by Lane, Terri
Sam took the folder from him and thought about his words. What he was saying made sense. She wanted to kick herself for not seeing it before. She should have trusted Jonathan to look at it earlier.
“Are you pregnant?” Jonathan asked bluntly.
Sam gave him a sharp look. “Yes, how—”
“You didn’t tell him, did you?” His gaze was knowing.
“You’re a little too good at what you do,” Sam quipped. “I have my reasons.”
“Well, you two make quite the pair what with all those secrets you have.” He studied her carefully, “You know you can let me know if you need anything, right?”
Sam flashed him a grateful smile, “I know, thank you.”
“Doesn’t mean I’ll do it for you, but…” he trailed off laughing when she hit him playfully with the folder.
“How long will Jack be gone for anyway?” He eyed her midsection. “And how far along are you now?”
“Six months, and I’m right at two months now.”
“Cutting it close,” he said sympathetically. “We have less than a month until this case is all over, so at least that will be one less stress for you to deal with.”
“Right, but that depends on the outcome of it.” Sam said, feeling anxious once again.
“You don’t worry about that,” Jonathan said. “Now that I have something to go on, I’m going to make it my mission to make sure that these files go nowhere. Jack and that guy,” he jerked his thumb to the file he had been mocking earlier, “will sleep peacefully again.”
“I hope so,” Sam said with a chuckle. “What do you plan on doing?”
“I think it would do us good for me to go pay the new officer in charge a visit.” Jonathan said. “He definitely knows something. And out of the files that we’ve seen, Jack’s is the only one that could potentially do any damage.”
“If you’re going, so am I,” Sam said rushing to get her purse.
“Whoa, do you think that’s a good idea? I can go and let you know what I found out. I think it’s safer if you stay here.”
“Safer? Do you think he’s dangerous?” Sam raised an eyebrow at him.
“I don’t know what to think, but I know Jack’s dangerous and I’m not about to let his wife go marching into this guy’s office when he’s the one pushing for her husband to be exposed to the public.” Jonathan said firmly.
Sam gave a laugh at this. “Jack’s hardly dangerous.”
“Oh, have you seen the missions he’s been on? He’s hailed as one of the riskiest SEAL members and he’s known for taking any risk that comes his way. His nickname changes according to how many missions he’s been on. Currently dubbed ‘38 lives’ on his military chart.”
Sam’s heart stopped. She didn’t speak for a moment. She did consider that he might not return, but she hadn’t considered it seriously. She just worried that he might get hurt. But just like she hadn’t expected her hearty father to fall ill, she didn’t think Jack would ever find himself in a vulnerable position. But thirty-eight missions? Sam looked at Jonathan. “I’m going with you.”
Something in her tone made him back down. He considered her words for a moment and put his hands up. “Your call. But let me start it off, please. I don’t want him antagonizing you. He’s definitely that kind of guy.”
Sam nodded and they filed out together. Calling for a ride to the offices as they went down the elevator, Sam listened as Jonathan highlighted key issues he wanted the man to address.
“What if he won’t see us? It’s not like we have an appointment,” Sam fretted.
“Once he knows who we are, he’ll talk to us. People like him love attention and he’s probably been waiting for us.” He looked at her curiously. “Did he ever come by when your dad was in the hospital?”
“No, never,” Sam answered immediately. “I would have remembered him. I kept a little log in the room for people to sign when they came in to write thank you notes to them later, but he wasn’t on there. And if he did visit, he never signed the book.”
“He wouldn’t have come,” Jonathan said waving his hand dismissively. “He just wants us to come to him. He definitely knows about Jack.”
Sam thought about Jack doing so many reckless missions and shuddered. Was he still throwing caution to the wind or was he being more careful? From what he had told her, he was mostly supervising. But once an adrenaline junkie, always an adrenaline junkie. She knew Jack wasn’t one to sit on the sidelines for any reason.
***
Squinting across the field, Jack saw a man in the distance climbing the craggy rocks that ran along the side of the mountain. He wasn’t a local, but he also wasn’t part of their team. Immediately Jack was on high alert. He looked back to see one of his youngest team members waiting for instruction.
Motioning for him to be quiet, Jack sat motionless, pressed up against the side of a ledge that hid him well, so he wasn’t concerned about himself. He was more concerned that his team might be found and shot before they could get a chance to identify or defend themselves. He had wanted to go out alone to investigate, but protocol mandated that he take at least two others with him whenever he went out. Safety in numbers was more of a liability in his opinion. He’d worked the field alone for far too long, it was difficult for him to switch gears and work with others. None of them could really protect him, he knew that. That’s why he’d gained such a fearlessness. Those around him constantly looked to him for direction even when he wasn’t the one in charge.
His eyes darted to find his other man. He was tucked into some bushes several yards away from Jack. Jack only noticed when the bushes moved unnaturally when the wind had fallen still. He gritted his teeth. If these guys weren’t more careful, they would all be killed.
He stared hard into the bush and signaled for both of them to wait. If the two men with him weren’t so new and unpredictable, he would have stealthily made his way closer to the man that was hiding ahead of them. Instead he opted to lure the man out. In an open field, his options were limited. It wasn’t a method he liked to take because of the potential risks, but it was either that or wait until the other man signaled for more back-up of his own. As it was, he probably only knew about Jack’s man in the bush.
