Wow! What a great response! Thank you for all the reviews and encouragement! This is the new Chapter 2! For those of you who read the older version of this chapter, sorry but it's gone. I got carried away when I was originally writing it, and accidentally created too many unit members, so I had to re-write the whole thing. I hope you like the changes! For those of you who liked Panda, I may find a way to put him back into the story somehow.

I kept these on here just in case some of you hadn't read them yet:

Gun toten Girly –Thank you! Which word? I'd like to change it if I can.

Caitlyn kitty –Yes it is the shock, but I think you're right too so I may re-work

that later.

MistyToryRabiyah –Eventually, you just have to put yourself out there. Better to post an imperfect story, than no story at all.

Aquanova –Yes, Mrs. Jones was a little out of character, but I figured she is more attached to Alex than she wants to admit. She was also feeling guilty about Jack and that came through a little. Plus, Alex's perceptions were not their best at the time, and this is from his messed-up mind.

Ichihime –This is set sometime after Crocidile Tears, but that will become clearer later. I still haven't decided who killed Jack yet and that may be a part of it. Alex's education will be addressed in Chapter 3. Thanks for the tips on British/English terminology. I will be making changes and re-posting the chapter, but probably not for a while because I have more to change about it.

To Everyone Else: Thank You! Your kind reviews inspired me! This morning I had just started Chapter 3, and I am now working on Chapter 5. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 2 –Meet your new bunkmates

It's funny, how immune I've become to the little things. What I once would have considered a great offense was now a mere fact of little consequence. Like the glare being leveled at me by the Sergeant at this very moment.

He must have thought he was pretty intimidating. After all, with all the toughened warrior men that must have come through this office, I must have looked rather insignificant. Little did he know that his look was a mere butterfly kiss compared to the faces I'd had to stare down. Not to mention that I couldn't help but think this man was rather inconsequential when compared to the men who invoke true horrors.

He wasn't someone to fear.

"I was told you were coming back."

"Yes, Sir." He was looking at me with a fierce look, as if he expected an explanation for the travesty that is my existence. I wasn't intimidated in the slightest though, and I had no intention of compromising any more of myself than was necessary.

"You wouldn't care to explain why I've been ordered to keep you here for an undisclosed amount of time, would you?" Ah. The glare had returned.

"Not really Sir. Just following orders myself." His eyebrow quirked at that, as if he wasn't sure whether or not to believe me.

"You aren't…" He looked a little unsure of himself, before he committed himself to the question he wanted to ask. "You aren't in some kind of…trouble, are you?" Well. This was an interesting change of direction.

"Trouble, Sir?" I knew what he was asking, but I didn't want to acknowledge it. Several people over the last few months had tried to 'help' me out of trouble, and most of them ended up causing me more than I had to begin with. Not to mention most all of them were dead. Best to keep things to myself. It was never worth the risk. Besides, I knew the Sergeant was just fishing. People always wanted to know what my story was, and he was no different.

He stared at my face for a long moment, as if searching for answers there. He would get none. "Yes. With the... higher-ups? Have they—"

"Sir, I appreciate your concern, but I assure you, it is unnecessary." I interrupted him before he could finish his thoughts. He didn't look like he believed me, so I decided to give him one last assurance. "There is very little trouble I cannot handle on my own, Sir."

He looked surprised for a moment before once more placing the glare back over his features. I could see he was disappointed I hadn't fallen for his act. "Right. Well, moving on to business. I know you were stationed with K-Unit the last time you were here, but they are out on assignment at the moment so you'll have to side-along with a different group. S-Unit is short a man at the moment and you'll be training with them." Thank goodness for small miracles. I hated to think what it would have been like to face them again.

"I don't want to hear about any slacking on your part Cub. I didn't like the idea of children in my camp the last time you were sent here and I like it even less now." He paused to sneer in obvious disappointment at what he saw. "I may have no choice in keeping you here, but I can make your life miserable if you give me a reason." He paused once more to give me a searching look that promised retribution should I protest this stipulation. I think I would have laughed if humor existed to me anymore. Did he really think he was intimidating?

