But she didn’t know just how dire the situation was, nor was she the one suffering. So she held her tongue.
Everything they were saying, the prayers they recited, reminded her of last rites.
They had prayed over her in the same way when she was at her weakest. When she was most vulnerable. When she wanted nothing more than to sit up in her bed and tell them to get the hell out because she wasn’t going anywhere.
But this time they couldn’t force her to sit there and take it.
So she politely excused herself and headed down the darkened hallway to Danny’s old room. She flipped the switch and the single overhead bulb snapped, shrouding the room in darkness. For a moment she wondered if she wasn’t supposed to be here. If the universe was telling her she was violating Danny’s personal space and the burned-out lightbulb was a sign to go.
But if she wasn’t here, where was she supposed to go? Back across the street to her parents’ house, to her old room? Going there felt like giving up.
From memory she crossed the room to where a small desk sat in the corner. Surprisingly, the gooseneck lamp still worked, casting odd light and shadows across the room. Exhausted from the emotional roller coaster she’d been riding most of the day, Bree sank down onto the edge of his bed to start, then slowly lowered herself onto the mattress, placing her head on the pillow. Her eyes scanned the room. Dusty books high upon a shelf. Ribbons and medals and trophies. A Major League movie poster. Several framed pictures.
Atop the dresser was one of Danny and his mother. In it he wore a Braves T-shirt while sitting in his mother’s lap, her arms wrapped around his middle, squeezing him as she kissed his ear. A big smile as he tried to wriggle from her embrace.
He couldn’t have been older than five at the time. He would have lost her soon after. She wondered if that was the last picture of them together.
Bree pulled her phone from her pocket, swiped the unlock screen with her thumb. No voice mails. No emails. No text messages. She quickly sent a message to Marie, letting her know she’d arrived in Myrtle Beach. A few seconds later she received one in return.
Get some rest. Keep me posted.
Then, refusing to put it off any longer, she fired off an email to her friend in Greensboro, explaining Danny’s injury, that she was awaiting news on his condition, and would likely be delayed a week at minimum. Whether or not she held the job for Bree was a different story.
From there she opened the photo gallery on her phone, swiping through the many pictures she’d taken since arriving in Savannah. She stopped on a selfie of the two of them, last photo taken of them together the night before her birthday. In it, with Talmadge Bridge in the background and the sun setting behind them, Danny pressed a kiss to her cheek.
At this point she didn’t care if they stayed married or divorced. All she wanted was for him to live. Nothing else mattered.
BRIGHT SUNLIGHT STREAMED through the open blinds, waking her. At some point in the evening she’d fallen asleep in Danny’s room and the problem of whether to stay here or across the street was easily solved. Her suitcase had been brought in from the car and sat near the closet door and her phone was—
“Shit!”
Just seconds later she heard the distant ringing of a telephone. Instead of digging the charger from her handbag, she raced through the living room and into the kitchen where Mac was talking on the phone. She’d barely rounded the corner when he told someone on the other end, “She’s right here. Hang on.”
He covered the mouthpiece with his palm. “It’s someone in Germany calling with an update on Danny,” he said, handing her the corded phone. “Give me a second and I’ll get on the other end.”
“Hello?”
“Mrs. MacGregor, my name is Anne and I have news about your husband.”
This stranger had the voice of an angel, kind and soothing. She said Danny had recently come out of a long surgery, that he suffered significant internal damage as a result of multiple wounds. Although he survived, his list of injuries was extensive.
Ruptured spleen. Damaged kidney. Perforated bowel.
There were other words like significant blood loss, transfusions, low blood pressure, and high risk of infection.
“Barring any post-surgical complications and if his vitals remain stable, he will be transported to Walter Reed within a day or two.”
The woman promised to keep an eye on Danny and to call if there were any changes.
Bree hung up the phone and took a seat at the kitchen table. Once again, all she had to do was sit and wait.
Chapter Twenty-Five
DANNY’S EYES SHOT open and he quickly scanned his surroundings. He was in the cool, sterile confines of a hospital room, no longer in the extreme heat and dusty surroundings of Africa. No longer with his men.
“You’re okay, Daniel.” His father stood at his bedside, one strong hand resting on Danny’s shoulder. “Just relax.”
Through the haze of pain meds, his father’s voice sounded muffled and distant. It would be so easy to slip back to sleep, but at some point he’d have to fully wake up, have to face the reality of why it was his father at his bedside and not Bree. So he focused on his breathing and tried to get his heart rate under control.
“Do you know where you are?”
“Yeah,” Danny huffed. “I remember being loaded on a medical transport and vaguely recall someone telling me I’d arrived at Walter Reed. How long have I been here?”
“Couple of days. Your temperature spiked en route. You had a pretty good infection going, but they’ve got it under control now.” His dad patted his leg and Danny shifted slightly so his old man could take a seat on the edge of the bed.
“Is that all?”
“You mean aside from the fact you’re minus a kidney and a spleen and a section of your small intestine?” Mac laughed without humor. “Sure, that’s all.”
