"No problem." No problem at all, because it gave her the perfect excuse to run from the plane before her Ziploc seal ripped.
Ripped stitches hurt like hell, and Jack was pretty sure he'd pulled one free while checking in with Blake about SSE.
Jack worked not to limp, but damned if it wasn't taking all his energy not to wince with each step closer to the medivac plane. His crash-landed aircraft loomed like a wounded soldier off to the side, the left wing mangled at the engine port. Once stripped of computer equipment, the battered aircraft would be blown up to keep it out of enemy hands.
Damn, but that hurt more than the shrapnel. And he wouldn't even be around for its destruction since he was being sent back early in the medivac. Monica wasn't budging on that edict. She'd even backed up her diagnosis with one of the other docs. Married service members flying together wasn't an issue today since he'd been injured.
And when she found out he'd messed up her handiwork... Damn. He would get an ass-chewing to go along with the ass-shooting.
Sooner, rather than later, since Monica stood outside the plane with her back to him. She braced a forearm on the side of the aircraft. Her forehead fell forward to rest on her wrist.
And then...hell. Indomitable Monica's shoulders slumped.
Fiery pain in his thigh faded and he picked up his pace toward her. The notches in her French braid had loosened over the hours, straggles teasing free with the bulk of her hair still contained enough that the vulnerable curve of her neck showed in the midmorning sun.
He cruised to a stop beside her, careful not to startle her. "Everything okay?"
She didn't move. Didn't speak. Didn't acknowledge his arrival. But since she couldn't have missed his words, he let his hand fall to rest between her shoulder blades, inched up to work a light massage at the base of her neck.
"Are you all done here? They should be finished securing the airfield soon and we can leave. Gardner and his team buddy checked in a few minutes ago. So far as they can tell, all the tunnels out have been blocked. Now they'll start searching them from the inside."
Was she asleep on her feet?
A shudder quivered through her, then echoed into another, continuing into a trembling akin to someone freezing to death in spite of the rapidly rising desert temperatures.
Screw distance. He gripped her upper arms, turned her toward him, not that she put up much resistance. She sagged against him, no tears, but still shaking with a grief that went beyond crying.
He rubbed soothing strokes over her back, murmured shushing and it's-okay platitudes that didn't mean shit, but since she wasn't pulling away he decided he must be doing something right. He tried to sort through the morning to figure out what must have...
Her sister's physical.
Damn.
How shortsighted of him to imagine finding Sydney would bring instant smiles and partying. Facing what her sister had been through must have been hell for Monica. It was hell for him right now and he didn't have the details.
But he could damn well imagine.
"She's pregnant, Jack. It happened here."
He hadn't expected that.
His hands stopped. Rage blindsided him faster than that missile. He'd been prepared to hear Sydney was raped, but... This was too much. "Ah, hell, Monica, I'm so damned sorry."
She didn't answer the obvious, just kept shaking in his arms while he held her tighter and absorbed the trembling. He wished he could soak up her pain, as well. Finally she stilled in his arms, limp against him, spent.
His chin rested on her head. Light hints of her aloe shampoo drifted through the air of sweat, dust and war. "Does Gardner know?"
"Yes, and he's okay with it. Well, as okay as anyone can be with what happened here," she said, her hot breath saturating through both his flight suit and T-shirt. "She's going to have the baby, maybe give it up for adoption."
"Do you want us to offer to raise it?"
Where had that come from? Somewhere deep. And hell if he wasn't surprised all over again. Although maybe he shouldn't be, considering Monica always inspired him to dig deeper even if he fell short of the mark sometimes.
She eased back to stare up at him with stunned wide green eyes. "Us?"
Well, she didn't have to look quite so damned surprised. "There is an us, you know. Unless all that talk earlier about loving me was bullshit."
Her shock melted with an irreverent snort. "You're such a romantic."