Sam sat at the table in front of the little bar listening to Mike go over every little detail of his latest meeting with Carla, while Fi sat there pretended to care about the words Mike was saying, but really Sam knew that look too well. She was somewhere else in her head,maybe Dublin,or Germany, or some place else but certainly not at this table listening to Mike drone on and on about the people who burned him. The guy was his best friend but he could be so damned focused on one thing it drove Sam nuts.

Thankfully from his vantage point at the table Sam can look around without looking like he isn't paying attention. He watches a few older business men on their way to lunch, a bicycle messenger dodging traffic, nothing amazing for a busy Miami afternoon. Then across the street his eye catches a young brunette with curly hair, in her mid twenties, out shopping with a group of friends. She starts to laugh at something one of her friend's said, and within a second, Sam flashes back to a little house on the outskirts of DC.

He was much younger back in those days, he hadn't been hardened by the reality of life, he thought he was protecting God and country. Sam was just an operations officer in the Navy at the time. He was working with one of the biggest computers in the world, it literally filled a room, but the powers that be thought it would provide victory for the US against the Soviets and Sam was happy to do his part. But it was just a job to him.

It was going home that made it all worth it. Home to a beautiful wife and daughter. Being part of a family. The house was right out of Better Homes and Gardens, white picket fence, porch swing, the whole nine yards. And he loved every minute of it.

Nicole and Sam had been together since high school. She followed him out to Annapolis, when he decided to enlist full time in the Navy, without a second thought. A teacher by profession she never was without a kind word or smile and Sam counted his blessings every day he was with her.

But his heart really belonged to Maggie. Their daughter was a ray light in a world that seemed dark at times. She looked so much like her mother with her curly brown hair and blue eyes, but her smile, that was all Sam. By the age of 4 she had managed to use it to her advantage, turning men in mush within just a few seconds, and her laughter was contagious.

He still can't believe they are gone.

A bank robbery gone bad, that's what had taken the only two girls he had ever loved. The robber took hostages, some bank teller tried to be the hero, and in turn gun fire. In the end, 5 people lost their lives, including Nicole and Maggie.

Sam can still remember the helplessness he felt, the desire to do something about it. But it all failed, the robbers escaped during the gunfire, and to this day, have not been found. The house that he loved became a prison of the memories, and work was his only escape. He had to get away, far away.

And he did, he became a SEAL, left the normal world, the world of husbands, wives, children, of houses with white picket fences. He found the opposite, and became the opposite of what he once was, anything and everything reminding him of his old life gone. Even the women he kept company with, were the complete opposite of his Nicole. He became everything she would have hated, a womanizer and a drinker. And sometimes when he was alone at night, he regreted it.

Every once in while he'll see a young girl and think about Maggie, about what she would be, about her laughter, and then as it always, does, reality comes crashing down.

"Sam."

"Yeah Mike."

"Think you can help?"

"Sure Mike, I'll check around."

He has no idea what he just committed to but he'll figure it out, Mike has a pretty one track mind so it won't be hard. He looks across the street for the girl but she and her friends are gone.

Sam knows what Mike feels like, wanting his old life back, he wants his back too.