Protecting the Future (SEAL of Protection Book 8) (12 page)

F
iona paced
the waiting room at the hospital. Because Faulkner wasn’t available, Caroline was allowed to be in the delivery room with Cheyenne. They’d been there most of the day because no one wanted to take a chance on leaving and missing the birth of Cheyenne’s baby. But after being cooped up all day, Jess had taken John and Sara out to get some fresh air, and Alabama had finally relented and taken Davisa and Brinique out to get something to eat. That left Summer with her infant daughter, Melody and Akilah, and Fiona…and Fiona couldn’t sit still any longer.

Caroline had been periodically coming out with updates. Apparently the bleeding Cheyenne had at home when her water broke wasn’t exactly serious, though the doctors were keeping their eye on it. But the women hadn’t heard from Caroline in a while and Fiona was about to burst.

Just when Fiona didn’t think she’d be able to stand it for a second longer, Caroline appeared in the doorway. She was as pale as the white tiles on the floor under their feet.

“Oh my God, is the baby okay? Cheyenne? What’s wrong?” Fiona fretted, rushing over and grabbing Caroline’s hands.

“The baby is perfect. Eight pounds, nine ounces—no wonder Shy looked like she was having triplets. Good lung sounds and all ten toes and fingers. Cutest little baby I’ve ever seen…including Jess’s kids.”

“Then what? What’s wrong?” Fiona questioned.

“It’s Cheyenne. She’s bleeding and the doctors were having a hard time getting it stopped. They made me leave, but I heard the nurse tell the doctor she thought it was a postpartum hemorrhage.”

Summer sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh my God, a hemorrhage? That doesn’t sound good. Did they get it stopped?”

“I don’t know. They kicked me out.” Caroline took a deep breath, and when it came out, it was a sob. “She was s-s-so happy that the baby was fine, she’d b-b-been so worried. She held her in her arms and looked up at me and said she didn’t feel so good. Then she went limp and just kinda faded away. I had to grab the baby so she didn’t tumble out of Cheyenne’s arms.”

“Oh, Caroline, come ’ere.” Fiona gathered Caroline in her arms and felt Melody crowd up against her back. Summer came up beside them and put one arm around Caroline’s shoulders and held baby April in the other. The four women stood in the busy waiting room in each other’s arms, trying to take strength and comfort from one another. Fiona could feel Caroline shuddering against her and felt so helpless to do anything for her or for their friend.

Caroline finally got herself together and pulled back. “We were so worried about the baby, we didn’t even
think
about anything happening to Cheyenne. She’s too young for this.”

“I don’t think age has anything to do with it,” Summer said gently. “Should we call the others?”

“I think Jess and Alabama will be back soon anyway, let’s not freak them out until we have more information,” Fiona said, not knowing if it was the right decision or not. “Maybe by the time they get back, the doctors will have come out here and told us she’ll be fine.”

“Come on, let’s sit. There’s nothing we can do but wait,” Melody cajoled, and they all wandered over to a group of chairs in the corner of the room.

Twenty minutes later, Jessyka returned with her toddlers and ten minutes after that, Alabama came over with Davisa and Brinique in tow. It was a somber group that waited to hear from the doctor. They should’ve been thrilled beyond belief about the healthy newborn baby, but instead they were hoping they wouldn’t have to get a Red Cross message to Commander Hurt and try to get Faulkner home to bury his wife.

Another hour passed before the group heard anything else about Cheyenne, and by that time everyone was more than ready to hear some news. The kids were restless and their grumpiness was making everyone edgy.

A nurse finally came into the waiting room and asked for Cheyenne’s family. All six women got up and when the nurse saw how many of them there were, she led them all into a more private conference room. She stood looking at the large group of women and children as if she didn’t know where to start.

“For God’s sake, just tell us,” Caroline pleaded, not able to stand the suspense any longer. “How’s Cheyenne? When can we see her?”

“As you all know, there were…complications. Cheyenne was bleeding so heavily that she had to be transferred to the operating room.”

“Oh. My. God,” Melody whispered, saying out loud what everyone in the room was thinking. “Is she still alive?”

Everyone’s eyes were glued to the harried-looking nurse sent into the lion’s den, so to speak, to notify the family of the patient’s condition.

“I understand her husband is in the service and is out of the country on a mission?” At the nods all around her, she said gravely, “I recommend he be contacted as soon as possible. He needs to get home. Now.”

The waiting room was silent for a beat until Caroline’s soft inhale and her devastated words as she repeated Melody’s question. “Is Cheyenne still alive?”

