Channing as Jacob

Ethan woke up to his phone ringing around seven-thirty, he looks at the caller id but doesn't know the number.

"Hello?" he answered half a sleep.

"Hello, I'm looking for Mark, is he there?"

"Wrong number."

"Oh, I'm sorry, sorry to bother you." The woman said and waited for a reply.

"No problem, have a good one." He hit the end button and put his phone back on his night stand and went back to sleep for another five minutes before his phone rang again, he put his hand on it and answered without looking at it.

"Hello?" He asked still half a sleep.

"Hi again, sorry to call back but I was given this number by a guy I met last night by the name of Mark, are you sure he's not there?"

"Look lady it's early, I own a bar and I didn't get to bed till late last night, no one else lives here but me and I can assure you I am not him now please kindly don't call me again. I'm sorry someone asshole gave you a wrong number but stop calling me, good bye." He hung up and turned his phone off before going back to sleep. He woke up again around noon and rubbed his eyes and stretched.

He sat up and grabbed his phone and turned it back on.

"I swear if I have any msgs from that woman I'm gonna be pissed." He said to himself. Sure enough there are ten texts and a couple voice mails from the woman.

"Please don't ignore me, I know it's you Mark." "If you don't answer I will hunt you down and you will regret ignoring me!" "LOOK ASSHOLE NO ONE IGNORES ME! JUST WAIT AND WATCH YOUR ASS!!"

"This chick is crazy, whoever you are dude, you dodged a bullet with her but why give my number out? Do I even know a Mark?" He said as he kept reading the texts.

He looks through his contact list and doesn't see a Mark in his phone, just a ghost from his past that still haunts him. He calls the number. When he hears the voice his heart drops to his stomach.

"Marcus?" Is all he managed to say, he heard a gasp and silence for a few minutes.

"Marcus Walker is that you?" Ethan said waiting for a response.

"Ethan Johnson? Is that you?" Ethan about dropped his phone trying to compose himself he answered in a shaky voice.

"Ah ye...yeah it's me, how...how are you...?"

"Alive? Long story but damn it's good to hear your voice, a voice I long thought about for years."

"But, but how? How did you survive, how long have you been back?"

"Can we meet? It would be better to talk in person and I would love to see you."

"Yea we can meet, I own a bar I can be there in an hour and we can talk."

"Ok, not that I'm bitching but why did you call, it's nice don't get me wrong but who calls a dead guy?"

"Oh, this chick said she got my number from a guy named Mark and well you're the only Marcus I knew so I figured id call your phone to see if someone may have had your number and knew anything about it."

"Oh, no I have no idea but I'm glad you called. Send me the address to the bar and I'll be there in an hour."

"Alright, see you in an hour." They hang up and he sends the address.

He gets out of bed and takes a shower to freshen up. He dried off and put on a pair of jeans with a polo shirt and put gel in his hair and brushed his teeth. He put cologne on and a gold necklace and white shoes. He sighs and grabbed his phone and keys and went to his Toyota tundra truck and went to the bar.

He got there and opened the door and went in and put the stools down waiting on Marcus to show.

About fifteen minutes later the door opens and Ethan sees Marcus walk in and about lost his balance and had to sit down. Marcus walked over to Ethan.

"Hey handsome, long time no see." When Marcus spoke Ethan lost it, tears fell from his eyes and he got up and wrapped his arms around Marcus.

"Oh god you have no idea how long I have waited to hold you again. I know you're here, but I still can't believe it. When I got the call, you had been captured and no where to be found, everyone thought you were dead. For years it's all we knew. What happened?" He let go of Marcus but didn't remove his arms from his waist.

"Let's sit and I'll explain everything." Ethan sat down, and Marcus sat in front of him and held his hands on the table, Ethan put his hand on top of Marcus' hands and took a deep breath.

"Ok so when we were over in Iraq we were doing our normal sweep of the area before we settled in, well me and another guy went into a building to check it out and when we turned to go into one of the rooms, someone was there and they shot him in the head and someone came from behind me and took me gun and stuffed my face with something and I blacked out a couple minutes later.

