“And I’ll check your toes again tomorrow. In the meantime, you need to rest,” the doctor glances around the room. “You all can stay in the waiting room while he sleeps.”
“We’re fine in here,” Ozzie says. “We’ll be quiet.”
The doctor steps toward the door.
“Hey, do you think I’ll eventually be able to feel my feet and legs again?”
He shoves his hands into his lab coat pockets. “Hopefully, you’ll make a full recovery. Only time will tell.” The doctor gives one last small smile before he leaves the room.
My attention turns to Piper. “Why were you crying when you walked in here? What did the doctor say?”
Piper’s eyes move to Ozzie.
So, I look to him, too. “Ozzie, what’s going on?”
He scratches the back of his neck. “The doctor said you need to take it easy for a while. When I mentioned that our work can get physical…”
I wait, but he doesn’t continue his thought. “And?”
Ozzie doesn’t meet my eyes. “He said we should prepare for the fact that you might not get the feeling back in your legs.”
No. The doctor said it was related to my head injury. “Why would I do that? Once the swelling goes down, I’ll be fine. He just said I should make a full recovery!”
Ozzie nods. “He said hehopesyou will. We all do.” He’s struggling not to show emotion, but I can see it in his eyes.
“The doctor is just being conservative. You know how they are. I have to be able to return to work. It’s who I am.”
I will return. I’m a SEAL, and I can handle hard things. The fact that Ozzie seems to doubt me hurts. He knows what we’ve been through.
If I can’t work with the guys at RHS, what else would I do? When I had to leave the service, thank God, Hawthorne took me on at RHS. Without this work, I would be lost.
After my father died, I swore I would never let any of my family suffer financially. And I’ve kept good on my promise. I need my job, but not just for the money. I need to be out there with my brothers.
“I have to work at RHS. It’s who I am,” I say.
“No, it’s not,” Willow says. “You are so much more than a job. And if it’s too dangerous, then we’ll figure something else out.”
We. She said we. But wait, she also called my work a job. “It’s not just a job.”
I glance at Ozzie. I don’t like how he’s looking at me. There’s pity in his eyes. No, this is not how my career ends. I understand I need time to heal. And I will do everything the doctor asks of me. But I will be back at RHS, no matter what it takes.
CHAPTER 5
Durango
My eyes open,and I glance around. No one is in my room. Once I was deemed stable, I convinced everyone to go to CT’s place and get some sleep. I shift in the hospital bed, and my foot gets caught up on the blanket. I pull on the blanket with my hand, and it causes a sharp pain in my foot.
Wait.
I have feeling in my foot.
My fingers find the nurse call button. I try to pull on the blanket again. Another sharp pain.
“You rang?” the nurse says as she steps into the room.
“I have feeling in my foot!”
She smiles. “That’s fantastic. I’ll get the doctor.”