ROUGLE
”We’re coming to kill you, cut your throats, piss on your heart.” Usual shit.
Elizabeth tiptoes over and taps Lynsey on the shoulder.
ELIZABETH
Can I steal her for a second?
EXT. KORENGAL VALLEY - CLIFFSIDE - NIGHT
Unable to pee off a cliff like the soldiers, Elizabeth now grinds her feet into the slope, while Lynsey holds her up like a cantilever with outstretched arms.
ELIZABETH
I can do anything they can do: except pee off a cliff. Don’t let me fall. *
Pants around her ankles, Elizabeth leans back into a sitting position as Lynsey braces her over the incline. *
LYNSEY
Does it feel weird having a person * growing inside of you? *
ELIZABETH So weird.
LYNSEY
I think you’ll be a good mother. I don’t know if I could ever --
- CRACK. An
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Is it okay? *
Kearney nods. The men stop. They lay ROUGLE’S BODY in the rocks. As reality sinks in, they’re wrecked. They kneel, with the sound of nearby rotors growing louder.
STICHTER
In your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brother...
They’re sobbing. Lynsey shoots the prayer around Rougle as sound is swallowed by the blades of the chopper.
THROUGH THE LENS: Lynsey finds the TATTOO MEMORIAL on Rougle’s arm, thrown back on the rocks between the men’s lowered heads. The helicopter rotors suddenly cease with -
INT. AIRPLANE LAVATORY - DAYS LATER *
- ding, the chime of a call button on an airline. Sitting on * the closed toilet seat, Lynsey breaks down sobbing. *
INT. COMMERCIAL AIRLINE - MOMENT LATER *
Now in her seat before taking off, Lynsey looks through the * pictures on her laptop as a way of grieving. She’s brought * out of her trance by an AIRLINE ATTENDANT.
FLIGHT ATTENDANT
Ma’am, I’m sorry. You have to move.
This is an emergency aisle. She just frowns at him, confused.
FLIGHT ATTENDANT (CONT’D)
In an emergency, a woman wouldn’t be * strong enough to open the door.
She stares at him, incredulous: You’ve got to be
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Most of your pictures are out. G2 can’t verify how that kid got hurt.
She heads out deeper to hide her reaction from Paul. LYNSEY (INTO PHONE)
How do they think he got hurt? ELIZABETH (ON PHONE)
Could have been a Taliban mortar.
LYNSEY (INTO PHONE) There was a crater the size of a swimming pool.
98.
ELIZABETH (ON PHONE) Relax. This is my problem. But look, motherhood’s a kick-in-the-ass - so go easy on me. I’m doing the best I can. I’ll keep the integrity of the piece.
Lynsey doesn’t realize how far she’s waded until a wave crashes to her knees, wetting the bottom of her sun dress. She turns to see PAUL, watching from the shore.
EXT. PATIO RESTAURANT - LATE AFTERNOON
This should be a paradise: a perfect landscape of blue sky beyond a canopy of palms, wine glasses catching the late sunlight. But Lynsey’s distant and distracted.
PAUL You got burned.
She looks up, confused. He gestures to her face.
PAUL (CONT’D) On your cheeks.
There’s a pause as he keeps eating, watching her.
PAUL (CONT’D) Where’d you go off to today?
LYNSEY I’m sorry.
PAUL
No one can work all the time.
LYNSEY
I know. I’ll stop. You’re right.
She feels something strained in his demeanor. *