by Finian Blake
“What the hell happened?”
Fran sounded worried, “I am not sure but we have a mess. It looks like Noah took the worst of it. Round up the first aid kit.” Frank ran forward.
“Noah and Frank are both down,” Frank hollered up to Ralph on the flight deck, “but we are sealed up. When we clear the coast give the Ark a slow climb to 24,000. The first aid will take a while.” He grabbed the first aid kit a few bundles of paper towels and a few bags of ice. Frank was just coming around as the engineer came back with the first aid supplies. Frank was conscious and leaning against the wall of the aircraft wearing a fair amount of Noah’s blood. Nothing was broken or cut, but he did have a rather large bump on his head. Frank and Greg helped Frank back to the crew cabin while Fran kept pressure on Noah’s head wound. She handled enough wounds with the rebels to know what to do. Fran could see the bones sticking out of Noah’s forearm, but she had to stop the bleeding first. Noah was showing signs of coming around.
Fran made her calls with calm confidence, “Noah is starting to come around. It looks a lot worse than it is. I believe that he will be fine in a few weeks,” Fran relayed the information to Ralph over the intercom. “I think that we can move him up to the crew cabin shortly.” Fran put a compress on his head tying it in place. She looked at his arm. Both bones were protruding through the skin, which told her that it was a compound fracture. She found some short splints in the first aid kit. Fran applied splints and was just putting a sling on when Greg came back to move Noah up to the crew lounge. Fran slipped her blouse back on with the blood making her look as bad as the other two. She had blood on her face and all over her chest and her white shirt was soaked with blood.
The Ark was an hour out of Kingston when Noah came back to coherent thought. Fran took the controls from Ralph so that he could come down to have a look at Noah. “We made one hell of a mess down there I believe the clearing was a total. That was one hell of a delivery. I guess we will have to stop in Kingston. You need to get to a hospital.” Noah tried to lift his arm, but could not even get it off the sling.
“We can’t do that because we need the cover more than ever now. Remember we were in Barbados when all of that shit happened. We will fly in to Kingston, Greg will load the pallets and we fly back to Barbados. The story will be that we hit some turbulence on the way back.” Noah tried to stand up without success.
Frank was seated next to him, “Frank, how do you feel?”
“I am ready for eight more rounds. Let’s finish the run so that we can hit the pub.”
“Well that settles it,” Noah managed a weak smile. “We will take care of business and move along. I am sure Buck and Creed are feeling worse than me.”
“If Buck and Creed were down there, they are not feeling anything. That was a complete total.” Ralph did not sound too steady.
Noah continued to push, “I’m good enough, and so is Frank we need to finish this. Tell the others we are a go.” There was some protest, but they elected to go on to the stop in Kingston.
Greg borrowed Ralph’s shirt to look presentable loading the three pallets in the center. Frank did the fuel sheets and they were back in the air in a half an hour. Noah was in some serious pain by the time they landed in Barbados. Ralph called in an emergency for air turbulence and an ambulance met the Ark. Susan’s informants passed on the information to her. She was more than a little pissed off that Noah had not called in from Kingston. This was the second time that he broke a promise to her, so Susan was going to give him a very large piece of her mind. She and the women were waiting at the gate as the Ark pulled on the spot.
Fran was the first one down the stairs covered in blood. The medics raced up to her being waved off and Frank came out next with his arm in a sling with blood all over him.
“Don’t worry it is not my blood. I just sprained my shoulder.” Greg followed sporting a fair amount of blood too, but waved off the paramedics.
“I told you not to go.” Anna was warming up to a good lecture.
“It is not my blood.” He waved his hand back at the Ark. “All this blood is Noah’s.”
Terri lost it. She started to cry uncontrollably charging the Ark. Noah was sitting in the recliner with his arm in a sling, a blood soaked bandage around his head and his clothes were covered in blood. Terri stopped cold in the doorway.
