A couple months has passed and the progress on the hospital is coming along well. Ethan is at the site helping them everyday when he sees Jack pull up and gets out with food and water. He takes the hardhat off and sits it down and walks over to Jack.

"Hey. How's it going?" He asked and handed Ethan a sandwich and water.

"Hey, it's going great. The first floor is about done, got a few more rooms to finish and then can start on the second. As we are working on the second, there are going to be a lot of people in and out bring in everything the rooms need. My OR being one of them." Ethan says with a big smile on his face.

"You really can't wait for that huh?"

"Nope.I'm so glad they talked me into coming over, I would have hated to miss it being built and in action for the first time. It's like Christmas for me." He laughs and Jack chuckles.

"I imagine so. You seem to be doing better also."

"Yea, one day at a time, right? Ryan tries to talk to me every time he sees me, but I don't give him the time of day. I was working on giving him a chance to explain what he had done but that was before he said what he did that day. That was it for me, that was the last straw for me to ever want to talk to him again. I heard him and some men went out on patrol, they have been gone a for a couple of weeks now."

"Yea, it takes time but they will be back soon." At that moment there is a loud boom and bullets start flying everywhere, Ethan falls tothe ground covering his head and Jack ducks behind the truck pulling Ethan beside him. Men are running around with their guns looking to see if they can find where the shooting is coming from.

Ethan sees one of them get hit in the chest and another in the leg and another in the head falling down dead in front of his eyes. Ethan gasps loudly and closes his eyes waiting for it all to stop. Some time passes and the shooting stops. Ethan opens his eyes and sees a lot of men on the ground, bleeding out or dead.

He looks to see where Jack is and thankfully, he is ok over on the other side of the hanger. He hears Humvees pulling into the gate and sees men jumping out and running to the back of each one and pulling out wounded men.

One of the wounded is Ryan, he has two bullet wounds, one in his upper chest and the other in his thigh. Ethan runs over to him in a flash.

"Ryan!" He says looking at him as they rush him inside. Some nurses and a doctor rush him to an OR for surgery. The other wounded are brought in and some need surgery and some don't. They all get taken care of and are ok.

The whole waiting room and hallway is filled with men waiting on word from Ryan and there to support Ethan.

"Music." Ethan said looking down.

"Sorry?" Jack asked.

"I need my music, my phone is on the stand next to the bed. Can someone please go grab it?"

"Sure." Jack looked to a marine standing close and nods and he runs to Ethan's room. A few minutes later he is back.

"Thanks." He said and put the earbuds in. He plays the songs he and Ryan sang and listened to that night at the bar, the words to "Never Gonna Be Alone" ring in his ears and he sings with tears falling down his face like a river.

"You sang this to me dancing with me that night, you better hold true to the words you sang to me and promised me Ryan, you better live dammit." He said to the air, men were looking at him, their hearts breaking for him. After a long eight hour wait, the doctor finally comes out to the men. Ethan doesn't notice, he just sits in the chair and hasn't moved once since he sat down. Jack tapped him on his shoulder, he paused the music and took the earbuds out.

"Doc is coming." He said, and Ethan got up and stood there waiting for the news with the rest of them. He takes a deep breath waiting to hear those words and closes his eyes.

"It was touch and go for a while, the bullet in his chest tore through part of his heart, shredding it and he had already lost a lot of blood before he was here and we had put in a lot of blood to keep up with the blood loss but, it was to late, I'm sorry but he didn't make it." The world went silent around Ethan, he didn't hear anything else the doctor said. He just stood there and couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't blink.

Than he finally is able to move and as he is about to run out, Jacob stands in front of him, trying to reach out. Ethan draws his fist back and clocks him across the jaw and Jacob falls to the floor and runs out of there and into the hanger.

The men ran after him and just stood there watching him scream and cry, throwing tools against the walls flipping tables and finally just clenching his heart falling to the floor sobbing so loud it hurt everyone who could hear him.

Jack notices Jacob walking toward Ethan and froze, waiting for Ethan to beat him when he sees him but instead Jacob reaches out and grabs Ethan and just pulls him into his chest, Ethan grabs onto him for dear life and sobs into his chest. Jack watches them and has tears falling down his face, he lost his best friend who was more like a brother and now he sees the man who he fell in love with braking and there isn't anything he can do.

Jacob rubs Ethan's back up and down, letting him sob and trying to comfort him. It was an hour later Ethan was able to stop sobbing and looks up at Jacob with puffy red eyes and snot running down his lip.

"Come on, let's get you to bed." Jacob said in such a soft tone Ethan nearly felt weak in the knees, he forgot how gentle and sweet Jacob is. Jacob helps him up and as they walk past the men, Jack stops them, and hugs Ethan and he starts crying again and this time Jack cries as well, finally.

"I can't believe he's gone Jack, I didn't get the chance to tell him I forgave him, I didn't get the chance to tell him I loved him and now I never will." Ethan said in between sobs.

"He knew Ethan, he knew." Is all Jack said.

"Sir I'm going to take him back to his room."

"Yea ok, I'll be by in a bit, do not leave his side."

"Yes sir." Jacob said and they walk to his room, Jacob's arm around Ethan's shoulder holding up for support.

"I'm really sorry about the hanger,I'll help clean it up."

"Don't you worry about that, it's ok." Jacob said looking at Ethan who has his head on his shoulder and eyes half closed. They get to his room and Ethan lays down, Jacob takes his shoes off and covers him up and is about to sit down but Ethan speaks, "Will you hold me, please?"

