No surprise there considering how much Zane liked coffee. Beth’s pregnancy and Zane’s mirroring her symptoms was really fucking with his LC.
Mac hid a smile behind the swipe of his hand.
“Get her some crackers. Saltines, or as close as you can find,” Marion advised, leaning forward so she could see Zane around Cosky’s massive shoulders. “She’s what? Four months along?”
“Four and a half,” Zane said, blowing out a hard breath. He frowned, worry lines wrinkling his forehead. “The doc said the nausea would improve by the end of the first trimester. She’s six weeks past that now.”
Marion sat back and swung her legs over the bench seat. Standing, she bustled over to pat Zane’s arm. “I’m sure she’s fine, dear. Every woman reacts differently. I was sick well into my second trimester. Why don’t Kait, Faith, and I drop by for a visit? She might enjoy some girl talk.”
“You better pick up double the rations on those crackers,” Rawls told Zane with a wicked grin. “Beth’s not gonna be happy if you munch on hers.” He glanced toward Faith, who was watching Zane with sympathetic eyes, and he slid an egg and a couple of slices of bacon back onto her plate.
If Mac wasn’t mistaken, it was the same egg and bacon that Faith had offloaded earlier.
“I’m going to set up a meeting with Wolf and his COs for later today, so make yourselves available. We need to track down that damn prototype of Faith’s and take it out of play,” Mac said.
With luck, their very well-equipped and tapped-in hosts would have a starting place in mind. If they didn’t, then James Link would have to do.
“Let’s hope they haven’t discovered its nifty little side benefit yet,” Cosky said, grimness hard on his face.
A shadow darkening his eyes, Rawls stopped eating long enough to glance at Faith. He caught her trying to sneak the egg back onto his plate. With a couple of quick slices he quartered it and lifted the morsel to her mouth. “Eat.”
She rolled her eyes and glowered, but opened her lips, accepting the offering.
“At least we have allies now,” Amy said quietly when the grim silence went on too long.
She was right. Mac relaxed slightly, taking another sip from his mug. They did have allies. Powerful ones too.
But even more importantly, they knew who their enemies were.
Assuming you could trust a ghost.
* * *
Epilogue
* * *
AS YOU CAN see from the test results, Dr. Ansell,” Francis Kerry said, sweeping his hand above the reams of data spread across his desk, “we have every reason to believe your heart has undergone a complete rejuvenation.” He sat back in his office chair and pushed his glasses up with a long bony forefinger.
From the armchair in front of his desk, Faith leaned forward to pick up an image of the echocardiogram that had been taken two hours earlier. Since the two prior scans had shown a thorough transformation of her heart muscle, just like this new one did, she suspected this additional imaging had been requested to rule out any sudden deterioration. After all, it would be a mistake to go off the immune suppressors and Cordarone if Kait’s healing had worn off and her heart had deteriorated again.
Which begged the question—did that ever happen, and if so, how often?
Dropping the film, she picked up the printout of the EKG she’d undergone two days before. The description confirmed a normal functioning heart—just as the reports on the transthoracic echocardiogram and Doppler echocardiogram had shown. The video taken of the ultrasound sessions had revealed the same as well.
A perfect. Normal. Heart.
For a moment, disbelief swelled, pressed against her chest. But it faded quickly. She’d had several days to acclimate to the possibility of miracles.
“What about the treadmill test?” Faith asked, rifling through the files, films, and printouts spread across the table. “I lost my breath pretty quickly during that. Isn’t that a sign of my heart not working properly?”
Okay, maybe she hadn’t accepted that she’d been the recipient of a miracle quite yet. There was a sliver of doubt remaining, a piece of her just waiting for the bad news to roll in.
“It can be, of course. But shortness of breath can also be due to a general lack of conditioning,” he said delicately.
Faith’s eyebrows rose. Had he just called her out of shape?
“With the exception of your breathlessness, the exercise stress test indicated a normally functioning heart. There were no irregularities in the blood flow or electrical rhythm.”
