Jean walked into headquarters and everyone looked up.

"How was he?" Breda asked.

"Paranoid and over exerting, but okay I guess."

"You've got some um... blood on your shoulder."

Jean looked at his shoulder and sighed.

Fuery adjusted his glasses. "I picked up something on an incoming call."

"You did? What did it say?" He asked, lighting a cigarette.

Fuery looked at Breda and he made a face at him.

"Nothing good... I think it was a ransom/threat."

"What'd it say?"

"'Snipers can't snipe if they can't see anymore'."

Jean groaned. "Shit... I hope that doesn't mean what I think it does."

"There wasn't any other message after that. It was just that threat and nothing else."

"It's not like we can ask the Fuhrer about it." Falman said. "We were told specifically not to get involved with this case. Especially the Colonel, but we all know that would never happen."

"Well he's not going to like this one bit."

"Who said were gonna tell him?"

Everyone looked at Jean as he took a drag of his cigarette.

"You guys didn't see him when he was in the hospital and you haven't seen him now. I know everyone wants to see him but it takes all I can do to keep him calm. I mean she's his closest companion and he watched her get captured and almost died himself trying to go after her. These people aren't playing around and the higher ups are taking their attack very seriously. These people targeted them specifically. Roy said he was 100% sure that they wanted to capture them both and most likely torture them, but the person sent got a bit trigger happy. They probably think he's dead or at least at death's door. Telling him that message will only confirm his wild thoughts and then he really will be at death's door.

"We will do this ourselves. We've been with the Colonel for too long not to be able to do things on our own. The best thing to do is keep him out of the search for Hawkeye."

Everyone nodded in agreement, although they were all nervous about leaving their superior out of a very sensitive mission that involved Roy's closest companion.


Later when Jean got off, he knocked on the door and it opened quickly. The doctor gave a nod and let him come in.

"How is he?"

"Rambunctious to a fault, of course. Keeps ripping his stitches open. If he keeps doing it, I will give him a sedative that knocks him out for a month."

Jean laughed. "Yeah sometimes he's pretty rowdy. Despite the stitch ripping, how is he?"

"Definitely has paranoia and anxiety. Has lots of nightmares about what could be happening to her. Were they married?"

"Him and Hawkeye? No." He said with a laugh. "It was a pretty heated chemistry between the two but it never went past professionalism. They were both really good at keeping it platonic, even though it was obvious they had feelings for each other."

"I hope he learns a lesson from this." The doctor said, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. He bummed a light from Havoc and took a long draw. "If you get her back, that man better either marry her or tell her how he feels and make sure she understands it completely. Nothing worse than not telling the one you love that you do and you lose the opportunity. In this particular instance, it will be especially devastating if something happens to her. He will be completely ridden with guilt and who knows where that will lead?"

"Yeah..."

"I'll be giving him a prescription for sleeping and I noticed he hasn't taken his pain pills. Is he trying to be a hard-ass?"

"He can't eat and he can't take the pills without food, but the pain makes him sick and yaddy ya. It's a cycle. I was going to ask if you could prescribe a salve that had a numbing agent in it so that the pain would subside enough for him to eat and take a real pain pill."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Doesn't need to be a lot, just enough so that he can eat and get the pills in his system."

"I got ya. I'll see what I can come up with. I did give him a mild sedative to calm him down for now, so he'll be asleep for a good bit. Make sure when he wakes up that he stays put. Have him read a book or something."

"Sure." He said with a roll of his eyes.

The doctor left and Havoc went in more to check on his superior. Roy was asleep on the couch, looking almost like he did when they brought him into the hospital. He must have gotten worse when I left. Havoc went to the kitchen and looked in the icebox to see if Roy had anything he could make in there. Of course, he had a block of cheese and some milk but nothing else. He sighed and went to the phone on the wall.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Gracia, its Havoc. How are you? How's Elysia?"

"I'm doing fine and Elysia is at her friend's house for the night. What do I owe the pleasure of your call?"

"As you are a wonderful woman full of household charms, I'm here at the Colonel's and of course, he has nothing here. If he had, I would have made something."

Gracia laughed. "Would you like for me to come make something for him?"

"I would be much obliged, madam."

Gracia laughed again but then got serious.

"How is he?"

"Not good. He can't take his pills, he can't eat, he's in horrible pain, and he's kind of in a bit of hysterics."

"This has to be taking at very hard toll on him. First Maes and now the lieutenant?"

"I think Hawkeye is a little harder just because he saw her get taken and no one knows her status. At least with Hughes it was pretty blatant and to the point."

"True... I'll bring something over. Soup, I assume?"

"That would be the best course of action. At least something light to get him to maybe get something in his stomach."

"Should I get something else to put in it?"

"Nothing much, maybe something soft that he can chew a little bit on."

"Alright then. I'll be there shortly."

He hung up and waited for Gracia to come as he found something to do in the time being.


ah roy, we know you want to help but if you keep hurting yourself you'll never get things accomplished and your subordinate needs you! more to come!