“Too bad,” the lieutenant said. “Does it have anything to do with one female instructor who shall, for purposes of this discussion, remain nameless?”
Holding a thumb up, Danny answered, “I’ll never tell.”
He turned, to find himself face-to-face with the instructor in question. “Ally?”
“In the flesh,” she said. “I do work here. Why should you be surprised to run into me?”
Danny opened his mouth to explain, then snapped it shut. No sense spoiling the surprise. “It doesn’t matter. I just wasn’t expecting to see you now.”
“Obviously,” Ally said dryly. “You really should watch where you’re going. Somebody could get hurt.” As if to emphasize her statement, she placed her hand protectively over her stomach.
If she only knew how much that turned him on, Danny thought, she wouldn’t do it so often. Then again, maybe she did know and was doing it on purpose. He smiled. No, it wasn’t a sexual turn-on, but a turn-on, anyway. Maybe the gesture always reminded him of the most important person in the middle of this stupid mess. The one person he hadn’t really been thinking about when he’d let his pride get in the way.
“Sorry, I was in a hurry.”
Ally glanced back toward the lieutenant, her dark eyes clouding. “Got a hot date?”
“What?” Danny wanted to say he only had eyes for her, but he didn’t want to play his hand quite so soon. “Oh, her? Abernathy wanted everybody to go to O’Malley’s for a last-day-of-class lunch. Some of the guys are leaving right after class this afternoon.”
“I guess that means you won’t want to come over to my house for lunch today,” she said, sounding disappointed.
“I’m not going with them,” Danny said, reaching into his pocket for his keys. “I’ve got something else to do.” He really had to get on with it, and Ally was holding him up. He started toward the door, then stopped. “Why are you going home? Don’t you usually eat here?”
“I have to check on Sweetie-Pie. Need to let him out of his crate. He’s only a little guy. He can’t stay by himself all day.”
“Sort of like having a baby, huh?” Danny said, trying not to demonstrate his distraction.
“Why didn’t you say that when we went to pick him up?”
“Would you have listened?”
Time was wasting, Danny kept thinking, eyeing the door and still hoping for a quick getaway. What he had to do really wouldn’t wait.
Ally laughed. “Probably not. And you made your point, even if you didn’t mean to. Having a puppy is pretty much like having a newborn, isn’t it.”
“Got that in one,” Danny said, even if he hadn’t intended to make that particular point.
“Anyhow, I’ve got to go home and let him out before he has an accident.” She turned. “I was hoping we’d be able to talk before you left.”
“Me, too,” Danny said huskily. “Can I take you to dinner tonight?”
Ally smiled brightly enough to burn the clouds out of the sky. “With pleasure. Of course, we’ll have to go home and attend to Sweetie-Pie first. Walk me to the car?”
“All right, then,” Danny said, offering his arm. “I’ll meet you after work, and we’ll take care of Bruiser. You are going to have to give him a guy name, you know,” he reminded her again. “He’s gonna get a complex.”
“We’ll see,” Ally said as he pushed open the heavy exterior door. “I suppose we can discuss names later.”
They parted smiling, and headed to their respective cars, parked on opposite ends of the lot. Danny hustled through the autumn drizzle, his plans whirling in his head. Tonight was going to be perfect. He wouldn’t let anything spoil it.
He watched as Ally slipped into her own little automobile. Then, once she was out of sight, he inserted his key into the ignition, started the engine and backed out of the slot. He snatched a quick look at his watch.
He had exactly fifty-three minutes at his disposal.
“BYE, LITTLE SWEETIE-PIE,” Ally called softly as she latched the puppy securely into his crate. He whimpered in response. Ally wanted so much to pick him up and hug him one more time, but she’d already stayed too long, happy to accept yet another round of puppy kisses.
She hurried out of the house and into her car, barely noticing the occasional drops of rain as another shower began. She had her umbrella. What was a little rain when she was so happy?
