Under a Crimson Banner

"I love you," she whispered.

Dr. Ashley Schanzel stared down at the cold stone marker. A decade of searching, and this is all that was left for her. His grave.

She felt like joining him.

"I never forgot about you," a voice from behind said.

Ashley spun so fast that to her it seemed more like the world had suddenly jerked around backwards. In a very real way, it had.

She stared, speechless. Not twenty feet away, beneath a willow at the edge of the cemetery, stood a man in uniform. He wore the insignia of an American Colonel on his breast. Above his collar was a face just a day shy of being clean shaven. Brilliant hazel eyes, dark hair, slightly off-center nose from a bad break he'd suffered fighting to defend her on the night they'd first met… it was all exactly as she remembered it. Plus a few extra wrinkles around the eyes.

Time froze.

She didn't know how she got there, she certainly didn't remember going to him, but the next thing she knew, she was in his arms. It was as if she'd never left.

A small eternity passed before she could stand to pull herself back to have a better look at him. The sun was low in the sky now, and the angle cast half his face in shadows.

He had picked up a few other distinguishing characteristics in the time they'd been apart. He had a faint scar just beneath his cheekbone, and another, darker, on his forehead. His hands had changed too - in addition to a half dozen small marks, the 3^rd finger on his left hand was now a prosthetic.

"What happened?" she asked.

He smiled, but his eyes told another story. "I refused to take off your ring. The Germans veto'd my decision."

She gasped, despite herself. Somehow, she'd always thought…

Then she remembered. Her darling "husband" had brought her the ring, on the night of her trial. He'd told her that Ben had given it to him, that he had betrayed her.

"He was a spy, he only used you for information. That is all. You meant nothing to him." That's what they'd told her. Right before they were going to execute her.

She hated herself for believing them, even for a moment.

Ben wiped a tear from her cheek, bringing her back to the present.

"How… how can you be here?" she whispered. "That's your grave, right over there."

He had the audacity to chuckle. "Yeah, not my idea. But it is kind of funny to be able to visit your own final resting place. Wouldn't you, if you could?"

She slapped him.

"You bastard! You let me think you were dead! Where the hell have you been all these years?"

His smile faded. "Actually, I was looking for you. After the war, that is. Once I found out about this, I knew you'd find it - you never were one to give up - so I hit on the idea of waiting here for you."

She turned away, the memories flooding back.

"They were going to kill me, Ben. They said they'd killed you, and that I was next."

"I know," he said. "But it's over now. It's been over for a long time."

"It's never over, Ben." She closed her eyes. "Every night, every idle moment… I'm so sorry."

"No," he said, "I'm sorry. I should have taken you out of there when I had the chance. When I found out about your husband… I hesitated."

"I should have told you, that I couldn't leave him."

"Why?"

She didn't have an answer. In ten years, the only thing harder to find than Ben was a reason.

I was afraid of him she thought.

"I don't know…" she said.

"Forget it," he said. No hesitation. He knew. He knew and he didn't care. "All that matters - all that's ever mattered - is that I love you. I always have, and I always will."

She looked up at him, feeling everything at once. Admiration, fear, shame, hope - and love.

"I never forgot about you," he said again.

Then he reached in his pocket. He looked over his shoulder. Sunset.

He looked down to his broken hand. He reached out and took hers with it.

Colonel Ben Brandt, who had infiltrated Nazi Germany, who had fought to end the war, who had waited ten years for this moment, knelt in the soft grass.

He pulled a box out of his pocket. With his thumb, he flicked it open. The stone on the ring inside caught fire in the last rays of the dying sunlight.

"I swore the day I lost you that I would find you again, if only to tell you I love you one more time. Under this Willow, I ask, will you marry me?"

She wanted to scream YES, at long last. To have him, forever. But she, too, hesitated.

The sun vanished. The glow of the ring went out.

And like a dream, he was gone.

She blinked, realizing tears were streaming from her eyes.

He was never there, she knew. He should have been beside the willow, but he wasn't.

She looked down at the gravestone again.

Dr. Ashley Schanzel, who had helped the American forces break the German war machine, who had personally saved countless lives - and had lost her best chance at true love - gently set down a golden ring atop that tomb stone. The diamond inside was dark.

"I love you," she said again.

Then she turned and walked away, leaving him alone, just beyond the reach of his beautiful willow.

She wanted nothing more than to join him in that grave.

Imagined or not, his words hung in her mind.

All that matters - all that's ever mattered - is that I love you. I always have, and I always will… I never forgot about you.

She knew that someday, somehow, she would see him again.

Even death itself could not stop that man.

Until then, he waited for her, under a crimson banner.