Five and a half weeks later
Saturday night
December 31 — 11:17 p.m.
San Juan, Puerto Rico
“What’s this one from?” John pointed to a hand-shaped bruise on Alex’s right shoulder. “Looks older.”
They were in Puerto Rico to help celebrate Quince’s marriage to Brian tomorrow at noon. She lay naked, face down on their bed in front of the blazing fire. Their twins were asleep in the room next door. John and Alex were going through the bruises she’d received in almost a month of retesting for her Green Beret.
“Which one?” Alex asked as she tried to look over her shoulder. “Oh, that one is from the best fighter on JS’s team. He grabbed my shoulder with the intention of throwing me.”
John matched the bruise with his larger hand and nodded.
“I assume you . . .” John said.
“Of course,” Alex said. “I told you the fighters weren’t that good. I don’t know if it’s having Mattie and Colin to work out with every day . . .”
“Steve,” John said.
“Well, sure, Sensei Steve is a true master, and I get to train with him at least once a month. Ji, too. I guess . . .” Alex laughed. “It’s just that, when I was their age, I thought I could really fight. But . . .”
Alex shrugged.
“Probably best not to boast,” Alex said with a cocky grin.
Laughing, John delicately pressed his lips to her. She winced. Her lips were cracked and torn from spending weeks out in the elements. He kissed her nose instead.
“You’re pretty thin,” John said.
“I know — isn’t it crazy?” Alex said. “I lost almost thirty pounds.”
“It reminded me of when we met,” John said.
Alex giggled at the look he gave her. He cleared his throat. He knew if he didn’t ask her about it now, she might not ever tell him. He pressed on.
“Didn’t you beat the snot out of everyone in your class?” John asked.
“Last week, or when I went through training?” Alex asked.
“Training,” John said.
“I did,” Alex said. Grinning, she added, “I beat the snot out of them last week, too!”
“Last week?” John laughed. “What?”
“Everyone from my class managed to drop in to my retesting,” Alex said. “Except Hank, of course.”
Alex gave a soft smile.
“We did a ceremony for Hank,” Alex said. “Then I carried some of his ashes and left them in the Uwharrie. That’s when we did the ice crossing.”
“Ice crossing?” John asked.
“I probably didn’t tell you about it before,” Alex said. “It’s hard. They let my old classmates act as my team.”
“What is an ice crossing?”
“We have to get an injured soldier across an icy pond without getting him wet or injuring him further.” Alex rolled her eyes. “Garcia was the injured soldier, of course.”
“Why am I not surprised?” John scowled at her primadonna bully classmate.
“It sucked as much as the last time,” Alex said. “But we got through it. The guy who was our Captain was the Captain of my training team. It was interesting to see him again.”
“Why?” John asked.
“He still sucks as a leader,” Alex said. “I told them that they should give him a chance.”
Alex shrugged.
“What’s this one from?” John asked. He touched a round hole worn into Alex’s Achilles Tendon.
“Boots,” Alex said. “I went out into the Uwharrie for my five-day navigational test.”
“I can’t believe they made you do that,” John laughed.
“Camp in the snow?” Alex asked. She grinned at him. “This time I knew that they’d rigged the GPS, so when it was wonky, I just used the stars and the sun.”
“Glad you made it out of there,” John said. He kissed the hollow of her lower back and kept moving. “What’s this one?”
She jerked when he touched the road rash on her hip.
“I fell,” Alex said.
“Looks like more than a fall,” John said. “Did you have to go back through SERE?”
Alex chuckled.
“Uh, oh,” John said. He rested his chin on her rear. “There’s a story there.”
“We went over my history,” Alex said. “They had the results from the last time I was there and my report from being in the room.”
She shrugged.
“No, you don’t,” John said. “How did you . . .?”
“I beat them with a straight flush,” Alex said. “Texas Hold ’Em.”
John laughed.
“I had to play a couple rounds of chess,” Alex said. “Two out of three. But they figured that was enough. Especially since I’d already surpassed Level C training in the field.”
He kissed her again and rolled onto his side next to her.
“It might surprise you, but not everyone was on board with testing me again,” Alex said.
“No surprise there,” John said.
He touched her wrists where scars from her first time through SERE remained. Alex nodded as if she’d heard him. He touched the long, deep purple bruise on her arm.
“Obstacle course,” Alex said. “It was dumping rain and snow. Sleet. I did get to rescue someone.”
Shaking his head, John grinned at her.
“Ok, it wasn’t an actual person,” Alex said. “But that mannequin was heavy! I had to carry it by myself.”
“Did you do any intelligence testing?” John asked.
He rolled over to get his glass of expensive champagne. He poured her a glass. She gave it a tentative sip before nodding.
“What was that?” John asked.
“I was traumatized by disgusting champagne,” Alex said.
John laughed.
“You probably don’t remember, but I’ve written all but one question on the last seven tests,” Alex said.
John spit out his champagne in a laugh. Shaking his head and coughing, he encouraged her to explain.
“Ingram wanted me to be tested by current standards,” Alex said. Grinning, she said, “He thought that would make it harder for me. He had no idea that I’d written so much of the curriculum and tests. General Fonti laughed his ass off when the deal was signed.”
Alex shrugged.
“Ingram wanted me tested by current standards and done by the end of the year,” Alex said. “What are you going to do? And you know what?”
John gave a quick shake of his head.
“When I went through the last time, I went under the name ‘Alexander,’” Alex said. “Much of the time I was with Charlie and the guys, we pretended I was Alexander.”
“What happened this time?” John asked.
“This time, a woman passed SF training,” Alex said with a grin. “It’s another thing General Fonti thought was funny. Because now they have to work out how to train and graduate women from SF training.”
She laughed, and they kissed. She reached across to the bedside table and plopped the dark green beret on her head.
“That, Sergeant, is quite a look,” John said with a lecherous smile.
“I knew it would turn you on,” Alex said.
Laughing, John obliged her every wish.
F