LITMIR.BIZ

      Two

      It had taken just under four hours for Quinn to reach Fort Campbell. Since it was the same hospital where he’d been sent after he was wounded and where he’d mustered out, he knew the base setup. He drove straight to the visitors’ center at Gate 4 to get a pass. Although he hadn’t been here in over three years, he had the weird feeling he’d never left.

      The feeling persisted as he drove through the base, and the closer he got to Blanchfield Hospital, the more his anxiety grew. By the time he pulled into the parking lot the skin on his body felt tight and hot. He resented the anxiety. It made him feel weak, and weak was not an option. This was about Conrad, not him.

      He got out of the car, checked the bed in the back one more time, making sure nothing had shifted out of place, and then made a call to Conrad’s doctor to let him know he was there. The doctor answered on the third ring.

      “Dr. Franks.”

      “Hello, Dr. Franks, this is Quinn Walker. I spoke to you a couple of days ago about having one of your patients, a Corporal Conrad, released to my care?”

      “Yes, yes, I remember.”

      “I’m here on base and in the parking lot at Blanchfield. How do I go about getting Conrad signed out?”

      “Hang on a sec, let me check,” Franks said, and put him on hold.

      As Quinn was waiting, a van drove up and pulled into a handicap parking space across from where he was standing. A woman got out, then circled the van and opened the side door. He glanced up just as a platform slid out, lowering a man in his wheelchair. Quinn’s gut knotted, and then he looked away, feeling guilty for being thankful that wasn’t him.

      When Franks came back on the line, Quinn’s focus shifted.

      “Mr. Walker, are you still there?”

      “Yes, sir.”

      “I remember you telling me you’d been a patient here before. Do you remember where Physical Therapy is located?”

      “Yes, sir.”

      “Conrad is there now. I’ll meet me you in PT in about fifteen minutes.”

      “Thank you, sir. I’ll be there.”

      Quinn dropped his phone in his pocket and headed into the hospital. Now that he was here, he was anxious to find out what he’d let himself in for.

      He headed for the bank of elevators, refusing to make eye contact with the people in the lobby. When he got on the elevator, he quickly turned his back on the other occupants and stared at the door, waiting for it to open. It was as if the past three years had never happened and he was still on crutches, with healing burns and scars that screamed Look at me! He was startled not only by the anxiety that he felt but also the insecurity. This hospital was not a good place to be.

      When he entered the physical therapy area, he was even more hesitant, eyeing the patients in various stages of rehabilitation. As he began scanning the room, looking for Conrad, he heard someone cursing.

      Quinn smiled. He’d just found his comrade.

      * * *

      “Damn, damn, damn, that effing hurts!”

      The physical therapist eyed the frown on his patient’s face. They had been working at this one exercise for nearly fifteen minutes and he knew Conrad was tired, but it took pain to get progress, and so he kept pushing, urging the wounded vet up and down a set of steps to stretch and strengthen the injured leg muscles.

      “You know and I know that’s how you get better, so try again, okay?” the therapist said.

      “Hell no, I’m not going to try. I’m going to do it!”

      “Hey, Conrad, how’s it going?”

      Mariah Conrad froze. That was a voice straight out of her past, a voice she’d never thought she would hear again. She looked over her shoulder, and then her heart skipped a beat.

      “Oh, my God.”

      Quinn grinned. “It has been a while, but I thought you would at least remember my name. It’s not God, it’s Quinn.”

      Mariah blinked. “What are you doing here?”

      “I came to get you.”

      The physical therapist smiled at Mariah and patted her on the back.

      “Since you have a visitor, we’ll call this session over. Just let me know when you’re ready and I’ll take you back to your room.”

      Mariah nodded but couldn’t quit staring. A muscle in her leg was beginning to knot. She needed to sit down or move, but she couldn’t think past looking at Quinn’s face. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been so bloody and burned she’d been scared he wouldn’t make it, and when she’d never heard from him again, she had finally allowed herself to accept that he was out of her life. Then she remembered what he’d just said.

      “You came to get me? What are you talking about?”

      Quinn saw panic in her eyes and realized he hadn’t considered the possibility she would refuse him.

      “I heard they were going to release you and thought you might like to spend a little R & R in the mountains with me.”

      Mariah grabbed on to the step rails with both hands and then sat down to keep from falling.

      “In the mountains—with a hillbilly?”

      Quinn grinned. “Yeah, with a hillbilly.”

      A surge of emotions ran through her. Without family to turn to, she’d been in something of a panic, wondering what was going to happen to her when they kicked her out of Blanchfield. Quinn was a godsend, but she was a long way from the woman she’d been and felt obligated to warn him.

      “Are you sure? I don’t think you know what you’re getting yourself into. I’m a wreck. My honorable discharge just went through. I’m so screwed up the army doesn’t want me anymore.”

      “That’s okay. I want you.”

      She looked anxious, which was an emotion he never would have associated with her. The Conrad he’d fallen for had been a first-class grunt with a daredevil gene. Over the two years he’d known her, they’d made love in every isolated place they could find between Iran and Afghanistan. War had definitely kicked her butt, but he had to believe she was still in there. All she needed was peace and time to find her way back.

      “Are you sure?” she asked again.

      “I know exactly what I’m asking for. I’ve already cleared it with your doctor. Now it’s up to you. Are you going to come?”

      She blinked back tears. “Yes.”

      “Aces.”

      She looked up. “Here comes my doctor.”

      “Hey, Mariah. How’s it going?” Dr. Franks asked, and then eyed Quinn. “Mr. Walker?”

      “Quinn, and yes, sir.”

      Franks put a hand on Mariah’s shoulder. “Are you in agreement with being released to this man’s care?”

      Mariah frowned. “In his care? What does that mean? I’m ready to be released on my own. I’m just going with him, right?”

      Franks

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