Wait for me to come Home

Chapter 59

A bomb. That's what Rosé told her the next morning as they both sat side by side, still on the kitchen floor, wearing yesterday's clothes. It had been a bomb that had taken Lisa away from Jennie. After Lisa had finished talking to Jennie the day before yesterday, she'd had a quick nap before going on night patrol for reconnaissance. It was safe, Lisa had told her, the safest patrol to go on, until it hadn't been. They'd come upon rebels as they were driving through the foothills, and there'd been a skirmish. Bombs had taken out the entire platoon. Fifteen deaths, but Jennie couldn't bring herself to care about the other fourteen, she only cared about one. The one that had shattered her heart to pieces and torn her world apart. Lisa had been dead almost a full day before Jennie had even found out, and a part of her craved for that ignorant bliss where she had still been full of happiness at the prospect of Lisa coming home.

Jennie stared blankly at the wall as she listened to Rosé talk, her voice barely above a hoarse whisper. "Th-they found them – the b-bodies – or w-what was left of them. Not all-, some w-weren't identifiable, they'd been blown t-to pieces so not all-. H-hers was-, it-, there was n-nothing. They found h-her tags – that's a-all there was. They can't-, there's no way t-to know for sure, but-"

Tears streamed down Jennie's face, but she couldn't make a noise – she was too exhausted. She couldn't remember sleeping last night, but she couldn't remember being awake. Everything had just been dark, until she came around to the sound of Rosé's voice. Her eyes were sore - red raw from crying – and they were glazed over and vacant as she stared at nothing. Jennie couldn't even see the wall; she could only see the horror that Rosé described painted in her mind. For months this had been one of the scenarios that had tormented Jennie's sleep, night after night.

Jisoo didn't know yet – she'd been working a case all day yesterday and last night, and hadn't been home when Rosé had received the call off Yuri. She'd find out soon enough though. She'd be coming home soon, to an empty apartment, and her first thought would be of Rosé. She'd call her, and she'd come rushing over to Jennie's, and there would be nothing she could do to comfort her fiancé or the girl who was engaged to her now dead sister-in-law. Yuri would be on her way to National City by now too – come to grieve with her living daughter, and to make sure that she wouldn't be alone in Midvale. And where did Jennie fit into this? She had no one. She was alone. They would have each other, and she would be left alone to suffer with her broken heart and the suffocating grief – whether it be her choice or not, because if there was one thing Jennie was good at, it was pushing people away, and right now, the only person she wanted was Lisa.

The sound of a phone ringing broke Jennie out of her thoughts, and she turned her head stiffly, moving for the first time in hours as she turned to look at Rosé. Answering her phone, Rosé got out a couple of words before bursting into tears, and Jennie turned away, staring back at the wall in front of her as she swallowed the lump in her throat. She was too numb to cry again – too broken to even make another sound.

Jennie wasn't sure how long she sat there before Jisoo came over. She wasn't sure how long Rosé sat their crying next to her until her fiancé burst into the apartment, running down the hallway and falling to her knees in front of the two of them. Jennie was dimly aware of Jisoo crying as she held Rosé close, trying to reach for Jennie too, but she couldn't move – she was like a rock, stubborn and immovable as she sat frozen, tuning out the sound of the two girls talking in between sobs.

The three of them were sat on the floor for ages, and it was Jisoo who moved first, helping Rosé to her feet. She tried to pull Jennie up, but Jennie couldn't make her limbs work and Jisoo crouched down in front of her, grabbing Jennie's shoulders and shaking her.