Part Two

Everything happened at once after that. The Sergeant dropped the barrel of his rifle, the lieutenant turned to look at the singers by the truck, Honey stood and the garment fell the rest of the way to the ground and she followed Lieutenant Jeffers gaze to the singers.

“URS!!!” she screamed when she saw him, she took a faltering step and flung her arm out to him, her fingers spread, reaching, pleading, beseeching him to come for her.

Urs had pulled his scarf down, dropped the helmet and now shoved past the guard who yelled at him, but Urs was past listening.

Somewhere the Lieutenant yelled out the order to Hold but Urs didn’t hear that either. He sprinted the last few feet of distance between them, body slammed the Sergeant out of the way and gathered Honey into his arms.

Her head was tight against his shoulder as he crushed her to him and she whispered in his ear…… “Our boys?”

He nestled his face against her neck and she could feel both his tears and his smile as he answered.

“Safe, home in der Musik Hof.”

Someone was talking to them but they didn’t hear at first, each was drinking in the sight and feeling of the other. Honey was shaking and he realized that some of it was from the cold. When she let the black garment and veil fall in a puddle off her body and head, she was left with a very thin cotton garment, like a ratty slip and rags that were wrapped and tied around her feet. Her hair was very short, a cap of dirty curls, her eyes heavily shadowed, she was filthy, bruised, very thin, had a large, dirty, blood soaked rag for a bandage on her shoulder, with streaks of blood that ran down her left arm and was the most beautiful woman Urs had ever seen. He shucked his heavy jacket off and wrapped it around her, only now paying attention to what was happening around them.

“Sir, this man is dead. I don’t see anyone else around.”

Honey looked at Urs and he saw the emotion leave her, saw her face become blank and cold as she turned to address the officer, started in Farsi and switched to English.

“I was in here to rest my feet. He dragged a young girl in and tried to rape her. I broke his neck, his friend shot me and then left me for dead. No-one else is here.” She turned back to Urs, touching his face timidly with her small dirty hand, needing to be re-assured that he was real.

“I was going to try to reach the next village but I heard the trucks and hid. Then I heard the track and took a chance that the soldiers wouldn’t shoot me right away if they heard me singing a Christian song and in English. When I saw that you were actually here….. I thought it was a hallucination again or a dream and I kept thinking, ‘no don’t lose your mind, not now, not when you are so close.’”

“You were shot? In your shoulder?”

She nodded but suddenly spotted the other Divos coming toward them and, as if she had been holding herself together up till now, the dam burst and she began crying.

Urs held her close while their friends joined them, expressing their relief with gentle hugs, tender kisses on her streaked cheeks and words that stumbled from choked throats.

The Sergeant came back to report that the area had been cleared.

Lieutenant Jeffers, with his usually serious expression changed to a wide, face splitting grin, told everyone to get back on the trucks, patted Urs on the back as he went by and climbed in the front of the truck.

Urs tried to get her to walk back to the truck but saw that she was limping, the rags on her feet were bloody and he carried her, turning the air around him blue with a soft stream of curses in every language he knew. Once more he was angry and had no one to blame for the condition his precious woman was in. David took her when they reached the truck then, after Urs vaulted to the deck, handed her up.

“My things…I need my supplies….in the sling…” she struggled to go back but Seb told her to wait and ran back, jumped over the wall and found a cloth sling with water bottles and rags in it, and brought it back to her.

“Is this what you meant?…there’s nothing much in here….”

She clutched it tight against her and glared, defying anyone to try and take it from her.

Urs put his hands on either side of her face and stared in her eyes, ignoring the pain in his heart, trying to comfort her.

“Honey look at me …Liebe you don’t have to be afraid anymore. I will take care of you! Trust me, Liebling, I will take care of you, no-one will hurt you, not now, not ever.”

She lost herself in his eyes and relaxed, slumping against him and releasing the dirty sling to fall to the bed of the truck.

“Urs, take me home….please, I just want to go home.”

She was freezing cold, shaking with it and one of the squad found some blankets in a box under the bench, wrapped her in them and Urs sat on the floor, his back against the cab, Honey snuggled up in his lap, cradled gently against him with the Divos’ jackets piled on her for warmth and their legs acting as a windbreak. She fell into a light sleep with her face streaked by tears running through the dirt, her bloody hand clutching his tightly.

“I thought he was going to shoot her.” Seb said his voice low and face pale.

“Me too…I knew it was her but I couldn’t get the words out fast enough,” Carlos murmured. “The barrel left a mark on her brow.”

“That was clever, singing a Christian song…..gave Urs enough time to get to her before….” David gulped, unable to say it.

“Well, we know she’s clever to have survived this long.” Urs laughed a bit. “Did you hear the first thing she said to me?” They shook their heads, no, there had been too much going on.

“She asked about the boys.” He dropped a kiss gently on the top of her dusty head and leaned back against the cab of the truck, happy, tired, a bit in shock, determined not to ever let anything bad happen to her again.

The Divos talked quietly while they continued their journey through the desolate landscape. Urs asked David to see what was in the damned sling that she was so desperate to protect and he spread the contents on the floor: Some rags like the ones tied around her feet, 3 plastic water bottles, only one with some water, a very hard heel of bread, maybe half a slice, what looked like a root of some plant, a flint and steel, some shards of glass and a handful of small twigs with the ends slightly frayed.

