© 2025 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. All characters are original. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental. This story or any part thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.

This is an all-new addition to the Stormwatch series. If you haven't read Stormwatch Chapter 1, through Stormwatch Chapter 8, please take this chance first. All chapters are listed in the correct reading order in the Stormwatch Series List. Chapters one and two are updates to existing chapters with 50% new material in each, and a corrected timeline. Chapters 3, through 8, are all new and hopefully they rekindle the joy of the series and expand on the story.

In Chapter 9, the shock waves of finding a toddler desperately trying to wake his dead mother take their toll on Josh, and it gets worse and his mental state threatens his relationship with Veronica.

For comments, questions, or merchandise, please contact the author.

Stormwatch Chapter 09

The Ides of Anguish

The town of Concord and the village of Springville don't have a morgue; they make do with the one at Bertrand Chaffee Memorial Hospital, and that is where Cholly's mother was waiting. Doctor Kendra Long pulled open a drawer, and there under a sheet was Cholly's mother. She had the same dark brown hair, the same tiny nose, and the same cleft chin. Andi even put on a glove and pried open her dead eye. Hazel, same as Cholly's. "Her landlady found her when she returned home from a three day trip. The baby's non-stop crying caused her to investigate," said Kendra.

"Cause of death?" asked Andi as she inspected the woman's fingernails. Fingernails reveal a lot of health information. Hers were not coated with polish; Andi was looking for the pale white fingernails of a hepatitis sufferer. She looked at the inner elbow, expecting to see a vein blown by a habitual heroin user. Nothing really presented itself to her. "Let me guess, OD?"

"Toxicology said that she died of a fentanyl overdose."

"God, I hate that shit," said Andi. "Time of death?"

"We're guesstimating at four days ago, maybe five."

Andi did the math in her head, and if the landlady was honest, that poor child was alone with the corpse of his mother for three days. "How long do you think she was doing smack?" asked Andi. She was worried about a junkie nursing Cholly when he was a baby.

"Can't tell, possibly rookie level. As you can see she's not presenting."

"Could she have been poisoned?" asked John, who refused to believe anything but the best of someone until presented with evidence to the contrary.

"Maybe," shrugged Kendra. "All we know is that she was alone with a kid, no clothes, all she had with her was a diaper bag."

"So, she was running away," said John.

"What do we know about her?" asked Andi.

"She's not an American. Her name was Séraphine Lévesque. She was twenty-three."

"French?" asked John. His eyes were locked onto Séraphine's dead face. The sorrowful look on John's face broke Andi's heart and almost shattered her façade.

"French Colonial, she's from," said Town of Concord PD sergeant Alex Maxwell. He looked through his papers on his clipboard. "New Caledonia."

"That's the paradise of the south Pacific! What's she doing in the snow belt south of Buffalo?" demanded Andi. She glared at Séraphine's blank expression. "She comes here for what... a fiancé? Fiancé becomes pusher becomes pimp? How did she end up in Springville?" Andi couldn't get the pieces completely organized, but she was able to see some of the big picture coming together.

"Why didn't she pack any clothes?" asked John.

"What?" gasped Andi.

"That's what Josh said, they only packed for the boy. She stopped at a Walmart somewhere and bought underwear."

"She's on the run," said Andi.

"From where, to where?"

"We'll keep working on that," said Alex.

They were silent for a long moment as they considered what had happened to this girl. "Junky," said Andi.

"That's not fair, you don't know that" said John.

"I worked at University Hospital in Denver; I saw it a million times. These fools haven't seen a drug they didn't try. Then they become addicted and they say, 'how did that happen?' They become zombies, I'm surprised that her baby lived as long as he did."

"That is not fair," said John. "You don't know what happened."

"I'm talking from experience; you haven't seen them. I was there in the trenches. I administered Narcan at least twice a week in Denver. It's hard to be charitable when you see someone destroy themselves, and you save their life, and they steal your wallet so they can go buy more junk."

John was silent for a long time. She's most likely right; it is a fallen world we live in. He looked at Séraphine Lévesque, and she didn't look like a junkie. This was somebody's daughter; some father somewhere is looking for her. "DNA," said John finally.

"What?" asked Kendra.

"DNA... can we match Séraphine's DNA to Cholly? I need to know if he has living parents. When was he born? What is his name?"

"Collecting his DNA is not a problem. Let me get you a kit. As for giving birth... we think eighteen months ago, June," said Kendra as she gave John a swab kit and they headed out into the waiting area.

John crouched down in front of Cholly and took a cotton swab out of the DNA collection kit. "Say ah... Dis ah" It took him a few tries to get Cholly to open his mouth so he could get a DNA sample. "Bon gamin! Good boy!"

Cholly grinned broadly at John's praise, which caused John to tighten up. Andi could see he's one or two more revelations from a cry of anguish. "Why pull his DNA?" she asked.

"Because some day he's going to want to know about his real parents. And when we go to family court I can say his parents are gone. We will be able to walk over to the church yard and show him where she rests."

"Come on, let's put Séraphine to rest," said Andi, and she took the DNA sample from John and gave it to Kendra. They made plans to inter Séraphine at the small graveyard next to John's church as Andi drove John and Macy home.

After John and Macy went into their house, Andi dropped the professional doctor façade. The thought of that sweet little boy stuck in a cold apartment with his dead mother for three days... she sat in her van crying, her heart breaking for the little boy who spent three days trying to wake up his dead mother. She wept for almost ten minutes and finally, she sniffed and said, "I need my babies."

<><><><><>

The news outlets in Western New York and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, were buzzing with the news - a huge drug smuggling and human trafficking ring was taken down when agents from the FBI and local police raided their operation. The whoopla for the Western New York outlets was that a local businessman was instrumental in taking down the drug and slave runners.

Paul Jarecki, a cardiologist and CEO of Jarecki Motors, had purchased a foundering dealership in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and traveled out there with his executive assistant to ensure the grand opening met Jarecki Motors standards. What he saw there went beyond mismanagement. It was downright criminal.

The US law enforcement officials moved on information supplied by the French Groupe d'intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN) who infiltrated the crime syndicate and took down the entire operation. The group attempted to smuggle drugs and slaves into the country in automobiles destined for Linwood Ford/Lincoln in Portsmouth, but were stopped through cooperation by the new owner, Paul Jarecki. Dozens of young women and boys who were taken from their southwest Asian homes were rescued. Hundreds of pounds of fentanyl were seized, and dozens of men and women were charged with drug trafficking and sex trafficking.

The people arrested and charged were politicians, ships' captains, truck drivers, and the staff of the former Linwood Ford dealership that was used as cover. Newspapers praised the operation and claimed, "a minimal loss of life," but when one of the reporters told Paul that there were five hostages lost when they were tossed into Portsmouth harbor, Paul clearly blanched and lost his train of thought. He didn't expect any of this. He was sure his major issue was bad management... then he found bad bookkeeping... then he suspected car theft... and then... He couldn't believe the audacity of Oliver Linwood and Messias Rocha. Stolen cars full of drugs and slaves. "I didn't realize we lost anyone," said Paul.

"Five sir. They threw about twenty girls off the cargo ship the Dakota Hustle," said Min quietly. "They were able to save fifteen." Paul turned to Min, who said, "they're adding accessory to murder to everyone's charges."

Paul turned away from the news outlets and whispered, "Let's put up with this for two more days, but then I'm done, I need to get home. Something is going on."

<><><><><>

"Are you sure you're ok?" asked Veronica. She and Josh were driving to work, and it was snowing again. He was driving, but his mind was far, far away.

"I don't know what's going on," said Josh sadly. "I didn't sleep well last night."

"What's the matter? Did you have a bad dream?" asked Veronica.

Bad dream? If you consider being haunted by a dead woman who was calling out, "Find the father!" over and over a bad dream, then yeah, he had a bad dream. "Kind of," said Josh.

"What was it?" asked Veronica.

"You know how when you have a dream when you wake up the details fade away and all you're left with are faint images and memories of the emotions the dream churned up?"

"Yeah," said Veronica suspiciously.

"This wasn't one of them," said Josh. "I remember every moment of this dream. It was one of those dreams where you're looking for something."

"What were you looking for?" asked Veronica.

"A person. I was in a maze kind of building. I remember the floors were wooden, the walls were dark gray and the ceiling was black and there were dark gray doors all along the walls. Most of the doors were locked but I had to try each one."

"What was behind the doors you could open?"

"More hallway with more doors. It was such a frustrating dream and I can remember every part of it."

Josh looked truly distressed, so Veronica took his hand and said, "It's just a dream."

"No, that's the worst part. I KNOW there's something I should be looking for, I just..." Josh went pale and his jaw dropped.

"You know what it is?" asked Veronica.

"It's not a what, it's a who." He made a call, and they soon heard the voice of Lucy Kocis.

"Didomissio Construction."

"Hey Lucy, how come you're answering Gus's work phone?"

"Because he's driving."

"I'm right here," said Gus. "We're finishing up a couple of snowplowing jobs before the storm hits."

"Are you going to be able to meet me at Miss Amelia's house?"

"About four? No problem."

"Good, bring a cop with you."

"You need a cop?" asked Lucy and Veronica at the same time.

They pulled into Andalon, and Josh dropped Veronica off at the front door with a kiss, then drove around back and pulled into the rear parking area and found a Mercedes in "his" parking spot. He parked immediately behind it and then did an inspection of the Mercedes, then went in the back door. "Sup Mark?"

"Not much. Was there any snow in Springville today?" There's always snow in Springville. Mark was asking if there was any fresh snow. He was a skier, and fresh snow in Springville usually meant fresh powder at Kissing Bridge or Holiday Valley ski resorts.

"Not a lot. It's cold, however. All the slush is frozen solid." Thanks to the wind coming off of Lake Erie, the difference in weather in the different sections of Erie County, NY, can be extreme. While Springville is being hammered with snow and freezing temperatures, north in Tonawanda, it could be sunny and in the 40s.

"I hate frozen slush," said Mark. "Hey, I just got an email from the boss, they want us in the conference room at nine. I think they finally got a VP of Production lined up."

"Oh boy. Who is it?" asked Josh.

"I was going to ask you," said Mark. "Didn't Lady Veronica say anything?"

"Nope. She and I both know the meaning behind Classified Information." With that, Josh headed over to his office, where he sat down and checked his email. There was an email calling for a staff meeting at 9:00 a.m. He made a quick phone call to the Orchard Park Police Department, then went out and talked with the troops. His two floor managers, Jen Combs and Rasheed Davis. "An all hands managers meeting was called for Nine. Jen, that install at Mercy General, let's put it on hold until we find out what's going on."

"Roger Boss," said Jen as she flipped through a stack of work orders on her clipboard.

"Rasheed, do we have the new data storage machines ready for the roll out to Mercy General?"

"We're short six hard drives, the manufacturer said they're on their way, but DHL has no idea where they're at."

"See if Granger can help us with six drives," said Josh.

"They're all solid state," said Rasheed.

"Wonderful," groaned Josh. Ever since they rolled out high-capacity, high speed solid state storage drives, Ant has been pushing to roll all storage servers over to these drives. In many cases, it means replacing the entire storage server.

"Hey!" cried a voice from the workroom. "Who parked behind my car? It's blocking me in!"

Josh stepped into the workroom and said, "You have the 2026 Mercedes AMG CLE 53 Coupe? Sweet ride man, that's easily a hundred grand."

"That's four hundred and fifty horsepower, zero to sixty in under three point five seconds and it's trapped behind a piece of shit jeep pickup."

The entire office went silent. Nobody calls Spartacus a piece of shit. That's Josh's baby. It was a symbol of his friendship with Deanna Daniels, the woman who sold it to him, and her husband Rod that got him started in Barbershop Harmony. It was waiting for him when he returned from Korea with cancer. It was part of his rehabilitation from cancer, and it was there for his romance of Veronica. "Oooo pretty boy," said Terri under her breath. "You fucked up."

"Don't you get yourself all riled up," said Josh in his deepest South Georgia accent. "I done called the police about that myself."

"Good!" said a young man who stepped forward from the crowd of Josh's people. The fellow looked like he was eighteen, he had short blond hair and was dressed in a $700 gray tweed sports coat, a royal blue Irish wool V-neck sweater and a light blue micro stripe Oxford cloth button-down shirt with a burgundy flannel wool. "I have a meeting, so that piece of crap had better be moved when I get back."

Josh just smiled and returned to his office. Terri followed him in. "Why didn't ya slap him around?"

"What, and get blood on his twelve hundred dollar He Spoke business casual costume? He's not worth the slap." Josh made himself a cup of coffee on his Keurig.

"Jeez boss, you can make any damn coffee in the world with a Keurig and you make a cup of Maxwell House?"

Josh shrugged as the Keurig "brewed" his coffee. "The local A&P was out of Folger's pods."

"Folger's? Why Folger's?"

"My dad said that it cures hangovers and he should know. I suppose that's why my folks drank it every damn morning until they died."

Terri realized that was a part of Josh's life she didn't want to investigate. She tried a different tack. "What's an A&P?"

"It stands for the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, they pretty much invented the grocery store as you know it. Here," and he tossed her his keys. "Soon as the cops arrive, move my truck." He took his cup of Maxwell House and headed out of his office. "I'll be back soon and we can get started."

He strolled through the Andalon Data Systems complex, saying hello to folks as he went through the different areas. He finally made it to the conference room, and it was packed. All VPs and department heads were in the room, and being the low man on the management totem pole, Josh had to stand along the wall with several salesmen. It didn't bother him that the entire sales force was in the room. Locking them all up together made America safer.

As Josh sipped his coffee, Ant stood at his position at the head of the long table. "The holidays are getting closer, and I want to thank you all for the efforts you've put forward. This year has been the greatest year in Andalon Data Systems' history. And this year's holiday party will be the best yet. We have the Millard Fillmore ballroom of the Statler Waldorf."

After the applause, Anthony continued. "I really want to thank Eric Kraus, our new sales lead. He's really brought the sales department forward since taking over."

Mark Post leaned over and whispered to Josh, "Yeah, because Brandon Mitchell hasn't touched shit since September." Josh almost spewed a mouthful of coffee.

"Our executive group is growing; I want to introduce our new VP of Production Fabian Bernsdorf. Fabian comes to us from the US Army where he has a sterling record. Of course he's going to need some training, and I hope our very own giant-slayer Josh Gravely is up to the task of bringing Fabian online."

"Thank you," muttered Josh as the assembled company officers started applauding the announcement.

"You can train Fabian for us can't you," asked Ant with a huge grin.

"Lesson number one has started already," said Josh from the back of the room. He lifted his Death to Those Below coffee mug in salute.

"That's great," said Ant, but Veronica gave Josh a disapproving look. She knew what the tone of Josh's voice threatened. He would not go easy on the new troop, and something was up.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

When Josh returned to his office, he saw his keys on his desk. He hoped that signified that the police had been there. Then, returning to the maintenance room, he glanced through the window and saw that his truck was no longer behind the Mercedes. He made another cup of coffee and turned to Fabian. "Before you do anything, we need to talk first," said Josh.

"I want to address the troops first," said Fabian.

"We really should talk first."

"Let me worry about that," said Fabian. "I was all Army for eight years, I know what I'm doing."

"Eight years," said Josh with false interest. He grabbed his cup of coffee and then called out, "Gather 'round troops." When everyone showed up, Josh said, "We now have a new Vice President of production who will lead us on to greater glory. I want you all to welcome Fabian Bernsdorf. He's another veteran, so you know what that means."

"Yeah, our coffee budget goes through the roof," said Dave Johnson, one of Jennifer's field technicians.

"Seven people? That's it?" asked Fabian.

"Eight," said Josh, and he pointed to himself.

"My name is Fabian Bernsdorf, I'm from Darien Connecticut and I have a Business degree from Quinnipiac University. I served the country for eight years and I have some solid ideas on changes we need to implement that will improve..."

"Were you a hero like Josh?" interrupted Terri.

Fabian Bernsdorf looked over to Josh, but Josh didn't move a muscle. He remained stone-faced as Fabian answered. "I suppose that depends on what you call a hero."

"You know, a Hero... like Josh," insisted Terri.

Fabian looked again at Josh. "Hero?"

"Ah suppose that depends on what y'all call a hero," said Josh without showing any emotion.

Fabian finally said, "Hero? no. But I served with dignity and pride. And here I want to..."

"What did you do in the Army?" asked Nick Taube, Josh's top checklist and process author.

"I was an S-4 Distribution Point Commander."

"Cool," said Nick. Then Nick looked at Josh, and Josh said, "Supply officer."

"Ohhh," said the entire group. It was obvious they weren't impressed.

"What do you want to change?" asked Jen Combs. Jen was cute and small, and it was easy for the uneducated to step on a landmine her sharp mind laid out.

"Processes, the entire workflow from start to finish. I also want to..."

"You want to change something you know nothing about? Is that right sir?" asked innocent-looking Jen Combs. "Wouldn't it be most effective to learn what is happening before setting your mind on change?"

"Everything can be improved..."

"You didn't say improve; you said change."

"I think we're doing pretty good with what we have," said Cole Reagan.

"Yeah! We're busting our ass here and you want us to crank out more work?" demanded Rasheed Davis.

"I'm putting in a minimum of fifty five hours a week!" said Dave Johnson. "Every time someone tells me they're going to improve my job I end up losing time with my wife and daughter."

"I've heard enough," said Terri. "I have work to do." She lifted a 48-port switch off the bench and carried it into the server room. Suddenly, the maintenance area was empty.

"Where did they go?"

"Work," said Josh.

"Fuck!" spat Fabian. "I'm going to dock the pay of every one of them."

"You just failed Lesson #1, and it will probably cost you."

"What do you mean I failed Lesson #1?" demanded Fabian.

"Read the Room. You walked into a landmine without trying to find out what was in front of you."

"Look, I'm the vice president of production and what I want to do is..."

"That's exactly what I'm saying. You low-T junior officers are all the same. You think that some chrome on your shoulder and a fancy swagger and your troops will just swoon at your feet. You have no idea what the process is here and you're not going to touch it until I personally approve your idea."

"Mister Gravely, you clearly don't understand who you're talking to."

"Mister Bernsdorf, you clearly can't follow directions. I have been appointed to be your trainer and yet you argue with me. You clearly must not want this job."

"I am going to an appointment and I will be back to speak with Mister Friedman," said Fabian, and he stormed out of the office, pulling on an eight hundred dollar overcoat. Josh followed him out and watched with amusement as he read the ticket that was stuck under his windshield wiper. "Two hundred dollar parking violation?" he shrieked.

Josh merely pointed at the Handicapped Parking Only sign. "Lesson one, read the room," said Josh, then he turned around and went back inside the building.

Fabian got into his Mercedes and drove off, while Josh backed his truck into the spot and then went into the office. "He's gone, you can come out now," he called.

One by one, his troops appeared from the imaginary job they invented to get away from the pompous jerk. "Do we really have to put up with him?" asked Terri. "He's worse than you."

"Yes. Give it time, we have to teach him the Andalon way. Let's load up, we have a hospital to configure. Max effort, everyone helps."

Two hours later, Fabian Bernsdorf stomped into the Andalon building. "Gravely!" he called, but he found that there was nobody in the maintenance area. He went to look in the server room, but his badge wouldn't open the security door for the server room. "What the fuck," groaned the new VP. He noticed a door that was simply marked Supply. He had seen people walking in and out of there earlier in the day, but he found the door locked and his badge didn't unlock the door. He held his badge up to the badge reader, and it just turned red. No buzz, no beep to let him know if it was working or not.

Fabian left the production area and went over to the security office near the break room. He entered the office and announced, "I need to get into the server room."

"Let me see your badge," said the Security Chief, and he swiped Fabian's badge. The status of Fabian's badge came up on his computer screen. "You need an escort into the server room," He checked the status board and said, "The only people currently available with escort privileges is Mister Dombrowski or Mister Friedman. Shall I page one of them?"

"Why don't I have access to the Server Room?" asked Fabian. He did not want to page the CEO or the VP of Legal.

"You must be new. We're still waiting for the background investigation and once that's done, Mister Gravely needs to sign off on your security training."

"I was Army S4 for eight years, I know security," insisted Fabian.

"Good, then the FBI shouldn't take long with the background investigation," said the chief of security. "When I got this job I said the same thing, then I too the security test Mister Gravely wrote."

"And the production supply closet? What does it take to get in there?"

"Same as entry into the Server Room, plus a second person with the same security clearance as you or higher. It's a no-lone-zone. Nobody goes in there alone."

"Who the fuck owns this company?" muttered Fabian as he headed for Anthony Friedman's office. He stormed in as Anthony was talking to Stan Dombrowski, VP of Financial and Accounting, and his wife, Marj, CEO of Adoption Advocates.

"Can I help you Mister Bernsdorf?" said Stan, and he didn't sound pleased.

Fabian arranged himself so he was speaking to all three when he said, "We need to talk about Gravely and his gang of... pirates."

Marj twittered with a poorly suppressed laugh. "Pirates, they're going to love that title."

"Is Mister Gravely not in his office?" asked Ant. The look on Anthony's face showed that he knew exactly where Josh was.

"I don't know and I don't care. I want to discuss his attitude."

"We don't talk about each other behind each other's backs here," said Anthony. "However, it's clear to me that you didn't spend the time to get to know him." Fabian started to protest, but Anthony held up a hand, stifling his objection. "Mister Gravely is with his people at Mercy General hospital, bringing it online and doing it under budget. Why aren't you there with him?"

"I had an appointment with a realtor. Besides, he'd probably have me carry in the equipment."

"Everyone carries the equipment. And I personally ordered you to shadow him and let him train you. How do you expect to learn the job that your people are doing if you're not there?"

Fabian fumed. "My first day on the job and I get a two hundred dollar fine for parking?"

"We warned you about that," said Marj. "He's pretty protective of parking and all other ADA-compliant parts of the building."

"I was only going to be there a minute!"

"When you're in constant pain, a minute is a very long time," said Anthony. "The town of Orchard Park is very protective of their disabled citizens."

"Who owns this place? Every time I turn around I need Gravely's permission to do something!" said a frustrated Fabian.

Ant tried to get through to this headstrong new VP. "Here at Andalon Data Systems everyone gets hired for a specific task but as we grow, we take on other jobs that match our other talents. IF you are better at systems security then you may end up head of security training. If you can recite the Americans with Disabilities Act you may be put in charge of ADA compliance, I'm sure Josh would like a break. You may even end up working with Marj in Adoption Advocates working with the family lawyers."

"Look, here," said Marj. "Go in the other office and call this number, ask him how Josh was on active duty." She handed Fabian a business card of someone she had met earlier.

"This is mandatory," said Ant.

Fabian looked at the card and the number written on the back as he stepped into Veronica's office. "Excuse me, Mister Friedman asked me to come in here and call this fellow." All Fabian could think of was how beautiful she was and how nice she smelled.

"Let me see," said Veronica. She read the card and smiled; it was a surprise that Anthony had arranged for Josh. "Let me dial this for you."

She punched the numbers on her phone and set her desk phone to speaker. When someone answered, he said, "This is Keith."

"Mister Kenosha, my name is Fabian Bernsdorf, I am the new Vice President in charge of Production at Andalon Data Systems and I'm having a problem with a subordinate..."

The fellow on the other end laughed, interrupting Fabian's introduction. "So you're Josh's new trainee!"

"He works for me!" insisted Fabian.

"Yeah, right," laughed Keith. "It only looks that way on paper. I am a proud graduate of the Ephraim J. Gravely School of Hard Knocks and if you're calling, it's because you ran into a wall made out of 100% pure Georgia cracker. Am I right?"

"In a manner of speaking."

Keith chuckled. "Dude, you are so screwed, what did he pull on you this time? Did he light you up in front of a customer?"

"No, but I got a $200 ticket for parking in a handicapped spot and I'm sure he's behind it."

"Oh yeah, I'll bet anything he called the cops himself," said Keith. "Put this under lessons learned. Never take a handicapped war hero's parking spot for any reason. You didn't badmouth that jeep of his did you?"

"I called it a piece of shit." Fabian could hear Keith gasp. Veronica just shook her head in pity.

"You're so screwed," chuckled Keith, then his voice softened. "Look, I was the most puffed up, most arrogant second lieutenant in the Air Force. I was angry that I wasn't selected for pilot training, and I was angry I had been made a maintenance officer. I was such a self-absorbed, rank-obsessed asshole I caused a lonely young airman to commit suicide. The kid was a friend of Josh's, he and a fellow named Wedge were helping the lad out but I had a better idea, and I berated the lad. I told him to pull his head out of his ass or I would do it for him. Then I poked Josh and pointed at his wings and said, 'In here those wings mean nothing! You're just another airman in this office!'"

"Wings?" asked Fabian.

"Oh yeah. Then I did that a second time with the Wing Commander standing behind me, the Wing King demanded 'What do MY wings mean Lieutenant?' You know how a colonel can say Lieutenant that makes you wish you were a sergeant?"

"Oh yes," said Fabian.

Keith said, "I still remember Josh begging ol' Sammy Johns, 'Let me train him. PLEASE let me train the fuck out of him.' And he did. In one day I berated an NCO in front of his troops, I dismissed the lead expediter during an aircraft generation, and drove a kid to suicide, then I went to the O Club for a steak and went back to my room. I fucked up so much, Captain McLeish, the squadron Maintenance Officer ordered Josh to train me."

"What did he do?" asked Fabian.

"He let me fuck up and he was quite happy about pointing out my fuckups. At Kunsan when you fuck up, you end up with extra duty as 'training.' I filled so many sandbags that my arms still ache."

"What did the commander say about it?" asked Fabian.

