Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Zita was more excited to be on set this morning than usual.
It was the fifth day, and she’d spent part of each morning with Sage.
It was silly, but she felt special that she was the only one who called him by his middle name.
She would’ve felt weird calling him Obi-Wan.
To her, the name simply didn’t fit the man she was getting to know.
She understood it was a nickname, and that most pilots had some sort of call sign, but it felt odd for her to use it when addressing him.
Sage was also an unusual name. But then again, his first name, Obadiah, was even more unusual. The man was interesting in just about every way. Smart, funny, and very observant.
He was also doing everything in his power to avoid Carmen St. James. He’d admitted to her yesterday that she’d sent him a super-suggestive email, but didn’t say anything else about it, just that he was there to do his job and nothing else.
She admired him for that. Because it was Zita’s experience that most men presented with a sure thing like Carmen would’ve jumped at the chance.
Not only because she was beautiful, but because she was famous.
Zita never understood the appeal of sleeping with someone because of their job, but that was just her.
Still, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of…
something—remorse?—at hearing Sage’s firm stance on professionalism.
On not wanting to date. Zita had never had the urge to go out with anyone she worked with…
until now. But then again, she and Sage weren’t exactly coworkers.
He was a contract employee, and only on set for part of each day as it was.
But there was something about him that drew Zita.
This morning, he’d shown up with two cups of to-go coffee. She’d been shocked when he’d handed her one, saying, “Heard you complaining about the break-room coffee yesterday, thought you might appreciate this.”
And she did. She loved a fancy, sugary, carmel-y cup of coffee as much as the next girl. And for him to bring her one was…kind. And very sweet. He’d wandered off immediately after, before she’d even had a chance to thank him properly.
Taking another sip of the coffee, Zita smiled. It was perfect. Exactly how she liked it. Which was impressive, considering how picky she was about her coffee.
During the last hour, he’d met with the script supervisor, and then Logan, and now he was ambling back toward her, ready to watch the scenes being filmed that morning.
Thankfully, Carmen wasn’t on the schedule, so they both had a reprieve from dealing with her not-so-subtle flirting and almost desperate attempts to catch Sage’s attention.
“Thank you for the coffee,” she said the moment he sat beside her.
“You’re welcome.”
“How’d you know that I like the caramel stuff?” Zita asked.
Sage shrugged. “Lucky guess. My teammate’s woman loves it, so I took a chance that you might too.”
“She’s got good taste.”
“Yup.”
“Can you tell me about your teammates? I mean, I know you can’t say anything about your missions, but I’d love to hear more about them.”
Sage spent the next twenty minutes telling her all about the men he worked with.
They all had interesting call signs, but Zita wasn’t exactly surprised.
Casper, Buck, Pyro, Chaos, Edge…she was curious about the meanings behind their names but didn’t interrupt Sage to ask.
It sounded like the men were as close as brothers, and she supposed they were.
If you spent your career relying on them to keep you alive, a special bond had to form.
“What about you? You work with anyone on a regular basis?” Sage asked.
Zita shrugged. “When I’m not on set, I work part-time for an ambulance service, and I guess I’m somewhat friendly with some of my coworkers.”
“I’m guessing working in your profession, some people are better at handling the stress than others.”
“Sure. And some people you click with, while others can be a chore. Some medics and EMTs are lazy. They’d rather drive the ambulance and stand back and let others do all the decision-making than jump in and get their hands dirty. It’s annoying, but part of the job.”
Sage shook his head. “That’s hard for me to wrap my head around.
I mean, pilots and copilots each have their specific jobs.
But we can all do just about everything when we get behind the controls.
We just know who’s supposed to do what, so we don’t trip over each other when things get hot.
What’s your most memorable call…if you can talk about it without breaking any privacy laws? ”
“We were called to a residence for a man ‘bleeding.’ That’s all the information the dispatcher could give us.
When we got there, he was in the bathroom and there was literally blood everywhere.
On the walls, the floor, dripping down his legs.
Apparently, he’d had a colonoscopy the day before and had gotten up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, and something inside him ruptured.
