Water under the Bridge Page 14

  “Jet, don’t be like that,” Ashley said, her tone chiding.

  “Look, its fine, we’re fine, just leave it alone, okay?” Jet said, her tone even.

  “Jet…” Ashley said, her voice trailing off as she gave Jet a searching look.

  “Ash,” Jet said her tone sharper now. “Just leave it alone.”

  This time it was Ashley that left feeling like she’d failed. She’d been afraid to push Jet, not wanting to irritate her.

  ***

  Shenin sat completely still, her hand on the ground next to her. She almost held her breath as she waited. Suddenly she felt the lightest touch of a whisker on her hand. She didn’t move, she knew if she did at that moment she’d lose her.

  “It’s okay…” she said so very softly it could barely be heard.

  The whiskers got closer, she was sniffing her hand. Shenin smiled as she felt the little nose on her arm.

  “It’s okay, baby…” she said then, still very softly.

  The little Chihuahua moved closer, wanting the treat she was holding in her left hand that she held in her lap. She waited with endless patience, and eventually the little dog did just as she’d hoped and moved to get up into her lap to take the treat.

  Shenin had spent a half an hour just working with this dog to try and get her to be less fearful. It made her feel good to help the little dogs find their way. She felt like every time she was able to make a dog less fearful of people, she helped them get closer to finding a home.

  “You are so good at that,” Skyler said shaking her head in amazement.

  “It just takes patience,” Shenin said, smiling.

  “I guess,” Skyler said, shaking her head.

  Shenin had been talking to Skyler about her work with the dogs at the local animal shelter, and Skyler had been interested in checking it out. She’d finally gotten a chance to see Shenin in action. Shenin liked to work with the most timid of the dogs at the shelter. Usually that meant the smallest dogs, but there were times when there was a big dog that needed help. Shenin didn’t feel comfortable with big dogs, but she thought someone like Skyler would be perfect. She had a natural affinity with dogs, and had worked tirelessly with her dog, Benny, training him.

  Skyler had watched Shenin work with the tiny Chihuahua and was amazed at the change in the dog after Shenin had worked with her. Shenin had told her it was what she did to help cope with the PTSD. She’d shared the general story of her capture in Iraq, and Skyler had told her about the helicopter crash that had affected her so strongly. It was part of the bond that they shared and what had allowed them to become good friends.

  Later that day Shenin was just walking into her apartment when her phone rang, she saw that it was Tyler.

  “Hi,” she said, answering the phone smiling.

  “How was the shelter?” Tyler asked, smiling at her end.

  “It was good,” she answered, moving to pet Muffit who was waiting patiently at her feet. “Skyler came down today,” she said then.

  “She did?” Tyler asked, doing her best not to feel that pang of concern.

  “Yeah, I think she’s going to start working with some of the bigger dogs,” Shenin said, sounding excited.

  “Well, I’m sure that’ll be good, to help some of them,” Tyler said, still feeling somewhat jealous that this was all happening while she wasn’t there.

  “Oh yeah,” Shenin said, moving to stand up and walk into the kitchen. “Some of the pit bulls are really scared a lot of the time, and that makes them really hard to adopt out,” she was saying as she reached for a pot to boil water in. She had to stretch to get it and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her abdomen, and gasped in response.

  “Shen?” Tyler queried, hearing the gasp.

  “It’s okay,” Shenin said, rubbing her stomach and moving to lean against the counter. “Must have pulled something at the gym this morning,” she said, grinning.

  “Maybe take it a little easier on the workouts, huh?” Tyler said.

  “It’s hard to do that with Natalia. She’s a worse task master than Vanessa up in Alaska was!”

  “Well, try, sheesh,” Tyler said, grinning.

  Shenin grimaced at her end, the pain wasn’t subsiding.

  “Hey, I’m gonna go,” Shenin said. “I need to eat something and I’m meeting the girls later.”

  “Okay,” Tyler said, once again feeling the sadness that came every time Shenin seemed to be pulling away.

  They hung up a couple of minutes later. Shenin moved to sit down, trying to breathe through the pain in her stomach. After a few minutes it seemed to get better. She got up and took some Motrin, then went about cooking a quick meal.

