Chapter 1

Shipley wasn't sure what to expect when she got off the big-bellied plane she'd been on. Telling her sister that she wasn't coming in commercial but on one of the planes that the army used had gotten her all mixed up. But she understood now. She'd been stressed for the last several months over things with her family. Not that it mattered too much how stressed she was. Shipley was going to make sure that no one took advantage of her baby sister—she was eighteen minutes younger than her.

Shipley was thrilled to be home. Even if it was for the funeral of her brother-in-law, Fred Landry. She had four weeks off, thanks to saving up her vacation time and all her paid time off. Her plan was to make every minute count, too.

While she hadn't particularly cared for Fred, his mom was a nightmare. She knew that her sister was happy, and that was all she could have hoped for. Alma Landry was pushy and seemed to be pushing Fred into doing things that she was sure her sister would not approve of. Even during their wedding, the first time she'd been home to meet the family, Shipley decided that she was going to leave Amanda alone for the trouble that she might well have gotten into by stepping in where it was really none of her business.

"Candace?" She nearly didn't look in the direction that her name was called from. No one had called her by her first name in years. At least to anyone that she would answer to anyway. "There you are. I've missed you so much." The hugs were a welcome change from the salutes that she had been getting most of her adult life.

Mandy, Amanda's oldest little girl, was with her mom, and Shipley couldn't have been more happy. The kid was the spitting image of them when she and her sister had been little, and she had her no-bullshit kind of style about her. Shipley got hugs from them both and let out a long breath when she finally was with her sister.

"I've had to borrow a car. I didn't think you'd have too much luggage—do you?" She told her that she only had her duffle, and it was in luggage claims. "You're armed too, I'm assuming?"

"Yes. Forever. You know that." She didn't point out that she was still a serviceman even though she was on a little break. "How about some lunch? My treat. I'm starving. And I want a meatball sub so bad that I'm nearly salivating for it."

She picked up her duffle, used to carrying it around when she moved. Shipley was a doctor for a M.A.S.H. unit, meaning mobile Army surgical hospital, unit that she'd been with since she'd gotten out of boot camp. Now, it was all she knew. Patching up men and women to get them either home or back on the front line. Usually not too far from where she was when working. But it was a good job and one that she dearly loved. Most of the time.

The place that they'd gone to eat when they were out of the large military airport wasn't too busy. Mandy, forever her buddy, said that she wanted to try a bite of her sub because she'd never had meatballs on anything but noodles. Grinning at her, she told the little girl that she'd have to fight her for it. Knowing full well that she'd give it all to her if she liked it.

After eating, stuffed too, the three of them sat in the booth and talked about all the things that had been going on since the last time she'd been home. Mostly, it was her talking, Amanda seemed to be wanting to vent, and she let her. It worried her that she was so freely speaking in front of Mandy but she'd bet the kid knew more than her mom was telling her about.

"Alma is out of our hair for now. I have a feeling, however, that she is going to bully someone into trying to hurt us some other way. I did tell you that she tried to kidnap the kids right out from under my nose, didn't I?" She looked so sad then that she reached out and took her hand into hers. "I had no idea the lengths that she'd go about to take the kids from me. To think that she…Alma actually came into my home and tried to take them without permission, Candace. Who does that sort of thing? That is going to get her in the most trouble. Attempted kidnapping is what I think that they're calling it. But she won't be out of jail for a long time, I'm hoping."

"If not, then I'll take care that you're safe." She eyed her hard and Shipley didn't say a word. She was used to being second-guessed, as she assumed her sister was doing right now. "How about we get going? I could use a long shower and nap. I've been traveling since yesterday, and my underwear is sticking to all the wrong places."

"Gross, Aunt Candace." Mandy cocked her head and stared at her. "Does anyone call you Candy while you're at work? I'm betting that no one does."

"And you'd be correct. I've been known as Shipley for so long that I sometimes forget that I have a first name." She asked her why they called her that. "Because my dear niece, they don't call anyone by their first name because that would mean that you're close to them. And where I work, it's not something you want to do in the event that they're killed."

"Oh." She looked at her sister when she tsked at her. "It's all right, momma. I know that she is in the line of fire. I think that we're all lucky that she's able to come home to us. I saw that on a movie that I watched. They all were killed because some jerk called in an airstrike or something like that. It's sad, really."

"How old are you? Fifty? Sixty? You're the oldest kid I know, and that's saying a great deal. Christ kid, what am I going to do with you?" She told her that she had to love her. "I do at that. Every moment of every day. I think about all of you and love you to pieces."