There’d been good news in the mailbox when Ally had checked. She’d finally gotten a letter from a long-lost aunt, or second cousin, or something—she wasn’t really certain what the relationship was. It didn’t really matter because this woman was one of the only blood relatives she had in the world.
To know that someone out there was connected to her by ties of blood that couldn’t be severed was so reassuring. Ally patted her tummy. Of course she wouldn’t be alone once Danielle was born, but she liked the idea of having family.
Ally hummed contentedly as she backed her car out of her driveway and drove to the base. She had always wondered what unconditional love would feel like, and the past few days with Sweetie-Pie, or Bruiser, or Ralph, or whatever they’d end up naming him, had shown her how it could be. Realizing that she’d included Danny’s input in the naming of the puppy, she smiled. She was already thinking about the two of them as a unit.
As she cruised down the road toward the base, she rubbed at her face. Sweetie-Pie had nearly licked her senseless when she’d let him in after his potty break, and she probably should have checked her makeup. Thinking of his puppy kisses, she glanced into the mirror. In spite of the devastation to her makeup, she smiled again.
Ally had barely made it out onto the main road when the cloudburst began in earnest, but even the sudden onset of rain couldn’t dampen her spirits.
Tonight, she and Danny would finally come to an agreement. Tonight, she and Danny would start to plan the rest of their lives.
She would do whatever he wanted, just as long as she could be his wife. She would stay home, barefoot and pregnant, to play a permanent part in Danny’s life—a prospect that had begun to seem very inviting after her trial run at motherhood with the puppy.
Even a mud hut in the mountains of Tamahlyastan would be home if Danny lived there with her. Ally had learned so much in the years she and Danny had been apart, in the months since she’d discovered she was carrying his child, and the days since he’d come to town and found out she was carrying his child.
Ally didn’t care that the sky was gray and stormy this afternoon. Tonight would be special.
Her mind was so focused on the evening ahead that she didn’t see the delivery truck that hadn’t yielded the right of way as he merged onto the four-lane highway.
“Oh, my God,” she gasped, as she jammed her foot on the brake pedal. The brakes locked and the car slid sideways on the wet and slippery road.
Then she didn’t see anything else.
Chapter Fourteen
Danny found it hard to keep his mind on Captain Haddad’s presentation that afternoon. He was too focused on what was going to happen tonight. Make that what he wanted to happen.
They had taken their final test yesterday afternoon and today was mainly a formality. They would receive certificates of completion and rehash what they’d learned. A lot of the guys were heading out this afternoon, so it didn’t make sense to have the exam this late. And it was a damn good thing for Danny. Considering his present state of mind, he would have failed it for sure.
Tonight would be the first day of the rest of his life. Or so he hoped. As much as he’d thought about it, he couldn’t think of a reason that Ally wouldn’t accept his proposal this time.
Finally, Captain Haddad dismissed the class. An hour early. Hoo-ah! Danny could have turned back flips, but instead, he gathered up the folder containing his certificate and other paperwork and filed out of the room with the rest of the class.
After all, he wasn’t positive he’d get the girl. Yet. He still had to ask her and she still had to acce
pt. He’d save the celebrations for later.
He had agreed to meet Ally at her house after class, but since he was finished early and she was most likely still working in her office, he decided to take a chance. He stepped into the reception area that fronted the warren of instructors’ offices. The receptionist wasn’t there. However, in typical government-issue fashion, there was a placard on Ally’s door, so he knew exactly which one was hers.
The door was ajar, but out of politeness, he knocked first. Then he stepped inside.
A blond woman, obviously not Ally, was standing at the desk, one hand resting on a stack of papers. He thought she was Betty, the secretary, but her back was to him. She appeared to be staring into space. Danny rapped again. Obviously startled, the secretary spun around.
“Oh, you surprised me,” the woman said.
Yes, she was the secretary he’d met a week or so ago. Betty Rodkey, he thought. Only then did Danny notice that Betty’s eyes were red and her normally pretty face was streaked with tears.
