by Tamika Brown
Calen and his men took cover. They could sense they were almost upon the ambushed group, or at least, they hoped there were some of the other team’s men left.
As they moved farther down the street, they glimpsed their brothers, pinned down still taking heavy fire.
They started toward them in a light trot, making sure all aspects were covered. They should almost be out of ammo by now.
“Page, radio the vehicles,” Calen ordered. “We have to get them out of there.”
Each man took flank.
Calen took point with Bryce watching his six. Gunfire, aimed at him and his men, rang out.
This is what Calen and his men expected. They had been ready for this.
Each man took up arms and found cover, but something went wrong.
One of the bullets hit a car not ten feet from Bryce.
It exploded.
Calen watched as his friend was caught in the explosion and knocked unconscious. Calen yelled for everyone to take cover and ran to his friend. He immediately dragged Bryce to a better location and out of the line of fire.
He checked his pulse. “Thank God.”
Calen did a once over of his friend. He must have hit his head. Blood covered the hand used to check for injuries there. On Bryce’s left side, burns covered his neck down his arm. There were no more visible injuries.
Page came running over to them and skidded to a stop on his knees. “How’s he doing?”
“He’s breathing. Radio the cars, see how far they’re out,” he said.
Just as Page made his call, Bryce’s eyes fluttered open.
Calen could tell he wasn’t all there. His eyes were unfocused, and he struggled to get his words out.
“Shhh, don’t try to talk. The transport vehicles are on their way.” He glanced at Page to get confirmation.
“They’re about five minutes out.”
“That’s too damn long,” he said through clenched teeth.
“What happened?” Bryce asked, his voice just above a whisper.
Before Calen could answer him, his eyes slowly closed again, and his breathing deepened. “He’s out again. Go find Hodge and tell the men to take these sons of bitches down. We’re not gonna be pinned down here while their reinforcements arrive.”
Page nodded and, with extreme caution, searched for Hodge in the smoke.
Calen was confident his men knew exactly what he meant. There would be no one left when the smoke cleared, and every man alive, injured, or dead would come out of Fallujah.
No one would be left behind.
Calen protected his friend, only having to fire off a couple of shots as he stayed with him.
Finally, the gunfire stopped, the smoke cleared, and the transport vehicles arrived.
In addition to the men in the other unit who’d been injured, Calen had to watch as they loaded his best friend in the back of one of the cars. He let the medics, who arrived a few minutes after they landed at the point, do their jobs; even though, it was hard not to intervene.
He and his men did a once over and cleared out heading back to the choppers to return home.
All except Bryce.
28
Shayla
Shayla left the meeting hoping for another message from Calen.
Disappointed there was none, she listened to the voicemail he had left her this morning. A small, satisfied smile crept into her features.
As she listened, tears began to well up in her eyes. Under her breath, she cursed her hormones. She had already gotten so many stares from her colleagues today; she didn’t want to give them something else to talk about.
She reached her office door. “Janice, any calls while I was out?”
She tried not to look hopeful, but it was apparent, to her friend and assistant, she was waiting on a call from Calen.
“No, he hasn’t called,” her friend informed her.
“Okay, I was just hoping he would get the chance. Have you had lunch yet?”
“No. I was waiting on Brian, but he had an emergency meeting to go to so, I don’t have any special plans,” Janice said.
“Well, you want to go to lunch then?” She didn’t have to say another word.
Her friend pressed a few buttons to redirect calls to another secretary on the floor and grabbed her jacket as Shayla got her purse from her office.
They immediately headed for the elevators. They would go to The Café since it was close to the office, and it had wonderful food. During lunch hour, it was the hang out for most businesspeople on their block of downtown.
She just hoped it wouldn’t be so packed that they wouldn’t be able to get a seat to eat lunch.
When they stepped into The Café, the frantic waves of Tela, sitting with one of her colleagues, greeted them.
Tela invited both to join them.
“How’s it going, girl? You feeling better?” Tela asked with concern in her eyes.
“I’m feeling good, as you can see.” She showed off her ensemble of maternity clothes. “No more hiding.”
Tela clapped her hands in delight and approval.
Janice began to laugh. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when she walked in this morning, and I was mad with myself because I hadn’t noticed it before.”
The waiter came over and took their drink orders.
Shayla had to remind Tela it was only lunchtime, so her friend reluctantly ordered a Diet Coke instead of the Sangria she was thirsting for. She made introductions, and Tela did likewise.
The four women chatted like old friends.
“Did you get a call from Calen?” Tela asked.
“Yeah, but I didn’t answer it. I was so tired. I just went right off to sleep. He left an extremely sweet message though.” She sighed. “But I haven’t heard from him since they landed at Raleigh. You get a call from Bryce?”
“I did. He let me know they’d landed, and he would call me if he got the chance. He wanted me to know he had a good time with me, and he’d hoped he would have a chance to speak with me again,” she said.
Shayla gazed at her friend as she relayed Bryce’s message. She recognized the faraway look she got in her eyes as she spoke of Bryce. She had already revealed he was awesome in bed, but there was something else, too. Her friend went on and on about him, like he was the best thing that ever happened in her life. If Shayla didn’t know any better, she would think Tela had fallen in love. She gave a slight smirk as she thought about Tela being in love.
