishes will happen to her father. Eventually, she'd tell people what happened, but that's exactly why she needed this therapy,

"Then if you don't want to talk about your father, don't. You can tell them that you're not comfortable talking about that. If it makes it easier, Joshua and I can arrange to take turns coming with you the first few times, if you want." Calleb broke the silence, which I was absolutely grateful for, I didn't know what to say to her comments sometimes, especially now. The girl intrigued me, but at the same time, she confuses me, scares me, irritates me, she's definitely the first girl that's managed to get so many emotions to stir within me.

Jennifer thought about Calleb's proposition and sighed. "I'll think about it, okay? But for now, do you two mind giving me some space for a few hours? General wants these papers as soon as possible and I still have a ton left to reference, number, and whatnot,"

"Sure, Calleb and I have stuff to do anyway. Do you want to come for a run with us later when you're done?"

"Sure," She answered not looking up from her papers as she continued to scribble her neat handwriting on the page,