**Make Shift Love, Good Charlotte**

The first real scare in the camp was two weeks later. Garth was just sitting down to dinner with the Salttery's as had become their usual routine. Mrs. Slattery, Christine as she insisted on being called, had come out of her stupor a few days after he'd first met Riley and welcomed a chance to get involved in running the camp. Although they had already started implementing some of the changes Riley had suggested, after Christine started pestering Major Velasquez, the pace of change picked up rapidly and by the end of the first week they were utilizing the entire high school building as well as the field house. When Riley had first invited him to join them, Garth had wanted to refuse. But seeing as Velasquez and Christine were rapidly becoming a couple, he figured it was a good idea to at least make a good impression on her. Pretty soon it was a habit, even on nights when the Major was busy elsewhere.

When Chan came rushing in to find him he had been just about to enjoy a lukewarm meal and the chatter of healthy people around him. "We have a situation." Chan was unusually pale. Whatever it was must be serious.

He pushed his plate away and looked expectantly at Chan. "What's going on?"

The other man lowered his voice. "We have an intruder in the South field." So far the policy had been to keep their distance and threaten to shoot any intruders until they either climbed back over the fence or got escorted out by people suited up to take the risk.

Shit. He stood and began to lead Chan out of the tent with ground eating strides. They were having more and more of these incidents. Velasquez had warned that the time would come when they would probably have to actually shoot someone but he hadn't believed him. After all, why not turn back around and save your own life? But he hadn't understood until the first few incidents had occurred that the intruders were choosing against death, death in the outside world. "And they aren't responding to the warnings? Did you give a warning shot? If no one is willing to shoot them I'll do it myself. It's a matter of one life against.."

"It's a kid."

Chan's pleading voice brought him to a halt. "A kid! You can't shoot a kid! Where? Where are they?" Several heads swung in their direction at her raised voice. He turned and saw Riley hurrying in their wake. Damnit, why couldn't she have stayed inside where she belonged?

He attempted to calm the situation. "No one is shooting anyone. We'll figure out a way to get him out of here safely. Take me to him." Chan resumed walking toward a corner of the fences that circled a soccer field. It was just starting to get dark. Almost all the perimeter incidents so far had occurred late at night. Damn, the people outside were getting more and more daring, or more desparate. "Isn't there a guard posted over here?

"No one knows how long he's been there. Could have been since last night. He looks healthy but..."

Garth scanned the area and didn't see any kids. A couple men were standing guard on an empty corner of grass that was too wet for tents. "Did he get away?" The dread of not knowing if they had all been exposed filled his empty stomach with a caustic burn. Riley tugged his sleeve. "What now Riley? You need to get away from here and let us deal with this before you get infected." He tried to sound as cold and demanding as possible, but he should have known she wouldn't give a fig.

"Look up."

There was a slip of red about 30 feet off the ground in a tree that started outside the fence but overhung their boundary by at least ten feet. As he shifted he realized it was a shirt. "What the?" As Chan directed his flashlight up into the branches of a large oak tree, he could hardly believe his eyes. There was a tiny boy clinging to a branch. Even from here in the gloom of twilight he could see the kid was shaking in fear. "No one knows how long he's been up there?'

Chan shook his head. "A group of several families was trying to talk to people through the fence in this area yesterday. They were directed to come to the intake gate and it seemed like they left. About half an hour ago some kids were kicking a ball around and heard him calling them."

"Did they get rejected?"

"I don't know. I'll have to ask some..."

She was already half way up the trunk of a fat maple on their side of the fence before he'd even noticed her intent. "It's ok buddy. I'm coming to get you. You'll be ok."

He felt adrenalin take over. "Dammit Riley! Get down before you get infected or fall to your death or worse." She was fast, he'd give her that. He rushed toward the tree but she was already too high for him to reach.

The two guards stepped in closer, guns aimed into the tangle of branches. "What do you want us to do Simpson?" One of them asked. As if he'd tell them to shoot one of their own.

"Lower your weapons. Bert, go get some suits and blankets. Chan, get Velasquez."

Bert shot him a questioning glance over the top of his sight. "But the outsider.."

"I said lower them!" Great now everyone in a 500 yard radius would probably come running to see what he was bellowing about. He lowered his voice but kept it as steely as possible. "Give me that." He took the gun from the other man's hands and set the safety. "Jesus Christ we're not going to shoot one of our own and certainly not a child. Do I need to get Velasquez over here to repeat it?" Shit. The only reason he outranked these two was the credit he got after Basic for doing drill team in highschool, which he only got into because they tried it to keep him from being so disruptive in detention. It was ridiculous that they gave him any authority at all. "We'll figure out some way to get him down without it coming to that."

