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“Doctor Knight, it’s time we left. Say goodbye to the lady.”
I feel him bristle in my arms. He hates them. He hates this. This is Daniel, sacrificing himself again, no matter how much it hurts, because he thinks it’s good for me.
“I won’t leave. I’ll kick and I’ll scream and I’ll…”
“Briar, please…” he says. “I’ll get leave at some point. I’ll come and see you.”
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
That’s not good enough. And this can’t be how this ends. But it is how it’s ending. They’re taking him from me, and there’s nothing I can do.
“It’s time to go, Doctor Knight.”
“Briar,” he says, his voice husky with emotion. “Please…”
He’s asking me not to make this harder. Maybe that’s the only thing I can do for him now. Maybe I can try to make this sacrifice a little easier for him. I let go, with the most reluctance I’ve ever felt in my life, and I watch as he is escorted away, his massive form moving between two lesser men. He could crush them both, but he won’t, because it’s my freedom that hangs in the balance. Not his. His is gone.
“Don’t you fucking touch me!” I snap the words as the soldier next to me tries to lead me away.
“Don’t make a scene, ma’am.”
Oh, I’m going to make a scene. I’m going to make the kind of scene that they won’t be able to ignore.
Chapter Thirteen
One month later…
“Free Doctor Knight!” I wave my placard high and I scream at the top of my lungs into a megaphone that makes my thin, hoarse tones go a little further.
I’m standing outside the barbed wire fence that surrounds the base where I last saw Daniel. Megaphone in one hand, placard in the other, I am a one-woman protest movement. This is ineffectual, but it’s all I can really do for him. I betrayed Daniel’s trust. I didn’t listen to him. I didn’t trust him. And now they have him. I don’t know if he’s still in this camp, or if they’ve moved him. I do know that I’m never going to stop looking for him, trying to get to him.
“Ma’am, you need to vacate this area.” A man in a helmet with the letters MP is approaching me. He’s saying what he always says.
“I’m not leaving until you release Daniel. He’s done nothing wrong.” I’m saying what I always say.
“Ma’am, you’re trespassing. You will be arrested if necessary.”
“Take me in if you have to. I don’t care.”
We’ve played this game before. We both know how it ends.
He grabs me and spins me around. The cuffs go on. Cold and hard. Then he marches me to the holding cell they use for arresting civilians. There used to be anti-war protesters in here. I can see the peace signs scratched into the concrete here and there. They’re long gone, and war is still here, so I don’t know what that says about anything.
“Hold her until the PD gets here,” the officer says to the soldier manning the desk. “Recommend a mental health hold.”
“Fuck you, I’m not crazy!”
They shut the door and leave me sitting there, helplessly. I’ve never had to fight for anything in my life. I’ve never had to work for anything either. Now I have to work and fight and I don’t know how. Everything I think to do seems so ineffective. One woman can’t win against an entire military. I’ve lost Daniel. Probably forever. For a second time, I’ve hurt him so badly he might never recover. All he wanted was my help, and I utterly fucked him over. I’ve been writing every commander in this place. In the end, they outright told me that the way they tracked us down was through that call I made when I decided I knew better than Daniel, that he was just paranoid.
I start to sob, crying tears of regret that don’t make me seem any more sane.
“You have to stop this, ma’am. Doctor Knight isn’t based here. Hasn’t been from the beginning.”
A kind, but gruff voice interrupts my tears. I look up to see that they’ve gone and gotten the boss again.
The commanding officer of this place is actually a decent guy. Silver-haired and more calm than most soldiers, he’s dealt with these meltdowns every day since they took Daniel. We’re starting to have a relationship of sorts.
“He’s serving his country, ma’am. Maybe you can let him do that.”
“Against his will!”
“I reckon he made his choices best way he could. Just like we all do. Just like you need to do. You’re too pretty to waste your life yelling at a fence.”
It’s all so simple for him. I should just give up and go home. I should just stop fighting.
“If someone took your wife away from you, would you just accept it? Or would you yell at every fence you had to until you got her back?”
