Chapter 23: Norfolk, Virginia - April 2015

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Caro flopped down on the bed next to Teylor. "I work with idiots."

Despite having his own apartment, Teylor found himself spending little time there since his arrival back in Norfolk two months ago, instead effectively living in Caro's room at the Greens' new home. Without Jones around - and knowing how unlikely it was that his friend survived - the apartment no longer felt like home. Adding in the lack of electricity and indoor plumbing, as well as the smell that wafted in from the other apartments, there was little to recommend the place. The Green house, on the other hand, with its constant stream of people flowing in and out, felt warm. Felt alive. Almost like they were still on the Nathan James but with slightly more privacy. And besides a few awkward encounters with Danny in the wee hours of the morning, nobody seemed to mind Teylor being around. Recently Danny even mentioned that it was comforting knowing that Kara wasn't alone here with the baby.

"I thought that you liked your colleagues?" Teylor lowered his homework - a manual on crowd control. With the majority of Vulture Team assigned to the convoy scheduled to depart for Chicago in less than a week, Commander Slattery had decided that they needed a crash course in standard police operations and was currently running them ragged in training. As exhausted as he was, Teylor appreciated the practice. The situation in Connecticut was another stark reminder of how different their current job was from the one that Teylor trained for only a year ago.

"I do." Caro sighed again. She curled up against Teylor's shoulder, obviously exhausted. As a nurse, Caro's skills were in high demand and she was coming off a fourteen hour shift, for the third day in a row. "It's just Melissa."

"Ah." Teylor didn't elaborate. Melissa was, in Caro's own words, her BEC. Bitch Eating Crackers. Everything that the girl did annoyed Caro, and Teylor was used to listening to rants over the most menial of things. Like the woman eating crackers in the wrong way. "What did she do today?"

"She's engaged," Caro began, and Teylor fought the urge to stiffen. The last few weeks had been idyllic, or would have been if they weren't in the middle of an apocalypse, and Teylor found himself rolling his mother's ring between his fingers, imagining what it would look like on Caro's left hand. Given that he was leaving in a few short days, the temptation to pop the question, to know that she would be here waiting for him when he returned, had become almost overwhelming. Still, Teylor wasn't foolish enough to imagine that Caro was ready to jump into marriage simply because they were effectively co-habitating. If there was one thing he knew, it was that Caro was rarely predictable. "To a man who she's known for a month. It's ridiculous, of course. As if that's going to end in anything but a messy divorce. Probably after she pops out a kid or two."

"You may not want to share that view with your brother," Teylor replied, easing up to sit against the headboard. Caro didn't seem to notice, shifting her head to his lap, eyes still closed.

"Danny and Kara are both smart enough to know that it's statistically improbable that their marriage will last more than five years." Caro scoffed. Teylor winced, hoping that she hadn't actually shared that with Danny or, even worse, with Kara. "But that's not what is so annoying."

"Okay?" Teylor asked cautiously, wondering what other faux pas Melissa might have committed.

Caro sat up, ticking things off her fingers as she spoke. "The worst part is that Melissa's insisting on doing everything traditionally. A formal proposal, after he asked her brother," Teylor vaguely recalled that her brother was Melissa's only remaining male relative, "with a ring worth two times his monthly salary. Which, I might add, is longer than they have known each other. Then an engagement party. And pictures. And that's all before the wedding! Which will have eight bridesmaids. It's absurd!"

Teylor chuckled, relaxing as he conceded that on this single point, Caro's complaints about Melissa were not entirely off base. He bumped her shoulder. "There is something to tradition, after all."

Caro actually huffed. "The very last thing that I would ever want is to be wearing some ridiculously overpriced piece of metal that is designed not for my benefit, but to show the world that I belong to someone else. A ring may not mean literal ownership, like it used to in Roman times, but that's certainly the effect. She's taken. Off the market. Do people listen to themselves? And the fact that only the woman has to wear one? It's all ridiculous."

Teylor stood abruptly, Caro's words fading as he moved to the window to stare blindly at the frozen landscape. His hand closing over the ring that he still wore on his dog tag, his mother's final words to him running through his head over and over again.

I am leaving my ring for your bride, a woman who I will never meet, but who I already love because she loves you.

A ring that Caroline Green apparently saw not as a symbol of love, but as one of oppression.

"Tey?"

Caro's voice broke through, and Teylor realized that she was standing next to him, one hand fluttering in the air next to his shoulder. Her hesitation tore through him. What had he done to her to earn such misgiving? What had he done to earn such disgust? God, he had been an idiot to think that this trainwreck of a relationship could be salvaged simply because Caro survived.

They had been headed for disaster before the Nathan James left for the Arctic.

And they were headed for disaster again after the Nathan James returned.

"No engagement ring for you, then?" Teylor drawled mockingly.

Caro jerked, her voice tight. "It just seems like a lot of money for something that is mostly for show, you know?"

Teylor squeezed the ring tighter in his hands. For show. She was his mother's gift, her final gift, as meaningless or, even worse, as something to mock. "So no need to ask your ring size then?"

"Of course not," Caro snapped, hesitation gone as she squared her shoulders. She folded her arms across her chest. "I don't know where this is coming from, Teylor. Rings, engagements, fancy weddings, you know I don't need any of that stuff. Things are good the way they are. Right?"

"Glad you feel that way," Teylor retorted, heading for the door. He needed to get out of here before he said - or did - something that he couldn't take back. Something that he would regret. "Because I'll be damned if you ever get your hands on my mama's ring."

As he slammed the door behind him, Teylor realized that he had left the room a minute too late.