by Ali Spooner
Del walked slowly to her desk to give Coal a few moments to get comfortable. When she returned and sat in a deeply cushioned chair beside the couch, she smiled warmly at Coal. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much about you from Melissa and Mary Leah.”
“I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances,” Coal said shyly.
“There is no need to apologize. There is no shame in realizing you need some help to sort through what you endured in the desert. I’ve had a chance to read over your file and know a little about your service, but I want you to feel comfortable with our sessions. If you begin to feel too anxious, I want you to be honest with me. There is no timeframe to complete your therapy, so we will move at the pace you feel comfortable with.”
“Thanks, Doc.”
“Can we start by you telling me what has been going on lately?”
Coal took a deep breath and let it out slowly before beginning to speak.
†
An hour later, Del knew the full extent of the trauma Coal had experienced in the desert and the memories that were haunting her life. She was even more surprised to find that Mitch had been one of the soldiers killed on that terrible day. She moved next to her on the couch and took a sobbing Coal into her arms for a warm embrace. “I think we have done enough for tonight,” she whispered.
Coal nodded her head in agreement and wiped the tears from her cheeks. Her shirt was soaked with perspiration from her anxiety.
“You did remarkably well tonight. There is a relatively new program that I would like you to participate in,” Del said. “It is a virtual reality program called Virtual Iraq and it will help to desensitize you to the traumatic memories you have and allow you to finally cope with the events that terrorize you. Are you interested in participating?”
“If you think that is best for me, then yes.”
“It will take me a week or longer to program the series to meet your specific criteria, but I would like to meet with you three days a week to continue our sessions. Is that acceptable to you?”
“Yes, Doc, that would be fine,” she said. Coal looked into Del’s warm brown eyes. “Do you really think you can fix me?”
“No, I can’t,” she replied. “Together we can, but it has to be you. You are the only one who can fix you.”
Coal smiled for the first time since entering the office. “We can do this.”
“Yes, we can, and we will,” Del answered.
“Do I need medications?” she asked.
“No, I don’t think you do. If anything, I would suggest using melatonin to help you get better sleep. It is a natural supplement and over the counter. I’m sure Mary Leah can get you set up.”
“Thanks, Doc.”
“One other thing, don’t worry about hurting her. Mary Leah is not as fragile as you think. I would also recommend talking with her about your episodes. The more you discuss what happened, the easier it will become to let it go.” She smiled at Coal. “No more holding it in. If you don’t feel good talking to her about it, find someone else close to you. Do you have any other questions tonight?”
“How much do I owe you?” Coal asked as she pulled out her checkbook.
“Your service to our country is paying for your treatment. You have paid enough.”
With that, Del stood and offered her hand to Coal. “Let’s plan to meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week. Is this time good for you?”
“Yes, it is. Thanks again,” she said as she stood and followed Del to the door.
Del opened the door and Mary Leah stood from her seat. “Get some rest tonight and have a good weekend, and I will see you Monday.”
“Thanks, Del,” Mary Leah said and hugged her friend.
“Stop and get her some melatonin and make sure she takes the maximum dosage before going to bed each night.”
“I will,” Mary Leah said.
Mary Leah reached for Coal’s hand as they left the building. Once back inside the car, she turned to her and asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Exhausted,” she said honestly.
“Kick back and relax then and I will get us home.”
“You’ll get no argument from me,” Coal said and reclined her seat back.
They hadn’t made it out of the city before Coal was sleeping peacefully in her seat. Mary Leah made a stop at a chain pharmacy and bought the melatonin. When she climbed back into the car, Coal still slept and did not stir.
Mary Leah gently woke Coal as they neared the ranch. “There is a bottle of water and a container of pills. Go ahead and take three before we get home,” she instructed.
Coal took the pills and drained the bottle of water as she relaxed into the seat. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to take you up on your offer of dessert tonight. I’m whipped physically and emotionally.”
“Baby, don’t worry about that. As long as your warm body is next to mine I am perfectly content.”
Coal reached over to entwine her fingers with Mary Leah’s. “Thank you, my love.”
When they reached home, they entered the house hand in hand. They walked to the bedroom and stripped out of their clothes before entwining in one another’s arms to sleep peacefully through the night.
†
Coal woke before sunrise to find her lover spooned up next to her. Her hand softly stroked down Mary Leah’s arm and hip as her lips softly caressed her neck. She could feel her begin to stir, and Mary Leah was wearing a smile when she rolled onto her back and looked up at her. Coal lowered her face to kiss her sweetly as her hand continued to play across Mary Leah’s skin, and when she felt her shiver, she moved on top of her lover.
Her hips rocked slowly between Mary Leah’s thighs as they continued to kiss. She ended the kiss and opened her eyes to see desire building in Mary Leah’s eyes. She kissed down Mary Leah’s neck, her soft lips caressing the scars on her chest left bare from the cancer. Mary Leah groaned in pleasure. Coal had never complained about her lack of breasts or the ugly scars the surgery had left behind, but Mary Leah longed for the feeling of a lover suckling her breasts.
