A/N: In which I started to like being without the ability to have characters text and email each other because it's the early '70's... AND I needed to look up what was actually in an Official Military Personnel File. (I wasn't planning to have Viper go investigating in this way, but he was going to show up at Social Services in his khakis anyway, so why not?)

Week 8 - UDC 10 - Searching for Clues

36. Squall

He could feel his wife's concern without her saying anything as she did the dishes after dinner and he poured over Duke's official file. It was comforting and maddening at the same time, and he wanted to stop, but something in his gut told him that he needed to find Nora and Pete, where ever they were. Where had Nora gone after Grumman in Bethpage, New York, if they hadn't come to Miramar?

"Didn't Nora say she had family in the Dallas area?" Linda asked without turning around.

Mike glanced up at her, then back down at the file, and flipped to the emergency contact information. There... aside from Nora Mitchell and himself, there were two other contacts listed. He remembered also that Duke had had a Dallas, Texas patch on his jacket.

37. Tide

"I could kiss you," Mike told her and Linda's posture relaxed slightly. "Didn't even think of that."

"You've had a lot on your mind, Mike."

Mike nodded, not missing her tone of voice, because he was due to be deployed again tomorrow and wouldn't have time to look into anything else until he got back. "Linda?"

"Hmm?"

"Look into this while I'm gone?"

She turned around finally and studied him. "You really feel like there's something wrong?"

"I really do."

"Then I will." She crossed the distance to him and he stood to meet her, and they embraced, not caring if the kids caught them.

38. Surf

It took five phone calls, and then Linda had it narrowed down to Fort Worth Naval Air Station for the where, and then the trail disappeared again, for the clerk at Fort Worth NAS had been belligerent at first about whose family she was looking for, and had then, after much coaxing had pulled dependent records. Nora had moved home to Fort Worth because her father had been gravely ill, and her mother had died three years before. She thanked the clerk and then stared at the phone for ten minutes, biting her lip in thought.

If she were Nora Mitchell, with a gravely ill father and a young son to care for... and her husband died or went MIA in the interim... they wouldn't have been living on base.

39. Current

Greeting him at the fence, she kissed him and then handed a file to him, which Mike stared at in confusion. "What's this?"

"I found and didn't find her. You have an immediate flight booked to Fort Worth, Mike, to go find out." She fingered the file. "In there is a round trip ticket and everything I could find without actually being there."

Mike paused. "Fort Worth? Linda, I just-"

She stared up at him. "You need to do this for you. The kids want you to go, and I want you do go. Understood? Go find them, Mike."

Mike gazed at her, at once reminded why he married her. "I love you. You know that, right?"

She smiled. "Of course."

40. Depth

A couple was out walking with their children when he found the house with the right address, and the woman, a red head with short curly hair barely glanced at him, wrinkling her nose at the sight of him. "Ma'am."

She nodded and glanced at the red-headed man beside her. "This is a long way from the base, officer."

Mike frowned. "I'm looking for a friend of mine's family, actually, but there doesn't seem to be anyone home." The man frowned at him, motioned him to continue. "This address was in Nora's dependent records, but the clerk at the base wouldn't help me further."