Which was doctor-speak for—Hey dummy, you’re out of breath because you’re out of shape. Get exercising, for Pete’s sake.
“So she can go off the cyclosporine, mycophenolate, and Cordarone?” Rawls asked.
Maybe he sensed the distance buffering her, because he leaned forward and covered the hand she had resting on the table with his. She tried to relax, to concentrate on the warmth of his hand, but the tension vibrating through her refused to back down.
“For now.” Dr. Kerry pushed back his office chair and stood up. “We’ll continue monitoring her. And it wouldn’t hurt to keep an emergency dose of Cordarone on hand just in case.”
Just in case what? In case Kait’s healing ultimately reversed and her heart failed again?
“So what are the long-term effects of this . . . healing?” Faith asked. “Has a healing eventually deteriorated? Is there a possibility all these miraculous findings could disappear and my old heart will return?” Faith asked.
Dr. Kerry laughed. “Admittedly Kait Winchester’s abilities are remarkable. But trust me, your heart’s transformation isn’t the result of some short-term magical spell. If her healings reflect the same outcome as William’s and One Bird’s—and I see no reason why they shouldn’t—your heart should remain at its current peak condition until normal aging kicks in.”
Should remain . . .
While the good doctor was babbling a convincing line of optimism, she couldn’t help noticing all the qualifiers he was throwing around.
“So what was my heart’s spontaneous restoration a result of?” At the baffled look he sent her, Faith frowned and rephrased. “I know Kait’s at the core of this . . . marvelous outcome . . . but you said it wasn’t a result of a magical spell, so what, exactly, was it a result of?”
Maybe if she had a better idea of how Kait had accomplished this phenomenon, it would be easier to believe that it had occurred and that the results would be lasting.
She could sense Rawls watching her. Did he think she was being a pessimist? Or God forbid, that she didn’t want to get better?
Dr. Kerry studied her face for a moment, before slowly sinking back onto his chair. “I can’t speak to Kait’s ability specifically since we haven’t begun testing her yet. However, William and One Bird’s ability draws in and then expels energy, which in turn stimulates or even supercharges the individual’s immune system and their body’s natural ability to heal. So the healers themselves don’t do the healing, they merely draw in and then provide the fuel to expedite the body’s own ability to heal, often at an accelerated rate.”
Faith nodded. That made sense. The strange tension that had grabbed her the moment they stepped in Kerry’s office eased. Curiosity stirred—normal curiosity, not that suspicious, moderately pessimistic interest of before.
“So how and where are they drawing this energy from? Have you pinned it down?”
“We haven’t, no,” Dr. Kerry said, rising to his feet again. He walked around his desk.
She jolted slightly in excitement. “You know, maybe they’re drawing from the same source that powers the Thrive generator. The pool is infinite; perhaps some people have a genetic predilection to—”
With a rumbling laugh, Rawls stood and wrapped a hand beneath Faith’s arm, lifting her to her feet. “I’m sure Dr. Kerry will be happy to theorize with you another time, when he doesn’t have other patients to see.”
Flushing, Faith offered her
hand. “Of course. Thank you, Doctor. I appreciate all you’ve done for me.”
After a brisk, up-and-down shake, Kerry dropped her hand and eased around the armchairs. “Feel free to go through the result again, if you like. Down the road a bit, we may schedule more tests, for monitoring purposes.”
A sudden flush of uncertainty hit. It must have touched her face because he glanced at her and offered a reassuring smile.
“Not that I expect there to be any need for such caution.” After one last heartening smile, he disappeared out the door.
He’d misread the cause behind the uncertainty. This time the worry had nothing to do with her heart and everything to do with her housing arrangements. While Wolf and his superiors had offered them hospitality for as long as they needed it, she couldn’t remain here forever. It wasn’t fair to drain their resources and offer nothing in exchange.
Although . . . maybe she could offer them something in return. She could talk to Wolf about joining their team of scientists. That experimental aircraft Rawls and Zane and Cosky kept talking about had to have come from somewhere.
