The rough landing of the plane awake Jay from his uncomfortable slumber, he had been posted out in Bolivia for the last 4 months months and was finally home.
He had missed everyone, espically his wife and his brother Will. Hailey was the only one who knew he was coming home, and he had wanted to surpise his older brother.
The deployement had meant to be 8 months but had been cut short after an ambush, and he's spent the last week in hospital after not knowing if he'd get to come home, he had been the only one who had made it out.
Injuries were still healing; his right shoulder had been shattered, as had his right knee which had led to two extremely long surgeries. Leaving Jay with more scars than he had left with; the shattered glass had caused scars all ovrt his body.
All shapes and sizes. His face took it the worse, he had lots of small ones littered everywhere, but the most prominent one was one that ran from the corner of his lip and ran to underneath his left ear.
Seeing everyone stand up to remove their luggage shook Jay out of his thoughts, and he also stood slowly, bis ribs protesting as was his leg after not moving for 8 hours.
But he was home.
Walking through the airport he was slow and winced at nearly every step; he had refused to hse crutches which he was now regretting slightly as he could feel the ache beginning to become unbearable.
He saw Hailey standing anxiously at the back, her eyes dartinf around before finally landing on her husband. Seeing how he was standing, she moved slowly towards him, stopping in fromt of him and taking in his appearance.
"Jay" Hailey whispered, reaching up and tracing the many scars on his face
"How can you still want to be with me?" Jay whispered back, shifting slightly to bring the pressure of his leg
"I'll always love you, and I'm just glad that you're home" Hailey whispered, leaning up to give him a gently kiss on his lips, gasping as Jay wrapped his strong arms around her small waist
"I've missed your warmth" Jay sighed, walkinb slowly woth Hailey back to her truck
"The flat has been so cold without you too" Hailey whispered, hand clutxhing Jays tightly
"I'm just happy to have made it back to you" Jay said, smiling down at Hailey
"You know, I thought you weren't, when your commander called to explain what had happened, I thought I'd have to tell the unit, Will, that you weren't coming home" Hailey sighed, helping Jay into the car, soothing him when he whimpered out loudly
"I would never let go, the only thing thag kept me going was all of you, especially you" Jay said, looking at Hailey, and she saw the fight in his eyes
"Let's go to the district, if you'rs up for it of course?" Hailey asked, knowing Jay would want to see everyone
"I want to, I want to see everyone" Jay smiled, wincing as he once again jostled his knee the wrong way
"Are you sure baby, you look like your in a lot of pain" Hailey worried, allowing Jay to take her hand with his good one
"I promise babe, I just want to get a small bit of normality back" Jay smiled, and Haikey leaned over to kiss the large scar on his cheek
"I love you" Hailey smiled, turning yhe tryck on and making the short drive to the district
As they arrived, Jay realised just how much he had missed being home. He hadn't managed to properly say good bye to everyone as he was given 4 hours notice of the deployment.
Thankfully he had now been medically discharged, and was no longer on active service.
He could be a normal person, and actually enjoy time sith his family.
"You ready handsome?" Hailey asked, chuckling softly as her husband smiled widely, but grimaced as he jsotled his knee while getting out the car
"God, this is gonna be a long recovery" Jay groaned, standing still for a moment to let his knee and ribs settle
