Rememberthestars' Journals

We're Only Human (Chapter Three) [Repost-Test]

Okay, I'm attempting a repost of this chapter through Safari rather than Firefox to see if that's the problem with my posts. If you could let me know via comment if you can see it now, if you couldn't see it before, then that would be fantastic.

Hayley’s POV

There was no easy way to say this, really, but the more wedding plans started to take over my life, the more I wondered if Parker and I were moving too quickly towards a goal that was going to happen sooner or later, anyway. He was always at work trying to get some big deal set in stone. The whole suit and tie lifestyle worked for him, but the more I talked to my friends back home and the more I thought about things that Josh had told me in past letters, the more I wondered if I was ready for such a huge step in the direction of domesticity.

Today, I was taking a break from all wedding plans. Yesterday had been full of cake tastings, evaluating color pallets, and looking at bridesmaid dresses. My brain needed a day off. Instead, I was writing Josh his third letter in the past couple of days. For someone who hated handwriting letters, I had quickly picked up a new hobby.

‘We need to set up another video chat soon. These letters don’t do anything but make it more difficult to concentrate out here. My family doesn’t seem to understand how things really work out here, or at least they don’t seem to want to understand. You get me. You always have. When I get back in the States, seeing you is at the top of my list of things to do. Well, right after showering and shaving. Pretty sure you could smell me coming from a mile away right now.’

Each letter from Josh sounded more and more desperate to get home. He had never been a huge fan of being away from home when we were on tour, anyway, but back then, he had the freedom to pick up and leave on a day off if he needed a break. Where he was, he no longer had that freedom, and it had long since taken its toll.

For whatever reason, Josh and I had reconnected at the worst of times. We had reconnected at a time when I couldn’t truly be there for him and at a time when he needed me to be there the most. To most people, the Xs marking my calendar might have looked like a countdown to my wedding day, but it wasn’t. Each X marked one day less that I had to worry about Josh and made me one day closer to being able to see my best friend again.

“You two are single-handedly keeping the Postal Service in business right now,” Bekah joked as she sat across from me at the kitchen table that had become the wedding control station.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I would have done without her. Being best friends since junior high was one thing, but she had really pulled through with all of this wedding stuff. With a toddler to tend to, it took a lot for her to head out to California for a week to help me out, but she had done it, and she was one of the few things keeping me sane.

“Just doing my part to save the economy,” I replied with a smirk before my eyes locked into the last few lines of this most recent letter. I’d read it five times since it had arrived, but the ending still caught me off guard.

‘Things are getting a lot tougher out here. I’m not going to go into details because it’d keep you up at night, and you need all of your energy for wedding stuff, but if I don’t make it back, never question how much you meant to me. How much you’ll always mean to me.

Always, Josh’

“You’re doing it again,” Bekah said, her words softly breaking through my concentration as she passed a box of tissues my way. “I still think you need to hold off on all of this wedding stuff. Your head clearly isn’t in the game.”

And that was the understatement of the year. Forget about my head being in the game. I wasn’t even sure my heart was in the game, anymore.

“I made a promise to Parker, and I’m going to stand by that. The date we chose was one of the only ones that would work for both of us, and he’s already put in the request to take off of work for the honeymoon. It’s too late to start second guessing things now,” I insisted, even though that didn’t stop me from doing it.

“The heart wants what it wants. That’s all I’m saying. If you’re not ready to go through with this, then you’ll find some way to make sure it doesn’t happen even if you don’t do it intentionally,” Bekah countered, and while I knew she was speaking the truth, I didn’t want to believe it.

Regardless of our differences, Parker was the right guy for me. Josh and I had been down that path before, and it just never worked out. There were too many obstacles, and the relationship itself had always been too much work to possibly be healthy. Sure, the circumstances were different now, and we were both adults with a lot of life experience on our side, but I’d made a vow to my fiancé, and I was going to honor it, or I was going to die trying.

Josh’s POV

It had been over a week since my last opportunity to sit down with one of Hayley’s letters at base camp. I carried many of them with me, but it was impossible to find the time to write her when I was out on patrol. There was just too much going on to really have the peace of mind needed to put my gun down and pick a pen. Not only had it been over a week since my last letter, but it had been just as long since my last good meal, my last real sleep, and my last moment to dwell on just how much I was missing out on back home.

