Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
❝He is still alive.❞
ninewa province, iraq ( fob sykes army base ) february 22, 2008
WITH UNBLINKING eyes, Josiah stared at his bloody hands. Tears welled up at the corner of his eyes ― harshly scrubbing his hands to get the blood off. His eyes followed up to find the clock to see that it was past eight. He needed to call back home to let everyone know what had happened, and he was not looking forward to it.
"Jay," hearing his name made him look up to meet Samuel's wary eye's, "The office is clear... in case you want to call back home..."
Josiah mutely nodded and went back to scrubbing his hands, turning them bright red. After making sure that the blood was completely gone, Josiah took a deep breath before walking to his lieutenant's office where he knew he would be able to have a hard conversation with his family alone. Once inside the small office, Josiah had to take a moment to hold himself together and make sure he would not break down now that he was alone with his own thoughts.
Finally, he was able to stop his hands from shaking enough to start the Skype call to La Push. Josiah booted up the computer and logged in to his account before pressing the call button. His heart raced and he wanted nothing more to hang up and go see if there were any other news about his best friend. When the call came through, the soldier was bombarded with the pack talking over one another and pushing their faces onto the screen.
"Jay!"
"Josiah waddup!"
"Where's Liam?"
"Jay, I don't see Liam!"
The mention of his best friend almost faltered his composure, but he managed to force on a smile and greeted everyone back. On instinct Josiah's light brown eyes met Leah's dark brown ones. She wore a frown on her face and seemed to be inspecting him, not believing in his fake smile. Of course she wouldn't; she knew him too well. Josiah didn't focus on anything else after he heard Emily tell everyone to leave; all he could do was focus on his girlfriend. In a sense he felt his rapid heart rate slow down and his muscles relax. Only Leah could do that to him.
"Josiah... what is it son?"
Just hearing his mother's soothing voice made him tear up but managed to hold back the tears, making his eyes glassy. Taking a deep breath, Josiah managed to speak up, "Mom... it's Liam..."
The soldier couldn't look at his family in the eye as he went over the details of what happened. "He got hurt in a recent mission... and well they had to take him to a base nearby to treat all his wounds. I haven't heard any news since..."
He couldn't lift his head up and look at the screen ― waiting for his mother, brother, or girlfriend to say something.
"Josiah, look at me," Mary's stern voice made Josiah look up from the keyboard, tears starting to fall from his eyes, "Liam is going to be fine... he will push through, you hear me? It's going to be okay. He's going to need you and you're going to need to be there for him. Understood?"
The confidence and reassurance in his mother's voice brought a new sense of comfort to Josiah. He felt his shaking hands stop and his mind cleared of any negative thought.
Josiah opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted when the door to the office opened and Samuel rushed in. "Jay!" Samuel hunched over, trying to regain his breath, "There's news about Liam! Come quickly!"
With wide eyes, Josiah looked back at the computer screen to find his mother smiling wide, "Go son. We'll let everyone know what happened."
"O-Okay, thanks mom."
"Hang in there Jay and tell us if anything changes." Paul spoke up from besides his mother, a small smile on his lips. Josiah forced a smile on his face before saying goodbye to his family and hanging up the call.
Josiah Lahote rushed out of the small office and followed Samuel to where his lieutenant stood by a helicopter. The soldier was confused at first but when Lieutenant Parker ordered him to get on, he didn't think twice.
"Private Henderson just got out of surgery, he is going to be okay," hearing those words brought a wave of relief in Josiah, "He should be resting now, but I managed to get you some time to see how he is."
"Thank you, sir."
Watching Liam's chest rise and fall softly, caused the immense panic and pressure Josiah felt to disappear ― sitting besides his friend gave him comfort. The Lahote soldier didn't know how long he had been by his friend's side just making sure he kept breathing; the silence in the room was building up the anxiety of what would have happened if Liam hadn't made it. His heart raced, sweat formed, and his hands shook.
Negative thoughts filled his head.
'What if I had noticed the grenade being thrown?'
'What if I had seen the ambush ahead of time?'
'What if...'
Suddenly the walls seemed to be closing in on him causing him to stand up abruptly, rapid breaths leaving his mouth. "Damn it..." Josiah shakily walked to the bathroom and locked the door. He struggled to take deep breaths to calm his racing heart that was caused by his anxiety taking over his whole body. Although Josiah was struggling with keeping his anxiety at bay, his body reacted before his mind could. The soldier reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing the number he had memorized by heart.
"Eli!" Leah's voice came through and instantly Josiah felt his shaking hands stop, "A-Are you okay? What happened?"
Josiah sighed. "I just needed to hear your voice..."
The other line was silent for a couple seconds before Leah spoke up again, "Everything's going to be okay, you hear me? Don't blame what happened to Liam on yourself. You just need to be by his side and get through this."
"Y-Yeah I know... it's just hard..." Leah remained silent on the other end, knowing that Josiah wasn't done talking, "All I keep thinking about is how I almost lost my best friend. Just like how I lost Nathan..."
"But you didn't," Leah spoke up, sternly, "He is still alive."
***
For the next hour or so, Leah and Josiah remained talking over the phone while the soldier waited, patiently, for his friend to wake up. Leah helped calm her imprint's anxiety by talking about the birthday party they held for Billy back in La Push. Josiah appreciated her efforts in making him feel better than he did when he first called her. He was truly grateful in having someone he can rely on to calm his troubling anxiety; he didn't have to deal with it alone anymore.
