What I Fight For: A Bad Boy Military Romance (Easy Team Book 1) (8 page)

Chapter
Nine
Emilia

              “Oh man, do you think this is what heaven is like?” Tammy sighed, leaning her head on her elbows as she sat forward in her fold out chair.

              Margie was slowly fanning herself with a paper fan as she leaned back in her chair with a dreamy expression on her face. “If it isn’t, I’m going to be very, very disappointed,” she said.

              Tammy and I made noises of agreement as we three all sighed and looked out at the vision of glory that was before us.

              It turned out that sitting in front of the medical tent on base was the perfect location to look directly towards Easy Team’s makeshift PT area. And as we more quickly discovered, it was the best spot in the house to see a dozen men, half naked, gleaming with sweat as they worked out.

              We sighed again in appreciation as we watched the men fall down to the ground to do a series of push ups. Each of them were built like statues. They all had hard, sculpted muscles and broad bodies that spoke of incredible strength. But they were also striped with scars, speaking of their experience in needing to use that incredible strength.

              The first day we had discovered this miraculous gift from god was when Tammy had run into our barracks one morning, mouth still foamy with toothpaste, as she squealed, “You
have
to come out and see this!”

              And there we three all stood, our morning washing towels clutched in our hands as we admired the bodies of these gleaming soldiers.

              Doc Jones had passed by and sniffed in distaste and what I imagined was a little bit of jealousy. “You’d think you girls had never seen a man before,” he said.

              “Not a man like
that
,” Margie had replied, her eyes glued on the men as they ran past us, all keeping pace together like a well oiled machine.

              Doc Jones had given the passing men a flitting glance before sniffing again and walking off, muttering to himself about missing the sanity of the civilized world.

              “They’re all gorgeous but…different,” Tammy observed, scooting so close to the edge of her chair she was in danger of falling off. “Like, I can see why they call him Bear.” She giggled, her cheeks flushing from more than just the morning heat.

              I grinned but nodded in agreement.

              They were all extremely fit but their bodies were differently shaped. Bear was big. Big in every way. He was extremely tall, possibly over six and a half feet. He was incredibly broadly built. The other men had more defined muscles but Bear’s was all in his structure. Perhaps his abs weren’t as cut as the other men but his torso was twice their size so you had no doubt of his strength.

              Next to Bear was Tweety. I couldn’t help but snort a little at the call signs these men had. I’d love to spend an evening hearing about how they had gotten the monikers. Tweety was tall but wiry. He had a slim build that was all muscle. Not an ounce of fat on him. He looked like he could easily slip between the cracks in the wall but we had seen him one morning shadowboxing and his jabs were lightening fast. The man moved like a bolt of thunder.

              The men got up from their push ups and dusted themselves off. We all gave a collective sigh as we got a good view of their sweat slicked bodies glinting in the sunlight.

              I was about to comment on how amazing it was that they were able to exercise like this in this heat when my view was suddenly blocked. Instead of a dozen gorgeously chiseled men, I saw only one set of chiseled abs directly in front of me.

              There was a trail of brown hairs going straight from the belly button down past his belt buckle. I swallowed thinking just where that trail led. I slowly raised my eyes over the ridged abs and the hard, defined pecs till finally I saw a pair of dark eyes looking down at me with slightly amused annoyance.

              “Enjoying the show, are we?” Cooper asked, a brow cocked.

              “So much, Captain,” Margie answered enthusiastically for me.

              I nodded. “So much,” I said, smiling unrepentantly.

              This only seemed to annoy Cooper more. He sniffed. “Didn’t you notice that someone was missing in the morning PT today?”

              I had noticed. That had been the first thing I had noticed. Cooper was by far the best built man out there. Tall, proportional, sculpted like a Greek god—there was no way I could watch him work out without my face turning a brick red.

              And this morning he had been absent. In fact, Bear had come in only half way through the work out as well.

              I tried to push Cooper’s legs aside so I could regain my view of the men. “Well, there’s a dozen more there anyway,” I said teasingly. “Still a good show.”

              Cooper’s legs stayed grounded like they were made of iron girders, blocking my view.

              “How can a show be a show without its star player?” he asked, deliberately crossing his arms across his chest, making the muscles of his arms bulge further.

              I swallowed but adamantly refused to be flustered.

              His face looked confident as he looked down at me.

              “Well,” I started innocently, “we missed him but Bear did finally come halfway through so….”

              “Oh, you little wise ass,” he huffed in mock annoyance as he knuckled my head.

              Tammy and Margie laughed and I giggled as I tried to fight him off but Cooper grabbed me around the shoulders and was giving the top of my head a good rapping.

              “Fine! Fine!” I gasped, breathless with the struggle and the closeness of being near his half dressed body. “You’re pretty okay too.”

              Cooper released me.

              “‘Pretty okay?’” he repeated dryly. “My, what a way with words you have, Dr. Lyon.”

              Before I could make a retort, Tammy piped up, “Captain, what’s your call sign? We’ve learned the other men’s. What’s yours?”

              “Hawk,” he replied.

              Tammy furrowed her brows. “Is that just a shortening of your name, Hawking?” she asked, clearly a little disappointed the name wasn’t something more unique or funny sounding.

