Jade continued to cry into Garrett's chest as he continued to whisper soothing words and promises that made her want to stay. Purely because she was tired of being alone.

"I can't Garrett." She finally whispered and she felt him tighten his arms as if he wanted to cherish this moment longer.

"You can Jade." He kissed the side of her neck as she shook her head.

"I can't do this Garrett. It will only break my heart. It will always leave me wondering what if. What if he's cheating again? What if he not out with the guys? I can't live like that." She struggled, but could finally step out of his arms and have the breathing space she needed.

"I promise Jade it won't happen again." Jade shook her head knowing she couldn't do it. She started to walk away from Garrett when she froze in her path.

"Don't you walk away from me?" He roared causing Jade a moment of panic. He never raised his voice like that at her before that it made her become frozen in time. That and she was having flashes to her last tour at men shouting at her to get down.

"You don't get to walk away from me." He grabbed onto her arms tightly and spun her around before trying to kiss her again. Jade struggled, trying to fight him as he pushed her onto the couch and pressed his body against her's.

"It could be like this again." He said grinding into her with dilated eyes that told Jade he was still on drugs. Tears started to course down her face as he groped her breast and squeezed hard. This wasn't happening she thought and if there wasn't a buzzing in her ear and the flashes of her last tour, she would have had him on the floor before he could take his next breath. However, her training failed her as she flashed in and out of reality.

"We could be good again Jade." Garrett was she embedded into this fantasy he created which were enhanced by drugs that he didn't realise what he was doing wasn't consensual.

"Please stop." She said trying to buck her hips to get away, but Garret took it as an invitation. An invitation that she wanted it.

"It's okay Jade it will all be fine again." He said unbuttoning her shirt as Jade finally unfroze and her military training finally kicked in as she snapped back in the reality and what was happening around her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and bucked her hips causing them to both roll off the couch where Jade could finally get away. She didn't even look back as she ran towards the front door crying as she tried to do the buttons up on her shirt. Just as she reached the front door she felt a hand grab her ankle and yank her back onto the ground causing her chin to slam into the floor and her teeth rattle so hard she thought they fell out.

Warm blood ran from her lip where she bite it when she connected with the floor. She kicked Garrett with the leg he was holding and heard him swore but she didn't take a moment to turn around as she sprinted for the door again. She was almost there when Garrett got up with lightning speed and grabbed her hair and spun her around.

She heard his hand connecting with bare flesh before she registered the pain throbbing in her face. Jade froze and stood staring at Garrett with wide eyes as he stumbled back as if just realising what he had done.

"Jade I didn't mean- I didn't." Jade shook her head and took a step back when he took one closer.

"Don't touch me." She sobbed, and she reached for the door behind her. She wanted out of there. She knew this was a bad idea and when the door open Jade fled and didn't look back.

Garrett let Jade go because he knew there was no chance. He blew it because he was so stuck on this idea and fantasy that Jade would always be his and always come back to him because they both loved each other. The amount of drugs also amplified this, and he sank to the floor knowing his life was over.

When Jade could finally hail down a cab, she had wiped the tears from her face despite her body still shaking. She knew there was nothing she could do about the bruise starting to form on her cheek or the blood that bled from her lip. So she covered her face the best she could with her hair and prayed no one said anything.

The taxi driver said nothing as he drove Jade back to her apartment building as Jade looked out the window still in shock from what could have happened and what did happen. She was trying to process, but it was like her mind shut down and she was just going through the motions.

She thanked the driver when they pulled up to the apartment and she slowly walked inside as if she was in a daze not really focusing on what was going on around her. As she reached her floor she didn't realise Marcus was standing by her door waiting for her to arrive.

"Really, Jade after everything he did to you, you go back to him." Jade kept her head down as her cheek throbbed and all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and sleep this nightmare away.

Marcus tsked when he saw Jade shirt not buttoned up correctly and shook his head. He was so mad, no he wasn't mad he was jealous. He was mad and jealous which made say some pretty stupid and idiotic things.

"I hope he was worth it Jade. The least you could do was make sure you got dressed properly after fucking your ex." Jade felt tears run down her face as she finally looked up and saw that Marcus was furious. He stood there with his arms crossed over his chest leaning against the door frame.

"Move out the way I don't have to listen to your bullshit when you do not understand what happened." Jade pushed Marcus to the side and tried to open up her front door when he caged her between the door and his body.

