SEAL Team Six: Hunt the Fox by Don Mann, Ralph Pezzullo Page B

that, after Crocker’s first wife moved out, he dated for two years—an Australian skin diver, a Hispanic FBI agent, an anesthesiologist who was into rock climbing. He was starting to think about settling down again when one of the ST-6 wives informed him that Holly and her husband had split up. She suggested that the two of them might like to keep each other company.
    They met at the Starbucks in the Red Mill Commons. He felt awkward at first, discussing his training for an upcoming Ironman competition and thinking that he was boring her, but she quickly put him at ease. She knew the SEAL life and the kind of people who were attracted to it. She explained that she had left her husband because of his drinking problem, which had led to abusive behavior and infidelity.
    She said, “He refuses to deal with his personal problems, and I couldn’t put up with them anymore. It’s as simple as that. I wish him well. It’s time to move on.”
    Crocker, who still felt bad about his first marriage, appreciated her no-nonsense practicality. His ex-wife was someone who could never decide what she wanted and was therefore impossible to please. She’d hated it when they were assigned to a base overseas, then didn’t want to leave. She wanted a child, but didn’t enjoy being a mother. It had driven him crazy. Holly seemed more solid emotionally and mature. They got together for coffee a few more times, then started dating.
    It was so natural, because they liked the same things—being outdoors, working out, movies, and quiet restaurant dinners. After three months of dating, he moved in with her and her teenage son, Brian. When they discovered that Brian was taking and selling drugs, Crocker sat the kid down and tried talking sense into him. Brian started to take school seriously and seemed to be getting his life together when, one night, he was shot by a drug dealer friend, and slipped into a coma.
    As horrible as the situation was, Holly dealt with it with incredible strength and dignity. When Brian’s brain and body started to swell because of damage to his spine and internal organs, the doctors told her that they had to unplug the respirator that was keeping him alive. She sat with Brian and held his hand when the doctors pulled the plug. He couldn’t imagine the pain she was in, but she handled it amazingly well. Her values were solid: God, country, family.
    Crocker’s love and admiration grew. She became his rock—the partner who made his life fuller and more fun, and made everything work.
    The first crack in her confidence came two years ago when she and a DS colleague were kidnapped while doing an embassy security survey in Libya. She was held for three days and forced to watch her male colleague being tortured and killed. She was still recovering from that trauma, a year and three months later, when cartel gunmen planted a bomb at their house. Holly had just driven Leslie Ames and Jenny back from a soccer tournament in Richmond. Leslie died in the explosion, which also lodged shards of glass and wood in Holly’s liver.
    She recovered quickly. But the emotional impact seemed to linger. She spent more time in her room alone and didn’t want to talk. Sometimes he caught her crying. Crocker cheered her on, telling her that they’d build a new house and live even better than before. He kept waiting for her to snap out of her funk.
    Dr. Mathews had told him to be patient. She also warned him that it might take years. She said, “Each one of us has an emotional limit.”
    Maybe Holly had reached hers. Maybe she’d never be the same optimistic, confident woman she had been before.
    “I can live with that,” he told Dr. Mathews. “As long as she doesn’t expect me to change.”
    But she did.
    He faced a choice: continuing as the leader of Black Cell, or staying married to Holly. He feared that he couldn’t have both.

Chapter Four
    In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.
    —Miguel de Cervantes
    F