To Love Again by H.C. Bentley

Author:H.C. Bentley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: H.C. Bentley

With the explosion still ringing in his ears, Jeremy bolted upright in the bed, his chest heaving and his skin slick from sweat. His tortured, strangled yell echoed off the walls as he gripped his head in his hands. Those hands quickly went into combat mode as he felt a hand come to rest on his shoulder.

"It's just me." Bethany's quiet voice, still laced with sleep, snaked its way through his defenses and had him lowering his fists. In the dim light, he could see the concern on her face, and the fear in her eyes. Shamed at the idea he had almost struck out at her, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed, let his feet dangle mere inches off the floor.

"I'm sorry." Just two hoarse words spoken through dry lips as he gripped the bedsheet with tense hands and a hung head.

"What's to be sorry about? You had a nightmare."

"And I almost took the after effects out on you." He glanced over his shoulder to where she still sat with the covers on her lap, all rumpled and beautiful in the light filtering through the window. "That's what I'm sorry for."

"It's reflex. I get it." Bethany slid out from under the blanket, walked on her knees to sit behind Jeremy. His muscles were still tense, as if he were prepared to jump into battle again at a moment's notice. Only when she began to run her hands over his back, rubbing and kneading, did he begin to relax.

"You know," she began as she ran her hands over his back, "Shane used to have nightmares too, after he got back from deployment."

"Yeah, I believe it. We saw a lot of stuff over there." He sighed as her hands worked their magic.

"Do you have them often?"

"Not as much as I used to, but still too many times for my liking." Jeremy dropped his head as her fingers found their way to the muscles in his neck.

"Did Shane ever tell you he went to see someone about them?" She gave a soft chuckle before she continued. "Of course, I nagged him into it, but he went."

"He went to have his head shrunk?" Jeremy let loose a quiet snort of laughter. "No, if I'd known about it, I probably would have given him some shit over it. Just because... well, it's what we did."

"I know. But he did go, and it helped a lot."

"You're not going to nag me into going, are you? Because I don't think it'll work. The nagging or the therapy."

"Oh, trust me. I know." Her emphatic statement made Jeremy smile. "But what I was getting at was there was one thing he learned that helped more than anything at easing up the dreams."

"Which would be?"

"Talking to someone about them. Not necessarily a therapist, but anyone. Parents, siblings, friends. Or, in this case, me."

"No." With this single word, spoken with a tone of finality, Jeremy slid out from under her hands and stood.

"Why not?"

"There are things that happen in those dreams, things that happened in real life, I don't want touching you.

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