Headache so bad that it drove every thought from his brain, yet something kept eating at him. Something he had to do. He was moving; no, he was being moved. Jerked up and down. Carried. Couldn't do a damn thing about it but lie there and hope not to toss his cookies. Everything hurt.

A thought sprang free: the locket. Gotta get the damn thing to the colonel. Colonel'd know what to do with it.

Whisper in his ear: "You rest, Betty Blue. You did good."

It was enough. Charlie let the blackness back in. He didn't have to fight.

"Is Uncle Charlie going to be all right?"

Bob Brown could lie with the best of them. He did it for a living. This time he didn't, not to the little girl in his arms that he wasn't about to put down for the next thirty years or so. "I don't know, honey." You deserve to be all right, Sgt. Grey. You saved my daughter's life. I can't repay the debt if you don't live, brother.

Blane nudged the comm. link closed. "Medical's ready for him. Colonel's sending out a vehicle to meet us at the edge of the forest." He put his other hand back onto his end of the impromptu stretcher that Gerhardt had lashed together out of rope and tree branches. With three of them toting the man, they were making good time.

Just a little bit further, Charlie. You keep breathing, okay? You kept going this long, you can handle a little bit further.

Colonel Ryan handled the debriefing himself. There wasn't much to it, and there was a small hole in the group that sat in the briefing room. It was Sgt. Charles Grey-sized hole, and it was obvious.

There was also a lump to one side: families. There was the Gerhardt family, the Blane family, and one member of the Brown family: Kim. Serena and her brother Teddy were too young to be able to keep quiet about what they were hearing but Serena was thrilled to spend some time with Sgt. Medawar, the voice that she'd talked to over the radio. In fact, Serena was already begging for a cell phone so that she could call Sgt. Medawar every chance that she could get. Kim had turned down the request, and Daddy was busy trying to figure out how he could dodge his little girl so that he too wouldn't have to say no.

It made for a crowded room, but no one complained. The men of the Unit brought in a few extra chairs, and Gerhardt and Williams perched on the ends of the table in lieu of additional seats. Ryan stood in front.

"I'm not going to tell you what was inside the locket," he told them. "It ain't relevant to you here, and would only get you into trouble. Even Sgt. Masters didn't know what he had, didn't know how important it was, else he would have taken a great deal more care with it. Suffice it to say that the intel is already in the hands of some upstanding folks who are makin' best use of it, correlatin' it with some other stuff that they have. 'Course, it's gonna make a bunch of us sleep a good deal sounder these nights, and that's all I'll say on the subject."

Not a problem, thought Gerhardt. He himself had already received a better briefing than any that would be offered here and now in front of his family, and his next mission was already set for three days from now. Based on the intel that Masters had acquired and his and Brown's daughter had had a hand in passing, Gerhardt would be traveling to a certain spot not too far from here and making sure that someone whose face appeared in the intel likewise appeared in the local newspaper obituaries. He hadn't been told, but he was also fairly sure that both Blane and Williams had received similar orders. Given the circumstances, Gerhardt was far from disappointed.

Ryan wasn't finished. "Mrs. Gerhardt, Ms. Gerhardt, Mrs. Brown, on behalf of the United States Army I'd like to apologize to you all for involving you in this affair. Sgt. Masters had no right to give that locket to Ms. Gerhardt, no matter how inconsequential it he thought it was. As we all know, he was wrong."

Tiffy spoke up. "He paid for his mistake, colonel. None of us here hold a grudge."

You sure, Tiffy? That wasn't what you said last night, listening to Lissy cry in her sleep. Wasn't what you said to me, neither. Not what I see in Kim Brown's eyes, thinking of her own daughter.

Ryan moved on. "Near as we can figure, Sgt. Masters gave the locket to Ms. Gerhardt here during the baseball game at the picnic a couple of weeks ago."

Lissy nodded. "Third base. He was pretty nervous, but I thought that it was because he didn't want Mrs. Masters to know that he'd gotten her a gift. He told me to pretend like it was mine until he asked for it back." She made a face. "That's why I was so upset when I lost it, Mom. It wasn't really mine."

"Clasp got broke." Ryan provided the explanation. "Probably you received it in that fashion, Ms. Gerhardt. It fell, and the Brown girl picked it up for a plaything. Your daughter, Brown, had no idea what she was dealing with."