Using that information as his only guide, Jack thought quickly and found the fake grenade that he carried with him. He hurled it as far as he could from the opposite direction of where his man in the bush was hunkered down. That should do it.
Sure enough, there was a scuffle and a cloud of dust rose up as the man scrambled to scoot away from the toy. While he was distracted, Jack saw his chance to move from his position and gain an advantage. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw the bushes move again and his man came out charging towards the stranger. Cursing under his breath, Jack looked back to make sure the other man was still down. He motioned for him to cover for him as he went towards the scuffle.
Gun cocked, he darted and rolled behind another large rock, peering over the top. Where was he? He couldn’t see either man, then he spied his own presumably searching for the stranger. Then he saw the man approaching him from directly in front of him. He was slithering on his belly towards the SEAL like the snake that he was, Jack thought angrily.
With no other option, Jack knew he had to shapeshift. What did he have to lose anyway, he reasoned. The court was going to rule against him and all would be revealed in due time. Once he did, he wasted no time in charging. The man didn’t see him coming right away, but when he did, a look of sheer terror crossed his face. His own man stood stock still, as Jack had suspected he would. It occurred to him that his own team might try to shoot at him, but he took the chance. He wasn’t going to go on a mission and have anyone die under him.
If he died, that was another story. He hadn’t heard from Sam since he had left Washington. He did call her to let her know he’d made it, but since then, they’d not communicated at all. He had a little over one month left here, and he’d all but given up hope of ever hearing
from her. He wasn’t wishing death upon himself, but he wasn’t willing it away either. He was who he was, dammit. He would go down as himself, not trying to hide parts of himself to make himself more digestible.
Within seconds he’d successfully outmaneuvered the man and alerted his own men that it was still him. He glared at the man that was in the bushes.
“Next time, follow orders. You jeopardized our positions. That’s not how we operate.” He knew he sounded far more menacing than was necessary, but he didn’t care. The man needed to learn his lesson, and fast.
More shots rang out suddenly and Jack jerked his head around to see where it was coming from just as a bullet whizzed past his head and another he felt slam into his chest. He looked down to see blood oozing out. His body shifted of its own accord and he looked on helplessly. Was this how he was going to end, he wondered to himself. He never even told Sam how he really felt about her. He dropped to his knees and fell back slowly, the light fading as he went.
***
Jack stirred when he felt a poke on his arm. It was blunt, something round. He heard sniffling and fought to open his eyes. When he did, he had to blink several times for the fog to dissipate before he could see. Where was he? He tried to recall where he was last before he wound up here. He thought about the soldier who hadn’t listened to his instructions and was hiding in the bush. Then he remembered shots being fired.
He focused ahead and found himself attached to several machines. When he tried to move he felt a sharp pain and clenched his jaw to keep from making any noise. He had no idea where he could be, the more information he gathered until someone came in, the better.
“Don’t move too much,” a voice next to him said. It sounded like Sam. He must have really been attacked badly if he thought Sam was out here with him.
“Sam,” he tried to say the words but no sound came out.
“Here,” she said. She lifted a cup with a straw to his lips. “Sip slowly,” she cautioned.
It sounded like Sam. The cool water slid down this throat, coating it. It felt sore but he was grateful to feel anything at all. “Sam,” this time the words came out but his voice sounded foreign to him.
“I’m here,” she said. She pulled at his hand and he turned his head slowly to look at her. “Easy,” she cautioned. “You got hit on your neck too.”
He felt the twinge of pain just as she spoke and jerked his head back into its original position. “Where else?” he asked. He wiggled his toes, good. Still movement there.
“You missed every major artery and organ, according to the doctors. You really got lucky.” He heard her circling around to come to his other side. He closed his eyes. She sounded neutral, she wasn’t showing any emotion.
“You’ll be fine,” she continued. “And as soon as you’re stable, we can go home. We’re in Germany right now. They got you out as soon as they could. Your team medic did a good job with the field dressings before they carried you out of there or you could have lost a lot of blood.”
He didn’t hear anything she said after ‘we’ and ‘home.’ Maybe there was hope yet. He opened his eyes and came face to face with Sam’s large belly.
“Wha—” Jack sputtered.
Sam smiled. “Two more months and we’ll be parents,” she said shyly. “I never got a chance to tell you.” Her hands wrapped protectively around the protruding stomach and she edged closer. It bumped into him and he realized that’s what had poked him awake.
Before he could process what she just told him, a nurse bustled in to take his vitals. Jack, still flabbergasted, could only look at her in awe. Sam bumped him again, lifting her eyebrows in invitation to touch her stomach. He complied, reaching out to lay a hand on it. Her belly was stretched taut around the baby. He felt a faint movement followed by a succession of strong, healthy kicks.
“He or she,” he asked suddenly. “Whatever it is has more power than I do at the moment.”
Sam laughed and nodded in agreement. “Tell me about it. It’s like I have a team of rugby players in there these days. Constant movement. I’m not sure when this baby really sleeps.” She covered his hand with her own. “It’s a she.”
