Chapter 9
Tuck was halfway up the hill to the cave where the RPG had launched a grenade and the machine gun was hammering his men. He refused to look back, his goal was to stop the bleeding and neutralize the threat.
Positioning himself close enough to make the enemy think twice, and also close enough to be shot at, Tuck laid down suppressive fire while Big Bird aimed his grenade launcher at the cave entrance and lobbed a high-explosive grenade into the gaping maw.
Tuck took cover.
The explosion spewed debris in a thirty-foot radius outside the cave entrance, raining down gravel. With a shake, Tuck picked himself up off the ground and rushed the entrance, slipping in the side.
The machine gunner lay in the rubble, the gun nothing but parts and scattered unexpended rounds. Movement at the back of the cave and a moan sent Tuck deeper.
"I’m behind you," Big Bird’s voice whispered through the headset affixed to the inside of Tuck’s helmet.
With his teammate at his back, Tuck adjusted his NVGs and eased toward the back where tunnels branched off the main entrance. Great, which way? His goggles picked up green dots of a warm trail on the ground. Fresh blood, leading to the right.
Tuck waited for Big Bird to catch up, then he followed the trail deeper into the mountain.
A flash of green ahead kicked up his pulse. He ducked lower, aimed his weapon and charged forward to catch up.
Sounds alerted him to more than one enemy ahead. He slowed, dropped to his belly and low crawled, using his elbows, around the corner. Six rifles pointed where his chest would have been.
He fired at their knees, expending all thirty rounds in his clip.
Big Bird lay down beside him and fired.
Tuck jettisoned the clip and slammed another in its place. Before he pulled the trigger to continue his assault, he focused on the six men lying on the ground in front of him. Two still moved; the others lay still.
Bringing his knees up beneath him, Tuck hurried forward, ready to dive to the left or right should one raise a weapon.
The two still alive thrashed and moaned.
A grenade rolled out at Tuck’s feet. "Get back!" he yelled.
Big Bird, still holding the corner, scooted back around the rock wall.
Tuck sprinted and dove into the tunnel, then rolled around the corner as the explosion erupted around them. The ground beneath him bucked and rocks from the ceiling pummeled his back. Dust filled the air and choked his lungs.
Tuck’s ears rang and he could barely stand without staggering.
Big Bird was around here somewhere amongst the rubble.
His NVGs lost in the stones and dust, Tuck felt in his pockets for the mini flashlight he carried, praying it still worked, or he’d have a helluva time finding his way back out of the tunnel. A click sounded near him, and light caught the flying dust particles, making a strange glow.
"Tuck?" Big Bird’s voice sounded like it came through the thick glass bottom of a soda bottle. He shone the light in Tuck’s eyes, his M4 aimed at Tuck’s chest.
"Yeah, I’m okay, but I can’t hear worth a crap. Don’t get trigger happy." Tuck pushed away the nose of his weapon and clicked on his own flashlight. "Come on. We need to find the rest of the men."
They retraced their steps back to the cave entrance.
Fish, Gator, and Dustman were nowhere to be seen. Flames rose from a dark structure lying on the ground halfway across the valley.
For a moment, Tuck didn’t make the connection.
Big Bird backhanded him in the gut. "Ain’t that our chopper?"
Tuck leaped off the ledge of the cave and ran, slid, scooted down the steep hillside to the bottom. Without slowing, he ran, all out, across the desert valley.
Big Bird yelled behind him. "Tuck! Don’t be stupid. You’re of no use to anyone dead."
Tuck barely heard him, the humming in his ears blocking most sound from reaching his brain. The chopper was down, on fire, and Delaney had been the pilot. "F*ck!" He ran faster.
Behind him, Big Bird yelled, "Don’t shoot! It’s us!"
Gator and Fish stepped out from behind the wreckage as Tuck reeled into the light from the burning aviation fuel. "Survivors?" he gasped.
"The door gunners took bullets and they’re pretty banged up, and the co-pilot busted a leg."
Tuck grabbed Gator’s Kevlar vest and jerked him close. "The pilot?"
Gator shook his head.
His heart plummeting, Tuck shoved Gator away. "Where is she?"
"Tuck, she’s alive, but she must be bleeding internally. She’s been unconscious since we pulled her out of the helicopter."
