Chapter 10

For a while now, everybody in the village has been preparing for the enemy invasion which is soon to come. A couple marines entered the village, from the North, after pushing the village jeep out in a good position. The majority of people are putting the rocks into the three-story building to block the two windows on the Northern side. Warrant Officer Miller, Bravo 1, approaches Gibbs.

"The jeep is in place and ready to blow. While I was out there, I setup a couple spike strips down the road." Bravo 1 stated.

"Where did you get spike strips?" Gibbs asked.

"We acquired them a long time ago. Two people were placing them in the road to the South. They weren't expecting us to come around when we did, so we saw the strips being placed. So we took them."

"That's a good thing cuz those will disable the use of enemy vehicles."

"I place three rows of spike strips. If they move the first, they'll have to deal with the second and third. By the third they might have gotten smart."

"You should get into position up at the entrance."

Warrant Officer Miller, Bravo 3, runs to the Northern entrance. Gibbs walks to the mountain in order to continue moving the rocks.

Meanwhile, Tony is off to the side making the Molotov Cocktails. As he's stuffing a cloth into the bottled, half-filled with gas, Arthur walks over to him with a couple villagers.

"Your guns are right here." Tony points to the side where a couple extra guns were placed.

They all pick up the extra guns. The armed villagers, except for Arthur, walk away. Arthur sits next to Tony and picks up a bottle. He grabs the large container filled with gas and pours the gas into the bottle. After filling the bottle halfway, he hands it to Tony. Tony begins stuffing a cloth into the bottle.

"Thanks for the help Arthur." Tony said.

"You're welcome." Arthur said.

As the two of them continue making the Molotov Cocktails, Arthur notices something. He notices Tony looking to the side at the little boy playing with the ball.

"If there's anything you wanna ask me about him, feel free." Arthur stated.

"What's his name?" Tony asked. "Gibbs told me what you told him about the boy's family in all."

"Yeah, it was a tragedy. The boy lost everything. I never knew the boy before the incident, so I always knew him as not being able to speak. In regards to his name, I honestly have no idea. The boy can't write his name cuz he doesn't know how to write. I was left trying to guess his name…"

"Did you ever guess his name correctly?"

"No… And he doesn't wanna be renamed. He likes his original name. But for the time being, he likes being called by his nickname."

"What's his nickname?"

"His nickname is Kid." Arthur stated. "Don't even ask… He's the one who likes it. I tried seeing if I can call him by another nickname, but he always liked, Kid, the best."

"Kid, eh." Tony smiles as he finally knows what the boy is officially called.

"It looks like we're done with these."

"Thanks for the help Arthur."

"No problem."

Arthur grabs his gun, stands up and walks away. Tony watches as Arthur walks over to Kid.

Tony finally looks to the side and begins putting the Molotov Cocktails into a box. After the box is full, Tony stands up. He turns and leans down to lift the box. After lifting the box, a ball hits his foot. Tony laughs as he knew who was in the area. Tony put the box down. He turns to the side to see Kid standing there.

"I finally know what to call you. Arthur told me you like being called Kid."

Kid nods in agreement. Kid then stuffs his hand into his pocket. He pulls out Tony's MP3 player and holds it up to give it back to Tony. Tony extends his hand in order to take the MP3 player from Kid's hand. Tony places his fingers onto the MP3 player in order to take it. Tony suddenly moves his hand so he can wrap Kid's fingers around the device.

"Keep it Kid." Tony smiled. "It's yours now."

Kid becomes excited as Tony let him have the MP3 player, even though he's not exactly sure what it is to begin with. Kid stuffs the MP3 player back into his pocket. He then walks forward and wraps his arms around Tony.

Off in the distance, Arthur sees Kid giving Tony a hug. It brings a smile to Arthur's face. At another end of the village, Gibbs also sees Kid giving Tony a hug. It also brings a smile to his face as well.

Kid finally backs away from Tony. He then takes the simple-beaded necklace off from around his neck. Kid extends his hand up to give Tony his necklace. Tony takes the necklace and puts it around his neck.

"Thanks Kid. I love it."

Kid smiles as he sees Tony likes what he gave him. He then runs away. Tony turns to the side, leans down and lifts the box in order to bring it over to the Humvee.

With not much time left, Arthur moves all the villagers to the Southeastern side of the village. Gibbs walks into the tent real quick as the rest of the team and the marines get into their positions. Once inside the tent, Gibbs walks toward the back, places his gun on cot and kneels down. He closes his eyes and begins to pray.

"I know I haven't done this in ages. For the longest time I blamed you for taking Shannon and Kelly away from me… I do have Kelly back now, but as Jamie cuz that's the name she lived with for the majority of her life. Jamie and Tony are getting married on Sunday night. Before coming here, Jamie asked me to keep Tony safe and to bring him back unharmed. Well… The unharmed part of that might be a little impossible with what's gonna occur soon… But I…" Gibbs begins to say as a couple tears fall from his eyes. "I gave her a promise. I'd do anything for my daughter. She's so happy being with Tony. But we're here, in a situation that might kill us. And all I ask of you is to make sure Tony makes it home alive." He said. "You can take my life here today… But please don't take his. If one of us is gonna die today… Take me. Just please… Please let Tony make it home alive."

Gibbs finally opens his eyes and stands up. He grabs his gun and walks out of the tent in order to get into position.