SEALs Honor (17 page)

Fish,
Gator, and Dustman were nowhere to be seen. Flames rose from a dark structure
lying on the ground halfway across the valley.

For
a moment, Tuck didn't make the connection.

Big
Bird backhanded him in the gut. "Ain't that our chopper?"

Tuck
leaped off the ledge of the cave and ran, slid, scooted down the steep hillside
to the bottom. Without slowing, he ran, all out, across the desert valley.

Big
Bird yelled behind him. "Tuck! Don't be stupid. You're of no use to anyone
dead."

Tuck
barely heard him, the humming in his ears blocking most sound from reaching his
brain. The chopper was down, on fire, and Delaney had been the pilot. "Fuck!"
He ran faster.

Behind
him, Big Bird yelled, "Don't shoot! It's us!"

Gator
and Fish stepped out from behind the wreckage as Tuck reeled into the light
from the burning aviation fuel. "Survivors?" he gasped.

"The
door gunners took bullets and they're pretty banged up, and the co-pilot busted
a leg."

Tuck
grabbed Gator's Kevlar vest and jerked him close. "The pilot?"

Gator
shook his head.

His
heart plummeting, Tuck shoved Gator away. "Where is she?"

"Tuck,
she's alive, but she must be bleeding internally. She's been unconscious since
we pulled her out of the helicopter."

"Where…is…she?"
He rounded the craft to the other side where the injured crew members and
Dustman lay scattered across the ground. All of them greeted him with a raised
hand, except one.

She
lay on the hard-packed dirt, her helmet and electronic kneeboard on the ground
beside her.

Tuck
dropped down at her side and placed his ear near her mouth, listening for
breathing, feeling for the blessed release of air from between those beautiful
lips.

A
hand settled on his shoulder. "Tuck, she's breathing and her pulse is slow
but steady."

Tuck
glanced up at Gator. "Dustman?"

"Took
a round in the thigh. He went down, but was up again a couple minutes later."

"I
think she hesitated when I went down," Dustman said.

Tuck
brushed a long sandy blond hair off her cheek and said softly, "Knucklehead."

Gator,
the big man from Louisiana, with the tattoos of an alligator and a swamp rat on
his biceps and hair down around his shoulders, looked like a wild man from the
swamps. But he was one of the best SEALs Tuck had ever had on his side. He
stood straight, weapon ready, scanning the hillside above him. "I've
radioed for backup. We're to sit tight, hold our position, and keep these guys
safe."

Fish
asked, "Did you get 'em?"

Tuck
nodded, the attack's success inconsequential compared to what had happened
outside the cave.

He
stayed with Delaney while Gator and Fish set up a perimeter around the crashed
helicopter. Each minute ticked by like hours until finally the whopping sound
of helicopter rotors rose in the distance. Minutes later, two helicopters
landed. Medics leaped to the ground, carrying bags of medical equipment and
stretchers.

A
very short time later, they were on their way back to Camp Leatherneck.

After
Tuck saw to the safety of his team, he gave the medics all the room they
needed, but insisted on riding in the same aircraft as Delaney.

They'd
strapped her to a board, immobilizing her in case she’d suffered neck or spinal
injuries. An I.V. drip fed fluid into her veins and an oxygen mask was secured
to her face. She looked small in the mass of equipment and crowds of men in
uniforms.

Tuck
had never felt more frustrated and useless than at that moment. He wanted her
to wake up so he could tell her to hang on. That he loved her and that if she
didn't marry Cory, and married him instead, he'd be the happiest man on the
planet.

He
managed to hold her hand the entire flight back and helped carry the stretcher
to the camp’s hospital where the doctors and nurses took over.

Once
Delaney was out of sight, Tuck checked on Dustman. He'd been giving his female
surgeon a hard time, refusing to have her administer a local anesthetic while
she fished for the slug. He insisted on being strapped down and then proceeded
to tell her he was enjoying it. Not amused, the surgeon fished the bullet out
of his leg, sewed him up, and pumped him full of fluid and antibiotics.

"And
get the hell out of my hospital in the morning."  After giving him strict
instructions to stay off the leg until then, she left his side, tossing a wink
over her shoulder.

"How's
Delaney?" Dustman asked, wiping the sweat off his brow with the white
sheet gathered around his middle.

"I
don't know."

Dustman's
hand stilled. "You don't know? And you've parked your raggedy ass here?
What's wrong with you?" He leaned over, shoved Tuck, and winced. "Go,
before I bust a stitch and get Brunhilde von Shaft riding my ass again."

By
the time he got back to the door Delaney disappeared through, Captain Lindsay
Swinson was there, worried wrinkles on her forehead. "You're Tuck, aren't
you?"

When
he nodded, she smiled, hooked his arm, and dragged him to another section of
the hospital where beds lined the walls, many of them empty. At the far end of
the room, one had a body in it. As he neared, he recognized the sandy blond
hair.

Delaney
lay as still as death, her face pale, almost chalky in appearance.

His
knees shook and he almost fell. "Is she okay?"

"The
doc said she was a little messed up inside. He had to remove damaged tissue."

Tuck's
fists clenched. "Will she be okay?"

Swinson
nodded, a smile spilling across her face. After a moment, the smile
disappeared. "The doctors said she sustained damage to her uterus."
The nurse paused and finished in a rush. "They did what they could, but
she may never have children."

"Who
cares? She almost died. If she lives, that will be enough." He dragged in
a deep breath. "When I saw the helicopter in flames..."

"She's
tough. She'll pull through." Swinson sighed. "I'll miss her as a
roommate."

