Still Alive Pt. 03

"I'm guessing the report you read was fabricated by him or someone who reports to him. I believe you thought that, too, because you mentioned unlikely misspellings. Plus, he said he was the one who got you the tickets to the ball. I'm betting it was all a setup and wondering if my boss might have brought his considerable weight to bear and helped clear a path for you."

"Wow."

"Maybe," Ashley concluded. "Ready to head back?"

Mark nodded and navigated on his phone to settle the tab.

"Funny. Their app is suggesting a twenty-percent tip."

"For a runner or someone refilling glasses? Everyone's seeking gratuities nowadays. Even the convenience store I went to yesterday. We're now supposed to tip people for zapping bar codes and pressing a few buttons?"

"Boohoo. Wah-wah," Wright playfully mocked as he rubbed his eyes with his fists. He leaned across the table a little and beckoned Ash with a finger. "Come here."

When she did, he closed the small gap and gave her a tender, quick smooch. "I'd give you a big tip."

"You gave me one and a lot more this morning," she whispered and winked.

Stepping out of the diner, Ashley pointed toward another merchant on the opposite end of the shopping center. "I need to pop in there really quick."

He followed her into a drugstore. She studied the overhead signage for a few moments then headed down an aisle, eyeing the merchandise carefully as she slowed her pace to a stop.

"Fudge. I guess it makes sense they'd keep stuff like that locked up," she said, her eyes looking at an enclosed display with a perspex door.

Though there were different brands inside it, they all contained the same drug which was in the news when the FDA increased over-the-counter access to it two years earlier.

"I'll find a clerk," Ashley said and turned to walk the other way. She immediately noticed Mark's worrisome expression. "Hey. What's wrong? I wasn't thinking about it either, so I hope you don't think I'm blaming you for not having condoms⁠—"

"I'd pay for it, but it's seventy dollars that doesn't need to be spent."

She crunched her eyebrows and canted her head in mild indignation. "That's an interesting opinion, but I'm not exactly ready to have⁠—"

"Ashley, listen to me. I … uh … damn it. I don't know how to⁠—um … there's no way I can get you pregnant."

"Why do you sound so⁠—"

Her voice trailed off when she grasped the expression his face held.

"Oh. Oh . Oh god ," she whispered as her eyes widened. She wrapped her arms under his and pulled him tightly into an understanding, compassionate embrace. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry , Mark. I didn't know."

He noticed other patrons in or within view the Family Planning aisle observing their hug with curious eyes.

"Can we go outside, please? People are staring, and I'm already embarrassed enough."

She grasped his hand and led him outside with long strides to a spot not so conspicuous to other customers. She began crying softly. "I'm sorry, Mark. I'm so sorry, baby. It wasn't my intent to embarrass you. I didn't⁠—"

"I … I know. I know you didn't. The urologist who came to Qatar from Landstuhl to correct the torsion ordered a follow-up at Reed. His colleague there called me Tuesday and confirmed it. Everything's still there, but … I … I'm sterile because of that shit-hat Shirezi."

Ashley felt emotions she'd not once experienced. She knew Wright wore emotional armor as thick as an Abrams tank's. That he was willing to thin it, to reveal something most men would claw their own eyes out to hide, ensnared her in full. Her mind reeled trying to find words which would be adequate or supportive. It took her a few moments to reform something Mark had said earlier.

"Can I give you a compliment I don't know how to say without sounding like I'm falling in love with you?"

"Please do. The more, the bett⁠—uh … what?"

She nodded slowly. "Women all over social media say they want men who are willing to be vulnerable, then vilify them as weak when they are. I'm not one of them. You've … yeah. You truly are amazeballs, and I'll tag you like a cat marks a couch if I have to prove it."

"I knew you were a cat person!" Despite the weightiness of the moment, Mark almost doubled over in laughter. "Ash, people our age shouldn't use the word 'amazeballs.'"

"I like the sound of your laughs, so it was worth it. Just like before. Shall we go?"

"Not just yet." He invited her into his arms and kissed her. "I'm kinda thinking I'm a bit in love with you, too."

The weather was brisk, the skies were sunny, and the breeze was bracing as they resumed their run. Months earlier, a five-mile jaunt would have been an easy excursion, but Wright began to lag.

