We stayed in that motel for almost two months until our car finally came into Southampton. I caught a train to there with several other guys, and we p...cked up our cars and drove back to RAF Alconbury. We convoyed up there with about ten cars. One guy couldn't drive back as his car broke loose from the chains in the container, and it was smashed up along with the other car in the container. He rode with someone else. He had to wait for all the paperwork and insurance companies to work out what. He used the small mirror in her room to adjust his hat before turning to smile at her. She was a vision, laying naked on the sheets, her brown hair spread on the pillow behind her. Her pale skin glowed. Her breasts and lips were red from their night together. He thought again of being on the boat yesterday morning, ready to sail to France and begin the ending of this war. Had the weather not canceled the launch, he would have not had an opportunity to see her one last time, and chance to tell. I felt like I could run a marathon! Trying to sit up in bed quickly disabused me of that notion. My spirit was willing but my body apparently wasn't awake yet, I got halfway to sitting up before falling back prone. Everything felt odd, my body didn't seem to want to obey me. I didn't have more than a second to think about it before two faces came into view, the AD and the Doctor standing to one side of the bed I was laying in. "Good morning," the AD said. "Morning," I replied and then giggled.. "We've been looking forward to your arrival." Rick had first met her two years ago while barnstorming the branch offices, and briefly but intimately at last year's stressful company conference. Her eyes were brighter than he remembered, and her smile broader and more relaxed."Rick, please, Helen," he said, taking her offered hand and shaking it warmly, with a little squeeze. "I'm happy to see you again. Glad to make it alive through all that mess." Faint but constant traffic noise filtered in.