Page 38 of Forged By Sacrifice

“Why the long face?”

“It’s harder than I thought it would be. Leaving,” I told him truthfully. “But I’m doing it for important reasons.”

“For the Baby Wyatts and Baby Darrens of the world,” Truck said softly.

I nodded. “Yep. They deserve a better country than the one we’ve deteriorated into. I want our nation to be worthy of them.”

“If anyone can do it, it’s you, Mac.” That choked me up, and Truck saw it. He laughed and said, “Don’t go all Home Alone and cry on me now, Macauley.”

“You wish,” I said.

“I wish that you’d cry? Only so I could rub it in when I see your sisters. That way, they would never let you live it down.”

“They already have enough over my head.”

“Siblings always do.”

I sat, looking out at the ocean, the breeze in the sails sending me careening toward my new chapter. And for some reason, it made me think of Georgie and her own new chapter that she was starting. As if we had gotten to this juncture in both our lives, not by accident, but by fate. Yet, I’d left her behind, sailed away from her on purpose. Because it was obvious that politics and Russians didn’t mix. That thought hurt almost as badly as leaving the Navy and my S.E.A.L. buddies. The thought that I couldn’t have her and the life I wanted all at the same time.

Georgie

WHAT IF I NEVER GET OVER YOU

“I'm right back, lost in that last goodbye?

And what if time doesn't do what it's supposed to do?

What if I never get over you?”

Performed by Lady Antebellum

Written by Green / Veltz / Hurd / Ellis

A couple weeks went by with July slipping into the heat and humidity of early August. The air in D.C. was as humid as the air in New York had always been. I realized, as I settled into my new apartment, that D.C. had as much energy as the city I’d left behind, but it was an energy that held a different vibe. New York was contained chaos. D.C. was forceful control.

The planner in me required me to learn my new city—the facts, the directions, the streets. I needed to know it all. The places you didn’t want to journey to on your own, as well as the places that were too rich for your blood. I’d chosen Georgetown after a significant amount of research, including the pros and cons of living in D.C., but now that I was here, I needed to experience it for real. To prove what I’d read.

The first couple days, I spent doing touristy things, like hitting up the memorials and the museums as well as learning my way around the city by foot and public transportation. Then, I wandered the campus so I knew exactly where everything was and how to traverse from one place to the next. I got my schedule and bought my books, and my excitement about going back to school slowly increased.

I found myself cracking the books open and even taking notes on the chapters. It felt good to be delving back into research and studies. The portion of my brain that I needed for papers and textbooks felt stale, and I wanted to kick the rust to the curb before the first day of school.

Once I’d started delving in, I couldn’t stop. I journeyed to the law library almost daily, looking up abstracts and case law that applied. I was listening to the news Daniella had blaring from the three TVs and found new things to look up based on that news.

I was deep into my research at the library one day, typing furiously and highlighting lines in a newspaper article, when a man stopped at the table where I had my materials spread. He was in a suit and tie that seemed to have been crafted specifically for him, but what caught my attention was the look of curiosity he had on his face.

“Fourth Amendment?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Are you looking for something in particular?” he continued.

My cheeks flushed slightly. I wasn’t exactly embarrassed by my uber enthusiasm, but I also wasn’t sure why or if this man would really be interested in my recent obsession.

“I’ve been looking at varying case studies regarding search and seizure,” I told him.

“Because you’ve been arrested?” he asked with a smile, leaning against my table in a way that put him in my personal space. I backed up a little at the same time I smiled back.

“No, I haven’t been arrested. I was just following a case on the news where a woman had told an officer she didn’t consent to the search of her bag, and he did it anyway and then arrested her for the illegal drugs he found there.”

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