by Bella Juarez
“I won’t, Anna, and thank you. I had so much fun this afternoon,” Isabel said with a wide smile.
“Will you walk me out, Alex?” Anna asked.
“Of course,” Alex said, following her through the kitchen.
Alex trailed behind Anna as he saw her to the front door. Rock and Anna lived just two blocks away. Alex didn’t see her car, so he guessed she must be walking. He briefly thought about the fiery Anna and his initial attraction to her. He was glad he waited and watched where it led him because Rock really was the man for her. She and Alex would’ve clashed to the point of destruction.
“Alex, why didn’t you tell me Isabel was expecting? Does Jack know?” Anna asked.
Alex shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess everyone will find out eventually.”
“She’s a very beautiful and intelligent woman. Don’t keep her hidden. We won’t corrupt her…much,” Anna said slyly.
“You and Liz would have had her so corrupted it would take months set her straight again!” Alex laughed.
“No!” Anna exclaimed in mock innocence. “Liz and I had her out for a couple of hours this afternoon and she’s making you dinner. How is that corrupting her?”
“What’s in it?” Alex asked.
Anna laughed. “I’m sure you’ll like it. Bye for now!” she said as she waltzed out the door.
Anna O’Malley was pure trouble. Alex recalled how she had rescued her husband and been pivotal in helping them bring down the last set of cyber terrorists they had faced. He recalled after Anna and Rock had married how often Rock would use the phrase you don’t know my wife and how true a statement that was when Alex saw her in action firsthand. No one could’ve guessed what was contained in the shy Anna when she had first come to work with Special Warfare Group 5. Alex returned to the kitchen and retrieved a cold drink from the fridge as Izzy monitored her meal at the stove.
“How was your day, angel?” he asked, sitting on a stool at the island in the middle of the kitchen.
“Good. How was yours?” Izzy asked.
“Did you go to therapy this morning after rounds?”
“Yes, I did. It went okay. We talked about the baby. I’ve got to show you what I got this afternoon for the baby. Anna took us to an outlet mall in San Marcos. Alex, I’ve got to say, I’m not much of a shopper, but I had a lot of fun with Liz and Anna,” Isabel said as she turned off the stove.
“That’s fantastic, angel. I’m glad to hear it,” Alex said, taking a long drink.
Isabel had started seeing a psychologist a few weeks after they had settled into a routine. She’d been seeing her therapist once a week in order to work through her abandonment issues. Once a month she and Alex saw the therapist together and their joint appointment was coming up. This would be their second session together. Izzy was coming into the second trimester of her pregnancy and was beginning to sport a little belly.
“What’s for dinner?” Alex asked.
“Chicken fettuccini, Anna showed me how to make it this afternoon. The sauce is ready,” she said as she drained the pasta into a strainer in the sink.
“It smells good. Do you want me to help?” Alex offered.
“No. I want to do this myself. You just sit back and relax. I have to go and do rounds at the hospital after dinner.”
“Speaking of, I’ve got ER duty at BAMC tomorrow until Tuesday,” Alex informed her.
“Are you sleeping at the hospital, again?” Izzy asked.
“I hope not, angel. Last time I did that was Labor Day weekend. We got a little busy,” Alex said.
“Hey, I know how it goes. I’ve been there,” Izzy said with a wave.
Izzy finished up the meal and Alex set the place settings at the small table. They talked about Izzy’s afternoon with Anna and Liz McGuire. Liz was married to Rock’s command master chief, Bill “Mac” McGuire, and Liz was a sweetie. Alex was glad to hear Izzy had connected with the two women because he would worry less if she found some good, dependable friends. Anna and Liz are at least dependable…
A couple of hours after dinner they took their evening run together. They had to run later in the evening because it was still hot. Izzy made her rounds at the hospital and was home before ten thirty. While she was gone, Alex cleaned up the house. Izzy would call while she was walking to her car and he would talk to her as she got in. He didn’t hang up until she had started to drive. He always knew how long it took for her to get home from the different hospitals where the surgical group had hospital privileges for their doctors. He was reading and listening to the news when she walked through the door.
While they were in bed, Alex had his daily conversation with the baby. He sat up against the headboard of the bed with Izzy relaxed against his chest, in between his legs. He would rub her belly and talk for a while. After the little ritual, they would relax and sleep. Izzy would giggle at first calling him silly when he started the nightly conversation. She never said she wouldn’t cooperate. In fact she would ask when he didn’t do it. Alex was coming to the end of his conversation.
“Good night, princess,” he said.
“Princess! What if it’s a boy?” Izzy demanded.
“It’s not a boy,” Alex said with confidence.
“How do you know? The sonogram isn’t for another couple of months,” Isabel pointed out.
“I don’t need a sonogram to tell me that my baby will be my little princess,” Alex said.
“How do you know?” Isabel asked.
“Don’t you remember? The gypsy told me,” Alex said.
Izzy started laughing. “You said it was all crap!”
“Well most of it was. That wasn’t,” Alex said.
“Okay what if it’s a boy?” Izzy pressed.
“If it’s a boy, you can name him and I won’t question it,” Alex said.
“If it’s a girl?”