The drive home was sprinkled with odd bits and pieces of conversation about what they'd been doing since Fred had died. Shipley hadn't realized that Amanda had sold her home and was living in something smaller. It suited her, the domestic part of her life. Not that she thought that she could stand idle but it seemed to be just fine for her sister.

They were about forty miles from home when they came up on a bad accident. It happened right in front of them, and Shipley was happy that they'd stopped for a break. They might well have been in the middle of it if not. Getting out of the car, she was racing towards the middle of things before she thought that she wasn't on duty right now with this sort of accident. By then, she came up on three cars that were smashed up under the back end of a semi. Barking orders, something that she thought she did a great deal, she was able to get several of the people standing around to get their asses in gear and help the wounded.

The man driving the last car was dead. She didn't even bother to check his pulse. She knew that when someone had their head removed, there was no coming back from that. The woman in the front seat was gone as well. The two kids in the back, one of them an infant was screaming their heads off. Getting them out of the car, it was her sister that took control of the little ones.

The second car had no survivors either. The two people in the front seat had both been killed when their car's airbags hadn't gone off. It was an older car, one of the show-off older kinds, so she doubted that they even had airbags like newer cars did. While she didn't know cars all that well, she knew that it had to have been before nineteen ninety-eight when they were mandatory in all cars built after that.

She didn't want to look in the first car. Shipley knew that no one could have survived the impact that took them at least five feet up and under the bed. Making her way to the car, careful of where she stepped, she was surprised as fuck when a little boy asked her if she was going to get him out of there.

"I know my grandma and grandpa are dead. I checked on them like I had seen them do on those doctor shows. Why do people check necks to see if they're alive or not?" She asked him his name and if he was hurt while she tried her best to pull the glass off the rear window where the kid was. Then she explained to him about the pulse. Mostly just talking while she took a good look at where the kid was. "Seth Morgan. I'm eleven. I saw that the truck had stopped and got myself on the floor. My grandma yelled at Grandpa to pay attention but it was too late by then. When he slammed on the brakes, I hit my head and woke up down here on the floor."

"How badly are you hurt?" He told her that his back was hurting. "Can you wiggle your toes? How about your head? Do you hurt there? I'm trying to get you out of here, but you're not in a good place right now."

"I can wiggle my body. I was trying my best to get myself off the floor when everything got quiet. And yeah, my head hurts. I got some blood on my face, but…well, I don't know if it's mine or my grandparents. They both are dead, right?" She told him that they were and had been nearly cut in half. "You didn't have to tell me that, you know."

"Sorry, Seth. I'm used to saying what needs to be said." She was able to get the glass out of the back window. She could see then that he was rammed between the seat he'd been in and the back of the seat from the front of the car. "I don't know that I can get you out without hurting you more. How about you and me just keep talking so that I can make sure that you're not too badly hurt?"

"I'm hurting now that I'm lying here." She told him that she didn't have anything to give him as she didn't have a medical bag. "I thought doctors were supposed to have them in their car at all times or something."

"I'm army, with a MASH unit." She then had to explain to him what that meant. Reaching into the car, she could just touch her hand to his head. Searching for any gapping wounds, she was satisfied that he didn't seem to have any large gashes nor much in the way of too much head trauma. "You've probably seen that show on television. If not, I'd highly recommend it as it's a funny show."

"You're talking to me on account of you not thinking that I'm going to make it, aren't you?" She said that she wouldn't do that to him, that she'd tell him straight up if she thought he was a goner. "Good. You're calming me down now, and that's good. But I'm feeling everything hurting, too. I surely wished that I could hold your hand. I'd feel a lot better if I could." He sobbed a little, and her heart went out for him.

"I'm going to hold onto your hand for as long as I can. I've only just noticed that I'm cut up badly on my arms, too. Not like you are hurt, but the pain is making itself known to me now. I'm sure that you know that feeling." He said that he knew. "All right, Seth, I can hear sirens now. Maybe it won't be too much longer."

"It seems like forever since I was jerked around under here. I guess I should be lucky that I didn't get killed, too. My dad, he's gone like my grandparents are." They talked off and on, the two of them. He told her that he was going to be sick just before he started throwing up. She asked him if he had any blood in his vomit, and he told her that it was too dark to see down there. "What do you think happened to me that made me sick? I'm not going to die, am I?"

"Not if I can help it. Stress can make you sick. That's more than likely what it is. That's what I'm hoping for anyway." Someone behind her asked if she was all right. "I have an eleven year old male that I can't get out."

