The Rescue

The next morning Michelle wakes up from another restful night of sleep upon opening her eyes, she sees my face mere inches from hers. Our bodies sought out each other and became entangled together sometime in the night. When her first thought isn't to untangle herself and get as far away as possible she smiles to herself.

"God, I want him to kiss me again," She thinks as she takes several moments studying my face. "No Michelle, talk first. We have to talk first about what happened and then... then I want him to kiss me. Jesus, I sound like a twelve year old with her first crush. Snap out of it, you're a twenty seven year old woman with a doctorate for God's sake. Still, it feels really nice being held like this by him wonder if he'd feel the same way though?"

Gradually the pain in my wound shoulder grows enough to wake me up. I open my eyes and am surprised that Michelle's so close. She smiles and whispers.

"Morning."

"Uh... good morning?" I ask not moving.

"I think so," She answers also not moving. "How do you feel?"

"Great. Uh, I mean my shoulder's sore but I'm really great right now."

"Me too... I mean my shoulder isn't hurting but I feel great too. I guess I should have a look at your shoulder huh?"

"That can wait a few more minutes right?"

She smiles. "Maybe just a few," She closes her eyes and snuggles her head right under my chin. We lay here like this for several minutes just enjoying the closeness of each other before she raises her head.

"I think I should check that shoulder now Kenny."

"Do you really have to do that now?" I ask.

"Yep, I really do."

Reluctantly I extract myself from this beautiful woman and sit up on the bed. A glance down and I can see why she makes her abrupt departure because the sheet is tenting over my lower half. She climbs out of the bed and relights the bedside lamp so she can see better.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry! It's not what you think, I mean it is what you think obviously, but it's not because of you," I tell her bundling the sheet over me so my erection doesn't look so pronounced.

"It's not huh? Way to make a girl feel wanted Kenny," She says laughing.

"That's not what I meant Michelle," I respond flustered.

"It happens, I know that. Don't worry about it," She tells me hiding her smile.

"I am sorry though."

"Apology accepted from the both of you. That is if he plans on going back down anytime soon."

I glance down and see the sheet is still tented. "Just give him a second and he'll get the memo I'm sure."

"He will once I start checking out your wound this morning, unless you're into pain for some reason."

"Not into pain in the least," I assure her. Just thinking about it my little soldier begins to deflate.

Michelle notices and smiles. "See you later big guy," She almost says aloud but then thinks better of it and asks instead. "Which side hurts or is it both?" She asks.

"My left on hurts all over and my right one's kind of numb but that's probably from...," I let the statement die there but we both look at the pillows.

"From me using it as a pillow? I'm sorry about that Kenny. I shouldn't have done that."

"I'm the one that should be apologizing Michelle. I promise no groping and you wake with me draped all over you not mention a certain appendage of mine poking you not so politely."

"I liked it," She interrupts me as she peels off my bandages.

"You liked it?" I ask.

"The erection was a little much to deal with but being close to you was nice. There are plenty of worse ways to wake up, believe me."

I nod. "I guess there are."

"I hope we are not disturbing you," Rhadi says as she enters the hut.

"No Rhadi, everything's... fine now," Michelle tells her peeking down to the sheet that's covering my privates it's tenting no longer able to be seen. "We were just talking about the past."

"If you live in the past, you will miss the now," Rhadi says. "Sorry, it's an old saying that my father used to tell me when I was younger."

"Your father sounds like a smart man Rhadi," I tell her.

"Thank you, he was. He even had a gift that he passed on to Yacine."

"She sees the future," Michelle explains and then adds when she sees my disbelieving face. "I doubted it too but she said that Mr. Death was going to come and rescue me. Here you are."

"Mr. Death?"

"I said the Right Arm of Death not Mr. Death," Yacine says as she enters. She walks over and taps my Eddie tattoo. "See, Death on his right arm."

"Wow, okay. That's sort of neat and unnerving at the same time," I tell her.

"Why unnerving?" She asks me as Michelle continues to probe around my wounds.

"Some people don't want to know what's coming Yacine. They prefer to live life as it comes to them and not know what's around the next corner," Rhadi explains.

Yacine nods. "I am sorry if I offended you Mr. Kenny."