Keith laughed. "I complained to the commander about Josh so Colonel Walker asked Josh what he was doing. I clearly remember Josh saying, 'I think he needs to be torn down a bit before we can build him up.'"

"What did the commander say?"

Keith started laughing so hard that Fabian had to wait a full minute for the answer. "He told Josh, 'Don't get blood on anything.' But you know something, he was right. Josh let me fuck up so bad I was sure my career was over. At the depths of my despair, when I thought the whole Air Force was out to get me and make me pay for that airman's death, there was Josh. He built me back up, step by step. He started training me as a weapons load team member, then as a weapons load team chief, then as an expediter. He gave me fifteen years of experience in three months... I had become junior officer of the quarter for the entire 8th Fighter Wing because of him. The saddest day of my life was to be at his side when the doc told him he had cancer."

"Cancer?"

Keith continued. "Miss von Köster, are you going to be there tonight?"

"I sure am."

"Good, I can't wait to meet you. And Fabian, I want to see you there as well."

"Where at?"

"We're having dinner at the American Legion Post in Springville," said Veronica. "I'm going to need a ride. My ride has a meeting beforehand."

"I'd be happy to give you a ride," said Fabian. He eyed Veronica like a cat sizes up a saucer of milk.

<><><><><>

Amelia Hernandez glared at Gus Didomissio in anger, but she didn't say anything. Where did Josh get off thinking he could bring a strange man into her house? Josh looked at Amelia, waiting for her answer to his question. She had the look of an old woman in a Hayao Miyazaki anime movie, with the jowls that made her face look square, the rounded chin, the bulbous nose, the silver hair done up in tufts, and the constant frown. "I can't afford any of this work," said Amelia.

"There's no cost to you," said Gus. "This is a repayment for your kindness to Cholly; Paul Jarecki will foot the bill."

"The child was a..." she was about to call Cholly a screaming brat, but Josh raised a warning finger. She sputtered and then said, "What all are you going to do?"

"We're going to..." Gus looked through his punch list. "Upgrade your furnace and water heater, move your water heater in next to the furnace giving you a bigger bathroom, tear out that bathtub and give you a step-in shower, replace the sash cords on five windows, fix the plumbing leaks under the house, jack up your front and back porch..."

"How long are you going to take? Until I met Josh it took weeks to get my lawn mowed."

"It will be done Saturday," said Gus.

"Where's that nosey pastor that came up with this bird brain scheme?" asked Amelia.

"He's spending time with his new son," said Josh. "Now, you need to do us a favor."

"What's that?"

Josh went over to the front door and opened it. "Talk to this man." Sergeant Maxwell of the Concord PD stepped into the tiny kitchen.

"I've talked to enough cops," lamented Amelia.

Josh leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Is it worth a new stove to you?"

"All right! What do you want?"

"Just a few questions, ma'am," said Officer Maxwell. He looked at his notes and said, "When Miss Lévesque moved in, what did she bring with her, besides her child?"

"I dunno, not much, coat, hat, diaper bag, purse, husband, boots..."

"Husband," said Josh. "Why isn't anyone looking for the husband?"

"What husband?" said Sergeant Maxwell. He flipped through his notes... the FBI made one mention of husband and it mentioned a cleanup.

"Nice guy," said Amelia. "Blond hair, goatee, looked like Ivanhoe." She looked around the room. Gus and the cop looked confused, but Josh looked tearful.

"When's the last time you saw him?" asked the cop.

"Just before I went up to Niagara Falls with the girls... unless you count that blood on the lawn."

"What blood?" asked Sergeant Maxwell.

"Follow me." She led them to the back of the house, into the tiny apartment at the end, and opened the door to the back porch. "See anything missing?"

It took Gus to figure it out. "The snow." There were over twenty inches of snow sitting on every house and yard in Springville, except at the Amelia Hernandez residence. Her backyard was scraped clean. "This was all frozen blood, and you could see where they dragged someone out over there."

"Who did this?" asked Josh.

"The FBI, who else?" snarled Amelia.

Sergeant Maxwell poked around at the edges of the yard nearest to the alley between the houses, then he crouched down and began poking in a portion of the remaining snowbank with his pocketknife and found what he suspected. Frozen blood. He called on his radio, "Unit 407 requesting detective at forty five Argentine Avenue, also request Federal assistance on issue number 202512050530E as in Echo." He then rose and said, "Miss Hernandez, thank you. I want a detective to take a look and we're going to talk with the FBI about what went on here."

"Lota good they are!" complained Amelia. "They drop off a couple-a witnesses and when they turn up dead they yell at me for not watching them!"

Sergeant Maxwell looked at the notes from the FBI again. Agents Vic Bronson and Al Stanford. The Jelly Roll Patrol. "Fuck," he swore under his breath.

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"This is a nice car," said Veronica as she and Fabian cruised out of the Andalon parking lot. "Where did you get it?"

"That Mercedes dealer here in town, Jar-ekky Motors."

Veronica giggled. "It's pronounced Yer-et-ski. The owner should be back in the office tomorrow, go in and let him know you want the Andalon discount."

"Oh? You know the owner?"

"Paul? Oh yeah, he's my neighbor. He's got a really nice house. Six bedroom Victorian. The room he calls a library is an old village meeting room, with sprung floors for dancing."

"So, do you know Gravely?" asked Fabian.

"About as well as anyone," said Veronica. She had her laptop open and was working on something.

"How long have you been with Andalon?"

"Oh, I was working for Marj and Anthony before they formed Andalon," said Veronica.

"What were you doing?"

"Mostly what I'm doing now, but back then I did it at their kitchen table with five kids hanging off me."

"You must love working for them." said Fabian. "Do you get out much?"

"Oh yes, I went camping almost every weekend this past summer. I'm thinking of getting my own snowmobile, I don't mind riding on back but Yi-Jin and I want to do some winter camping."

"Yi-jin?"

"She's the Jarecki's governess."

"Governess, but of course," said Fabian with a sneer.

"Hey, he's a cardiologist with the VA and he owns fifteen car lots. She's a pulmonologist and just had a baby and they have six-year-old twins. They hired Yi to be their executive chef because neither had time to cook, and doubled her pay when she started watching the twins. Now she's a governess... Exit into Springville here."

"Where did they find an executive chef that will watch kids?"

"On their yacht. Turn here," and she guided him to the American Legion hall.

"This is where dinner is?"

"Yep, it's meat loaf tonight," said Veronica. She led Fabian into the American legion and Fabian was greeted with a building full of good ol' boys and their girls. Men and women filled the long tables, and the air was filled with the sound of dozens of conversations and laughter from everywhere. "Come on," said Veronica, and she led Fabian to the kitchen window. "Two dinners please!" she said, and she gave the cashier a ten-dollar bill. In moments, two plates with thick slices of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans were handed out the kitchen window. "Get the plasticware and napkins from the table over there please."

"Uh yeah." Fabian grabbed the plasticware wrapped in paper napkins and had turned and Veronica had two tiny blond girls bobbing up and down in front of her.

"Come on Aunty Ronnie! We have a table for us!"

"Even Wonka is here!" cried the other one.

"Oh, grab a bottle of ketchup," said Veronica.

"Ketchup?" Fabian was a bit confused; ketchup was for hotdogs, but one of the twin girls solved the issue and grabbed a bottle of ketchup for him from a collection on the table. The other grabbed more napkins. He followed Veronica and the twins to the back of the room near a small stage. There were several people already at the table, and Veronica made introductions.

"This is John and Macy Jarecki and their daughter Katarina. John is a Doctor of Theology and Macy has a PhD in Theology... did I get that right?" When Macy nodded, Veronica said, "I knew I'd get it sometime. Macy also has a PhD in psychology and John is a carpenter. He works for Gus Didomissio, and Gus is sitting with his fiancée Doctor Lucy Kocis. This is Doctor Andi Jarecki, her daughters Sandy and Madeline, her new son Danny and where's Cholly?"

"He's under the table with Wonka," said Sandy.

"Wonka makes him happy," said Madeline.

"This is Andi's folks Heather and Harold, they are visiting from Denver," Veronica continued.

As Josh arrived with his own dinner, he sat a bottle of Old Vienna beer in front of Veronica and he had one for himself. "Would you like an OV?" he asked Fabian.

"No thanks," said Fabian nervously. He felt a light touch on his knee, and he hoped it was Veronica.

Veronica sighed, "they had some! This is so good," she sighed, and she sipped from the clear glass bottle.

No, both of her hands were busy, and he felt the touch again. He peeked down and there was a little boy sitting with a chocolate lab. "Bon jour," said the little boy.

"There's a child under the table!"

"That's Cholly," said the twins in unison.

"How can you let a small child sit on the floor?" Fabian almost screamed.

Josh gave him a murderous look. "Lesson number one - read the room."

Veronica leaned over and whispered, "Cholly's mother just died, let him be." Fabian decided to ignore the craziness around him and tried the meatloaf. First he studied it, then he tasted it. "This is incredible!" he said. "What is it?"

"Meat loaf!" chimed the twins.

"You've never had meat loaf?" asked Veronica. "It's just ground beef with bread, milk, and egg mixed in plus seasoning."

"I've never had this, it's incredible."

"This is budget food," said Josh. "If'n you can afford steak every night you'll probably never taste meatloaf. When ah was a kid this was big time, it meant daddy was paid for overtime. Spiced right and baked for ninety minutes, it can be amazing."

As they ate, Josh and Veronica chatted about Mercy General. All Josh said about the installation was that it was on schedule. Most of their conversation was about the silly things that went on with Josh's troops. "It was the first time in ages I had them all on an install," Josh explained.

"You took even the server room technicians?" asked Fabian.

"Yep, with an install this big and this important, it's all hands on deck, everyone plays," said Josh proudly. "Jen Combs manages the operation and hands out work. Most of the on-scene work is similar to in-shop work so there's never a problem."

"What did she have you doing?" Fabian was expecting Josh to say that he was actually in charge.

"She put me behind the server rack and had me making, routing, and labeling cat five cables."

"But you're the manager," said a stunned Fabian.

"This is her install. If she heads off into the weeds I'll help, but they don't learn if you don't let them try," said Josh.

Just then, Brent Goldsmith, commander of American Legion Post 566, stood up on stage and picked up a handheld microphone. "I know you all love to hear my dulcet tones, but tonight, American Legion Post 566 gets a name. Our name was approved by National in record time, and tonight is significant. To make it appropriate, we have a master of ceremonies." Just then a lanky man in an Air Force uniform stepped up on stage.

"Keith?" gasped Josh. "KEITH!" He cried, and he started to get up.

"You wait your turn sergeant," said Lieutenant Colonel Kenosha.

"Yes sir," said Josh as he sank down in his chair to the laughter of the crowd that now packed the legion post..

"You didn't wear it, did you," scolded Keith.

"No sir."

"Miss von Köster, would you do the honors?" Veronica got up and stood in front of Josh, and he handed her the ribbon and medal he had in his pocket. She put the ribbon over his head and tucked it under his sports coat and made sure the medal was hanging properly. When she sat down, Fabian gasped in shock.

"The medal of honor?" he whispered.

"He never wears it in public," said Veronica when she sat down. "I always have to remind him."

"Y'all know Josh Gravely," started Colonel Kenosha. "Did I get that right Josh, y'all? Was that right?"

"Yeah, it took me long enough to teach ya."

"My first assignment was to the weapons flight, eightieth fighter squadron, Kunsan Korea..." He was interrupted by a few calls of "Juvat!" which made him chuckle. "Juvats, yes. A proud unit with a proud heritage... except for one arrogant butter bar lieutenant. I was the worst. Arrogant, rude, self-absorbed, I thought I knew it all. We had an airman commit suicide, and I actually shrugged it off as one less problem to deal with. I really sucked. I remember hearing Josh beg the shop chief of the weapons flight, saying, 'Let me train him Sammy. Let me train the fuck out of him.'" That brought chuckles from the folks that knew Josh.

"At some point I enraged the staff officers of the squadron so much they assigned Josh to be my trainer. There's a rule of thumb going around, it's called 'Healey's first law of holes' which says, 'When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.' Of course, the second law of holes says, when you stop digging, you're still in a hole.'" Keith waited for the chuckling to die down. "I am a living example of Master Sergeant Ephraim J. Gravely's amended law of holes, which states, 'When you find your opponent in a hole, toss him a shovel.'" Keith basked in the laughter and quipped, "I see y'all know Josh," which brought more laughter.

"He let me dig that hole so damn deep I was looking to celebrate my second year in the Air Force with a less than honorable discharge. God, I hated myself. My people thought I was a joke, because I was. I was a caricature of a dumbshit lieutenant. Eventually I reached rock bottom and I was seriously considering joining that one airman, I looked for help and there was Josh. He said, 'Ya done tore yourself down to where we can start workin' on ya.' And work we did. Josh once said, 'There's a right way, a wrong way and my way. My way is a whole lot like the right way but it's righter.' I learned more in those three months than I did in four years of Harvard." Keith looked straight at Fabian and said, "You've heard rule number one, have you heard number two yet?"

"There's more?" asked Fabian.

"Rule number two is, your people eat first. I thought that was the dumbest thing, but as I talked to senior staff about it, each and everyone thought and said, 'yeah, that's it in a nutshell.' Of course, it took me weeks to figure out what they meant by that, but Josh helped me learn. He always put his people first. When Josh was diagnosed with cancer and was being sent home for treatment, he never said, 'what's going to become of me?' he turned to me and said, 'take care of my troops.' He was worried more about the folks on the flightline dragging their toolboxes from plane to plane than he was about his own health. That was the living embodiment of rule number two."

Fabian heard a sniff and saw Veronica fighting back the tears. "What's rule number three?" asked Fabian, who was surprised that a colonel was talking like this about an enlisted man.

"Rule number three is the maintainers motto - 'you can bullshit a pilot, but you can't bullshit his airplane.'" Keith took a few pieces of paper from his uniform and said, "Ephraim J. Gravely enlisted in the US Air Force on the day after his seventeenth birthday. He had to have his sister sign for him to enlist as his guardian, because his parents were dead. He went to basic training two days after his high school graduation. He enlisted as a cargo aircraft loadmaster, but the tech school was full, and he was convinced to go open enlistment and got plunked into weapons loading. There he saw the opportunity to cross-train into aerial gunner and he went from the ice covered B-52s of Minot North Dakota to the sun kissed AC-130s of Hurlbert Field in Florida."

Reading from the paper, Keith said, "As an aerial gunner, he saw action in Afghanistan, Iraq, Classified, Yemen, Classified, Classified, Classified, Libya, Jordan, Classified, wow... let's just say he's been everywhere. Josh is authorized to wear the Aircraft Munitions Badge, the Missile Maintenance Badge, the Parachute Badge, the Combat Aircrew Badge, the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, The Presidential Unit Citation, the Air and Space Campaign Medal..." Keith read off all the medals and badges that Josh could wear, then ended with, "these are just the unclassified awards." He then took the framed document that was on a lectern and began to read.

"While operating as Gunnery Team Chief on AC-130W Ghost Rider Zero Four over the Straights of Hormuz, Master Sergeant Ephraim J. Gravely and crew were flying air cap over US and international shipping, protecting the ships from attacks from Houthi terrorists..."

As Keith read off the citation of Josh's actions that earned him the Medal of Honor, Fabian looked at Josh's medal. It hung from a baby blue ribbon and an octagonal pad of baby blue with thirteen tiny white stars. Under that was a golden bar that said VALOR, and beneath that a device taken from the USAF coat of arms, a fascia of arrows, lightning bolts and wings, then the badge itself, a five-pointed star surrounded by an enamel wreath and in the center of the star was the face of Lady Liberty.

He came back to the present to hear Keith Kenosha say, "It is with great pride and honor that I present you with a citation signed by the President of the United States renaming American Legion Post 566 to The Master Sergeant Ephraim J. Gravely Post." The crowd rose in applause as Josh slowly stepped onto the stage. "Josh, would you do one more favor for me?" asked Keith. He took a small box out of his pocket and said, "If it wasn't for you, I would never be able to wear these," and he handed Josh the box.

Josh opened the box, and inside there were two silver eagles, the symbol of the rank of colonel. "I would be honored sir." Then he said, "Nica? Can you come help me?" and she came up on stage and helped Josh pin the eagles on Keith's epaulets as photographers recorded the event for USAF and American Legion history. When they were done, Keith and Josh faced each other and saluted each other simultaneously. Then Keith handed Josh the box with his old badge of rank, the silver oak leaf clusters, the citation renaming the American Legion and the microphone.

"This is truly amazing," said Josh. "Ah am so honored by this occasion and all the free beer that comes with having a legion post named for you..."

"There's no beer in it!" called the bartender from behind the bar.

"Well... shoot. Ah went and done alla that for nothin'?" Josh was letting his deep-Georgia accent have full rein. "Well, it's worth it, and I ain't done yet. Saturday! Our friend Amelia Hernandez is getting some work done on her house. Gus of Didomissio Construction is running the show, and he needs help. I need help building removable storm windows. Gus needs a few guys to help level the porch. We'll be replacing a few appliances, so we'll need help and a couple of pickup trucks. We'll also be re-skirting the house, so a couple of shovels will come in handy. Let's form up here at ten AM on Saturday. Remember - Amilia is one of the few women who were injured in Vietnam; let's show her the love that Springville showed me."

Lucy leaned over to Fabian and said, "What's the matter? You look confused."

"This whole thing is in his honor and he talks about rebuilding an old lady's house?"

"That's rule number two," said Lucy.

"One more thing," said Josh as he picked up Cholly, who had wandered up on stage. "My little buddy's dad is missing. All we know about him is that he has blond hair, is skinny and has a Van Dyke goatee. The last person who saw him said he looked like Ivanhoe."

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"Mister Keith, it's your choice. We have a whole new apartment downstairs, or you can bunk upstairs in the spare bedroom," said Josh as they settled in for cake and coffee after the big celebration. They were gathered in the living room of Veronica's beautiful Victorian home. The room was filled with garlands of pine boughs; even the fishbowl had a tiny light-up Christmas tree for the single goldfish. Outside, the house was covered with multi-colored lights that twinkled and added a glow to the snow on the lawn.

"If you don't mind, I'd like the apartment downstairs," said Keith, who had a tour of the house after getting in from the American Legion.

"Fabian, we have a spare bedroom upstairs if you want to stay," said Josh as he strummed a guitar along with a Christmas song on the stereo. He was not doing well, but John Jarecki had hopes for him.

"I will be heading out soon, I have a hotel room in Orchard Park," said Fabian.

"So there's something that the redneck can't do. I thought all you southern boys could play guitar," said Keith as Josh blew a chord.

"Nah, sorry, I'm a sanger."

"Sanger?" chuckled Keith.

"People are happiest with my singing in the past tense."

"Oh stop," said Veronica. She turned on the TV and opened her laptop, and shortly there was a Victorian mixed octet standing in the snow singing Christmas carols. "The back row is Josh's quartet. They came in third in the regional competition. The girls are local women who Josh helped tune up for church. This is their first public appearance."

"They're incredible," said Keith.

"I'm really impressed," said Fabian. "I would have expected you to be singing country music."

Josh leaned over and tapped a few buttons on Veronica's laptop and the TV changed to a scene at Kleinhans Music Hall where Josh's quartet dressed as Buffalo Bills fans sang Willy Nelson's 'Always On My Mind' to the Vince Lombardi trophy and the Stanley Cup. "Now that's funny!" laughed Keith.

"So, you guys live together?" Fabian asked. "I thought there was something about company officers fraternizing..."

"I'm not a company officer and I can't be one," said Josh. "I don't have a business degree."

"I'm an MBA but I'm not a company officer," said Veronica. "I actually work for Marj and I assist Anthony as a contractor."

"That's all loop-holes," said Fabian.

"Nothing is under cover, we're out in the open with Anthony and Marj," said Josh. "We even go camping with them, so they know what is going on." Veronica tapped a few keys on the keyboard and the scene on the tv changed to videos shot over the summer. "That's our land a few miles away, and that's me in the pond with Ant and Marj's kids. I'm giving the little ones swimming lessons."

The scene shifted, and the area was full of people eating and listening to Josh's quartet singing. They were in the loop of Josh's campground, and it looked like a perfect summer retreat under the trees. "Wow I never realized how busy we were," said Josh.

"That's the big Chiavetta's barbeque," said Veronica. "Josh invited the gang from work and business leaders from all over Orchard Park. It was a fund drive, and he raised seventeen million dollars in cash and pledges for the orphans of Adoption Advocates and Roswell Park Cancer Institute."

The last scene was of Josh receiving the humanitarian award from his old aircrew commander, Emory Hancock. Josh's speech was short and sweet. "Ah had a speech for y'all, it was a really wonderful speech, full of humility and gratitude, but ah dun forgot every word. This is my commander, callsign Emerald, he flew a shot to hell gunship to the nearest air strip that wasn't brimmin' with rebels to make sure ah got here tonight. Ah introduced him to my pal Christy and... ah guess she took him serious." He held up his crystal trophy and said, "This is mostly due to the love of my life Veronica von Köster. When she saw the potential of my picnics and the money we raised in the past, she went full bore after them check books. Now, if y'all don't mind, ah haven't seen these two in years. On behalf of Roswell Park and Adoption Advocates, thank y'all so much!"

"That was the Buffalo Area Council of Businessmen," said Veronica.

"I recognize that trophy," said Fabian. "That's on the credenza behind your desk. And the football..." He had seen a football proudly displayed in Veronica's office. She had it in a small glass box on a shelf, and behind it on the wall was a picture that was taken of her in that amazing blue dress and Jim Kelly with his arm around her.

"That was an amazing night," said Veronica.

"I predict there's a lot more of those in Josh's future," said Keith.

Josh held Veronica's hand and patted it. "There's really only one ceremony I'm looking forward to, and the only trophy I really want to receive is an ugly coffee mug that says, 'World's Best Dad.'"

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The work party at Amelia Hernandez's house that Saturday afternoon was a madhouse. Amelia herself was in an uproar, especially when Gus and Josh pulled out her ancient washing machine and dryer. "How am I going to do my laundry now?" she demanded.

"Don't worry ma'am," said Josh as he scrubbed the floor where the old washing machine sat.

"Mister Jarecki has it all covered," said Gus, and he stomped on the floor. "Isn't that right Paul?"

"Yes it is," came a muffled voice from under the floor.

The project that Josh thought was going to take all day took one hour. He and several fellows from the American Legion post helped build wooden frames to fit over the existing windows. Gus gave them a jig to use, so they put the five frames together in minutes. The longest part was waiting for the white paint to dry. Once that was over, they stapled heavy-duty plastic over the frame. Then with a heat gun, it shrunk the plastic and cleared up the plastic so it looked like glass.

Amelia's old electric stove was pulled out; only one burner was working, and they discovered that a gas line was plumbed for a gas stove in that location, so they sent Kenny Johnson and Yi Carlson looking for appliances. The women of Springville Congregational Church were scrubbing everything in the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and living room. Doctors Lucy, Macy, and Andi were giving Amelia a full medical (and emotional) checkup. Every now and then, the women out in the kitchen would start singing. Macy and Andi joined them as they sang...

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style.

In the air there's a feeling of Christmas...

Andi and Macy sang "of Christmas" in harmony, which seemed to annoy Amelia. "Do you have to do that?" she squawked.

"Ah mademoiselle," said Macy sweetly. "If you prefer we can do The Old Rugged Cross," said Macy as Lucy tried to listen to Amelia's lungs with a stethoscope.

After her coughing fit calmed down, Amelia said, "No, it's a sin to waste a hymn on me."

Lucy didn't look happy after that coughing fit. "Andi, do you have a nebulizer?"

"I brought it with. You never know with our seasoned veterans," said Andi. She was sitting on a stool at Amelia's feet while the old nurse's feet soaked in a tub of hot water and Epsom salts.

"Did you bring some albuterol?"

"Yep."

"You're an angel doll." Lucy leaned over and kissed Andi's forehead, then she looked through the equipment Andi brought until she found the nebulizer. She tussled Andi's locks like she used to when they were residents together in Denver, then set up the machine.

"Are you two going to be taking warm showers together?" asked a grouchy Amelia.

"Who says we don't?" said Lucy.

Andi just laughed and returned to scrubbing Amelia's feet with a pumice stone while Lucy set up the nebulizer. She broke open the small vial of Albuterol, poured it into the nebulizer cup, turned on the air pump and put the mouthpiece in Amelia's mouth. "Breathe," she ordered.

"For how long?" demanded Amelia.

"Until I give you permission to stop and die. Now take deep breaths." Lucy had learned quickly how to care for cantankerous veterans. They respect her grouchy mood; it makes her one of the gang.

Underneath the house, Paul Jarecki was repairing a leaky pipe. Because he owns an ancient house, he's used to leaky pipes and had the most experience. He had repaired quite a few pipes, then Gus tore most of them out when he installed the space-age steam shower in Paul's basement gym. The chill air under the house was motionless, so the white clouds of his breath hung in the crisp December air. Gus leaned out of an open window and asked, "Are you done yet?"

"Hell yeah. Can we mark this job off the punch list?" Paul asked.

"Already marked it off. Have you ever replaced a sash cord?" said Gus with an evil grin. He knew the answer.

"Not since we redid every single window in every upstairs room in my house," said Paul.

"Then let's get on it!" said Gus with a grin.

Paul turned toward the front, but John steered him away. "Ernie and the boys are leveling up the front porch. Follow me."

They entered the house through the back, the apartment entrance, and the house was a beehive of activity. So many people turned out to help a woman they didn't know. People were scrubbing every surface and corner. A couple of guys were hauling the refrigerator outdoors while the new replacement waited on the front stoop. The floor under its location had to be scrubbed first. When Paul entered the house, Gus handed him a large spool of sash cord and a heavy-duty painter's knife. "Save the bedroom for last. Andi, Macy, and Lucy are working with Amelia in there."

