We landed on Okinawa twenty-four hours before our leave chits expired. I took Kim straight to the acute care clinic on Camp Courtney to get a light duty chit and to have her pregnancy noted in her medical record.
I went into the exam room with her, and we played silently on our phones until the corpsman came in.
“I’m HM1 Davis.” She shook our hands. Then she opened Kim’s chart. “And just to verify, your pregnancy test did come back positive.”
Kim closed her eyes and exhaled. I hadn’t realized how much her shoulders had bunched up until then, as they slowly relaxed.
“You okay?” HM1 Davis asked.
“Yeah.” Kim opened her eyes. “Isn’t like it’s a surprise.”
The corpsman arched an eyebrow. “Well, I have some information for you.” She handed over a stack of pamphlets and paperwork. “You’ll want to get registered with the hospital on Camp Lester as soon as you can, and they can get you into some of the childbirth classes.”
Kim blinked. “Okay.”
The corpsman continued through various recommendations—a schedule of appointments with one of the base OBs, symptoms to watch out for, a regimen of prenatal vitamins. Kim nodded as Davis spoke but didn’t say anything. I couldn’t imagine what was going through her mind. All that bullshit overwhelmed me and I wasn’t the one who had to deal with it.
“Now—” the corpsman hesitated, but then held up one of the pamphlets “—pregnant women are at a much higher risk for domestic violence. This has a list of numbers you can—”
“I’m an MA,” Kim said with a dry, halfhearted laugh. “I know who I can contact.”
“Okay, good. There are some other numbers on here, though. We recommend all patients take them, even if they don’t think they’re necessary.”
Kim glanced at me. Without a word, she took the pamphlet and added it to the stack of paperwork beside her on the exam table.
The corpsman scanned her chart, then set it aside. “Do you have any questions or concerns at this point?”
Kim shook her head. The corpsman jotted a few more notes and then released her.
After Kim had signed out, we headed for the parking lot. Once we were outside, Kim leaned against my car while I lit a cigarette.
I took a few drags, letting the nicotine get into my system. As I tapped the ashes over the pavement, I said, “How are you holding up?”
“I still think I made the right decision.”
“Then you did.” I hugged her with one arm, carefully keeping my cigarette away from her. “I know there aren’t any easy options right now, but I think you’ve done the best you can.”
“I’ve tried, anyway.”
I let her go and stepped back to take another drag. “Out of curiosity, I . . . Well, when the corpsman said your test was positive, you looked kind of, I don’t know—”
“Relieved?”
“Yeah.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I needed someone tell me this is really happening. Everything’s been so up in the air lately, at least something was in black-and-white, you know?”
“Huh. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it makes sense.”
“As much sense as anything in this situation can make.” She blew out a breath. “I guess I should give my light duty chit to Gutiérrez.”
“You’re still on leave until tomorrow.”
“Yeah, but I might as well get it over with.” She shivered in spite of the tropical heat. “How long do you think it’ll take till Stanton finds out?”
“Depends.” I squeezed her hand. “Do you want to let him find out? Or tell him?”
“I don’t even want to look at him.” She shuddered.
“I don’t blame you.”
Kim shifted her weight. “Then again, if I tell him to his face, at least I get to be the one in control.”
“Good point. Assuming he doesn’t try to put a hand on you.” I tightened my grasp. “If he does, I swear to God—”
“Threatening me into getting an abortion is one thing.” She met my eyes as she ran her thumb along my finger. “Getting violent and possibly causing me to miscarry? I don’t think even Stanton is that stupid.”
“Let’s hope.”
“Yeah. But . . . Ugh. I can’t deal with him. Not right this second. I think I’ll start with Gutiérrez.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
Her eyes widened. “Will you?”
“Of course. When do you want to go?”
“The sooner the better.”
I glanced at my watch. “He’s probably in the office right now.”
“Let’s go.”
Alejandro’s office door was open as usual, and MA1 Harris wasn’t around.
“MA1?” I said. “You busy?”
He looked up from a logbook. “Oh. I didn’t expect you back until tomorrow.” He glanced past me. “Either of you.”
“We’re still on leave.” I gestured for Kim to follow me, and she shut the door behind us. “But MA3 needed to speak to you.”
“Oh. Uh, okay.”
Kim cleared her throat and handed him a folded piece of paper. “I need to go on light duty.”
“Light duty?” His features tightened with confusion, and then he looked at the chit he’d taken from her. His lips parted. His eyes flicked toward me, then to Kim, eyebrows rising. “Is this . . .” He glanced at me again.
Shoulders pushed back, Kim shifted her weight. “Until I have the baby. And then, of course, I’ll need to take some maternity leave.”
He pressed his lips together, and maybe he couldn’t quite hide it, or maybe I just knew him too well, but I saw the Oh, shit . . . flickering across his face, plain as day. He quickly schooled his expression, though. “All right. Uh, it looks like you’ll be on dispatch for a while.”
Kim grimaced. “That’s the only thing available?”
“Yeah. Most of admin’s overstaffed right now.” He shrugged. “Dispatch is all I’ve got.”
Her shoulders fell. “There isn’t anything over on Kadena? Like in Pass & ID or something?”
Alejandro studied her, a million questions written in his creased brow. “I’d, uh, have to call and find out, but they haven’t been asking for bodies, so . . .”
Kim glanced at me. So did Alejandro.
I chewed my lip. “MA3, would you mind excusing us for a minute?”
