by Margaret Kay
“Honey, are you okay?” Alexander’s voice came through the receiver.
Relief flooded her, just hearing his voice. “I am now. I just needed to talk to you.”
“Sloan said the doctor said you’ll be fine as long as you stay in bed.”
“Yes. The bleeding stopped soon after I laid down. When will you be home?”
“In about twenty-four hours.”
“Okay,” she replied. On one hand she wanted him home sooner. On the other, she was glad it wouldn’t be days. “Gary has stayed with me. He was at the hospital with me, but I wish it had been you.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I’ll be home soon though.”
“Danny was going to take Angel to our place to get me some things, clothes, my laptop and my textbooks. But if you’ll be home tomorrow, maybe he should hold off.”
“No, have them go ahead. We’ll probably stay in the apartment at the office for a few days. It’ll be easier not knowing my schedule yet.” He anticipated that with Cooper and Madison’s minor injuries the team would be out of the rotation for field work for at least a week.
“Shepherd said I could stay in the apartment for however long I needed or whenever you were gone. Everyone has been so nice, offering me their help.”
Doc smiled. “That’s what a family does for each other. I’d expect nothing less from them.”
“I’m glad you’re on your way home,” she said.
“Me too.” He paused. “I’ll be home soon, honey. Let me speak to Sloan again.”
“Okay, bye,” she said. She handed the phone towards Gary, who stood near the door.
“Yeah,” Sloan said into his phone,
“You’ll make sure someone is with her till I get home?” Doc said as both an order and a question.
“Yeah, we got her. Don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks, man. I owe you,” Doc said.
Doc opened the door to the apartment. The low lighting from the hallway spilled into the pitch-black room. He glanced at his watch, zero-one-forty, about four hours later than he’d anticipated. There had been bad weather in Germany, delaying their departure after refueling. He slipped into the room and reclosed the door as quietly as he had opened it.
“Hello?” Elizabeth’s soft voice came from the direction of the bed.
“Hi, honey. It’s just me.” He crossed the room, stopping when his thighs made contact with the mattress. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“It’s okay. I don’t think I’ve slept very soundly since I’ve been here,” she said.
Doc followed her voice to the head of the bed. His hand searched the mattress until it found its way to her body. His touch ran up her arm, over her shoulder, and up the soft skin of her neck until his hand cupped her face. Then he bent over and kissed her, and he perched his behind on the edge of the bed.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here with you,” he said when their lips parted.
“Me too. I missed you.”
Doc embraced her. “I missed you too. I’m going to talk with Shepherd and see if I can reduce my mission time, at least until this condition resolves or the baby is born.”
“Do you think he’ll let you?”
“It’s all in my presentation of the request, and what value I can bring the agency if I’m here. I gave it a lot of thought on our trip back. I think my justification is strong.” Doc stood and started to peel his clothes off. “Scoot over and make some room for me.”
Elizabeth wiggled to the center of the bed. Warmth surrounded her as he pressed his body against hers, taking her in his embrace.
“I was really afraid when I started to bleed,” she said softly. “Gary was great, held my hand and stayed with me the whole time, but he wasn’t you.”
Doc embraced her more tightly. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there, Elizabeth,” Doc repeated. “When Sloan told me what happened, my heart stopped beating for a few seconds. All I could think about was how scared you must have been and that I wasn’t here for you.” There was a long, silent pause. “I love you, Elizabeth. I knew in that moment that I truly do.”
Tears filled Elizabeth’s eyes. “I love you too, Alexander. I’ve known for a while I do, but I didn’t want to put pressure on you by telling you.”
He tightened his hold of her.
She felt his erection press into her. “I can’t have sex with this condition,” she whispered.
“I know.” He arched his back, so his pelvis didn’t press to her. “It’ll go away. I just need to hold you. I missed you and I really am sorry I wasn’t here for you. I’ll convince Shepherd,” he repeated. “Go back to sleep. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
She relaxed into him, feeling safe and loved. She sighed her contentment as she nestled in close, her head against his chest. She breathed in the scent of him, comforted by it. Then she drifted into a deep, restful sleep.
Doc held her, heard her even breaths, and knew she was asleep. He felt at peace, for the first time, in what he realized was over a decade. This woman, pregnant with his child, meant everything to him. The realization that he was in love with her came to him like a missile impacting its target with an Earth-shattering concussion and a fireball that seared everything near it with intense heat. There was nothing subtle about the realization. It was explosive and obvious. How could he not have seen it before? And once he saw it, realized what it was, and accepted it, the peaceful feeling that settled in his soul was overwhelming.
Whiskey
“How is Elizabeth?” Shepherd asked looking up from the screen of his laptop.