Miss
her? His body went rigid. "What do you mean?"

"No
one told you?"

"Told
me what?"

"Tomorrow,
they're putting her on a plane back to the States." The nurse stared at
him. "Are you going to be all right?"

"I'm
fine." No, he wasn't fine. His world was falling apart, he was stuck in
this desert shit hole when Delaney was going back stateside. If something
happened to her while he was here...

"Since
she doesn't have any family, they're sending her to Bethesda to be with her
fiancé during her recuperation."

The
weight of her words slammed into his chest, making it hard for him to breathe.

"You
love her, don't you?" the nurse asked.

Did
he love Delaney? As soon as he thought the question, the answer was as clear as
it was painful, and it had been there from the first time they'd shared a
pizza.

With
every beat of his heart, he loved her.

Nurse
Swinson chuckled. "You don't have to answer. I can see it in your face."
Her smile turned to a frown. "If you love her, why are you letting her
marry another guy?"

"You
don't understand."

"What
don't I understand?"

"Reaper's
my friend." He scrubbed a hand through his hair. "A guy doesn't poach
on his buddy's girl. Especially when he's going through hard times."

"What
about Delaney?"

The
words formed like sand in his mouth but he said them anyway. "She chose
him."

"And
she's miserable."

"Delaney's
aircraft was shot down. Anyone would be miserable."

"Don’t
be thickheaded, frogman." Swinson shook her head. "Miserable in love
with you. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

His
gut clenched like he'd been sucker punched. "What did you not understand
about
she chose him
?"

"She
doesn’t love him in that way."

"He
lost his fuckin’ arm. I’m not takin’ his girl."

"You’re
both so stubborn, you’re going to let this mistake go forward?"

"There’s
nothing I can do to stop it. It’s all in Cory’s hands." He closed his
eyes, his friend’s pain washing over him. "Hand."

Swinson
sighed. "Then you’re all fools."

He
glanced down at Delaney.

She
looked so pale that his stomach clenched. "When is she supposed to wake
up?"

"When
her body is ready."

"Will
she wake before she leaves in the morning?"

"We
don’t know. From what we
do
know, her helicopter landed hard. So far
she’s not showing any swelling on the brain, but it is a possibility."

"Can
I stay here with her?"

"If
it’s all right with your commanding officer, you can stay all night. I’ll get a
chair, but it won’t be comfortable."

"I
don’t need comfort." He needed Delaney to wake up so that he could tell
her.

Tell
her what? That he loved her? That she couldn’t marry Reaper and that he
couldn’t live without her?

Maybe
it was just as well Delaney slept through the night. By morning when the
medevac folks came, she hadn't come to.

When they moved her to the
transport stretcher, she stirred. "Tuck?"

He
was there, holding her hand. "I'm here," he reassured her, walking with
the team of medical personnel carrying her to the ambulance that would take her
to the airfield.

"You're
okay." Her eyelids drifted closed as if they were too heavy to hold open.

"Yes,
I am."

A
smile tipped the corners of her lips.

Then
she whispered so softly he had to bend close to hear. "I love you."
He pressed a kiss to her lips and before he could do more, they loaded her into
a helicopter bound for Bagram, then Landstuhl, and ultimately back to Bethesda
where she’d be reunited with Reaper, her fiancé.

As
the helicopter lifted from the ground, Tuck felt as if his heart had been
ripped from his chest. He couldn't stand by and watch his best friend marry the
woman he loved, and he couldn't bust them up. Not when his friend had lost so
much. Torn so completely, he could lie around and wallow in his self-pity,
which was not something he tolerated in others, or he could do something to
take his mind off his troubles.

Tuck
marched to his commander's tent, still wearing the black combat uniform of the
night before, dusty, dirty and probably smelling like a wet dog.

"Tuck,
how's the chopper pilot?" Commander Janek settled a cap over his head and
stepped outside into the morning heat.

"On
her way to the States. She'll live." With Reaper. Tuck's fists clenched and
his heart squeezed so tightly in his chest he thought he was having a heart
attack. "I want to go after the Taliban informer who set us up last night
and the mission that cost Reaper his arm."

His
commander stood still, staring into Tuck's face. "What have you heard?"

"I
understand intel got a lead on him."

Janek
nodded. "I’m assembling a team today."

"I
want in on it."

The
skipper's brows knitted. "Are you sure you're up to the task?"

Straightening
his shoulders, Tuck stood tall. "Always."

"We'll
talk after you've had a shower. You stink." Janek turned toward the mess
tent, hesitated, and turned back. "This mission will be the most dangerous
one you've ever been on. It will require living in the worst conditions for
long periods of time and being cut off from civilization for weeks."

Perfect.
He wouldn't be around for Reaper and Delaney's wedding. "The longer the
better."

One month later.

"Are
you sure this is how you want to do this? You don't want to have it in a church
surrounded by all your buddies from SEAL Team 10?" Delaney was dressed in
a pretty cream-colored dress, her hair pulled back and up with tiny rhinestone
butterflies clipped throughout. She looked better than she'd ever looked, and
her heart raced in anticipation of the events about to take place.

"Humor
me, will ya?" Cory waved his stump of an arm, the surgical scars thick and
ragged. "I'll have the people who mean the most to me here."

Delaney
was happy he'd finally gotten the phantom pain under control. The first few
weeks after the explosion had been hell with nerve synapses that used to lead
to his now-missing arm firing off messages to his brain that translated into
agonizing pain. His cries had nearly broken Delaney's heart. She'd been there
as much as possible. Ultimately, the nurses caring for him took center stage,
then the physical therapists. One in particular.