by Dale Mayer
“Perfect timing, guys,” he said, his teeth chattering. “Perfect timing.” Colton stared up at the sky. “But it would have been really nice if you’d gotten here about five minutes earlier.”
He could hear the men shouting orders as they raced toward the cruiser. George was unloaded first, and then Kate was carried up next, conscious but shivering badly. Colton had taken a few minutes to pump some oxygen through his body, but his body was cold, and he knew it needed to reheat fast. One of the men reached down, grabbed him by the shoulder and helped him to his feet. He stumbled forward.
“You okay, soldier?”
“Always,” he said, right before he collapsed to the deck.
*
Kate Winnows woke up and stared around the small room. Everything was white, and she lay on a medical bed, yet the room seemed to rock. I must still be on the destroyer. The memories came crushing back, causing her to shudder. The plane went down, and the water had been so damn cold. Of everything that had to be the worst. Sure, she had an initial panic, knowing the plane was going down, but realizing they had the chutes gave her a course of action to focus on.
Once she was buckled in to her chute, it was a matter of getting George strapped up and deplaning. Floating down was an experience like nothing she remembered. She’d done parachute training, but it was always under calm conditions. Never like this. She knew, in theory, what landing in the ocean would be like, but she wasn’t prepared for how quickly the ocean zapped the heat from her bones and the blood from her vessels, leaving her body as a block of ice, like the glaciers all around them.
She knew that, if it hadn’t been for Colton, neither she nor George would have survived. At that, she sat up and looked around. She saw several other beds, but only one was occupied, where two men were working on that patient.
George. “Is he okay?”
One of the men walked to her, checking her temperature. “He’s dealing with severe hypothermia,” the doctor said. “We’re treating him. You are suffering from hypothermia yourself, so let’s keep your movements to a minimum, please.”
She noted she had been wrapped up in special blankets, and her body, although it should have been warm, was not. “I’m still so cold,” she whispered, and almost immediately her body started to shiver. “Colton?” she asked.
“He’s fine,” the doctor said. “He’s probably in the mess hall, tanking up on hot coffee right now.”
“I wish I was there,” she muttered, her teeth chattering.
The man tucked yet another warm blanket around her. “Give yourself a chance to warm up,” he said, then went back to George’s side.
Kate knew from their discussions that it was not good news for George. He was suffering a lot more than she was. When the doctor finally returned to her again, she said, “The plane was sabotaged.”
His gaze sharpened. “Does Colton know?”
“Yes,” she said. “He does.”
“Then trust us to look after it,” he said.
“I’m worried George won’t make it. And that whoever did this will have succeeded in killing him.”
“We’re working on it,” the doctor said quietly. “You have to look after yourself. We can’t have two of you not making it.” And, with that, Kate’s heart sank, as she realized just how bad George’s situation was. He was a family man, who had come to marriage late in life, and now had three teenage boys. They needed him. He must keep fighting. Mentally she sent out a message. Come on, George. Fight. Colton kept you alive out there. I need you to stay alive in here.
Even if he lost some fingers or toes, he had to stay alive. Even minus his legs, his sons still needed him. And, with that thought, she turned to her own healing, telling her body to warm up fast. She wanted to see whoever had done this to them soon caught so they would pay for their crimes. And finally, to Colton, she sent out a message, whispering, “Thank you, love.”
She’d always known he was honorable. And that one night they’d come together in a heated flash had been nothing like she’d ever experienced before. She didn’t even really understand who he was at first. But when she realized he was one of Mason’s SEALs, she’d shaken her head and had stepped back. At the time she hadn’t been interested in permanency.
Obviously he hadn’t been either because he had walked away with nothing but a wave and a smile. Just another ship in the night. She didn’t know if he’d felt the same crash and burn when they made love that she had or not—all her senses had been fired up, almost like a homecoming. But, when he left, it turned out to be a rude awakening, as she could never forget him.
She had heard about him every once in a while, that he’d been rising up the ranks, but they hadn’t crossed paths until today. And this was something she desperately wished hadn’t happened. Who needed this kind of crap?
After a life-and-death event like this one, it had Kate thinking. She had already been looking to settle down lately. Yet she hadn’t found that special someone, at least not in a permanent way. Only in the last couple years did it really bother her, as she saw others having families. But not her. She never had a relationship last long enough. She thought it was her fault mostly. Part of it was her circumstances as a navy pilot. She was here, then she was gone; she was there, and then she was gone. This type of job didn’t foster permanency.
Those who had come into the military with a stable relationship seemed to go home to them. She hadn’t had that. She had a vagabond aspect to her life that she probably couldn’t change until she either transferred stateside or decided to ground herself—because the competition for pilots in places like Coronado was huge. And she didn’t have the same seniority others did.
Or maybe she needed to change divisions and do something else. Maybe work in the private sector as a commercial pilot. She’d certainly been tempted to do that. She’d had offers she was reconsidering now, since she had about three months left on her current contract. Now if only she could figure out what she wanted to do after that.