“Are you lost?” she asked.
“No,” he said, regretting his intrusion into the woman’s private moment.
“I was looking for A—I mean Ms. Carter,” he amended.
Betty began to say something, but instead gulped in air, sort of like a grounded guppy. Then her face crumpled and she began to sob.
“I’m sorry,” Danny said. “Maybe I should leave and come back later.”
“No,” Betty answered sharply. “You don’t know, do you?”
“No-o-o,” Danny said slowly, wondering what the hell was going on here. “What don’t I know?”
“You are Danny Murphey? Ally’s friend?”
“Yes, I’m Murphey.”
“I was just going through her desk trying to find something with your VAQ address, or a phone number, or something so I could reach you.”
“Okay, you got me,” he said bluntly. “What do you want me for?”
Danny tried to swallow a lump in his throat the size of a hand grenade. Why was Ally sending her secretary to give him a message? Surely this wasn’t another big kiss-off….
“Ally’s been in an accident,” Betty said in a rush, as if she was trying to get the information out before starting to lose it again.
Danny felt as though the hand grenade had gone off in his chest, and he gasped from the shock. “What happened?” he asked thickly.
“A truck ran a red light, I believe. Ally swerved to avoid it, but she skidded into a cement barricade.”
“Is she…?” Danny couldn’t, wouldn’t, let himself complete the question.
“She’s going to be all right,” the secretary said, though Danny didn’t think she looked all that positive.
“What hospital?” He had to get to Ally. Had to be there to help her.
The secretary told him, and he sprinted into the hall before she had a chance to finish her sentence, much less give him the address. He damn sure didn’t have precious minutes to waste listening to unnecessary directions.
Betty had named the main hospital downtown, and Danny knew right where that was. He’d seen it a couple of times as he’d driven through town.
The woman he loved was there. He had to get to her. He had to be there. He had to make sure himself that she was all right.
A HARRIED NURSE was bustling around the room fiddling with machines and jotting notes on a chart when Ally woke up. She was attached to a fetal monitor, her doctor had told her earlier, but she had no idea what the various lines and squiggles on the display and the beeps it made really meant.
The nurse turned to adjust the IV drip, and Ally tried to speak, but her throat and tongue were dry.
“Oh, you’re awake,” the woman said.
Again, Ally tried to speak, but her parched throat wouldn’t work.
“Let me get you some water,” the nurse said. “I’ll be right back, then we can talk.”
Ally struggled to push herself upright, but she was tethered to so many wires and tubes that she was, for all practical purposes, pinned to the mattress.
She couldn’t even manage to reach one hand around to touch her stomach. She would feel so much better, so reassured, if Danielle would just give her one big thump.
Apparently, Danielle wasn’t cooperating. Or…No. Ally shook her head. She could not bring herself even to contemplate the alternative.
Dr. Schmale, her obstetrician, came in, and Ally again tried to voice her concerns.
“It’s all right,Allison.You’re going to be just fine.” Ally wanted to scream. Dammit all. Didn’t the doctor understand that she didn’t care about herself. She shook her head violently and attempted to mouth her question. She finally managed to whisper the one word most important to her.
“Baby,” she rasped.
Dr. Schmale glanced at her chart at the foot of the bed. “There’s a small problem.” Then she sat down on the chair at bedside and explained.
HOW DANNY got to the hospital without being caught breaking any traffic laws was a miracle. That he got there and found a spot in the car park immediately adjacent to the front door was even better.
Danny slammed on the brakes, cut the engine and ejected himself as if making egress from a plane at twenty thousand feet rather than hitting terra firma from ground level. Snatching his red beret from his head, he dashed through the automatic doors and up to the information desk.
“Allison Carter,” he gasped. “She was in an automobile accident earlier today. Where is she?”
The woman turned and typed something—the name, Danny assumed—into the computer. He waited what seemed like an eternity for the computer to cough up the secret. “Can’t you hurry it up?”
