Joint Forces (4 page)

Layered clothes weren't helping him much today on a number of counts.

Teenage hormones totally sucked.

But he couldn't go home, not yet. He needed to give his parents time alone. Maybe then his mom would finally tell his old man why she'd been puking her guts up every morning for the past couple of months.

Her stomach was already poking out a little and still she didn't say a thing to anybody about being pregnant.

She must think he was a clueless bonehead like his dad.

Chris turned off his cell phone so his parents couldn't razz him about coming home and snagged his CD

case. He would hang with Shelby and Murdoch for a while, and pretend everything was okay. Pretend that his parents weren't splitting. That he didn't love a girl who belonged to his best friend.

And most of all, pretend he wasn't hiding from a threat in his life that even tall John Murdoch couldn't warn away.

* * *

Pain jabbed from her ankle up her thigh. Rena gripped the edges of the gurney, taking mental inventory of her body as much as her muddled brain would let her while she stared up at the entrancing sway of oak branches overhead.

An air splint immobilized her foot. Her teeth cut deeper into her lip to bite back the need to cry out. She couldn't have pain meds anyway because of the baby. Besides, she welcomed the ache that kept her conscious and reminded her she didn't hurt anywhere else, like her stomach.

Her baby.

Rena gripped the gurney tighter. Love and protectiveness for this new little life surged through her until the pain faded. She'd barely allowed herself to think about this baby she and J.T. had made the night he'd returned from Rubistan.

She had to tell the paramedics about her pregnancy soon, but her mind was so woozy. She would explain once J.T. was safely off to the side, rather than risk springing it on him without warning.

Why hadn't she told him sooner? It wasn't as if she was waiting for a miraculous reunion first. She would have to tell him, today, but later in her hospital room, away from the others, when he wasn't about to crack a crown from clenching his teeth.

If only he would step away, but J.T. always did his duty, and being by his wife's side right now would rank right up there as a responsibility.

A car door slammed. She couldn't turn her head to see.

"Tag!"

A voice. Who? Her muddled mind sorted through… Bo Rokowsky, a member of her husband's squadron.

Bo would make the perfect distraction to keep J.T. occupied at the moment.

She patted his arm. "Go talk to Bo. I'm fine."

J.T.'s scowling eyes flicked from the uniformed workers back to her before he finally nodded. "Okay.

But I'll only be a few yards away if you need anything."

"I know. Thanks." She tracked his towering body retreating as best she could without moving her head until he disappeared.

She opened her mouth to tell the paramedic about the baby—

"Ow!" Her foot jerked in the paramedic's grasp.

J.T. landed right back in her line of sight. "What's going on? Is it broken?"

"We won't know for sure until we get X rays, sir," the paramedic answered.

X rays? Not while she was pregnant. And especially not during her first trimester. Pain flashed through her foot again. A whimper slipped free.

The paramedic called to his partner, "Seventy-five milligrams, Demerol."

"What?" Rena struggled to understand through her pounding head.

"Just something to help you with the pain, ma'am." The uniformed man swung toward her with a syringe.

"No!" she shouted involuntarily.

J.T. stepped closer. "Yes. Do whatever she needs. Rena, you don't have to grit through this."

Oh, hell. She needed to spit this out fast and quiet to the paramedic. "I can't take any medications."

"Ma'am, really, this will help settle you." The syringe hovered closer to her arm.

Damn. Damn. Damn. No more time for quiet, reasonable explanations.

Rena inhaled a deep breath that stretched achy ribs. "I'm not agitated. Just pregnant."

* * *

Boots rooted to the ground, J.T. watched Rena being loaded into the EMS transport. She stared back at him apologetically without speaking. There wasn't time or privacy to talk anyway since the paramedics had moved even faster after her surprise announcement. A whole new set of medical concerns piled on now that they knew she was pregnant.

Pregnant.

The lone word knocked around inside his brain along with anger at Rena for her secrecy—and an undeniable surge of protectiveness for this new child. J.T. braced a hand against the oak-tree trunk, forced his breaths to stay even.

