THE END.

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Notes:

I cannot express enough thanks to out_there for not only betaing this rather winding monstrosity but listening to me go on and on about characters from a series she hadn't even seen yet, and overall, helping to ( Read more... )

How to live happily ever after:

Don't panic.

Again: Don't panic.

Breathe.

Live, love, laugh.

Be happy.

( Read more... )

In August, Brad takes Nate across the border into Arizona and down his favorite highway. The desert here, unlike in Iraq, is flat and coarse, the un-uniform sand polka-dotted with the earthy green of cacti. It's unmistakably American ( Read more... )

In summertime, California’s bright in a way the East Coast can never be. Nate’s forgotten that ( Read more... )

It’s late spring two years later when Nate graduates. Brad can’t go because he’s in the middle of a boat ops training mission, but he wants to anyway ( Read more... )

In December, Boston traffic is, if imaginable, even worse than normal ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Without his stripes, Nate is as funny as Brad expected. Brad uses Nate’s last week in California to learn his laugh over fries and good beer ( Read more... )

Nate spends an uncomfortable first week back in Baltimore in his parents’ house ( Read more... )