Protecting His Own

by Lindsay McKenna

  Shifting it to get it situated on his shoulders, Roc smiled down at her. “Can’t fool you for a second, can I, Doc?”

  “You’re an open book to me now, Captain. Your secret is out.”

  Wanting to reach out and touch her cheek, scattered with those girlish freckles, Roc stopped himself. He knew the woman tending the fire was watching. In public, they couldn’t indulge in intimate gestures; it just wasn’t done. Instead, he gripped his M-16 and placed it on his left shoulder.

  “Uh-oh,” he teased, as he gestured for Sam to follow him down the damp grass toward the rubble-strewn street, “I’m in trouble.”

  “Yes,” she agreed, laughing quietly as she hurried to catch up with him, “and like a superhero, I have X-ray vision. You’re an open book to me now. I’ve seen the real Roc Gunnison.”

  It felt good to laugh together. Sam walked proudly, her shoulders squared, her stride sure and confident as they moved to the center of the street. Everything was quiet now; dawn was one of Roc’s favorite times of day. He watched Sam’s thick red curls slide across her shoulders as they walked, and saw a smile play on her full lips. They walked close enough to one another that occasionally their hands brushed.

  “This is like a moment out of time,” Roc confided to her as they hiked swiftly back toward headquarters.

  “What is?” Sam glanced up at him. Looking at him in his helmet, goggles on top and chin strap buckled, she saw his power and danger as a marine. Less than an hour earlier, however, she’d been privileged to meet his vulnerable, gentler side—the man who had almost kissed her and stolen her wildly pounding heart.

  “Us. Now. Moments stolen out of time,” he answered in a husky voice.

  Oh, how Sam wanted to kiss Roc! Even now that that perfect male mouth was flatter, tightened somewhat as he focused on the business at hand. She wanted to help him relax his lips totally.

  “Moments out of time,” Sam murmured. “Yes, it was….”

  “I’m not sorry it happened,” Roc told her in a dark tone. He kept swiveling his head and looking around. Diablo could show up anywhere, at any time. He instinctively felt that the survivalist group were nocturnal, like animals that foraged at night and also at dusk and dawn. During the day, they probably rested and slept, heading out on their hunting trips to steal food, water and medicine after dark, when people were most vulnerable. Now was a dangerous time to be up and walking around, in his opinion.

  Looking over at Sam, at her bright face and wide green eyes, he couldn’t fault her for not being on guard. She was a doctor. A person who thought the best of people, not the worst. That was his job.

  Still, Roc sponged in her spontaneity and clung to that joy she was sharing with him.

  “I’m not, either, Roc. Not sorry it happened.”

  “Really?” He gazed into her eyes, remembering Brad, her fiancé.

  Losing her smile, Sam said, “Really. I’m scared, Roc…scared in a way I’ve never been before, so give me some time, will you?” Reaching over, she briefly touched his hard, calloused hand. There was no one up and around to see them in the misty dawn light. “I’m not sorry for what happened. I never expected it…. I’m just not the kind of woman who attracts men, you know? I’m aware of that. And that’s okay.” Sam released his fingers. “I’m scared for a lot of reasons,” she added. “We need to talk more…and often, if you want. There’s so much you don’t know about me and vice versa.”

  Nodding, Roc murmured, “We’ve got duties right now, Samantha. Maybe tonight, when things quiet down, we can spend a few minutes doing just that.”

  She searched his face. “You mean that?” So many men were afraid of her because she was a strong woman. Was Roc truly different?

  “Yeah, I mean it.”

  Chapter 10

  February 5: 1230

  The noonday sun felt warm and good to Sam as she sat with her team in the middle of what they chose as their next medevac site. There had been four Little League baseball diamonds where they sat cross-legged on the short, yellow grass. The earthquake had knocked down all the fences, and cracks had appeared in the ground along one side, where nearby suburban housing had been totaled.

  Sam ate hungrily from her MRE package. Lin, Jonesy and Ernie sat nearby wolfing down their food, as well. The day was beautiful to Sam in more ways than one. In the distance, she saw Roc with his team. They were measuring off the area, noting any potential engineering difficulties—doing the legwork to get the information to Morgan as soon as possible. Sam felt a little guilty that she was eating and they weren’t. She knew that Roc wanted these medevac stations up and functional as quickly as possible.

