Home Goes The Warrior (3 page)

With the introductions out of the way, Lee asked the steward on duty, Jose, for a pitcher of iced tea and some glasses. The group found seats on the couches that lined the wardroom walls and began small talk. Henry had served as an enlisted sailor during the Korean conflict, so he was interested in Lee’s enlisted-to-officer career and they were able to talk freely. Pearl soon became bored with the man-talk and asked Maggie about her life as a Navy nurse. The conversation evolved to the parent’s natural concern for their son and his potential for a Navy career. At about this time, Jose announced that the evening meal would be served. They all moved to the long wardroom table and found seats.

Pearl was astounded at the place settings. “My gosh. Do you eat this way every day? This silverware is pure silver, and these plates are very good china!”

Lee chuckled at that. He’d heard the same reaction from countless wardroom visitors. “The silver is used every day. But if the weather’s heavy and the ship is unstable, we don’t use good china.”

Jose interrupted by serving the evening meal that he had prepared. Lee had asked for a salmon dinner because he knew that Maggie didn’t care for red meat. The steward, a native of the Philippines, had been cooking for wardrooms for several years. He liked Lee, so he had outdone himself this night. He had given the meal extra attention and it showed. Pearl couldn’t stop complimenting everything in sight. Henry and his son just shoveled it in. Both Lee and Maggie found the visitors’ reaction amusing and they kept the conversation going.

When Jose came out with Baked Alaska for desert, even Lee was surprised. “Jose, you must have been breaking your hump all day on this meal. This is wonderful! But didn’t you have anyone here to visit today?”

The Filipino smiled bashfully, “Thanks, Mr. Lee. No, I tell the family stay home today. I have duty and I know I be busy, so I tell them stay home.”

Lee knew that Jose had a wife and four children. The little steward had shown him pictures when the last child was born about three months ago, while the ship was deployed. He didn’t hesitate. “Jose, go get into your dress uniform and go home. I know how to work the dishwasher, and I’ll take care of the dishes. Get out of here. Your family deserves better than this.” Jose tried to resist, but Lee was adamant. Maggie and the Jennings family added their support, and soon a grateful Jose was on his way.

With Jose gone, Henry turned to address his son, the ensign. “Son, you just saw an example of real Navy leadership.” His wife chimed in with, “Do unto others.” With that they all attacked their desserts.

With dinner done, everyone cheerfully carried their plates and place settings to the pass-through window to the galley. Pearl wanted to come into the galley to help with the dishes, but Lee told her that the space was too small and the equipment was unique to the Navy. Instead, he and Maggie moved into the little galley and went to work. Soon all the dishes were in the washer and the counters were wiped clean. Lee started the dishwasher and lowered the metal shield that closed the pass-through window and isolated the galley from the wardroom. Then he moved to the galley door and deftly locked it.

Turning, he smiled at Maggie. She needed no further encouragement. Her kiss was as deep as before, and her body was pressed even tighter, if that were possible. Their loins ground into one another, with neither giving ground. Soon Maggie’s hands were on his belt, fumbling madly. His hand came up to cup her breast, and a soft moan broke out from deep in her throat. He swiftly unbuttoned her blouse and flipped her bra up, cupping the soft firmness with an eager hand.

She finally got past the belt and buttons on the front of his uniform pants. Her hands were still cold from rinsing the dishes, and they drew a gasp from him. She moaned again. “Good Lord, it’s even bigger than I remembered! What are you feeding this thing?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, his mouth found hers as his hand eased downward from her breast to her firm bottom. He began slowly edging her skirt up toward her hips. When the offending skirt was sufficiently high, his left hand held it there while his right moved around, seeking the panties that guarded his destination. She pulled her head back from his long enough to whisper, “Surprise.” Instead of cloth, Lee found his hand holding a fully aroused mound while his fingers slipped into warm moistness. Again that moan from deep within her.

With a little leap, her legs were around him. He swiftly extricated his fingers and grabbed her back to hold her in place. Her hands stayed where they had been, now using that grip to guide him to her softness. He felt the tip slide into place and he pulled back slightly, rotating his hips and teasing her. “Goddamn you! Goddamn you! Goddamn you!” She was trying not to scream now. It was time. With one huge thrust, Lee sheathed himself to the hilt. Now she did scream, a scream that she instinctively muffled. Lee was equally over come, but he did have time to think,
Man, I’m glad that dishwasher is so damned noisy!

Happily, neither of them could see the sly grins that passed between Pearl and Henry out in the wardroom. As luck would have it, their son was out of the room for a moment, and he missed the short-lived but unmistakable sounds from the kitchen.

CHAPTER TWO - A TOP-SECRET VISIT

ee knew he was probably keeping Maggie awake as he tossed and turned, but his mind just wouldn’t turn off. It’d been three weeks since the ship had returned to San Diego and he should have been transferred by now. But nothing had changed, and he still didn’t know where he was going. Those mysterious, secretive transfer orders still hadn’t been explained to him. He had tried calling his detailer, the person in the Bureau of Naval Personnel (BUPERS
¹
) who administered his transfers. But this hadn’t helped. The BUPERS officer didn’t have any answers. “All I know is that it’s something big and you were hand-picked for the job.” That just made the waiting worse.

