Safe Harbor

by Radclyffe

  "Who beat them up?" Reese asked, her voice like flint.

  Bri shrugged. "Some of the jocks. They were mostly showing off, I think."

  "Has anyone bothered you?"

  Bri looked away, shaking her head noncommittally.

  "Bri?" Reese persisted gently.

  "Not exactly. Theres a guy who had the hots for my girlfriend. He tried to push me around once."

  Reese forced down the surge of anger. "What happened?"

  "I kicked him in the balls."

  Reese would have smiled if the situation werent so serious, and so intolerable.

  "And that was that?"

  Bri shrugged again, her expression nonchalant. "So far."

  "Have you heard of anyone being followed, or threatened by a bunch of guys in a truck?"

  "No." Bri stared at her suspiciously. "Whats going on?"

  "Im not sure anything is going on," Reese admitted. "Two boys were bothered last night by some men in a drive by thing. Im not sure it was because the kids were gay. But it worries me. Ask around among your friends. If theres gay bashing going on, I want to know."

  "Why?" Bri asked bitterly.

  "Because I wont have it in my town," Reese said darkly.

  "Yeah, wells, youre the only one then."

  "I dont think so, Bri. There are plenty of people who wouldnt tolerate it, your father included."

  "Hes said the only reason the gays and lesbians are welcome here is because its so good for business!" Brianna exclaimed.

  "Maybe he did say that, Bri, but that doesnt mean he feels that way himself!"

  Reese could tell the young woman remained unconvinced, but she needed to get her message across. "Bri, I want you and your friends to be careful. And I need you all to help me out. If you see or hear of anything happening, please tell me. And youve all got to stay out of the dunes at night."

  Briannas face set in defiance. "Right."

  "Bri -"

  The teenager stood suddenly, her dark eyes flashing. "You dont get it, do you? You act like you do, but you dont. I want to be able to kiss my girlfriend, okay? Thats what its about -out there in the dunes - its about making love with the person you love. Do you think my father would understand that? What I want to do with my girlfriend ? Do you understand?" She turned away, a cry escaping. "If I cant make a place for us, I dont deserve to have her!"

  Reese laid her hand on the young womans shoulder, meaning only to offer some comfort. She was shocked when Brianna turned to her, burying her face against Reeses chest. Bri was sobbing like a child, but Reese knew she wasnt. She didnt need to have experienced it herself to believe that Bri and Caroline were in love. And she had an idea what that meant for a girl like Bri. Bri would need to feel that she deserved Carolines devotion, and she would need to feel that she could protect her. Reese hesitated for only a second, then she gently folded the trembling youth in her arms.

  "I do understand, Bri," she whispered, rocking her softly. "I understand exactly how you feel." She had only to think of Tory to know how true her words were. Would she do anything differently were she in Bris place? "Just give me a chance to keep you safe - please. Just give me a little time."

  Bri drew a shaky breath, then stepped away self-consciously. "Ill talk to my friends. Tell them what you said. Okay?"

  Reese nodded, "Its a start. I appreciate it, Bri. Thanks."

  Bri studied her shyly. "I guess you wont tell me if youre gay, huh? Some kind of teacher thing."

  Reese recalled Marge asking her the same thing, and her inability to give an honest answer. She thought she had a clearer answer now.

  "Think of it as a cop thing," she responded lightly. "But you can believe me when I tell you I know what youre feeling about Caroline, okay?"

  Bri grinned. "I guess thats answer enough."

  Reese grinned back. "Get out of here. Ive got to go to work."

  Bri glanced at the clock as she headed for the door. "I guess Torys not coming today, huh?"

  Reese knew without looking that it was well past the time for Tory to have arrived. She had known for some time now, she just didnt know what it meant.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Tory came fully awake at the first ring of her bedside phone.

  "Tory King," she said tersely, her pulse racing. No matter how many hundreds of times she had received these middle of the night calls, she never became immune to the sudden surge of adrenalin, wondering what challenge awaited her.

  "Tory, its Nelson Parker. Ive got a situation out here at Race Point, and I need you."

