Missing You

Chapter Thirteen: Is Death Welcomed?

When Nina came to, she was in a hospital bed and hooked up to a heart monitor, vitals and oxygen. Jay appeared next to her with Piper, “Damn, girl. You gave us a heart attack!”

Nina looked at them, “What happened?”

Piper looked at her, “You passed out. We brought you to the ER.”

Jay took over, “That bastard Michael spiked your drink with something, and it interacted with your insulin.”

Piper said, “The doctors were able to get you something that counteracted it and you are here for observation.”

“Let me go get the doctor for you.”

Nina wanted to smash in Michael’s face. A few moments later, Jay walked in with the doctor. “Hi, Nina, I’m Doctor Harrison,” and middle aged man with greying black hair said with a kind smile. “How are you feeling?”

Nina looked at him as she moved the bed to sit up, “Like hammer and shit.”

He laughed, “It’s understandable considering. I assume that the ladies explained to you what happened.”

“A little. Yes, sir.”

He checked her over her vitals with her, checked her heart and all the other vitals and reexplained to her what had happened to her, “And I would recommend that you get with your OB-GYN due to your miscarry. You aren’t in any immediate danger-”

Nina snapped, “What miscarry?”

He looked at her, “I’m sorry. I thought the ladies told you that.” Nina slid them a look, “No.” He nodded, “I apologize. Yes, unfortunately you are experiencing a miscarriage. When you arrived in the ER, the medics informed us that they noticed that you were bleeding vaginally. From what we could tell you were about four weeks along. I’m sorry.” Nina zoned out after that. She had been pregnant with Draven’s baby and now he wasn’t here. Turning over onto her side, she ignored the rest of what the doctor said and tuned out Jay and Piper. When the doctor left, Jay touched her leg, “I’m sorry honey. I thought it would be best coming from the doctor.”

“Could you please leave?” Nina asked with her voice filled with emotion.

Piper also touched her leg, “I’m sorry, Nina.”

Nina let tears fall from her eyes, “I’ll call y’all later.”

They both touched her leg again, “We’ll see you later, hon.”

Nina laid there and starred out the window and cried. She cried for the lost baby she didn’t know she had and wanted, and she cried for Draven. Now there was no way to tell him about their baby or their loss. As she lay in her hospital bed that night, she cried and prayed for Draven to come home. The next day she was released from the hospital and had Jay pick her up and take her back to her Jeep still parked. As she drove, she tried to interact with Nina through conversation, but Nina was neither in the mood and was still trying to come to terms with what had happened in the last twelve hours. Quietly Jay said as she drew her car to a stop behind Nina’s Jeep, “Uh, your cottage sold. I thought you’d like to know.”

Nina nodded as she prepared to exit the car, “Let them know that I will cover closing. I’ll see you later,” she said quietly, and ignored her as she spoke and closed the door. Getting into her Jeep, she waited for Jay to drive off and hit a contact on her FaceTime. On the second ring, Blaine picked up and smiled, “Hey, sissy.” Then seeing the state she was in, “Sissy?” he asked concerned.

She immediately started crying, “I miscarried, Wolf,” and started babbling about the day before. He just listened to her talk and let her cry and listened as she told him about her drink being spiked and her fainting and waking up in the hospital. Once she was done, he said calmly, “Sissy, I am so sorry. What can I do to help?”

She shook her head. He continued to talk calmly and told her that things like that sometimes happen but that she was going to be okay and when Draven came back, they would have a baby when the time was right. Once she was calmer, “You’re going to be okay. Call me when you get home. Okay?”

She nodded, “Okay,” hiccupping. They hung up and she waited a good twenty minutes before driving home. Once she got there to find that the driveway was still empty, she sadly went inside to shower. As she showered the last several hours off of her tired body, she sobbed alone in her shower. Once she finished, she dressed in Draven’s SEAL t-shirt and a pair of boycut panties with a pad since she was still bleeding and got in bed where she stayed for four days. On the fifth day, she got up and went to the doctor for her to look her over. She had indeed miscarried and the only thing she could do was let it finish. The doctor wanted to see her again only if she was having any issues. She called Misty the moment she got home and cried with her best friend over the phone. Nina eventually fell asleep crying.

