“How long has she been out here?”

“Seven months,” Veronica said, as smoothly as if she were reporting the weather.

“And as you can see, she’s perfectly fine.”

Hannah’s grip on my jacket tightened.

“You should have called me,” I said, and I heard my own voice drop into a register I had only ever used in the field.

“Why?” Veronica scoffed.

“A broke, absent soldier doesn’t get to show up and give orders.

You chose the military.