Guarded Heart

Chapter 19

A couple months has passed and the progress on the hospital is coming along well. Ethan is at the site helping them everyday when he sees Jack pull up and gets out with food and water. He takes the hardhat off and sits it down and walks over to Jack.

"Hey. How's it going?" He asked and handed Ethan a sandwich and water.

"Hey, it's going great. The first floor is about done, got a few more rooms to finish and then can start on the second. As we are working on the second, there are going to be a lot of people in and out bring in everything the rooms need. My OR being one of them." Ethan says with a big smile on his face.

"You really can't wait for that huh?"

"Nope.I'm so glad they talked me into coming over, I would have hated to miss it being built and in action for the first time. It's like Christmas for me." He laughs and Jack chuckles.

"I imagine so. You seem to be doing better also."

"Yea, one day at a time, right? Ryan tries to talk to me every time he sees me, but I don't give him the time of day. I was working on giving him a chance to explain what he had done but that was before he said what he did that day. That was it for me, that was the last straw for me to ever want to talk to him again. I heard him and some men went out on patrol, they have been gone a for a couple of weeks now."

"Yea, it takes time but they will be back soon." At that moment there is a loud boom and bullets start flying everywhere, Ethan falls tothe ground covering his head and Jack ducks behind the truck pulling Ethan beside him. Men are running around with their guns looking to see if they can find where the shooting is coming from.

Ethan sees one of them get hit in the chest and another in the leg and another in the head falling down dead in front of his eyes. Ethan gasps loudly and closes his eyes waiting for it all to stop. Some time passes and the shooting stops. Ethan opens his eyes and sees a lot of men on the ground, bleeding out or dead.

He looks to see where Jack is and thankfully, he is ok over on the other side of the hanger. He hears Humvees pulling into the gate and sees men jumping out and running to the back of each one and pulling out wounded men.

One of the wounded is Ryan, he has two bullet wounds, one in his upper chest and the other in his thigh. Ethan runs over to him in a flash.

"Ryan!" He says looking at him as they rush him inside. Some nurses and a doctor rush him to an OR for surgery. The other wounded are brought in and some need surgery and some don't. They all get taken care of and are ok.

The whole waiting room and hallway is filled with men waiting on word from Ryan and there to support Ethan.

"Music." Ethan said looking down.

"Sorry?" Jack asked.

"I need my music, my phone is on the stand next to the bed. Can someone please go grab it?"

"Sure." Jack looked to a marine standing close and nods and he runs to Ethan's room. A few minutes later he is back.

"Thanks." He said and put the earbuds in. He plays the songs he and Ryan sang and listened to that night at the bar, the words to "Never Gonna Be Alone" ring in his ears and he sings with tears falling down his face like a river.

"You sang this to me dancing with me that night, you better hold true to the words you sang to me and promised me Ryan, you better live dammit." He said to the air, men were looking at him, their hearts breaking for him. After a long eight hour wait, the doctor finally comes out to the men. Ethan doesn't notice, he just sits in the chair and hasn't moved once since he sat down. Jack tapped him on his shoulder, he paused the music and took the earbuds out.