His chest swelled with pride and he smiled at her. A baby in two short months, he couldn’t believe this was happening. When he was out in the field, he’d felt so desperate, willing to jump into any line of danger, regardless of the risks. But seeing Sam and now thinking about their baby, he couldn’t imagine doing it again.
The nurse put two pills into a container for him to take. “For pain,” she clarified.
He nodded and tossed them back. He could feel deep ache near his ribs, and hoped the medicine would take care of it.
“I’ll just use the restroom,” Sam said excusing herself.
“You’re lucky to have such a beautiful, loving wife,” the nurse said with admiration. “Being pregnant and coming all the way here, taking care of you this past week. Hang onto her.” She winked and left him with his thoughts.
When Sam returned, he was looking at the calendar on the wall. It was a marker board, but all the dates were filled in. “Which day did I land up in here,” he asked Sam.
“Well, around the twelfth. I came on the fourteenth. Today is the twenty-first.”
“You’ve been here all week?” Jack was incredulous. “Why?” The words left his mouth before he could take them back. It sounded rude, but he hadn’t intended for them to be that way.
He saw her open her mouth to speak but she closed it again. “I...I had to be by your side,” she said finally.
She looked vulnerable standing there. He reached out his hand to her and she came quickly to hold it. “I’m glad you came,” he whispered.
Sam smiled, relief on her face.
“What happened with the court case,” he asked suddenly. Fear gripped him when it dawned on him how he’d come to be in his current state. He recalled shifting and the few witnesses on the field. It was all coming back to him now. By now, news must have gotten into the public sphere. He was screwed even if the court ruled in his favor.
“It was dismissed,” she said smugly. “It never went to court.”
“What? How did that happen?” he asked, perplexed.
“Let’s just say we dug into the reason the files weren’t all being released to us and found out that the officer in charge was the one releasing them, deliberately to taunt us. But also, he had a file or two of his own that he wasn’t going to name. He’s going through his own trial now. One of Papa’s friends has taken over his position. He should have been promoted in the first place, if you ask me.” Sam said smoothly.
“I’m impressed,” he said. “But I knew I was in good hands. You remind me of your dad in that regard.”
Sam’s eyes misted at his words and she gave him a watery smile. “Thank you. You remind me of him too,” she said with a short laugh.
“Must be why he said we belong together,” Jack speculated. “We remind him of himself. The ego that guy had,” he joked.
Sam looked at him and they both began laughing.
***
As soon as Sam and Jack reached the house, they realized neither of them was in a position to carry the luggage up the stairs. Jack asked the driver to do so and Sam reached into her wallet to tip him extra for the trouble. They settled inside, each trying to take care of the other.
“I’m fine,” Sam insisted. “I’ve been doing this myself since before you came. I’m just bulky right now. You need to be cautious.”
Jack frowned. “If you had told me, I wouldn’t have left at all.”
Sam frowned back at him. “I didn’t know that, and besides, you seemed eager to leave. Even left after we slept together. You never even called or bothered to talk to me that day. What was I supposed to think?”
Jack sat up straighter and then winced, returning to his hunched position. “I left you a note!”
“Where?” Sam demanded. She wanted to clear the air, and part of her was delighting in their first
real fight.
“On your nightstand,” Jack insisted. “I left it there because I saw that you were sleeping. I remember I came home late that night and from then we were back to not talking. You just didn’t want anything to do with me.”
“Wait just a second,” Sam huffed. “We slept together? What do you mean I didn’t want anything to do with you? What do you think that means, anyway?”
Jack scowled at her. “I’m telling you, I left you a note. And was I imagining things when you ran away from me and locked the door?”
Sam didn’t say anything. He had a point there. She did run. “That was really just the first time. You scared me,” she said, crossing her arms. When she did, he belly jutted out further, and Jack’s eyes focused in on it.
He rubbed it gently with both hands. They stared at her stomach as the baby woke from her slumber before beginning another round of kicks and turns. Their eyes met and they smiled at each other. Sam felt so full now and she hoped the feeling would last.
“Wait,” Sam said interrupting their moment. “We need to finish this fight.”
“Is that what this is?” Jack’s hand stilled, looking at her seriously.
“Yes,” she replied.
He threw his head back and laughed. “Owww,” he said immediately.
“You can’t do that!” Sam exclaimed. She checked the wound around his ribs first and then the one by his shoulder.
“I’m healing fine,” Jack insisted. “It’s just painful still.”
“You show me where the note was,” Sam said tugging him to the bedroom.
They got to the bedroom, and Sam noticed Jack was walking slowly. “Are you okay?”
“Just need to lie down soon,” he said. His voice was strained. “I’m not in that much pain anymore, but I do feel drained.” Still, he looked around the table, and behind the table. “If you didn’t see it, it must still be here somewhere.” After a minute, he came up triumphant. “Here!”
Sam was surprised. “I can’t believe it.” She scanned the small note and she felt her eyes grow wet. “I was just so used to assuming the worst. I thought you were like Papa back in the day. He loved me, but I always felt like he prioritized everything with the SEALs more than he did me.”
