" May your Guardian Angel wrap you in love, protect, heal and guide you from high above."

- Mary Jac

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Hazel slowly lowered herself onto her bed, eyes watching the silent soldier's own brown ones. He watched her slowly ease herself onto the bed, with a masked, unknown expression that stared back at her. The two soldiers watched each other for a moment before the silent soldier looked at her ODs on the floor.

" You're one of those Viragos aren't you?" he asked her, his voice surprisingly gentle compared to what she thought she'd hear slip from his mouth. She nodded.

" I am." she said with a gentle nod.

The silent soldier sat with a loose fitting white shirt, that had some holes in it - it must've been the PT shirt guys wore underneath, and he had dirty OD bottoms on, with socked feet. His eyes had dark circles that surrounded his eyelids, and his eyes seemed emotionless, like a dark gate was pushed over them, concealing each and everything emotion that was inside, back and away from sight. His eyebrows were slack, relaxed, but the stress lines around it showed. He was young and he already had the stress marks of a 30 year old. His lips had cuts in certain areas and his cheek had a tiny scar, from the war, Hazel assumed. His dark brown hair was greasy, he hadn't showered in a while and the stubble along his face was unkempt - but this was the war taking over a human life form, not a soldier of war.

" It's okay, you don't have to look as if I'm a washed up dead fish at the shore." the man said a slight laugh leaving his lips, as a small smile fell on Hazel's lips.

Whoever this man was, he hadn't lost his humor.

" I'm Hazel Parker." Hazel said holding out her soft, clean, yet internally war torn hand out in front of her. The silent soldier looked at her hand before slowly reaching forward to shake it.

" Jem Rossi." the soldier said and Hazel slowly leaned back with a nod.

The soldier in front of her, Jem, didn't look like a soldier would.

It seemed he'd lost hope, given up on himself, let himself go.

He was skin and bones for all she knew, just because he was giving up.

" How did you get hit?" Jem asked her, " I've heard them changing your bandages." Hazel's hand went to her wound and she gulped.

" One of the shellings, from the Germans in the Ardennes, I got caught out in it." she said and she saw something flash through Jem's eyes. A understandable pain. Jem slowly leaned down to lift up the cuff of his OD bottom and revealed the wrapped wound underneath.

" Krauts got me with the shellings too," he said, his eyes staring coldly at it, " I'm having trouble walking because of it." Jem then let the pant leg slide back over his leg and he let out a shaky sigh.

" I'm sorry." she said softly. Jem glanced her way.

" Yeah, me too." he said nodding to where he hand lay. She forced a sad smile.

" Were you in the Ardennes?" she asked him. He nodded.

" Got there the 16th of December, moved through with the 82nd." he said to her, " They got me though, my buddies said I wouldn't, but they tore a chunk out of my leg." Hazel stared at him. He had been in the Ardennes too. She watched his eyes daze off with a certain pain, a certain ache.

" 101st," she said and Jem met her eyes.

" You were surrounded." he said quietly and she nodded. Jem watched her.

" And that's how you got that." he said pointing to the wound. She nodded.

" It sucks doesn't?" he said and she nodded, " Now I can barely move on my own two feet, because of some Kraut artillery shells." He shook his head.

" I never knew this was God's path for me." she told him and Jem met her eyes, " God always protected, but I guess he let you get hurt for a reason." Jem softly bit back his lip.

" Is that why you've given up?" she asked boldly watching sadness stir in Jem's eyes. Jem watched her and then ever so slowly nodded.

" I noticed you haven't been eating," she whispered, " and when Amelia offered you water, you didn't take, you had said you couldn't, you wouldn't." Jem watched her.

" I wanted to die on that battlefield." he said softly to her, " I thought when my leg was hit I would be dead but instead I woke up here. I wished I had died." Hazel stared at him, watching him run a hand through his hair and sigh to himself, shoulders slumping.

