"If Heaven wasn't so far away, I'd pack up the kids and go for the day. Introduce 'em to their [father], watch 'em laugh at the way he talked." -If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away, Justin Moore.

Boss watches as the two of them leave and waits for the door to close, then stands and paces from one end of her office to the other, thinking. The girl thought differently, but Boss could clearly read all the emotions playing out behind her grey eyes. Fear was at the top. Pain was next. Anger was hidden well, but it was unmistakably there. She knew that tsunami of feelings all too well.

The girl's voice had been mostly steady and she was a very good liar for one so very young, but that didn't mean Boss had bought it. No, she knew there was something hidden under those oversized clothes. She'd seen the shaking too, and noticed a muscle in the girl's arm jump. Noticed that the opposite arm never showed itself after that. Boss could recognize the signs of a panic attack from a mile away. She could see the girl forcing her shoulders to stay strong and her legs to stay steady. Yes, there was something hidden under all of the girl's projected confidence, and Boss would find out eventually. The girl was strong, but she was not that strong.

Boss had learned that one the hard way herself. Thirty-eight with two young kids at home and a husband in the National Cemetary. She might be right next to him if she hadn't found out after coming home.

Boss' eyes travel around the room and land on a picture of Sgt. William Robert Erickson, husband of Jennifer Nicole "Boss" Erickson. She straightens, breathes, and smiles, knowing he would want her to do so. She laughs as she mentally pictures him ordering her to do so from up above, and then collects herself and continues with work.

No doubt she has a stack of papers waiting for her that would take her all night.