Secret Smiles and Three Little Words Pt. 31

"No," the soldier said. "Your papers are in order." The man said gruffly, he then barked at the soldiers that were standing around watching. They climbed into the back of a pickup truck and sped off.

"Dr. Steward?" the young man smiled. "That was about to be really hairy!" The man said with a thick accent.

"I gathered!" Gavin smiled shaking the man's hand. "Are you Pavy's representative?"

"Yes!" the man smiled. "But thankfully, it seems I was unnecessary! My name is Emem."

"Well Emem," Gavin smiled. "We got a long way to go, so what's next?"

The U.N. man arrived at Gavin's side.

"Look, see the gorgeous woman there?" Gavin said to the soldier from the U.N. as he pointed to Alex. "She is the boss, so get with her and figure out how this is to be loaded!" The U.N. man nodded and went to Alex.

***

Gavin and Alex hopped down out of the truck as they watched Emem run off. They were both happy to be out of the trucks! What they called roads were areas just free of jungle! The holes from the rainy season were the size of Alex's old Rabbit and with each bone jarring jolt, they would crash into one another. After a day and a half of that, they felt like they had been in the octagon with Ronda Rousey.

"It's hot," Gavin gasped.

"Hey, it's the fall season here," Alex reminded. We are in the southern Hemisphere, so when it's spring in Chicago, its fall here."

"Hey, I don't care what season you say it is, its hot!" Gavin complained with a playful smile.

"That's why I bought these shorts," Alex said modeling them for them.

Turning a full circle on her toes, they barely covered the place Gavin loved, and that was the sole reason for her buying them. If she stood just right, or bent just right, she could make that area visible. Bringing a groan from Gavin each and every time she did it. Like climbing into the truck this morning as he followed her up.

"Look," he said with a scowl. "These people haven't seen a girl like you, so let's not give the men with guns any ideas!"

"A little worried about me?" she smiled kissing him.

"In those shorts?" Gavin admired.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" The voice caused them to turn.

"Hey Pavy!" Alex smiled. Pavel closed the distance and took her in a hug and spun her in a circle a couple of times happily before setting her down.

"How did you get him to come?" Pavel asked her, stunned they were there. All the begging and pleading from him over the years could not get Gavin to come here. Now one woman seemed to have Gavin wrapped around her finger.

"I can get him to do whatever I want," Alex teased.

"In those shorts?" Pavy chuckled as he stood back and held her arms out so he could look at her fully. "I don't think you are going to have any problems getting anything you want, from anybody!"

Pavy walked over and took Gavin into and embrace and held him firmly.

"Dad sent the troops with you I see," Pavy pointed out looking at the blue berets.

"He was worried about me coming into this little corner of paradise of yours," Gavin teased.

"Fucker," Pavy laughed as he let out a soft punch to Gavin's stomach. "I guess we see how I rate!"

"Somewhere right along with a pebble in a shoe," Gavin joked. "Now, did I fly all this way to discuss why your father likes me better than you, or are there some other pressing problems?"

"You are going to regret that statement! I was willing to let you take it easy today, but now...I'm fucking going to run you ragged!" Pavy threatened as he turned and put his arm around Alex's shoulder and jerked his head for Gavin to follow them as he walked with Alex within his arm.

Gavin and Alex walked into the tent hospital. There were at least fifty people sitting on the ground.

"Jesus," Gavin gasped in disbelief. It looked like something out of a bad war movie, the smell wasn't much better. The smell of body odor, manure and decaying bodies wafted around them.

"Welcome to my life," Pavy frowned. "This is the main hospital, we have a couple of tents for those we keep for observation."

"Is it always this full?" Alex asked him.

"Unfortunately," he frowned. "Yes. Here lately for sure, as it's just me, so I can't ever get caught up."

"It's been worse here lately, the more intense the fighting, the more people run," Pavy said with a shake of his head.

"Well," Gavin shrugged. "Put me to work."

"Gladly," Pavy smiled with an appreciative clap on his shoulder.

"Me too," Alex smiled.

Pavy guided Gavin to a table that already had a woman on it. The bleeding she was doing was already coming through her top. Gavin took a peek under her makeshift bandaged and frowned.

"Not what you see back in Chicago, is it?" Pavy noted Gavin's disproval of the wound.

"No," Gavin agreed.

