Ben dug into the delicate tissue of the young man's shoulder. He couldn't see anything else about the patient, and that was probably for the best. He knew his patient was old enough to serve in the military or one of the militias. Maybe he served in one of the terror groups running around. He treated everyone, without reference to their history, but sometimes he did wonder.

And he shouldn't. He knew it. He was supposed to be above that kind of thing, or at least able to ignore it. Everyone deserved treatment, regardless of what they'd done outside of his OR. Even the jerk downstairs in the little Navy jail cell—brig—deserved treatment.

They hadn't come to Ben to ask him to treat the guy, though. Dave told him later on that it was a good thing. He couldn't go too far into who the guy was, but Ben trusted his lover when he said their prisoner was someone Ben would rather not come in contact with. Ben wasn't stupid. He knew the SEALs were here to track down White Dawn. He'd take their advice.

He shook himself out of his slight fog and forced himself to focus. Shoulder wounds were tricky. He needed to pay careful attention or else the patient would face permanent damage. The bullet had shattered on impact, sending fragments throughout the muscles and ligaments holding the shoulder together. Film showed arterial involvement too, as well as fractures to both the clavicle and the humerus. In short, the guy was a mess.

There was nothing to do but fix it, one step at a time. He carefully removed every bone and bullet fragment, and repaired the vessels behind them. He could see his patient had been fortunate in some ways. While several ligaments had tears in them, none of them had been severed. The artery, too, had been torn but not destroyed. The patient had lost a lot of blood, but he wouldn't lose the arm. Once the bones and ligaments healed, a long time from now especially for a guy not much younger than Ben, he could get back to doing whatever it was that he did.

Ben sent his patient off to recovery and went to scrub out. Shoulder Guy had been his last patient of the day. He changed into his clean clothes and headed out onto the ward. After a quick look around to make sure all of the patients were doing as well as could be expected, he took off.

Dave wasn't on the ship today, so Ben grabbed dinner with a handful of corpsmen. He missed his lover, but he certainly didn't mind hanging around with others in his profession. It astounded him that so many of these people had no formal training outside of the Navy and were so competent at their jobs. They were essentially physicians' assistants, although their jobs ranged even farther than the roles PAs played in civilian life.

One of them, Hobson, was just about to finish her last tour. She'd enjoyed being in the Navy, she said, but she wasn't getting any younger. "I want to start a family. I want to be there for my family when they come. I'm just not sure what I'm going to do when I transition back to civilian life."

Ben frowned. "Hobson, I've seen you at work. You're more competent and cooler under pressure than any ten civilian nurses I knew in Boston, and I'm not trying to knock them. Why would you have any trouble getting a job? I'd think any hospital would be lucky to have you."

The corpsmen all laughed. "Right. No, that's not how it is at all." Another of the corpsmen, Bohn, put a hand on his back. "None of the licenses transfer. You can't even be a rookie EMT as a civilian, even with years of experience. For all their 'support the troops' signs, no one actually wants to see us once we've served."

"Wow." Ben had no idea how to respond to that. "I always thought—I mean all the recruitment commercials and everything sell the military as good job training." His mind spun. Would it be too much to offer to pay for Hobson to go to nursing school? It wouldn't solve the real problem, in that she was more experienced than most of the professors would be, but it would help to keep her on her feet.

"There are some programs, some non-profits and some bills in Congress. I don't see any of them passing, though." Another corpsman, Ahlgren, shrugged. "There are people who want to help, but none of them have the power to change things." He grinned a little tightly. "So, I hear Hobson's not the only one looking to start a family, huh?"

Ben looked up at the ceiling. His face felt warm, but he grinned anyway. He wouldn't be ashamed of this. "Well, I don't know that 'looking to' is the operative word here, but it's happening. So, yeah." He looked down and moved some of his vegetables around. "It's a little weird, because we weren't planning on it at all, but I think we can make it work."