The next evening, Blaine FaceTimed her. She was sitting on the couch trying to make herself eat a sandwich since hadn’t eaten since before dancing that night and she knew if she didn’t, she was going to wind up back in the hospital. To help with the deafening silence, she put on a movie for background noise and trying to work on her latest book. “I just wanted to check on you. Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded, “As good as can be.”

“Well, I also wanted to let you know that Michael will no longer be a problem.”

“Why? What did you do?”

He shrugged, “I know a few guys. They did me a favor.”

“Do I want to know what these guys did as a favor?”

He made a face, “I think it’s best if you don’t. But, I will say this. He squealed like the pig he is when they found him. Apparently, he was expecting it because word had gotten out about him from your dance and from some of the women in the women’s barracks. He’s been reported and military justice will prevail. I know a JAG officer.”

“Well, that is reassuring.”

“Trust me. He got handled and will pay for it. No one hurts my Alpha and gets away with it.”

The next morning, Nina grabbed a hot tea and sat out on the lanai to rest and regroup and refocus. As she listened to “Crazy Love” by Van Morrison and watched the morning surfers and smiled as they did. She felt the breeze on her skin and closed her eyes. Feeling and listening to her heartbeat she prayed and hoped that Draven was safe and okay and would return to her when the time was right.

Across the globe, Draven was asleep in the corner sitting on the floor with his back to the wall. He was having a dream about Nina and being in her arms. For a split second he could smell her scent and feel her. Then he was rudely awoken by explosions going on around him. They could hear the whistling of the mortar shells being shot through the air. Jinx was holding onto the steel bars of the window that he had jumped to grab, and then he roughly let go and shouted, “In coming!”

They moved away from the wall and ducked against the metal bars. Draven covered his head and ears as the shell hit nearby and blew out the wall causing their bars to fail. Draven snapped his head up, “Run! Go! Run!” he shouted. All four of them got up and took off running through an opening that occurred in the wall from the explosion. They ran and ducked under flying bullets and other explosions. They dove over a sandy hill and took cover. When the explosions and firing stopped, Draven looked at them and quietly said, “Lads, you okay?” They each looked at each other and nodded. “Good, let’s get the f**k outta here.”

They made their way quietly over to an abandoned truck and checked to see if it was drivable. Finding that it was, they hotwired it and sped off towards freedom. Only their freedom didn’t last long as they were quickly found and without firearms, they were sitting ducks. This time, they were taken to a different compound and separated into different cells. This time their interrogations lasted longer and were becoming more brutal. This time, food was withheld for days as was water. They were careful to ration with each other, but without getting to each other, they couldn’t administer first aid.

One night, they took Draven and asked him the same questions over and over again. After one hard punch that he tasted blood in his mouth, he turned to them and spit it out, “If I haven’t given you any information after two months, what makes you think I’ll give it to you now?” He was rewarded with a punch to the gut which caused him to lose his dinner on their shoes. He spit it out and laughed.

“Put him back with the others.”

They threw him in his cell, and he landed in a starfish. Radar, Freak and Jinx all stood at theirs and asked if he was okay. He laughed, “Oh, you know. Same s**t, different day,” and scratched the beard that had grown in on his face. The next week they withheld food and water. When they finally pulled Draven into the interrogation room, the lead interrogator said, “I’ll give you something to eat if you tell me what your favorite song is.”

Draven looked at him and nodded, “Sure.”

He smiled satisfied, “Finally. We are getting somewhere. What is it?”

He smiled mischievously and started singing, “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea! Spongebob Squarepants!” moving his head as he sung, “Absorbent and yellow and porous is he! Spongebob Square-” and he was punched hard in the face. He let it knock him backwards in his chair and continued singing even as he could feel blood coming out of his nose, “His nautical nonsense be something you wish! Spongebob Squarepants!”

“Withhold their food for another three days. We’ll see what happens next.”

They threw Draven back in his cell as he laughed like a madman. As they walked out, he scrambled up and held onto the bars as he sang loudly, “Then drop on the deck and flop like a fish! Spongebob Squarepants! Spongebob Squarepants, Spongebob Squarepants, Spongebob Squarepants, Spongebob . . . Squarepants!” The guys stood up at their own bars and waited for the door to close. Once it did Jinx looked at Draven, “Have you gone mad?”

Draven held onto his bars, “I’m getting there.”

Radar hissed at him, “Keep your s**t together.”

Freak said, “I can’t keep my s**t together if you lose yours.”

Jinx even said, “Come on, man. Hang on for her,” implying Nina.