I don't know how much time had passed or where I was but I woke up tied to a chair in a dark place. I had been bleeding and my head was killing me. I have no idea how long I was there before someone came in and did things that I didn't even think any normal person could do to someone else.

Things that I wouldn't wish on anyone, things that have damaged me in the long run I thought the worst when they did things to me but thankfully, I'm not as hurt as I thought I was.
After so many months of being in that place they moved me to a little room with a thin mattress and a bucket.
They took turns coming in and raping me with god knows what and at times I wanted to die, it was too much to take, it went on for years, most days it was a few and some days it was one and occasionally it didn't happen at all.

One day a little old woman came in to give me some water and bread, she had this sweet smile and sparkle in her eye, I could tell her heart was broke when she looked at how hurt and bloody, I was. She took a rag and poured water on it and gave it to me through the bars for me to wipe myself with. She told me that she will be back soon to get me out of there.

She left, and I didn't see her for weeks until one day, one beautiful day I heard a lot of gun shots and she had the hand of one of the Marines when she ran into the room I was in. She took the key and unlocked the door and came in and hugged me for what seemed like hours. She whispered that she was sorry it took her so long to get back to me but she kept her promise and brought help.

I cried and held her for a long time before finally getting up. She handed me a pair of torn sweat pants and a shirt and a pair of shoes that were to big but they worked. I went to stand up and I lost my footing and passed out. Next thing I knew, I woke up in a hospital in Germany and was there for a while, under going a lot of surgery.

For a long time I thought I was never going to be able to have any kind of feeling there but this amazing plastic surgeon made me work again.

The hell I went through, all those endless nights of pain and torture, the only thing that kept me going, the only thing that got me thought those dark nights and the only light I saw was you Ethan, you were my strength and my hope to get out of there alive. You were all I ever thought about, all I ever wanted to see again, all I could think about." Marcus sighs and just looks at Ethan's tear-filled face, he gets up and goes to sit beside Ethan taking him into his arms and holding him.

"I'm so sorry, I am so sorry that happened to you. I..." he gets cut off by his phone going off. It's a text from Jacob.

"Hey just woke up, killer headache but other than that I'm good, I did have fun at your bar last night, will come check it out again soon 😉" Ethan smiled at the text, Marcus waved his hand in front of his face,

"I'm still here." Ethan shook his head,

"Sorry, just a friend letting me know he's ok from last night." Marcus raised an eyebrow.

"No not like that, he got drunk and I called a taxi to take him home. Anyways, I am happy you're ok and that you're back, but it's been years and I moved on, from that pain, that hard time I was going through thinking you were dead, from you. It took me years to be able to move on and yes, I do love you but I'm not in love with you, anymore."

"That's not why I wanted to talk to you, you deserved an explanation. I wasn't expecting you to be still waiting for me after all these years, I just had to see you, to let you know I am ok."

"How long have you been back?"

"About six months, why?"

"Oh, I was just wondering as to why it took me calling the only 'Mark' I knew for it to be you for you to even talk to me, why didn't you contact me as soon as you got back?" Marcus sits there for a while before Ethan starts to speak.

"Ok fine you don't have to tell me, but I need to get the bar ready, I open in an hour." He gets up and starts to walk behind the bar before Marcus stops him.

"I didn't know how, I had no idea what I would be disrupting in your life, I didn't want to ruin anything if you were seeing someone, I didn't want to be the reason your heart broke again. I will always love you no matter what, you were the light to my darkness at the time without you even knowing it. If it's alright, I would like to still be in your life, just as a friend." Ethan walks over to him and wraps his arms around him and gives him a long hug and kissed his cheek.

"You wouldn't have ruined a thing, you being in my life was the best thing in my life and when I thought I had lost you, I lost myself. I went down a dark path for a long time because I had lost my light, I lost you. You meant the world to me so when well you were gone, I had no reason to live. I know it was pure hell for you but it was also that way for me too." Ethan had tears falling onto his cheeks, Marcus wiped them away and just gave a heart-breaking smile and walked out of the bar.

Ethan stands there for a while just thinking about what had just happened. He didn't realize it was after two when a few people walked in and startled him back to reality.