back to him from just hours earlier. “I’m a Navy SEAL. We never leave a man behind.”
Both Elle and Lyle stare at him as if he has grown a second head. At this point, it wouldn’t surprise him if he had.
“Do you have a picture of Leo…your husband?” Elliott finally manages to ask through his disbelief.
“Come on, dude. We gotta go. Her kid is sick,” Lyle reasons. But it’s almost as if Elle can feel it too, the bond, the strange feeling that has Elliot breaking out in sweat and questioning his sanity.
“Hold on, Lyle,” she says as she grips her necklace and flicks open the locket. “He’s right here, and the one next to it is my son, Leo Junior.” Her voice breaks on the last word.
Tears fill Elliot’s eyes as none other than Leo the freaking Navy SEAL’s sparkling brown eyes stare back at him. The same eyes that sat next to him and listened without judgment.
“You said he died. When was this?” he is finally able to choke out.
“Three years ago. It was right before our son was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anemia. He had just gotten stateside when they discovered one of their guys got captured behind enemy lines.”
“You didn’t want him to go back.” Elliot doesn’t phrase it as a question, because he just heard the story that very morning, but it’s lost on Elle.
“No, I didn’t. Our son had been acting strange, lethargic for the last few months, and I was worried about him…” She trails off, leaving the obvious left unsaid.
Elliot quickly runs through everything he knows about Severe Aplastic Anemia, or SAA, as it’s commonly known.
“So, his bone marrow doesn’t make enough blood cells for his body,” Elliot says, knowing exactly what is wrong with her son. He lost a patient to this very disease his first year of residency, and it crushed him.
“That’s right,” she says, making a face that shows how clearly shocked she is that he know’s what she’s talking about.
“He needs a bone marrow and blood transplant?” Elliot asks, already knowing the answer.
“He does. But his blood type is so rare, and he needs a certain—”
“Antigen.” Elliot finishes her sentence for her.
“Yes, that’s right…but how do you know that?”
Elliot shakes his head, trying to clear it of the Twilight Zone vibes he’s had ever since he got off the plane yesterday.
“Because I have a rare blood type also, and I’d bet my life—and your son’s—that I’m a match and have the antigen he needs.” The awe and shock Elliot feels punctuate every word he says.
Elle stands frozen, staring at him, her eyes alighting in hope, yet he can still see the skepticism in them as well.
“I can see your heart and head are fighting right now. Everything I’ve said is the truth.” He reassures her with what he hopes is a comforting smile, even though he feels just as off-balanced as she looks.
“The doctor told me unless there was a miracle, my son wouldn’t make it. Could you be his miracle?” Elliot senses she’s asking herself more than him, so he doesn’t respond. He can only imagine what she sees as she looks at him, taking in his haunted eyes that have lived through too much, and his face that looks deceptively young enough not to have actually lived half of what he has.
“Bu-but…how?” This time the question is directed to him, so he answers with the only truth he is absolutely certain about, words she can’t possibly understand, but he hopes she will know to be true.
“Because your husband couldn’t leave a man behind.”
EPILOGUE
(One year later)
LEO MADE IT through BUDS, the hardest training of his life, to become a Navy SEAL. He then spent two months in captivity before finally succumbing, so he is no stranger to torture. However, standing here across the street, leaning against a tree and watching his family from a distance is probably the worst torture he’s ever experienced. The very sweetest kind of torture.
He takes in everything about his sweet boy, cataloging every last detail to store up for an eternity. He watches as little Leo throws his head back in laughter while he plays with his friends, his cheeks looking full and rosy for the first time in a very long time.
He moves his gaze to his wife, who smiles sweetly as she takes a present from a woman’s hands and places it over at the gift table. Her cheeks are also rosy, but what brings him the most joy is