"Where…is…she?" He rounded the craft to the other side where the injured crew members and Dustman lay scattered across the ground. All of them greeted him with a raised hand, except one.
She lay on the hard-packed dirt, her helmet and electronic kneeboard on the ground beside her.
Tuck dropped down at her side and placed his ear near her mouth, listening for breathing, feeling for the blessed release of air from between those beautiful lips.
A hand settled on his shoulder. "Tuck, she’s breathing and her pulse is slow but steady."
Tuck glanced up at Gator. "Dustman?"
"Took a round in the thigh. He went down, but was up again a couple minutes later."
"I think she hesitated when I went down," Dustman said.
Tuck brushed a long sandy blond hair off her cheek and said softly, "Knucklehead."
Gator, the big man from Louisiana, with the tattoos of an alligator and a swamp rat on his biceps and hair down around his shoulders, looked like a wild man from the swamps. But he was one of the best SEALs Tuck had ever had on his side. He stood straight, weapon ready, scanning the hillside above him. "I’ve radioed for backup. We’re to sit tight, hold our position, and keep these guys safe."
Fish asked, "Did you get ‘em?"
Tuck nodded, the attack’s success inconsequential compared to what had happened outside the cave.
He stayed with Delaney while Gator and Fish set up a perimeter around the crashed helicopter. Each minute ticked by like hours until finally the whopping sound of helicopter rotors rose in the distance. Minutes later, two helicopters landed. Medics leaped to the ground, carrying bags of medical equipment and stretchers.
A very short time later, they were on their way back to Camp Leatherneck.
After Tuck saw to the safety of his team, he gave the medics all the room they needed, but insisted on riding in the same aircraft as Delaney.
They’d strapped her to a board, immobilizing her in case she’d suffered neck or spinal injuries. An I.V. drip fed fluid into her veins and an oxygen mask was secured to her face. She looked small in the mass of equipment and crowds of men in uniforms.
Tuck had never felt more frustrated and useless than at that moment. He wanted her to wake up so he could tell her to hang on. That he loved her and that if she didn’t marry Cory, and married him instead, he’d be the happiest man on the planet.
He managed to hold her hand the entire flight back and helped carry the stretcher to the camp’s hospital where the doctors and nurses took over.
Once Delaney was out of sight, Tuck checked on Dustman. He’d been giving his female surgeon a hard time, refusing to have her administer a local anesthetic while she fished for the slug. He insisted on being strapped down and then proceeded to tell her he was enjoying it. Not amused, the surgeon fished the bullet out of his leg, sewed him up, and pumped him full of fluid and antibiotics.
"And get the hell out of my hospital in the morning." After giving him strict instructions to stay off the leg until then, she left his side, tossing a wink over her shoulder.
"How’s Delaney?" Dustman asked, wiping the sweat off his brow with the white sheet gathered around his middle.
"I don’t know."
Dustman’s hand stilled. "You don’t know? And you’ve parked your raggedy ass here? What’s wrong with you?" He leaned over, shoved Tuck, and winced. "Go, before I bust a stitch and get Brunhilde von Shaft riding my ass again."
By the time he got back to the door Delaney disappeared through, Captain Lindsay Swinson was there, worried wrinkles on her forehead. "You’re Tuck, aren’t you?"
When he nodded, she smiled, hooked his arm, and dragged him to another section of the hospital where beds lined the walls, many of them empty. At the far end of the room, one had a body in it. As he neared, he recognized the sandy blond hair.
Delaney lay as still as death, her face pale, almost chalky in appearance.
His knees shook and he almost fell. "Is she okay?"
"The doc said she was a little messed up inside. He had to remove damaged tissue."
Tuck’s fists clenched. "Will she be okay?"
Swinson nodded, a smile spilling across her face. After a moment, the smile disappeared. "The doctors said she sustained damage to her uterus." The nurse paused and finished in a rush. "They did what they could, but she may never have children."
"Who cares? She almost died. If she lives, that will be enough." He dragged in a deep breath. "When I saw the helicopter in flames..."
"She’s tough. She’ll pull through." Swinson sighed. "I’ll miss her as a roommate."
Miss her? His body went rigid. "What do you mean?"
"No one told you?"
"Told me what?"
"Tomorrow, they’re putting her on a plane back to the States." The nurse stared at him. "Are you going to be all right?"
