Hush Little Baby Ch. 02

Dana see me look towards Turk, she knew I was going to refuse, she stood and said. "We'll take all four Colonel, but they need to be told directly by you that their going in as prisoners. Getting them in will give Turk and I the excuse we need to enter the fortress."

Remembering our last trip to Forward Base I asked if Cooper and Boscombe were amongst those that escaped. When Knowles nodded, that's when I said that we were taking those two along. Dana was still looking at me while Turk whispered into her ear. I felt as guilty as hell playing petty politics with other people's lives. But to me, it showed that twice so far, those two didn't take Sargent Mendez's rank like she had earned it, if they had they sure had a strange way of showing it.

Private Boscombe was a shining example, the man was a six foot three, two hundred and ten-pound muscle toned solder. He prided himself on lifting more than the rest and carrying the heaviest machinegun. He wasn't a career soldier, to him the forces were something you did to get a bed at night and a wage at the end of the month. Then 9/11 dumped his regiment in the sand and he quietly complains as much as he dares.

Twice so far he was recommended for promotion, but his attitude prevented Colonel Knowles from ever stamping his approval. Sergeant Mendez kept her team at the front and taking fire so the rest could extract to safety, and yet Boscombe, a man they could have clearly needed in such a task was one of the few that made it out, while the rest of the unit now became prisoners.

Colonel Knowles left an hour after our meeting; two hours after that Boscombe and Cooper were helicoptered onto our base, I made sure that the reception committee was a total of one, me. Although Knowles would have warned them, it still worried them that a mean looking guy dressed like a local was the only person to meet them.

I chose Boscombe, making sure that I was no further than two feet from him, I just stared directly at him, Cooper didn't exist to me at the moment. A sweat started to grow across Boscombe's forehead.

He could hear my words, I tried ever so hard to hide the bitterness I felt towards him. "In a past life you knew me as Sergeant Davis."

Boscombe's eyes opened real wide when I said that.

"You both left your team and my wife back there, I'm going to take them back and you're coming with me. Do the job that this man's army gave you or request that I return you to unit. You have five seconds to decide your own fate."

The sweat increased, he gulped a couple of times but he flat out refused to look me in the eyes. As my mind finally tripped the number to six, I turned and walked away. Turk appeared out of the shadows and took over, I was still so damn angry I couldn't stand to be with these two any longer.

The Chinook was loading at five the next morning. Turk and Dana, two camels, Boscombe and Cooper who were now wearing rags that used to resemble a uniform along with Howard and his team with their vehicle. The rest of us watched them leave.

When the sounds of the Chinook had all but disappeared, the rest of us mounted up and drove out the front gate.

*******

This was the day of reckoning. My radio operator had already let me know that Howard had gained entrance to the fortress, he also flashed a message five hours later that Turk, Dana plus two prisoners had also come through the gate.

It had taken us Twenty-Eight hours in a straight line to get to within a location that Conner's drone was looking at the fortress on the horizon. We watched as Jake and his team inserted themselves into the fortress two hours later. We undid the side panel of our vehicle that held the rebel flags and banners, the men spent a few minutes attaching them over our vehicles.

We had learned over our time as Ghost Squadron, it gets us into places really quick when we're a total eyesore like this. We had also downloaded some of the speeches from a couple of the most radical Ayatollah's; their speeches were playing in our trucks when we drove towards the gate. After all, if you're that loud and proud, you must be a rebel.

I left Jamie plus two keeping an eye on the front gate, while we went around the back in a wide circle, the drone photo's we had of the place, showed the main gate to be very impressive, even with years of use and even more years being abandoned and left to rot. The back of the fortress had suffered even a worse fate; part of the wall had crumbled and the new owners had decided that rather than rebuild it, pull the ruble further back and place a barrier in front of the open space.

All four of our vehicles rolled up at the back gate with the old Ayatollahs speech heading towards his final rant about the horrible men of the west. The head guard had to yell twice to see our papers; he shouted even louder that we were to turn the Ayatollah off. There is a reason why that little bit of metal at the end of a handgun is called a silencer, even more so when the old boy was reaching the end to his speech.

