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about it yet.”
    “You’re wrong, Caleb. I didn’t have the right to ask. Because if you asked me about my family, or how I survived the Outbreak, or what the Legion did to me, I’d tell you it’s none of your damn business. It was selfish of me to pry. Hypocritical. How can I expect you to talk about your past if I’m not willing open up about mine?”
    “Give me your hand, M.”
    She did.
    “Maybe someday we’ll be healed enough to talk about our past. Maybe it’ll help, maybe it won’t. I don’t know. What I do know is we’re both here now, we’re alive, and that’s all that matters. Everything else is just picking up the pieces.”
    Miranda looked up with a sad half-smile, and Hicks felt a vise clamp around his heart. “You’re right,” she said. “Let’s both say we’re sorry and leave it at that.”
    “Agreed.”
    They finished their drinks in silence.

FOUR
     
     
    They made love that night.
    It was not as it usually was, with laughing, and caresses, and kissing, and long, languid movement of body against body. They went to bed in their nightclothes. Hicks lay on his back with his hands behind his head, a cool spring breeze blowing through the open window. Miranda lay beside him with her back turned, curled in upon herself, silent.
    Then, without preamble, she rolled over and leaned over Hicks’ face and kissed him urgently, one hand disappearing beneath his waistband. Hicks breathed in sharply against Miranda’s mouth and felt his body respond. Hot tears dripped against his cheek, prompting him to gently grip her slender arms and push her away.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Shut up,” she said, and twisted loose from his hands. Her shirt came off, tossed carelessly into a corner, and she began tugging at Hicks’ shorts. He raised his hips so she could pull them off, then had to bite down on a moan as he felt the warmth of her mouth around him. He said no more until she climbed on top, and then it was all grunts and hard breathing and Miranda’s insistent hunnh, hunnh, hunnh, hunnh .
    And then it was over.
    She stayed on top of him for a while, face buried in the hollow of his shoulder, saying nothing. With one hand, Hicks stroked her back with his fingertips, tracing the hollow between muscles and spine. With his other hand, he ran his fingers through her long hair, sweeping it back from her face. Finally, she sat up, kissed him briefly, and went to the bathroom. There was the sound of water running.
    Hicks thought about the tower on the other side of town, and how nice it was to have running water. A moment later, Miranda emerged and crossed the room naked in the moonlight. She knelt next to Hicks with a damp cloth and began cleaning him up. He lay still, staring at her silhouette against the window.
    “It’s never like you see it in the movies,” she said. “It’s messy.”
    “In more ways than one.”
    Miranda made a low sound that might have been a laugh. “Very true.”
    Finished, she tossed the soiled cloth into the laundry bin and retrieved her shirt, then lay down beside Hicks. He offered to lift the covers for her, but she said it was too warm. Her arms went around his chest and they lay quietly together in the slowly cooling night.
    “What was all that about?” he asked.
    “I’m not sure if I even know.”
    “If you figure it out…”
    “If I figure it out.”
    “Goodnight, M.”
    “Goodnight, Caleb.”
     
    *****
     
    Hicks reported for duty the next day, which was a Saturday, well before sunrise.
    First thing in the morning was PT, led by Staff Sergeant Kelly. Normally it would have been led by Sgt. Ashman, but he and Lt. Jonas had been called to company HQ at Fort McCray. There was much speculation as to why, with opinions ranging from suspicion of wrongdoing to rumors of a forthcoming offensive against the Midwest Alliance.
    Hicks suspected the reason was far more innocuous.
    Ashman was a damned good sergeant, easily the best in Echo Company. He had served in the