  She was already strapping the velcro binders on her leg brace, the phone tucked between her shoulder and her ear.

  "What is it?" she asked, reaching for the pair of sweats she had dropped near the bed earlier.

  "Cant say on this line," he replied in a voice taut with strain. "Just get here fast."

  The line went dead as Tory tossed the receiver down.

  In the middle of the night it took her less than five minutes to reach a barricade of cars crowding the parking lot below the rangers station at Race Point. It took her a few minutes longer to convince an unfamiliar officer that she belonged there. Officers, many of them from neighboring townships, were milling about, walkie talkies blaring. There was also an impressive array of weapons on display. The air crackled with tension. Someone finally directed her toward a clump of people crouched behind a large dune at the crest of a hill. The roar of the Atlantic just beyond was unmuted by the noises of the crowd.

  She found Nelson peering down toward the beach below with night binoculars.

  "Nelson!" she called, shouldering her way toward him. "Whats going on?"

  He turned to her, handing the glasses to the man next to him. His face was grim.

  "A Coast Guard cutter tried to board a craft running without lights a mile off shore. They were fired upon, and ended up in pursuit. They radiod us for back-up on the beach. Before we knew what was happening, the suspect ship ran aground and began firing on my people. Ive got an officer down out there on the beach."

  Tory fought to draw a breath against the crushing fear that gripped her.

  "Is it Reese?" she asked in a voice that sounded foreign to her own ears. The shouts, the crowds, the occasional crack of what must be gunfire receded from her consciousness. All of her awareness fixed on his face, awaiting the words that would change her life.

  "Its Smith," he answered tightly. "Conlons right over there."

  She looked where he pointed, almost afraid to believe him. When she recognized Reeses unmistakable form, the rush of relief was so intense her legs threatened to desert her. Thank you God, she thought as she struggled for calm. Reese turned abruptly from the men she had been talking with, crossing the sand toward them with powerful strides.

  "Nelson," Reese snapped, her face rigid with anger, "youre going to have to back me on this. You have jurisdiction here, not the Coast Guard. Were wasting time Smith may not have." As she spoke she pulled her jacket off and began unbuckling her gunbelt.

  Tory looked from one to the other in confusion. Nelsons face was set as he watched Reese, clearly unhappy. As if she sensed his uncertainty, Reese locked eyes with him.

  In a surprisingly gentle voice, she said, "You know its the right thing to do. Even by helicopter, the SWAT team is twenty minutes away. I am a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corp. This is what Im trained for. Theres no one here more fit for this action than me."

  He stared at her, then nodded his assent. "At least get a vest," he rasped.

  "Right," she said as she stripped off her uniform shirt. The tee shirt she was wearing underneath was stretched taut across her chest as she restrapped her revolver into a shoulder holster.

  "What the hell is going on?" Tory demanded. She was staring at Reese with the sinking feeling that she wasnt going to like the answer. Nelson looked at her as if he had forgotten he had requested her.

  "We need to get Smith off the beach," Reese answered in his stead.


  "And youre going to go?" Tory asked, deathly cold gripping her.

  "Yes."

  Tory looked into the face of a stranger. What she saw there was something ferocious, something dangerous - an invincible conviction she knew men would follow into battle. Everything about Reese, from the set of her shoulders to the piercing focus in her eyes, radiated a sense of certainty and purpose. Torys words of protest died on her lips. As much as her mind recoiled from the fear of seeing Reese lying bloodied on that beach, she could not deny the rightness of her going.

  "Do not die out there, Conlon," she whispered fiercely to her, stepping close enough that she could have touched her. She didnt; she was too afraid she might not let go. "Dont you dare let that happen."

  Reeses face softened for the briefest moment. "I wont." Looking at Nelson then, her eyes were like ice, her tone unrelenting. "Give me five minutes to circle around behind that line of scrubbrush, then have the Coast Guard lay down a steady barrage of fire on that boat - and dont quit til I have him under cover of the dunes."