"Ash!" Mark yelped as he slowed to a stop, bent with his hands on his knees, and panted. "I've lost my stride."

She circled back to him. "We have less than a quarter mile to go. Maybe I can help you out."

"How?"

She leaned in close and dipped to his ear. She nibbled it and said, "Whoever makes it there first gets to be on top."

She sprinted off and was already twenty meters away when his brain finished parsing her insinuation and re-engaged.

That girl is wicked! Mark thought as he began running after her.

He gained on her as she rounded the final corner toward her brownstone. There were less than two hundred meters to go when she peered over her shoulder to evaluate her advantage. Five meters from the agreed-upon finish line, she stopped, turning to face him. She spun around behind him and pushed Mark through it by force.

"Hey!" he said, laughing. "Why'd you do that?"

Again, she tiptoed. "Because I want you on top of me more than you can imagine."

"Screw the shower," Mark hissed as they entered her home.

Ashley stripped her sweaty clothing as they climbed the stairs. He watched her gorgeous, naked ass at eye level. She clambered onto her bed and beckoned him with a crooking finger.

"Hageshiku fakku shite onegaishimasu ."

Mark's expression went quizzical. "Wakarimasen ."

"Fuck me hard. Please ."

He obeyed her demand, watching her eyes roll back before she came all over him. Her verbal encouragements sent him soaring as he painted the end of her tunnel.

Panting, he moaned, "I said, 'screw the shower,' but you just gave me one. Have your phone handy?"

"Don't need it. Alexa, start the shower."

The water began running two seconds later.

"You're a freaking closet nerd, and I love it," Mark said. "I also love your incredibly beautiful little songbirds."

Ashley's brows crunched. "My whaty-whats?"

"Crossword answer. Four letters."

"Little songbirds? Okay …"

He watched her eyes shift as she sifted through her mental dictionary. He knew she'd figured it out when the force of her sudden laughter ejected his cock along with what they'd made inside her pussy together.

"You like my tits , huh?" she said, still laughing.

He scooched downward and took a nipple between his lips in a gentle suckle. "Yeah. I do."

"You're too much, baby," she said with a serene smile.

They sorted themselves. Ashley dealt with the linens on her bed while Mark went back to her car in the garden-level garage to retrieve his duffel and boxes.

He'd praised her tattoo earlier, but those she'd seen on his left shoulder blade weren't praiseworthy. Though there was space for more, she presumed it unlikely he would add the date of Farah Salman's death underneath those of Brianna Michelson and his prior three love interests.

"Whenever you're comfortable talking about the dates on your back, I'm willing to listen."

"How about giving me a tour of your awesome abode first."

"Sure. We'll start at the top."

They climbed multiple flights of stairs. The uppermost level held a half bathroom and a small kitchen area. She opened a glass door and led him outside to the rooftop which had outdoor furniture, fire pits, and a folding awning.

Mark stepped to the railing of the parapet. "What's across the street?"

"Noyes Park."

Ashley escorted him through her brownstone leaving nothing out.

"Your house is gorgeous. I think I counted six levels including the cellar?"

She nodded. "Did you notice the pocket doors in the stairway vestibules?"

He shook his head.

"They're so I can lock off each floor separately. I couldn't afford to own a place like this without renting out various sections to vacationers or tourists. The season has come to a halt, but it'll get busy again in March."

"Smart," Mark said. "Can I rent the second level?"

"I use it year-round. I assumed you'd head back home to Missouri."

"To the 'backwoods?'" he asked with air quotes accompanying the slight scorn in his expression and voice.

She chuckled. "You know I'm teasing, don't you?"

He shifted effortlessly back to a smile and nodded. "That might be where I'll wind up. That is, unless you have other plans."

She returned his smile and added a kiss. "You have plenty of options."

They ascended back to the parlor level. Ashley poured iced tea for two and sat with Mark on the couch.

"The first date. October 15, 1991. Her name was Jamie Shores. I met her on my first day of high school. We started dating after only two months," Mark said cautiously.

Hearing the ice in his glass tinkling because his hand was shaking, he placed it on a coaster. Ashley brought his head to her thigh. She gently traced her fingers through his hair.

