Rainbow Lyrics and Mellow Mushrooms: Twisted Tuesday: Halfway to Sunday

Halfway to Someday

A thunderous crash jarred Ryker from his sleep and left him instantly alert and grasping for his weapon, then growing more frantic with every minute that passed when he couldn’t find it. The cadence grew, the steady thud, thud, thud like a chopper in the darkness, and he dove for the floor, still groping around in the dark for his gun.

Incoming. Incoming. Get down!

He waited for the sound of explosions that never came, low crawling toward cover and, hopefully, his weapon. His hand itched to hold it, and fear pulsed through him at the frantic beat steadily growing louder, closer.

“Ryker?”

“Get down,” Ryker barked, dragging Jesse to the ground with him and covering him with his body. Dimly, he was aware of Jesse’s voice, even as the thuds grew more insistent, and he held him tighter, determined to keep him safe.

“It’s okay; it’s just a tree. Ryker, it’s just a tree…”

A tree? What was Jesse talking about? Was it some new code for a weapon he hadn’t been briefed on yet?

“Ryker, it’s a tree branch… Ryker, hey…it’s a branch banging against the roof.”

Jesse’s words faded in and out until, finally, Ryker could grasp what he was trying to tell him. Not a chopper, no incoming enemy fire, just a tree branch beating against the side of the house. The wind must have picked up. Shakily, he willed himself to focus and saw Jesse’s worried face staring up at him.

“Are you good now?”

Ryker nodded, slowly, and lifted his head in the direction of the banging. “It’s just a tree.”

“Yeah, it woke me too.”

It dawned on him then that they were both on the floor, his lower body pressed to Jesse’s, keeping the smaller man pinned.

“Shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” He tried to scurry back, only to be pulled into a warm hug.

“It’s okay. I’m fine. It’s you I’m worried about. Are you good now?”

“I think so,” Ryker replied and let out a shaky sigh as Jesse held him close and stroked his hair. The branch kept banging, making it next to impossible for Ryker to settle down completely. He flinched, and Jesse murmured to him, a soothing cadence of humming and song that helped ground him a little more.

“If you let me up, I’ll go outside and cut it down,” Jesse offered. The gesture alone touched Ryker and chased the last of his fears away. He was supposed to be protecting Jesse, not the other way around. He told himself to pull it together, man up and deal with the noise himself.

“I’ll go,” Ryker said. “It’s about the only way I’m going to get any more sleep.”

“We’ll both go.”

“No, I’ve got this,” Ryker said. “It doesn’t take two people to cut down a branch, and I’m not sure you’d be tall enough to reach it. How about you put the kettle on for cocoa, and we can have a cup when I get back?”

“Yeah, okay.”

Jesse’s expression had gone from open and worried to shuttered and a bit stormy, and Ryker was at a loss trying to figure out what he could have done to cause such a drastic change.

“Sorry if I woke you.”

“You didn’t. The branch woke me. I was on my way to turn on the light when you yanked me to the floor.”

“I’m sorry about that too.”

“Stop apologizing. You didn’t do anything you need to apologize for.”

“Then why am I getting the sense that you’re pissed off about something?”

The thud of the branch was punctuated by the sound of a rattling window as smaller bits banged against it.

“What do I look like to you?”

“Huh? Jesse, I’m not sure we have time for whatever this is. If that branch breaks the windowpane, all that cold out there is going to come rushing in here and even cocoa won’t warm us up.”

“Then I guess you’d better get your stuff on and go,” Jesse huffed as he turned away and headed to the kitchen.

What the fuck? Ryker thought to himself as he hurried to pull on winter gear and boots. He replayed the conversation in his mind while he was getting ready, until it dawned on him exactly what he’d done. He owed Jesse an apology when he came back in.

Ryker wrapped a scarf around the lower half of his face and headed outside, the whipping wind sending swirls of old snow everywhere. At least the new snowfall hadn’t amounted to more than half an inch. It was a slow trek to the utility shed, the bulky gloves making it difficult to get the door open. He was grateful for the high-powered LED lights in his lantern though—they made finding the chainsaw and getting it gassed up easier. He was grateful for the chainsaw too. It was way too cold to be standing out there with an old hand saw trying to saw through a limb. He made a mental note to thank Kyle for stocking the place so well, then he headed back out into the mini tornados of snow, the tiny ice particles stinging his eyes. They were teared up and blurry by the time he made his way through the snowdrifts around the side of the house to where the branch was steadily keeping its beat against the side of the house.

He looked for a good spot to set the lantern, something stationary, unlike the swaying branches. His gaze landed on the windowsill, and instead of encountering an unmarred ledge of snow, he spotted indentations that appeared to be made by human hands. Looking down, he spotted a matching set of footprints, fresh, and turned, intent on hurrying back inside to warn Jesse that they weren’t alone when a sharp crack sounded, and the whole damn world faded to black.

Halfway to Someday

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Rocker Jesse Winters just wants to be left alone. If he could melt into oblivion, he would bid farewell to the wild child of rock n’ roll so many have dubbed him in recent months. Truth is, there was never anything reckless, wild, or even deliberate about most of the things that had happened on Wild Child’s last tour, but had anyone cared to listen? No! Which was precisely why he was sitting in a cabin high up in the Colorado mountains, hoping the incoming blizzard would bury him forever.

Ryker Jorgensen left the VA hospital with a bunch of prescriptions and pamphlets on how to deal with reentering the civilian world, not that he’s in any hurry to do so. His nightmares still keep him up at night, and every new limitation he discovers gives him more reason to believe that he’s hopelessly useless now. Better to drive up to his cousin’s cabin and lick his wounds. Come spring, maybe, he’d look into being around people, if only for long enough to make the kind of money he’d need to buy his own secluded place.

The last thing he ever expected to see was the man whose face had been plastered in his footlocker and his dreams for the better part of the past six years, but Jesse Winters is nothing like he imagined. When trying to leave Ryker out in the storm doesn’t work, Jesse resorts to ignoring him. But two wounded souls trapped in a snowed-in cabin have little choice but to reach out for one another when emotions get frayed. His only hope is that Jesse will trust him enough to let him drag him back from the edge before he’s just another burned-out star in the legacy that is rock n’ roll.

Warnings: Flashbacks of domestic abuse, combat situations, suicide ideations, self-harm, PTSD, Stalker Ex, injury, and attempted kidnapping.