“It’s working as fast as it can,” the woman said, without bothering to look up at him. “Ah,” she said. “Here it comes.”
Danny didn’t need the woman’s stalling tactics. He wanted to snatch her from behind her glass partition and shake her. “Tell me,” he demanded. “Where?”
The woman did, and instructed him to follow a green line on the floor.
He did as she told him, only to be stopped short at the closed elevator doors. He pressed the Up button, then mashed it again when the doors didn’t open. Still, no elevator came to answer his bidding. He was about to find the stairs when the elevator finally came and discharged its load of people.
Silently issuing a prayer, he stepped on board and pressed the floor number. God, let her be all right, he prayed silently. God, let her be all right, he repeated as the elevator slowly carried him upward.
He found the nurses’ station and, planning only to pause long enough to ask for directions, barked out his question. “Allison Carter’s room?”
“I’m sorry, Mr.—” The nurse on guard stopped to read his name tag. “Sergeant Murphey, you can’t go in there right now. The doctor is with her.”
What the hell is all this? Danny’s heart was racing and his breath short from the adrenaline rush he’d been operating on since he’d gotten the word from Ally’s secretary.
What were they not telling him? “Can you tell me about her condition? The baby’s?”
The woman reluctantly shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t know. Are you a relative?”
“No. Not yet, anyway,” Danny said, hoping he’d still get the chance to change that. “I was going to propose tonight.” As an afterthought, he added, “I’m the baby’s father.”
The nurse smiled. “I’m sure the doctor will be out in a minute. I appreciate that it’s hard not knowing exactly what’s going on,” she said sympathetically. “You can sit in the waiting area over there, and I’ll call you the minute the doctor comes out.”
Danny did as he was told. He was used to being told what to do, following orders. Too bad somebody couldn’t tell him how to behave and what to feel at this moment, because he sure didn’t know.
If anything serious had happened to Ally, to the baby, he had no idea what he would do.
Damn, he felt helpless.
> He tried to sit in the deserted waiting area, but he was too edgy. Too distracted to read months-old issues of tattered news magazines. He paced back and forth from the hallway door to the window that looked out onto the wet car park. Just like the expectant father he was.
Or was he?
He couldn’t help thinking that none of this would have happened if he and Ally had never broken up in the first place. If he’d just been smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
“Sergeant Murphey?”
Danny pivoted toward a sweet-faced woman with light brown hair, who was standing in the doorway to the waiting room. She was dressed in a white lab coat that covered a blue business suit. He didn’t know why he noticed—maybe it was simply a tactic to keep himself from worrying. Whatever she was wearing, she was obviously the doctor.
“You’re Ally’s physician?”
The woman gave him a reassuring smile. “Yes, I’m Debra Schmale.” She offered her hand, and Danny accepted it. “Your fiancée is going to be fine. You can go in now. I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you.”
Relief rushed through him. Still, the doctor hadn’t said anything about…”The baby?” Danny finally made himself ask.
“Why don’t you go be with Ally. She’s needs you more than you need to talk to me. She’s in the third room on the left.” Smiling tiredly, the doctor effectively dismissed him.
Danny slowly walked down the hall to Ally’s room, wondering what he would find when he reached it. He had not received a straight answer from anyone about the baby. Was there still a baby? How cruel of them to keep him in the dark! Or did they think the news would be better coming from Ally herself?
He paused outside the door, closed his eyes and issued yet another silent prayer. Then he pasted the closest thing to a smile he could muster onto his face and stepped into the room.
She was huddled beneath the covers in the fetal position. Her back was to him.
“Ally? It’s me, Danny,” he said softly.
She turned, her eyes red rimmed and puffy from weeping. The cheek he could see was streaked with tears. Noticing him, though, she smiled. “Oh, Danny, I need you so much,” she whispered, awkwardly holding up her arms, though she was tethered by wires and tubes.
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