Free The Songbird and the Soldier by Wendy Lou Jones Page A

cousins or some shit like that.” He made the sound of a bomb exploding and then shrugged. “Oh well. Fuck it. I’m young, free and single again. Lock up your daughters, gentlemen, Romeo is coming home… one way or another.”
    That evening when all the men were sorted and resting back in their compound, Dean asked where the Prof had got to. Lofty, six foot six and fair-haired, was sat across the way, hunched over a deck of cards and about to deal out. He told Dean that if you couldn’t see the Prof, he was normally in his pit, writing to his woman.
    Dean was surprised. “The Prof’s got a woman?” he asked.
    It had been a good while since he had seen Andy hooked up. It had been all over Facebook when his ex had been doing the dirty on him. Andy probably would have found out sooner if he had taken more interest in the world of computers instead of reading all those books he had hanging around his house. It was only when he upset some slapper at a do months later by rejecting her drunken advances, that he heard what had been going on.
    Dean looked around the room. He looked over at the photos above Spike on the wall. For a moment he thought he recognised the girl. He got up and walked across and asked to see one. Spike handed it over. “Not bad, eh?” he said, quietly proud of his blonde bombshell.
    “How did you get hold of her?” Dean asked.
    “Prof’s woman,” Spike said and took the photo back. “Why don’t you ask him to get one for you?”
    Dean was not amused. He kicked the door open and stormed out of his room and across the compound in search of Andy. He found him on his way back from a briefing with the CO about their upcoming operation. “Hey, Sarge.”
    “Fletch, heard you had come back to play with the big boys.”
    They walked side by side across the compound to Andy’s little room. There was just enough room inside for a couple of rolls and Andy’s was the closest to the door. Dean hovered in the doorway. He quickly scanned the area for the evidence he was after. He spotted the corner of a photo poking out from the pages of a book. He snatched the book up and deliberately dropped the photo out. He picked it up and saw the face of Sam. “So it’s true,” he said. “I wondered how you could get yourself a woman out here.” He passed the photo to Andy. “You didn’t. You nicked mine.”
    Andy put the photo safely away and turned to Dean.
    “You never wanted her. If you’d really felt anything for her, you wouldn’t have had two other women on the go at the same time.”
    “Well maybe I want her now.”
    “Too late, Romeo. That ship has sailed. She’s mine now.”
    “And you’re happy with my cast-offs?” Dean asked. “Not at all worried about whether you can fill my boots?” Andy glared at him and Dean held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, all’s fair in love and war.”
    “Was there actually something you wanted, Corporal?” Andy said, with great restraint.
    “Nope. Not a thing, Sarge.”
    Andy watched him until he was gone, then took a deep breath and took out the photo and smoothed the surface and reverently placed it back in his book. She was his now, his and no one else’s. Three more days in this hellhole, he thought. Just three more days and he would be off on the long journey home and back to Sam.
    He tried to imagine the moment when they would meet. Would she actually like him when push came to shove? Would she remember him? He wanted her, of that he was certain. She said she wanted to see him, he had got the message. All he had to do now was make sure he didn’t blow it.
    Two days later, he got her letter. She had been worried about him. He smiled. She had asked if there was anything he would like to do while he was on leave with her. Was she kidding? Absolutely. Several things actually, but he couldn’t put any of that in a letter; she would probably run a mile. He chuckled to himself at her worries of being a disappointment to him – fat chance! But those