To nurses, the silent soldiers.

Part One.

"Being a nurse is knowing when to turn on your tough and when to to turn on your human. And finding the balance in between for those needed."

Bianca sadly studied the young man laying front of her. The holographic pad in her hand listed him as Takashi Shirogane, a senior pilot, and missing in action.

Not missing anymore, Bianca thought, typing her brief report quickly on the screen. She huffed in frustration with how short the report was going to end up being. Her superior officers did not give her enough time to properly fully examine him.

Scarring across the bridge of the nose, right prosthetic limb fused with little abrasion to the skin, streaks of early aging in hair due to immense stress?

Bianca exhaled sharply through her nose again at the simple terms she was using. Commander Henderson sharply told her to keep the report in simple terms he could understand fully. At that request, she knew that Takashi Shirogane's arrival was unexpected to say the least, and had the whole Garrison on high alert. The guards outside of the chamber and the other science officers typing away in the room reinforced the lingering fear in the back of her head.

Oh, and the fact that he was strapped down on the examining table. She chewed on a few choice words to share with Henderson when she delivered the report. In Takashi's condition, he will not be waking up any time soon, the man running away was the least of their worries.

Placing the tablet by her side on a tool desk, she pulled out a thin pen light from her scrubs pocket and carefully pulled back the lid to left his eye, shining it in his pupil. She breathed a sigh of relief when it constricted and moved to the second eye, nodding to herself when it constricted as well.

No brain death. She typed, cringing at the language. Double checking the "official report", her eyes landed back on his prone figure. He could not have been much older than she, perhaps by a year or two. He had faced horror wherever he was kept. The visible scar across his nose, the scarring on his back and stomach, and his prosthetic arm were obvious signs of torture. Bianca felt the cold fingers of dread sliver down her spine at the thought of the mental trauma he would have. She hoped the Garrison would send him to a specialist as soon as he woke up.

A jarring crash had her head snapping up, whipping to the only entrance of the round room. The door slid open with a hiss and a boy wearing a bandana over his pale face sprinted in the room, kicking the officer in front of him in the chest. The officer stumbled against a table and crashed to the ground. The other men in the room rushed at the boy, but he was terrifyingly agile, dodging their punches and returned the action with his own. The men fell like flies around the boy.

Bianca froze, watching as her peers were knocked out. Her blood roared in her ears.

Move.

Move.

Move!

Finally her training took over and her hand shot out to snatch the closest blade she could find and positioned herself in front of her patient. Her hand trembled and her knuckles were white as she gripped the medical scalpel tightly, angling the sharp end at the boy as he turned towards her.

"Move," he ordered, flashing a wickedly sharp knife in front of him to frighten her.

A new wave of fear rushed over her, but she stood her ground. It had been years since her training. "Make me," she tried to sound calm, but her voice wavered.

The boy shrugged. "Fine." He rushed her so quickly she barely had time to bat away the knife with her arm. She hissed at the cut the sharp metal left and felt a warm trickle of blood travel down her forearm. The boy then swiped at her legs with his foot, trying to trip her but she danced out of the way. She stepped forward, aiming for his throat and nicked the skin before he jumped out of the way. He scowled at her, annoyance clear in his dark eyes. Bianca almost felt proud of herself when the air left her lungs and she was sent tumbling to the ground. She lost grip of the scalpel and gasped for air like a fish out of water. His kick had been so fast that she had no time to block.

She heard the sound of the doors hissing open but it sounded distant, like she was dreaming.

Voices floated around her but she had trouble distinguishing them. She shut her eyes and breathed deeply, praying away the pain in her chest and head.

She forced herself onto her knees in time to see the boy leave the room with Takashi in between him and a second taller boy.

"Wait," she tried to cry, but it sounded more like a pathetic wheeze to her ears.

Steeling herself and using the table for support, she managed to get herself onto her feet. She clutched at her arm, gritting her teeth at the sting the cut left her and lumbered after Takashi.