"I wasn't offended little one just tell me one thing."

"Of course."

"Do I get this one home safe and sound?" I ask nodding towards Michelle.

Yacine closes her eyes and seems to be concentrating for a moment then slowly opens her eyes.

"I see Miss Michelle on a beach in a beautiful white gown. She is so happy and feels so loved by all of those around her. Before that however," She states.

"Stop right there little one, if I get her home safe then that's all I need to know. The rest I'll take on as it comes. We should probably be getting on the move if we want to catch our ride home."

"Ever since you mentioned home, I can't imagine what mom and dad must be going through right now. The way we lost dad and now this, then there's Bryce, I don't think he's ever lost anyone he was close to."

"He still hasn't and as soon as we get someplace safe you'll call them and let them know. If all goes right, I should be getting you home in the next couple of days or so." I tell her.

She eyes me skeptically for a moment. "You call getting shot and the Aid station blowing up going right?"

"All part of the plan," I tell her.

She pauses then breaks into laughter and I join her.

"That is one elaborate plan Kenny," She tells me after she finishes laughing.

"Well I never was one to do anything half assed," I tell her getting her to grin.

"Thank you. I haven't laughed like that in a while."

"You have a great laugh. It is good to hear it from you," Rhadi says.

"This one brings it out in me," She tells them. "He's always been able to make me smile."

"You have a great smile, I've told you that."

"She does. I am going to miss it when you leave us," Yacine says.

"I've got to get home to my family sweetie," Michelle says hugging her. Yacine hugs her back tightly and I can see the tears welling up in Michelle's eyes. "I'll miss you so much Yacine."

"I will miss you too Miss Michelle but... I know that I will see you again," She says.

"The spirits again," Michelle asks and she nods. "I'll trust them to be right, okay?"

"Okay," She says and turns to me. "You take care of Miss Michelle, she is very special."

"I will little one. She's very special to me as well," I tell her.

She hugs me and whispers in my ear. "You will make her very happy, I have seen this."

"I'll do my best," I tell her and Michelle and I get to our feet.

Michelle hugs Rhadi and tells her. "Thank you for everything. We wouldn't have made it without your help or your family."

"Yes we're indebted to you for all that you did to help us," I add shaking Demba's hand.

"You have helped us when we were sick." She says to Michelle. "And freed us from the devil Ballo," She says to me. "Our village and we did only what we could to provide you with help and healing as a small token of friendship and of our thanks to you both."

"We thank you for all that you, your family and your village has done for us," I tell Rhadi and she translates. "We are humbled by your kindness and hospitality."

"Thank you so much," Michelle tells him as she hugs him. "I wish we could do more."

"You must go home," Rhadi says. "Like he says, your family must miss you very much."

Michelle nods. "I know."

She turns to me. "Shall we?"

I nod and go gather my gear from the hut. Once I return it seems the entire village has come out to see us off. I lose count of how many people Michelle hugs but I think that it's every single person that lives here. Finally, we're able to wave goodbye before heading out into the jungle towards the dock and to where I hope our boat will be waiting.

Progress is slow because I choose not to use the paths for fear that the guys that showed up at the village might still be out here looking for us. The vegetation is thick and the ground is covered in gnarled roots making walking treacherous. I've been nearly tripped up a dozen or so times and from the sounds behind me, Michelle's faring just as well. A sound off to our right causes me to stop, too bad Michelle doesn't and tumbles right into me. Without thinking I reach out with my wounded arm and grab a nearby tree to keep us from falling.

"Damn..." I start to say aloud then remember the noise and shut my mouth.

She begins to apologize but I shush her and point to the right. Her eyes follow my finger while her head gives a subtle nod. We wait but the only sound that we hear are the birds overhead calling out. I wait another few minutes then try to head out but she reaches out and stops me.

"You need to rest for a minute," She says pulling me towards a fallen tree.

"Nah, I'm good," I tell her as I wipe the sweat from my brow, which was a mistake because I used my bad arm to do it causing even more pain. "Son of a bitch."

"Your shoulder?"

