*The kitchen was loud in the way only a house with three young children could be.

Mud tracked across the floorboards. A wooden toy horse was missing a wheel. Someone had somehow gotten jam on the curtains.

Lewis sat at the table, long legs stretched out beneath it, attempting to repair a toy soldier while five-year-old Henry and William climbed all over him like he was a particularly sturdy tree.

"You're squashing me," Lewis complained.

"We're soldiers," Henry informed him.

"Then soldiers should know not to sit on their commanding officer."

William gasped. "You're important?"

Lewis looked deeply offended. "Your mother married a war hero."

From across the room Guest snorted so hard tea nearly came out her nose.

Laura, perched beside her mother, immediately seized on the conversation.

"Daddy," she asked, swinging her legs beneath her chair, "how'd you find Mama?"

The twins froze.

Questions about war were infinitely more interesting than toy soldiers.

Lewis glanced toward his wife.

She already looked suspicious.

"Don't tell them lies," she warned.

"I never lie."

"You absolutely do."

The twins gathered around instantly while Laura climbed into Lewis's lap.

"Mama got shot," William announced.

"Several times?" Henry asked hopefully.

"Once," Guest replied.

"A boring amount."

Lewis looked horrified.

"You nearly died."

"And yet here I am."

Laura pointed dramatically.

"Tell story!"

Lewis sighed.

"Fine."

He settled back.

"When I met your mother she was pretending to be a boy."

The twins erupted.

"I KNEW IT!" Henry shouted.

"You did not know it," his brother argued.

Lewis ignored them.

"We got separated from our unit during a battle. Shells everywhere. Gunfire. Mud up to our knees."

Laura's eyes widened.

"Scary?"

"Terrifying."

His gaze softened.

"Then your mother got shot."

The room grew quieter.

Even after years, he hated remembering it.

"I dragged her into a trench and tried to see how bad it was."

"Then he tried taking my shirt off," Guest added.

Lewis covered his face.

"I was checking the wound."

"Convenient."

"I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE A GIRL."

The children dissolved into laughter.

Lewis pointed accusingly at his wife.

"Then I saw the bandages."

"Poor man nearly fainted."

"I did not."

"You looked like a fish."

"I was shocked."

Laura giggled.

"Then what?"

Lewis smiled despite himself.

"Then she told me her name."

"Then he dug a bullet out of my back."

Fred immediately abandoned his toy and sprinted over.

"Me wanna see bullet!"

Without hesitation Guest turned slightly and lifted the back of her shirt enough to reveal the pale scar stretching across her lower back.

"There."

Three small faces leaned in.

"Ohhh."

"Mama was shot there?"

"Yep."

Lewis shook his head.

"Your mother was the bravest person I ever met."

Guest rolled her eyes.

Laura grinned.

"Was it romantic?"

The silence lasted exactly one second.

Then Guest deadpanned,

"I was turned off, bubba."

Lewis nearly choked.

The twins howled with laughter.

Laura looked scandalized.

And somehow, after surviving trenches, bullets, and a war neither of them should have been old enough to fight, that laughter felt like the greatest victory either of them had ever won.*