When Jake meets a woman at the Hard Deck, the last thing he expects is for her to be a Navy Seal. And not just any Seal, the Commander of Seal Team 3. She's beautiful, smart, dangerous, and everything about her just makes him want to get close. Her...
Warnings: CPR, broken bones, mentions of death, brief description of injuries, mention of the crash, emergency surgery mentioned, grief, sobbing, vomit, drug haze
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It was the beeping that woke Jake up. Then the pain hit him and it was all he could do not to pass out again. It felt like his whole body had been dipped in fire. His ribs burned with each breath he took, lungs struggling to inflate fully against the pain of what he knew to be broken ribs. Jake groaned low in his throat, reaching up in a stilted manner to try and prod at the tender places in his chest, trying to investigate the bandages adhered to his torso.
But then someone caught his hand, gently placing it back against the bed, and through the haze of pain medication, he swore he saw the woman he loved sitting next to him. "Teddy..." he slurred, his other hand coming up to grab at hers, or who he thought was Bear. "'S'okay, Imokay darlin'."
Distantly he heard a gasp and then a flurry of voices but he was being pulled back under the blanket of haze that had settled over his mind and body. A few sleepy blinks later and his eyes fell shut again, his mind and body too tired to see who was actually sitting beside him.
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Phoenix had taken her shift next to Jake's bed when he had begun to wake up. It had been four days since he'd been brought back from the desert. Four days since Bear had sacrificed herself for her team and for him. Four days since the Seals had practically shut themselves away to try and plan, but Phoenix didn't know how much planning was actually being done because every time she passed Bug in the halls, the Indian woman always appeared to be ten seconds from crying.
Not to mention Flare. The intelligence operative, usually bubbly and positive, was a shell of her normal self. She seemed to be wracked with guilt and it seemed to the few pilots that saw her that Flare was far more skittish than she had ever been. It looked like she was being eaten from within over her fear for her Commander. She had almost become a ghost, her skin pale and brown eyes watery and red from tears, it nearly made the Daggers worry about her being overworked.
Nothing the Daggers said or did gave them any indication of what the Seals were planning. Any communication or comradery that had been introduced by Bear's efforts had disappeared the second she hadn't returned. Since Bug had to tell Maverick that the Commander was gone, taken by the enemy.
But when Jake's eyes opened, and he called her Teddy through glassy green eyes and slurred speech, it broke her heart for him. Hangman had always been a pain in her ass, much like a brother would be. But she didn't think she could ever get over the sight of seeing his near lifeless body pulled from the helicopter, placed on a stretcher as FAK performed CPR, doing everything they could to keep Jake alive.
She prayed that it wasn't her who had to deliver the news to Jake. Natasha didn't think that she was strong enough for that. So when he'd fallen back asleep, she sank back in her chair, blowing out a breath to keep her tears at bay. "Poor man has no idea," she mumbled to herself, swiping her arm over her face, taking one last glance at Jake's sleeping face. Her heart broke for him.
