Chapter Twenty Six
Taylor had faded in and out of consciousness for a several hours. Every time she would begin to come around, the shock and stress would send her blood pressure out of sight. She would have to be sedated again.
Due to hers and Ramon’s delicate situation, the decision was made to send them both immediately to the Army Medical Center in Germany. As she came out from under the sedative she realized she was in a room with a lot of people in it.
“Sgt. Sanders? Can you hear me,” a voice asked.
“Yeah,” she hoarsely replied as she tried to focus her sight, “but, where am I?”
“You’re in a pre-op staging area in a hospital and you’re going to be OK. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Are you thirsty?”
“A little.”
“That’s good because a little is all you can have.”
“OK.”
“Bring him over here.”
“Huh?”
“I was talking to the orderlies, Sgt. Sanders. There’s somebody here that’s been asking for you. I thought you might want to see him before the anesthesia takes him all the way under.”
Taylor shook her head to clear the cobwebs and tried to sit up. An orderly laid her back down and pressed the button to raise her half-way up. When the gurney rolled up next to her she could see a very familiar face but with a big bruise on the side of his head.
“O-o-o-o, ‘Mone,” she chided, “that’s a pretty big knot on the side of your head.”
Ramon was just about under the anesthesia when he tried to answer, “Ha…gone’ tell ‘body that you…….hit ……me.”
Before they could stop her, she reached through the two gurneys and grabbed his hand squeezed it and said on the verge of tears, “You’d better come through this, you hear. Me and you, we gotta talk. Ramon, do you hear me.” A faint squeeze of the hand and half a smile let her know that he heard her.
The nurse smiled at her and told the orderlies to take him on in to the operating room. She stepped over to Taylor’s gurney and answered before she asked, “Now, you just relax and I won’t beat around the bush. Sgt. Rodriguez will PROBABLY be OK. He lost a lot of blood. He might not be running a marathon right off the bat but I believe he’ll recover extremely well.”
“That’s great news,” Taylor said as she began to weep.
The nurse continued, “And as for you, that’s the most stable I’ve seen your blood pressure since you came in here. So, it’s time for you to go under now. We’ve got a busy schedule.” The nurse shrugged her shoulders and smiled as she added, “Besides, you two will want to be talking to each other as soon as possible. Isn’t that what you said?”
Hoarsely, Taylor answered, “You’d better believe it.” She laid back and stretched her arms by her side and said, “Alright, let’s do it. I’ve got a whole lifetime waiting on me.”
As Taylor started coming out from under the anesthesia, she heard some male voices and smelled….coffee? As she began to look around, two figures came up to her bedside. A familiar voice quipped, “Well, I do believe in the resurrection of the dead.”
Nobody had a voice like that. She giggled from still being a little light-headed as she answered his quip, “Well, if it ain’t my daddy and his sidekick the sergeant major.” She laughed one of those silly, giggly laughs and then apologized, “I’m sorry. Whatever they gave me left me out in right field. ”
The fog hadn’t lifted yet and she asked, “Wait a minute. How long have I been out? Am I back in the states already? And, can somebody raise me up to a sitting position?”
Major Bennett answered as he pressed the button to make her body raise up, “No, they flew you and Ramon to Germany. When we got word of the incident we wanted to talk to everyone involved in the operation so we can make plans for our next sniper school. You and Ramon have made a big difference in those guys from what I understand. But, Gary and I told them that our first priority was to check on the heroes, first.” He held his finger up and corrected himself, “A more correct statement would be that Gary TOLD them and I stood there and listened with a smile.”
They all laughed and Taylor bragged, “That’s my daddy.” She looked at him as any proud daughter would and held her hand out.
Sgt. Givens was quick to step over and hold her hand in both of his and spoke a little softer than normal, “Are they treating my baby alright.”
Taylor put on a fake pout, squeezed his hands and shook them a couple of times before she complained, “No, Daddy, they’re not. I’ve been awake a whole two minutes and they haven’t brought Ramon to see me. You will do something about that for me won’t you?”
With equally false consternation, Sgt. Givens declared, “Yes, I will. You just wait right here and I’ll shake up this crew. Daddy’s not going to let them treat his baby like this.” He set her hand down nice and easy then patted it before he almost broke into a trot out the door.