"I’m fine." No, he wasn’t fine. His world was falling apart, he was stuck in this desert shit hole when Delaney was going back stateside. If something happened to her while he was here...
"Since she doesn’t have any family, they’re sending her to Bethesda to be with her fiancé during her recuperation."
The weight of her words slammed into his chest, making it hard for him to breathe.
"You love her, don’t you?" the nurse asked.
Did he love Delaney? As soon as he thought the question, the answer was as clear as it was painful, and it had been there from the first time they’d shared a pizza.
With every beat of his heart, he loved her.
Nurse Swinson chuckled. "You don’t have to answer. I can see it in your face." Her smile turned to a frown. "If you love her, why are you letting her marry another guy?"
"You don’t understand."
"What don’t I understand?"
"Reaper’s my friend." He scrubbed a hand through his hair. "A guy doesn’t poach on his buddy’s girl. Especially when he’s going through hard times."
"What about Delaney?"
The words formed like sand in his mouth but he said them anyway. "She chose him."
"And she’s miserable."
"Delaney’s aircraft was shot down. Anyone would be miserable."
"Don’t be thickheaded, frogman." Swinson shook her head. "Miserable in love with you. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?"
His gut clenched like he’d been sucker punched. "What did you not understand about she chose him?"
"She doesn’t love him in that way."
"He lost his f*ckin’ arm. I’m not takin’ his girl."
"You’re both so stubborn, you’re going to let this mistake go forward?"
"There’s nothing I can do to stop it. It’s all in Cory’s hands." He closed his eyes, his friend’s pain washing over him. "Hand."
Swinson sighed. "Then you’re all fools."
He glanced down at Delaney.
She looked so pale that his stomach clenched. "When is she supposed to wake up?"
"When her body is ready."
"Will she wake before she leaves in the morning?"
"We don’t know. From what we do know, her helicopter landed hard. So far she’s not showing any swelling on the brain, but it is a possibility."
"Can I stay here with her?"
"If it’s all right with your commanding officer, you can stay all night. I’ll get a chair, but it won’t be comfortable."
"I don’t need comfort." He needed Delaney to wake up so that he could tell her.
Tell her what? That he loved her? That she couldn’t marry Reaper and that he couldn’t live without her?
Maybe it was just as well Delaney slept through the night. By morning when the medevac folks came, she hadn’t come to.
When they moved her to the transport stretcher, she stirred. "Tuck?"
He was there, holding her hand. "I’m here," he reassured her, walking with the team of medical personnel carrying her to the ambulance that would take her to the airfield.
"You’re okay." Her eyelids drifted closed as if they were too heavy to hold open.
"Yes, I am."
A smile tipped the corners of her lips.
Then she whispered so softly he had to bend close to hear. "I love you." He pressed a kiss to her lips and before he could do more, they loaded her into a helicopter bound for Bagram, then Landstuhl, and ultimately back to Bethesda where she’d be reunited with Reaper, her fiancé.
As the helicopter lifted from the ground, Tuck felt as if his heart had been ripped from his chest. He couldn’t stand by and watch his best friend marry the woman he loved, and he couldn’t bust them up. Not when his friend had lost so much. Torn so completely, he could lie around and wallow in his self-pity, which was not something he tolerated in others, or he could do something to take his mind off his troubles.
Tuck marched to his commander’s tent, still wearing the black combat uniform of the night before, dusty, dirty and probably smelling like a wet dog.
"Tuck, how’s the chopper pilot?" Commander Janek settled a cap over his head and stepped outside into the morning heat.
"On her way to the States. She’ll live." With Reaper. Tuck’s fists clenched and his heart squeezed so tightly in his chest he thought he was having a heart attack. "I want to go after the Taliban informer who set us up last night and the mission that cost Reaper his arm."
His commander stood still, staring into Tuck’s face. "What have you heard?"
"I understand intel got a lead on him."
Janek nodded. "I’m assembling a team today."
"I want in on it."
The skipper’s brows knitted. "Are you sure you’re up to the task?"
Straightening his shoulders, Tuck stood tall. "Always."
"We’ll talk after you’ve had a shower. You stink." Janek turned toward the mess tent, hesitated, and turned back. "This mission will be the most dangerous one you’ve ever been on. It will require living in the worst conditions for long periods of time and being cut off from civilization for weeks."
