Ed

Ed was sitting on his couch at home. Izzy was playing on the floor in front of him and the news was playing on the TV in the background. Team One had received the news about Sam eight days ago and had not received a sufficient update since. Word had spread to the rest of the SRU and everyone was worried. Team morale was down and despite everything he and Greg tried to do to boost it, nothing worked.

We need you back Samo. We need you back here, with us, where you belong. Sure, Sean's a good guy and a decent shot, but he's not you.

Ed was pulled from his thoughts when Sophie came into the room and sat down on the couch beside him. He gave her a small smile and put an arm around her. She curled into his side and looked up at him. "Thinking about Sam?"

"Yeah…"

Yeah, I'm thinking about Sam and what he could possibly be going through over there. I'm thinking about the General and what I could do to make the bastard pay for sending his one and only son back to that hell hole against his will.

"He'll be OK, Ed." Sophie said as she rubbed his arm soothingly. "From the stories I've been told from you and the rest of Team One and knowing Sam as well as I do, I know he's been through a lot is his life; a lot more than anyone his age should've gone through.

ENTIRELY way too much; seeing his sister die right in front of him when he was just a kid himself, growing up in a military family with General Badass as a father, moving from base to base in different countries all over the world, two tours in Afghanistan where God knows what happened to him, his best friend being killed and him feeling responsible for it, all the things that have happened to him since joining SRU and now this...

"He's been through so much, Soph. I don't even want to think about what this whole thing will do to him..."

"Coming back is going to be hard, no doubt, but he has all of you guys to help him through the hard times and I know his team, his family, isn't going to let him fall through the cracks."

Ed smiled at his wife and kissed the top of her head. "No, we won't. We'll help him through it, every step of the way."

Every step of the way Samo. It'll probably annoy the hell out of you, but we're not going to let you go through this alone. We've got your back, you just need to stay strong and make it back to us.