“Dear God in Heaven,” Major Bennett declared, “where is a camera when you need it. On second thought, people would declare that it was trick photography anyway.”
As they both chuckled at Gary’s antics, he said to Taylor, “What happened out there? And I’m not talking about the fighting with the Taliban. I’m talking about you. What happened to Taylor that brought that different kind of smile on your face?”
She looked at him for a moment before she answered, “Long story short, I finally figured out that I was a woman and not my real dad’s idea of a failed man.” Major Bennett stood quietly and let her sort out her thoughts. “All these years, I’ve made life pure hell for some of those around me, Ramon especially. Shucks, what am I talking about? I made life pure living hell on myself because I didn’t measure up to one disillusioned man’s idea of who I should be. When I got hit by that grenade fragment my hero down the hall made a statement that brought me to my senses. He said…….no, I guess I should say that by the tone of his voice, he scolded me and told me that God made me a woman and not a man. He reminded me that there was only one person in the whole world that was upset that I wasn’t a man.”
She looked down at her fingernails as she finished, “Then, my hero said that he was glad that I was a woman.” She looked back at Major Bennett as a small tear tried to escape down her cheek, “No one had ever said anything like that to me. The whole world changed in that instant. It was the same place, same war, and same people but it was like…..somebody changed the channel on the TV. Something went all through me and I was different.” She paused a moment and looked back at her fingernails, “And, the different me saw a different Ramon.”
Major Bennett commented, “Dad always made sure we went to church whether he was there with us or not. There was one particular sermon that I remember that had a dramatic effect on me and my faith in God. The pastor was preaching on Psalm 139 about how we were formed in our mother’s womb and He knew everything about us the very moment we were conceived. I remember the pastor told us that, from that moment in her womb, God started making plans for our lives the way that He knew that we were supposed to be. He went on to say that there would be times when we would stray from the way He meant for us to be but that He was always putting things before us specifically designed to bring us back to what HE wanted us to be.”
“Yes, sir,” she admitted, “I can see that now. Detour signs; is that what you would call them?”
“Probably.”
“That’s what I’ve heard them called,” she continued. “I can think of several big ones he put in my path but I just ran right over them. But, you know, the other night when I accepted who and what I was, my whole thinking process changed. I mean it changed almost immediately. And now that it has had some time to sink in I realize what a real dork I was. How did y’all,” she hesitated for a moment, “and…….how did Ramon put with me?” She looked him in the eyes and reiterated, “It took a special, special man to put up with me for six long years.”
“Are you
trying to say something?” Major Bennett asked with raised eyebrows.
Before she could answer, they heard two male voices and the sound of a gurney being rolled outside her door. “Knock, knock,” called Sgt. Givens.
Without waiting for an answer, he opened the door for a nurse to push in an almost prone patient. Ramon’s torso was only slightly elevated. Major Bennett stepped to the other side of the room so that the two could be side by side but facing each other. The nurse smiled but said in as stern a voice as she could muster, “Now, the doctor’s orders are for Sgt. Rodriguez to remain as prone as possible. He has lost quite a bit of blood and he has to be careful about moving his leg until the artery heals a little better.” With a wink at Taylor she added, “And his suggestion is to keep his blood pressure down as much as possible.”
Sgt. Givens and Major Bennett chuckled as they looked at Taylor as if to ask, ‘Did you hear what she said?’
Taylor blushed as she innocently asked, “Who.....me-e-e-e-e?” Then she looked at Ramon and became concerned. She asked, “Are you alright? You look a little bit pale.” As the nurse turned to leave she called out to her, “Hey, you’re not going to leave him like that are you. He doesn’t look like he’s feeling good. No offense Ramon.”
With a bigger smile the nurse said to her, “It’s from…….loss of blood. We gave him a pint but we need his body to pitch in and do what it’s supposed to. Don’t worry, his handsome looks and vitality will return in due time.” Without another word, she stepped out the door and closed it behind her.
Ramon calmed her by admitting, “I’m fine, Taylor. I’m a little weak, a lot tired and a lot sore but I feel OK. I’ve just got to be still and keep my leg straight so it doesn’t bust a stitch on the inside or out.” He quipped, “I guess if they had given me any more blood, I would have been tempted to roller blade up and down the hall.”
