The dogs were wearing their orange Service Animal vests, although Preston had very gravely confided to Theo that Colonel was wearing his under false pretenses, because the dog was of no service to anyone but Spencer. Cash was holding so tightly to Glen Echo’s hand they both had white knuckles.
Theo had gone over how he and Spencer had survived the day several times, drawing approval from everyone involved, including Glen Echo.
“Smart thinking,” he said and then looked sideways at the cat cradled in Elsie’s arms. “With one exception.”
“Remember the snake?” Cash said. “The giant snake with the highly toxic venom that not one of you would kill because hey, snake’s gotta snake, and why’s a snake gotta pay with its life? Yeah. At least Theo risked himself for something that apparently loves him back. That snake was nobody’s friend, and as far as I know, she’s still back on that island, eating small deer, so no. You don’t get to give Theo crap about the cat.”
Theo found himself chuckling weakly. “Well, he’s the only thing I’ve got left of my home,” he said, and apparently that was too much honesty because a thick silence fell over the group, and Theo—channeling Spencer—couldn’t let that stay. “What took you all so long?” he asked, genuinely curious. “Spencer thought it would be three hours at the most. We were out there for, what?”
“Twelve hours, thirty-three minutes,” Elsie said promptly, voice bitter. “Oh, baby boy. The things you do not know.”
Theo looked at her, wrapped in pink stretch pants, a fuzzy sweater, and a flight jacket so big on her he knew it had to be Spencer’s. He could tell she’d had a hell of a day.
“Tell me,” he said, curious.
And she did. Once she’d gotten the kids and Thelma up to Splinter, the rescue calls had come thick and fast. Elsie had been on coms begging for help because she knew that she couldn’t get Spencer and Theo out without a crew, but she’d also been flying to below the waterspout over the interstate, picking up refugees from Sticky and getting them back to the small town above the dam because it was the closest place of refuge.
In the meantime, she’d managed to contact Glen. He and Damien were in the middle of their second supply run, but as soon as they heard that it was Spencer on the line, they had called Preston and Cash to start running supplies in Preston’s truck while they tried to scare up some more search-and-rescue people to help them find one small raft in the middle of a big valley.
No dice.
By the time Elsie was refueled and able to pick Glen and Damien up, it was dark, and Elsie was exhausted. They’d had to run out of Splinter with the local law enforcement threatening them with no goddamned thing at all. There were so many demands for help, but Glen’s outfit had used up all of their flight time, and Glen, it appeared, was done.
“We’ve got a man out there, and you all may not give a fuck, but he’s ours. We are not even supposed to be here right now, do you understand? So we’re going to take our highly illegal, overflown asses out to get our brother before it’s too late. You’re welcome for all the food and water and the people who didn’t die. We’ve got shit to do.”
Elsie told that part of the story, cackling to herself as Glen rolled his eyes in disgust.
“That poor man was the sheriff,” said a newcomer, freshly scrubbed, clearly exhausted, and striding in wearing jeans, a hooded sweatshirt, and the same sort of swagger that Glen, Elsie, and Spencer had, even if his came with a slight limp. Theo imagined this was Damien, whom he hadn’t seen but was still grateful to, and that supposition was backed up when the man—stunningly beautiful with golden skin, slightly tilted brown eyes, and thick black hair—put his hand on Preston’s shoulder and squeezed firmly.
Preston looked at him and gave a grave smile, returning the squeeze. “Why were you illegal?” Preston asked.
“We were hired to fly cargo,” Damien told him. “None of us were equipped with the manpower for rescues, and we had the equipment by sheer dumb luck, which is why I just left the remains of someone’s deck in the middle of the parking lot here.” He sighed. “Gecko, we’re going to have to have that removed, by the way.”
Glen groaned. “I’ll get to it,” he promised. “We’d also logged in too many flight hours—all of us. They were just….” He let out a sigh.
“Unprepared,” Theo said softly. “Not enough search-and-rescue guys for this part of the country—federal forests need federal funding.”
“In one,” Damien said, putting his finger to his nose in the time-honored gesture. He held out his hand then and Theo shook it. “You were the guy Spencer jumped into the drink to save. Nice to meet you. I’m—”
“King of the Goddamned Skies,” Theo said dryly. “I was there.”
Damien let out an evil laugh, and Theo could see why Spencer loved these people. Yeah, they were full of bullshit, but Glen Echo had stood up to the local sheriff to come out and get his friend, and that was all there was to it.
The waiting room was quiet then, and Theo gave a worried look toward the door leading to the OR.
“He was so hot,” he said softly. “God, his leg looked bad.”
“Did Spencer tell you how we met?” Elsie asked into the oppressive quiet.
Theo nodded. “He said he was supposed to be your squad leader, and he was picking lieutenants, and you were the smartest one.”
She huffed. “Goddamn that man. Now see, he’d enlisted—and gotten an ROTC scholarship to flight school—during Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. His CO knew he was gay and didn’t give a ripe shit, but the rest of his squad… well, let’s say Spencer had new bruises every day, but he never lost a fight. So Spence gets assigned new cadet training, and we’re expecting him to pick the big guys, the strong guys, the smart guys, and then he set his sights on me. Told me he wanted someone who would help him dine on the blood of his enemies, which was a pretty good line. And then, when he was picking the rest of his squad, he went out of his way to pick the small guys. The fuckups. The picked-on guys. The girl who might have washed out. And right when I’m thinking, ‘Great, I really was a pity case,’ he starts putting us together in ways….” She shook her head. “We had squad competitions—drills, obstacle course, weapon assembly, strategy. Nobody but Spencer would have thought these things were our strengths, and they were. And him and me, we had each other’s backs. And that’s Spencer. He doesn’t think the way other people do, you know? That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means that for him, the shortest distance between two points may mean taking a pogo stick.”
Theo thought about him cutting down the barge poles before he got too tired and too sick, because he knew it was coming. Thought of the way he’d stepped into the water, knowing the consequences but also knowing they were dead if he didn’t.
“That’s a good description,” he said quietly. And then, because Spencer had avoided this question, “I know how you met. Why’d you leave?”
Glen looked at him, an odd expression on his face. “That’s a good question. We haven’t heard that one either.”