Page 26 of Fighter's Enemy

"Of course, I would be your girlfriend," she replied enthusiastically, and I pulled her in for a long kiss.

"I could really use that breakfast now," I teased, and she laughed.

"Get in the shower while I make a quick breakfast, and I will come join you,"

"I love the sound of that," I softly kissed her forehead as I headed for the shower. I heard the door knock.

"Are we expecting anyone?" I heard Kayla asked while walking out of the room.

"It could be the guy here to fix the plumbing," I replied, recalling I had called for a plumber the night before. I knew it couldn't be Mark because he was out of town, and that was why Kayla could spend the night.

I continued to scrub my arms, intentionally delaying so she would join me. Then I heard a loud sound.

What the fuck!

Was that a gunshot sound?

"Kayla!" I yelled, racing downstairs.

13

LOGAN

Iremember when I was a kid, the days when my only worries what was why the sky was blue, when I would play games with Mark and Kayla's annoying ass would try to intrude and we would keep pushing her away.

That was the time before the world turned so cruel, before the world became so vicious and there were vain people walking around who would take advantage of any shred of kindness you had in you.

I am not a stranger to grief; it has come knocking on my doors one too many times. I know what it sounds like, I know what it feels like, I might almost swear, I know what it tastes like. It has this bitter-sweet feel to it. It is bitter for the most part of it and sweet for the least part; after the grieving process, we mostly come out of it better people, but that wasn't what I wanted now.

As the wheel to the gurney, rolled, making a screeching sound with friction to the floor, and then a slight gallop as they hit one of those floor bricks without looking.

"Be careful," I yelled out. I was at my worst. A paramedic was by the side of the bed her bloody body laid still trying to conduct CPR on her, he was pumping hard on her chest and another nurse on her right was trying so hard to put on the oxygen mask on her.

"We are losing her," was all I could hear them scream. At this point, I was helpless, my walls were tumbling, I was breaking, my world and all that I knew came crashing down every minute they uttered that world.

What am I supposed to do without her? As they rolled her through the door of the Intensive Care Unit, a nurse with blonde hair stopped and held me back.

"Sir you can't come in here," she said gently, her voice was calm but at this moment, I was at the heart of the storm and all I could do was rage war on anyone.

"What do you mean I can't come in, she needs me…she needs me…she needs me to be there with her," I protested in an indistinct chatter, "I need her," I finally said as I slowly slid down on the floor.

"We are going to do anything possible to save her Logan," the nurse's reassuring voice sounded to my ear.

Did she just call me by my name?

I glanced up at her and met her familiar gaze and that was when I broke into tears, that was when my world truly fell apart.

"Anita," I called out in tears as she pulled me in for a hug.

Anita is the elder sister to Chris. Chris was also a Navy seal deployed to Syria with me during the war, we served together. I was there when Chris died. As I said, I wasn't a stranger to grief, it has come knocking on my door one too many times and the first time I truly answered it was with Chris.

Chris was a down to earth guy, thoughtful, kind, resilient and cheerful; Practically, Everything I was not.

We first met in my deployment to Syria, and we immediately had a strong bond that was evident to everyone, we belong to different platoon but when my superior saw how connected we were, he immediately brought Chris to my Platoon.

We would go to missions together and come back victorious. On this particular day, we were inside our chopper alongside three other navies. We were going on a five-man job, and it was supposed to be an easy assignment; just a swift clean.

"I don't feel too well about this," Chris complained.

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