K.I.A. (Killed In Action)

A few weeks later Simone was walking towards her station to start her shift. All arround here were rows of bunks and footlockers. Their base was at the old airport, 2 of the hangers had been used to house the troops. One of the hangars was used for the regular troops and this one was designted for the Rangers and Delta's, it was much easier to mix two elite forces than to mix regular with elite. She looked over to the row where Todd's bunk stood, but it was empty they were still out on a mission. Hoot's bunk was on the row next to that, but that was also empty. Ten to one said he was outside sitting against the wall smoking a cigarette while writing Lucy. If he wasn't doing that he was either eating, sleeping or on a mission. She knew he missed her, they wrote each other every day, althought their letters weren't always on time, just last week Hoot had gotten a week worth of letters in one day. Simone's stomach turned, everytime Todd went out she would get like this. She could feel the tention flowing trough her untill she could see him getting out of a helicopter or a Humvee and know he was safe.

Hoot sat in the sun, a stack of paper balancing on his knee; he thought for a moment and then continued on writing.

Again sorry it took me a while to write back, I've been out on assigment for 3 day's and wasn't allowed any contact State side. Things are still the same here, we go out trying to find and aprehand everyone they tell us to and come back again, things aren't as bad as I thought they would be, let me put it this way; I've actually seen worse. GOD I miss you, I still can't get used to the fact that I have to fall asleep without you in my arms. Just last night I woke up thinking you were next to me, only to find out I had been dreaming again... Being away from you has made me realise one thing though, and I wish I could say it to you in person but I can't so this will have to do until I can hold you again; I love you. I will write you again tomorrow.

Love Hoot.

He looked at the 5 pages that lay on the floor next to him; with every day that went by he had never had a problem with writing her at least 5 or 6 pages a day.

Later that day they had all gatherd for dinner, a line was formed and people waited patiently to be abled to get to the food. Hoot ducked in and out of line to get what he wanted, He was just standing near the salades when en young Ranger looked at him. "He man, there's a line!" Hoot looked at him. "I know." And he went on with getting what he wanted. The ranger pointed at the place where they were standing. "And this aint the back of it!" Hoot glanced at the guy again. "And I know!" Simone saw this happen and jumped inbetween the two of them. "Hoot just sit down and eat ok." The Ranger was still trying to make a point of the fact that Hoot had jumped the line. Simone just looked at him. "When did you get in?" "This morning, but that has nothing to do with the fact that he jumped the line." The Young ranger huffed Simone raised her eyes upwards. "Look you look like you're about twelve, so let me explain this to you! Although you might have well plannend departure times, Delta's don't have that luxury, they eat when the can because they can be sent out at anny moment. That's why they jump lines." She gave him a look wich dared him to say anything else, the Ranger got the message and turned back to the table.

Hoot walked towards a table, Thunder swining loosly on his hip. "Sgt. Whats going on?" Hoot turned and saw Captain Steel looking at him. "Nothing Sir! Just a young man who wasn't familiar with the dinner ettiquette of this base." "That's not what im talking about Sgt. Im talking about your weapon." Captain Steel had now moved closer and was now face to face with Hoot. "Now Delta or no Delta that is a hot weapon! You should know better, the safetey should be on at all times on base, better yet that weapon should be in the gun cage!" Hoot simply looked at the Captain before raising his trigger finger and saying. "Well this is my safety sir, and this gun will only go into the cage when my hart stops beating." Hoot turned round and walked on to the table.

Todd looked at him with a smile? "One of these days you are going to have a serious problem with Steel, you do know that don't you?" Hoot sat down. "Look he just can't handle the fact that he out ranks most of us Delat's, but still hasn't any controle over what we do or when we do it. It's not my problem but his." Simone had also sat down at the table. "Could you just behave for once? First you almost get into it with that Ranger and next you're threatening Steel!" "I was not treathening Steel! I just told him how I felt." Hoot couldn't help grinning. He was just about to take a bite of his food when his fellow Sgt. and Delta Sanderson came up to him. "Hey Hoot! Grab you gear we're of!" With these words he turned round to get his own things in order. "Hoot sighed. "Never fails, sit down to eat and you have to go on a mission." He reached into his pocket and handed Simone an envelope. "Do me a favour, mail that for me?" Simone took the envelope from him and saw it was adressed to Lucy. "Sure I will." Todd walked with Hoot over to his footlocker and watched him get his gear ready; from ammongst the things in his footlocker Hoot grabbed 4 envelopes. "Here are yours back, and here are mine." Todd took the letters without blinking, they had made the deal that if anything happened to either of them they would keep these so called "Death letters" and give them to their parents and Lucy or Simone, if they would both be out on a mission their teammates would know where to find them and mail them for them.

