Joran heard the door to the house fly open and slam against the back wall. He jumped up off the floor where he'd been sleeping since Steve's arrival. His heart pounding, praying it was American soldiers and not the other. The room was dark except for a faint candle they kept by Steve's bed for when he woke up at night so Marna could tend to him.
He saw two men come at him in full gear with helmets on and night vision goggles over their eyes, weapons drawn.
"Get on the ground!" One ordered him; speaking in English but Joran knew what he wanted.
He held his hands up and knelt down on the ground, pointing toward the back room as Marna and Anai stood next to Steve, huddling each other, both fearing the same thing as Joran but relieved when they heard the American words being spoken.
Sean's CO, Bruce came in the house and scanned the room, followed behind by Sean. He held a light that he set down on the table, which illuminated the whole place. They both made their way to the other room of the tiny house as the three other soldiers stood guard as well as another six outside.
Sean looked at Marna and Anai as they hugged each other tightly. He stood over the bed, looking down at a man who stared up at him with tired, weak eyes, unaffected by the chaos and who's over grown beard hid most of his sickly looking complexion, but Sean knew in a second it was him. He looked like hell but he was alive.
He knelt down next to him, swallowing down the lump in his throat. "Hey Buddy, you look like shit. You want to go home?"
Steve continued to stare at him, not sure if what he was seeing was a dream or reality. All this time he had thought for sure Sean was dead too. "Sean," he whispered hoarsely. "I thought I saw you die." He tried to reach up to see if he was real, but the smile that erupted on the face of his friend told him he was.
He put a hand on Steve's forehead, laying his hand back on the bed. "Don't move. We got a lot of catching up to do. I put those beers back on ice for your homecoming."
Steve smiled and laughed through his tears of joy over seeing him. "I could use a beer, and some pain killers," he grinned.
Bruce leaned over Sean's shoulder. "Hey Steve. Good to see you buddy. We got a bird coming in and some good meds waiting for ya." He motioned for the medics, who came inside.
"He needs a shot of pain killers," Sean said standing up and moving away from the bed. He cringed as they took the blanket off of him, seeing the bruises and broken leg wrapped in mud. In just the small amount of time he'd been gone he'd already lost enough weight to make it noticeable. He looked over at Marna and Anai who both smiled as they gave him a shot, knowing he was getting the medicine he needed.
Steve didn't feel the needle over the pain that had become constant and at times unbearable, but he did feel the solution as it moved through his body giving him that relief he'd been praying for for days.
"Oh my God," he moaned, his eyes becoming droopy. "Nice. It feels nice."
Both medics smiled at each other as they began to administer first aid in the form of an IV.
They all heard the sound of a helicopter landing outside.
Steve looked over at Anai as she stood in the corner with Marna. "Anai," he said reaching out to her, feeling only a slight discomfort that would have normally engulfed him by this point with agony.
She slowly made her way over to him, taking his hand. "You will get all better now," she said to him.
"You have to come with Me." He looked up at Sean as they slid him from the bed to the stretcher with the blanket he was lying on. "They have to come with us."
"Steve," Sean said, laughing him off. "That's impossible. We can't bring them back to the base with us." He attributed this crazy idea to the drugs they had just loaded into him.
"Yes they are!" he demanded. "They're coming with us. We can't leave them here." He held tightly onto Anai's hand as they picked up the stretcher. "They're going to come for her. They can't stay here. They're in danger!"
"Steve," Bruce jumped in. "We can't bring them."
He held firm to the little girl. "I'm not going without them!" he shouted, as they tried to pull her away tipping the stretcher.
"Steve!" Sean said reaching out for him at the same time that Joran did.
Joran laid him back down with his hands on his shoulders. "I will take care of my family," he said in Dari.
"No," Steve said shaking his head. "I won't leave you here."
Marna moved to his side. "You need to go now, we will be all right." She smiled that same calming smile that he'd seen a hundred times over the past week, especially late at night as he lie there suffering. "We will never let any harm come to Anai."
"I can't," he whimpered, feeling more helpless now than he ever had.
She took his hand and pulled Anai's out of his grip.
The little girl backed away staring at him, knowing she'd never see him again.
Joran motioned for them to go.
"Wait," Steve said reaching out for Sean's arm, "Goddamnit stop! I can't leave them here. Please Sean," he begged him as they walked him out to the waiting helicopter.
"We have to go, Steve. I'm sorry." He knew what these people had done for him and the loyalty he felt to them now. His whole life and the people he cared about more than anyone else were the ones that were loyal to him, so he knew more than anyone else that this was killing him, having to leave them behind knowing they might be in danger.
Once outside they rushed him to the helicopter.
"Wait!" Anai yelled running after them.
Sean held back one of the guys as he went to block her path.
She ran up to the side of the Steve's stretcher and put the book she had read him so many time on his chest. He put his hand over it, fighting back the tears as she leaned down and kissed his cheek.
"Michelle will be so happy to see you."
