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“She’s having contractions,” Larry said. “I need to check if she’s dilating.”

Lieutenant Lynn wrapped a black cuff around her arm and checked her blood pressure. “One-eighty over sixty,” he said to the doc as he scribbled her vitals into a chart.

“Deep breath in, Abby. That’s it. Don’t hold your breath.… Let it out slowly. Abby, I need you to relax and take a deep breath. I need to examine you. I want you to tell me as soon as you feel another contraction coming on, okay? Come on, legs up.”

Eric moved to stand by her head as the doc spread her legs, resting his one hand on her knee.

“You’re going to feel some pressure, Abby.”

Abby sucked in a breath, and her hands went helplessly to her chest, reaching for anything to grab.

Eric took her warm hand in his large, calloused one. “It’s all right, Abby.”

The doc pulled his hand out and ripped off his gloves, dumping them in the receptacle behind him. “The cervix has thinned, but she’s only dilated about one centimeter. Let’s just wait and see how it goes for the next little bit.”

“Am I in labor? I was dreaming. It was awful.” She was breathless as she spoke.

“Abby, you were having a nightmare, thrashing about pretty good,” Larry said. “The poor guard heard you screaming and thought someone was in here trying to hurt you. You want to tell me about it?”

Eric saw the fear light up her eyes as if she was facing the fires of hell. She shut her eyes, and a lone tear slipped out. She didn’t let go of Eric’s hand. In fact, she squeezed harder, and then she shook her head and stifled a frantic hiccup. She groaned and rolled to her side, clutching her belly, gasping for breath.

“Another contraction, Abby.
Come on, don’t hold your breath.”

“It hurts,” she moaned.

Eric could feel her starting to panic. He rubbed her shoulder and back with his other hand. “Look at me. Don’t hold your breath. Let it go.… Breathe in. Come on, that’s it. Now let it out slowly.”

She locked eyes with Eric, and he could feel how she needed him, someone to be here with her. He also she knew that whatever she dreamed had put the fear of God into her.

As soon as the contraction passed, she took a deep breath.

“Captain, can I speak with you?” the doctor asked in a low voice.

Eric stood and let go of her hand. “Abby, I’ll be right back.”

When they emerged into the hall, Eric turned toward Larry. “Doc, what happened here? I thought the baby wasn’t due for a while.” His voice was sharp, and he knew he sounded annoyed.

Larry shook his head. “The guard heard her scream and yell. When he came in, she was thrashing around. One hell of a bad dream, I’d say. It’s obvious the stress of it put her in early labor. I just examined her. The contractions are strong. It’s too early, so we have to get the contractions to stop. Best-case scenario is if they stop on their own. Keep her in bed, and help her relax. If they don’t stop, I need to give her some terbutaline. The only problem is side effects. The drug can increase the heart rate of both Abby and the baby, but right now it’s a moot point, as we don’t have it on board. We would have to have it sent over from the hospital on base in Bahrain.”

Abby groaned again and sounded as if she was almost whimpering. Eric could see the beads of sweat on her forehead, and she doubled over, clutching her belly and gritting her teeth. He could see her trying to breathe. Lieutenant Lynn was talking to her.

“That was five minutes since the last one,” Todd said to the doctor as he approached. Eric took Abby’s hand again, and she held on.

“Isn’t it too early for me to have my baby?” Her voice
trembled.

The doctor stood on the other side of the bed and leaned down so she could see him. “Listen to me. It’s early, but we’re going to try to stop it. First, though—and this is important—I need you to relax. It looks like your nightmare brought on early labor. Right now, chances are
really good that we can get it to stop. You haven’t dilated past the point of no return yet. If you continue past five centimeters or your water breaks, there will be nothing I can do to stop labor, so I need you to calm down, take some deep breaths, and try not to move. Lieutenant Lynn is going check your vitals again while I talk to the captain.”

Eric gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Listen to the doc. I’ll be right back.”