D
ude woke
up suddenly and lurched forward, choking back a cry. “Holy shit,” he whispered into the chilly night air.

“You all right, Dude?” Wolf asked from beside him.

Dude ran his hand down his face and tried to clear the all too real images from his brain, and noticed his hand was shaking. His hand was fucking
shaking
. He was the unflappable one. The one who took things in stride. The Dom who was always in control. But at the moment he felt anything but strong. “No,” he answered his friend.

“Wanna talk?”

No, Dude didn’t want to talk, but he did anyway, thinking maybe it’d help him get back on track. “I dreamed Cheyenne had the baby.”

“That’s good, right?” Wolf asked, propping himself up on his uninjured elbow and keeping his voice quiet so he wouldn’t disturb the others.

“Yeah, but right after she was born, Cheyenne looked up at me, said she loved me and to make sure the baby knew how much she was loved by her mom, then closed her eyes and fucking died. Right there in front of me. I could hear our baby crying in the background and everything.”

“It was just a dream, Dude. You’re stressed about not being able to be there,” Wolf said, trying to soothe his friend.

“Yeah, a dream. But it seemed too fucking real.”

Wolf didn’t know what to say to that. They both had seen some crazy shit in their lives, things some people would say were impossible. Because of that, they both knew that maybe Dude’s dream wasn’t so much a dream as it was foreshadowing. Finally, he told Dude in an earnest voice, “I’m doing everything I can to get us home.”

“I know.” Dude rubbed his hand down his face once more, feeling the beard that had grown in the weeks they’d been gone. Changing the subject, he asked, “How far north should we go?” Dude knew as well as Wolf that they needed to gain higher ground and find a good place to dig in and defend themselves. If push came to shove and they got into a firefight, they’d eventually lose, simply because they didn’t have enough ammunition to outlast the insurgents. Their best bet was to hunker down and stay undetected long enough for Tex, and the government, to send in another chopper to get them the hell out of dodge.

“How far north?” Wolf repeated. “As far as we can. It’s unlikely we can stay under their radar forever, especially since they could have thermal imaging and there are seven of us. If it was only one or two of us we could probably stay undetected, but we can’t leave Benny and Abe alone, and I can’t do much with this broken arm, so we have to stick together.”

“As if we’d break up,” Dude snorted.

Wolf smiled grimly. They both knew there was no way in hell they’d ever leave any of the others behind. They were too close to do that, and besides, they’d been trained way too well.

“What do you make of Tiger?” Dude asked. “Think she’s telling the truth about not being violated?”

“Yeah, I do,” Wolf said immediately, turning to look at the woman sleeping on the ground a bit away from them. They could hear her slightly snoring, but she was clearly out, sleeping the sleep of a woman who knows she’s safe for the moment. “She’s one tough cookie. I think she’d be more leery around us if she’d been raped.”

“I agree to a point, but I also think she’d keep going until she fell over just so she wouldn’t look weak in our eyes,” Dude pointed out. “I’ve seen women like this before. They don’t want to look weak in any way, so they’ll lie and hide their pain, feelings, or thoughts, no matter how many times they’re asked if they’re okay.”

Wolf knew Dude was talking about his experience as a Dominant, and he had a good point, but somehow Wolf knew in his gut, he was wrong this time. “Turner isn’t the kind of soldier, or woman, to keep her thoughts inside. If she was upset, she wouldn’t be afraid to let us know. Yesterday when she was hungry, she asked for something to eat. You told me yourself the first thing she did when you showed up in her tent, was ask for something to drink.”

Dude nodded. “True.”

Wolf continued, “She reminds me a lot of Caroline. She’ll fight to the death to survive and to get respect. I think that’s why she’s so successful as a firefighter.”

“Yeah.”

“If you guys are done talking about me, can we get a move on or what?”

Dude and Wolf looked up in surprise, seeing Penelope was awake and leaning up on an elbow watching them.

“Yeah, as soon as we get the others up, we can finalize the plan for the day.” Wolf didn’t bother to apologize for talking about her. He smiled a bit at the scowl that moved across her face.

“Great,” Penelope muttered and sat up, holding her ribs and groaning. She ignored her pain, as it was manageable, and moved over to Abe who was waking up as well. “How’s the leg feel? Can I look at it?”

“Knock yourself out, Tiger.” Abe’s spoke quietly and if Penelope hadn’t spent a lot of time taking care of injured people, she would’ve been fooled by his nonchalant tone of voice. He was in pain. A lot of it. She eased his ripped pants to the side and unwound the bandages she’d put on earlier. Penelope grimaced at the look of the wound.