After telling the man that she was holding onto him and that he was sick to his stomach, he said that they were working on getting the semi to move up a little. He told her that she'd have to get off the car. The scream from Seth telling her not to leave him had her telling the man that she had a clearance that would keep her from being hurt when the trailer was moved upward.

It was another two hours before they got the semi to pull up. Then, it was an additional hour that they were able to get the little boy out. She was asked for her credentials, and once given, she was able to treat Seth when he was pulled free. Shipley was thrilled that the medical team working with her was able to allow her to give him some much-needed pain medication.

There was a chopper on site to get the survivors to the hospital. There were only the three that had been in the cars that were critical. A great many bumps and bruises that were taken by ambulance, and that was about it. It was then that she noticed that she was bleeding a little more than she'd first thought.

The team wasn't able to stitch her up. They had no clear way of knowing what was in the wounds, such as glass or something more. Shipley was taken away in the chopper when it returned for the second time. By then, she was completely exhausted and hurting. She could only hope that she didn't spend the next two weeks in the hospital. She had plans, damn it.

~*~

Locke was glad that he'd been called in to help out with the injured. So far, he'd stitched up forty-three people. There looked to him like there was no end to the people coming in for one thing or another. Since he was helping out, he kept an eye out for the person who had pulled a kid from the back seat of a demolished car. It was told to him that she'd been the first one on the scene and had been the one that had helped the medical and medical personnel that were out there as well. Heroes like that were well thought of, and he wanted to be the first to thank her for her help and service.

"She's being life-flighted in." He asked the nurse, her name was Brandy, if she'd been hurt. "Something to do with glass is all I know. Her blood pressure is a little high, I was told, because she's upset that they brought her in with something that could get here quicker if there were more seriously injured people out there." Brandy started away, then stopped. "Oh, and she's army. Doctor with a MASH unit that's here for her sister or something."

He knew that Amanda had been on her way to pick up her sister from Columbus. It made him wonder if it could be the same person. Finishing up the elderly woman who had to have nineteen stitches in her arm, he asked her to please wait as it needed to be bandaged yet. She told him to hurry up. She had things to do today. Christ, would people ever be nice?

"She's in room fourteen, Locke. Be careful. I was told that she's spitting mad." He thought that he could handle someone's temper. His last two patients had been nightmares. As he opened the door to check on her. He was met with a police officer guarding her room.

"I'm here to assess her wounds. Then to stitch her up if necessary." She asked the other man what the fuck was he doing in her room. At least, he thought it was the other man. "I'm talking to you. Just give me a little something for the pain and take care of the others out there. I can stitch myself up. I've done it before."

He didn't have any doubt that she had either. There was something about the woman in army brown fatigues that told him not only was she pissed off, but she was going to be hard to nail down to help her out. Not that he minded. She was pretty to look at, and she had a beautiful temper.

"My name is Locke Erickson. I'm here to have a look at your wounds." She told him that she'd been looking at them all morning. "All right. I'm going to clean them out, with your permission, then I'll—"

She cut him off. "Listen, doc. I know that there are more patients out there than me. Just work on them, then I'll let you stitch me up. Also, take this jackass with you." He corrected her on both things. "Oh, then, Nurse Erickson, go ahead and do what you have to do. But if I hear that there were more people waiting to get their holes plugged up, I'm going to shoot you in the head."

The officer snickered, and Locke thought that Sergeant Shipley was going to come off the bed and do what she had threatened him with. Also, he thought that their conversation escalated quickly but he didn't know her well enough to know if she was that volatile all the time or not. For some reason, it hit him that while she was pissed off, she wouldn't take it out on others that might be around her.

Cleaning her wound was made easier as she was able to move her arm, or he should say that she was cooperating by moving where he wanted her to. Not one for small talk, Locke decided that she wasn't either. Once he gave her pain meds, she did have a slight concussion on her head, that she laid back and seemed relaxed. He doubted that she was completely relaxed, however, knowing on some level that she was alert at all times.

"You do good stitches. Thanks. The last time someone put some in me, I had a fucking scar that never properly healed. It took me getting hurt again in the same place to have someone fix it." He told her that was his specialty. That and putting in IVs. "Yeah? Maybe I'll have you on my team. I'm betting that you'd just love it where I work."

"Doubtful that you do either." She asked him what he was talking about. "I don't know. Just a feeling that I have. You're Amanda's sister, aren't you?"

"I am. What can you tell me that she hasn't? Or won't, for that matter." He told her that he couldn't tell her anything other than his brother had helped her with the logistics of her getting everything ready so that she could get her insurance money. "I'm sure that he took his cut, too, didn't he? Everyone has their hands out when there is grieving to be done."