"Still doesn't," Kim put in.

"Not such a bad thing," Ryan agreed. "Nonetheless, she trucked it around with her toys, which is how it ended up on the edge of the forest. It was our good luck that Grey happened onto it before the enemy could. We'll be lookin' into that," he promised. "This base ain't ever been invaded, and it's a record that I ain't best pleased to be breakin'. Gives us something of a hint as to how important the locket was to the enemy."

Yeah, we'll be doing something about that, colonel. That's a promise.

Molly Blane changed the subject. "How is Sgt. Grey?" she asked. "The doctors won't tell us much."

"Ain't much to tell, Mrs. Blane," Ryan said blandly. "He's doing as well as can be expected."

"But he hasn't woken up."

"No, Mrs. Blane, he hasn't."

"That's not a good sign, colonel."

"No, ma'am."

Sgt. Medawar had her hands filled with Brown children. One, barely walking, was in her arms and the other was bouncing beside her, hand trustingly in hers. The corridors of the Medical Infirmary were sterile and white, cinderblock walls painted and painted again with white paint. It was a favorite task to assign recruits to, to clean things up with a fresh coat of paint. They passed an empty room, two beds inside waiting with fresh sheets for someone to occupy them.

"We're going to see Uncle Charlie, right?"

"If we can get in," Medawar temporized, mentally apologizing to the medical personnel and wondering how mothers coped with active pre-schoolers. This was supposed to have been a pleasant respite from her high stress job in the TOC. She'd never dreamed that it would be this tough when the colonel had assigned her this mission—er, task. Teddy snuggled against her shoulder, half-asleep, milky baby smell from his breath tickling her nose. Was it time for his nap? Medawar hadn't a clue.

One of the nurses hurried by, harried as Medawar felt. She frowned at the visitors. "Only family members are allowed in, if they're under twelve."

"It's okay," Serena chirped back. "We're going to see Uncle Charlie."

The nurse nodded understandingly. "Family. He's in four twelve. On the right."

"Thank you," Medawar told the retreating back, not quite certain that she'd done the right thing. Is this how the Unit operators do it in the field? Misdirection?

More misgivings cropped up when she followed Serena into the room. There were two beds there, but only one was occupied and Serena made a beeline for the occupant. "Uncle Charlie!"

No answer, and Kayla Medawar took a moment to stare at the unconscious figure. She knew Charlie Grey, had met him more than once and spoken to Betty Blue countless times over the airwaves. He was a good Unit soldier; one of the best, she knew. All of them were, on Alpha Team; she was aware of that from her work in the TOC. Not the handsomest of men, was Grey, but not ill-favored, either. She'd heard that he could charm the panties off of any woman around, not that she was about to mention that in front of Serena.

He wouldn't be doing any charming for a while. Not with that white bandage wrapped around his head. Both eyes were black-rimmed looking for all the world like an over-sized racoon, courtesy of a large boulder, and there were several more healing scrapes across his chest and shoulders. Something bound one leg, and Medawar recalled hearing something about broken bones. That was the least of the man's troubles. Bones would heal eventually. Waking up was more problematic.

"Uncle Charlie!" Serena scolded the unconscious figure. "Wake up! I have stuff that I have to tell you!"

Nothing. This was a mistake, Medawar realized. She should never have allowed Serena to come here. It would only upset the child when she realized just how badly hurt the man was.

Serena slipped her hand into Charlie's and kept on prattling. "Daddy said that you and me did really really good," she told him. "He was really pleased to find out that I had the necklace that I found, and that you bought it at my store. Daddy said that he was going to get me another one, a real one, that has real gold. Not just a plastic one, like Mommy gets me."

Still no response.

"Uncle Charlie—"

It was definitely an error to bring the girl here. Grey was still unconscious, and that would only upset the child. Medawar reached to take Serena's hand once more. "I don't think we should stay—"

"Serena."

Not much more than a whisper, but one eye did its best to squint open. His hand did better; he caressed the cheek of the child that he'd rescued. The effort was too much for him; Grey's hand fell back to the pristine white sheets.

A tear sprang to Serena's eye. "Thank you for saving me, Uncle Charlie."

A smile in response. It was all that Betty Blue could manage, but it was enough.