The Right Stuff

by Merline Lovelace

  "I've got a car outside," he told the missionaries. "I'll drive you over."

  The arrangements suited everyone but Paulo. For a child with no larynx, he'd developed rather expressive means of communicating. In this instance, it was by crossing his arms, pushing out his lower lip and refusing to vacate the chair he was occupying.

  "It could be several hours yet," Janice White told him patiently.

  The lip stayed pushed.

  "Lieutenant Dunn will let us know the moment Major McIver is out of surgery," Reverend White chimed in, throwing Cari a look of silent appeal. "Won't you?"

  "Yes, of course."

  Obviously unconvinced, Paulo uncrossed his thin arms and signed an urgent message. Janice White interpreted.

  "He says he wants to stay here. Harry, can you manage the others? I'll wait with Paulo."

  "There's no need for that," Kate Hargrave countered. Smiling, she hooked a stray tendril of gleaming auburn behind her left ear. "There are enough of us here to keep an eye on him."

  Janice eyed the weather scientist with a combination of relief and doubt. "Are you sure? It's difficult to understand him if you don't sign."

  "One of my nephews is deaf. I'm not real fast at speaking, but I can read the basics like French fries, cheeseburgers and the latest X Box video game titles."

  "All right then."

  Turning to the boy, Janice issued some instructions in Caribe. He signaled his agreement with a quick nod. Satisfied, Janice started to push to her feet. A tug on her baggy tan slacks stopped her in half crouch. Paulo looked from her to Cari and flashed a series of hand signals.

  "He wants to know if you still have his knife," the missionary related.

  "What? Oh, yes. I do."

  It took some digging, but she found it in one of the side pockets of her BDU pants. She held it out, palm up, and the boy snatched it up.

  In the midst of her misery over Mac, Cari had room for a new ache. That rusted bit of steel was the kid's most precious possession. He'd offered it to her back in Caribe to aid Mac. Now, he clutched it in a tight, grubby fist while he kept vigil with her.

  Their wait lasted another agonizing forty minutes.

  The INS agent came, took statements and left again to find the Whites. She was a calm, precise type who came across as considerably more sympathetic to the children's plight than Agent Scroggins had. Her wry admission that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had recently been slapped with a class-action suit on behalf of the more than eight thousand children they held in detention, most of whom couldn't speak English and had no inkling of their rights, might have had something to do with her promise to grease the skids if possible.

  After that there was nothing to do but pace the hall. Cari did take one side trip to the ladies' room, only to stare blankly at the straggle-haired harridan in the mirror. Her BDUs showed the effects of a night spent stretched out on a straw mat and repeated dunkings in the Rio Verde. Her eyes looked haunted. Makeup was only a distant memory.

  Impatiently, she splashed cold water on her cheeks and tugged a comb borrowed from Kate through her tangles. A quick twist and a plastic clip anchored the dark brown mass on top of her head. She was back, wearing a path in tile so bright and clean it still stank of pine-scented antiseptic, when Doc Richardson pushed through the double doors leading from the surgical unit.

  He caught the instant attention of everyone in the waiting room, and the look on his face started Cari's heart pumping pure terror. She froze, unable to move, to think, to breathe, while he walked the length of the corridor.

  Paulo, too, saw the physician's approach. Wiggling out of his chair, he moved to Cari's side and slid his hand into hers. They stood side by side, their fingers locked in a bone-crunching grip, until Doc sliced through their paralyzing tension.

  "He's going to make it."

  Cari's breath left on a long whoosh. The small hand gripping hers squeezed tighter in a reflex of silent, heartfelt relief. Cody gave the group a few moments to savor the good news before delivering the rest of his report.

  "The bullet tore through Mac's muscle and pulverized his right shoulder. The surgeons here patched him up as best they could, but he's looking at eventual replacement of the entire joint."

  Cari swallowed hard. "Can they do that? Replace an entire shoulder?"

  "The procedure isn't as simple or as common as a hip or knee replacement, but it's doable."

  Doc scraped a palm across his jaw. Like the rest of the Pegasus team, he was showing the effects of the past few days. Dark bristles shadowed his cheeks and chin. His eyes were rimmed with red.

