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out and filling with cotton. She found a thing of toilet paper from an MRE in her pocket so she unfolded it and used that to stop her bleeding.
    Rodriguez sat there taking long pulls of lukewarm water from her Camelbak and wishing it was filled with beer or maybe a strong mixture of Jack and Coke….a fifth of bourbon or so to two liters of Coke would do the trick about now.
    Lacey felt his eyes getting watery as he watched Rodriguez sitting there. She had lost Eamon, her boyfriend or whatever, like a couple of months ago and oh God Laura… Rodriguez was taking this pretty hard but Carl was going to be okay. He just got hurt or whatever… He jumped a little bit when the woman mumbled something under her breath. “I’m sorry, what?”
    Rodriguez sighed and made a strange face. “I said I need a goddamn drink.” the woman sighed again and shrugged. She scratched an itch on the side of her nose and let a breath out slowly through her nose. Now’s as good a time as any, I guess… Rodriguez looked the man in the eye. “I’ve been sober for seven months or so. Used to have a little problem with the bottle and pills. Gave me all the morphine I wanted in the hospital. Bastards threw me out on my ass as soon as I could walk again.”
    It took him a second but all of a sudden he realized at least part of the reason why Rodriguez had been so moody and depressed while he and Frays were helping her recover from her gunshot wound… They had kept her pretty well doped up on whatever they could dig out of Eamon’s bag of tricks. “Oh, Christ…” Lacey muttered and wiped his mouth with the palm of his hand “Shit…I’m so sorry, Frannie.”
    The woman shrugged. “It’s okay. You guys didn’t know.” Rodriguez turned back towards the radio and leafed through the manual on the table. “It isn’t like I told you. And well, the drive to the cabin wouldn’t have been fun… And I don’t really like to advertise it.”
    Lacey loosed a small nervous laugh. “Yeah, I guess so…” he muttered and absently scratched at the back of his neck for a moment. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anybody if you don’t want me to. Your secret’s safe with me.”
    Rodriguez smiled a little bit and put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks.” She squeezed his upper arm and took her hand back. Just then Frays burst into the room. The three of them looked at each other for a moment, the woman’s eyes shifting from Lacey to Rodriguez and back again. Frays looked as if she was not sure if she was interrupting something or not.
    “Um…Frannie…” Frays said awkwardly as she took a couple steps farther into the room. “Carl’s gonna be okay. Somebody kicked the crap outta him pretty good but he’s gonna be okay.” She smiled at the relieved look on Rodriguez’s face and she walked over, put a hand on her shoulder. “He wants to see you.”
    Frays sank into the empty chair after Rodriguez had left. She glanced at the radio then picked up the binder on the desk and started reading. Lacey opened his mouth to say something a couple times but could not think of anything to say. He could tell from the way the woman was sitting and the way she kept running a hand over her son she was obviously upset. He longed to be able to say or do something that would make her feel better.
    The door opened and Lacey leapt to his feet. “Officer on deck!” he shouted and snapped to attention. He bit down hard on laughter when Frays followed suit spilling the binder onto the ground with a loud slap.
    Major Tennyson stood in the doorway, the middle aged man wearing an amused expression on his usually stony face. “At ease, son.” he said as he took a step inside the room and closed the door behind him. “Airman Frays, I want to speak to you for a minute.”
    Frays glanced at Lacey as she put the binder back. The man felt a strange sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach at the slightly worried look in the woman’s eyes. “Yes, sir.” she said as