Frisco smiled back at her, suddenly almost ridiculously happy. "Yeah," he said. "I know. But I don't want to keep you waiting any longer."

"I told the police captain that Sharon was willing to testify against Bell," Frisco told Harvard and Mia as they climbed out of the van and started toward the condo courtyard. "With her help, they can ID Bell as the perpetrator in a number of unsolved robberies and possibly even a murder."

"Sharon saw Dwayne kill someone?" Mia asked Frisco in a low voice.

He nodded, glancing at Harvard who was carrying a drowsy Tasha. But her five-year-old ears were as sharp as ever and she lifted her head. "I saw Dwayne kill someone, too," Tasha told them, her eyes filling with tears. "I saw him kill Thomas."

"Thomas isn't dead," Frisco said.

"Yes, he is," Tasha insisted. "Dwayne hit him and made him b.l.o.o.d.y, and he didn't get back up."

"Thomas is waiting for you, Princess, up in the condo."

"Oh, thank G.o.d," Mia said. "Is he really all right?"

"A little shaky, maybe," Frisco said, "but, yeah. He's okay."

All signs of her drowsiness gone, Tasha squirmed free from Harvard's arms. Like a flash, she ran up the stairs. But the condo door was locked, and she pounded on it.

As Mia watched, it swung open, and sure enough, there was Thomas King, looking a little worse for wear. Tasha launched herself at him, and nearly knocked the teenager over.

"Hey, Martian girl," Thomas said casually and matter-of-factly, as if they'd run into each other on the street. But be held the child tightly. That and the sudden sheen of tears in his eyes gave him away.

"I thought you were dead," she told him, giving him a resounding kiss on the cheek. "And if you were dead, then you couldn't marry me."

"Marry you?" Thomas's voice slipped up an octave. "Whoa, wait a minute, I--"

"A Russian princess has to marry a king," Tasha told him seriously.

"You're kind of short," Thomas told her. "I'm not so sure I want a wife who's that short."

Tasha giggled. "I'll be taller, silly," she told him. "I'll be sixteen."

"Sixteen..." Thomas looked as if he were choking. "Look, Martian, if you're still interested when you're twenty-six, give me a call, but until then, we're friends, all right?"

Natasha just smiled.

"All right," Thomas said. "Now, come on inside and see what Navy bought for you."

They disappeared inside the house, and Mia could hear Tasha's excited squealing. She turned to Frisco, who was painstakingly pulling himself up the stairs. "Is it the couch?"

Frisco just shook his head. "Man, I forgot all about it."

"I didn't," Harvard said, laughter in his voice.

Curiosity overcame Mia, and she hurried to Frisco's door. And laughed out loud. "You got it," she said. "The couch. Dear Lord, it's so..."

"Pink?" Frisco volunteered, amus.e.m.e.nt and chagrin glinting in his eyes as he followed her inside.

Tasha was sitting in the middle of the couch, her ankles delicately crossed--the perfect Russian princess, despite the fact that her hair was tangled and her face dirty and tear streaked.

Harvard started packing up the array of equipment, and Thomas moved to help him.

"This stuff is so cool," Mia heard Thomas tell Harvard. "What do I have to do to become one of you guys?"

"Well, you start by joining the Navy," Harvard said. "And you work your b.u.t.t off about three years, and maybe, just maybe, then you'll be accepted into the BUD/S training."

"Hey," Frisco said to Natasha. "Don't I get a hug? Or any thanks?"

Tasha looked at him haughtily. "Russian princesses don't say thank you or give hugs."

"Wanna bet?" He sat down on the couch next to the little girl and pulled her into his arms.

She giggled and threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you--"

Frisco laughed. Mia loved the sound of his laughter. "Enough already," he said. "Go wash your face and get ready for bed."

Tash stood up, casting a look of longing back at the sofa.

"Don't worry," Frisco told her. "It'll be here in the morning."

"You bet it will," Harvard interjected. "And the morning after that, and the morning after that... "

"I don't know," Mia said. "It's starting to grow on me." She held out her hand to Tasha. "Come on. I'll help you get ready for bed."

Frisco watched them disappear into the bathroom. Tasha was dragging, clearly exhausted. It wouldn't be long before she was sound asleep. He turned back to Harvard. "Need help getting that stuff together?"

