Suddenly, almost from out of nowhere, Danny appeared casually coming down the slope as if he were out for an afternoon stroll rather than returning from a gun battle. Watching him walking nonchalantly back towards me I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of relief that he hadn't been hurt. As he got closer it took all of my self-discipline to stop myself running up to him and throwing myself into his arms.
"What happened? Is... is everything alright?" I questioned cautiously as he stopped a couple of feet away from me.
"Are you ok?" he immediately asked ignoring my question.
"Yes, I'm fine thank you Sergeant.... On the hill? What...."
"We have two injured. We'll evac them along with private Barnes but, fortunately, neither of them seems to be too serious.... ma'am." His tone was rather cold.
"And the insurgents?"
He paused and studied me as if wondering how much he should say to me.
"There were nine of them altogether." He eventually told me rather offhandedly, "All eliminated."
He looked around for a second before continuing "Is everyone down here, ok?"
I nodded a confirmation, trying to calm myself, now wanting an answer as to why he had taken such a dislike to me "I think we need to have a talk Sergeant."
"Not now ma'am I need to question the village headman again while we wait for a recovery vehicle for the damaged APC." his tone clearly indicated he wasn't in the mood to discuss anything with me.
"I think now would be a very good time Sergeant." I tried to impose my rank on the conversation.
"We'll be heading back to camp soon. We can speak there" he neatly sidestepped my request, "Perhaps in the meantime you could organise evacuating our injured? If that's ok with you... ma'am,"
"Yes, it is Sergeant but...." I was furious with his blatant insubordination and determined to get some answers from him to the numerous questions that I had.
"Later ma'am." He stated bluntly and walked away leaving me standing alone, fuming.
The man was infuriating. He was rude, rebellious and defiant virtually to the point of being mutinous at times. He was also incredibly cute and sent shivers of excitement through me every time I was anywhere close to him.
It took a couple of hours before a support vehicle arrived for the damaged APC, during which time I supervised the helicopter evacuation of the three injured soldiers and then stood around with nothing much else to do except seethe over the maddening Sergeant Daniel Cantwell.
He was noticeable by his absence for the whole time I waited for him and he even went as far as to take another vehicle for the return journey to the FOB. It left me to simmer silently for the entire trip back, certain he had done it on purpose.
It was starting to get dark when we arrived back at the base to find Colonel Moresby was waiting for us at the disembarkation point.
"Captain, Sergeant, my office I want a full report."
"Fifteen minutes ma'am, if that's ok?" Danny responded and I waited for our commanding officer to explode at his blatant refusal to accept her direct order.
"Of course, as soon as you've been to the medical centre." Instead, she left him to do what I should have done and gone to see how the injured men were.
"Captain." She summoned me to follow her.
"Yes ma'am?" I fell into step alongside her as she strode towards her office.
"So, how was it?"
I took a deep breath and tried to compose my thoughts about the patrol and everything that had happened, before I spoke. Then slowly I recited my view of the day's events, only leaving out my thoughts and feelings about Danny Cantwell.
Once I had finished giving my report the Colonel paused for a moment, obviously thinking over what I had said.
"So, Sergeant Cantwell went out, under heavy fire to rescue private Barnes who was wounded?"
"Yes ma'am."
"And after he led the assault on the insurgent's position on the hill?"
"Yes ma'am." I repeated.
"And now? Do you really want to put him on report for insubordination?"
"Err... well I... um... I suppose not.... But he was very off hand when he spoke to me." The way she had put the question made me pause for thought.
Stopping she turned to face me "Danny Cantwell is one of the most decent men I know. He probably had to kill someone on that hill, maybe even face-to-face, so him being a little short with you is understandable, don't you think?"
Her comments opened my eyes as she made it clear to me it would be a complete contradiction of my initial statements to make any sort of complaint.
Besides that, I had to admit my views were influenced by the way I felt about him.
"I guess you're right ma'am. I never thought of it like that."
"Thank you, Natasha. You've had a pretty full day. Go and get yourself cleaned up and I'll see you tomorrow." She dismissed me and headed into her office.
I was aware that Danny would need to make his own report to Colonel Moresby once he had finished at the medical centre. So, I hung around the compound instead of going straight back to my quarters as she had suggested.
Grabbing a coffee in the mess I sat for a while, contemplating the events of the day. It had been terrifying in part but being close to him had been more arousing than I could ever have imagined. Then when he had gone out to get private Barnes and led the assault on the hill my biggest fear had been for his safety.
It was probably then that I realised I was in love with him. Completely and utterly head-over-heels in love.
All I needed was an answer to my questions and perhaps for an opportunity to plead my case to him.
Finishing my drink, I started to wander the camp in a fruitless search for Danny. It was a good hour or more later and night had fully fallen before I finally caught up with him when someone told me he was at the vehicle shop.
Entering the deserted building I quietly closed the door behind me and crept through the darkened garage until I found him standing alone at the rear.
