Tough Love

Chapter Thirty-Eight

I take a deep breath and quietly sing 'Gravity' by John Mayer. I get halfway through the song before Dani whispers, “Eli?”

Thank goodness for that, she finally knows it's me. While she's nowhere near calm, she knows it is me.

“Yes baby, it's me. How you doing?”

“I can't breathe...”

“Shh, ok, ok. Don't panic sweetheart. You want to give me your hand?”

She doesn't want to, I can see it, but she's scared. She's scared because she can't breathe and because of whatever happened. Her breathing has to take precedence or she'll pass out or die. “Baby, you need to get your breathing down. Just let me help you with that and then you can slap me, take your hand away or do whatever else you want. Just let me get your breathing and heart rate down...”

I didn't think she'd go for it, but slowly she gives me her right hand. I place it over my heart and close my eyes, using my army training to slow my own heart down. I hear her counting the beats and it feels like a lifetime before her breathing is at the higher end of normal.

She quickly snatches her hand away, but she mumbles a thank you before she does.

“You want to stay under there, baby?”

She wraps her arms even tighter around her legs and her grip on my gun is stronger. “Don't panic, Dani. You can stay there if you want to. I'm not going to leave you on your own. I'm here now and I'm staying...”

She lets out a sob and she whispers, “No one was here....”

I thought my heart couldn't break any more, but upon hearing her broken tone and her despair it obviously can. I feel awful. Whatever went down probably wouldn't have happened if people were nearby. I can't even think about what happened yet. I might just rip that gun out of her hands and use it on someone.

I whisper, “I'm sorry, sweetheart. I'm so sorry no one was here... I have to talk to the Cap, you going to be ok for a minute?”

I go to move away and she nearly screams, “No!”

“What? What's wrong?”

“Don't leave me, please... He'll come back.... Please....”

“Shhh, ok, ok. I'm not going anywhere. Just hold onto my gun, Dani. I'll stay right here.”

I sit on the floor by her desk, not really knowing what to do. I obviously can't discuss anything with the Cap in front of her because it might set her off again, but the Cap doesn't think about that. He just walks over to me and stands by my knee as he asks, “What's going on, Eli?”

I sigh, deep and heavy. “Honestly sir, I don't know. I think you're probably more in the loop than I am here. No, I still can't hear about it, please. I have to get her home, but I don't think she's ready to go just yet. And no, I don't know when that will be.”

The Cap whispers, “I need to get him out of here...”

“Which one?”

“Which one do you think?”

“Well, they both don't have a great track record when it comes to Dani, do they?”

“No, I guess not. I couldn't have contained this without Cain here though.”

“I'll have to thank him for that later...”

“Eli?”

I turn to face Dani again. She shakily hands me my gun and whispers, “Thank you. You can use it better than me...”