Chapter 1
Stewart
I walked at a brisk clip through the halls of the med clinic trying to make sure I wasn’t seen. A few of the people I passed gave me a salute, which I returned. I wasn’t in uniform, but even in civies I radiated military. It was the life I had chosen way before I really decided I wanted to be anything else. Before I finished college, before I went to medical school, before I had to tell my father I wasn’t going to follow in his footsteps. At least not in the way we had always planned. Thankfully, my baby sister picked up the slack.
The voices behind me made me duck into a side room. I didn’t think it was my commander, but I wasn’t about to take the chance. Not when I wasn’t supposed to be on base. Well, not this way.
I lived to follow the rules. It was what made me perfect for military life, but right now I couldn’t do it. I needed to check on my guys. I owed it to them to make sure they were healing. Not that it was my fault they were in here, but they were my responsibility, and I wouldn’t let them down.
The voices faded, and I stuck my head out to make sure the hall was clear. I guess if I had to pick another career after this one, I could always go for international spy. Local private eye. I’m sure my team would love the idea of teasing me about being a private dick. I liked the spy angle better. Harris. Major Stewart Harris.
I stepped back into the hallway and double timed it to the room where Kai and Rylan were staying. Andre was on another floor. I’d tried to get all three of them in the same room, but they didn’t have a room with that many beds. Thankfully, only a few of the unit needed to be hospitalized. We’d been lucky.
Laughter was the first thing I heard when I walked in. That made me feel better. Hopefully, they’d be out of here soon. The sooner we all got back to duty, the better.
“Keep it down in here.” I joked walking toward their beds. “People will think you’re only in here to get out of OPS.”
“Hey Doc.” Kai turned my way first, followed by Rylan. Both were barely in their mid-twenties and already laid up in the clinic. Kia’s wife had just had a baby girl too. My goal was to get him home as soon as possible.
“How are you guys doing today?” I took a chance and logged into the computer beside Kai to check his chart. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the other doctors. It was more that these boys were my unit. If anyone should be looking after them, it was me.
“Better.” Rylan leaned back in his bed. We’d all been damn lucky that only three guys got hurt. We could have lost the whole fucking team.
“Wilder came by yesterday.” Kai told me. “Said he and the rest of the unit grabbed a drink the other night, but you didn’t make it.”
“Yeah, I had some things I needed to work on.” I lied.
“Major?” Kai tipped his head and stared right at me. That was the thing. When you’ve seen the kind of shit we had seen together, it was hard to BS each other.
“Your labs look good.” I changed the subject. I really wasn’t in the mood to get into the status of my life right now. I had been one of the lucky ones.
“Doc Hollis said I should be getting out in a couple days.” Kai smiled.
“That’s great.” His injuries weren’t as severe as Rylan’s. That was a blessing, and both of them were better than Andre.
I stepped over to the other chart. “What about you, Hale?” I looked through Rylan’s status. “How’s the shoulder?”
“Much better.” He’d had burns down his arm, but they weren’t bad enough to need skin grafts. That had been my concern when we were out in the field and I wasn’t sure how fast I could get a medivac to airlift him to the nearest hospital.
I went to the side of his bed. I was pushing it, but I pulled the gown away from his left arm so I could get a better look. I didn’t dare touch the dressing. I could redo it, but there would be no way that one of the other doctors wouldn’t notice.
“They have you doing PT yet?” I asked. As I felt around the edge of the gauze.
“Not yet, but I’m scheduled to start by Friday.” He shared. “They just want to make sure the skin is a little more healed.”
I nodded. I’d like to give him until Monday, but again, I couldn’t make that order right now.
“Is it still tender?”
“Not really.” He lifted his other shoulder. In a halfhearted shrug. “Every once in a while I get a shooting pain, but it’s not like it was when everything went down.”
“That’s good.” I put his arm back. “Maybe think about waiting for the PT until Monday.” I suggested.
“If you say so, Doc.”
“That isn’t his decision.”
I hung my head and blew out a breath. I turned to see Captain Dana Hollis standing in the doorway. Her signature blue scrubs tucked in and her blonde hair tied back.