"I'd had crushes before, but Jamie was different. She was a sweetheart in every possible way. During our junior year, she went on deck at a softball game but forgot her helmet. She turned around to go back to get it from the dugout right when a girl at the plate took a swing at a bad pitch. The bat slipped out of her hands and hit Jamie in the base of her skull. She died in the ICU that night."

"Were you there?" Ashley softly asked.

Mark expelled a snort devoid of any humor. "It was the fucking quarterfinals, but I was busy with something more important. Or so I thought. The game was on a Saturday night, and I didn't even find out what happened until the following Monday morning when I overheard people talking about it.

"The next was Kendra Summers. Erin introduced me to her when a bunch of us went out for sliders during senior skip day the week before graduation commencement. Erin was a sophomore, but she skipped, too. Kendra and I clicked fast and hard. We saw each other almost every day until she left for college in the fall. I went to boot in San Diego a few weeks later.

"My parents bought her a plane ticket so she could come with them to my graduation. It was a complete surprise when I saw her in the risers at the parade deck while all the companies were lining up. She was blowing me all sorts of kisses and waving at me, trying to make me laugh. That's the closest I ever came to breaking formation. Hell. I'd earned a meritorious promotion to PFC, and the gunny would've ripped the chevrons off my shirt if I even smiled.

"I had ten days liberty which I got to spend at home in Kirkwood. Kendra and I … um … we hooked up the night before I left for Infantry Training Battalion. She was … it was our first times.

When I was at Pendleton, her dad wrapped his car, with her in it, around a telephone pole less than a quarter mile from her home because he was stoned on heroin. My request for leave to go to her funeral was denied. That was in 1995. It took years before I found out the dealer who sold him his dope was linked to the Sogamoso cartel."

Mark's voice had become distant. Ashley felt a change as his skin became cool and clammy.

"Alma Rosario was a civilian who worked at the MCX in Manila. She asked me out which was a first for me. We were together for about six months until a local pimp who thought she was one of his hookers stabbed her in the neck on the sidewalk when she was walking home from work one night because he'd seen us together. It was a fucking case of mistaken identity. I only learned about her death when I noticed she hadn't been at work. If her family had a funeral for her, no one ever told me. That was in '99. Bhudraja didn't have anything to do with it, as far as I knew, but I didn't care. He was just as evil and deserved his fate."

Mark was cold and emotionless. He heard Ashley sniffle and swallow noisily.

"You already know about Brianna Michelson, but I've never told anyone how close we actually were.

"I wasn't a sergeant when we first met. I was a corporal like Brie. It was frowned upon, but it wasn't a violation for us to be involved. Then I went and did something stupid. Several ground spotters were reporting glitches in the datalinks between laser markers and the brand-new field radios my unit was responsible for. They were used to transmit data to aircraft dropping GBUs. I discovered the encryption keys' syncs had gone out of phase because of a misprint in the deployment specs. A dumb transposition error nobody figured out until I did.

"I informed my CO and received not only a slap on my back after command confirmed the mistake, but a jump-step to sergeant a month later because the correction to the manuals increased reliability of the datalinks to over ninety-eight percent.

"We both knew our relationship couldn't continue. I'd be two ranks higher. She'd also be placed under my command. I told her I was willing to exit if she would marry me when my term of service was up, but she was killed a month later.

"Her parents waited to inter her ashes so she could be buried with her Purple Heart. I buried mine near where she was wounded, so neither will ever see the light of day again. Nor will the people on that fucking plane full of evil including the one who became the leader of the cadre responsible for her death."

Mark heard Ashley make another noise. He turned his head to look up at her and saw the tears on her face. He sat up. She embraced the man in his arms and ran her fingers through the hair at the back of his head.

"I understand now. I do. I get it. With everything you've been through, getting close to someone else again has to feel perilous. Only you will know when you're ready, but now I need to tell you something. I've been hiding something from you, but you should know."

He leaned back and looked in her eyes with an expression of concern.

Ashley knew she had to be honest with him. She knew she could never deserve his trust if she kept a certain fact from him.

"You told me never to speak her name again, so I won't. When we found you in Qatar, a certain woman was wearing a dog tag on her necklace. It was yours."

