(Holly's PoV)

    I attempted to immerse myself in military history books to distract myself from the present. My feeble attempt led to having to read and re-read the same sentence after forgetting the sentence before. As I delved into the evolution of the grenade section for at least the ninth time, I heard stirring and a familiar voice.

    "Mother...fucker."

    Relief swept over me. "Landon," I said as I rushed over to his bedside.

    He winced, attempted to move his shoulder, and then cried out in pain.

    I bit my lip as I watched. "Do you remember what happened?"

    He closed his eyes for a moment and exhaled through his teeth. "I think I got shot. I...I was bleeding and on the ground. I don't really know what happened after that, but I'm guessing you have something to do with it, given the fact that I'm still alive."

    I could feel my face growing hot. Ignoring his response, I asked. "But how are you doing now?"

    "Well," he began simply. "I'm in a lot of pain. I can't see."

    "Shit." My heart seemed to skip a beat. I pressed my hands against my temples. "What did I do wrong?"

    "Holly. Holly." He tried to grab my wrists, but he couldn't quite find them. "You didn't do anything wrong. It's my glasses. Do you know where they are?"

    I racked my brain trying to remember. I knew I saw them on him after he got shot. What did I do with them? I glanced around the room until I saw something red on the ground.

    "I may have knocked them on the floor," I said sheepishly.

    "That's okay," he replied somewhat confused. "You can make it up by handing them back to me."

    I reached down to pick them up, but to my dismay only part of them came up. I looked down to see two other pieces lying below. "Yeah, they're broken."

    He sighed. "What am I supposed to do?"

    "Don't worry," I said, trying to cover up my own panic. "It's just the frames. I can fix this." I grabbed the other pieces and went over to my drawers. I dug around until I found some adhesive bandages. It would have to do.

    I wrapped the bandages around the middle and right handle to connect the pieces together. Afraid he might poke himself in the eye if he tried to put them on one-handed, I put them on for him.

    He blinked several times. "Much better," he stated. "Well, the vision part that is. Do you have a mirror?" he asked. There was a full length one on the wall, but he was in no shape to get up yet, so I searched for the compact mirror. It was at the bottom of the last drawer since I never used it.

    Landon examined himself, shook his head, and laughed. "I look so stupid." He handed the mirror back to me. "But at the same time I don't look like a rotting corpse or a formaldehyde soaked wax figure, so thanks." He looked down and blushed. "And I'm shirtless."

    Brushing off the last comment in order to spare us both more embarrassment, I placed the mirror back in its drawer and took out some pain medication. I placed two pills in his hand and gave him a glass of water. "Take these for pain." Once finished, I handed him another pill. "And this one to prevent infection."   

    He looked around the room as he handed the empty glass back to me. "So this is your life around here." He paused for a moment. "It must get boring."

    I shrugged before replying. "It gives me a nice break from you guys."

(Landon's PoV)

    I woke up to my chest throbbing. "Shit." I muttered.

    Several feet away, Holly stirred awake. "What?"

    "Nothing," I responded. "Just pain."

    "I can only give you the medication every 24 hours," she explained.

    "Wait," I stopped her, noticing something was off.

    "I really can't give you anything," she repeated.

    "No," I brushed the comment off. Even though the lights were off, I could make out the outline of Holly curled up in the wooden rocking chair. "Holly, do you sleep in a chair every night?"

    "Yeah," she answered simply.

    "But why?" I pressed. "There are three beds in here and only one of them is being used."

    "Because," she said in exasperation, as well as a yawn. "Those beds are for people who are sick or injured. Neither of which I am."

    "That doesn't make any sense," I told her. "Sleep on one of the beds."

    "No."

    "We could share this one."

    "Landon."

    "I'm kidding, well at least about the second one." I still couldn't wrap my mind around her rationale. "It's not necessary for you to sleep on a chair."

    "Landon," she sighed. "If you don't shut up I am going to force feed you sleeping medication."

    "So there are more meds I can take?"

    "Don't test me."

    I smiled through a wince. "Good night, Holly."

    "Night, Landon."

(Holly's PoV)

    I gave Landon his medication, and he continued to bother me as I attempted to do paperwork.

    "Whatcha working on?"

    "Paperwork," I replied.

    He attempted to peer over my clipboard, hurting his shoulder in the process.

    I smirked at him as he attempted to rub his shoulder with his good arm. "Don't touch it," I advised.

    He sighed. "Fine." He looked around in boredom and eventually gave a small shriek.

    "What?" I asked, already having dropped my clipboard.

    He pointed to a corner of the room and sputtered nonsense. "Kill it. Kill it. Kill it!" he pleaded.

    "Kill what?" I pressed, following the direction of his finger. On the floor, there was a black spider no bigger than a quarter. I put my hand to my mouth to keep from laughing.

    The spider crawled close to Landon's bed and he kicked his legs back.

    "Are you afraid of spiders?" I asked.

    "I don't like bugs," he said between breaths. "Can you please kill it?"

