Thank you all for the reviews, not only on this story, but some of my others as well. Good, bad, they're all nice to read.

I'll be updating more consistently to avoid making you all wait so long on new chapters.

Thanks, enjoy.

Chapter 2:


For the past few mornings, I've woken up to the smell of breakfast.

Ever since we recovered Blitz, our new medic has been making us breakfast every morning. I have to admit, it's been nice. Everything he makes is so good.

We were all sitting at the table, aside from Doc, as usual. He cooks, gets his coffee, and wanders off. I don't even know if he eats. I mean, of course he does, but never with us or in front of us. I know he spends much of his time watching over Blitz, but he seems so avoidant. Particularly of me.

The more he hides, the more curious I become. He doesn't act rude, just so… shy.

"…Ela?"

My eyes look over to Mute sitting across the table from me. I don't say anything.

He wipes his mouth with a napkin then asks, "Are you going to eat your food or stare at it?"

"I'm going to eat it. I'm just thinking," I look at Mute's empty plate.

"I know you don't like eating cold eggs. Maybe you could save your thinking for after you eat?" He watches me, expressionless as always. I look into his gray-blue eyes. They're really pale and cold, like stone. That's the way he likes to come off. But he's really a warm, thoughtful person if you stay on his good side. I can be really childish and immature, I admit it… and I try not to be. But somehow he's always so nice to me, in his sarcastic, teasing way.

"Maybe she's had a palette change, eh?" Thatcher joins in, picking up the dirty dishes and silverware off the table. I'm the only one who hasn't finished. I'm just fiddling with my eggs with my fork as I converse with my teammates.

Mute crosses his arms, looking at me as if in thought. "Hmm…"

"What?" I respond, putting my fork down.

"Maybe what you need is a good old-fashioned English breakfast," he jokes. I immediately grimace. Thatcher chuckles as he stands at the sink, washing dishes. Pulse also smiles, stifling a laugh. They've told me all about the weird things they eat in their home country.

"You know we're only joking? We don't actually eat hedgehogs and chickens in a can," Thatcher laughed.

"I don't care, you guys are sick!" I nearly shout. I shake my head, amused and laughing with them, and start eating.


After breakfast, I had checked up on Blitz as always. Every time I see him, or think of what he's been through, my heart sinks. I get flashbacks of what I saw in the camera footage, of everything Sledge and Caveira did to him. We all know Caveira is cold-hearted and psychotic, and we're all aware that rape does happen in our line of work, but they really went above and beyond what we could have comprehended. His face… He's going to be disfigured…

I shake my head to get rid of the thoughts. Now I was back in my room, sitting on my bed. I fell back and looked up at the ceiling fan. It was still. The room was quiet and smelled… antique. It was a small old house, but not dilapidated or filthy. It had some things redone so that we could stay here for our work. We have running water and electricity. Three bedrooms, one bathroom. The Brits share a room, Pulse and Doc share a room, and I get the child's room to myself. I kind of like the row of dusty teddy bears on the dresser across the room.

I start to feel like a really hot shower would feel good right now. The bathroom is just down the hall from me.


I sat on the toilet seat, removing my last piece of clothing, my underwear. I loved feeling the small bathroom fill up with heavy, hot steam. It reminds me of being in a sauna, something I really miss from Europe. I sat there, enjoying it for a moment before stepping into the shower and closing the curtain.


After shutting the water off, I swiped my soaked hair back out of my eyes and stepped out of the shower, reaching for my towel. I grabbed the bar where my towel usually is. I felt around before looking with my own eyes that there was no towel to be seen. Oh no…

I looked around and under the sink. No towels. I covered my chest, crossing my arms. The closet in the hallway opposite of the bathroom has towels, tons of them. The boys are usually busy doing something. It would just take a second. But I really don't want to risk being seen naked.

I look at my dirty clothes on the floor. I can't stand wearing dirty clothes after showering. But it'd be the smarter option.

I shake my head and just go for it. After peaking out the door carefully, looking up and down the hallway, I jumped at the closet across from me, yanked it open, pulled out a towel, then I darted right back into the bathroom. I sighed a breath of relief and couldn't help but smile at the situation and how embarrassing it could have been.

Now wrapped in a towel, I scooped up my dirty clothes and exited the bathroom, only to bump into the doctor. I gasped. He grabbed my shoulders, afraid I might fall. He let go immediately when he knew I wouldn't.

"Sorry, I was just about to knock to see who was in here…" his French accent was so nice and smooth. I was blushing, though I'm not sure why since I'm covered up with the towel now. He must have just spooked me more than I thought.

"Are you looking for me?" I ask, looking at his blushing face. Wow, he was really red.

"Ah, no, I just needed to use the restroom." He wouldn't look at my face. He rubbed at his fingers a little. Why does he get so nervous around me?

"Doc?"

"Hm?" He looks into my eyes now. He is really handsome. I can feel my face warm up. I almost forget to talk.

"Breakfast was great, again," I smile at him.

He shyly looks away again, "Thanks. I enjoy it."

"I think you should join us for breakfast one of these days, though. It'd be nice," It sounds like I'm asking him on a date. It feels like I am. How stupid of me.

"I can do that. I just don't know what to say." He replies.

"You don't have to say anything. Just chill with us."

"Just chill? I don't think any of us are "chill"," he says. I think he's trying to joke but it comes off kind of rude-sounding. I can't help but smile over it.

"You don't have to. But you're welcome to. Okay?"

He nods.