Hobson snorted. "With a SEAL? Are you kidding? Those guys are nuts!" She blinked when she realized what she'd just said. "I mean sure, you love him and everything. Which is great."

"It would make it harder to raise a kid with him if I didn't love him, true." Ben kept a little bit of a grin on his face. It hurt to hear someone describe the father of his child as "nuts," but he knew there was a lot of tension between these groups right now. He wouldn't hold it against anyone.

"Right. But they're just plain nuts. I mean no one's going to deny that they're very brave to do what they do, and sometimes what you need is to unload a bucket of crazy on the enemy. That doesn't mean you have to take it into your house." Hobson shuddered and took a huge gulp of her water. "Do you have any idea what the stuff they do just in training does to the brain? Days and days without sleep, for starters."

"Some of them seem reasonably well-adjusted." Ben squirmed in his seat. Sure, Dave seemed well-adjusted. They hadn't known each other long. They'd spent a week in a hotel, but that was a kind of euphoric period when everything was new.

"I know what you're thinking." Ahlgren circled his fork in Ben's general direction. "I see that look on your face. You're wondering if he's going to up and lose his mind when the neighbor's dog barks all night, or if you forget to put the cap back on the toothpaste."

"No," Ben lied, waving a hand. Then, "Okay, maybe. But I never forget to put the cap on the toothpaste, so we're all good there." He rubbed at his head. "Look. I get that it's not a great idea to take up with a guy you don't know very well. But the baby is on the way. We've still got to see what we want to do about it. We haven't even agreed to live together, you know? It's happening, though. And I get there's a lot of bad blood between you guys and the SEALs right now. You've got every right to resent them for putting this ship and its status in danger.

"Dave's been a good guy so far. He's made me feel whole for the first time in four years. So I guess I'm just…I don't know. I guess I just have to take my chances. I think he'll be a good dad. I think he'll be a damn sight better than my dad, even if he does lose his shit over toothpaste or dogs or the debate over cloth versus disposable."

"That is a pretty big debate." Bohn nodded his head with the aura of a sage. "Families get torn apart over that, you know. Every day."

Ahlgren perked up a little. "Where do you stand on the subject, Doc?"

"Whichever works better for the parents and their lifestyle." Ben grinned. "I've known kids with such sensitive skin only one brand of diaper would work for them, and it absolutely had to be disposable because the kind of detergent they could tolerate wouldn't get the cloth ones clean. And I've known parents who were able to make cloth diapering work for them, and that was fantastic too. So much time and energy gets put into judging parents and shaming them when really, it's all about the kid. If the kid is healthy, happy, and safe, that's what matters."

Hobson waggled her eyebrows at him and ate a French fry. "And of course you don't have any vested interests there, do you?"

Ben winked at her. "Not a one."

They managed to steer the conversation into friendlier territory, but Ben should have realized they'd been overheard. He found someone knocking on his door later that night. When he opened that door, he found Adami looming over him like some kind of lethal scarecrow.

"Can I help you?" Ben wasn't short by any means, but Adami was one of those super tall guys that just seemed to go on for days.

"Yeah. Yeah, I heard you today in the mess hall. I heard you sticking up for Hopper." Adami frowned and scratched his head. "Do you really feel that way?"

"Which way?" Ben sat on the bed because there wasn't any place else to sit, but he wasn't sure what kind of message that sent. He definitely didn't want to give Adami the wrong idea. He'd heard the rumors about Adami's jealousy. Who knew what he'd assume and go carrying back to Dave?

But Adami just stepped inside and leaned against the bulkhead. "Do you really think he'll be a good dad?"

"Yeah. Yeah, of course I do." Ben stood his ground. "I wouldn't be willing to have a kid with him if I didn't. I'd take off somewhere. I'd go to France, maybe. My child's safety has to be my priority. If I didn't think Dave would be a good dad, I'd keep them apart."

Adami nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, okay." He took a deep breath. "Look, Hopper's my best friend in the SEALs, right? He's probably my best friend I'm not sleeping with."

