After spending a couple hours in the maternity ward, Stevie finds herself outside the waiting room where her parents are still sitting. She opens the doors and sees them look up at her and send her a small smile.
"Sorry, I just had to get out of here," she explains and they nod before everything relaxes into silence.
"Family of Brandon Wilkins," a nurse asks opening the door and pulls off her mask.
"Yes I'm his wife," Stevie answers standing before the nurse with her parents behind her. "How was the surgery?"
"The surgery was successful, he's being transferred to the recovery unit, the surgeon will come by and explain all the details," she says guiding them to the recovery wing of the hospital. From the outside Stevie sees his head heavily bandaged and bald, he's asleep but hooked up to tons of machines. She rushes to his side and squeezes his hand hoping he'd squeeze back.
"Brandon," she whispers with unshed tears in her eyes.
"He won't be waking up anytime soon, he's on some pretty strong sedatives," a nurse remarks sympathetically while recording data from the machines before leaving.
"Brandon, I'm here, please don't leave me," she says. "I told you I'd be strong for you and I'm right here now open your damn eyes," she encourages but the only movement is the ventilator moving his broad chest up and down. She's awoken by the increase in heartbeats on the machine and looks up to see Brandon awake and not coherent. He's trying to remove the tube from his throat but Stevie stops him in time. "Hey I need help in here!" she yells and that wakes up her parents who are suddenly on high alert. "Babe calm down, your in the hospital, your safe," she says to him but he's in a trance-like state because he's looking past her and his breathing has become more erratic. He rips out his IV and all the machines connected to him. He tries to get up but Stevie recognized that this was a panic attack. He'd often had them after returning home from a deployment. "Baby calm down, look in my eyes, its me Stevie, your wife," she says softly. He almost calmed down until he saw movement out of his left eye and he jumped out of bed pushing Stevie behind him.
"Stay back," he whispers to her now in a full-blown flashback.
"Brandon it's just the doctor," she touches his back and he jumps at the feeling of her soft hands and he snaps out of it. Turning around and she places her hand on his face, feeling his stubble. He melts at the contact and suddenly realizes his weakness as his adrenaline has worn out and he starts to look faint. Henry steps in the help him back on the bed.
"What was it about?" Stevie asks him.
"Can't talk about it," he replies back weakly and holds his head in his hands at the pain. "It hurts," he says and she presses the button for a nurse to come here since yelling didn't work.
"Just try to relax, take deep breaths," she instructs while pulling his hands away from his face. A nurse walks in with a needle and sticks it into his IV and after fifteen minutes, the muscles in his face starts to relax. "Better?" she asks and he nods. "Did you have a panic attack?" she asks hesitantly.
"Yeah," he sniffs and wipes under his nose. "Haven't had one of those since…"
"Since you came back from your first deployment. Babe, you have to talk to someone about this," she says but is cut off by him shaking his head viciously. "All right don't worry about it now, just get some rest," she grabs his hand and sleep begins to take over.
"You're good with him," Liz smiles at Stevie warmly.
"Yeah, he doesn't make it easy," Stevie replies to ease the tension and everyone chuckles.
"I didn't realize it until this moment that you're not my little girl anymore, you're all grown up," Henry says and his voice cracks towards the end.
"I'll always be your little girl," she smiles at him and he can't help but do the same. "Why don't you guys go back to the room and sleep, I'm going to stay here," they tried to protest but she gave them that determined look that she mastered since she turn seven. The morning light and tugging at her hand wakes up Stevie the next day and she wipes the sleep out of her eyes before they're staring back into those green expressive eyes that she got lost in not too long ago.
"Morning beautiful," he says sweetly.
"Morning baby," she leans forward to peck him on the lips. "How are you feeling?" she asks.
"Like I got a bullet removed from my brain," he replies sarcastically.
"So good then," she feigns ignorance.
"When can I bust out of this joint?" he asks and at that moment Dr. Russell walks in.
"In a day or two. We're going to keep taking scans to make sure you're healing properly, but you should be ready to go back to the states," he remarks. "You'll have to get in touch with your base commander and set up physical therapy appointments and see a doctor regularly," he explains. The two days passed by quickly and Stevie found herself, her parents and Brandon being escorted to her mom's private jet. He wore his Navy NWUs and his hat to cover up the staples on his baldhead. Once inside the jet he placed the crutches beside him and took off his cap.
"I so can't wait for my hair to grow back," he says inspecting the staples.
"Well those will be removed in seven days, so hopefully you'll have a little something going on," Stevie smiles at him.
"You still love me right?" he asks.
"Yes I love you and your egg head," she rubs around the staples and lightly massages and he moans in approval.
"That feels so good. God I've missed you and your hands, and your smile, and your soft skin," he comments taking her hand in his. He leans across the table to kiss her on a cheek and they're snapped out of their bubble by the flashing of a camera.
"You guys are so cute," Liz smiles with tears in her eyes.
"So tell us more about yourself Brandon," Henry says.
"What do you want to know?" he asks.
"Stevie mentioned your dad is in the Army, how does he feel about your trading up and joining the Navy?" he smiles.
"Um, my dad died when I was 15, but I'm sure he turned over in his grave before smiling brightly for me being a SEAL," he clears his throat.
"Oh I'm sorry to hear that," Henry apologizes. "What about your mom?" he asks hoping to brighten the topic.
"My mom died when I was born," he says and suddenly the plane couldn't feel smaller.
"So when did you two get married?" Liz asks.
"Before winter break of her freshman year, I had just gotten back from completing my BUD/S training and I proposed. We'd been talking almost everyday and mailing each other since we met and I knew she was the one," he answered.
"So what is it that you do for the Navy SEALs?" my mom asks. "I mean its not like I can't find out I just want to hear it from you," she informs and everyone can see Stevie visibly tense and he squeezes her hand.
"Uh, I'd rather not say. I haven't told Stevie because she doesn't want to know and I want to respect her wishes," he says.
"Actually its okay, I already know you're a sniper," she says and he looks toward her with a frown. "I found out when I went over your military documents and stuff," she says and he nods.
"I'm glad you know," he gazes at her strongly.
"So do you plan on staying in the military for 20+ years?" Henry asks.
"No I don't think so, I think I'm going to get out when we're ready to start a family or when she's tired of me leaving every six months," he jokes.
"I'm too young to be a grandma," Liz jokingly states.
"So you're enrolling in school this semester right?" he asks Stevie.
"Um, I thought I could take off another one and take care of you," she says and he shakes his head.
"No, we need to get back into a schedule, we're going to enroll you back in school so you can finish sooner rather than later," he says and she rolls her eyes at his need for normalcy and a schedule.
"Sir yes sir," she salutes him sarcastically.
"I'm glad you realize it's not up for debate," he smiles to himself.
"Oh you thought you were going to get off easy?" she chuckles and he looks a bit nervous. "Well if I'm going back to school, then you're going to have to get off your lazy ass and cook and clean and redecorate the apartment to the way I want it," she smirks back happily.
"Clean eh, redecorate not so much, I'll move furniture around, but I will definitely not be cooking, I'd actually like to be alive to return to my unit," he says.
"What apartment?" Liz questions.
"Well remember when I went to stay with a friend?" Stevie asks and both her parents nod. "Well I had Brandon send me money so I could rent an apartment in the city, and we kept it".
"I would've bought a house, but I think I'm going to be stationed in California in a few years so it'd be a waste since we don't know where we want to live after I'm finished," he explains.
"Alison is going to freak that you never told her about your wedding," Liz states off topic.
"Who says Alison didn't know?" Stevie counters leaving both of her parents in shock and their mouths open.