Chapter Ten
"Excuse me, senorita?"
"Yes?" Fallon answered, lifting her head. She had been sitting by Frank's bed with her head lying on the edge, resting her eyes. When she looked up, she saw the concern in the brown eyes of the pretty, young nurse that had been in and out of the room all night.
"If you and señor Jake would like to clean up...you can use the nurse's and doctor's changing rooms. I will show you." She smiled brightly at Fallon.
"Thank you, Carlita. That is very kind of you." She smiled at the nurse, but turned her attention back to Frank. There was no change, he lay motionless and expressionless, and absolutely no indication there was a consciousness to the man.
"I also have ointment for you to heal the cuts on your feet. You and I...we are the same size, eh?" Carlita asked.
"It looks like it," Fallon commented.
"Sí, I believe we are. I have brought you some clothes to change into."
"Bless you, Carlita," Fallon cried, hugging the nurse fiercely. She still wore the skimpy red dress covered by Frank's sweater.
"Come...come with me." She tugged at Fallon's hand when she hesitated. "Do not worry, your friend will be fine...you will see."
Fallon hesitated when she reached Jake, who was sleeping in the spare bed in Frank's room.
"I will show him later, senorita." Carlita said with an understanding smile.
Carlita led her to the staircase at the end of the hall. "It is just up these stairs," she explained.
Fallon's body protested the climb, but climb she did. She longed to get out of the clothes Jorge had supplied and wash the dirt and sweat from her body.
"In here," Carlita said, opening the door at the top of the stairs. "The shower is back there," she pointed, " and here are clothes and a pair of sandals. I hope that you find them suitable."
"I can't thank you enough, Carlita. You are very kind," Fallon said with a genuine smile.
Carlita blushed. "Gracias, senorita."
Fallon took her time, letting the hot water cascade over her body. She scrubbed herself raw; as if washing would erase the past four months of torment she had put her body through.
She sighed heavily as she shampooed her hair. "It's over," she repeated again and again. "You never have to let another man that you don't want touch you again." She had agreed to take this assignment as her last. She was getting out...taking a desk job as soon as they could find a place for her.
She turned off the water when she felt sufficiently clean and toweled herself off. Wrapping the towel around her, she headed back to the pile of clothing Carlita had left. She slipped on the green peasant blouse and tucked it into the tan skirt before applying the ointment and bandages, also thoughtfully supplied by the charming nurse, to her feet.
She slipped on the sandals and made her way back to Frank's room. She peeked in the door and found Jake was still sleeping. She checked his pockets carefully without waking him and found what she was after...money. After checking on Frank once more, she smiled wickedly and left the room.
"Carlita, I have an errand to run. Would you tell señor Jake I will be back in a few minutes?"
"Of course, senorita Dumas."
************
"But, where did she go, Carlita?" Jake asked anxiously.
"I do not know, señor Jake," Carlita admitted. "She has been gone but twenty minutes. She only said she had an errand to run."
Jake nodded absently. Where would she go? He glanced over at Frank. Still no change, although his color had improved immensely. He shrugged; he knew she could take care of herself. "Now, where is this place that I can get cleaned up?"
After he was shown the doctor's changing room, he limped back to the Hummer and rifled through the bags, finding a change of clothes identical to what he was now wearing. He grabbed them and slowly headed back to the changing room.
He showered quickly, wanting to get back to Frank's room. He didn't like leaving him alone. He changed the bandage on his leg, donned his clothes and ran a hand through his wet hair and made it back to Frank's room in fifteen minutes. "What the hell?" he said, seeing a woman with honey-blonde hair sitting on the edge of Frank's bed, holding his hand.
The woman turned her head and winked. "Hey, Shaw. 'Bout time you woke up."
"Fallon!"
"Duh!"
"Your hair."
"Jake, we're going to have to enroll you in speech class if you keep speaking in fragmented sentences," she said, laughing.
He laughed. "Yeah, that was pretty Cody of me," he commented offhandedly.
"Huh?"
He shook his head. "Never mind. How's Frank?"
"Same," she said, sighing as she touched his cheek softly.
Hearing loud voices, they both turned toward the door. Jake peered down the hallway and saw familiar faces. "Cody! Alex! Monica!"
Fallon watched as Jake was smothered with hugs from his teammates. She smiled and squeezed Frank's hand gently. He was lucky to have such a close-knit team. "Wake up, Frank," she pleaded quietly. "Everyone's here for you and we want you to wake up."