Rena was pregnant. Again. Well, they'd sure celebrated one hell of a reunion after his return from Rubistan. One with apparently lasting results.

More of that protectiveness chugged through him. Five minutes ago, he hadn't known this kid existed.

Now he did and that changed everything.

He understood Rena well after twenty-two years, and she was too proud to let him back in the house because of the baby. The woman carried around enough pride to break the average human being.

The EMS truck lights cranked on. He pushed away from the roughened oak, tossed a quick farewell and thanks to Bo before stalking toward his truck.

J.T. slid inside and slammed the door. Shifting into drive, he steered off the curb to follow the fire department's EMS down the tree-lined street.

He would have to tread warily with his wife. Because damn it, he wasn't walking away from her now any more than he would have twenty-two years ago when she'd been pregnant with their daughter. He may not have planned on this kid, but already it lined itself right up there equally with Nikki and Chris in importance.

And what about his feelings for Rena? The gut-shredding fear he'd felt when the van started toward her?

The pine-scented air freshener dangled from his rearview mirror, swayed hypnotically while images of the wreck pounded through his brain.

He couldn't think of that. Not with so much at stake and convincing her likely to be a hellacious battle.

Safer to focus on the work ahead of him.

Priorities in order, he fixed his mind on a dual mission as unwavering as his path behind the emergency vehicle. He had a family to patch together. And a niggling question to solve.

Why had the van swerved deliberately toward Rena's car, rather than away?

T
ucked into her hospital bed, Rena extended her arm for the nurse's routine blood pressure check, antiseptic air making her long for the scents of home and the comfort of her own bed to gather her thoughts. Her foot throbbed from the sprain and four stitches, but her baby was okay and that's all that really mattered.

And J.T.?

She would face the fallout with him soon enough, once everyone left. Doctors, crewdogs, their spouses.

There hadn't been a minute to talk between all the visitors and giving police statements during what was turning into the longest evening of her life.

Longest?

Well, except for when she'd waited to hear if her husband had been located after his emergency landing in Rubistan. Since J.T. was the only married crew member, the squadron commander had come to her house along with another flier's wife to tell her…

The plane had gone missing. Shot down. A special ops reconnaissance helicopter had been deployed.

Hours had felt like years.

Okay, so this was the second longest evening in her life.

Tap. Tap.

Rena looked toward the door, adjusted her hospital gown. "Come in."

The door creaked open, a blond head peeking around—Julia Dawson, the wife of the previous squadron commander, an approachable down-to-earth woman in spite of their husbands' differing ranks. "Hey, there. Is it okay to visit now?"

The nurse patted Rena's arm. "Everything looks good. I'll come back later for the rest so you can visit with your friend." She circled round the empty bed in the semiprivate room on her way to the door. "Buzz if you need anything."

"Thank you." She definitely could use a friend today more than anything the hospital offered.

Canvas bag swinging from her shoulder, Julia rushed inside and swooped over for a quick hug, already lighting toward the closest chair before Rena could blink.

The leggy blond plopped into a seat beside the bed, one foot tucked under her, casually, just like her unassuming jean overalls. "Are you okay? Really? It scared me to death when I got to the support group meeting and heard what happened. I mean, God, just hours ago we were picking up Chris's car at the shop, talking about the guest speaker for tonight's meeting."

"I'm fine. Really. Just achy and shaken, but okay. I hope the meeting went ahead without me."

Julia waggled her hand. "The speaker talked, but who could listen? We were worried."

A regular at the base support group meetings for parents of special-needs children, Julia attended because her son had been born with Down syndrome. The weekly gatherings had forged a friendship with Julia that went beyond their husbands' shared profession.

The friendship between the two women had deepened into an unbreakable bond the evening Julia waited with Rena for news about J.T. Heaven only knew what it had cost the woman to stay that night, since Julia had lost her first husband to a crash.