  Three hours later she met the group at the club. Her abdomen still hurt a bit, but it wasn’t as sharp. She had a few drinks and felt even better. At one point she’d gone to the bathroom and noticed blood. Thinking she’d started her period, she put in a tampon and thought nothing more about it.

  An hour later, she was dancing with the girls, with Jet standing nearby; it was her ‘shift’ as Jet and Skyler jokingly called it. She started to feel dizzy and put her hand out grabbing Jet’s hand.

  “What’s wrong… Dev!” Jet yelled as Shenin collapsed.

  Jet caught her in her arms, taking her down to the floor as Skyler and Jericho rushed to them.

  “What happened?” Skyler asked.

  “I don’t know. She grabbed my hand and then she just dropped…” Jet said, moving to pick Shenin up. She was out cold.

  “She looks really pale,” Jericho said.

  Skyler moved to check Shenin’s pulse.

  “It’s fast,” Skyler said, looking at Jet.

  “Let’s go,” Jet said moving toward the doors to the club even as Skyler pulled out her phone calling 911.

  Five minutes later an ambulance came. Jet got in the ambulance with Shenin, the rest of the group was going to follow. Shenin had not regained consciousness.

  At the hospital, Shenin was taken in immediately; the EMTs had said her blood pressure was low, and that they thought there was some kind of internal bleeding.

  It was another hour before they came out to talk to the group that had gathered. They couldn’t tell them much, but did ask for contact information for a family member. Jet gave them Tyler’s name and her cell phone number.

  Tyler was asleep when her cell phone rang.

  “Hancock,” she answered automatically assuming it would be the base.

  “Tyler Hancock?” said the voice on the other end of the line.

  Tyler went cold. It was the same officious tone she’d heard when Shenin had been in the car accident. “Yes?”

  “Ma’am, we have your wife here at Cedars Sinai, and she needs emergency exploratory surgery. She is unconscious so cannot give consent. Do we have yours?”

  “Yes, of course, but what happened?”

  “Ma’am, your wife was brought in via ambulance. She collapsed at a local club this evening.”

  Tyler had to breathe slowly so she wouldn’t scream at the person on the other end of the line. “Okay, I’ll get there as soon as I can, but I’m in Maryland.”

  “We will proceed with surgery,” the woman said.

  “Yes, please, do whatever you can or need to, thank you,” Tyler said, dying to get off the phone so she could get ahold of an airline.

  Chapter 7

  Six hours after the phone call, Tyler, dressed in her BDUs, strode into the hospital and straight up to Jet.

  “What the hell happened?!” she practically shouted. It was the question that had been screaming in her mind for the last six hours.

  Skyler and Jericho immediately moved to Jet’s side, seeing how intense Tyler was and worried she’d take it out on Jet.

  “We were at the club,” Jet said, glancing at Skyler and Jericho. “She just collapsed; we have no idea what happened.”

  “She said something about pulling a muscle earlier when I talked to her,” Tyler said, her mind racing.

 
Jet shook her head. “She didn’t say anything about that tonight.”

  Tyler went over to the nurses station to let her know that she was there and wanted to know her wife’s condition. The nurse said she would have the doctor come talk to her.

  Five minutes later the doctor walked out.

  “Mrs. Hancock?” he queried.

  “Yes,” Tyler said, standing at near attention in her tension. “How is she?”

  “Your wife is resting comfortably,” he told her.

  Tyler blew her breath out in relief, nodding her head. “What was the problem?”

  “Well, your wife had an internal bleed from a perforated uterus. There was some very abnormal scarring on her uterus, has she had surgery recently?”

  Tyler looked surprised and completely mystified. Behind her Jet closed her eyes, knowing exactly what the problem had been from, but knowing that Tyler wouldn’t know that.

  “No, she hasn’t had any surgeries recently,” Tyler said. “What kind of surgery are we talking about?”

  “It’s hard to say,” the doctor said. “I’m checking with my colleagues to see if there would be any other reason for this type of scarring. In the meantime, let me take you back to see her.”