"Gotcha," said Paul, and he headed back to the rear of the house, where the apartment that Séraphine Lévesque died and her baby, Chamonix, survived with a dead woman for three days. Four windows needed his loving attention because they all leaked like a sieve. He shoved the bed out of the way and noticed that there was a square carved in the floor's linoleum. He knelt down and tried to pull the square up, but pieces of the floorboard came up with it.

"What's that?" asked John Jarecki.

"I don't know, but it looks like somebody built a hidey-hole under the floor of this old house." Paul lifted the floorboard pieces up, and he realized he was looking down on a gunmetal gray cashbox. That's what the boards underneath were for. Somebody made a secret compartment. He tried to lift the cashbox by the handle. The latch wasn't latched, so the lid tried to open as he lifted the box. He finally got it up. It would be wonderful for Amelia if this cashbox were full of money, but he didn't see any money. What he could see was a lot of small envelopes full of white powder and a lunch bag full of pills, and he immediately slammed the lid closed. If that were fentanyl, there were enough pills in there to kill the entire village of Springville several times over. What to do... what to do... He's a lawyer, he should be able to figure out how... then it came to him.

"Kenny!"

Kenny Johnson appeared. "Yes Paul?"

"Do you have a dollar on you?"

"Yes."

"Give it to Amelia, tell her I'll come asking for it."

"I don't get it," said a clearly confused Kenny.

"It's a legal thing, the less you know the better."

"Gotcha."

Paul headed out to the front door where the crew from church were leveling and shoring up the front porch. "Dexter, are you busy?"

"Yes."

"Good, come with me," and they walked out to Paul's truck, where Paul stashed the cash box under the rear seat in the White Whale. They talked for a good ten minutes, then shook hands and headed back to the house. As he passed Amelia's bedroom, he stuck his head behind the blanket that was keeping out the noise and sawdust. "Amelia... who's your lawyer?"

"I don't have one of those parasites," she snapped.

"I'm worried, you had a girl die back there, her family may come looking to blame somebody. Look, give me something then I'll be on retainer and you can call me any time to come take care of your legal headaches."

"All I got is a dollar."

Paul nodded and said, "I'll take it." Amelia handed Paul the dollar, and Paul pointed to everyone in the room. "You all saw this, right?"

"Right," said Lucy, Macy, and Andi.

"Ok, I now work for you dear. If anyone asks questions about what happened in the back room, you refer them to me. Do not give them an answer, tell them to talk to your lawyer, got it?"

"Even those FBI assholes?" asked Amelia. Being able to say "talk to my lawyer" was just as good as saying "fuck off" to those jerks.

"ESPECIALLY those assholes," said Paul. "I need to have a very long, uncomfortable talk with them." Paul had just been involved in breaking up a drug and sexual slavery ring at his new dealership in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Paul learned what good FBI work was in Portsmouth, and this wasn't it. "I'll have my secretary swing by with the papers on Monday, but if anything happens, my number will be on the fridge. Cool?"

"Whatever," grouched Amelia.

As Paul walked back to the apartment end of the house, he handed Kenny his dollar. "Here's your buck back."

"Glad to be of help."

Meanwhile, outside, Dexter had enlisted the help of Josh in doing a quick inventory of that box. They didn't count the white envelopes and pills; they pushed them aside with a pencil. "There is money in here, all hundreds," said Dexter. He moved aside so that Josh could see it.

"Yep, so we got drugs, money, and a gun," said Josh. "Looks like a fun Saturday night in Chicago... oh shit. There's a badge."

"What?" Dexter looked inside and studied the badge. "That's not real."

"I think it is, here, hold this stuff aside." Josh took out his phone and took a picture of the badge. Then he noticed something else. "This paper, look at it."

They moved more things aside, and Josh took another picture. The page had the words 'John and Paul Jarecki.' Josh worked carefully and eased the page out of the box. It was a single page of notebook paper written on both sides of the page. "Josh!" said Dexter. "Doctor Jarecki said not to take anything out."

"He means on a permanent basis; I'm going to put it back. Come with me and bring the box."

"Doctor Paul said to lock it in his truck."

"We will lock it in his truck, don't be such a worry wart. How did you make it to 85 years old complaining all the time?" asked Josh as he led Dexter the few blocks to his house.

"I don't know," said Dexter. "Maybe complaining kept me alive these years."

"Kept your blood pressure up nice and high, eh?" said Josh as they entered Josh and Veronica's house. "Kick your boots off, follow me and don't set that box down on anything."

"Right sarge."

"And knock off the sarge crap."

"Right sarge."

Josh wondered what young Dexter Humbolt was like before life beat him down and broke his heart several sad times. All he really knew about Dex was that he had been a medic in Vietnam and had recently lost his wife. Josh took the page, unfolded it and fed it into his scanner/copier/printer and made two copies, then folded up the document and slid it back into the box. "What does the document say?" asked Dexter.

"It says Etant sains de corps et d'esprit, nous léguons à notre fils unique Chamonix..."

"What's that?" asked Dexter. "It sounds Canadian."

It was the entire reason Josh was in a panic. Etant sains de corps et d'esprit, nous léguons à notre fils unique Chamonix in English is "Being of sound body and mind, we bequeath our only son Chamonix..." It was a will giving away Chamonix, Cholly's real name. He tried to remain calm when he told Dexter, "That's why we'll let Pastor John and Doctor Macy look at it. If it's important you know John will beat us over the head with it on Sunday." He closed the box that Dexter was holding and cleaned it off with bleach and paper towels that he then stuffed into a garbage bag in the trash can.

"You treat this like it was radiation," said Dexter.

"Those blue pills, that might be fentanyl. If it's pure it can kill you just from looking at it too hard."

They got back in time to help hoist all the new equipment into Amelia's house - kitchen range, washer/dryer combo, and refrigerator. Several times, Josh tried to tell John and/or Paul about the document they found, but he couldn't do it; everyone was too busy. As Amelia's house came together and the dozens of volunteers finished their jobs, project managers Gus and Paul sprung for pizza and soda, but the thought of pizza sickened Josh. All he could think of was Séraphine Lévesque lying dead against the back door in this little house in the futile hope of preventing someone from coming in and harming her baby after she died. The image of little Cholly crying himself hoarse trying to wake his mom kept playing in his head until he thought he would scream.

The gathered people looked at the before and after photos they had taken of Amelia's house and congratulated each other on the hard work they had put in. Josh didn't partake in the collective back-patting. He had set up a small Christmas tree in the living-room area, and he was helping the kids put decorations on the tree. He was holding Cholly and trying to understand his Caldoche/English baby talk and letting him hang decorations at the top of the tree. With each new decoration Cholly hung, he cried, "Là!" and held his hands out as if saying "taa-daa!" Each time Cholly said that, Josh felt a knife being twisted in his gut. This was for his mommy and daddy, not for him to enjoy.

"Hey Redneck, you're getting along awesome with these little ones," said John as he came to see what Josh was up to.

Josh's eyes were dead, yet filled with tears. "It's not for me," said Josh. "This blessing is for his father," and he handed Cholly off to John and walked off. John turned and saw Josh grab his coat and leave. Josh walked up the darkening street, the snowflakes spiraling down from the sky, the anguish twisting inside of him. He dropped to his knees and looked up at the sparse flakes that were fluttering down. "Why are you doing this to me?" he demanded to the uncaring sky.

<><><><><>

Ghost Rider two four was on final to El Mirhad airfield somewhere on the ass end of Africa. Two engines out, power to the gun deck out and an enormous gaping hole in the side. Lying on the deck of the ship was the corpse of Staff Sergeant Craig Zigler, Josh's best friend and a damn good gunner. Josh had the unenviable task of scooping his guts back into his shattered body. Next to him was Sgt Ellie Stadelmeyer, loadmaster. She had a tourniquet on her leg and was pumped full of med-kit morphine.

Between them sat Cholly. He was shaking Ellie and crying in French. "Maman! Maman, réveille-toi! Réveillez-vous! Maman!" (Mommy! Mommy, wake up! Wake up! Mommy!)

Josh was trying to get to Cholly, but there was something blocking him. "She's not going to wake up Cholly, come here," called Josh.

"He can't hear you, not with all that wind," said Wayne Engler. Behind Josh sat the two airmen on his gun crew, Wayne Engler and Wyatt Grady. Both were injured and stunned. Josh bandaged their wounds and strapped them down to the loading ramp, and they watched the drama play out as the little boy tried to wake Ellie and Craig.

"Cholly, come here," begged Josh, but Cholly was now shaking Craig.

"Père, réveille-toi!" (Daddy, wake up!) shrieked Cholly.

The plane was shaking and rocking from side to side as Major Hancock fought to line it up with the only runway within a hundred miles. Little Cholly tried to stand, but with each jolt of the plane, he'd be thrown to the blood-soaked deck. "Père, s'il te plaît, réveille-toi!" (Daddy, please, wake up) shrieked Cholly as he shook Craig's corpse with his tiny hands.

"Cholly please come here," begged Josh. He was in tears now; the little boy's anguish was ripping his heart open. Suddenly the plane lurched, sending Cholly through the gaping hole in the fuselage. "CHOLLY!" shrieked Josh as the little boy disappeared into the darkness. "CHOLLY!" He shrieked over and over.

"It's ok, it's ok" gasped Veronica as she hugged Josh. He was kneeling at the top of the stairs shouting down into the dark living room.

"He's gone," wept Josh. "I couldn't save him." He kept seeing the little boy sliding across the blood-covered deck, terror in his little face, and then his final cry of sheer horror as he was sucked out into the gloom and to his death. "Oh god, oh god, oh god..." gasped Josh over and over as he hyperventilated. "I can't take it; I didn't save him, I was right there!"

"Everybody is ok, we're here at home," said Veronica.

Josh finally opened his eyes and saw the stairs descending into the darkness. "Oh god... oh god it was horrible..." Cholly's shriek of terror continued to echo in his mind.

"It's ok now," said Veronica. "We're home, everyone is ok."

Josh looked at his trembling hands, and groaned. "Cholly, he's gone... I saw him go out the side of the plane."

"He's fine, he's at home with John and Macy." She took her phone out and started dialing.

"Don't," groaned Josh as he sat at the top of the stairs looking down into the darkness. "Don't wake them."

"Macy, this is Veronica. Josh had a bad scare and he just wanted to know if Cholly is ok."

"We had a bit of a rough night, but he's getting better. He wanted his mom and dad, then he wanted Oncle Joss. We had to let him sleep between us, he's curled up with Katarina right now." A photo arrived with John lying in bed with little month-old Katarina and eighteen-month-old Cholly curled around her protectively, his arm draped over her like he was hugging a teddy bear.

Josh was torn. He was relieved that Cholly was okay, but he was embarrassed that Veronica had to call a friend because he was so stupid. "I'm sorry Macy, I should never let my personal problems..."

"Josh, we love you," whispered Macy in her cute French-Canadian accent. "When you're in pain, we all hurt for you."

That made Josh feel even worse; he was dragging them all into the morasses of hell along with him. All he could croak was, "Thank you."

"I want you to talk to Helen Lennox first thing in the morning," she continued.

"It's Sunday," said Josh. "I'll call Monday morning," and he wouldn't let Macy argue him into calling his doctor sooner.

"Come on Ephie, let's go to bed," said Veronica, and she led Josh to bed where he lay in the dark hating himself for making everyone worry... but the image of Cholly getting sucked out of the airplane to his death haunted him until sunrise when he finally fell asleep.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"I have doctor's appointments today, so I won't be available at Mercy General to run wires," said Josh. His announcement was met with applause from the troops. "Thank you for your support," he said.

"When you turn your head and cough, think of me," said Terri, causing the entire team to laugh.

Josh noticed that in the back, Fabian Bernsdorf was not laughing; he had a look of shock on his face. "In my place, Mister Bernsdorf will be going with you. He's there to learn so no clowning the new guy. Terri, pretend like you're working in a public building."

"Yes boss," she groaned, but Terri and Josh both knew that his warning just gave her fuel to prank the new VP.

Josh held up a plastic bucket and said, "Mister Bernsdorf, are you in the Secret Santa drawing?"

"What's that?"

"You draw a name, then go to Amazon and search 'gift ideas for twenty-five dollars' and order your person a gift. Have Amazon wrap it with your person's name on it, then give the gift to Miss von Köster and Santa will get it to your person at the party."

"I don't think so," said Fabian, but he was startled when the entire shop full of people started begging him to join in. "Ok put me in."

Josh wrote Fabian Bernsdorf on a business card and put it in the bucket. He gave the bucket to Rasheed because he was the tallest and could hold the bucket high enough to prevent peeking. When the bucket got to Josh, there was one card left. He took it and looked at the card and sighed. He drew Terri McCarthy.

He spent a long time locked in his office talking on the phone with Doctor Lennox; he didn't even open it for Veronica when she knocked at lunchtime. Knowing that he was on the phone with his shrink, she went away. Doctor Lennox was fascinated with the foundling boy Cholly and the search for his father. He finally got to the part about finding the will in a box full of illicit drugs. She asked, "That was on Saturday, right? And your dream happened on Saturday night. How did you sleep last night?"

"Not so good. I dreamed I was back in high school, and the bastards on the football team were fighting over Cholly, they ended up ripping him apart in a tug of war."

"Oh dear. Did you wake up Veronica?"

"No, I went to the basement to freak out..."

"What else is bothering you?"

"Nothing," said Josh.

"Liar. You promised you'd be straight with me. What else is bothering you?" demanded Doctor Lennox.

"I... I think I'm going to move out."

"Why?"

"I can't keep freaking out Veronica like this," said Josh. "I'm ruining her career, I'm scaring her."

"What about you?" asked Doctor Lennox.

"Fuck me. I'm living on borrowed time. Terrorists couldn't kill me, cancer couldn't kill me, whatever is next is going to do it for sure."

"So it's easier to walk out on Veronica and make her suffer in loneliness rather than stay with her, raise a family, and see what's next. Do I have that right?"

Josh thought for a long time and then finally said, "Yes."

"Ephriam we have a serious communication issue. You need to talk to Veronica. Do not walk out on her until you have exhausted everything you need to say to her. You have almost two years together..."

"One year ma'am," said Josh.

"You've been lovers for eleven months, but for a year beforehand you were both in love with each other and too afraid to admit it. Think about your HR briefing."

Josh tried not to think of it... his first day with the company and Veronica was tasked with giving him the 30-minute HR briefing. Four hours later, they still weren't done. Josh remembered being lost in her eyes, wishing that the briefing, and the dinner he took her to, would never end. "How did you know about that?" asked Josh.

"I take notes," said Helen. "I can put together a pretty good picture with the hints and clues you drop. What are you afraid of?" Josh was quiet for a long time. "Josh? What are you afraid of?"

"There ain't but one thing I'm afraid of... my father."

"He's gone Josh."

"No, I can hear him, in my head. When a child is crying I can hear him shouting 'Shut that kid up!' and 'Hit it hard enough and it will shut up.'"

If Doctor Lennox was shocked, she didn't give a clue. "Did he hit you?"

"Yeah, every day. Then one day when I turned thirteen he stopped, just like that."

"What happened?" she asked.

"He died."

Helen flipped through her notes. There it was: he died a few days after Josh's thirteenth birthday. "I'm sorry." She wasn't sorry that he died; she was sorry she messed up and brought it up.

"Don't be. I still think it was the best birthday present I ever received."

"In a nutshell, what is your biggest fear?" asked Helen.

Josh didn't pause; he knew exactly what his biggest fear was. "We've been talking about having kids, and I am so terrified that someday something snaps in my head and I turn into my father."

"Veronica says you do wonderful with kids," said Helen. "She sent me pictures of you with newborns, and with twins and with a toddler."

"I won't get near them if their parents aren't around, I'm that scared."

"Does Veronica know this? Josh?"

"No, she doesn't."

<><><><><>

Josh got into his Jeep Gladiator for the drive home feeling burnt out and utterly defeated. He didn't get very far; he pulled into Jarecki Motors and walked purposefully into the showroom. Paul's beautiful pewter 1971 Mustang Mach 1 sat proudly in the showroom window. The other showroom window was taken up by a burgundy Porsche 911 and a white Alpha Romeo Spider. The European sports cars belonged to Andi and Macy. He entered the main showroom and ignored the Bentley Bentayga Azure and the Ferrari F80 with the last V12 engine in production on Earth.

"May I help you?" asked a salesman, who was not wearing a Team Honda racing jacket, the sign of a million-dollar salesman here at Jarecki Motors.

"No, thank you, I know my way." He worked his way through the showroom and past the sales alcoves to the staircase when a saleswoman in a Team Honda racing jacket approached him.

"May I help you?" she asked.

"No thank you. Mister Jarecki should be expecting me," and Josh breezed past her and started up the stairs to the second floor where the business offices of the Jarecki Motors LLC chain of fifteen dealerships were located. Josh had expected that a company that big, with that many locations, the headquarters office would be huge, with people bustling here and there, but Paul ran a lean ship. Each dealership was expected to run itself following the Jarecki playbook. If anything, all Paul really needed were auditors and compliance officers to ensure the playbook was being followed. Everything that Paul and John needed to run their growing empire was right here on one floor.

Josh had been here before, but it took him a little time to find Paul's office. From the outside, his office was unassuming. The nameplate on the door simply said, Dr. Jarecki. That could be any one of the four Doctor Jareckis; Paul, John, Macy, or Andi, and everyone knew that Macy could probably step in and take over the business with the knowledge she gained from all the years she spent being Paul's executive assistant.

Josh entered the office. There was a wood-paneled outer office with two desks. One was Macy's, but it was empty; she was on maternity leave, and the other desk, for Macy's assistant, was now occupied by Melissa Kraft, the pianist from John's church. Paul hired her on the spot while working at Amelia Hernandez's house. "Hi Josh," she said sweetly. "What brings you here?"

"I need to talk to Paul," said Josh.

"Oh, that may not be advisable. He's in the office with Mayor Windecker."

Windecker! That bastard. The last time Josh saw him, he was storming into the hospital at the height of a blizzard to scream at Paul for hiring a snowcat to act as an ambulance while the roads were all closed. Josh almost choked the life out of him in the hall outside of Macy's recovery room. For Paul, who was now running for mayor against Windecker, the snowcat was an electoral coup. That some guy used his own money to ensure that people could get to the hospital in a life-threatening storm sealed up the election for Paul. "This is pretty important," said Josh. "I don't think it can wait."

Inside Paul's office, Samael Windecker was trying to twist Paul's arm. "I can cancel the villages contracts with Jarecki Motors, do you want that to happen?"

Paul picked up a sheet of paper. "The Village of Springville is under contract to purchase two fifteen passenger buses and a pickup truck for the Parks Patrol. That's quite a luxury pickup truck too, is that for your brother-in-law? Maybe we should cancel the contract and go with a fleet vehicle." He put the paper down. "I don't sell fleet sales in Western New York. Only in Albany or you can go to my Burlington Vermont fleet dealership. I'm sure Campbell Chevrolet would like the business; I could call Burt Campbell right now if you'd like."

Windecker stiffened. His brother-in-law warned him he was unequipped to deal with Paul Jarecki. He had one more card to play, and just as he was about to mention it, Paul's intercom buzzed. "I'm sorry to interrupt but Mister Gravely would like to speak with you, he says it won't take long."

Paul noticed that Samael Windecker looked uncomfortable when Melissa mentioned Josh's name. He kept his eyes on Windecker when he said, "Can it wait, I'm speaking with..."

"He says it's urgent. It's about Dennis Howe."

The blood rushed from Paul's head when she said Dennis Howe. How could that be possible? There's no way Josh would know about Dennis. Dennis was one of the greatest failures in Paul's life. For over a year they were the best of friends, but with Melony's death everything changed. Dennis never returned to explain what happened. He believed Buzz Blecher's lie that Dennis ejected to avoid prosecution in her death. For years he blamed Dennis for Melony's death, then when he learned the truth, he realized he had a golden opportunity to apologize to him there at the trial of Melony's murderer, but when Paul was done testifying against Buzz Blecher, Dennis was gone. Fruitless years of looking for him led Paul to believe that Dennis was dead.

Paul also noticed that Mayor Windecker jerked like he was connected to a one hundred and ten volt power cord when Melissa said, "Dennis Howe." Windecker was not a smart man, and he never learned to hide his emotions except with that stupid grin of his. The school kids called him the Joker. In situations like this, Paul normally would have stepped out to the outer office and begged for a few minutes to finish up with the business he had in his main office, but he saw Windecker squirm twice. This was going to be good. "Send him in please," said Paul into the intercom.

There was a buzz, and the door opened, and Josh stepped in. Paul was a bit stunned because Josh looked like his best friend had died. Paul's first thought was that something was wrong with Veronica. She's either ill, dead, or she dumped Josh. "Are you ok buddy?"

"No, I'm not, but I'm getting there," said Josh. "I need to speak with you and John about Dennis Howe. It's very important."

"What about Dennis?" asked Paul. He noticed that Mister Windecker was sweating.

"I need to speak with both of you fellows in private." He looked down at Windecker, and for some reason that worm of a person was squirming, so he egged the mayor on some more. "Especially considering current company."

Samael looked up at Josh and realized that Josh was looking down on him with disgust. He remembered the words Josh said to him - "I've killed hundreds of men that were better than you in every way. Men of honor who stood up for their beliefs, with families waiting for them to come home. You? You're barely worth a skid mark on my underwear."

"I'll swing by your house when I'm done here. About six? Is that ok?"

Josh looked at Paul, then down at Windecker only because he enjoyed making that bastard squirm like a nightcrawler with a hook being rammed into him. "Six is fine." Then quietly he said to Samael, "I'm still available as a bodyguard." Then he left.

Paul straightened out some papers on his desk and said, "I'll transfer that request for two mini-buses and a pickup for the Park Patrol over to Bert Campbell and make sure we get standard fleet vehicles. That way there'll be no conflict of interest for either of us in the election."

He knows, flashed through Windecker's mind. I don't know how he knows, but he knows. Pulling himself to the here and now, Windecker said, "If you want to be that way, fine. I'll just cancel both contracts outright."

Paul looked up from his keyboard. "Oh? You should have spoken up sooner; I just transferred them to Campbell's fleet sales. You'll have to go over there and cancel them in person. His office is in Williamsville, get off the 90 on the Main Street exit..."

"I know how to get to Williamsville," snapped Windecker.

In the outer office, Josh was talking to Melissa. "I know it's wrong to threaten someone's life, but is it wrong to remind them of that?"

"We're told to love our enemies," replied Melissa.

"I believe in tough love," said Josh. He was about to finish his statement when Mayor Windecker stormed out of Paul's office. Without acknowledging Josh or Melissa, he stormed off into the hallway, muttering under his breath.

"Some people spread joy wherever they go, others spread joy whenever they go," sighed Melissa.

"Mark Twain," said Josh, and he gave her a fist bump and then headed out.

He got in Spartacus and fired up the engine, then muttered to himself, "I must be sick. The best I felt today was making Windecker upset." He decided to take the long way home and drove along Route 277 through Chestnut Ridge Park, the site of his first date with Veronica. For some reason, he was overwhelmed with a sense of misery as he saw the toboggan slides in the background.

Eventually, Route 277 entered the tiny village of North Boston and joined Boston State Road, known to many as "Old 219." This was the main road to Springville before the 219 expressway was built, and then abandoned. It was supposed to be a four-lane divided highway all the way to Bradford, PA, but like so many other municipal projects in Western New York, it died from lack of willpower, moral fiber, and an overabundance of graft.

The next village was Boston, decorated gaily for the holidays. Josh wondered if he'd ever see the Christmas lights with Veronica. He had to do that with her before he gave her freedom back to her. That was it, he would take her to the Ellicott Manor and have one last fish fry together, he'd sing one more song with the boys for her, then with a cup of hot apple cider they'd drive back through all the little villages, from Williamsville all the way to Springville where he'd drop her off and say, "I'm going to park the truck," and he'd disappear. A letter on the table with her diamond sitting nearby would explain that it's all for the better. By leaving, the life he saves may be their own child.

He turned onto Trevett Road and cruised through the farm country he loved. Seeing it under a blanket of snow was so perfect. Unlike down south, where you could work your soil to death by planting crops year-round, up here the soil gets a vacation, a long nap under the snow.

He turned left to head into Springville, but he realized he had turned far too soon. This wasn't Route 39, which would take him into Springville; this was Concord Road. It paralleled 39, and it dead-ended at the 219 Expressway, but he could turn right on Belscher Road at the dead end and that would take him to 39. Besides, he'd get to pass Hill's Christmas Tree Farm. The thought of a cup of hot cocoa from the most Christmassy place in Erie County cheered him up a little.

As he neared the end of Concord Road, he saw police lights flashing ahead of him. They blocked the intersection of Concord and Belscher. A cop walked up to him, and Josh recognized Sergeant Maxwell. He was a pretty cool cop. Bang-bang Maxwell's silver hammer... but the expression on the cop's face stopped the silly song in Josh's head. "What's up Steve?" The poor guy looked as grim as Josh felt.

"The road is blocked; you have to turn around."

"What's going on?"

The cop looked at Josh and said, "Hop out, come with me."

"Ok, anything to support my local police," Josh followed the cop, who still walked erect like he was headed into battle, even though he looked like someone shot his dog.

"Do you remember what Miss Hernandez said her tenant looked like?"

"Yeah, she said he looked like Ivanhoe.