Bianca's vision swam as she slowly made her way down the hall, her temples throbbing. Guards marched past her, but none looked twice at her slumped form against the wall. Red flashed across her vision, dancing along the metal floor from the obnoxious emergency lights. A low siren wailed in her ears in harmony with the high pitched ringing that had begun. Blood dripped through her fingers that were clutched around the wound on her arm the boy gave her. It must have been deeper than she had originally thought, her blood should have been clotting by now.

Among all of the pain her body was in, she heard the faint yells of the children that had taken her patient. She rounded a corner to see four boys lead Takashi out of a door into the cool night air and onto a bike.

Fear for her patient gripped at her throat, its claws sucking all of the air out of her. None of the boys saw her pressed against the wall as she slowly began to regain her sense of balance and composure. Her vision steadied but the ringing remained. Her brain began calculating how to get her patient back without the boys hurting Takashi. She did not know how deep his injuries were, she did not have time to conduct the proper examination. She knew the boy in red-whose bandana was now around his neck-who had attacked her and her men would be the hardest to maneuver around and she wasn't stupid to rush them in her hurt state.

Her eyes landed on a hover speeder that was parked outside of the door. Hover speeder's weren't too different than motorcycles, right? It had been years since she last drove either.

A bitter taste filled her mouth and she clenched her jaw. She just had to wait until they were turned around, then she would chase after her charge.

After that..after that she would pray the soldiers caught up to them in time. She had her cellphone, she could be tracked and contact Henderson.

The lights of the bike flashed on and it roared to life. The boy who had attacked her sat at the front and started to peel the bike away. He glanced over his shoulder and their eyes met. Bianca could have sworn a faint smirk graced his lips. He whipped the hovercraft—with three boys and Takashi slumped across red jacket boy's back—and sped off into the dessert.

Swallowing hard and forcing her feet to move before she lost her resolve, she sprinted to the hover speeder. Muttering to herself on how stupid she was being while looking over the dozens of switches and buttons, she managed to flip the correct switch and the speeder roared to life. Willing her thrashing heart to slow, she turned the speeder in the direction the boys went and took off.

Frozen dessert air whipped at Bianca's face, causing her eyes to water and her vision blur. She tucked her head down and kept on, quickly gaining distance on the boys. Their speeder was too heavily weighed down by all of them, especially the rather large one at the rear of the vehicle. Bianca's ears picked up the deep sound of the military's jeeps and she stole a glance behind her.

At least four military trucks and a few bikes were chasing after them, quickly gaining speed. A speeder zipped ahead of the rest and was moving startlingly fast.

Bianca cursed under her breath and flipped another switch on the dash, gasping as her head snapped forward at the jolt she was not prepared for. Her neck thrummed in pain but she kept on after the boys.

Suddenly, the speeder ahead of her took a sharp left and she almost lost them completely. Bianca yanked at her speeder into a hard turn and prayed she could keep balance and not fall onto the jagged rocks. When she centered again, the large boy seated on the edge leaned to the left, causing the speeder to make the hard turn. This time, Bianca was ready for it and easily followed them. A small trickle of triumph entered her but quickly vanished when she saw where they were going.

"Oh you have got to be kidding."

Ahead of her was a sharp drop off, and they were heading straight for it.

They were crazy. Absolutely crazy. There was no way the boys could make such a jump with all of them, the speeder just would not be able to handle it.

Bianca's ears picked up the sound of them screaming at the driver before the noise vanished in the wind and they vanished out of sight, off the cliff.

Bianca adjusted a few other switches and pressed her body close to the vehicle, bracing herself for the rough landing that was going to happen. She kept herself steady as she headed towards the cliff. Oh she hated herself for doing this.

Bianca squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her stomach leap into her throat and the air scream around her face, whipping her hair back.

The boosters flared on with a gargle and muscle memory took over her fear. She yanked at the handles and glided the speeder back onto the ground, kicking up a dusty storm in the process. Bianca forced her eyes open and she leaned forward, almost willing herself to catch up with the boys. She knew that the jeeps were not going to track them, not this far out and not after that kind of jump. Best case scenario, the military would send out a few troops to pick up bodies that would not be there.