Lee eased his way out of the little bed, causing Maggie to roll over and mutter something in her sleep. Lee grinned. These little BOQ beds certainly weren’t built for two. But they worked and the price was right. He sat in the little desk chair and pulled on his clothes to ward off the early morning chill. It was almost five in the morning and Maggie’s alarm would be going off soon.

He let his gaze rest on Maggie’s sleeping face.
God, she’s gorgeous.
The two of them had been together for almost four years now. They’d met a year before that in DaNang, Viet Nam, when she’d been part of the
team that saved his life. He’d been a chief petty officer on a river boat in the Mekong Delta when the boat had been attacked by Viet Cong. He and his crew had fought them off, but Lee, manning one of the boat’s .50-caliber machine guns, had been hit repeatedly by small arms fire. He’d stayed with the gun and by doing so his sailors said that he saved them all. Lee disputed this, saying that they had all fought together. But the indisputable truth was that he was airlifted to DaNang more dead than alive. Then, when he was finally well enough to travel, he’d been sent to San Diego Naval Hospital to recuperate.

While in DaNang, he’d been selected for promotion to lieutenant junior grade, under the Navy’s Limited Duty Officer
²
program. When he left for the States, he was an officer. He was also awarded a Silver Star for his actions on the gunboat. But the most treasured thing that he took with him was the memory of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

As he watched her sleep, his mind wandered, revisiting DaNang, where he had silently watched her work, going from patient to patient as his damaged body slowly got well enough to be sent stateside. He remembered how, when he got to San Diego, he’d really missed her. He had grown attached to the beautiful nurse in DaNang. He thought about her often as the months went by and he slowly became whole again.

Then a miracle happened. He was on a treadmill in the hospital’s therapy center when Maggie had walked in wearing her nurse’s uniform. Her Viet Nam tour of duty had come to an end and she’d been transferred to the hospital where he was recuperating. Seeing her, he stopped moving, stunned for a moment. Then, jumping off the treadmill, he’d walked over to her and asked, “Remember me?” He hadn’t waited for an answer. He took her in his arms and kissed her, long and hard.

Then he stepped back, still with her upper arms in his grasp. “I apologize if I scared you. But I’ve been thinking about you since DaNang. I swore that, if I ever saw you again, I would make sure that you didn’t forget me. You see, someday I intend to marry you.”

He hadn’t planned that. It had just blurted out. He saw her startled look and was deathly afraid that he had offended her. But she recovered and actually started laughing.

“I have to admit that I do remember you. But I didn’t realize that I’d made such an impression. Gonna marry me, eh?” Now embarrassed, he started to reply. She didn’t wait for him, saying, “I don’t think so. I don’t plan to ever marry anyone. But maybe we can be friends. Look me up when you’re able. I don’t meet many men who are so good at saying hello.” With that, she turned around and left the rehab center.

She told him later that she hadn’t expected to see him again. She said that he’d been blushing and stammering when she left him. But he’d been very serious. In just a few days, the almost-healed Lieutenant Junior-Grade Raines had come visiting the nurse’s quarters. He’d taken her to the zoo and then to Point Loma where they shared a picnic dinner and a bottle of wine. They’d been together since then, but she still hadn’t agreed to marriage. She thought it was just too hard for two Navy people to have a life together, and both of them were certain that they wanted to complete their careers.

The alarm buzzed and Maggie sat up, stretching and brushing her hair back from her face. Seeing him sitting there watching her, she smiled. She was always at her best in the morning. He smiled back.

“Has anyone told you that you’re beautiful when you’re asleep, lady?”

“Yeah, all my boyfriends - or at least the ones that just want to sit and look.” Then she ducked, laughing merrily as the pillow he threw went past her head.

Lee’s big V-8 purred effortlessly down the freeway toward the Navy base. The car, a black Shelby Mustang, was the only material possession that he owned in San Diego. He’d read about the Shelby during the long hours in the hospital bed. Then, when Maggie showed up at the hospital, he had gone out the same day and bought the car. He knew that they couldn’t go on a decent date if they had to ride the bus and he was
too proud to have to go out in her car, if she even had one. So he’d made the investment. Now, four years later, he had learned to love it dearly.

On this morning, Lee was totally lost in thought. The delays with his transfer were bothering him more than he cared to admit. Since leaving the hospital, he’d served two years as the Navy’s quality assurance officer at the shipyard in Bath, Maine. While that had been good duty and he had loved the work, he’d really missed Maggie. They had both taken leave whenever they could and had visited one another as often as possible, but the distance from Southern California to Maine had been a daunting obstacle. They’d met half-way twice: once at her parents’ home in Utah and once in Montana, where he had some very good friends.

Then there had been the last two years, years served on the cruiser that he had picked up in Maine and had brought around to San Diego. When the ship arrived in San Diego, there had been almost a full year before they deployed, a year mostly spent in San Diego. This had been a wonderful time for Lee and Maggie, but it had come to an end when the ship deployed for its recent eight-month trip to the Westpac.

Now, finally, he was back in San Diego with Maggie and he was due for duty ashore. He’d hoped for a calm tour of duty right here in town. But the mystery with his transfer orders had him worried.

He pulled up to the gate guard’s box, flashed his ID card, and returned the Marine guard’s salute. Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs, he drove onto the base and headed for the pier where his ship was berthed. He didn’t have much to do today, he reflected. His replacement, an experienced missile officer, had reported aboard last week.
Now my most important job aboard ship is to drink coffee and bitch about not having orders yet. It’s gonna drive me crazy.