He had given Farah one of his pair before Jassim Kahn drove him back to the JONATO base.

"I shall treasure this and keep it close. Diiro belkon a'a halkon . Take good care of yourself," Farah had said before his departure.

"She cared for you, Mark. I'm absolutely certain ."

Ashley held him in her arms as the remainder of his armor shattered.

Arlington, VA
Monday, December 7, 2015, 8:30 AM EST

Two dozen people mingled around, idly conversing in the conference room

"Good morning," GM Wesson said. "I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend. Wick's team is in the field. I know the rumor mill runs rampant around here, so I'm going to get right to the point."

"Shouldn't we wait for Ashley?" Gleek asked as everyone took a seat.

"She'll be joining us shortly. Martel is working on forming a new business unit. I recently hired someone who'll be working alongside her to develop situational awareness and basic personal countermeasures training courses. Their purpose is to train the sorts of people we are contracted to rescue when things head south. The goal is to make their employees more able to prevent an abduction."

"Won't that wind up eating into your bottom line?" someone else asked.

ad"I'm sort of hoping it does."

"Sounds like a big elephant for one person to eat," Dozer observed.

"It is, and she's not undertaking it alone. Some of you might remember the man I'm about to introduce."

Wesson stepped out to the hall and waved down the corridor where Martel was waiting.

She entered the room with another person following.

"What the Fraggle Rock?" Flack yelped, surprise flashing to his face.

"Holy spit on a biscuit!" another man said, leaving his seat. "Damn, Jackwagon, you look a whole lot better than the last time I saw you. The name's Kris Ritter, sir, but you can call me Dozer."

Wright shook his offered hand firmly, immediately recalling the man's code name. "I think I owe you and a few others here a drink or forty."

"Ixnay on the code name, Kris," Martel gently scolded. "A few things are changing around here."

"Way to jump out ahead of me," Wesson said with a chuckle. "Yeah. Minor reorg today. I'll send out an email with new charts in a few minutes. It's nothing to get worked up about. Meeting's over. Come introduce yourselves to Wolfram's newest: Major Mark Wright, United States Marine Corps, retired."

Everyone seated in the room rose and greeted Wright. Their encouragement and genuinely welcoming words made him immediately feel like a part of a great team. He felt like he'd made a soft landing at his newest home.

Ashley quietly walked to the other side of the room, watching the parade of new faces greet the man.

When Mark turned in her direction, she caught his attention. No one else was looking as she signed something which made his face smile more warmly than it already was. After everyone had begun to file out of the room, Mark walked over to Ashley and made her smile match his.

"Watashi mo aishiteimasu, Ashuri-chan. In case I butchered it, I tried to say, 'I love you, too.'"

"You nailed it."

Ashley stepped toward the door. Since they'd been left alone in the conference room, Mark goosed her butt playfully. She yelped in surprise then laughed as she turned back to face him.

"Jeez, babe, not when we're working," she said in a faux scold to the man bearing twinkling, happy eyes conveying the sincerest of genuine affection.

Mark considered himself to be among the luckiest of men walking the surface of the planet. Only four months before, he had been a hair's breadth from death. Then, for the first time in a decade, he looked forward and saw a future he'd never expected which began when he met a woman gifted with incredible savvy, gut instinct, intellect, and was also endowed with a beautiful blend of compassion and empathy.

Those traits helped Wright realign his compass. She reminded him frequently that all close relationships are fraught with risk, and she was taking her own.

"Thank you, Ash," Mark said as he took both of her hands in his. "I love you. I truly do, and I owe you everything."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him tenderly.

"Screw the not at work thing," she whispered. "You owe me nothing. Whatever debt you think you owe has been paid because I love you, too."

"This is going to be awesome," he said as he held her to him, swaying her gently in his arms.

"It already is, and I'm planning a ton of tomorrows, jarhead."

"Me too, baby. Want to go get a crayon salad for lunch later?"

"You'll have to teach me which colors taste the best."

"Roy G. Biv in equal measures. Even better if you leave the paper on. For fiber."

Ashley laughed hard. "Yeah. Sounds fantastic. Ready to get to work?"

"Absolutely," Wright said, following her out the door into the new universe awaiting them.