43. Connor
CHAPTER 43
CONNOR
“K eep it iced and elevated,” I told the miserable Seabee. “Motrin is your friend, but so are ice and rest. Got it?”
He grumbled something, but nodded. “Yes, sir.” He wiped a hand over his face. “Knew I should’ve stayed away from the damn fish corrals.”
I had to fight back a laugh as I entered my recommendations as well as his light duty chit into the computer.
The Romans had built a system of walls that, when the tide went out, trapped fish in small pools to make them easy to catch. Though the Romans were long gone, the corrals remained, and people still used them to this day.
Apparently one of those uses included drunk Seabees challenging each other to run along the walls without falling in. Having walked on the corrals myself when my sons were here, I was well aware of how uneven and treacherous they were; Quinn and I had both nearly turned our ankles, and Savannah had actually fallen off. Fortunately, it had only been a two-foot drop or so into ankle-deep water.
And fortunately, she’d also been sober, unlike my patient, who’d been shitfaced, running at full speed, and… well, he’d be regretting it for a few days.
“Make sure you keep the stitches clean, too.” I gestured at his forearm, which was wrapped and taped. “If you see any signs of infection, come back in immediately.”
He nodded. “Yes, sir.”
I released him a few minutes later with a handful of instructions, his light duty chit, and a prescription for antibacterial ointment. Technically he could’ve bought some Neosporin at the Exchange, but I’d been treating service members long enough to know that if I gave them a prescription and ordered them to fill it, they were more likely to obey.
Maybe I should’ve prescribed “don’t get drunk and run on the fish corrals like a dumbass” too.
I chuckled to myself as I stepped out of the room. Yeah, if I could prescribe that, I would?—
“Lieutenant Commander?” HM2 Anderson’s voice turned my head, and her serious expression made my humorous thoughts vanish. She gestured over her shoulder. “There’s a patient who refuses to talk to anyone but you, sir.” The urgency in her eyes made me think this wasn’t just someone who was pissed off or throwing a fit and demanding to see the highest-ranking doctor on duty. “I wanted to send him to the ER because I think he’s having a panic attack, but?—”
“What room?”
“Uh. Room nine.”
“Thank you.”
She nodded sharply, and we headed in opposite directions. My mind raced as I followed the hallway toward the room in question. It wasn’t unusual for a patient to demand to see a specific provider, but demanding to see one in the middle of a panic attack? Not good. Not good at all.
At the door of room nine, I stopped and tapped my tablet to pull up the patient’s chart.
As soon as the chart appeared on the screen, my heart dropped because it confirmed what I’d already guessed.
Barlow, Alexander. HM1.
Without another thought, I tapped the door, then pushed it open.
And my heart fell even further.
Alex sat on the exam table with an icepack against one side of his face. He had a wad of bloody tissues in his other hand, and some blood had dried on and under his nose.
And he was shaking all over, sweat gleaming on his forehead as he stared at me with panic in his eyes. The second our eyes met, his posture wavered a little and the shaking got even worse, as if he’d been holding back the panic attack through sheer willpower alone, but he was losing that battle now.
“Jesus,” I whispered as I shut the door, and I immediately had my arms around him. “What happened?”
He held me fiercely, and the shaking intensified, making it into his voice as he said, “I stood up to Tobias.”
“Shit,” I breathed. I wanted to ask for details, but first things first, I needed to help him down from the panic attack that was quickly taking over. For a long, long time, I held him, stroking his hair and letting him come back down. That was the shitty thing about episodes like this—no matter how much he fought them, to a certain extent, they just had to run their course.
After several minutes, his breathing started to slow. The shaking eased a little. Still, neither of us said a word. I just stroked his hair and let him breathe.
Eventually, he sighed. “I’m sorry. I… probably could’ve ridden this out alone, but I?—”
“You shouldn’t have to,” I whispered, and pressed a kiss to his damp forehead.
Another sigh. Another long silence.
“I’ve been telling myself all this time that Tobias is just a mouth, you know?” Alex drew back and looked up at me. “He was annoying, and he was intimidating. But I wasn’t scared of him because he’d never laid a hand on me. And now…” He gestured at his face. “Now he has.”
