Wicked Healing

by Madden, J. M.

Luca was glad there was no one in the room to see him wipe away the tears running down his face. He reread the woman’s email several times and looked at the picture of Wicked, tracing over every line of his face and body. He couldn’t see the other injuries she’d mentioned, but that was okay. It was nice just to see his partner again.

  Anger simmered in his blood and he didn’t understand why he hadn’t been told that Wicked had survived. There was no possible reason why he shouldn’t have been informed.

  Unless his parents had said something to the staff. He could see his mother now. Oh, maybe it would be best he just let that animal go so he can focus on his recovery. She would be completely solicitous and sweetly convincing. He’d seen her work people over like that for years in the real estate business, often for millions upon millions of dollars. Luca would like to think that the US Government was stronger than his mother’s will, but he wouldn’t put it past her.

  Luca woke the tablet with a finger and Wicked’s dark face came up on the screen. It had been a long time since he’d seen his buddy and he missed him. Bad. The past month had been the hardest of his life and he would give anything to have his Boss beside him.

  The rest of his SEAL team had been released already. Hell, they might have been deployed again by now. No, one of them would have told him. Black, his former LT, was retired now, but still kept track of what was going on. Link had texted him the other day but he couldn’t remember if he’d responded or not. The days seemed to all flow together when you had nothing to live for. Wicked being alive was the greatest gift he’d been given in a long time, and he was beginning to come around and realize how much he’d been missing.

  Shifting on the bed, he dragged in a lungful of air, though it hurt. When he’d first woken after the explosion, he’d had a tube in his throat and bandages had wrapped him from neck to waist. His eyes were completely covered. They’d kept him in a drug-induced coma for the first week, but one day he’d woken in a panic, wondering where Wicked was. Then he’d looked down and realized exactly how damaged he was. They’d knocked him out again, but subconsciously he’d been coming to the understanding that he’d lost his leg, and his body looked very different from how he remembered. When they let him wake up the next time, it was still a shock, but less than the first time.

  It was ironic that they’d each lost their right legs. At the time of the incident, he’d had a grip on Wicked’s harness directly in front of him. The dog had been dancing in agitation, trying to alert them to something, and Luca had just lifted him by the harness to move him when he’d taken a step forward, directly through the trip wire. The IED had been less than twelve feet away to his right, and he and the dog had gotten very similar injuries. Luca had tried to protect Boss as much as possible, so his right side had taken the brunt of the explosion, as well as the bottom right side of his face, exposed by his helmet. But all this time he’d worried that it hadn’t been enough.

  From what the woman had told him, it seemed like Wicked had taken less damage than Luca, which was completely okay with him. The dog had saved his life many times over the years. It seemed only appropriate that he finally save the dog’s life.

  Luca started the response email immediately, but had to put it aside for therapy, then again later for a counseling session. By the time he got back to the note, the sun was going down and the nursing shift was changing. Once they did their initial check, he grabbed up his tablet and swiped through to the gmail.

  Erin Knox was a doll to put up with his ass, and his dog’s ass.

  Erin,

  We were blown up in an IED in Afghanistan by Taliban trying to rescue captives. Boss had just alerted us and we were pulling out, but there was a tripwired IED. It went off, injuring several of my teammates. It was just one bad scene on top of another. We rescued some of the hostages though.

  I got pretty beat up. Honestly, it’ll be a while before I can take Boss.

  I would really appreciate it if you would keep sending me updates though. I’ll make sure the info to adopt him is filled out on my end.

  Whether you meant to or not, you’ve really given me something to strive for. Thank you.

  Luca

  There was so much more he wanted to say, but he didn’t want to burden her with what he was going through. That was a little TMI for a new acquaintance. He really hoped she would respond soon, though.

  * * *

  Erin felt bad for the nameless sailor. He was in a difficult position. If he was closer she would think about taking Wicked to see him. It might be even harder to separate them, but it would give the man something to work toward.