Simone lay on her bunk and took up her book; she and 5 other woman were the only ones in this hangar. Being a Ranger or Delta's wasn't really a female thing to do. They had their own little corner away from the men; even though she and Todd were married they had to sleep appart from eachother. Something that wasn't easy on the both of them.

Hoot was sitting on the outside of the little bird which was flying them to their target. They were going to raid another building to aprehand some people. The little bird touched down and the Delta team unlached their safety belts and stormed into the building, the rooms were easally cleared one after the other and soon he was keeping an eye on a row of captive people. The whole mission took no longer than 30 minutes, the got into the humvee's and drove back to the base. In the back of the humvee Hoot got out one of Lucy's last letters and read it for the 10th time. "Your girlfriend?" Sanderson asked, he was sitting next to him and pointed to the letter. "Yeah." Hoot said turnign back to his letter. "You write to her everyday don't you? I wouldn't know what to say the next day that wasn't any different than the first. You got a picture of her?" Hoot reached into a small pocket on the left hand side on his armour vest, he pulled out a picture of Lucy at Todd and Simone's wedding and showed it to Sanderson. "Hey I know her that is Lucy MacArthur! You're dating Lucy MacArthur?" Hoot raised his eyebrows. "Yeah I am, were do you know her from?" Sanderson moved his weapon from one arm to the other. "She and I went trough training together, she had the most kickass gun! I was yealous as hell; she was young as well, a bit too young for Delta training but she's tought as nails." Hoot let his fingers slide pastthe makrings on Thunder. "Yeah she is, and this gun is great as well." Sanderson looked at the gun he saw Lucy's nickname carved into the handle and his eyes turned even bigger. "You have Thunder! How did you do that? Did you kill her or knock her onconsious? That gun never left her side, let alone somebody else touching it!" Hoot smiled. "She gave it to me before I left."

Todd walked arround the hanger to the back of it, when he came round the corner Simone was already standing there with her back against the wall, eyes closed, enjoying the sunrays on her face. "And what are you doning here private!" Todd said imitating Cpt. Steel's voice. Simone jumped when she heard him speak, but relaxed when she saw it was Todd and not Cpt. Steel. "You are mean! For that you might not get a kiss." She gave him an evil smile while he backed her into the wall, placing his hands at her sides so she had no where to go. "Ah but I do think im getting my kiss, it's been all I've been able to think about for the past couple of hours." He said while moving in on her to kiss her. She backed away a bit at first, teasing him, before letting him kiss her.

After a few minutes they broke apart, he held on to her hips while loking into her eyes. "God I miss this, I miss waking up next to you in the morgning and holding you while you go to sleep at night. I want to be able to walk up to you at any moment of the day and kiss you when I want to. I hate having to sneek off behind some building to kiss my wife." Simone touched the side of his face with her hand. "I know, I don't like it either, do you have any idea how hard it is for me not to jump into your arms when you come back from a mission? I hate it as much as you do; we'll just have to hang on a couple more weeks, then we'll go home." Todd smiled. "And we won't leave the house the first weeks we're back." He kissed her again, this kiss was as many had been the last couple of weeks; full of longing and hunger for eachother.

The next day both Hoot and Todd had to go out on a mission; Simone had stood at the hanger doors watching the helicopters leave; she had a funny feeling about this particular day, she didn't know what but something just didn't feel right.

"Central, this is Uniform 24! Were meeting a lot of resistance here, we can't break trough and get to the rendevous point. Is there any possibility that the convoi can pick us up at our current possition?" The radio was buzzing, Simone looked at the General; he nodded and Simone awnserd back. "Uniform 24, this is central, request granted, humvee convio is to be redirected to you position. Uniform 64 this central, redirect to Cpt. Steel's position and pick up Ranger chalk there, be warned they are taking heavy fire." "Central this is uniform 64 we are on route, MacKnight out."