Chapter 2
After what seemed like a long sleep, Kate woke up to find Colton standing at the end of her hospital bed. She started. “Wow,” she said. “What a way to wake up.”
“You okay?” he asked, grabbing a chair, spinning it around and sitting on it backward. He always had that easy grace she loved.
“I’m alive,” she said. “How’s George?”
“Stable, but in serious condition. He’s no longer here. They airlifted him to the base hospital a few hours ago. They have better facilities for him.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “I didn’t even wake up,” she wailed. “I wanted to say goodbye.”
“Let’s hope you get a chance to say hello instead,” he said with a gentle smile.
She winced at that. “I gather he’s in pretty rough shape still?”
“He is,” Colton said. “How are you doing?”
“I’ve been better, but I’m not as cold anymore.”
“The doc will check you over again, but I wanted to sneak in beforehand.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I wanted as many details as you could give me. I want to make sure we find out who did this.”
“You won’t be allowed to do anything about it. You know the military police will be handling it.”
“Yep,” he said, “I know that. But I also know Mason’s team was brought in on several special investigations. Nobody knows about it, but it’s been happening for the last year or so.”
“I heard rumors too,” she said, “but I don’t always have access to the same info you guys get.”
“I hear you,” he said. “You’re a hell of a pilot, and I appreciate you keeping me alive up there.”
She snorted. “Not sure about being a hell of a pilot. George was at the controls there at the end.”
“Nicely done by both of you, but I don’t leave alone,” Colton said. “I make sure everybody goes with me.”
“Yeah, I seem to recall you pitching me from the plane.”
>
“Oh, come on. I—”
She laughed. “Well, George’s still alive, and so am I because of you, so thanks.”
“Ditto.” The two of them just stared at each other, neither mentioning their past. She was unsure how to even bring it up or if she should just move on from it.
Finally Colton asked, “How have you been?”
She shrugged. “Not too bad. And you?” She hated the stilted semiformal tone to their voices.
He cracked a smile. “Never better. Life has been really busy. I just came back from months in Afghanistan. I was hoping to stay in Coronado for a while, but I was asked to go to Greenland to impart some tips and tricks for a training session here,” he said with a wry smile.
“So you weren’t supposed to be here long?”
“No. Some training here, then to Africa.”
“Ah,” she said. “I heard you were doing a lot more training these days.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely shifting my world.”
“But you’re still an active SEAL?”
“Yes.” He tilted his head in a nod, but she could see his eyes studying her, checking her color and making sure she was moving and awake. She shifted in the bed and groaned. “So, how come, even though we didn’t hit anything, I feel like my body just got run over by a semi-truck?”
“But you did hit something. You hit the great big ocean. But some of that physical pain is due to the exhaustion from the extreme cold,” Colton said. “There’s nothing quite like it. It’ll take time to recover.”
“It feels like I’ll never recover,” Kate said, collapsing back down again.
“How about some hot drinks?”
“I feel like they damn-near funneled that stuff right into my stomach,” she said, “and bypassed my throat.”
At that, he burst out laughing. “How about I get you some warm coffee? We’ll see if you can drink that.”
“Sounds good,” she said. And she closed her eyes as he got up and left.
*
Kate hadn’t looked too bad, which was a blessing because he’d had a look at George, who hadn’t looked great. The doctors had high hopes for him to recover, but they weren’t sure if he would end up with all his fingers and toes and potentially even his limbs. However, Colton didn’t want to look at those problems until necessary. At the moment, he was all about making sure Kate was as good as she could be. Because he needed to know everything she could tell him. He’d wanted to get details, but it was obvious she wasn’t doing as well as she could, and he didn’t want to impact her healing by revisiting the crash and stirring up unpleasant memories.
He headed into the cafeteria area, picked up two coffees, adding cream and a little bit of sugar to the one for her—it was the way she used to take it—and he knew the sugar wouldn’t be a bad thing right now, given her condition. Then he saw fresh muffins. He plated four, added several pats of butter, and, with two knives in his hand, he carried the plate on top of one of the cups and made his way back to the sick bay.
The doctor sitting at a desk to the side looked up and smiled as Colton walked in. “Hopefully some sugar is in that coffee,” he said.
Colton nodded and said, “There’s a little, but I can get more if need be.”
“No,” Kate said, “a little is fine.”
The doctor helped her raise the upper half of her bed, and, when he stepped back, Colton asked, “How is she?”
“A very lucky lady,” he said. “She cheated death twice, both times barely beating it.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” she murmured. “I’ll take barely beating death any day over the alternative.” She looked at Colton. “And I owe one of them to you.”
“Well, I owe one of them to you, so we’re even,” Colton said, as he moved a small table beside her and swung it around so it was over her lap. “Here. Get some of this down.”
“I wonder how long I’ll be cold for,” she muttered, hugging the cup.
“Hours, if not days,” the doctor said. “Hypothermia, for all that we know about it, can present as different symptoms in different people.”
“Interesting,” she murmured. “I guess you don’t have all that many cases to study.”