He lost it then as they slid him inside, recalling how both she and Michelle had pulled him back from giving up on life that night. "I'll be back for you Anai. I promise!" he shouted out, seeing her standing there as they shut the doors.
Sean sat in a seat at Steve's feet watching him turn his head away but still seeing all the emotion that he was dealing with at the moment. He tapped one of the medics on the shoulder and leaned into him. "Give him something to knock him out."
The man looked up at him and then down at Steve, seeing the same thing he was and after witnessing what they all just did, he knew it was a request to put him out of his misery, at least for a while. He motioned to his partner as he added something to Steve's IV.
Sean watched his face go expressionless and then in a matter of seconds he was out cold. He was glad to have him back, but knew him and knew this was going to be a long recovery in more ways than one. He recalled a time almost a year earlier when he himself had been shot at on a flight and the pilot who was a buddy of he and Steve's had been hit. He had to fly the helicopter back to the base with the corpse sitting next to him, repeatedly staring at the photo of the dead man's wife and kids that he kept on the dash. The trauma from that was agonizing, but if it wasn't for Steve, he was sure he never would have flown again. He got him back on his feet, and he'd do the same for him.
He watched the medics care for him the best they could in the small compartment, thinking about what the little girl had said to him. He wasn't as fluent in Dari as Steve was, but being in that part of the world for so long, he picked up enough to understand. He wondered if Michelle was the name of the mystery girl he'd been trying to get out of Steve on the day of the crash? Wondering if she knew of his fate or of his recovery.
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Michelle closed and taped the last box that was sitting on her bed, looking at the time on her new cell phone. Her CO had been by the day before and collected her phone that was property of the Navy and her security badges that had been turned off a week earlier. She sighed loudly and groaned, knowing she was going to be late to her last psych meeting before her formal discharge took effect the following day. She hadn't changed her mind about re-enlisting but her CO made psych mandatory in order for him to sign off on her early discharge. She'd been too overly emotional out of the blue for him to ignore the situation and he felt it was the Navy's duty, as well as his own to give her the help she needed, if she wanted it.
She talked a little in the meetings but never mentioned Steve by name. He was gone and she didn't want anything to afflict his career or leave any kind of negative mark on his record, knowing their affair could have been damaging to him. It didn't matter anymore what the Navy thought of her. She was out and not a moment too soon. Everyday since that incident she'd wanted nothing more than to just get away, as far away as possible from this place and the heartache that wasn't healing by any means. He consumed her thoughts, and just when she didn't think she had anymore tears to shed, she would recall a feeling or something he had said, and she'd be right back in the middle of the nightmare, or worse yet, she would wake from one after dreaming of his death.
Her cell phone rang and she glanced down at her mother's number. She ignored it for now, dreading the decision to go home, but it had been almost three years since she'd seen her and it was time. She also knew the new house she was living in was going to be big enough that she could escape from her if she had too.
She had a trust left over from her father and her Uncle Greg that she'd never touched. It could afford her a new beginning anywhere she desired. She even considered Hawaii, but knew that would be a decision she would later regret; knowing the memories of Steve would just haunt her there. The same was for Thailand; she had loved that city as much as he had, but going back there would never be an option.
She just needed some time to get over him before she ventured out into a life that she had no idea where it was going to lead her, but the one thing she didn't even consider in her unknown future was a partner or a family. At the moment it just seemed impossible without him as the leading man, wondering if she could ever find anyone that would live up to him.
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The monitor above Steve's head held a steady heartbeat and the IV in his arm had a constant drip, feeding him intravenously as he lay motionless.
Sean came down the row of beds, stopping at Steve's as he held a hand up to a nurse that was seated at the end of the row behind a small desk with a computer monitor in front of her. "How's our boy doing today?"
"Fine," she smiled. "He stirred twice already today. You might get lucky."
She didn't bother getting up, knowing he was just going to sit with him like he'd done everyday since Steve's arrival three days earlier. He'd yet to wake up to a full conscious state longer than a couple of seconds and not once had that happened while Sean had been around.
He took the seat on the stool next the bed and turned his IPad on to pass the time. He glanced over at him, seeing more color return to his face. He seemed to be getting better each day, but the trauma that had inflicted him was worse off than first thought once they got him back to base and in the infirmary. He'd had two broken ribs and a hairline laceration on his kidney, which they operated on immediately. The timeline of his rescue was critical as the doctor explained to them afterward. Another day with that injury, two at the most and he would have died. His left wrist was also broken, which now housed a cast, including the left leg that had been re-set by Marna and Joran. The doctor also inquired into that, stating if it hadn't been done correctly that an infection could have easily set in and either killed him or cost him his leg for certain. He praised whomever the person was that set it and then had the notion to keep it firm in the mud pack. He admitted when he first took off the primitive cast he was certain it would be disastrous, but was pleased over the outcome.
Sean had reached out to Steve's Dad , letting him know of his accident, but playing down the injuries, knowing he couldn't be there to help and being so far away would only worry him more. It was a pact he and Steve had made to each other if the occasion had ever come about. He used words like de-briefing and temporary isolation for the reason there was no communication from him. Assuring his Dad he was making a full recovery and telling him that Steve said not to worry.