Sgt. Givens jumped in, “All I know is that I had to run that pretty little orderly away from him.” He put his hand to the side of his mouth and pretended to whisper, “Just between you and me, I think he was ogling her.”
“I was not,” Ramon quietly said with a small grin.
“Oh, he was, was he?” Taylor asked with one of those ‘ha-I-gotcha’ attitudes. She crossed her arms, looked at Ramon and declared, “Well, if that’s the case then, since Daddy Givens and an officer of the U.S. Army are standing here, I guess I’ll have to press charges that you fondled me during the course of the battle.”
“Taylor,” Ramon protested, “I did no…..”
She looked at Sgt. Givens and said, “Daddy, he tore my shirt and exposed my……private part.”
“Taylor, the shrapnel had already torn your shirt and the blood…..”
Like someone spreading wild gossip, she grinned real big and continued, “And, not only that, he placed both hands on that one private part and then he grabbed it with one hand and shook it with the other.”
“I had to open the wound a bit and wiggle the shrapnel to get it to come out. And, then...”
“As the ranking officer in this court, I would presume that to be an admission of guilt,” proclaimed Major Bennett in a solemn voice.
“Works for me,” Sgt. Givens added. He looked at Taylor and suggested, “Sgt. Sanders, will you accept some kind of plea bargain from…….Corporal Rodriguez?”
“Corporal?” Ramon questioned as he furrowed his eyes.
Being the shrewd southern belle that she was, Taylor looked at her finger nails and purred, “Well, I think that since we are ALL God-fearing, Bible believing soldiers that we ought to accept his approval of the Biblical remedy for this situation. I believe that SERGEANT Rodriguez should be obliged to marry me, since he has humbled this poor and innocent handmaid. And, Daddy, keep the sergeant. I want to be supported in the manner to which I would like to be accustomed.” She grinned at Sgt. Givens like a Cheshire cat.
Ramon smiled real big as he said, “I thought you would never ask.”
A nurse came in with some orange juice and pain meds for Ramon. As she stepped beside him and handed him his goodies she asked, “Is there anything I can do for either of you?"
Taylor answered, “Yes, Ma’am, you can show these two guys how to get these gurneys closer together so my fiancé and I can hold hands.”
“Fiancé?” she asked. “Well, let’s see what we can do.” Within two seconds she had the adjoining sides down and stepped from in between the beds. “Do you reckon you guys can release the brakes on these things and motor-vate them a little bit closer. I need to step around and adjust the bride-to-be’s robe so she can sit up as much as she needs to.”
She stepped around to tie Taylor’s gown and said, “Let me take a peek at that, young lady, if you don’t mind.” She opened the gown a few inches and checked the drainage of the bandage. With a hopeful look, she declared as she stepped over to tie Taylor’s gown together, “You have very little drainage which means you’re healing really well. However, if you two are in a hurry to get married I’ll have to warn you that it’ll be a while before we could make you a matched set.”
Ramon’s eyes never left Taylor as he declared, “She’s fine just like she is. I’m not in love with her because of her hardware. I love her because of who she is on the inside. She’s the best friend I ever had.”
“A-w-w-w, that’s so sweet,” Taylor blushed. Then it hit her. Her eyes got big and her face looked solemn for a moment. A bit of a smile played on her face as she looked at the two soldiers standing on her left. She put both hands over her face as she fell back on her pillow and laughed.
Ramon knew and chuckled with her.
Major Bennett asked with a chuckle, “What are we all laughing at?”
Ramon asked Taylor, “Do you want to tell them or do you want me to.”
Her face was as red as a beet as she pulled the sheet over her head and guffawed as she said, “You do it.”
Ramon looked at the guys, grinned and said, “Now we know why Tom Dandridge named her ‘Little Bit’ seven years ago.”
Taylor’s hysterical laughter could be heard throughout the whole floor. The head nurse had to come in to make sure it wasn’t some strange reaction. Really she just wanted to know what was so funny. Ramon relaxed and was content for the first time in years. God reminded him of His promise to him that Taylor would be more than alright. God was certainly true to his word.