[ WP ] `` What I 'm about to show you is so top-secret that we had to invent a new security clearance level for it . ''

Mary struggled to stand on shaking legs, pushing the hair out of her face and doing her solid best to stand at attention. 
 
 `` At ease, soldier.'' The man in the black suit told her simply and she shifted positions even as he shook his head. `` You can sit.'' He corrected her. 
 
 It was with relief that Mary sank back into her hospital bed, self-conscious of the mint-green gown draped over her aching body. She had been in the hospital for two days now, and her muscles were still weak but she refused to let that keep her from showing respect as fit her rank. 
 
 `` I was hoping you could answer some questions for me.'' The man asked, and she nodded. 
 
 `` Of course.'' Neither of them quite smiled, but it was hard to tell what the man was thinking through his dark sunglasses. She could see herself, tired, reflected in the lenses if she tried. 
 
 `` Your husband, where did the two of you meet?'' There was something testing in the tone, and Mary was left with the distinct impression he already knew. 
 
 `` New Mexico, sir.'' She hoped that he would n't take the fatigue in her voice as a tone of disrespect. `` Five years ago. I was stationed on a guard detail there and he was working in a nearby diner.'' 
 
 `` Are you sure?'' The man asked, the fingers of his right hand just barely grazing the watch on his other wrist. The room fell silent enough that she could hear her own heartbeat. 
 
 She was certain, of course, but at the same time she suddenly was n't. She could remember seeing him there, clear as day with a smile and milkshake'on the house'. There was the way she had finally propositioned him one day, her nose sunburnt, and he had accepted anyway. 
 
 Why, she wondered, would he imply it had been any other way? 
 
 `` Sir, yes, sir.'' Mary finally tells him, her voice firm and she thinks that she can see him smile. 
 
 `` You are less susceptible than I thought. Commander Clarke? What I'm about to show you is so top-secret that we had to invent a new security clearance level for it.'' 
 
 `` Is this related to Abe?'' Mary asked her tone almost defensive. Her husband was, she had to admit, the gentlest man that she had ever met. Prone to sickness, but always able to smile for her. 
 
 He had gone missing, three months into her pregnancy. She still had yet to hear from him, and there was a solid pit of fear in her chest that she would n't. 
 
 `` Yes. We believe your husband may be an illegal alien. However there is more to this than that.'' A nurse comes to the door of the room with a wheelchair, the conversation not causing even a moment's hesitation as she parked it at the side of Mary's bed. 
 
 `` I can walk.'' Mary told him, her voice growing icy. She prickled at his accusation that the man she loved, that the man she may have lost had been lying to her. This was all too much right now, on a day where she was already worn thin. Where he should have been there. 
 
 `` Safety, Ma'am.'' The nurse tells her simply. `` Liability if not that.'' 
 
 She opened her mouth to speak, increasingly frustrated and the man in black held up a solitary finger. `` Commander Clarke - Mary. Trust me; you'll want to be sitting for this. It is n't your husband that I'm taking you to see.'' 
 
 It takes more effort than Mary thought she had left in her to relent, realization striking her as to where they were likely going. 
 
 `` When will I get to see my son?'' Mary asked the nurse who looked at her like a deer in the headlights. `` He was born at 0900; it's been over three hours.'' 
 
 `` Or-'' Mary started again when the nurse edged away and the man in the black suit started to smile again. `` Is he what you're intending to show me.'' 
 
 `` Please.'' the man told her simply, gesturing to the chair. She forced down the panic rising inside of her gut. If something had happened to him, if there was something wrong, she would lose her last connection to Abe. She would lose the only family that she had. 
 
 Mary surprises herself with her stoicism as she moves from the bed to the chair, and the nurse leaves. It is the man who takes the chair's handles and steers her half-dressed from her room.
