Wildlands (rskde & BurningWillows)

[BurningWillows]

She looked up at him, her eyes brimming with tears. Arya was torn, between setting him free, knowing it would hurt them both but ultimately help him, or being selfish and telling him to stay.

"Kyle, sweetheart you don't want to open this can of worms," she warned, looking down at the papers and snorting, "At least they gave you the option of discharge. I got forced."

She pushed the paper aside, clawing her nails through her hair, unsure what to say.

 

[Risky]

"This is my decision." He says to her, his eyes locked with hers. He seems completely serious about this, his eyes seem to be staring into her soul.

"Please baby, help me." He says to her softly. "If we're going to be married, we need to trust each other completely." He says to her softly, tempted to kiss her but unsure of what she would want.

 

[BurningWillows]

"I'm trying to trust you," she dropped her hands, "But you've been cut off for weeks now, and I've felt responsible. Now I find out it's PTSD, and you never asked me for help. Look Kyle, I'm just trying to wrap my head around everything happening."

A part of her still felt like he didn't want her anymore, that he was waiting for a excuse to leave. She knew it made no sense, but she couldn't shake the feeling, not when he had barely touched her in weeks, the most Arya getting was a hug or his arm over her shoulders.

 

[Risky]

Kyle bites the bottom of his lip softly. 'What can I do to make you trust me?" He asks her softly, his face slowly turning to one of complete sadness, as if he understands why she can't trust him.

"I've already told you that I love you, and that what happened was not me and completely not your fault at all, I could never ask for anybody more loving and smart and amazing as you are.. But if you firmly believe that we need a break then we can take one." He says softly, the last choice obviously one of last resort.

 

[BurningWillows]

He sounded so heartbroken, and if she told him Arya worried it would hurt him more. The words were hard to form too, unable to complete accept what was happening to her. Standing up, she moved out of the room, coming back moments later with her duffle bag in one hand and a yellow envelope in the other.

"This has my initial tests inside," she whispered, "Open it if you wish, but there's nothing positive inside. I...I can't do this."

She handed it to him, looking broken, "I'm going to clean up dinner."

 

[Risky]

Kyle takes the envelope and nods before watching her leave the room. He slowly slides his finger along the opening of the envelope, flipping it open before sliding out the contents.

His eyes scan over the readings, trying to make sense of it all.

 

[BurningWillows]

Most of the papers are graphs and prescriptions, a lot of it medical lingo which Kyle wouldn't understand. One of the pages though was a lettered addressed to Arya about her condition.

Dear Arya Culling,

We regret to inform you that due to the exposure you had during a routine procedure with a patient, you were exposed to high levels of radiation. All three soldiers that were flown into Germany suffered from radiation poisoning, and two of them caught a rare virus. One of those patients were under your care, and your prolonged exposure to his condition caused radiation poisoning. Also as such, the virus contained in his blood may or may not have traveled and infected you. We encourage you to take more tests with us, in hopes we can narrow the scope and provide helpful solutions.

We are sorry, and thank you for your service.​

Behind that was her discharged papers, explaining her discharge was due to "terminal illnesses". The very last page in the envelope was hand written and scrawled all across, slightly hard to decipher. On it though, it explained that the virus had indeed gotten into her system, due to the surgery she preformed. They were still unsure if it had traveled by airborne means, or if she had somehow gotten fluids transferred, but nevertheless the disease had infected her body, and the strand was rare enough that they were unsure how to cure her, if they could. There was mention to it being alike cancer, spreading quickly and ultimately being fatal if untreated. There was little else in the report, all pages asking for further tests to understand the virus better.

 

[Risky]

He puts his hand up to his mouth and drops the papers, that one word sticking in his head.. Fatal.. He feels tears starting to run down his cheeks as he jumps up, finding her in the kitchen and burying his face into her neck, his arms wrapping around her. She can feel his tears against hers neck.

"I'm so sorry.." He whispers to her.

 

[BurningWillows]

Arya~

She hugs him tightly, tears springing to her eyes.

"This is why I didn't want you to know. The last thing you need is to be worrying about me. Or feeling guilty for pushing me to go to Germany. None of this falls on you."

 

[Risky]

Kyle shakes his head. "I'm glad that I know, if you're going to leave me I'm going to make these days the best of your life." He says to her quietly, sniffing as his tears slowly stop, but the remains of them continue to run down his face.

 

[BurningWillows]

Arya~~

She rubbed his tears away, kissing him softly.

"I may have many years with you yet," she sighed, "they aren't certain if it's completely fatal if they can find a cure. And it may lay dormant. The radiation is a bigger problem. It's made me weak."

 

[Risky]

He kisses her back, his forehead against hers when she pulls away.

"They'll find a cure.. And you'll get better... Right?" He whispers to her, as if trying to convince himself that she will be okay.

 

[BurningWillows]

She closed her eyes, sighing softly.

"I don't know love...I don't know."

~

The rest of the night they spent most of it just holding each other and crying, the uncertainty of their futures depressing. As the week went on Arya was careful to take her pills as instructed, her first appointment with the clinic not till the following Monday. Talk of whether Kyle would sign the papers for discharge or not had been sparse - Arya didn't want him to make any pressured decisions. Instead she focused on caring for his wounds and his PTSD, trying to get her mind off of things.

