Remedy

28

For the first time in a few days James slept peacefully. He pinned most of it to the fact that he had discovered his two friends were alive and well. Opening his eyes slowly he was aware that there was a weight next to his hand, lifting his head up his eyes landed on the sleeping form of Dorothy.

She was hunched over leaning against the bed, her head was leaning against her arms. On the chair she was sitting on draped over the back was her apron and nurses cloth cap. Reaching slowly over James managed to pluck pieces of paper from her apron pocket. Turning the paper over in his hands his eyes skimmed over her name written on both the envelopes. One script was Arthur's the other was his own.

She had kept his letter, James turned the letter over in his hands one more time before opening it and rereading over what he'd written. He had to admit that he had started to write the letter to her four times or so before he just settled with the one which was in his hand. James had soon found out that trying to write something which was well structured wouldn't work in a letter to Dorothy. Instead he had just written the honest truth.

When Dorothy murmured something in her sleep James lowered the paper and looked at her quickly. She looked troubled for a few seconds before settling down again. He wondered if she had flashbacks much like he did. After all, the two of them had witnessed things which no person would wish to.

Seeing the mere mention of Joey at the end made James's heart drop, he wondered how his dear companion was. He hoped he was all right, there was such heavy guilt seeping through him. James had promised after all, that he'd take care of Joey.

Dorothy yawned quietly, and as quickly as he could, James stuffed the paper back into the envelopes and reached to put them back in her apron. She didn't stir for a few seconds before her eyes slowly opened and she rubbed them. While she was trying to wake up, he was pretending to be asleep.

He felt the weight shift on the bed, Dorothy had sat up, narrowly opening one of his eyes he looked at her. She sat looking up at the ceiling, seemingly spacing out. Hearing a banging sound come from somewhere else in the hospital caused her to nearly leap out of her chair.

That wasn't a normal reaction for someone to have over such a simple sound. It bothered him, opening his eyes properly he watched as she slowly pushed her hair over her ears.

James pushed himself to sit up, this caught her attention and she looked at him. "Morning James, how are you today?" She smiled and turned in the chair to look at him fully.

"Considering I've been awake for three minutes or so, I'm not to bad." James attempted to stretch his arms but stopped, it pulled too much to stretch. "And you?"

Dorothy had a contemplating look on her face before smiling and nodding. "I'm fine, thank you for asking." Her eyes glazed over slightly, James looked at her worriedly.

"Dorothy," he said quietly, she blinked and looked at him. "Come here," he waved a hand at her and then patted the edge of the bed. She looked around before standing up and sitting down again, sitting in front of him confused, her eyes widened when she got pulled closely to him.

James held onto her as tightly as he could, which wasn't that tight considering how awkward it was trying to bend his arms when they were covered in bandages and when those bandages stopped just above his wrists.

Dorothy was shaking lightly, he had already had the task of trying to adapt again. It was clear to him that no sooner had she arrived here back in England, she hadn't had a proper rest and got thrown straight into work.

If that wasn't enough she also had to get used to the idea of not only her twin being alive, but him as well, and then there was Percy, Jamie and Charlie too. Everyone she had made a loose friendship with back in that base were seemingly dead, and she had obviously grieved hugely for them all.

Everything was sinking in, a little later than sooner, but at least reality was finally kicking in for her. Someone accidentally slammed a door nearby and the woman in his arms yet again jolted. James put her at arm's length and looked at her worriedly. "Are you all right?"

"The banging," Dorothy said while twiddling her thumbs. "I just don't like it." She looked up at him and then leaned her head back against his shoulder. Frowning lightly James looked up at the ceiling and wrapped his arms back around her.

"Was there a lot of banging surrounding the hospital you were sent over to?" James questioned, Dorothy nodded slowly. He nodded slowly too and leaned his head against hers, "It's all right, Dorothy." He said as reassuringly as possible.

James could vaguely remember the hospital back in France, it was dingy dark and not all that pleasant. The only thing which made it even more worse was the trenches which petered off from it. In those trenches and beyond was No Man's Land.

He frowned deeply, Dorothy was so close to such danger, why was it only now the seriousness of what she was involved in was kicking in for him? It seemed like the injuries she had seen as a nurse didn't effect her, but the sounds of distant bombs, grenades and general explosions had left her mentally scarred somehow. Everyone didn't really seem to ponder over the fact that the nurses may be suffering just as much as the men inhabiting the hospital.

Slowly laying back James rested against the pillows and still held as tightly as he could to Dorothy. They would both help each other through this, Dorothy fidgeted slightly so she wasn't laying directly on any of the wounds on his chest.

"Try and get some sleep." She looked up at him, "What?" He smiled lightly.

"Who is the medically trained one out of the two of us?"

"That would be you."

"Correct, so," Dorothy poked a finger to his chest lightly. "Get some sleep." James rolled his eyes and leaned his head back against the pillows. Truth be told it was early in the morning, the day nurses wouldn't start their shift for another four hours or so. Before they would start their shifts, the two of them had a good number of hours to try and get some sleep.

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(Edited: 29/August/2019)