Draven lowered his head against the bar as his hands clenched the bars and he breathed. He tried to focus on Nina and her face, her voice, her smile, anything that kept him together. He said with his head down, “They’re going to withhold food for three more days.” They moaned, “Assholes,” “Fuckers,” and “Pricks.” Eventually, Draven laid on the floor and stared up at the ceiling and eventually fell asleep.

He was rudely awoken some hours later with water being thrown on his face followed by a wet rag as he was held down and more water being poured over his face. He could hear his men shouting at their captures to stop and other words. At first, on reflex, Draven fought them, but once he made himself relax, they stopped and walked out. Jinx yelled, “Mama va’ fa’ culo!” While Freak yelled, “You f*****g bastards!” and Radar yelled, “f**k you!”

They left him coughing up water on the ground. Jinx, Freak and Radar went to their knees trying to get a look at him, “You okay?” Radar asked.

Draven coughed until he felt the burn in his chest and his throat, “Oh, I’m just f*****g,” had a coughing fit, “Peachy keen, jellybean.”

“Those fuckers are gonna pay,” said Jinx.

The next time the interrogators went in, they released a gas. The men immediately hit the ground and used their shirts to cover their mouth and noses. A few moments later, they were out. When Draven came to, they were in a different compound and in one cell again. He sat up, “What happened?”

“Those fuckers gassed us,” said Radar.

Freak said, “And moved us to a different compound.”

Draven looked around their cell. Behind them was one wall with a high bar window so they could see the sky. Their floor was mostly sand, and they had worn and broken wooden benches that attached to the walls and bars. “How long were we out?”

“With enough time that it’s mid-morning from the looks of it,” said Freak.

That afternoon, they gave them food and water, but it was a very small serving for all of them that could have fed a child. Later on that night, they grabbed Radar and when he returned several hours later, he was nursing a broken finger and a cut across his forearm this time. The next one was Freak, and he returned with a chipped tooth and a cut going down the center of his forearm. When Jinx returned, he was sporting a cut over the top of his hand and three broken fingers. Grabbing Draven, they took him into a brick lined room and tied him to the chair.

At the same time across the globe, Nina was paddle boarding with her girls. Shelby paddled next to her, “You okay, babes?”

Nina adjusted her sunglasses, “Yeah. I’m fine.”

“Come on,” Lily, a woman with black hair said pulling up next to her, “Every woman knows that when you say ‘fine’, it means you are freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional.”

Nina stopped and looked at them, “He’s been gone for four months. I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Do what? What are we talking about?” Andi, a natural brunette, turned red head said, pulling up next to Shelby.

“Draven,” said Shelby, “His team has been gone for four months.”

“I should be planning a wedding. Right now, it seems like everything is on hold.”

Shelby looked at her, “Well, that part is, but your house sold for more than asking, your book is the number one book on the charts,” Nina having told them after they signed a non-disclosure agreement, “and you are looking fabulous if you don’t mind me saying.”

Lily adjusted her hat, “I am sure he is fine. He is a SEAL. They are trained for who knows what. They know how to kick ass and take names later.”

“Yeah, Duke says that sometimes no news is good news. Sometimes they lose comms for a little bit and then they resurface in another country, a little worse for the wear, but alive. And the best part, they come home!”

Nina looked at Shelby, “I hope he is right.”

They finished their time on the boards and headed back to Nina and Draven’s place for lunch. As they pulled up, she noticed an official military vehicle was parked. Waiting. Nina felt her heart sink into her stomach. Shelby put a reassuring hand on her forearm as her hands had turned white as she gripped the steering wheel, “This could be good news.”

Lily sat up from the back with Andi, “Yeah. Maybe he was hurt, and they are just coming to let you know that he is in the hospital.”

Andi followed up, “Yeah. And he just needs a few days of rest before they let him come home.”

Pulling up into the driving way, Nina got out of her Jeep with her stomach at her knees and her heartbeat pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. She watched as two men got out of the government issued car and approached her. “Rowena Moreno?” one said.

She swallowed, “Yes.”

“I’m Commander Maxwell Hulka and this is Lieutenant Robert Channing, United States Navy.” Commander Hulka looked like a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones, while Lieutenant Channing looked like a younger version of Sir Patrick Stewart.

“How can I help you?” she asked. The girls circled around her, trying to show solidarity even as they were unsure of what the men were going to tell her.

