The Last Breath (Inc Outtake) by First Blush COMPLETE.pdf

The Last Breath

by First Blush

It’s 1944 and a young American, Edward, awakes in a field hospital outside of London.

He was injured two months earlier during Operation Cobra near Marigny, France. Upon

regaining consciousness, he immediately begins to ask for his wife, Bella, who was

working at The European Theater of Operations (ETOUSA) in London. Sadly his physician

tells him that his wife was injured in an air raid and did not survive her injuries. Our

young hero vows to find his wife refusing to even consider the very real possibility that

she’s dead. This sets Edward on a journey over two continents, through the dangers of

war and espionage to find the love of his life, forgiveness for his past, and a joy he never

even knew existed.

Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.

Once you’ve read and enjoyed this story, why not show the author some love, and

review!

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5445804/1/The_Last_Breath

Chapter 1 - Awakening

Breathing…

I'm breathing.

In my head I knew that this was an entirely absurd thought. Of course I'm breathing, but

what I wasn't allowing myself to fully consider was the ease of my breaths. I squeezed

my eyes shut tighter in hopes of staving off the agony for a few more minutes. I was still

relishing in the luxury of air filling my lungs without pain. With a slight huff, I dropped

my shoulders and resigned myself to what I had already deemed to be inevitable. With

the resignation fully acknowledged, I slowly began to pry my eyes open. The vision

above me was still blurred and I blinked several times to bring my sight into focus. My

mind seemed to still be fogged over as I stared at the ceiling and waited for the pain.

Every day it hit me like a freight train. The throbbing in my side was truly unbearable.

Once I woke from the drug induced haze, I could only hold my breath for a second or

two before I began yelling, no, howling in pain. But for some reason today I looked up

and had not only the time but the presence of mind to notice a crack in the vacant

cream ceiling paint. My stare traced it along the width of the entire hospital ward. My

eyes followed a faint orange glow down to the windows.

It was morning.

The early sun was streaming in along the row of beds across from mine. I again braced

myself for the pain, but it was only a ghost of what I had remembered as it coursed

through my side.

How many times have I awoken to this pain?

It was all I could think of; it consumed my every conscious thought for as many days,

weeks or months as I could remember. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I felt an itch to

sit up and started to roll to my right side. I felt something pull against my left arm and

recognized it was still attached to a tube and a glass vile that hung above my bed.

"Corporal Masen?" I heard a voice say.

I paid no attention to the voice as I had never made more than the rank of a Specialist.

The voice sounded again and was almost at my bedside. It was an orderly, a huge man

dressed all in white. His name tag read "Cheney" on his upper right shoulder.

"Corporal Masen?" the voice said again. "Sir, I'm Benjamin Cheney, I'll bring a nurse for

you."

He disappeared from view, and I blinked my eyes slowly and again felt the urge to

straighten up. My mind tried to straighten out the events, the days that brought me…

here. I struggled to try to remember where here really was. Despite my efforts to roll my

memory back, the dust of time and glimpses of faces continued to cloud my thoughts. I

couldn't seem to remember much before the pain. How long had it been? How many

months had I been here? The last real conscious memory I had was of driving toward

the border. We were so close...

A voice called to me, waking me from my daydream.

"Corporal Masen, I'm Nurse Angela Webber. Are you in any pain?" she asked.

"It's bearable," I replied. I was still confused by the incorrect rank they gave me, but I

was too dazed to make any real conversation.

I raised my arm to pull my fingers through my hair. It was a nervous habit I'd had since

childhood. I stared up at my hand for a second and noticed the fading glow of a tan line

where my wedding ring would have rested. Suddenly the freight train was back. Instead

of pain, it shook me with a rush of memories.

Bella!

Where was she? If she had any inkling I was hurt, she would be at my bedside. To be

accurate, she probably would have been ordering the hospital staff around and doing

most of what she could for me herself. In the next second I realized there were only two

possible reasons why she wouldn't be here. Either she hadn't received word I was hurt,

or she was dead.

My body shook violently at the second thought. I tried to catch my breath, but it was

gone. In the next instance, a nurse was looking down on me, taking my pulse and at the

ready with a vile of medicine and an ominous looking syringe.

"Stop," I called out in an attempt to command, but my voice came out weak and raspy.

"I'm not in pain. At least not that kind of pain anymore."

"Your pulse is nearly 160; I'd say you're in distress. This will help..." she answered as she

began the motions to inject something into my vein.

"NO!" I shouted as I finally found my voice. "I need some answers. I need to know how

long I've been here, and I need to know where my wife is!"

I read "Webber" on her name tag as she stared down at me with deep set brown eyes.

Her hair was pinned back tightly and from her expression I understood that she knew a

lot about helping soldiers who were struggling during this horrible war. She was likely

the last face many eyes saw before they closed forever. She had pain etched in her eyes

now, and I wasn't sure if that pain was for me or for all of the men that she had helped

pass on from this life.