We got all the guards before they could even raise their weapons. Andy clicked on Jamie's frequency and he then painted the main entrance to the fortress, for the drone strike, the two rockets came in four seconds apart and totally demolished the entrance.

We came in through the back as the bad guys reinforced the front, ready for an attack. The rest of my people took up the positions designated to them from the aerial photos we had of the place; it was now left to me and a five-man team to get the rest of Charlotte's people out of there. Jake and his vehicle was already outside the building they used to house the prisoners.

Their seemed to be allot of shooting going on inside, it got even louder when we charged in and reinforced Jake and his team making headway through the corridors. A woman in a Burka rushed up the stairs to the right, it wouldn't have given me a second thought until I spotted the blue cloth around her waist. I looked at Turk and told him he's in charge, then followed Dana.

Turk took one brief look at Dana taking two steps at a time and me in hot pursuit, he screamed at Bobby to act as backup to me. Bobby took one look at Turk pointing at the stairs and nodded. He was still five of the steps behind me when I reach the top. Dana was trying to shoulder the third door along when I yelled to her to get out of the way.

Just under two hundred pounds of pure adrenalin shouldered the door and it flew off its hinges with me following it to the floor due to my own momentum. Dana screamed, I couldn't see much since I was still getting up. She killed the four men around Charlotte and was now kneeling next to her body.

Dana pulled her Burka off and tucked it under her belt, the tears were real, I had never seen Dana in this much pain as she looked down at a near naked, beaten and bloody Charlotte. Bobby came around the corner and Dana zeroed her weapon at him, center mass.

Before Dana left our base, I stood every single man in the Squadron in a single line on what was laughingly called our parade ground while my wife studied every single face in that line up. That was the only reason Bobby was still alive that afternoon.

I touched the button of my comms; my heart was in pieces. I had to keep it together for a while longer, the lungful of air helped but not by much.

"Zulu 22, get the prisoners out now. We have Sierra Tango's alpha and are making our way to you, the rest of you keep the bad guys occupied."

Dana had a couple of fingers on Charlotte's neck; it seemed to take an age for Dana to look at me. "She's alive," Her hand wandered over the bloody and battered body of her sister. "Was all this necessary?"

I tossed Dana my rifle and she pulled magazines out of my pouches and into pockets in her Burka. The magazine dropped from my handgun and was replaced with an extended mag, a spare would live in my hand if I needed one. Then we wrapped Charlotte in a blanket and covered her face before following Dana out the door, I knew the killer in her was in control now, which was both a comfort and a worry. Bobby was still keeping an eye on things from the doorway and as we passed him, he became our last man.

There was no orders being yelled, people either dived for cover or died, the leaders were dead, well at least four of them were, all four in that office must have counted as well over half the command structure of that fortress. All caught with there pants already down and ready to stick their collective dicks into my wife when I busted that door open and Dana killed them were they stood.

My thoughts were still on a secondary line of defense so my handgun was pulled out and lived in my hand. I had enough firepower both in front and behind me. My handgun and spare mag was nothing more than a last resort, a second line of defense. But for now, we were in the hands of my wife. With Charlotte's unconscious form held tight to my body, the enforcer was in control as we made our way down the stairs and towards the door.

Boscombe was standing at the bottom of the stairs, the weapon in his hands held in such a casual manner that he would have lost a match with a six-year-old.

Dana stuck her head out the door and then back again. She turned to me and Bobby and then nodded before heading out the door and into the fierce sun of the day. Turk waved us over to the back of the commandeered vehicle.

"Zulu 27 this is Zulu 22, the bad guys have figured it out and regrouping."

I scanned the area outside the building and made a judgment call.

"Zulu 22 this is Zulu 27, loading our people now. Cause as much trouble as you can on the way out, confirm over."

I could see Howard from where I was standing, even though he was clear across the courtyard, he said something to his driver and I could see a thumbs up before Howard touched his send button again.