    I stepped on the spider, squashing the life out of it. "Better?'

    "Much."

    "So what's all that about?"

    "It's not an uncommon fear," he said defensively. "I don't know what you expect me to say."

    "No, no, no," I cut him off. "You made me kill it for you and there's no way all of that doesn't have an explanation."

    He squirmed closer to the back of his bed. "When I was little, my sister, Sammie, dumped her bug collection science project on me after it was done. It was like, the worst feeling ever." He paused for a second. "Okay so maybe getting shot felt worse, but that still sucked." He shrugged. "Plus it gave them all sorts of ideas of how to torment me. You know how siblings are."

    "Actually I don't," I responded. "I'm an only child, so go on." I coaxed him.

    "I mean like a couple months before I got drafted," he began. "They let a spider loose in my bedroom at night and locked me in cuz they knew I'd be too worried to sleep." His tone was oddly casual.

    My amusement from a minute ago immediately died down. "Landon, that's horrible. Do you not realize that's actually horrible?"

    "Holly, it's really no big deal." He seemed to be planning his words carefully. "It's just part of being a youngest child. It could be a lot worse. It's just teasing and stuff."

    "Pretty heavy emphasis on the word 'stuff'," I challenged. "Landon, I tease you. There's a pretty big difference between laughing at your terrified reaction and purposely trying to terrify you."

    "You're making way too big of a deal about this. It's nothing I can't handle," he tried to assure me, but I didn't buy it.

    And that's when it clicked. Landon wasn't afraid of bugs, well I mean he was, but nearly as much as he was afraid of his older sisters.

    Growing more awkward, Landon faked a yawn. "I think this medication is starting to get to me."

    Fatigue was not a listed side effect of any of his meds.

    "I'm gonna try to get some sleep," he laid down on his side, facing the wall.

    Figures. But that's how I knew he was really scared of them. They seemed to be the only people who could get him to shut up. I went back to my paperwork, trailing off into wondering what other actions he convinced himself fit under the umbrella of "teasing and stuff."

(Landon's PoV)

    After several days, the pain in my upper chest was starting to die down. It still hurt like hell, but maybe only like the fourth circle compared to the seventh. At this point, the middle of the night was the worst part--when I'm nearing the end of yesterday's dose.

    I craned my neck to see Holly's clock reading 0351. Of course she uses military time. Regardless of format, it was still another four hours until I could have my next dose.

    "Holly," I whispered.

    But she didn't stir. She just stayed curled up in her rocking chair. It was difficult to see details clearly in the dark, but she looked so calm and peaceful--so unlike her normal state. This was possibly her only moment of serenity. I didn't want that moment to end for her. Although, given the fact that she usually got up before all of us, it likely wasn't going to last much longer.

    Impulsively, I stepped off the bed. My head felt light. I hadn't stood up on my own in several days. Taking soft steps, I walked to Holly's clock and shut off her alarm. She needed sleep.

    I, of course, couldn't fall back asleep after getting back in bed, so I spent several hours staring at the ceiling.

    Around 5 in the morning, Lt. Jason came in calling for Holly, but I quickly pressed my pointer finger to my lips and used the other to gesture to Holly. He caught on, and likely went to grab the MRE breakfasts himself.

    Surprisingly, Holly didn't even wake up from the noise the rest of the guys made from the main room.

    After the natural light began to let in, I finally got a better look at Holly. She was so still, so at ease. I tried to not stare too intently (it felt somewhat creepy), but it was nice to see her in such a calm and soft state.

    By 8:00AM (when I normally took my medication), my bullet wound started throbbing. I had to bite my tongue to keep from wincing. I debated trying to find the meds myself, but I honestly had no idea what I was taking.

    Just before noon, Holly's eyes opened slightly. "What time is it?" she mumbled, still half-asleep.

    I glanced at the clock. "11:48."

    She bolted upright. "What?" She grabbed her clock and realized I was right. She put her head in her hands and groaned. "Why didn't my alarm go off? Stupid clock."

    I stopped her before she could throw the clock against the wall. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's not the clock's fault."

    She turned to me. Her voice was like ice. "What do you mean?"

    "I shut it off in the middle of the night," I admitted.

    "Landon," her voice was growing shrill.

    "What?" I defended myself. "You looked calm for once in your life. I didn't want to wake you up."

    She swung open a cupboard door and began searching through the contents as she chided me. "Do you have any idea how stupid that is? You're supposed to be taking medication on a set schedule. Take these" She handed me three pills. "This could mess up your healing process," she groaned.

    After taking my medication, I questioned, "Holly, how long has it been since you've had a decent night's sleep?"

    "Does it matter?" she retorted.

    I sighed. "What I'm trying to say is, you've spent so much time and energy trying to take care of me, but you're not taking care of yourself."

    She folded her arms. "I'm not injured."

    "You still need rest," I pointed out.

    She rolled her eyes. "You're so annoying."