"That's an interesting way of phrasing things." Ben scratched his stubble. He knew they were friends, but he couldn't quite figure out what that meant for him—or, more to the point, why that meant Adami had to be here, right now.

Adami chuckled. "Okay, it's a little weird. But hear me out. He's looked out for me, and I try to look out for him. I know you're not exactly…the two of you don't come from backgrounds most folks would see as compatible. So I was kind of worried you were just slumming it, you know?" Ben glowered at him, and Adami held his hands up. "Hey, I don't know you too well. Like I said, I have to take care of my bud. We come from similar backgrounds ourselves.”

"So anyway. I was worried about him, and you, and the whole thing. But you were really sticking up for him there. You really do love him, don't you?"

Ben chuckled. "Yeah. It's kind of crazy, because I've never been that guy who falls in love with someone he just met. I guess weird stuff happens in a war zone."

"Sometimes." Adami grinned. It faded quickly. "So, you know about his family, right? Cause it's his story to tell, but you should be aware that they shouldn't be around the baby. Like ever, not even to meet it once."

Ben nodded. He'd been leery of Adami so far, but he had to give the guy credit for the way he walked the fine line between saying too much and leaving Ben in the dark. "We talked about it. I don't…I know Dave's not comfortable with my family money or anything like that. But that's one thing I'll put my foot down about. I am more than willing to hire private security if need be to keep those people away from our kid." He shook his head. "They may have brought him into the world, and I have to be grateful for that, but they're not his family. Not really. Families are love."

Adami nodded. "Right. It's complicated, and desperation can make you do some awful things, but that shouldn't ever be on the list. And the rest of them shouldn't have backed her up. But anyway, as long as you're aware and prepared to take steps, that's all good." He scratched the side of his nose. "Um. Is there really bad blood between us and the corpsmen?"

Ben made a face. "You guys even being on board is an iffy situation, apparently." He held up a hand. "I'm not a Soldier or Sailor, so I'm not up on how all this stuff works. I could ask my dad, but that would make it clearer that you're here, and well, no one wants that. Having you guys on board is risky. Having you guys on board and doing work that isn't rescue-related? That's a huge no-no. And they really don't like it. It puts all of them in danger."

Adami opened his mouth. Then he shut it again, pressing his lips together into a fine line. "Okay. They're not wrong. But could they maybe resent us a little bit less? We are bringing people to them. It's not like we ordered the job to be conducted this way, you know? I mean Chief's a big, important guy, but even he doesn't get to order the Solace into Syrian waters. Come on."

Ben rubbed the back of his neck. "I expect it'll go back to being all those guys are nuts once the job is over. I mean on some level yeah, they probably get that you individuals are not to blame for you being here. But they don't have access to the people who organized the mission, do they?"

Adami snorted. "Nah. And they couldn't say or do anything, even if they met face to face."

"Right? So what they've got is you guys. You're easily identifiable as 'the other,' and you're intruders into what's a pretty tightly knit community. Sorry, but they're not ready to embrace you guys with open arms." Ben tried to keep a neutral face, but what did Adami think he was, the Navy Whisperer?

"It's too bad, but I guess I can see where they're coming from. We got an embedded journalist a little while back and it got kind of ugly. He hadn't asked for the assignment, and we didn't ask to have someone stuck in with us, but it worked out pretty much the same way. Well, except they're being a hell of a lot nicer to us."

Ben smirked. "Well, they're corpsmen. They've got less of a drive to prove their masculinity."

"Hey now." Adami pretended to be offended. "Thanks for chatting with me. I appreciate you putting up with my insecurities and worries for Hopper."

"No problem. Thanks for stopping by." Ben closed the door behind Adami as he left. As the door clicked shut, he had to wonder. Was he as comfortable in his decision as he thought he was?

