Chapter 19

The Sterile Room

Miley closed her eyes and let Cody pull her into Maggie's room. Cody stopped and looked over at Miley.

"You can open your eyes now."

Miley inhaled sharply with surprise as she took in Maggie's room. She first noticed the glass wall that divided the room into two parts. This side of the wall was set up like a family room. Chairs to sit in, a table to eat at, a TV to watch, and what must be a pull out sleeper sofa. On the other side of the glass wall was a bed. There was a nurse over there in scrubs and a mask. She was helping someone in the bed. Duh! That was Maggie. Maggie lay back down and the nurse wiped off her mouth. Then she carried a basin to the restroom that was on that side of the wall. Maggie turned back to her mom who had her arms in gloves that went into the other room and took her daughter's hand.

"Miley?"

Miley turn her head to the weak electronic sound of her name. Maggie had her arm up and was reaching out for Miley. Miley walked over to the bed. Sara took her arms out of the gloves. Miley stood there and looked at the cold impersonal gloves she was supposed to touch and comfort Maggie with. She felt the past forcing itself on her again. But she quickly used a calming technique that Frank had taught her and she was able to put a wall up at least. How long the wall would hold the flood back, she couldn't tell. Smiling, Miley put her hands into the gloves and pushed them through the glass wall and took Maggie's hand into hers.

"How you doing, sis?" Miley asked.

"I've been better. But I think I can still make the concert Saturday."

Maggie laughed at her joke. Miley did too.

"I'm scared."

"I'm here. Things have always worked out when we're together."

"Hey, guess what?"

"It's raining outside?" Maggie laughed.

"I should be able to sing your song Saturday."

"Really? You'll have it ready?"

"It should be ready for me to sing tomorrow. Right, Daddy?"

"That's right, bud."

Robbie looked sideways at Carey. Carey got the message.

"Where are Lilly and Oliver?"

"We had more work to do on the leukemia fundraiser. We decided that I should come here and they would do the collecting."

"What about Jackson?"

"He has a big workout schedule today."

"So he's at the school?" Maddie asked with interest.

"Yeah, he and Cooper. They're working with the high school volleyball coach."

"So they're at the high school?"

"Maddie, it's okay if you go." Maggie told her with a smile.

"Thanks, Maggie. I'll stop by tomorrow." With that, Maddie grabbed her stuff and started to leave.

"Wait a minute. How am I going to get there?"

"The limo's down in the parking lot. I'll have him meet you at the front door," Robbie told Maddie as he got out his cell phone.

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Maggie became very sick again about an hour later. Robbie was watching Miley starting to lose control again and decided that this would be a good time to leave. Besides that, she just might have homework to do too. Plus Miley had just given him homework to do. Miley may not have known it, but he just got the royalty papers signed today. With the papers signed, they could get started on the song. But they were no way close to being ready for Saturday. But if Carey could help him, then maybe. Just maybe.

The limo had been back for a half an hour now and they took it home. When Miley got home, she went straight to the phone and called someone.

"Can I come over……….No, my homework isn't done………Yes I know homework comes first………If I get my homework done, will you come and get me………Say, one hour. Please………Thanks………Yes you can check my homework. It will be done. Bye."

Miley put the phone down, grabbed her backpack and ran up to her room without another word. Everyone just stood there looking at where Miley had been. Then they all look at Robbie.

"Don't look at me. I don't know what's going on. Other than she is working on her homework. Carey, can I have a word with you?"

Robbie led her into the kitchen.

"What's up, Robbie?"

"Miley just made a promise that I may not be able to keep."

"The song?"

"Yep. I just got the royalty papers signed today, so I can get started on the song. The only problem is I haven't started yet. I was wondering if you could help me with arranging the music?"

"I'd be glad to help you with the music, Robbie."

"Great! First I think I'll arrange supper and then we can get started on the music."

"What about Miley?"

"Well, judging from what we heard, there are only two people that she could have called. One being Lilly's mom. The other being Frank West."

"Who is Frank West?"

"Frank is an ex-navy Seal. He came on to Miley's security detail when Hannah had a stalker."

"I remember that story. They caught him in a police chase, right?"

"No."

"No?"

"He actually got his hands on her. But Frank was undercover as a student and her partner for the dance and was able to stop him. : sigh : Miley had just found out that Frank was really a bodyguard for her. : laughing : She tried to kiss him at the dance."

"And when he told her the truth…"

"She ran out of the school. The stalker was waiting for her outside the school and grabbed her. Luckily, Frank was right behind her. They got into a fight and Frank was hurt. Before Frank passed out, he flipped the stalker. The stalker hit his head on a rock and has been in a coma ever since."

"Wow."

"Since then, Frank has been teaching Miley, Lilly and Oliver situational awareness and escape self-defense. I hear the last test he ran on them he got a bad dose of pepper spray."

"What do you mean, ran a test?"

"He tries to surprise them out on the streets. If they are practicing their situational awareness, then they see him and take the appropriate action to avoid him before he can attack. If not, then he's taught them some martial arts they can use to get away."

"Well, what ideas did you have for the song?"