"It's nothing, I used it to catch us and now I tried to lift it. That was a bad idea but there's supposed to be some kind of root out here that I can use as pain relief," I begin to say when I hear the unmistakable sound of a shaking pill bottle.

"You could just use these." I turn and see her holding up a Tylenol bottle. "I came prepared Kenny so just sit and take a breather," She says making damn sure; I know that it isn't a suggestion.

I relent and take a seat while she rummages through the pack for the bottled waters Yacine packed for us. She hands me one and I down half the bottle in my first drink.

"Take three of these before you drink all the water," She tells me.

I pop the pills finishing off the bottle as I do. "Do you want another one?"

"Want yes but we should conserve as much as we can just in case," I tell her but she hands me a second bottle anyway.

"You lost a lot of blood; I don't want you dehydrating on top of everything else," She tells me.

I would argue with her but I'm not feeling up to the challenge.

"Split it?" I ask and she nods.

I drink about half, slower this time savoring it. The only sounds around us are those of the native birds and the occasional screech of the monkey population. I hand Michelle the bottle and she takes her time drinking it down.

"If I apologize to you are things going to get weird between us?" she asks unexpectedly.

"You mean weirder than it already is since my erection was saluting you this morning. I don't think it can get much worse than that," I tell her.

"I told you that I understood about that."

"Yeah but still I feel awkward as hell about it. And what do you think you have to apologize for? Getting kidnapped or my getting shot? Neither of those are your fault ya know?"

"It kind of is but that's not what I'm talking about," She says. "I'm talking about how I left things before."

"That was almost a year ago Michelle. The past is the past, no sense worrying about it now."

I check my watch and take a final drink of water. "We should get moving."

"Uh, okay," She says getting to her feet.

I know she isn't going to let this topic drop for very long but at least she's willing to put it off until we're in a safer location.

"So how was it on the research ship?" I ask to fill the silence between us.

"I had fun. We were lucky enough to find and tag a few Great Whites and I got some good pictures of them. I even got brave enough to touch one from the cage."

"I remember how you talked about wanting to do that, I'm glad you got the chance."

"I wanted to free dive with them so bad but with the bait and all in the water it just seemed like a bad idea at the time," She tells me.

"Yeah knowing that there's nothing between you and a twenty foot eating machine in its element is not something I would ever recommend."

"You were in that situation and nothing happened to you."

"Not by choice I wasn't. I had every shark scene in every Jaw's movie popped into my head when I saw that fin rise up."

"Even that crappy fourth one?" She asks and I can't help but laugh.

"Poor Michael Caine had to lose a bet to be in that god awful movie."

"It's still better than Eyes of Fire but not by much," She tells me.

After a few moments of silence, she asks. "And how was your move to North Myrtle?"

"Kept up while you were out there I see."

"I was in Australia Kenny, it's not the moon," She says. "Addison made sure to keep me up to date with what was going on back home when I called her. Not that I specifically asked about you or anything, uh not that I didn't want to know about you... this is hard."

"You think this is hard? You should try walking along and not asking you how you came to be dating that asshole that left you here." I think to myself but don't say it aloud convincing myself that now is not the time.

"It doesn't have to be," I tell her instead. "I told you that it's in the past, you could just drop it."

"Yeah I suppose I could but I thought you might want to talk about or at least want to know why?"

"Honestly, would it make any difference?"

She thinks for several moments before answering. "I'd like to think that it might?" she questions.

Quietly we proceed towards the dock but I can feel her gave burning a hole in the back of my head as we progress. I sigh.

"If you think it will help you get it off your chest then go ahead but keep it quiet. We've still got people out here looking for us."

"Don't remind me. I guess you should probably go first," She answers.

"Go first, but you're the one that wanted to... never mind."

I walk a few more steps wiping the sweat from my brow with the right arm this time before speaking. "When you left, I mean the way you left I was... I don't know. I was sad, angry, disappointed; pick one because I was all of it. Eventually I figured out that there wasn't anything I could about how you felt so I let you go."

"Let me go?"

"Sorry, I guess I should have said that I had to put you out of my mind and move on."

"So you came to agree that it was a mistake, us kissing I mean?"

I shake my head. "Does it look like I think it was a mistake Michelle?" It comes out a little harsher than I intended. "Sorry, don't mind me. I get irritable when I'm shot."