"Zulu 22 Confirmed out."

My people were re-grouping their vehicles and forming a protective half circle around the vehicle we had commandeered to take our people home.

Dana had climbed onto the back of the vehicle and I lifted Charlotte into her arms, two of Charlotte's team were holding onto Dana waist so she wouldn't fall forward with the added weight of her sister. The rest followed, Boscombe stood to one side watching everything and almost pretending to be interested. This time I got in his face.

"Get on the fucking vehicle, because if you don't you're walking. None of my people will give you a lift. You're dead to us from now on."

For a big man, he sure could climb onto a vehicle in record time.

Once the vehicle carrying our people made it out of the fortress, my vehicles sped around the courtyard taking as many of the bad guys as they could on the way out.

Once I physically counted all my team's vehicles out of the fortress I pressed down on my comms. "Zulu 27 to control, send in the drone and flatten the place."

I'm sure control confirmed, although I was too busy hanging on at the time to hear it if they had. I was tail-end Charley and the force of the rockets hitting the walls of the fortress pushed my vehicle along.

As we drove, I leaned down to Andy and said. "I need a secure channel to General Hibbertson."

Andy nodded and got busy flipping switches and pushing buttons. After a few minutes, he handed me a headset and had his hand ready to flip one more switch. Once I nodded he flipped a switch and ignored what I was doing, he took over as lookout.

"Zulu 27 this is Alfa, send over."

I knew time was limited, in minutes we were going to see the rescue helicopter plus it's protection come over the horizon and take Charlotte and the rest of her team back to Forward Base and start the process of healing. Every second I had to fight my own emotions, as commander of this unit, it was my duty to get them all back to base and still breathing. The resolve to do just that became harder when I held the broken form of my wife in my arms this afternoon.

It was non-negotiable that Dana was going back on the rescue helicopter. My team was going to be a good day and a half to two days behind. I needed the General to give Dana unrestricted access to Charlotte, he would no doubt have to get Knowles on board. The fear of her being refused and her going rogue didn't bare thinking about.

General Hibbertson's own imagination must have gone into overdrive when I painted such a stark picture. He told me that he would get Area Command to issue her with an unrestricted pass and back that up by putting her on Sergeant Mendez's family list. It was my turn to finally smile, when she signed on the line, her family disowned her. I was the only person on her family list as of a few minutes ago, now there were two of us.

*******

We got everyone aboard and strapped in, half my people watched as the rescue helicopter took off and the two protecting it followed. We left when they were just dots in the sky.

I believe we pissed someone off, it felt like half the population was out here looking for us. Although it felt odd, we also had Command hovering a drone over us on our way back, we were getting up to date intel on where the bad guys were and adjusted our course accordingly, not always a hundred percent full proof but it sure made thing simpler, the other half of the population was no doubt taking bets on us getting back to base. It took an emergency aerial replen of fuel and ammunition to do just that as well.

When we drove into our base, Turk pulled his vehicle to a stop, causing my driver to swerve to avoid hitting him.

Turk climbed down and walked over to mine, then said. "With all due respect Sir, the guys and I would like you to leave now and go look after your wives, we will deal with the clean up and de-brief between us."

Even covered in three days of desert dust and ongoing battles between the Fortress and base, each of my men had a grin on their faces. I thanked them all and ran towards General Hibbertson's office. I even remembered to knock before entering. The General looked up from the paperwork on his desk, waved to the chair in front of him and slid a file across to me when my ass hit the seat.

"Get showered and shaved Captain Davis, as of now your officially on indefinite compassionate leave. Sergeant Mendez is in a bad way Mike, Dana has been busy, with the support of the doctors at the hospital, she's taking Sergeant Mendez back to the States for specialist treatment, the air ambulance jet landed an hour ago. They are all at the airport waiting for you. Get out Captain, and good luck."

