Bunny Elder Adventure Series: Four Complete Novels: Hollow, Vain Pursuits, Seadrift, ...and Something Blue

by J. B. Hawker

  “I heard plenty of people thanking the Navy crew. They are the ones who rescued all of us, after all.”

  “If we hadn’t acted when we did, there might not have been anyone left for them to rescue,” Tricia asserted.

  “That’s as may be, but you might as well set yourself down and relax. Let’s enjoy this good food and start planning what we’re going to spend our winnings on next.”

  “I’m not going to let you talk me into another hair-brained idea like a cruise, you can bet your hat on that!” Tricia snapped before tucking a napkin under her chin and buttering a crescent roll.

  When the skiff carrying Warren and Marki arrived, she went to her room to change into her own clothes and rest.

  Warren walked into the dining room. Spying an empty seat he approached the table.

  “Do you mind if I sit here?”

  “Please do,” Betty Hobart-Higgins replied.

  “We’re honored to have you join us,” Aidsand offered. “We owe you and your bunch our lives.”

  “From what I hear, you played a pretty big role in that, yourself.”

  Aidsand squirmed uncomfortably before speaking.

  “I’m just a little bit ashamed of my part, I must confess.”

  “What a thing to say, Aidsand! You should be proud of your bravery,” Betty chimed in.

  “I agree,” Warren nodded. “You faced two armed pirates and actually got rid of one. That wasn’t an easy thing to do.”

  “But, if the Navy hadn’t arrived when they did I would probably have been shot for my efforts, and since they did come…it turns out I killed a man, for no reason.”

  “You had no way of knowing that. None of us did, or we wouldn’t have tried anything. As a matter of fact, it was a good thing we didn’t know rescue was so near.”

  “Why do you say that?” Betty asked.

  “Do you know what time that SEAL team dropped on the ship?”

  “Not exactly. Somewhere around midnight, I think,” Aidsand replied.

  “It was 0045, military time. Forty-five minutes past midnight.”

  “So?”

  “So, the commander told me the pirates’ last ultimatum was ransom before midnight or he would kill everyone aboard and blow up the ship.”

  “That means…” Betty began.

  “If you hadn’t acted when you did, we might all be dead,” Aidsand finished for her.

  “Exactly. The pirate leader is insane. He would probably have gone through with his threat. As it was, he killed at least as many of his own men as passengers.”

  “But, that doesn’t make what I did necessary,” Aidsand insisted.

  “Perhaps not. We can’t know what would have happened on the upper deck if you hadn’t eliminated one of the men guarding you. That’s the point. You didn’t know, but you did the only thing you could to help. You were the only one who felt the responsibility to act. You took a risk. Fortunately, you weren’t harmed, but you might well have been killed. Back when I was a SEAL I would have been glad to have a man like you on my team.”

  Aidsand was unable to speak while nearly equal portions of embarrassment and pride contested within him. He was struggling to frame an appreciative response when his wife spoke for him.

  “Thank you for that, Warren. It’s what I’ve been trying to tell him all morning. Hearing it from a man like you may have finally convinced him.”

  Marco and Marcella enjoyed a celebratory dinner in the dining room with her cousin, who was off duty at the time of the attack and survived by being swept up with a group of passengers.

  Afterward they returned to their cabin, exhausted by the emotional ups and downs of the past days.

  “There are still places on this ship that are roped off, Mamma. Did you notice?”

  “Yes. This is still not a happy holiday ship. As we came back aboard today I saw many black body bags being loaded into the other skiff. We, too, might have gone from here in one of those.”

  “But, we’re okay. We all made it, and I meant what I said before, Mamma. I won’t forget.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I will take care of you. I’m a man, now, and I won’t act like a spoiled child, anymore.”

  “You are a good boy, Marco, and you will be a good man. One day you will be a fine husband and father. I am so proud of you, my son.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me;…and get me out of this house. - Genesis 40:14

  “Darling! Ellery, where are you?”

  “In the kitchen, Gilles, what is it?”

  “News! I’ve heard from my friend, Bill, in the State Department. The Mers Comtesse has been rescued.”

  “What about Bunny and Max? Were they on board?”

  “Bill received an alphabetical list of rescued passengers and Mr. and Mrs. Max Banks were right there in the B’s. They’re safe, my darling. You can stop worrying, now.”

  Ellery threw herself into her husband’s arms with tears streaming down her cheeks, her shoulders shaking with sobs.

  “Hey there, didn’t you hear me? They are safe.”

  Sniffing, Ellery kissed Gilles soundly, and then stepped back, taking his hands and dancing around him.

  “Safe, at last! Our prayers were answered. Let’s go out and celebrate, right now! I feel like garlic bread and pasta, with wine, lots of wine.”

  

  “Captain, sir, arrangements have been made to take the pirates into custody when we reach port on Diego Garcia. Representatives of Combined Task Force 150 of the Maritime Security Patrol are soon to arrive at the Naval Support Facility to work out just who takes control there, with all these nationalities involved.”

  “These men are international terrorists. I don’t care what agency holds them, as long as they are prosecuted and punished for their actions,” the commander responded.