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Miley worked feverishly on her homework. She had set her alarm to go off in an hour. She was just putting the last math answer on the paper when the alarm went off. Quickly she put her schoolwork away but then stopped. Frank was going to want to check it before they left. Sometimes Frank could be three times as worse with doing homework than her dad could ever be. So she went to her closet and packed her workout clothes in her bag and watched out the window for Frank to come.

Miley was staring out at the waves when there was a small knock on the door and Frank came in.

"When did you get here?" Miley asked. The reason she was sitting at the window in the first place was to watch for Frank to come. I must have zoned out watching the waves.

"About ten minutes ago."

"Oh. I take it you already talked to dad?"

"Yes I have. So is your homework done?"

"It's on the desk." Frank walked over to the desk to give the work a quick look. Miley held her breath. She knew that Frank could do a lot of her math homework in his head because his life actually depended on it when he was a Seal.

"Okay. Now what?" Miley let her breath out.

"I want to go work out."

"Are you sure you're ready to work out?"

"Yes." Miley ignored the real question.

"Right. Get your bag and let's go."

Miley let out her second breath that she was holding, grabbed her bag and followed Frank downstairs. Once downstairs, Frank called out to Robbie.

"Robbie, we're leaving now. I'll have Miley back in two hours."

"Where you going, bud?"

"I want to work out."

"Okay." Robbie looked at Frank. Frank shook his head. Robbie nodded.

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Frank decided to let Miley lead the conversation. So he drove in silence to the gym on the navel base. Frank had been bringing the kids here long enough that they had become regulars. Miley even had made friends with a few of the service personnel. Once she was changed into her sweat pants and t-shirt, she went out to the gym to stretch. Frank soon joined her and started to loosen up as well. As Frank loosened up he decided to see just how much she was hurting mentally. The best way to do that was to start with the basics. If she couldn't do them well, she had been doing them very well for the past month and half, then he was going to have to find a way into her mind. Hopefully, with their past, Miley would be more willing to open up about what was bothering her.

"Miley, you've been doing these falls for over a month now. Concentrate."

But yet with another throw, she had another wrong landing.

"Okay Miley, what is it?"

"What's what?"

Frank gave her 'the look' as the kids like to call it. Miley thought about telling Frank. After all, Frank had lost friends over in Iraq. He had the scars to prove it too. He also had the scar that proved he would give his life without thought to save her life. She looked up at Frank and he still had 'the look' and was watching her figure things out.

"You win." Miley said as she got up off the floor and walked to the wall. Frank followed. When Miley got to the wall, she sat on the floor with her back to the wall and crossed her legs. Frank sat down next to her. He decided not to pressure her so he looked straight ahead and waited for her to start talking. Miley made several attempts at talking before she found her voice.

"How do you handle watching your friends die?"

"Dying is a part of life Miley. Someday, everyone is going to die."

"But it's not fair. Why do people have to die before their time?"

"Well that's the paradox Miley. People die when it's their time. The problem is that we, the living, don't approve of that time frame."

"Does it ever stop hurting?"

"Yes and no."

"That helps."

"Well, it's not that easy to explain, Miley. Do I miss my friends? Yes, I do. Do I cry for them? Yes, I do. Do I let it rule my life? No."

They were quiet. Frank was letting her lead the conversation. Miley looked over at Frank in the silence. He had his legs pulled up and his arms resting on his knees. With his arms stretched out like that, Miley could see the scars on his back.

"Could you tell me how you got hurt?" Miley asked in a small, scared voice. She was afraid that she might have crossed a line that she shouldn't have. Frank was silent for a while before he started to tell her.

"It happen just before we took Baghdad. My Seal team was assigned the job of securing a bridge on the Tigris River north of Baghdad. We needed this bridge for part of the two-prong attack that we were planning. Anyways, we approached from the water. What we didn't know at the time was that there was an enemy unit pulling back along the same bridge we were supposed to take. We walked right into them. There was a fierce firefight that followed. Both sides were surprised. We recovered from being surprised first. That helped us because we were on the low ground and they were on the bridge. In the end, we took the bridge." Frank stopped and it looked to Miley that he was trying to turn the images off in his mind.

"During the fight, my partner and I had to swim across the river so that we could attack from the other side of the bridge. Well, the commander of the enemy troops had thought about that happening and had put some soldiers on that end of the bridge. When we started to come out of the water, they dropped grenades on us. Sam was hit harder than I was. I was able to get a grenade thrown up at them. After that, all I could do was finish pulling Sam out of the water and hold him as the life seeped out of his body." After revealing that to Miley, Frank fell silent. Miley looked over at Frank. Frank was looking at his hands as if they were still stained with Sam's blood. Then Miley looked at the network of scars she could see on Frank's back knowing that there were even more under the tank top.

"I'm sorry. How do you deal with that everyday?"

Frank turned and took both of Miley's hands into his. He knew that this was probably at the root of her problem with Maggie and probably her mom too.

"The first thing you do is not to feel guilty because you're alive and they're not." On hearing this, tears started to flow unchecked down Miley's face. Frank reached over and pulled Miley to his shoulder.

"That's one of the first steps of getting through your grief. Tell you what, Miley. Let's get cleaned up and then we can go back to my house. I have a book there called The Thirteen Steps of Grieving. The navy had me go through a grieving class that used this book. I'll let you borrow it." With that Frank stood up and helped Miley up. Miley hugged Frank and went off to the locker room to change.