Tonight, my unit was guarding a checkpoint into one of the hot spots of the area. There hadn’t been nearly as much violence lately, but when it did happen, it was never a pretty sight. Our role in all of this had shifted from freedom fighters to peacekeepers, and I was okay with that. Raising a weapon against another human being had never been an idea that I was particularly fond of in the first place, even if it was a part of the job.

For the most part, everything was going smoothly. It was hot, like always, but as the sun started to go down, the weather really cooled off. Every muscle in my body ached for the chance to rest, but I was built to function on no sleep now. Each day was a struggle, but two thoughts kept me going: soon, I would be back to my family and this would all be behind me, and soon, I would be able to talk to Hayley face-to-face.

It had never been my intention to try to stop her wedding from happening, but the more she wrote to me, the more unsure about all of it she seemed to be. I wasn’t going to put any ideas into her head, but it was clear that she needed someone to talk to, and I couldn’t truly help her without seeing her. My dreams were enough to keep me going from day-to-day, but there would soon come a time when that was no longer enough.

Ajax and I had easily fallen into the routine of checking vehicles for the proper decals and letting them through checkpoints. Every so often, a vehicle would come through that would have to be searched, but it was pretty mundane compared to some of the other missions our unit had been assigned. Tonight was going forward like every other night.

At least, it had been.

A sudden shouting match between one of my comrades and the driver of a car trying to get through the checkpoint broke through what had been a pretty silent afternoon. I could only pick up on bits and pieces of what was being said through all of the shouting, but it didn’t sound good.

“Sir, you’re going to have to let us search the vehicle before you can pass unless you have the proper paperwork authorizing your vehicle in this area. I can’t make it any easier for you to understand,” Ajax stated in the calmest voice he could muster as he tried to get the situation under control.

While he tried to get that under control, I patrolled the surrounding area and tried to keep things as orderly as possible. The crowd of soldiers around that one car had grown quite a bit, so I made my way closer to see if I could help at all. This guy was holding up progress, and we just didn’t have time to deal with that.

As I got closer, everything went dead silent. My heart pounded in my ears, and the sound seemed to resonate within my helmet. Within seconds, everything went black as sounds of panic erupted from all around me.

Hayley’s POV

All in all, my day had been pretty good. Bekah and I had declared it a girls’ day out, and somehow, we had never managed to leave my living room. DVDs sat scattered across my living room as we relaxed and just talked about everything. It was one of the first times in a long time that I’d felt like myself again. No wedding plans were spoken of, there was no talk of Josh, and her son had managed to nap through almost the whole day.

“I’m never going to fit in my wedding dress now. This is all your fault,” I laughed as we finished off yet another bowl of popcorn.

“Hey, popcorn is healthy, and it’s not my fault that you have no self-control,” Bekah countered before throwing one of the small cushions from the couch in my general direction.

“So mature,” I mumbled while trying to fish my cell phone out of my pocket as it alerted me to a text message.

‘Turn on the news.’

Four words. Four words in a text message from Zac Farro had never terrified me more than those four words did at that very moment. Whatever the news had to say, I no longer wanted to hear it. If I ignored it, then it didn’t have to be true, right?

Before I could even reach for the remote, Bekah already had the television turned to the right channel. Clearly, the message was making its rounds.

The only information we could find was about yet another roadside bombing in Iraq that had left two soldiers dead and the rest of the unit seriously injured. They weren’t giving out names. They weren’t telling us where the soldiers were from. Basically, the news was doing what it always did… inform us of nothing.

“The news here isn’t telling us anything,” I told Josh’s mother as soon as I could get us on the phone. “What have you guys heard?”

“It was Josh’s unit. That’s all we know right now. We’re trying to get more information, but nobody is saying anything. Nobody knows anything,” she replied in an eerily calm voice that gave away just how torn up she was by all of this. Everybody knew that Josh was the backbone of the Farro family. He had to be okay. That was all there was to it.

