"Let's Hope They Take Bribes"

Michael POV:

I had gone home in a black mood. Mee and Yow curled up beside me in bed that night and purred while I brooded. I couldn’t get that last vision of Lucy out of my mind, lying so still and beautiful in her white coffin. All the long years, he’d wondered if i could have saved her if i'd managed to convince her not to go to the party instead of agreeing to go. I agreed to go to the party with her. She’d asked him to, and he’d wanted to go. Then I'd watch her die.

I'd gone around in a daze for weeks afterward. He hadn’t been able to think, much less work. I wanted to punish myself for it and i did punish myself for it.

My reserve unit, like Cag Hart’s, had been called up in 1991 when Operation Desert Storm sent soldiers to Kuwait to liberate it from invasion. He’d volunteered without a second thought, not at all concerned that he might die.He’d waded right in with his company, in the thick of the fighting, a captain in a forward unit. During a memorable firefight, i’d propell