“MY GAWD!! …how has she survived if junk like this has become essential to her?” David shook his head in wonder.

In another half hour they reached the camp, passed the guards and the truck drove straight on to the medical tent while the squad jumped off to head for quarters.

She screamed and fought them when they tried to take her away from Urs, blacking the eye of an orderly who got too close, clutching at Urs as if drowning and it took some time before he calmed her enough that she would let the doctors and nurses take care of her. He promised to wait just outside the tent while she showered and had her wounds tended and went just outside the door to join the others, stood near the doorway for a while where she could see him, then sat on a bench that Seb and Carlos brought over.

They all waited while Honey saw the medics, though Urs told them to go get something to eat, they wouldn’t leave. More than two hours later the doctor came out, smiling and sat with the 4 men outside the medical tent.

“Well, she’s one strong lady. The gunshot is clean, went through and through, she rinsed it and packed it with the cleanest cloths she had. Her feet are badly blistered and bleeding from walking and cracked from the cold, her skin is a mess from wearing that garment for the last 5 months without a bath and her hands are dry from what she said was digging in the frozen ground for roots to eat…… and she needs to put on 30 pounds or more. Her lungs are good, no sign of the TB that’s so prevalent here nor Malaria either. Another month, even a few weeks and I think she would have been running on empty…she definitely would not have made it through the rest of the winter. Now she just needs good food, rest and some TLC.”

“Thank you doctor….can she come with us now?” Urs said, not happy at the prospect of being separated already.

“Oh yes, she insisted, and I really didn’t want to upset her again….actually I don’t have any more orderlies to spare.” He laughed at his little joke and Urs smiled, though he didn’t think it had been at all funny. “I’ve given her a shot of vitamins to speed up her recovery and something for the pain for today. She’s had a shower and the nurses are finding her some camos to wear and getting a heavier jacket and supplies from Quarter Masters Stores, brush, comb, toothbrush, although she did pretty well with those twigs she made into brushes for her teeth. Clever idea. Oh and here, this is just some pain killers…her feet and shoulder are going to hurt for a few days. Bring her back tomorrow for clean dressings and another shower….I thought she would never get out of the one she just had. She nearly took her skin off scrubbing so hard.”

He smiled and handed Urs a small package with pills inside and turned to go back in the tent.

When the doctor left Carlos put his arm around Urs shoulder in a hug and then asked: “What is this TLC and where do we buy it?”

David cracked up and soon all of them were laughing along with his wild, infectious giggle, a marvelous way to release the tension of the last few hours. When he could talk again Urs explained that you couldn’t buy TLC you just gave it.

Carlos made his brows wiggle with concern. “But how do you give it if you don’t first buy some? Are you jerking my belt?”

Now David was on the ground holding his stomach and screaming with laughter.

Seb was leaning on Urs, both hardly able to stand and finally gasped: “I don’t know why I’m laughing…I don’t know where to buy it either.”

When the nurse wheeled Honey out to them they were too hysterical to speak at first and she grinned as she saw them.

“OMG, how I’ve missed these crazy guys.”

“Do they often get like this?” the nurse said but found herself smiling, nearly laughing at the sight of them.

“Far more often than their fans realize. Hey, you lot….I’m starving. What’s a girl have to do to get a cup of coffee around here?”

David came over to her on his hands and knees and lay his head in her lap, hiccupping now as a result of laughing so hard.

“I’m glad you’re home, Bush Baby,”

“Me too, Davey,” she said and stroked her hand over his spiky hair.

Urs staggered over and crouched beside her, his eyes sparkling with mischief and joy, his face creased with the real smile that she loved.

“Seb, Carlos, this is TLC,” he said and put his arms around her, hugging gently and kissing her on the side of her neck.

“Tender Loving Care,” the nurse said. “The best medicine in the world. Good luck Miss Harper, gentlemen. It was a pleasure to meet you. I’m looking forward to the show.”

Honey was dressed in army camo and a jacket way too big for her but she had been given a shower and her hair, face and hands were clean now. They had put very large slippers on her feet to go over the dressings and a cotton sling to take the pressure off her shoulder. Urs picked her up, not really feeling like struggling with the wheelchair in the rutted roads, wanting to feel her in his arms anyway.

Honey had never been too heavy for him, even healthy, but now she was featherlight. He leaned his head forward a bit to breathe in the clean, fresh scent of her and she turned her head to grin at him.

“You can kiss me now, it’s safe. They let me brush my teeth and gargle.”

He nearly stumbled over a particularly deep rut in the road as he complied, kissing her lightly, then pulling back to caress her lips with his tongue when she sighed.

“How long before you can stand up and we can get married?” He asked her with a sly grin.

“Urs Buhler…you are a romantic fool. Are you asking me to marry you?”

He grinned at her with that cheeky little boy look. “Maybe, it depends.…are you going to say yes?”

They locked eyes and she felt the old familiar drowning feeling and heard him laugh.

“I’ll be ready in 5 minutes…I just really need a coffee first,” she teased.