"Hey y'all. You've reached Rob Laird. I can't take your call, but leave a message and I'll be in touch."


[Messages for muse or mun can be left here]

Have you ever been called heartless?
Not to me face

Someone calls you at 3:00 AM, who do you expect it to be?
Any one with a disaster or bad news

Does it matter if your significant other drinks?
Not at all. Why would it?

Could you go the rest of your life without doing drugs?
For sure. Only ever really done it very occasionally.

Which is better, amazing eyes or an amazing smile?
Eyes

Do you want to get married and have children one day?
I think we already know the first is taken care of, and it ain't really the right time for the second yet.

Are you easy to get along with?
Most of the time, I think.

Do you ever want to go to sleep and not wake up?
No, I spend too much time trying to live to wish this sort of morbid thing.

Are you shorter than your Mom?
No, she ain't all that tall

Describe your life currently in one word:
Lucky

Are you on medication for anything?
I am just now, yeah

Who would you allow to read your thoughts for one day?
My wife

Are there things in your life that you will never be able to get over?
Yeah, unfortunately

If you woke up naked next to the last person you kissed, what would your reaction be?
Um, probably roll over and rub up against her a bit, especially if it's morning...

Have you ever met a gay person?
Uh, what? I didn't realise sexuality made you an endangered species.

[Follows THIS]

Rob couldn't decide whether things were awkward or not. It felt like it should be awkward, and he knew it wasn't exactly an ideal situation, but it wasn't actually unpleasant. He did suspect Mike agreed to come to dinner because he felt guilty about what happened to Rob. Not that it was his fault, but when you're a soldier and a friend gets injured like this, there is a sense of guilt and responsibility to do what you can to help them. There was definitely a distinct hesitation and wariness once Rob revealed that Leila had invited Rachel to the dinner, too. In fact, Rob really thought Mike would pull out, but again, he must have had some sort of sense of obligation.

( This was the first time Rob had met Rachel, and she seemed really nice... )


Word Count | 6,976

Another nightmare tore Rob from his nap and he woke suddenly, panting for breath. Sweat was covering his face, probably tears too. He seemed to have a tendency of crying during the bad dreams, but he couldn't really remember them clearly by the time he was awake. Leila asked him about them, asked him if she could help, but he always drew a blank when he tried to explain them to her. It wasn't night, though. The clock told him it was around two pm and as he swallowed back some nausea lingering from the disrupted sleep, he looked over Leila who was napping on the bed beside him. He remembered, now. He hadn't been feeling well and didn't want lunch, so Leila suggested they lie down together on the bed and watch a movie. The end of The Goonies was playing silently on the flat screen TV they had mounted on the wall and Rob realised Leila must have turned the volume down when he fell asleep, and then dropped off herself.

( He leaned back against the pillow, turning his head to rest it against Leila's and tucking his hand around her waist... )


Word Count | 3,370

LINK: Goddamnit, I need sex right now before I take myself out with the damn crutches!

[Backdated to 7th November 2009]

The hospital discharged Rob home on three conditions. One, the home nurse visit every three days to assess his progress. Two, he rest as much as possible and only be ambulant on the crutches if it was absolutely vital. Three, he not be left alone. It all sounded pretty straightforward, but logistically, it could get awkward. Rob was glad to be allowed out of hospital, but he suddenly became painfully aware of how much obligation this was all laying on his new wife's shoulders and he started to get cold feet. Cold feet about going home, cold feet about coming back to America, cold feet about marrying her. It was just a post-traumatic anxiety and, of course, he didn't voice his opinions. He just tried to subtlely ask if he had to get discharged at that point, only to be told Leila had requested discharge as soon as he was able.

She wanted to take care of him.

( Rob didn't know how he felt about that. The biggest portion of him was relieved, and happy. Happy they could be together, happy they could maybe start finding some sort of normalcy. But the other part of him felt guilty about being a burden... )


Word Count | 3,899

LINK: Broken ribs, and I still kick ass on Wii.


[Refers to THIS]

LINK: Rob realised that Black Betty could be fucking annoying when stuck on repeat with no way to switch it off.

LINK: He really hoped she understood when he started to snap at her out frustration at being so restricted and useless becase reliant on others just wasn't something he was used to.

19.6. TEN things you want to see your partner dress up as for a sex fantasy

1. Army Nurse
2. Sexy cop
3. Lara Croft
4. Princess Leia
5. Sexy race car driver
6. Devil
7. Cowgirl
8. Southern Belle
9. Camouflage bikini
10. Schoolgirl (or I really would settle on naked with just the glasses...)

LINK: Oh man, I'd forgotten how good pancakes tasted.

LINK: Ain't looking forward to the flight home...

[Dated Saturday 24th October | Follows THIS and THIS]

The small plasma TV mounted beside the hospital bed was on, but the sound was turned low as Mythbusters played on the screen. No one was watching it. Occupying the bed accompanying the TV, Rob was drifting in and out of a light sleep. He was never much of a heavy sleeper, and a hospital was just disruptive by default. He didn't mind, though. He knew he was there because he needed to be, and it was almost a heavenly option compared to the ordeal he had just left. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany was a U.S. Military hospital, and many soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had been flown here over the time to receive high quality medical care if they were seriously injured in combat. Rob was just another statistic, really, but he had received nothing but top notch medical attention since he woke up here. Which was a little unnerving at first, to discover he was in Germany of all places. He had vague recollections of an explosion, and hazy snippets of memories where he was in agony, in that crushing heat, unable to move or call out for help...

... of Pete's cold fingers in his hand.

( Rob woke again with a start, that nauseating feeling of horror threatening in his gut again. When he slept, the images swirled around in his subconscious like a stormy sea, but awake, he had been classified as amnesiac. He couldn't remember enough of what happened to piece together anything specific of what happened. He didn't want to remember, either... )


Word Count | 5,299

24.7.3. FIVE moments you wished you were somewhere else and ONE you knew you had to be there

[The aftermath of THIS | Simultaneous to THIS, THIS and THIS]



( He tried to get his eyes open again, but he didn't have enough strength for that. He was barely able to even latch onto a recognition of where he was, let alone that just a couple of feet away, two other men lay unmoving in the blood-soaked dirt... )

Leila is doesntwaltz and referenced with permission


Word Count | 1,282

LINK: His horrified cry of "NO!" was drowned out by the massive explosion before he barely had a chance to realise the young Private had made an horrendous wrong move against orders and ran right into the line of fire.

Left on Leila's voicemail...

"Hey, darlin'. It's me. I guess you're out or busy, and that's okay. Means you're keeping occupied. I just wanted to let you know that I'm feeling real better, well back on my feet, and I'm just about to head back out to where they plucked me from. I ain't sure when I'm going to be back, darlin'. I ain't forgotten what Friday is either... I can't believe I'm going to miss your birthday. I'll be thinking about you, I never stop. So, um, Happy Birthday for Friday and I promise I'll give you your present when I see you in person. I miss you, darlin'. I love you. Hopefully I'll speak to you real soon. Bye, now."

3.3. "Happiness isn't what you want, it's wanting what you've got."
Garth Brooks

Co-written with a68whiskey



( Thought I better sacrifce some of my lunch break to come make sure ya' hadn't deceased on me. Lucky I ain't the squeamish sort or you'd be putting me right off my ration of... something brown and squishy. Bonus, though, actually got a mini Mars Bar today... )

Leila is doesntwaltz and referenced with and permission


Word Count | 1,320