“Keep me posted. Bekah and I are on the first flight to Nashville. I’ll call you as soon as we’re in town,” I promised before hanging up the phone to avoid any protest from the woman on the other end.

Just like that, all of my wedding plans were pushed to the side. There was no way I could concentrate until I knew that Josh was okay, and Parker would just have to learn to understand the profound connection I still had to these guys, to my hometown, and to everything connected to it. It wasn’t something that I could just turn my back on. I was going home, and he would just have to learn to deal with it.

Update [Please Read]

If I get my presentation done at a reasonable hour tonight, I'll update one of my stories. You guys get to pick which one. The story wtih the most votes by the time I get around to finishing my presentation will get an update tonight, maybe two. So... get to it.

We're Only Human (Chapter Five) [Repost]

And the last repost.

Josh’s POV

Have you ever woken up from a nap thinking it’ll make you feel more energized only to find that you’re ten times more exhausted than you were before you even went to sleep? Waking up in the hospital was that exact feeling for me. At least, I thought it was the hospital. I wasn’t really sure where I was anymore, but I was too tired to freak out. The beeping sounds of machines surrounding me and the uncomfortable bed were pretty good giveaways.

I was too tired to even be bothered by nurses, so I didn’t call for one. Instead, I just took the opportunity to enjoy the darkness. My head was killing me, but so was the rest of my body. It just felt good to know that the rest of my body was actually there. Either that, or I had some serious phantom limb shit going on. Still, I hoped for the best.

My body did feel a little heavier, though. In fact, my left arm was asleep. Not only was my left arm asleep, but someone was sleeping on it. I couldn’t make out just who it was in the dark, but they obviously had to know me pretty well to be that comfortable in bed with me. My first thought went to my little sister, but I didn’t want to wake her. Whoever it was had to be exhausted. How else could they sleep in this bed without some serious drugs?

“Hey. Hey, wake up,” I whispered, not caring who it was as them lying on my arm became more and more uncomfortable for me. They could go back to sleep, but first, I needed my arm. “Seriously, get up,” I mumbled, raising my voice to just above a whisper.

“Five more minutes, mom,” a familiar female voice told me as its owner curled further into my side eliciting a hiss of a wince that came out of nowhere. God, everything in my body hurt.

“Hayley?” I asked, even though I knew it couldn’t be possible. Clearly, I was still sleeping. This all had to be a dream. Any second now, Ajax would dump cold water on me, and I would wake up to find myself in the middle of another God forsaken desert.

“Josh?” Hayley’s voice tiredly questioned as she propped herself up next to me and reached around for something totally unknown to me. It wasn’t long before the lights in the room were blinding me as my eyes fought to adjust themselves.

“Jesus. What’s with all the freaking light?” I muttered, trying to shield my eyes with what happened to be a plaster covered hand. Of course, I didn’t realize it was plaster covered until I’d already smacked myself in the face with it.

“You’re awake!” she screeched, throwing her arms around my neck in a hug.

“Not for long, if you keep this crap up. Take it easy, Hayles. I think I’ve been beaten up enough,” I mumbled, even though I couldn’t help but smile just at the fact that she was really there. If this was a dream, then I didn’t want to wake up. I could die right then, and I would have been the happiest guy on the planet.

“I need to get the doctor,” she told me without hesitation.

“You really know how to ruin the mood for any situation, don’t you?” I asked with a frown. I was too busy trying to memorize every single thing about her appearance to even begin to care about my health.

“I do what I can,” Hayley insisted, wiggling her way out of my grasp much to my dismay. I hadn’t seen a girl in months, let alone the girl of my dreams, and she was running off to get some doctor who would totally be able to tell us the same thing a few hours from now.

“So, you really are awake? That’s a pleasant surprise,” the doctor stated with a smile as Hayley dragged him into my room.

“That’s what she tells me. I can go back to sleep if you’d like. Wake me up sometime next week,” I told him before he took out a mini flashlight and tried to test my vision. “Again with the light. Seriously. It’s like you want me to go blind.”

“Is he always like this?” the doctor asked, turning his attention to Hayley.

