And Then They Were In Love And Lost

Chapter 4

"Boss, that didn't sound right with two explosions. I thought Bam Bam only mentioned one charge, not blowing?" Sonny questioned as they waited along the mountainside.

"I Know." Jason bowed his head and took an unsteady breath. "6 Sitrep?"

"8 Sitrep?" Jason asked again, and he was met with silence and static.

"Crap." Ray huffed under his breath as Sonny and Trent walked off a few steps and let out a string of curse words.

..............

Liz slowly woke up and twitched her fingers and toes. Her first thought was her internal checklist: limbs intact, and nothing felt broken; that was a good sign. Then her heart screamed out for Clay, and where was he? He had reached her just in time as the RPG hit the northwest corner, and the explosion knocked them back. Their eyes met in a split second, and a breath of relief came across their lips as they were both alive and not hit by the blast. But that moment was cut short as the roof started crumbling under them. Clay jumped into action and thought about Liz and the need to protect her at all costs. He turned them over and used his body as a shield as they fell through the floor, dropping floor by floor until they landed on the second level unconscious.

As Liz rolled over to gain her bearings, her head screamed out in pain, and she felt something wet along her temple as blood gushed down towards her eye. Liz could get on her knees with a little extra effort, and her arms instantly went towards Clay's neck to check for a pulse as he lay motionless underneath her as soon as she noticed him along her side, unmoving. She was furious he risked his life like that as he took on the brunt of his and her weight each fall. But relief flooded her as she felt a pulse and saw his chest slowly rise and fall with each breath. She did a once-over, slowly to avoid jostling him, moving her hands along his body to feel for any broken bones. His feet, legs, thighs, and pelvis felt ok, so she moved along to his hands and arms. Once she reached his shoulder, she was starting to get a bit optimistic and soon wanted to kick herself for thinking they could have come out of that fall unscathed. His shoulders felt ok, and as she went slowly down his chest to check his ribs, her breath faltered. Both of his bottom ribs felt off but not broken. She inhaled as she pulled up his shirt and saw the bruising along both sides of his lower chest. She closed her eyes, let her breath slowly exhale as she opened them, and noted there was no other deep bruising or blood along his body. Therefore, she could conclude no internal wounds from debris or internal bleeding. Falling floor by floor was their saviour as they did not end up taking the entire fall of the two stories in one blow. Clay was slowly starting to rouse, and she knew from experience he tended to explode out when he came back from consciousness. Liz leaned back and waited, but she kept her hand on Clay's ankle; it was her tether for security. She needed to touch him for her body to relax and realize he was alive and with her.

Clay then shot up, yelled for Liz and her to get down, and shouted RPG incoming. He scrambled to try and get on his knees towards her, but Liz lunged at him to hold him down and stay sitting. His baby blue eyes were still staring past her, trying to fight against her to get up. Still, with her holding him down and sitting on his lap at this point as he struggled and was overpowering her, the added pain from his ribs caused him to wince and blink a few times, bringing him back into the present. She slowly saw his eyes come back into focus and land on her face as she stared at him, not saying anything, unsure if he was fully back with her.

"Liz. Are you ok? ...Where are we?" Clay questioned as he focused on her face and his eyes diverted up towards her temple as he slowly grabbed her face and turned it towards him so he could assess the cut.

"I'm ok; I'm just a little banged up. We fell through the roof from that RPG blast. I think we are on the second floor, but it's hard to tell with all the dust and debris blocking any windows." Liz replied, and she tried to swat Clay's hands away from her face as she was still worried about him and still needed to check his head out to find out what caused his moment of fuzziness. "Hey." She cooed as she connected with his hands as he was still fussing with her cut and trying to do his own assessments of her status and held them as she slowly pulled them down to her lap and met his eyes. "I'm ok, I promise."