The doc stood in front of Eric with his back to Abby when he said, “By the time Todd and I got here, we heard her screaming, pleading, and crying. She was having a hell of a nightmare. This is something I’ve seen from soldiers with PTSD, and I’m talking pretty bad cases. When I woke her, her blood pressure was through the roof. She was trembling, and her eyes were wild with fear, something I can honestly say I’ve never seen before. She was so scared that I’m pretty sure it took her a minute to remember where she was. She was soaking wet, she was perspiring so much. This is the kind of stress that put her in early labor. I don’t know if we can get the contractions to stop.”

Eric ran his hands over his face. “When will you know?”

Shaking his head, the doctor let out a deep breath. “We’re going to have to play that by ear. Her water hasn’t broken, so that’s a good sign. We need to get her blood pressure down, keep her feet elevated, keep her calm, and I want to get some fluids into her. I will hook her up to an IV.”

Eric glanced over his shoulder at Abby, meeting her eyes as the lieutenant moved aside to document the vitals in the chart at the counter beside the bed.

“I’ll be staying here to keep an eye on her, so I’ll be sure to let you know of any change or if she progresses further.”

“Actually, doc, if you don’t mind, I’ll stay,” Eric said.

“All right. It could be a long night.”

“I’m up, so what can I do?” the captain asked.

“Help her relax from whatever that nightmare was that scared her so much. Help get her mind off it. I need to examine her again, see if she’s dilated any further.”

Eric nodded and followed the doc back over to Abby.

“Her blood pressure is down. Her last contraction was eight minutes ago,” said the lieutenant when they approached.

Abby
was propped up with several pillows on her side, drinking some apple juice. She finished and held up the empty cup, handing it back to the lieutenant.

Eric noticed how Abby’s hand immediately flew to her belly when a contraction started.
But this time she didn’t fight it. She reached for Eric’s hand as he helped her ride it out.

“Just relax.
Almost over, Abby.”

“It wasn’t as bad this time,” she said wearily.

“I need to examine you again and see if your cervix has dilated any more. Try and make yourself as comfortable as possible.” The doctor pulled back the blanket again.

“Okay,” she mumbled.

“Over on your back, Abby.” The doctor pulled out the pillows and helped her lie flat. This time, she blushed deep crimson as he lifted her gown and once again propped up her knees. She turned her head to the side, and Eric could almost feel her acute embarrassment, so he touched her face, the side of her head, with his long work-roughened hands.

“Okay, so far so good. You haven’t dilated any further. As long as your contractions continue fading, I’m hopeful this little guy won’t be making an appearance tonight.” He pulled her gown back down and covered her once again with the blanket, ripping off the latex gloves and disposing of them. “Check her vitals again in thirty minutes,” he said to the lieutenant.

“Yes, sir,” Todd responded.

The bright yellow and orange of the sun was just skimming the horizon when Eric finally returned to his cabin. He was tired, probably because he’d tossed and turned for hours before finally drifting off right before Petey pounded on the door, waking him. He had stayed with Abby and talked to her, telling her stories of when he had enlisted and first met Joe, what it was like during his first deployment on an aircraft carrier as a lowly sailor. That was when he had fallen in love with the sea, visiting port after port and miles of open water. Abby had watched him with joy reflecting in her eyes.

She had listened to him with her whole heart. As she relaxed, she had held his hand for hours as her contractions faded, and at dawn, she fell asleep. Eric had watched her and felt such overwhelming peace. No matter how he fought it, he realized he was beginning to care a lot for her. She was amazing, and he wanted nothing bad to ever touch her again. She wasn’t like other women he had dated. She didn’t appear to have a selfish bone in her body or a mind that worked overtime, scheming and planning or plotting for her own means. This scared the hell out of him. He was alone for a reason. He wasn’t made like Joe, to have a family. He did his own thing, and he liked that. So why was the carefully structured world he had created crumbling now?