“I get to pick her name.”
“What name are you thinking about? I don’t know if I won’t question it,” Izzy said as she tucked herself in.
“Leila Isabel,” Alex answered
“Leila? Hmm, I like it. I won’t argue with that,” Izzy said.
Alex snuggled next to Izzy and relaxed. He thought about his day as he listened to Izzy drift off into sleep. Today he’d met with Sergei and started running experiments in earnest on tissue samples they had collected from the herders’ children who seemed to have the ability to mutate the pathogen. The doctor that was overseeing the research for the Navy, Dr. Lewis, was really starting to get on Alex’s nerves.
Lewis seemed to have a damn procedure that was more bureaucratic than it was medically based. This guy always wanted to report to his boss back at Fort Sam and Dr. Lewis didn’t seem to understand the concept need to know. Today, Alex had a long conversation with Rock about this guy. Rock told Alex he would take care of it with Lewis’s boss, Lt Commander Babette.
This fucker needs to be minimized, Rock. He’s getting in my way.
* * * *
Dr. Robert Lewis sat reading Dr. Richards’s latest findings. He’d managed to copy the file off the server and seethed as he read. Never had he worked with a doctor with the depth of knowledge and experience that Dr. Alex Richards had. In truth, Lewis had always been a second-rate research doctor. He’d been shuttled to minor facilities to work with much more experienced doctors and researchers and there he was always relegated to a lab assistant. This was the first time he’d been sent to oversee an actual project with some substance to it.
Lewis glanced at the screen again. There was no question who would get credit for this discovery. Alex Richards was on cusp of discovering something huge and it was worthy of international recognition. It was the sort of recognition he’d sought his entire career. He needed to find a way to take credit for this discovery for himself. It would mean a prestigious position with a pharmaceutical company that would set his career on the high road for the rest of his life.
Lewis saved the document to his computer and encrypted the file
. He smirked as he thought about the next few days. Richards had started some sort of secret experiment and he would also be doing his residency requirements for the next few days. That meant the experiment needed to be watched for progress so Lewis decided to talk to Lt. Commander Babette to see if she would let him take over the delicate experiment for the next few days. If this proved to be valuable, Lewis decided he would take credit for any discoveries made while Richards was off playing doctor.
Lewis took a long drink of his scotch. He hated Alex Richards because he was an arrogant son of a bitch. The problem was Richards could back up his shitty attitude. Everything he seemed to touch turned out perfect. The man was relentless and obsessive. Richards seemed to have a natural intuition for medicine and research. They had disagreed on more than one occasion and his ties with special warfare made it impossible to go around him. That ass chewing while they were getting the pathogen out of Sweden still stung. The meeting he’d been left out of today really pissed him off.
If they think they’re just using me as a figurehead with nothing to gain, they’ve got another thing coming.
Lewis took another long drink and thought about the research documentation he’d just read. With a few changes he could call it his own. With Richards being gone for the next few days, the timing couldn’t be better. Now he’d have to find a way to keep Richards out of the lab so he could have a shot at taking over the research at a critical time.
I’ve got to figure out a way to keep him out of the lab while that experiment is cooking. He recalled the email he’d received right before the end of the day. Base security had sent out an access list. They would kill access to anyone who wasn’t on the list. If Richards’s CAC card were killed, he’d have to ask Robert to take over, until the snafu was fixed. Robert smiled. He’ll have to include me.
* * * *
“Captain, Dr. Lewis has extensive medical research experience. I realize that special operations work is a different world than regular Navy, but there are still safety procedures to follow. Especially in the field Doctors Lewis and Richards are working in. These things must be handled delicately and within the confines of our procedures. Please, sir, try and understand it’s simply his inexperience in your specialty,” Commander Babette answered.
“I don’t care what your procedures entail. Dr. Richards is not to be questioned on his assignment from me. He knows what to do and what we at Navy Special Warfare expect so get your doctor in line and with the program. Dr. Lewis is there to observe. Do you understand? Commander,” Captain O’Malley demanded.
“Yes, Captain, but—”
“End of conversation, Commander. Now get your boy busy on another project while Dr. Richards is at the hospital for the next few days. I better not hear anything else about him otherwise you, your captain, and I will be having a conversation, in my office. Do you understand? Commander.”
“Perhaps we should have this conversation with my captain. Sir,” Lt. Commander Babette said.
“All right, Commander. Have it your way,” Captain O’Malley said.
Thirty minutes later Commander Elena Babette was standing at attention in the office of the commander of Special Warfare Group 5 at Randolph Air Force Base. Underneath the cool exterior she seethed because her commanding officer had caved. For the next fifteen minutes Captain O’Malley told Captain Hartfel how Naval Medical Research Unit-San Antonio would fully cooperate with Navy Special Warfare Group 5. Apparently there was some deep covert shit they weren’t telling her.
Dr. Richards knew what the hell was happening and he was leaving his new group of colleagues completely out of the loop. She thought about Dr. Richards as she was commanded to be at ease. Alex Richards. Her attraction to the man was instant. She couldn’t believe that such a handsome man existed. The A-one son-of-a-bitch captain isn’t a slouch either. She’d almost pulled Lewis off the assignment and went to work with Richards herself.
