True Valor by Dee Henderson

the most interesting reaction. It would show the defection had stung.
    Bruce watched the men at the table, finding comfort in their humor. It had been a dangerous mission and rescue, but they were taking it in stride. Bruce caught the eye of Bear across the table and quietly raised his soda. Bear raised his. Before long this group would split up and the two units would go their own ways again. But what had happened would get passed on by word of mouth, and an institution memory among the units would add this one to their shared history.
    Bruce got kicked under the table. He looked over at Cougar, surprised, and got an imperceptible nod toward the door. Bruce looked over and felt shock course down to his toes like a hot twinge. “Wolf.” His quiet, forceful word got the man’s attention. “Gracie’s here.”
    Wolf spun around, the chair legs scraping on the floor.
    Grace was crossing the room to the self-serve coolers where the water was kept and hadn’t noticed them at the back table. She glanced over at the noise and stopped. Bruce felt like he was going to drown in those blue eyes as her gaze locked with his. Chagrin was an expression he hadn’t seen before and he smiled at her. She broke eye contact to glance over the group. The change to her expression when she saw Wolf . . . Bruce was going to remember that look of joy for a long time.
    “Wolf!”
    Bruce rose to his feet as did Wolf as she changed course to join them. Her hair was wet, like she’d dunked her head and toweled it dry. The flight suit was rumpled. Wolf lifted her clean off the floor. She gave him a hard hug back. He took his time lowering her back on her feet. “Grace, you are supposed to be on the GW. What are you doing at Incirlik?”
    She scanned the group and the table. “I’m hungry?”
    “Gracie.”
    “My Hornet ate a hairball of AAA. Interesting flying. Is that sausage pizza?”
    Pup pulled over a chair. “Bless you,” Grace said. The young SEAL blushed.
    “That was you overhead,” Wolf said slowly.
    “Hi, Dasher, Cougar.” She looked pointedly at her cousin as he took a seat beside her. “What do you think you were doing belly flopping in a minefield? Life was boring?”
    Wolf looked her over from head to foot to assure himself she was in one piece. “Had I known you were watching, I would have crashed with a little more elegance.”
    “I was tucked under Thunder’s wing having a nice, quiet, routine flight when suddenly I’ve got SAMs and MiGs messing up my plans.”
    Wolf laughed. “Nice flying.”
    “At least I was smart enough to stay out of the sand.” Grace glanced around the table again, her gaze stopping on Bruce’s hands, and he felt an urge to tuck them in his pockets when her smile flickered. The ropes had burned through his gloves and left raw skin and blisters. She glanced up at him. “I owe you a drink.”
    There were a lot of ways to answer that—yes, he’d been the one going down the rope, to no, it was not that big a deal. Instead he just smiled. “Yes, you do.” She’d acquired a tan since he last saw her, and it looked good on her. Freckles had appeared. Her self-assured confidence hadn’t suffered for the tough flight.
    “I’ll get them, Grace.” Wolf pushed back his chair again. “What do you want?”
    “Pilot’s special. Get Bruce one too.”
    Wolf groaned. Bruce raised an eyebrow when Wolf headed toward the kitchen. This could be interesting.
    She leaned forward to see around Cougar. “Hello, Bear.”
    “Gracie.”
    “How’s Kelly?”
    Bear smiled at the mention of his wife; he’d been married two years. “Loving Virginia life. Not sure what to think of snow. Playing tourist. You’ve got a headache.”
    She blinked as she thought of how to answer that. It was the first time Bruce had ever seen her search for words, and he narrowed his eyes as he realized what it was Bear had observed. She was smiling, but it wasn’t reaching her eyes. They were dark with pain. Start of a