Steve led him to the corner of Concord and Belscher, where a snowplow sat idling next to an ambulance. The snowplow driver was clearly shaken. "He was pushing back the snow and saw a leg come up in the snow. We don't know how much more damage was done to the body, but we've uncovered the head and face. It looks like it's still attached."

He led Josh to where several cops and forensic specialists were clearing snow away from a body, and Josh could clearly see the face. He clearly had a small beard on the chin and a moustache trimmed at the edges of his lips. The style is called a Balbo and is what Robert Taylor wore in the movie Ivanhoe. "I can't identify the body, but I know three people who might be able to."

"Give them a call, we're going to be here a while."

A few minutes later, Macy Jarecki answered her phone. "Allo oui?"

"Allo bonjour," said Josh, "Is Pastor John available?"

"He's writing his sermon; we don't interrupt him when he's working."

"We're going to have to, I need you guys to come identify a body."

"Oh no!" gasped Macy. "Non, non, non, non!" Josh could hear her as she hurried down the steps into the basement. There was a quick discussion in French, and then John came on the phone. "Hello?"

"John, I know you guys only met him once, but we need to know if you can identify him."

"Who?"

Josh took a deep breath and said, "Cholly's father."

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

When Paul arrived, it was getting dark. His big Expedition King Ranch version pulled up, and he hopped out of the car and told Melissa to go on home; he'd get a ride from John or Josh. "I'm not sure what's going on here, but I have a ride." He turned, and Sergeant Maxwell was standing behind him. "What's up Steve?"

"We found a body in the snow, Mister Gravely believes you may know who it is." As they rounded a police SUV, Paul saw Macy and Josh holding each other and weeping.

"John, Macy, what's wrong?"

John couldn't say anything; he was trying to hold back the tears; he pointed over to where several men and women were carefully digging in the snow with garden tools; hand trowels and cultivator hand rakes. Little by little, a body was emerging. Paul's eyes suddenly grew wide in horror. There, trapped in the ice and snow, was his old friend... his wife's protector... her "flight husband" as they kidded him. "Dennis!" he gasped.

Paul closed his eyes, and the memory of the last time he saw Dennis came rushing back. It was at Buzz Blecher's murder trial that he last saw Dennis. He was still dealing with the anger and loneliness of losing Melony even years after her death, and Dennis looked as bad as Paul felt. He was pale, drawn and scrawny. The years of hate Paul and Dennis endured because of Buzz Blecher's lies damaged them both... Paul was so torn, he hated the woman he loved, and he hated his best friend. Dennis looked like he had gone through hell and barely lived to tell the tale.

Years later, Dennis came to this sorry end. In shock, Paul slowly approached the place where Dennis's body was being carefully uncovered. He was tossed in the snow without a coat, without a shirt. "Dennis... I'm so sorry..." Paul slowly sagged to his knees. "Oh God Dennis... I'm so, so sorry..."

"Are you all right doctor?" asked Sergeant Maxwell.

"No, I'm not fucking all right. I'm pretty damn far from being all right," said Paul. "That's my friend lying there!" He let the cop help him to his feet. "That man was my best friend," Paul repeated sadly. He steeled himself and stepped closer. He went into that ice-cold world reserved for doctors who have to tell the eager young man on the examination table that he would no longer be allowed to fly through no fault of his own. Paul allowed Dennis to become a cadaver in his mind and examined the body.

The headshot was from a small-caliber gun, a.32 or a.38. To him, it appeared that the five chest wounds hit Dennis at an upward angle... no, Dennis was falling back when the chest wounds hit... "My preliminary observation is that the cause of death is gunshot wound to the head followed by several more shots to the chest and abdomen. I'm guessing that the murderer had Dennis on his knees, shot him in the head, then unloaded the gun into him as he fell backwards. I'm pretty sure his location of death was at 45 Argentine Drive in Springville."

"Who is he Doc?" asked a detective.

"His name is Dennis Howe; he was a Captain in the United States Air Force until he was discharged about ten years ago. I last saw him at the court martial of General Abernathy Blecher. His wife is already in the morgue at Bertrand Chaffe Memorial Hospital." He took a deep breath and said, "I want them isolated until I can get a state-certified forensic pathologist to do a full examination on both bodies."

"Geez doc, like we don't have enough work to do here," said a plainclothes officer.

Paul noticed his golden badge and made a note of the badge number. "What is your name, officer?"

"Detective Charlie Klafka."

"Thank you." Paul dialed a number.

"You calling the attorney general?" asked Sgt. Maxwell.

"Seriously? That clown? She doesn't realize that there's an entire state to worry about outside of the island of Manhattan." Finally, the county executive answered the phone. "Ed! Paul Jarecki. Look, I have a personal friend lying dead in the snow here. It looks like he was shot in Springville and his body was dumped in a snowdrift near Morton's Corners. I don't know what's going on but his wife is on a slab also. Pardon? Lead Detective? That would be Detective Charlie Klafka of the Town of Concord detectives. No problem. Thanks Ed."

"Who was that?" asked Maxwell.

"Ed Rath, he's a customer, he told me if I ever need a favor to call him. I want this investigation to take priority over anything else happening in the county. Charlie, I need this man's DNA matched to Air Force Records, and to the blood sample that Sergeant Maxwell found in Springville. Also match it to Chamonix Lévesque, his DNA is already on file and Bertrand Chafee."

"You called County Executive Ed Rath?" asked Sergeant Maxwell. Paul had just called the man in charge of Erie County and named Charlie Klafka as the lead investigator. That guy must have some pull in this county. He turned to talk to Paul, but Paul had joined John and Macy. The three hugged each other, wondering what had happened, and each blamed themselves for not stopping the shooting from happening. "That's what probably turned her to drugs," said John.

"I can't see Dennis marrying someone who did drugs," said Paul, his eyes filled with tears. His crafted cool exterior was melting. He wasn't sure whether he could drive home. He needed Andi in the worst way, but something told him that this wasn't over.

"Where is Josh?" asked John.

"He had our babies," said Macy.

"They were in a bad mood, he was in a bad mood, this couldn't have ended pretty," said John as they headed to Macy's Explorer. They found it running, and Josh was in the back, sitting between Katarina's infant carrier and Cholly's child seat. He had Katarina in one arm and Cholly sitting on his lap. He had an ancient Canadian children's book open on his lap, and he was singing the lyrics to them.

Alouette, gentille alouette,

Alouette, je te plumerai,

Je te plumerai la tête,

Je te plumerai la tête,

Et la tête, et la tête,

Alouette, Alouette.

When they opened the door, Cholly's face lit up with a smile. "Maman! Papa!" he cried, and he dove off of Josh's lap to be snatched up by John. As John and Macy hugged him and wept, Cholly chattered in his confused combination of baby English and baby Caldoche French and the story Josh sang about a naked bird boy.

"A naked bird boy?" asked Paul as he helped Josh put the sleeping Katarina in her infant carrier.

"Alouette is a song about plucking a live bird apart piece by piece," said Josh. "I turned Alouette into a boy wearing a bird costume and his mother undressing him for his bath." Josh squeezed out past the car seats and looked at his friends. He still had a bombshell to drop on them. "I need you to come over, there is something you need to see."

"Does it have anything to do with Dennis?"

"Yeah, you might want to leave whoever is leading this investigation here. I'll let you determine what to do later."

"I'll let him know we're going," said Paul, and he headed back to the dig, which was now being performed by the Erie County Office of Forensic Investigation. As he did that, Josh called Veronica and warned her that there would be three or four people over for coffee; he was sure Paul would call Andi over to join them.

<><><><><>

Paul, John, and Macy gathered in Veronica von Köster's kitchen with Josh and Veronica, who served coffee. When everyone was in place, Paul set up a laptop and contacted a friend in the FBI. It was an agent he worked with when taking down the drug and human smuggling ring at his new dealership in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "What do you want Paul?" asked a tired-looking Special Agent Josey Kersey. He clearly was not happy to be on a Zoom call.

"My neighbor wants to talk to you."

Josh sat at the head of the table and was about to start when Andi tapped on the kitchen door and Veronica let her in. "What's going on?" she whispered.

"I don't know, but Josh has an FBI agent involved," said Veronica quietly.

"Do you know Dennis Howe and his wife Séraphine Lévesque?" asked Josh.

"I'm not at liberty to answer that," said FBI Agent Josey Kersey.

"Ah figured you might say that. Would it turn your crank if ah said they're both dead?" demanded Josh.

"Both?" Paul saw that the FBI agent he knew was angry. "I was not aware of that."

"Let me guess," said Paul. "You figured that his wife overdosed, so he left his dead wife and his living son, and as he ran he accidentally spilled a bucket of blood in the backyard."

"I'm not at liberty to answer that," said FBI Agent Josey Kersey.

Josh motioned to Paul to stay quiet and said, "Mister FBI. Does the term gig-N have significance in this case?"

"I'm not at liberty to answer that," said FBI Agent Josey Kersey. He looked pained, as if there was someone else in the room with him and he didn't want to talk in front of whoever that was.

"Ok, thank you," and Josh closed the Zoom chat and shut down the laptop. Then he took the laptop outside and put it in his truck along with his cell phone. Returning to the house, he shut off the Wi-Fi router and unplugged the input.

"Ok, what was that about?" asked John.

"We just dropped our pants in front of the FBI. They know where we are and what we know," said Josh. "Ah was special operations for years, ah know how these fellers git their info. They can hack back into that laptop and turn on the microphone and listen in, even though we think it's shut down. Your proctologist has nothing on these guys," added Josh.

"So they knew everything except that Dennis was dead," said Paul.

"How do you know that?" asked John. "He denied everything."

"Sorry Pastor," said Josh. "He only denied knowing that Dennis was dead. When he said 'ah'm not at liberty to answer that,' it means yes but ah'm not allowed to say so. If the answer was no, he woulda said no." He looked at John and Paul and said, "Ah helped Dexter inventory the box. We followed the rules you gave him, nothing got contaminated."

"What box?" asked John, but Paul simply nodded.

Josh said, "Dexter Humbolt tole me that ya didn't want nothin' taken outta the box. I figgered that meant permanent, so anything ah took out, ah put right back in, after ah made copies." He passed out some photographs he had printed up. They looked like telephoto pictures of items stacked together, with the eraser end of a pencil pushing them apart so you could see what was underneath. "Here's a buncha drugs, here are more drugs, then a small pistol. Looks like a KelTec P32, thirty-two caliber ACP..."

"How do you know it's a KelTec P32?" asked Paul

"It doesn't have any sights, it's a tiny spray an' pray kinda gun," said Josh, and he continued. "Here's a pair of badges with French lingo on them. Here's a picture of what looks like a couple-a passports, and that's on top of a stack of Benjamins." The last picture showed a pair of stacks of one-hundred-dollar bills lying side-by-side at the bottom of the box.

"If that's fentanyl in there you could have died," cried Paul. "Why would you have done such a thing?" he demanded angrily. He had turned red with anger because there were cases of the power of uncut fentanyl killing first responders through contact with stricken victims.

"Because I saw this," said Josh, and he threw one more photo on the table. It was an image of the box when it was first opened, a folded piece of paper sticking up above the edge of the bag of drugs that covered everything. You could see where written on the edge of the paper were the words To: Paul, John, & Macy.

They stared at the photo in silence until Macy said, "What is this?"

"It is Dennis and Séraphine Howe's last will and testament," said Josh, and he gave them the copies he made of the document. "The original is back in the box," he said as he walked over to Veronica and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"I can't read this," said Paul. He looked at Andi, and she shook her head. The only French she knew was a little of the Christmas carols that Macy taught her.

Veronica gently took the page and translated the French words into English. "My dear friends," said Veronica softly as she read the letter for Paul. "Other than these years with Séraphine, the only joyful periods of my life were with the Jarecki family, whether with Melony and Paul on Okinawa or with Macy, Katarina, John, and Cecil in New York. I have never felt such warmth, compassion, and love as I felt with my Polish family. I pray I see you soon, but if we do not escape Springville before finding Paul or John, we beseech dear Macy and John to raise our dear Chamonix in their loving family. We pray that Paul has found love and started a new life, but we are afraid to leave our safe house to find out. The FBI is supposed to help, but we have not seen them."

"In the box along with a very important notebook are our Groupe d'intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale badges, our passports, and our savings if needed, to help raise dear Chamonix..." Veronica put the letter down and turned to weep on Josh's shoulder. "I can't read any more. They talk about how they worry about Chamonix and how proud Séraphine's family was that they were to take part in saving those women in Portsmouth."

Macy thought she had cried every tear she had, but she was wrong. Cholly patted her leg as she wept and cried, "Maman! Maman! c'est bon... c'est bon." (Mommy, mommy. It's okay, it's okay.) which made Macy cry even harder and started Andi crying.

Paul just stared through the kitchen doorway out to the twinkling Christmas tree in the dark living room. "John," said Paul softly. "Do you want to call the Levesque family while I take care of the FBI?"

John's voice was hollow when he said, "I will, but if they ask about the operation will you speak to them."

Paul nodded and said, "It's about Nine thirty tomorrow morning there... I just wish I knew who was supposed to watch them."

"Agents Vic Bronson and Al Stanford," said Josh.

"You sure?"

Josh nodded and, staring off into space, he said, "that's what Amelia told me. She saw them once when they dropped off Dennis and Séraphine and she never saw them again. She said she called them twice daily, trying to get them to come to the house and feed Dennis and Séraphine like they promised. Amelia was out of food because the FBI never fed Dennis and Séraphine so Amelia gave them everything she had. When they were killed, Agent Bronson blamed Amelia."

Paul called Josey Kersey and said, "I need your contact number for the G.I.G.-N."

"I can't give you that," said Josey. "Nobody knows who he is."

"It's Pierre Lévesque," said Paul. "His wife's name is Valériane."

"How did you know that?"

"Because your agents killed his daughter and his son-in-law through their inaction. I've got his orphaned grandson on my knee. Now give me the number. Pastor John is going to hold a memorial service for his daughter and we want to invite him to the ceremony!" Paul's anger was barely controlled. Then something just did not add up. "You didn't tell him."

"We didn't know for sure."

"You sure as shit did, her body has been in the morgue for a week."

Suddenly, Josey's voice got very quiet. "I don't know what is going on. The new FBI director is chopping out the deadwood, but here in the Northeast, it's all deadwood. It's not the folks on the ground; you saw us in action in Portsmouth. It's management. They're operating in CYA mode and saying, 'fuck the mission.' I think our roundup was the last hurrah for many of these political appointees."

"Dennis was a very dear friend of mine, I don't appreciate losing him for any reason," said Paul.

"He was a damn good agent," said Josey. "They both were. The intel they fed us saved a lot of lives."

"Do me a favor, arrange two big plaques, one for the gig-N offices and one for Dennis and Séraphine's son." As Paul said that, a text came in from Josey. "Thanks Josey, I owe you."

"I'll take it in the form of a nineteen seventy one Mach 1," said Josey.

"I'll send you another picture of mine," said Paul as they said their goodbyes.

"I hate making these calls," said John as he punched in the international number. It clicked for a long time, then on the third ring it was answered and a firm voice said, "Commandant Lévesque."

"Commandant Lévesque, I am John Jarecki, an acquaintance of your son-in-law Dennis," said John in French. "He and my brother Paul were close, Dennis flew with Melony, Paul's wife."

"Yes, Dennis talked about your family quite often. He was very taken with your mother Katarina." Then Pierre paused for a long time. "I suppose we should get down to it," said Pierre sadly. "They are not coming back, are they."

"No, Monsieur Lévesque, they will not. We found Séraphine several days ago, and Dennis was just discovered a few hours ago." John heard Pierre choke, so he added, "Chamonix is here with me, he is healthy and strong. If he gets talkative I'll put him on."

"What happened?" Pierre finally asked. "Did they suffer?"

John looked at Paul in a panic. Macy whispered to Paul, "He wants to know if they suffered."

"Commandant Lévesque, this is Paul Jarecki, I'm sorry but I do not speak French, I can have my brother translate for me."

"Mister Paul," said Pierre in fairly good English. "Dennis has spoken of you many times. What can you tell me?"

"Right now, it appears that their death was a result of a failure of their security detail. They felt endangered in Portsmouth and were moved to a small town in New York, but they were found." Paul had visions of Dennis frozen in the snowdrift. "I spoke with the County Coroner and demanded a proper autopsy." His voice cracked, and he turned to Andi, who pulled him close and tried to kiss his tears away.

Josh could only watch as his friends agonized over the passing of someone in their lives. They didn't know Séraphine, but the last one to talk to Dennis at the court martial was Macy. Finally, John said, "Monsieur Lévesque, I would be honored to hold a memorial service for Dennis and Séraphine. We could set up an internet feed and find a time that would be acceptable for both time zones."

"Pasteur John, I have no doubt you are an excellent preacher, but we are catholic and..."

"I will speak to Father Juan in the morning; we can do a memorial mass at the catholic church."

"That would be perfect, and we will do another when she returns home. Sadly, I must go and inform Valériane of the fate of her daughter. May we call if she has questions?"

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"Let's walk, it's only a couple of blocks," said Josh. The couple walked hand in hand in the winter evening darkness, the snow gently falling and only seen in the shine of the streetlights. Both were hungry; neither had eaten all day, but the emotional turmoil of the day exhausted them. When the Jareckis headed home, Josh and Veronica walked up to Worzils for dinner.

The snow on the ground twinkled as they walked, reflecting the streetlights, and it crunched with each step. "I love it when the Christmas decorations are up," said Josh, trying to make light conversation. Every streetlamp was decorated with a pine garland wrapped around the pole and a wreath around the faux gas lamp at the top. The houses were outlined with colored lights, and the lawns were covered with displays. "It is so beautiful..." said Josh, his voice fading off. The dread he felt was welling up inside him, but for her sake, he's got to do it.

"I've lived here for a few years, and I've never walked at night... I don't think I've really noticed the Christmas lights..." said Veronica. Then she added sadly, "I'm usually working at home or I'm at the office or the gym and by the time I get home the Christmas lights are mostly off." With a smile she added, "you changed all that."

"I always thought you were dining at the finest spots in the area with Anthony and Marjorie and investors," said Josh. "You know, selling the concept of Andelon Data Systems to CEOs and their ilk... I don't mean to imply you were hired for your looks..."

"Why do you think I was hired?" she asked.

"To be honest? I think Anthony hired you as kind of a trojan horse. You would meet investors with Anthony and the VPs, and your looks would distract them. Yet all the while you're looking for flaws in their plans, landmines, traps, scams, cons, that kind of thing."

"That's a part of it," she smiled. "With my background in modeling and the pageants I'm sure many think I was hired for my looks, but you know Anthony... he believes he has a God given talent for hiring the right person for the job. I'm good at what I do, and I do whatever it takes to make Anthony's and Marjorie's businesses a success. I do what you've described but when those dinners didn't happen, my dates have all been with spread sheets and PowerPoint presentations." She slipped a little on the icy sidewalk and clung to Josh's arm tighter, and when they got past the ice, she still clung tight.

They were headed to Worzil's Bar and Grille, an old-school neighborhood pub that you used to find in every neighborhood in western New York. Simple food, cold beer, and working-class folks unwinding after a long hard day. "Mmmm," she purred. "A beef on weck sounds perfect right now, I haven't ate since we had dinner yesterday."

"Sorry 'bout that, I've had so much on my mind," said Josh as he held the door open for her. It was warm and humid inside Worzil's. Most of the lighting was provided by illuminated beer signs. On the only clock visible, every number was a five. The clock advertised a brewery long out of business, and the advertisement on the clock said, "Welcome to Somewhere" proving it was always five o'clock somewhere. The squared U-shaped bar that dominated the room was populated by a few bar flies along the back side so they could see people as they entered, there were small booths lining the walls, a shuffleboard bowling machine was being played by a couple of young guys, and the sound of an air hockey game could be heard coming from the back room. The smell of beer, pizza, and Buffalo-style chicken wings filled the air.

It was odd seeing someone play the shuffleboard bowling machine without the Jarecki twins watching every frame or letting the air hockey players play in peace. Ayato Tanaka, a skinny Asian man in his fifties wearing comically thick glasses, manned the bar. He saw Josh walk in with Veronica on his arm and actually looked surprised. "Josh!" he called. "Usually, the arresting officer isn't this pretty."

"Actually, he caught me," said Veronica happily, making Josh feel even worse.

Ayato grinned and said, "this one's a big step up from that lumberjack you used to date."

"She wasn't a lumberjack," said Josh, withering under Veronica's questioning look. "She was the belt operator at the sawmill."

Julissa Tanaka, Ayato's wife, appeared and said in a stage whisper, "Listen sweetie, I hope you brought some money with you, because this dumbass is notoriously cheap." She jerked a thumb toward Josh. "Staying for dinner Josh?"

"Yeah Jules, we'll both have the beef on weck, and a Genny Cream." It wasn't hard to memorize the entire menu.

"I'll scrounge something up" said Julissa as she turned on a heel. "Find a seat, I'll try to find you."

All the booths were empty, so Josh and Veronica sat in a booth by the front window where they could watch the light snowfall cover the fairytale village. Julissa walked up to the table and placed two pints of light amber nectar in front of the couple. "Damnit" he said to himself, "I could have ordered her some wine, a Vodka Collins, or something from a craft brewery. I'm such a dolt."

Veronica lifted her ale, took a sip, and her eyes opened wide in delight. "Genny!" and she actually quaffed the lager. When she set her pint down, a good third of it was gone. "Oh God how I miss this stuff." Genesee, known as Genny, is a local beer that is an acquired taste. Veronica leaned forward and in a conspiratorial tone of voice said, "If I drank as much of this as I would like, I'd end up looking like that guy," and she pointed to one of the nearly spherical barflies at the end of the bar.

"Ol' Stash? I didn't think you chewed on cigars."

"Not chew, but I don't mind a nice maduro on occasion."

Josh was stunned. "You smoke cigars and drink cheap beer?"

"Not cheap beer, but I really like Genesee; it just happens to be highly affordable." She smiled as a fond memory surfaced. "Whenever I had a pageant or a photoshoot nearby my dad would show up with a six pack and as soon as the job or the pageant was over, we'd go to a park or some other place and drink those beers... what... You look surprised."

"I can't picture you and Mike slamming back a few cold ones in a public park," said Josh.

"It tasted so good. I had been starving myself for weeks before the shoot or pageant." She took another sip of her beer. "there's no better way to break a fast where I'm from."

"I guess... I am... I didn't think..." he sputtered and fumbled for words. "I'm sorry to drag you here whenever I'm too lazy or I forget it was my night to cook."

"I like it here," she said happily, looking around at the memorabilia hanging on the walls. All kinds of odds and ends were hung on the wall, photographs of patrons by the dozens, a well-worn football, a bent steering wheel, hockey sticks, baseball bats, a Buffalo Bills jersey... "Dad used to bring me to places like this for dinner when I was a little girl, me and" She waved her hands as if to chase off a bad memory of her sister Magda, then smiled sweetly and took another sip of her beer.

"I used to think your dad was an engineer, a suit and tie kind of guy, and he designed modern railroad locomotives."

Veronica laughed that musical laugh that even the angels envy. "No, he was always a laborer. He built locomotives; he didn't design them." Veronica cupped his big, firm hands in her delicate hands. "What is it? You can talk to me."

He knew exactly what he had to say, but it wouldn't come out. "You deserve so much better."

"Huh? Please don't play dumb," Veronica's smile was saddening.

"He's a three-time world champion at that game honey," said Julissa as she set the food out -- Beef on Weck, German potato salad and coleslaw along with a small pot of hot horseradish. Forget chicken wings; those are for the tourists. In Buffalo, the real dish is Beef on Weck. It's thinly sliced roast beef piled high on a kimmelweck, a hard roll that's crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. It's garnished on top with kosher salt and caraway seeds. Beef on weck comes two ways: with the top dipped in au jus, or dry, and it is always served with prepared horseradish.

"Thank you doll face," said Josh to Julissa.

"Save it loser, I'm taken," said Julissa as she drank some of Josh's beer. "Ayato wants to talk to you right away, he says it's about your tab."

"I don't have a tab," growled Josh as he slid out of the booth. "I'll be right back," and he headed to the bar. When he got to the bar, Ayato was busy washing beer glasses. "What's this about a tab?" he asked.

"You don't have a tab," said Ayato without looking up.

"Then why am I here?"

"You're here for the beer, and the food. But like most people, you're here for the atmosphere," with a shit-eating grin, he made a sweeping gesture to encompass the entire bar.

Josh sat on a bar stool. "Seriously buddy, Julissa told me that you wanted to talk to me about my tab."

"She lied," said Ayato, as he shook the water off of his hands and dried them with a towel. "She wanted to talk to Ronnie and maybe save your dumb ass before you fucked up another relationship." He set a shot of whiskey and a small beer chaser in front of Josh. "Loosen up buddy, that woman is crazy about you." He tapped his incredibly thick glasses. "Even I can see that, so relax, pull your head out of your ass, and enjoy her love."

"That's not it, Ayato," said Josh. "It's me. The only skills my father ever taught me were beating children and punching women. And when he died, my mother took over the family tradition. And when she died, my sister took a crack at it."

"Simple fix," said Ayato. "Don't let their actions ruin your life."

Josh looked at Ayato as if he were insane. "It's not that simple. Whenever I hear a child cry, I can see my father beating me for crying and hitting harder for every sound I make.'"

"I've seen you with John and Paul Jarecki's children, have you ever once hit them?"

"No!" said Josh.

"Seriously? Those twins could try the patience of a saint. And you never wound up and smacked them?"

"Of course not!"

"Why not?" asked Ayato.

"They're... uh..." Josh was tempted. He could feel his father calling for the belt whenever Katarina cried or Cholly screamed for his mother. "They're not my kids."