So he’d lost a few organs. But as far as he knew, they were all things he could live without. Which hopefully meant that as soon as he could get the hell outta here, he’d be back with his unit and doing the one thing he was good at.
“Have you heard anything about Jenkins?”
“I received an email from Michael once the communication blackout was lifted. He said you’d ask about him. Jenkins has some facial wounds, a ruptured eardrum, and a concussion. But otherwise he’s okay.”
Danny breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes. “That’s good to hear.”
“Your brother also said that’s how you were injured, that you went back for him. Do you remember that?”
“Yes.”
Of course he did. He remembered all of it. Jenkins set the charge and blew the compound gate, stepping aside as the squad team rushed inside through clouds of dust and smoke. Then there was a second blast, likely from an RPG. And although the enemy missed their target, Jenkins was close enough to impact that he was hit with debris and shrapnel in the face. By the time Danny had turned around, Jenkins had fallen to his knees, blinded by his own blood and completely out of it. A sitting duck.
So Danny did what he was trained to do, what any other guy in his place would have done. He charged into the open space, grabbed Jenkins by his vest, and dragged him to safety.
“What else do you remember?”
Danny remembered the feel of hot metal slashing through his leg and back. Of pushing forward, but only managing several more yards before he fell to the ground, unable to get back up despite his best effort to ignore the pain. Then hearing someone call “MacGregor’s down” in his tactical headphones and knowing he was well and truly fucked. He remembered Ben pulling a tourniquet from a front pocket, wrapping it around his thigh, and cinching it tight, all the while screaming, “Fuck, Danny. I can’t fix this!” Then Lucky appeared out of nowhere and used both hands to roll him like a rag doll onto his side, before pulling at his vest and
body armor. He remembered the look of devastation on Ben’s face as he helped carry Danny to the medevac and how he placed a kiss upon Danny’s forehead before the doors slammed shut.
But he wouldn’t dare tell his father any of that.
“I remember Mike saying, ‘Dad is so gonna kick your ass for this.’ ” Danny began laughing, only to have it quickly transition into excruciating pain. “Do me a favor. Let me get out of here before you do that,” he said through gritted teeth.
Only then did he look at his father, who wore an expression saying he found Danny’s attempt at levity far from funny.
His father rose from the bed. “I need to go tell Bree you’re awake. Let me see if she’s back from the cafeteria yet.”
Danny could hardly believe what he was hearing. “She’s here?”
“Of course. She is, after all, your wife.” Mac folded his arms across his chest. “Thing is, she’s stayed in the waiting room the entire time. Why is she out there when she should be in here?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief. “Wanna tell me what’s going on?”
“YOU CAN’T STAY out here in the hallway the rest of your life.” Mac plopped down in the plastic chair beside Bree, the metal legs creaking beneath his weight. “I’m not sure what happened between you two, but at some point in time you’re gonna have to go in there.”
“I don’t think he’d want me in there.” She pulled off the plastic cover from her sub-par coffee and blew on it, helping it to cool.
He sucked in half the air in the waiting room then huffed it all out again in one big exhale. “God damn you two are difficult. Proof you’re made for each other.”
“Because no one else would have us?”
“Because you two don’t want anyone else is more like it.” Mac ran a hand across his face, the stress and exhaustion of the past several days catching up with him. “Listen to me. He’s confined to bed for now. Couldn’t come to you if he wanted to, and believe me he wants to.”
Her heart leaped in her chest. “He’s awake? Has he said so?”
“Not in so many words. But he knows you’re here. And he kept one eye zeroed in on the door.” Mac pointed to Danny’s hospital room door. “I need you to go in there. Danny needs you to go in there.”
Silently, she nodded in agreement and Mac softly patted her knee. “Good girl.”
Bree rose to her feet and dropped her mostly full coffee cup in a nearby trash can. It wasn’t as if she’d wanted it anyway. But from the moment she arrived here, she’d been suffering from a constant chill in her spine, unable to chase it away.
With Danny now awake, the time had come for her to tell him how she felt. She only hoped that Marie was right that Danny’s feelings for her ran far deeper than friendship. In one hand she clutched the coin the army chaplain had given her with Psalm 23 engraved upon the back, the verse now committed to memory, she’d spent so much time reading it. Although the verse didn’t apply in this circumstance, she did fear his breaking her heart for a third time.
She passed by two beds, the first with the curtain completely drawn and hushed whispers coming from the other side. The second she assumed was temporarily vacated, with disheveled sheets on the bed and a water pitcher damp with condensation on the nearby tray. And then there was Danny at the end of the room, facing away from her as he stared out the window. Heavy stubble shadowed his face and the blankets settled around his waist, revealing the even rise and fall of his chest. From a distance, it looked like he was just lounging in bed, like nothing terrible had happened to him at all. Only as she came closer did she notice the many tubes and monitors attached to him and the orange stain of betadine on his skin.
Without warning his head turned toward her, his eyes meeting hers.
But there weren’t any answers in those dark blue depths. Her stomach twisted and her heart ached. Tears welled in her eyes and her chin trembled as she struggled not to cry. She didn’t know how this would end, only that she wouldn’t survive saying goodbye to him again.