Nurse Webber steadied her expression. She put down the vile and took a deep breath

before she spoke.

"The doctor will make his rounds in two hours. Ben and I will help you – if you'll let us.

Then instead of examining you, Dr. Gerandy can spend his time answering your

questions."

It didn't take long for me to understand. The nurses and orderlies obviously did the

majority of work in an army hospital. There were too many patients, too many of us

injured soldiers that needed help. This war needed people like Angela and Ben to step

up, or more lives would be lost.

It took less than a second for me to decide.

"Yes," I said. "Do whatever you need to do. I have to get out of here."

Nurse Webber half frowned but nodded to Ben, who pulled the privacy curtain around

my bed. She proceeded to take my vitals. Finally, she checked the wound on my right

side and then replaced my bandages with clean ones.

"Your stitches are healing nicely. Dr. Gerandy is a phenomenal surgeon."

Surgeon?

The word barely registered. I remembered feeling the bite of shrapnel hitting my right

side as I gripped the steering wheel of the KFZ 3. We had been speeding uncontrollably

toward the front line. Tyler Crowley had been hit too but I knew if I took my foot off the

gas we would have all died. The thoughts of the last mission and my injuries were only

flashes in my head. My thoughts immediately turned back again to Bella. Every free

moment, every conscious thought always brought me back to her. My mind flittered to

one of my last memories of her . At the time of the mission, it had been six months since

we last held each other. Bella's hands were clasped around my neck. Her eyes burned

into mine, as if the action could keep me beside her.

I began to relive the argument we'd had after I got my transfer papers. I'd been assigned

to a battalion south of Normandy. I knew she was going to try to get Colonel Swan to

move her as well, but I didn't want her anywhere close to that kind of danger.

" But I can help." I remembered her arguing. Her face was filled with determination in

spite of the tears streaming down her face.

Maybe she could have helped but the front line was no place for a woman, let alone the

woman I loved with my entire being. I had no doubts that Bella would have skinned me

alive if she could have read my mind at that moment but it didn't make it any less true.

She was already too close to danger, bringing her to the frontline would never have

been an option. Her part in the effort to defeat the Axis was best served from London.

Bella was fluent in French, German and Italian. She translated and encoded classified

documents for Colonel Charles Swan. He was an arrogant SOB but he treated Bella with

respect and that's all I really cared about. Bella's multilingual fluency came from her

blue blood upbringing. She had an education that matched her pedigree. She was smart

and refined, while my own blue collar roots were another world away. I knew I would

never be a worthy suitor for her but I was enthralled from the first moment I laid eyes

on her. When I saw her I knew that there would be no other woman for me. We would

be together some day or, without a doubt, I would die trying.

"All right," Nurse Webber said in a stern voice that wrenched me back to the present.

"The next part is not going to be pleasant but, if you want out of here, you'll need to

bear it."

My daydream of Bella was halted as the bed sheet was pulled down from my waist.

Nurse Webber and Ben both leaned over me. She looked me dead in the eye.

"I need you to hold still. Ben is going to hold your shoulders down. When I tell you, take

a deep breath and count to five."

I didn't know what she was talking about but, I was confident she was right about it not

being pleasant. I just nodded as she disappeared and Ben hovered over me. He pushed

my shoulders into the bed.

"Now," she said.

I took half a breath and felt an incredible pain pulling where a man never wants to feel

pain. In my head I counted. ...One...Two...Three. By the time I reached three, the pain

was over. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of urine but, Nurse Webber was not distracted

by the scent. She went about cleaning me and changing the sheets while Ben kept his

hands on my shoulders. Less than two minutes after she started, everything was done.

She traded places with Ben and finished pulling up the sheets behind my head to the top

of the bed. Ben pushed away a cart of supplies, and the strong scent went away with it.

"Okay" she said. "Now that that's gone you'll need to call one of us for a bedpan".

"Not likely." I half smirked with a lopsided grin. "Just let me know which way it is to the

little boy's room."

Nurse Webber was not amused. She again stared her deep set brown eyes into mine.

"Look, if you want out of here, it's through me. Don't give me any trouble, or we'll put it

back in and worse..."

I knew she was right on both counts. It was obvious that she would incapacitate me in a

second if she thought it was necessary. She also was my ticket out of this hospital. I

wasn't dumb enough to think that my bravado was worth anything here, not with

wounded and broken men lying all around me. My ineffective attempt to make a stand

was a ploy to get into Bella's arms faster. I returned Nurse Webber's stare with a single

nod.

"Now," she started again. "We need to see about getting you upright. You're probably

going to feel light headed and dizzy. It's been a while since you've sat up. If you feel sick,

give me one nod and I'll have a bedpan ready for you."

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