  As Nelson brought the radio to his lips, Reese melted into the night. Tory watched her shape fade into shadow while a part of her prepared for the pain she feared was coming. The simple fact that life as she knew it hung in the balance was as clear to her as any truth she had ever known.

  "Give me those glasses, Nelson," she demanded.

  Wordlessly he handed them to her, motioning to a man next to him to relinquish his. Together they cautiously crept to the top of the last dune and looked down into a nightmare. A large vessel wallowed in the wake just off shore, illuminated by the lights of half a dozen Coast Guard ships ringing the grounded craft. A body lay in the sand twenty yards from the board stairs that led up from the beach. With the night glasses Tory could make out Smiths features, but she couldnt tell if he was alive. She could also see the officers crouched in the scant shelter of the stairs. Suddenly the night was ablaze with flashes of light as gunfire erupted across the water. Tory flinched involuntarily, but her eyes never stopped scanning the eerie tableau below. From out of the darkness a shadow raced along the sand, crouched low but clearly vulnerable in the merciless light of the moon. Reese dove and rolled, coming to rest beside the body in the sand. In the next instant she was up, Smith balanced across her shoulders as she sprinted toward the protection of the dunes. Tory saw the flickers of fire from the guns on the outlaw ship, she saw Reese falling, she heard Nelsons groan beside her.

  A scream of protest at the unthinkable exploded from her. Something deep inside of her was shattering, bleeding her soul into the darkness. She hadnt realized she had started to rise until a firm hand pulled her down. "Let me go!" she raged, blindly clawing at his arm. "Goddamn it, let me go!"

  "Tory!" Nelson shouted, shaking her hard. "Tory! Shes up!"

  Tory stared back down the slope, unbelieving. Reese crawled toward the cover of the scrubs, dragging Smith with an arm around his waist. Suddenly shapes emerged from the night, surrounding them, shepherding them to safety.

  Tory sank to her knees, sobbing softly. The hand on her shoulder shook her again, softly this time. "We need you now, Doctor King."

  "Yes," Tory gasped, struggling to stand. "Yes." Squaring her shoulders, she pointed to the emergency vehicles pulled up beside the patrol cars. "Have them brought to me there. Ill need their equipment."

  Smith was the first to arrive, carried on a stretcher by three men and a woman, all in body armor, bristling with weapons Tory scarcely recognized.

  "Put him down gently," she cautioned. Looking past them for the other stretcher, she saw no one. "Wheres Conlon?" she asked, her throat painfully tight, her stomach clenching.

  "Debriefing the Chief," one of the men grunted.

  "Get her over here - no excuses," Tory ordered as she knelt by Smiths side. She didnt look up again until she had two IVs inserted in the large veins just under his collar bones, blood running through both of them, and a compression bandage on the sucking wound in his chest.

  "Somebody hand me a number thirty chest tube, on the double," she called. An EMT opened a sterile cut down tray so that Tory could make a one inch incision between Smith's ribs, passing the firm plastic tube into the space around his deflated lung. "Hook this up to a suction pump now," she instructed the woman assisting her. She continued to monitor his pulse and blood pressure as the blood was evacuated through the chest tube. Finally she was satisfied that he was as stable as she could get him.

  "Okay, lets transport. Advise them that they have a GSW to the chest, hemopneumothorax, probable lung injury. Hell need an open thoracotomy ASAP!"

  "Right, Doc," the male EMT replied. "Were rolling. You want us to send a second squad back for the other one?"

  "Whats her condition?"

  "Looks like just a flesh wound. She was walking and talking."

  "Have her transported to my clinic. Ill handle her there."

  "Im not sure shell leave," he called as he climbed into his vehicle. "It was a struggle just to get a look at her."

  "Get going," Tory shouted, fire in her eyes. "Ill deal with her."

  She found them hunkered down behind the dune where she had left Nelson what seemed like another lifetime ago. They were sketching out some kind of map in the sand. The left side of Reeses shirt was stained dark with blood. Her face was beaded with sweat.

  Tory forced herself between them, taking them both by surprise. "Youre done here, Reese. You need medical attention, and you need it now."

  As Reese started to protest Tory calmly turned her back.

