Chapter 17: The life you save

Falluja fell. Every ISIS soldier fought to the bitter end, none going down without a fight, no matter how fruitless. When it was over, the Army, Navy and Marines stood together as they raised a flag post in a display reminiscent of February 23rd, 1945 at Iwo Jima. The dead were gathered, American servicemen being handled like fine china while ISIS soldiers were piled into dump trucks. Those with minor wounds were treated on sight while those with serious injuries, like Richard, were stabilized and transported to the hospital back on base.

Richard's left eye opened slightly, his right eye seemingly stuck closed. He felt weak, barely able to lift his arms or legs, he could tell he was on his back on a soft surface but he could barely move. Minutes passed, he now had both eyes open but still felt like a newborn puppy, "Fuck... What the hell?" He muttered slowly and quietly.

Richard heard movement to his right, he turned his head to see a woman had just walked into the room, a nurse judging by her attire. "Finally awake?" She said.

"Wh-... Where am I?" Richard asked, nearly losing his breath.

"You're in the hospital... You've been out for quite a while, some of us were wondering if you were every going to wake up" the woman explained.

Richard turned his head back to face the ceiling, the weak feeling was in some ways worse than pain, like having an itch you can't reach. "How long?"

The nurse turned to the sink and began washing her hands. "How long have you been out? Eleven days."

"What?" Richard said in disbelief.

"Yeah... You were in real bad shape when you got here, we almost lost you, had to do an emergency blood transfusion to keep your body functioning" she said.

Instead of a clearer picture being painted, Richard only seemed to be getting more confused. "What?" He couldn't think of anything else to say.

"You lost damn near three pints of blood..." She said as she walked over to the bed, "that bullet almost completely severed your artery, you were losing blood in waterfalls... Your body started to shut down and we had to stop your heart just to get the bleeding under control."

Richard choked up in surprise "stopped my heart?!"

"Your heart was going to stop one way or another..." The nurse said, checking Richard's pulse, "may as well do it the way that might keep you alive." Richard took a deep breath, unsure what to think. "Pulse is good..." She said as she turned her attention to the machines behind the bed.

"What about Falluja?" Richard asked, "please tell me their pulse isn't good."

The nurse turned to Richard with a smug expression. "They don't have a pulse."

"We won?" Richard asked, looking back at the woman.

She nodded, "you won, the war is over... It's time for you to rest" she turned to leave. As she exited the room she turned to her left and looked down. Richard heard a female voice but couldn't make out what it was saying. "He is, you can go in but he's very weak."

"Thank you" Richard heard the other woman say as the nurse left. He saw a person in a wheelchair wheel themselves into the room, it took a moment, but he could see that it was the pilot from their failed mission weeks ago. "Hey" she said with a smile.

Richard hesitated, he'd never been so unsure of himself in his life as he was now. "Uh... Hey..." He said, almost asking.

She wheeled herself next to the bed, her right side next to his. They stared at each other for several seconds before she spoke again, "I guess I should introduce myself... Rachael Roth, I'm the girl from the helicopter."

Richard blinked, "That ambush... You were our air support."

Rachael nodded, "that mission went about as badly as can be... I should be dead... And I would be if it wasn't for you."

Richard swallowed, remembering the night in question, seeing the helicopter go down, finding the two women, keeping the incoming enemies at bay... War is hell, but that night was a different animal. "You go us out first."

"That's what we were there for... But why didn't you call us as soon as you got pinned down?" Rachael asked.

"Our communications got knocked out, though at the time I didn't know that, I didn't figure it out until after I saw you go down and went after you" Richard explained.

Rachael sighed, "why did you go after us? That was a suicide mission."

"We don't leave people behind." Rachael turned her eyes in thought, wondering if she would have done the same. "I just wish I could have helped your partner."

Rachael swallowed and choked slightly, remembering Karen. "Yup" she meeped.

The grief she was showing was so obvious a blind and deaf person could sense it. "You and she were close?" Richard asked, knowing the answer.

Rachael nodded, knowing she couldn't speak without her voice cracking up. She took a few deep breaths, pulling herself together. "Her parents came to visit me after I woke up... I can't imagine what they're going through, and to fly half way across the world just to visit me..."