    I smirked back at her. "But I'm right."

    She appeared extra stressed for the rest of the day, although I still didn't regret letting her sleep in. If anything, her high strung demeanor proved my point even more that she needed more rest.

(Holly's PoV)

    Landon kept looking around the room, mainly searching for something to do. Naturally, he found bothering me to be his best option.

    "Holly," he began. "Why do you want to fight?"

    I was so taken aback that I dropped my clipboard onto my lap. "How did you know about that?" I tried my best to cover my stammer.

    He turned a light shade of pink. "I kinda, sorta overheard you arguing with Sgt. Blake about it a while back."

    "Were you eavesdropping?" I questioned.

    He put his arms up in defense. "Can I help it, you're really loud."

    Fair point. "It's just that I thought I'd be in a combat role when I enlisted."

    It was Landon's turn to be caught off guard. "You enlisted?"

    "Yeah," I said simply. "Did you think I got drafted like you guys?"

    "Kind of," he replied sheepishly.

    "All right look," I told him. "When I heard they were drafting kids, I went to go enlist. I figured they were going to be taking anyone they could get, but I wasn't sent to basic training. Instead it was a nursing course. When I asked, they told me that young girls were too fragile for combat and that someone like me would be better suited in a caretaker role. By that point, I had already committed."

    Landon put his hand to his head. "That still doesn't answer my main question though. I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that you voluntarily signed up for this." He sighed in frustration, almost anger. "Why would you do such a thing?"

    "I wanted to be like my dad," I said weakly.

    He tilted his head to the side in confusion.

    "My dad fought in the cold war," I explained. "Well, I mean the cold war was mostly a political standoff, but there was a pretty large amount of actual fighting that took place in Germany. That's where my dad was born."

    Landon didn't say anything, so I just rambled on to fill the silence.

    "He immigrated to the U.S. in the 90s. That's when he met my mom. I was always closer to my dad though. My mom would always host these extravagant parties with lots of people when I was younger. I would get so overwhelmed by everything and my dad would calm me down by taking me up to my room and telling me stories about fighting in the war. It seemed to give his life purpose. I guess I wanted that too."

    After a pause, Landon asked, "How come you don't ever write to your dad?"

    "Oh no," I responded quickly. "I haven't talked to him in years. After he and my mom got divorced, he moved back to Germany and I haven't heard from him since."

    "No way," Landon said. "My parents are divorced too."

    "Since I was nine," we both finished. We made eye contact for a moment, and I was the first to break away.

    Landon cleared his throat. "But if it makes you feel any better, my dad doesn't talk to me either. I'm not the strong, manly son he always hoped for. He would always say he felt 'cheated' because his only son ended up being weaker than his daughters." He trailed off and then shrugged. "Even though I liked it better without him around, the whole divorced household aspect sucks."

    "Yeah," I agreed. "But I wouldn't want them to have stayed together for my sake. If they weren't in love anymore then what's the point?"

    "That's a selfless way of looking at it," he told me.

    "Or realistic."

    "That too."

    We spent the rest of the day talking about our parents.

    "I just feel like if I was an actual soldier, it would make my dad proud. Maybe he'd want to talk to me again," I confided. "Even though I don't even know how he'd find out—"

    "Don't do it for that reason," Landon interjected. "Besides, if he wouldn't be proud of all you've accomplished here regardless of your role, then he's not worth it."

    "Are you mad at me for enlisting?" I asked.

    He shook his head. "Nah, not anymore. I understand why now. I just don't want you thinking you're useless here."

    I glanced at his healing chest and gave a small smile. "Thanks, Landon."

(Landon's PoV)

    I zipped up my army jacket. It was weird no longer having my shoulder covered in gauze.

Tristan patted my good shoulder. "Good to have you back, man."

"Yeah," Gavin agreed. "It hasn't been the same without you on the battlefield with us."

Tristan snorted. "And by that we mean the conversations and tic tac toe battles."

I had been out for nine days. My shoulder and upper chest were still sore, but by now my skin had healed itself up, and luckily without infection.

"I gotta go take my pain meds real quick," I told them. I walked over to the infirmary, but Holly wasn't there. I figured she was just finishing up grabbing MREs for the guys' breakfast. I tried to remain still, avoiding all urges to look around.

I heard Holly's voice coming from down the hall. "Landon are you--"" but her voice cut off once she saw me.

"You're in uniform," she stated. Her voice sounded slightly uneasy.

I nodded. "Yeah, Sgt. Blake said I was healed enough to start fighting again." He had also said that he didn't need to consult Holly for that decision since he had all authority over her, but I decided to leave that part out.

"Oh," she spoke softly. She almost sounded disappointed.

"Are you upset about that?" I asked.

Her demeanor immediately shifted back to cold and serious. "No," she denied. "I'm just happy that I'll finally get quiet and alone time again." She dug through her cupboards to grab my medications. "Just take these."

"Will do," I replied, although I couldn't stop smiling all the way back to the main room.