Sabine drove along the dark mountain roads, her mind a thousand other places as much as she could let it and still pay attention to her driving. She loved her job here. She was in a one person position, limited field time, running sick call for some special operations people who also bring their own medics. She was mainly the liaison with the student class medics, the supply person for their med gear needs and med support for the Spec Ops instructor staff in this little slice of the Mountain Warfare Center. It wasn’t hard work. She still saw patients and kept her skills up, but was away from the units she was once in, and away from the people who used to know her.
She needed the fresh start. She was hiding and trying to heal, but some wounds will take a lifetime. She would forever owe the Master Chief who got her the school and then this position. He believed in her. He knew she was the victim and needed supported, not attacked and vilified. He even got the chief at personnel to walk the name change paperwork through himself so it wouldn’t be obvious in the system. Her job in the Navy was a small group, and the IDCs were a small sub sect, and here she was, in one of the smallest sub sects of that even. She was an Independent Duty Corpsman Advanced Tactical Provider.
She had thrown herself into her studies and work. It’s what she had left. No home life. That was irrevocably shattered. Along the way, she ended up trying something new, different and unexpected. She wasn’t necessarily looking for a new relationship at all, especially after how the last one ended.
It was shortly after arriving at her new job. She was at the NCO club on base, the last of its kind in the Marines. She was still in billeting and trying to find a place to live. She was talking with a couple people and having a beer or two. One of the guys was being extra friendly, and tried one of his pick-up lines on her. To be fair, he was nice, polite, a gentleman and there was nothing wrong with what he did. The effect on her was unexpected. She seemed to freeze in place. He reached out with concern, and touched the back of her hand with his, trying to find out if she was alright. Sabine shrieked and ran, or at least she was told that’s what she did, she didn’t remember. The next thing she did remember was crouching in a corner of the bathroom, terrified. That’s when she met Andrea.
Andrea was over at another part of the club and heard the shriek and saw the tall woman, OK, almost all women are tall to her, run to the bathroom. She followed, concerned. As she passed the table with the confused crowd, she asked what went on. A thirty second synopsis followed with no real conclusion. Andrea went to the bathroom to see what she could do.
The next thing Sabine knew, the door to the bathroom opened and a small framed woman came in, not the hulking shape of her ex-husband as she was expecting and dreading. She knelt down and began talking to Sabine. Small, unassuming, non-threatening, her tanned skin, and deep chocolate eyes, matched with the bubbliness of her personality soon had Sabine calmed down. Sabine felt horrible and embarrassed. She didn’t know how she could go back out there. Andrea reassured her it would all be OK and it was.
She found the guy a month later and apologized for her reaction. She played it off on ‘shouldn’t drink cheap beer at altitude’ or some other thing, she didn’t remember exactly. Andrea slipped them out of the club that night quietly through a back way so they could avoid the main room. Sabine was shaken up something fierce. She hadn’t had an attack like that in some time. Andrea asked where she was staying, she was going to drive her home. When she found out she was still in billeting, Andrea declared she needed someplace better to calm down and reset her brain, so she drove her to the house Andrea shared with Paige. Sabine spent the first night in a long, long time outside of a billeting room or hotel room or deployed tent or temporary building. The guest room at the house later turned into her room, splitting the rent, and then much more. It was companionship that didn’t leave her terrified and cringing.
Sabine didn’t know why she was rethinking all of this on the drive. She needed to think about the stuff she would need for the next four to six months of winter weather and reduced supplies.