He finished up the stitches on both her arms and stepped back. When she grabbed his arm, something that he was sure she'd done plenty of times when dealing with the public, he stepped back further from her.

"I'm sorry. Not only was my comment uncalled for, but it was nasty. And I'm only nasty when I'm working. Or stressed. And I'm that twenty-four-seven." He said that it was all right. "No, it's not. It was, just as I said, rude, and I'm being a bitch. Tell your brother that I said thanks for taking care that no one else could take advantage of her. I think, and this is just between the two of us, but I never really cared for Fred, her husband. He allowed his mom to rule their married life, putting my sister through hell all the time. I'm profoundly sorry for my words and actions."

"Thank you." He asked her if she needed more pain medicines, and he gave her as much as he was allowed to. "Your sister is in the lobby. I'm to understand that she helped with a couple of kids while she was out there. Good for her. Amanda is a caring and compassionate person."

"Because I'm not, right?" He only raised a brow at her, and she apologized to him. Locke was sure that she wasn't used to doing that either. "I'll keep my mouth shut now. Thanks for doing a good job on my wounds. Do you know when I'm going to get out of here?"

"I don't, sorry. However, I can check on that for you." He glanced at the officer, who had his back to them, and watched the door. "What's he here for?"

"Don't know. He was in here when I was brought in. And he won't tell me dick." Locke asked the man why he was there. "Good luck with that. He seems to be one bit of cheese short of a cheese and cracker appetizer."

"My name is Officer Diller. I was told to, under no circumstances to allow anyone in here who was out to hurt her. I guess that came from someone higher up on the food chain than I am." Locke asked him if he knew who it had been. "No, sir. Just that I was to protect her no matter how much she bitched about it. I understand that now."

He made his way out to the lobby to find Amanda. She and her daughter Mandy were talking to a younger couple that had a newborn. As soon as she saw him, she leapt up and wrapped her arms around him. It felt really good after all the stress of the day.

"I don't know if you can go back to see her just yet. Another nurse came in to finish up her dressings." She asked him what she'd done to need to be in here. "I'm sorry, Amanda, I can't tell you that. You understand. But she's getting the best of care, and I can take you back. I want to warn you that she's in a mood. I think myself that she's in a mood like that all the time, but then I don't know her."

"She is. Aunt Shipley doesn't like fools. I'm not sure what that means, but she don't like them." He asked Mandy if she wanted to hang out in the nurses' station with him. "Nah. I want to see my aunt, too. Momma said she's hard on people. I don't know what that means either, but I love her to specs and dust, I do."

Taking Amanda to her sister's room, he was glad to see that she wasn't being guarded by the police in her room any longer. However, two military cops were standing guard near the nurses' station now who looked like they would keep her safe at all costs.

"Oh, Aunt Shipley, look at your arms. Are you all right?" She told the little girl that she was but needed help in pulling her up to sit on the bed with her. Lifting Mandy up, she watched as the three of them were talking over one another and crying a little. Leaving them to their visit, Shipley called him back.

"I am sorry. I wanted to tell you how stupid I felt when you did not warrant my temper. But like you've heard from Amanda, I'm always pissed off." He told her that it was fine. "No, it's not fine. Why do people say that? I was rude, and I'm sorry. It's not anything but me saying I made a mistake by taking it out on you."

"Okay then. I'll see you later." He was still laughing a few hours later when he was on his way home. He'd never gotten such a disgruntled apology before. He had wanted to stick around and tell her it was fine again, but he didn't. Liking where his head and balls were right now. Besides, he and Alex, his wife, were trying to make a baby. There was no way that he was going to mess that up with her.

Dusty was in the driveway when he got home. After giving him a welcoming hug, he invited him into the house. Alex was there, he knew. He'd spoken to her about dinner tonight. They were going out, so he asked Dusty if he wanted to join them.

"Sure, I'd love that. But I have to run by the hospital really quick. I have someone there that is wanting to get information on changing their benefactor." He asked him if he knew who it was. "Not really. She's Amanda's sister, however. Did you get to see her today?"

"I did. She's banged up a bit. Nearly a hundred stitches, mostly to her right arm. I met her. Her name is Candace, like Amanda told us, but she goes by Shipley, her last name. She's someone in the service and they have two people there protecting her. Mostly from killing someone, I think. She has a temper that would rival the likes of Dad. But she doesn't use her fists. Just her words. And she's quick to apologize when she feels like she's messed up too."

"Great. Just great on having to deal with her today. What is she, some debutant that thinks the world revolves around her?" Locke told him again that she was army. "I guess I wasn't paying attention. I'm going to run into town with you guys, and if you'll wait on me, we'll have a nice dinner. My treat."

