It was dark when his boot finally reached the shores of his childhood. Caleb breathed in the sweet air of home and prayed that he would once be able to return to this part of the country again as free man, free from the British and their charges against him and their cause, free to walk on the streets, on American streets without a lobster every five meters trying to kill him. Let's hope Woody and Anna have something good this time, he thought by himself. He really hoped they could kick some lobsters in the ass again like with Lee and Simcoe, for he really wanted to get rid of the Redcoats.

Caleb reached for his pistol that laid behind him in the boat and then for the new coat he borrowed from Ben. The fabric was heavy and thick, probably like the one good old Washington wore himself. He would return it after this trip, of course, but for now, he was more than happy, Ben had left it in is tent. Tallboy was somewhere of for Washington again and even he didn't know where to. Was a bit annoying sometimes but who was he to deny them their new happiness? Caleb grinned. Bennyboy really turned into a lobster every time Caleb mentioned it, so he had his fun after all, too. First name base with the Commander in Chief! Caleb had to whistle even now. To be totally honest, there was nothing there than a hard-earned bit of trust and appreciation between them and only Washington sometimes called Tallboy Benjamin, but where was the fun in that? He grinned to himself and waited for Abe to come and give him a nice gift for good old Washington.

It started to rain mere minutes after he settled into a more or less nice hiding place with a bottle of Madeira that had never seen taxes and of course it only got worse after that. Wind, lighting and more rain. He was soaked to the bone before the damn moon had shown his face- not that Abe did.

"Come on, Woody, where the bloody hell are ya?" Caleb snuggled deeper into the coat and was beginning to wonder if he misread Anna's signal when finally, he heard steps, running actually. What the… He ducked lower and readied his pistol.

"Where are ya?" He whsperd and aimed but lowered his pistol only seconds later. The person running towards him was no one other than Anna Strong.

"Ya gat me worried, Anna!", he exclaimed standing up and was ready to embrace her when he saw the look on her face. "What's wrong?"

Anna brushed curls of hair out of her eyes, her hairdo all but undone and tried to wipe away the tears that wouldn't stop running down her face. She had never been so happy to see anyone in her life like she was now with Caleb- not that she could ever really be happy again, but that was something else.

"Anna?" The whaler grabbed his old friend by the shoulders to stead her, worry leaking into his voice. "What is wrong?"

More tears came, still more tears. "Simcoe… He…"

That devil again. God, they should have shot him when they had the chance. "What did he do?" And only then he realized something else. "Where's Woody?"

Anna sobbed and Caleb suddenly whished he hadn't asked. "He isn't… He can't be! He is in Whitehall. The whole building is swimming with redcoats. No way…" He stopped dead silent. "Hewlett found out!"

Anna shook her head and the words came only slowly out between sobs. "Simcoe… His father found out what… He tried his luck with Hewlett but he… He didn't belived him, so the Major… The bastard went to Simcoe."

Caleb stopped dead. "His own father betrayed him to that monster? He'd gone mad?"

Anna only managed a shrug.

"All right." Caleb scratched the stopples on his chin. "Where did Simcoe bring him? To that André he told us about or…"

"He shot him!" Anna screamed, agony leaking out of her voice. "He shot him right on the spot- at the dinner table."

Caleb blinked, unable to really grasp that information, that… "How is he?"

Anna fell to her knees and sobbed even harder. "He is dead, Caleb, they are all dead. Mary tried to save him, to go between Simcoe and Abe… thought he wouldn't shoot an innocent woman, but…"

Caleb just stood there, unable to think strait. Abe was dead? Abe? But… "I'll kill that bastard!"

"No!" Somewhere Anna seemed to have found a bit of new strength in herself for she got up and grabbed Caleb's hand. "I need to ask a favor of you, of you and Ben."

"What?"

Anna pulled her long floating coat away and Caleb gasped. There, under the fabric, was a little boy. "Keep him safe."

Caleb starred at her. "But we can't have a child in the camp. We could never…"

"I know that there are women in the camp and so are children."

Caleb just starred at young Thomas and nodded not able to find the strength in himself to argue back. "What about you?"

Anna tried to smile but failed miserably when more tears rolled down her cheeks. "I will go back to Setauket."

"You can't! Damn it, Anna, it isn't safe."

