Pandemic

Paddy looked from Gwen to Noah, "Where are your masks?" he demanded.

"Trust me, it's okay now," Haldane said.

"Trust you after that stunt?" Paddy thumbed at the building. "Just put it on, okay, Chicken?" he sighed. He pointed several feet away to where two soldiers were bagging the dead monkey in a yellow bag emblazoned with a bright red biohazard insignia. "I sure hope that monkey was worth risking both your lives for."

* * *

Lying on a medic's stretcher, Gwen spent the flight back to Yemen in somber silence like everyone else aboard. Once they touched down, Paddy insisted on pushing Gwen's stretcher to the base's hospital himself. She ended up requiring fourteen stitches, an aircast for her ankle, and multiple bandages. When two hours later the X-rays came back as negative, she borrowed a new set of fatigues and signed herself out against medical advice.

A soldier dropped Gwen off at the main hangar. She found Noah and Paddy in the same canteen where she had originally met Paddy. The two men sat at a table lost in their own thoughts with untouched coffees in front of them.

Paddy summoned a smile for her. "You look all right, all things considered."

"All things considered, I feel amazingly all right," she said. She sat down beside Haldane. "What's the news?"

"Operation Antiseptic is over," Paddy said sadly. "Their leader is dead along with at least a hundred other terrorists. No one escaped. Mission accomplished."

"At what cost?" she asked.

"We lost one chopper. Five soldiers died storming the building. And…"

Gwen swallowed away the lump in her throat. "And inside?"

Paddy shrugged. His eyes dropped to the table. "Fifty-five American soldiers were inside that complex when it caved in."

Gwen looked over to Haldane. Before she could ask whether any of the soldiers survived, he closed his eyes and shook his head.

Paddy nodded to her. "At least we robbed the rubble of one victim," he said, but he choked on the words and his eyes brimmed over. He wiped away the tears with his sleeve.

Gwen reached over and touched his other hand gently. "Your unit?"

"Yeah." He nodded, and then cleared his throat. "I knew every one of those Rangers in there. Great kids. Great Americans." Tears running down his cheeks, he stared hard into her eyes. "I hope you'll tell the President."

She met his gaze. "I will, Paddy."

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Gwen fell asleep the moment her C37A took off from the base, and she didn't wake up until they reached Andrews Air Force Base. With the change in time zone, they landed in Washington at 9:50 A.M., ten minutes before they had technically left Yemen. As the plane came to a halt on the ground, she stretched in her seat, sending a cascade of pain through her that started in her scalp and didn't stop until it reached her toes. She knew how lucky she was not to be coming home in a box or worse, like the fifty-five young men and women buried under the rubble, so she swallowed three of the painkillers the doctors had given her, brushed her hair, and gritted her teeth.

When she turned to Noah, he was wide-awake and watching her, but he looked exhausted. She wondered how much of the flight, if any, he had slept, but she didn't ask. Instead, spontaneously, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, nuzzling against him for a few seconds and enjoying the rough feel of his warm stubble against her lips.

"Oh." He grinned and eyed her in bewilderment "What's that for?"

"To thank you for saving my life in that rubble," she said, and then blushed slightly.

"Thank me?" He looked away. "I almost got you killed back there with my stubbornness. You should kick me in the groin, not kiss me."

She feigned a scowl. "Wait to see what happens when the pilot turns off the fasten seat-belt sign." They both laughed.

Noah didn't offer her his arm when she hobbled down the steps of the plane, but he walked slowly beside her as she limped into the terminal building. Gwen suspected he was prepared to catch her at a moment's notice.

"You ought to go home and get some rest," Haldane advised.

"You need rest more than I do," she said, surprised at how defensive she sounded to herself. "I had a great sleep on the flight. I'm good."

The limo waited for them out front of the terminal. Staring out the windows, neither Noah nor Gwen spoke a word during their ride into the city. The driver dropped them off at Gwen's office in front of the Nebraska Avenue Center. The security officer at the front door greeted Gwen with a warm smile, and she felt embarrassed that his first name slipped her mind.

In a duffle coat and a fur hat, McLeod met them in the lobby. He threw his arms around both of them, wrapping them in a warm embrace. When he finally released them, he wagged a finger reproachfully. "Shite! Why is it that I can't leave you two alone for five minutes without a building falling on you?"

"Guess we're lost without you, Duncan," Gwen said, genuinely pleased to see him. "Anyway, how did you know about that?"