He looked up into the tangle of branches. "Get down Riley. It's not safe. Come down here before you fall."

"Gymnast remember. I got this." Her shoes thumped softly on the thick grass behind him. "Besides, I'm not one of your men. You can't tell me what to do."

He eyed the branch she was currently edging out and stepped parallel on the ground just in case she slipped. "I can if it impacts the health and safety of this camp. You can not touch him so you might as well get down here now."

"He's just a baby Garth. The only way you're going to stop me is to shoot me."

Shit. She knew damn well that he wouldn't do that. As she slowly began to swing her legs he realized her intent. She was going to hurl her body into the other tree. "No!" The gathering crowd gasped and he watched in horror as she let go of the branch and fell about three feet before catching a branch on the other tree.

"Ow!" She hung by one hand as she shook the other. "those little branches hurt!" The leaves rustled and a sprinkling of little twigs showered his hair but he didn't dare take his eyes off of her. He could imagine how it would go if she fell. Velasquez would call for a review, there would be a panel, and in the end he'd be cleared of any charges but the guilt would stay.

"Just stop there. We're getting some suits. Don't get any closer."

She completely ignored him and continued to pick her way along the branches. As he watched several scenarios played out in his head. If the kid fell they could suit up before they attended to him but they had no ability to provide serious medical care. If she contacted the boy they'd have to put the two of them in quarantine or expel them both. And if the kid was visibly sick, well that would be the end of the two of them, but he'd have to figure out how to keep everyone else from getting infected while they died. A terrible cold numbness took hold of him with the realization that something like this had been bound to happen eventually.

"It's ok kiddo. Can you back up toward me? I'll get you safe." He imagined she used the same tone when bringing new kids on the balance beam or bars.

The kid shook his head and whimpered in response. "I want my Nana."

"I know little man. I know. I'm going to try to help you find her." She reached an arm out and he cringed when the kid finally reached out and grabbed it. That might be it. Foolish girl may have just sealed her own death sentence.

There was a commotion as Major Velasquez pushed through the crowd, followed closely by Christine. "Riley Louise? Get back down here right now!" Her mother didn't even stop to catch her breath before she started shouting.

Garth shook his head. "I already tried that. She was determined."

Major Velasquez waved forward a couple more guys behind him. "What do you recommend Garth?"

"Me?" Velasquez seemed ok to leave things in his control when he was visiting other camps but when he was around he always made the decisions.

"Yeah you. Sargent Mueller stayed in Camp Five so you're the boss here until I can round up some officers from somewhere."

"Ah," his scenarios began to replay in his head. "Well, she's contacted the kid so we either expel them outright or.."

"No! We can't do that!" Christine whirled away from the tree so fast that her hair practically whipped Velasquez in the face. "That's my baby. I can't lose another baby." Emma Slattery wrapped an arm around her mom and glared at Garth.

"..or we put them in quarantine and see what comes of it." He hoped the Major choose the quarantine. It was hard enough turning away people with the flu every day. He knew with certainty that it would break him if he had to escort someone he knew outside the fence.

Velasquez motioned him closer and lowered his voice. "But surely you'd agree that it would be safest to eject them both from the camp. Better safe than sorry when it comes to hundreds of lives, right? No one else has had contact yet and we can't have desperate people putting their kids over the fence and putting the rest of us at risk." He realized with some surprise that Velasquez, a man he had seen dismantle land mines for crying out loud, was scared.

In the gathering darkness he could hardly make out the two up in the tree but Riley's voice was loud and clear. "I will not be responsible for a two year old year old being abandoned. If he goes out, so do I."

Gathering himself to his full height he took a deep breath. He'd never disagreed with Velasquez before but he supposed there was a first time for everything. He felt the eyes of the gathered crowd boring into him. If this went wrong, he'd be responsible for all their deaths, and his own as well. "I know it sets a dangerous precedent but she's right. We can't put the kid out alone. It would be child neglect and we'd be liable." Christine nodded from her place at the Major's elbow. He hoped their relationship had advanced as much as he assumed. "Plus she's under age too so I assume Christine and Emma would have to leave us too."

Christine's blue eyes went wide and he imagined that Riley's, which were practically a carbon copy of her mother's, did the same. "Hector, please, you know what it's like out there. Don't make us go!"

Velasquez' heavy brows knit together over narrowed eyes as he comprehended Garth's strategy. Time to turn the screws. "You know it would be consigning them to a cruel fate. You asked me what I recommended, well I say we figure out a way to put them in quarantine."