Rena's fingers clenched around the sterile white blanket. She could never repay the gift of her comforting presence. Of course, Julia insisted friendship was priceless.

"Oh, before I forget." Julia leaned to scoop her oversize canvas bag from the floor and rummaged inside.

She pulled out a lemon-yellow gift bag. "Present for you."

"You didn't need to do this. But thank you."

Julia's blue eyes twinkled as she thrust the bag forward. "Open it."

Rena grasped the top. The bag clanked and she tucked a cradling palm underneath before she peeked inside to find… "Nail polish?" Lots of it. In a rainbow assortment of colors. "How fun!"

And unusual, but then Julia Dawson was one of the most refreshingly unconventional people she'd been blessed with knowing.

"Soon you won't be able to see your toes." Julia wriggled her toes in her Birkenstocks, blue sparkly nails glinting. "So you might as well enjoy them now."

The bag clanked to Rena's lap. "Word got around about my pregnancy that fast?"

"Bo's a walking megaphone. Half the squadron's out there checking up on you and congratulating Tag."

Great. Just what she needed, more tension heaped on him before their discussion. "How thoughtful."

"Are you sure nothing's wrong?" Julia straightened, her sandaled foot swinging from under her to the floor. "Should I call the nurse?"

"No need. I'm fine. Just worried about J.T."

"He's holding up well. Although he's worried about you, too, and driving the police crazy with his push for more manpower checking out the accident. They're convinced it was probably a drunk driver."

"Hmm." That explained why J.T. hadn't been in to see her yet. His absence hurt more than she wanted to admit when she should be grateful for the temporary reprieve.

"I hadn't told him about the baby yet," Rena blurted. Why had she spilled that? At least Julia could be trusted not to gossip.

"Oh no."

"Oh yes."

"Men don't like secrets."

Rena knotted her fingers tighter in the blanket. "Nope."

Julia looked down and away, fidgeted with an arrangement of daisies and carnations by the bed. "I thought since you were pregnant that meant you two had reconciled."

"Brief reunion when he returned from Rubistan. And well—" shrug "—here I am. A knocked-up forty-year-old."

Julia abandoned the flowers and leaned in for another hug, held tight for an extra minute. "Ah, sweetie, I'm so sorry things aren't happier for you right now."

Rena fought the sting of tears that couldn't be totally attributed to hormones. "He's going to want to come home because of this."

Julia eased back. "And you don't want that?"

"Things were bad before. How will they magically get better when I know he's only there because I'm pregnant?"

"Raising a kid alone is tough." Julia and her current husband had in fact married for their children from previous marriages, both finding single parenthood overwhelming. And somehow they'd discovered love.

Except they'd been friends first, with common dreams and hopes.

Rena's marriage of convenience had started with no such foundation.

Still, the woman's words dinged Rena's resolve. So many years had passed since she'd brought a baby into the world. Did she even have the energy to chase a toddler around the house again? And late-night feedings for a newborn. It had all been hard enough even with J.T.'s help.

She couldn't actually be considering…

Of course, her emotions weren't clear-cut. Being ready to sign divorce papers didn't erase twenty-two years of history with the man. He was the father of her children. She'd once loved him.

Now she didn't know what she felt for him anymore. Their marriage had crumbled slowly over twenty-two years from the stress of job separations, financial strains followed by his dogged determination not to touch her income.

She'd been on the fence when she tossed him out six months ago. But when he'd left her at a time they should have clung to each other more than ever, she'd known. They didn't have what it took for the long haul. The children had been their only common link.

Well, that and hot sex.

"J.T. and I
are
getting a divorce. Of course, we'll have to redo the divorce papers anyway to include the new baby."

"You don't have to do anything but take care of yourself. It's been a nightmarish few months for you two.

Give yourself time to let it all settle out. Nothing has to be decided today or even tomorrow. Paint your nails to pretty up that injured foot. Let us pamper you." Julia waved the air over Rena's toes peeking free from the Ace bandage wrap. "It's not like you can get around much anyway."