Chapter 19 #2
Then she took the stairs down, her heart caught in her throat, her gut churning.
She paused at the door that led out into the food court.
Taking a breath, she pushed it open, and her breath caught.
Flashes went off in her head. Gunfire, now distant, echoed in her ears.
Bear fighting, surging forward, getting hit, and still covering Zorro’s nieces with that big, gorgeous, wounded body.
When she came back to herself, she was on her knees right in that spot where he had fallen.
She looked at her hands covered in his blood, remembered her plea for him not to die.
She curled in on herself as that locked place in her mind opened like an explosion.
She might love him, but she didn’t feel worthy of his love.
That and that alone was keeping her from him.
His courage astounded her, not only at that moment, in that firefight, but every moment since.
The way he’d taken those boys and molded them into something lethal and sharp, the way he had found his voice, not only in teaching them, but in speaking his truth to her.
Every step of the way, Bear was authentic in himself.
Maybe her perspective had been facing in the wrong direction. Maybe it was time for her to be authentic in herself. Time for her to speak her truth, own her life, and settle on the path the ancestors had always meant for her to walk. Not as a healer, but as a seeker.
Dulles Airport, Dulles, Virginia
It had been a long and tiring journey, especially for a woman who, until recently, had lived in an isolated Amazonian village without even running water.
Now she was walking back into civilization.
The Office of Overseas Citizens Services out of the State Department handled all the paperwork.
They were assigned a tribal liaison, officially repatriating her under federal protection.
Bear couldn’t stop staring at her. This marvel who had been returned to them, not as if from the dead, but full of life, and full of sass. Still, every so often, a noise too sharp or a crowd too close made her shoulders stiffen, a quiet echo of years lived in silence and open air.
They had landed in Coronado with the team, whose support had been nothing short of phenomenal, especially LT and Zorro.
They had then gotten on another flight to Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs, Maryland, near DC, with proximity to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Ayla’s medical and psychological evaluations had been conducted.
Her doctors loved her. The medical lead told him she was strong, bones, skin, muscles, resilient in ways most people never would be.
The jungle hadn’t broken her. It had built her.
Then came the psyche lead, which he was dreading more than her physical, but the psychologist had smiled when she’d faced him.
“You have a remarkable sister, Mr. Locklear. She has trauma, that is something she will have to deal with, but her outlook and her mental health is excellent. I would recommend she see someone to help with reintroduction back into the tribe, and for her to work through the loss of her childhood and absence from her family and the daunting realization that she now has a future out of isolation and captivity.” She paused and shifted.
“She is also grieving the family she had to leave behind.”
Bear was aware of that sorrow that lived in her eyes sometimes when she was quiet. He could only feel gratitude to them for taking in his sister and giving her a chance at coming home. He had to wonder if they ever thought the day would come when they had to let her go.
After four days at Walter Reed, they had been taken to the J.
Edgar Hoover Building and the FBI’s Office for Victims of Crime with a quick stop in the Office of Overseas Citizens Services at the State Department, who had been instrumental in coordinating Ayla’s return.
Most of their time was then spent with Tribal Liaison Services and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to ensure culturally appropriate reintegration.
Now they were at the airport waiting for a flight back to South Dakota and their final destination, Pine Ridge Reservation, and her family reunion.
He wasn’t under any illusion that she was the same girl who had been taken from them.
She had straddled two worlds…still was. Whenever doors opened automatically, she flinched, just once, then breathed, grounding herself.
“You look at me like you think I’m going to disappear, brother.
Hiding has its merits, but I stopped hiding the moment I realized I was safe in that village.
I don’t want sympathy or platitudes. I want to get started on where I’m going.
” She took a breath as her eyes filled, her voice hitching.
“I left a whole family behind down there,” she added softly.
“My second mother. The healer. The boy who followed me like a shadow. I’ll miss them…
every day. But that’s not where I belong. ”
“Ayla…we’re going home.”
“I know that. I’m talking about afterward.
Taryn Thunderhawk saved my life and lost hers.
I didn’t speak for days after she died,” Ayla whispered.
