John was excited. He would finally get to finish that letter to his family and send it off! All thanks to Bobbi! A grin crawled across his face, showing off white teeth. Then he could prepare for that trip to that nice mountain top for the weekend of his week off. There, the redhead could finally propose to Tammy! Beaming, John practically skipped down the hall and to his room. Everything was just simply perfect. Soon, he would be talking with his family, and hopefully, with a new, beautiful fiancee! The Irishman nearly squealed with delight.

'But…' He sobered, hesitant, 'What about Larry?' Evan, he knew, he couldn't do anything for. The black haired man was too stubborn to accept any help. But John knew his roommate probably had family… right? Or maybe he used to have family? Maybe John could invite him to stay with him over the week! The redhead brightened at the thought as he entered his room. In the meantime, he would try to find ways to get the other man to open up to him about himself! John grinned at his own genius thoughts.

He had figured all that out on his own. Tammy would be so proud!

Closing the door behind him, he hummed a happy tune as he passed by Larry, who was messing with a rubix cube whilst sitting on his bed, and sat at their tiny, shared table to write. "What're you so damn happy about?" Larry mumbled in question as he spun the different levels of the cube around.

"Nothing." John grinned in response, "Just that I'm gonna get to see my family soon, and propose to the most beautiful girl in the world!" He put the somewhat written on paper on the table and began to add to it, smiling at his handiwork. His roommate snorted in disbelief, but John ignored him.

He was always negative and depressing in a quiet, drawn back way.

By the time John had finished his letter, it was almost seven fifty. Larry stood, grunting, and mumbled something about exercising for a bit before bed and not being able to sleep. The redhead let him go without a fuss and slid his letter off to the side where it would be safe. Smiling widely, he stood, Bobbi's pencil in hand. He would need to return it to her now that he was done with- what was that?

Something metallic and silver caught the light and shone brightly from where it hung from Larry's bag. Nosey as he always was, John came over and plucked it up between his pointer finger and thumb.

A USB drive.

It was small, but from the look of it and the small writing on the side, it was one of the more expensive ones that could hold a lot of data. Of course, the first thing John thought of was Larry's family. Maybe this had pictures on it of them? Maybe he could learn more about the other man through this? Perhaps he'd finally talk to the redhead about them! Or at least something! So, with that in mind, the nosey man began to boot up his laptop.

He was nearly buzzing with excitement as it flickered on, showing the desktop. He pushed the drive in and opened it.

The files on it where password protected. What else had he expected? Amused at himself, John quickly opened another file and began to work with command line. Though he was no computer whiz- in fact he sucked ass at computers in general- but the one thing he had been taught and knew well enough, was command line. You told it something, it did it. Regardless of what it was. Wipe the memory of the computer? Sure!

You could really fuck shit up with command line.

Quickly, he cracked down on the password, easily snapping into the USB drive with his new weapon. John sucked at programming and general hacking, but he was a genius when it came to this. For him, the little black box on his screen with white typed letters was straightforward and easy. The password had been tough, he would admit, but he managed to get in after close to fifteen minutes. Pleased, John grinned and brought up the files in the USB drive. Now he was getting somewhere! Larry was going to be his friend and more open, he was sure of it! All he had to do was get some insight!

As he scrolled through the files, his smile fell from his face almost painfully. What… was this? Schematics for weapons- which they weren't supposed to have- pictures of the base, passwords, a list of weaknesses and strengths… holes in their defenses...

This… none of this... Larry wasn't supposed to have this.

John felt sick to his stomach. What was his roommate doing with this kind of information? On a USB drive that could be easily hidden due to small size, and password encrypted, no less! Trembling, wanting to hurl at the thoughts whirling in his head, the redhead stood shakily and stumbled from the laptop on the table.

Was Larry a spy? A traitor? Why? What reason did he have? Wait! Wait! Relief coursed through John. Maybe he didn't WANT to do this! Maybe he was being forced! That would explain why he didn't want to talk about his family! Maybe the damn assholes forcing him to do this were holding his family hostage! Yes, that made perfect sense. Now all he had to do was step in and do something about it. John would just kick their asses and-

The door opened and Larry walked in, yawning widely. He froze when he saw the laptop on, and very familiar documents opened up on it. There was a moment of brief silence,

"Larry, would you mind explaining this to me?" John asked slowly with a measured amount of calm. Of course, there was the possibility that Larry wasn't a spy at all. Maybe he was keeping this information to give to Lennox and then was going to explain how they could improve security or something. John would let him tell him. John would understand. He wouldn't judge. He wanted Larry to be his friend, and he would do his best to help him and get him out of any trouble he was in.

"What… are you doing?" Larry's voice was dark and low,

"What. Is. This?" John wasn't going to let it go.