“Exactly,” he said. “At least not severe cases who survived.” With that, he gave her a smile and headed off.
Colton sat down at the edge of the bed and said, “Did he give you a free pass?”
“You heard him. I’m doing okay. As long as that continues, I can leave soon.”
“We can hope so,” Colton said, studying her color. She looked so much better.
“Well, they know we survived, I presume.”
“Yes,” he said, and then he lowered his voice. “But we haven’t spread the word as to what happened.”
“Why is that?” she asked.
“Because somebody tried to kill us. We don’t want whoever it was to know they didn’t succeed. The news is that the plane went down, but not a whole lot has been shared otherwise.”
“Great,” she said. “I hadn’t really considered that.” She took a sip of her coffee, wincing as the hot brew hit her throat.
He watched when she settled back. Now she had even more color and a brighter smile. It was her smile that had caught his attention when he had first met her. They’d been an inferno together, and he’d basked in that fire willingly. He’d left the following morning, fully planning on calling her, but his next mission had him gone for months that time. And then his opportunity to reconnect in a timely fashion was gone.
When she didn’t take more sips of her coffee, he asked, “Is it too hot?”
“No. It’s fine,” she said. “It’s just that everything is so sensitive. My lips, tongue, … fingers.” She wiggled them at him playfully.
“They will be for a while,” he said. “We are being airlifted out today,” he said. “We’ll leave the destroyer in a few hours. The question is whether you need to go to a specialized medical facility from here or if you will be fine to walk off on your own.”
“I’ll walk,” she said, “but I don’t know where my clothes went.”
“I’ll see what I can find for you.” Colton stood and took a sip of coffee. “How many of those muffins will you eat?”
“If you sit down in that chair,” she said, “we could share them.”
He hesitated.
“Come on. Clothing will wait,” she said, “unless you’re telling me that we’re flying out right now?”
“No,” he said. “Not for a few hours yet.”
“Then let’s eat. I’m starved.”
Chapter 3
After Colton left and returned just long enough to drop off a set of clothing for her, Kate got up slowly, her body shaky and weak. Once she was dressed, she made her way to the facilities and back, sitting on her hospital bed again. She hated to say it, but the cold had taken more from her than she had realized. Plus the rocking movement of the destroyer didn’t help her balance any.
When the doctor returned once more, he smiled to see her dressed. “Well, that’s a good sign.”
She nodded. “I just wasn’t expecting to feel quite so weak.”
“Your body has taken a huge hit. It’s amazing that it can even recover so fast from the stresses you went through. But, in another day or two, I think you’ll be right as rain.”
“Any update on George?”
“He’s still alive,” the doctor said cheerfully. “It’ll be a few days yet.”
She nodded sadly. “Well, let’s hope he makes it. He’s got three teenage boys, and they need their dad.”
The doctor’s face sobered. “That they do.”
Looking around, she said, “I know Colton is heading out soon, and I was hoping to go with him.”
“You can. In about two hours,” he said, “so you might as well sit back and relax. We’ll have to see if we’ve got some boots for you.”
She looked down at the socks on her feet and smiled. “Did everything get cut off of us?”
<
br /> He nodded. “Not your boots, but I don’t know that we’ll get them dry in time.”
She nodded, saying, “Even if they’re wet, at least they fit.”
“I’ve got people working on it,” he said. “We did have to cut everything else off though. Sorry.”
“Understood,” she said. “I’ve got on layers of clothing now, so that’s at least something.” When she shivered again, she shifted back onto the bed and pulled the blanket up around her. “Such a weird feeling,” she murmured sleepily.
“Just rest. You’ll be out of here in no time.” And, with that, the doctor turned and disappeared.
She fell into a light dozing nap, surfacing and waking, going back under again. But, when she woke the next time, she saw her boots sitting beside her. They were partially dry, though not completely, but efforts were ongoing to soak up the moisture. Newspaper had been stuffed inside to absorb a little more too. As she sat up slowly and reached for them, Colton came in.
“Perfect,” he said. “I was figuring out what to do about your footwear.”
“They cut off everything else,” she said, “but apparently not these.”
“Which is a good thing,” he said. “If they’re anything like mine, they’ll feel like they’re superheavy, unless they’re completely dry.” He picked them up, pulled out the newspaper and shook his head. “Nope, they sure aren’t.”
“But they do fit,” she said, “so it is what it is.”
“Agreed.” He waited while she tied up her boots.
Then she looked at him and said, “I gather we’re leaving now?”
“We sure are,” he said.
Once her boots were tied, she stood. She was still a little woozy, and, with his arms half supporting her, she took several steps forward.
“Let me try walking on my own, see if I can get my sea legs back,” she said, then walked around the small room carefully. She smiled and said, “I should be good.” The trouble was, she didn’t have a jacket, and she was still cold. As if reading her thoughts, Colton said, “My clothes weren’t cut off of me, and I was able to get them into a dryer.” He took off his jacket and slung it around her shoulders.