My chest ached. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, and pulled him in closer.
He leaned into me. “God, I feel like such an idiot. For… just, everything. Letting him be such an asshole for this long, and today—I mean, I’m fucking combat-trained.” He sniffed, then dabbed at his bloody nose. “And what do I do? I just… freeze.”
“Because this isn’t combat. Even if he’s been an insufferable dickhole, he’s not the kind of enemy we’re trained to fight.” I smoothed his hair. “I think most people would’ve frozen in a situation like that.”
Alex’s shoulders sagged. He didn’t look at me, and he didn’t speak.
Fuck, it hurt to see him like this. It didn’t take much for Tobias to rattle him, but this time, Alex was… God, he was broken .
And Tobias…
That fucker had crossed a line. I’d hated him more and more with every card Alex had shown, but this was a bridge too far.
I took a deep breath. “We need to bring in the MAs.”
“What?” His head snapped up, eyes wide with horror. “Are you insane? The CO will find out for sure that we’re?—”
“I don’t care.”
His lips parted.
I touched the uninjured side of his face. “You being safe is the most important thing.”
“Connor.” Alex shook his head. “We’ll both be done if we get caught. Our careers will be over . Mine more than yours.”
“I know. And I… I don’t know how to get around that. But he can’t get away with laying a hand on you.”
Alex swallowed.
“We don’t have to tell anyone we’re dating,” I said, keeping my voice down in case someone was outside. “You were assaulted, you came to medical, and you requested me specifically because you trusted me professionally.” I paused. “We can’t just let this go, Alex. Not after he’s put his hands on you.”
“We can’t just—” Alex swore, his features crumpling. “Oh my God. You’re a mandated reporter. I forgot. I—I’m sorry. I… I didn’t even think about that. I didn’t want to put you in that position and?—”
“Alex.” I touched his shoulders. “Look at me.”
He did, his eyes full of pain, regret, fear, and shame.
“Listen,” I whispered. “I’m not required to report it. You’re an adult. If you don’t want me to say anything, I won’t.” I hesitated, then softly added, “But I think we should. Because he can’t keep getting away with this. Abusing you or anyone else.”
He winced, and the shame intensified.
“This isn’t on you,” I went on. “None of it is on you. It’s on him . And you knew he was a terrible person, enough that you warned me about him even though I know that conversation was awkward as hell for you. You didn’t want him to be a danger to me, and I don’t want him to be a danger to you.” I touched his uninjured cheek. “You better believe I’m going to the CO because I love you and I won’t stand for someone abusing you. But that doesn’t mean the CO has to know that. All she has to know is that a patient came to me after being assaulted, I brought in the police, and we’re making an official report of it.”
Alex swallowed. “But she’s going to put the pieces together. Tobias already put the bug in her ear that we’re screwing.”
“And that’s just going to show a pattern of harassment from him,” I said. “Especially since as far as the CO knows, I was only having you over to help me with my Spanish.”
“But then when I”—Alex pointed at his face—“I refused to talk to anyone but you. Isn’t that going to look suspicious?”
Shaking my head, I wrapped my arms around him again. “It’s going to look like someone who was rattled and vulnerable reaching out to someone they could trust. The fraternization rules just mean we can’t be friends or date. It doesn’t mean we can’t trust each other to do the right thing in a crisis.”
He slowly released a breath.
“Let me call the cops,” I pleaded. “We’ll be fine. No one has to know about us. But we can’t let Tobias get away with assaulting you.”
Alex swallowed hard and lowered his gaze. For a long moment, he stared at his hands. At the bloody tissue he was still holding. I had no idea what was going through his mind in that moment. I just hoped he was coming around to my suggestion. Yeah, I was nervous about the CO catching the scent that we really were fraternizing, but that was a risk I was more than willing to take if it meant Tobias got duly hemmed up.
I needed Alex to be onboard before I said anything, though. And even if my responsibility as a mandated reporter did require me to report this, I wanted Alex to be onboard. Tobias had already tap-danced all over his boundaries and consent; this had to be on Alex’s terms.
Finally, he let his shoulders drop as he lifted his gaze to meet mine. His eyes were full of fatigue and resignation.
“Okay,” he whispered. “Call the MAs.”