Blue Side of The Sky

Part 17

Luke snapped out of his nightmare, his breathing heavy and his forehead sweaty. This had been the 6th time this had happened now. His mind was attacking him and he hated every single second of it. He looked over at Eli whose chest rose and fell, slowly as the small baby dreamed away, Peaches lay at Luke's feet, sprawled out and Cassie peacefully slept next to him. Shivers ran down his spine as he wiped the beads of sweat from his face.

The moment the IED exploded had been playing over and over again in his head. He checked Cassie's glucose monitor, which lay on her stomach, before going over to Eli. He carefully picked up the still ever so small baby, careful to support his neck. He then sat back in bed watching him sleep peacefully. Everything was ok.

It didn't take his mind of the IED, Frankie or Iraq at all. God, he missed Frankie so much. He knew how much Frankie would have loved Eli.

Luke wanted to go out for a run but he knew it was scare the heck out of Cassie if he just disappeared and he didn't want to wake her. His heart felt like it was about to rip out of his chest and his brain wouldn't stop replaying it. His mind was fighting a war and it had been slowly destroying him. 

Luke looked over at his phone, 5:30am. He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a note for Cassie, letting her know he'd just gone out. He got warm clothes for Eli and wrapped him up. He wasn't entirely sure why but he felt the need to bring Eli with him. He grabbed his trainers and made his way for the door. Unsuccessfully trying not to disturb Peaches.

"Shh, Peaches. It's ok." he said, trying not to wake the whining dog and shutting the door behind him. He ran along the familiar roads until he got to the cemetery. The dark gates loomed in the early morning sunset. Luke hadn't been here since he'd come home. He then slowly walked along the paths until he got to Frankie's grave.

"Eli, meet Uncle Frankie." he said, introducing the 3 month old baby. "Your Uncle Frankie was in the army with me and he was super cool. He would have loved you so so much." Luke continued. Eli looked up at him, his hazel eyes glimmering. Luke would give almost anything to have Frankie here right now, holding Eli and teaching him so many things in life. His baby boy would never meet one of his best friends.

Luke needed this. It had cleared his mind and he finally felt some sort of peace. He sat there for a little while longer before heading home. He was surprised that Eli hadn't cried yet, he usually had a feed about 15 minutes ago but Luke just assumed that he wasn't hungry. The small baby was unusually calm and Luke couldn't help but think it was Frankie watching over them.

What do people think about the idea of Luke possibly returning to the army? I'm not sure about it, it wouldn't be for a while but still