We had a moment of awkward silence before I decided to go back to my room. I heard him close the bathroom door behind me. I don't know why, but after talking to him, I felt like such an idiot…


It's been 6 days now, and Blitz isn't awake. I'm getting so frustrated. I need to talk to him, and hug him. He gives the best hugs. He smiles a lot. But now his face is wrapped up in bandages. Almost all of him is wrapped in bandages…

We haven't seen anything of Sledge and Caveira. Pulse has been saying we might still have a 3rd enemy from Sledge's team as well. We got Capitao, and I.Q. Unfortunately, our recruit was a real arrogant prick who thought he could get away with torturing them. We caught I.Q. alive and unharmed but he took her without telling us, and in the heat of battle he raped her and killed her. He bragged about it to Mute and Pulse. Capitao was injured, but would have survived. I'm not saying I really cared if they were alive or dead, but what our recruit did was completely wrong. He lit Capitao on fire, and not only filmed it, but found it funny and somehow sent it to Capitao's team!

That damn kid… that stupid recruit. He's the reason Blitz went through all of that. I'm sure he's serving a long prison sentence, but he deserves the death penalty. I will never forgive him.

I will never forgive Sledge and Caveira, either!

I sigh out loud. I'm painting a teddy bear on one of my GRZMOT explosives in effort to clear my mind, using some pinkish-gold nail polish I found in the bathroom. I'm in the living room, sitting on the couch, crouched over as I paint, completely lost in thought. I'm so angry. I haven't seen Blitz today. I can't stand to see him right now when I'm so upset about him.

And Doc didn't join us for breakfast. I thought, since I offered… actually, invited him to, he actually would for once. I told the others about it while we ate. They didn't really care if he stayed around to eat or not. But I've been annoyed about it all day.

I glance out the window for a moment. It's starting to get dark outside. The sun has lowered out of sight but its light is making the sky purple and the clouds pink and gold… like the nail polish I'm painting with. The little bear I drew on my GRZMOT mine actually looks pretty cute. I set it down on the coffee table in front of me.

As I stir the little brush inside the bottle of nail polish, I look at my nails. They haven't been painted in many years. They used to be colored dark. I really liked dark, metallic greens and purples.

I sat back in the couch and closed my eyes. I tried to push away the thoughts from my mind. Just clear my mind. Don't think of anything.

My eyes opened a few moments later when I sensed someone walking up to me. I watched Pulse take a seat next to me on the couch. In his hand was a book called 'Traitor'.

"Hey," I say to him quietly.

"Hey." He responds, "What are you doing?"

I pointed at my painted GRZMOT mine. He chuckled when he saw it, "That's cute. Is it a cat?"

"It's clearly a bear!" I picked it up and gave him a closer look. He took it from my hand, carefully, and observed it for a moment.

"Ah, I see. It's a good bear." He says and hands it back over to me. I put it back on the table. There was a short silence between us.

"You really think we missed someone? I mean, that we're after Sledge, Caveria and one other person on their team?" My eyes look back down at the bottle of polish warming up in my hands.

He had is book open now. He looked like he was reading it, but he answered anyway, "I think we missed someone, yes. In a way. Mute was telling me he shot someone down in the vault of the bank the day Blitz went missing," I cringed at the mention of Blitz, but continued listening, "He said he knew he hadn't killed him. But we needed to retreat, so he didn't finish him off."

"If that guy survived, why wasn't he in the video with Sledge and Caveira?" I asked, utterly curious.

"Hmm," Pulse went to the next page of his book, "I don't know. Maybe he survived but they didn't retrieve him, or he couldn't pull back with them. He may even be dead somewhere. We didn't see him when we went back to search for Blitz. I just wanted you to know there's a possibility of a 3rd."

I quietly wondered, if this mysterious missing guy knew what his teammates did to Blitz, would he have agreed with it? Or avoided it? Maybe even avoided them? Best case scenario is that we find him dead somewhere.

Pulse put his book down on the coffee table. He sat back against the couch, just like me. It was dark outside now. I looked at him and wondered how he could remain so calm all the time. I've seen Thatcher and Mute at least get angry and sad. Pulse looked back at me. I never realized until now that his eyes were so blue. Dark blue. He and I really didn't talk much, so it felt a little awkward making eye contact and sitting side by side. I looked back out the window.

"Ela…?" I could feel him still looking at me. I looked back at him.

"Hm?"

"Why does it bother you that the doctor didn't eat with us?" Pulse isn't known for his random conversation topics…

Before I thought, my mouth was already saying words, "I don't like him avoiding me. It's not about eating with us, it's how distant he is. It's weird," I realize I sound childish. Typical, Ela…

"Some people just like to keep to themselves. It doesn't mean he hates you, if that's what you're thinking."

"I know. But he just avoids me," I sound like I'm whining. Damn it.

Pulse crosses his arms and looks out the window, "He avoids all of us. Don't take it personally. He's doing his job, and that's enough for me."

'It's not enough for me' is what I wanted to say. But he's making sense. Doc is caring for Blitz, and I am thankful for that. That's what I need to focus on. Pulse is right, but I don't need to tell him that.

I stand up and set the bottle of polish on the table, "I'm gonna go see Blitz. I haven't checked on him yet." Before I left the room I heard Pulse wish me good luck.

Hope you guys are enjoying the story. I'm really excited to continue this one.

I'm trying new ways to space the paragraphs apart, because I can't get the spacing to work correctly with 's editing program. Sorry if it looks odd.