Page 31 of Lucky Charm

He carried her back to the sleeping blankets. “Carter?”

He’d been hovering and was a mere few steps away.

“Shivering, muscles spasms, nausea.” She listed her symptoms like a good teaching doctor should. As a distancer, it should have worked, but she’d never used it on herself. It wasn’t happening. She wanted to scream or cry hysterically and because she did, she forced herself to do the opposite. Silence.

“Muscle relaxant. I don’t carry meds for nausea, but broth should help.”

Unable to speak, she put a thumb up. Pain twisted around spasming muscles.

Hunt sat in the dirt, pulling her into his lap. His hands on her body, rubbed at her shoulders and her arms in a quest to get her muscles to release.

“Talk to me, Doc.”

“Can’t,” she wheezed out. “Swearing. In. My. Head.”

He snorted and kept rubbing. “Nothing we all haven’t heard before.”

“Not from me,” she huffed.

Carter returned and lifted the blanket, poking a needle into her thigh. If she hadn’t been watching,she wouldn’t have even known he’d done it – the prick a minor inconvenience. He followed Hunt’s lead and started massaging her leg muscles and her feet which were curled in an unnatural position.

Carter sat back on his heels. “She needs more hydration. Baxter, use the cubes and make her some chicken broth.”

She registered the request, but stayed silent, every fiber fighting against the onslaught. She turned into Hunt and tried to find something else to think about, to edge back her thought process. He was a solid force against her, a bulwark against the cold, the pain, the violence waiting outside. Given the chemistry of their initial meeting, the touch should have sparked something, but those feelings lay dormant. She needed him to be exactly what he was being right now, and the thought helped her get a handle on the ugly dialogue racing around her head.

“Clothes. Help me get dressed. Cover up the skin.”

Hunt shifted, signaling Baxter for her warmed clothes. The man grinned and pulled them out, one at a time. Like a magician in a magic show with colored scarves, he handed them to Hunt. He smiled at her before he went back to the fire to make the broth.

The whimsy of it settled her anxiety.

“Carter, get my pack,” Hunt ordered. He shifted her clothes and started helping Cait get dressed. She felt like a baby, her muscles so tight they would twang if they could make noise.

Baxter shifted into view with a steaming cup. She couldn’t even hold it without shaking out the contents. Carter tossed Hunt his pack, took the cup from Baxter and fed her a bunch of sips. The warmth of the liquid was an irritant to her sore tissue, but God did it taste good.

“Get the fire out. Let’s pack it in and get out of here.”

While Hunt sorted through his pack for other clothing to put on underneath her own, Carter helped her finish the flavored hot water.

Dressed to the nines with gear, Hunt put her boots on. The one flaw. They were damp and freezing. She didn’t complain, though. Even her outerwear had been warmed by the men.

Hunt fitted her scarf around her hair and closed in her hood. He laid his gloves in her lap.

When he’d finished securing his pack and stowing his weapons in the proper place, he zipped his outerwear and glanced around the cave. He, at least, resembled the Spec Ops Warrior she’d seen yesterday morning. She was pretty sure she didn’t look like an Army officer or a doctor. She glanced around to assess his focus, not sorry to see the last of this place.

“We ready to clear?” He looked directly at her.

“I’m ready.”

Carter closed his med kit and fastened his coat, shifting his gear to readiness. “I’m carrying Doc.”

Surprised, she looked at Hunt.

“Until we figure out what’s what, Doc.”

She nodded, feeling silly for wanting Hunt instead of Carter when all the men had done their best for her, especially Carter. She made herself rise to her feet to test her mobility.

K-Rock appeared in the cave entrance and scurried to Hunt’s side. “Snow has stopped, and the sun’s up. We’ve got serious problems.”