Ian Comes Home Read online

  “Ellie is going to be okay. She will be on high strength pain killers for a while and her arm should heal fine. As for the skull fracture, it is pretty minor so I don’t see her having any trouble there either. If she continues to improve through the night she can go home tomorrow.” He says walking out of the room. Hopefully she improves because Ellie absolutely hates hospitals! I pull up a chair next to her bed and grab her hand in mine. “Ellie, baby I’m here now everything is going to be okay. The doctor said if you continue to get better you can come home. I know that you would absolutely love that.” I say kissing her hand.

  Chapter Seven: Ellie.

  I slowly open my eyes revealing a bright white room, which I instantly know it’s a hospital room. I groan and look down at my arm and see a special sleeve on it. So that’s why I’m in so much pain, I think to myself. A knock at the door brings me out of my thoughts. “Come in.” I try to yell but it comes out more as a whisper. The door opens and in walks Ian. I smile. “Ian, why am I here? I want to go home. You know how much I hate hospitals.” “Ellie, I don’t know how you are going to react to this but there was a fire.” I look at him confused. Everything was fine when I went to sleep. Ian looks at me and says “There was in fact a fire and it destroyed the majority of our house. It started in the front of the house and worked its way back.” He finishes telling me what happened and I start to cry. “Don’t cry Ellie it wasn’t your fault.” He says grabbing my hand. I don’t say anything. “Are you ready to come home?” he asks. “What home? We’re homeless. We have no home.” “You’ll see.” He tells me with a smile, I know I can’t argue when he looks at me like that. “Come on, put on these clothes and we can leave.” He says sitting down in the chair next to the bed. I get dressed tell him we can go. Ian and I walk out of the hospital. “I’m going to get the car you just sit here and rest.” He says with a wink, making me roll my eyes at him. Ian pulls up in his old Shelby GT Mustang the same one from our first date. I smile as Ian helps me inside. “I thought that you sold this a long time ago.” I say rubbing my hand on the leather seat. He tells me that he had kept it in a storage area while he was gone and wanted to keep it as a surprise for me once he got back. I smile at him and wait for him to drive. Ian tells me that he has a surprise and that so I can’t peak he’s going to blind fold me. Once blindfolded, we leave the hospital. “Ian when can I off take this stupid blind fold?” I ask agitated. Ian knows that I absolutely hate surprises, mostly because they never end well. “Hold on, you can take it off here in a few minutes El, be patient.” He laughs. The car stops, he opens my door, and helps me out. He takes off the blindfold and the sun blinds me. I let my eyes adjust to the sunlight as he stands behind me. In front of me is a huge house. I turn to look at Ian. When I turn around Ian is on one knee with a box in his hand. “Ellie Danielle Landrum, you have made me the happiest guy in the world. Being away from you was the hardest six months of my life. There wasn’t a day that went by when I didn’t think about you. You are always on my mind. You’re the first person I think about when I wake up and the last person I think about when I go to sleep. I knew from the first time I saw you that I wanted to spend my life with you. I want to wake up to your beautiful face every morning and see you smile. I want to make you giggle at the littlest things and I want to make you as happy as I can. When I was deployed I thought of how much I missed your smile, the smell of your perfume, and the way you called for me when you watched a scary movie and wanted someone there to hide your face in their chest when the scary parts came. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to be your hero and your protector. I love you more than anything in this world. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in this relationship and I’ve asked a lot from you during my deployments but I want you to know that you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. So, will you make me even happier, and marry me?” “YES!” I yell. “I love you more than words can explain, Ian.” I say reaching my arm out, trying to ignore the pain. “El, I talked to the doctors and they don’t think you should wear the ring until your arm is healed. I’ll leave it up to you, if you want to wear it then you can I won’t argue. What do you want to do?” He asks. “I want to wear it.” I tell him stretching out my left hand. He puts the ring on my finger and stands up; giving me a huge hug and spins me around. He puts me down and tells me to go check out the house. He walks up to the door and opens it, “Ladies first.” He says. I smile and thank him, as I walk through the door. Once inside I see a fully furnished living room and kitchen, “Is all of this ours?” I ask. “Yeah, it’s all ours.” He replies. I notice a sign on one of the doors. It says turn here. I follow the signs and get to a door with a red “X” on it. “X” marks the spot I say to Ian, laughing at my stupid joke. I open the door and look inside. Here’s our room, Ian says. I go inside and immediately notice a huge walk-in closet. It’s filled with clothes, shoes, purses and belts. “Ian!” I call. He comes over and asks if I like it. “Like it? Ha-ha I love it!” I tell him. I thank him and tell him to show me the rest of the house. He shows me the bathrooms, kitchen and other bedrooms and downstairs. “This house is gorgeous.” I tell him. “It’s better than our old house. I think to myself. Ian sits down on the couch in the living room and says, “Ellie, I need to tell you something.” I sit next to him worried. “What is it?” I ask afraid of the answer. “I have to go back to Iraq for 18 months as of October first.” He tells me. “But you just got home. I don’t want you to leave.” I say confused. “I know El, but just think after this tour I’m done.” He says comforting me. “You’re not going to re-enlist. Are you?” I ask. “Of course not, once I’m out I’m all yours.” He says leaning in to hug me. I back away. “Just think we can write and call each other while I‘m gone. And I’ll take my laptop so we can do that Skype thing.” He says smiling. “Everything will be fine, I promise.” He tries to reassure me. His reassuring isn’t really working. “Having your letters is great and everything but they aren’t as good as having you here. I need you Ian. Seeing you on the computer isn’t enough! That is not going to help anything! Why can’t they just send someone else? You’re needed here.” I say. “El, I know. I don’t want to go anymore then you want me too. I want to stay here with you, but things don’t work that way. Just think, you got through our first deployment together, and the first one is always the hardest. You can do anything. I have a month with you. Let’s spend it while we can.” “You’re right let’s just relax and watch movies today.” I say. We spend the night cuddling on the couch watching movies and eating popcorn and having one of the best nights of my life. We both fall asleep watching “Madea Goes to Jail.”

