“We had a rough night last night—just a hazard of the job.”
Keeping names confidential, she explained what had happened—how the baby had been turned wrong, and the father had refused to let the mother have a C-section. “So, long, terrible story short, the baby was stillborn, but we saved the mother. It was her second baby, and she’s just fourteen.”
Derek’s brow furrowed, his eyes warm with sympathy. “I’m sorry. That’s rough.”
“I’ve been trying to help a new mother—only sixteen, by the way—with breastfeeding, but her mother-in-law refuses to allow it, insisting on giving the baby vegetable oil or melted butter instead. I guess there’s some superstition about colostrum—a new mother’s first milk—being dangerous for babies or something. It makes mesoangry. Both the girl and her baby are badly malnourished. Sometimes it just feels hopeless, as if nothing we do…”
Her words faded at the horror on Derek’s suddenly pale face. “Don’t tell me that a big, bad Green Beret is afraid of obstetrical talk.”
His gaze met hers, and she knew she’d hit the nail on the head.
“You are!” She couldn’t help but smile. “So, if I say ‘uterus’ will you faint?”
His brow furrowed. “Of course, not.”
“How about ‘menstruation’?”
“Not a chance.” A grin tugged at his lips.
“Labor pains.”
He winced. “I guess that’s just part of it, right?”
“Right. Vagina?”
His lips curved into a smile that seemed to draw the oxygen from Jenna’s lungs. “Oh, I like that word.”
Heat rushed into her cheeks. She’d meant this to be clinical, not sexual.
She tried again. “Episiotomy?”
He shrugged. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“That’s when a midwife or doctor cuts a woman’s perineum—”
“Okay, okay!” He held up a hand, palm facing toward her. “That’s enough.”
Jenna laughed.
He recovered, seeming to study her. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, laughter having smoothed the roughest edges off her mood. “It’s hard to see things like this happen and not be able to change them.”
He seemed to look past her, his gaze focused on nothing, his smile gone. “I get that. I first came here sixteen years ago to get rid of the bad guys. A lot of good people gave their lives for that cause. They’re gone, but the bad guys are still here.”
James had died here, far to the south in Kandahar Province.
Jenna shivered.
“You must be freezing.”
“I should let you get back to work. Aren’t you supposed to be guarding this place or something?”
“I’m supposed to be guardingyou. If the shit hits the fan,youare my sole priority.” He drew something out of his pocket. “I’ve been meaning to give you this.”
It looked like a Blackberry with an antenna. There was also a charger cable.
“A cell phone?”