" I want you to eat again," Hazel said, watching as he looked towards her, " I want you to eat the food Amelia gives you, even if it's the smallest bites, and drinking water. Lots of it. I won't let you give up, alright? I saw you in the hospital, back in Bastogne, and we're still here beside each other. God wanted me here for a reason and if it was to make sure you didn't give up, then being here is what I feel I needed. I won't let you give up." Hazel watched Jem. She didn't realize how brave she had become, to tell someone that.

Because at some point everyone deserved saving, even if they thought they couldn't be saved.

" It's too hard..." Jem said, " I can't." Hazel stared at him. Hard. She bit back her lip, that little angry face she made when concentrating showing everywhere.

" I can believe in you for you, okay?" Hazel whispered softly. Jem slowly looked up towards her, his gaze soft, vulnerable, open. Jem gently looked down at his hands.

" No one's ever told be that before." he said, and she heard him sniffle. Jem met her eyes with his own tear filled eyes.

" I really wished I had died out there, but now, hearing you say that, it gives me some hope." he managed out, as he anxiously tapped his foot and nodded, a tiny smile on his face, " Thank you." Hazel watched him with soft eyes. Hazel gently stood up, her wound not giving out as much as it had before on her and slowly walked towards him. Jem looked up at her.

" Have you stood yet?" she asked him.

" Only a few times and half the time the medic dragged me to the bathroom." he said, watching as Hazel held out a hand towards him.

" I'm not a medic," she said watching as he looked between her hand and her face.

Jem shakily took her hand and grasped onto her free arm as she slowly helped him to his feet. Jem shakily look down at his legs, all around at the two supports who were always there for him; his legs. Hazel slowly met his eyes and smiled at him and nodded, leading him away from the bed a bit. Jem's grasp was sweaty and shaky, and Hazel could feel the fear radiating from his entire body.

" You got this, alright?" Hazel said as she pointed towards the bed post.

" It's 5 steps to the bed post, you got this okay?" she said. Jem was squeezing her hand so tight, that he had never retracted it faster, afraid that it would turn white. Jem stood on shaky feet for a second before taking a meager step forward.

Jem wavered for a second, pulsing his arms out like a toy plane to steady himself. Hazel watched a smile appear on his lips as he realized he was still standing.

" I'm standing, Hazel!" he said, a joyful laugh behind his voice, a boyish one. He took another step forward and another laugh left his mouth.

" I'm doing it!" he said, as he took another step and then another and then finally reached the bed post.

Even if only Hazel was the only person clapping for him, Hazel knew it meant the world to him. Hazel met his eyes with a grin. Jem smiled, a genuine smile, before looking down at his leg.

" Guess it wasn't so bad after all." he said. Hazel smiled softly.

" You never know until you try, Jem, my mom always told me that." she said. Jem smiled.

" Hey look at you," a voice said and both Hazel and Jem looked over to see it was Amelia standing in the doorway a smile on her face as she entered the room of beds.

" Amelia!" Hazel said, stepping forward, a slight limp in her step as Amelia wrapped her in a warm hug. Amelia smiled and then the two pulled back as they looked towards Jem.

" Glad to see you on your feet," Amelia said to Jem.

" Thank you, ma'am, I'm glad to." Jem said and then smiled at Hazel, " I should be thanking her."

" A little guardian angel, right?" Amelia said with a smile at Jem before looking at the innocent girl who stood, smiling up at them.

" Yeah, little guardian angel." Jem said with a nod before the two smiled at Hazel who stood with a grin on her face, her cheeks having color in them for the first time in days, and her dimples even showed.

" A guardian angel indeed." Amelia said. Hazel smiled.

Dinner that night was a bit more enjoyable. She had someone to eat with besides herself. Amelia said she would each night, but she always had duties to tend to and Hazel didn't blame her. She respected the medics more than anyone could imagine.

