Forever Came Calling

by B. C. Falls

  “Yeah, I got that from the damn x-ray. Can we go now?”

  “Why are you being so stubborn?” Maddie asks. “You could’ve waited,” I roll my eyes.

  “Come on,” Royce helps me walk out of the room. I wince when we stop at the nurse’s station and she let’s go of me. “You aren’t fine,” she scowls at me. I scowl back.

  “This big ape needs this prescription and to be discharged,” Maddie hands off papers to the nurse in front of us. “No work for a couple of weeks until the swelling goes down and the ribs heal.”

  “Fuck that,” Boxer whimpers, I look down at him standing close to Royce. I hadn’t even realized he was here. He’s wearing the vest we got him that tells everyone he’s a service dog. “Hey buddy,” I reach down and pet him behind the ears. “Did mommy forget to take her medication?” I ask.

  “No, asshole daddy got hurt,” Royce basically yells. I look over at her and it’s then I realize she’s got a little bit of tear stains on her cheeks, like she’s been crying. I reach up and touch her cheek trying to keep her calm. “Don’t,” she pushes my hand away and Boxer whimpers again. “Fine,” she reaches for my hand and laces her fingers with mine. “Happy now?” she asks Boxer who starts wagging his tail. “Did you train him to do that?” she asks me.

  “Do what?” She rolls her eyes once she see’s my grin. I didn’t, but fuck if I don’t like it.

  Royce is driving me back to my place. I don’t know why we aren’t going to hers, but she’s not talking anymore. Though she hasn’t moved my hand from her thigh, which isn’t covered at all. Of course my girl had to wear fucking short ass shorts to the hospital to torture me.

  “Royce?” I poke but she shakes her head. “Royce, please.”

  “No.”

  “Baby, I didn’t mean to scare you.” I squeeze her thigh but she just ignores me more. “Are you really mad cause I got hurt?”

  “I’m mad at a lot of things.”

  “I can still make you feel good baby,” I don’t move my hand. I’m not that much of an idiot. She scuffs. “Royce, what is it?”

  The car comes to a stop and I look away from her. We’re in front of my apartment building. “This day just turned to shit that’s all.”

  I reach up and touch her cheek. “I know baby, but it’s not that bad.” A tear escapes, hitting my thumb and I wipe it away. “It’s gonna be okay, Royce.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I’m fine. My back is just gonna be sore for a while but I’m good. See.” I grab her hand and put it over my heart. “See.”

  “I know your alive,” she moves her hand away. “What happened is not why I’m upset.”

  “The sex thing? Cause I’ll still fuck you.”

  “No,” she looks away from me. “I went out with Barbie today. You know that. Well her husband sent divorce papers and she was kind of happy about it. It was odd you know? Like why would someone be happy about that? She said it was a long time coming, but if it was me I would be devastated that after being together for so long it just ended with the tip of a pen.” I don’t say anything. “We’ve done nothing but fight for the last twenty-four hours, then you leave me aching for you and I was pissed. So fucking pissed, Dane,” she scowls at me. “I went to breakfast with Barbie telling her that I needed to talk to you and then that shit with her ex happened so we went shopping. Fucking shopping, Dane!” she starts to really cry now and it guts me. “You know what I was looking at when I got the call?” she looks at me, tears running down her cheeks. “Fucking rings!” I can’t help but smile. “Stop smiling you asshole!” she leans over and punches my chest making me jump which sends pain radiating through me. “Fuck! I’m sorry,” she grabs my face. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s cool, baby,” I lean over and touch her cheek. “Let’s go inside.” I get out first and she follows me.

  We’ve never been over here. I honestly haven’t been back in about a week. Most of my shit is at Royce’s these days. I walk us up to the front door letting Boxer and her in first. My place isn’t all that nice. It’s a two-bedroom apartment with a small balcony. The kitchen is the smallest one I’ve ever had, but then again it’s better than the damn desert I lived in before this.

