Berlin, 1945

John rubbed his eyes and before closing one to squint the other through the keyhole. The corridor almost echoed in its emptiness and the vague reflections at either end showed no change. He sat back in his chair, shaking his head.

"Keeping looking through that thing and you'll go blind." John turned over his shoulder to where Talbot and Branson laid out their cards again, the deck already folding and bending with overuse.

"The only think you know about going blind is what your mother taught you so you wouldn't touch yourself." Branson flicked a card at Talbot, who only batted it away. "Let him look if he thinks it'll help."

"Help him pull all of his hair out." Talbot shook his head. "Get yourself something to eat Bates of you'll be no good doing guard duty."

"I'll be no good doing anything." John peeked through the eyehole again and sighed. "It's been two days. How could there be no sign of him? Does he ever come home?"

"I guess we have to trust in the allegiance of your German lady-friend." Branson laid down another card, darting his eyes to John to meet a vicious scowl. "I'm not questioning her but this is a dangerous time and who knows? She's got a son and women, once they become mothers, would murder the world for their children. It's just the way they're bred."

"Good thing too or you mother would've left you out to die." Talbot laid down a card and Branson threw his to the table. "Focus and you won't be so easy to read."

"What do either of you know about it?"

"Look," Talbot half-turned in his chair to face John. "You've got a host of emotions running through you. Part of you wonders if she's telling you the truth about it. You wonder what's happened to her since you've been gone. You wonder what the war did to her. You wonder about everything and it's clogging your brain. Go get some air and clear your head."

"And trust you two to do this for me?"

"I don't know if you were paying any attention at all when you were with us during the war but we're totally useless." Branson reshuffled the deck. "We saved your ass any number of times all over Italy and France. We dug a fecking foxhole to share with you and yet you think we're just flies on a cow's ass."

"I didn't mean-"

"You're micromanaging because you're afraid." Talbot shrugged, kicking at Branson under the table. "And it's understandable but maybe that's why you need to be anywhere else but here right now."

"You expect me to just leave her to whatever fate comes with her returning Nazi husband?"

"We expect you to have a clear head about this and obviously-" Branson stopped, going to the window at the back of the flat to look down to the street below. "It's a bit late for someone to be walking the street."

Talbot checked his watch, "Well past curfew."

"Light." Branson snapped his fingers and John hit the switches to throw their flat into darkness before joining Branson at the window. "Recognize him?"

"From this distance and height? He's just another man with a hat and overcoat walking in a drizzle."

"Oh, looks like he's coming into the building." Branson moved away from the window and toward the door.

"How'd you even hear him anyway?" John pivoted to watch as Branson put his eye to the hole and squinted through it.

"Because I was listening."

Branson held up a hand and the flat fell into silence. A moment later he raised one finger and then waved them both to the door. He stepped back and allowed Talbot the first look. When Talbot stepped back with a nod, John pressed his face to the door to take a peek through the opening.

The same man from the street walked the length of the corridor twice, stopping for a moment at each door as if to listen for noises from within. After a moment he stopped at their door and John held his breath. With his hat tilted down, John could not see the man's face and pulled away from the looking hole just in case there was a way this man could see back through it.

But whatever he heard, or did not hear, the man drew away from the door and knocked softly at the door across from their door. John pressed his face to the eyehole and watched as the door to Anna's flat opened and she quickly ushered the man inside. In the half-second that the door remained open, she nodded twice at John's door and then shut her own. Pulling away from the door John nodded at Branson and Talbot.

They waited five minutes, Branson and Talbot checking their pistols, and left the flat. Almost as one, they moved the five steps from the empty flat they commandeered for their viewing party to Anna's door. John put his hand on the knob while Branson and Talbot kept their hands ready at their pistols. He turned the knob and the three of them stormed into the room.

John darted past the man still pulling his arms free of his coat sleeves and wrapped Anna in his grip. He shuffled them both to a corner as Branson and Talbot tackled the other man to the ground. The struggle reached John's ears over the thunder of blood boiling in his body and he pulled away from Anna.

She clutched at his coat a moment, holding him close, and then released him with a nod. John let his fingers linger over hers, drawing back to face the man Talbot held with an arm wrapped around his neck as Branson twisted the man's arms behind his back. And as they moved the man to his knees his head came up and John met the eyes of Officer Grün.

"This him?" Talbot asked, twisting Grün's head so he could not drop his gaze and John could get a good look at him. "Did we catch ourselves a Nazi?"