But she already shook her head. "I will stay. You need me, now more than ever and I hate them more than ever. My cover is still intact."

Caleb took his coat and swooped little Thomas up and into his arms. "How did ya sneak out anyway?"

Now her face fell yet again. "Caleb, there… there is more. Hewlett… The redcoats have taken up arms and are fighting against the Rangers."

Well, that could only be in their favor if their enemies decided to kill themselves of, couldn't it? But deep down in his stomach Caleb feared for trouble, even more trouble that is.

"I want mommy." Thomas suddenly said and Caleb nearly jumped in shock, startled by the voice and the volume of it. Right, he reminded himself, the boy. Suddenly he wished for Ben. How the hell is he supposed to calm down a child that witnessed his whole family getting shot? Bennyboy is the sensible one after all. He could just recite a Latin poem and bore the child into sleep or something like this.

"Soon, Thomas." Caleb tried to brush the boy of. What shall he say to him later? What to Washington? He looked back at Anna, deciding to get the information first. He needed to organize himself or he surely would fall to pieces like the woman in front of him. God, Abe! "What else, Anna?"

She didn't meet his eyes when she started again and to be true, it didn't help his anxieties. "The reverend heard the shots and came in. He tried to talk reason into Simcoe, he… Simcoe shot him."

Caleb doesn't ask this time how the man is. He can do nothing than looking in absolute horror at Anna. No! "Reverend…"

She nodded, still not meeting his eyes. "Tell Ben I'm sorry." She wrang her hands in desperation, fresh tears on her cheeks. "God, I'm so sorry."

Something cracks behind them and Caleb raises his pistol on instinct because right now, that's all he is capable of, but Anna shakes her head and pushes a piece of paper into his hand. "Take that and go, I'll be safe."

"Mommy…" Now, that Thomas had started crying again, Caleb knew he couldn't waste another second for a screaming child is a target you just can't miss.

"Be safe, Anna", he called over his shoulder.

"Go!", was the only urgent response while she grabbed his pistol and crouched behind a couple of trees. And going he did.

Caleb grabbed Thomas and swang him into the boat that only seconds later was swimming in the water. He could only pray that it was still quick enough but what good would praying do? God seemed to have left them alone. The reverend, Abe, his wife… the lobsters would pay for that! The idea is the only thing that kept him sane while he rowed like a possessed man away from the place that once had been home, that suddenly seemed a lot darker and sadder then before. A shot rippled the water only an inch away from the boat and more were following. 0Thomas was still crying for his mother, his father and Caleb only then realized, that he too was crying.

Ben dismounted his horse and shook of the raindrops that still clung to his hair. Oh, how he wished for his coat and a good night's rest. The hunt for the deserters to the Brits had taken longer than he had expected and the fight had been bloody but there had to be no doubt that that the Brits had done it. If the news would leak out how the redcoats treated loyalists who tried to turn sites, there would be less to try it. This looked better than hangings due to desertion, especially now when the French were watching. How high Washington valued Versailles he had already discovered so he had done the job, no matter the task. No it only remained to send a patrol tomorrow at the area so that somebody would find his bloody work. He closed his eyes remembering the pleas for mercy and the blood on his hands. He could feel it even now, even though he nearly had skinned his own hand to wash it away. He knew it had to be done and it had to be done quietly so the result was working in their favor, but Ben still felt like vomiting when thinking about his day's work. God forgive me for I have sinned…

He patted the horse on the neck and made for his tent and just begged that neither Washington nor Caleb wanted to see him tonight. Tomorrow! Tomorrow he would have battled down his guiled enough to talk to his General and go on with his work like it was expected, like it was needed. But now the guilt pained him even more than the shot he had gotten to his thigh or his bruised rips from when he had fallen of the horse when it had been shot under him. He really had to be thankful the traitors were also travelling by hors or he would have needed to walk back and so close to enemy lines that could easily be a death sentence.

Ben nodded to a couple of officers he knew and declined an offer of a bottle and some talking over a fire and swiftly went into his tent, yet unsure whether he should first change clothes or pray. He was in desperate need for both that was for sure, but on entering his tent he stopped dead. "What is the meaning of this?"

