Xander

by Vivienne Savage

  Chapter Nine

  Bleeding from a minor gunshot wound, Thandie opened her medkit and set it on the kitchen counter of an empty apartment. All members of the Royal Navy, regardless of whether they were ground assault teams, boarding parties, or medics, carried the necessary supplies for basic medical care.

  She removed her damaged body armor and peeled up the bloody tank top beneath to take a look. The bullet had gone straight through, carving a deep groove through her side. It wasn’t the worst wound she’d ever received, but it still hurt like hell and was bound to leave a scar.

  And if Xander wasn’t overwhelmed with work, she’d take the injury to him.

  Viljoen had assigned her and Chang an easy job, tasking them to clear a residential building of the expansive complex. Deciding to split up and cover more ground, they’d each taken one wing and stormed it floor by floor until Thandie got the drop on a pair of pirates.

  One had gotten off a lucky shot, shattering a chink in her armor with his high-powered, illegal round.

  It must have been damaged during the earlier firefight.

  She cleaned away the dark, clotting blood first, then pulled out the nanogel antimicrobial dispenser, angling the tip of the tube toward her side.

  “Okay, I can do this. Nothing to it.” She swiped it over her injury and bit back a scream, grunting instead. The disinfectant solution was like an inferno in her wound, burning mercilessly through her injured tissue. Within seconds, it formed a protective seal over the tear.

  Sagging in relief, she drew in a few deep breaths through her nose until the pain faded and blissful numbness spread in its place.

  “Yo, Thandie, you okay?”

  She glanced up to see Chang in the doorway, his concerned eyes trained on her face—not her exposed skin. “I’m good now. Startled a pair of looters.”

  “Ah. I found another a few units down. Need any help?”

  “Seriously, I’m good. These things are marvelous.”

  “The Lexar surgical gel? Hell yeah. I mean, it burns like Satan’s asshole when it’s a deep wound, but when the anesthetic hits you, it’s great.”

  Thandie laughed. “Not the kind of imagery I needed.”

  Despite her claims, Chang helped her fit the molded armor plate to her torso again before they headed back to rejoin the rest of the squad. Until the Jemison returned from hunting down Crane’s ship, they had no choice but to hunker down with the survivors and hope for the best, keeping the civilians safe in the meantime.

  With all of her security tasks complete, Thandie reported to Viljoen. They had a long day ahead of them, and it was only beginning.

  Sometime the next day, Thandie ended her security patrol alongside Jefferson and Chang after being on her feet for eighteen hours straight. Rather than accompany them to get food—several grateful colonists had opened the facility’s food court to serve them—she went to check on their downed pilot in the makeshift medical center.

  The smell of stale sweat and coppery blood invaded her nostrils before she stepped into the room. Every bed had an occupant, the survivors with minor injuries laid up on cots elsewhere.

  After Thandie slipped in, she made her way over to Rogers’s bedside. “Hey. You bein’ a lazy bum already?”

  “Heeeey,” he slurred. “You got pretty, Doc.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, well, we’ll have to disagree there. It’s me, Thandie.”

  “Thandie?” He squinted.

  “Yup. He must have you drugged up pretty good, huh? I remember that feeling.”

  “Feels like I’m drunk, but better.” Rogers attempted to nod but his head lolled instead. His eyes rolled in his head without ever focusing on her face. “Don’t hurt, at least.”

  “You’ll be on the painkillers for a while. They’ll take good care of you, and our doctor is one of the best.” She stole a glance over one shoulder toward Xander to see him performing an exam on one of the newborns. When he straightened to speak with the mother, a big smile broke across his face.

  Good. The baby must have been okay.

  “Get a brand-new leg, huh? More impressive than your wussy arm.” Rogers laughed weakly. Thandie looked back and nudged him in the shoulder.

  “Nah, I’m way better. But we can compare rigs once you’re all situated. Deal?”

  Rogers passed out before she received an answer.