John crouched in front of him, noting the twinkle of fear at the edge of the man's eyes that fought with the firm set of his jaw. "Remember me?"

"You're the English man who made a slut of my wife."

"She wasn't your wife then. She never really was yours." John worked his jaw, fingers clenching and unclenching until he pulled back. "Get him to the car and make sure he doesn't make any noise. Ross wouldn't want that."

"I'm sure I can find a sock to stuff in his big mouth." Branson reached over to the table and grabbed a napkin, stuffing it in Grün's mouth before he worked a set of metal handcuffs around the man's wrists to keep them tight behind his back.

Talbot released his neck and nodded to Anna, who came to John's side. "Sorry for the disturbance, ma'am, and we'll be out of your hair now."

"John?" Her fingers held around John's arm as Talbot and Branson wrestled Grün out of the door. "What now?"

"Now we get whatever you want to carry out of this country gathered up and then we get you and Johann to a place the Americans have got for you."

"The Americans?"

"Yes."

Anna narrowed her eyes, "Why are they…?"

"It's temporary. For the moment, anyway." John's eyes darted to the door, even though the only evidence of Grün or the other two was confined to grunts and moans from the staircase. "If he says nothing and isn't any help then…"

"Then we'll be stuck here?"

"No."

"John, we both know that if there's nothing he can offer then-"

"Hey," John held her hands as she went to turn away, shaking his head. "I won't let that happen. This is just one plan. If it doesn't work then I'll find something else. I won't stop until I've got you both safe and out of here. I promise."

Anna only nodded and then pointed to a few things. "We'll want those and that. Perhaps… No, I can leave that."

Two hours later John loaded Anna's things into the back of a borrowed jeep as she held a half-asleep Johann close to her in the cab. He kept mumbling half-formed sentences in German that Anna answered or hushed as John finished with the few things Anna had finally decided would come. Johann's small bag fit on top of the few others she chose while leaving everything else in her flat with the door open.

"Is that wise?" John asked, carrying her cases while Anna hefted Johann. "They could take-"

"I hope they take it and may it do them some good." Anna shook her head, "I've spent too much of my life watching people around me suffer without the capacity to help them. If this is what I can do then it's what I'll do."

John nodded and guided them down the dark staircase to the jeep. And once he sorted the things in the back he climbed into the cab with them. The engine turned over and the sound broke the quiet the night, startling Johann. He struggled against his mother a moment until she soothed him back to his dozing sleep.

"Sorry." John winced, driving through the streets and trying to avoid potholes, rubble, and those who resorted to sleeping there as their homes stood as nothing more than crumbling monuments to what they used to be. "I didn't know it'd-"

"It's fine." Anna put her hand over his on the wheel, the other idly stroking Johann's hair. "He's fine. It just startled him."

"How much'll it startle him when you tell him the truth?"

Anna kissed the top of Johann's head, straightening out his dark hair before looking out the windshield. "Once we're away. I don't want to add too much at once. It'll overwhelm him that we're leaving the only home he knows."

"Do you think he'll like England?"

"I hope so." Anna let a small smile take over her mouth. "I always wanted to see England. I remember when you'd describe it to me and it sounded so idyllic."

"Not sure it's that idyllic now with London looking a wreck and a lot of pockmarked fields."

"Does it look like this?" Anna waved a hand at the sight out the windows of the jeep and John cringed, shaking his head. "Then it's perfect and pastoral."

"But what if we moved somewhere else?" John shrugged a shoulder, pulling into the avenue toward a blockade guarded by soldiers discernable in the lowlight through the glow of their cigarettes. "Somewhere you won't be judged for your accent?"

"Anywhere I go I'll be judged for my accent. It was the case after the first time and now it will be again." Anna set her shoulders stiffly as they pulled up to the soldiers. "I'm not afraid of what I am."

"What about Johann?"

"He'll lose his accent the more he speaks English and spends time with you." Anna silenced as the soldiers drew up to the cab of the jeep.

"Evening folks." One of the soldiers leaned on the top, his hair immaculate despite the drizzle and the lateness of the hour. "Taking an evening drive?"

"I'm Captain John Bates, British Army." John pulled out his credentials and handed them to the man. "We're here to see Major Ross. He's expecting us."

"Major Ross?" The man snorted, handing John's credentials back. "Not sure what you'd want to do with that negro but I guess it's all about preference."

"I'm sure it is."

"Well, if you want to meet with him that's your business." The soldier stepped back. "Let them through."