This so out of character for Tela. She was the same friend who had a different man every other week. That had no qualms about using a man for what she wanted, then pretending to lose his phone number. She never talked about a man like this.
Shayla couldn’t help but ask what was going on. “So, what’s up with you and Bryce, anyway?”
“Whatcha mean, what’s up?” Tela asked innocently.
Before Shay could inquire any further, their food arrived, and there was silence around the table for a little while as the four women enjoyed their dishes.
Once their table was cleared and drinks refilled, Shayla started in on her friend again. “So anyway, getting back to what’s important. Ummm, what’s going on with you and Bryce?”
Tela let out a half-hearted laugh before she answered. “I told you last night the sex was amazing, and he’s a great guy.”
“Te, you’ve had great sex before, and you’ve been with great guys, but you have never, ever practically hung on a guy’s every word like you do Bryce’s. And you’ve never sat and waited on a cell phone to ring before, either. So, spill! I know you.”
“Do tell,” chirped up Sharon. “I haven’t heard about this Bryce guy, but I could absolutely tell something was different about you. If the sex is good enough to make you pause, then I want to hear all about him.”
Tela took a deep breath and held it for a second before she began. She knew when she was outnumbered. “Look, nothing is going on with us. He’s just a great guy, and I kind of want him to
hang around for a little while because I like the way he makes me feel. He took care of me in every way. Do you need details? ‘Cause I got lots of ‘em.” She laughed as the women threw up their hands waving them off. “Everything is still fresh in my mind. I’ve never had a guy just take care of me before.”
“Te, that’s great and how it should be. You deserve someone taking care of you for a change.” Shayla grasped her friend’s hand and squeezed it.
“Yeah, that sounds so wonderful,” Sharon piped in.
“Really beautiful,” said Janice.
“But I have to tell you, it sounds like you may be in love with Bryce. If that’s the case, I pity him,” Shayla said, laughing.
“Oh, no, you know me better than that! And pity him because I’m gonna wear that boy out.”
The four women laughed hard at that. So much so tears formed in their eyes, and patrons around them stared. Just then, her cell phone ringing cut through the laughter.
She rummaged through her purse to retrieve it as the other women continued the light-hearted banter. She answered on the third ring. Shayla did not look at the ID. so she was definitely surprised and relieved to hear Calen’s voice on the other end.
“Hey baby, I didn’t expect to hear from you,” she said with a huge smile on her face.
She mouthed to Tela it was Calen on the phone. She noticed her friend glanced down at her cell phone as if willing it to ring.
“How are you?” she asked.
There was no usual playfulness in his voice as she listened to him explain what was going on and held up her hand to stop the onslaught of questions about to come from Tela.
Calen asking for Tela’s whereabouts caught her attention, and her eyes fixed on Tela. “Oh, yeah, she’s right here with me, actually. What’s going on?”
Confusion filled Tela’s wide eyes.
“It’s about Bryce.”
Tension filled Shayla’s body. “Okay. What about Bryce?”
Tela’s demeanor began to change, worry and concern filling her expression.
“He… he’s been hurt,” Calen said, choking back tears.
“What do you mean hurt? What happened?”
Tela stood and came to Shayla’s side, panic now clear in her motions. Shayla gripped her hand as she waited for Calen to continue.
“We were ambushed. Taking on heavy fire. There was a bomb, and Bryce was caught by the blowback. He’s in a hospital in Germany,” he rushed out, trying not to let the pain of his best friend almost dying settle. “He has some burns, but the worse thing is probably the fact he’s in a coma. Doctors don’t know why he’s not awake by now.”
“Oh no,” she said in a whisper.
Tela must have caught some of the conversation because tears began to swell in her eyes. Tela hardly ever cried. The last time Shayla could remember was when Tela broke her engagement off with Michael in college. She put a hand on her friend’s arm for comfort.
Tela began to shake. She tilted the phone so Tela could listen more clearly. “What happened?”
“We were caught in an ambush, and he was hurt in an explosion. Right now, he has some burns, but we believe the scarring won’t be that bad. And there were no internal injuries,” Calen repeated.
He sounded so tired to her right now. “Don’t worry, baby. He’s gonna be okay. I know he is. Will you be all right?”
“I hope so, Shay. I really do. Take care of yourself and make sure you help Tela. I have the feeling she is going to take this hard,” he said.
They said their final goodbyes, and Shay hung up the phone just as Tela called the waiter over to get the check for their lunch.
“Te, are you alright?” Shayla asked her friend.
No answer.
The check arrived, and Tela started scrounging for her money. Before she could pull her wallet out of her purse, she began to cry again.
“Don’t worry about the check. Sharon and I will take care of it,” Janice said. “You two go on.”
Shayla was thankful for her assistant and friend for her kindness and for just being there.
Shayla walked with Tela to her car and grabbed her keys out of her purse. She could trust Janice to take care of anything at the office for the rest of the afternoon. She wasn’t sure who to call for Tela.