"Marcus please let me go inside." She whispered again, and all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball and wish for the pain inside of her to go away. For the heartache and betrayal to vanish as if it never happened.

Marcus frowned at the broken, sad tone of her voice and pushed away his rage and jealousy and inspected Jade. Though he couldn't see her face, he noticed through her shirt what looked like handprints and he felt his blood boil to a dangerous level which made him regret the next few words that came out of his mouth.

"Guess you like rough then. Like it when men steal all your money, fuck around behind your back and rough you up a little." Jade trembled, and all she wanted to do was escape this nightmare.

"Please stop." She pleaded as she felt Marcus look down on her. She felt so small and wanted nothing more than to hide.

"Why should I? I am stating the facts that I see." Jade looked up at Marcus through tear-stained eyes and he froze. He instantly regretted what he said when he took in Jade's bruised and bleeding face. A different rage took over him. Not one fueled by jealousy but one of pure hatred.

"What the fuck happened." He yelled and when he saw Jade flinched and lower her head again he felt like such an ass.

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing." She made sure her hair covered her face, but Marcus was having none of that. He gently placed a finger underneath her chin and head Jade hiss as he lifted her head and pushed her dark thick hair behind her ear so he could inspect the damage better.

"Did he do this to you?" He whispered and Jade didn't need to say anything because the look in her eyes said it all.

"Where else did he hurt you?" He looked down at her shirt with the buttons done up all wrong and was filled with rage and panic he never knew before.

"That didn't happen." She couldn't say the words because it had been so close. She did not understand what Garrett was thinking or why bad things always had to happen to her. Marcus didn't know what to do or say.

"Can you please leave? I want to be left alone." He wanted to walk away, but he couldn't. Seeing Jade hurt stirred feelings inside of him he hadn't felt in a long time so he did something he knew he would regret. He gently grabbed Jade's face being careful of the bruise that was forming and gently placed his lips on top of hers.

It startled Jade for a second before she wrapped her arms around Marcus's neck and opened her mouth and started kissing him back. His hands gently cupped her face before moving down her shoulders until they were resting under her bum where he picked her up and gently lowered her onto the couch while maintaining the gently slow passionate kiss. She wasn't sure how he opened the door and didn't care that her face and lip felt like it was on fire, because Marcus was lighting a different fire inside of her.

Jade felt as if it transported her to another world as Marcus ran his hand up her side causing goose bumps to rise on her skin. Jade gently ran her fingers through his hair and when they broke apart, she was staring into his beautiful endless brown eyes. She gently cupped his check and Marcus closed his eyes before whispering her name like a prayer.

"Jade." She smiled up at him, but when he opened his eyes Jade saw pain.

"What's wrong?" She whispered, and he shook his head.

"I can't do this, I'm sorry Jade." He stood up leaving Jade confused and before she could do anything he was out the door. She sat up confused. One minute everything was going fine and the next he just left. She was so confused with everything that happened with Garrett and she felt like she would wake up from a bad nightmare. She didn't know what she was feeling or what she should be doing. She felt as if she was autopilot, everything was too much to handle so she did the only logical thing, she went into her bedroom and cried herself to sleep.

***

The moment Marcus left Jade apartment he felt shame. Shame for leaving her and shame for walking away. He was also pissed at her ex and if he ever saw that bastard again he could kill him slowly and dismantle him limb from limb. He walked back into his apartment and Marco raised an eyebrow at him.

"Do I even want to know?" Marcus shook his head and grabbed a beer from the fridge for himself and his brother.

"I seriously don't understand why you won't get together with Jade." Marcus took a sip of his beer and sighed.

"I don't wanna get hurt again." Marco looked at his brother as if he had grown another head.

"Is this all because of Emily? That was almost 5 years ago you are an absolute idiot." Marcus shook his head Emily his fiancé who left him while pregnant because he wouldn't give up his career and ended getting an abortion because as she quoted was too young to have a child.

"So, just cause it happened 5 years ago doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. I not only lost my fiancé but my child." Marco sighed.

"The child wasn't even yours and you knew it. You were overseas when she would have gotten herself pregnant." Marcus sighed. He knew that, but that didn't mean he didn't think of the child as his.

"Plus Jade has gone through the same thing you retard you really think she will cheat on you." Marco had a point, but he didn't want to take that risk.