The fact that Shadow Mountain command was more interested in destroying the Thrive generator than acquiring it for themselves had put her mind at ease. While this base was obviously of military origin, the men here had clear limits on what they were willing to do in order to advance their cause. She could work within those parameters.
“What’s wrong?” Rawls asked, sliding a warm, firm arm around her shoulder. “For a woman who was just given a new lease on life, you were damn tense in there.”
So he’d noticed that, had he?
“It just . . . it just seems too good to be true.” She stumbled over the explanation.
She’d accepted the fact that her heart had reached the end of the average transplant’s lifespan. She’d girded herself for her looming return to the donor lists, with all the uncertainty such lists carried. Both of which made it difficult to adjust to this sudden windfall of good fortune.
“Well, believe it.” His arm tightened around her shoulders, drawing her closer. He leaned down to brush a kiss across the top of her head. “And darlin’, I’ll be right by your side to remind you that good things do happen in life, if the doubts start creepin’ in again.”
She murmured an acknowledgment. But he’d just touched on the other half of the worry jumbling her all up.
It wasn’t just her new healthy heart . . . it was Rawls too.
She felt like she was caught in a dream. It was a great dream—true. Heck, even a wonderful dream. But a dream, all the same.
The two things she’d wanted most from life had been handed to her with absolutely no effort on her part: a healthy heart guaranteeing her a normal lifespan and a man to share that life with.
A man who would curl her toes, give her butterflies, and thoroughly cherish her. Who would put her first, accept all her quirks—who would even die for her.
Someone who would love her unconditionally and accept her unconditional love in return.
And Rawls embodied all the qualities of her faceless, nameless dream man. He’d put her needs first time and time again. For God’s sake, he’d even thrown himself in front of a gun to protect her.
But in her experience, dreams rarely came true, which made it hard to believe wholeheartedly in the miracle she’d been blessed with.
She kept waiting for the catch to kick in. For her heart to revert—or Rawls to realize he didn’t love her after all. That he’d been caught up in the drama and urgency of the moment.
“You know,” Rawls said, swinging her around and leading her to the door. “You just sit back and enjoy the ride, and I’ll believe for both of us.”
The heat of his big body penetrated her from shoulder to hip, settling into her like a warm, fluffy blanket. Warming her from the inside out, it banished the cold draft of pessimism.
Maybe, just maybe, she was being foolish. While the peril and adrenaline rush of the past few days were brand-new to her, they were old hat to Rawls. His career revolved around danger and tense situations. If such things affected him, he’d have a hundred ex-wives by now.
In fact, if adrenaline-driven emotional attachments were to affect anyone, it would be her, not him. Yet if she bypassed her head and listened to her instincts, paid attention to her heart, she knew what she felt for him was real. Her love for him wasn’t dependent on adrenaline and fear for survival. It was reliant on his personality and his temperament—neither of which would change.
If she could accept the fact that what she felt for him was real and permanent—why couldn’t she give him the same benefit of belief?
Besides, Rawls wasn’t the kind of man to declare his love unless he meant it. Unless he was sure of it. His sense of loyalty—just one more thing she loved about him—wouldn’t allow him to walk away once he made a commitment.
“You’re doin’ it again,” he said, his arm tightening and drawing her closer. He glanced down, an affectionate, knowing gleam lighting his blue eyes.
“What?”
“Overthinkin’. Analyzin’,” Rawls said, amusement in his voice.
He was right—she was. He knew her even better than she knew herself. Her tense muscles relaxed. She’d never have to worry that he didn’t understand what she was feeling, what she was thinking. A flush of happiness smothered the reserve.
With a soft sigh, she leaned into him, relishing the way his arm tightened even further, locking her against his side. He felt so perfect pressed up against her—his body heat toasting her. His arm a warm, sheltering anchor. Being with him felt right, it felt natural—he felt like home.
It was time to accept the fresh start life was offering her—a new heart, a new life, and the perfect man to share it with.
Sometimes dreams really did come true.