"And wouldn't the child that you and Veronica bring into this world be even more precious?" asked Ayato. Josh wanted to say no, because it never mattered to his father or his mother, but Ayato continued, "Look, it's like being an alcoholic, you got to fight it, every day, and when the urge to take a swing comes up, you tell the old man to fuck off and you walk away. You come here and we talk it out. Or Doctor Paul, or Pastor John, or your own shrink."

"How did you know about Doctor Lennox?" asked Josh.

"I didn't, you just gave it away. Look, we've all been there," said Ayato, leaning over the bar. "If it ain't a set of folks from the pit of hell raising you to be just like them, the military will do it to you. We gotta be here for each other, capiche? You come talk to me, and I sell you a beer and the world is a better place for our work."

Over at the table, Julissa sat down across from Veronica and looked her in the eye. "What's the matter princess?"

"I think I'm losing him..." Her smile disappeared, and she suddenly looked shattered.

"Maybe that's not a bad thing." Julissa looked sympathetic, but stern. "Look, I love Josh to death, but he's seriously fucked up, something happened in the military, and he won't talk about it to anyone..."

"His plane was hit, he told me," said Veronica, desperately trying to hold it together. "They landed hard, and he got injured, he was a flier, see?" She held up her phone with a picture of Josh's retirement display of his wings, badges and ribbon rack. "His call sign is Bounce Two Seven because he bounced around when they crashed."

Julissa immediately saw the baby blue ribbon at the top, the Medal of Honor, and she saw the Purple Heart with an oak leaf device, which shows that he received two Purple Hearts. She took Veronica's phone from her and looked carefully at the ribbons, there were several that caught her eye, and she muttered "Damn!" She, like Ayato, was a veteran and knows that these ribbons and badges mean a lot of pain and hard work. She sent the picture to her own phone and handed the phone back to Ronnie.

"Let me guess, he treats you like royalty and you're afraid that he's going to get mad when he finds out you're a real live person," said Julissa. "Am I right?"

"Yeah," said Veronica, looking at the picture on her phone sadly. "He knows I used to be Miss Ohio, an Ohio State cheerleader, and that I was a model and dated rich guys. Now I'm his boss's executive assistant, but..." she suddenly realized what Josh was worried about, and a look of defeat covered her face. "That's not me. That's what I do to put food on the table."

Julissa looked a little angry. How do people fuck themselves up so badly? "Did he tell you what these ribbons mean?" When Veronica shook her head, Julissa continued. "If he did, you'd probably think he was some kind of Air Force Superman, swooping in to save the day. Faster than a speeding bullet and all that bullshit. But he would just say that he did what he needed to do, and somebody handed him a medal when the dust settled and the blood dried. He needs to know that you're not going to shatter if you fall, and you need to know that he's already been shattered, he's not Superman but he wants to be one for you. He wants to be the person you want to lean on, but he needs someone to lean on too and he's too stupid to admit it."

"Are you sure?" asked Veronica, grasping for anything to give her hope.

"Make him tell you about his demon, he hasn't told anyone. Princess, that's huge." She reached across the table and squeezed Veronica's hand, then finished Josh's beer and stood. "Be honest with him, and when he tells you about his demon, you need to tell him about your demon."

Veronica was shocked. "how do you know..."

"Princess, we all have demons, he's not going to get mad, ok? And if you need to vent at someone, I'm here for you. My number is on your phone."

When Josh returned, his hands were trembling, his nerves were frayed. Unconsciously, their hands sought each other out, and she found he was trembling. "Nica," he whispered, "I'm sorry if I act like a jerk, I sometimes let my insecurities rule my life and blind me."

"What do you mean Ephie?" she asked, her face streaked with concern.

"People like you don't happen to guys like me."

"People like me? What do you mean?" asked an even more confused Veronica.

You're so beautiful and smart; everything about you is a dream come true... I could listen to your laugh all day long; your smile makes my life so much better, and waking up next to you makes mornings livable. But I'm just an ol' redneck from down in the swamps on the Saint Mary's River; people like you never happen to people like me." He opened his eyes praying that he would see the ground rushing up to kill him. "We've been talking about maybe having kids..." His voice faded off into an embarrassed mutter.

"Come on," she coaxed softly. "I won't make fun of you." She lifted his hand and sucked gently on his middle finger. "Tell me anything you want," she whispered as she prayed and hoped she was right. She had an idea she knew...

He opened his eyes, and immediately her eyes locked on him. "Nica, I love you. I can't dream of living without you. I want us to be a family. A real family... forever. But my upbringing was not conducive to raising children."

"What do you mean?"

"I am sooo terrified that when the baby starts crying, I'm going to hit it." Veronica looked at him in confusion. Josh hit a baby? It was unthinkable, but he continued. "I was beaten almost every day of my childhood. I don't know any other way of life." He closed his eyes and started shaking. "So... to be sure I don't ruin too many lives... I have to..."

"Quit drinking," said Veronica.

"Huh? No, I was going to say..." Josh's brain finally caught up to the conversation. "What do you mean?"

"Drinking. Your parents were alcoholics. They probably only hit you when they were drunk."

"They were always drunk," said Josh.

"Don't let him win. Show him a better way." She clutched his hands tighter, and she realized that Josh was planning to leave her. "We can do this together. You and me and daddy."

"I'm so scared," said Josh. "What if I lose control?"

"I'm here for you... please don't end what we have over worries of things that won't happen."

"I want you so much," said Josh. "Can we do this?"

"We can do it Ephie... I love you." And suddenly the realization of what they both had committed to washed over both of them. Their emotions took control, and before they realized it, they were leaning across the table kissing, their hearts soaring in unison.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"I think Veronica has a new boyfriend," said Terri McCarthy. She was "elbow deep" in a server trying to upgrade a cooling control board, the unit that controls the seven onboard cooling fans of each server. Terri is a young Canadian girl of medium height and average weight, with straight jet-black hair cut at shoulder length. She says she's such a badass that she cuts her hair with a chainsaw, and the jagged edges of her hairline make that claim seem plausible. She's a brilliant technician, but she will say the strangest things just to get a reaction out of people.

"Yeah, I know," said her manager, Josh. "It's me, I'm her boyfriend. Are you ready for this controller card or not?" He had the replacement for the controller in a static-proof bag in one hand and a tech bulletin from the server manufacturer in the other. He was following the steps in the replacement process carefully. These controller cards cost over two thousand dollars each, and he didn't want any mistakes.

"No really Josh, I was being serious." Terri had huge, deep brown 'anime eyes', a narrow face and a tiny, pointed nose giving her a mousy appearance. As she got the last screw removed and was freeing the old controller card she said, "I think she's seeing someone. She's suddenly all happy n' shit."

"Ground yourself," he replied before taking the old card from her. "What makes you think that it isn't me?"

Terri touched the grounding point on the workbench, preventing any static electricity from harming the new circuit card. "Serious Josh!" Terri was wound up, ready to share the wisdom and knowledge that her twenty-one years on this earth has bestowed upon her "First of all, you're like a half a million years older than her, and secondly, she was a fashion model! She traveled all over the world! She's way out of your league."

"I've traveled all over the world too," Josh insisted as he held the work light for Terri.

"Yeah, and you shot the shit out of it. She was Miss America for fuck's sake!" Terri insisted as she lined up the screws to install the card. Jake was part of a gun crew on an AC-130 gunship and deployed to dozens of hotspots around the world and took part in military actions, some of which will remain classified long after he's dead.

Personally, Terri thought military people were mindless robots, hitmen and murderers working for corrupt regimes. But she also thought that Josh was pretty cool, so he's the exception that proves the rule, and therefore it was obvious (to Terri) that gunships must be okay. Also, her hero, Veronica von Köster, always dances at company parties with a man who is a major in the New York National Guard and wears his dress uniform when they dance, so the New York National Guard must be cool as well. What she doesn't know is that Mitch, the major, was married to another man and Veronica wasn't Miss America. She made it to tenth place, so she remained Miss Ohio.

"You need to look for someone a little closer to your style," Terri continued. With the card in, now came the hard part: putting the server back together. The cooling controller card was buried so deep in the server's architecture you had to take much of it apart to get to the card, which wasn't much bigger than a man's pocket comb.

"What about you? What are you doing Friday night?" asked a smiling Josh. He knew what she would say, and she didn't disappoint.

"ME? Whoa baby, you're still punching 'way above your weight class. You need to find someone who you can get all weepy with over A Miracle on Thirty Fourth Street and be asleep in bed before nine thirty."

"I don't get weepy over A Miracle on Thirty Fourth Street. But I do get misty at the end of It's a Wonderful Life," said Josh as he held a cooling duct in place for Terri to secure with several screws.

"See? Everyone knows that movie is a laugh riot. There, I'm gonna fire it up and see if it works." Terri hit the power switch, and the server came to life. With all those cooling fans inside it, it sounded more like a hovercraft than a computer.

"Is it supposed to be that loud?" said Fabian Bernsdorf as he read the technical manual.

"Wait till you get about thirty of them running!" shouted Terri over the noise.

Josh heard a beep, so he checked his work phone and found that he had just received a message from Veronica, which said, "Do you have a minute?" He looked at Terri with what he hoped was a nervous look on his face and said, "I'm going to ask her to dance with me at the party," as he typed a response to Veronica.

"You're what?" Terri made 'what' sound like "WAAAAAA?"

"I am, she just texted me and she wants to speak with me. While I'm over there I'm going to ask her."

"Oh, I GOTTA see this!" grinned Terri. She turned to Jennifer Combs, her "partner in crime," the head field technician who had as much trouble with Terri as Josh. Jen looks like what Terri calls a "twinkie:" long thick blond hair, hazel eyes, an extremely cute face with a pointed chin, and short with a delicious hourglass figure; she looks like she's a high school cheerleader. She's got a bubbly personality but rarely says anything unless asked directly. She's actually ten years older than Terri, with several degrees, and is one of the best network engineers Josh has ever met. Her specialty is designing and maintaining their customer's in-house networks. "Come on Jen, we gotta see this. Mister Gunship is going to get shot down again!"

"That's Sergeant Gunship to you..."

"Ok!" chirped Jen and she with Terri tagged along behind Josh as he wound through the code writers "bull pen," through the marketing area with the salesmen making their calls and bragging to each other about their recent contacts, finally to "executive avenue" where the doors opened to a lush waiting area and the grandiose main entrance. There were five doors to the three different vice presidents' offices, the CEO Anthony "Ant" Friedman's office, and between the VPs and the CEO's office is the office of Ant's executive assistant, Veronica von Köster. Workers were building a new office at the end of the row for the VP of production.

Veronica was heading back to her office from the break room with a hot cup of tea. Tall, trim and beautiful, with a full lion's mane of dark blond hair, brown eyes, a beautifully proportioned figure, and a dazzling smile. As she approached, she saw Josh with Terri and Jen standing outside her office door. Veronica gave them a stern look and said to Josh, "We need to talk." She opened the office door and held up a hand. "Give me a moment." She swept into her office, leaving the door ajar slightly.

After a long, nervous pause, Terri whispered, "I don't think this will be a good time to ask."

"Naaah," said Josh quietly as they waited, "it'll be fine."

"Mr. Gravely, come in please," Ms. von Köster called from the depths of her executive office.

"Hope you have your flack vest on," said Terri softly in a singsong voice as she tried to follow Josh into the office.

"Just you Mr. Gravely," said Veronica sternly without looking up from her desk, "and close the door behind you."

Josh closed the door as Terri held up an imaginary bugle and hummed a few bars of "Taps." Just as the door clicked closed the electronic sign next to the door switched status from 'Out, be back soon' to 'Conference, do not disturb.' At Andalon Data Systems doors were rarely locked, normally the sign will simply say 'In Conference' meaning you can poke your nose in if you have pressing company business. Do not disturb is rarely used. Terri has been working with Andalon Data Systems since she was in high school, when Andalon was a little computer repair company in Buffalo, and she has only seen do not disturb a handful of times.

The founder and CEO of Andalon Data Systems, Anthony "Ant" Friedman, stepped up to his office door, along with his wife, Marjorie. "Good morning, Terri, Jen, what's up?" asked Anthony cheerily.

"We come to watch Veronica shoot Josh down, but she locked us out of the office!" whined Terri. Jen nodded in agreement.

"Oh?" asked Marjorie. "Why would Ms. von Köster want to shoot down Josh?"

"She called him into her office and Josh said he was going to ask her to dance with him at the party. It's going to be awful!" Terri grinned in morbid glee. Jen nodded in agreement as she and Terri followed Ant into his office. Anthony's office was a shrine to science fiction; it was covered with models of all major ships from Star Trek, Star Trek TNG, Firefly, and Babylon 5.

"That sounds serious, I hope Mr. Gravely doesn't get too discouraged," said Ant as he tapped on the connecting door to Veronica's office and peeked in. Inside her office, he saw Josh sitting on a chair facing Veronica's desk, and Veronica was sitting on Josh's lap. The couple was enjoying a deep, passionate kiss. Without breaking the kiss, Veronica waved her fingers at her boss.

Ant closed the door and turned to Terri and Jen. "She's really giving him a hard time about something," he said with a sad expression on his face and hoping against hope he could hold the laughter back.

Marjorie, who had peeked over her husband's shoulder, agreed. "She is certainly giving him the business." Her expression "the business" was their euphemism for sex, which Marjorie and Anthony used when 'little ears' were listening. Anthony's cough of stifled laughter told Marjorie that her husband understood her insinuation.

"Ok, you two are welcome to stay," said Ant, desperately trying to restrain the laughs. He moved to his desk as the company VPs walked into the office. "we'll be discussing upcoming billing cycles..."

"That's ok," said Terri as she ushered Jen toward the door. "I've got to go uh... water the servers, yeah, that's it, and Jen needs to do... technical stuff." Jen nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, Josh and Veronica finally broke from their kiss. Josh's head was spinning. He loves it when this beautiful woman is aggressive, and this kiss was a shining example of the sexual demon they have released. For years, she was a toy of powerful men. She sort of enjoyed sex, but deep down, she knew it could be better. Then came the day that Josh told her, "You drive, I'll try to keep up with you," and her entire outlook on sex changed, instead of fitting into a mold that this guy wants, she met a man who will let her be Veronica. Top that with the love she feels, and Veronica has never loved sex as much as she does with Josh.

"Mmmm, that was wonderful," he whispered in her ear as they nuzzled, trying to catch their breath.

"Have you found a place for us to practice yet?" she asked breathlessly as they broke their kiss. They needed room to practice for their dance at the company holiday party in a few days. Veronica was an outstanding dancer; ballroom dancing was her talent for the Miss America pageant, and she always danced with her dancing coach at the company holiday party. She wears her white sequin gown, and Mitch wears his Army dress blue uniform, and it has become a tradition. No one dances until Miss von Köster shows everyone how it's done.

"I think we're back on for Paul's library," said Josh. Veronica and Mitch practiced in Paul's library for several years but this year it was being used as a bedroom for John and Macy while he healed from his car incident and she recovered from childbirth. They had been practicing at the Cricket House, a local bar that was getting crowded.

"Perfect, I'll let Mitch know."

Five minutes later, Josh stepped out of the office with Veronica behind him. Seeing Terri and Jen waiting in the reception area, Veronica quickly dropped her smile. "I don't think we need to cover this anymore," she said firmly, then closed the door behind him and turned to join the billing cycle meeting in Ant's office.

Terry and Jen were standing in the reception area, and they saw the whole thing. "Wow, that was brutal!" grinned Terri as they hurried up to Josh. "What happened when you asked her? Did she slap you?"

"No, she informed me that she always dances with some army guy," said Josh, which was the truth. However, they established that fact last February when they were stuck in the building during the blizzard.

After work, Josh swung by Veronica's house, where she saw him coming up the street and trotted out to the curb to meet him. She was dressed in a designer ski jacket and a warm, fluffy knit hat, which somehow looked warm and insulated, yet also accentuated her athletic figure. She ran out to the curb and hopped into his Jeep. "Mmmm, God! You look like such a snow bunny," he said as they kissed.

"I've been told I fuck like a bunny too," she whispered in his ear and nipped his earlobe.

"Who would say such a crude thing to you?" asked Josh in faux shock.

"I think that was you on Saturday night, you know in front of the fireplace? After all that wine and sex?"

"Come on snow bunny, let's go dancing, then maybe dinner at the 279 Grille?"

The snow was falling gently as they drove around the park across from Veronica's house and pulled up in front of a huge Victorian home two blocks from her home. The house was amazing. It was huge with a massive, covered porch around three quarters of the house; it was surrounded by a waist-high ornate iron fence bedecked with holly garland, which had little clusters of red lights. The front window of the house had to be fifteen feet tall, and it framed an enormous Christmas tree covered in lights, ornaments and tinsel.

"Is Paul or Andi home?"

"Not sure, but I think John is here, I saw John's minivan in the driveway." He rang the doorbell and waited. Soon the door opened a crack, and two tiny blond girls peered up at Josh and Victoria. They didn't look any bigger than a pair of three-year-olds. Josh crouched down and said, "Hi ma'am, is Doctor Paul here?"

The twins looked at each other and muttered to each other a bit in an unintelligible babble, then looked at Josh and said, "No!" then they slammed the door closed.

"House elves?" asked Victoria, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Josh shrugged and said, "I'm sure Orkin can spray for them." He pressed the doorbell again. Again, the door opened, and the two darling little girls looked up at him. "Hi ladies," said Josh as he crouched again, "is Pastor John here?"

Again, they looked at each other and muttered again in their own personal form of speaking, then turned back up to Josh. "Unka John?" they asked in unison, their faces brightening.

Josh nodded good-naturedly. "Yeah, Uncle John."

Their faces turned to scowls. "NO!" and they slammed the door closed.

"You certainly have a way with children," laughed Veronica.

"I've been told that," he said, trying not to laugh. The sound of a dog barking inside gave him an idea. He rang the bell one more time. When the door opened this time, the girls looked angry. "Hi girls," said Josh without crouching this time, "is my old buddy Wonka here? I've come to see him."

Suddenly they brightened. "Wonka? Sure! HERE WONKA! Come here boy!" and a bouncing chocolate lab decorated with adhesive Christmas ribbons bounded up to the door, obviously happy to see an old friend who might rescue him from the adoration of these two girls.

As Josh greeted his old furry friend, a French-Canadian voice from deep in the house called, "Sandy! Madeline! I told you to stop playing with that doorbell!" The owner of that voice soon appeared in Josh's line of sight. "Is that you Josh? Entrez s'il vous plait, come in before you freeze to death."

"You said don't let no one in!" said Sandy with a pout.

"Yeah!" said Madeline.

"Girls! Where is your cousin?"

"He's sleeping," said Madeline.

Josh stood and led Veronica into the house. Veronica was immediately impressed by the grand staircase leading upstairs, where she could see the walkways leading to the different bedrooms. To her right was the immense Christmas tree in a very formal parlor. To her left was a living room torn from the pages of history. The furniture was 1950s style; there was even a floor cabinet TV that the twins were probably watching. Someone had clearly removed the insides and replaced the tube with a flat-screen TV. To top off the vintage-style living room, there was an aluminum Christmas tree in the corner that rotated slowly. It was illuminated by a floodlight that changed colors via a color wheel. This was obviously a memorial to the Ghost of Christmas Past.

A tall, beautiful, black woman with that endearing French accent stepped out of the parlor and gave Josh an enormous hug. He said to the woman, "Macy, we would like to..." He was interrupted by Macy's sudden gasp.

"Veronica! I came across our de Givenchy shoot in my scrapbook when I was with the Beaulieu Agency." She showed Veronica her photo scrapbook.

Veronica gasped when she looked at the scrapbook. "I remember the Black Velvet shoot, what is this?"

"That was Hubert de Givenchy!" gushed Macy. Josh had never heard that name before, but Veronica almost melted when Macy said it.

"I forgot about that shoot! There we are... how long ago was that?"

"Ohhhh mon amie, too, too long ago."

Veronica nodded. "How are you doing?"

"The baby she's finally asleep and Chamonix is watching over her!"

Josh was outside the entire conversation. He looked down on the twins, who were just as confused as he was. "I guess they were buddies at work," said Josh. "Come on you two," Josh said to the twins, "Show me poppa Paul's library," and they led Veronica through the family room, which looked like a 1950s middle-class American living room.

"Paul says that this is exactly what the living room of his childhood looked like," said Macy. "He made this room for his mother before she passed away."

Then they entered a large, open room. The walls were lined with bookshelves that appeared to be half full. The center of the room was a beautiful wooden floor, and at the far end of the room was a gigantic fireplace. There were a few comfortable chairs with reading lights at the edge of the room. A mattress was leaning up against the bookshelves, but except for a Barbie Dream Castle and accessories, the floor was empty.

"Do you mind if we start with a country waltz?" asked Josh. He was most comfortable with that.

"Sure," she said with a smile. It had been weeks since they had last danced, and he's quite good at a country waltz. Soon, the familiar three-quarter time rhythm accompanied by a steel guitar announced their first dance, and so did the lyrics. He took Veronica in his arms with confidence, and they danced to that sweet Anne Murray hit "Could I have This Dance." She was happy that Josh was very good at this, because a strong man leading is just what this song needed. "So perfect," she purred as he led them in their dance together. She didn't listen to the lyrics of the song. She was paying attention to the tempo and his foot movements because she was in "instructor mode" and Veronica was happy to find that Josh was doing well.

The twins stood guard over their Barbie empire in the middle of the floor as they watched their Unka Josh and Aunty Ronnie dance around them. Soon their arms crossed, and the pouting girls called, "Hey! That's mommy's dance!"

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

The days were filled with preparations for the office party and Christmas. Josh and Ronnie returned to work as normal. While their love wasn't a secret, they never advertised it, and they teased Terri mercilessly as she continued to try to find a date for Josh. "I've got a cousin in Oshawa Ontario, she'll go with you," Terri shouted over the server Josh had on the workbench.

Josh shook his head. "Thank you, but I've got a date," he shouted, then went back to setting parameters on the server. These machines are excellent, solid servers, but they're noisier than hell. And Terri wasn't helping.

"Really," said Terri as she double-checked the programming on a forty-eight-port switch she was getting ready to give to Jen for installation on a customer's network. "Maureen is cute, she only weighs ninety-eight."

Josh converted kilograms to pounds in his head and came up with a number that exceeded his own weight. "Sorry Terry, but I have a date." Then he considered what would happen if he showed up with a woman named Maureen. He was sure that Veronica would kill him and do so while dinner was being served.

Terri packed up her laptop and the switch. "You only have a few days left bossman. You don't want to spend Christmas alone. Again."

After work, Josh went home to Veronica's house in Springville. Josh and Paul had put Christmas lights on the house for her and set up a tree in her living room. Every evening, they went over to Paul and Andi's house and practiced their dance, and Veronica's dancing coach Mitch joined them, and his tips and encouragement made Josh feel like he was truly learning to dance with his lover at a level that properly complimented her ability.

After dance practice, they often swung by Tim Hortons and picked up a couple of sandwiches and hot apple cider and drove around Springville in Veronica's Lincoln Navigator, looking at the Christmas lights. It was something Veronica did with her dad and sister; she remembered those cold December nights riding with dad and Magda in his ancient Chevy driving around Erie Pennsylvania looking at the lights, all three of them missing mommy, all refusing to mention being abandoned by her. Now, years later, as Christmas music played on the stereo, Josh and Veronica shared their memories and drew closer as a couple. Neither had ever felt so loved.

"It shouldn't have been a bad life. Yeah, we didn't have no money, dad worked at the paper mill and sometimes on the shrimp boats, momma she took in laundry and I delivered newspapers for the Waycross Tribune in Saint Mary's and Kingsland," said Josh. "We weren't worse off than a lot of other folks, but they got into that brown liquor and drank themselves stupid every night. They were old when I was born, heck, my sister had graduated high school an already run off with a salesman from the paper mill. I have a nephew older than me. They never wanted me. One day when I was thirteen I came home from school, and my mom said that there was an accident and dad was gone... Two years later I came home and my sister was waiting for me and mom was gone and that was that" Josh shrugged sadly. "I didn't want to move in with them because my sister hated me, so I stayed in the trailer alone and finished school, then I went to find a service to enlist in."

"Oh God! I'm so sorry!" gasped Veronica. She held his hand to her face.

"Now you know why when someone as wonderful as you takes a liking to me, I get suspicious that there's some cosmic trick being played on the both of us," he said slowly.

Veronica stifled a rueful laugh. "I know exactly what you mean."

<><><><><>

Christmas Eve at Andalon Data Systems was quiet. Many of the employees were gone. The CEO, Anthony Friedman, had let as many employees leave early as possible so they could spend more time with their families. In his USAF days, Josh usually covered shifts on "family" holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving for his married colleagues, and this year at Andalon was no different. Most of his "kids" had left at noon. He even chased his manager, Mark, and the VP of Production, Fabian, out of the building, leaving himself, Terri, and one CSR on the phone bank.

Veronica was seated on the couch in Anthony's office, the same couch that she and Josh made love on for three days and nights until they could get free and go out to her house. Through his large window, Ant saw an ancient, beat-up Chevy speed out of the parking lot. "There goes Terri," he smiled. "Before Josh gets here, how are you two doing?"

Veronica actually blushed. "Ok I guess," she said shyly.

"Please!" said Marjorie. "I've never seen you like this; those eyes can't hide a secret. How long have we known each other? I've never seen you so happy!"

Veronica smiled and looked into her glass of brandy. "He's going to propose."

Anthony and Marjorie stared at her with slack-jawed amazement. "Really?" gushed Ant.

"How do you know?" Marjorie gasped.

"A couple of nights ago I asked him what was on his mind, and he finally said, 'I want us to be a family.'"