"Lieutenant Commander Draven McGarrett listed you as his next to notify. I hate to be the one to inform you,” Nina felt her heart stop, “But he is currently listed as Missing In Action.”

She heard the rush of blood to her ears and nothing else. She walked away as they continued to speak. Even as she walked away, the girls followed her, and the men stopped speaking. As she walked into the house as quickly as she could, she was so out of it that she missed a call from Blaine as he was letting her know that his team had been called up. But what he didn't say was that he was already in the location. Once inside of her and Draven’s home, she let out a mixture of a scream and a sob and fell to her knees. The girls had followed behind her and engulfed her with arms as they cried with her. What they didn’t know was that somewhere across the globe, Draven and his team were being held captive.

At that moment in the brick lined room, his captures had had enough of him and his team’s defiance to not speaking or answering their questions and started beating him. When he started coughing, the main interrogator stood in front of Draven with a knife in his hand, “Tell me your name.”

“I have many,” catching his breath as he was breathing heavily.

“Tell me your name or I will cut your pretty little face.”

Draven smirked, “Eat me. Oh, wait, that’s not kosher.”

The main interrogator then forced Draven’s head back started cutting open his cheek in a show of dominance. All Draven could do was grit his teeth and let them do it. As soon as he was done, he smiled at Draven. Draven said, “Wait. Did you sanitize that?” The interrogator looked at him. Draven continued and innocently said, “I could get an infection.”

One of men then took that moment to punch him in the face with his fist, as the main interrogator yelled, “What is your name!”

“Man.”

Which earned him another punch but this one to the gut.

“What is your name!” he shouted.

“Son.” He received a punch to his already open cut wound on his face.

“LAST TIME! You stupid infidel! What is your name!” he shouted.

Draven looked at him with defiance, “Brother.”

They were frustrated with him not talking or crying out in pain up to that point, they started beating him within an inch of his life. He felt their fists going into his stomach and his face, anywhere they could land a blow. At first, he fought the darkness and then he knew he was going to die. He welcomed it. He knew he wouldn’t be in pain anymore as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Sometime later, they threw water on him to shock him awake. Snapping his swollen eyes open, he was still tied to the chair. Moaning he let his head fall backwards.

“What? No snide remark you stupid American?”

“Oh, man,” he groaned, “I was actually hoping to die to get away from this bullshit.”

He said, “That can be arranged.”

Draven laughed, “Hey, any place is better than this s**t hole.”

The interrogator stood in front of him with his knife stained with his blood, “What did you say?”

“I said, any place is better than this f*****g s**t hole,” he said filled with anger.

He headbutted Draven then. He felt his nose break and saw stars. As he blinked and tried to get his bearings, he could feel the blood coming out of his nose and dripped down his face. Laughing, he couldn’t help himself.

“Why are you laughing infidel?”

He raised his blurry vision to him, “Because whether you kill me or my men, you still get nothing. Do you really think that your god is going to greet you with seventy-two virgins when your sorry ass dies? How about you get a woman who actually knows what she’s doing? Or is it an honor thing with you dumb f***s?”

This time, his interrogator yelled out in anger and frustration, he stabbed the knife into Draven’s chest. Gritting his teeth to not show him any sign of weakness, he eventually gave into the pain, though never voiced it, and slipped into unconsciousness. The last thing he could taste, and smell was the metallic of his own blood, the laughter of his captors, and the thought that he would never see Nina again. As he was losing consciousness, his thoughts were on Nina. Her smile, the way she smelled, her laughter, her saying she loved him, and his world dissolved into black.

When his unconscious body was thrown back into the cell with the rest of his team, all of them worse for the wear, quickly gathered around him to try to administer first-aid. At that moment, a claymore flashed with a bang and the wall to their cell gave way. His team prepared for a fight, ducking under bullets flying while protecting Draven's unconscious body. But as their eyes came to focus after a quick gun fight with their captors, they could see that several men dressed in black were coming through the wall. They quickly ended the gun fight with their captures, including a head shot to the interrogator that stabbed Draven.

One of them said, “I’m Wolf, United States Army Ranger, who’s in charge?” his face covered slightly in black pant, as they all were so that they didn’t give away their identity or their location in the dark.

One of the members looked at the unconscious Draven, “He’s losing a lot of blood.”

