Down and Dirty: SEAL EXtreme Team Short Story

Final
request…

SEAL
Lieutenant Commander Nick Talley keeps promises, but taking care of a
teammate’s sister is a vow he should’ve made. How can a man tortured by the
past, help a woman fight her tough future?

Broken
dreams…

Ironman
qualifier, Jill Connors, is counting the days until her brother brings handsome
Nick home with him. But a buried IED takes her brother’s life and a drunk
driver steals her competition hopes. Will Nick want a woman with only one foot?

Love
has a way of healing the wounded…one muddy step at a time.

****

****

Steps. Shit, there had to be a
dozen of them leading up to the hospital entrance. Coming straight from the
funeral, Lieutenant Commander Nick Talley was still in his naval dress uniform.
He’d be damned if anyone caught him using the wheelchair access. As he hoisted
himself up the steps, one grunt at a time, a SEAL motto ran through his brain—
The
Only Easy Day Was Yesterday
.

Today was proving to be a
helluva hard day.

Wiping the sweat off his lip,
he took a deep breath and flinched. His ribs were just bruised, but hell, he’d
broken bones that hadn't hurt this badly. Plus, he ached in places no one could
see. At the top of the steps, he steeled himself for what he'd find inside. The
glass doors opened, and the pungent odor of disinfectant hit his nose. He hated
hospitals almost as much as gravesites. Did fate have to keep punching him in
the balls?

At the Information Desk, a
little old lady who resembled his Granny Mo—blue hair and all—was head down in
her crossword puzzle. The tag stuck off-kilter to her yellow sweater read: “Hi!
I’m Lucille. Can I help you?”

“Excuse me, ma’am. I’m looking
for a woman they brought in this morning. Car accident.”

“Heavens!” She smiled up at him,
pressing her gnarled fingers to her chest. “Seeing a handsome man in his blues
does my heart good. Real good. My husband was a Navy man too, God rest his
soul. Now, what was the patient’s name?”

“Jill Connor.”

“Let’s see.” Squinting at the
computer, she dragged her arthritic fingers slowly down the list of hospital
patients. “Yes. Here she is. Oh.”  Her lower lip trembled. “Dear.”

A fist strangled his vocal
cords. “She didn’t survive the accident?”

“Now, don’t think the worst. She’s
had surgery, which means her visitors are restricted.” The woman rose and came
around the desk. Taking his arm, she said quietly, “You might not be able to see
her today unless you are an immediate family member. Are you family, Lieutenant
Commander?”

Nick didn’t answer. He knew
better than to lie to his elders.

“I thought not. But she is
important to you?”

Jill Connor was a dying man’s
last wish and a promise Nick shouldn't have made. “She’s the only thing important
to me right now. I have to see her.”

Lucille nodded and gave his arm
a gentle squeeze. “All right then.” She wrote on a visitor’s card and handed it
to him. “Take this to the nurse at the station on the third floor. She’s a bit
of a stickler about visitors, but this note should get you in. Good luck,
Lieutenant Commander. I hope your lady friend gets better fast.”

Once inside the elevator, he glanced
at the visitor’s card. Lucille had scrawled, “Brother of patient.”

Nick’s heart pounded. His hand
shook. The ringing in his ears started up, and his vision began to tunnel. Shit,
it was happening again. The card filled with blood and splattered the linoleum
tiles beneath his feet. “Son of a bitch!”

He dropped the card and ground
it under his heel. Blood soaked up his pant leg as if it were a thick straw. No
matter how hard he stomped, he couldn't stop the flow. He was panting when the
elevator opened on the third floor.

A man got on. “Good afternoon.”

Nick nodded, picked up the card,
and smoothed out the wrinkles on his pants. No blood in sight. Visions attacked
him when he least expected them, and there wasn't a damned thing he could do
about them.

The nurse glanced at the “brother”
card and buzzed him in without question. People saw what they wanted to see,
and a decorated hero usually went where he wanted to go. Nick scrubbed his
hands thoroughly at the washing station and was grateful that no blood circled
the drain. He followed the nurse down a long corridor that reeked of cleaning
supplies, and to him, death.

“This is her room,” the nurse
said.

He hung back while the nurse
messed around with the IVs going into tanned, muscular arms. A swimmer’s arms.
How many times had he fantasized about them wrapped around his back?

Nick couldn’t take his eyes off
the frail woman in the bed. Shadows pooled under her closed dark lashes. Brown
freckles sprinkled across her nose stood out as a sharp contrast to her
impossibly fair cheeks. She had random bruises too, most likely collateral
damage from the airbag. The dark hair he’d only seen pulled up in a ponytail
fanned out across the stark white pillow. Damn, she was beautiful, even now.
But so small.

The picture he carried in his
wallet had captured a stop-your-heart gorgeous athlete with tanned skin, a
wicked glint in her green eyes, and a first place medal around her neck. The
times they’d spoken by Skype, she’d seemed larger than life. This person in the
bed clung to life.

“Your brother is here,” the
nurse said softly. “Can you open your eyes?”

Jill stirred in her sleep.

The nurse turned to him. “She’s
tired. If she does wake, don’t be surprised if she’s a bit fuzzy-headed. That’s
normal. She’s been through a terrible trauma and might not know about the foot
yet.”