Anxiously, Marjorie prompted, "and you said?"

Veronica sipped her brandy and said, "I said, 'hell yeah!' Later I said, 'if that was a proposal it was kind of lame.'"

"What did he say to that?"

Perfectly mimicking Josh's southern drawl, she said, "Aw hail honey, even ah'm not that fucked up, ah learned never ask a question ah don' know the answer to."

Anthony and Marjorie laughed long and loud and Marjorie finally said, "That sounds like Josh!"

"He was just finding out if I cotton to the idea," said Veronica, fueling even more laughter. She looked back to that night in the magical snowfall outside of Andi and Paul's house when he reassured her, "I'm going to ask for real, from the heart." A while ago they were in the village of Williamsville at a quaint little jeweler on Main Street. Mr. Wetzel showed them several settings that would show off her diamond and they found one they fell in love with along with a pair of matching wedding rings and left her old ring behind.

After bedding down the servers and ensuring that his manager Mark had headed off, Josh responded to Veronica's text and joined her in Anthony's office. He sat down next to her, and Anthony handed him a snifter of brandy. "How is life treating you?" It wasn't anything to do with work. Anthony respects the chain of command and, unless it's really important, he rarely, if ever, asks Josh about his work.

Josh sat down next to Veronica and put his arm around her as he sipped from the snifter. "It's become the happiest whirlwind I've ever seen."

Anthony and Marjorie sat in comfortable chairs across the coffee table from the happy couple. "You two look happy together, are you?" asked Marjorie.

"I'm insanely happy," said Josh. Then he turned to face Veronica. "How about you?"

"Crazy happy," smiled Veronica.

"Our first date," said Josh, and handed his phone to Anthony and Marjorie. Ant scrolled through the pictures, selfies of a smiling couple shopping at Sally Ann's, tobogganing down the hill at Chestnut Ridge Park, then suddenly a video, Josh singing to a melting Veronica at the Ellicott Manor.

"A barbershop quartet serenade!" gasped Marjorie. She laughed at the corny-ness of the idea and dabbed tears from her eyes. Corny or not, it was so romantic! The video ended with Josh and Veronica kissing, and it panned to the restaurant applauding. "You sang that! You did that!"

"Yes ma'am, but ah sing baritone, it was the lead that bailed out, ah had to learn that part on the fly," Josh's southern accent really came through, showing he was uncomfortable.

"He didn't want to sing, but his friends pulled a fast one on him. His buddy Dick pretended to be sick then turned around and videoed the song."

"Whoo hoo! What is this?" Anthony was watching Veronica dance the "Bumpity Bump" with a red faced white-haired man as the quartet grew to the size of a chorus. The presentation ended with a picture of Josh and Veronica in robes, drinking coffee by a cheery fire in the fireplace. "Ahh, the cabin! Good times..." said Anthony, and Marjorie nodded in agreement. Veronica made a mental note to ask Marjorie about her escapades in the cabin. "Which reminds me, that couch of yours up there could use a replacement, why don't you take that one?" showing the couch that Josh and Veronica made love on.

"That's awful generous but ah couldn't..." started Josh.

"Hey, it's seen better days, and..." with a sidelong glance at Marjorie, "it gave us Morgan." Morgan is their youngest son. "Maybe you'll have equal luck."

"We can't refuse," smiled Veronica. Then, a sudden thought came to mind, and she put her hand on Josh's chest. "I just remembered something, Andi invited us to go on a Valentine's Day cruise with them on their yacht, maybe to the Bahamas, want to go?"

"What, spend a week with you in a bikini in the Bahamas eating Ye-jin's cooking on their mega yacht? I hope you told them yes before you wasted time asking me."

"Actually, I did, but we may have to babysit Danny and the twins while Andi and Paul are... otherwise engaged."

"Small price to pay," Josh said, and they sealed their vacation plans with a kiss.

"Who has the mega yacht?" Anthony asked.

"Our neighbors, Paul and Andi Jarecki," said Josh. "The head of Jarecki motors, you bumped into him at the cabin a few times. He's running for mayor of Springville now."

"Well, you can't weasel out of it now," smiled Veronica. "Oh, you guys will love this," she said as she patted Anthony's knee. "Last spring our neighbor Andi and her sister-in-law Macy decided to have a race to the delivery rooms. On November eighth, Macy went into labor, and Andi started about an hour later. It was at the height of a snowstorm and Paul had to take them both to the hospital on a snowmobile. Andi gave birth to Daniel two hours before Macy had her little girl Katarina."

"A baby race? That is crazy!" laughed Marjorie. "I love them! So, Andi won the race?"

"No, that's the best part. The race was to the delivery room, neither one of them made it to the delivery room, the babies were born in the ER."

"It gets better," grinned Josh. "Macy is Canadian by birth, she was sworn in as a US Citizen on the 7th, the day before babies were born."

"Really?" Anthony's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. If there's anything he loves more than babies or sci-fi, it's America. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Stalinist Russia, where antisemitism was as rampant as in Nazi Germany, and he remembered as a child going to his grandparents' citizenship ceremony. He still remembers vividly the tears of joy on the cheeks of both grandparents. "Invite them to the party." It wasn't a request. "Let's call them now."

Veronica hemmed and hawed, John and Macy were pastors, they were getting ready for their church's candlelight Christmas Eve service, and it was Paul and Andi's wedding anniversary, but Ant insisted, so he and his executive assistant retreated behind his desk to make calls. While they did that, Josh moved next to Marjorie, and they made plans of their own.

<><><><><>

The congregation of John's church ooo'd and ahh'd over Katarina and Daniel at the Christmas Eve service. The children put on a nativity. Little angels filled the church, as did sheep and shepherds. Katarina played Baby Jesus until she started crying and her understudy, her cousin Danny, took over for her. Little Cholly played a sheep and stayed next to shepherd Madeline the entire time. He was the only sheep standing on its hind legs. Children flubbed their lines and sang off key and it was perfect.

At the end, and to everyone's sorrow, Paul got up and made a special announcement. "I'm sorry to interrupt this holiday, but evil stalks the world. Earlier this month, we lost someone very special to Macy, John and me. Air Force Lieutenant Dennis Howe and his wife Séraphine were brutally murdered here in Springville on Argentine Avenue. There will be a special memorial service at St. Aloysius church at nine PM on the twenty seventh, and it will be broadcast live in Séraphine's home country of New Caledonia for her family. I beg everyone to attend and show the Levesque family the love of Springville, New York."

Then Andi and Yi got up and dressed like 19th-century carolers; they sang O Holy Night in French with Macy to start the candlelight ceremony. Two lads still dressed as shepherds walked from the front of the church to the back. Each had a lit candle, and they shared its flame with whoever was sitting at the end of the row. Those people, in turn, shared their flame with whomever was sitting next to them, and soon the church was filled with the glow of candlelight.

In the golden glow, John then picked up his guitar, and Paul picked up his guitarone and Macy sang Silent Night solo in the original German. Then the worship leader Dante Reese, Josh, Andi and Yi joined in with the English version and the rest of the church joined them.

"Thank you all for joining us but we have one more celebration," said John as Macy joined him at the front of the podium. Then Paul stepped aside, and Gus stepped up next to him as Melissa Kraft played the bridal march and Lucy stepped up to join Gus in matrimony with Andi as the maid of honor and Paul as the best man.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

"I've never seen a wedding like that before," said Josh.

"Andi and Paul did the same thing last year, but, since Christmas Eve is so busy, they celebrate on December 31st."

"That's a good idea; nothing is happening on December 31st."

"You!" cried Veronica, and she slugged Josh in the arm.

After the craziness of Christmas Eve, Josh and Veronica snuggled together on an ancient couch in his cabin. A fire burned merrily in the fireplace and a small artificial Christmas tree stood guard over a few presents on a table next to the fireplace, the lights on the tree and the mantle twinkled merrily and candles flickered while on the old stereo holiday music from a radio station in Toronto played. The fire snapped and crackled on the hearth in Josh's cabin. The soft flickering glow from the fire illuminated the lovers as they snuggled and watched the flames dancing. Slowly the cabin warmed, but right now it was still chilly, and they cuddled together, wrapped in a warm heavy quilt, sharing their warmth and love, waiting for the heat exchanger in the fireplace to fill the cabin with warm air.

A mat covered in blankets lay on the floor before the fire, inviting them closer, but not yet. The cabin is still too chilly at the moment. Now they snuggled each in a heavy terrycloth robe after a nice hot shower in the bathroom. It was becoming a tradition to check the plumbing, then take a hot shower together while the cabin heated up. "We haven't done this for a while," sighed Veronica happily.

"We've spent at least one night every weekend here in the cabin since..."

"No silly! I mean just snuggle, it's nice. We haven't done this since the storm."

"That's my fault," sighed Josh. "I don't have the self-control to stop you once you start ripping off my clothes..."

"Oh stop," she said and nudged him with an elbow.

Josh pulled her back to himself and nibbled on her neck before reaching into her robe and cupping her firm breast. "What is your bra size?"

Veronica purred with contentment as he gently rolled her nipple between thumb and forefinger. "Thirty-two E."

Josh had never heard of such a measurement. "There's no such thing... is there?"

"You got proof in your hand. It's a rare size which makes bra shopping a major pain."

"Wow, I always thought an E cup or F cup was supposed to be huge, yours are..."

Veronica rolled away from him. "Gee mister, I'm sorry my mosquito bites aren't big enough for you..." Josh pulled her back and started tickling her, causing her to whoop and writhe until she gasped for mercy.

"I was going to say that yours are perfect. I'm sorry, but my ex, she was 38 double D and she was massive. Scary huge."

"Yasmilla?"

"Yesenia." Josh knew for certain that Veronica was getting Yesenia's name wrong on purpose. He opened Veronica's robe and exposed her breasts to the firelight. He always thought that candlelight and firelight were the perfect illumination sources for the human body. He's had girlfriends of all races and colors; his wife was Hispanic; and of course, Veronica, with her milk-white skin, all look so beautiful in the soft yellow light of a flame. Sunlight is good too, but firelight is so much more intimate, so beautiful.

Veronica's breasts were like the breasts of a teenager. They show just some sag when she is standing and hardly any drifting off towards her armpits when she is lying on her back. Her areola were slightly larger than a quarter and perfectly circular, with a defined edge between the milk white of her skin and the dark coral pink of her areola. Her nipples are large as pencil erasers and expressive, sticking out a quarter inch when excited, but almost nonexistent when she's not excited. She's learned the hard way that she needs to wear a padded bra at work because if Josh gives her that smile or that waggle of an eyebrow in passing, her nipples tell everyone what's on her mind.

"I could look at them all day long and never tire of them." With that, he lowered his mouth to a trembling breast and sucked on her beautiful tit. He nipped hard at her nipple, causing her to gasp and arch her back, then he suckled the exquisite pain away. The blond beauty gently rested a hand on the back of her man's head, holding him there while her back arched, trying to push more of her breast into his mouth.

"He could make me cum this way," she thought to herself as he switched to the other breast and continued to stoke the fires that he started. She whimpered and gasped as his hand began stroking her pussy through her panties.

He now paused to kiss her, their tongues interwoven, sliding over each other, her heart pounding in her ears. Suddenly, a loud pop from the fire, and a piece of embers struck the fire screen with a jangle, then the fire collapsed. "Shit," muttered Josh as he untangled himself and crawled over to the fireplace to stoke the wood and crank up the heat exchanger. He then closed the glass door, which made the fire burn in spectral slow motion. The flames danced weirdly as the heat exchanger began to pump hot air into the cabin; ceiling fans above spun slowly, pushing the warm air down. He turned, and Veronica was right there behind him. He sat down on the mat, and she crawled into his lap, and they shed their robes and wrapped around the surrounding quilt, now toasty warm from the fire and their closeness.

She broke their kiss and asked, "What's with all this talk about my boobs?"

"I like your boobs; I just wanted to know what size they were."

They reclined on the mat, and Veronica rolled on top of Josh and began rubbing her nipples through the hair on his chest. "And now you know. I like your dick, how long is it?" She asked, just to see his reaction.

Completely unfazed by her comment, Josh said, "Abraham Lincoln was once asked how long a man's legs should be, he said 'long enough to reach the ground.'"

"Please do not tell me your dick is long enough to reach the ground," she said as she rocked her hips back and forth to rub her pussy against his rock-hard cock.

"It's long enough to reach your pussy."

"Good answer," she grinned. In her life, she has had cocks of all different lengths and circumferences, but to her, the fundamental difference is the man wielding them. She guestimated his cock to be maybe seven inches long, and it's thick. She's had bigger, but it was wielded by someone she didn't care for, so the evening was uncomfortable. Only Josh was able to give her the orgasms that roll her eyes back in her head every time. Then, a sudden worry clouded her smile. "Does it bother you that I have had so many different men?"

He thought for a while and then said, "That was then, this is now. I want to be the only man in your life, starting now and going on forever. If their memory comes between us then yes, it bothers me a lot." She looked like she was going to cry, but he reached up and placed a finger on her lips. "But if they were just steppingstones in the path that brought us together then no, they're of no consequence to me."

"You sure?" She still sounded worried.

"I've had a few women myself. You met one. I was a good boy, mostly, before I got married. But when I came home and Yolanda..."

"Yesenia?" Veronica asked, knowing he had caught on to her game.

"Yeah, her. When I came home all busted up and she was pregnant and living with the jerk that knocked her up in our house, I went on a tear. I fucked any woman that would give me the time of day. Then I realized I had no one to go home to... no one to mourn if I don't come home... there was so much more that I should be worried about." He looked sad. "I'm not proud, but it happened and now they're all in the past... except for a few pointers I may have picked up along the way."

"Like what?" She sounded suspicious.

"Are you into anal for real? You've teased me about it in the past and I've got a couple of good tips and tricks for that kink."

"I've been known to dabble," she said with a cocked eyebrow, but never with a cock that thick, though. She suddenly realized she was jealous! Those other women, they all had her Josh in their lives, in their beds, and she would not share. "He's mine now!" she shouted in her head to all those other women. Then she knew there was one more thing she needed to talk to him about before they went any further. Slowly she asked, "Is it a deal breaker if I make love to a woman?"

"Now or in the past?" Josh suddenly realized that this was what was truly on her mind.

"We uhhh... we still see each other."

"Is it serious? Are you all... exclusive?" She saw the color drain from his face, and his rock-hard cock suddenly wilted. He was terrified, she realized, but she had opened this can of worms. She needs to see it through.

"We're friends, I mentioned her, she's the one that's been teaching me to shoot pool..." Josh nodded. It was only a passing phase... right? She smiled and tried to reassure him, "we're not going to run off together, we just play, and then we play around."

"When was the last time?" he asked. His stomach sank, fearing the worst.

"It was January..." she frowned, then realized her mistake. She and Josh became lovers less than a week later. "I knew I shouldn't have brought it up." She rolled over and turned her back to him.

"Hey, hey, don't shut me out," he said as he rolled her onto her back. "First, thank you for bringing this up," he said with a kiss. "It means you trust me with your emotions. Second, this is what our relationship is all about, clearing the air about our past. Third, if she's fulfilling a need I can't fill then I can't stand in your way..." She saw him trying to be brave. He looked like his entire world was imploding on him. "Am I going to lose you to her?"

"No, it's just something we do, we shoot pool, and the loser licks the winner's pussy." She suddenly turned red. "I can't believe I said that out loud. I can tell her it's over."

That's the same game she and Josh play, best four games out of seven at 8-Ball, loser eats the winner. "Look, if it's not going to break us up its ok with me, just let me know and I'll... I'll spend the night up here in the cabin."

She saw the color coming back to his face; he was processing it. "I'll do the same thing if you have a boyfriend over." She gave him a half-smile.

"You know I don't like boys, hell, I don't like me most of the time. You can have your mystery lover over whenever you want but... uh... is there any chance I can watch?"

"What? You pervert!"

"That's not a no," he said as he waggled his eyebrows. He was trying to get her to laugh.

"I'll talk to her about it, but I doubt she'll say yes... but if she does, no touching. These evenings are just for us."

"I can live with that; I think it would be so hot to see you with another woman... if I can't touch can I direct the action?"

"You are a pervert!" she shrieked and threw off the blanket and dashed to the couch. Laughing, Josh pulled her back, and she dove and took his now hardening cock in her mouth and bared her teeth as if she was going to bite it off, then started growling like an angry dog. The playfulness was back, and they both felt relieved. Veronica's lady lover is something they will deal with in a way that will work for both of them.

"You say that because you love me," he growled happily, "but you don't know how deep my perversions go." He reached down and lifted her back up towards him by the armpits. Laughing, she released his cock and surrendered to his fervent kisses. He rolled on top of her and began running his cock up and down between her nether lips. All their touching and sex talk has gotten them both so hot. She was soaked, and now he was harder than he's been since his teen years.

As he stroked his wet cock up and down, stimulating her clit and pussy lips, she arched her hips to get more contact... there... there was perfection. Her wellspring of sweet juices spread over his cock with each stroke, which in turn spread over her clit. "That's so good," she gasped. "you're going to make me cum like this."

"I want to," he smiled, "but I want to taste you."

He slipped down between her legs and began kissing his way toward her pussy, causing Veronica to groan. He placed his hands on the inside of her knees and pushed upward, causing her to curl up in a ball while lying on her back. "What are you... Oh God don't stop!" she was helpless in this position and Josh held her legs there as he began licking and sucking on Veronica's sodden pussy. The sensations were immediate and overwhelming. His tongue flickered rapidly over her hypersensitive clit, causing jolts of stimulation, squeezing excited whimpers out of her.

"I love what you do with your mouth!" she babbled, not realizing what she was saying as he gently sucked on her clit and flickered his tongue over her most sensitive spot. She reached down to hold Josh's head in place between her legs, and he let go of her legs. She groaned and gasped, reveling in the sensations Josh was eliciting from her body. He was a master at pleasing her, so different from everyone else.

Josh gently grasped her wrists and moved her hands up to her breasts and urged, "Show me Nica, show me how you like it. Show me how you want me to squeeze your breasts."

As he licked her pussy, she began kneading her delectable breasts with her hands like a baker working with two perfect balls of dough. She soon got firmer, squeezing harder. She squeezed her nipples roughly, twisting and pulling them much harder than Josh had ever dared. "That's so beautiful!" gasped Josh. "I love watching my Goddess Nica instruct me."

Her head remained spinning from what she had heard him say, Goddess Nica? He called her his goddess? Veronica was stunned, but at the same time, those silly words hit a switch in her. "Don't stop Ephie," she gasped, her eyes closed, her head rolling, his tongue sliding against her clit over and over. Now two fingers started sliding in and out of her pussy, and she knew she was completely lost to him. "So goooood" Her hands were frantic on her tits, and Josh was terrified that she'd hurt them, but the sensations were overwhelming. She couldn't stop even if she tried. The tension was built to a bursting point when suddenly she screamed, "I'M CUUUUUMMMMIIINNNGGG!!!"

It was like a trap had sprung. Suddenly, her arms and legs snapped closed around Josh to hold his mouth tight to her pussy, trapping him aggressively as she screamed and shook. It seemed to go on forever, so good, so explosive. And as she came down from her plateau, Josh pulled free and quickly slipped his cock into her. It was like throwing gasoline onto a fire. She threw her head back and roared as her orgasm rekindled and went into overdrive. Grunting and screaming, she grabbed his ass and tried to pull him bodily into her cunt, and as another wave of sheer bliss washed over her, everything went black...

She finally opened her eyes and saw Josh's smiling face and heard the crackling fire. The ancient stereo was playing music softly in the background. "You did it to me again Ephie." It wasn't the first time she's fainted in his arms from his lovemaking. "Where did you learn to do that?"

Josh just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "You were out for about five minutes this time."

"You fucker," she sighed. "I need to see if I can make you faint somehow." She reached down and found that his cock was still hard. She stroked him gently as he gently returned the favor and stroked her sex.

For a long time, they lay by the fire murmuring and touching each other. So perfect, so loving. It was finally Josh who broke the spell as he felt her relaxing and recovering. "Is that awful or do you like fainting like that?" he asked as her hand drove him out of his mind.

"It's a bit scary," she said, then she smiled and softly said, "but it's not horrible. Do it again, I dare you."

He moved between her legs, and she guided him in. Veronica gasped as he split her open with his thick cock and began sliding in and out of her pussy just the way she likes it. 'This is the best' she thought to herself, 'making love by a fire, his eyes glittering in the firelight,' she looked up at the vaulted ceiling, the firelight light faintly illuminating the rough carved roof beams far above and she saw that racoon looking down on the lovers. It is a bit of taxidermy that has been in the cabin since the scout troop days. 'It's stuffed, and so am I,' she thought and with a groan of pleasure, she wrapped her legs around Josh's legs and urged him on. "Yeah baby, just like that," she gasped in encouragement.

It was so good, so romantic, to make love by a crackling fire. His cock felt like it weighed ten pounds. It was so swollen with desire. He propped himself up on his hands looking at his love's face in the firelight, her breasts bobbing with their thrusts, her chest flushing red with excitement as her orgasm neared, he wants to remember this perfect moment forever and tried to etch it into his memory. "Cum in me!" she gasped. "I want your cum!"

He started fucking her harder, faster. He felt her hand reach between their bodies and begin stroking her clit, and soon the climb to orgasm neared its peak for Veronica. Her long slender legs wrapped around Josh, and she pulled him close and squeezed him tightly with her arms, legs and pussy. "I'M CUMMMINGGG!" she cried between gasps.

Josh followed her to ecstasy with a savage growl. His hips were no longer under his control, and he began savagely slamming into her with a series of pounding thrusts, then suddenly he drove into her hard. Once! Twice! Three times! Each pounding thrust was punctuated with a grunt from Josh. At the same time, he pounded into her as she grunted along with him from the force of his thrust. Just knowing that his cock was spurting life-creating semen into her body fanned the fires of her orgasm. She could feel the heat of his seed as he spurted into her.

She held him tight as her orgasm continued to shake her, her fingernails clawing into his back. "Oh God, it won't stop!" she gasped, unsure if she was terrified or bragging. He held her close and kissed her gently, feeling the tremors that rattled through her body as she finally came down from the orgasm. Finally, her body relaxed. "God!" she said, her bleary eyes opened and sought his. "when it goes on like that it scares me."

"What did you do about it in the past?"

"It's never happened in the past," she smiled and kissed him. "That's why I'm not letting you go."

As they cooled off, panting and murmuring endearments, Josh realized they were going to be okay. Their relationship may veer toward the weird, but they're going to make it. "Come on baby," he said as he rose and helped her up to her feet and led her to the bedroom that was toasty warm from an electric heater. "Santa is on is way and we have a big week ahead of us." They had Christmas dinner at Paul and Andi's house, then the memorial ceremony, then the big party on the 29th, which Josh planned to make bigger, then they were going down to Erie to spend New Year's with her dad, Mike.

Josh had planned to make the New Year celebration even bigger than Veronica expected.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Pierre and Valériane Lévesque watched the videos of little Chamonix playing happily with the tiny blond twins. They were teaching him how to ride a tricycle in the big open room that they were told was called the library. There were scenes of a beautiful couple ballroom dancing to Frank Sinatra music while behind them little Chamonix and one of the twins tried to emulate their movements.

Tears flowed from their eyes as they saw Chamonix napping with a chocolate lab or snuggling with his newborn step-sister and cousin. It hurt so much when they saw him call the beautiful black woman "mommy" and the joy they saw in his face when he played in the snow with his cousins. Snow is something they could never give him.

"How are Chamonix's injuries?" Valériane asked in French.

"You knew about them?" asked Macy. She was shocked that the grandparents knew of the lash marks on Cholly's behind. They had suspected Séraphine of whipping him, or maybe Dennis.

"Oui. The last nanny that Gillford Howe hired was quite abusive. It's what drove Dennis and Séraphine to move," said Pierre.

"Gillford Howe is now in prison. He was involved with the human smuggling operation that Dennis and Séraphine helped break up. We don't know if that was what caused them to come after Dennis so boldly," said Paul.

"Dennis sent us an email that referred to a notebook that came into his possession," said Pierre in English. "We are afraid that it is lost. Thank you for insisting on a new autopsy. It raises sorrow but it answered our questions." The new autopsy revealed that Séraphine had been murdered. Bruising around her mouth showed that someone had forced her jaw open and then forcefully held her mouth closed, forcing her to consume fentanyl pills.

Paul was sure that the notebook he mentioned might be in the lockbox, but he was terrified of opening the box. If there was pure fentanyl in that box, just opening it could be fatal. He learned a lot about the dangers of the Chinese murder drug when he helped break up a drug smuggling and human smuggling ring in Portsmouth. He found out only recently that it was with Dennis's help that they were able to break it up.

"We are going to collect Dennis and Séraphine and prepare for the ceremony," said John.

<><><><><>

Jonesville, VA, Lee Federal Prison.

Gillford Howe was escorted to the visitor center, where he sat in a long row of other inmates who were talking with visitors of all kinds. He was sure it wasn't his wife; she had left the United States the moment that the ship, the Dakota Hustle, was stopped by the US Coast Guard and the captain was charged with murder for throwing several women overboard.

He waited for the window to open, and he was shocked to see that it wasn't his lawyer or someone from Senator Kroc's office. He was a young man; he barely looked old enough to be out of his teens. "Mister Howe, I am FBI Special Agent Josey Kersey. I am the lead agent involved in taking down what is now known as the Portsmouth Slave Trade."

"I had nothing to do with anything," said Gillford.

"We will let the courts sort that out, I just wanted to tell you about the man who brought this all down. It's a great story, and I hope someday to see a book or movie showing this young man's life."