Perfect. He wouldn’t be around for Reaper and Delaney’s wedding. "The longer the better."
One month later...
"Are you sure this is how you want to do this? You don’t want to have it in a church surrounded by all your buddies from SEAL Team 10?" Delaney was dressed in a pretty cream-colored dress, her hair pulled back and up with tiny rhinestone butterflies clipped throughout. She looked better than she’d ever looked, and her heart raced in anticipation of the events about to take place.
"Humor me, will ya?" Cory waved his stump of an arm, the surgical scars thick and ragged. "I’ll have the people who mean the most to me here."
Delaney was happy he’d finally gotten the phantom pain under control. The first few weeks after the explosion had been hell with nerve synapses that used to lead to his now-missing arm firing off messages to his brain that translated into agonizing pain. His cries had nearly broken Delaney’s heart. She’d been there as much as possible. Ultimately, the nurses caring for him took center stage, then the physical therapists. One in particular.
When she’d arrived at Bethesda, she’d been too out of it to know what was going on. The doctors had been the best, and she’d recovered within a couple weeks, enough to visit Cory at his therapy session.
She couldn’t believe the change in the month since she’d left. They’d really turned his entire attitude around since the beginning, and she was thankful. He’d been so upbeat, she barely recognized him from the sour-faced, angry man of before. His new lease on life centered around one therapist.
Once she was sufficiently recovered, Delaney had been reassigned to temporary duty at the Pentagon as executive staff to Joint Chiefs of Staff, reviewing the Joint Air Operations Publication. Her commander had stressed the duty was only temporary until she passed the flight physical, at which time she’d be reassigned to duty with the 160th SOAR.
Battling both the D.C. traffic and the Metro reminded her of why she liked deployment. Fighting the Taliban and being shot at seemed less stressful than rush-hour traffic. She looked forward to getting back in the cockpit. Healed and rested, she was ready.
Today was Cory’s last day at Bethesda, and his wedding day. She couldn’t be happier. Well, she could, but that was another story and one she’d closed the book on the day she’d flown out of Camp Leatherneck in the back of the Black Hawk to Bagram.
So much had happened. So many things had changed. But one thing was clear, Tuck hadn’t come looking for her, hadn’t tried to contact her or see her, or even Skype her from the field.
On many occasions, Cory had tried to reach him online. He’d finally given up and contacted their commander to learn Tuck was out on a special mission. He’d left word with their commander with the date of his wedding and that he was saving the spot of best man for Tuck. Be there.
Now Delaney stood beside Cory in the ward where he’d performed most of his physical therapy, surrounded by the therapists, doctors, and nurses who’d seen him through the worst of his recovery.
Someone pressed the button on an MP3 player and Mendelssohn’s Wedding March filled the room.
Cory waved his stump. "Wait. He’s not here yet."
"Who’s not here?" Delaney asked, a niggle of suspicion running up her back.
"My best man. He promised he’d be here on time. His plane landed over an hour ago. He should be here by now."
The door to the therapy room crashed open, and a tall man dressed in the U.S. Navy service dress blue uniform burst through. "Am I too late?"
Delaney’s heart skipped several beats then crashed against her chest, banging like a bass drum in a parade. "Tuck?"
"Tuck! You made it!" Cory wagged his stump. "About damned time. The ceremony’s about to start. Get up here."
From ten feet away, Tuck stared from Cory to Delaney, his gaze fixing on her. "I wasn’t going to come, but Skipper insisted."
"Not come to my wedding?" Cory grinned, his spirit indomitable on his wedding day. "You’d skip out on seeing your best bud shackled with an old ball and chain?"
"She’s not a ball and chain. Any man would be proud to have her as his wife." His words were for Cory, but his gaze centered on Delaney.
Her heart thumped hard against his ribs. Delaney bit her lip to keep the tears from falling. The pain did little to stop them, and several slipped down her cheek. "Cory, you didn’t tell me he was coming."
"I know." Cory winked at her. "I wanted to surprise you." In a stronger voice, he addressed Tuck. "Are you standing by me or do I have to ask Schotzy to fill in?"
A large man in scrubs stepped forward. "I’d be happy to."
"Stand down. Let the man decide first." Cory faced Tuck. "What’s it to be? You’ve been my best friend since BUD/s. I don’t want to do this without you by my side, but I will."
