The male just scoffed and continued to try to undress Vanessa until McCord slammed his fist into the back of his head and McCord soon followed up with grabbing the male's shirt and slamming his head into the ground until he could hear the male start wailing. He was about to finish the male off until Vanessa grabbed his arm.

"No William. Don't kill him." She pleaded softly.

"Fine... Alex dial 911, let's get this son of a bitch out of here." McCord said as his anger slowly dissipated. He released the male only to kick him in the ribs, probably breaking a few ribs, once. He let out a deep breath and sat next to Vanessa. "You alright?" He asked curiously.

"I'm fine.. this guy got drunk at a bar that I was at enjoying a drink or two before I came to you, but he followed me and tried to rape me." Vanessa whispered with her hands shaking.

"Did he...?" McCord trailed off.

"No, you came right before he could.." Vanessa lowered her head.

McCord smiled and kissed her on the lips. Vanessa melted from her sorrow and embraced the kiss and began to hug McCord tightly. He didn't want to leave her. As the two slowly began to part, McCord brushed Vanessa's hair out of her face and stared into her brown eyes that glared with love, compassion, and pride. A groan from the opposite side of the room drew his attention. The male figure was bleeding from the massive injuries McCord had inflicted upon him. Silvers had called 911 and the police were en route. Slowly McCord helped Vanessa up while Silvers dragged the male into the living room. There Vanessa threw the rest of her clothes on and snuggled up to McCord on their couch. McCord rested his head on hers as the couple were finally together.

The doorbell rang as Silvers answered revealing two police officers. McCord stood up awakening Vanessa who quickly fell asleep as she longed to be with McCord. One of the police officers, a sergeant, tried to establish the situation. He spoke with authority, "I am Sergeant Daniels. You said you had a situation." He made a gester for McCord to introduce himself.

"Chief Warrant Officer Grade 4, William McCord." McCord took the que and introduced the others, "This is Warrant Officer Grade 4 Vanessa Pelayo, and Warrant Officer Grade 3 Alex Silvers."

"Full house... and who's that?" The sergeant pointed over to the beaten man.

"Oh him. He tried raping Vanessa." McCord grimly spoke.

The Sergeant cursed and ordered the private to arrest the male. The sergeant quickly explained about how they were hunting down this rapist. McCord thanked the sergeant and watched as they left. He slowly shut the door and went to the kitchen. He opened up the refrigerator and grabbed a beer for himself but knew that Vanessa would drink from his bottle. He wouldn't mind, she's had a stressful day as he's had a tiring day. Twelve hours ago he was in the desert. Silvers also helped himself to a bottle. They sat there drinking and watched a movie. Finally, McCord began to lay down on the couch as Vanessa slowly crawled up next to him. He noticed her and wrapped his arm around her. She stretched out and quickly fell asleep dreaming of McCord. He smiled and kept stroking her hair gently.

Silvers was finishing he beer when he spoke up, "Well Chief, I'm gonna get some sleep." He stood up and walked to the guest bedroom and slowly shut the door.

McCord began to close his eyes submitting to the sleep that coaxed him to follow. Everything would change for all of them tomorrow.

McCord began to yawn and stretch slightly kicking Vanessa. She woke up and looked at him grinning. She leaned forward and made contact with his lips and began to kiss. Silvers walked out with his ACU on and looked at McCord, "We gotta get going."

Vanessa looked up at McCord with alarmed eyes, "I thought you said you had the days off!"

"My UH-60 was returned to the states. We're gonna go check it out and see if it's ready for flight operations." McCord calmly stated.

"Then I'm coming too!" Vanessa started enthusiastically. She sat start up and started to grab her ACU and McCord smiled. She was different when McCord was around her. Everyone noticed the difference and suggested multiple times to McCord that he should propose to her. He smiled and shook his head thinking that there was a time and place for everything.

As they grabbed their belongings, the three exited the house and got into McCord's truck and drove to Fort Bliss. Ten minutes later, the three were working on the UH-60. The three were enjoying their time as McCord spoke, "Time to test the flight." He began to run through his checklist while Vanessa sat in the co-pilot's seat. Eventually, after starting the engine, the UH-60 lifted off the ground. Everything was normal. Silvers looked cautiously at the tail and Vanessa noticed this. She had heard that they were originally hit in the tail, but she assumed it wasn't bad as they made it back.

"Dagger Two-One, radio check over."

"This is Dagger Two-One, go ahead Tower." McCord said as he began to bank returning to the airfield.

"What is the purpose of taking off?" The air traffic controller spoke.

"Test flight. This UH-60 was hit over there. We decided to make sure it was worthy to fly." McCord replied.

"Roger that Chief. Your crew was just wondering. Um, civilian traffic is light. If you have to, put her down on the joint airstrip."

"Confirmed and complied." McCord said switching off his mic.

Thirty minutes later, McCord landed and began shutting the bird down when he saw Davis and McCoy who nodded their heads in approval. McCord got close to Davis and whispered, "I'm making the move tomorrow."

"Good luck man." Davis patted his shoulder.

After more work on the UH-60, they left in order to get something to eat. After laughing, drinking, and eating, Silvers looked up at the T.V and his mouth fell open. McCord soon followed his gaze and was appalled from what he saw. "My god…" That's all that escaped his mouth.

Soon everyone saw and Vanessa had to turn away. McCord ran outside and dropped to his knees and began to throw up. The images he saw were horrifying and were seared into his brain. Soon the others came outside and began to help McCord up. "This'll be the start of a world war…" He muttered before he was able to support himself. What they saw was the massacre of the Zakhaev International Airport, and the images of hundreds of slayed citizens stung all of them.