“Fuck,” Cookie said from behind her in a hushed voice.

Abe didn’t pick his head up off the ground. “It’s infected, isn’t it?” he asked evenly.

“Yeah,” Cookie agreed.

Penelope interrupted their monosyllable conversation. “Well, us swearing at it isn’t going to magically make it any better. Cookie, think you can get me some more of those alcohol pads? And what kind of painkillers do we have? He needs something if we’re going to get his ass up this mountain and to a safer place.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cookie said with a smile on his face. There wasn’t anything to smile about, but Penelope was so darn cute and feisty, he couldn’t help it.

“I think—” Abe started, but Penelope interrupted him.

“No.”

“No what?” Abe asked in confusion.

“No to whatever you were going to say. It was going to be bullshit,” Penelope told him without rancor, still concentrating on his leg.

Benny laughed from the sitting position he’d pulled himself into when he’d woken up. “She’s got you pegged, Abe.”

“Fuck off,” Abe told his teammate and closed his eyes, but didn’t resume saying whatever it was that had been on his mind.

Penelope smiled, enjoying the camaraderie of the men; it reminded her of the guys she worked with back in San Antonio. Taco and Driftwood were the comedians of the group, always ready with a quick comeback and joke. Chief was a lot like Wolf, in charge of them all, but also their friend too. Squirrel and Crash were like brothers to her, and of course Cade, otherwise known as Sledge,
was
her brother. Moose was quiet and introspective, but never missed anything going on around him. She missed them all fiercely, and would do whatever she could to get back to them and to hear their ribbing and joking around the station.

It was Wolf who handed her the alcohol pads from the first-aid kit. Penelope set to work trying to clean Abe’s wound without hurting him too much, while Cookie injected more painkillers and antibiotics into his veins.

“Okay, we’re going to continue to head up today, much as we did yesterday. We’ll stop more often to drink and to check everyone’s wounds. We need to be as close to one hundred percent as we can get if we’re gonna make it out of here. Benny, you need to let us know if you continue to be dizzy or if you get nauseous. Dude, wrap your ankle up tight, but don’t overdo it. When we stop, you need to put it up to try to keep the swelling down. Abe, talk to us about that leg. I don’t want it falling off somewhere along the trail.” The others chuckled at that, and Wolf continued, “Tiger, we’ll wrap your ribs before we set out, but unfortunately there’s not too much we can do about them. If you need something for the pain, let us know. You’ll need to drink more than us as well, you have a lot of catching up to do. Also, make sure you continuously snack as the day goes on as well. You might be smaller than us, but you need the calories and energy.”

Penelope nodded. Wolf was right, and he wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know she needed to do if she was going to be able to continue on and carry her own weight. Even though this was her rescue, she’d do whatever it took to not be a burden.

“I’ll monitor my arm. It hurts, but it’s not unbearable. You guys set it perfectly,” Wolf complimented, looking at Penelope and Cookie. “We need to find a good hidey-hole today. If those bastards do have thermals, we’ll need to be able to get far enough back and out of sight of anyone that might be scanning the area. But at the same time, we need to be able to get out and to a rescue chopper at a moment’s notice. Everyone keep your eyes open.”

At the nods all around, the group got ready to head out. The day was going to be tough, but as every SEAL knew, the only easy day was yesterday.

J
ess and Summer
sat with their babies, and the others stood around the small conference room, waiting for the nurse to continue telling them what was going on with Cheyenne. Akilah was once again a lifesaver, taking over the entertainment of Sara.

“Cheyenne was transferred to the operating room as a precaution. Basically PPH is a condition where the uterus doesn’t contract properly after giving birth. We gave her some painkillers and hand-delivered the placenta. Usually once the placenta is out, the uterus will start to contract on its own, and the bleeding will stop,” the nurse explained slowly and carefully, looking at each woman to make sure they understood.

When everyone nodded, she continued. “We gave her some medicine to try to assist the uterus to contract, and thus stop the bleeding on its own, with no luck. The bleeding slowed, but didn’t stop. Finally after a blood transfusion, and more specialized drugs, the bleeding stopped. We didn’t have to do a hysterectomy, which was the next step if we couldn’t get the bleeding stopped with these other measures.”

“Oh my God, a hysterectomy,” Jessyka breathed, putting a hand on her own still-flat stomach as if she could protect the baby growing there from the word.

