Captain O'Reilly's Woman - Ashes of Love 1 (18 page)

Wishing he didn’t feel the need to, David cast a disparaging look in Lieutenant Edward Ramos’ direction. When David was a first-year sergeant and working recon, he’d met reclamation commanders with a detailed set of plans in hand, from prioritization of the community’s needs right down to the suggested location of playground swings. But not everyone had David’s strengths. He moved on.

Ramos was conspicuously silent during the meeting with the town council as well. He started off well enough, introducing David and his heads of staff, said that he was glad he’d been able to bring the Army to Montpelier. Then he sat at the back of the room with his sergeant and did nothing more than observe after that.

But the council was eager to get started, eager to hear what the Army had planned for them and especially glad to hear that a mobile medical facility was now up and running in what had once been their town square. One of the councilmen left briefly to put a message out over the CB network. On his way out, he made a point of specifically thanking Lieutenant Ramos for making that happen.

After sounding out the council members about their town’s needs, David proposed a plan of action for the first week. He emphasized that the Army was there to provide tools, technical expertise, health care and security only. All improvements would be the exclusive results of the town’s labor. By the time the meeting was concluded, the walls of the meeting chamber were covered with oversized pieces of paper, showing a detailed schedule of work. It outlined how many people would be required at each job site and what, if any, special skills would be required.

David and his staff left the meeting, leaving the job of gathering and organizing a labor force in the hands of the town council and to have teams ready by seven-hundred hours tomorrow morning. As they passed the mobile clinic, David noted with satisfaction that a swath of lawn in front of it had already been mowed and that there was a triage area outside, and a queue of people waiting their turn for the first medical and dental care they’d probably had in decades.

Before he returned to base, David confirmed that his electrical engineers were already vetting potential sites for solar and wind-power arrays, MPs had set up visible and covert posts on the access routes into town, their maintenance corps was clearing a new dump site and ground-water samples were being tested for contaminants.

When he crawled into bed that night—alone, for the first time in almost three months—he missed his wife so desperately his bones literally ached for her.

*
   
*
   
*

“They’re here.”

David’s head shot up from the paperwork on his desk when his ADC slapped the flat of his hand on his office-door frame. Grabbing his cap, he shouldered his way past Sergeant Stevenson and rushed out.

“You know you could try playing a
little
hard to get. Geez you’re embarrassing.”

David was suddenly in far too good a mood to pay any attention to Tom’s high-handedness. “Bugger off,” he shot back absently just before the outer door to the command post slammed shut in his wake. He headed over to the infirmary when he caught sight of the buses passing through the second checkpoint and heading his way.

Samantha was one of the first medical personnel to step off. Private JT Winters followed close on her heels, carrying not one but two duffel bags. Before he even had a chance to think about what he wanted to say to her, Samantha’s head tipped to one side and her eyes narrowed as she walked up to him.

“Are you all right?” she asked quickly, taking in the smudges beneath his eyes and the papery creases at the corners of them.

He sighed contentedly. “Yes. Now that you’re here.” She continued to look at him assessingly. “I don’t sleep well without you,” he admitted quietly, touched her arm fleetingly then looked up and nodded in greeting when other members of the medical unit began filing off the bus.

“I’ll, um, take this to your quarters, Sam?” JT piped up, glancing at one of the duffel bags he was carrying. “Captain,” he said politely and kept moving.

Somebody, David had no idea who, walked by them and coughed loudly...only it sounded suspiciously like “Kiss her.”

He looked around, his brow furrowing but nobody reacted.

Then somebody else coughed. “Kiss her.”

“Go on.”

“Kiss her already.”

The murmurs were more distinct now. Louder. And they got louder and more distinct until David and Samantha were standing in a sea of moving personnel, all of them grinning and bellowing out of the corners of their mouths.

David cleared his throat. He pulled off his cap, bent to Samantha and kissed her softly. Just enjoying the scent of her, he relished the fact that she was there. He felt her mouth split into a wide grin when the personnel around them cheered before moving on. Finally, he straightened from her and, side by side, they walked back to the command post.