GOOD GOD, SHE was a beautiful sight, even wearing a worn-out T-shirt, ratty jeans and that god-awful hat she loved. Dark circles shadowed her eyes and her expression was completely unreadable. He couldn’t tell if she was happy he was alive or resented the fact she was here in the first place. But now that she stood only mere feet from him, he would say or do damn near anything to get her to stay.
A squeak of rubber on tile followed by voices alerted them to the return of his neighboring roommate. Immediately, Bree grabbed hold of the striped privacy curtain and guided it around the track, isolating them from the rest of the world. But still she remained out of reach when he desperately wanted to touch her.
Danny pressed both fists into the mattress, trying to push himself into a more upright position when a stab of pain traveled through his body.
Immediately, Bree rushed to his side, her hands suspended midair as if she was afraid to touch him. “What the hell are you trying to do?”
Ignoring the pain, he quickly grasped one slender wrist before she could move away. “This,” he whispered, tugging her even closer as he eased back against the inclined bed. With her face just inches from his now, he cupped the back of her head with his free hand and guided her mouth to his. Although their kiss was little more than a gentle press of his lips against hers, neither were in a hurry for it to end. But when it did, he wasted no time in telling her everything he’d written in that letter.
“I love you, Bree,” he said in a rush. “I know you really want that job in Greensboro—” She silenced him with two fingers against his lips.
“I don’t want that job,” she whispered. “I never wanted that job. I love you, and I want to stay with you in Savannah.”
For the first time in weeks, the heavy weight pressing on his chest lifted and he could breathe again. By some miracle, despite making one idiotic decision after another, he hadn’t lost her a second time. “Thank God.”
Bree must have felt a similar relief, resting her forehead against his as tears slid down her cheeks and dripped off her chin onto his chest. He tried to hold her as best he could, rubbed her spine with the flat of his palm until she pulled away.
“I’m getting you all wet.”
“It’s okay. I’m in need of a good shower.”
There was something else going on in that head of hers; he could see the uncertainty in her eyes.
“What about kids? Are you sure you won’t want them someday?”
He slid sideways, giving her room to sit on the mattress next to him. Taking her hand in his, Danny waited until she looked him in the eyes.
“I’m sure. If things were different and you could have children, I’d probably let you convince me otherwise for the simple reason I would move heaven and earth to make you happy. But at the end of the day, having kids doesn’t matter to me. All I want is you. Just you.”
Mindful of his IV, Bree climbed into bed, pressed a kiss to his cheek, and carefully stretched out alongside him. Her head rested on his shoulder and her hand cupped his jaw, her fingertips gently stroking his beard. Danny wrapped his right arm around her and pulled her tighter to his side. For now this was as close as they could be. But he wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world since she was, without a doubt, the best medicine he could ever ask for.
Her familiar scent surrounded him and his entire body relaxed. The pain dulled. His mind quieted. Her soft exhales warmed his skin, and he knew he was home.
Sometime later they both woke when the curtain was whipped open by the new shift nurse.
Bree sat up quickly, like she’d been caught doing something wrong. “Do you need me to leave?”
“You’re fine right where you are, hon,” the woman said with a smile before turning to Danny. “It’s nice to see you awake today. How are you feeling?”
“Couldn’t be better,” he said, unable to hold back a smile.
“Well, I doubt that’s completely true, but it’s nice you feel that way,” the nurse said with a wink. “Anything I can get you this evening?”
“I’d kill for a shower.” How Bree tolerated lying next to him, he didn’t know, because his own stench was getting to him. After all, it’d been a solid week, maybe longer, since he’d had a quick rinse, much less a shower with real soap.
“Now, now. No need to go to the extreme.” She gently patted his arm. “You can’t get up to take a shower yet, but you can have a sponge bath. And since your wife’s here, I think she’s just the person to help you with that.”
Bree, however, wasn’t convinced. “I’m not so sure—”
“You’ll do just fine.” The nurse placed a reassuring hand on Bree’s shoulder. “Just mind the sutures and his IV and don’t get them too wet. I’ll be right back with everything you need.”
With a flick of her wrist, the curtain closed just as quickly and they were alone once more.
Danny cradled her face in his palm, his thumb stroking the soft skin of her cheek. “There’s an extra twenty in it for you if you can finish me off with a happy ending,” he whispered. “What do you say?”
It took a second for her to catch his meaning, her eyes widening the moment she caught on, followed by her soft laughter. He joined in with a chuckle or two before the pain got the best of him.
“Are you okay?” Her smile replaced with concern.
“I’m fine.”
Although Bree fought it, the corner of her mouth lifted. “You’re terrible, you know?”
Of course he knew. And even better, he knew she liked him that way.
Danny pulled her close for another kiss. “I know, sweetheart,” he whispered against her lips. “And I’m all yours.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
August
BREE WOULD BE late for her own wedding if she didn’t hurry up. Of course, in all fairness, she didn’t know the real reason he was rushing her out the door.
Danny took another look at his watch. “About ready?” he called from the living room.
Once and For All: An American Valor Novel Page 24