The cabin door shook at a knock. Eric was startled, and that didn’t happen often. “What!” he barked.

Joe snapped open the door and closed it behind him, carrying another one of his damn files. He pulled out a chair on the other side of the desk and sank into it. “You look like shit. I heard about Abby. Is she all right? Did the labor stop?”

The sincerity in his voice was enough to take the edge off Eric’s irritation. What Eric really wanted at that moment, as he squeezed the tight muscles clenching up the back of his neck, was to lie down and get some sleep for a few hours. A headache was beginning to dig in at the back of his head.

“She’s resting now. Her labor seems to have stopped.” The words softened somewhat, but he heard the gruffness still in his voice.

“You look tired. Would you rather I came back later?”

Shaking his head, Eric ran his fingers over his raw, overworked eyes as he attempted to refocus. “Nope. Sorry, Joe, I’m just really tired. What is it?”

“I just heard back from Edwin, unofficially of course. It appears that Mister Seyed Hossein, our illustrious captain, appears to be looking for someone or something.”

“It’s Abby!” Eric shouted, slamming his fist down on the solid desk. “God dammit.” His weariness fled as adrenaline pulsed through his veins, pumping him faster than any shot of high-octane caffeine would. Reaching across the desk, he ripped the report from Joe. “This is un-fucking-believable. Can you believe he has the unmitigated gall to be looking for her, that motherfucker?” Eric cursed again, reading the rest of the report. “Is this information for real?”

Joe nodded slowly, eyeing Eric. “Yup, he knows how important this is. You may not like this next little bit: Edwin said the CIA suspects that Abby knows something more than she’s saying about this
guy. He kind of indicated off the record that the CIA is baffled about her disappearance. They want some answers, and he said they will be talking to her. They’re aware you’re keeping her here on board, by the way.” Joe paused, looking directly at Eric before continuing. “Edwin also said this guy may be involved with a local terrorist group—you know, boats running into our boats to blow them up—and maybe Abby knows a whole lot more about it. Could even be involved.”

That last had his gut sinking as if a boulder
had been dumped into it. An icy chill raced up his spine because he knew the CIA were famous for using the innocent, and he was truly afraid of what they’d do to her. “Shit!” Eric pushed out of his chair, feeling as if he had aged ten years. Panic threatened to nip at his heels, so he started pacing around his desk and stopped in front of Joe, then tossed the file he squeezed in his hands back on the desk.

Walking over to the couch, he flopped heavily and sank back into the leather cushion. He sank all ten fingers into his short dark hair and fingered it back until he was positive it standing on its ends.

“You know she needs protection,” Joe said. “Have you thought about maybe moving her to the base in Bahrain? They could protect her there.”

Eric didn’t look up when he said, “No, she’s staying here. This is the safest place for her.” He waved a hand to stop any further talk on the subject. “I spoke with Doc a while ago. She’s too far along to be moved safely today, anyway, and with this little bit of information, there’s no way I’m sending her ashore. If I did, you and I know the CIA would be in there like a dirty shirt and grab her, and then what would happen to her? No, for now she’s under my protection, and she
stays right here until it’s safe for her to be moved someplace where the CIA isn’t going to swoop in and take her.”

Joe slid out of the chair and joined him, taking one of the chairs by the couch and crossing his long legs out in front of him, tapping the arm of the chair. “Eric, I’ve never known you to have feelings for a girl, especially a girl like this. Are you
sure it’s not just pity because this situation is so volatile? What she’s been through would really mess up a person. What do you think you can do for her? This baby—look at the violence in how it was conceived. Does she even want to keep it? Have you asked her this? What do you really know?”

Eric shut his eyes and leaned his head back. Everything Joe said had gone through his mind. He also hated the nitpicking and the tough love that Joe sometimes used on him. Sometimes, he was worse than a damn
woman. “Shit, Joe, back off. I don’t know. I’m tired, and if you’d seen the kind of fear in her eyes that I did, I think you’d be doing the same thing.”