  “Thanks.” Tyler nodded, glancing back at the group and nodding to them in appreciation for their being there. “I’ll let her know you’re all here.”

  As Tyler walked away, Skyler elbowed Jet.

  “You know something, don’t you?” Skyler asked Jet.

  Jet nodded, watching Tyler go through the doors. “But it’s not my story to tell,” she said, looking unhappy.

  In the room, Tyler walked over to Shenin’s bedside. Shenin’s eyes were closed. Reaching over, Tyler took Shenin’s hand in hers and noticed they were cold.

  “We had to transfuse her,” the doctor said. “She’ll need to take it easy for a few days, but she should be just fine,” he said, smiling, seeing the love on Tyler’s face as she looked down at her wife.

  “Thanks doc,” Tyler said, smiling at the man.

  The doctor left, and Tyler looked at Shenin, reaching over to brush a lock of hair off her cheek. Shenin opened her eyes.

  “Ty?” she queried, then looked around her. “What happened?”

  “You collapsed at the club,” Tyler told her.

  Shenin blinked a couple of times, looking like she was trying to remember.

  “I remember dancing… Jet was standing guard as usual…” she said. “Then… I suddenly felt dizzy… That’s the last thing I remember.”

  “Well, it sounds like that’s probably when you collapsed,” Tyler said, her look solicitous. “The doctor said that you were bleeding internally,” she said, her tone pained. “He asked if you’d had any surgeries recently.”

  Shenin swallowed convulsively, but shrugged. “Why did he think that?”

  “He said there was some strange scarring on your uterus…” Tyler said, noting Shenin’s closed look suddenly. “Shen?” she asked. “What is it?”

  Shenin closed her eyes. “Nothing, I’m just tired,” she said, squeezing Tyler’s hand gently.

  Tyler looked back at her wife, knowing there was more to it than that, but not wanting to argue.

  “Rest babe,” she said, leaning over to kiss Shenin lightly on the lips.

  Shenin nodded, keeping her eyes closed.

  A couple of hours later when Shenin woke up she was surprised to see Jet standing next to the bed. Glancing over, she saw that Tyler wasn’t there. Jet looked very circumspect.

  “You need to tell her,” Jet said to Shenin.

  “No,” Shenin said, shaking her head.

  “You don’t think she’s trying to figure out how this happened?” Jet asked Shenin.

  “I know,” Shenin said. “Trust me, I’ve been married to her for four years, but I’m not telling her, so it’s just going to have to be a mystery.”

  Jet did not look pleased. She shook her head slowly, thinking that Shenin was playing with fire and she was going to get both her and Tyler burned at the rate she was going. There was a part of Jet that wanted to tell Tyler everything, but she knew Shenin would never forgive her. The question was, what was love worth? It wasn’t an easy answer.

  Shenin saw the thoughts play across Jet’s face, and sensed that Jet was trying to decide whether or not to tell Tyler.

  “I can see what you’re thinking,” Shenin said, almost in a growl. “Don’t do it. You have no idea what damage you’ll cause.”

  “As opposed to the damage you’re causing,” Jet said, her tone matter of fact.

  “That’s my business,” Shenin said.

  Jet made a sound through her teeth, tilting her head, not saying anything, her eyes saying enough.

  Shenin closed her eyes slowly. “Jet, please…” she said, her voice tremulous now. “You can’t… please…”

  “You need to tell her,” Jet said, her tone brooking no argument.

  “Tell who?” Tyler asked, as she walked into the room carrying some coffee, her look going between them. “Tell who?” she repeated when neither Jet nor Shenin spoke.

  “No one,” Shenin said, her look at Jet pointed. “Jet’s just being a mother hen.”

  “Yeah, that’s me,” Jet said, tight-lipped.

  Tyler once again looked between the two, her look suspicious.

  “What’s going on?” Tyler asked.

  “Nothing,” Shenin said.

  Tyler looked at Jet. “Jet?” she queried.

  Jet held up her hands. “I’m gonna go get my car,” she said, nodding toward the door.

  Tyler followed Jet out of the room.

