Page 3 of A Soldier's Temptation
In the end, only two of the group was able to walk. The SEALs carried the others. They had a lot of ground to cover in a short period of time. The last thing they needed was the rescue to turn into a clusterfuck. John had been in that position once before and it was enough.
Prior to joining Charlie Team, he’d been a member of Tango Team, but most of his teammates had been killed in action. Only John and his Senior Master Chief Chase “Frost” Brennan survived. In a less than a blink of an eye, all hell broke loose as they approached the target. Surrounded by the enemy, broken and bleeding, it was a miracle they’d remained alive and undiscovered until the Marines found them a few hours later.
Reminiscing put him in a bad headspace. It had taken almost a year of rehab and psych evals before he was cleared to operate. Joining Charlie Team gave him a second chance at the life he’d always wanted. Concentrating on the woman in his arms and getting to the EXFIL point was all that mattered.
As the chopper landed in the distance, shots rang out behind them.
“Get to the EXFIL. Shaggy and I will cut them off,” Elwood commanded through their coms.
Picking up the pace, he ran faster toward the rendezvous point. They were almost there.
“Not much longer, Jeannie,” John said. As soon as the gunshots started, she’d tensed up and begun shaking. “It’ll be okay.”
“Thank you,” her voice was shaky and tear-filled.
He didn’t know how else to comfort her, except to get her onto the helicopter. Gus and Disco were even with him as they sprinted toward where it landed. They helped the three they’d been carrying into the chopper, then assisted the other two. Once they were settled, Gus and John ran back to help their teammates. Disco stayed behind to check the status of the injured.
“We’ll be right back, two of the team is still out there,” Gus yelled to one of the marines on the HELO.
As the gunfire continued to shred the darkness, Gus and John ran toward the sound. Before they could get there, Elwood and Shaggy ran out of the tree line. A few minutes later they were airborne, and everyone was alive. There would be beers all around when they got back to base. This was a huge win.
* * *
After landing at Bagram Air Base, the Doctors without Borders group was taken to the hospital for further evaluation. Charlie Team stopped at the TOC to give the after-action report. Their three-month deployment was finally over. Hopefully, it would be the last one for a while.
Unless something else came up before the replacement team arrived, they were headed home in the morning. Or later that day actually since it was almost dawn. They’d been deployed for the last three months. John was more than ready to get back home to Coronado. And Ariana.
Who was he kidding? There hadn’t been a moment of downtime that he hadn’t been worried about her. Or daydreaming was more like it. He’d met his neighbor, Ariana Nelson, shortly after he’d moved into the building. The attraction had been instant from the first time he’d spoken to her. Later, he found out that she was in a world of shit.
His old college roommate and FBI agent, Colin Rogers, asked him if he could help keep an eye on her while he was on medical leave. He’d been happy to do it and hoped that seeing her in a different light would help kill his attraction, instead it grew.
After he’d gotten cleared hot and assigned to Charlie Team, it had been hard to leave her, knowing she was in danger. The timing of their deployment sucked, but he’d made Colin give him updates on how she was doing. He was really looking forward to getting home and seeing her again.
“You thinking about that woman again?” Gus asked.
“Woman? Nah, just thinking about getting out of this sandy hell hole,” John replied, hoping they’d believe him. He was over their teasing about Ari. It had been a mistake to tell them about her.
“Sure, you were,” Shaggy said. “You have that lovesick look on your face again.”
“I’m not lovesick. Just concerned about her safety. It’s what we do, right? Protect people?”
“When’s the trial?” Elwood asked.
“Not sure. It could have already happened. Colin doesn’t give me a lot of details, I have to drag information out of him,” John answered.
“She might have taken the WITSEC option too,” Shaggy said.
“I doubt it, she was adamant about not giving up her life. That took a lot of guts.”
“It did, but like you said, who knows what’s happened since you’ve been here,” Disco agreed.
“I guess I’ll find out soon enough. Unless we’re not going home today?” John asked looking at Elwood.
“Nope, we’re out of here. Transport departs at zero ten-thirty. And don’t forget to leave your love letters for Echo Team,” Elwood said with a grin.
It was a tradition to write letters for the next deployed team. Some of them were freakin’ hysterical. Over the years, John had saved a couple he’d received. After writing a quick note and leaving it on the desk, he tried to focus on packing. But he couldn’t get Ari out of his head. He’d lose his shit if she went into WITSEC, even if it was the safest place for her.
The extent of their relationship, if you could call it that, were a few conversations in the gym and when he stopped by to pick up his plant. As much as he’d wanted to, he’d never kissed or even touched her. It was the complete opposite of how he usually was with women. But since he’d been wounded, he’d changed more than physically. Having to answer a lot of questions about the scars covering most of his body was a total mood killer. It hadn’t been worth the effort. Until he met Ari. She was the first woman he’d had a physical reaction to in months.