"This is Luanna," Pavy said introducing a woman in scrubs. "She is an excellent nurse, I'll have her assist you." Gavin nodded as he pulled a tray of instruments over, already fully engrossed in the job at hand. This had Pavy winking at Alex, they both loved that, when Gavin would switch modes.

"Luanna, this is Gavin Steward," Pavy said with a proud hand on his shoulder. "The best doctor I know. Make sure you take care of him." She nodded.

"Pavy," Alex said to him. "Where do you want me?"

He looked to her and cringed.

"I hate to do this to you," he frowned. "But I don't have time to deal with what you just brought in, which by the number of trucks alone is more than I get in two years! So, if you could, organize it and put it in the store room?"

"Ok," Alex nodded as she looked at all the sorrowful faces in the room. She felt so sorry for them, they seemed lost. Their spirit broken.

"Emem," Pavy called out, the young man rushed over. "Take Alex here and help her with the store room. Give her any helps she needs." He nodded. "When this is all over, and I get a chance to breathe, remind me to thank you."

"You don't need to," Alex smiled stroking his cheek.

"Yes, yes I do!" Pavy said firmly, there was a slight tearing up in his eyes as the appreciation of all she had done overwhelmed him. He left to go back to work. Alex looked to Gavin and he winked at her. She stretched to her tiptoes and kissed his cheek and followed Emem out of the tent.

"This is our store room," Emem said opening the door.

"Why is this is an actual building, but the hospital is a tent?" Alex asked him looking at the empty shelves.

"We had to construct a building we could lock," Emem explained. "Otherwise thieves would come in the night and steal our supplies." Alex nodded that she understood as she walked to the end of the building and found more emptiness than supplies.

"Where do you want to start?" he asked her when she stopped and looked to him with a frown of her opinion of the lack of things they had.

"Well," Alex shrugged. "Why don't you give me the inventory sheet for what you have here so we can do an accurate count, that way Pavy knows exactly what he has in terms of supplies?"

"Inventory?" Emem asked. "We have never done an inventory."

"Ok, how about some paper," Alex asked him. "We will start one. That way he can look at a detailed list of his supplies later." Emem disappeared and returned with paper and a clipboard.

"Well," she frowned not sure of how to start this, as this was never something she would have even thought she would have to do. "It should be easy to count what we have on hand, as there is so little of it, so let's start with a count of that. Then as we bring something in, we will write it down and add it to the list." Emem nodded and went to the first shelf.

"Just call out what you have, then the number on hand," Alex said tying her hair up into a tight pony tail. The two began the tedious job of getting the store room in order. The heat of which already had her sweating through her tank top. The air unable to move around the enclosed room.

It took them a little less than an hour to organize and count what they had on hand, and it wasn't much. Then Alex organized the U.N. troops to start bringing in the supplies from the convoy of trucks in the compound. As each soldier would bring in a box he or she would stop and Alex would write on it with bold black marker what it was and what shelf she had assigned for it, they would then take it to Emem, who would store it.

It took nearly six hours to completely empty the trucks and store everything. By the time they were done, Alex was exhausted and had sweated through her tank completely and now had rivers of sweat running down her legs and dripping onto the ground.

Standing at the door with Emem, they looked at the store room one last time. Now they had full shelves, with boxes on top of boxes. She even had to start stacking supplies against the back wall as she ran out of room on the shelves. Pavy would be thrilled as anything he could want or need, was now on hand.

***

Alex went back to the main tent and found Gavin hard at work, but the smile he had was impossible to miss. Yes there were horrific injuries to deal with. Yes most of the wounded were children and women who had no business with the wounds they had, but it was obvious that Gavin felt some pride to be doing actual good for a change. Not dealing with what he believed were self-indulgent wounds of ego. He was back to doing what he went into medicine for in the beginning.

Alex pulled up next to Luanna and began to observe how she worked with Gavin to help him. Luanna explained the instruments and covered the supplies Gavin was using, refreshing Alex's memory from the plane.

Pavy would walk by on occasion and kiss her on the cheek, only to keep Gavin riled up. Walking up to the next table had a young woman, who appeared in her late teens or early twenties, not much younger than Alex, she surmised. She had a crying toddler in her lap, who appeared injury free, but the mother had blood down the side of her face from her head wound.

The child was keeping Gavin from helping her. Alex came to his side and looked to the woman and pointed to the toddler and then to herself, but the woman shook her head apprehensively.