  "I'm not real up on the stats for that particular orthopedic procedure," he said quietly. "I do know patients have a fairly high chance of recovering at least partial use of their arms."

  Cari was so relieved it took a moment or two for the full import of that "partial" to sink in. They were talking about all-or-nothing, you're-in-or-you're-out Russ McIver here. The man who'd found not only a profession, but a home in the United States Marine Corps.

  Something perilously close to pity fluttered deep in the pit of her stomach. She'd just begun to discover the man behind the marine. Had shared only a few shattering kisses. Yet she knew with gut-wrenching certainty Mac wouldn't settle for "partial" use of anything. He'd go for one hundred percent no matter how long it took or how much pain he endured in the process.

  "Is he conscious?" she asked Doc. "Can we see him?"

  "They're moving him out of Recovery into a room as we speak. I'll take you to him."

  Chapter 9

  The room was typical of military hospitals. Walls painted in what was probably meant as a soothing cream and tan color scheme. Two beds, only one of them occupied. Floors so clean Cari's boot-soles squeaked when she entered.

  Paulo still gripped her hand. The boy's face settled into its habitual scowl as he viewed the figure stretched out in the bed. Mac lay propped over toward his good side, with mounds of pillows at his back. The bandages swathing his injured shoulder showed snowy-white against his tan.

  Doc Richardson ran an assessing eye over the patient before dragging him from his drugged stupor.

  "Wake up, McIver. You've got people here who want to say hello."

  Mac's right eyebrow inched up. Slowly, one lid lifted. The dilated pupil indicated anesthetic was still swimming through his veins, but he seemed to recognize at least one face in the crowd.

  "Ca...ri."

  She loosened her death grip on the boy's ringers. Dropping into the chair beside the bed, she snaked a wrist through the bed rails and found Mac's good hand. A smile trembled on her lips.

  "You gave us a helluva scare, big guy."

  "Did...I?" He blinked a few times, obviously struggling to focus. "What..:happened?"

  "You took a bullet in your right shoulder."

  He scrunched his forehead. "The...kids?"

  "They're okay. The Pavehawk brought them into Corpus a few hours behind us. In fact..."

  Without letting go of Mac, she hooked her elbow in the air and motioned for Paulo to duck under it. He came up inside the circle of her arm, mere inches from Mac's face. Somehow the wounded marine summoned enough strength to arrange his still-slack features into a lopsided grin.

  "Hey, pal. You...made...it."

  Paulo responded with a series of quick, flashing hand signals, which Kate took a stab at interpreting. "He says we should have taken him with us when we went back for you. He wouldn't have let you get shot."

  "Next...time, kid."

  The haze in Mac's eyes was slowly dissipating. Pain slipped in to take its place. Can noted the crease that formed between his brows, the pinched look at the corners of his mouth. Doc Richardson picked up on the same signs.

  "Feeling that shoulder, are you?"

  Mac responded with a grunt.

  "I'll get the nurse to administer your pain medication."

  Doc made for the exit just as Captain Westfall returned from seeing the Whites and the o
ther children settled in temporary quarters. The captain's BDUs showed the aftereffects of his dive into the Rio Verde and dark bristles shadowed his cheeks and chin. Yet when he entered, he carried with him the charged atmosphere and aura of command Cari had come to associate with the man. The usual flint was gone from his eyes when he stood beside Mac's bed, though.

  "Good to see you awake, McIver."

  "Good to...be awake, sir."

  "You and Lieutenant Dunn did one fine job getting the Whites and those kids out of Caribe."

  "Let's hope the INS agrees," Cari muttered.

  "Prob...lem?"

  She lifted her shoulders. "Pretty much the bureaucratic B.S. we expected. Nothing we can't handle."

  She could tell from his expression he didn't quite buy the breezy explanation but was too weak to demand details. What he needed at this point, Cody Richardson suggested when the nurse arrived with his pain medication, was rest. Lots of it.

  Cari hated leaving Mac like this, weak and hurting. Fact of the matter was, she hated leaving him at all.

  "He'll be okay."

