Awake

In his heart, Lemuel understood that it was the duty of the soldiers to keep civilians safe, not the other way around. Callie was a civilian, and she couldn’t have known about the minefield. Still, the image of Elias and Travis injured haunted him, and he couldn’t bring himself to absolve Callie entirely. With Elias unconscious and his condition uncertain, Lemuel’s emotions ran high. He was torn between worrying about Elias’s recovery and grappling with his own conflicted feelings. He knew he needed to apologise to Callie once Elias woke up, but deep down, he feared he might never forgive her if anything happened to Elias. *** Lemuel washed his face in the men’s room and made his way up to the break room on the third floor, desperately in need of a cup of coffee to keep himself awake. The stress and worry of the past few days had taken a toll on him, and his nerves were jittery from the countless cups of coffee he’d consumed. As he walked back to Elias’s room, he was almost too afraid