The interpreter came and explained to the woman that Gavin wanted to treat her but with the child in her arms that was going to be difficult. Alex sat on the table next to the woman and gently pulled the toddler.

The woman reluctantly allowed Alex to put the child in her lap. Alex produced a sucker and pulled the wrapper off and placed it in the child's mouth, within seconds the toddler's cries slowed to a sniffle.

The woman smiled at Alex in thank you, and Alex returned the smile as she rocked the child in her arms. Gavin shook his head, nothing his girl did surprised him totally anymore. She was just able to do anything. Impressed that even without the knowledge of language Alex was about to put the injured mother at ease. He smiled at the injured woman reassuringly and worked on her wound.

Gavin stitched up the wound and treated the woman for her other injuries she attained during her trek out of the war torn village she fled from. When Gavin was done the woman kissed his hand.

Gavin then turned his attention to the child in Alex's arms, giving him a cursory look. The child appeared to have no injuries but was suffering from possible malnourishment. He stroked the young boy's face and smiled at the mother as Alex passed him back. The mother took Alex's hand and kissed it as well.

"That's high praise," Pavy told them as they watched the lady leave. "The kissing of your hands...it means a great deal here." They both nodded.

"Look," Pavy said exhaustedly. "We have taken care of the most pressing cases, why don't you two call it a day, you look wiped out!"

They smiled at him, they were tired. The long flight, coupled with days of traveling through the brush in trucks designed to jar your bones from their sockets had left them exhausted.

"Emem," Pavy called out and the young man appeared. "Take them to Dr. Haus' tent."

"Dr. Haus?" Gavin asked.

"Yeah, he had to return to Germany," Pavy frowned. "We are still waiting on his replacement...that is unless I can talk you two love birds into staying?"

"You know we want to, but we can't," Alex said for Gavin. "But we aren't in any hurry to leave either!"

"I'll take that," Pavy said kissing her on the cheek.

"Stop kissing my girl you nasty fiend!" Gavin growled as he pushed the Russian back as the man laughed.

"Hey," Pavy said moving close. "Have you seen what choices I have around here?"

"Are you saying you are settling for me?" Alex gasped, pretending to be offended putting Pavy on the defensive.

"What?" he cried out. "No! I mean...oh shit!"

"Awww yeah!" Gavin smiled. "This is why you are still single! Can't keep that rat trap of a mouth closed!"

"Go fuck yourself," Pavy growled as he walked away.

Emem led them to a tent and let them enter first. It was a large tent, consisting of two rooms, one for a sitting area, and one for sleeping. It had an actual bed, which surprised them. They were expecting cots or perhaps sleeping bags on the ground but this tent had an actual bed and both looked to the other relieved as this was a very welcome sight.

"Ok," Emem smiled. "This is your place for now. A couple of ground rules...one, if you take your shoes off, be sure to shake them out in the morning! All kinds of nasty critters running around here. They like to climb in boots and shoes, then when you put them on, they can kill you. So look...shake and look again!"

"I would put them up on the dresser and stuff something in them to keep the creepy crawlies out of it. I have seen people put them in bags as well and tie them off," Emem suggested.

Alex and Gavin looked at him and the exhaustion was taking over.

"Good night," Emem smiled recognizing it. "Thank you both for all that you have done, get some sleep and we'll see you in the morning. One last thing..." he pulled a revolver out and held it out to Gavin. Gavin looked to it and then to Emem.

"You are going to want to take it," Emem said holding it out. They looked to one another then back to him. "It's not for people...it's for the things too big to crawl in your shoe!" He clarified with a laugh.

It was then and only then that Gavin took the gun from the young man. Emem left them there and they both looked at the gun that he held uncomfortably in his hand.

"Have you ever used one of these?" Gavin asked her. She shook her head.

"You?" she asked him.

"I have had some target practice, but it's been years," Gavin frowned not liking the heavy piece of metal in his hands.

Alex remembered back to Pavy's story of the two of them running from drug infested house to drug infested house looking for Carla. They had to take a gun with them for fear of their safety. She wondered after Carla's death if Gavin had touched a gun since.

They eased into the bed, and cuddled close to one another, the fan on the stand blowing gently across their bodies. Gavin's arm was over Alex protectively, they were both asleep in a matter of minutes. Exhaustion claiming them, but they were both happy. Gavin with the knowledge he was doing what he went into medicine for. And Alex with the knowledge that she had the true Gavin.