"I don't go to movies," snarled Gillford.

Agent Kersey just smiled and said, "Tim Conway would have been perfect to play your role, or maybe Don Knots. Anyway, I wanted to tell you about l'aigle, we called him the eagle. He was the agent who fed information to the French GIGN, who worked with us to take the whole thing down. GIGN took down the sources in South Asia, and the FBI and local law enforcement took down this end of the slave and drug pipeline. Eagle was an agent with GIGN, and you want to hear something funny? He was once friends with Paul Jarecki, the fellow that facilitated your arrest."

"Real funny," said Gillford.

"Sadly, one of your workers executed the eagle and his wife. Fortunately, their son survived and is now living in a loving home that is dedicated to protecting him from the likes of you. As for the eagle's memorial service, you're invited, but you're not going to be able to attend." The agent turned and said, "Guard, I'm done with him," and he left.

Later that day, Gillford Howe received a card in the mail. It was a notification of a special memorial service for his son Dennis and his daughter-in-law Séraphine. It was decorated with an American bald eagle, l'aigle, soaring in a cloudless sky alongside a sparrow, le moineau...

"No," gasped Gillford... this was the first he had heard of Dennis's death, and he realized that his boss had ordered the execution of his son and daughter-in-law. He stared long and hard at the card, then he sat down and began writing notes from memory about his boss. Later, he called his lawyer and said, "I decided to testify." He didn't say it was against Senator Kroc, but the lawyer would figure it out. He didn't know if the senator had goons in prison waiting for instructions.

He didn't have to. He didn't live long enough to realize that his lawyer was on Senator Kroc's payroll as well.

<><><><><>

Eguisheim is a beautiful village in the heart of the Alsace wine region of northeast France. It has a blend of rural charm, historical character, and excellent infrastructure, and for Solène Howe it was home. The village only has around 1,600 residents, but it has everything she needed: bakeries, restaurants, shops and easy access to Colmar, a bustling nearby city that had whatever she couldn't find in Eguisheim. Each quaint half-timbered house predates the oldest construction in the United States. There was no doubt about it; Eguisheim had class.

Solène fell right in line with the French lifestyle. Life was slow, quiet, isolated, just the way she wanted it. She did not expect to be treated as a foreigner, but having been raised in Paris and having spent decades in the United States, her native tongue did not fit in with the locals. Although she spoke fluent French, it wasn't the same French as everyone else, and she soon felt isolated.

Leaving her husband, son, daughter-in-law, and grandson in New Hampshire wasn't as big a heartbreak as she expected, but that husband of hers! He expected her to give everything up for that couillon (idiot) Senator Kroc. He wasn't that good in bed, but Kroc was worse.

She got back to her little apartment on Christmas Eve and found a gaily wrapped package at the door addressed to her. She brought it inside and carefully opened it and found a box of candied fruit, her favorite! True French candied fruit is a delicious treat that dates back to the Middle Ages. This sampler had it all: candied apricots, pears, strawberries, clementines, figs, cherries, plums, pineapple and melon. The clementines were candied whole and looked like little glossy pumpkins. The fruits are gently boiled in syrup, replacing the water in the fruit with sugar, then they're glazed in a sugar shell. Clearly a welcome to Eguisheim gift from a shy neighbor.

She placed the beautiful selection on a candy dish and set it out to snack from and to offer to any visitors. She never realized that random fruits were powdered with the fentanyl that her husband and his friends shipped into the United States.

A gendarme found her body when he arrived to tell her of her son's death.

<><><><><>

Paul and Josh Jarecki went to Springville Funeral Home along with Josh Gravely to collect the bodies of Dennis and Séraphine. Josh didn't have to go, but he felt responsible. He carried Amelia home when he found her weeping and exhausted at John's church, and she told him everything. He was there when Dennis was found, and he risked his life extracting Dennis and Séraphine's will. Josh felt deeply involved, and he wanted to see this through to the end. His quartet was asked to sing at the ceremony, and they had two beautiful hymns prepared.

They waited for the two coffins to be wheeled out, but it never happened. Two employees of the funeral home, wearing the obligatory black suits, came out of the back room carrying two urns. "Here are Mister and Missus Howe," said the funeral director.

John Jarecki recoiled. He was expecting two bodies in silver caskets, and instead they delivered ashes. "Oh no," he groaned.

"Is there a problem?" asked the funeral director.

"They were French Catholic. They forbid cremation," he groaned.

"I'm sorry if there was some confusion but we were contacted by the family and..."

Josh remembered a bit of a law enforcement class he had taken years ago, and something clicked. He stepped right up to the funeral director and growled, "which family?"

"The deceased's family," sputtered the Funeral Director.

"WHO?" demanded Josh. "His father is in prison, and his mother disappeared before she could be arrested. Her family is all in New Caledonia and are expecting her in one piece."

The funeral director sputtered and did everything he could to keep from answering the question. Just then, an employee of the funeral home stepped into the room and said, "Mister Windecker, you have a call on line two."

"WINDECKER?" Josh roared. "Now I know which family contacted you. Let me guess, the ashes were mingled, right?"

"Y-yes."

"You bastard, I ought to beat the fuck out of you!"

"Ephraim!" shouted John. "Calm down, it was a mistake."

Josh turned to John. There was a fire of burning anger in his eyes that terrified John. "This 'mistake' just destroyed a shitload of forensic evidence needed in the murder investigation. Evidence of poisoning is available from human ashes, but mingling the ashes made all evidence extracted from their ashes inadmissible and made further investigation impossible." He then whirled on the funeral director and got within inches of the terrified man. "What is Samael Windecker to you? Brother? Cousin? Husband?"

"C-cousin." Alfred Windecker tried to assert himself and said, "I'm going to..."

"What are you going to do? Call a cop? Tell them how you just fucked up an FBI investigation on purpose? Call your little cousin and invite him over for an ass beating? Or are you going to call a lawyer?"

"Lawyer, I'm going to call my lawyer."

"Me too," said Josh. He turned to Paul, who had been silent, and said, "You got everything you need to start a lawsuit in Amelia's name, right? I want her to be able to sell this place and live in comfort."

Paul wasn't going to answer until Josh mentioned Amelia; he's still Amelia's lawyer. Josh isn't dumb, not by a long shot. "No, I won't do that, Amelia has enough on her plate. I'll just turn over everything to the FBI and let them worry about it."

"Look, all I know is what the orders say. Everything was notarized and all the requests were submitted properly," said the corrupt mayor's cousin.

"But you knew it was wrong," sighed Paul. He rubbed his aching temples then pulled out his cell phone and said, "John, Josh, could you take Dennis and Seraphine to Saint Aloysius, tell Father Juan I'll be along shortly with... with something..."

<><><><><>

In the end, two empty caskets were set up in front of the altar of St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church in Springville, with a portrait of Dennis, Séraphine and Chamonix set up at the head of the caskets. Several video cameras were set up to stream the sad occasion. A young video student from Buff State acted as engineer and director, and he quickly got his cameras online, and as he started the stream, Paul received a text from Pierre that they were able to see it.

Many of John's parishioners had come, and Josh was surprised at how many arrived considering that the ceremony started at nine PM at night so it could be seen at noon in New Caledonia. Father Juan started out with the typical order of the mass, and Macy stood off camera translating his words to French for Séraphine's family and friends. When it came time for the homily, Paul stepped up to the lectern and said, "I knew Dennis Howe as well as any man can know another man. My wife was an F-15 pilot, and Dennis was her wingman, and the finest partner any flier could want." As he spoke, he paused for Macy to translate. He spoke of his friendship with Dennis and how proud he was that his wife had such a fine wingman. "When we lost Melony, Dennis suffered as much as I did with her passing."

Then Macy stood to speak. "I never met Séraphine, but I know her through her son. He is a beautiful, sweet child and we love him as if he were ours." As she spoke of Cholly and his kindness, a series of photographs of Cholly appeared on the viewers' monitors. Cholly playing with his cousins, Cholly playing in the snow, and Cholly carrying the Newfoundland puppy he got for Christmas. The dog was almost as big as he was.

Then John took over. "We tried for years to have a child, and after many years we were finally blessed with our own child, and we were not prepared. We didn't know what to do, so we read every book and went to so many specialists. We were lost and blaming ourselves for our misery. Then Chamonix came into our lives. His loss was so profound that the grace of the Lord filled us, and helping Chamonix taught us how to deal with our own daughter, and this was because of the love and wisdom that Dennis and Séraphine used to raise Chamonix. Should we need to escort him to his grandparents, it will be a dark day for us, but we have grown so much because of one little boy in need."

John led his weeping wife to the side while Josh and his quartet came up and sang Amazing Grace and Nearer My God to Thee. Their harmonies were perfect, and their rendition of the sweet old hymns brought tears on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

<><><><><>֍<><><><><>

Finally, the night of the party arrived; it was to be held at the top hotel in downtown Buffalo, the Buffalo Statler-Waldorf, on December 29th. Veronica, Macy, and Andi spent the day at a salon getting their hair and nails done while Josh spent the day at work dealing with a balky image server. He had chased all of "his troops" out of the office at noon so they could make it to the party on time while he and his supervisor Mark finally got the image server up and running with no time to spare. "You sure you're not coming to the party Mark? It's going to be interesting."

"I don't know, Lorraine wants to go but I hate going downtown."

"You come and bring Lorraine, I guarantee this will be a good one, I have a surprise planned. You won't be sorry."

As they closed up the shop, Mark Post bothered Josh with question after question about what the surprise was going to be, but Josh refused to answer. Finally, in the parking lot, Mark looked around and said, "Where's your jeep?" Josh hit the fob in his pocket, and Veronica's Lincoln Navigator fired to life. "Da fuck? That's Ms. von Köster's ride."

"Yep, she's getting a ride from some friends and asked me if I'd drive this downtown for her."

Mark's face was a picture of confusion, but he could sense something was up, and he grinned. "I'll see you at the party!"

Josh drove home and grabbed a quick shower, then dressed in his dark blue suit, white shirt and matching dark blue bow tie. He picked up a large flat box wrapped in holiday paper, hopped in Veronica's Lincoln and headed downtown.

Josh stepped into the grand ballroom of the Buffalo Statler-Waldorf and found the party was in full swing. It was the social hour, so people mingled and warmed up at the open bar. The room was decorated in white and silver and gold. White flocked pine trees with gold lights and silver ornaments filled the corners and marked the head table where Veronica sat with her dancing coach, Mitch.

With them were Anthony and Marjorie Friedman and the four VPs and their wives. Stan Dombrowski, VP of Financial and Accounting, and his wife Doris were clearly good friends with Veronica. Both Stan and Emma were in their sixties, silver-haired and cheerful. Emmit Katzman, VP of Legal, and his wife Gladys were the youngest at the head table. Emmit was wearing a yarmulke that matched his charcoal suit, and Gladys wore a simple string of pearls. Next to Emmit was the board's new man, Fabian Bernsdorf, the VP of production and Mark and Josh's boss. Everything that Josh did was Fabian's responsibility, which terrified Fabian. Next to Fabian was his wife Chana (pronounced with the hard Hebrew ch), a tiny girl with long dark hair who looked around nervously.

Then there was Brandon Mitchell, VP of Sales and Marketing. He was there with his wife and daughter. He was a tall, handsome man in his late fifties, with perfect hair, just the perfect amount of silver at the temples, a perfect $8,000 Giorgio Armani Royal Lind double breasted cashmere and silk suit, topped off with a perfect $30,000 Rolex Yacht-Master II watch.

The most interesting thing (most said disturbing) was the fact that Brandon's forty-year-old wife and his twenty-two-year-old daughter looked almost exactly alike. Their radiant blond hair was made up the same, they both wore scarlet dresses with plunging necklines that exposed their large breasts, and bare backs that plunged to the very edge of the crack of their asses were the same, their makeup and lipstick were the same, their fuck-me pumps were the same, and except for a wedding ring on his wife's finger, their jewelry was the same. Trophy wife and trophy daughter? As he moved around the crowd, Brandon Mitchell had one on each arm, raising eyebrows and erections because both women were extremely "friendly" with the guests.

Throughout the room, chains of large gold rings hung from the ceiling on invisible wires, slowly turning, sparkling in the pin spotlights. Most were individual rings, but sometimes there were rings in a chain of five, because after all, this is December 29th, the fifth day of Christmas. Josh mentioned it to Veronica and Marjorie Friedman, who made sure that five golden rings were the centerpiece of the decor.

Josh entered the party with the large flat box wrapped in bright Christmas paper under his arm, and he found his table almost immediately. Seated there under a chain of golden rings was Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Paul Jarecki in his dress blue semiformal USAF uniform along with Andi, John, and Macy. Andi and Macy had their babies swaddled in receiving blankets that matched their gowns. Andi's gown was a deep shade of blue that is known as American Blue that came close to matching Paul's suit, and Macy's gown was Cranberry Crimson, and both gowns were designed exactly the same as Veronica's white gown right down to the sequins. Josh and Veronica had the dresses made for both women as a Merry Christmas and a New Mom gift. Both dresses had deep necklines and were resplendent with sequins that glittered and flashed in the light as they moved.

Josh shook hands with Paul and John, then scooped Katarina from her mother's arms and sat down, leaving an open seat to his left. "There's my baby girl!" he said, gently rocking the sleeping infant. "Uncle Josh is going to take you fishing and hunting snipes. You and me and little Josh are going camping every weekend..." Josh isn't allowed to call Danny "Little Josh" when the twins are around, so he has to do it here.

"Joshua, you are going to be the worst uncle ever," grinned Macy, seeing the "there he goes again" look in Andi's eyes.

"That's my job," he said as he gazed at Katarina, who slept peacefully in his arms, and wondered what his son or daughter would look like if Yesenia wasn't such a bitch. Katarina is a perfect melding of her parents, while Macy's skin tone is midnight black, and John is so pale you'd be tempted to call an ambulance if you saw him. Katarina's skin is a beautiful milk chocolate brown, somewhere in the middle. She was starting to grow into her facial features. Her face was slim, like her mother's, and her hair was as straight as her dad's hair.

Anthony and Marjorie Friedman came over and greeted Josh, who rose and shook their hands. "Mister and Mrs. Friedman, these are the guests I had mentioned, Paul, Adrianna, John, and Marie-Claude and they're all Jareckis. Andi and Macy had a race to the delivery room and last month during the snowstorm little Josh was born two hours before Katarina." Somehow, Katarina ended up in Marjorie's arms.

"So, Andi won?" asked Anthony.

"No, the race was to the delivery room," said Andi. "These guys were born in the ER, so the race is still on."

"Look at that smile!" gushed Marjorie as she tickled Katarina's nose. "She's smiling at me!"

"It's just gas," said Anthony. It was the same remark he got from Marjorie every time he held one of their newborn sons or daughters and mentioned the smile.

"It is not fair," pouted Macy. "elle l'a déjà fait, she's done this before."

"That doesn't count, the twins were cesarian," responded Andi, and not for the first time. Andi and Macy have loved each other since the moment they met, and they are like actual sisters. Even though neither of them has a sister, they enjoy a good-natured bicker like sisters often do.

Marjorie, who has seven children, smiled and patted Macy on the shoulder, and handed Katarina back to her. "It gets easier as you go."

Macy nodded in agreement. "Little Cholly has made everything so pleasant. It's more work, but it is such a joy to watch him come to terms with his new life," said Macy.

Hearing Macy's French/Canadian accent, Anthony said, "You must be our newest citizen," and he extended a hand to shake. "And Veronica tells me you're a doctor?"

"Oui, doctor of psychology."

"And she has a PhD in Theology," added John.

Marjorie walked up behind Andi and leaned over to look at Danny, who was sleeping peacefully in Andi's arms. "What an amazing race, they're both so beautiful. If I remember right you're a doctor too, a specialist?"

"I'm a Pulmonologist with the VA specializing in pulmonary vascular issues," smiled Andi, as they shook hands.

"Which are what?" asked Anthony.

Andi took a deep breath in preparation to expel a barrage of syllables, but Josh interrupted, "Please don't get her started, we'll be here all night. And don't let her see that cigar you're carrying."

"Good to know," chuckled Anthony, then to Paul and John he said, "General, rabbi, how are you fellows doing?" He knew Paul and John from the big picnic this past summer, but he said, "You were a flight surgeon right?"

"When I was on active duty, now I'm a cardiologist with the VA specializing in the effects of pulmonary hypertension on the heart," said Paul. "And I sell cars."

"And I'm just the pastor at the Springville Congregational Church," said John.

"Jean has a Th.D. and is a doctor of theology," interrupted Macy, a little angry that her husband was so modest about his accomplishments.

Paul grinned. "Tell him how you got your degree."

John shrugged. "Ok, I studied theology at the École de théologie Évangélique du Québec in Montreal and my doctoral mentor was the former Quebecois fashion model, the Reverend Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais."

"That was you?" Marjorie asked Macy.

"Oui, his thesis was a biblical argument of why I should not be teaching him," said Macy. "It convinced me, so I quit my job, and I made him marry me."

After the laughter settled down, Josh pointed out, "we have a doctor, a doctor, another doctor, and a doctor-doctor, and me."

Anthony chuckled, "four people, five doctorates and none of you are Jewish? My mother will never believe this. Have a great time at the party!"

As soon as Anthony and Marjorie left, Terri sat down in the empty seat next to Josh, putting her between Josh and Paul. "Is anyone sitting here?"

"Not right now, my date will be showing up later after dinner," said Josh.

"Nobody believes that story anymore Josh," said Terri as she took a piece of stuffed celery off of Josh's hors-d'oeuvre plate and crunched on it. "Be honest, did she stand you up or did you strike out?"

"No, really. She'll be here later," he pointed out the large, gift-wrapped package under the table. "That's for her."

"See, you should have worn your uniform like the army guy sitting next to me," said Terri as she shook hands with Paul.

"He's Air Force."

"See? You were Air Force, you could be twins, he could help you pick up chicks. Your suit is the same color as his, and you're both wearing a bow tie. Maybe after dinner you two could go..."

"Thank you, Terri, but no."

"Hey, at least you trimmed that beard, you were starting to look like a hermit."

Hoping to deflect Terri's attention, Josh said to Macy, "Terri is from Mississauga Ontario." Which started a conversation between the Canadians, which quickly changed to French. Terri changed seats with Josh so they didn't have to shout across him, but he could tell that Terri was talking about him because of the hand gestures and Macy's laughter. At least her attention was diverted.

Josh turned to watch Veronica circulating through the crowd like Anthony, Marjorie, and the company vice presidents and their wives. She greeted people and shook hands, and made everyone feel welcome. Mitch was next to her in his Army full dress uniform and was fetching her snacks and drinks. It was agony not to stare longingly at her and her gown, which is the same white gown she's worn every year by popular demand and the design basis of Andi and Macy's gowns.

Soon came dinner. It was standard large crowd fare: braised beef tips or roast chicken breast, or a vegetable plate, rice pilaf, and vegetable medley followed by sorbet for dessert. Paul leaned over and said to Terri, "Would you like to hold the baby while Macy is eating?"

Terri looked like she had just been offered a choice of suicide methods. "Hell no! I mean no offence, the munchkin is all cute an' shit, but... not no, but Hell No!"

"Aw, come on," said Josh, knowing full well Terri's fear of babies. "Why not?"

"No! Those things are contagious! Those adorable little faces, the way they smell, the cute noises they make. If a girl gets her hands on one of those, the next thing you know she's out looking for a guy with a steady job."

The table erupted with laughter, and Josh held Danny for Andi and bottle-fed him, letting Andi finish her dinner. Terri took a picture of Josh with the baby for blackmail purposes as Anthony stepped out onto the dance floor with a wireless microphone and a page of notes. Behind him, the band members were quietly taking their places. "If I could have your attention, please," he said, and the background murmur quickly quieted.

He spoke about the stellar year they had. He announced several large accounts they had just landed; each announcement met with applause. As he spoke, Veronica stepped up next to him. The sequins on her gown glittered under the spotlights. She was holding several plaques that were for the Salesman of the Year, Programmer of the Year, and Technician of the Year. She handed out the plaques to the winners, as Anthony called out their names and accomplishments. Terri whooped and screamed like she was at a hockey game when her friend Jen won the award for the Technician of the Year.

"I would like to introduce a friend of Andalon, Doctor Marie-Claude Solange Dagenais-Jarecki. You met her at the company picnic at Josh's pond. She recently became a mother to a girl, Katarina Roamée Jarecki, and right now, she and her husband, Pastor John Jarecki are adopting an orphaned eighteen month old boy." She got an enormous round of applause for that. Then Anthony continued, "She just became a citizen of the United States!" and she got a standing ovation for receiving her citizenship.

"With her is Adriana Jarecki, who had a bet with Doctor Macy, first woman to the delivery room wins. Doctor Andi had a baby boy, Daniel Cecil Jarecki two hours before Katarina was born." When the applause was over, Ant continued, "The race is not over, both babies were delivered in the ER not the delivery room."

When the laughter died down, he smiled and said, "Let's kick off the entertainment part of this shindig with what has become an Andalon tradition. Miss Veronica von Köster and New York National Guard Major Mitchell McDonnell."

Mitch stepped onto the dance floor, and soon he and Veronica began to dance as the band struck up a foxtrot. "I thought you were going to ask her to dance," Terri said, loud enough for the entire table to hear her. Her thought was to embarrass Josh.

"You're right, I'm going to do it," said Josh as he handed the baby back to Andi and pulled the box out from under the table and handed it to Paul. "Could you hold this for me colonel?"

"Sure," said Paul with a straight face. He was dying to see the look on Terri's face when she saw what Josh was up to. She was the only person at the table who wasn't in on the plan. Josh took off his blue suit jacket, lifted the lid on the box and pulled out another jacket, placing his blue jacket in the box and returned it under the table. He put on the other jacket, which turned out to be his USAF dress blue uniform jacket, which was covered with his badges, wings, and ribbons.

"What are you doing?" gasped Terri. "You can't wear that!" Josh had far more ribbons than Paul and Mitch combined. Terri immediately thought that Josh had bought more ribbons to intimidate Mitch.

"It's mine, why not?" said Josh dramatically as Paul put the ribbon of the Medal of Honor over Josh's head and tugged it straight, making sure that the medal was hanging properly below his bow tie then gave Josh's uniform a last inspection. The colonel tugged the jacket into place, brushed off the shoulders, and tugged his tie straight. "I'm trying to impress a lady," said Josh.

"Are you allowed to wear wings?" scolded Terri. "You're not a pilot!"

"Paul has wings, he's not a pilot," Josh responded. Paul was a flight surgeon and, as such, wore flight surgeon wings, and his wings were different from Josh's, whose wings denoted him as a combat flight crewmember, but Terri didn't know that either. Josh also wore a parachute badge, a Missile Maintenance badge for his years as an armament specialist on bombers carrying cruise missiles, and an Aircraft Maintenance badge, along with more than twice as many rows of ribbons as Paul was wearing. When you fly from one hot spot to another and put iron on targets and bullets in bad guys, people give you ribbons. The six stripes on his arms boldly declare his rank as Master Sergeant. Yes, he's not actually allowed to wear the uniform now that he's retired, but no one will stop him if he doesn't disgrace it.

Paul performed the last inspection, then stepped back and saluted Josh.

Josh returned the salute, then as if announcing his own impending death, Josh turned to Terri and in a deep steady voice said, "I'm goin' in." He snapped an about-face and stepped up to the dance floor, followed by John Jarecki with a video camera and Paul with a DSLR camera.

"You're going to get in trouble," warned Terri, then she turned to Macy and said, "Il va se faire abattre à nouveau." (He's going to get shot down again)

Josh stood at attention on the edge of the dance floor, and a murmur went up throughout the audience. Was that Josh? What is he doing? The murmuring grew louder as more and more people noticed him standing there at attention. People started rising to their feet. Even Anthony was befuddled. "What is that guy doing?" he asked Marjorie. He didn't expect an answer, but she got her phone/camera ready and smiled. "Watch."

Now the dancers came close, Mitch in his Army mess dress, Veronica in her traditional white gown, similar to the gown she wore at the beauty pageants. Like Josh was proud that he could still fit in his uniform, she was proud (and a bit relieved) that she could still fit in the dress. Now Josh came to life. Back ramrod straight, he stepped up behind Mitch and tapped him on the shoulder. "May I cut in?"

The couple stopped, and Mitch turned to Josh and was more than a little shocked to see Josh in his dress blues. "God damn," he whispered. Seeing Josh's ribbons, wings, and badges, he stepped back and saluted the man with a Medal of Honor. Josh returned the salute, and Mitch said, "Holy shit... step aside and let someone else win the war, will ya sarge?"

"Will do sir," said Josh as they shook hands. Then, Josh turned to an utterly stunned Veronica. She eyed him up and down, entirely speechless as Josh bowed slightly and said, "Nica, may I have this dance?"

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"Oh my God," gasped Veronica as she melted into his arms, "You said you would never wear your blues ever again..." They had planned for Veronica and Mitch to pretend to be a little surprised to see Josh, but when he appeared in his semi-formal dress blue uniform without telling them, they honestly were shocked. Veronica was so honored that he wore the uniform for her she was moved to tears.

"For you I'll make this and many other exceptions." He pulled her tight, and she smiled as her man began to lead her in the dance. As they picked up the dance that they had practiced dozens of times, Josh said, "You look so beautiful, I know exactly when I fell in love with you."

"When?" she said breathily. She was exhilarated that he was finally holding her as tightly as she desired. In practice, she kept telling him to hold her tighter, and tonight he got it perfect.

"It was a year ago when I saw you dance for the first time, then you walked through the crowd straight to me, and you called me Ephie."

"So sweet," whispered Veronica. She smiled and blinked away the tears. "For me it was much longer."