Howard caught me coming out of the shower, the clippers in his hands telling me why he was there. Over a year's worth of beard takes some shifting, then came the regulation, high and tight. He would never make a living from being a barber, but he was our go to guy when we needed to lose our Ghost Unit look and return to civilization. I was at our airfield two hours after passing through our gate. The Jet left twenty minutes after I climbed aboard.

Dana waited until the seatbelt sign went out before she stood and crawled onto my lap, wrapped her arms around my neck then cried on my shoulder. I knew without any conviction who was on my lap, enforcer had lived up to her promise; she kept Dana and Charlotte alive and had now taken a step back. It took some time for Dana to calm, even with me kissing her neck.

We both watched in silent prayer, the machines pinged and made squiggle lines, tubes went in and out of her body from various arms and thigh points. Throughout the flight the nurses changed clear liquid bags hanging from metal posts and the doctor stayed real close, watching everything.

She was point section when the fireworks started, the bad guys failed in their mission and that was to wipe Colonel Knowles, and his regiment off the face of the Earth. So, when they captured Charlotte's people, they mainly took it out on her, for two reasons, she was in command and did such a good job that none of the bad guys managed to get between her section and the retreating solders in enough strength to force an advantage early enough to cut off a significant amount of his regiment and slaughter them. Second, she was a woman.

The ambulance from the Army Hospital was waiting on the tarmac; they let Dana travel with them. I opted to go to the house and pick up our car and joined up with them there. I caught up with Dana a few hours later, the doctors told us that since she was stable enough, they wanted her in surgery, so that they could start repairing the damage done to her.

Over the weeks and months, Dana and I had several fights on our hands. We fought to keep Charlotte sane when the drugs wore off and she regained consciousness, the memories of her torture could only be held back if Dana or I were not only in her room, but in her arms.

Charlottes mental health was always going to be an issue. The one thing she was adamant about was that it wasn't going to affect us. What happened to her wasn't her fault, just as she knew that we got her and the survivors out of there as quickly as we could put a plan together.

The hospital where also practical, they tested her for STD's and a battery of other tests for all the diseases they could think of. Her results came back clean, and the damage left by the beatings she was taking every day were healing well. Now it was left to the head doctors and that first meeting left Dana and I unsure if we should laugh or cry.

Charlotte actually sat the doctor and us down and told us all that she knew she needed help, just as she knew that none of it was her fault. She then looked directly at the doctor and told her that she understood she needed to be here.

She then looked directly at me and said. "You're my husband, I've looked for you since I turned eighteen. It took four men holding me down to take from me what I give to you freely. At the moment I can't give that to you, they stole that feeling from me and it's going to take both you and Dana's help to get it back. But know this, I'm not letting them win, you're my husband and as soon as I can, I want that intimacy back again."

The doctor smiled, the rest of us were in tears.

She then walked up to me and knelt in front of me, her hand took mine and she reached out to Dana for her hand as well.

"I love you both and will do so until the day I die. But I've made up my mind and I truly hope you understand. Some of the things that are going to be said here I can only say to the doctor. It's not a mark on either of you, please understand that."

She looked at Dana when she said. "Please make him understand, when he has those doubts and tries to hide them from me. I'm not ashamed, I placed my trust in both of you the day I said, I do. With the Doctors help I plan to get better, just give me time and make him understand that for the sake of all our sanity, he cannot know everything, it will change him and I want my man back the way I left him."

I'm not ashamed to say, I broke down then. It was only later than I could see the irony, we are in the Doctor's office supporting my wife and she's the one supporting me. Not one of my proudest moments.

The worst part was when Charlotte would involuntarily wince when I held onto her. At times like these, I knew she was fighting tooth and nail to banish the thought that I was a male of the species. It was only when her own arms went around me, that I knew she was coming to terms with the fact that I may be a male of the species, but I was also her husband.

Over time it was reinforced between all three of us when one of us needed help, we would both be there for them. Charlotte needed that help right now, my wife and Dana would always stand side by side. We loved her; we went into a fortress full of rebels and took her back. She knew she was ours, and as such, we were never going to give her back