Nick’s gaze swept across the off-white
cotton blanket. Near the bottom of the bed, where the pillows had been piled
up, he saw something he’d never wanted to see. Holy hell! Jill’s right foot was
gone.

“Don’t stay long,” the nurse
admonished on her way out. “If she’s thirsty, you can give her a few ice
chips.”

Nick was alone with a woman
he’d never met in person.

****

Jill heard the nurse whisper
that her brother was there. But something dark and ugly clung to the edge of
her consciousness. She didn’t want to see it. Refused to know.

“Billy,” she mumbled.

Someone took her hand, and a
deep voice said, “Shh. You’re not alone. Rest.”

She fought as hard as she could
and finally peeled her eyelids open. It took a second to understand what she
was seeing. She was…where exactly? And who was that handsome man peering down
at her? He was in a naval uniform, but he wasn’t her brother because Billy was…
No!
She squeezed her eyes shut. She wouldn’t go to that dark place.
Don’t
think about Billy!

Her lips and throat were dry. She
opened her eyes again. “Water?”

“Let me help you.” The guy dumped
out ice chips from a pink pitcher into a cup. One of his warm hands supported
the back of her neck while the other spooned chips into her mouth. She savored
the warmth of his touch and the cold water melting in her mouth. It was
intimate, somehow. Gently, he laid her head back down. Amber eyes studied her
face as if searching for answers she didn’t want to think about. She would not
think about.

“Nick?” she barely choked out.

He took her hand again. So
warm. So strong. The knuckles were scarred. “Hi, gorgeous. You sure went out of
your way to avoid our date. You could’ve just said no.”

“Avoid?” Her head was swimming.
She tried to cling to words. “Billy?”

Nick chucked his hat onto the
nightstand. “He wanted me to check in on you.”

It looked like he could use a
drink of water, or maybe something stronger.

“Where…is…he?”

He gave her hand a gentle
squeeze. “You were in a bad car accident, Jilly-girl. It’s okay. You’ll be
okay. You don’t need to remember what happened now. Forget things for a while and
focus on getting better.”

Bad memories floated to the top
of her consciousness and she snatched onto the one that hurt the
least—screeching tires, crunching metal, and searing pain. “Car accident! I
remember.”

“A drunk driver rear-ended you
at a stoplight. Bastard was going fifty miles an hour. You’re lucky to be
alive.”

She didn’t feel lucky. “I
feel…like hell.”

“Nah, you’re beautiful. Like
always. Thank God you got the good-looking genes in the family.” He brushed the
hair off her cheek and gently ran a knuckle across her cheekbone. His hands were
cool now. They felt so good. She wanted them all over her skin. “Damn. You’ve
got a fever. I’ll get the nurse.”

“Tell Billy…come…or I’ll…” Her
eyelids were heavy. “…kick his ass.”

****

“She’s burning up,” Nick told
the nurse.

“Happens sometimes after an amputation,
but we’ll keep an eye on it. You’ll have to go now.”

He plopped down in the chair
next to the bed. “I won’t bother her, I promise. I need to be here. It’s going
to be hell when she wakes up and realizes that she lost her brother and her
foot.”

The nurse cocked her head. “I’m
sorry. How many brothers do you have?”

“None.” Crap. He forgot he was
supposed to be Jill’s brother.  “I’m not leaving her.”

Her gaze flicked down to see he
was cradling his sore ribs and back up to his face. “Okay. But don’t wake her.”

For three hours, he watched
Jill sleep and studied the monitors that kept track of her vitals. They seemed
more stable. Her breathing was soft, not labored. He pressed his lips to her
forehead. Her fever was gone. He also noticed her hair smelled like coconut
shampoo, and her skin was soft. With the back of his hand, he traced her cheek
and her jawline. She had a tough road ahead.

“I’ll be there,” he promised.

Shit, he wished she’d wake up
and say something. Anything. He longed to hear the voice that had been coming
to him in his dreams. Hell, what he wouldn’t give to hear her hearty laughter.
A kidney, maybe. He’d never dare to admit it, but he’d fallen in love with Jill
the first time he’d heard her speak.

He’d just passed BUD/S
training, top of his class. Though exhausted to the bone, he’d been bursting
with pride for having accomplished a feat few men could’ve survived. Looking
around the group of tired guys, he realized he was a member of an elite group
for the first time in his life. And he had no one to share the news with.

Billy Connor stood next to him,
talking on a cell phone, “I made it!”

A woman’s voice came through
the speaker. “Always knew you would! You’re the strongest, bravest man I know.
You can do anything you set your mind to. I’m so proud of you.”

Nick ached everywhere, but loneliness
squeezed the sorest muscle he owned—his heart. When had anyone said she was proud
of him? Cared about him?

“Thanks, Jilly-girl. I love
you.” Billy wore the goofiest grin that Nick had ever witnessed on a man.

“Love you too, Worm.” The woman
laughed. “Now, go save the world.”

As Billy hung up, Nick elbowed
him. “Worm?”

Billy shrugged. “Nickname. My
sister has dozens of them for me.”

“Sister, huh? Never had one of
those.” Nick hung his arm around Billy’s shoulder. “Let’s go, Worm. There’s a
keg of beer with our names on it.”

From that moment on, he and
Billy had been best friends. And Jill’s voice had stayed with him like a sweet melody
he couldn’t get out of his head.