"When was it?" asked Josh as he tried not to concentrate on his steps. He did so much better when he let the music and the feel of his lover in his arms guide his steps. "Was it when we went to the Ellicott Manor?"

She smiled at his joke. That was when they first publicly admitted their feelings for each other. "It was when you came into my office for your HR briefing." Normally Sophia in HR does that, but Veronica is HR trained and will fill in for Sophia when needed. "We spent the afternoon laughing and enjoying each other's company. That's when it happened."

"Oh yeah," smiled Josh, "that was the day that Anthony took Sofia out to lunch and said I had to get my briefing from you."

She tried hard not to laugh; he took Sophia to lunch so she could spend time with Josh? That was so much like Anthony. For her part, Veronica was overwhelmed. She was almost speechless. Seeing the man she loved in his dress blues stunned her, and she wanted to know the story behind every brightly colored ribbon on his chest. She sees his ribbons and medals in his retirement display box every day, but it's not the same as seeing him wear them. "You look so..." she couldn't finish. Tears of joy were still welling up. "Thank you so much," she finally whispered.

The song ended, and as they drew to a stop, Josh held up a finger, showing to the band and to Anthony that they wanted one more. Anthony raised the microphone he was holding and said, "Let's give them one more dance folks, shall we?" There was applause from the darkened party and as the band's female vocalist stepped forward, the band played the most beautiful of country waltzes.

I'll always remember

The song they were playing

The first time we danced and I knew.

As we swayed to the music,

And held to each other,

I fell in love with you

They always opened their practice sessions with country waltzes to warm up because Josh said he was most comfortable with them, and it showed. And now they danced to the beautiful three-quarter time ballad, swirling around the dance floor, her gown glittering in the spotlights, his back ramrod straight, his uniform once again a part of him. Every step was in unison, every twirl, every dip looked like they did it together for years, and all the while Josh whispered soft endearments to her.

The men and women of Andalon were utterly shocked. They all consider Veronica to be more than Anthony's executive assistant. She was their sister and, in many ways, their patron saint. Beautiful, sweet, incredibly smart and efficient. She was the personification of their company, and now she's dancing with one of us worker bees? Joyful confusion coursed through the crowd as men and women tried to explain to the person they brought what was happening. They murmured to each other in complete surprise, yet the couple danced like they were born to dance with each other. Cameras started to flash as the dance progressed, and John caught every moment on video.

Across the room, Terri watched her boss dance with the most elegant, unreachable woman she ever knew. She was in shock. "Holy shit, he can dance?" She turned to Andi and said, "He can barely walk, and now he's dancing?" Andi almost spit the water she was drinking onto Danny. Throughout the crowd, the reaction was the same. Grouchy ol' Josh Gravely was dancing with the beautiful, elegant, regal Veronica von Köster?

Macy leaned toward Terri and said, "he told you he was going to ask her to dance with him, why did you not believe him?"

"I believed he would ask her, but I didn't think she would do it!"

Veronica could think of nothing more than dancing right off this dance floor and heading up to the suite they reserved on the twenty-eighth floor. Josh leaned close and whispered, "This is the first song we danced to at Paul's house, remember?" She nodded, remembering their first dance and how surprised she was to find that he could actually dance. She remembered back then how right it felt to be in his arms just as it does now, just like the song says. Was it a premonition set to music? "I was already madly in love with you before we ever saw our first snowflake together Nica," he said.

"Ephie, I've never felt so loved, so secure..." she fought to hold back the tears.

"One more surprise," he said softly as the song headed into the final stanza.

Could I have this dance

For the rest of my life

Could you be my partner

Every night

When we're together

It feels so right

Could I have this dance

For the rest of my life

She found they had stopped in the middle of the dance floor. What was he doing? He stepped back and then slowly dropped to one knee... she heard Terri cry, "WAAAA?"

Now he pulled something out of his pocket... "Nica, when we met I was nothing, then you showed me how wonderful life truly is. Your love completes me. Please be my partner and share this dance with me... for the rest of our lives." He opened the little box in his hand, and a dream she never dared to realize suddenly came true. Through the welling tears of joy, she saw the ring that Mr. Wetzel made with her diamond in the setting they fell in love with...

The crowd stood stunned. Is he really proposing? A hundred people held their breath as this regular guy, who had somehow transformed into a knight in shining armor, was proposing on bended knee to someone that they all considered their royal princess.

She covered her mouth with both hands and nodded. At first, the word wouldn't come out; she was too excited. Then the dam broke, and she cried "Yes!" loud enough for all to hear... and he was standing, putting the ring on her shaking finger... now they were holding each other tightly, kissing as the band replayed the last chorus of "Could I Have This Dance."

Anthony and Marjorie came up and wrapped their arms around the couple as the crowd clapped. "Let's go sit down before we fall down," said Josh. He led her back to the table, and Terri stood there with her mouth wide open. "My date is here now," Josh told her.

"Jeezuz boss," said Terri in total shock. "When you ask a girl to dance you don't hold back shit!"

During their dance, the wait staff had appeared and were busy placing bottles of sparkling wine and sparkling cider on the tables, a little surprise that Marjorie had engineered. As Josh and Veronica shook hands and hugged their neighbors and friends at their table, the shocked murmuring of the crowd almost drowned out anything that a completely stunned Terri and Anthony said. Veronica ended up sitting on Josh's lap, and well-wishers streamed to them to congratulate them and take pictures. Someone asked Josh to give a big smile, and to get him to smile, Veronica whispered in his ear, "Ephraim! How are you enjoying the party?" He broke into a great, heartfelt smile captured by the company photographer. "You remember?" asked Veronica softly.

"Those were the first words you ever said to me."

"Do you remember what you said?"

"I remember being surprised that you knew how to properly pronounce my name, and I'm pretty sure it was the last time you used it."

"Ef-rum, how hard can that be?" asked Terri as she munched on chocolates from the dessert tray, ignoring the glares that she was receiving from Josh and Veronica.

"Wow, what a surprise," said Anthony into his microphone as he stepped out on the dance floor. The response was nearly universal, including Anthony. "Ok besides Josh, show of hands. Who knew that was going to happen?" The only hands raised were Paul, Andi, John, Macy, Anthony's wife, Marjorie, and the entire band.

"My own neighbors?" shrieked Veronica as she leapt to her feet when she saw all the Jareckis lifting their hands, raising laughter from the Andalon staff gathered around. "You didn't say a word," she growled at Paul. "I held your wife's hand while she was in labor, and you didn't say a word."

"Now you know how I feel," said Terri as she inspected the ring on Veronica's finger. "I'm Josh's best friend and he didn't say a word."

"Sorry Terri, but I'm going to marry my best friend," said Josh as he kissed a laughing Veronica.

As the laughter died, Anthony raised a glass and the microphone. "Let's have a couple of toasts," He waited for everyone to raise their glass. "To our dear friends, my right hand, the helmsman of the Starship Andalon, Veronica von Köster, and the engineer of that proud ship, our data center hardware manager e'Frame Gravely, tonight a happy loving couple, Ronnie from Erie and Josh from Saint Mary's, may your wedding be joyful, your union be fruitful, and your children be grateful. L'chaim!"

"L'chaim!" cried the crowd, and they either sipped or drained their wine. This was a shock to them all.

Very few saw a connection between them. Veronica is a beautiful, knowledgeable, soft-spoken superwoman whose help at the helm of the ship kept Andalon from the dangerous shoals of the business world and boosted Adoption Advocates to hundreds of successful adoptions. Josh, on the other hand, was the gritty technician who could fix anything with a hammer, sleeves rolled up, clipboard at the ready, a thousand questions in that southern drawl that could brook no nonsense. They were rarely seen together; they nodded to each other politely in passing. They even parked in different lots. Everybody knew Veronica and Ephraim, but nobody but Anthony and Marjory knew Ronnie and Josh. Anthony is a wizard at hiring the right person for the right job, and this time his talent paid off splendidly.

"Is everybody refilled? Ok then, our second toast is to ourselves, and to each other. We did fantastic this year, and next year looks better! They said we were crazy for building such a data center in Orchard Park and already we're looking for more room. Next year we're planning to build a dedicated call center facility in Cheektowaga! Cheers to an incredible year and let's make next year another Andalon year!" He lifted his glass and this time he used a more 'Buffalo' toast "Nostrovia!"

"Nostrovia!"

"Now let's get this party rolling!"

As the dance floor filled with revelers, Josh and Veronica went up to the head table and shook hands with the VPs and their wives. When they got to Anthony and Marjorie, Josh said, "Thank you for all of your support and this great party, Ronnie is going to dance one more dance with Mitch and when this winds down, we're heading up to our suite for a small party. Y'all wanna join us?"

"We would be honored," said Anthony. "A party after the party, is that an Air Force thing?"

Marjorie came around the table and gave them a hug. "You didn't even tell me... my own boss!" said Veronica as they hugged.

"He swore me to secrecy; I had to make arrangements with the band and get that wine out to the tables for the toasts. Hey, we need to talk before Monday." Marjorie wanted to talk about the contract that was on the schedule for Monday AM, but there was NO business talk allowed at the party. Sure, everybody talked about work, but conducting business was strictly forbidden.

"We're heading down to Erie and show this to my dad," Veronica started, but Josh corrected her by mouthing the words, "Our dad." Veronica smiled and said, "We're going to be at our dad's house, we should be back by Monday."

"That will be great, see you then," said Marj.

Just then, Mitch came up and tugged at Josh's arm. "I want one more dance with Vicky before you leave honey." Over the past few weeks, Mitch and Josh have been calling each other by endearments in jest. It usually ends up with Mitch threatening to steal Veronica's man. Their banter is primarily aimed at getting a rise out of Frank, Mitch's husband.

"Let's do it darlin'," said Josh, and the three headed out to the dance floor as the band finished up a tune. Veronica and Mitch stopped in the middle of the floor. Josh stepped up to the bandstand, and the singer yielded her microphone to him. He started his song with the mantra of all poor public speakers. He tapped the microphone twice and said, "Is this thing on?"

When the crowd saw it was Josh at the bandstand, they stopped what they were doing to find out what the man who surprised the entire company had to say. "Ok, Mitch and Veronica want to do their last dance together, and they're going to do a dance that I taught 'em. Me. Thas right. This ol country boy taught a professional dancin' coach a dance an' they asked me to karaoke the song, because where I'm from, y'all ain't country if you can't sang this song... Hit it boys!"

The band broke into a bass - heavy rockabilly beat that many of the dancers recognized in an instant. As Mitch and Veronica broke into a spirited Texas Swing, Josh let his South Georgia drawl break free.

Everybody's goin' out and having fun

Ah'm a fool for stayin' home and havin' none

Ah can't get over how she set me free

Woh, lonesome me...

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The party went on for quite a while. Josh and Veronica took up station in front of a cluster of the white flocked pine trees and greeted well-wishers for what seemed to be an entire hour. After that, Andi, Macy, and Veronica took to the dance floor in their identically styled red, white, and blue gowns, and they taught a new generation of revelers the joys of the Macarena. While they were dancing, Josh was approached by a pair of nearly identical drop-dead gorgeous blond women. "Hey sailor," said one of the blonds. Josh guessed it was the mom, except for the eighteen years of age separation. The two women were almost identical.

"Ma'am, when I'm dressed like this, I go by sarge, but I prefer Josh."

"I'm Emily Mitchell," she said in that breathy voice that would give the bronze statue of George Washington over in Lafayette Park an erection.

"And I'm Audrey Mitchell," said the younger twin, who now clung to his arm.

"Good Lord," he thought, "they got matching names too." He realized he had two breasts pressing against him, one from each of the Mitchell women. "How may I help y'all?"

"Y'all... that's so cute!" giggled Audrey.

"We were wondering if you'd like to dance with one... or maybe both of us," Emily's lips were dangerously close to his ear.

On the outside, Josh remained stoic, gentlemanly. Inside, however, he was flashing back and forth between nervous and angry. The way Emily said dance inspired thoughts of a more horizontal form of recreation and if he were a weaker man, he'd be dragging both of them to the elevator right now... or more accurately, allowing himself to be dragged off to the elevator by these two sexpots.

He settled on angry. He just proposed to the most wonderful woman he's ever met, and these two women saw him do it, yet they're hitting on him like they didn't notice? And holy crap, her husband, her father, was standing ten feet away pretending not to notice! A couple of years ago, he'd have been all over this and would have given these two women a fucking that they'd feel ringing in their pussies for a year. But the sheer arrogance of this!

"Steady, Josh," he told himself; "be polite. You may misread this whole situation, and their sugar daddy helps sign your paycheck." He looked left and right, and their cleavage was on bold display. Josh could tell that Brandon had spent a lot of money on Emily's tits, while Audrey was a 100% natural girl, and she was outshining her mother's silicone stunners. "Miss Emily, Miss Audrey, I'd like to kindly thank you for the invitation, it's one I shall surely remember and always treasure forever, but I love Veronica truly and deeply. Ah'm sorry ma'am, but my dance card is now full for the rest of my life."

The younger blond, Audrey, made a little whimper and seemed to melt with his salvo of Southern Gentlemanly Charm. He could see in her longing eyes that a strict but polite gentleman was exactly what turned this girl on. On the other hand, her mom bristled for a moment. Maybe she was the kind that was looking for an ol' redneck horndog she could lead around on a leash. Emily regrouped and went back to her seductress mode. She traced around his ribbon rack with an elegant finger as she asked, "Then, could we pose for a few pictures?"

"That would rightly be my pleasure," he said in that panty-warming drawl, and Emily led him back to the trees where he and Veronica posed before. As they lined up, Josh was shocked to find that the photographer was Brandon Mitchell, the husband/father of these two. The moment he raised his DSLR camera and said, "Smile!" Josh felt a pair of hands squeeze his ass.

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Josh called this little party an afterglow. "It's what we call the parties in our hospitality rooms at the conventions," said Josh. "It's where we go to glow after the show." Those hospitality rooms were some of the most fun she had with Josh's quartet and their wives. They went to a preliminary contest in Elmira, and there was a hotel full of hospitality rooms. There were barbershop quartets singing everywhere, and laughter ruled the event, then someone would say, "let's do some tags!" and they were singing tags, the big harmonious end to a song. For some reason, they always started with the last chord of the song Lilly Marlane.

Josh, Veronica, Katarina and Danny and their parents could get out of the noise of the main party but still enjoy a party along with Mitch and Frank and anyone else who wanted to unwind yet still enjoy their beverages. Marjorie got the office interns to act as waitstaff, mixing drinks and getting snacks from the main party up to her "daughter's" engagement party on the 28th floor.

As Veronica toed off her shoes, Paul offered her some advice. "Honey," said Paul, placing a hand on Veronica's shoulder. "I've known Josh for a couple of years, we both spent some lonely, miserable days fishing together, looking back I don't know how either of us survived. It was awful, we both bought our land to fight the loneliness, something constructive to do in the day while we waited out the lonely nights. Believe it or not, it was like we both knew that Andi and Ronnie were out there waiting for us, but the wait was a nightmare. Andi and I are so happy for both of you, that storm came in the nick of time for Josh, we were getting so worried about him." His words reminded Ronnie that he and Andi had been brought together by a snowstorm, too.

"What... why were you worried about him?"

"I'm right here people, you could at least pretend you know I'm listening," said Josh as he looked through the pictures on his phone. He had asked several people to take photos of his dance with Veronica and send him a copy.

Andi was breastfeeding little Danny. She had a modesty cover made from the same material as her dress, as did Macy. She looked up and said, "watching you dance together that first day in our library we knew... I've never seen Josh so happy." They were sitting in a suite that Josh had rented as a present for Ronnie. He was pretty sure that she would want to unwind after the emotions of tonight, and he was right. After all the eating and dancing and pictures and emotions, she was spent.

So many well-wishers! She wasn't upset with Josh for proposing in front of everyone. In fact, it was the right thing to do. This immediately crushed any rumors that might circulate. And if he had proposed to her someplace else, word still would have gotten out at work and traveled around the company like wildfire. She'd have nothing but a string of well-wishers at her office door, and she wouldn't get anything done for days. Right now, there are many well-wishers, but work isn't being interrupted, and now they have to take the elevator to the 28th floor where their luxury suite was located. By Monday, things would have settled down, and only the dedicated few who really wanted to see her would knock on her office door.

Josh was sitting on a big comfy easy chair, and after that bit of encouragement from Paul, Veronica ended up sitting on his lap. She had his Air Force blouse (suit coat) on her lap and was trying to get him to decode the mystery of the ribbons. "Ok, what's this one? The one with the three little footprints."

"Those are oak leaves," Josh explained. "You get an oak leaf every time you get another one of those ribbons. That one is the Air Force Good Conduct Medal."

"So, you were good three times?" Veronica asked. She was getting very confused.

"That's more than I woulda guessed," said Terri. She was sitting near them in a folding chair, closely watching the decoding of the ribbons.

"Actually, I have four, the ribbon counts as one, then each leaf counts as an additional ribbon."

"So, you were good four times?" grinned Paul, stoking the fire. Officers don't get the good conduct medal, and some junior lieutenants feel some jealousy over that. The Good Conduct Medal is an actual medal that can be worn on the USAF Mess Dress. Many ribbons do not have medals associated with them. "You have to have a spotless record of conduct for four years to earn each award," explained Paul.

"I thought you said you retired early," said Terri, who was still amazed that someone she knew had a spotless record of conduct for sixteen years.

"I was planning to stay in longer, but Uncle Sam had used me up and sent me home." He had re-enlisted and was planning a few more years in uniform, but the Air Force doctor said no more and sent him home on full disability with cancer. His commander was able to keep him in for a full sixteen years.

"Ok, you have a leaf on the purple one, what's that for?" asked Veronica. Her mind spun; she was engaged to a hero! She wanted to know everything - what he did, where he went, how he felt.

For his part, Josh was overwhelmed. His ex-wife just didn't care. As long as she had a roof over her head and cash in the checking account, he could dig ditches in hell for all she cared. Every ribbon, every award was done at first to impress her, but as she grew colder, he began taking every dangerous mission he could, demanding more and more out of his crews. Did he do that to impress her, or was he suicidal? Now he has a lover who actually cares for him. How far could he have gone in his career with her waiting for him to return home? How much more pride would he have taken in his work knowing she was behind him under the umbrella of his protection? How much safer would he have acted knowing that she was there waiting anxiously for his return?

"That purple one is the Purple Heart." He wondered if he should go on after hearing an audible gasp from Veronica, but he continued. "It was for the injuries I suffered when my plane was shot up and had that rough landing and I got bounced around," he said, praying she wouldn't argue when he refused to answer the next question.

"What about the leaf?"

"That is a classified incident, I can't discuss it." His heart sank. He didn't want to keep secrets from his fiancée, but he was required to. The oak leaf was actually for the last mission; there was an earlier mission that went almost as bad. "If anyone asks just tell them that I cut my thumb opening a beer can."

Veronica turned to Paul, her face a mask of confusion and concern, but he just nodded his head. Now Andi joined in too. It didn't happen often, but occasionally she would ask a patient at the VA where such and such a scar or condition came from, and the patient would say the exact same thing that Josh just said. "He's not allowed to talk about it honey," said Andi.

Paul patted her shoulder and said, "When a flier on a gunship says 'it's classified' quite often it's a pretty awful story, politically or militarily they're stories that you end up wanting to unhear. He's probably got a pocket full of ribbons and medals he's not allowed to wear because of the classified nature of the mission." Josh nodded in agreement.

"That and I ran outta room on the ribbon rack..."

"I know it's tough," said a very concerned-looking Andi. "Just be glad he came home."

"What's with the letters?" interrupted Terri. This wasn't the first time she had interrupted a conversation that was heading in a direction that caused Josh some pain. He wished it was because Terri had his back and was concerned for him, but most likely it's because she's pretty oblivious to what was going on around her. She was pointing at ribbons that had an R and a C device.

"The R is for Reading; the C is my grade on my promotion exam..."

"Stop!" cried Veronica, nudging Josh. "What are they for?"

"What did you do?" Terri was bug-eyed in anticipation of a war story.

"The C stands for combat. My team and I put a few fancy new weapons into a mud hut containing the command staff of a bunch of bad guys turning them into something that resembled chunky style raspberry jelly. The fighting in that entire province of Buttfuckistan ended immediately."

"Brutal!" Terri grinned. "What's with the R?"

"I told you, that one stands for Reading. I finished the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and turned in a book report to my commander."

"No really, what's it for?" Terri would not be ignored.

"It means operating from a Remote location," said Josh, but he didn't offer any more information than that.

"Come on, where?" demanded Terri.

"If he didn't answer it by now," said Andi, "I think that means he can't talk about it... or he just forgot."

"I think we heard enough," declared Veronica. Everyone was drooping, the wine and cider were gone, Terri had polished off all the snacks, and Veronica was expecting a nice warm shower with Josh. Besides, she wanted to tease him in private about the Mitchell girls.

<><><><><>

"Where is my blue blazer?" asked Josh as he relaxed in bed. After their showers, he searched the suite while Veronica made herself up. He was sure that he had brought the blazer upstairs with them.

"Are you sure Emily and Audrey didn't take it home with them?" came the taunt from the bathroom.

"That's not going to end any time soon, is it?" he asked.

"I sent your blazer home with Paul and Andi," called Veronica. "And no, it's not going to end for a long, long time." Josh frowned, not just because of an expected year or two of teasing, but because he'll have to wear his uniform home. He hoped that tonight would be the last time he would ever wear it. Still, he was proud to have worn it. Not at all because of the medals and badges, and because he's been out of the service for years and it still fits, (that's saying something about him or maybe about the virtues of lite beer) but because Veronica enjoyed seeing him in it. Paul was right when he convinced Josh to wear it.

"What do you think," said Veronica as she emerged from the bathroom wearing only a towel. She can make a towel look spectacular. There was merriment in her eyes as she continued her thought, "...if we... sell the house and move into the cabin?" She handed him a magazine full of ideas for log homes.

"You know, there's a reason why I had an apartment in Orchard Park," he said as he flipped through the magazine. The log homes in the magazine exceeded ten thousand square feet of living space. His cabin is a fraction of that size.

"Yeah, you were stuck in a long-term lease." She dropped her towel and slid into bed with him. Like all hotels, the mattress was over-firm and under-comfortable.

"What if we have kids? We'd have to expand the cabin to accommodate them, we only have five hundred feet to work with."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it" she said as she snuggled up and gave him their subtle little signal that she wanted sex. She grabbed his cock.

He grinned as she kneaded his cock and put his arm around her and held her close and said, "one more surprise for you Nica." He pulled his phone out from under the pillow, scrolled through a few pages then started a video and handed the phone to Veronica who was clearly not happy that he brought the phone to bed.

On the phone, she saw a video of an old man, beaten down by long years and plain old hard work, but he was still proud and strong at heart. "Daddy!" she sighed. Her father looked at the camera and gave Veronica a smile, the likes of which she hadn't seen in years. He looked so happy! It was a video of their recent trip to Erie, PA, to visit. It's only 75 miles to Erie, so she goes as often as possible.

"That's quite a man you found there Ronnie. The reason why he sent you out to get lunch was because he wanted to talk to me. While you were gone, he..." Her dad's voice tightened up. He was having problems finding the words. He pulled it together, however. "he asked me for your hand in marriage..."

Veronica teared up and groaned, "Oh daddy..."

On the video, he sniffed and daubed his eye with a tissue, took a deep breath and continued. "I know it hasn't been easy for you all these years and I haven't been able to be there for you when you needed me most, but I'll sleep easy tonight knowing you found a man you can depend on for the rest of your life. Go with my blessing, enjoy your life and don't be afraid to share what's in your heart with that man, he's got broad shoulders, he can take it." He smiled and spoke to Josh, who was off camera. "You're really going to propose to her in front of the entire company?"

"Yes I am," said Josh off-screen. "Our pastor John is going to video it for us, and his brother Paul is going to take stills. I'll make sure you get a copy of everything."

"What if she says no?"

"Then I suppose I'll get a room down here; we can play shuffleboard on league night."

Her dad turned back to the camera. "Please darling, say yes, he can't play shuffleboard to save his ass..."

As the video ended, Veronica groaned, "Oh you..." and buried her face in Josh's chest, weeping tears of joy. Josh reached over to turn the light off, but she stopped him. "Leave the light on," she whispered. "I like to see you," she said, and she began kissing his chest. "Thank you for doing that, it was so sweet." She was near tears again.

"What did the restaurant down in Erie say about our lunch order?" Josh asked.

"Huh?" That confused Veronica. Why would he ask that? "Oh, they said that they got the order wrong and had to remake it all." She looked up at him, confused. "Why...?"

"Your dad and I had such a great talk; I called the restaurant and told them what I was doing and asked them to delay you."

"You did not!"

"I sure did," he grinned.

"Just to talk to daddy? That was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me." She collapsed against his chest, weeping with joy. Her daddy was number one in her life and to sit down one on one with her daddy and explain to him what he was going to do... wait a minute... "So, my daddy knew you were going to propose in front of everybody tonight?"

"Yeah, he got a kick out of it."

"So, my boss knew, my daddy knew, my neighbors knew, the band knew... did you tell the restaurant in Erie Pennsylvania also?"

"Not all the details but..."

She sat up, straddled his lap, and glared at him. "e'Frame Yashua Gravely!" she cried as loud as she could and smacked him on the upper arm as hard as she could. "I can't believe you did that! The whole world found out before I did! What do you have to say for yourself?"

"You're not just my right now - you're my always, my forever, and every beautiful moment in between."

"That's a good start," said Veronica. "What's next?" As she leaned over to kiss her man, he merely answered with a chuckle. He has plans...