*
   
*
   
*

“I can’t begin to tell you how much I love indoor plumbing,” Samantha sighed as she wiped a damp cloth over her face and neck. She switched off the faucets in the private head off David’s office. After she dried her face and hands, she smoothed her hair and put her cap back on. “I’ve only got a few minutes before I have to report to the infirmary,” she said as she turned to him. And smiled. David was leaning in the doorway, watching her. A lopsided grin lifted one corner of his full, sensual mouth.

“How was the trip?” he asked, touching the side of her face then letting his hand drift down to rest on her lower abdomen.

“Long. Dusty. Bumpy. But we’re good. Both of us.”

“I was worried,” David admitted with a sigh.

“Well you can stop it right now,” Samantha admonished him gently. She smoothed her hands down the front of his shirt, caressed him lightly then rested her fingers on his waist. “We need you in top form these first few days. So get your focus and your game face together, all right?”

David inhaled deliberately. “In other words,” he grinned, “suck it up, troop, and get on with it.”

“Exactly.” Standing up on tip-toe, Samantha kissed him. It was poignantly, sweet and far too quick. She settled back down on her heels and smiled when he kissed the base of her ear before straightening away from her. “I’ll meet you at our quarters for supper.” After one last, fleeting kiss, she left to report for work.

On her way out, she chatted briefly with the sergeant, asking him how his day was going and how the work in town was progressing. As she crossed the road and turned down the walkway leading to the infirmary, Lieutenant Edward Ramos and a few of his men, on their way to the motor pool, caught a glimpse of her retreating backside.

“Nice ass.”

“
New
ass,” Ramos added speculatively. He glanced around, noting the now-empty buses pulling away. “Hmm. There may be a reason for sticking around this dump a few more days after all. Come on,” he said, and continued on his way to the motor pool.

*
   
*
   
*

“Major, can I speak to you about my duty roster?” Samantha caught their chief medic, Doctor Major Fred Stern, just as he was leaving his office the next morning.

He leaned on the corner of his desk, looked down at her affectionately then ran his thumb across the brim of the cap he was holding in his hand.

“I thought you might.” When Samantha’s brow furrowed, he set his cap aside. “You’re to be quarantined on base for three weeks, Corporal Coop...O’Reilly,” he corrected himself. He held up his hand when Samantha opened her mouth to protest. “You’re in your first trimester and this is a community that’s been without a medical facility since zero GW. Three weeks will be enough time for us to find out what kind of communicable diseases they might be harboring and get the population inoculated against anything that might harm that baby you’re carrying.” He stood and set his cap on his gray head. “And this order comes straight from me, not your husband. So don’t go busting his chops over it.”

Samantha shot him a look and put her hands on her hips.

“Yeah...I know you wouldn’t.” Doctor Stern chuckled. “I just like yanking your chain.” Then he grew serious. “Being pregnant in an un-reclaimed area is a world of different from being pregnant in one that is.” He looked at her pointedly.

“Yes, sir,” Samantha acknowledged with a resigned sigh. She saluted then stood aside as he left.

*
   
*
   
*

Just as Samantha was logging in for her shift in the infirmary, Lieutenant Ramos was sitting down at the temporary desk he’d been assigned in the MP building. He scanned the personnel-profile menu. He needed to replace three members of his team—two grunts and one medic. If he was lucky, he’d be able to pick them from the personnel on base instead of waiting for HQ to assign him more people. He hated this part of the job. Newbies were always transferring in an out of his unit and if he could have gotten away with operating with just his core group of three trusted men, he would have. But the Army kept tabs on the numbers and wouldn’t allow him to operate below full strength of twelve. With reason. You needed a certain amount of muscle to operate safely in un-reclaimed areas. You needed numbers to make your presence felt and stand up to gangs of crooks. Grunts were a dime a dozen but medics were a different matter. None of them lasted more than a few months and he couldn’t operate without one. One, the Army wouldn’t let him. Two, they and their skills were the perfect bargaining chip in any community. His mouth thinning, he selected the medical-personnel profiles, narrowing down his choices to medics only and scanned them. The ones that had served for any length of time, he eliminated immediately. Then he scanned the remaining profiles, looking for somebody young and green.