John turned away from the man and drove through the blockade. He steered them further into the camp and parked where another soldier waved him. Anna went to move out of the cab but John put a hand on her arm. "Not yet. I want to make sure they've got your place all setup."

"John," Anna shook her head. "I'm not staying in a cab with my sleeping son. We're coming with you now. That's the safest."

John nodded and got out of his side. Before Anna could extricate herself on hers, John was there to open the door and took Johann's weight in his arms. Anna tried to say something, perhaps even take him back, but John shook his head.

"You're exhausted and you need rest."

"So do you."

"I'm good for the moment." John held Johann closer as he snuggled into him. "Is it alright?"

Anna nodded and slithered her hand into the crook of his elbow to hold there as John led them into one of the buildings. One of the soldiers who raised an eyebrow at them guided the unorthodox trio down the hall to a doorway still shining with light. He knocked on the window for them and saluted the man who answered before walking back to his post.

"Brought the whole brood did you Bates?" Ross called from the interior and the man at the door pulled it back. "This is Ethan Slade, my translator and aide."

"Nice to meet you both." Slade nodded at them, his smile taking over his face.

John nodded back, adjusting Johann in his arms as the boy adjusted to bury his face away from the light of the office. Ross looked up from where he wrote something out at his desk and then stood up in a hurry. "My apologies for forgetting everything about manners."

"It's late and you're busy so I-"

"No, no," Ross held up a hand to silence John and rounded the desk to shake Anna's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Grün."

"I'd rather go by 'Mrs. Bates' if it's all the same to you."

"It will be once we get your husband talking to us." Ross nodded at her and then peeked into John's arms to get a better look at Johann. "You weren't kidding about him being yours were you?"

"He's a spitting image of me at six."

"More pity you." Ross winked at Anna and then put his hands on his hips. "Now Lieutenant Slade was kind enough to get you some rooms at the barracks but it's nothing special. It's private but cramped, if that's not a problem."

"I'm sure there are those who've endured worse." Anna answered but Ross held up a hand. "Is something wrong?"

"Do you know how to work a radio, Mrs. Grü- I mean, Mrs. Bates?"

Anna blinked at him and then stammered her answer. "I worked as a radio operator during the war. It was a way for me to contribute."

"So you learned how it worked and all the details?"

"Of course."

John frowned, "Where's this going Ross?"

Ross smiled and wagged a finger at Anna. "I thought it'd be difficult to denazify you but I think I might've underestimated you and I apologize for that."

"What are you talking about?"

Ross turned to John. "I'm sure you're not entirely ignorant of the fact we had radio operators working in our networks that got Jews and others out of Germany. Some of our agents and SOE operatives yes?"

"I heard something about them but not-" John turned to Anna, who ducked her head. "You were one of the operators?"

"I knew some people involved in the movement and I wanted to do what I could to help." Anna shrugged, "It was easier for me. As the wife of a Gestapo officer I could access things others couldn't. I got into places others couldn't and I…"

"What?"

"I occasionally got information from Alexander when he…" Anna did not finish the comment, turning the corner as John moved Johann in his grip again when the tingle in his arms persisted. "I did what I could."

"Did what you could?" Ross laughed, "I recognized your voice, although the English threw me a moment. You sound different speaking English than you did speaking German."

"I'm sure you'll like my German better."

"Your English is fine." Ross waved her off, "You helped get us so many forged documents and aided the underground in so many ways. How many Jews did you save again?"

"I only counted the ones I lost."

"But there weren't many and that-"

"Major," Anna cut him off and even John jumped slightly at the tone in his voice. "I'd like to find a place I can give my son a bed for the night and get some sleep myself so we're more prepared for whatever may come tomorrow. If that's alright with you."

"Absolutely." Ross slapped a hand to his forehead. "Excuse me. I overexcited myself and got distracted."

"Happens to the best of us I'm sure." John turned as Lieutenant Slade tapped them both on their shoulders. "Where is Grün?"

"Branson and Talbot brought him a few hours ago and he's sweating himself in a cell." Ross shrugged, "Branson and Talbot returned to their base with a message that you were staying on here for the night to help us. I'm sure you don't mind."

"I appreciate the effort."

"Now, get some rest. Tomorrow we hit the ground running and see if we can find those scientists." Ross ushered them out of the office and into the waiting arms of Slade. "Sleep well all."