"Why are you…" He chuckled softly, "Look, it's nothin', okay? I'm just interested in-"

"Bullshit. Come on Larry, what's going on? Is it for Lennox so he can improve security? Or something else?" The redhead demanded, he knew better. They both did. Larry wasn't as intellectually inclined as Evan. He wasn't as fascinated with mere schematics and information. He didn't soak it up like a sponge. Like the brunette did.

Larry laughed harshly, and seemed to struggle to find what to say,

"You… just don't know when to quit… do you…?" he began moving around John, but the redhead turned so he continuously faced him, "No, it's not for Lennox." The man muttered darkly; the Irishman watched him move fluidly around the room. What he didn't know was Larry was slowly moving for his gun, and already coming up with a cover story for John's sudden and unexpected death.

"You're… a spy?" John's voice faltered, he had been hoping, rather desperately, that it was just for security improvement,

"No, gee, you think?" Larry's voice was sarcastic, "Yes, John, I am a spy." He spoke casually, as if they were talking about the weather.

"But… for who? And WHY?" The redhead stepped closer to him, desperate for answers,

"Does it matter? They're your enemies." The spy hummed.

"Dammit! Don't act so at ease about this! Are they holding your family hostage to get you to do this?! Come on, we can take this to Lennox and straighten this out. You don't have to do this anymore, okay? We can free you and your family! Everything will be okay!" John sped out, reaching out and laying a hand on his shoulder.

He wanted so badly to help Larry.

It started as low chuckling, then it raised to a bellowing laugh that shook Larry's entire frame. Confused, John watched him, not moving.

"You idiot." The laughing stopped abruptly and the spy slapped his hand from his shoulder, "I chose this! I have no family! I killed them!" Larry grinned psychotically and ripped his handgun out, pointing it at John- but the redhead was faster.

Out of instinct born from years on the battlefield, doing drills, and training, the Irishman flipped the mechanical pencil so that it was in a stabbing position, and promptly stabbed Larry in the shoulder, driving it as deep as he could with all of his adrenaline filled strength- which was about halfway if not more.

The spy screamed in anguish.

John could only try to grab the other man and wrestle with him as he was driven towards the door. Larry had a scary look in his eye as he wildly shoved against John, determined to shove him back. The redhead held on- until the spy threw him through the door and away from him. The Irishman stumbled in the middle of the very empty hall, trying to regain his balance. Weaponless, defenseless, he had just raised his head when the shot rang out.

Flesh smacking against something solid, John slammed against the hallway wall behind him and slid down limply, gasping raggedly, bloody dripping from his chest wound. Pain raged through his body like a forest wildfire, quick and absolutely devastating. Larry stepped up to stand over him, pistol pointed at his head dangerously.

"Stupid kid… shoulda minded your own business… going through someone else's stuff brings trouble. Too bad you won't learn from your mistake." Larry hissed down at his ex-teammate angrily.

"Trai- tor…" It was taking all of John's energy to speak as he weakly raised a hand to try and stem the blood flow from his chest. But he knew better. It would only prolong the inevitable. Clearly, it had pierced something important, because he could feel his internals fluttering weakly like a dying bird, struggling to keep flight. It was already way too difficult to breathe. The redhead choked, something wet and metallic forcing its way up his throat.

Coughing harshly right after speaking, bright red blood splattered over his lips, chin and chest. Like the scattered petals of a flower. Or a broken waterfall.

Really?" Larry scoffed with a laugh, "I was never on your side. How long did you all believe me? Six, seven years? Maybe more? And I'll get away with so much more." He hissed, leaning in, "Because they'll believe the enemy snuck in and killed you. They'll believe me, like they always have." The man grinned, an insane glint in his eyes.

This was wrong. How had he gotten away with everything until now? He struggled desperately, trying to think of a way to stop Larry.

John could see Bobbi standing at the mouth of the hallway out of the corner of his eye. Larry hadn't noticed her. Not just yet. She was frozen in fear and shock, trembling, helmet tipped back and eyes locked on his form. He could see the rage brewing there, like a dark storm. Larry needed to be stopped. He was going to hurt more people. He might even hurt Tammy.

With a desperate surge of energy, John tilted his head so it fell to the side and looked right at Bobbi. Her eyes widened and silently begged him not to move, to save his strength so he would be alright. But they both knew he wouldn't recover from this. Bobbi, perhaps, even more so than John.

"Get… 'im… Bobs… Don'... let… 'im… fool… 'em…" The Irishman wheezed painfully, darkly, "Pro- mise… me…" John clenched his teeth to withhold more blood, but it only seeped through, between his teeth, leaking out. Larry was confused for a moment, then turned to look where John was looking.

"Shit. Well, looks like there'll be two victims, hm?" he raised the gun, but he was a moment too slow, like before. John watched through the thick haze of death as Bobbi shot forward, crouching down to move faster. The bullet fired from Larry's gun missing her by mere centimeters. She was pissed. Rage was fueling her every movement, making her faster and stronger than normal, adrenaline pumping throughout her body.

