Credenhill, six days later, 0800 hours…

Major John "Soap" MacTavish glanced back at the man who would be joining him and Price as a part of the four man team. MacMillan had promoted him and Price the day before they left, saying it was well deserved. Soap couldn't agree more. After being stabbed in the chest, being labelled a fugitive and nearly dying twice, it was the least they could have. Price puffed on his cigar as he observed Lewis "Rook" Creed in the rear view mirror of the jeep. He was young, around Melissa's age, had short blond hair hidden beneath a cap, brown eyes and a small scar on his lip from a rugby tackle, or so he claimed. There were twenty men at Credenhill, not including the staff, but only Rook would be coming with them to Argentina, as he had the best score in the tests that had been given in training. Soap's thoughts had been filled about Melissa every day since he left. Her face, her smile, her body…everything. He missed her terribly ever since he left. He then knew how Price must have felt after leaving his wife so many times. They approached the plane that would be taking them to Argentina and Soap thought he was dreaming when he stepped out. Melissa was on the aircraft ramp, smiling widely at him. She was wearing similar clothes to the ones she wore in Colombia; a dark blue top, light blue pants that hugged her legs and running shoes. Her hair was back in its mermaid braid and there were a pair of Ray-Ban's hanging on her shirt. Soap fought the urge to run up to her and quickly ascended the ramp, pushing his gun aside to he could hold her properly before kissing her. Melissa placed her hands on his face and slid them down his neck, responding happily until Soap broke away before Rook could get an eyeful. Speaking of Rook, he was ascending the ramp, but stopped when he saw Melissa, his eyes widening a bit. Soap narrowed his eyes a little in warning as the sergeant ogled at his girlfriend. Rook quickly noticed and stopped staring, his face smoothing over. Melissa rolled her eyes at Soap's attitude, but smiled as she did it.

"Rook, this is Melissa, she's the fourth member of this mission." Price introduced, brushing past them.

"Ma'am." Rook nodded his head a little in greeting.

"A pleasure." Melissa said and Soap could see Rook's surprise at her accent. There were no American's in the existing Taskforce 141.

"Buckle up lads, and ladette. We have a long flight." Price said, taking a seat.

Argentina, 2045 hours…

Soap shot the snipers with his own silenced rifle and quickly moved into the next building, Melissa following. They had split up on arrival in the city. The Ultranationalists had moved fast, taking prisoners and executing people on the street, soon taking the small town as their own. The spy said that Ursa was in the local hospital, where security was heaviest. But since the numbers among the Ultranationalist ranks were slowly shrinking, the team had a better chance of getting their target. In addition, most of the forces were spread over the city, leaving Ursa vulnerable. She probably had ten men at most with her.

"Soap, do you copy?" Price said over the comm.

"Aye, what is it?" Soap whispered, glancing out of the window of the restaurant they were hiding in. There were bodies everywhere, the result of the soldiers killing off potential witnesses. He saw Melissa's sad eyes as she looked at the body of a woman not too far from them, lying in a pool of her own blood.

"Some of the soldiers are leaving the hospital from the east entrance; you can probably get in from there."

"Roger that." Soap froze, hearing a voice speaking Russian a few meters away. He went down to the floor, Melissa following. The Ultranationalists were searching for survivors. Soap was confident they could leave the restaurant without being seen, given that it was dark and they had changed into black gear when night had fallen. "Be careful." He said to Melissa, who nodded. He slowly crawled forward, towards the door, but stopped at the sound of a dog barking and running up at the window. The soldier and his teammate in the restaurant went up and berated the handler for a few seconds before heading off in the other direction. Soap got his hand off his gun and crawled forward again, but stopped once more when he saw the two soldiers poking at a man slumped against a table. The man let out a groan and one of them shot him in the head in response. Soap glanced back. Melissa looked horrified, her hand over her mouth to stop any sound from coming out. "There's nothing we can do for him now. Come on, we need to get to the hospital." He turned back and crawled to the door, slowly getting up and running out to the alley across the street. Once he was sure Melissa was close they cut through the houses, evading more patrols along the way. Eventually, they made it to the hospital gardens, taking cover behind some flowery bushes. There were a few men at the door of the east entrance. Soap lined up his shots and fired, sending them to the ground. He quickly ran up and they pulled the bodies into the lake. They then quietly ran to the doors and Soap looked at Melissa once more, his hand on her shoulder. "Are you ready for this?"

"As I'll ever be." She tried to smile, but it didn't come out so well. Soap brushed his hand across her cheek in reassurance before checking his gun. They quickly slid into the building and made their way up the corridor, towards the surgery wing, where Ursa was supposed to be. Soap took out soldiers patrolling along the way and hid the bodies in various rooms. They were one floor below the wing when there was the sound of gunfire.

"Soap, Soap, we've been blown!" Price yelled over the comm "The Ultranationalists found the bodies! Shit! Ursa's getting away! The soldiers are carrying her to the roof!" that got Soap going. He immediately started to sprint, running down hallways and shooting at anything that got in his way. He heard Melissa take a few shots behind him as a few came up from the rear. They ran up the next stairwell and made it to the roof, Soap ridding the scene of Ursa's guards. They were all over the place. Soap saw Price moving in from the west roof entrance, and soon all the guards were gone, but so was Ursa. The helicopter was flying away.

"Damn it!" Melissa screamed, running a gloved hand through her hair, glaring at the helicopter that was soon shrinking on the horizon.

The doctor was dead, as were his assistants. They were all sprawled out on the floor, blood pooling around them, in their surgery scrubs.

"Looks like Ursa was getting some major work done." Melissa said as they came out. She had raided the chief surgeon's office and succeeded in finding Ursa's file. "According to this, she ordered a complete facial re-construction."

"She was changing her appearance." Rook said. Melissa nodded.