Bianca saw the getaway bike yank to a stop and the lights shut off in front of a slanted shack perched on a sand dune. The boys carried her patient in the rickety building. It shuddered violently with each breath of wind, threatening to topple at any second.

She slowed down, scanning for a place to hide her bike. A decently sized boulder lay on her right, a few feet from the dune. She pulled behind it and switched the bike off.

Silence enveloped her like a blanket. She strained her ears to listen and heard the faint sounds of the boys arguing, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. Blood rushed loudly in her ears and her hands shook from adrenaline. She could do this. She knew help was not on the way, she knew she was being stupid and not following protocol. But she had to at least see if Takashi was all right. The boy who took him was anything but gentle, and he could have injured the man further with the Jason Bourne bike chase.

Bianca wished she had at least grabbed something sharp when she left the lab. She reached into her scrubs' pocket and clicked on her cellphone. No service. She truly was on her own.

Resisting the urge to throw up, the woman slipped her way up the sand dune.

Desert nights truly were freezing, despite the merciless heat in the day. The cold seeped through her standard scrubs and pricked at her skin like a needle. She slipped on the sand and fell on her hands a few times but finally managed to hike to the top. Her wound burned with the arm muscle she was having to use and she knew it already had grains of sand in it.

A single glow from a flashlight illuminated the lone window in the shack. Wind blew on the loose boards on the side, causing them to clack together eerily.

This was a bad idea.

She stumbled her way to the cracked door and froze. What was she thinking? That she could sashay in there and just take Takashi? What would she say? Hey, give me back my patient that you stole, thanks you. She doubted the boy who knocked out the science officers would let her do that after he went to the trouble of taking the man. She needed a plan. A clever form of execution to get Takashi. But she had just recklessly hopped on the first bike she saw and went after them like the stupid fool she was. Her mother would have had a heart attack at the foolishness of her child. Bianca could almost here the scoff her mother would have had in her soft voice. The disappointment in her bark colored eyes glittering at her rash child.

Before Bianca could chide herself more, the door to the shack swung open with a long creek. The boy with the red jacket stared her, knife held casually in his hand. "Leave."

Bianca's mouth ran dry. "I," she began but the second boy who helped the red jacket boy appeared. His sea blue eyes widened in recognition.

"Miss Foster! Couldn't stay away from me for long?" The teenager leaned against the doorframe, wiggling his eyebrows, a goofy grin plastered on his face.

Bianca squinted her eyes at him. She knew him, she could feel the tug of recognition on the edges of her brain. His grin. She knew that lazy, cocky, arrogant—

"Lance?"

His grin faltered for a moment, then he pushed himself to his full height and placed his hands on his hips. "Don't tell me that you forgot about me?" He dropped his eyes in mock sadness.

A small flicker of annoyance shot through her, but she shoved it away. He was just a kid. "How could I forget my favorite patient?" He had been sent to her with mild scrapes and bruises on his knuckles and face from time to time. From sparring. She knew the real meaning behind that excuse.

Lance placed a hand over his chest, his grin tugging at the corners of his mouth again. "Of course you wouldn't forget about me,"

The first boy sighed with annoyance. "You know her?" He pointed the tip of his knife at Bianca.

Lance nodded. "She's the nurse at the Garrison." He turned to her, leaning on the doorway again. "Gotta say, I didn't know you would follow me all of the way out here,"

Bianca shook her head. "You took my patient," she pointed at knife boy.

Knife boy raised his eyebrows. "Your patient? Or prisoner? Did you know what the Garrison was going to do to Shiro?"

Shiro?

"I was assigned to make sure he didn't suffer from any major injuries, but you knocked me on my butt before I could finish my examination," Bianca said flatly and crossed her arms, forcing herself not to wince at the sting from her wound. "No one knows where he came from or how badly hurt he is."

The boy snorted at her answer.

A second, smaller head poked around Lance's arm. "Miss Bianca?"

