Way of the Warrior (Troubleshooters #17.5)(109)

HOME FIRE INFERNO


   (Burn, baby, burn!)


   A Troubleshooters Novella


   SUZANNE BROCKMANN





Timeline: This Troubleshooters story takes place in January 2010, about eight months after the end of Breaking the Rules.





CHAPTER 1


    Jenn


Jennilyn Gillman’s water broke.

At first she’d thought it was some kind of horrific pregnancy-induced incontinence. For a few short seconds she’d actually been glad that she’d gotten out of her sister-in-law Eden’s car and was standing at the side of the road.

But she—and Eden, too—were standing there because the car had broken down on a lightly traveled stretch of highway in the butt-ugly desert, north and east of San Diego, far, far from civilization.

“Oh, my God,” Jenn said as she realized that the pain that had nearly doubled her over was a labor contraction and that she hadn’t just peed her giant maternity underpants.

No, she was going to give birth. Right here. Right now.

“You okay?” Danny’s voice echoed bizarrely over her cell phone, as if her Navy SEAL husband had called her from Mars instead of the Philippines. It was twice as strange that the call from his international cell phone had gotten through, when just moments before neither she nor Eden could get either of their phones to work. Even now, Jenn had maybe half a bar of signal, at the most. And yet Dan’s voice, although distant with that odd echo, was clear.

“Yes,” Jenn told him, working hard to keep her voice even. Despite her attempt, she sounded raggedly out of breath, still reeling from the shock of that sharp pain. “I’m fine. Cramp.”

It wasn’t a lie. Labor contractions were cramps, of sorts. And she was fine. Or rather, she was going to be fine.

Dan, however, was going to be full-on, steam-out-of-his-ears pissed when he got the news that she’d given birth to his baby daughter in a ditch at the side of Obsidian Springs Road.

He would’ve been pissed that she’d even agreed to go on this little road trip through the mountains to the tiny desert “resort” town of Obsidian Springs, even if the trip had been completely uneventful and car-trouble-free.

This was their first pregnancy, and Dan was more stressed out about it than Jenn. Not about the having-a-kid part. He was more than okay with that, happily helping to set up their nursery, and even bringing home a collection of adorable stuffed animals in varying shades of pink. No, it was Jenn who was freaked about her lack of experience with infants, and her imminent responsibility for the life of this completely helpless human being that she was about to drop onto the searing hot asphalt.

Danny’s issue was all about Jenn’s health. This baby they’d made was already ginormous. It was a full-on mystery to both of them exactly how their daughter was going to emerge from Jenn’s womb without medical intervention. If it were up to Danny, Jenn would stay in their apartment, feet up, in their bed, 24/7, until their little girl was born.

So yeah, the fact that Jenn had gone on this road trip with Eden was going to create some noise when Dan found out about it.

But there was one thing of which she was certain. He wasn’t going to find out about it from her, not right now, anyway. Nope.

Eden had opened the hood to glare at her car’s engine, but when Jenn had squeaked out that Oh, my God, she’d glanced up. Now she looked from the expression on Jenn’s face to the liquid still splashing on the pavement between her swollen ankles and sensible sneakers, and her eyes widened. “Oh, my God,” she echoed in a much higher octave, at a much louder volume. “Seriously?”

Yes, Jenn agreed that this seemed like a bad joke, because there was no way this was supposed to be happening. She was only eight months along. First babies were always late and never early—or so everyone had told her, over and over. It was part of the rationale she’d used in order to convince Eden that it was okay that she ride along with her today.

Meanwhile, Dan had heard his sister and was now asking, “Wait, is that Eden?”

“Dan,” Jenn managed to gasp, “I gotta…” She started over, forcing her voice to sound less squeezed and stressed. “I’m sorry, Danny, I’ll call you back. I love you! Everything’s fine!” She cut the connection as Eden came toward her.

Incredulity mixed with the concern on her sister-in-law’s face. “I’m sorry, but everything’s, like, the opposite of fine! Why would you tell Danny that? I mean, even without this magic”—she gestured to the puddle on the asphalt—“we need a tow truck at the very least.”

“His status—the SEAL Team’s status—is mission ready.” That was all Jenn had to say.

Eden nodded, instantly sober. She got it. Her own husband, Izzy Zanella, was also a Navy SEAL. He was one of Dan’s teammates, which meant that Izzy was currently mission ready, too. The last thing a SEAL needed was to go into a combat situation distracted by problems from back home. It was a hard and fast rule when sending emails or during these rare phone calls. Everything was always fine. It had to be.

“Still, this might be an exception to the rule,” Eden pointed out.

“Childbirth is completely natural,” Jenn countered.