"You will have to undergo several evaluation tests in a weeks time to determine exactly what we are working with. In the meantime I don't want to hear about any trouble from you. Dismissed."

One more "Yes, Sir" and I was out the door walking towards the cabins before he could say another word.

It wasn't that I disliked the Sergeant. In fact I had come to respect him in the brief moments I had seen him. My discomfort stemmed more from the position he held rather than the man himself. People with any type of authority over my life never tended to be my friends when the axe came down, and I'd had a lot of people in authority betray me in the worst of moments.

All too quickly I found myself on the doorstep of S-Unit's cabin. I almost knocked before reminding myself that to be treated as an equal I would have to act like one. I sighed and opened the door.

I was in luck; the place was empty at the moment. I glanced at my watch and realized it was rather early for them to get back from dinner yet. I threw my bag under the only empty bed over in the corner and finally threw myself on the sparse mattress.

It was only then that I realized just how exhausted I was. Not physically really. But it had been less than 24 hours since it happened, and I hadn't slept in all that time.

Don't think about that.

I can't dwell on it. It won't do any good. Losing her once was more than enough. Although I repeated those sentiments in my head, they could not hold back the tide of my grief.

Just for a moment, I allowed myself to silently and tearlessly mourn for the loss of my friend, sister and mother. I don't think I could have cried even if I wanted to. I didn't have any tears left.

I loved her. If I remember nothing else about her, than that would be enough. My last conscious thought was one word. Jack.

00000000000000000

"Shut it, Coyote! There's nothing I can do, ok!"

"I just don't get it! We never catch a break. How come we get saddled with a snot-nosed brat who probably can't even shave yet, let alone keep up with an SAS unit? I mean, what did we do to deserve this?!"

"Are you a soldier or aren't you? We've been given an order and I plan on following it. To. The. Letter. Got it? This kid is a part of our team now and we're going to do our best to train him, even if it means forcing him to pick up the pace. You understand, soldier?" I glared at Coyote until the younger recruit lowered his eyes in defeat.

"Yes, Sir."

"Good. I don't want to hear any more complaints about it. This kid has been here before and probably already knows what to expect. I don't want to make him a liability before we've even met him. The best thing we can do is work with what's been given to us." I looked over the rest of my unit to make sure they complied as well.

If I was honest, I could understand their frustration. The last time that this Cub had been here everyone had thought it was a one-time thing. We also never thought our group would be the 'lucky' ones to get saddled with a teenager. K-Unit had taken a lot of flack for that the first time the teenager had appeared.

But there was nothing to be done about it now. Authority and fate had spoken. Like any good soldier, I would do my duty. Even if that duty included training a teenager. I wondered how old the kid was anyway. 16? 17? If I remembered right, the kid had kept up pretty well when he was here before, and the SAS was no place for wimps. I had seen some of the toughest recruits break down and cry from some of the exercises they were put through. Of course, those men were immediately sent packing.

I didn't know much about this kid yet, but I'd do my best to find out enough to keep the kid in line.

"Come on guys. I'm betting he's already back at the tent. Might as well meet our newest member." Reluctant as they were, the team followed my lead.

We were a tight-knit group, even if recently we had had a stroke of bad luck. We were missing a member after all. Rabbit had taken a nasty fall on one of our long-distance hikes and had to take a few months leave to recover. That, more than anything else made this whole situation more distasteful. It felt like we were replacing a friend with a sorry excuse for a soldier.

We reached our bunker in record time and stepped tentatively over the threshold, only to stop short at the sight that greeted us.

The kid was asleep. Blond hair, lean build, the kid looked like he had dark bags under his eyes too. It was surprising to see just how much of a kid he looked like when sleeping this way, except…was that a bruise?

"Should we wake him up, Lion?" Coyote seemed determined to antagonize me any way he could.