  “Nice place,” she says going towards one of the bedrooms. I follow her, not really sure what she’s doing. When we get to my room she drops her shorts and I stare as they slide down her legs so easily after her hips. Royce goes to the bed and slides under the covers, her arms circle around one of my pillows.

  I get the hint and start stripping out of my clothes. It takes me forever because every stretch in my upper body hurts like hell. I down another pain pill before I slide in behind her.

  “Rings huh?” I ask, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her back against me.

  “Trent called and said you had been hurt. My heart stopped beating, Dane. I swear it. It was fucking hell on the drive to the hospital. I kept thinking how I had never said the words. How I didn’t get enough time with you. How we’d fought and how I never got to tell you about everything. How Kady would be let down again. How that would affect her and our life. It fucked with me so much.”

  “I’m sorry,” I kiss her shoulder.

  “I know we haven’t been together long baby, but this? What we have? It’s so good, Dane, that I don’t know how to picture a life without you in it. Now I know you’re fine and I know my brain was just asking all those questions to prove what I feel for you.”

  “I’ll always make it home, Royce even if I have bullets in me. I’ll make it to you.” She sighs as her hand moves against my arm that’s around her waist. She pushes back against me. “If I hadn’t been hurt over there, I would’ve been fine after the fall.”

  “What happened?”

  This time I sigh. “It was a normal day. We were out patrolling with a convoy. Basically looking for anything suspicious or anything that looked like a bomb because we hadn’t had a call in a while. It was unusual for us to be out, but we were mostly bored and the Commander couldn’t stand to see our faces,” I laugh, which hurts. “At least that’s what he said. So we’re out there just going around and it was fun. We were having a hell of a time. Telling stories, picking on each other, all that normal shit, you know?” She doesn’t respond. “It was normal for once and we let our guard down,” I slowly let go of her but she tightens her hold on me.

  “No. Right here, remember?” I kiss her shoulder again as my response. I fucking remember.

  “We came up on an abandoned vehicle, which was odd for where it was at. So we all got out to check it out. Shit hit the fan quickly. Bullets started flying, grenades were thrown, the car blew up. Pure fucking hell. I was behind the door of our HMMV firing at nothing. Jax went down first. I moved and got him into the HMMV. A bullet clipped my leg, but I kept moving. When Lenny went down, I put him in too. I rounded the front of the HMMV when the bomb went off. We’d nearly rolled onto it but the minute my foot hit the trigger, it exploded. I was lucky I didn’t lose a leg. Really fucking lucky. I went into the air and I landed on the turret where the gunner usually sits. One of my vertebrae fractured instantly. I couldn’t move. Bullets kept coming. Mick finally pulled me down off the top. He got us all in the HMMV and just started driving away. The other HMMV’s followed and we got back to base.”

  “How bad was the fracture?”

  “I couldn’t walk for a couple months. Went through therapy for a year or so. Eventually I got everything back and moved here. I was honorably discharged ‘cause of it. That was hell for a while. I thought I wasn’t good enough, I got real low, really fucking low. Like all of it never mattered because I wasn’t back over there with my unit. That’s when I met Trent who introduced me to Dallas.”

  “Kayden told me you guys were close.”

  “He saved my life,” she pulls my arm tighter around her. “I was headed down a shitty fucking road. My family couldn’t pull me out of it. God knows they tried like hell. Dallas gave me a place to go. To talk
with other guys like me, to be part of something that involved other people in my situation. I joined the force after that, met the rest of your brothers, apologized to my family. My dad cried. My mom slapped me,” Royce laughs. “Maddie was just happy I came back. If it wasn’t for Dallas though, I wouldn’t be here.” I lean down and kiss her shoulder again. “I wouldn’t be with you.”

  “I’d like to think you would be,” she turns her head and smiles at me. “I would’ve found you.” I smile back.

  “Yeah you would’ve.”

  “How’s your back?” she turns over again getting comfortable against me.

  “Those pills they gave me are awesome.”

  Royce sighs and I know we aren’t done. There is obviously something huge hanging over us, but even if it does come I know I’ll still be here holding her at the end of it. We’re it for each other and I’ll be damned if I ever let this go.

