Before he’d left the range earlier, Gil had turned the heat all the way down, so it was even chillier in the rather ramshackle building than it had been earlier. The wind was howling even louder now, and some of it seeped through the cracks and crevices as Cody stood at the firing line table, loading magazines with the .45 ammo. He was tired and yawning, and his hands shook a little, mostly from having to put his hands on a gun again. In the back of his mind, he understood what Gil was trying to do, even though he still wasn’t sure he wanted to do it again.

“OK,” he said, “I’ve got a couple loaded. Whenever you’re ready.”

“You want to put on your ear protectors, Cody?”

“Oh, shit,” he said. “They’re in the car, still out at Janice’s.”

“No problem, there’s others around here,” Gil said, going to a cabinet and pulling out another pair. “It’s something you don’t want to forget. You could screw up your hearing big time without them.”

Cody shook his head. How could he be so dumb? It must be the lack of sleep, along with everything else, he thought. He pulled on the ear protectors and stepped back up to the firing line. “All right,” he said finally. “Let’s do it.”

“Clear the firing line,” Gil said loudly and formally, even though only the two of them were there. “Load your weapon.”

Cody picked up one of the long, thin magazines of .45-caliber rounds and slid it into the butt on the classic old M1911A1. When it seated, he chambered a round, carefully keeping the gun pointed downrange. He slipped off the safety and told Gil, “Ready.”

“Ready on the firing line,” Gil said. “Commence firing.”

Cody raised the .45 in the standard two-hand police stance, pointed at the target and squeezed the trigger. The .45 barked loudly, with the ear protectors not able to hold off the whole report of the weapon, but at least the sound was dulled. It was not a particularly good shot and he knew it, but somehow he didn’t care. After a moment, he steadied down, squeezed off another, and another, until he’d shot up the seven rounds in the magazine.

“Cease firing,” Gil said, and Cody put the weapon on safe, ejected the magazine, and set it down. “Shit, Cody,” Gil said in a less formal voice as soon as he was done. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you shoot that lousy before.”

“I thought the idea was to just shoot the damn thing,” Cody snorted.

“No, the idea was to show you that you are still controlling it, not it controlling you. Bear down, Cody. Clear your mind of all the crap that’s gone on tonight. Remember the control and the confidence that you used earlier to protect Janice. Reach down for that skill, that competence, don’t just point the thing downrange and make noise. We’re going to stay here until you either do it right or we run out of ammo. And I just picked up another case this afternoon, so we’ve got a lot of ammo. You can do it Cody. Just do it.”

“All right,” he said. “Let’s do it.”

“Clear the firing line,” Gil said. “Load your weapon.”

Again, Cody went through the drill, sliding the magazine into the .45, chambering a round. “Ready,” he reported.

“Ready on the firing line. Commence firing.”

Rather than just raising the pistol and shooting, Cody took a deep breath, then another, reaching for the calm that was inside him, a calm that he knew must still be there after the events of the evening. He saw the target in front of him, and somehow realized that Janice had depended on that calm, that skill. When he finally felt ready – it only took a few seconds, but it could have been an hour for all he knew or cared – he raised the pistol, took a practiced aim, and squeezed the trigger. It was a good shot, he knew it and could feel it, and with renewed confidence he fired again and again, a little slower than normal at first, but feeling the zone creep back over him, a little more quickly toward the end. Finally, after he fired the last round, he ejected the magazine and set the pistol back down in front of him.

“Cease firing,” Gil said.

“That was a little better, I think,” Cody said modestly.

“I’m sure it was,” Gil told him. “That was the Cody I knew. You want to look at the target?”

“Not really,” Cody said. “I think it was good.”

“I think it was, too,” Gil nodded. “You want to fire another clip to be sure?”

“Yeah, I think I do,” Cody said, the uneasiness and depression that had dogged him for hours mostly gone now, a fading memory. “Just to be on the safe side.”

Gil’s car hadn’t had time to get warm on the short drive out to the range, but it was out of the wind and that counted for something. At least now, there wasn’t the awkward silence that had been so noticeable on the drive out to the Sportsman’s Club.

“I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open,” Cody said. “I hope that means that I’m going to be able to get some sleep.”