Her hands played in Coal’s dark hair as Coal’s lips brushed the sensitive skin down the front of her body and her tongue entered the wetness nestled in the center of her being. Mary Leah moaned as Coal’s tongue and lips explored her body, and when she slid a finger into the silky wetness, stars began to erupt behind her eyelids as her passion reached its climax and she ground her body into Coal’s mouth.
Coal felt the trembling deep within her lover’s body as her tongue and finger glided through wetness and her soft moans encouraged her to continue until she felt Mary Leah’s body release in waves of convulsions. She continued her ministrations until she felt Mary Leah relax and then removed her finger and kissed her way back into her lover’s arms.
“Good morning,” she whispered.
“It has definitely started off well for me,” Mary Leah said with a purr in her voice.
She grinned back at her. “I didn’t want you to think I had forgotten your offer of dessert.”
Mary Leah wrapped her arms tightly around Coal’s shoulders. “Do you need some attention?”
“I have what I need right here,” she said as she moved to lie next to her lover, placing her head on her shoulder.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Like a rock, for a change, and I woke up feeling refreshed.”
“I can definitely tell the difference,” she teased. “That felt terrific.”
Coal looked over at the clock. “Do you want to snooze a little longer before we have to get up?”
“As long as you promise not to move from this spot,” Mary Leah answered.
“Only long enough to do this,” Coal said as she raised her face to kiss Mary Leah. “I love you,” she said and snuggled back into Mary Leah’s arms.
“I love you too.”
†
When the alarm sounded two hours later, Mary Leah reached over to turn it off. “What time do we need to be
ready for the cookout tonight?”
“The guys usually have dinner ready by seven, why do you ask?”
“I thought I would come home and help you with the beans and macaroni salad.”
“That would be great,” she said as she heard the beep of the coffeepot, notifying them the coffee had finished brewing. “Sit tight and I’ll grab us a cup,” she said.
Mary Leah snuggled under the covers, still enjoying the glow of their lovemaking as she waited for her to return.
Coal returned with steaming mugs of coffee and handed one to Mary Leah before sitting on the edge of the bed.
“What does your day look like?”
“I’m not real sure. I’ll probably be helping with the haying. I’m not sure if we are ready to start baling yet or not, but you can guarantee it will be another hot day for us,” she answered.
“Do you think y’all will be working this weekend?”
“Probably Saturday if we start baling, why do you ask?”
“I thought I might take my best girl to the movies on Sunday,” Mary Leah said.
“Find us a movie and it’s a date,” she said with a smile.
Chapter Thirteen
Coal tied Shadow’s reins to the rail of the hitching post outside the bunkhouse and walked inside to find the crew finishing breakfast. “Morning,” she said as she walked to the counter and poured a cup of coffee.
“Good morning,” Harley answered. “We were just discussing the work for today.”
She joined them at the table. “What’s on tap for today?”
“Stan wants to give the hay we cut yesterday the morning to dry, so we are going to work on the next field. He wants you and Gene to ride up to the north pasture and check the boundary fence. Some of the neighbor’s herd made it into our pasture and may have done some damage.”
“That sounds like a good way to eat the morning up,” she said.
“If you see any more of their herd, move them back on their side of the fence and try to be back for lunch. If everything works out well we will start baling after lunch and you two will get a workout then,” Harley said with a grin.
“Speaking of Gene, where is he?”
“He’s already gone to the barn to saddle up and put some tools together,” Lucas said.
Coal grinned and drained her cup. “I guess I’d better get a move on then.”
“We’ll see you at lunch,” Harley said as she placed her cup in the dishwasher and headed for the door.
“See you soon,” she answered and opened the door to find Gene already mounted and waiting for her. She swung her body into the saddle and they started walking across the yard.
“Looks like we lucked up with fence mending duty,” he said.
“We better enjoy this morning. By the time we start loading those bales it will be nice and hot,” she said.
“Nothing like working up a good sweat,” he teased.
“I’ll remind you of that about two o’clock,” she teased back.
They rode in silence for a few minutes, and when Gene straightened in his saddle after closing a gate behind them, he turned to look at Coal. “You look refreshed and relaxed this morning.”
“I had a good night’s sleep for a change.”
“Did your appointment go well?”
Coal really didn’t want to talk about it, but remembered Del’s advice about talking about her experience in the desert. “Yeah, it did. I think she can help me get over the past.”
“You know I almost joined up after high school,” he said.
“Be glad you didn’t. In hindsight, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
“How did you get in the army?” he asked.
“I joined after college and went through Army Ranger School and served four years before I had enough and transitioned to the reserves.”
“Is that where you learned to fight so well?”
“Yeah, I learned how to be a killing machine.” Coal seemed thoughtful for a few seconds. “My first experience in the desert was easy, pretty much mop-up duty. The major conflict had been over for months and our unit deployed to assist with transitioning troops back home. There was no fight left by then, but we had to remain vigilant for snipers and bombs.”
“Did you have to kill anyone while you were there?”