  “Gave him a solid dose of the good stuff. He shouldn’t be in any pain for a while,” Xander said, stepping close to the bedside. He leaned over and scanned Rogers’s vitals. “Thanks for that. Speaking to him, I mean.”

  “I remember what it was like…” Trauma had flash-burned it into her memory, everything from the fire to waking up minus a limb. The excruciating pain, the numbness, and the way people tiptoed around her afterward.

  Thandie shook off the old memories. “Least I can do is talk to him some. Let him know what to expect.”

  Xander’s warm smile set off butterflies in her stomach. “I appreciate it and so will he.” He moved from Rogers to the next patient, lingering long enough to scan vitals. “How long would you say we’ve got to wait before we hear word back from the Jemison?”

  “A day, maybe two. Best thing to do, Doc, is find a spot to catch some rest.”

  “I suppose so.” He smiled wistfully. “I haven’t been in the field like this in a while. I prefer it, actually. Feels like I’m really doing my job and making a difference when I’m planetside. Don’t get me wrong, I meant what I said about fancying the ship over living on the ground, but after a while… Most of what I see from day to day are the petty things. Someone with the flu wants out of their duties. A case of the clap. Or some unlucky woman goes toe to toe with Viljoen and learns he’s an asshole. This is more like home to me.”

  “Yeah, well, not too many battles anymore, thanks to the Lexar.”

  “You sound like you admire them.”

  She paused and considered his observation. “I guess I do, in a way. I mean, look at how far the human race has come since we joined their coalition.”

  “A lot of your fellow marines would lose their shit if they heard you with a pleasant word to say about them.”

  “But not you?”

  He shook his head. “Not me.”

  “Guess we’re the rare ones then. Anyway, I feel pretty comfortable in speaking for the crew when I say we’re lucky and thankful to have you on board. Which is why I also feel justified in telling you to get your ass to a bed and let the other medics handle things for a while.”

  His brows shot up and he looked from his rank tag to hers. “Really.”

  “You’re beat, and if those pirates come back before the Jemison, we need everyone at their best. That includes you.”

  “I’ll hit the sack when Viljoen gets up. But for now, I have two more babies to check on. Unless you want to help?”

  She backed off, hands up. “I think I’m gonna follow my own advice. I’ll catch you later.”

  Xander’s laughter followed her from the room.

  Another day passed without either incident or word from their ship. Thandie spent most of her hours on the surface, maintaining the watch while her fellow marines worked on the damaged shuttle. Several workers from the colony volunteered their services for the repairs, and their mechanical expertise expedited its completion.

  The rest of them worked on repairing the recent damage inflicted to the quantum relays, hoping to extend their communication range to the Jemison or any other passing ship.

  By the third day, tempers among the colonists flared. Some were convinced the Jemison had been destroyed by the pirates. They wanted someone to take the patched shuttle and make a run for help, but Commander Viljoen quickly squashed the idea, with Xander’s agreement.

  The angry mutterings stopped completely after a garbled message came in from the Jemison.

  While they had caught up to their quarry and damaged the pirate ship’s engines, the military vessel had also sustained a surprising hit to her own barriers. Jem h
ad been overloaded, leaving them dead in the water.

  The good news was that they’d sent a boarding party over on a shuttle and gained control of the mercenary ship to liberate the pirates’ human cargo. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Crane’s flagship and the Jemison’s engineers needed time to repair their systems before they could return to Athena. They estimated thirty hours.

  Just one more day until the assault team received their rescue.

  Weariness weighed Thandie’s limbs when her shift finally ended, and she’d never thought it possible to miss a ship bed so badly until she’d gone with nothing more than a pile of blankets for three days.

  Her body ached, and her swollen feet protested taking another step, but she had one last job to complete before retiring to her makeshift bunk. Rubbing her tender side, she picked her way through the debris-strewn dormitory halls toward the manager’s flat.

  Thandie knocked and lingered hesitantly in the hallway. “Knock, knock, it’s Kruger.”