"Who's she?" Cody asked Jake, nodding toward the blonde holding Frank's hand.
They all moved closer to hover around the bed. "Everyone, meet Fallon Dumas," Jake announced.
Fallon looked up and they got a good look at her bruised and battered face. Monica inhaled audibly, "Oh, you must be hurting bad."
"Nah, not really. It hardly bothers me anymore," she lied, standing and shaking each of their hands. "Now, who's Cody?" She laughed when Cody made a face. "I'm just kidding! Anyway, I wanted to apologize for being so rude on the phone."
Cody shrugged. "No biggie. It wasn't me your anger was directed at, anyway."
"True," she agreed. "Where is the stupid piss-ant?"
"Right here, Fallon," Renquist said, entering the room.
They watched as Fallon visibly clenched her jaw and gnashed her teeth. Jake had seen that look at Quantico a few times when she was ready to beat the daylights out of their instructors. Without hesitation, she flew at Renquist, landing a punch square on his jaw, knocking him on his ass.
He just stared at her like she had grown another head. "Fallon, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"You stupid sonofabitch," she cursed, ready to lunge at him again, but Jake held her back.
"Fallon, calm down! Now is not the time and it's definitely not the place," Jake cautioned her.
"Jake's right," Alex agreed, taking Fallon's place, sitting on the edge of Frank's bed. "How ya doin', boss?" she asked, placing a hand on his arm.
"Yeah," Cody added. "Don't you think it's time you get your lazy ass out of bed?"
Monica laughed. Good 'ol Cody, trying to goad Donovan into waking up.
"I get the point," Fallon said, relaxing against Jake. "I'll kill him after Donovan wakes up."
Jake laughed. "That's my girl."
************
"Senorita?"
Fallon turned from the window she was gazing out of to see Carlita peeking in the door. "Yes, Carlita?"
"The cook has prepared some tortillas and beans for you and your friends. I will take you to the break room, ¡por favor!?"
"Food!" Cody exclaimed, jumping out of his chair. "I'm starving. No food on the trip down."
Everyone laughed as Cody's stomach rumbled loudly. "We better feed the animal before he goes crazy," Monica commented, taking his arm and leading him from the room. Renquist and Alex followed.
"Not going?" Jake asked Fallon.
She shook her head. "No. The last thing I want is food." She sighed. "What I want is for him to wake up." She resumed her seat on the edge of the bed.
"What's the deal, Fallon? You don't even know him." Although he could tell her concern was genuine, he really didn't understand.
"Geez, Jake. Just because I've only known him a day or so, I shouldn't care if he'll be all right?" Fallon shook her head. "He risked his life for me."
"Yeah, I understand that," Jake said, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I don't get the schoolgirl crush."
"It's not," she said, covering his hand. "I can't explain it."
He nodded and went to sit on the spare bed. "I never thanked you for what you did for me at Quantico," he said out of the blue.
She looked at him with a frown. "I didn't do anything."
"Sure you did...after the three days of seclusion. The beer and pizza that I refused," he reminded her.
She smiled slyly. "Oh, you mean, the offer to have sex?" She laughed. "Yeah...that perked you right up."
"How did you know?" he asked.
"What, that they would throw us into a mock mission after giving us only enough time to fall asleep?" She shrugged. "It was what I would have done in their place, I guess. See how we'd react after a situation like that. Me...I knew I'd be too out of if after an hour of sleep. I wouldn't react well. So...I used you to keep me awake."
Jake laughed. "So...it wasn't that you were unable to resist the charms of Jake Shaw...you were using me."
She smiled. "Something like that. But, I always liked you, so I figured...who better to spend the night with?" She laughed, realizing what she said.
"Well, you still saved my bacon. I wouldn't have reacted well after sleeping for an hour, either. You got my adrenaline flowing again, and it kept me sharp."
She smiled. "So, you were never disappointed that we didn't sleep together...you know...have sex?"
Jake gave her a "you've got to be kidding" look. "Hell yeah, I was! You're a hottie," he admitted.
"I agree," a quiet whisper of a voice chimed in.
"Frank!" they both cried in unison.
He smiled weakly, but didn't reply. He lifted a hand and fingered Fallon's honey locks and arched a brow.
She shrugged and smiled. "It's my natural color," she explained.
"Good to see you awake, boss," Jake said, touching his shoulder. "The gang's all here. I'll go get them."