  At Cody's quiet assurance, Cari untangled her fingers from Mac's grip and eased her hand between the bed-rail bars. "I'll come back later," she told him. "After I've washed off the stink from the Rio Verde."

  He managed a nod that led to a wince, followed by a fierce scowl reminiscent of Paulo at his most belligerent. Cari didn't envy the nurse waiting to dope him up. Something told her Mac wasn't going to make the best patient. She started to push out of the chair, was startled when he brought his good arm over the rail and snagged the lapels of her shirt.

  "Good...job, Dunn."

  "Back at you, McIver."

  Pain carved a deep furrow between his brows, but he flexed his bicep and tugged her down.

  "Mac, what...?"

  That's all she got out before he dragged her down the last inch or so and covered her mouth with his. The kiss didn't compare to his previous efforts in either skill or duration, but it was enough to stop Cari's breath in her throat.

  "La...ter," Mac muttered, releasing her shirt.

  "Later," she agreed softly.

  Levering upward, she turned to face a solid wall of spectators. Kate wore a gleeful expression. Jill looked smug. Cody and Dave were grinning. Captain West-fall maintained a noncommittal air, but Cari noted he didn't look at all surprised by the fact that two of his subordinates seemed to have developed a close sense of teamwork on this mission. A very close sense of teamwork.

  Cari knew she was in for a grilling later, after they'd finished the post-mission debrief. Hopefully she'd have an answer ready by then that would satisfy the lively curiosity dancing in her friends' eyes.

  Thankfully, Kate and Jill waited until the team had cleaned up and finished the grueling four-hour debrief to demand an explanation. The two women rapped on the door to Cari's room in the naval air station's visiting officers' quarters just as she was getting ready to head back to the hospital. After months of sharing a cramped modular unit in New Mexico, all three were enjoying the privacy and space afforded by their separate quarters. Privacy only went so far, though, as Kate proved when she aimed a finger square at Cari's chest and marched her back into the sitting room.

  "Okay, girl. We want details."

  Like Cari, Kate had changed out of her uniform. The weather officer's jeans and fuzzy red knit tank top clung to her lush curves. Jill, too, wore jeans. Hers were paired with a crisp white blouse and black leather belt that cinched her slim waist. Mirroring Kate's avid curiosity, the cop plopped down in the sitting room's only comfortable chair.

  "What the heck happened down there in the jungle between you and Mac?"

  "We took Pegasus in," Gari replied with deliberately provocative brevity. "Brought the Whites and the kids out. Ironed out a few of our, ah, differences."

  Kate gave a huff of derision. "Nice try, Dunn. Back up and expand on the ironing part."

  Shoving her hands in the front pockets of her jeans, Cari hunched her shoulders. "I thought it was just the adrenaline," she admitted. "The first time Mac kissed me, we were both strung tight as anchor cables."

  "The first time," Kate echoed. Waggling her brows, she shot Jill a knowing look. "Ha! I told you."

  "Okay, okay." The blonde threw up her hands in good-natured defeat. "You win."

  "I bet her a dinner of char-grilled red snapper that hospital smooch wasn't the first time you'd locked lips with our resident leatherneck," Kate explained with smug satisfaction.

  "Jill should have known better than to bet with you," Cari said, laughing.

  Kate possessed unerring instincts, a nose for fine nuances and an intelligence network that rivaled the CIA's. She'd picked up on Jill's attraction to Cody long before the rest of the team had a clue about it. The scientist had also ignited a blaze of her own with tall, tanned Dave Scott, but she made it clear she hadn't come to talk about anyone but Cari and Mac.

  "The first time you kissed you were both strung tight," she prompted, hitching a hip on the arm of the sofa. "And the second time?"

  "I was strung pretty tight then, too," Cari confessed. "So tight I came close to forgetting that I was under orders and on a mission."

  Kate sobered instantly. Fooling around was one thing. Fooling around to the point where it jeopardized a crew or an operation was an entirely different matter.

  "But you didn't forget."

  "No, I didn't. It was touch and go there for a while, though."

  Looking back, Cari couldn't believe how ferociously she'd ached to drag Mac down to the spongy earth. Even now her nipples tightened at the memory of his hands and teeth and tongue working their magic on her body.