They followed Slade through the building and out onto a field filled with tents and temporary buildings. He ignored these and they entered a low building, missing some of its top floors, and pulled a key from a ring. When the door unlocked he stepped inside and hit a light switch. The buzz of lights running on the same generators they installed for the camp and set up with wires dangling from the ceiling lit the stark situation that greeted them.

John moved around the space, occupied by a small bed, a table, and a washroom that was more of two closets tacked together. Another closet provided a bed only big enough to fit the curled body of Johann as John laid him on the cot there. The stiff and scratchy military blankets pulled over the one already wrapped over Johann so the boy did not shiver in the husk of a building, and John stepped back to leave the door cracked slightly.

"It's the best we could do on short notice but, with luck, in a few days you'll be going to England and making your new accommodations there." Slade's ever-cheery voice rang oddly in the distorted echo of the room. "Well, did you bring anything else?"

"There are bags in the back of the jeep." John made as if to go with him but Slade shook his head.

"I've got a few bags Captain Bates. I'll bring them right back here and you can make this a bit more homey."

He bounced away and Anna shut the door. "I'm not sure that's possible."

"It's only temporary Anna."

"Yes," She sat on the edge of her cot, the squeak almost sending her back to her feet. "Because once they know Alexander will never talk then they'll be horribly disappointed. I'll have to return to a flat empty of everything and start all over. But this time they won't be afraid of what could happen. I'll be a woman with a son in a world barely controlled by those with good intentions while roving bands of marauding militants take what they want and-"

"Anna." John knelt in front of her, hands on her arms. "Don't."

"Don't speak the truth?"

"Don't despair." John pointed to the little room where Johann slept. "We've got to be strong for him."

"John," Anna took his hands. "You've a home to go back to. Once you finish here they'll send you home. This is my home and there's nothing left of it but rubble."

"There's nothing left of my home but rubble too." John shrugged, "My house was destroyed in the Blitz. Everything there either burned in the incinerating inferno or crushed to pieces when the building collapsed. I've got nothing."

"Then why-"

"Because my home isn't a pile of bricks or stone." John caressed over Anna's hands. "It's with you. It's with Johann. It's wherever we decide to make our home and build our lives again. If it's in England then we find a place with sunshine and grass and hope. If it's here then we do the same thing.

"Either way." John looked up at Anna, the tears welling in her eyes matching his. "I'm not leaving you again."

She slipped her hands from his grip and held his face with gentle fingers. They leaned toward one another, their lips almost touching, but pulled apart as someone knocked on the door. John sighed and pushed himself up from the floor, waving Anna back to her cot, and answered to see Slade and another soldier holding the bags and another cot.

"Thought you'd be more comfortable on a cot instead of the floor if you're staying in here." He brought the cot over to where Anna sat and set it up, piling blankets on top of it while the other soldier stacked the cases in the corner. "If you need anything then just give a holler."

"Don't you sleep?"

"As long as the Major's up then so am I." Slade shrugged. "I don't really need sleep with these new pills I got off an Aussie. He said he used them in Singapore when it got taken by the Japanese. He stayed awake for three days."

"You've got amphetamines?"

"Is that what they are?" Slade jerked a shoulder, "I guess they've got to have a scientific name to explain all the cool things they do."

He left the room, bobbing into the darkness with the other soldier, and John shut the door. The same stiff, coarse blankets piled on the end of his cot and John unfurled them to lay over Anna's cot. But she stopped him, pushing the cots together, and took over making up the makeshift bed.

"I'm not sure it'll work like that."

"Then we'll take the floor." Anna tapped it. "Can't be much worse than the prospect of sleeping on these cots."

"I guess not." John collapsed the cots, pulling the material from them to leave the supports in the corner as they laid a few blankets over the material and then attempted to lay on the repurposed padding.

"It'll do." Anna sighed, kicking her shoes off from her position on her back, and laying in her clothes. "If this is the best the Americans can do."

"I'm sure their experience with comfort isn't entirely lost." John turned his head to meet her eyes. "It's just the circumstance. Once they settle in for the long haul they'll make this place a hotel."

"I'm sure they will." Anna raised a hand, drawing her finger down John's face. "I prayed you'd be kept safe."

"I wasn't in any danger tonight."

"Not tonight." Anna shook her head, shuffling over the blankets to get closer to John as he kicked off his own shoes and removed his jacket to drape over a wooden stool. "I meant when you had to leave."

"I didn't want to go."