“It looks worse than it is!” He did manage a faint smile as Terri passed out. Noah called the ambulance drivers in the plane. “Now you have something to do.” One of them cracked an ammonia inhalant, waving it under her nose and when she looked at Noah’s sorry state again Terri threw up.
“I have that effect on people,” Noah managed a weak laugh. Since Noah was the worst of the lot they took him to the hospital in the ambulance. Terri was not about to go back to the resort to change. Susan took everybody back to the resort to get cleaned up while Terri went to the hospital with Noah and Frank, telling Susan to bring a complete change of clothes to the hospital for both Noah and her.
They took x-rays and cleaned up the cut on Noah’s forehead and while they were waiting for the doctor, Terri took a basin and started to clean Noah up. She laid him down and washed the blood out of his hair and from his face. She gently sponged off his chest and arms.
“I have to do this.” She pulled a pair of scissors from the tray. She cut down the arms of his flight suit after which Terri started to cut up the legs.
“Let’s not cut anything we may want to put to use later,” Noah laughed softly as he slipped his good arm around her waist while she finished cutting off the rest of his clothes. “That was kind of erotic. Do you think that we can pull the curtain and do something while we are waiting for the doctor?”
“Better hurry I am here. I was just waiting for the x rays to dry. The orthopedic doctor is just down the hall. We are going to pump some fluids into you, patch you up and keep you overnight that bump on your head needs at least one night of observation. Now let me look in those eyes.” Noah’s pupils responded well.
Noah joked, “I will stay if she can have the bed next to me.”
“She is not sick.”
“Terri, throw up on the good doctor.”
“Alright you check out fairly well. Terri you can take him with you after we stitch and splint him.” When he was finished the doctor read off a list with the final instruction. There was to be no flying for a week.
Terri agreed right away with Noah not bothering to argue. He knew he did not want to win that one, “Only if she will stay with me, I will need some care if I am that feeble.” Terri gave him a big hug with Noah letting out a howl. The Orthopedic doctor came in and did a preliminary set on the arm.
“I need to recheck this when the swelling goes down and cast it in a few days, but for now the splints will have to do. If you don’t come back, you will be looking at some ugly complications. My office is in the building next door. Look for the lady outside with your escape costume. I will see you in two.” They released him just before seven giving him a load of pain pills to take with him.
Noah held off on the pain pills in favor of the Barbados Rum. He looked up Robert right away finding him in the kitchen. “The doctors told me not to fly for at least a week. Do you have anything available for that period of time?”
“Only the Honeymoon cottage there is more privacy there, and if anyone needs some separation from regular people it would be you.” Robert said with emphasis. “Would you like to go for two weeks?”
“Done, I don’t think that I won’t be doing any serious work for a few weeks.” Noah looked around. “You have done some nice work with everything else. Why didn’t you remodel the kitchen?”
“I put the kitchen on the back burner. We did as much as the loan would allow us to do, but when I remodel this area I want it to be right. I would like to have a top of the line restaurant, so I will just have to wait.”
“How much do you think you will need?”
“It should be somewhere between thirty and $50,
000 Barbados to do a proper job both front and back. In any case the cottage is yours for two weeks.”
Noah called for an immediate crew meeting in the restaurant. The crew sat down at the table Frank and Fran sat next to Noah with Ralph and Suki sitting across from him.
Frank started out by pointing to the bandage, “I assume that you will not be returning with us.”
“Yes, the doctor has grounded me.” Noah pointed to the knot on his head. “He is worried about a concussion. I am on the ground for two weeks.”
“Are we here for two more weeks? We have cargo on the Ark.”
“Frank, you can do the weights can’t you?” Noah asked hopefully.
“I have not done weights for a long time. The loadmaster always does them.” Frank joked.
“I will do the weights out of here,” Noah offered. “I scheduled a fuel stop, in Freeport. As long as you don’t add any cargo I can spin that trip too. I can do Toronto to Detroit and Detroit to Ontario. I will have the paper work ready to go. All you have to do is look in the book and double check the figures. The customs documents are correct.” Noah started working the numbers in his head.