"I came to stop this wedding." Tuck came forward.
The people gathered in the room emitted a collective gasp.
Delaney almost laughed at the comical expression on Cory’s face.
"Why would you stop me from marrying the girl I love?"
Big hands drew into fists at Tuck’s sides. "Because you can’t marry her."
"Why? Is she already married and I didn’t know?"
"No." Tuck’s face darkened, getting more fierce with each passing second.
"She agreed to marry me. I love her." Cory waved his good hand to the side. "What more confirmation do I need?"
"She doesn’t love you," Tuck blurted.
"That’s news to me," a female voice called out from a side door. She stepped through wearing a simple white wedding dress that hugged her figure perfectly. Her long blond hair hung down her back, straight and shiny, unlike the unruly mass of sandy blond curls Delaney fought to control with ponytails and hairclips.
Tuck stared, his mouth dropping open. "Who’s she?"
"Uh, Tuck..." Delaney fought the smile spreading across her lips. "You’ve been in dark ops too long. I take it you haven’t talked to Cory in a while, and there’s been a...uh...change of plan."
"I don’t understand. I came to stop you from making the biggest mistake of my life."
"The biggest mistake of your life?" Cory asked. "And what would that be?"
"Marrying Delaney."
Delaney lifted her chin and hooked her arm through Cory’s elbow. "I happen to think Cory would make a terrific husband." She nodded toward the woman at the far side of the room, slowly working her way toward them. "A terrific husband for Leigha."
"Who’s Leigha?" Tuck demanded.
"Shh." Leigha pressed a finger to her lips and picked up the pace, marching up to Tuck. "Please stop yelling. You’re disturbing the patients."
Cory grinned and stared around the room at the medical staff and patients in attendance. "Are we disturbing anyone?"
As one, they shouted. "No!"
"Marry her, already!" A triple amputee in a wheelchair shouted. "We want to see the kiss."
"I don’t understand." Tuck turned toward Delaney.
She smiled and took pity on him. "Cory’s marrying Leigha, his physical therapist."
"I came to stop him from marrying you," Tuck said, looking more befuddled by the minute.
"You’re a little late for that. We broke our engagement shortly after O’Connell arrived at Bethesda. You’d know this fact if you hadn’t gone off all dark ops on us." Cory shook his head as if Tuck was a thick-headed child who had to be taught the same thing more than once before it sank in. "O’Connell doesn’t love me."
"Yes, I do." Delaney chuckled and pecked Cory’s cheek. "Like a brother. And since he doesn’t have any siblings or relatives, someone had to look out for his well-being."
As she approached Tuck, the woman in the wedding dress stuck out her hand. "I’m Leigha. You must be Tuck." She grinned. "You’re just like Cory described you."
Tuck’s brows descended into a blazing frown directed at Cory. "And when were you going to tell me you two had called it off?"
"I’d have told you sooner, if I’d known you cared." Cory glared back at his friend. "But you seemed hell-bent on volunteering for every suicide mission they could come up with. And you never returned any of my messages. I figured you had some bug up your ass about her."
"So you fell in love with Leigha?"
Cory smiled. "I did." He held out his good hand.
Leigha joined him and curled her hand around his bandaged arm. "I didn’t like him at first. He was very grouchy. Then when we got the pain under control, he turned out to be such a flirt with all the ladies. I had a hard time trusting him."
"She fell for my charm and good looks." Cory smiled down at her. "And the tattoo of Daisy Mae on my ass."
"No, I fell and you helped me up with your injured arm, even though I knew it hurt like hell." She shook her head, a sweet smile playing across her lips. "I figured if you could sacrifice a little pain to help me up, you couldn’t be all bad. Maybe half bad. And that’s just the way I like you. Half bad boy, half gentleman. One hundred percent SEAL." She stood on tiptoe and kissed him full on the lips. "Now, are you marrying me or do I have to return this dress for a refund?"
"Let’s have a wedding!" Cory shouted.
They skipped the wedding march and got straight to the I do’s. Soon the room was full of chatter and laughter and people eating cake.