  “Beautiful day,” Lin said, sitting down opposite Sam.

  “Yes.” Sam looked around. The local residents had seen them coming. Curious and full of hope, a crowd of at least fifty people had gathered as she and her colleagues walked into the area. When Roc told them a medevac station was going in, there were cheers and tears of relief.

  “We’re going to set up a clinic over there?” Lin asked, pointing to the area the Recon team was now working along.

  “We will.”

  “Glad we brought extra IVs,” Jonesy exclaimed, wiping his mouth with a paper napkin and stuffing it back into the plastic bag his meal had been packed in.

  “Looks like we’re going to need them,” Sam agreed quietly. Her heart was centered on Roc, on the memory of their incredibly intimate night together. But the pleasure waned as she remembered her duty. Her head was whirling with logistics on how best to set up the clinic.

  “There are a lot more elderly people in this area,” Ernie said, getting up and putting her canteen back in her pack. “The other neighborhood had a lot of kids. Here, it’s an older group.”

  “Nice people, though,” Lin said.

  “They’re all nice,” Sam murmured. She wiped her mouth with her napkin and got up. “They’re all starving. I feel like hell sitting here and eating when all they’ve got are crumbs.”

  Lin grimaced. “Isn’t that the truth. I gave away the extra MREs I brought, Doctor.”

  “We all have,” Jonesy said. Dusting off his pants, he lifted his arms above his head and stretched. “I heard from Captain Gunnison that a Super Stallion’s comin’ in here later today, Dr. Andrews. Is that true?”

  Nodding, Sam smiled. “Yeah, one’s coming in. Morgan is really hauling ass on this project now. Roc—I mean, Captain Gunnison—told me earlier that another Sea Stallion is arriving at 1400 over at Landing Zone Charlie, our first medevac area. They’ll have a full complement of medical personnel, equipment and drugs to off-load. A Navy SeaBee team coming with them will erect the tents and get things moving over there.”

  Rubbing his hands together, Jonesy grinned. “Dude, that’s awesome! I love how the military can do this. We’re a lot more efficient than the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”

  Snorting softly, Sam stuffed her empty MRE pouch into her pack. “Without roads, FEMA is stuck with the military to do the job.”

  “Hey,” Lin said, scrambling to her feet, “I heard at the chow hall last night that they’ve got a lot of bulldozers on the northern edge of the basin. They’re supposed to be carving a whole bunch of new roads out of the old ones. They’ll be dirt roads, of course, but at least vehicles with food, medicine and water can start getting in here.”

  “About time,” Sam said. She gazed again across the baseball fields to Roc and his team. They were down on their hands and knees, measuring a crevice. Her body responded hotly in memory of his burning gaze, his fingers grazing her cheek, and the hard masculinity of his body against hers. Taking a deep, unsteady breath, Sam figured she was not only sleep deprived, but shaken emotionally by the unexpected night with him.

  “Dude,” Jonesy exclaimed, “things are a-lookin’ up for these poor folks.” He hefted his pack and placed it on his shoulders.

  “About time,” Ernie sniffed. “I’m ready, Doctor.”

  Sam threw her own pack back on and l
ooked at her team. “Ready?”

  “Ready, ready now!” Ernie called out.

  Sam grinned. Ernie’s brother was in the Air Force—a gunnery sergeant who flew in B-52 bombers. “Ready, ready now” was an Air Force saying. “Okay, team, let’s rock ’n’ roll.”

  February 5: 1700

  Roc looked at his watch. Dusk was falling, and they had to get back to HQ. Walking three miles in the dark was not a good idea. He gave orders for his team to prepare to leave Landing Zone Delta, their second medevac facility. From where he stood in the center of the baseball fields, he could see Sam and her unit also closing down for the night.

  He wondered if she was as tired as he was. In another way, he was wide-awake, like a thrilled teenager who was riding a high. All day he’d thought of her. Of their night together. Of their talk. Why hadn’t he kissed her? It was stupid not to have, he realized now. His feelings had been hurt because she’d murmured her dead fiancé’s name as she woke up. Roc realized that of course she would do that. Grief took a long time to get through; he knew that from hard experience.