He was literally bleeding from his anus…
not to be crude or anything. As a paramedic, there’s not a lot we can do for that except get him to the hospital as fast as possible.
But it’s daunting as hell to walk into a room and see that much blood. ”
“I bet.”
“You? I mean, again, if you can say.”
Sage stared into space, clearly thinking about the question.
Zita appreciated that about him. That he took the time to really consider how to answer.
“We were called in to extract three teams of special forces in a hot zone.
Meaning, the bad guys were everywhere and using any fire power they had to keep us away.
Casper and Pyro took point, using their ammo to try to give us a window to land and load up the teams.
“Everything was going according to plan…
well, as close to a plan as we could get in a fluid situation like that.
Just as we were taking off, our chopper took a few bullets to the radar system and FLIR system located on the underside of our chopper.
We had twelve souls onboard, some of whom were severely injured and needed medical attention ASAP.
And we were essentially flying blind. There was smoke and dust everywhere, and the wind was doing its best to fly us into the nearest mountain.
“I radioed Chaos and Edge, and told them they were going to have to be our guide. We flew right on their six…their ass…swerving to miss all the missiles being shot at us from the ground while navigating the tricky terrain.
“It was the most harrowing twenty minutes of my life. Buck’s too.
Somehow, we made it back to the ship…and after we landed, I puked.
Buck wasn’t doing very well either. We both knew that we’d cheated death.
And we frequently cheat death when we fly missions, but this was a whole different level.
I honestly think the fact that we had so many men in the back of our chopper was the motivation we needed to keep calm and do what had to be done to get the hell out of there. ”
Zita was riveted on Sage’s every word. She could almost smell the smoke, hear the missiles whistling through the air. Goose bumps covered her arms by the time he finished. “Tell me you both—all of you—received commendations for that mission.”
Sage grinned, shaking his head. “All part of the job.”
“That’s kind of bullshit.”
He chuckled. It was low and rumbly, and sparks shot down her body at the sound.
He shrugged. “The AAR—after-action review—was interesting, to say the least. Laryn was pissed that we’d lost our eyes, so to speak, and she took it upon herself to research how to make the covering over our navigation systems more secure.”
“Laryn?”
“She’s the head mechanic who works on our choppers. She’s a genius with anything mechanical. She’s also dating Casper. Although, ‘dating’ seems like a tame word. They’ll eventually get married, but neither is in a big hurry to tie the knot.”
Zita liked this. Learning about his personal life. “Is it frowned on for two people who work together to date?”
“Nope. Laryn is a contract employee. She doesn’t work for the Army.”
“Oh, cool. Are any of your other friends in a relationship?” She wasn’t sure why she was asking, only that she was curious.
“Yeah, one. Buck met Mandy on a recent mission in South America. They spent two weeks in the jungle, evading rebels who’d kidnapped a school full of orphans, and they’re closer than two peas in a pod now.”
Zita had so many questions, but she simply said, “That’s good.”
“It is.”
So it wasn’t that he and his friends couldn’t or wouldn’t date. It was either Sage hadn’t found anyone he wanted a long-term relationship with…
Or, as he’d told Carmen, he really wasn’t interested in dating.
“And they make it work?” she blurted.
“Make it work?” Sage asked, looking her in the eyes.
Zita wished she could take the question back. Since she couldn’t, she soldiered on. “Yeah. I imagine your schedule is pretty unpredictable. With missions and stuff.”
“Oh. Well, that’s definitely true. But I think if you love and respect someone, you find a way to make things work, regardless of what’s happening with work or family or anything else.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“True.”
“Being a set medic can’t be an easy schedule either,” he mused.
“It’s not,” she agreed, shrugging. “Most men just aren’t willing to deal with me being gone so much.”
“Hmph.”
It was less a word than a breath of sound that escaped his mouth.
Zita was busy wondering what that meant when a shout came from across the set. She whipped her head around instinctively, trying to see where it came from and what was happening.
A split-second later, someone yelled, “Medic!” in a frantic tone.