“Do you need for me to call someone at work for you, hun?” she asked softly.
“No, that was my assistant, Sharon, with us. She knows what to do. Can you just drive me home please?”
Tela lived in a nice brownstone about forty-five minutes from Shayla’s place.
Remodeled on the inside to suit Tela’s taste, it was beautiful throughout. She picked out all the paint color and the hardwood floors that covered the house. She hired an interior designer to work magic with the color pallet she’d chosen. Shayla had always enjoyed old buildings like these, although it wasn’t as old as some of the brownstones she’d seen on numerous business trips to New York, but still, it rivaled some of them in elegance.
Once inside, Tela methodically went to her bedroom to pull out her luggage and began throwing things into her bags.
“Whoa, wait, wait, what are you doing?” she asked her friend.
“What do you mean, what am I doing? What does it look like?” she spit back.
“Where are you going?”
“To the hospital. I’ve got to see Bryce for myself.”
“But he’s in Germany,” Shayla protested. “Calen said he was fine. His burns would have minimal scarring, and they were no internal injuries.”
“Then, why isn’t he awake? It’s been four days, and he’s still unconscious,” she sobbed.
“I don’t know, Te, but Bryce is strong. He’ll pull through.” She tried to comfort her friend with a heartfelt embrace.
“Well, then, I want to be there to see him pull through. Look, are you gonna help me pack or not?”
“I’ll leave you to it. If you need me, I’ll be downstairs,” she said.
About twenty minutes later, Tela came downstairs, and Shayla drove her to the airport to board a plane to Germany.
29
Calen
It was a couple of days before Calen was able to get to his best friend. There had been a briefing and paperwork that needed to be done before Russell gave him what he wanted.
He called the hospital in Germany every day to keep up with Bryce’s condition. He was still in a coma. Calen had already received a call from Shayla letting him know Tela would arrive in Germany within two hours and planned to go directly to the hospital to visit Bryce.
When Calen finally entered the hospital, dread hit him like a two-ton truck. He had walked this path himself only a few months ago when several of his men were in this very same hospital. Not all of them had made it out. Even Calen spent a few days within these walls. He walked up to the registration counter to check in as a visitor.
“May I help you,” the woman behind the desk asked.
She glanced up at Calen with crystal blue eyes and smiled at him as she grabbed for a pen and a sticker she would give to him with Bryce’s room number on it.
“David Bryce, room 445,” he said.
She wrote the room number on it and gave him directions to the elevator; although, Calen remembered where it was.
He thanked the woman and slowly walked to the elevator. It was almost as if Calen had ankle weights on.
It was hard for him to move his legs once the elevator doors opened up on the fourth-floor. He dreaded this moment. Even though he knew exactly what was happening with Bryce, he still didn’t like the idea of his best friend being in a coma. Calen was worried. Bryce had been in that coma for four days already. He needed his best friend to wake up.
He reached room 445, and before he entered, Calen closed his eyes and took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to witness. He slowly turned the knob and opened the door.
It creaked, and Calen winced as if it would wake Bryce. He dragged himself over to the bed his longtime fri
end lied motionless in. He seemed peaceful, like he was only sleeping, but Calen knew there was something else going on. He was in constant contact with Bryce’s doctors. They were certain he would awaken in a few days. They kept constant monitors on Bryce’s brain activity and made sure there was no swelling in the brain or anything else that would alert them to any further trouble.
Calen sat down in the waiting chair next to his friend’s bed. “Hey, man. It’s me. I have some good news for you, Tela’s on her way here. Yeah, man, she’s coming all this way to see ya.”
Calen couldn’t believe when Shayla told him Tela was coming to Germany to be with Bryce. He breathed in deeply and laughed a little under his breath. He felt somewhat stupid talking to someone in a coma, but the doctors said sometimes, even though a person is in a coma, they could still hear their loved ones.
So, Calen kept talking.
He talked about talking with Shayla and updating her and Tela. He talked about the positive news that the doctor had for his prognosis. He even talked about the four friends going on vacation together.
He had been there almost an hour before the doctor came in the check on Bryce.
“Mr. Calen, how are you? It’s nice to see you again,” said the doctor.
“I’m doing well, Dr. Soto, how ‘bout you?”
“Great, great. So, how’s our patient doing,” he said as he went to Bryce’s chart to make sure there had been no changes since he visited him last, which was about seven hours ago.
“I don’t know, Doc, you tell me. Why hasn’t he awakened yet?”
“Well, it’s hard to say. All his scans seem to be normal, but he’s just not waking up. We’re going to run some tests to determine if there’s anything we’ve missed.” He shook his head, then put the chart back as he continued. “It’s not something we can rush, though. These things take time. Most patients just wake up by themselves without medical intervention. That’s how we want it. If that happens, we won’t have to worry about damaging the brain any more than it already is or to damage it because of something we did.”
Calen listened intently as the doctor explained Bryce’s prognosis. He still didn’t fully understand why Bryce was still in a coma, but he would wait as the doctor suggested and keep a check on him as much as possible.