  Nudged by her metal knuckles, the creaking door swung inward to reveal a motionless shape sprawled on the low, sleigh-style bed with enough blankets draped over it to cushion a crashing shuttle.

  “Doc?”

  Poor Xander. According to Viljoen, he’d been dead on his feet, at last exhausted enough that he didn’t argue about taking a break from command.

  “C’mon in.”

  It felt like stepping into another world. Opulent decor drew her gaze from one item to the next. A large oval window offered a view of the moon’s violet-tinged surface. On the horizon, the planet Apollo hung like a multicolored marble. Despite the beauty of the planet, Xander made the better sight, his body long and lean, unarmored from the waist up. He wore a dull gray military-issue t-shirt, the cotton stretched taut over chiseled muscles.

  Xander cleared his throat, dragging her attention back where it belonged. His alert gray eyes made him appear less tired than she’d originally thought at first glance. “There a problem out there?”

  “No, no problems. Viljoen sent me to make sure you were okay. Sorry about waking you.”

  “Nah. I was drifting in and out of sleep. Had a movie going for some background noise.”

  “Sorta figured. You always have music or a show on.”

  “Yeah,” he chuckled softly and ran a hand through his hair. “So, what is it this time? Is Viljoen lost without me?”

  “The commander asked me to pass on that all is clear and secure for the night in the infirmary. He didn’t want you to come up earlier than needed.”

  “Sounds good. Let him know that—” He glanced briefly toward her and abruptly ended his polite dismissal, his gaze focused on the bulky pad of gauze outlined beneath her black tank. “What’s that?”

  Thandie made a poor attempt to conceal it, her hand rising reflexively to rest over the padded area. “This? Just a graze. Nothing to worry about. Scrubbed it clean and bandaged it the way we’re taught. It’s a little tender, so I slid a gauze pad over it so it wouldn’t rub.” A graze that hurt like all sorts of hell, but she hadn’t wanted to bother him while there were so many other serious injuries requiring his immediate attention.

  Xander paused his movie and set the tablet aside. “C’mere and let me have a look.”

  She stepped through and shut the door behind her. “Really, it barely bled or anything. Considering you had a lost limb and stuff to deal with, I was pretty low on the totem pole.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s no rule of battlefield triage at the moment, so lie down. Shirt up. You know the drill, Thandie.”

  “I should be insulted you’re disparaging my field skills.” She rolled her eyes, but she didn’t disregard the order. The familiarity of their relationship didn’t extend to insubordination. Thandie sat gingerly on the edge of the low bed then laid back, enveloped in the warmth his body had left behind against the covers. She didn’t have to tug the fabric up far to reveal the bandage to the right of her navel. “Bored or do you just delight in torturing me in particular?”

  “My movie was a little more entertaining than you.”

  Xander crouched beside the bed and rifled through his supplies. The contents of his medical case had been dramatically reduced since their arrival only three days before. Earlier, she’d overheard both commanders discussing whether they had enough ammo charges and medical equipment to hold out if another shuttle of pirates arrived with a desire to retake their new home.

  “And here I thought this was our thing.” Thandie sighed and focused her eyes upwards. “Seriously, though, it’s not so bad.”

  “Why are you so stubborn? What do I tell you whenever you make a visit to the medical department?”

  “Come see you if my shoulder hurts again,” she replied cheekily.

  He didn’t reply immediately, but his jaw tightened when he lifted away the bandage and exposed a shallow groove with red, tender edges. “It’s infected.”

  “Stupid black-market bullets. It didn’t look like a big deal.”

  “You don’t make that determination.”

  “Doc—”

  “I am the doctor, and you are the gunsmith. When my rifle is jammed, I will give it to you. When you’re fucking hurt, you come and tell me whatever’s wrong.”

  “Your accent comes out when you’re angry.” His sexy accent ran chills up her spine.

  “Sometimes.” Xander fell silent for a moment, his touch professional as he applied a cold compress over the affected area.

  “How bad is it?”

