ANOTHER STORY ANOTHER TIME

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE * TWO ROADS

Jacob jumped forward all of sudden, he felt a tightness in his chest, it was hard to breathe, he felt closed in and panicky. He bolted out of bed thinking he could be dying. He couldn't see, the sounds of explosions were in his head. He fell over an ottoman sitting in front of a chair. He had managed to crawl up in the chair, he sat there with his knees pulled to his chest, eyes watering and his entire body shaking. His confusion scared him. Sobbing silently to himself, he rocked forward and backwards constantly.

Isaac was brushing his teeth when he felt Jacob's pain. Rushing to Jacob's room, he stood a few feet to let him know he was there.

 "Jacob, it's Isaac, I'm going to sit next to you." He slowly approached the unstable young man and wrapped his arms around him trying to hold him close. He used his hand to pull any pain he may feeling and spoke calming words into his ears. After a few moments of this, Jacob started to feel more relaxed, his smell of fear was gone but his anxiety was still there. At this point Jacob had buried his head and Isaac's chest and Isaac had his arms wrapped around his upper torso. Isaac had felt this kind of fear before, he knew it would take some time for this young man, if time would allow it at all to get better.

Jacob stopped crying. He was to the point where he was sitting up now, he was facing Isaac, he could feel the warmth of his breath on his face and smell the mint fragrance, the scent soothed and calmed him, and he started speaking without gasping for air. 

"I'm so sorry that happened. I've never had an attack like that before. The last thing I remember, I was talking to the young man named Scott, I must have fallen asleep and apparently he left, and then the horrible memories started to come crashing back." Isaac smiled, 

"You do not have to apologize for being scared you have physically and mentally gone through some traumatic ordeals and your body's trying to cope." Jacob lowered his voice, 

"I enlisted because my family is gone, and I couldn't afford collage on my own. I met Ethan during basic training and he and I have been deployed together the entire time." Isaac placed his hand along Jacob's temples. He pulled the pain away from his eyes, Jacob placed his hands on Isaac's, 

"Wow that helps so much, and I swear I thought I saw a spark when you started." Isaac felt the happiness permeating from Jacob. 

"I can't speak for the others, but you can stay with me, and I can help you." Jacob removed his hands and lowered his head. 

"Why would you do this for a complete stranger?" Isaac placed his right hand on Jacob's lower arm above his wrist, and Jacob grabbed his lower arm as Isaac explained, 

"Your friends with Ethan and a part of Stiles pack, and thus one of us, you have a family now, Okay!" Jacob released his arm, "What is a pack?" Isaac snickered, 

"I have a friend back home who can explain pack dynamics better than I can, he is a bit of a jerk, but he has a rough past like the rest of us." Jacob stood,

 "Could you lead me to the restroom?"

Michael woke up slowly, he could hear the voices in the other rooms. Stiles was laying in his arms with his head snuggled on his chest and his arm laying on his abdomen. For the first time in several months Michael felt safe. The people in the other room either shared his experience or rescued him from it. They didn't know him, he had no connection to them beside Stiles, and now he owed them a life debt. He could still smell the scent Stiles put off. He could tell his companion was in a happy state, but he was scared what would happen when he woke up. Not wanting to push his emotional agenda on Stiles, he slowly moved his body away from the younger man and got up with the intention to find the bathroom, and finally socialize with his new friends. Standing, he looked for his clothes.Just as he was about to walk out of the room, Liam came to the doorway,