  "What about Jerry?"

  Jill's question sliced through the haze of sensual memories. Wrenched back to the present, Cari grimaced.

  "I ended things with Jerry before I left for Caribe. By e-mail, I'm embarrassed to admit."

  "Why are you embarrassed? Didn't he propose electronically?"

  "Yes, but..."

  "Hey, it wasn't like you had time for anything else," Kate pointed out. Curiosity brimmed in her green eyes. "How did Commander Wharton take his marching orders?"

  "I don't know. I haven't checked my e-mail since I got back."

  She didn't intend to, either, until she got back from the hospital. There wasn't room in her head for anyone else but Mac right now.

  Kate was like a dog with a juicy bone. She wouldn't let go. "Okay, so you dumped Jerry and almost got it on with Mac. Where do you and our macho marine go from here?"

  Cari had already asked herself that question. Several times. She still hadn't come up with an answer. Snagging her purse, she hooked the strap over her shoulder.

  "I'm going back to the hospital." Her two friends scrambled to their feet. "We'll go with you."

  The entire test cadre popped into Mac's room at various times that evening, but the pain medication had knocked him out. He slept through their visits and straight through the night, the charge nurse reported to Cari the next afternoon. She also confirmed Cari's suspicion that Mac would make a less than optimal patient.

  "He insisted on going to the head under his own steam this morning," the navy nurse drawled. "Would have fallen flat on his face if we hadn't rushed in and caught him."

  Her glance went to her patient, now attempting one-handed spins in his wheelchair. He was surrounded by the giggling swarm of youngsters who'd come to visit him.

  "Typical marine," the nurse murmured with a mixture of exasperation, affection and admiration. "I expect we'll have to tie him down to get him to rest."

  "I expect you will."

  She moved off, and Cari joined Janice White at the edge of the small crowd surrounding Mac.

  "Good morning, Doc."

  "'Morning, Caroline." Smiling, she took in Cari's freshly shampooed hair, dusting of makeup and sharply pressed khakis. "I see you washed away the Rio Verde."

  "So did you."

  The missionary had shed h
er jungle grunginess and taken on a whole new aura. In a slim black skirt, strappy sandals and sleeveless pink top that brought out the strawberry highlights in her blond hair, she looked cool and competent and years younger than Can had thought her.

  The kids had undergone the same transformation, she saw. Gone were the ragged shorts and hand-me-down shirts. Rosa beamed amid the ruffles and frills of a Barbie-doll blue dress. Little Tomas couldn't see his spiffy high-top sneakers but obviously delighted in the tinkling tune they emitted. He stood with legs widespread, lifting first one foot, then the other, and added a musical beat to the proceedings. Paulo, Cari saw with a smile, sported a brand-new Spider-Man T-shirt. This one was done in Day-Glo colors that lit up the hospital corridor in electric red and blue.

  "When did you find time to take the kids shopping?"

  "Sam came by last night and hauled us all to the local mall."

  Sam, was it? Cari swallowed a grin. Captain West-fall certainly hadn't wasted any time making good on his offer of aid and assistance.

  Her inclination to smile fled as little Rosa clambered into Mac's lap, however. The girl's malformed spine made the maneuver difficult and she accidentally knocked against the arm strapped tight against Mac's chest. His jaw went rigid, but he waved Janice back when she would have retrieved the girl.

  "She's okay."

  He relaxed enough to give Cari a crooked grin. "Hi, Lieutenant."

  "Hi yourself." .

  "Want a ride after I wheel Rosa down the corridor a few times?"

  "I'll think about it."

  "Don't trust my driving, huh? And here I trusted you to steer me across an open ocean."

  "Pegasus comes better equipped. With navigational aids," she added hastily when he sent her a wicked look.

  Beside her, Janice White choked back a laugh. The two women watched him sail down the corridor with Rosa planted firmly in his lap.

  "How are you doing with INS?" Cari asked over Rosa's high-pitched squeals.

  "Harry's still battling with them. We spent an hour on the phone last night contacting the families who've applied to adopt the children. We explained that they'll have to stand as sponsors to the children until the INS works out their legal status. Most of the couples are flying into Corpus Christi today."