He looked up from an email he was writing to his Mother, feeling the reality of Steve's situation and how close he came to his own death, escaping the helicopter almost completely unscathed. He was the only son amongst three daughters and his Mom had always been his confidante growing up. They had great talks and he missed her, more so lately. He spent the next hour writing her and catching up on other ones as well, and just as he was about to put this visit to rest he saw movement.
He glanced down at Steve as he slowly opened his eyes, focusing on him.
He set down the IPad and leaned over resting his arms on the steel bars. "Hey, wake up," he said to him. "I've been sitting here for three fricking days. I'm starting to feel like a needy chick. Talk to me."
Steve stared up at him with a confused expression and then turned his head, getting familiar with his surroundings. "What time is it?" he asked groggy.
"Why? You got somewhere to go?" Sean chuckled.
He went to sit up and Sean reached over, holding him down.
"Why are you always in such a hurry to go somewhere? Relax, will ya."
He laid his head back in the soft pillow. "What day is it? How long have I been here?"
"Three days."
Steve reached out for him with his broken hand. "Go get me Admiral Hicks!" He looked down at the cast on his arm as if seeing it for the first time.
Sean motioned for the nurse as he tried to get up again.
"Sean," he pleaded, "go get Hicks!"
"Steve, Admiral Hicks is in Texas, remember. We're in Afghanistan."
He went to sit up again as the nurse joined them on the opposite side of Sean.
"Commander, please lay back," she demanded respectfully but with a rigid tone. "You're going to rip those staples."
"I have to get Anai." He grabbed the side of the bars on his bed with his right hand, trying to pull himself up.
"Shit!" Sean growled, as the nurse quickly ran off to the medical supply room. He ran around the other side of the bed and tried to pull his hand off the bar. "Goddamnit Steve! Lay down!"
"I'm going to back," he mumbled.
"You don't have to," Sean tried to explain. "She's fine. We got the HCR involved. They went in with a team and got them out." He bent down getting his attention and making eye contact with him. "Listen to me! She's in Turkey right now. Do you hear me?"
The nurse came up behind him and swiped an alcohol swab on Steve's arm and then stuck a needle in.
His body almost instantly succumbed to the medication as Sean and the nurse both laid him back on the bed.
"Turkey?" he muttered.
"Yes! You idiot! She's safe and sound. You think they were going to let a family that saved a United States decorated Navy Seal die?"
Steve only heard the safe and sound as he closed his eyes, hearing Anai's voice as she spoke the words to him. "Michelle wants to see you," he murmured. "She's waiting for me."
Sean watched a smile curve on the corner of his mouth as he drifted off, wondering again who this Michelle was and why Steve would tell him she was waiting for him. He didn't even know anyone named Michelle. "Who is Michelle?" he asked the nurse, wondering if someone was coming to see him by that name.
She shook her head. "I don't know," she huffed, "he's on a lot of medication right now though, so he could be talking about someone from ten years ago."
He sat back down on the stool, "Yea, maybe." but had an idea it was more than that.
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Steve woke up alone in the dimly lit room, scanning his surrounding's, knowing he was in the infirmary back at base. There was a light at the end of the room and he saw a male sitting behind a desk at a computer. He looked to the other side and saw empty beds. His body felt heavy as he lifted his head and looked down at the cast on his lower leg that was propped up on a pillow and then the one on his left wrist that was also resting on a smaller pillow. He knew he was in bad shape, barely recalling speaking to a doctor about his injuries, knowing he had surgery but couldn't remember what for.
He laid his head back on the bed and also recalled a sketchy conversation with Sean, hearing him say Anai was safe. He felt relived over that but wouldn't be completely satisfied until he knew for sure. Until then he could only pray that the little girl who had saved his life really was safe in Turkey.
His thoughts then went to Michelle. He'd done a lot of thinking about her while lying in that bed close to death. She had been like a godsend to him, not sure he would have made it through some of those days without her image to focus on, or the knowledge of her waiting for him. He smiled then, thinking about the letter that should have arrived by now. Words from her even on paper would be a blessing. He had no idea where his cell phone was with her number inside, knowing he couldn't call her. He also had no real idea exactly how long he'd been gone, but knew it was over a week, maybe two. He wondered if she were worried about him, knowing he'd be going out of his mind if the tables were turned and she'd left on a mission and he hadn't heard from her. She would have called his phone, he was sure of that. He suddenly felt an urgency to get his things back and get that letter that he so desperately wanted to read. He thought about his own, having the words in his head, still knowing exactly what he wanted to say. The feelings he felt in the airport in those last moments with her hadn't faded, if anything they'd grown stronger, feeling more convinced than ever now that she was exactly what he'd been missing in his life. It was so crystal clear, and just as when he laid in bed at Joran's thinking of her, that euphoric rush swept over him giving him peace unlike any medication that was known to man.
He simply loved her.