She laughed, but it wasn't entirely the same mirth as his. "But when the two of us get home, I won't have that option. I could be deployed or called in at any moment, and not see her for months at a time."
The military provided benefits for its families, but it all required the cost of active members being away for long periods of time. For a kid especially, months could seem like a year, and she knew now just how much could change in those times.
It made her time in Madison an especially sharp double-edged sword.
"She'll have her father of course, but my own father was in the military-and when I was still a kid, he was declared missing presumed dead. Now, I get to pass that same worry onto them."
She said that last part with just some bite to it.