Mac turned with a small smile. “Just making coffee. Relax.”
Melvin stretched, yawned. “I forgot what a real bed feels like.”
“You forgot what a full night’s sleep feels like,” Mac said, passing him a mug.
Melvin took it. Sipped. “Still tastes like crap.”
“Some things never change.”
They sat for a while, side by side on the edge of the bed, not saying much. The quiet wasn’t awkward. Just wide open.
Then Melvin said, “You remember how we used to sit ten feet apart in the DFAC?”
Mac huffed. “Ten feet, and still felt like too much.”
Melvin nudged his shoulder. “Now no one’s watching. Except maybe room service.”
Mac smiled. “Let ’em.”
Melvin stood, scratched the back of his neck. “I’m gonna get some air.”
Mac nodded. “I’ll be out in a second.”
Mac stepped out into the morning light, sun warm on his face, coffee in hand. He headed towards Melvin as he stood in the courtyard. He was leaning against the railing, squinting up at the sky like he was learning how to stand still again.
Mac joined him. The silence was different here. No radios. No rotor blades. Just the buzz of the hotel ice machine and the hum of cars from the interstate.
Instead, it felt… available.
His chest ached the way it sometimes had before missions.
But now it wasn’t fear. It was space.
For the first time in a long time, he wasn’t preparing for another mission.
Not post-war. Not recovery.
Just life.
Melvin looked over and gave a tired but real smile.
Mac’s shoulders loosened.
And he knew.
They had brought each other home.
Epilogue
One Year Later
The mountains rose blue and quiet beyond the meadow, the late summer light sliding down their slopes like something patient and old.
Mac stood at the edge of the clearing with Marcus beside him, both looking out over the rows of chairs set beneath a wide canopy of cottonwoods.
It had taken a year to get here. Paperwork, quiet negotiations between worlds most people never knew existed, and the slow work of building something that belonged to both of them.
Marcus adjusted the cuffs on his jacket and glanced sideways. “You nervous?”
