Requiem by Jamie McGuire

It didn’t matter that Tommy was dead ten meters from
the explosions…Ryan was going to carry him home.”
    Tears welled up in my eyes and overflowed.
“Can we see him?”
    Jared hugged me to his side. “He can’t know
you were ever here. We can’t take that chance.”
    Jared's reasoning made sense. Explaining
Ryan’s memories of me at his bedside in Landstuhl would be too
difficult to explain away to our friends at Brown.
    Claire looked at her dirty hands. “I hauled
him to an empty shack off the path, stayed the night until Morning
Prayer, and then back-tracked East to my Jeep.”
    Colonel Brand knocked on the door jamb.
Jared and Claire immediately stood, and Jared pulled me with
him.
    “ Colonel,” Jared and Claire
said in unison, both nodding.
    “ He’s out of the woods for
now. Doctor Vanhooser is closing, and he’ll be in to speak with you
shortly. He has been informed that Sergeant Scott is to be kept
unaware of your presence.”
    “ Thanks, Jason,” Claire
said, letting out a big sigh of relief.
    “ There is something you
should know,” Colonel Brand said. “Ryan is going to need
substantial physical therapy, and after losing his entire unit, his
debriefing will be substantial.”
    “ What does that mean for
Ryan?” I asked.
    “ Sergeant Scott’s chances
to return to active duty are slim,” Colonel Brand said,
matter-of-factly.
    I was ashamed of the relief the Colonel’s
words brought me. Ryan would be devastated, and I could only think
of myself. Thoughts of Ryan returning to Brown on the military’s
dime, and his empty seat at the Ratty being filled peppered my
mind, and I had to cover my smile with my hand.
    Jared glanced at me. He knew how Colonel
Brand’s prediction had made me feel, and his eyes tightened. I sunk
back into my seat, crimson splashing across my cheeks.
    Claire took a walk down the colorless
hallway, giving Jared the perfect chance to scold me. Before he
could get the chance, my cell phone buzzed in my jacket pocket.
    “ Hello?”
    “ Grant is out sick, you’re
gone, and the Japan firm is on line two asking questions I don’t
know the answers to,” Beth barked in her southern accent. “I don’t
understand half of what he says, Nina. Is there some way to patch
you through?”
    I smiled. “Just tell him I’m out of town,
and I will call him tomorrow.”
    “ He said he’s been waiting
on a return phone call from Grant for a week.”
    “ Then he can wait one more
day,” I said.
    “ Where are you? I only have
a billion documents for you to sign, and the billing on the
Peterman account is messed up.”
    “ Ask an intern. They know
the software better than the accountants.”
    “ Nigh,” she sighed.“Where
are you?”
    “ Checking on an old
friend,” I said. “I have to go, Beth. Oh, and…don’t ask Sasha for
help. It will give her the mistaken impression that she’s
needed.”
    “ The friend wouldn’t be
Kim, would it?”
    “ No. Why?”
    “ She’s MIA, too. Again,”
Beth grumbled.
    “ You can wing it until I
get back. I have faith in you,” I said, hanging up the
phone.
    “ What?” Jared
asked.
    “ Beth said Kim hasn’t been
around. She doesn’t know where she is. Kim’s been doing that a lot
lately,” I said with a frown.
    Jared squirmed in his seat, and then looked
away.
    “ Jared?” I asked in an
accusatory tone. He didn’t look at me. “Do you know anything about
that?”
    Jared didn’t meet my eyes for several
moments, and then finally turned to face me. After a long puff of
air, he took a deep breath, and then intertwined his fingers. His
expression was exactly as it as the night he told me the truth.
    I looked at him from under my brows. “Is it
bad?”
    Jared shook his head. “It’s dangerous. I
won’t lie to you, so please let it go.”
    “ We’re talking about Kim,
right? Lanky, goofy Kim?”
    “ Let it go,
Nina.”
    My knee bounced up and down as I made the
decision, but it had already been made. I was only stalling.