"Why would we? Looks like the kid can use some sleep." Boar answered for me. It was rare to hear a serious comment from him. His name may have been Boar, but in reality he was anything but. Boar was outgoing and funny in an easygoing way. He was the oldest in our group at 28, and although he could be menacing out on the field, he often served to relieve whatever tension our unit may be under. We'd been under a lot lately.

We all turned to look at our newest member again. Boar had a point. The kid looked like he'd had a run in with some bad karma. I wonder where that bruise on his face came from.

I guess the question was, what to do now?

000000000000000

I began to hear whispers beneath the haze of sleep. My foggy brain couldn't grasp what the voices were saying.

They were close too. Too close!

I blinked once and then shot quickly out of the bed and crouched defensively against the wall, turning sharply towards the threat, and then...

Oh. It took only a short moment for me to wake up enough to realize that the men before me were not attacking; in fact they looked more surprised than aggressive. In one more swoop I remembered where I was, and more importantly, why. Slowly, I lowered my hands from their defensive position.

"Well, that was interesting." One of the men had broken the silence. He looked to be the oldest of the three after a quick evaluation. I scanned the others and with a resigned sigh decided it was in my best interest to try and create better terms with my new unit members than I had with K-Unit.

"Hello." Lame. Why couldn't I just speak like a normal person? I couldn't seem to think clearly. I tried again. "I'm Cub. I've just been assigned to your unit."

"We know who you are." The man who had spoken looked to be the leader of the group if their deferring stances towards him were any indication.

"I'm Lion. This is Coyote and Boar. We heard you were replacing Rabbit." The man hesitated for just a second. "Welcome to the group."

Well this was surprising. This definitely wasn't the greeting I was expecting. "Thank you." I was disgusted to hear how breathless I sounded.

No one seemed to know what to say now that introductions had been made. I took the moment of silence to carefully observe each member and silently evaluate what information I could gleam from what little I saw.

Overall the group looked strong, compatible and much more friendly than K-Unit had been, or at least less hostile. Still, I could tell that Coyote at least did not like my intrusion to their group. It looked like he was the youngest of the three too, maybe 23? 24? Short, but with enough muscle to be intimidating without the extra height. Brown hair, brown eyes. Was that a tattoo on his shoulder? Yep. Coyote, go figure. He looked like he was trying to control his expression and mask the sneer that was threatening to get out.

Boar on the other hand looked like he had a more mature sense of the situation. He seemed cautious, as if he was waiting to see how this situation played out. He looked to be about 27 or 28. Light brown hair, green eyes. Taller than Coyote, but thinner and less intimidating. Still, he looked confident enough to take care of himself.

I turned my attention to the final man, the leader of the unit, Lion. My past experiences with unit leaders had taught me to be cautious. Lion looked...resigned. He was not as expressive as the other two, and yet there was something disconcerting about his expression. Was that... concern? That was unexpected. Dirty blond hair, brown eyes, looked about 25. He was taller than both of his teammates, and carried himself in a confident, commanding way. His eyes were the most interesting feature about him. They pierced into mine with such intensity that they seemed to be searching my soul.

I would need to watch this one. He saw more than the others.

The silence had stretched on for long enough in my opinion, and while I had been observing them, they had all been observing me.

Like a pet in the zoo.

"Well…I'll be getting back to bed I suppose. Don't want to be late on my first day back." I decided to break the awkward silence and call it a night. I was already disturbed by how much of myself I had let slip in front of these strangers, no need to throw them anymore bones.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Lion looked like he wanted to say something more before he shrugged his shoulders and moved towards his own bunk.

I took one final look at the rest of the team before lying down and turning towards the wall.

That could not happen again. I can't care remember? No more polite greetings and friendly conversation. Tomorrow will be different.

I must really be crazy now, having debates with myself and giving myself motivational, or I guess for me, de-motivational speeches. It was going to be a long night.

As I drifted to sleep, I couldn't help but let one last, single tear escape and run down my cheek.

It would be many years before I ever cried again.

Please tell me what you think! I decided after the responses to stick with one main perspective for now. Thoughts?