“Not while I was active duty. When I rotated out and joined the reserves, I went to work at a ranch in Dallas for a while. That’s when I met my girlfriend, Tessa, and Mitch. They were both part of my reserve unit.”
“I had just started working at the MC2 when he got called up,” Gene said. “He seemed to be a really great guy.”
“He was,” she said. “I really enjoyed serving with him.”
Gene bent over in the saddle to open another gate and they rode through. “How long were you with Tessa?”
Coal smiled at him. “You are full of questions this morning.”
Gene frowned. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”
“That’s okay, Gene. Tessa was a teacher in Dallas. We lived together for two years before our unit got recalled and we were sent to Afghanistan.”
“What was she like?” He noticed a dreamy look in her eyes as she thought of the words to describe Tessa.
“She was beautiful and had the kindest heart of anyone I have ever met. She worked at an elementary school in a low-income section of Dallas. I used to tease her that she spent most of her salary providing for the kids in her class. She always made sure her students had what they needed, whether it was a coat or notebooks, she was always first to act for their benefit.”
“She sounds like a good woman. What happened to her?”
She felt tears welling in her eyes and when she looked at Gene, he swallowed hard, realizing he had struck a painful memory in his friend. “Damn, I’m sorry, I should shut my big mouth,” he said, hanging his head.
“No, Gene, the doctor actually encouraged me to talk about it to help me with my therapy, so you are actually doing me a big favor. What I’m telling you Mary Leah doesn’t even know yet, so this is like a rehearsal.”
Gene smiled in relief at her comment. “That doesn’t make it easy though, I’m sure.”
Coal shook her head. “No, it doesn’t.” She took a deep breath. “We were two weeks shy of rotating back to the States when we were sent on a mission. It was a blistering Saturday morning and there was eeriness in the air. Normally, the streets on a Saturday morning would have been bustling with activity, families rushing to market and running errands, but that morning the only movement was the heat waves dancing on the streets.”
They had reached the final gate, so she waited until they passed through to continue. “We were called out on a report of a car bomb in a residential area. Mitch and Tessa were the bomb experts on our team and I was part of the sniper protection for them. As they approached to begin disarming the bomb, a crying child walked out to the street, headed directly toward the car. I turned my head for a fraction of a second to bark out an order for one of the soldiers to move the child to safety and my moment of distraction allowed the terrorist to activate the bomb. Mitch heard the click of the ignition and dove on the bomb to protect the rest of us and was killed instantly.”
Coal hesitated for a second as her eyes rested on a stray steer that did not wear the brand of the MC2. “Let’s get him back home and then I’ll continue,” she said. “Might as well find out where he breached the fence first,” she added.
“You check the fence and I’ll round him up,” he said and rode toward the stray.
She rode forward along the fence line and found the area the steer had pressed his way through and whistled to Gene who was already moving the steer in her direction. She backed Shadow away from the gap to allow plenty of room for the steer to enter his home pasture and waited for Gene to run him through.
Gene stopped beside her and said, “I’ll fix this section if you want to keep riding the fence line to make sure this is the only breach. I’ll catch up with yo
u when I’m finished.”
“You sure you don’t need help?”
“Naw, I’ve got this.”
Coal nodded and turned Shadow to continue riding the fence line. She reached out and checked posts as she passed them to ensure they were solid and the wire was intact. The cry of a hawk overhead broke her concentration, and she looked up to see him flying toward the pasture the crew was cutting for hay. He soared in the soft winds high above, his sharp eyes searching the ground for any signs of movement. She watched for several more seconds until his cry rang in her ears again and he dove swiftly after his prey, becoming lost to her vision as he descended beneath the tree line. She waited for several seconds to see if he would reappear with his prey caught in sharp talons, but he remained invisible to her eyes.
She resumed her investigation and Gene joined her ten minutes later. “Welcome back.”
“Thanks, did you see that hawk?”
“Yeah, I did. I wonder what he caught?” she said.
“I couldn’t tell either,” he said as he settled in beside Shadow.
They walked in silence for a few minutes before she resumed her story. “When Mitch dove on top of the bomb, it killed him instantly but protected several others from major damage. Tessa, however, was closest to him and took a major hit from the flying shrapnel. I took out the terrorist with my rifle, but I was a second too late. I rushed to Tessa as another team member called for a medical evacuation unit, but it was too late for her too. She died in my arms and there was nothing I could do to save her.”
“Damn, that sucks,” Gene said. “I’m sorry, Coal.”
“Thanks, Gene.”
“Were you injured?”
“I took some shrapnel to my side, but my injuries were not serious. I didn’t even realize I was bleeding until the chopper arrived. A few dozen stitches and I was good to go, physically at least.”
“Is that when you came to the MC2?”
“I resigned my commission when I returned to Dallas and tried to live in the home Tessa and I made, but I couldn’t live there without her. I heard from my ranch foreman that the MC2 was hiring, so I applied, not knowing that it was Mitch’s ranch or that Melissa was his wife. I guess fate just brought me home.”