* * *

Dave sneaked into the Solace's ER late at night. He'd gotten back onto the ship earlier, but he didn't want anyone to see him. His injury was minor, just a graze, but he didn't want to worry Ben. It did occur to him as he hid in DeWitt's cabin with an aching arm that just wouldn't quit bleeding that maybe, just maybe, he'd made the wrong decision. Lying probably wasn't the best way to start off life as a family, especially when it was about a trigger.

Then again, Dave figured no one had hired him for his brilliant thoughts. And he loved Ben too much to want to put him through that kind of trauma if he didn't have to. He certainly wasn't going to traumatize the poor man for a few stitches.

Now he crept into the ER and presented himself to the corpsman on duty, a woman by the name of Hobson. She looked him up and down. "Oh, you're Doc Michaud's guy, aren't you?"

"Um, yes?" He preened for a second before reining himself in. He had no idea how much Ben had told anyone.

"Well, I can see what he was thinking. Come on around to the back. Are you injured anyplace besides the obvious?" She stopped. "Do you want me to go wake him up?"

"No!" Dave jumped between Hobson and the door. "No, sorry. I waited until late so he wouldn't worry. I know he gets kind of twitchy about me getting hurt on the job, and it's just a few stitches."

She hummed at him and helped him off with his shirts. "Yeah. Not so much. Try more like forty, and enough antibiotics to make you wish the ship stocked yogurt. You want me to numb it up?"

"No thanks." Dave took the seat she indicated and kept his eyes straight ahead.

She got right to work, cleaning out the wound with alcohol. It stung, but he gritted his teeth. "Too macho?" she asked him, in a tone that hovered between amusement and contempt.

Dave was used to getting that kind of attitude from people. His accent usually brought it out in them. "Nah. I just really hate the way it feels when you numb it up. I'd rather deal with the pain, you know? At least then I can feel it, I know what's going on there. The numbing stuff is just creepy."

"Huh. I've never heard that one before. Well, it's your choice." She scrubbed at his skin again. That didn't feel great at all, and Dave gave a few grunts of pain. "So, I understand congratulations are in order."

Dave frowned. "I didn't know he'd told anyone." He wasn't angry, he just wished he'd been consulted. Of course he'd told a few of the guys, so he guessed he didn't have a whole lot of ground to stand on. It still chafed.

"The thing is, the Navy inventories everything. And I mean everything. They want to know where every bandage goes, who signs it out, everything. So when Doc signed out an omega pregnancy test, everyone knew. We may not be SEALs, but some of us do have a brain cell or two to rub together."

"Oh." Dave dug his toe into the floor. "I guess I should have thought of that. And of course people talk, because you're on a ship."

"What do you know, you're still a Sailor under all that stuff!" she teased. Dave tried to control his breathing as she started the stitches. "Yeah, the thing about being in such a closed environment is that there's not a whole lot of privacy. For example, tell Buelen we can hook him up with a C-Pap machine if he wants to do something about the snoring."

Dave hissed as Hobson hit a nerve or something. "Yeah, I don't think that's something he's going to be able to lug around with him in the field. Trust me, we'd all be grateful if he could." He huffed out a little laugh. "But yeah, I get it. Not a lot of privacy."

"Are you looking forward to the whole parenting thing?" She gave a little tug Dave was sure she meant in some way to be punitive. He couldn't understand why she was punishing him, but he knew she was.

"Kind of. I'm excited to be a dad, you know? I think most guys would be. Ben's an amazing guy, and even though we haven't known each other very long, I think we're going to do okay together. We've got personalities that mesh pretty well. We can communicate well."

"When you're not hiding in the closet so he doesn't see you've got a graze to your arm."

Dave ducked his head and blushed. "Yeah. When I'm not doing dumb shit like that. But I think he'll forgive me. Anyway, I'm just a little nervous. I didn't have the greatest family life growing up, and I know he was raised mostly by nannies and boarding school staff. I'm not sure either of us really knows what he's doing when it comes to actually raising a tiny human."

"Huh." She blotted at his injury for a second. "You're really bleeding a lot here, Hopper. What gives?"