They were all at the hospital about twenty minutes later. As his brother was headed to the emergency department, he and Alex sat in the lobby waiting on him. He heard the moment that he'd opened the door to her room. She was fired up again but this time not at him or his brother. Someone named Scott. He didn't catch the last name.

"You should probably go and save him. I'm betting right now that he volunteered to come here and help people with their final arrangements. Did someone die that she knew?" He said that he didn't ask her. She was in a shitty enough mood as it was. "Well, I'm going to go and help him. I'm very protective of my brothers."

The shrill whistle that he heard down the hall where he was had him getting up and going to see his wife. He only knew one person that could do that and it was Alex. Hurrying faster when he heard someone cry out in pain, he was in the room just as he saw his brother have someone in a headlock. Alex was behind the bed, and Shipley was pointing her gun at his brother and the stranger.

He didn't know what to think about what was going on. Instead of thinking that things were Shipley's fault, he asked her what was going on. She looked at him as if she had no idea who he was.

"It's me, Nurse Erickson. I stitched you up." She didn't lower her gun but asked him to please get her something for pain. "I can do that for you. After you put down your weapon. You don't have to put it away. Just lower it away from my brother, please?"

"Get that jackass out of here." He started to reach for the other man when he asked him if he knew who he was. "I'm here to see Candy. She and I go way back, and she's just a little bit pissed off at me right now."

"He said he was here to marry me. Like that's a good enough reason to come in here and propose to me. Again. Christ get him out of here before I have to double your job in putting him back together." The man, whatever his name was, said that he was serious. "I don't believe you. You waited until now to…Christ Scott, don't you see that I'm wounded here?"

"I do. That's the reason that I came here when I did. You'd be easier to talk to if you're recouping rather than doing surgery. Not that I'm going to allow you to do that once you tell me yes. My mother needs you to be around all the time now." She asked him if his mom knew what he was doing. "She's not a part of this. But yes. She told me that I had to get you to say yes to me. It's not like you have people chasing you down to ask you to be their wife, are they?"

Shipley snorted and asked him where her drugs were. "I think, too, I might have pulled out a few stitches while I was getting more upset with Scott."

Locke looked at the man that Dusty was holding onto and realized that he should know him. When Dusty released the other man, he knew in the next breath that the man was indeed very important. To this hospital, at least.

"Mr. Landry. I didn't know that it was you." Scott straightened up his tie and looked at him. "I'm sorry for this, but Shipley has been injured, and until a few minutes ago, I thought that she was headed home today."

"That's all right, Derick. She can be hard on some people." It was then that Shipley told the man that he was a moron and that his name was Locke. "Look, Candy. I just want you to consider us marrying. We're perfect for each other. You can retire now and be home with my mom and that will make the two of you closer than before."

"Your mother hates me. Not only that, but I've told you this before, I don't like her either. I have a job that I love. I'm not going to give that up to play nursemaid to your mom. She's a royal bitch, and you know it, and I'm not going to be giving her care unless it's some kind of doomsday drug that takes her out and your entire family." She narrowed her eyes at Scott. "Aren't you in violation of the court-ordered cease and desist that I have on you?"

"That's all water under the bridge now that you're back in the States. You shouldn't have done it in the first place, darling. I told you that the two of us just had a misunderstanding when you did that." Locke told the other man that he should leave and that he didn't want his patient upset any more than she already was. "She's just waiting for a bigger diamond, that's all. I know she's being all hard-assed, but she'll mellow out once we have children and my mom is happy."

"I don't think that she wants anything to do with you. Mellowing out or not." Dusty moved to stand in front of the gun that was still pointed at the man in charge of this hospital. "I don't know if you realize this or not, or perhaps it's larger than your brain can handle, but she has told you nicely—well, for her anyway, that she wants you out of here. Either do it, or I'll call the cops. A restraining order is in place, and while I'm not sure of the required feet you're supposed to stay from her, I'd say that you're in violation of it right now."

Dusty rolled his sleeves up, and that was when Shipley put her gun down. As soon as she did, Dusty popped the man in the face, one punch that had him falling to the floor and out cold. He was going to lose his job. He just knew it. Locke, however, didn't think he cared all that much. The man was a shithead, just like he'd heard that he was.

By the time the cops arrived, superseded by the two Army military police, he'd been able to take care of the broken stitches in Shipley's arms and have one of the doctors on the floor discharge her. He'd take her to his house if that's what it took for her to be safe or Landry to be safe. The fool.