Emily walked into the base mid-afternoon and tried to ignore the look on the faces that passed her as she headed for her office.
Sonny entered the locker room, slightly hungover. He sat down and put his phone to charge.
"I can't believe she's already back at work," he heard Ray say as he and Eric walked in. "Surely you could have convinced her to take a day or two?"
"Ray, I tried, but you know how stubborn she is and hates to show weakness. If you want to have a go at convincing her then be my guest."
"I get that, but she suffered a minor concussion, has a few cracked ribs, and don't even get me started about the contusions."
Sonny walked out from his cage and looked at the guys.
"Who are we talking about?" he asked curiously.
"Emily," answered Ray.
"What?" said Sonny as his face grew with intense concern.
"She was attacked last night as she was leaving the bar. The guy from the bar came back with two other guys and was waiting for her. When they left, she managed to get to Carl, who called an ambulance and me," said Eric.
Sonny stared into oblivion. It was his fault. He had left to prevent himself from doing something or saying something that could have compromised their relationship and in the end if he had staid, he knew he would have waited for her to leave and none of this would have happened.
"It's all my fault."
Sonny focused again on Eric, as he heard say the words, he felt himself.
"Don't say that," said Ray.
"If I had waited for her to get her car keys back inside the bar, they never would have touched her."
Ray put his hand on Eric's shoulder. "You don't know what would have happened and blaming yourself is not going to change what happened. You were there when it mattered. I doubt she blames you."
'No, she probably blames me', thought Sonny to himself.
"What did the police say?"
"They took her deposition along with Carl's and mine. They may actually reach out to all of you as witnesses to what happened with the guy at the bar. Carl's passed them the surveillance camera recordings. Hopefully, they'll get them."
"Don't worry, we'll tell them what happened and technically none of us have a reason to worry. I still think she should go home or maybe even at our house where Naima can keep an eye on her."
As the two continued to talk, Sonny eclipsed himself and headed towards the offices. When he reached her office, without even thinking about anything else, he walked inside, closed the door, locked it behind him and closed the blinds. When he turned around, she had stood from her chair.
She looked terrible. Her left eye had a bruise, she had scrapes over her face and neck, and her upper lip was swollen.
She looked at him.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I should have been there."
"You left." She said in a hurt tone. "You didn't answer my call or my texts."
"I know and I'm sorry. I was so wound up after what that guy had done and said that I was afraid to make a mistake and everyone would find out about us, so close to the end. I thought I was doing the right, but in the end, I guess it ended being worse."
He walked to her. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
"Yes, it will."
He looked at her nervously.
"If I take out the fact that I got beaten up, your reaction was honorable. I know Eric and Clay had to hold you back. I know you wanted to defend me and my honor, and I don't ever want you to stop doing that. It's not your fault, it's no ones fault. I just happened and it's over."
He felt relieved yet he felt he didn't deserve for her to let him off the hook so easily.
"Just so you know, I didn't go down the street, just in case you thought I had."
"Ok," she said simply, relieved but she didn't want him to think that she had doubted him. He had told her months back that he would never go back and till the previous night, she had trusted him.
He placed himself in front of her and let his fingers trail on her face. "I don't need to. You are the only woman I want in my life. I love you."
There. He had said it, and he meant it with all his heart.
She smiled at him. "I love you too."
"Really?" he said. "Because I don't want you to think that just because I said it first that you need to say it back."
She pulled him in and kissed him passionately.
For the space of a minute, they almost forgot where they where and he even started to lift her shirt. As he pulled her in tighter against him, she winced through their heated kissing. He broke the kiss, stepped back, and lifted her shirt a bit higher. The scene he saw, sent his blood boiling and he prayed that he was never in front of those guys. She had huge bruises on both flanks and one on her rib cage.
She placed her hand over his and lowered her shirt. "It'll heal, like all the rest," she said. "Why don't you and I pick this up when we're out of here?"
He smiled. "Only if you let me take care of you tonight and come over my place."
"OK."
He kissed her one last time, reopened the blinds, hoping no one noticed they had been closed, and headed for the door.
"I'll see you later," he said as he opened it.
"I'll talk to college pool necklace."
Sonny stopped and stepped back in the room. "What did you just say?"
Emily looked at him. She placed a hand on the side of her head. "I'll jam powder," she paused for a second. "link f…."
Her eyes grew big with fear as Sonny reached her. "Not…go.. ood."
"It's OK. I've got you," he said as he lifted her and carried her to the middle of the room. He placed her on the floor. He didn't know much about medicine, but he knew enough to know that she was probably having a stroke.
He walked out of the room and yelled out to two soldiers down the hall. "Get me a medic and an ambulance now!"
He returned inside, grabbed a cushion from the sofa, put it under Emily's head, and placed her on her side. She was still mumbling words that made no sense, her eyes kept searching his as he grabbed her hand. "I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere. You're going to be OK."
With his other hand, he grabbed his phone and dialed Ray's number.
Ray looked at his phone as he and Eric were still discussing and putting the other guys up to date on what had happened to Emily.
"Hey Sonny man, where'd you go off to?"
"You need to get Eric here now!"
Ray put his hand up to silence the guys. "What's going on? Where are you?"
"Emily's office. Hurry!"
Ray put the phone down and looked at Eric. "It's Emily. Something's wrong."
Eric dropped his clipboard and rushed out the room, the others following behind.
When they reached Emily's office there was a crowd of people amassed in front of the door. Eric pushed through the crowd as he excused himself. He arrived at the same time as Lindell. Both were greeted by Sonny, who against his will, had had no choice but to leave her side as the paramedics worked on her.
"What happened?" asked Eric.
"I came to check on her. She was fine then as I was leaving, she started rambling incoherent words. She grabbed the side of her head. They think it's a stroke."
The paramedics pushed the gurney toward the door.
"I'm her brother, can I come with you in the ambulance?"
"We need space to work on her, you can meet us at Portsmouth."
Eric nodded as he bent over Emily. "Everything is going to be OK."
Eric followed the paramedics, and everyone stepped aside as they rolled the gurney out of the office.
"I'll drive you," said Ray as he met up with Eric.
They headed off and Lindell looked at the rest of Bravo team that had regrouped.
"Your Commander will need all the support he can get. You should go."
"Yes, Sir," said Jason as he nodded.