  “All of the cruise ship passengers have been ferried back over, Sir, except the comatose woman and her husband. They weren’t originally passengers on the ship.”

  “Oh yes, they were taken from their sailboat. Has their sloop been recovered?”

  “Yessir. It will be waiting at Diego Garcia when we get there.”

  “I understand they were on a honeymoon cruise. Not quite what they had planned, eh? How’s the woman?”

  “Still unconscious, last I heard, Sir.”

  “When we reach the atoll all the passengers will be processed and flown home. Do they know at NSF we will need medical transport for the woman?”

  “Yessir.”

  “Good, carry on.”

  In the sick bay, Max had dozed off in a chair at Bunny’s side when one of her monitors began to beep an alarm. He was jolted awake as the nurse rushed into the room, followed by a doctor. They pushed Max out of the room leaving him standing by himself, frustrated and frightened, in the passageway.

  Shortly, the medic came out.

  “The swelling in your wife’s brain is increasing. We are taking her to the surgery suite to relieve the pressure. When she is stable we will send her on the helo to the hospital at Diego Garcia where she can get the best follow-up care.”

  “Can I go with her?”

  “We’ll make that decision after we see how she does in surgery. You’ll have to excuse me now.”

  The doctor rushed off, leaving Max alone.

  

  Three hours later, Max was strapped into a tiny seat in a military helicopter high above the Indian Ocean. Two nurses rode beside a stretcher containing the still unconscious Bunny, her head now swathed in bandages.

  Too numb to think, Max recited the prayers he’d learned in Sunday school over and over, like a mantra.

  

  The disembarking passengers from the Mers Comtessa were clustering around several men and women in uniform carrying clipboards. They were being sorted into groups by destination and hustled off to await air transport.

  Some were exchanging hugs of fare
well and promises to keep in touch, but most of the passengers wanted to put the ill-fated trip and everything about it behind them. There would be no reunions of the survivors of the Mers Comtessa in the future.

  Marki was walking from group to group in search of her father, getting more agitated at not seeing his face in the milling crowd.

  “Hmmph! I might have known he wouldn’t show up,” she said aloud.

  “Hello, dear,” Virginia Ambrose turned when she heard the girl’s voice. “Who were you looking for?”

  “Hi. Max promised to meet me here, but I don’t see him.”

  “I imagine he is with his wife. Bunny was badly injured. Have you asked where she was taken?”

  “I suppose I might as well check. Thanks. See you.”

  Marki was directed by a passing sailor to the base hospital and went in search of Bunny and Max.

  At the hospital, she was informed Bunny wasn’t receiving visitors, so Marki sent a message to Max telling him she was there then picked up a dog-eared periodical from the rack and slumped into a hard plastic waiting room chair.

  It was more than a half-hour later when the elevator door opened and Max walked out. He paused at the reception desk. The woman there nodded toward the waiting area. Seeing his daughter, Max hurried over.

  “So, I guess your ship arrived okay. Are all the passengers getting transportation home?”

  “I guess. At least the ones that have somewhere to go. I wasn’t sure what I am supposed to do. You said I could come to Houston to stay with you, but it doesn’t look like you guys are going anywhere anytime soon.”

  “I’m sorry, Marki. Bunny and I won’t be back in Texas for a while, at least until after she regains consciousness.”

  “She’s still out? What’s the deal? I thought it was just a concussion.”

  “There’s swelling and pressure inside her head. They had to do emergency surgery before flying us here on the helicopter,” Max explained.

  “So, couldn’t we leave, now, and have the Navy ship her home when she wakes up?”

  “Of course not!”

  “I don’t see why not. She’s just lying there and wouldn’t miss you. And we could be getting my teeth fixed while she plays Sleeping Beauty.”

  Max contained his annoyance with difficulty before replying.

  “I am not leaving here without my wife. There is no way I would let her wake up all alone.”

  “So it’s all about you and Bunny, huh? What about me?”

  “I said you can come to stay with us, Marki, and I promise to pay to have your teeth repaired, but not until Bunny is well enough to fly home with us.”

  “Oh, just forget it! I’m going to New York to my mother’s place. At least she never walked out on me, so I know I can count on her.”

  Marki stormed off to find someone arranging for the passengers’ flights home, shouting over her shoulder, “You had your chance, Max!”

  “Marki! Wait!” Max started after her, but was called back by the receptionist.

  “Mr. Banks! The doctor just buzzed me. You are needed upstairs.”

  The doctor stopped him outside Bunny’s room and Max’s heart sank. What could be wrong?

  “Mr. Banks, your wife…” the doctor paused and sneezed, forcefully, several times before continuing.

  “Excuse me. Allergies, I’m afraid. As I was saying, your wife is coming around. I thought you would want to be here.”

  Max quickly thanked the doctor as he squeezed past him into the room.

  Bunny continued to lie motionless on the bed, although some of her tubes and wires appeared to be missing.

  “Hey, Buns, the doctor said you are waking up…don’t make that maddening man out to be a liar, now.”

  Bunny moaned softly and one eye fluttered.

  Max stroked her hand. She opened the other eye and blinked several times.

