Author's Note: This story is wrapping itself up. Only one more update after this one and our team will be home. Once again thanks for the reviews and follows. I'm glad everyone is enjoying the tale.
Dalton's POV
I was watching Jaz closely and I saw McG doing the same. She clearly wasn't going to say anything but I could tell she was in excruciating pain. Tension showed in every line of her body and Preach knew she hurt. He'd lengthened his stride a while back to make his walk more of a rolling wave for her. Less impact. We weren't even two full hours into a twelve hour walk and it was clear this wasn't going well. Unfortunately, we were limited in what we could do for her.
McG and I were guarding their backs, and keeping an eye on Jaz's condition, while Amir scouted ahead. We were all counting down the thirty minutes until Jaz could safely have more pain medication. The plan had originally been just to medicate her on the go but it was clear that she needed a break. I notified Command of the same letting them know we were going to take a one hour stop. I hoped it would be enough time for her pain medication to be fully in effect.
I watched as McG caught up to Preach and pointed out a small grouping of trees ahead. Preach changed course and I notified Amir to hold his position. Once we were in relative cover, McG unwrapped Jaz from Preach's back and she all but fell into my arms. She pressed her face to my neck. There was no doubt she had a raging fever now. I slowly kneeled down and placed her on the ground so McG could get a good look at her. She was pale and her skin glistened with perspiration in the moonlight. McG was frowning as he took her vitals. I watched him pull her sweater and shirt up so he could have access to her dressing. He lifted up the edge of it and took a long look before sealing it again. He glanced at me in concern before placing his hand soothingly on her forehead.
"Your incision is inflamed, Jaz, and you're running a little bit of a fever. I'm going to give you three medications. One that should bring your fever down, an antibiotic, and then some morphine to help with your pain."
She still hadn't opened her eyes but she did nod to let him know she heard him. He pushed up the arm of her shirt and injected the medications one after the other.
"Ten minutes at most and you should start feeling better, okay?"
She nodded to him but still didn't open her eyes. He motioned me a short distance away.
"Her heart rate is up. Way up. Fever is about one hundred and two and her respiratory rate is higher than I would like. Could be the infection, and some of it probably is, but I'm guessing pain is the more likely cause."
"So you're hoping to see improvement within the next hour?"
"Yes, if it's pain, her vitals will start improving. If it isn't I don't expect we'll see much change."
I nodded my head and walked back to where Jaz was laying. Her eyes were still shut but the lines of tension in her face had eased a bit.
"Jaz I'm going to pick you up so that you aren't laying on the cold ground."
I did as I told her and tucked her onto my lap. Her forehead naturally fell forward into the crook of my neck. She was definitely hot. As a distraction, I started to whisper to her about the stars in the sky and felt her relax more as time passed. McG crouched near us and checked her pulse again. He gave me a thumbs up. There had been some improvement. We waited out the rest of the hour while Jaz dozed off and on in my arms.
"Are you feeling any better?" I asked her once I noticed her eyes were open again.
"Mmhmm," she informed me.
I would have liked to let her rest longer but we were sitting ducks out here. With McG's help I got to my feet holding her in my arms. The rest of the team stepped forward and we got Jaz strapped on Preach's back again. We were just about to start moving when Jaz's hand moved so quickly it was a blur. Two silenced gunshots rang out and two enemy soldiers dropped in the distance. Despite being medicated, she had somehow managed to get Preach's gun unholstered and take out the two enemy combatants with no fuss. I looked over at her but her eyes were closed again.
"I felt myself in someone's rifle sights," she slurred.
Clearly a well honed skill if she could sense it while medicated. Unfortunately this meant there would be no further rest breaks. We needed to move forward with all due haste.
Hours passed as we ate up the terrain. We ended up medicating Jaz on the go the next time as her pain hadn't been so extreme. It was about time for her next dose so McG approached Preach to assess her. I heard him talking to her. Some questions got answers and some didn't. He gave her more medication and dropped back to rejoin me.
"Status?"
"Not good. She's too weak now to lift her head from Preach's back and she is flirting with unconciousness. It's a good thing we only have about an hour more to go."
It had been a long road but we were almost there. Somewhere that Jaz could rest. Somewhere the rest of us could relax. Between her capture, torture, and rescue, we hadn't had a chance to decompress. It didn't help that now we were the ones who were, for all intents and purposes, torturing her.
We were in view of the Border when Preach's voice echoed across the open channel, "Medical emergency!"
Those words had both McG and myself moving rapidly to his side. Preach was already kneeling on the ground. Something was definitely wrong. McG took in the situation in five seconds or less and started unwrapping her restraints.
"Grab her Top. She's seizing. We need to get her flat right now."
It was hard to keep a grip on her but we managed to get her down on the ground. I had only seen someone have a seizure once in my career and that was enough for me. Seeing Jaz do the same was upsetting. Fortunately a minute later it stopped. McG continued to assess her while we all waited anxiously for an update. When he finally stood he motioned Preach and I to step away with him while Amir protected her.
"She isn't doing great. Her temperature has hit 104.5. Her surgical incision looks bad. She's septic which is what likely caused the seizure. Things could quickly deteriorate from here."
"She's still shaking, McG."
"She's shivering because she feels cold but the seizure is over. She's moved into the postictal state. She's going to be confused and disoriented for the next little bit. We need to keep her calm and get her across as soon as she can tolerate it."
We walked back to where she lay and I crouched down to brush her hair out of her face. Her eyes were open but she didn't exactly look aware.
Jaz's POV
I felt weird. Disconnected from my body. Afraid. I would deny that last to anyone else. I usually didn't even admit it to myself but this time I couldn't ignore it. I just wanted to go home.
I was picked up in warm arms. I heard Top's voice telling everyone on the channel that we were taking a 30 minute break and would move to cross the border immediately afterwards.
The sun had come up fully so he took us into an area of shade and sat down holding me close.
"We're almost home, Jaz. You've gotten pretty sick and your body reacted by having a seizure. I'm sure you feel weird and that's why."
I tried pulling myself closer to him using his vest but I was uncoordinated. However he read my mind and pulled me in towards the warmth of his body. Wrapped his arms tightly around me sharing his strength. Even though I had sworn just seconds ago not to do this I couldn't help myself.
"I'm scared," I whispered to him.
"Of course you are, Jaz. You're smart enough to know you're in trouble. I realize you don't like relying on others, even us, but we are going to get you safe. By this time tomorrow you'll be feeling better. I promise."
Tears began to slowly drip down my face and he tightened his arms further. He knew he couldn't do anything else for me other than be there. His silence was actually reassuring. He wasn't letting this mission get to him and he wasn't letting my tears get to him either. I wasn't even sure why I was so emotional. I was normally not a crier because it never made things better. Just gave me a headache and a stuffy nose. I felt him wipe away the wetness. Much to my surprise I was feeling a little better. At least better mentally. Physically I still felt like crap but I was well aware everything that could be done for me had been done.
"Ready to hit the road?" he asked.
I definitely wasn't but I would never say such a thing. I nodded against him.
"We're going to cross the border and go two additional clicks and we'll have help waiting for us. You just need to hang in until we get there. By the way, Jaz, that is a direct order."
His tone startled a small smile out of me. I was quickly strapped to Preach's back again. My thoughts began to wander and I found myself thinking that I was going to owe him quite a Christmas gift for carrying me across this Country.
We moved out cautiously knowing that border crossings had a tendency to be where things went wrong. Fortunately there were no problems this time so I let the tension in my body dissolve and allowed myself to sink into the beckoning darkness.