“She’s good, thank you for asking. If it’s okay with you, I’d like us to stay in the apartment so that Angel can continue to help with Elizabeth when I’m working.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Shepherd remarked. He noted Doc had not taken a seat yet. He eyed him carefully. Something was up. “Is that all you wanted to talk with me about?”
“Partly. The medical condition could resolve itself in the next few months and then she’d be off bedrest, or it could stay right till she delivers. Then it would be by a C-section. Shep, I’d like to reduce the amount of time I’m away on missions until after this baby comes and she’s fully healed, if I can.”
Shepherd didn’t interrupt. He raised an eyebrow, his intense gaze focused on Doc, urging him to continue.
“If I took over the oversight of every team member’s medical, that would bring continuity and reduce the burden on each team’s medic. Charlie Team has been in the field so much, I know Powder hasn’t had the opportunity to even think about the team’s medical status and immunizations. I checked the logs, and it doesn’t look like any of them have had a physical in over six months. PT logs are not complete with the level of activity on any of the Shepherd Security personnel. And that’s on me. As senior medic, I’m responsible for that, but haven’t had the time to follow up on it. We talked before about getting some automation in place with Apps that we would push out to everyone’s phones and we could then monitor it to be sure all members were meeting the requirement. I could get that done too.”
Shepherd pointed to the chair in front of his desk. “Sit.”
Doc took the seat, watching Shepherd carefully. As usual, Shepherd’s facial expression gave nothing away. That’s why he would never play poker with the man.
“Do you anticipate this mission reduction to be just until the baby comes, or do you think you will not want to be away as much after she’s born?”
Doc could tell by the way Shepherd said it, he already believed it was to be a permanent situation. Doc sighed and dragged his hand through his hair. “I guess I won’t know till I hold my daughter in my arms, but I have to believe I’ll feel as Jackson does, and I won’t want to be away as much as the team usually is. I know it’s my job, but.” He paused and blew out another sigh.
“I anticipated this,” Shepherd said. “We made accommodations for Jackson. We need to do the same for you.” He lifted his cellphone and tapped out a message. Then he sat his
phone down. “I just asked Cooper to join us. He’s already in this morning, figured you would want to check his wound.”
A few minutes later, Cooper came through the door. He closed it behind himself. “Hey Doc, how is Elizabeth?”
“She’s good. I’m glad we’re back though. How’s the arm?”
“Hurts like a bitch,” Cooper replied. “Madison’s bruise is nasty.”
Doc’s lips tipped into a grin. “You both had horseshoes up your asses.”
Cooper shrugged then he turned his attention back to Shepherd. “I thought our mission debrief was at thirteen-hundred.”
“Doc requested less field time, the same as Jackson,” Shepherd reported.
Cooper’s lips set in a smirk. “Will fifty percent be enough?”
“I’d prefer less while Elizabeth is confined to bed, but I will be happy with whatever you can work out.” His eyes swept between Shepherd and Cooper.
“We need to work this out for him, like we did Jackson,” Shepherd said, his eyes on Cooper. “I think we need to recruit another medic for the teams.” His eyes focused back on Doc. “Fifty percent is what we can do for now, but you’ll get scrambled for an emergency, just like Jackson.”
Doc nodded. “I appreciate that, Shep, and of course I’d always report during an emergency. I like my job, always have, and I don’t want to stop doing the field work. I just need it reduced so I can tend Elizabeth. It’s not fair to dump it on Angel.”
“She doesn’t mind,” Shepherd said. “And I can put Jackson on the same rotation as you, so you’re both away at the same time. Angel is welcome to use my guest room. I always love to have Sammy around.”
Shepherd filled Cooper in on the in-office projects Doc would be working on. “Can you think of any other administrative work we can throw his way?”
Cooper smiled. “I’d love to push a few of the end of the month reports off on him. I spend way too much time on them.”
Shepherd’s lips tipped into a grin. Of course, Cooper would. “We’ll see about those. If anything else comes to mind, let me know.” Then his gaze shifted back to Doc. “I expect you to put in full days, while tending to Elizabeth and don’t hesitate to ask Angel for help. Get to work on your projects. I want weekly updates.”
Doc knew he’d just been dismissed. He came to his feet. “Thanks,” he said as his eyes slid between the two of them.
After Doc left, Shepherd let out a rant of curses. “Lassiter warned me not too long ago that I may have to reconsider the makeup of the teams. I’ve always believed having the same four men work together provides the greatest continuity and bond between them. Alpha and Delta work great together, as does Bravo and Charlie. With Jackson and now Doc requesting reduced field time that makes it harder to cover, especially since Doc is the medic.”
“Sloan handled the call to notify Doc well. Doc didn’t freak out after he was told about Elizabeth bleeding and her condition because of how Sloan delivered the news. If it were me, getting that news about Madison I sure as hell would have.”
“Since you brought it up, do you and Madison have any plans to change the status quo any time soon?”
