Healing (General's Daughter Book 5) (16 page)

“How long have you been trench diving, Samantha?”

“Since we got back from the cruise, Daddy,” she admitted. He stood up, excused himself, and left the dining hall without another word.

Rich looked at Sam. “Methinks you are ground beef, milady.”

“Methinks you are correct, sir knight,” she responded back with a loud sigh. “But it would have come out eventually. Except NOW what do I do? He’s on his way to tell Scott.”

“Don’t know. How can I help?”

“Run away with me? Far away—” Her transmitter buzzed. “Lt. Quimby.”

“In my office, now.”

“Yes, sir. On my way.” She sighed, “Well, so much for our weekend together. Time for my hanging.”

The two entered HQ and walked up the stairs to the base commanders’ offices. Scott’s secretary greeted them with a smile. “Good afternoon, lieutenants. Here to see the general?”

Sam made a hanging gesture and walked down the hall to knock on the heavy wood door with Scott’s name on it. She and Rich walked in upon his “enter” and stood at attention before his desk where he and Dr. Quimby sat.

“I don’t recall sending for Lt. Lewis,” Scott said gruffly. “At ease, both of you. Richard, you go sit down over there.”

“Yes, sir,” Rich said, taking a seat along the wall. Sam stayed standing, trying not to look as afraid as she felt.

Scott walked around her, eyeing her from head to toe. “Eyes forward. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t thrash the hell out of you right now, Samantha.”

“I can give you three, Uncle Scott,” Sam answered quietly, ignoring the rhetorical nature of the remark.

“Oh really? I’m listening.”

“First, it was my father’s command not to go that deep, not yours. Therefore, it would be his responsibility, not yours.”

“True. Continue.”

“Second, I did it with the agreement that I would cease immediately if I felt any unusual symptoms or if Ton sensed anything unusual. That did not occur. I was fully supervised.”

“And the third?”

“The third reason is that I need to know my limits. God forbid anything ever happens again like what caused this whole thing in the first place; I need to know how far I can go to help someone. That’s my job and only I can do it.”

“So you felt that disobeying my orders was justified?” Dr. Quimby asked, joining Scott in staring down at her.

“No sir, not justified, but necessary. I wouldn’t do something like that just because I felt like it. Daddy, you compete in Iron Man. How do you know when you’ve reached your limits or met your full potential? You run that extra mile, right?”

“I don’t put my life at risk.”

“How do you know? Your heart could suddenly call it quits, right? None of us know, but we trust our body’s ability to warn us if we push it. My limits are simply different than yours. I could run that marathon and suddenly not be able to breathe because of my limitations. We don’t know.”

“I’m not at all happy with you right now.”

“Me neither,” Scott added.

Sam dropped her eyes to the ground. “I know. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. That doesn’t change the fact that I’m safe at that level. Or my belief that I can go deeper.”

“No more of that. You will test in the compression tanks first. If your father decides you can safely take the depth, then he will supervise your descent. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.” She could hear Scott’s disappointment in his voice. Guilt washed over her.

“Report to the chambers on Monday, Samantha. Dismissed,” Dr. Quimby said, turning away.

Sam looked up in his direction knowing that, once again, she had done something to upset him. “Daddy? I—”

“I said you were dismissed. Close the door on the way out.”

“Yes, sir. Come on, Rich,” Sam said sadly, leaving the room quietly.

He took her hand briefly in the hall. “What was that about?”

“They are upset with me again. Mainly because I was right and they really couldn’t argue it. Don’t worry; they’ll talk about it later once they calm down. I hate it when I put them into this place. It’s gets real lonely for me and I feel like a failure as a daughter.”

“You’re not.”

“I know, but I feel that way. Let’s go finish your engineering thingy and then go to the lab.”

“My thingy? You mean the frequency adjustments on the band?”

“Yeah, your thingy.”

Rich drove Sam to the house in his jeep after work that day. Neither of her parents were there, nor were Michael and Jen.

“They’ve been home. I wonder where they went.”

“It’s Friday, so maybe up to the O’club. Mike said he was gone for the weekend, remember?”

“Would you please call them and see where they are so I don’t worry?” Sam asked, trotting upstairs to change out of her uniform.

Rich sighed, dialing Dr. Quimby’s cell phone.

“Hey Rich, what do you need?”

“We were just wondering where you guys were.”

“Scott and I are up north. We’ll be home pretty late. Sorry, I should have left you a message.”

“I understand how easy it is to get distracted because of her. I just want to make sure you guys are all right.”

“We’re fine. Peeved, but okay. Please watch out for her,” the man pleaded.

“With my life. I swear that to you.”

“Thank you, son. I appreciate all you do for her.”

“Let me know if I can help with anything, Doc. I’m going to take her out to dinner then we’ll come straight home.”

“It’s a nice night,” the man paused, “maybe let her take a swim.”

“Yes, sir, but only if she needs to. Don't worry. I promise to watch out for her.”

“I know you will. Goodnight, son.”

“Did you find out where they were?” Sam came down in her customary tee shirt.

Rich pulled her into his arms. “Up north ‘til late. Let’s go out for dinner.”