“Yeah, but we didn’t need to go that far. Cheyenne is fine for now. She’s sleeping off the painkillers. I recommend getting her husband home as soon as possible because when she woke up, she was asking for him. She had a really close call today, and honestly, she’s not completely out of the woods yet. She’ll continue to get fluids and drugs to make sure her uterus stays contracted. She’s going to need to stay here probably tonight and tomorrow night. After that, the doctor will take a look and see what she thinks about letting her go home. But once home, she’ll need to take it easy and get lots of sleep, fluids, and good nutritious food. No fast food and no junk food for at least a couple of weeks. She’ll need to rest and not overdo anything. It’s been my experience that new moms want to get back into their normal routine as soon as possible, but that’s not in her best interest. The doctor will prescribe some prenatal vitamins as well to make sure her folic acid and iron intake are high.”

“Will she be able to breastfeed?” Summer asked.

“Of course. Nothing else about the care of her daughter will change.” When everyone nodded in relief, the nurse continued. “If anyone has any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask the nurse on duty on her floor. She’s going to be in ICU tonight, and most likely in the morning she’ll be moved to a regular floor. Only one of you will be able to see her tonight, but once she’s completely awake and out of the woods, and she’s moved to a regular room, you’ll all be able to visit her…but I recommend not all at the same time.”

This time the women in the room laughed lightly, relieved that it sounded like Cheyenne was going to be all right.

“Can we see baby?” Akilah asked.

The nurse turned to her and agreed. “Yes, but again, maybe take turns? There are a lot of you here.”

“We will,” Caroline reassured the friendly nurse. “Thank you for taking the time to talk to us and reassure us about Cheyenne. I’m not sure we can get her husband, or any of our husbands home right now, but we’ll take care of her until he
can
get home. We’ll take turns staying with her and browbeating her to take it easy. It’s what we do best.”

“You’re more than welcome. And it’s very nice to see that she’s got such great friends. And by the way, thank you all for your husbands’ service to our country. While they might be the ones doing the actual fighting, I know spouses also make a lot of sacrifices. So thank you.”

The women all nodded their heads and watched as the nurse left the room. It was always nice to be included in the thanks, even if, as the nurse said, they weren’t the ones out on the front lines.

“Caroline, you and Akilah and Melody go first to see Baby Cooper,” Fiona said decisively. “We’ll wait until you get back.”

“Are you sure?” Caroline asked, looking around at the group of women in the room.

“Of course,” Jessyka enthused. “We’ll wait.”

“Hey, Caroline, what did Cheyenne name the baby?” Alabama asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” Caroline answered. “She didn’t have time before she passed out. The doctor had just put the baby in her arms and she was counting her fingers and toes when it happened.”

Alabama laughed a little. “Figures. We’ll just have to keep calling her Baby Cooper until Cheyenne can wake up and tell the doctor what to put on the birth certificate.”

“Taylor!” Davisa said in the silence of the room.

“What, honey? Alabama asked her daughter.

“Taylor. It’s the baby’s name.”

Alabama tried to let her new daughter down easily so she wasn’t disappointed. “Davisa, that’s a great name, but Cheyenne and Faulkner probably have a name in mind already.”

“Taylor,” the five-year-old insisted again stubbornly.

“We’ll see,” Alabama said, trying to head off a tantrum. All the other mothers in the room laughed, recognizing the avoidance technique.

“Okay, we’ll be back. Alabama, Jess, and Summer, you guys need to get your kids home and to bed. We’ll be quick and you can take your turn. Fiona and I will stay the night and the rest of you can come back tomorrow,” Caroline said, trying to organize the group.

“I stay too,” Akilah insisted.

Caroline looked at Melody, who was looking at her daughter, deciding whether or not they should stay. Finally she nodded. “Yeah, we’ll stay with you guys too.”

“Okay, it’s a plan. We’ll hurry and you guys can see the new baby and get out of here.”

Everyone agreed and the trio headed out of the conference room and continued toward the viewing room where the babies were kept while waiting to go home with their new moms and dads.

When they were on their way, Caroline asked Melody quietly, “Are you going to call Tex? I can call the commander if you take care of Tex.”

Melody nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do it as soon as we see Cheyenne’s baby.” They both knew Tex would do what he could to get word to the team about Cheyenne’s condition and the birth of Faulkner’s daughter. Melody remembered the news story about the crashed helicopter, and decided once again to keep it to herself. This was no time to bring it up, and besides, it might not be at all relevant anyway.