Jacob doesn't say anything, he takes his shoes and shirt off and lays next to Ethan and holds him close to him. He wraps his arm around his waist and puts his other arm under Ethan, back to his stomach and his face in Ethan's neck.

"Jacob?"

"Yes?"

"Why?" Jacob knew what he meant and laid there for a while trying to form the right words. He sighs.

"It was me, I went after him and wanted to hurt you, he hurt me that day at the bar and I did everything I could to get him in bed, he finally gave up and it happened, it only happened a few times I swear, it wasn't every day or every week, just a few times. He was missing you and being with me I guess helped him. I'm sorry Ethan, if I could take that back and give you the months back with him that you missed, I would in a heartbeat but, I can't. My only hope is that you can over time forgive me for everything I have put you through." Ethan lays there listening to Jacob, he speaks in a soft tone and Ethan can tell he truly meant his words.

Ethan sniffles and silently cries himself to sleep. Over the next few days men take shifts to stay with Ethan, they bring him food and help him shower but he doesn't eat. He just showers and goes back to bed. He is laying on his side one afternoon when Jack walks in.

"Hey Jake, how's he today?"

"Same, hasn't eaten and hasn't moved."

"Ethan, they are sending Ryan home today. Would you like to come say goodbye?"Jack asked sitting next to him on the bed, looking at him.

He noticed Ethan haslost his color and is losing weight. Jack looks worried. He looks at Jake andJake looks helpless at the situation. Ethan sits up grabs something off his dresser and walks out of the room.

They both walk out behind him and Ethan looks over the way to the plane and see a wooden box at the opening of the plane and he sighs and closes his eyes and then he walks toward it. He standsbeside the box.

"Can you open it, please? I want to see him." Ethan said as his voice cracked a little. Jack nods to the men who are standing there, and they open the box.

Ryan is laying there with his hands on his stomach and in his desert cammies. Ethan grabs his hand and leans down and places a kiss on his forehead and tears fall onto Ryan's face. Ethan places what he grabbed off the dresser, the picture of them in Ryan's hands and kisses his hands.

"Goodbye Ryan, I will always love you and I'm so sorry for not telling you sooner. I will see you again someday my love. Fly high and look over us from time to time. I love you." He said and places a kiss on his cheek, holding onto Ryan and cries, not wanting to let him go and this be the end. After a little while Ethan stands up, kisses his hand and places it on Ryan's lips and whispers goodbye and walks away.

Jack and Jake follow him back into his room and Ethan lays on his bed and cries. Jack holds him and told Jake he could go if he wanted.

"No I want to stay, I have nowhere else to be and don't wanna be anywhere else." Jake said looking at Ethan.

"Understood sir." Ethan sits up.

"Sir? Don't tell me you're a higher rank than Jack."

"Yup." They both said.

"God you guys don't even act like officers so it's hard to tell. I don't know the ranks or what is what so I have no idea who is what so to learn that you are officers and just act like regular people, it's awesome." They chuckle. Ethan runs his hands through his hair.

"I need a hair-cut, it's been months."

"I can do that." Jack said and walks out.

"Clippers. So, I know that wasn't easy for you but I'm proud of you. If you didn't say goodbye, you would havere gretted it for the rest of your life. I know it's not easy, I lost a person I loved with everything I am over here a couple years ago and it's still hard at times, but I can promise it does get better Ethan."

"She was a lucky woman to have you, you have helped me a lot these past couple months. I don't know how to repay you." Jake clears his throat.

"Well she is actually he and you don'thave to, I didn't mind it at all." Ethan's eyes went a little wide to learn that Jake is into men.

"I had no idea you were gay."

"I don't really put myself out there, been hurt one to many times so I keep to myself a lot."

"Yea I know the feeling. You know about my past and everything I have been through and I you so I get it, it's not easy. Now this, I can't ever catch a break. I'm just so tired of hurting and being in pain you know." Jake nods and sits on the bed, a little close to Ethan and puts his hand on his face.

"It does get better overtime, there is no amount of time where you should feel better, it just takes time. There is no rush to heal your heart form Ryan but don't close it off to others. You are allowed to feel again, to be touched, to be kissed, to be loved. Not everyone is the same, not everyone looks to hurt others weather they mean to or not, I have wanted to do something since the first time I laid eyes on you."

"What's that?" Ethan asked looking into Jake's bright green eyes.

"This." Jake puts his hand on Ethan's neck and softly kisses his lips. At first Ethan freezes but he kisses Jake back. Ethan felt his body tingle and he melted into the kiss. After a few minutes Jake stops kissing him and stands up.

"What's wrong?" Ethan asked, breathless.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. Not yet anyways. I'm sorry Ethan."

"Hey, it's ok, if I didn't want it, I would have stopped you before your lips touched mine. It's been so long since I had been kissed that I got lost in it."

"How long?"

"Well since Ryan left and came here plus all the time I've been here so far, it was nice just having someone kiss me again. Don't worry, I'm fine."

"No, you're not, your grieving and in pain and I took advantage of that."

"No, you didn't. I'm a big boy I know when to say no. you did nothing wrong, it felt so right." Ethan starts to stand up to kiss Jake, but his laptop starts ringing from skype.

"It's Emma. One minute." He sits down at the desk and answers the call.

"Hey there sweetie, how's things over there?" He asked smiling but soon his face lost the smile when he saw her. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she looked like she hasn't spelt in weeks.

"Emma? What's going on?"

"Are you sitting down?" She asked trying to gather her thoughts.

"Yes. Why?" She sighs and puts her hand on the screen and looks him in the eyes.

"It's your family Ethan."