  They’d been so busy today that he rarely had a moment to look around for Sam, much less talk to her. He was feeling raw and exhausted from loss of sleep, and knew she must be, too. A few times he’d caught her looking in his direction as he worked with his team out on the baseball diamonds. If he wasn’t wrong, Roc thought he’d seen longing in her face, as if she wanted to talk to him.

  Maybe on the way back they might grab a few precious moments together, he mused as he saw Sam coming toward him, her team in tow.

  February 5: 1730

  Sam’s heart lifted magically as she drew up to where Roc was standing, the butt of his M-16 on his left hip, his right hand on the top of his pistol holster. His implacable expression never changed, but as she drew closer, his blue eyes thawed with a silent welcome. That made her feel happier than she had in the last two years.

  “Ready to head home?” he asked.

  “More than ready,” Sam murmured.

  Roc motioned to her team members. “Okay, fall in between my men, keep the usual distance and we’ll get this show on the road. Doctor? We’ll hang back at the rear like we always do.”

  Everyone knew the drill. A minute later, with Sergeant Simmons in the lead, they were moving at a steady pace toward HQ. Sam waited at the rear, standing a few feet away from Roc. The sky above was turning a delicious peach color with yellow striations, the filmy white clouds a darker apricot hue.

  “How are you doing?” he murmured as he waited for the last member of her team to get out of earshot.

  “Dead on my feet. You?” She gazed up at him and saw the hard line of his mouth starting to relax. Thrilled, she realized Roc was opening up to her once more.

  “The same.” Hungrily, he looked down at her shadowed face. There were slight circles beneath her shining green eyes. Sam’s hair was unruly as always beneath the dark blue baseball cap she wore, which had USN Hospital Camp Reed embroidered with yellow thread across it. The day was warm, in the sixties, and she was in her white lab coat, the flak jacket beneath it, a stethoscope hanging around her neck. Her navy-blue slacks were stained and dirty.

  “We did a lot of good things today,” Sam observed as Roc gestured for her to begin walking. They fell into step, their hands brushing together from time to time. Sam absorbed each fleeting touch and realized that was what she needed most. Somehow, he steadied her—in ways she’d never experienced before.

  “Yeah, we did. I called in the numbers to Morgan. He’s got the whole West Coast navy hog-tied into getting these medevac units in here and operational, as fast as they can push them through. The man doesn’t take no for an answer.”

  “That’s good,” Sam said, lifting the baseball cap from her head and running her fingers through her hair. “Because people are dying, Roc.”

  He heard the heaviness in her tone as she resettled the cap on her head.

  “Pretty bad, huh?”

  Grimacing, Sam whispered, “Yes. We’ve got three elderly folks who aren’t going to make it through the night. I did what I could for them, Roc. It’s so sad…. I mean, these are our people. We’re the richest, most powerful nation on the face of this earth and we can’t get in here to help them like we need to.”

  Reaching out now that the others were walking ahead, their backs to them, Roc gripped her shoulder momentarily and squeezed it. “Hang in there, Sam. You’re doing what you can with what you’ve got. These people got a lot more today than they ever expected, believe me.”

  “I know.” She turned and looked up at him. How badly Sam wanted to simply stop and step into his arms. Judging from the look burning in his shadowed eyes, Roc wanted it, too. When his hand fell away, she felt alone again—the way she always felt.

  “It’s an adjustment,” she admitted. “I’m used to the scrubbed floors of my E.R. I’m used to having everything I need by just asking for it. Here—” she waved her hand in a helpless gesture “—we don’t have near enough of anything for these people. It’s so heartbreaking….” Her voice cracked and she hung her head, not wanting Roc to see the tears gathering in her eyes.

  “You know,” he said in a deep, low tone, “I used to think you were a hard-as-nails M.D., but I’m changing my mind hourly about you.” Roc couldn’t see her face because of her thick hair hiding her profile. “You’ve sure turned my world upside down, Sam. A couple of times today I saw you working with people who really needed your care. You don’t hide a thing, you know. You wear your heart on your sleeve. Sometimes I heard your laughter floating across the field, and it made everyone feel better, me included. I watched very sick people respond to you. You give people hope.”