“I think you’ll be able to now,” Gil told him. “I wouldn’t have wanted to bet on it earlier. Tell you what. Sleep in tomorrow. Don’t worry about school. If kids today are anything like they were when I was in school, or even when my kids were in school, you’d face a mountain of bullshit, tomorrow anyway. I’ll have a talk with Mr. Hekkinan and see if he can cool things a little. He’ll understand. He’s one of us, Cody.”

“You mean he’s killed people?”

“He was a soldier in combat, a platoon leader,” Gil told him. “If he didn’t, someone he commanded did. It all counts for the same thing. I have no idea how many, but then I have no idea of how many I have, either. More than you, at least.”

“You know, when you think about that, it’s really an ugly thought.”

“War is ugly, Cody. Ugly as hell. Take it from one who’s been there, even uglier than what you had to face tonight. A little less personal sometimes, but no less ugly.”

“Yeah,” Cody nodded. “I guess you’re right at that.” He let out a long sigh. “I’m still worried as hell about Janice.”

“You saved her life, and I’m sure that they’re taking good care of her down in Camden.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Cody said. “We didn’t really talk about this before. What the hell happens to her now? I mean, I wiped out her whole family. Not much of a family, but still.”

“Do you have any doubt that she’ll be better off with them gone?”

“No,” Cody said flatly. “But that’s still an awful thing to have to face up to. Damn it, Gil, I feel responsible for her in a way. Maybe it’s just going from the frying pan into the fire for her.”

“There’s no doubt that she’s going to need some support,” Gil told him. “Shit, she’s going to be facing that whole Protective-Services and foster-care hassle, and that can be upsetting to someone who’s already had more upsetting than any one person should ever have to experience. Knowing you for the kind of guy you are, you’re saying you want to reach a hand out to her.”

“Yeah, I guess I am,” Cody said. “I suppose if I’m not going to go to school tomorrow I ought to take a run down to the hospital so she’ll know that she has at least one person who cares what happens to her.”

“Might not be a bad idea,” Gil said. “At least it’ll remind you of why you did what you did.”

“Yeah, there is that,” Cody agreed.

“Look, I’m going to drop you off and get on home,” Gil told him. “But if you need any advice or a friendly ear, feel free to give me a call. There’s going to be times you need it. Beyond that, you might like to drop by the dojo some Tuesday evening, that’s when the hardcore martial arts freaks among us get together.”

“I could,” Cody said. “I never had much interest in that martial arts stuff, though.”

“Not a bad thing to learn,” Gil told him. “It’ll help with your mental discipline, as much as anything. Besides, the Tuesday-night gang is pretty much all guys who have been there and done that, sometimes in their own way, and they’re guys who’ll understand.”

“Yeah, I’ll give it some thought,” Cody yawned. “I guess it does sound like a good idea.”

Candice could see that Cody was really dragging when he came in the door. “How’d it go?” she asked.

“The first clip was crap,” he replied. “After that, better. I’m just beat to crap and I want to go to bed.”

“Would you like another drink?” she asked.

“I wouldn’t mind, but I don’t know if I could stay awake long enough to drink it,” he said. “Don’t make me get up in the morning. Gil said I should sleep in and give school a pass, and that he’d talk to Mr. Hekkinan about it.”

“I was going to suggest the same thing,” she replied. “I can probably call Tiffany and have her watch the store if you’d like me to stay home.”

“Yeah,” John chimed in. “I can take off too if you need me to. There’s nothing Delores can’t handle.”

“I don’t know,” Cody yawned. “The way I feel now, I might sleep until after you get home from work anyway. Let’s see about it in the morning.”

“Yeah, sometimes things look a little better after a good sleep, anyway,” John said wisely. “I’ll see if your mother and I can’t pick up the Escort and leave it here before we go to work.”

“I’d appreciate it,” Cody said. “I’m thinking I might want to take a run down to Camden and see Janice.”

“Let us know if you do,” Candice told him. “Remember, you have to clear it with Sergeant Wexler if you go out of town.”

“Yeah, I will,” he replied. “Good night. I’m crashing. See you tomorrow.” With that, he turned and headed up the stairs to his room.

John shook his head. “You know,” he said. “I have heard worse ideas than that. I have no idea how I’ve managed to stay awake this long. I mean, it’s not that late, but I am just totally exhausted, emotionally and otherwise.”

