“Tried to check out there, Smith. Damn glad you didn’t.” Gerrard dropped into the chair beside her bed in the ship’s infirmary. “The Peleliu might be an old boat, but their docs—real ones, not like me—are top notch. Say you’ll be good as new after they stitched up some of the inside stuff.”
Smith shrugged, then winced. “Heard you had something to do with that.”
Now it was his turn to shrug…and wait.
No thanks. Nothing. Just the facts, man.
He took his life in his hands and laughed at her. “You always were a chatty bitch.”
At that she offered one of her lethal smiles. “Took out more of them than us; I’m happy.”
“You mean you saved our asses. Damn but you can shoot, girl.”
A passing Captain stopped and looked down at them. He was one of those tall, square-jawed, poster-soldier types. He wore mirrored Ray Bans even though they were several decks down in the ship.
“You a shooter?” he asked.
“She is. Best damn one I’ve ever seen,” Doc answered for her because Smith was busy squinting at the guy as if she could read something through those mirrored shades.
“You the DAP Hawk pilot?” Smith asked him.
“Best damn one you’ll ever see,” he said with a straight face. “We’ve got a need of good gunners. Mechanics, too.”
“Can hotwire a car faster than you can crash a helo,” Smith snapped back.
Yet another piece of news Doc hadn’t known.
“Good start. Work on that. Got a name?” Mr. Shades asked.
“Smith. Kee Smith.”
Doc looked over at her. He’d never heard her first name before. Maybe that’s why she never got a tag that stuck; Smith didn’t give anyone a thing to work with.
“You?” Smith asked the guy in the glasses.
“Yeah, I’ve got a name.” His grin was almost as lethal as Smith’s before he twisted on his heel and walked out.
“Who the hell was that asshole?”
Doc had no idea.
“Viper Henderson,” Teri said from just behind his shoulder, making him twitch around to look at her. “Captain in command of the Night Stalkers 5D.”
With no mask or helmet, and her blonde hair fluttering around her jawline, she looked amazing.
“Huh.” Smith made a thoughtful sound. Then she looked at him. “I’m gonna live, Doc. Get outta here. Go save someone else’s life.”
He glanced up at Teri who was watching him intently. At a loss for what else to do, he rose to his feet. It never paid to argue with Smith.
Together, he and Teri checked in on Jethro who was awake.
“Don’t walk in front of so many bullets next time, Bob.”
“Whatever you say, Sarge.”
“Bob?” Teri asked.
“Corporal Bob Bodine,” Jethro grimaced up at her. “Jethro Bodine from The Beverly Hillbillies, Jed Clampett’s, uh, challenged nephew. I dropped my dinner tray in the damn chow line once—once—and now I guess I’m labeled for life.”
“Maybe not. You did good today. Thanks for that last mag. It made a real difference. I’ll make damn sure it’s in my report.” It hadn’t actually mattered because of the Night Stalkers’ timely arrival, but there was no need for Jethro to know that. “Maybe ‘Last Mag’ Bodine?”
He smiled, “Kinda like that. We’ll see if it sticks. Thanks for saving my ass, Sarge.”
“She did all the tricky shit,” he hooked a thumb at Teri.
“Yes, but you got me to her still breathing.”
Doc and Teri drifted through the ship together. He wasn’t sure exactly who was leading who, but he definitely didn’t know his way around such a big ship. The Peleliu was eight hundred feet of helicopter carrier. Down on the hangar deck, all the way aft, there was a sweeping view of equatorial Atlantic, but still comfortably shaded by the cool steel overhead.
They sat and just stared out at the water together for a long time.
“What you said to him, goes for you too, you know?” Teri’s voice was little louder than the low rumble of the ship’s engine and the high whine of an impact drill at the far end of the hangar bay. They were doing some kind of service on one of the helos.
“What’s that?”
“Well done. You got out alive. You defended your team when it mattered. Gave me a chance to save Jethro by taking care of Smith.”
“No way is he ever gonna shed Jethro for ‘Last Mag’ but I liked giving him a moment of hope.”
Her smile agreed. “Still, that was really kind. How about keeping your Doc tag?”
“That’s not me. Guess I’m back to ‘Low Gear’ until I can get out.”
“Out?”
He couldn’t bring himself to look at her. “Gun battle like that. People dying all around you. Not able to do shit about it except a couple patches of gauze. Isn’t some place I want to be going back to anytime soon.”