"You're part of the family" Richard interrupted.

Rachael turned her eyes back to Richard, "I guess."

There was a long pause, Richard noticed her left leg was in a cast. "Your leg was broken really bad..."

Rachael looked down, "actually, it wasn't broken as bad as it looked, the break was clean, all the doctors had to do was realign it and put a cast on... Just need to wait until the bones fuse back together."

"And what about the gunshots?"

Rachael diverted her eyes again, becoming visibly upset. "The one to my chest severed all the tendons to my right arm... Those have healed, but the one to my stomach..." She choked up.

Richard was a bit lost, he couldn't think of what a shot to the abdomen would do short of blood loss as there were no vital organs where she got hit. "What happened?"

Rachael sniffed up and cleared her throat, "the doctors think I won't be able to have children" she spat out, struggling to hold back tears.

Richard's heart dropped, a feeling he rarely got before and never because of something that didn't directly affect him. "I-I'm sorry..."

A tear escaped Rachael's left eye, she wiped it away as she sniffed up, taking deep breaths again. It took longer for her to put her head back on straight this time. "What about you? You got hit in the leg?"

Richard turned his head back to the ceiling, "I just found out myself... Got hit in the left thigh, I guess it nicked an artery or severed an artery or something, lost a lot of blood... Supposedly I was out for eleven days."

Rachael nodded slowly, "I woke up four days ago, had surgery to fix my arm... My dad told me about you and I saw the report..." Richard turned back to find Rachael looking right at him with an expression of both sadness and thankfulness. She placed her hand on Richard's, "thank you Chief... For saving my life."

Richard looked down at their hands, he felt pride but a different kind of pride, not like when he had rescued hostages or gotten one of his colleagues out of a jam. He couldn't explain it, it just felt different.

"Am I interrupting something?" A familiar male voice said.

Richard and Rachael looked to the doorway to find Victor standing in it. "Master Chief" Richard said.

"Glad to see you're awake Chief, nurse tells me you're going to be weak for a good while though, something about bone marrow needing to regenerate or something" Victor said, walking into the room.

"Or something" Richard said.

"You must be Corporal Rachael Roth..." Victor said, standing by the table, "I'm glad to see you're recovering nicely."

"Pleased to meet you sir" Rachael said. They didn't seem to know each other, which Richard found strange given the exchange he witnessed between Victor and Travis.

"You two have never met?" He asked.

Rachael looked at him, confused, Victor spoke. "No... No we haven't, but I've known about you for a long time Rachael."

Rachael looked back at Victor, even more confused. "How?"

"I met your father about thirteen years or so ago, we worked together a lot" Victor explained.

"And he never had you over? He's had a lot of his military friends over" Rachael informed.

"I was invited more than once... Just always happened to be a bad time unfortunately..." Victor began, "but I was here for something else... Well actually that something else wasn't even you Rich, but I always ask about my men when I'm here."

"Glad to know I'm at the top of your priority list Vic..." Richard said with a smile, he knew how it was.

Victor smiled, "I do have good news for you though, you're going to like it... You've been recommended for the Medal of Honor." Rachael's eyes went wide as she looked back at Richard.

After a pause, Richard asked, "why?"

"For bringing Corporal Roth home, what you did that night was far and away the bravest thing I've ever seen anybody do in my entire career..." He turned to Rachael, "and it wasn't for nothing."

"Wow..." Rachael said, her eyes still wide.

Richard turned to the ceiling once again, the emotions were overwhelming, relief, pride, guilt, confusion... He didn't know what to say. "Thank you sir..." He eked out, feeling it as being far less than adequate. After a long pause of awkward silence he thought of a question. "What happened to Roy, O'Malley and the Marines?"

Victor's smiled disappeared instantly and he took a step back. "You mean in the kitchen?"

"Yeah."

Victor cleared his throat. "I read Sergeant Monetti's report as well as the findings from others... Um..." He paused, not wanting to break the news. "Rich I... I hate to say it but... Roy and O'Malley... And the Marines... They didn't make it."