"I couldn't tell you anything; it was all supposed to be top secret."
"Well, you sure did a good job of keeping it that way."
After Boggs' talk with Troy, he'd called Moffitt to his tent as well, and let him explain in his own words. The longer he spoke, the more the burden of constant secrecy dropped away. Once he had all the facts, Troy seemed more like himself, although it was too soon to expect everything to return to its former state of normalcy.
"What'd the doctor say about your wound?" Troy asked.
Moffitt smiled, the relief of finally having everything out in the open getting to him more than he'd thought it would. "I'll be able to go back out whenever you need me." Of course, he'd still need to explain everything to Tully and Hitch, but he was sure they would feel the same as Troy.
:::
Tully sat in the jeep, slouched down into the cracks and irregularities of the driver's seat that he knew so well, chewing on a new matchstick. The sun was shining, but not enough to be uncomfortable, just nice and warm. He considered taking a quick nap. Troy had been inside for over two hours – he could've gone off himself like Hitch'd done an hour ago, but there was nothing better to do than sit and wait.
He was just about to settle deeper in and catch up on some much-needed sleep, when the Boggs' tent flap opened and out came Troy, bending down a little to fit under the low entrance. Finally. And then he saw Moffitt walking out right behind him.
Nothing really changed about Tully's stance, but his adrenaline rushed. What was Moffitt doing here? And with Troy? He pushed himself up with his right arm – it had been nearly two months since his shoulder had gotten shot and it hardly bothered him anymore – and waited for Troy to come up and explain everything.
"Where's Hitch?" was the first thing out of his mouth.
Tully shrugged.
"Well, find him and bring him back here," Troy said. His words might have not been the politest, but he was a whole lot more relaxed than Tully had seen him for a long time.
By the time he found Hitch – chatting with a nurse inside the hospital tent – the sun had started casting long shadows on the ground. They hurried back to Troy, and the only thing he said was, "Let's shake it." Moffitt's replacement was gone, Moffitt sat in his usual place, but Tully didn't comment. Troy would let them know what was going on sooner or later.
And all the way back to another one of their camps – this one near the base of a high, rocky cliff – Tully couldn't shake the feeling that maybe Moffitt wasn't a traitor after all.
:::
He told them about everything.
Hitch had asked a lot of questions, about details Moffitt would never have even thought of. Not because Hitch thought he was guilty, just out of curiosity. In retrospect, Moffitt should've expected questions like that, since Hitch was always curious, always wanting to find out new things. He shared as much as he could, both physically and emotionally, and thankfully Hitch didn't ask about the more personal things like feelings and the ever-present moral dilemma.
Tully, on the other hand, hardly said a word. He just listened, rolling his matchstick between his fingers and staring at it. Anyone else might have taken his lack of questions or eye contact as lack of interest, but Moffitt didn't. Tully's mind had been busy all the time he'd talked, weighing his words, seeing everything play out in his mind, and coming to his own conclusions about everything Moffitt said.
"That's a pretty crazy story," Hitch said, with something near awe in his voice. Tully looked up from his matchstick and stuck it in his mouth again. "Pretty wild stuff," he said after a moment, looking right at Moffitt.
"It's what we do, isn't it?" Moffitt said.
Tully smiled and shrugged, then nodded.
After that, they all drifted a little away from each other to work on different tasks, ordinary tasks, the kind they'd been doing the night he'd left. Hitch making coffee, Troy mixing up some packaged stew, Tully making sure the jeep engines were fine, and Moffitt pulling out blankets from the back of the jeeps.
It felt good to be doing something normal again, even if, in the long run, it had just been another mission. Hadn't it? In some ways, yes...in others, not so much.
He put that out of his mind and focused on the present, since that was the only thing he could do and still manage. What's done is done, and all that. The Allies had broken through, Rommel's Panzars were routed, and their team was growing back together now. The good far outweighed the bad, in his mind, and that's all he allowed himself to think about. Not Tully's shoulder – something he'd learned about from Troy - or the propaganda broadcast or the fact that many people still thought him a traitor.
After all, when you had friends like these, you could face anything.
Finis.