Simone lent back en felt her stomach give a jolt, uniform 24 was Todd's chalk. Knowing he was under heavy fire didn't do her nerves any good.

Todd leant behind a wall, guns were going off all around him and he coudnt move from the spot he was in then his comm went of. "Blackburn can you get to Eversman's position? He needs back up." Todd pressed the button on his shoulder. "I can but I will need some heavy cover fire to get away from here." "Ok we'll cover you Cpt. Steel out!" Todd looked up past the wall and spotted some of the guys on the other side of the street getting ready to cover him while would run towards Eversman's position. He signald that he was going and ran, the second he had moved from his spot the millitia on the rooftops opend fire on him. Bullets were comming at him from every direction and adrenaline was gushing trough his body. Todd was so occupied with looking at the building he needed to get to, he didn't see that something was being shot at him from his left until one of the men givving him cover fire yelled; "R.P.G.!" (Rocket Powerd Granade) Todd looked to the left and jumped out of the way just in time, if he hadn't he would have been in little pieces. Now the R.P.G. shot pas him and blew a wall apart. Todd was thrown by the blast and landed face down in the middle of the street, his hearing was gone all he could hear was a slite ringing in his ears. Bullets were still raining down on him, and his back hurt like hell! He tried to get out of the line of fire but as he tried to get up he was shot in the leg. He couldn't get away from this all and his hart started racing like mad, what he needed to do was get his gun and try and stop the guys directly above him to stop shooting so he could get away. Just when he was reaching for his gun, someone grabbed him by the back of his pack and dragged him into a close by building.

Simone was screening filmdata sent to them by the helicopters circeling above the streets were the men were holding their position; she had just seen a blast and recognized it as an R.P.G. hitting something, when the radio started to buzz again. "Central this is Eversman come in!" Simone switched her radio to his frequency and awnserd. "Uniform 25 this is central over." "Central I need a medivac, I've got a man seriously hit!" Simone's hart had started racing the minute Eversman had started about a medivac, the vision of Todd being seriously hurt shot through her mind. "She changed freauency again and directed a Little Brid hellicopter towards Eversman's position. Then she switched back to Eversman's frequency again. "Eversman this is central the medivac is on its way, who is hurt?" She almost held her breath waitng for Eversman to respond. "That would be Blackburn central." All the feeling draind from her body when she heard him say Todd was hurt. "Uniform 25 how bad are his injuries?" Again she held her breath till Eversmand responded, it took quite some time. "Doc Smidt says it's not that bad, something with his back and he got shot in the leg." The comm squicked a bit. Simone felt some sort of relief; at least he was still alive! Todd lay on a stretcher on the floor, his back hurt like hell, even worse than his leg, but he had told Eversman to keep it down and say he wasn't hurt that bad. Simone would worry too much if she knew he was in pain. Outside gunfire was still going on, R.P.G.'s were hitting right left and center; there was no getting out of this easy.

Hoot walked trough the streets keeping close to the buildings, his team had just gotten the call to go to Eversman's position and support them while a medivac came in to pick up a wounded man. Whewn they ran across the street he enterd the building were Eversman anh his chalk were held up. "Ok we're here, who's bailing out early?" Hoot looked at Eversman with a smile. "He is back there." Eversman pointed over his shoulder and Hoot walked towards the stretcher, when he got closer he saw it was Todd laying there. "Jeesus man what did you do?" He got down on one knee next to Todd who looked very pale." What happened? How did this happen? What were you thinking?" Hoot firrerd one question after the other at Todd. Todd looked at his best friend, he was as white as a sheet and his face was coverd in sweat. "Nothing serious, I had a contest with an R.P.G. to see wich one of us was faster...... it won." Todd tried to laugh but his back was killing him. Hoot could see by the look on Todd's face he was in pain but didn't want to show it. He started ordering his men around to take possition for givving cover when the helicopter would arrive. He sat besides Todd till they heard over their radio that the helicopter was about to come in to land, he loaded Thunder trough and took possition at on of the windows. Determent to give Todd as much cover as he could.