“What about our little drop?” Frank was sounding worried.
“The closest we ever came was Kingston. The airport records show us leaving here about eleven AM and we hit air turbulence on the way back. Kingston would have noticed if the loadmaster had a broken arm. That’s why we had to finish the run yesterday. If someone wants to talk to me, give them the number here at the resort. Remember you were never in Nicaragua or anywhere near it. There is no official record.” Noah pointed around the table. “Everybody tells the same story. Nobody on our side will admit that they know anything about running guns to Nicaragua. If you publicly support a government, you cannot admit running guns to the rebels that are fighting against it, so they will not push the issue.” Noah turned to Suki. “Do you remember that stop you made by LAX?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Would you fly out to Los Angles with the Lear jet and pick up some papers for me? I will pay for a first class return, plus a little extra.” Suki knew Jeff, so he knew that she would be safe with him.
“I would be happy to.” After what Noah had done for her there was no way that Suki could turn him down. “Ralph and I need to excuse ourselves. I promised him a walk on the beach.”
Fran grabbed Noah firmly by the inner thigh.
“I need to talk to you alone.” The engineer shook hands with Noah, and said his goodbyes.
“Let’s talk in my room,” Fran said. Frank rose up to join them. Noah looked back at Fran.”
“He knows everything. I guess I don’t mean alone after all.” They walked back to Noah’s room instead. Terri was waiting for him.
“There you are. You are supposed to be resting.” She looked at Ralph and Suki. “No taking care of business. That is doctor’s orders.” Terri was not a happy camper.
“Fran stopped the bleeding. I owe her a few moments conversation.” Terri could not argue with that. “Fran what can I do for you?”
“I need to know if Marcel was down there when we dropped. I would like to know that she caught some of that cargo.”
Noah took a few moments. “It would be easier for you to find out. You said that your brother was highly placed in Somoza’s Army. I doubt that he knows what happened to Maria. Pump him for information about Marcel. If necessary, tell him what she tried to do say that you are in hiding and use your gut feelings as to how far you can go.” Fran was not happy with the answer, but she knew he was right. Fran and Frank turned to leave. Noah went to follow. Terri put her hand on his chest.
“Where do you think you are going?”
“I still have to talk to Greg.” He could not let the details go.
“Send a message. Fran will be happy to relay it.”
“I would be happy to do just that,” Fran smiled. Noah knew he was not going to win against a double team in his condition. He gave his message to Fran. They said their goodbyes and left.
Terri undressed Noah stripping him down shepherding him into the shower, washing him twice to get all of the blood off toweling him down carefully when she finished. Terri steered Noah to the bed holding back the sheets.
“You can do this the easy way or the hard way. Take your choice.” The bed looked suddenly inviting. He laid down trying to think of what else he needed to do, but before she got in the other side of the bed he was asleep. Terri rested her hand on his chest, and Noah was up like a shot. She gently pushed on his chest again with him recoiling in pain.
“Noah, were you going to tell anybody about this?”
“It doesn’t that bad.” Terri helped him get dressed again.
“Bullshit…!” She borrowed a car from Robert driving him back to the hospital. Things were quiet. They x rayed his chest and the doctor confirmed that he took some damage there too.
“You have two cracked ribs. It is just a hair line fracture and we cannot do anything but let them heal. They are on the side opposite of your broken arm. If you stress them too much you may cause them to separate. I could tape you, but that would not do that much good. I don’t want you lifting anything heavier than you’re fork for two weeks.” It was eleven when Terri took Noah back to the resort finding that Susan, Lynn and Frank were waiting for them in the bar.
“Did you forget to mention something?” Frank said in jest. He had a double shot of rum and a double shot of brandy in a tall glass. Terri snatched the drink off the bar downing half of it in one go.