“You mean a pain in the butt? Yeah, it’s pretty much an everyday thing from what I can remember,” Hayley replied with a glare in my direction.

“Hey, I’m the one lying in the hospital bed. I think I’m allowed to be a pain in the butt. It’s one of the few places on me that doesn’t hurt,” I muttered, attempting to reposition myself in the bed without much success.

“Yeah, well, you have more than enough padding back there. Now, hush,” Hayley warned in a tone that I knew all too well. “How does he look, doc?”

“Never hotter,” I chimed in before yelping as Hayley popped my hand.

“Vitals look good so far. We’ll have to run some more tests to be sure, but the fact that he’s awake is more than we could have asked for,” the doctor stated as if I wasn’t even in the room. “Is there anything we can get for you?”

“A hot nurse, a sponge bath, a razor, and a steak would be fantastic. You know, if it’s not asking for too much,” I replied as my stomach growls started to take over the conversation.

“I’ll see what I can do about the food. The nurses around here aren’t too bad to look at. We’ll get you taken care of. Clearly, you’re going to be another handful, just like Lambert,” the doctor countered with a chuckle as he made notes on his chart.

“Just wait until you get the two of them together,” Hayley warned, taking a seat on the edge of the hospital bed.

Hayley’s POV

“If you’d stop trying to grab my hand, then this would go a lot faster,” I told Josh with a sigh as I attempted to help him shave. Going anywhere near his face was one thing he wouldn’t let the nurses do, especially after he’d convinced himself that they were trying to kill him while trying to get him cleaned up.

“I can’t have you ruining my moneymaker. We all know that my looks are all I have going for me,” Josh replied with a smirk as I finally finished my task.

“Honestly, you’re not even all that great to look at anymore. Your personality kind of ruins it,” I lied as I placed the razor and shaving cream off to the side and let my hand gently move over his cheek.

“You really know how to kick a guy while he’s down,” Josh mumbled with a sigh as he finally relaxed into his pillow and stopped squirming.

My eyes quickly fluttered closed as he reached a hand up to gently brush against my cheek. His fingertips were all that was exposed from the plaster shell covering one of his many injuries, but that touch alone was enough to make my stomach flip-flop.

“You had us all scared out of our minds,” I told him, not really caring that whatever was happening right then was totally inappropriate for a girl who was engaged to someone else to be taking part in, but the thoughts going through my head weren’t exactly all that appropriate either.

“Sorry. Won’t happen again,” Josh replied without hesitation as his fingers found their way into my hair. “You kept your promise.”

“The auburn really didn’t suit me. You were right,” I replied with a smile as I reached up to envelope his hand with mine. He couldn’t keep touching me like that if he expected me to still be able to hold a conversation.

“I usually am,” he countered matter of factly. Some things really never did change.

A long silence passed between us, but it wasn’t awkward in the least. I was trying to get my thoughts under control, which wasn’t really happening at all, and Josh was just looking at me with those damn, deep chocolate puppy dog eyes of his that could make any girls question everything they’d ever thought about their lives.

“How long do I have you to myself before everybody else shows up?” Josh asked, breaking the silence and my thought process at the same time.

“A couple hours. They’re all at the hotel right now. I’ve been staying here,” I told him with a smile. The fact that he didn’t actually have me never once crossed my mind.

“We should make the best of our time then, shouldn’t we?” Josh questioned, looking up at me rather expectantly. Expectant for what, I wasn’t sure.

“You’re not in any shape to make the best of your time with anyone,” I reminded him, deciding to not even go there right then. Ruining the moment really wasn’t something that I felt like doing. Josh was going to be okay. That was cause for happiness, and I was not going to be a Debbie Downer.

“That’s not what I meant, but thanks for making sure there’s absolutely nothing left of my ego. We have a lot to talk about. Months upon months of letters. Years of not seeing each other. Two hours isn’t going to be nearly enough time to even get started,” Josh reminded me with a smile.

“Right, those letters. I guess they’ll send you the ones that never got to you. I’m not really sure how all of that works,” I admitted, since Josh was my first experience with any of my loved ones ever being deployed in the armed forces.