  You and your soft heart, Erin Renee.

  The thought wouldn’t leave her though. It felt like something her social worker dad would do if he was still around.

  Dad had been so determined to do good in the world, in spite of what he saw every day. Or maybe because of what he saw. That determination hadn’t extended to keeping his marriage together though. He and Mom had been very different and when they’d split it hadn’t been much of a surprise. Dad had gone to Tucson and Mom had stayed in her hometown of Phoenix, teaching art at the local high school. Neither one of them had remarried, and even though they couldn’t live together they’d co-parented enough to raise Erin.

  The situation hadn’t been ideal, but she liked to think she’d gotten the best of each of them, her mother’s creativity and her dad’s heart. Too bad he hadn’t seen her succeed in her chosen path.

  She sent Luca regular updates and seven weeks after Wicked was injured, they went in to fit for the prosthetic. Worrying that Wicked would be a pistol, she decided to take Sophie with them as a companion. Sophie was thrilled, of course, little travel bug that she was. She jogged into the exam room beside Wicked and sat next to him while they waited for the doctor.

  Erin had decided not to fit the muzzle over Wicked. He’d quit growling and seemed to be just living now, but he hadn’t shown any more overt aggression. Well, the tennis ball was a hot spot. He’d snapped at Switch the other day, sending the dog into hiding. Otherwise he just wandered from room to room, watching her as she worked. He still didn’t seek her out for affection, per se, but he did accept some ear strokes occasionally. When he was in a really mellow mood.

  She’d never seen a dog as reserved as he was. He listened to commands and completed them perfectly, but didn’t look on her as a friend like the rest of the dogs.

  A tall man with graying hair entered the room, wearing a white jacket. He smiled at her warmly. “Hello, Ms. Knox. I’m Dr. Lang. And this is Wicked. Interesting name,” he murmured. “Can we lift him to the table?”

  “Wicked, up.”

  The dog jumped up onto the table without hesitation or any kind of bobble, watching the doctor warily. Erin watched the dog. If he showed any aggression the muzzle would be on in a heartbeat.

  The doctor manipulated the leg, looking at the healed surgery scars. “The previous doctor did a good job and it looks well healed. I think we can cast him for the prosthetic.”

  Happiness surged through Erin. Maybe if he felt like a more complete dog his disposition would improve as well. He had improved since he’d been hanging with the other dogs but he still seemed a little… depressed. “That’s excellent. You can do that today?”

  Dr. Lang nodded. “We’ll take a molding of his opposite leg for reference, and get some scans of the bone structure that’s left. Let me get some supplies together and another set of hands. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  After the doctor left, Erin stroked Wicked’s head. “Oh, Boss. You aren’t going to like this process, but I promise you you’ll enjoy the end result.”

  For the first time, he lowered his head into her stroking, and she smiled. Finally, she was a safe spot to him. Veterinary offices made him tense, for good reason. Maybe this would give him better memories.

  Wicked put up with all of their manipulations, but he balked when it came time to go get x-rays with the vet tech. He braced himself
at the end of his leash and began to growl. “Mind if we go with him?” Erin asked as the tech continued to struggle.

  The doctor didn’t like the idea, but it was obvious that Wicked wasn’t going to leave without her. Reluctantly he waved her to follow the tech.

  The rest of the visit was uneventful.

  “We’ll call you in about a week to come in for a fitting.”

  “Thank you, very much.”

  As a treat, she drove through Starbucks and got the dogs Pup Cups. She took a short video to send to Luca, laughing as Sophie buried her little head into the cup, getting whipped cream all over her fur. Wicked emptied his cup in a couple of long licks, then swiped his tongue over Sophie’s head, knocking her off the center console where she was standing. Giggling, Erin helped the little dog up, then let Wicked finish her cup. Erin could tell that the dogs were enjoying themselves.

