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“Suckered? Christ, no, I don’t feel like I’ve been suckered. I’m good at what I do as part of the Digital Team, and I’ve become damn good as an Ops Analyst too. And you know what? I’m not half-bad in the field, either. The way I see it, the more value I bring the team by being able to perform multiple roles, the better. And I like the variety of the work, too.”
“That should be an option, but it’s not one that I want right now,” she said.
“I think you need to talk with Shepherd about all of it. I have a feeling you never told him or anyone else why you don’t want to staff Ops.”
She frowned. “No, I haven’t. I’ll think about talking to him. At least I’ll have several weeks of sick leave before I have to. Caleb, do me a favor and don’t tell anyone. I will when I’m ready.”
“I won’t tell anyone, but really, think about what I said. As far as I know, you’re the only person who thinks they were suckered. If you’re really that averse to working in Ops, I’m sure Shepherd can find another place to use you as a backup if needed. And as far as West goes, you have to tell someone about him and what happened in college and that he’s the reason you haven’t submitted your coursework.”
“Okay,” she moaned. “Thank you for being my friend.”
“You know I am,” he said.
After he left, Laura Lee wondered why she’d said anything to him about any of it. She could blame it on the painkillers, but she knew that she had just needed someone to confide in. She’d stressed about it, considering all possible ways to resolve it, and hadn’t come up with anything that she thought would work. Caleb Smith and Brad Dupont were the only team members she felt close enough to talk about it with, but now that she had told Caleb, she felt even more anxious. She trusted him to keep it quiet, but what if he didn’t?
She knew she was driving herself crazy. Not what she needed while trying to recover.
The remainder of the day and the week brought many text messages with healing sentiments to her phone. The wives of both the Alpha and Delta team members each visited, as well as Michaela and Yvette. Laura Lee was surprised by the outpouring of well-wishes from everyone. She exchanged a few text messages with Brad Dupont. She understood the emotions that came with losing a father, emotions that were now swirling through Brad’s mind and heart. And she called her mom several times a day, usually after texting or talking with Brad. She was well aware that with her mom’s declining condition, each day with her mom was a gift.
After five days, Laura Lee was released from the hospital. She had oral antibiotics she’d take for another week. She was completely off all painkillers, and the drain tube was out, which hurt like a son-of-a-bitch when they pulled it out! She was just a bit sore but could get around okay.
Angel Jackson and Dahlia Jarboe, Michael Cooper’s fiancé, came to pick her up. Dahlia worked part time at the office. “So, if it’s okay with you, we’ll take you back to the apartment on nine,” Angel said. “Dahlia and I will check in on Hollyn too while she recovers, so we can make sure you’re both okay. She’s staying in Shepherd’s guest room.”
“Recovering from what?” Laura Lee asked. Hollyn was Caleb Smith’s new girlfriend, and she also was Shepherd’s niece through marriage.
“You didn’t hear?” Angel asked. “No, of course you wouldn’t have. I’ll fill you in on the drive back to HQ.”
The discharge papers were processed, and an attendant pushed the wheelchair to the curb where Dahlia waited in her car for them. Angel helped Laura Lee into the front passenger seat, which they had pushed back and slightly reclined for her. Then Angel got into the backseat behind Dahlia.
“What happened to Hollyn?” Laura Lee asked after Dahlia pulled away from the curb.
Laura Lee felt traumatized just by hearing what Hollyn had gone through a few days earlier. The team had rescued her when the lodge she was working at was attacked. Caleb Smith had donned tactical clothing and participated in the rescue mission. Hollyn had suffered a puncture wound and deep scrapes to her abdomen from a pitchfork. Even more shocking to Laura Lee was that what happened to Hollyn had nothing to do with her connection to Shepherd Security. But the fact that she had the connection to the agency, and she called Caleb to ask for help, she and a lot of other people were saved that otherwise wouldn’t have been.
“Unfortunately, there are bad people out there no matter where you go and sometimes, you randomly cross paths with them,” Angel said. She knew that all too well.
“Thank God she was able to get the call out to Caleb,” Dahlia added.
“He had to be so worried about her,” Laura Lee said. “How did Caleb end up going on the mission?” Caleb Smith was a member of the Digital Team, a former Air Force Staff Sergeant who had never seen action. And as far as she knew, he’d never said he wanted to either.
“I’m not sure,” Angel said. “But everyone said he did a great job.”
Laura Lee couldn’t wait to ask him, herself. “Is Hollyn okay? I mean mentally? That had to be very traumatic for her to go through.”
“I know Doctor Lassiter has talked to her a few times,” Angel said. “I’m sure he’ll keep treating her until she’s okay.”
Doctor Joe Lassiter was the team shrink. Everyone at Shepherd Security met with him, occasionally if nothing was going on, but for the Operators, it was more often if something had gone down during a mission. Shepherd took the mental health of the team as seriously as the medical health.
Laura Lee had never confided anything to Doctor Lassiter. She knew how to portray that she was okay, even if she wasn’t. She’d had a lot of practice over the years. The team shrink was the last person she wanted in her head, but she was also sure that if she told Shepherd about Harrison West, she would be ordered to talk to Joe Lassiter about him and everything that happened. That was one more tick mark on the side of not telling Shepherd about it.
Before she knew it, Dahlia pulled her car into the parking garage beside the Shepherd Security building. She drove down to sub-basement parking level two, past the security gate and two garage doors that cordoned their private and secure parking garage off from the public parking structure. The car pulled up in front of the elevator door and the door to the stairs where a wheelchair sat.
“I can walk to the elevator and to the apartment,” Laura Lee said. “They had me doing laps around the unit in the hospital.”
“Doc’s orders,” Angel said.
“Isn’t he still in Colorado?”
“Yes, but he’s still on top of things here,” Angel said. “We’ll use the wheelchair. No use pushing it. You’re still recovering.”