"I don't know. I always did. It's just a thing. Anyway, I'm nervous about the parenting thing, but you know what? Some truly stupid people with some truly bizarre intentions figure it out. Neither of our families was all that great and we both turned out okay. Our kid should be okay too, right?"

Hobson got back to work. "My guess is that if you go into it with good intentions, and you don't try to stifle the kid too much, you'll probably be okay." She frowned. "What was he doing in boarding school or with nannies, anyway?"

"Ah, his folks are bigwigs. His dad's a politician in France, and his mom's an actress in Hollywood. Neither of them really had time for kids. You know how it is." Dave made a face.

"Not really." She scoffed. "And he's just out here doctoring when he could be living the good life, drinking champagne all day?"

"He likes it. Says he doesn't have the patience for 'celebrity culture.' That's a kind of thing." Dave hesitated. Maybe he shouldn't be opening up to a stranger like this, but Hobson was easy to talk to. The words almost fell out of their own accord. "Like if someone walked up and introduced 'Selene Eliot's son, Ben,' or whatever, I'd be out of there so fast there wouldn't be a camera that could catch me running. You know what I'm saying? But he was there, and he was perfectly at home with everyone else we saw at Borderless. He fit right in. He wasn't some stuffy jerk lording it over everyone, you know? He was just another doctor, taking care of people."

"That's…I don't know. I guess I'm surprised to find out he comes from that kind of background. He seems so normal." She laughed. "Goes to show what I know, right? Oh well. At least your kid won't have to worry about school loans or having the heat turned off."

"That's true." Dave wasn't going to think about the heat getting turned off. He just wasn't.

"Well, you're all set with the stitches. I'm going to cover it with a bandage for the night, just in case. I've got antibiotics, and I want you to take them. I will out you to that doctor of yours if you don't. And absolutely no jumping into anything toxic, rotten, or stupid until the stitches have dissolved." She waved a finger at him. "I know you SEALs need to be reminded of these things sometimes."

"Someone has to do it." Dave grinned at her.

"Okay, maybe, but it's not going to be you until you don't have a gaping wound on your flesh. And yes, your superior will be hearing about it."

"DeWitt already knows. He let me hide out in his cabin until just now."

"I meant Chief."

Dave pouted. "Damn it."

"You think you're the first SEAL I've dealt with?" She patted him on the back and wrapped some gauze around his arm. "Go on, get. Have a good night."

"You too. Thanks for your help."

Hobson was true to her word. She did indeed prevent him from getting sent off the ship until his stitches had healed. "I don't like it either, Hopper, but she's right. We can bench you for a few days, or we can put you on a chopper to Crete when you get some kind of nasty bug up under your skin. It ain't safe." Chief shrugged. "If we were out in the field already I wouldn't object. As it is, you're in a safe place. Take your antibiotics, go heal, get better."

Dave looked for Ben next. He had to wait until Ben's shift was done the next day, but when he did he brought him over to the mess hall just like always. And, because he knew what was good for him and he knew just how fast gossip spread on a ship like this, he came clean about his injury. "It's nothing really," he said. "A graze, but it bled a lot, and I needed stitches. I didn't want to worry you or upset you, so I stayed away until you were asleep so you wouldn't see it."

Ben made a face at him. "I can't tell if I'm angry about that or if I'm touched. I'll settle for both, though." He shook his head. "You probably wouldn't have been benched if you'd just gotten it dealt with right away. But I guess it works out well for me, because you're on the ship and not off getting yourself shot at for a little while."

"I guess." Dave squirmed. "This is so not my thing, though. I'm no good at sitting still and killing time."

"You're good at a lot of things, babe." Ben wrapped his foot around Dave's ankle. "And you work so hard and risk so much, it's okay for you to put your feet up every once in a while. Trust me."

Dave took Ben's hand. "So you're not too mad?"

"I'm a little mad. Not, like, throw him over the side mad. More like, what was he thinking mad." He took a deep breath. "Maybe they'll have you checking on the guy downstairs."