Caleb looked up as soon as he heard his friend enter and god he was relieved to see Ben. The man would be a far better babysitter for Thomas Woodhull than he had been. The child had been whining for the last hours and only minutes ago had cried himself to a fitful sleep. "Bennyboy…"

Benjamin let the cover of the tent go and was nearly at Calebs throat the next second, anger only barely controlled. "What is Culper's son doing in my tent?"

"Ben…"

"Culper's son?" But his anger quickly transformed into an apprehension that felt like he swallowed a snowball, when he saw Caleb's face. No! Where had things gone wrong now again? It just turned out nice after all, so why was the boy here of all places? A thousand possibilities flashed through Ben's mind but none could be, non must be. "Caleb?" He sounded more afraid than angry now.

His friend grabbed him by the head and held him close. That was the moment Ben knew his worst fears were real.

"He is alive, isn't he, Caleb?" Ben's voice wasn't more than a whisper.

He felt Caleb shook his head and froze. Dead… Abe was dead! You came to enlist me? I'm asking you to fight. He had killed his own friend. What had he been thinking? His mind needed a few heartbeats to figure out, that Caleb still hadn't let him go. Why hadn't he let him go. What else was there…? God, please! "Anna?"

"She's alright. Both she and her cover. It was… Apparently, Abe's father found it a wise idea to sell his son to the lobsters so he…Well, for Thomas sake! Can't believe he really thought it the right idea."

The Mayor had done what? Ben all but overheard that Abe's cover had been compromised. All he heard was that Woodhull senior had sold his own son to the noose. He thought of Nathan Hale and felt like vomiting. But something was still gnawing on Ben, despite his horror and grief, he still knew that something wasn't right. "Why is Thomas here, Caleb? Where is Mary?" The woman seemed to be so fierce about her son, so loving, when he had been in Setauket that day they freed the prisoners. So why wasn't she with Caleb and Thomas in his tent?

Caleb gulped. "The Mayor went to Simcoe. Monster toke no mercy on anyone. Killed the poor woman on the spot. Anna smuggled the boy out in the upcoming riot. Gave me also some information. Guess it's damn luck I had a late start and came that day."

But Ben wasn't really listening. Intelligence was the furthest thing on his mind right now. He had gotten the poor child orphaned. Suddenly the picture of the boy in his tent was in front of his eyes again, no matter how tight he tried to shut them. Orphaned… He never had the chance to meet Marry Woodhull, but she seemed a fine woman, a fine mother. He got an innocent woman killed, his friend… And still. "There is more, isn't there?" His voice was rough and he guilt now really pushed him down. Caleb crouched before him, still holding him close. God, what else could have happened?

Caleb only reluctantly started to talk again. "When Simcoe killed the Woodhulls he… the shots were heard by neighbors. Your father…"

"No!", whispered Ben as tremors rang through him. He didn't want to hear Caleb say it, he didn't want it to be true. It couldn't be… Father! Tears stream over his cheeks and the words strangled themselves out of his throat like painted sobs. "No, god, no."

Caleb's voice was ever so softly as he held Ben through it, through all of it, giving the crouch of his neck a sympathetic squeeze. "I'm sorry, my friend, I'm so sorry." And then, even softer, when Bens violent sobs died down to silent tears. "My condolences."

Ben merely wept. He had lost his brother to Robert Rogers and the Jersey, where he died like a dog, never able to really grief and now his father… Who shot a reverend? His father hadn't done anything! Why, god, why his father? What else would that war take from him?

Behind him, somebody awkwardly cleared his throat. "Major Tallmadge?"

Not now! Caleb seemed to have the same thought for he grabbed his friend ever so slightly harder, but Ben knew his obligations, no matter the losses. He furiously whipped his tears away and got up. He could do that! Washington needed him and maybe, only maybe it would take his mind of that anguish he felt inside himself right now. He… Ben whipped his face again. "Yes, lieutenant?"

The man still looked a bit quizzically between Caleb and Ben but thankfully he held his tongue for now. "The Commander in Chief wants to see you, sir."

Ben nodded and stopped Caleb from speaking up. "I'll go there right away."

Caleb bit his lip and gave Ben the letter he had gotten from Anna. It suddenly all seemed so unimportant, so damn unimportant but Ben, ever the faithful soldier of Washington took it and left for the general. Caleb only begged it would end well.