Just when he’d all but given up hope, he noted a special-notation flag on one of the files—RI. He sat up straighter and opened the personnel file. RI, other than the obvious, meant special pull at HQ, something he’d enjoy taking advantage of. Ramos whistled softly. “Hello, darlin’ ” he murmured to the screen as he scanned Samantha’s photo. He glanced at her vital statistics but didn’t look much further than her age, weight and measurements before closing out the program and asking one of the other officers working nearby how to access the duty-roster menu.

*
   
*
   
*

“So if you’re going to medical school next July, what’s the Captain going to do while you’re in Kentucky?” JT looked down at Samantha from the third rung of the ladder he was perched on. He recounted the boxes of sterile gloves, size medium, then called out, “Twenty-four.”

“Twenty-four. Check,” Samantha acknowledged, making a mark on her clipboard. “We’re not sure yet,” she answered, adjusting her seat on the counter she was perched on. “Size large next.” She watched JT climb down a rung and start counting. “The base in Kentucky is really big and the reclamation program operates out of it. I’ve sent through a request that he be assigned there while I’m at school. Now we’re just waiting to hear back.”

“Eighty-seven,” JT called out then turned around and sat on one of the rungs, looking down at her. “How weird is it? I mean,
you
getting to tell HQ where you want Captain O’Reilly stationed?”

“Eighty-Seven. Check. Pretty weird, JT,” Samantha acknowledged and crossed her legs absently. Then un-crossed them. Crossed legs, although comfortable, weren’t optimal for her circulation and before her pregnancy advanced, she needed to get out of the habit.

“Is there a patient?” Samantha called out automatically when she heard someone enter the storage locker behind her. She jumped off the counter. Since most personnel were working in town, the clinic was quiet during the day. With JT’s help, she was checking the inventory, making sure all the supplies they’d left with had made it to Montpelier with them. In this squadron, things hardly ever fell off the back of the truck but supplies
could
be stored incorrectly and she was double-checking against that. When that job was done, she’d go back to hitting the books in preparation for medical school.

When there was no response, Samantha looked around. Her head tipped to one side when she saw an officer, one she didn’t recognize, inside the big locker. It was strictly off limits to all but medical personnel. If they hadn’t been in the most secure facility in the centre of a double-fenced compound, she’d be slamming the all-come, panic button...just in case their visitor was an intruder from off base looking to steal something. But, as this guy was obviously new, she decided to cut him some slack despite the fact that, as she turned around, she’d caught him checking out her ass.

“Do you need a medic, sir?” she asked, noting his insignia.

The tall, darkly tanned officer smiled broadly, revealing even, white teeth and a really cute dimple. “Yes, actually, but not in the way you think.” He held out his hand. “I’m Lieutenant Edward Ramos.”

“Sir,” Samantha nodded perfunctorily, taking his hand.

“Local reconnaissance unit commander,” he added by way of introduction. His smile widened as his hand closed over hers and stayed there. He seemed to be enjoying the feel of her fingers in his a little too much.

Samantha had to tug, twice, before he released her.

“Corporal O’Reilly, isn’t it?”

“Yes, sir,” Samantha answered and glanced back at JT who was now coming down off his ladder, his brow furrowing.

“Corporal, my unit is short a medic. We’ll be shipping out soon and...say, have you ever been to the Gulf of Mexico?”

“N-no.”

“Great beaches.” The Lieutenant sighed happily. “You’d love it there. Especially with the winter coming. Anyway, we’re shipping out soon and, unfortunately, like I said, my unit is short a medic.”

Samantha nodded. “Thank you, Lieutenant, but—”

“Now don’t say no just yet,” he interrupted with a smile, and looked down at her with an interest that was close enough to lechery that Samantha took a step backward, putting some space between her and his dark, almost predatory eyes. When she did, she felt JT take a step forward. “You’ll have a lot more freedom in recon. For one thing, we don’t stick our people in vaults and make them look at clipboards all day.”