While the Delta's and Eversman's chalk gave as much cover as they could, Todd was being carried to the little bird. As soon as it flew off the men gatherd and decided to go to Cpt. Steel's position to go back to base with the convoi.

Running throug the streets in tightly packed groups the Delta's and Rangers got closer to the convoi. Hoot had said that his team would cover the rear of the group. They were the last to move out and looked out for anyone attempting to atack from the back. 5oo meters from where they needed to be they were ambushed by a large group of men. An R.P.G. hit the middle of the group and they were all blown in different directions. Hoot felt a sting in his left leg, when he scrambled to his feet he chekced his leg and saw that his pants wer cut and he had a cut in his leg that was bleeding. He looked arround and saw several of his men on the floor, closest to him a guy named Sam. Sam was hit pretty bad, bleeding from his stomach severly; Hoot had enough medical knoledge to know he wasn't going to survive. He bent down and took one of Sam's hands; he was shaking and felt very cold, but managed to sit up a bit by grabbing Hott's shirt. Without Hoot noticing Sam pulled his Identification Taggs of his neck. "Sgt tell my wife and kids I love the very much and that im sorry......... my letters are in..." "The bottom left corner of your footlocker I know." Hoot finished his centence for him. "I know, it will al be taken care of." Now knowing that his last words were to be passed on to his wife and kids, Sam closed his eyes and lent back, only to die a few seconds later with Hoot still bending over him. Hoot shook off the feeling of sorow he felt, this was no time to grieve, first he had to check on the rest of his team. Before he could get on his feet again, a shadowy figure approched him from the back and hit him in the back of the head with the base of his gun. Hoot passed out straight away.

Simone was pacing up and down the side of the hangar; Todd was in the infermary being looked at by the doctors. She could have cried when the little bird had touched down on the base but she restrainde herself, not just for her sake but for Todd's as well. How would it have looked if she had cried and ran up to him like she had wanted to? A few minutes later the doctor came to see her. "Well he's been very lucky, he has a few dislocated disks in his spine and a gunshot in his leg but besides that he seems to be fine." Simone thanked the doctor, knowing he didn't have time to awnser more questions, there were more wounded that needed taking care of. She sat in a chair until an orderly came to get her. "He is out of churgerie you can go see him now." She followd the man to a large room where there were rows of beds, in the center of one of the rows Todd was on a bed looking very pale. He had a neck brace on and his left leg was above the blankets and coverd in bandages. "He is still out cold from the annastetics but you can stay with him if you want to." The guy pointed to a chair next to the bed and walked of again. All the tention that had been building up insede of her came free and Simone couldn't hold back here tears anymore. She sank into the chair and got hold of his hand. With her free hand she stroked the side of his face. She lent down and fut her face next to his, softly kissing his cheek, then lifted up the hand she was holding and pressed it againts her face. "I love you so much, don't you dare leave me" she whisperd with his hand pressed against her lips.

