This story runs in tandem with “Waiting: Lee’s Story and is told from Chip’s point of View.
Sharon
H
~<<>>~
If Lee doesn't get killed
one day on one of the so-called piece of cake missions, I swear I'm going to
choke the life out of him myself. I'm pretty sure there's a groove on the
decking of my cabin where I pace each time I hear he's been assigned another
mission. What kind of shape is he going to come back in this time? How many
pieces will Jamie have to sew back on? What kind of drugs have they pumped him
full of and how long till we can wean him off of them?
I took a deep breath, trying
to calm myself, knowing I'd need every bit of self-control when he finally came
around. Right now, Boy-Wonder was asleep, thanks to Doc's arsenal of syringes. I
glanced up from the reports I was trying to concentrate on, watching Lee sleep.
He looked peaceful and not at all like someone who we found staggering down a
beach, twelve hours over due.
Twelve hours! How the hell
does someone miss their pick-up time by twelve hours? Two or three I could
understand, but twelve? A whole watch went by while Superman man here was AWOL
with no way to contact him and no way to know if he was dead or alive. Somehow I
knew he wasn't dead. How did I know? How did I know the sun was going to rise in
the east? I just knew. I always know.
Jamie often accused us of
having some kind of psychic link. Psychic. Yeah right. I see a talk dark
stranger in your future. Well, Lee was dark, he was tall, and he could
certainly be strange. Didn't say a lot for me, I'd follow him anywhere he asked
me.
Why? I don't know. Since the
day I meet him, I felt something, a kindred spirit maybe? I don't have any
brothers, just a gaggle of sisters. Lee was the brother I never had, but had
always wanted. We had the same sense of humor, the same outlook on life. We had
the same sense of honor and duty but I think somehow that flame burned just a
bit brighter and deeper in Lee than it did in me.
Not that I wasn't patriotic.
I would lay my life down for my country and had very nearly done so more times
than I could count. It was just that Lee would sacrifice himself without a
thought. It was a trait I found downright scary at times. I was a planner, a
thinker. Lee was a doer, an action-orientated kind of guy. Maybe that was what
made us such a good team.
It was Lee's willingness to
go that extra mile, to help just one more person that often got him in trouble.
Take this time. I don't know what on earth happened to him but he was one giant
scrap. Cuts and bruises covered him from head to toe nearly, and his back was
this huge, raw, open wound. Not even Jamie was sure what Lee had tangled
with.
In all fairness, I should
say not all his missions end like this. Sometimes he's gone and comes back with
hardly a scratch. He is good, one of the best, else ONI wouldn't continue to
call him up. It's just he takes so many risks with himself, more often than not
he comes back with extra holes or something broken. I'm scared to death one day
we're going to be waiting for him at the pick up point and all we're going to
find is a dead body.
Something made me glance up.
I could see his eyes moving under closed lids. Then he got real still. His
pattern of breathing had changed. Sleeping Beauty was awake. Faking it, hoping
I'd go away, no doubt. Well, it ain't gonna happen, boy-o. You and I need to
have a little chat.
I waited. He'd give himself
away soon enough. A hitch in his breathing as he moved. His back reminding him
it was missing about a pound of skin, probably.
"You can stop playing
possum. I know you've been awake for about three minutes now," I said to him. In
response I got one amber eye aimed at me.
Oh, yes, skipper, you and I
are gonna have a long chat about your latest adventure.
Eventually.
srh