I’m rather excited that today is Wednesday and I have lots of words to share. It doesn’t happen often that I get back-to-back inspirational prompts, meaning that the scene from the previous week rolled right over into a continuation of the same scene. And it won me an honorable mention. This weeks prompt is: ** “You need to keep calm.”** Also, I’ve included the edited and expanded orignal scene so y’all can get the full effect. Also, y’all might be interested in the way Iffy works her “magic” during the edit process.
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The helicopter landed near an isolated hangar on the airfield. As the rotors wound down and stopped, armed soldiers formed up in two columns jogged from the hangar and surrounded the helo. To say the kids freaked was an understatement.

Galyna slid to the floor and huddled next to Moshe, tears washing her cheeks. The girls terror was obvious. These kids had already been caught in the crossfire too many times. Moshe, good dog that he was, licked the girl before facing the slowly-opening door. The K-9 growled, hackles up. Yakiv kept asking Larysa what was happening. Anichka pulled them and Sonya down to cluster next to Galyna. She was the one to explain the situation to the sightless boy. Maxim crouched in front of the kids, their fierce protector. He held a combat knife and Meg had no idea where he’d acquired it.

When the door opened, several soldiers reached into the helicopter to grab the kids. There wasn’t time to waste. Meg threw herself at the nearest, fists flying in an attempt to fend them off. Except she never got close enough to connect. A strong arm wrapped around her waist and hauled her back. Her breath whoosed out from the force of it and the world turned a bit wonky. When her vision cleared, she realized that Tank, Dalton, Duke, and Loch had forced the soldiers back and cleared space around the helicopter.

“We’ve got this, lass,” Kin whispered “Trust me.”

She did. These men would allow nothing to happen to the children.

Duke faced the Romanian commander, who explained in heavily accented English, “We have orders. They will be segregated until—”

“No. They stay with us.” Duke’s voice held harsh finality and the expression on his face put a massive exclamation point on the statement.

As Meg processed all of this, a petite blond confronted the officer, her pointed index finger shaking in his face. In perfect Romanian, she said very sweetly but with absolute resolve, “We talked about this, Commander.”

The team exchanged looks and remained, through extreme effort, stoic but Meg recognized the crinkles appearing around their eyes for the humor and laughter they were doing their best to stifle. She returned her attention to the Romanian officer and the blond.

A smart man knew not to argue with “the finger.” The commander was a smart man. He backed away. At his gesture, the squad of soldiers lowered their weapons.

Meg didn’t know how to respond to the unfolding situation. Who was this woman? Petro stood beside her and said softly, “Were you able to translate?”

She almost giggled. “The mom finger needs no translation.”

Several things happened simultaneously. Kin relieved Max of the combat knife and the weapon disappeared. Apparently, none of the Romanian soldiers had noticed that the boy had been armed. Duke approached the petite woman. “Ah, Princes? You need to keep calm. Okay?”

Princess? The woman was royalty? Totally confused, Meg looked to Kin for an explanation. She got one.

“’Tis his wife, lass. Corey. She’s a pediatrician and from what I’ve gathered, not one to be messed with when it concerns kids. She turns into an absolute dragon.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Meg said.

Loch coughed into his hand, stifling a laugh when Uri said, “What is that saying you Brits have? Keep calm and carry on?”

That earned both men the side-eye from Corey before she assured her husband with, “I won’t do anything rash, Duke, but the commander and I have already discussed this. We will take the kids to the infirmary for triage.” She glanced over her shoulder at Meg. “And you, too, hon. Duke told me you’d been injured in a cave-in. And then—” She turned to face the commander again. “They are all coming back to the hotel with us until decisions are made.” She smiled the smile of a woman who knew she’d get her way. “Isn’t that right, Colonel?”
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There you have it. I hope you enjoyed the expanded version. This was a fun scene and maybe it’ll prompt me to get my arse in gear. I still have a touch of the foot-draggin’ blues. Writers, feel free to “steal” the prompt. Readers–and writers if you want to answer–whot do you do to stay calm?