  Reaching out, Roc gripped her hand for a moment. “I didn’t think you felt anything, but I was wrong. Dead wrong. Watching you work yesterday and today…well, it taught me a lot about you.”

  Squeezing his fingers, Sam absorbed his touch. “Everything’s so crazy right now, Roc. I feel like I’m in a constant state of trauma and shock myself. First all this—” Sam lifted her chin and looked up at him “—and now you…. I never expected last night to happen. It just never crossed my mind….”

  Releasing her fingers, Roc nodded. “Mine, either, if you want the truth. My focus was on keeping you safe, despite your harebrained spontaneous decision to go back and see how those rug rats were doing.” He saw her smile slightly, saw her eyes mirroring her emotional and physical exhaustion. “When it started to rain, I knew you were in trouble. You weren’t wearing rain gear like I was. Fortunately, my pack is my home, and I had a tent and dry sleeping bags.”

  “I never got to tell you how kind and thoughtful that was of you,” Sam told him. “I was so surprised when you met me at the door. I was freezing cold. I tried to keep it from Barbara and the kids. And you showed up like a gallant knight to save this harebrained lady from herself.” She grinned, and felt the warmth of his own smile cascading down upon her.

  “I knew you wouldn’t make the walk back in that condition,” he admitted. “It was the best I could do under the circumstances.”

  “Ordinarily, I don’t hop in the sack with just any guy.”

  His smile broadened. “No, believe me, I don’t take you for that kind of woman. You’d beat the hell out of the poor bastard who tried that maneuver.”

  Chuckling, Sam said, “You got that right.”

  “I didn’t know what you’d think,” he admitted. The deepening colors of the sunset made her face glow, her freckles stand out across her nose and cheeks. Sam was a breath of clean air to Roc. She had a wonderful simplicity of heart and she obviously loved her work as a medical doctor. Today he’d seen how good she was with her patients, people who desperately needed her touch, her care and warmth. Hell, he needed her himself.

  “Oh, about sharing that teeny tent of yours?”

  “Yeah…that. It was close quarters. No doubt about it.”

  “Listen,” Sam said, giving him a sincere look, “at t
hat point, I didn’t care. I knew you weren’t doing this to maneuver me into bed with you. You’re a trained paramedic. You assessed my condition accurately—I was beyond chilled. The best way under the circumstances to help me was to peel me out of those wet clothes and get me into something warm and dry. Human body heat is the best way to counteract it. We both know that.”

  “Good…I’m glad you realize that, Sam, because that was my intention.” He gave her a humorous look. “You’re the only M.D. we have. I couldn’t have you dying on me.”

  She laughed wryly. “Oh, I doubt I’d have died, but it would have been a miserable trip back to HQ.”

  They walked in silence for a while, picking their way along chewed-up streets, through the endless ruined suburbs. Roc stayed alert, his head swiveling from side to side, looking for anything that seemed out of place.

  “Have you heard anything about Diablo today?”

  “Yeah, they’re apparently still ranging along the area 6 border, according to Quinn. They killed two men last night who tried to defend their food store at one house. Quinn sent out two of his men to investigate the situation early this morning. I got a call from him on the radio early this afternoon.”

  “How sad,” Sam murmured. “Why are they killing people? I just don’t understand it.”

  Grimly, Roc looked at her. “Because they enjoy killing, that’s why. I’m sure, armed to the teeth as they apparently are, they could just as easily take people’s food or water and leave. Their leader likes to kill, and that’s what makes him so dangerous.”

  “We have to go over that way tomorrow, don’t we?”

  “Yeah, Morgan wants a third medevac station set up on the boundary to serve the southern end of our area, as well as the northern part of area 6. It’s a good plan, but I don’t like taking you in there. It’s a hot-spot. And it’s going to be dangerous….”

  “We’ll be okay. We have heroic marines guarding us.”

  Roc said nothing. He was worried, far more than he was letting on. The thought of a bullet finding Sam made his heart clench like a fist. She was too alive, too beautiful in her own, unique way to be wasted like that. If he was brutally honest about it, he’d have to admit he cared for her far more than he should.