“You were the only thing that kept me going over there,” Josh stated with no sign of hesitation in his voice. “If it wasn’t for you, then I wouldn’t have made it nearly as long as I did. It would have been so easy to end everything and not have to worry about it anymore.”

“Don’t talk like that. You’re home now. That’s all that matters,” I insisted, not even wanting to think about just how dire his mental state might have been without me able to get to him. Without me able to tell him that everything was going to be all right, even if I couldn’t guarantee that.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t a better friend before I left,” Josh threw in, completely disregarding anything I had to say. He had months of conversations built up inside of him. Maybe it was better if I just let him talk.

“I could have picked up the phone just as easily as you could have,” I reminded him, running the fingertips of one hand over his forehead to try to keep him from furrowing his brow as much as possible. He shouldn’t have been worrying, but with Josh, it was impossible to get him to stop.

With more power than I thought Josh possessed at that moment, he gently reached up and placed a hand on either side of my face before pulling me closer to him. I could have stopped what happened next, and I should have. My body just wouldn’t let me.

Josh’s lips were dry and rough as they moved tiredly against mine. I didn’t have the heart to push him away, especially when my own heart was too busy doing somersaults within my chest.

“You should get some rest. You’ve got a long day ahead of you,” I mumbled against his lips with my forehead pressed softly against his.

“Only is you promise to be here when I wake up,” Josh yawned.

“I’m not going anywhere. Nobody could move me if they tried,” I promised, turning the light off as I nestled into his side. Giving him false hope wasn’t the best that I could do for him, but I was too conflicted to even know what to think anymore. Josh was alive, and best of all, he was awake. Regardless of where we were, with his arm around me, I had never felt more at home.

We're Only Human (Chapter Four, Part Two) [Repost]

Another repost.

Hayley’s POV

“Hayles, wake up. You’re killing my arm, and the plane’s landed,” Jeremy muttered through a tired yawn as he tried to free his arm from my death grip. I’d spent most of the flight curled up next to him while Sarah slept on the other side. Taylor had spent most of the flight trying to keep Zac sane, and there was no way that Jeremy was going to leave me to my own thoughts.

“I’m up, I’m up,” I mumbled, pulling myself out of the seat as quickly as possible as the rest of the passengers in our party began to exit the plane. It was weird to have almost a whole flight to ourselves, but then again, it gave us one less headache to deal with.

With almost no luggage besides our carry-on bags, we all made a beeline for the interior of the airport where a man would be waiting to take us to the hospital. My mind kept going over the worst possible scenarios, but nothing could be worse than the prospect of Josh not being alive. Ajax wouldn’t have made us come all this way just to tell us that he was dead. There had to be hope, and I was hanging on to what little bit I had left.

“Would you wait up, Hayley? Not all of us can sprint through crowds like you!” Zac called after me through jagged breaths as I dodged and weaved my way through crowds of people.

Once I was safely at the guy with the sign, I waited for everybody else to get there. I’d already harassed him with tons of questions, but it seemed like he was just a go between. He didn’t know anything that would actually help us.

“I’m just the driver. Your questions will be answered when we arrive, but you have to let me get you there first for that to even happen,” he stated as the rest of our party started to ask him the same questions.

It was the longest ride from an airport ever. Jeremy made me sit on my hands before we were even out of the parking lot in hopes that it would make me fidget less, but it really didn’t help. By the time we actually got to the hospital, I was losing my mind. The whole ride over had been silent, and I felt like I was going to explode. I just needed to see him. Once I saw him with my own two eyes, everything would be okay. It had to be.

“Daniel!” Mrs. Farro exclaimed as we were brought down the hallway to the room supposedly housing the one man we were all there to see.

Ajax seemed to have set up a post outside of Josh’s room. He looked a lot worse for the wear, but he was up and moving around. That was all I needed to see.

“God, it’s good to see you guys,” he mumbled, pulling each of us into individual hugs while trying to balance on his good leg.

“How is he?” Zac asked first, since most of us had been too scared to find out the answer.