"Hm." Dave nodded, but he didn't say anything more. He didn't want to say too much in such a public location, although pretty much everyone knew someone was in the brig. "So. A lot of decisions to make. I can't imagine they're going to have us staying here much longer. I mean we've got a war criminal hanging around in the brig and the situation in Latakia is stabilizing."

"The situation in Syria isn't stabilizing." For a second, Ben's eyes looked far away. Then he straightened up. "But you know what? It's not practical to evacuate wounded over more than half a country and expect to be able to save them. That's just not reasonable. And it's not a place to try to raise a family right now."

It sounded to Dave like Ben was trying to convince himself, but he didn't have any room to cast stones there. He knew all about wanting to stay and get the job done. "No, it ain't. Have you ever been to Virginia Beach?"

Ben blinked. "Is that near DC or…"

Dave laughed so hard he doubled over. "Oh, my. No, no, it's right down near the North Carolina border. I know you've probably never looked at a map farther south than Philadelphia."

"I considered Johns Hopkins," Ben told him, drawing himself up with some dignity.

"How come you decided not to go there? Aren't they, like, the best med school in the country?"

"Er, it was too far south." Ben blushed. "Look, people are comfortable where they're comfortable, and I knew my ideas and lifestyle wouldn't be welcome down there." He sighed. "But that's probably where you're stationed, isn't it?"

"Yup." Dave paused, the word echoing between them. "Is that going to be a problem?"

Ben looked down, and then he gave a weak little smile. "No, Dave. We're starting a family." He frowned. "Er, there are hospitals down there, right?"

Dave side-eyed his lover. "You're fucking with me right now, aren't you?"

"I'm fucking with you right now. I'd expect there to be hospitals someplace so popular with Spring Breakers. It's going to be okay." He tapped his finger against his jaw, looking away for a second. "I am a little worried about security."

"What, you all fired up about those spring breakers?" Dave teased. Then he simmered down. He knew what Ben meant, of course. It wasn't hard to figure out. "We can get an alarm system put in."

Ben gasped. "You mean, like, together?" His eyes widened. "For real?"

Dave licked his lips. "If you want. I've got a rental right now, it's a one bedroom but we can probably put the crib in the corner."

Ben frowned at him. "Er, Dave. We don't have to do that. You can keep the lease, if you want a safety net, but we can afford to get a separate room for the baby." He scratched his stubble and looked down.

Dave pursed his lips. "Okay," he said, after a moment of his insides twisting. "We can afford to get a place with another bedroom, sure. But do we have to? I mean, you don't have a lot of stuff, I'm guessing. And I don't have a lot of stuff. We don't have to overdo it and go living in a palace. We don't need to spend a fortune, you know?"

He'd said too much. Ben wasn't eating, he was just toying with his fork now. "Well, maybe we don't need to. Like we won't be homeless without it. But we can afford to be comfortable, Dave. I know you're not comfortable with my background, or any of that, but it is nice to be able to get a place for our kid to grow up comfortably. I'm not talking some kind of Nero's pleasure palace with sixteen pools and maidens peeling grapes or anything."

"Your dad?" Dave snarked, feeling bad already.

"My brother. Even if I had a residence in California, I wouldn't have voted for him. But anyway, a place that has enough room for the baby to grow, and play, where we're not stepping on Legos all the livelong and the smell of dirty diapers doesn't permeate our clothes has a lot of appeal for me. And it's going to be easier to secure a freestanding house than an apartment in a complex."

Dave sucked in his cheeks. "I hadn't considered that."

"I know you hadn't, babe." Ben took his hand and squeezed it. "It's a very weird thing. I'm used to dealing with some of it, but not the part that comes from your family. You're used to dealing with the part that comes from your family, but not the part that comes with two egomaniacs for parents." He shrugged. "We'll figure it out together."

Dave forced a smile, but inside he couldn't quite make himself feel it. It was Ben's money to spend, but it still seemed like too much to him.