  When she got home she sent Luca the video and told him about the appointment. He responded almost immediately, telling her how much he enjoyed seeing his buddy. Then he told her that it was a pretty special day on his end as well. He was being released from the hospital this week and moving to La Jolla rehab facility.

  He still hadn’t told her exactly what his injuries were, but it sounded like he was healing fairly well. Erin knew from relatives being in car crashes that rehab facilities were a good step. He was obviously getting stronger. Not bad when they’d been unsure if he would live or die at first.

  Her mother came over that night for dinner, and Erin told her about the sailor.

  “Maybe you should take Wicked to the facility when he gets his leg.”

  She thought about her mother’s words all that night, wondering if it was a crazy idea. Traveling all the way to California would take a lot of time. Not nearly as much as the drive from San Antonio had been, but…

  For shits and giggles she scrolled to the Maps app on her phone. Six and a half hours. Across the desert. She sighed.

  After he got the prosthetic she would see what Luca said about it.

  Chapter 3

  Luca looked at the email, fear and excitement fighting within him. Yes, he wanted to see Boss, more than anything else right now. Seeing his dog was the priority in his life and just the thought of it got him excited. He wanted to see with his own eyes how his partner was doing. It was why he’d been working in rehab so hard.

  He was man enough to admit, though, that he was feeling vain. He’d looked Knox Kennels up online, and Erin Knox was a beautiful woman. Like, seriously beautiful. She had basic training videos, too, working with a beautiful Border Collie dog named Greta. She seemed petite compared to the dogs, but he could tell that she had a huge personality. She also trained problem dogs and housed animals for the military and she’d been in business for several years. When he looked up her recommendation page it was loaded with people singing her praises.

  Luca had appreciated every single word she’d written him, but he couldn’t expect her to drive all the way out here.

  And that was how he started the email. Telling her that he couldn’t ask her to do that. It was too great of a gift.

  But she affirmed that she would be happy to do it. She thought it would be good for Wicked.

  Yes, that was what they needed to remember. Her interests were for the dog, and his needed to be as well.

  So, they set a date, a week out. By that time she got things arranged for her mother to come out and stay with her animals while she was away.

  Luca did his rehab like a crazy man, falling into bed exhausted every night. They’d fitted him with a prosthetic for his leg, but it was taking a while to get used to. Because he’d lost his leg above the knee, losing the joint itself was a real blow. The prosthetic was amazing. It had its own knee joint. But it was hard getting used to walking on it, even with the mechanized component.

  And it had been a struggle getting used to the movement in his right side. Most of his ribs had been crushed on that side, and his lung collapsed, so it was taking a long time for them to heal. His face, well… he’d pretty much gotten used to the patch of burn scars on his right cheek and jaw. The helmet had protected his eyes from most of the damage but he doubted his jaw would ever look the same. And he doubted he would ever grow beard hair there again.

  For the most part he’d gotten used to his looks and the feel of his skin, but the thought of exposing himself to someone non-medical was a little daunting. His Navy SEAL bravado had taken a serious hit.

  Three days before Erin and Wicked were due to arrive, his parents came to the rehab facility for a visit. Luca was still angry that they hadn’t told him about Wicked, but he knew that it wouldn’t do any good to dwell on it. His mother would always do what she thought best, though she seemed to sense that something had changed. At thirty years old he should be beyond his mother’s machinations, but as soon as she walked in the door people acted like she was the queen. It was infuriating.

  His father, a tall man with salt and pepper hair and a Van Dyke beard, drew a completely different kind of attention, mostly from the female population. Not that his father noticed. Tony Carmichael thought the moon and stars set with his wife, Leona. He had put up with her eccentricities for thirty years and seemed to thrive with her.

  While he was growing up, Luca had thought his parents were amazing. They’d grown up in an affluent area in upstate New York and he’d had a good life. Nothing had been denied him and he would admit he’d been more than a little spoiled. Schooling had been a priority, then finding the perfect girl to raise a family with. Luca found himself living what his parents thought was the ideal life, and it just didn’t jive with him. It had broken his mother’s heart when he’d left school and joined the Navy, desperate for something that was his own choice.

