“Excellent; the president will be extremely pleased. I got word on Dani’s family for you; they’re all fine. Dani’s condo, on the other hand, took a direct hit; it’s a total loss. How’s everyone doing? Understand you had a few casualties.”
“Awesome! Thanks for that; I’ll let her know. Ah, yeah, Ben, Dani’s CO, took three rounds, all three to the right shoulder though two of them were stopped by his vest. Still, his shoulder’s pretty messed up. Rossi took a round to the gut just below his vest. Both are in surgery right now. The A-10 pilot we picked up has a nasty broken leg — compound fracture below the knee. Ferro and the other team medic took great care of all three of them though they’re going to be out of the game for quite a while. Dani took a round in the thigh, through and through. Fortunately, it didn’t hit any major blood vessels. She also took two rounds — one to the shoulder and one in the back — that broke a couple ribs and collapsed one of her lungs. She’s banged up and broken ribs really hurt but she won’t be down for long. I’ve got a couple broken ribs myself, and, yeah, they hurt. I’ll be heading back to Tel Aviv with Dani on the next flight out of here.”
“Good. We want you back in Tel Aviv as I expect we might need you there to help with our liaison with both the Israelis and Dr. Bagheri. Your hotel made it through unscathed so you should be fine.”
“Roger that. I’ll do what I can.”
“Oh, I know that, Tom. Take good care of Dani; she sounds like an awesome girl. You know, I never did get a chance to meet her.”
“Well, we’ll have to correct that, won’t we?”
“That was Jim?” Dani asked as Jackson walked into her room.
“Yes, it was; your family’s fine.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly, looking at Jackson as if he had saved them himself.
“Your condo, on the other hand, took a direct hit, or so I’m told.”
“At least my family’s safe; everything else can be replaced.”
“How soon can we get out of here? It sounds like Jim wants me to stick around Tel Aviv for a while.”
“The docs put some type of valve in my chest to keep the lung inflated so they’ve cleared me to leave but I’m going to need some help getting dressed,” Dani told him as she sat up and let the sheet slip away from her, fully cognizant of the image she portrayed. Stonewall was completely surprised to see that all she had on was a pair of gym shorts that Rossi’s wife had picked up for her back at Fort Campbell a few days earlier.
“I know this isn’t the image you probably imagined before but right now I’m way too sore to care, or for that matter, too drugged up to care — I’m really sore,” Dani continued. “Don’t think I’ll be rockin’ a bikini any time soon,” she added with a painful smirk.
Jackson noticed that her right breast and shoulder up to the collarbone was one massive bruise with the flutter valve taped to her sternum. In addition, the nursing staff had completely bandaged her left thigh.
“Considering what we’ve all gone through in, what, the last eight hours, I think you look amazing.”
“Huh; you’re only saying that as I don’t have a top on. Hand me that T-shirt, would you? I’m not even going to try and put that sports bra on. By the way, how’re Ben and Rossi?”
“It looks like they’ll be okay. Ben’s days in the Unit might be over; his shoulder is really messed up. Rossi should be okay; that bullet did a lot of internal damage, bladder and I think he lost a kidney, so I’m thinking he’ll medically retire after this.”
“That’s good to hear about Rossi; I’m glad he’ll be okay, I really like him. Ben’s a fighter; if anyone can come back from this, he will. How’re you doing?”
“Ah, two broken ribs in the back; they’ll take some time to heal but I’ll be fine. I know it’s only been, what, a week, ten days or so, but, you know, I have this really cool hotel on the beach in Tel Aviv and, from what I hear, it’s a great place to spoil someone.”
Dani gingerly limped over to him, still holding the T-shirt in one hand, wrapped both arms around his neck, and gave Stonewall the most passionate kiss he’d ever remembered.
“I think that answers that question,” Jackson noted, briefly interrupting her kiss.
“Ouch!! Don’t squeeze me too hard….”