It was the 18th of January, she had looked at the tiny calendar Jem said he carried around. Hazel wondered where Easy was, what her friends were doing, what the battle on Foy had been like, if they had lost anyone, if they had all gotten the rest they deserved. If they were heading back to Mourmelon. Hazel gently poked the potato and stuck it in her mouth, savoring the taste. She then glanced at Jem who was more so playing with his food instead of eating it.

" It's really good, Jem." she promised, taking another gleeful bite. Jem offered a smile before poking his fork into the potato. He stared at it, eyes contemplating the food on the fork.

" I don't think I can." he said quietly, staring at the good on the fork, " I said I could, but now...." Jem had given up on himself, but Hazel hadn't given up on him and she had told him that.

" Hey, I didn't say it would be easy," she said softly leaning forward, " just a bite?" Jem watched her eyes and then looked back at the potato.

" Does it taste like home?" Jem asked her, " Like Christmas day dinners?" Hazel smiled.

" Just like Christmas day dinners, seasoned and salted, with all the herbs, all the fixings, the most beautiful golden crisp." she said, " I feel just like I'm at home." Hazel watched Jem slowly glance at the potato and then bring it to his lips and slowly let himself savor the taste. He slowly began chewing, softly and thoughtfully eating it.

" How is it?" Hazel asked him looking at him with hopeful eyes. Jem's eyes widened a bit.

" Whoa." he said and then looked at her, " You weren't kidding." Hazel smiled a bit and gently popped another bit of potato in her mouth. Jem smiled.

That night, Hazel watched Jem finish his first full fill of potatoes, a meal.

One of the nurses, a friend of Amelia's, stopped her as the two were leaving.

" That's the first time he's eaten, even without a nurse." she said to Hazel. Hazel felt a grin grow on her face as she shyly smiled.

" I told him that I wasn't giving up on him." Hazel said, " Just like I didn't give up on myself." The nurse smiled at Hazel before nodding to her. Hazel and Jem sat down on their beds that night.

" You know you talk in your sleep." Jem had said to her as they sat there, " I figured I'd let you know, just in case." Hazel looked at him.

" It's the nightmares," she said softly, " the visions of the hit, every night since I was pulled from the line I've gotten them, they're different every night." Jem watched her.

" Sometimes I see the young man's body who I had to pull back on a solo patrol." Hazel whispered, " Or the faces of the men who died or got wounded. Or I see myself getting injured."

" I was unconscious by entire rescue and I couldn't see the faces of my friends, who've seen me through by best and my worst. I could've even say thank you for rescuing me." Hazel said. Jem softly watched her.

" Me either." he said, " I was unconscious until I woke up before the move here."

" I remember that." Hazel said, " I know what that feels like, to wake up and notice you're all alone, none of your friends are here, you're in a cot with a wound you didn't know you got. It was scary." Jem nodded.

" It's why I didn't give up though, I knew I was stronger than the demons that bore down on me, all of them. Despair, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Loneliness. I knew I was stronger than all of them because I'm human. They're just feelings, and those feelings don't have to last for long." Hazel told him nodding softly to herself, " Yeah." Jem watched her.

" You speak like a philosopher." Jem said to her, a small smile on her face, " You sound confident, yet so humble." Hazel glanced at him and smiled softly.

" I believe in God." she said, " I've learned that God puts you in places and guides you in certain ways, for the right reasons." Hazel slowly kneaded her hands together.

" It can be tough, all of it. It can be real tough, but it builds you up, makes you stronger." Hazel said. Jem watched her softly, a bit his lip.

" You think there's still hope?" Jem asked, " For people like us." Hazel felt a grin poke at the corner's of her lips and she nodded.

" Of course," she whispered softly, " hope's always there, hard to find sometimes, but there."

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hi!! so i've hinted at this silent soldier for a bit in the previous chapters and finally brought him to life. this is pivotal for the story. to see that what hazel believes has guided her here. i just really enjoy the deep meaning in all this :) thank you for reading!! <3