Page 61 of A Soldier's Return

Even if they had called for a chopper, it turned out that Julia’s labor progressed so quickly it was clear it wouldn’t have arrived in time. He and Melissa barely had time to arrange her on the bed, put a nervous Will at ease and send Maddie for clean towels and to boil water to sterilize any tools he needed to use.

Ten minutes later, he watched a head emerge.

Sweat poured down Julia’s face and she gripped her husband’s hand tightly. “I have to push.”

“That’s good,” Eli said. “I need you to do just that. Now is the perfect time to push. You’ve got this.”

A moment later, he delivered a chunky, red-faced baby, who took a shuddering breath, then began to wail.

“Love that sound,” Melissa said, wiping off the baby’s face with an awestruck expression. “Welcome to the world, little Garrett girl.”

“Miriam Renee,” Will said, his voice raw with emotions. “We want to call her Miri.”

Eli caught his breath. It was a coincidence, he knew, but hearing the name out of the blue like that still made him feel as if he’d been run over by a tank.

For a moment he was frozen, picturing a sweet girl, bloodied and torn, her smile cut down forever by hatred and violence. A strangled cry choked him and he couldn’t breathe or think. He had to get out of here before the memories consumed him and he fell apart. In a panic, his muscles tensed and he was about to rise, to escape, when he felt the gentle pressure of fingers on his shoulder.

Melissa.

His gaze met hers, and he saw a knowledge and compassion there that made him swallow back the emotions. She knew. She knew and somehow she steadied him. He had no idea how she managed it. He only knew that the warm touch of her hand on him seemed to clear away the panic and the grief and shock until he felt much more in control.

He drew in a shuddering breath and cleared his throat. “Miri is a beautiful name for a beautiful little girl.”

“She’s gorgeous,” Will said gruffly. “Like her mother.”

He kissed Julia’s sweat-dampened forehead, running a tender hand down her hair. After Eli helped Will cut the cord with the sterilized scissors he had in his kit, Melissa took the baby and placed the naked, wriggling girl on Julia’s chest. She instinctively rooted around, and Julia laughed a little before helping her latch on. Will stood next to them, his somewhat harsh features relaxed into an expression of love and amazement and a vast joy.

“Good job, Mama,” Eli said.

His voice sounded ragged but he didn’t care. He had delivered babies before, into the hundreds, but he couldn’t remember when a birth had impacted him so deeply.

He was emotional about Miri but about so much more. He wanted this, what Will and Julia had created here. A family.

He had seen so much ugliness over the last five years of near-constant deployments. Pain and bloodshed and violence. Families torn apart, villages decimated, lives shattered.

All of it stemmed from hatred, from power struggles and greed and ideological differences.

He was so tired of it.

Maybe it was time he focused instead on love.

He had been doing important work overseas, helping people in terrible situations who had few options and little hope. He couldn’t deny that what he had been doingmattered.

Justine had been doing important work, and some part of him would always feel a responsibility to try harder and be better because of her example and the tragic way she had died.

But this was important, too, these small but significant moments. Helping to bring new life into the world. Caring for neighbors and friends. Continuing his father’s legacy in this community, where Wendell was so loved.

“Are you all right?” Melissa asked a short time later, after the baby was bundled and the ambulance had been called. Both mom and baby were fine, but as soon as the road was cleared, Eli wanted them to be checked out at the hospital, where little Miri could have a full assessment and Julia could receive care while she recovered.

He wanted to tell her some of the many thoughts racing through his head, but now didn’t seem the proper time.

“I’m fine. It’s always amazing, seeing new life come into the world and remembering what a miracle it is, every time. I heard it said once that a baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on. I think I needed that reminder.”

Her features softened and she touched his arm again. The tenderness of the gesture made those emotions well up.

He was so deeply in love with her. How had he ever been crazy enough to think he could go on without her?

“I didn’t know about the name. They were still trying to decide, the last I talked to Julia about it. If I had known, I would have warned you.”

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