Chapter 27
Chapter 27
T he hospital was more than an hour away in Buffalo. The flight had probably taken no time, as Ethan said. Leo stalked to the emergency room in a frenzy and felt zero shame about identifying himself as her husband. It was a lucky break that, after so many weeks of working together, he knew most of the pertinent details of her life, such as address, phone number, birthdate, and insurance carrier. She had no allergies and no medical history to speak of. It felt good to be able to fill out the forms, to stake a tangible piece of Esther as proof of their close relationship. Take that, Ruben, you suspender-wearing freak. The freak in question was nowhere to be found. Leo supposed he should feel bad about threatening the guy who gave him a ride and then storming off without a word of thanks, but he didn’t. Somehow Ruben now felt tied up with Aleksandr in his mind. They were both a threat to Esther, one to her physical safety and the other to her emotional wellbeing.
For two hours, Leo heard nothing, despite asking so many times he probably wore a path from his chair to the desk. All he knew was that she was in surgery. “We’ll let you know,” was now his least favorite phrase.
Ethan arrived at the end of those two hours, looking grim and exhausted. He sank into the chair beside Leo with a sigh. “News?”
“Nope.”
He sighed again. “Man, I hate hospitals.”
“Yep.”
“And waiting.”
“Yep.”
“Ridge isn’t coming, by the way. Doesn’t even know any of this is going on. Maggie was in labor when I left. I figure I’ll give them a chance to emerge from the fog of new-baby bliss before I spring this on him. Maybe by then I’ll be able to convey the good news of her prognosis.”
“Who’s in charge when he’s away?” Leo asked, stretching his legs out in front of him. Once again he was ridiculously thankful for Ethan’s presence. He was the kind of person who was good at providing a distraction, when one was needed.
“I am,” Ethan said, shuddering. “No idea how that happened. I hate being the go-to guy for stuff. So much more fun to be in the field.”
“Which field are you in?” Leo asked, feeling about a thousand years old.
“I felt a bit like you a couple of years ago and then…” he cut off and shook his head. “Nah, it’s going to sound dumb.”
“Dumb is so much better than anything else I’ve got right now,” Leo informed him.
Ethan shrugged. “I met Amelia, fell in love, got married. Suddenly the work didn’t seem so soul crushing anymore.”
“Women,” Leo said, but not in a disgusted way. More awed.
“Women,” Ethan agreed in the same tone. “Esther’s a cutie, by the way. She reminds me of this girl I knew in high school. One of the smartest chicks I’ve ever met and so ridiculously clueless about life. I used to pull pranks on her all the time because she was the sort of person who didn’t take it personally, who could laugh at herself. She was good people.”
“Esther’s good people,” Leo said.
“With so few of those in the world, we have to hold on to the ones we find,” Ethan said.
Leo didn’t reply. Everything felt thick and heavy, his eyes, his throat, his nose.
“I really think she’s going to be fine, and I’m not blowing smoke. I’ve seen a lot of wounds. That looked like the kind that appears more dramatic than it actually is, for real. And I know my buddy pretty well. He was serious but not freaked. If he’d thought she wasn’t going to make it, he would have been freaked. Has a real soft spot for the ladies.” Ethan said. He stretched. A woman who walked nearby did a double take and walked into a wall. Ethan didn’t even notice. Though they hadn’t been close, he and Ethan had been acquaintances for a long time, had worked some ops at the same time. Ethan had always been a player. To not even see him react to the woman now was nothing short of miraculous.
“How’d you know Amelia was the one?” Leo asked.
Ethan didn’t bat a lash at the personal question. Soldiers in foxholes can talk about anything with no judgment. “Because she was the one I couldn’t live without.”
Leo thought about his desperate prayer, his certainty he couldn’t survive if anything happened to Esther.
“Mr. Stoltzfus.” A man in scrubs entered the waiting room and Leo stood. “Hi, I’m Dr. Midrihani. Your wife is out of surgery and in recovery. She’ll spend the night in ICU where she’ll have limited visitation, no one besides you allowed. If all goes well, we’ll move her to another floor tomorrow.”
“She’s going to be okay?”
“The bullet punctured her lung and caused a tension pneumothorax. That caused pressure on her breathing and heart and was likely the cause of her extreme discomfort and any other symptoms you saw. We inserted a chest tube to re-inflate her lung and relieve the pressure. We’ll monitor her, but with no complications I expect her to go home in a few days and be back to normal in a couple of weeks.”