She rocket punched Larry upwards in the jaw, then smacked his gun out of his hand. The redhead blearily watched the gun skitter across the floor like some frightened mouse. Bobbi would hold her promise. She was a good person. John barely heard the two ex-teammates run off in a fast paced chase.

He did, however, hear his beloved screaming his name, heard her hitting her knees, and felt her gently pulling his head up into her lap in a tender embrace. The Irishman fought for a moment, and managed to lock green eyes with her beautiful blue ones. So pure… so gorgeous… Why were there tears? Oh, please don't cry, he mentally begged, please don't. Tear drops plopped against his skin gently, like raindrops.

Weakly, painfully, he raised a hand and laid it against her cheek, she grabbed it with one of her own, "John… John, please…" Tammy whimpered, agony in her stunning voice. He sighed through his nose tiredly. She had such a beautiful voice.

"Lo- ve… you… si- ng… for… me…? The… lull- aby…" The Irishman begged, out of breath, and out of time.

"Of course… anything… anything for you…" Tammy kissed his forehead, beginning in a soft, broken hum.

The song she sang was one her mother had written and sang to her when she was but a babe,

"O'er the mountains,

And beyond the hills,

There is a palace,

For you and me,

Past the oceans,

And through the trees,

There is a palace,

For you and me,

Its waited ages,

Through water and fire,

This palace has stood,

Through space and time,

Within its walls,

A refuge awaits,

For you and me,

This palace has stood,

Please rest your head,

The danger has gone,

Your weariness ends,

Because of the palace,

Enter your dreams,

With ease and delight,

This palace has waited,

For you and me,

The moon will guide you,

To sleep tonight,

This palace will guard you,

Until the sunrise."

The last word broke as it left her lips, she took a deep shuddering breath to try and steady herself.

"John…?" Tammy whimpered in question. No answer. The man's body was still, his eyes closed, a warm, silly grin plastered across his face. As in life, as so in death. A warbling, agonized cry ripped itself from the very depths of her lungs, and out of her lips, tears pouring in full force. Gone. He was gone. No longer would he smile at her. No longer would he hold her hand and tell her to be happy because he was there and would make everything better. No more of his warmth.

The only way John could make this better was if he came back. Loud sobs racked Tammy's body as she hunched over him.

"Oh my God… Tam! John!" Evan skidded around the corner and bolted towards them, "What the hell-" He froze when he laid eyes on them fully, "Oh no… no no no… Tams… what's going on…?" The brunette sounded hopeless to the blonde's ears. His glasses nearly falling off his nose, his hair disheveled. His knees shook and he slowly knelt down at her side. Evan wasn't a touchy person. He didn't exactly enjoy hugs or affection. But he gently, tenderly wrapped an arm around Tammy's shoulders. Knowing she was hurting and probably needed it. The blonde cradled John's head, and cried against the larger man at her side.

"What the hell is going on here?!" A voice snapped, and Evan looked up. There stood Ratchet and a few other blue eyed men, looking confused. Evan didn't bother to remember all of their names. But he knew this was a very small group compared to how many there were on base. Tammy's screaming and wailing like a banshee must have brought them.

"John… he's… I don't know what happened… Bobbi, she was here, so was Larry… I think, but…" Evan made a desperate gesture with his free hand. His words brought on a fresh wave of tears and pain for Tammy, who wailed her anguish to the air around her.

"First Aid! Get them to the med bay!" Ratchet barked, before taking off around the corner sharply, the rest of the group running after him. Leaving behind a singular, red haired man. He stepped up, appearing to offer a sad, condolling smile past the face mask over his lower face. His eyes were covered with a red vizor, much like Jazz's.

"Hello there…" He greeted softly, kneeling down to their level, "Miss…? I know it hurts… but you need to let go of him now, okay? I'll get you all to the med bay." Tammy shook her head back and forth at his words, whimpering and sobbing, clutching John's body closer to herself, as if to protect him from everything. She wouldn't let them take him; not while there was breath still in her body.

Evan gently wrapped his arms around her, "It's okay… he's here to help… you can let go…" The blonde wailed and fought against him, but she was tired from crying, exhausted from grief, and was easily removed. The brunette held her back as First Aid scooped up the corpse carefully, and started for the med bay. The duo followed after him, Tammy continuously trying to rip herself free of Evan's embrace- trying to get to John. But, finally, she went limp and simply allowed herself to be dragged along like a rag doll.

It scared Evan. The way her eyes lost their life and dulled, the way she stopped fighting, and how even her skin seemed to gray. She just… gave up. The change was faster than he had expected, or ever wished to witness. It pained him.

When they laid John down on a medical bed near the back, and Evan had released her, Tammy flew to his side, sat down, and refused to leave. Evan plopped down wearily on a bed nearby, but didn't get closer. Who knew what the blonde would do in her state? She could very well try to take his face off. So, not risking it, he sat and calmly kept watch.

Tammy never once left John's side.