This is re-post of a deleted story
There is very little sex in this story.
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Some TDY (Temporary Duty) assignments are fun and exciting. This one was not. It was 30 days of almost 24/7 hard-ass work.
Every year the US Army is involved in a "Rapid Response Deployment" exercise. Several units from throughout the whole Army are selected to participate and are airlifted, with all of their equipment, to Germany, where they work alongside their NATO Counterparts in a month-long training exercise.
My name is Fred Sadler. I was a relatively new Captain in the US Army at the time, and worked in Operations, stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. This particular TDY came at the worst possible time for me to be anywhere other than home with my wife, because she was pregnant and the baby was due to be born sometime during that TDY. I tried to get out of it, but the Army was having none of that.
Lydia and I had been married almost six years. Most of them were good years. The bad parts came when I had to go TDY and she stayed home.
Lydia and I were not lifelong sweethearts or friends. We met at DMV one day when I was getting my car registered. She was getting her license renewed.
We were sitting next to each other waiting for our numbers to be called, so we started chatting. One thing led to another and pretty soon we exchanged phone numbers. A week later, we had our first date, and a month after that we spent our first night together.
Lydia was not a raving beauty, but she had classic good looks that made my insides turn to mush. She could just look at me and my heart melted. Her body was also classic. Most men ogle any woman with a great body, and I watched as both men and women stared when she walked by. At first, I felt pride as I watched them watching her, but as time went by it got old. I began to regard them as leeches, thinking of her only a sex object. I came to realize that it was something I was going to have to deal with.
Lydia, on the other hand, took it all in stride. "Let them look, sweetie," she said. "It's no big deal. As the old saying goes, 'you can look, but you better not touch'."
'You bet your sweet ass they better not touch,' I thought every time she said it.
She worked very hard to keep her body looking the way it did. I helped her. We spent three evenings a week at the gym, we ran in the park, we hiked; we even watched our diet. I actually forgot the last time I had a meal which included red meat.
Watching her get dressed, or better yet, undressed, was always thrilling for me. Each time she just nonchalantly tossed off an article of clothing revealing part of her bare skin, my heart skipped a beat, and I never tired of it.
When the TDY started, I heard, "I give you my personal guarantee that I will do everything in my power to get you home before the baby is born," from my CO (Commanding Officer). And he did. He had arranged that I would be on the first plane back to the States when the exercise was over.
I had packed my gear and was on my way to the plane. I called Lydia, who told me she thought she would be going to the hospital in the next couple of days.
"The timing should be perfect, then, because I'm on my way home," I told her. We ended the call with 'I love you.'
It was dusk and I was on my way to the airport and a deer ran onto the road in front of us. My driver swerved to avoid it and the next thing I knew I woke up in a military hospital in Frankfurt. I had a broken right arm, right leg, three broken ribs on my tight side, and my right lung had collapsed. I was so drugged up that I didn't know who or where I was.
When I started to become a bit more lucid, I began asking questions. "How long have I been here?" I asked my nurse.
"Five days."
"Is my wife here?"
"No, sir."
"Where is she?"
"She hasn't been here, sir, but your CO notified her right after you first arrived so she knows what happened."
"Where's my phone?"
She found it among my personal belongings and I called Lydia.
"Are you okay?" were her first words.
"Never mind me. How are you and the baby?"
She started crying. "We lost the baby, Fred. I'm so sorry."
I was too stunned to speak. Finally, I asked. "Are you okay?"
"I think so. I'm home, but they don't want me to travel, otherwise I would be with you."
"What happened?" I asked.
"Nobody knows for sure. Everything seemed to be fine until I heard one of the nurses say 'uh-oh' then everybody got excited. I still don't really understand it, but they tried to explain that it was something about the umbilical cord."
"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked.
There was a long silence while we both struggled with our thoughts and emotions.
"Physically, I'm fine, but emotionally, I'm a wreck. When are you coming home?"
"I don't know. They haven't given me any idea."
"Do you want me to try to come over?"
"No. No. Stay there and take care of yourself."
Two weeks later, they flew me home in a Medevac plane. Lydia met me and went with me to the Fort Hood hospital. She was still emotionally a wreck, but our being together seemed to help both of us. I asked her if she had named the child.
"I did. I named her Hope." At that, we both cried.
I was in hospital for two more weeks before I was released for limited duty. Limited duty generally meant that you didn't have to go to "the field" and train. That would have been very difficult because my arm and leg were still in casts. Another couple of weeks before they came off.
Time went by and things were going smoothly both in our marriage and my career. Two years after we lost our baby, we were reassigned to Heidelberg, Germany. We enjoyed three years there and travelled all over Europe. While there, I was promoted to Major. When our three years were up, we were transferred to Fort Lewis, WA. Being a Major, we were assigned Field grade Officer Quarters. They were much better than Company Grade Quarters and they had garages, not just carports. (Company Grade meant Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, and Captain. Field Grade were Majors and above.)