  “What’s wrong, baby?”

  “Do you know that saying, ‘When a tree falls in the woods does it still make a sound’?”

  “I’ve heard it, yeah.”

  “If I leave this world, will I still make a sound?” I don’t know what to say. I’ve never heard her talk like this before. She’s usually always happy or talking about her life like it’s good, but this doesn’t sound like her. This sounds like she’s giving up. Like she doesn’t believe in a future. “It’s dumb.”

  “It’s not. You’re worried about what kind of life you’ll leave behind when you go.”

  “I’m worried that the future is so uncertain sometimes that I’ll give up. You don’t know a lot about me, Dane. I know we’ve been honest with each other and I told you about my mom, but there is so much more to me than just that and none of it’s good.”

  “I doubt that,” I pull on her waist until she turns over to look at me. “Tell me. I promise you I won’t go anywhere. I’m here, Royce. Forever.” She reaches up and slides her fingers through my beard. I lean into her palm cause her touch is the only touch that seems to make me feel like I’m enough.

  A single tear slips down her cheek and again I catch it. “You are always catching my tears.”

  “I’ll forever catch them,” I lean down and kiss her softly. “Forever.”

  “How did we find each other?”

  “You caught me staring at your ass,” I grin.

  “I have a great ass,” I nod. “So do you.”

  “This is also true,” I kiss her again, not being able to resist her taste or touch for long. “So you gonna tell me?”

  “Later. We’ve done too much today.” She turns back over and I settle back down until I’m flush against her back, holding her to me like if I let go she’ll disappear. I fucking pray it’s enough. Pray that I’m enough. Kady, her family, and this town is enough for her to realize that she would leave behind a whole lot of fucking life if she were to give up.

  I may not know her demons well, but I’ll fight them all to give her our forever.

  “You found me when our forever came calling,” I whisper in her ear.

  “I like that,” that’s the last thing she says before the pills really kick in and knock me out.

  The pain comes back full force as I’m dreaming. I roll over letting go of Royce around three a.m. and stay that way, wide awake, trying to breathe through it. I know if I get up it’ll just get worse so I’ll wait until Boxer does something to make Royce wake up. She needs the sleep.

  I reach over to the night stand and grab my phone. I’ve got missed calls from my parents, a couple from Dallas and the guys at the club. Chief called, which isn’t weird at all, and the last one is a number I don’t know. I text my parents first telling them I’m fine and will come over this week with Royce and Kady.

  Next are the guys at the club. Dallas responds with a thumbs up, then Chief who says he’ll let me back on shift once the pain is gone, even if the doctors say I should wait. That actually makes me feel better about this whole thing.

  Lastly I text the unknown number.

  Me: Who is this?

  It takes a couple minutes but the response nearly shocks me.

  Unknown: Royce’s best friend…

  Me: Blake?

  Unknown: Leah Greenwood. Look, I just heard that you got hurt and wanted to make sure our girl was okay she hasn’t been responding to my messages.

  Me: She’s asleep but I think she’s good. We talked a lot last night I’m sure you know what she was looking at when she got the call and I think it freaked her out.

  Leah: She will tell you everything. She told me as such, just give her time. Her life hasn’t been a walk in the park lately.

  Me: I’ll give her all my time if she needs it. I’m not going anywhere.

  Leah: *Swoon*

  Me: What?

  Leah: Nevermind. Lol.

  Me: What does “lol” mean?

  Leah: Are you for real?

  Me: Umm I don’t text much. Is it one of those abbreviation things?

  Leah: Dude, you have to get with the times.

  Me: I don’t even have a facebook… Is MySpace still around? Lol.

  Leah: HAHAHA!! Perfect moment to use Lol which by the way means laughing out loud. No, MySpace is not around at all… I should get some sleep just wanted to make sure you guys were good… she’s really falling for you.

  Me: Royce should never worry about us, even though I know she will. That woman is my world. Kady and her and our unborn six kids are all that matter to me now. You don’t worry, Blake. I’ve got her.