“Good idea,” she said. “Let’s rinse these glasses out, get them in the dishwasher, then blow out the candles ourselves.”

It took a few minutes to wind up the chores, and then head for the stairs themselves. On the way to bed, Candice stopped for a second to peek into Cody’s room. The door stood wide open, and she could see that he had just collapsed on the bed, still wearing his clothes. He was sound asleep, snoring a little, and thank God for that. She’d had visions of him lying awake staring at the ceiling all night. Thank God for Gil; not only had he put things in perspective for Cody, he’d organized her own thinking and John’s as well. It probably would have been a very sleepless night around the Archer house if not for him.

Candice wasn’t quite that tired – almost, but not quite. There were a couple things she usually did in the bathroom before going to bed, but not this time; she settled for peeling off her clothes, throwing them in the dirty clothes basket, and getting into bed in the nude.

“No sleep shirt tonight?” John asked, slightly curious.

“No,” she said. “I need to sleep cuddled up next to you, just to know you’re there,” she told him. “I need to feel your skin against mine. In fact, I need to make love.”

“I hate to say this, but after tonight I’m not really in the mood,” he replied.

“Hell, I’m not really in the mood, either,” she said. “But tonight, I think we need the intimacy and the affirmation of each other more than we need to just have sex for the hell of it. It may be the only way we get some sleep.”

“Well,” he said as he tossed his underwear into the dirty clothes bin. “I have to admit, you’re right about that. We’re still a family, and that counts for a lot.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I guess we never dreamed that something like this could happen. John, I love you and I need you, and tonight, I think I need you more than ever.”

So, instead of sleeping, at least sleeping right away, they renewed their marriage and their faith and commitment in each other in the most basic of ways. It was not mere lovemaking, but something far, far more, their bodies telling each other that they still needed each other to carry on in the face of what the world threw at them. It wasn’t over for them yet, and they knew it, but when they finally fell asleep in sated exhaustion, at least somewhere they’d managed to build up the faith and the strength to carry on.

Tomorrow would be another day. It was hard to tell what would happen, and there were still bumps in the road ahead – but somehow they knew they’d be able to ride them out.

The alarm next to John and Candice’s bed went off far too early, especially given how things had gone the night before. Of the two of them, Candice was the one who usually managed to get up and around without too much difficulty. John was the one who had to pound the snooze alarm three or four times before he could drag himself out of sleep far enough to sit upright while trying to get up the gumption to actually start accepting the fact that morning had come. This morning, though, the two of them were snuggled together to the point of being entwined. Candice was perfectly happy to have John untangle himself enough to whack the top of the clock so she could snuggle up to the warmth of his body and feel the comfort of his arm going around her again. She wasn’t happy about having to face today, and letting the snooze alarm go off a couple times was all right with her.

The second time it went off, John was the one who spoke up, “As much as I’d like to stay like this for the rest of the day, I guess we’d better get up and face the music.”

“Do we have to?” she whispered. “I’m liking this a lot.”

“Me too,” he told her, letting his hand slide up and down her bare back.

“Mmmm, I like that,” she smiled. “How about saying the hell with getting to work on time and pick up where we left off last night?”

“I’d love to,” he told her. “But after last night, I’m thinking we need to put in an appearance at the café or something. Let’s face it, the rumor mill has got to be going full power and then some, so I think we need to put the best face on it that we can.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” she sighed, still reluctant to pull away from the warm safety of her husband’s arms. “Or did we just dream that and everything is still all right?”

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t a dream,” he shook his head. “And we’re just going to have to face up to it. I wish I knew how all of this is going to shake out, but I don’t have any idea. Lord knows what we’re going to have to do. I do know I want to have another talk with Matt Schindenwulfe, and we’ve got to tell Mom and Dad. That’s just for starters.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she shook her head. “I’m not looking forward to that. We need to call Shay and let him know what happened, just so he’ll know if any word drifts up to college.”

“I hadn’t thought of it, but you’re right,” he said slowly. “Damn, I’d like to just lie here with my arm around you and not have to do what needs to be done, but I think the sooner we face up to it the better off we’ll be.”

“Yeah, but shit,” she said as she took her arm from around his bare body, and he disengaged the same way, “we’re going to have to stay available for Cody, too. I hope he slept all right. I didn’t hear him, but that doesn’t mean anything.” She threw the covers back and sat up as she continued, “Are you going to be able to just drop everything and head home if you have to?”