  Chapter eight: Ellie.

  I wake up lying on the couch all alone, stretching I call for Ian, but there’s no answer. I shrug it off and go to change my clothes. In my room I find one of Ian’s t-shirts laying on the floor next to the bed. I slip it and a pair of shorts on and walk out to the kitchen. I turn on the radio and start to dance while making Ian his favorite breakfast bacon, steak, eggs and pancakes. The front door silently opens. “Hey Ian!” I call out. “Breakfast smells good. What is it?” He asks kissing my cheek. He’s all sweaty, so he must have been out running. “Well your favorite of course. Only the best for my man.” I giggle setting his breakfast on the table. There’s something that has been on my mind since I woke up this morning. “Ian, I need to talk to you about something.” I sit on the chair next to his. “Yes, what is it Ellie?” He asks putting his fork down and focusing all of his attention on me. “Well I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and I want to know what you think about getting married before you leave? I know that is moving kind of fast but I feel like it’s the best thing to do.” Ian smiles, “I’d love nothing more than to marry you before I leave! That’s a great idea, baby!” Ian pulls my chair towards him and puts me on his lap, kissing my cheek. I wash the dishes from breakfast and then go into our room. I look in my closet and find a cute white top with a black tank
top to go underneath and a pair of jeans. I go into the bathroom and take a shower. The warm water hits my burn and it feels like someone is trying to rip my arm off, it hurts so bad. I let out a scream which sends Ian rushing in. “Ellie! What’s wrong? Are you okay?” He asks. “Yeah, I’m okay. I just got some hot water on my burn.” I say holding my arm straight out. “Okay. Be more careful babe.” He says walking out of the bathroom. I finish washing my hair then turn the water off. I wrap a towel around myself, carefully avoiding my burn. The area around the burn is bright red and there is a nasty liquid seeping from it. I throw my clothes on and put my hair up in a bun. I grab a pair of easy to slip on shoes and put them on; I walk out into the kitchen and tell Ian that I need the car. “Where are you going?” he asks “To the doctors, I think my arm is infected.” I tell him while showing my arm to him. “El, your arm is fine; the doctors told me that it will leak fluid because you dehydrated the skin.” “Keep it wrapped up in some gauze and it will be okay. Try to avoid getting hot water on it. Also if it starts to hurt, take some of your pain medication. I put it on the top shelf of the bathroom cabinet. It’ll be good if you get all the rest that you can. Your arm will heal faster if you do that.” I smile at Ian and make my way into the bathroom searching for the pain medication. It doesn’t take me long to find it. Sure enough in the top right corner is my prescription. I take a couple of the pills and walk back into the kitchen. “Ian, let’s set a wedding date, right now, I don’t want to wait anymore. I want to do this now. We don’t have to invite friends and family. We can go and get it done today. The only thing that matters to me is that we are married before you leave. That is all that I want!” Ian sighs. “Ellie, we are not going to get a quick marriage. I want you to have your dream wedding. Whatever you want is what you’ll get. Nothing is too expensive for my baby girl. I want you to be happy and I’ll do anything to make you happy.” Now it’s my turn to sigh. “Then let’s set a date, Ian! That is what will make me happy! No more avoiding the topic! I want to set it today!” I know that if I keep this up I will end up making Ian upset, but I don’t care. I want to have the perfect wedding and you need a date to have a wedding! “Okay fine, Ellie. You want to set a date today, let’s do it! I leave October 1st so any day before that is fine with me! You choose it.” Ian takes a deep breath and looks at me intently. “I want to get married on September 20th.” Ian smiles, “Okay, the date is set. I’ll take care of the preacher and telling our friends. “I’ll start planning now!” I tell him excitedly. I hurry off into the living room and get on my laptop, emailing all of my best friends and setting up appointments. “Ian I have all of the appointments set up for the 20th! I can’t believe that in less than ten days we will be newlyweds! How exciting is that?” Ian just grunts. “What’s wrong baby?” I ask sitting on his lap, kissing his cheek. “Nothing is wrong Ellie. I’m fine.” He replies plainly. “Ian you don’t act like this when everything is okay. Just tell me what is wrong.” I grab his hand in mine. “Ellie I don’t want to talk about it, just drop it. Okay. You wouldn’t understand anyways.” I roll my eyes. “Why don’t you try me, Ian? I understand a lot more than you think I do. Tell me what is going on with you.” Ian gets up off the couch and I follow him into the bedroom. “Ellie I told you I don’t want to talk about it. Just drop it, okay?” I sigh. “Fine but don’t say I didn’t try to help you, because I did. I’m going out.” I start to walk away when Ian calls my name. “Ellie, where are you going?” I smile to myself. “I don’t want to talk about it.” I grab the keys to the motorcycle off the counter and slam the front door. I’ve never driven the bike before, but how hard could it be?