They both tensed, but Alejandro said nothing, and Kim quickly slipped out of the office.
When the door closed behind her, I faced him. “Would I be out of line asking you to get her into Pass & ID as a personal favor?”
“A personal—” Alejandro put up his hands. “Okay, can we back up a second here? I mean, what exactly is going on? I thought she went to Hawaii so she could get—”
“Did she tell you that?”
His mouth opened, but he quickly closed it, and his posture stiffened.
I folded my arms. “Or did he tell you?”
Alejandro swallowed. “It doesn’t take much to put two and two together.”
“Then I don’t need to spell it out, do I?”
“Uh, no.” He glanced at the door. “But she just told me she’s having the baby.”
I nodded.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Jesus Christ.” Dropping his hand, he added, “She’s playing with fire, Reese.”
“Actually, she’s playing with a very shitty hand and doing the best she can with it.”
“What did she think was going to happen when she—” He shook his head. “Seriously, is she surprised this happened?”
I swallowed the bile rising in my throat, reminding myself over and over that he didn’t know the whole story. “Somehow I don’t think Stanton thought it all the way through, either, but—”
“I’m not saying he was any less of an idiot, but the fact is her involvement is a lot harder to hide than his. Any idiot would know that sleeping with a higher-up like that would make the—”
“For God’s sake,” I hissed. “Who do you really think was in control of that situation?”
“She’s an adult,” he snapped. “If I have to string up all the other idiots who do stupid things while they’re drunk, I can’t be bending over backward for her for doing the same fucking thing.”
I ground my teeth. I was already dangerously close to tipping my hand. “Would it really be that much of a hassle for you? To get her out of this precinct for a little while?”
“There’s only so much I can do and you know it.”
“I think you have more options than you’re letting on. My question is how worried are you that those options would affect your chances of making chief?”
He narrowed his eyes. “You’re out of line, MA2.”
I bristled. “Sorry, MA1.”
We glared at each other.
He folded his arms across his camo blouse. “You know, a week or two ago, you were pissed at me for even asking you to make sure she was all right. Now you want me to jump through hoops to keep her away from the father of her kid. What the fuck is—”
“What I want is for you to step up and help one of your Sailors. If you can find time in between kissing Lieutenant Stanton’s ass.”
He blinked, and my teeth snapped shut. Friend or not, he was still my LPO.
“You know me,” he growled. “And you know damn well this isn’t about kissing anyone’s ass.”
“Isn’t it? Because it seems to me you’ve gotten pretty friendly with Stanton recently.”
He rolled his eyes and exhaled sharply. “I’m friendly with Chief and Senior Chief, too, and I don’t like them any more than I like him.”
“So it’s all political games.”
“You know how this shit works.”
“Yeah, I do. So is that the only reason you’ll dig your heels in when it comes to protecting one of your Sailors?”
“Protecting?” He threw up his hands. “From what? It isn’t like she’s the one who has to go home and face the spouse she cheated on.” He gestured in the general direction of Stanton’s office. “He’s got a hell of a lot more to lose than she does.”
“Then maybe he should’ve thought of that, shouldn’t he?”
“Isn’t like he can do anything about it now.” He waved sharply at the door. “Especially since she’s apparently taken it upon herself to not do anything.”
My mouth fell open. “You really think she should have gone through with it? Just so he didn’t have to face his wife or—”
“No, that is not what I’m saying,” he snarled. “I’m saying she’s the one in control here, not him. So I’m hard-pressed to handle her with kid gloves.” He stabbed a finger at me. “And you of all people know exactly why because you wanted nothing to do with this whole situation. What the fuck has changed?”
“I was wrong,” I whispered. “About her.”
He studied me. Then one eyebrow climbed his forehead. “How wrong? You went from not being able to look at her, to dashing off to Hawaii to be with her, to . . .” He pushed out a breath. “Please tell me you and she aren’t—”
“That’s none of your fucking business.” I regretted the words before they were even out. I might as well have scrawled Guilty as charged across my forehead.
His other eyebrow rose, and his lips tightened. “So tell me how this conversation isn’t a conflict of interest.”
“Is it any more of one than you and Chief patting Stanton on the back for dodging a bullet so his wife didn’t find out about what happened?”
Alejandro jumped so hard I thought he was going to fall backward.
“Yes, I overheard you.” I curled my lip in disgust.
His expression hardened. “Don’t act like you’re a saint here. It wasn’t very long ago you’d have been standing right there with me, and you probably would’ve had some choice words about her behavior.”
“You’re right. I would have.” I raised my chin and glared back at him. “But I was wrong. Very, very wrong. And right now, she needs help from the few people she can trust in her chain of command, which pretty much boils down to you and me.”
He watched me silently for a moment. “Is there something more to this story?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but stopped before I said anything Kim and I would both regret. “No. Just . . . a really shitty situation and two people who really don’t need to be tripping over each other every day at work.”
Alejandro shook his head. “Look, I don’t envy her for the situation she’s in, but she’s a grown-ass adult who made a decision. If they’re in a shitty situation or things are awkward between them, I can only do so much. I’m not a goddamned babysitter.”
I bit back some blistering insubordination and lowered my voice. “Will you at least call Pass & ID and see if she can work there for a while?”
“I’ll call them.” He shrugged. “I can’t make any promises.”
“Thank you.” I paused. “MA1.”
His eyebrows flicked up, and then he set his jaw. “Dismissed, MA2.”
I barely kept myself from slamming his office door behind me.