  “My head hurts,” she mumbled.

  “Hi, Sweetie,” Max whispered. “It’s about time you woke up.”

  “Did I miss much?” she asked, her words slightly slurred. “I think I died a little bit.”

  “You goof! You can’t die a ‘little bit’.”

  “Are we in Australia, yet?” she asked.

  “No dear. Not Australia. We took a little detour. Don’t you remember?”

  Bunny started to shake her head, winced and closed her eyes without speaking.

  “Honey, are you okay?”

  “Headache. Not tonight dear,” she grinned weakly.

  Max felt a surge of relief. She was still his same old Bunny. He had been unwilling to acknowledge his fears that the injury would have taken away her personality. Now he knew she was still there.

  “No, not tonight, that’s okay. I can wait until you are in the mood, Sweetie.”

  They were silent for a few moments with Max sitting beside the bed holding her hand.

  “This isn’t our boat,” Bunny pronounced, eventually.

  “The pirates took us from the sloop, remember?”

  “Pirates?”

  “It will come back to you, Hun, don’t worry. The main thing is that we are okay, now.”

  “Okay,” Bunny echoed as she drifted off, breathing in the rhythm of natural sleep.

  Max watched her for a few moments then went in search of the doctor to get a full report on his wife’s condition. After that, he wanted to find out what was happening with the Pristine Promise and all their things that were aboard. He also needed to make a few phone calls to the folks back home. No one back there could know about their encounter with the pirates, of course, but they had been out of communication for a few days and he needed to touch base.

  Bunny woke again before Max returned, her head aching and her mind fuzzy.

  “I must’ve had too many glasses of wine last night,” she mused to herself. “I haven’t done that in years. I wonder what I was celebrating.”

  As that thought crossed her mind, she realized she couldn’t even remember drinking the night before, or anything she had done before that…not just the time right before the drinking, but anything…anything, at all.

  Panic began to replace curiosity as she looked wildly around, trying to spot anything familiar to jog her memory and tell her where she was.

  Only the ubiquitous pale mint green walls and white furnishings of a military hospital met her gaze. She saw sunshine through the windows and judged it was around midday, but where the hospital was or what brought her there eluded her.

  Bunny closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing.

  A nurse stepped into the room, alerted by her patient’s rising blood pressure and increased heart-rate.

  “Hello, Mrs. Banks. How are we feeling today? Did we have a nice sleep?”

  Bunny’s instinctive retort, “I don’t know about ‘we’, but I did. You will have to speak for yourself,” made her feel a little better, more like herself.

  Reassured as Bunny’s vital signs returned to near normal levels, the nurse ignored Bunny’s snippiness and straightened her pillow.

  “Can I bring you anything?”

  “I am thirsty…could I have some water, please?” Bunny asked.

  The nurse raised the head of the bed before going out and quickly returning with a little plastic pitcher and cup with a straw.

  Bunny drank deeply before speaking.

  “What happened to me?”

  “You had a bit of a bump on the head, Mrs. Banks, but you are going to be just fine.”

  Bunny began to lift her right hand, but was stopped by the tug of the IV line, so probed at the bandage with the fingers of her left hand, instead.

  “This feels like I had quite a big bump. Was I in an accident?”

  “Here’s your husband, now. We’ll let him explain what’s happened. I’ll be back to check on you later.”

  “Hi, Sweetie! It’s good to see you sitting up. How do you feel?”

  Bunny looked at Max with alarm.

  “I am sorry, mister, but…do I know yo
u?”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.─ Proverbs 22:6

  “But, Doctor, she knew me, before. When she first woke up we were talking like always, and then she went back to sleep. I was only gone for about an hour. What does this mean?”

  “It’s nothing to worry about. It isn’t uncommon with this sort of brain injury. The amnesia is usually only temporary. Just be patient with her.”

  “Usually? It’s usually temporary? How long could it last?”

  “That’s hard to say. Every case is different, anywhere from a few hours to days or weeks, but we don’t want to upset her. That could only make it worse.”

  “My wife doesn’t know who I am. I don’t know how it could be much worse.”

  The doctor excused himself to see another patient and Max got into the elevator to leave. There was no point in staying. His presence only made Bunny nervous.

  When he reached the lobby Max wasn’t sure where to go next.

  Earlier in the day, he had called his office and Bunny’s magazine, retrieved their personal belongings, and arranged for the sloop to be returned to the Venezuelan yacht club where he’d rented it…back when his wife still knew who he was.

  Boxes of clothing, toiletries and their laptops were in a locker at the airport awaiting the couple’s flight home.

  What if Bunny never got her memory back? Would she still want to be his wife? Would he have to woo her all over again?

  He was forced to admit he wasn’t sure he would want to spend the rest of his life with a Bunny who had none of their shared memories. That thought gave him a sick feeling. What kind of love was that?

  With a snort of disgust, Max walked over to the reception desk.

  “Where would I go to find a place to stay while my wife is here?”

  The receptionist directed Max to the visitor housing facility before turning away to answer the phone.

  Feeling more empty and alone than he had ever been, Max went out to get a room and wait to see which direction his life would take next.