Blaine called for his medic, “Come on guys, get out. We got him. Extraction point in three minutes. Go!” he ordered.

“Come on, follow me,” another man dressed in black combat gear told them. They each took a turn to stop and look at Draven as the two men worked furiously and fast on him.

The medic looked at Blaine, “I can’t feel a pulse, sir.”

“Get him back now!”

The medic did as ordered and injected him with epinephrine in an attempt to get him back and started performing CPR on him as Blaine kept pressure on his wound. A few seconds later, they heard him gasp, “Got him back,” and finished getting a dressing on him to stop the bleeding.

“Let’s move! On my count,” and Blaine counted to pick him up after they had him as stable as they could get him at that moment. Blaine carried the unconscious Draven to their extraction point. Once he had him back down on the ground as they all posed for further threats, the medic continued to work on stabilizing Draven. “Whose oh-neg? He needs a blood transfusion, now!” knowing that he needed the blood transfusion in the field in order for him to survive. Blood transfusions in the field are risky but, when necessary, work to save a life and in this case, Draven’s life.

Blaine was kneeling on one knee with his hand ready at the trigger of his automatic rifle and poised for firing as he kept an eye out for their extraction helicopter, “No, he needs oh-positive.”

One of Draven’s team members looked at Blaine, “How’d you know that, sir?”

Blaine looked over his shoulder at the guy who was Jinx, “He’s engaged to my sister.”

“Your Nina’s brother?” one asked, that was Radar.

“Yes.”

“Does she know?”

Blaine shook his head, “No. It’s classified.”

“Sorry, sir, I thought that oh-pos could take oh-neg?” asked Freak.

His medic was working furiously, “He can but right now to ensure his body can recover faster and not bleed out, we need oh-pos,” and ordered Radar to hold his dressing down and keep pressure as he worked to get a line going in Draven’s arm. The medic looked at them and the rest of the team, “Are none of you oh-pos?”

Radar looked at him, “A-pos.”

Freak looked at him, “B-neg.”

And Jinx said, “I am oh-neg.”

“I can’t use you guys. You aren’t fit for blood transfusion anyway.”

Blaine watched as the helicopter approached, “I am.”

“Good, I’ll get you hooked up in the chopper. You four, help me get him ready for transport. On my count!”

The helicopter landed and they lifted Draven and ran towards the helicopter. As they were nearing, an old jeep carrying some hostiles approached with guns drawn. The group of men ran towards the helicopter as those that weren’t carrying Draven, all turned and ran backward to return fire at the hostile activity behind them. The helicopter co-pilot was carrying an automatic rifle and shot at the hostiles, yelling for the other men to hurry their asses up. Blaine got aboard as the last one to board, and yelled, “RPG!” One of his teammates handed him a rocket launcher and he took aim and fired. The rocket hit the old Jeep head on in the engine and a few seconds later, the night sky was filled with a small fire ball. No one else was coming and all hostiles were dead.

Satisfied, the helicopter door was closed, and they were off safely into the night sky without lights as the pilots were operating with night vision. Blaine went back to his medic, “How is he?” he asked putting on a headset. His medic looked at his team that hoovered around him. All of them covered in new and old bruises and old and new blood and had they bothered to notice, stunk of weeks of not being able to bathe or brush their mistreated mouths. They all watched with anxiety as the medic hooked Blaine up to his transfusion line and administered Draven the blood transfusion. Once he had done that, he turned his entire attention to Draven and trying to keep him stable, as some of the other team took their hand at dressing their wounds on their arms and hands.

“He’s a f*****g mess. The knife I think has nicked his heart, it’s small but it’s doing enough. He has a few broken ribs. And I am pretty certain he’s slipping into a coma. His pupils are starting to not respond. Those mother fuckers pulled a number on him,” the medic said to Blaine.

“How much time does he have?”

“An hour. Tops. And that’s being very generous.”

Blaine turned his attention to the pilot of the helicopter, “Move your ass! Get this bird to the med-evac! NOW!”

The pilot made a hand signal, and they felt the wind increase as it moved them back a little and then lurched forward with the added speed. An hour and a half later, the helicopter touched down in a safe and undisclosed location where everyone was debriefed, and treated for their injuries, while Draven was sent into emergency surgery. He was barely hanging on, even with the work the medic did and with Blaine’s blood transfusion. A few hours later Blaine and his team, and Draven’s team waited to hear from the doctor.