  When she found out he’d enlisted, Luca had had to listened to her wail about losing her son. Oh, the drama. What were her friends going to think, and what about the girl he’d been seeing? Luca had shaken it all off, explaining to her that it was his life and his choice. His father had been the one to surprise Luca. His support had landed squarely on Luca’s side. Tony’s father and grandfather had both been in the military, so he had seen Luca’s service as a way to honor his family. That had mollified Luca’s mother, somewhat. As he’d worked his way through the ranks and into the more exclusive areas of the service, she became more and more proud of him. Tony admitted to Luca that she was scared of what he did, of course, but proud of the path he’d chosen.

  For some reason, though, she just couldn’t seem to let him grow up. This deal with Wicked was a perfect example. She thought she knew what was best for him so she manipulated the situation to protect him. And she paid for the problem to be out of sight and out of mind. It was what she’d done all her life, first in building the realty company with Dad, then in raising him.

  Luca knew she loved him, but man she stressed him out more than anything else he was dealing with.

  “How are you walking,” his mother asked. “Are they feeding you enough here? I brought you some food, just in case.”

  She leaned in for a tentative hug, obviously worried about hurting him. It pissed him off. He wasn’t made of glass.

  “They’re feeding me fine, Mom. It’s not like I’m expending a lot of energy right now.”

  “But you need energy to heal,” she said stubbornly, pushing a wave of her blond hair back with a finger. For as long as he could remember, Leona Carmichael’s hair had been the same shade of blond, the same shape. He used to tease her about it when he was a kid, but it was the way she preferred it. He knew she had to be turning as gray as his dad, but you would never know by the golden color.

  Luca sat back in his chair when she pulled away, but reached out to shake his dad’s hand. “You’re looking better,” Dad told him, looking him up and down.

  Luca had the prosthetic on, so he was a little self-conscious about it. His parents hadn’t seen him with a prosthetic yet. The one he’d been fitted with was called a C-leg. There was a tiny
microprocessor in the knee joint that helped adapt the gait to any terrain or speed. And if something was out of whack, he could literally log onto an app on his phone to adjust the issue. It was seriously cutting edge, and one of the reasons he was doing as well as he was.

  His father knelt down in front of him, obviously curious. “So, this has a computer chip in it?”

  Luca nodded and showed him the highlights of the streamlined silver leg.

  “That’s fascinating. And you’re walking okay?”

  “Well, getting better. A few things still catch me, like stairs,” he admitted. “And sitting down. But I’m getting the hang of it.”

  “It seems like history repeating itself. Your great grandfather had a fake foot, but it was archaic compared to this.”

  “Great-Grandad lost a leg?” Luca asked incredulously.

  His dad nodded. “You probably don’t remember because he died when you were about seven or eight, but he always walked with a limp.”

  “I remember the limp,” Luca confirmed.

  “Lost his foot in Germany.”

  Luca was stunned. Why had no one ever said anything? His father smiled at him grimly, shrugging.

  “Dad told us kids not to ask him about it, so no one ever did. I think it embarrassed your great—grandad to talk about because it was kind of his fault that he lost it. Didn’t move out of the path of a tank soon enough and it crushed everything. The foot was gone in an instant.”

  Holy shit. He’d never had any idea.

  “It’s good we live in the times we do,” his mother said softly. “I bet when you wear pants people won’t even be able to see your prosthetic.”

  Luca looked at her, aggravated. She said it like he needed to be ashamed of the injury for some reason. He’d gotten it in service to his country, saving lives.

  Dad rested a hand on Mom’s shoulder as he stood. “That doesn’t matter, Leona.”

  Her mouth snapped shut and she seemed to be going over the words in her head. She flushed. “Sorry, Luca. You just know how people are.”