"It's not like I don't deserve it," She says.

I stop and turn to her. "You didn't deserve it and you didn't deserve for this to happen to you. I'm sorry as hell that it did and sorry I opened my big mouth."

"Thank you," She says accepting my apology. "I get it; you know you being mad at me like you were."

"There is one thing I don't understand; maybe you can explain it to me." I tell her.

"I can try."

"What in the world are you doing here working as nurse in some Aid Station? Last I checked you were a Marine Biologist. This part of the country doesn't even have an aquarium from my recollection."

"I still am a Marine Biologist. I guess I needed a break after Australia."

"Soaking up the sun in the Virgin Islands is a break, sipping cocktails on a beach in Key West is a break, coming to Senegal to patch up the locals is not a break," I tell her.

"Their brochure made it look a lot nicer," She jokes and I can't help but laugh.

We walk a few more feet in the jungle heat until she answers. "Honestly, I wanted to see if I made the right decision for once."

"What do you mean?"

"Before I got my degree in Marine Biology I was planning on being a nurse. Most of my freshman year I was sure that's what I was going to become but then I had a long talk with mom and dad and decided that my heart belonged to the sea so to speak. I never looked back after that. "

"Until now?"

"Yeah until now."

"And what's the verdict?"

"My heart was right. I love the sea and wouldn't trade it for anything."

We walk a few more feet before I say.

"You're always making the right decisions; I don't know why you'd think otherwise."

"I dyed my hair purple once Kenny that was not a right decision."

"No, I guess... purple, really?

"I went through a phase."

"A Prince phase?"

"No not a Prince phase... though I probably could have used that as an excuse now that you mention it."

"Point is, you know what I mean. Australia was the right decision for you."

"The decision may have been the right one but the timing of it stank," She states.

"You'll get no argument from me about that but the point is that it happened and it's done. Yes, maybe I should have come after you but I realized I can't change how you felt or how you feel about you and me, God knows I spent a lot time wishing that I could but I can't. I don't want you thinking that I did all this to try and change your mind though because I didn't."

"I know that Kenny," She states. "You did this because we're friends, or were friends."

"We're friends Michelle. I thought about your mom and pictured her having to put flowers on two empty graves... I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't stand over some piece of granite that had your name etched into it knowing that you weren't there. I just wish we'd had this conversation about four months ago and back at home not now in the middle of an African jungle."

I turn and look at her and watch as a mix of sadness and relief play upon her face. She gives me a smile but then frowns.

"You're bleeding," She says swallowing past the lump in her throat.

I glance down at my shoulder and see a slow spreading patch of red staining my shirt.

"It's just a little leak," I tell her but she's having none of it.

"Sit," She orders. Again not a suggestion so I do as she says.

She rummages through the bag for a moment until she finds the remnants of the first aid kit. "Can you get your shirt off?"

I try but find it tough going because of the way my arms been bandaged. "You can just cut it," I tell her producing my knife.

"This is the only shirt you've got left. Let me see if I can help you get it off," She says.

Gently she takes hold of the hem of my shirt and begins to lift it up. I think I catch a hint of a smile cross her face as her fingers slide over my bare flesh.

I try and fail to stifle a groan as I lift my injured arm. "You okay?" She asks.

"Yeah, I'll be all right." I tell her as she manages to get my shirt off. Laying it to the side, she holds her hand out.

"Knife," She states and I hand it to her.

Carefully she cuts away the bloody bandage so she can look. "You popped a stitch," She tells me and hands me back my knife. "Hold this for a second."

I watch as she pulls out the rubbing alcohol, needle and more bandages.

"I don't suppose this is some kind of payback is it?" I ask.

"What would I be paying you back for?" She asks dumping a good portion of the alcohol onto my wound.

I think my finger digs into the tree at least a knuckle deep as I stifle a scream of pain.

"Oh I don't know, me kissing you back then for one thing?" I ask her while my shoulder feels like someone's holding a flame to it.

She examines the area and shakes her head. "I thought that I was the one that kissed you that night? I'm going to have to put another stitch in," She says.

"Now I know this is payback," I tell her.