Glossary
SEAL Terms
BUD/s (Basic Underwater Demolition training): A twenty-four-week training course that encompasses physical conditioning, combat diving, and land warfare.
Bullfrog: A nickname given to a highly respected, retired SEAL.
CQB (Close Quarters Battle): A battle that takes place in a confined space, such as a residence.
Deployment: Active combat or training, deployments last generally between six and ten months.
HQ1 (Naval Special Warfare Group 1 / the West Coast Command): HQ1 has naval bases in Coronado, California; Kodiac, Alaska; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and Mare Island, California. Among other naval units, HQ1 houses SEAL Teams 1, 3, 5 and 7.
HQ2: (Naval Special Warfare Group 2 / the East Coast Command): HQ2 has naval bases in Dam Neck, Virginia; Little Creek, Virginia; Machrihanish, UK; Rodman NAS, PM; and Norfolk, Virginia. Among other naval units, HQ2 houses SEAL Teams 2, 4, 8, and 10, and DEVGRU (also known as SEAL Team 6).
Insertion: Heading into enemy territory, whether it’s a house or a territory.
JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command): A joint command that encompasses all branches of special operations. This command ensures that the techniques and equipment used by the various branches of the military are standardized. It is also responsible for training and developing tactics/strategy for special operations missions.
LC: A rank of lieutenant commander.
NAVSPECWARCOM (Naval Special Warfare Command): The naval command for naval special operations. This command is under the umbrella of USSOC and is broken into two headquarters: HQ1 and HQ2.
PST: (Physical Screening Test): The physical test a prospective SEAL has to pass. Minimum requirements: 500-yard swim in twelve and a half minutes, rest ten minutes, 50 pushups in two minutes, rest two minutes, 50 sit-ups in two minutes, rest two minutes, 10 pull-ups in two minutes, rest ten minutes, 1.5-mile run in ten and a half minutes.
SEAL Prep School: A crash course in preparing to take the BUD/s challenge. Prospective BUD/s candidates are put through a physical training program meant to prepare them for BUD/s. This includes timed four-mile runs and thousand-meter swims. If the candidates a
re unable to pass the final qualifications test, they are removed from SEAL candidates lists and placed elsewhere in the navy.
SEAL Teams: Each SEAL team has 128 men, of which 21 are officers and 107 are enlisted. Each team has 10 platoons and each platoon has 2 squads. There are 16 men per platoon and 8 SEALs per squad.
SQT (SEAL Qualification Training): SQT teaches tactics, techniques, and special operations procedures.
USSOC (United States Special Operations Command): Beneath the umbrella of JSOC, the USSOC is the unified combat command and is charged with overseeing special operations command from the army, air force, navy, and the marines.
Zodiac: A rigid-hull inflatable boat, with 470-horsepower jet drives. It can reach speeds of 45-plus knots and has supreme maneuverability. (Also known as the beach boat.)
Arapaho Terms
3ooxonouubeiht: crabby
beniinookee: general or highest-ranking official
betee: heart
betee3oo hohe’: Shadow Mountain
bexookee: mountain lion
bih’ihoox: mule
biitei: ghost
bixoo3etiit: love
ceece’esbeniiineniiit: armed forces
ceeyoubeiht: talking foolishly
ciibehbiiwoohu: don’t cry
ciini’i3ecoot: grief
heebii3soo: bastard
heneeceine3: lion
hiihooko’oet: bewitched
hiihooteet: death
hiixoyooniiheiht: charm
hookecouhu hiteseiw: little sister
nebii’o’oo: sweetheart
neehebehe’: younger sister
neenii3o’neihi: behave well or be quiet
netesei: my sister
noniiteceenoo’oot: temporarily crazy
noonsoo: it is chaos or a mess
noo’uusooo’: storm
notonheihii: medicine man
teittooneihi: be quiet
tei’yoonehe: baby; infant
wo’ouusoo: kitten
Author’s Note
Forged in Smoke (A Red-Hot SEALs Novel Book 3) Page 36