  "Nelson, Ill have your job for reckless endangerment if you dont order her to come with me," she informed her good friend.

  Nelsons eyes widened in shock, then he nodded. "Of course, youre right. Conlon- get your butt out of here."

  "Yes, sir," she conceded. She turned to accompany Tory, wincing involuntarily as she became aware of the pain in her side for the first time. She found she couldnt straighten up, and her legs were a little rubbery. Tory steadied her with an arm around her waist, carefully avoiding the wounded area.

  "Thanks," Reese managed.

  "Dont thank me," Tory informed her remotely. She steeled herself against the awareness of Reeses pain. For now she was only a doctor, and Reese just a patient in need.

  **********

  "Can you get up on the examining table?" Tory asked as she led Reese slowly into the procedure room.

  "Yes."

  "Get your shirt off then. I need to get the instruments out of the sterilizer."

  When she returned Reese was trying hard to sit up straight, but she was obviously in pain. An eight inch gash just below her ribs leaked a steady ribbon of blood down her left side. Tory had never seen her without clothes before, and she noted with clinical detachment the prominent pectoral muscles and etched abdominals of a superbly developed body. Despite her tone and muscle mass, Reese's breasts retained a soft fullness. She embodied the image of a female warrior. Unfortunately, at the moment, she was a wounded warrior.

  "Lie down, Reese," Tory murmured as she set up the instrument tray and pulled on sterile gloves. At a glance she could tell the bullet track was tangential to the abdominal cavity, and she automatically relaxed. Although the wound was deep, Reese was not in any serious danger as long as the wound was treated properly and she didnt get infected.

  "How did the bullet get through that vest?" Tory questioned as she began to inject the area around the wound with lidocaine.

  "I wasnt wearing it," Reese replied, breathing deeply as the burning pain began to subside.

  "You took it off?" Tory asked, trying to keep the anger from her voice.

  "It was slowing me down."

  "And the bullet didnt?" Tory responded acerbically.

  "It was a judgement call," Reese answered calmly.

  "I see," Tory said, not wanting to admit to herself just how frightened she was by Reeses willingness to risk her life. She irrigated the wound with Betadiene and saline, cleansing it of clots and debris from Re
eses shirt. The tissues had been separated down into the muscles of her flank, but thankfully there was no deeper penetration. She began to approximate the subcutaneous layers and fascia with absorbable sutures. She concentrated on her work to keep the terrible knowledge of how close Reese had come to death from her mind. If she let that realization sink in, it would incapacitate her.

  "Are you angry?" Reese asked quietly into the expressionless green eyes that stared down at her.

  "I cant talk about that now, Reese. Just let me do this."

  "Tory-" Reese began, disturbed by Torys distant manner. The last time they were together she had held Tory breathless in her arms. Now Tory wouldnt even meet her eyes. Reese was afraid for the first time that evening.

  Silently, ignoring the urgency in Reeses voice, Tory started on the skin sutures, placing them far enough apart so that the inevitable swelling would not tear them through.

  "Please tell me why youre angry," Reese asked again.

  Tory gently taped a compression bandage in place and stripped off her gloves. She threw them at the wastebasket, not caring that she missed. She spun back toward Reese so quickly that Reese jumped. Leaning down, Tory grasped Reeses shoulders, just managing not to shake her. Her eyes burned into Reeses, inches away.

  "I am angry because you nearly got yourself killed, and willingly at that! Im angry because it doesnt seem to occur to you that that would have ruined my life. Im angry, Reese, because -because-" Her fury evaporated as she saw the confusion in Reeses face. She was so damn beautiful! "Oh, hell," Tory muttered, doing what she had been wanting to do forever. She kissed her, hard, not caring what it meant, because she had to. Because she wanted to more than anything else in the world.

  Reese stiffened in shock, then she was lost. She yielded to the pressure against her mouth, closing her eyes, surrendering to the waves of heat that coursed through her. She felt no pain, except an ache that tore at her more than any bullet ever could. She tried to pull Tory closer, knowing that only her touch could satisfy the longing.