Steve, Mark, Bryan and Joe entered the house quietly after their night at the club. None were staggering, but they were all very light hearted at the moment. Steve, being the designated driver, herded the others through the house and towards the kitchen to get some aspirin. He was sure that they would need it in the morning.
As they walked quietly through the dining room, snickering and laughing quietly, a flash of color out of place caught Mark's notice. He turned to look at David's desk.
Their commanders desk was always scrupulously neat and exact in its order; and nothing was different now except for a single photograph lying in the precise center of the clear space. Mark fell behind as the others continued on to the kitchen; he picked up the picture and examined it closely. A very pretty young woman that he would judge to be about eighteen or nineteen was smiling, but that was not the odd part of the picture. The woman was curled around a young David, their arms would around each other, with one of David's arms going out of the frame, clearly he was taking the picture.
Mark had never seen that expression on his commanders face; happy, carefree, full of life and excitement, and love.
"What do you have Mark?" Steve asked coming up behind him with the others following.
Mark turned and showed them the picture.
"Who's that?" Joe asked, pointing at the woman, "how old do you think he is there?" as he took the photo and looking at it closely.
"Why would he leave it lying out like this?" Bryan asked, "he's in no way careless, so it was on purpose."
"I don't know," Mark said, "But I think the more important question would be, why did he stop looking like that?"
"It's Ariana," Steve said after a moment.
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