Todd opend his eyes, he had a splitting headache and his whole body hurt. The last thing he could remember was being carried to the little bird. He looked arround and figured he would be in the infermary, he wanted to move his hands but felt that one of them wouldent move. For a second he got very scared and thought he might have been more hurt than he had thought. Then he looked to his side and saw Simone, she lay sleeping with her head on the side of the bed holding onto his hand, her fingers woven trough his. He tried to lean over and touch her with his free hand, but as soon as he moved he felt a surge of pain go trough his back. He surpressed a curse because of the pain and seezed up. Simone opend her eyes, she had felt movement. She looked up and saw Todd looking into her eyes smiling a small smile at her. The second he said Hi to her she started to cry again, she stood up and coverd his face in kisses. "O god im so happy you're awake! Don't you ever do this to me again! I was so scared!" She held his head in both her hands and looked into his eyes like she wanted to make sure that he was ok. "Sweetie I'm fine, it just hurts a bit that's all. No need to be this worried." He moved again and his face screwed up with pain. "Don't you lie to me Todd Blackburn, you are in serious pain here; there is no need to hide it from me!" Todd showed a faint smile. "Sorry sweetie, I just don't want you to worrie that's all, I mena you have enough to deal with any way. How long have I been a sleep?" Simone stroked the side of his face again. "For 3 days now, I was worried sick that you might not wake up. But the doctor kept telling me you would, I haven't moved from this spot." Todd wanted to touch her but wasn't able to move without being in pain, so all he could do was look at her and smile at her. "You are the sweetest wife, you know that? How did you get out from under your shifts?" Simone smiled. "That's sometimes the beauty of being daddy's little girl, for the first time of my life I used his influence to get what I wanted. He pulled some strings." Todd took hold of her hand. "You did that for me? You are so sweet, I love you" Simone got half on her feet to kiss him, when she sat back down Todd still had his eyes locked with her. "Where is Hoot by the way? Has he been to see me or did he want a concious person to talk to?" Todd smiled widely but stopped as soon as he saw the look on Simone's face. "Ok whats wrong? What aren't you telling me?" Simone fidgited for a bit then got hold of his hand again. "Sweetie I hate to be the one who has to tell you this, especcially now, but Hoot was killed." Todd's eyes glazed over. "No! That is one sick joke! Come on just tell me where he really is." Todd had almost sounded like he was begging when he had asked that, Simone cried for the pain he must feel of loosing his best friend, she squeezed his hand. "I'm so sorry sweetie I wish I was joking. After you got airlifted out Hoot and his team was making their way to the rendevous point to be picked up. They got ambushed; millitia took them under heavy fire and killed the entire team. They burned the bodies but not before taking all the personal affects of everybody and putting them in a big box, which was deliverd here yesterday morning. I didn't want to believe it my self at first, but the box had his I.D. taggs, Lucy's picture and Thunder in it. These are a few things of which im sure he wouldn't give away voluntairy." She kept holding on to his hand, he turned his head in the pillow. "When can I get out of here?" He said without looking at her. Simone looked at him in surprise. "What do you mean get out of here? You're not going anywhere! Hoot won't come back if you go out there and get yourself killed." Todd still didn't look at her. "That's not it, I have to go and tell his parents, I prommised that if anything would happen to him I would be the one to tell his parents......and Lucy. Does she know yet?" Simone shook her head. "Nobody knows yet, I was told because I work with the kolonel but nobody else apart from you know, as far as the rest of the base is concerned they are all M.I.A. (Missing In Action). If you can't get out of here in time, I'll go and tell his parents and Lucy." He just nodded and she saw him trying his best not to cry.

A week later Simone was in a car on her way to see Hoot's parents. A she prommised to Todd she would tell them that their son had been killed. When he had heard that he would be in the hospital for a few more weeks he had told Simone to get the lettesr out of Hoot's footlocker and to give them to Hoot's parents and Lucy. She wore her dressuniform, as this was the protocol when you were going to inform family memebers that their loved one had died while in the inlisted service. She came to the house and got out of the car, she paused for a moment before walking up to the door and knocked.

A few hours later Simone walked back to the car, the conversation had gone better than she had expected. Hoot's mother had cried and his father had listend to what she had to say and then comferted his wife. Later he had told Simone that he had always been proud of his son, he had grown up to be a fine man. He also said that he was glad she was the one who had come to tell them that their son had died, in stead of a complete stranger. She had also givven him the letter todd had told her to get from Hoot's footlocker, his father had just looked at it for a moment and told her he would read that later. As far as Simone was concerned this had been the easy part, she now had to go tell her sister that Hoot had died.........

Lucy was at work, it was a sunny day and the soft wind blew round her fce as she instructed a group of trainees. "Make sure that you have a good aim at your target, calculate for the wind difference the shot will encouter to the target. Chack you sights again and then shoot." As she stood back she felt in her pocket to see if the letter she had gotten from Hoot this morning was still in there, he couldn't wait to read it! As soon as this trainning exercise was over she would. Half an hour later all the others had left the range, Lucy sat herself donwn on on e of the checking tables basking in sunlight. She ripped the envelope open and took the 5 page letter from it and started reading it.

Simone got out of the car at the range her father followed her closely, she had gone to pick him up, partely for Lucy's sake but also for her own sake. He could give the both of them support.