“Not a word. The village thought I had lost my voice. Maybe I had. For a while.” Bear brushed a tear off her cheek, and she smiled with watery sorrow.
“I’ve had three long years to remember her sacrifice, to pay homage to her fierce memory.
She was amazing. So, I won’t shrink. I won’t disappear.
I will honor her loss by honoring a life well-lived. ”
“With sassy-mode on an eleven.”
“Twelve,” she said, sticking out her tongue. She sobered. “Thank you for keeping me a secret from the family until all this hullabaloo was over. I don’t want Mom, Than or Grandfather Ray twisting in the wind for two weeks. It was a sound decision.”
“I have made a few, once or twice,” he said with a smile, tweaking her nose.
She laughed softly, then sobered. “Have you heard from her?”
He exhaled. “Just a text or two. Nothing deep.”
“It’ll work out,” she said softly, slipping her arm around his waist and squeezing. “As it’s meant to.”
“Sassy, hopeful, and smart,” he whispered. “How did I ever do without you.” His voice was hoarse.
“Luckily, you won’t have to ever again.”
When they landed, Bear asked her to wait in the rental so that he could speak with them before she gave them all a shock and just walked back into their lives.
His mother broke down in Chay’s arms, his Grandfather Ray started chanting, and his brother Than ran out of the house with a joyful yell, pulling her out of the car and hugging the stuffing out of her, then dragging her inside where she was welcomed with kisses, hugs, love and laughter.
His life was almost complete, except for one woman who sat on his heart like a heavy, full miracle. If she didn’t come to him soon…he was going to go after her. But he would give her some more time, just enough to celebrate with his family the safe return of his beautiful sister.
Then he was going to make that woman his.
Hilton Hotel, Washington, DC
The room was quiet, lit only by the desk lamp and the glow of her laptop. Bailee sat cross-legged on the bed, heart thudding as the video call connected.
Four faces appeared, three tribal leaders, Elder Martin High Hawk, Elder Della Red Elk and Elder Harold White Lance and, in the center, a woman in her early forties, gray streaking her dark braid, a medicine pouch resting against her chest. Leona Fire Cloud, the new medicine woman.
Bailee sat straighter. “Thank you for seeing me.”
The woman inclined her head. “Thunderhawk’s girl.”
Bailee gave a small nod. “It is good to see you again, Leona Fire Cloud. I remember your kindness. My grandmother often said your spirit walked close to the ancestors.”
Leona’s expression softened. “She walked close to them herself. You were blessed to have her as your guide.” She tilted her head slightly. “I remember you, too. A wild one, but always respectful. Wild has served you well in the world you chose.”
Bailee smiled, and the elders chuckled quietly.
Elder High Hawk’s weathered face went solemn. He leaned forward, his voice deep as river stone. “You have petitioned to carry our lost daughters home. Is that your intention?”
Bailee straightened her spine. She didn’t rush. Her voice, when it came, was low and steady. “I humbly ask to carry them. I couldn’t imagine letting them make the journey without someone who remembers their names.”
Elder White Lance added, gently, “Your cousin, Taryn, is among the lost. It is generous of you to include others of our tribe alongside her. You have our deepest sorrow in your loss and our gratitude.”
She glanced at Leona, then to the elders gathered across the screen. “Taryn was my cousin. Her loss lives in every breath I take. But the others, Waniya, Chenoa, and Sahoni, were our daughters too. Our sisters. Our people. I can’t separate their stories from hers. Not now.”
Elder White Lance murmured, “Their bones have waited in silence long enough.”
Bailee’s throat tightened, but she continued.
“I wasn’t called to the path my grandmother walked.
I thought that meant I wasn’t chosen. But now I believe…
my role is different. I wasn’t called herbs or prayer, instead, I bear truth and justice.
I ask your blessing to bring them home.” She closed her eyes.
The weight of the girls settled in her chest as something sacred.
When she opened them again, her voice had changed.
It held the sound of knowing. “I will speak their names. I will walk the road. When the time comes, I will place them in the hands of their families as one of their own.”