Unfortunately, she was in the middle of her own experiments and couldn’t spare any other doctor but Lewis. She’d intentionally sent Lewis to the SEALs because he was an idiot and a glory hound. He’d quietly been let go from the pharmaceutical company he was working for at Southwest Research for plagiarizing another doctor’s work. That little detail was nowhere to be found in his records. She had a contact at the center who’d told her. Alex was smart and Elena knew that Alex had seen through Lewis instantly. Lewis had been good for one thing. He was a snitch and easy to manipulate. Every move Alex Richards made was reported back to her. Yesterday he’d gone to some meeting and left Lewis out. Alex…
“Commander, did you hear me?” Captain O’Malley asked.
“Yes, sir,” Elena snapped.
“Huh,” the captain grunted. He eyed her suspiciously, the answer was obviously a lie and he knew it. “Okay.”
Oh shit! What did he just say?
Elena had been caught up tracing over Alex’s handsome features. She didn’t hear a damn thing O’Malley had just said. She glanced down at O’Malley’s left hand to the unusual black band he wore. If O’Malley weren’t such a prick, he would do just as nicely as Alex. Too bad…Maybe she needed to put in double time and start working with Alex Richards. Fucking Lewis! He could fuck up a wet dream.
“I’ll make sure nothing else interferes with Dr. Richards’s work, Captain. I’m sorry I didn’t understand what was expected. It’s clear now,” Elena said.
“I think we’re all clear on our expectations, Captain O’Malley,” Captain Hartfel said.
“We’d better be,” O’Malley said.
* * * *
Alex had just finished fourteen hours at the hospital. He’d forgotten what PGY residency was like. It really wasn’t much different than the shifts he pulled when he was in a combat zone, but before he could curl up with Izzy, he needed to check on his experiment, change the temperature, and document it before he went home for a few precious hours of sleep. Alex slipped his access card through the door lock, and it flashed red. He looked at it to make sure he’d it positioned correctly. He ran it through again. The light flashed red, again.
“Fuck me sideways! Now what!” Alex cursed under his breath.
He looked around. It was almost two in the morning. He got back into his vehicle and started for the security office. He was pushing getting to his experiment. In another two hours it would be ruined and he would have to start all over again, and if it was ruined the delay would set the project back at least another week. He pulled up to the security office at Brooks City-Base and pulled on the door finding it locked. He could see someone inside so he knocked and was ignored. Alex gritted his teeth in an attempt to contain his mounting frustration because he was fighting giving in to his anger and smashing that damn glass door then chicken choking the lazy bastard at the desk. He dug out his phone instead.
“Rock, I’ve got a major problem,” Alex said.
Three hours later Alex was almost ready to pick up a weapon and shoot someone. They had been arguing with security and Dixie was working as fast as he could but the company that ran security was civilian, not military, so there was no sense of urgency.
Alex glanced at his watch and let out an aggravated sigh, “Forget it, Rock. It’s too late now.”
“What the hell do you mean it’s too late?” Rock asked.
“The experiment is ruined and I’ll have to start over. I needed to get inside to change the temperature. It’s been in the heat too long,” Alex said in disgust.
“Fuck!” Rock growled.
“Boss, this will set me back at least a week. The work Sergei and I were doing has to start over again,” Alex said.
“All right. I’ll get this straight tomorrow and find out who took you off the access list.”
“I’ve got ER residency for the next few days. Take your time,” Alex said.
They turned and walked out of the building together. A bureaucratic snafu ruined work that that had been weeks in the making and Alex was frustrated and tired by the time he got home. H
e walked through the kitchen and made his way slowly up the steps. He’d decided on the drive home to extend his hours at the hospital tomorrow evening because he needed to go to the lab first thing in the morning after he could think clearly. It meant that he needed to call someone with access, until his could be restored.
Izzy had a small night light on in the bedroom. She slept with it when he was gone. He switched it off and took off his scrubs, getting naked before he slipped into bed beside her. Izzy snuggled closer.
“You okay, baby?” she asked sleepily.
“Bad day, angel.”
“What happened?”
“Experiment failed. It’s okay. I’ll just start over tomorrow,” Alex said, wrapping his arms around her.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she turned and buried her face in his neck.
Izzy kissed the center of his throat and sighed. Alex closed his eyes as his body relaxed in response to her nearness. Even though he was tired and could barely move, he needed the comfort she offered to relieve his mounting anger. He quickly swept off her clothes, delighting in the skin–to-skin contact he required right now. His bad day was slowly sinking into the background and the anger he had about all his work wasted was subsiding at being so close to something so right.
“Angel, I need you,” Alex said as he captured her mouth.
“Mmm…” Izzy moaned.
Alex wouldn’t let her speak and he didn’t want to hear anything but her sultry moaning. He enjoyed the taste of her. He flipped Izzy around so her back was against him. He reached around and played with her breasts and lowered one hand to her pussy, teasing her clit, finding her so deliciously wet and willing.
Izzy hissed as she sucked in a carnal breath. “Alex, that feels so good.”
“Yes, angel, you do feel good.” Alex growled, biting her earlobe.