Cooper laughed. “Is that your way of asking me if we too are going to dive into the parenting pool?”
“Well, while we’re talking about team coverage, now seemed like a good time to. If there are any more shifts in staffing coming, I’d prefer to know now.”
“No, we have no plans anytime soon. Madison is happy with the amount of time she spends in the field and in Ops. If we need to increase her time in the field, she’s okay with that.”
“And you are both still alright working in the field together?”
Cooper’s expression was unreadable. He shook his head. “Honest to God, Shepherd, operating together is the only way we want it. After what just went down, I think I’d go nuts if she were on a different team. Plus, we’d see each other a lot less and neither of us wants that.”
“Okay, good. I just had to check.” Shepherd sighed and blew out a breath. “I need to run some numbers and see how many more Operators we can hire. I was planning to add a more technical guy for the field, some sort of engineer to help with the Power Grid Project, but Doc’s status bumps up the need for another medic.”
“My brother, Michael, is getting out of the Navy in three months. He’s been bugging me for an interview with you. He’s a nuclear engineer on a sub, knows advanced electronics. I think he could handle the government contract to protect the energy plants that Charlie Team is working on. He’d need a lot of training for any other conventional mission, but he could learn. He’s a good shot but has never been in an active combat zone. If we add him there, we could bring Taco or Handsome up to either Alpha or Delta. If you find another medic, we could put him on Charlie and bring Powder up to Delta too.”
“So, you think we should bring Sloan up to Alpha then?”
“He’d backfill both Doc and Jackson’s positions. Sloan is just as good of a sniper as Jackson is,” Cooper said.
“We all know Garcia and Sienna want to start a family. Garcia would prefer to be in Ops as it is. He’s just too damn good to not have in the field,” Shepherd said.
“Well fuck, maybe Madison and I should have a kid or two, then all of Alpha could be part time in the field and we wouldn’t have to disturb any of the other team rosters.”
“Yeah, we’d just have to find enough for everyone to do in the office and be able to afford to hire three more Operators.”
“Don’t forget, you’d need to cover for us all when we are in the field.” Cooper rubbed his forehead. “This is giving me a headache.”
“Welcome to my world. If you were in the office more, you could take over more of the administrative shit from me. After I was shot, you did a damn good job with it.”
“Yeah, and I hated every minute of it too.”
Shepherd laughed. Then he turned more serious. “In all actuality, if we hire two more men, your time could be spent training them as well as helping out with more of the administrative shit on my plate. We could have Miller pull more shifts in Ops, and that is one way to maintain Alpha as the five of you.”
“So, we’d make Alpha more of a part-time in-the-field team.”
“More like split fifty-fifty between office and field work.”
Cooper’s jaw set in a tight clench. He didn’t like it. And he certainly didn’t want to become an office paper-pusher. “Do you really think two more operators would fill our staffing needs if Alpha is only in the field half the time?”
“Alpha would be reserved for the most important cases only. If we can swing hiring three more Operators, one a medic, the other two with strong electronics knowledge, we can have Charlie Team train them on the power grid protection project. We then give Charlie Team more traditional cases fifty percent of the time, leave them on the power grid the other half, and we might actually catch up on the schedule. We are way behind.”
“So, this new team would be a three-man team?” Cooper shook his head. He didn’t like this either.
“No, Echo Team would be a four-man team. BT has good technical skills. He could handle the power grid project just fine. He’d be the team lead.”
“BT?”
The corners of Shepherd’s lips tipped into a grin. “I already spoke with him. He’s open to it. You’d need to give him full Operator training though.”
“And he could still provide back up in Ops when Madison, Jackson, and Garcia are in the field. I guess it makes sense to develop in-house talent.”
“With Alpha providing three team members to cover Ops, we’re overstaffed there. BT has proved his leadership in Ops, and he is very strong technically.”
“So, Miraldi can work more with Michaela, and provide backup coverage in Ops too, when Alpha is in the field?”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking,” Shepherd confirmed. “Just don’t tell your brother he has the job. I want to put him through the full interview process. Unless he re
ally fucks it up, he has the job.”
“Shepherd approved my field time reduction. I’ll only be away fifty percent of the time,” Doc told Elizabeth. He watched a smile brighten her entire face. “I love you, Elizabeth. I’ll be here as much as I can be.”
Elizabeth’s heart filled. “I love you too.” She beamed a smile at him. “Thank Shepherd for me. He was so kind when he came in here to see me. He assured me I could stay here as long as I needed to and that everyone would pitch in and help me any way I needed.”
“Didn’t I tell you we were a family?”
“You did.”
Doc took hold of her hand. “Honey, I need to tell you, on this last mission, Madison took one in her vest and Cooper’s arm got grazed, but they are just fine.”