The night before her first clinic appointment she ran out of pills. It didn't seem like too big of a deal, so she didn't bring it up, knowing the appointment was at 8 in the morning, and she could make it through the night. Or so she thought. As they were preparing for bed, she slipped into the bathroom to brush her teeth and all of a sudden there was a loud bang against the wall...as Arya's legs collapsed. It had been the first time all week since her incident in the kitchen, and she lay there on the floor, winded and crying, not even able to scream for Kyle as every nerve in her body felt frozen stiff.

 

[Risky]

Kyle hears the bang and runs out of their room, looking around before spotting the bathroom light slashing through the darkness of their apartment. He runs in and sees her on the floor, he scoops her up wedding style and walks her back to their room, setting her on his lap as he sits on the bed, just holding her until she can feel again.

 

[BurningWillows]

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she gulped for air, her body useless and unmoving, lying dead like a fish in his arms. Just the fact she couldn't feel his touch, knowing he was cradling her, sucked.

"I'm scared," she choked out, never being so unsure of herself as she was now.

 

[Risky]

"If they don't come back in ten minutes I'll take you to a hospital." He says to her quietly, unsure of what else he could possibly do at this point.

 

[BurningWillows]

After ten minutes feeling had come back to her arms and hands, but her legs were still useless.

"Baby? Can...can you take me to the clinic in the morning? Please, I can't drive in this condition."

She was curled up in his arms, clinging to him as sleep pulled at her, exhausted from the day.

 

[Risky]

He nods and continues to hold her, moving back on the bed and helping her lay down.

"Of course I can take you to the clinic babe.." He whispers to her.

"Just try to get some sleep, I'll wake you in the morning.. Or you wake me, whoever wakes up first." He says before wrapping his arms around her, burying his face into her neck and sighing as sleep tugs at his mind.

He whispers to her. "I really missed you in Afghanistan.." Before falling asleep, his hot breath skidding against her neck as he exhales.

 

[BurningWillows]

As much as she feels tired, Arya stays awake for hours, staring up at the ceiling as her mind chewed over topics. Eventually she fell asleep, only to wake as her alarm rang. Still unable to use her legs completely she woke Kyle and they dressed her in sweat pants and a hoodie, before he helped her into the wheelchair.

"I hate this thing," she glared at it as they took the elevator down to the car, "I want working legs, not this. And I always imagined me walking down the aisle at our wedding, not rolling down."

 

[Risky]

When she wakes him he helps her dress before dressing himself, cracking a smile as they go into the elevator of their building.

"You'll be walking, don't worry." He says to her before the doors open with a ding

He helps her into his rental car before driving for about five minutes, helping her out and signing her into the clinic.

In the waiting room he falls asleep, having been exhausted from waking up at 8 AM.

 

[BurningWillows]

Her appointment only takes her an hour, and then she's rolling out with a new prescription and a frown. The tests would take a week to come back, and the doctor wasn't happy to hear the without the pills her body reverted quickly to a numb state. It wasn't even that she had lost control, he explained it more as there was something malfunctioning between her brain and her nerves, acting as a barrier preventing her from feeling them and therefor losing control. The drugs took down that barrier, but they weren't a permanent solution.

Waking Kyle, softly, she told him they could leave, needing to wait a week for any results.

~~

A week past and she got the call. The virus was indeed in her system, but to her fortune it was dormant. Meaning the first good luck she'd heard in weeks. As long as it remained dormant Arya could live a normal life. He warned her not to do anything too stressful or strenuous though, in the case it activated the virus. He also explained the numbness as an odd side effect from the radiation poisoning. This they had little help for other than the pills, being as no surgery could rewire her brain. After getting off the phone she sat Kyle down and explained this all to him, so he'd understand.

 

[Risky]

Kyle listens to her and nods. "We'll get through this, our medical insurance pays for your pills so we'll just keep a surplus of them to make sure you don't run out.." He says to her.

He yawns, looking over at the clock and noticing the time is 23:00 on the clock, he looks over at his fiancé.

"Get some sleep, I'll be in bed in a few minutes." He explains to her.

He stands and walks out of the room, walking into the kitchen and staring at the table. I need to be here to take care of her..

He signs the paper and puts a return address on it, walking out of their apartment and putting it in the mailbox.

He walks up to their apartment and slips into their room, getting dressed in his pajamas before slipping into bed next to Arya, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the back of her head softly as he falls asleep,

 

[BurningWillows]

The next day he gets a call, but his phone's on the dining table as Arya plays in the kitchen. Absentmindedly she answers it, not checking the caller I.D that displays a Blocked number, obviously the military once more.

"Hello?"

"Hello ma'am is Corporal Wetsworth present?"

"Hold please," she muttered, pressing the phone to her chest and calling out, "Kyle?!"

 

[Risky]

Kyle yawns as he wakes up, hearing her call his name. He gets out of bed groggily and walks out into the living room.

"Yeah?" He asks before taking the phone from her.

"This is Westworth.." He says tiredly.

 

[BurningWillows]

The men on the line simply wanted to confirm his discharge papers, asking him a few questions to be assured it was what he wanted. Arya hovered, her eyes boring into him, wanting to know what was going on. She didn't know he had send the papers in yet, too busy dealing with her failing health.