  Chapter nine: Ellie.

  “Hey! Are you okay?” Someone asks me. I groan as I feel the weight of the motorcycle being lifted off of me. The stranger kneels down beside me. I try to sit up but find myself quite dizzy. The man grabs me by the shoulders. “You took a pretty nice spill back there. How fast were you going exactly?” He asks. I try my best to think back to before the crash, but all I remember is being on the ground with the bike on top of me. “Um, I’m not really sure exactly. All I remember is you lifting the bike off of me. I’m Ellie, by the way.” I say with a slight smile. “I’m Austin. You have a gash on your head that’s bleeding pretty good and a few cuts and scrapes on your arms and back. You’ll most likely have some bruises and you’ll defiantly be sore in the morning. I have a first aid kit in my truck I can help you out if that’s okay with you.” He says moving hair out of my face. “Um, yeah that’d be great. Thank you.” I wince as I sit up. “Here put this on your head to help stop the bleeding.” He takes his shirt off and places it on the gash. “Hold the shirt right here, use a little bit of pressure.” I nod and watch him walk back to the truck. Whoever this Austin guy is he is built! His chest muscles are so defined. He has a six pack that makes you want to run your tongue all over. He makes his way back to me with a bright red bag. “Are you having any neck or back pain right now?” I shake my head no. “That’s a very good sign. Can you do me a favor and lay down on the ground? I need to make sure that you don’t have any other injuries that I haven’t seen.” I lie back on the ground and watch as Austin does his thing. “Let me know if any of this hurts you, okay?” I smile faintly and nod. Austin does his assessment and finds no injuries. “Well Miss. Ellie you got very lucky today.” He tells me looking very serious. “You could’ve gotten seriously injured with as fast as you were going. You were doing at least 70mph. Now do you want to tell me why you were going that fast?” I give Austin a quick look then my eyes go back to the ground. “I had a fight with my fiancé. He was being difficult so I left and I know I shouldn’t have taken the bike, I’ve never driven it before.” Austin just nods his head. “Well you’re all bandaged up now. Would you like for me to take you home or are you okay to take the bike?” I smile as he helps me up. “I don’t want to be any more of a trouble I’ll just take the bike. Thank you for everything though.” I try to take a step towards the bike but I almost fall. Thankfully Austin catches me in his arms. “Wow there! There is no way that I’m letting you back on that bike. I’ll take you home. Let me help you into the truck.” Austin picks me up in his arms and puts me in the passenger seat of his truck. “Hey! What about the bike?” I ask before he can close the door. “Don’t worry about the bike; I’m loading it into the bed.” He replies with a laugh. “All right where too Ellie?” He asks starting the truck. I tell him my address and put my seat belt on. “Okay Ellie here we are.” He comes around to my side of the truck and helps me out. “Where do you want the bike?” He asks holding onto my arm. I can hardly think straight since he isn’t wearing a shirt. “Um, right over here is good.” I say pointing to the garage. “I really appreciate it. How can I pay you back?” I ask pulling my wallet out of my pocket. “Oh no ma’am, you don’t need to repay me. You can do me a favor and stay off of the bike for a while and by getting some rest. That is how you can repay me.” He says with a smile. “Now head on inside and get some rest!” I smile at him and wave goodbye. I close the door behind me and let out a long sigh. I all of a sudden feel very dizzy. I make my way into the bedroom, knocking over things as I go. I pass right out once my face hits the pillow. “Ellie wake up!” I hear Ian say as he gently shakes me awake. I groan and slowly sit up. “What happened? Are you okay? I came home and saw that things were all over the floor and you were nowhere to be found. Tell me what happened baby.” I move closer to Ian wrapping his arms around me. “I took the bike out and I was going way too fast and I wrecked. I guess when I did I passed out. I don’t know how much damage is done to the bike. I’m really sorry about the bike baby. I know you love that thing more than life. I really didn’t think that I was going to wreck it. Are you mad?” Ian looks at me concerned. “Baby, I’m not mad at you. You could have been hurt worse or killed! I could care less about the bike as long as you’re okay. I’m just happy that you’re safe. Do you need me to get you anything?” Ian asks rubbing his hand over my hair.
“I don’t need anything I just need a nap. Will you lay with me?” Ian climbs into bed and takes me into his arms. Before I know it we’re both sound asleep.