“Yeah, there’s not a lot pressing if push comes to shove,” he replied, reluctantly shifting his body around to get up.

Candice got to her feet and stretched a little. She was a little stiff from spending most of the night cuddled up against her husband, although she was glad she had. A little stiffness was a small price to pay for the comfort of being closer than normal to him. “I suppose I can take off if I have to, but I’ll have to let Tiffany know. Since we didn’t get showers last night, I suppose we ought to do it now, even if it makes us a little late.”

Candice headed for the bathroom, with John trailing behind his equally nude wife. They went past the bathroom far enough to look in Cody’s door; he was still sound asleep, still fully dressed, although somewhere in the night he’d rolled from his back to his side, and was no longer snoring. “Sweet dreams, son,” she said softly, and felt her husband’s hand squeeze her shoulder in agreement.

A couple minutes later they were in the bathroom, doing their morning routine with the shower added. Since it took longer for Candice to dry her thick black hair, John let her run ahead of him as he ran the electric shaver across his face. “Do you want me to leave the water on for you?” she asked when she heard the shaver shut off.

She didn’t get an answer, but a moment later the shower door opened and he stepped in with her. “God, you look sexy when you’re wet,” he grinned as she stepped to the side a little to give him room under the spray.

“You must be horny this morning,” she grinned as she took the wash cloth and began to soap down his back.

“Like I said, I’d rather stay in bed with you than face the world today,” he laughed. “But if we did that, we’d have to do something to kill the time rather than just sleep. Let’s at least take our time with this.”

“Fine with me,” she smiled, stepping around him to get to where she could kiss him. She could feel his hard penis pressing against her as they clinched together with the hot water running over them. They didn’t say much else for a while, but kissed and caressed and fondled each other until finally the water began to run cool, and they had to shut it off and get out.

“That was a shower,” she said as they dried each other off afterwards. “We need to do something like that more often.”

“Yeah, but not for that reason,” he told her. “Do you remember when we weren’t a hell of a lot older than the boys and we used to shower together and then get so hot and sweaty that we’d have to shower again?”

“I remember there were some times when we’d go through two or three showers a day,” she giggled. “Maybe when the boys are both gone we can do things like that a little more often.”

“It would be fun,” he agreed. “But do you remember how young and innocent and full of shit we were? We’d never have been able to dream that something like last night would happen.”

“Hell, this time yesterday I never would have dreamed it,” she shrugged. “About all I can say is that shit happens, and that we have to deal with it the best we can.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he told her. “All we can do is deal with it.”

John was soon out of the bathroom and getting dressed while Candice dried her hair and did the rest of her morning ritual. By the time she got back to the bedroom, he had just about finished. “A suit today?” she asked.

“Well, a sport jacket,” he said as he looked at his tie collection, figuring out what to wear. Once upon a time, he would have gone to work every day in a suit and tie, while Candice would have worn a business suit and hose to work, but those days had been left behind in Decatur. He’d continued with the suit for a while until Joe McGuinness, the guy he was buying out, had pointed out that Spearfish Lake wasn’t Decatur, and people would be a little more comfortable if he was a little more casual. “Somehow, it just feels like I should dress up a little today.”

“Yeah,” she frowned as she headed toward her underwear drawer. “I think you’re right at that. I guess I’ll go with slacks, rather than jeans.” She knew that what she thought of as “business clothes” really weren’t appropriate for her job, and she usually wore jeans, T-shirts and denim jackets, a decent-looking blouse, or something of that nature. In the summer she’d occasionally wear short skirts, mostly because she knew John liked the way skirts looked on her, but as cold as it was likely to be today, a skirt warm enough for the weather really wasn’t going to work at the shop. She could almost feel John looking at her nude body as she picked out what she wanted to wear, and was glad he still liked what he saw. Still, there was a chill in the air that seemed to penetrate the heated room, and nude wasn’t going to cut it much longer, so she pulled on her panties and bra and began to dress for the day. “You still want to go out to the café?” she asked.

“Like I said, we’d really better put in an appearance,” he shrugged, deciding on a black and red striped tie that struck him as a little casual. “It won’t do anything about the tongues wagging, but at least maybe we can inject a little truth into the rumor mills.”

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