  “Nothing some meds won’t fix, but I am low on the good stuff. One of the moms had a wicked infection.” He flicked out a prepared syringe from the bag and took the cap off with his teeth. “Hip, please.”

  Thandie’s smile wobbled and fell. Damn, she hated shots. Despite all the scientific advancements over the centuries, needles remained one of the most effective ways to introduce medicine to the bloodstream.

  Reluctant to further irritate an already frustrated man, she obediently rolled to one side and nudged the waistline of her pants down. She didn’t think he’d appreciate her cutting the tension with an immature joke about preferring a meat injection from him instead.

  The cleansing agent was cool against her skin, but Xander’s fingers left heat in their wake. She barely noticed the puncture of the needle.

  “None of you marines seem to understand how deadly an infection can become on an unknown planet when we’ve only had time to issue a basic broad-spectrum inhalant.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry.” Disappointing Xander left a sick feeling in her stomach. “I found a couple of mercs hiding out and one of them got a lucky shot. You were so swamped, and I didn’t think it would get this bad since I used the field kit.”

  He kneaded the spot he’d injected, the warmth of his palm easing the knot beneath her skin. “Sorry for losing my temper with you.”

  “It’s sorta sweet.” The words slipped out and she didn’t mind them. A lovely flood of comfort spread from her head to her toes. “I feel like I’m floating.”

  “Yes. I may have mixed in something for the pain, so that means the medicine is working. Now relax and watch the fucking movie. Doctor’s orders.”

  Xander settled beside her, sitting up with a pillow propped behind his back, and resumed the movie.

  “But I don’t want to rest.”

  “Too bad.”

  She made a valiant effort to watch the movie, but her gaze frequently shifted to study Xander’s handsome profile. No one knew much about him, and his career on the Glenn—aside from sparse tidbits of gossip related to his previous engagement—was shrouded in mystery

  “What?” he asked, looking down at her

  “I’m trying to figure you out.”

  “Trust me, there’s not much interesting about me.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I can think of a few things. I mean, I know almost nothing about you except that you like chocolate and nuts, unless they’re mixed together, and that you’re an amazing doctor.” She p
ushed up on her elbows and wriggled backward into a reclined position. Xander frowned but he didn’t stop her.

  “What more did you want to know?”

  “Tell me about your assignment before this. Why were you stuck on a small planet command when you have such needed skills?”

  He grunted, the sound low and displeased.

  “I’m not asking anything too much, am I?”

  Xander sighed. “I… fucked up about a year ago before coming here to the Jemison. Got into a fight with an admiral’s son and almost lost my commission altogether.”

  “For fighting?”

  “I put him in the hospital. Nobody could pull me off the little fucker, and it damn near killed him. They stationed me at a shit base on Paradiso instead of doing their worst, until Bishop rescued me and arranged my transfer to the Jemison. That’s it in a nutshell, Thandie.”

  “Oh, a fresh start. I can respect that, but…” Thandie drifted off, her brow furrowed. Nothing about Xander’s situation sounded as cut and dried as he tried to make it seem. “I’m sure you had a valid reason. You don’t seem like the sort to fly off the handle.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I was bigger, and I should have ignored him.”

  She reached over and smoothed her hand down his shoulder. “Can I ask one more question?”

  “I can’t promise I’ll answer.”

  “Why’d you pull away from me that night in the lounge?”

  “Didn’t seem appropriate to dive balls deep into you in the crew lounge.”

  That blunt answer took her by surprise. She blinked at him, and unquenchable lust curled low in her belly. “Well, in that case, I should admit the same thought crossed my mind. More than once.”

  The same desire she’d seen that night burned in his bright eyes. Thandie drank in the sight of them and yielded the fight against her impulses, closing the distance in a hungry kiss.

  The logical part of her brain told her to end it at only a kiss, that anything more was irresponsible while they were deployed to ground. Her impulsive side insisted there was no time better than the present to take advantage of the privacy ship life had denied.