“He’s alive. Right now, that’s all we can ask for. The doctors want to draw blood from all of his immediate family members before you go in to see if any of you are a blood type match. They’ll explain it all better than I can. I’m kind of on a short leash. Apparently, I’m some kind of trouble maker for trying to make sure that my friend gets taken care of,” he mumbled as a nurse walked by giving him a serious stink eye.

“Alright, Daniel. Sit down. We’ll talk to the doctors. Make sure Hayley goes inside to see him. She’s about to have a breakdown,” Mrs. Farro said in the calmest tone I’d heard from her in a week. Just knowing that Josh was in the building seemed to put her at ease. She was twice the woman I would ever be.

“You can go on in, Hayles. I’ll stand watch out here,” Ajax told me as he settled back into his chair. Everyone else had filed off to talk to the doctors, but nothing that they had to say would put my mind at ease.

Stepping into Josh’s room, the sound of monitors was the first thing to catch my attention. There were so many of them. It was worse than I could ever have imagine. As I got closer to him, I saw the bandages keeping his wounds from view. It was like my worst nightmare had come to life, but as I pressed a hand to his cheek, the warmth let me know that all hope was not lost. Somewhere, inside of this damaged exterior, Josh was still there.

“You better keep fighting. You made me a promise, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you break it,” I told him, doing my best to keep my tone even as tears threatened to spill from my eyes.

Zac’s POV

Listening to all of the medical mumbo jumbo that these doctors kept throwing out at us was really starting to give me a headache. All I wanted to know was whether or not my brother was going to be okay. He had to be okay. I had to be able to make fun of that stupid beard of his in person, and he had to be able to fight back with some lame comeback that only Josh could come up with. These doctors could say all they wanted about his prognosis, but I knew my brother, and my brother was going to be just fine.

“Basically, without a liver transplant, it doesn’t matter if he wakes up. He’d never be able to leave the hospital, and the machines can’t keep him going forever,” the doctor stated once my dad finally told him to be straightforward about what was going on.

“But isn’t the transplant list ridiculously long?” my little brother, Jonathan, asked in a matter of fact tone.

“That’s why we’re doing blood tests. If one of you is a match, then we can try a living donor partial liver transplant. We’d take a portion of the donor’s liver and transplant it into Josh. The donor’s liver would regenerate over time,” the doctor explained.

It sounded like something out of a science fiction story… taking organs out of a living person and putting them into another person. None of it made sense.

“And if none of us are a match?” my father asked.

“Then we put him on the list and hope for the best. There aren’t many other options,” the doctor replied.

“Doctor,” a nurse said, handing over a chart before walking away to see to other work.

I could feel my stomach twisting into knots as he flipped through the papers. I didn’t even know what he was looking at, but if it had anything to do with my brother getting better, then he needed to do it faster. This might have been a commonplace thing for all of them, but my brother deserved the best, and from what I could see, he wasn’t getting it.

“Which one of you is Zachary Farro?” the doctor asked, finally looking up from the chart.

I raised my hand awkwardly, suddenly feeling like I was in school all over again. Luckily, I was pretty sure that he wasn’t about to give me a pop quiz.

“You’re a match,” he stated, causing a sigh of relief to permeate through the group of family and friends who had joined to see Josh’s recovery through to the finish. “If you’re willing to take on the responsibility.”

“Where do I sign?” I asked him, more than willing to do whatever it took to make Josh well. He would have done the same for me, without hesitation. In fact, he was in this place for me and for everyone else in my family. He’d nearly died to protect our freedoms, and damn it, I was going to do my part.

We're Only Human (Chapter Four, Part One) [Repost]

Once again, in hopes that you can all read it this time.

Ajax’s POV

Waking up to the sterile white walls of a hospital definitely hadn’t been what I’d expected as I waited for my eyes to adjust to the bright white lights. If it didn’t smell like rubbing alcohol and floor cleaner, I could have easily mistaken the place for Heaven, but there was no way that Heaven could be so loud with the sounds of machines beeping and voices murmuring all around me.

It took a while before the reality of my location really settled in. If I was in a hospital, then the explosion hadn’t been just another nightmare. This one had been real.

