Prologue

My name is Jake Franklin. Karen, my wife of fifteen years, and I, fell in love the moment we first met. At the time we met, I was a lieutenant in the US Army Special Forces on leave from a two-year tour in Iraq, and visiting a buddy in Alexandra, VA. I had a few days before I was due to check in at my new duty station at Fort Myers, VA. My friend was in love with a beautiful girl, Janie, who was attending Georgetown University in the District. It was her idea to double date with her roommate Karen. The rest of the story would be boring if related here; but, I assure you it was not boring for us. Young love will find a way, and we were married six months after that first double date.

After my stint in the Army, I landed a great job with a large company that was on the cutting edge of Internet marketing. There is a large, unorganized network of former Special Forces that take care of each other. The brotherhood of those who have faced death and stared it down is a powerful force. No brother will turn his back on a comrade in need. I owed my job to LCOL. Brian Gorman, my CO in the sandbox. He was the CEO of the company and was glad to both help a comrade and get a good employee to boot.

In the first years of our marriage, Karen and I were looking forward to expanding our family of two and having at least a couple of kids. However, it was not to be. I was not fully sterile, but close. I was wounded in the second battle of Fallujah; not seriously enough to leave me with a permanent disability, but a few broken bones and shrapnel embedded in my legs required multiple X-rays. The machine in the forward hospital exposed the boys to enough mrem of radiation to diminish the quantity of the little swimmers, so Karen couldn’t get pregnant the normal way. We discussed several options but, for one reason or another, we never took that course of action.