Delaney fought hard not to stare at Tuck. Her heart sang with the joy of having him there, in the same room, and her mind whirred with a thousand questions she wanted to ask. Number one being, why did he come to stop the wedding he thought was between her and Cory? With everyone around them, congratulating Cory and Leigha, she wasn’t sure when or if she’d get a chance to be alone with Tuck. Hell, she was a Night Stalker pilot, known for her fearlessness. Then why was she shaking in her heels at the thought of a confrontation with the man she loved?
Tuck stood beside Cory throughout the nuptials, his head spinning with the change in direction. He’d fought coming and wouldn’t have, if the Skipper hadn’t ordered him to do the right thing and show up for his best friend’s wedding.
Once committed to attending, he’d convinced himself he had to stop the wedding. Delaney didn’t love Cory and she shouldn’t marry him out of pity. Now that he was there, and Cory was married to Leigha...
He finally glanced across the room at Delaney and his chest squeezed so tight he could barely breathe. She was so beautiful in her cream-colored lace dress, she was as pretty as the bride. No.
Delaney was the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. Inside and out. Brave, caring, and gutsy, she was the kind of woman he could picture himself spending the rest of his life getting to know even better.
Then what the hell was he waiting for?
He marched across the room, closing the distance between them.
She glanced up from the plate of cake she had been picking at and their gazes met. Her fork grew still.
When he reached her, he took the plate from her hands and laid it on a nearby table. "Why did you break your engagement to Cory?"
"What does it matter?" She shrugged, her gaze dipping to where his hands held hers. "He loves Leigha and she loves him."
"Do you love him more than a brother?" His fingers squeezed hers and he held his breath, waiting for her response.
"No." She laughed softly. "Though Cory would make a great husband, I made the error of falling in love with someone else."
Tuck dared to hope and his heart pounded. "And you’re afraid this guy you love isn’t good husband material?" He tugged her toward him.
"I know for a fact he’s terrible husband material." Her voice caught on a sob and she looked up, tears swimming in her eyes. "But I can’t help it. I love him."
"Then why don’t you tell him?"
"I don’t know how he feels about me." Her gaze dropped to the buttons on his chest.
Tuck lifted her chin. "I love you so much, not even an entire army of Taliban could erase you from my mind."
"You tried to erase me from your mind?" A tear slipped down her cheek. "See? You make terrible husband material." She swiped at the tear and tried to push away from him.
His grip tightened. "Oh, baby. I may not say the right words, but my heart’s in the right place."
"Yeah, and where’s that?"
"In your hands." He crushed her against his chest and buried his face in her hair. "I love you, Delaney O’Connell. More than I love living. And I want you in my life, as my wife. What do you say?"
"Is that a marriage proposal?" She leaned back in his arms, staring wide-eyed up at him, more tears spilling down her cheeks.
He pushed the curls behind her ears and kissed the tip of her nose, then thumbed the tears off her skin. "Oh, sweetheart, did I louse that up too? Yes, that was a marriage proposal. But here, let me do it right."
He set her away from him and dropped to one knee, fishing in his pocket for a square box he’d picked up at the duty-free shop in the airport. He opened it, took out the sapphire and diamond ring inside, and held it out. "Delaney O’Connell, will you marry this lousy excuse for husband material? I promise to try my best to make you happy."
"About time, man." Cory clapped his hand on Tuck’s back. "I thought you’d never ask. So, O’Connell, are you marrying this suicidal dumbass, or not?"
Air lodged in Tuck’s throat as he balanced on one knee, waiting for her response. The wait was harder than anything he’d experienced in BUD/s training.
At first, tears dribbled down her cheeks and her lips trembled.
Tuck fought hard to keep calm when his world could easily fall apart if the woman he loved refused his offer. Time stood still, his heart stopped beating, and sweat broke out across his forehead.
Then she threw her arms around him, crying, "Yes!"
He staggered backward, righted himself, and stood, wrapping his arm around her so tightly he thought she might break.
This woman who could fly into enemy territory, probably kick the asses of most men and could drink whiskey like nobody’s business, while looking so feminine she was the envy of every woman, could have any man she wanted.
And she’d chosen him.
She laughed and kissed him. "How will we make this work? I’m not giving up my position in the 160th and you’re a SEAL."
He swung her around. "I don’t know, but we’ll find a way."
"It won’t be easy."
"Babe, I relish the challenge, because you’re the one I love and want to be with." He glanced over his head at Reaper and winked. "Besides, easy is overrated, and the only easy day was yesterday."
The End