Forcing myself into a sitting position, which was less than easy to do with the bandages around my ribs, I winced as I turned to try to find my comrades.

“Lambert, you need to lay down. Don’t make the nurses sedate you again,” one of the guys said from the bed next to mine. His voice was so slurred that I could barely even recognize it. It didn’t matter, though. He wasn’t the guy I was looking for.

“Where’s Farro?” I asked, my voice scratchy from not being used. My throat felt like sandpaper, but I had other things to worry about.

“ICU ward, I think. He took longer to transport. It’s not looking good,” he replied before the medicine overtook him.

I’d heard all I needed to hear as I pushed myself completely out of my bed and grabbed onto the nearby IV pole for support. My legs were totally going to fight me, but I was just glad to see that they were both there. One might have been in a cast, but as long as it was attached, other wounds would heal.

Everything was pretty hazy as to how I had come to arrive at this place. I remembered the explosion, and I remembered being on a military cargo plane. Someone had said something about Germany. Other than that, memorable details were few and far between. All I knew was that I had to see Josh with my own two eyes. I had to know that he wasn’t dead because as long as there was a pulse moving through his body, Josh Farro wasn’t going to give up without a fight. If I had to live for the last few months hearing nothing but how he was going to make sure Hayley knew how he really felt, then damn it, I was going to make sure that he was a man of his word. Dying was a cop out.

“Daniel, you need to get back in bed,” one of the nurses warned me as I took a few steps away from my safety zone.

“Once I see Farro, then you can stick me in any bed you want, but until then, you’re either going to let me go or you’re going to help me out here,” I muttered on uneasy legs.

“Fine. At least let me get a wheelchair this time. I can’t pick you up off of the floor again,” she mumbled with a tired sigh before disappearing.

Again? Clearly, there was a lot I wasn’t remembering. How long had I been here, anyway?

“Sit,” she ordered, pushing the wheelchair into the back of my legs and leaving me without much of an option. For the rest of the ride, I was silent. There wasn’t much I could say, and she probably didn’t have the answers I was looking for, anyway.

Once my eyes finally set their focus onto Josh’s body, I wasn’t so sure that having a pulse would even give him a fighting chance anymore. There was only so much damage that one person could withstand, and I couldn’t spot one part of his body that wasn’t bandaged or battered in some way. I couldn’t even feel his presence in the room anymore. It was like he was already gone.

“What’s his prognosis?” I asked, my voice choking back tears that I refused to let fall. He wasn’t dead yet, and I refused to see him that way.

“If he makes it through the night, then that’s one day they didn’t expect him to have. The damage is pretty extensive, but it’s all things that he could recover from. There’s just no way of knowing how much damage his brain went through without him waking up. If he wakes up,” the nurse replied.

“He’s going to wake up,” I insisted, an edge to my voice that hadn’t been intentional, at least not towards her, anyway.

“Either way, the shrapnel damaged his liver pretty badly. Without a transplant, he’d probably never leave the hospital. It’s a waiting game at this point,” she added.

“What part of this looks like a game to you?” I asked, my hands grabbing the wheels of the wheelchair as I took control. This was my best friend she was talking about. He was dying, and this was all a game? “I want to see his doctor.”

“Well, I don’t know-"

“I want to see his doctor now! You find him for me, or I’ll do it myself,” I threatened, wheeling my way closer to Josh’s bed.

The nurse had already left, but I hadn’t noticed. My attention was focused on all of the beeps and chimes coming from the various monitors in the room. The numbers made no sense to me at all, but I found some comfort in the fact that Josh’s hand was still warm. Warmth was good, right? As long as he wasn’t cold, then I had no reason to worry.

“I know we made a promise that we wouldn’t let either of us die anywhere other than at home, and I’m going to stand by it. I promise,” I told him, regardless of whether or not he could hear me. It was more for my peace of mind than anything else.

The sound of the doctor clearing his throat pulled my attention away just long enough to ask one simple question.

“When’s the next flight out of here?”