              Cooper gave a little shrug. “More or less,” he said with a small smile.

              I looked up at him.

              Hawk.

              That suited him. Whether it had come from his last name or not, the call sign perfectly captured the man before me. Careful but powerful, sleek but strong, and when it was necessary, ruthless as hell.

              Hawk.

              No, the men knew. The members of Easy Team knew that their Captain was no ordinary man. He was one who flew above them, watching them, leading them, protecting them.

              Hawk.

              I remembered the way Cooper had seemingly come out of nowhere to push me and the little girl towards safety the other day. I remembered his calm and almost casual tone as he gave us a little push in the right direction. And I remembered the easy transition his body went through as he prepared for combat.

              Yes, the name suited him perfectly.

              But before any of us could say anything further on call signs, Bear came up from behind. “Hawk?” he called out. “We got some visitors.”

              Cooper turned around in surprise. None of us were expecting visitors. Tammy, Margie, and I stood up to see who Bear had brought.

              Standing nervously next to Bear were four children. Two girls, two boys. They were thin and obviously hungry but were a little better dressed than the refugee children we had been seeing.

              “They’re from town!” I realized aloud. But town was nearly forty miles away! “How did they get here?”

              Cooper studied the kids carefully with a narrowed gaze before his expression gentled and he said a word or two in Qunari.

              He then looked back at me, a dry smile playing at his lips. “You gave one of the kids food the other day,” he explained. “That kind of news travels fast. They probably figured out that you were at this base and made their way here.”

              Doc Jones came out of the tent, hearing the commotion over something other than hot bodies.

              “What’s this?” he asked, looking down at the scruffy kids with gentle amusement. “Trick or treating, are we?”

              One of the girls pulled on the pant leg of Bear, who obligingly knelt down, and whispered something to him.

              Bear nodded then stood up a look of sardonic amusement on his face. “Well, looks like this is just the advanced arrival. Apparently all the kids in town heard about possible food here and have been making their way over.”

              Cooper turned to me. He had an eyebrow raised in humor but his expression was serious. “Well, doctor?” he said. “What’s the plan?”

              As team leader of the medical team, he was respecting my authority to plan. And by doing so, it was a clear sign to his men that when it came to the medical related issues, I was the one to lead the field. I felt touched at the gesture. Clearly the man was not one to fight and protect his ego.

              I looked at the four kids staring up at me with large round eyes full of frightened hope.

              “Okay,” I said in one big breath. “Then let’s start making a food station. And since they’re here, we might as well give them a quick check up. Doc, if you could start moving the—”

              And before I knew it, we were off.

***

              Within a few hours, we were surrounded by a ragtag group of two dozen kids. We had them separated into stations. Immediately we handed out the protein bars we had on hand. Calorically dense and nutritious, we gave them out to each kid so that they could at least feel full before we did a quick exam on them.

              The men of Easy Team helped us keep the kids organized by working as our translators. And some of them did double duty as babysitters. For some of the younger kids that showed up, I watched as Tweety play fought with them, making exaggerated groans as he was punched by their little fists.

              Dozer, who was nearly as big as Bear, crouched down next to two little girls who couldn’t have been more than six and played with their dirty rag dolls, making Margie and Tammy smile behind their hands.

              And Cooper was everywhere in the tent, it felt like. Whenever someone struggled to lift a box, he was the first one there to help. When a kid started crying in fear from a cold stethoscope, Cooper was the first one to make a silly face or to admonish him with silly words to distract him.

              And he was an extremely fast learner. I could tell immediately the man was familiar in basic first aid. But what he didn't know, he quickly learned. He picked up medical terminology and tools like a sponge and was there to help refill our supplies when necessary.

              He didn’t hold back and command from on high, using his position as Captain as excuse. He worked twice as hard as his men, leading by example. It was impossible not to have my heart swell in admiration watching him.

              “Doctor!” Tammy called out from the other side of the tent where she had a little boy sitting in front of her on one of the hospital beds. “Can you please come take a look at this?”

              I crossed the tent and smiled at the nervous little boy who clutched his un-opened protein bar tightly in one fist. “
Shallah
,” I said softly, having picked up the Qunari word for ‘hello.’

              Tammy had unbuttoned the boy’s grimy shirt half way down to his belly. And right in the center of his chest were a sprinkle of pink spots.

              I swallowed, my throat tightening as I instantly recognized them for what they were.

              “You don’t think….” Tammy started softly, also fearing the worst.

              I immediately pulled out my penlight and tilted the boy’s head back, opening his mouth. Pointing the light towards the back of his throat, I saw the confirmation of my fears—little white spot. Koplik spots.

              I clicked off my penlight.

              I looked at Tammy, my mind already whirring into action as to how to best take action.

              “He has it,” I said in a soft voice so as to not alarm the little boy. “It’s measles. We need to immediately check the other children and quarantine the ones who have it.”

              Tammy nodded, her eyes wide with fear as she realized the scope of the situation.

              Measles were highly contagious and could spread like wildfire. Without proper quarantining and medication, these kids could become incredibly ill. And in crowded, poor conditions like the city and the refugee camp, this was a medical disaster in the making.