“I’m sure Tom was just giving her a hug to help Tina steady herself,” Bette responded drily.

“I’ve been getting hugs myself out here, too, you know,” the brunette continued calmly.  “From Mike’s guys…even from the Colonel!”

“Really?!,” Cheryl exclaimed.

“Now, don’t you start spreading nonsense, Cheryl,” Bette warned, “the way you tried to just now, twisting what you saw with Tina.”

She continued, after flashing Cheryl a warning glance,“as for the Colonel…he was just relieved that our group made it back…that all of us made it back from that second mission.”

“What are you girls gossiping about?,” the Colonel asked, as he walked into his office in the base camp.

Cheryl had joined the helicopter that brought critical medical supplies and a supplementary shipment of MREs.  She was supposed to be making advanced arrangements for the staff from the government auditors who were in Kabul, and scheduled to visit the base camp in a few days.

Soon after landing, she’d found Bette in the Colonel’s office, studying some documents and photos she had taken during the second mission she’d joined the day before.

The Colonel had rejoined Bette in his office to get an update from the brunette, and was surprised to see Cheryl in it also.

“What are you doing here, Cheryl?,” he asked.  “That helicopter is flying back in a couple of hours, and you’re going to be in it, regardless of whether you’re done with whatever you’re supposed to be doing.”

Bette was shaking her head as she observed them talk.  She wanted to finish her work soon, and, although she regretted that Mike wouldn’t be able to join her in a helicopter flight back to the US compound in Kabul, she was satisfied that she wasn’t leaving him in a lurch either.

“Can you please give this note to Tina?,” she asked, handing Cheryl a sealed envelope.  As Cheryl talked, she’d written a poem for Tina, as well as a short note to tell her that she expected to join the next helicopter flight scheduled to leave for the US compound in a few days.  Hopefully earlier, in case another helicopter would be scrambled headed to the US compound.

She hadn’t told Tina, as yet, what had happened during the second mission, when they’d been fired upon with rockets by enemies.  Expert driving had gotten the convoy out of trouble, but just barely.  The last car had been clipped by the residual effects of the explosion of one rocket, but it made it through to the perimeter of the base camp.