Hayley’s POV

It had been a week since the news had broadcast the story about Josh and Ajax’s unit falling under attack. None of us knew anything new, really, other than the fact that both Ajax and Josh were listed as alive but in serious condition at a military hospital in Germany. Mrs. Farro had been doing everything in her power to find more information, but the government wasn’t exactly forthcoming with anything, which wasn’t a surprise.

“No, I don’t want to leave my name and number with anyone. I just want to know where my son is, but none of you seem to be able to tell me that, so you’re all pretty damn useless,” Mr. Farro barked into the phone for what seemed like the hundredth time that day.

I’d been back in Franklin for a week, and it was already feeling like home. Parker was less than thrilled about me being there, especially since he wasn’t around to keep an eye on me, but after a long yelling match over the phone, he’d realized that his words were lost on me. This was more important than some wedding. It wasn’t like Parker was going anywhere. Like clockwork, he would still be in California doing the same routine whenever I got back.

Having my phone ring with unrecognizable numbers was becoming pretty commonplace, too. Media outlets were trying any means possible to get information about Josh’s condition. The band had long since been dead, but now, they actually cared about our well-being… as long as it would sell their magazines. I was tempted to ignore it when it happened again, but for some reason far beyond me, I answered.

“Long time no talk, Hayles. Would you tell the Farros to get off the phone so that someone can get through to them? I’ve been trying for the past fifteen minutes, and it’s been busy,” Ajax’s scratchy voice said from the other end of the line.

“Ajax?” I asked, causing the whole room to fall silent as all eyes were on me. It was a feeling that I should have been used to long ago, but this was so, so different.

“Of course. Look, I don’t have much time on here, so just listen to me,” Ajax quickly told me before I could ramble off one of the hundred questions going through my mind.

“The doctors are already mad at me for causing so much trouble. I need you and the Farros to go to the airport in Nashville. I figured you’re already in Franklin. There’s a plane waiting to take you to Washington, D.C. When you land in Washington, look for a guy holding a sign that says Lambert-Farro family. My parents are meeting you there. That guy is going to take you to Walter-Reed. If he gives you any trouble, let me know when I see you. These people are used to me being a pain in the ass,” Ajax stated, as if he was giving me some kind of mission. He pretty much was.

“Hayles, did you get all of that?” Ajax asked. “Hayles?”

“How is he?” was all I could get out in response.

“It’s not good. Now, do what I told you, or it’s going to be a lot worse,” Ajax replied before the line went dead.

With a room full of expectant eyes focused on me, I rushed to tell them everything that Ajax had asked me to relay without hesitation. There was too much to be done in a short amount of time, but it didn’t matter. We were finally going to get answers, and the sooner we got to Washington, the sooner we could see Josh - the sooner I could see Josh.

We're Only Human (Chapter Three) [Repost]

Reposting, since apparently Buzznet won't let some of you read the other one.

Hayley’s POV

“You two are single-handedly keeping the Postal Service in business right now,” Bekah joked as she sat across from me at the kitchen table that had become the wedding control station.

Always, Josh’

And that was the understatement of the year. Forget about my head being in the game. I wasn’t even sure my heart was in the game, anymore.

Josh’s POV

At least, it had been.

Hayley’s POV

“I’m never going to fit in my wedding dress now. This is all your fault,” I laughed as we finished off yet another bowl of popcorn.

“Hey, popcorn is healthy, and it’s not my fault that you have no self-control,” Bekah countered before throwing one of the small cushions from the couch in my general direction.

“So mature,” I mumbled while trying to fish my cell phone out of my pocket as it alerted me to a text message.

‘Turn on the news.’

Before I could even reach for the remote, Bekah already had the television turned to the right channel. Clearly, the message was making its rounds.

“The news here isn’t telling us anything,” I told Josh’s mother as soon as I could get us on the phone. “What have you guys heard?”

We're Only Human (Chapter Five)

Alright, this is the last update tonight. There might be more tomorrow, but I have to work on a paper, so I'm not sure how that will work out. I might try to work on other stories during breaks from my paper. I just really needed to get these first few chapters out of my head so that I could focus. Thansk for reading. Comments/constructive criticism/buzzes are always welcome. They motivate me to write faster, so the more comments I get, the more likely I am to update.