"You are the biggest idiot I know," Marco said getting off the couch and grabbing his keys. "I'll be back later." Marcus finished his beer and went into his room to grab his dirty washing when he stopped. He pressed his ear against the wall and could hear crying. The walls between his and Jade were thin and the sound of her crying made his heartache that he was part of the reason for her being upset. He sat on his bed and listened until the crying stopped and he assumed she cried herself to sleep.

Sighing, he did his washing before deciding he needed to head out to the gym. When he arrived, he hit the treadmill and ran as if he was trying to run away from his problems. By the time he got off the treadmill, his legs felt like jelly as sweat poured down his face and chest. As he wiped away his sweat, his phone rang and his body filled with excitement when he saw it was the base.

"Sir." He replied as he grabbed his bottle and wallet.

"Sergeant. How have you been?" His commanding officer asked and Marcus went to a quiet area so he could talk.

"Good sir. Enjoying the time off." He looked around and saw a few people milling around the place.

"I need you and your brother to come to the base with your team, we have much to talk about," Marcus said they would be in tomorrow and hung up the phone as the excitement of being deployed coursed through his body as he messaged the rest of his team. When he got back to the apartment, he stood in front of Jade's door tempted to knock and apologies and check up on her, but instead, he walked towards his apartment which was empty and quiet.

***

When Jade woke up her heart ached and her head and lip hurt. Her eyes stung at the bright light and she rolled over and buried her head in the pillow and sighed. She heard a knocking at the door and groaned before pulling her covers over her head hoping that whoever was there would go away and get the hint that she wasn't home and needed time to herself.

Not long afterwards the knocking stopped and her phone started ringing.

"For fuck's sake." She threw her phone across the room, but the stupid piece of crap kept riming. Jade rolled out of bed and grabbed her phone hoping to shut the person up on the other end.

"What the fuck do you want?" She grunted and heard a slight chuckled on the other end.

"Jade, it's Lucas. I was just reminding about your follow up appointment tomorrow afternoon." Jade banged her head against the wall totally forgetting about the appointment. It didn't help the throbbing in her head so she just sighed.

"Sorry Lucas woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Lucas laughed and reminded Jade about her 3 o'clock appointment. She hung up the phone and placed her hand on the wall for support as she felt her stomach roll as she fell to the floor gripping her stomach as she pulled her legs up to her chest.

She tried to keep the sobs in, but she bit her lip despite the pain to keep the sobs inside. She closed her eyes and remembered the last time she felt like this was when she woke up in a hospital.

***

All she felt was pain. She felt like her body was on fire. She tried to move but felt pins and needle run down her arms and legs. The surrounding nurses were fixing other wounded soldiers when they jumped when they heard an agonising scream of pain come from Corporal Jennings bed. They quickly rushed to her side and held her down.

"Corporal Jennings it is okay." Jade opened her eyes and screamed out in pain that was coursing through her body.

"Sedate her." She heard someone yell and the next thing she knew she was falling back into a deep slumber.

The next time she woke everything felt numb she looked around and tried to sit up when she realised she was on her stomach.

"Corporal you are awake." She looked to see Sergeant Whitfield standing above her.

"Sergeant." She tried to get up again and bit her lip as she felt fire running through her back.

"Relax you have been through a lot." She rolled her shoulders back and felt nauseous and her stomach tightened from pain.

"My team." She gasped remembering they were surrounded and the last thing she remembered was diving for her comrade as an IED went off.

"I'm sorry corporal. Only you and Corporal Tucker made it." Jade nodded as she tried to be strong when all she wanted to do was yell out and hit something. All that for nothing. She felt as if she had failed her team by letting so many of them die. They went in with 6 to rescue 2 and only herself and one other survived.

"Fuck." She yelled out and despite her pain sat up and alarms went off and nurses rushed to her side.

"Fuck!" she screamed out again and nurses gently tried to wrestle her back onto the bed.

"Someone sedate her before she causes more harm than good." Jade felt when the needle went in and she felt herself relax, but the pain was still there. She felt it all the way down to her toes. The pain of failure, it hurt so much that she wished that she wouldn't wake up next time.

****

Jade lifted her head and slammed her hand on the ground in pain. Pain bought comfort. Pain reminded her that she was still alive and living. That she was strong and could survive anything. With this new courage, she stood up and took a deep breath and moved on with her life because crying and letting the pain in would only allow her to be stuck with no hope of moving forward.