Sin stifled a grin as she rode away from the guard gate. She parked her bike and proceeded into the hospital.
Making her way through the corridors of the hospital, Sin was amused at the looks she garnered from those she passed. She wondered if it was because she was not in uniform, or was it the fact that she was wearing low rise, tight jeans, and an even tighter long sleeve tee-shirt that said ‘Bite Me’ on the back? Maybe it was the sound that the stiletto heels of her black leather boots made on the linoleum floors as she sauntered past.
Sin had stopped trying to please others with her style of dress or her attitude the day she left Tumbleboat. She had been shunned, ridiculed, and lied about while she lived here because of her physical attributes, but in the years since, she learned to use those attributes in her favor. The truth was, she was a curvaceous woman with a take-no-prisoners attitude. That was the way God made her and that was the way she planned on going about her life. She wasn’t about to reign in her sexuality for the military or anyone else.
She stood outside her father’s room, surprised at what she saw. Her father was frail, not the man she remembered. What surprised her even more was the person he was talking to: Troy Stubbs, the deputy she ran into yesterday.
They looked up when she knocked on the doorframe. Her father sat a little straighter, mouth agape when he saw her. Sin, too, was speechless. It had been seven years since they had seen each other, and Sin suddenly felt self-conscious.
Troy took a step toward her and held out his hand. “Sin, it’s nice to see you again. I was just mentioning to your father that we had run into each other last night when you arrived.”
“It’s always nice to see old friends,” Sin replied.
Troy looked back at her father. “Thomas, I have a few people to say hello to and then I will come back to say goodbye.” He tipped his ball cap at Sin and walked out of the room.
An awkward silence seemed to swallow both father and daughter as Sin tentatively walked toward the bed.
The moment was broken by the sound of a female voice. She was looking at his medical chart as she spoke. “Thomas, I have good news. Your blood results are improving and you should be able to go a rehabilitation facility tomorrow.” When she saw Sin, she smiled. “Hi, I’m Dr. O’Rourke, Mr. O’Malley’s oncologist.”
Sin reached out and shook her hand. “I’m Sin—Sinclair O’Malley, his daughter.”
Dr. O’Rourke sat in the only chair in room. “Please, call me Deborah. Your being here changes everything.”
“And you can call me Sin. How does my being here change everything?”
“Well, I am assuming that you will be staying for a while and if so, your father can go home instead of a rehabilitation facility.”
Sin looked at her father. He seemed a shell of the man she had last seen. “Doesn’t he need special care or . . . something?”
The doctor’s voice took on an edge as she spoke. “No, what he needs is to go home and heal up from the therapy he went through. Are you capable of taking care of him at home?”
“Will you two stop talking as if I wasn’t here,” Thomas said. “I’ll go to the rehab center. I don’t even know how long my daughter has for leave.”
The doctor removed her glasses. “Leave?”
“Let me give you a proper introduction,” Thomas said. “Deborah, this is Sergeant Sinclair Rachael O’Malley. Marine, Special Forces, last assigned to a covert ops group which worked with Seal Team Six in both Afghanistan and Iraq.” He beamed with pride and appeared to gain strength as he spoke in adulation of his daughter.
Dr. O’Rourke’s expression didn’t change. She just continued to eye Sin, waiting for an answer.
“My leave is indefinite,” Sin said. She pumped up her chest in defiance. No one was going to get the best of her. “When can he come home?”
Dr. O’Rourke stood to leave. “Depending on this afternoon’s blood results, Thomas should be able to leave the hospital tomorrow. I have a stack of paperwork you will need to sign, and I need you to meet with the case manager and Occupational Therapist and I . . .”
“Later,” Sin said. “I would like to spend some time getting reacquainted with my father.”
“I’m afraid we work on a strict time schedule here, Sergeant and . . .”
Sin took a step toward Dr. O’Rourke, cutting her off with her proximity. “I will find you when I am finished here.”
Dr. O’Rourke slammed the metal chart shut and stormed out of the room.
“Well, I see some things haven’t changed,” Thomas said.
Sin stood at his side, hands on hips, one arched out to the side. The same way she stood in front of him when she was a teenager while he was reprimanding her. “Why is it I can lead men into battle, but when I return home, I become an angry little girl?”
Her father became quiet. With a shaky hand, he took a sip of water. “What do you say, we start all over again.”
Sin relaxed her posture and nodded.
Thomas held out his arms. “Come here and give your dad a hug.”
Sin’s movements were wooden. She bent over and gently gave her father a hug. One you would give a stranger. He pulled her in and squeezed tight, his arms shook from his weakened state.
“I’m sorry for how things were between us,” he said. “I’m sorry for not believing you—for not believing