"That would make it harder for anyone to find her. It's just as good as going off the grid if you can hide in plain sight." Price said. "But by the looks of the theatre, we might have interrupted them mid-procedure."

"So they didn't finish her surgery." Soap stated. Price nodded "The Ultranationalists saw us coming and shot the people who were working on Ursa so they couldn't give us any intel."

"They would have been shot anyway." Price said.

"According to the chief surgeon's computer, her room is just down the hall from here." Melissa turned and walked "Maybe she left something." Ursa's room was down the hall and around the corner, room 3.13. It was dark, until Melissa switched the light on. The room was practically untouched.

"She was in such a hurry she left her clothes." Rook said, opening the closet. Melissa went to the bedside table and picked something up. Soap came up behind her and saw it was a locket. It was an oval shaped pendant with an engraving of a dove on the front. Melissa opened the locket and tensed up.

"What the...?" she trailed off, turning around to face him.

"What's wrong?" Soap looked at the picture inside. There was a vaguely familiar woman, lying in a bed and smiling, holding a baby in her arms.

"That's…my mother." Melissa said, looking up at him. Her face was crossed between scared and confused. "And me…oh my God."

"Melissa?"

"Oh no, oh no no no no!" she groaned, fisting her hands at her temples.

"Okay, Melissa, calm down." Soap raised his voice over hers and grabbed her shoulders. "What's wrong?" Melissa took a deep breath, trying to ease her anxiety.

"My dad told me about a locket that he gave to my mother for their first anniversary together. She wore it all the time, and put a picture of her and me in it after I was born." She looked down at the picture "After she died, Dad looked for it everywhere in the house, but he couldn't find it in the damage. Mom wasn't wearing it when she died, so he assumed it was destroyed in the fire." She shook her head "Why does Ursa have this?" Soap didn't say anything, neither did Price or Rook. Soap had a very good idea, but it was too horrible to say out aloud. He could tell by the look on Price's face that they shared the same thoughts. "Ursa…murdered my mother!"

Safe house, Argentina, 0010 hours…

Soap woke up suddenly and felt around. Melissa wasn't next to him. His red flag went up but he relaxed a little when he saw her silhouette at the window. When they got to the safe house she immediately went off on her own to one of the bedrooms, and she was silent the whole way there. Soap knew better than to follow her. She only came back for dinner before going to bed. She was still awake when Soap arrived, but he said nothing, knowing that he couldn't find the right thing to say to help her. He just laid down and Melissa rolled onto her other side so she could rest her head on his chest, still saying nothing.

"Why are you awake?" he asked, pushing himself off the bed and walking to her. The moonlight illuminated her face as she looked out the window.

"Too many thoughts." She said, looking up at him.

"You want to talk about it?" Soap offered. Melissa sighed.

"I don't even know where to start." She shook her head.

"How do you feel?"

"Everything. How would you feel if you just found out your mother was murdered?"

"Angry -"

"Not just that!" Melissa suddenly exploded, her eyes wild and her face contorted in rage, her arms flying out "Anger, and pain, and sadness, and everything in between! All my life, I thought my mother had died in a house fire! Now I find out that Ursa killed her and covered her tracks! Why else would she have that locket? What am I supposed to tell Dad? Why did she kill my mother? She didn't have to die!" Soap grabbed her arms to stop her from hitting something and she struggled, screaming at him to let her go, swearing and crying. But Soap stood his ground, knowing that she was no match against his strength. After a few seconds Melissa stopped struggling and swearing, breaking down into tears and allowing Soap to pull her against his chest, feeling helpless and vulnerable. Soap held her tightly and looked up to see Price standing at the door, watching. The older man looked down and walked away.

Hereford, the next day, 1600 hours

"Oh dear God." General Morton said, running a hand through his silvery hair "Are you sure it's Jane's?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. I'm sorry General." MacMillan said. He was in a secure conference room, speaking with General Morton via video comm. Morton let out a heavy sigh, and MacMillan thought that he looked like a tired old man.

"My granddaughter?"

"She's not coping well, I'm afraid. I'm sending her to a counsellor, but I doubt she can recover quickly, this has really upset her."

"I can understand her pain, Commander. I believed that my daughter died in an accident, only to be told now that she was murdered. Ursa Makarov has taken another member of my family from me."

"She will be brought to justice for what she has done, General."

"You had my full confidence Commander, but then Ursa slipped away from you every time you went out to capture her. My patience is waning." His tone became angry.

"I can understand your anger and frustration, General, but our sources are being unearthed and eliminated, therefore making it hard for us to find her."

"I doubt you can understand my anger! Find Ursa, Commander!" Morton then made a cut-off motion to someone off screen and the transmission terminated.

Soap quietly closed the door to the house and walked through. He saw a bottle of vodka on the table, almost half empty, and a glass smashed on the floor. That alarmed him and he ran to Melissa's room, throwing the door open. Melissa was sprawled on her bed, face down. Soap was next to her in four strides and checked for life. There was a slow pulse and she was breathing like she was sleeping. She had been drunk and must have stumbled into bed. Soap sighed in relief and stood, taking in her appearance. They had come back on the base only a few hours before and Soap was immediately taken to MacMillan for debriefing, but Melissa had run off. She looked dishevelled, her hair was messy and there were tear streaks down her face. She was wearing a tank top and jeans. Soap noted that the air conditioning was warm, like it always was, if not a little warmer. Melissa hated the cold and always had the temperature up in her office and the house. Soap went back to the kitchen and cleaned up the broken glass, also putting the vodka away. He had to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't crash and burn. Soap suddenly felt tired, the weight of exhaustion finally resting on his shoulders. He took off his boots and went back to the bedroom, taking Melissa into his arms and kissing her forehead before closing his eyes.