Goodness, how many of her former patients were mixed up in this mess?

"Hello, Pidge," Bianca fluttered her fingers at the small boy awkwardly.

Pidge looked up at knife boy. "She should look over Shiro. He could be injured really badly and none of us are trained medically,"

"Yeah, Miss Foster really is good at her stuff. I think," a third voice chimed in. Bianca's most common patient leaned in sight. Hunk came to her weekly for motion sickness medicine whenever he had a flight simulation class.

"Thank you, Hunk," the nurse smiled faintly. Anxiety still flowed through her veins and she uncrossed her arms and tucked her hands in her pockets to keep the boys from seeing them shake so badly. She just wished knife boy would put his weapon away. She arched an eyebrow at the boy, feigning confidence. "Well? May I see my patient?"

The boy didn't move. He kept his eyes trained on her and seemed to be thinking.

A few awkward seconds passed. Bianca shifted her weight from foot to foot, keeping a close watch on the glittering knife. It was truly beautiful, the blade seemed so delicate. She found the wrappings around the handle odd, but it somehow just added to the lethal beauty of it.

"Come on, Keith," Pidge sighed. "She's just a nurse and Shiro does need checking out."

Bianca bristled at his comment but kept her face bare. They had no clue what her previous occupation was.

Knife boy—Keith—lowered his weapon. "Fine. But if you do anything, I will personally throw you out and let you walk home." He moved to the side to let the woman in. Lance wriggled his eyebrows at her and moved so she could slip past.

Bianca took in the room. There was the tiniest bathroom she had ever seen made of just a toilet and sink to her left, and right in front of her was a window that let the moonlight in. A couch sat underneath it with Takashi's sleeping form. Bianca immediately moved to Takashi and crouched beside him.

"I don't have any of my tools," she admitted after a moment of looking over him. She turned to see Keith leaning against a wall with some papers and string, but she couldn't make out what any of it said in the dim lighting. "But when he wakes up—and he will—I can help him if he has any other injury. Or diagnose any issues." She shifted to a sitting position, pulling one leg up and resting her arm on her knee.

Keith studied her, his face hidden in shadow. "Alright. You can stay. But my previous deal remains,"

Deal? Bianca almost snorted, but nodded instead. "You guys might want to get some sleep,"

Lance stretched his hands over his head, yawning dramatically. "You can tell me what to do anytime, Bianca." He grinned at her questioning face. "Mind if we call you that? Miss Foster seems a bit too formal," he settled himself on the ground by a pile of quilts and blankets.

Bianca shrugged. It didn't really matter to her, not if she was going to be here with them. Something inside her twisted at the informality, but she shoved it down.

Pidge and Hunk followed Lance's lead by settling down on the ground and wrapping themselves in blankets. Keith remained where he was, still as a statue.

That kid gave her the creeps. His stillness almost wasn't human.

Bianca realized Keith probably wouldn't sleep as long as she was this close to Takashi. She wondered if they were related somehow, his protectiveness was almost brotherly. No mere friend or stranger would break into a government issued facility to capture an unconscious person.

She pointed to the wall Keith was leaning against. "Let's trade places," she awkwardly scooted herself as Keith took several steps to where she had been sitting. She leaned against the wall, determined to stay awake if Takashi needed her. Keith watched her like a hawk inspecting its prey. She let him be and let her mind go blank, staring at the cold moon in the black sky.

Her arm thrummed in pain, reminding her of a petty child that needed attention.

Wordlessly, she got to her feet and headed to the cramped bathroom, ignoring the curious look Keith shot her way. When she closed herself in it and began rummaging to find some gauze, she let the panic out through her tear ducts. Silent tears fell from her lashes as she cleaned and wrapped her arm, struggling to do it by herself. Tonight would be a long night indeed.

AN: Thank you so much for reading! I'm planning on updating monthly if all goes well :) Please be sure to comment, it truly does help us writers remain motivated. Thank you again, have a lovely day :)

12/29/12: Going through and cleaning up all of the chapters!