  “Jet,” Tyler called, as Jet strode down the hallway.

  Jet stopped, grimacing while still facing away from Tyler. Then she turned, her face expressionless.

  “Yeah?” she asked.

  Tyler’s blue eyes searched Jet’s face. “Is there something I need to know?”

  Jet narrowed her eyes slightly, but shook her head. “No,” she said, her tone far from convincing.

  Tyler took a deep breath, expelling it slowly. “And this doesn’t have anything to do with what we talked about?” she asked, gesturing to the hospital as a whole.

  “No, absolutely not,” Jet said, her tone strong this time.

  Tyler nodded, her look still quizzical, but she could tell she wasn’t going to get anything out of Jet.

  “Thanks for being there for her,” Tyler said, feeling a little sick that she was telling another woman that, when she knew damned good and well she should have been there for her wife… again.

  Jet could see the look in Tyler’s eyes, knowing exactly what she was thinking. She nodded, looking pained. She felt for Tyler, she knew what it would do to her to have to rely on someone else to take care of Fadiyah. The situation sucked completely.

  Skyler drove Jet back to the club to get her car. Looking over at the other woman she could see that Jet was unhappy.

  “So,” Skyler said, her tone leading. “What was that back there?” she asked. “You know more about this situation than you’re saying, don’t you?”

  Jet nodded, looking anguished.

  “Spill,” Skyler said.

  “Can’t,” Jet said, shaking her head.

  “Sure you can,” Skyler said. “You know you can trust me.”

  “It’s not me that needs to trust you.”

  “Shenin?” Skyler asked.

  Jet nodded.

  “Okay, so there’s obviously something that you know that Tyler doesn’t,” Skyler said, her mind turning over everything she knew about Shenin and Tyler. “Have to do with anything here?” she asked, circling her hand, to indicate Los Angeles.

  Jet shook her head.

  “Back East?” Skyler asked.

  Again, Jet shook her head.

  “So, Iraq,” Skyler said. Jet gave her a look that told her she had hit it. “Okay, so… something happened in Iraq that Tyler doesn’t know about?”

  “Yep,” Jet sai
d, her tone even.

  Skyler nodded her head, her mind racing. What could have happened that would make Shenin not want to tell Tyler? It could have had to do with the team that went over… Shenin didn’t seem like the cheating type, so Skyler doubted that was it… Skyler knew that Tyler was chewed up with guilt about not being there when Shenin was taken hostage… But Shenin had been lucky only getting a gunshot wound to the arm… unless… Then it clicked.

  “Oh fuck…” Skyler said, her tone telling Jet that she’d made the connections.

  “You’re telling me…” Jet said, relieved that she hadn’t had to actually tell Skyler anything, therefore not having betrayed Shenin’s trust, in a roundabout way.

  “But what would that have to do with…” Skyler started to say, thinking about what the doctor had told Tyler about the perforated uterus. Then the next thought struck.

  She thought she was going to be sick. She actually needed to pull her car over to the curb for a minute as a wave of nausea hit her. Jet looked over at Skyler and knew that she’d figure it all out now. She also knew what Skyler was doing in her head; the exact thing that Jet had done. She put Fadiyah in that situation and thinking about how she’d feel if she was in Tyler’s position.

  “Ignorance is definitely bliss here…” Skyler said, her tone tremulous. “But this thing tonight…”

  “I know,” Jet said, her tone grave.

  “If that doctor figures it out…” Skyler said, her voice trailing off as she looked over at Jet.

  “Then Shenin’s not going to have a choice but to tell Tyler.”

  “You really think so?” Skyler asked, her tone speculative.

  “Jesus. You don’t think she’d let her think that… No…” Jet said, wondering if Shenin would go so far as to let Tyler think she’d cheated on her with a man and gotten pregnant in order to protect Tyler’s pride. Jet didn’t want to believe Shenin would do that.

  Neither of them knew for sure.

  “Tyler overheard me telling Dev that she needed to tell Ty…”

  “Seriously?” Skyler asked.

  “Yeah,” Jet said.

  “And how did you explain that?”

  “Dev told her it was nothing,” Jet said.