Leo couldn’t believe it. He shook the man’s hand, but he had no idea if he thanked him. He hoped so because he was thankful. Beyond, really. He fell into the chair beside Ethan again, staring dazedly into space while Ethan made the call to Ridge. She’s really okay, he thought, so thankful that now he was the one who had trouble catching his breath.
Ethan finished his call on a yawn.
“You should go, I’ve got this,” Leo said.
“I can stay as long as you need,” Ethan said and, to his credit, sounded sincere.
“I’ve got it from here, really. You should be there to meet Maggie’s baby.”
Ethan grinned. “He’s a bruiser. I’m not sure Ridge actually comprehended anything I just said to him.”
“Of course he did,” Leo said. “Ridge is always the job.”
“Nah, that was PM, pre-Maggie. If you just heard what I just heard, you’d have your doubts, too.”
They were quiet a few beats before Leo spoke again. “You think The Colonel is ever not the job?”
“Nah,” they said together after a few seconds deliberation. It was too hard to imagine their tough-as-nails boss as anything less than the absolute rock he’d always been.
“Probably came out of his mom in full uniform,” Ethan said.
“Saluting,” Leo added, and they snickered. It felt good to laugh. A minute later, they called his name again. He stood. “Have a good trip back and, Ethan, thanks. For everything. I owe you.”
“No, you don’t,” Ethan said. “You’re on my team; that makes us brothers.”
It was a corny thing to say, or would have been, if Leo didn’t know how much he meant it. He hadn’t had that sort of brotherhood since half his team was killed in a mission gone wrong, and he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it, nor how good it would feel to have it back again. They fist bumped, which for them was as good as a sobbing hug, and Leo went in search of Esther.
S he looked even smaller than normal, diminished somehow by her ordeal. Her face was as white as the sheet behind her. A tube stuck out of her mouth, its rhythmic beeping more ominous than comforting. They warned him she would likely be out all night from the trauma, blood loss, and anesthesia. Leo crept close and sat silently in the chair beside her bed.
He didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything. Instead he pressed his face to her leg and cried, hard. He wept like a small child, until he was empty and drained of everything. Spent, exhausted, wiped clean of every emotion, he finally fell asleep.
When he woke, The Colonel was there, standing across from him on the other side of Esther’s bed, staring ponderously down at Leo. Somehow Leo refrained from flinching, a thing everyone who knew him longer than a minute realized was an annoyance. “Sir,” he croaked.
The Colonel nodded at him. “How are you holding up?”
Leo glanced at Esther, still unconscious between them. “Esther’s the one…the one who…” his voice broke and he took a shaky breath. “Not well.”
“It seems she’s going to be okay.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m sending her to Quantico, when she’s recovered.”
Leo’s eyes snapped back to him. “Sir?”
“Ridge assures me she’s a much-needed asset to the team, almost invaluable, it seems. If we’re going to keep her, she’s going to need to learn a few things, more than one man can teach her.”
“She’s a pacifist, sir,” Leo replied. Esther at Quantico? There was so much knowledge to be absorbed; she would love it. His mouth quirked at the prospect of her coming excitement.
“Pacifists can shoot targets. I’ll have a word with them about the hand-to-hand.”
“I’d appreciate that, sir,” Leo said. Somehow, despite not embracing authority, Leo never had to remind himself to call The Colonel “sir.” It came as natural as breathing.
“And what are you going to do?” The Colonel asked, as if Leo had a choice when, really, the man was his boss. It was basically up to him where he went next. Unless…was he actually giving him the option to leave, to walk away?
“I…I don’t honestly know, sir. I…” he chanced a glance at The Colonel and saw an unwavering gaze in return—no anger or judgment, merely mild curiosity. “I’m tired.”
The Colonel nodded once and pinned Leo with a stare. “I’m about to impart to you the only bit of personal information I will share for the rest of our lives, so listen well. Everyone believes I’m insane, and I don’t care. Because the truth is I’m the sanest man you ever met, and there’s one simple reason: my wife and daughters. Without them, I would have lost my mind decades ago. It’s a hard game we play, Lieutenant, made nearly impossible without good people by your side. Surround yourself well, and you’ll be okay.”
“Yes, sir,” Leo said, both confused and inspired.
“It would seem you’re going to have about five months of free time to make some decisions,” The Colonel said. Quantico was twenty weeks, and visitors wouldn’t be allowed. The thought of being away from Esther for so long was impossibly painful, and yet maybe it was for the best.
Leo’s glance slid from Esther to The Colonel, but the man was gone. How does he do that, Leo wondered. With nothing left to do but wait, he laid his head down again and closed his eyes.