Chapter 19 - The Life After The FightA year after the mess hall incident, Lena received new orders.
She stood outside Fort Halbrook with one duffel bag beside her.
Hale arrived in civilian clothes.
He was working with a military ethics organization now.
Ruiz had begun studying physical therapy.
Pierce remained in uniform.
Life had moved forward.
Not perfectly.
But forward.
Hale asked Lena whether she would ever return.
“Maybe.”
“To Fort Halbrook?”
She smiled.
“To the table.”
Before leaving, Lena entered the mess hall one final time.
Someone was sitting at Vaughn’s old table.
Then another soldier joined.
Then another.
Nobody seemed aware that the table had once symbolized anything.
Lena loved that.
Real change sometimes looked like people forgetting why they had once been afraid.
She walked outside.
Pierce waited beside her car.
“You know what bothers me?”
“What?”
“We still don't know who sent you those messages.”
Lena stopped smiling.
The investigation had attributed most threats to people associated with Rourke and Pike.
Most.
Not all.
The burner phone had never been found.
The apartment intrusion had never been conclusively solved.
Lena looked toward the installation.
“Maybe we never will.”
May you like
Pierce nodded.
Neither of them believed that.