Harvard grinned, reading his mind. "All done. We're out of here. Gee, sorry we can't stay."

Frisco held out his hand, and Harvard clasped it. "Thanks, man."

"It was good seeing you again, Francisco. Don't be a stranger."

"I won't be," Frisco told his friend. "In fact, I'll probably be coming over to the base in a few days to talk to Cat."

Harvard smiled, his powerful biceps flexing as he easily lifted pounds and pounds of heavy equipment. "Good. See you then." He followed Thomas outside and dosed the door behind them.

The sudden silence and stillness was deafening. Frisco started toward Tasha's room, but stopped short at the sight of Mia quietly closing the little girl's door.

"She's already asleep," she told him. "She was exhausted."

Mia looked exhausted, too. Maybe this wasn't a good time to talk. Maybe she just wanted to go home.

"Do you want a cup of tea?" Frisco asked, suddenly horribly uncertain.

She took a step toward him. "All I want right now is for you to hold me," she said quietly.

Frisco carefully leaned his crutches against the wall and slowly drew her into his arms. She was trembling as she slipped her arms around his waist. He pulled her closer, held her tighter and she rested her head against his chest and sighed.

"Did you really ask the Alpha Squad for help?" she asked.

"Is that so hard to believe?"

Mia lifted her head. "Yes."

He laughed. And kissed her. She tasted so sweet, her lips wore so soft. He'd been crazy to think he could ever give her up.

"Were you really coming back to the cabin?" he asked her.

She nodded.

"Why? You said d.a.m.n near all that there was to say pretty concisely. Your vision of the way my future might've been was pretty accurate--although I'm willing to bet you didn't picture me drinking myself to death on a pink couch."

"The way your future might've been...?"

There was such hope in her eyes, Frisco had to smile. "That's not my future, Mia," he told her. "That was my past. It was my father who drank himself into oblivion every night in front of the TV set. But I'm not my old man. I'm a SEAL. You were right. I'm still a SEAL. And it's only my knee that busted, not my spirit."

"Oh, Alan...."

"Yeah, it hurts to know I'm not going to go on the active duty list, but that's the hand fate dealt me. I'm done wallowing," he told her. "Now I'm going to get on with my true future. I'm going to talk to Joe Cat about that instructor position. And I've got Tash to think about, because Sharon's gonna have to do time on those DUI charges even if the man she hit lives--"

Mia was crying. She was crying and she was laughing.

"Hey," Frisco said. "Are you all right?"

"I'm great," she told him. "And so are you. You made it, Alan. You're whole again." Her eyes filled with a fresh flood of tears. "I'm so happy for you."

He was whole? Frisco wasn't quite so sure. "I'm going to look for another place to live," he told her, searching her eyes. "I figure if I sell this place, I can maybe get something a little closer to the base, maybe something on the water--something on the ground floor. Something big enough for me and Tash and maybe... you, too... ?"

"Me?" she whispered.

He nodded. "Yeah, I mean, if you want to..."

"You want me to live with you...?"

"h.e.l.l, no. I want you to marry me!"

Mia was silent. Her eyes were wide and her lips slightly parted. She didn't say a word, she just stared at him.

Frisco shifted his weight nervously. "I know you're probably speechless with joy at the thought of spending the rest of your life with a man who owns a pink couch and--"

"Do you love me?"

Frisco could see from her eyes that she honestly didn't know. How could she not know? Well, he realized, because for starters, he'd never actually said the words.....

"You know, up at the cabin, when I said all those horrible things...?"

Mia nodded.

"What I really meant to say was that I'd fallen absolutely in love with you, and that I was terrified--both of what I was feeling, and of the thought of you ruining the rest of your life by spending it with me."

She was indignant. "How could you have thought that?"

He smiled. "I still think it--I just figure I'll work really hard to keep you happy and smiling, and you won't even notice. You also won't notice that when we vote, we cancel each other out."

"Democracy in action," Mia said.

"And maybe, someday--if you want--we could add 'making babies' to that list you started on my refrigerator," he told her. "What do you say?"

"Yes," Mia told him, emotion making her voice tremble. "I say oh, yes."

Frisco kissed her.

And he was whole.

END.