1:35 pm—Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center Room 314

Julie Brown King hurried down the corridors of the medical center, frantically looking for her husband's room. Major Philip King had been transferred to the VA hospital in Richmond for treatment after receiving minor injuries during the attack on the Pentagon.

Her knees had almost buckled in relief when she'd heard Philip inform her that he very nearly had not made it. If not for Lee's uncle, Colonel Robert Clayton, who was not supposed to be at the Pentagon, Julie may well have lost her husband. But the Colonel had pulled Philip under one of the nearest desks as the rumblings had begun, and he had shielded the unprotected side of the desk with his body.

A lump formed in Julie's throat as she remembered for the hundredth time in the last hour and a half she'd spent driving to see her husband that the Colonel had given his life for the safety of her husband. Philip had escaped, according to his own admission, with minor bruises and scrapes and a concussion which had kept him from contacting her in the first twenty-four hours after the attack.

But he was alive.

She had proof of that now. She'd heard his voice, and she'd located his hospital room. All that remained now was for her to look at his many injuries and kiss what uninjured parts of him there might be. Then, she would shake in gratitude and relief with the sobs which were filled with alternating emotions: fear with gratitude, sadness with hope.

Her breath hitched as she came to the number she'd been looking for all along. 3-1-4. There it was. Philip was on the other side of that door.

She closed her eyes and took a breath before she pressed the door open, sensitive to the fact that he might be sleeping.

She quietly walked into the room, nervously fidgeting with her purse on her shoulder. "Philip?" she whispered as she walked past the small bathroom to the lone bed in the hospital room.

She gasped slightly as her eyes caught sight of her husband. His head was bandaged, his eyes were closed, and she could see significant bruises on his bare but bandaged shoulder. If Philip looked this bad, she could only imagine what the Colonel had endured before—

"Julie?"

The hoarse but welcome sound of her husband's voice emptied her mind of its original thought. "I'm here, baby," she murmured as she hurried to his bedside.

He managed a thin smile, though his eyes remained closed. "I didn't expect you to get here so quickly."

"After hearing that you were safe?" Julie asked with tears of relief pooling in the corners of her eyes. "Wild horses couldn't keep me away."

He forced his eyes open, and Julie couldn't help but weep at the depth and complexity of the vulnerable and yet strong expression they contained.

"Don't cry," he whispered as he reached laboriously up to wipe away the tears from her cheeks. "I'm fine."

"I know," she managed. "That's why I'm crying." She held his hand in both of hers, kissing the palm of it tenderly. "I came so close to losing you."

She guided his hand back to the bed as he closed his eyes again, and he squeezed her hand gently.

"You're here. You're safe."

"Yes," he admitted. "I am. Thanks to the Colonel."

"I don't know what I would have done," she managed softly. "I don't think I could handle having another baby without you."

Philip's eyes opened instantly. "Another baby?"

She nodded. "I was going to tell you when you came home from the Pentagon," she whispered as tears welled up in her eyes again and began to stream down her cheeks. "But then, you didn't come home, and I—" She swallowed as she managed a smile. "That's all ancient history now. You're safe. And we're going to have another baby."

Philip shook his head. "Wow." A small but genuine smile flitted onto his face. "That's actually just what I needed to hear," he admitted. "I needed some good news. Something to remind me that this—this isn't all there is."

Julie swallowed as she grew more serious. "I know."

With some difficulty, he lifted his wife's hand to his lips. "I love you, Julie King," he murmured as he kissed the back of her hand tenderly with his swollen and battered lips.

"I love you too, Philip King," she murmured as she leaned in to kiss his lips with her own.