  Leah: Six kids huh? Thought that might scare you off…

  Me: Why do you put so many periods? And no, if it’s what she wants then that’s what she’ll get. Plus having sex with her to get those six kids is something I’m really looking forward to.

  Leah: ….. Means a trail off sentence. HAHA I heard its amazing. I miss sex… Oh my god I did not just say that. Okay I’m literally shutting my phone off now. Good night Dane hope your back and ribs heal quickly!

  I can’t help but laugh. If this is Blake, I can’t wait to meet her. I save her number as Leah in my phone before pulling up the internet. After trying to stalk her for a couple minutes, I make myself a facebook, which is surprinsgly easy.

  I put a picture of Royce and I as my profile picture, add Royce and a couple of other people I know will flip their lid at the fact that I’ve done this. Royce’s picture is of Kady and her. They both look incredibly happy standing near the ocean. The caption says, “Kady’s first trip to the big blue.” I smile knowing I’m gonna take my girls to the beach sometime during this unexpected leave I’ve had to take.

  I reach back over to grab Royce’s phone, which was next to mine. I click on her facebook app and add myself. Once I’ve done that I go back to her home screen and find her music app still open. There is a play list there labeled, “My Man”, so I click on it. The first song that jumps out at me is Rock Bottom by Hailee Steinfeld. My curiosity gets the best of me, so I play it as quietly as I can.

  The words instantly remind me of our relationship. Fighting for no reason than making up. It’s a good song about being on the right side of rock bottom. Like we’ve fallen and we won’t come back from it even though we keep fighting.

  “Rude,” Royce says pulling her phone out of my hand. I pull it back and keep on listening to the music. She rolls over so she’s on her side looking at me. “Why are you awake?”

  “My back,” I simply say. She sighs as she gets out of bed going into my bathroom. The toilet flushes then the sink turns on.

  Suddenly I don’t care about the pain or the music because she comes back out of the bathroom in nothing but her sexy pink thong and that damn shirt that barely leaves anything to the imagination. Her glasses are on the nightstand and I know she can barely see but she never seems to care enough to wear them all the time.

  She comes back out with a glass of water. I watch her ass jiggle just a little as she walks to my dresser and pulls out pills from one of the bottles. She had to squint
and look really close to find the right one. When she comes back to the bed she sits right next to me. “Here you go.” I smile up at her when she pushes them into my mouth. I swallow them quickly than take a gulp of water.

  “Thanks baby,” I move my hand to her thighs, running my thumb over the soft skin there. “I like that song.”

  “Hmm,” she places the glass down. “It reminds me of us.”

  “When did you find it?”

  “Yesterday. After you left,” she runs her hand down my chest until she reaches my abs, she might be mindlessly touching me, but it’s turning me on and the way my back is right now I can’t do shit. “Is it sad that I think it reminds me of us?”

  “No. I like it. Kind of perfect for us, don’t you think?”

  “Being on the right side of rock bottom?” I grunt my response cause her fingers are playing ridiculously close to my boxers. Too fucking close. “Am I bothering you?” I look up at her and find a sly smile.

  “Well fuck baby, yeah you are.”

  “I’m sorry,” she moves her hand lower. “How’s your back?”

  “Starting to fade,” I smile a little. “Baby please, I can’t do anything about this fucking hard on right now.”

  “I know,” she frowns moving her hand away from me. I grab it quickly and pull her until she’s lying back beside me.

  Her giggle sends a fullness to my chest. I want to hear that for the rest of my life. “I’m sorry I woke you up.”

  “It’s okay. If you need pills just wake me next time. Though I do like being woken up with music. Here, hand me my phone,” she reaches for it and I put it in her hand. I close my eyes and lay back, she settles softly into my side, making sure to keep away from my injured parts. A soft melody comes over us. I don’t know the song but it’s nice. Kind of sad but than a lot of Royce’s favorite songs are sad.

  “Do you always listen to sad music?” I ask.

  “No. I listen to music that goes with my mood.”

  “Are you sad right now?” She shushes me so I keep on listening to the music. The song ends in an upbeat way making me question, “So you’re happy?”