Chapter 4

Digging through all those old photographs brought back a lot of memories, things he wished he could forget, as well as things that still made him smile and laugh. He was glad that the kids seemed to lose interest in the album, as evidenced by their desire to go outside to play until bedtime. Jack and Sasha stayed after dinner, and once the kids were tucked away, Sam got the album out again.

"I can't believe you still have these pictures, Axeman." Jack flipped through the album from the beginning and stopped on pictures of them in SEAL training. "We were a couple of scrawny dudes back then. Don't know what they ever saw in us that made them think we could cut it." He shook his head and turned the page. "Hey, there we are with that guy. What was his name?"

"Robert...no, Rick..." Sam let out a frustrated sound. "I know it started with an R."

"Raymond. That was it. We called him Rayban, 'cause he always wore those dorky sunglasses. Like those right there," Jack said with a laugh as he pointed to a geeky looking guy.

"He was our radio man on a lot of operations," Sam said. "Until he got shot up in Afghanistan."

"Yeah, that was bad. He made it home, but lost a leg." Jack shook his head. "I heard he made a boatload of money with the tech stocks, and he teaches at a school in California."

"Chemistry, I hope." A smile crossed Sam's face.

"Oh yeah." Jack laughed, then explained to the clueless women. "Rayban was our radio guy, but he was also a whiz with explosives and setting up trip wires and stuff."

"He could probably teach Fiona a few things," Sam added.

Jack nodded. "Rayban could build a landmine out of some rat poison, dental floss, and a soup can. He was amazing!"

"We lost an important piece of our team when he went stateside," Sam added with a nod. "It's good to hear he's doing well for himself."

They moved on to more photos of Sam and Jack and other members of their team. "Looks like you guys did a lot of partying when you weren't on an operation," Sasha said with a sidelong glance at her husband.

"We worked hard, we played hard, baby." He pulled her close and kissed her. "Still do."

"It must become so ingrained, they don't know anything else," Yvette remarked as she glanced at Sam.

"Could be. One thing I do know is that all the other SEAL friends Jack has are the same. But some of them are also, I don't know, closed off socially. They're rough, tough, and love their fun, but outside of a mission or a party, they wouldn't know what to do with themselves."

"You must be talking about him," Sam said and pointed to a picture of a very serious looking man in the middle of their team. "Darius O'Grady. Everybody called him Dairy-O. He hated it, but it kind of stuck." He and Jack shared a laugh. "It's funny how nicknames get pinned on you, and you may not like 'em, but they become yours."

Yvette looked at him. "So how'd you get Axeman? I understand the play on your last name, but there has to be more than that!"

Jack chuckled. "We had this mission in the jungle, and four of us got cut off from the rest of our team. We were in the middle of the nastiest, thickest brush you've ever seen. Well, probably ten times worse than that. Anyway, somewhere along the way, in one of the villages, Sam found this axe just laying around."

"And I had this feeling we were gonna need it, so I grabbed it and took it along. Well, there we were in this mess of vines and trees and stuff, and the only way out was with a machete."

"Which nobody had."

"Right. So I started swinging that axe and got us out of there." He rubbed his shoulder unconsciously. "Just talking about it reminds me how sore I was afterwards!"

"So I started calling him Axeman after that. Before then, well, we hadn't really come up with anything good for him yet." Jack chuckled.

"My gosh, what happened to you guys in that picture?" Sasha pointed to a photograph showing the team covered in mud. Some of them grinned, their teeth white against the goo that covered them.

"Football game against a group of Marines." Sam and Jack chorused, looked at each other and laughed as they high fived.

"That was after a week of constant rain in El Salvador."

"We kicked their butts," Jack added. "Hoorah, my..."

"Jack, you behave yourself," Sasha chided, trying to hide her smile behind a stern look.

"I think I still had mud in my boots for weeks after that battle," Sam said as he studied the photograph. "We were so covered with it, I don't even remember where I was in this shot."

"There, right in the middle next to me."

Sam laughed, and a warm smile triggered by good memories crossed his face. "You're right. I don't think we ever got the mud stains out of our shirts, either, did we?"

"Good thing we were wearing our camo pants," Jack replied. "Didn't matter if they looked muddy, just made it better for hiding in the jungle."

The two men sighed and Sam flipped past pictures from other third world nations and unsettled times. He found one of Jack with a young woman who grinned into the camera. "Old girlfriend, Jack?"

"Nope, that was my sister, Frannie. She was in the USO for awhile, and then she settled down and got married. That was at the base in Guam, wasn't it, Axeman?"

"Yeah. You were all dressed up for a date or something, weren't you?"

Jack nodded. "Don't even remember her name."

"Guess that was a memorable occasion," Sasha joked.

"Yeah, must have been. Hey Sam, isn't that Amanda in the background?"

For a few seconds he held his breath as he studied the photo, trying to remember if she was there. "No, she just looks like her. Amanda...you know, she never did come to visit me, even when we were stateside." He shook his head. "Doesn't matter, that's ancient history. Right?"

Yvette wordlessly put her arm around his shoulders and held him close.

"That's right, you got a whole lot more now with Yvette, Axeman. Nothin' to be sorry about."

"You're right, Jack." Sam smiled at Yvette and kissed her lips.

"Looks like you don't have anything newer than '05 in here."

"Yeah, that's all in another album."

"Well," Jack stretched his arms above his head. "We should probably be getting home. You've got kids to get up tomorrow. I've got a side job to take care of."

"Side job? How can you have a side job when you're retired," Sam asked.

Jack grinned. "I suppose you're right. I've been drawing plans for people and helping build houses and stuff, but this, this is something different."

"What is it?" Sam's eyebrow went up, his curiosity aroused.

"Just a little protection service. Some lady has a restraining order against her husband and she's afraid he won't leave her alone, so I'm doing this as a favor to a friend. Just until the divorce is final. He may need a little encouragement to realize that it's over."

"Be careful, Jack." He looked into his friend's eyes. "If you need reinforcements, just call. I mean it!"

"I will, Axeman. You both take care, and we'll see you soon, eh?"

After Jack and Sasha left, Yvette cleaned up the dining room table, while Sam retrieved the album and slipped it back into the bookshelf. He touched the spine and thought about all the good things inside, mixed with the bad, and how they all composed his life and helped to make him who he was today. It was nice to have them in an easily accessible place, instead of that musty old shoebox.

"Thanks, honey."

"For what?" Yvette asked as she threw her arms around him from behind.

"For getting on my case about putting those pictures in the album. Not all the memories were good, but it was a lot of fun sharing them." He turned and kissed her. "Now, let's get to bed. I've got a job with Mike and Jesse tomorrow." He turned out the lights and went upstairs with her beside him, counting his blessings yet again. The pictures never lie. He had a good life, with lots more to come.