"I know." Anna let her finger slip down the buttons of John's shirt, her nail clicking slightly on the plastic of each one. "And part of me wished I'd kept you close. But I knew the risk and I could bear the not-knowing, the praying to God that He'd keep you safe because then there was a chance you were still alive. I couldn't bear the thought that, if you had stayed, you would've been dragged away to die horribly in one of those camps somewhere."

"Those camps you helped save people from?" John brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "You didn't tell me you were a resistor."

"There were many of us. Little people who only had so much they could do." Anna shrugged, "I wanted to find a purpose. I needed to find something so that Johann could…"

"So Johann could be proud of you." Anna nodded and John closed his eyes a moment before speaking again. "Did you know?"

"When you left?" John took his turn at nodding. "I suspected but I wasn't sure. I didn't want to say anything and then we got the notice you had to leave the country and…"

"You didn't want me to risk my life to stay?"

"I couldn't bear the thought that Johann would grow up with a father he'd lose in an instant when the SS came to our home and dragged him away." Anna shuddered, "I know it wasn't fair to you but I knew the best way for Johann to grow up was with a father alive. Somewhere out there trying to get back to us."

"Always." John cupped her jaw, fingers caressing slowly in place. "you never left my thoughts for a moment."

"You were always in mine." Anna dropped her gaze. "I hope you can forgive me."

"Forgive you?" John almost laughed if not for the crinkle of pain on Anna's face. "There's nothing to forgive. You're without fault in anything."

"I married Grün. I let him… I had to allow… We…"

"Anna." John took her hands, kissing over her fingers and taking extra care where her ring sat. "You did what you did to survive. And you protected our son. What could I hold against you for that?"

"I committed adultery."

"I don't see it that way and I don't believe God would either."

"Would God see me as a bigamist?"

"Our union was before God, Anna. Your… arrangements with Grün was before the State. They hold no power for the affairs of the Lord." John kissed over her fingers again, hoping to ease the trembling there. "He's the Judge and He'll be the one to say what is what but as far as I'm concerned you're still my wife. You're still my love and that's our son. Grün is nothing but a nightmare now. A ghoul who lives in the dark or under the bed. And, soon, he'll be nothing but a memory to anyone. He'll be nothing, Anna."

"But…" Anna struggled a moment, "My shame's out in the open. There's nowhere for it to hide anymore."

"What shame?" John wracked his brain, trying to understand the context of the words out of Anna's mouth. "I don't see any shame in this."

"But I'm… I'm spoiled for you."

"Spoiled?"

"And I can never be unspoiled."

"You could never be spoiled to me." John slipped over the coarse, rasping fabric of the blankets under them to hold Anna close. "You're my wife and you're made holier, and higher, to me because the suffering you've been put through And I…"

"What?"

John exhaled, "I couldn't be more proud of you than I am at this moment."

"Truly?"

"Truly." John took a deep breath. "I'd like to kiss you now, Mrs. Bates, if I can."

"I'd like that."

Their lips met and it was as if all the agonies of the last six years melted away. Time was nothing, the hard floor under them was nothing, and all they had to hold on to was one another. Buttons came loose from holes and zippers moved to leaving a heap of clothing piled next to their makeshift bed. Fingers gripped and tugged until their bodies rolled into positions they recognized from an eternity ago but they fit together as if it had been only yesterday.

John's tongue worked over Anna's folds, licking and sucking as she tugged and pulled at the blankets under them to leave rumpled divots in the fabric. Her fingers left his hair standing on end from endless pulling through it and when she came her nails left crescent-shaped marks there. Marks her fingers tried to soothe when John joined them together and his lips met hers.

Dancing together, his hand on her thigh to hold it higher and wider to sink deeper, they reached for the high together. And when they came, John trying to bury his grunt in Anna's shoulder, they sagged back onto the hard floor. The final stutters of their bodies shifting together seemed to remind them of the sparse conditions about them but John settled at Anna's side all the same.

When they moved together for the second time, Anna's leg snagging over John's hip to pull them together, it was just as natural. They moved together as quietly as they could, so as to not wake up the child in the closet near them, and finished clutching at one another. John reached down and tugged the remaining blankets over them and frowned as the material rubbed and scratched at his skin.

Anna snorted slight and snuggled close to him, tucking her head at his shoulder as if returning to a spot she knew well. John held her close, forgetting about the conditions about them with the feel of Anna to keep him company instead. Slowly their breathing synchronized and they fell asleep on the floor of the sparse, makeshift cottage in the ruins of the city.