“Can we go casual? I don’t feel like dressing up.”

They decided to go to the Living Room for coffee and something simple. The manager came over with a smile. “Hey, Sam. Please promise me no fights tonight. We’ve had our Quimby quota for the day.”

“What are you talking about? By the way, Ruby, this is Rich, my boyfriend.”

“Nice to meet you. Mike got into a fight this morning. Knocked three jerks on their asses without breaking a sweat.”

“Are you serious? My perfect brother in a public fight? Wow.” Sam looked surprised.

Ruby grinned at Rich. “Usually it’s Sam that does the knocking. Two fights here with idiots trying to get fresh,” Ruby laughed. “Mike’s never lost it. I guess he was defending that girl he was with. One of the idiots was giving her a hard time.”

“He’d kill anyone who tried to mess with Jen. She’s the love of his life. I still can't believe Mike got into a fight.” Sam grinned. “That's so romantic!”

“Yeah. He was pretty incredible. Barely even moved. He lifted the one up by the shirt with one hand to demand he apologize, but then the cops came.”

“Well, I’m glad it wasn’t me this time.”

“Should I ask why you haven’t banned these hellions from your place yet?” Rich commented, eyeing his girlfriend.

“Their reputation brings us a lot of business. They are celebrities around these parts, plus most of our regulars know who they are,” Ruby laughed.

“Celebrities?”

“We accidentally stopped a robbery five years ago. I had to pee real bad and ran into this guy and knocked him over. Mike thought he had hurt me and punched him in the mouth before Daddy could stop him. That’s when we found the gun. Look how cute I was!” Sam pointed to the framed newspaper article on the wall.

Rich held Sam’s hand as they walked around the cove. He squeezed it as she sighed loudly. “So what are you going to do to mend things with your dad?” he asked gently.

“How did you know that was bothering me?”

“I know you pretty well now. You get quiet like this when you and your family are out of sorts. Especially with your dad.”

“He’s my hero. I’ve always believed he could do no wrong. I seem to keep hurting him without meaning to and it bothers me.”

“I’m sure he knows it’s not premeditated.”

“Yeah, but it’s usually because I’m not thinking ahead. Like this. I knew what I was doing when I disobeyed. It was intentional and thought out. I just didn’t consider that one day I’d blurt it out like I did.”

“So what are you going to do? You need to make things right with him.”

“I know. Scott doesn’t seem to be as bothered. He’s more reasonable when it comes to soldiering. He tends to go opposite and forget I’m a girl.”

“If there’s anything I can do, let me know. I’m here for you, baby.”

“What do you think I should do?”

Rich was quiet for a while, thinking as they walked. He leaned over the rail to look at the ocean. “I don’t know, to be honest. I get where he’s coming from, but also your reasoning as well. Has he ever tried to limit you when you were learning to fight?”

“Of course. He forbade Mike to strike me seriously when sparring.”

“And how did that work?”

“It didn’t. I couldn’t defend against something that wasn’t there. We started to practice for real when he wasn’t around. Boy, did I have some bruises. But I had to learn how to take the blows as well as to defend against them.”

“Precisely. He wants to protect you, but, by not protecting you, you are protected. See the quandary?”

“Totally. He’s mainly pissed about my disobeying him. But he would never have given me permission to take those depths even if he supervised. He knew I went down to 300 and wasn’t happy with that.”

“And now 500—”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“I lied. I’ve touched bottom.”

Silence filled the air. “Does Mike know?”

“No. Only you.”

“Sam, why?”

“I needed to see if I could handle it. No problems. Ton thinks I can drop to the full depth the cetaceans go.”

“Some of them dive over 1000 feet!”

“Scripps Canyon runs about 1000. That’s why I was asking.”

“Sammi, I’m having a hard time being supportive. Do you honestly feel this is a necessary risk?”

“I need to know. I have the pods monitoring me carefully. They don’t want me hurt, you know that.”

“Still… Let’s talk about this later. Do you hear seals?”

Sam smiled, holding his arm. She led him to the small alcove near the lifeguard tower. “This is called the Children’s Pool. Needless to say, no kids go near it because of those smelly slugs. Let’s go down.”

“It says no trespassing. Sam—”

“I’m allowed to go anywhere I want to when it comes to marine life. The guards know me. Come on.”

“Well—”

“Sam! How ya doing, girlfriend?” A man approached her as she headed down the ramp.

“Hey, George! This is Rich, my boyfriend and S&R partner,” Sam introduced the two.

“Where’s the bro?”

“Doing his girlfriend somewhere for the weekend. I’m going into the slugs. Could you make sure the civilians don’t follow?”

“No prob. Good meeting ya, Rich. And good luck with her! She’s a handful.” George laughed, shaking Rich’s hand.

“That seems to be the consensus,” Rich groaned. “I appreciate the sentiments. Sam! Wait for me.”

Sam ducked under the line and headed onto the beach. Several seals scurried into the surf, but the pups barked loudly, waddling to where she sat in the sand. Rich approached slowly, waiting for the bull to signal his approval. It wagged its huge head sideways, growling low as it swaggered towards Rich. Finally, it plopped its huge head on his foot, granting permission to enter and join Sam.