“I believe I will have one of the same,” Noah held up a finger. Robert set another drink up. “If you haven’t let it out I believe we will need another week in the honeymoon cottage.”
The ladies called a conference. Frank leaned over whispering in Noah’s ear.
“Thank you for not saying how all this happened.” He waved his hand at their collective injuries. “It is rather embarrassing.”
Noah nodded, “I agree. I will go to the grave with the secret and as far as I am concerned, it was a bump in the air.”
“Here are bumps,” Frank lifted his glass.
“Here are bumps,” Noah, clinked his glass against Frank’s. “That air can get nasty up there.”
“It sure can.” Normally Frank did not approve of spooks, but Noah was a decent bloke. Frank had to admit that he would have enjoyed serving with Noah. He was right there when it counted and he did not run off when things got hot.
The women returned to the bar. They circled Noah. “We are more than just friends. We are sisters, and more. You are the first man that we have met that can deal with that. You and Terri are a real pair. If you are planning something we all want to be present.” Frank made a ‘me too motion’ by pointing to himself several times.
Frank started a short speech, “Terri is my adopted daughter. Not officially, but I do claim her as a daughter.”
“My parents died when I was twelve,” Terri nodded her assent. “My uncle and aunt were nothing like them. Given a choice, I would take Frank for a dad in a heartbeat.” She put her hand behind Frank’s head bumping her forehead against his. She kissed him lightly on the cheek. “No doubt about it he’s my dad.” She looked back at the other women. “And we are more quadruplets than sisters. If you take one, you take us all. Do you want in?”
“Without a doubt,” Noah did not need any time to think about the answer. He pulled Terri to him with his good arm wincing with pain, but he still kissed her passionately. Terri tried to pull back with Noah holding on tightly.
“You don’t think a little pain is going to stop me, do you?” She could see the sweat breaking out on his forehead. He looked out at the other women. “Can we make plans?”
The resounding answer was yes. They circled in a knot hugging Noah and Terri. They all gave him a kiss. By the time they were through Noah was drenched in perspiration.
“Marry me?” Noah passed out so he did not hear the answer.
Noah woke up in the hosp
ital. There was a dressing taped to the left side of his chest, an IV drip in his arm and an oxygen tube under his nose. Terri was sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed. She pushed the call button for the nurse when he came around.
Terri’s voice pierced the fog of drugs, “One of those cracked ribs cut loose and punctured a lung. You went out like a light and I had to sign for your surgery. The doctor says that there should not be any complications if you behave yourself.” The Nurse came in and poked a hypodermic needle into the tubing injecting the contents. “That is to make sure you behave yourself, its morphine.” Noah could feel the effects almost instantly.
“Will you…,” was all he could manage to get out.
“For the second time yes,” Terri said as Noah drifted off again. “It will be yes the next time you ask.” she said softly.
When Noah awoke again Susan was sitting in the chair by the bed. There was a half-light in the room. Susan pushed the button for the nurse walking to his side.
“You threw a scare into us. You switched off like a light bulb.” The nurse appeared with another hypodermic.
“Wait a minute,” Noah waved the nurse off. “I need to see the others off. I have to do the paperwork for the Ark, and set Greg up with Sean.” Susan held his good hand.
“Frank figured out the paper work. The Ark is due to land in Toronto in an hour or so. The Lear cleared customs in Houston, and landed in Long beach an hour ago. Fran had Sean’s number, so he met the Lear and is taking care of Greg and family as we speak. Suki is having dinner with Jeff and will be back the day after tomorrow after a photo session. You have been out of it for twenty hours, and the world is still spinning.” Susan nodded to the nurse and the morphine went in the drip.
“But I have to make arrangements for…” Noah was out again.
Terri was asleep in the chair when Noah came around again reaching up moving the call button out of her reach. Terri heard Noah moving around she looked for the button without success.
Noah held it up, “Hold off on the nurse. I’ll be good if you tell me what is going on.”