For the 5th time Lucy read the letter, especially the last bit of it, he said he loved her! She couldn't believe it so kept reading it, making sure thather eyes didn't play tricks on her. She heard a car stop and looked up for a second, two uniformed bodies got out, as she wasn't expecting anybody she retuned back to the letter.

Simone could see Lucy sitting on a table reading something, most likely the letter she herself mailed for Hoot.

When Lucy heard footsteps she looked up again and saw that the two uniformed persons were none other than her father and Simone. She jumped off the table and ran towards her sister. "You're back! I missed you so much! Is Todd back as well? And Hoot?" Simone welcomed her sister's tight embrace but she had trouble keeping her emotions calm. Lucy took a step back and looked at her little sister, something wasn't right. She had hughed her but there was a kind of tention in her that wasn't normal. "Whats wrong?" Lucy looked from her sister to her father; both of their faces were grimm. "Oh god, did something happen? What? Is Todd hurt? Is something wrong with mom?" Lucy looked at the both of them with the questions written all over her face. When neither of them responded it suddenly hit her that they were both in their full dress uniforms. "Don't tell me you're here because......" Lucy felt herself get weak in the knees, something couldn't have happened to Hoot! She would have heard by now......unless...... She looked at her sister again and saw that she was on the urge of crying with a look of absolute compassion on her face. "Sweetie I'm so sorry but Hoot got killed a bout a week ago." Simone waited for a second and looked at her sister; she got very pale in the face and looked like she could faint at any second. She walked over and put her arms round Lucy to offer her support. The second Lucy felt the comfort of her sisters arms round her she started to cry, she hid her face in her hands. A chilling cold spread trough her body and she started to shake uncontrolably. Simone sat there, on her knees with her sister in her arms stroking her hair. She looked up at her father who was standing besides his two daughters; he bent down and put his arms round the both of them hoping he could give them both as much comfort as the needed.

Lucy felt the warmth of both Simone and her father round her but still she was cold. He couldn't be dead! He had prommised in one of his last letters that he would come back to her, he never lied! "How?" was all she asked not looking up at Simone or her father. Simone stopped stroking her sister's hair for a second. "I don't think this is the time and place to discuss that, wouldn't you think?" Lucy got loose from Simone's embrace and looked at her sister. "I don't care, tell me what happened!" Simone saw a bit of her sister's normal behaviour come to the surface, she sat there facing her. Her face red and wet from tears but still she wanted to know what had happen. She got hold of Lucy's hand and told her everything she knew. After she was finished Lucy looked at her. "Are you sure he was one of those men?" Simnoe knew her sister hoped that there had been a mistake and that hott was just missing instead of dead. "They are, a box with all the personal affects was sent ot the base, Ammong those things they found Hoot's I.D. tags and Thunder." When she had said that Lucy's face went blank again. "He would never leave Tunder........." that was the final confimation that Hoot was gone and she started to cry again.

The General closed the door of the bedroom behind him and stood in the halway for a couple of minutes. After Simone had told Lucy how Hoot had died they had gotten in the car. As he didn't want his daughter to be alone he had drivven them back to his house. There her mother tried to comfort her but as his eldes daughter was very stuborn she wouldn't let her. Lucy had hardly spoken and at dinner she hadnt eaten, she had just sat there staring at nothing inparticular. Her mother had sugested that she would ly down for a while and she had gone to her old room, after about 15 minutes Simone had gone to check up on her, but she hadn't returned. He had decided that he would go and have a look, quietly he had opend the door to the bedroom and there he saw Simone lying on the bed next to Lucy holding her in her arms while the both of them cried. He had sofltey backed out of the room and closed the door again.

When Simone had seen her sister lying face down on her bed crying uncontrolably she had felt her hart break. She lay down beside her and held her, knowing there was nothing more she could do at this time. She said nothing and just held her; she herself had started to cry as well, the pain her sister was in was just to much for her. Eventually they both fell asleep from pure exhaustion.

The next morning the Genral had got hold of the base gazet on the front gage there stood a list of names including Hoot's. It read Norm "Hoot" Gibson junior Sgt. First class. The rest of the names were all of men that had belonged to Hoot's Delta team, at the top of the list it said: K.I.A.