A/N Remember, it's 1999... Ah, that was a good year. I was four years old, and I got a trike! This conversation is loosly based on a real conversation i had with a close friend who just returned from Afghanistan... yes, I was the bitchy naive girl.

"Sunday Dress" by Dala

I'm 22 and I've been through hell

Where did I go when I lost myself? x3

And if I believed in Jesus

Like a little girl in her Sunday dress

And if I live forever like Elvis

Would I be perfect? (x2)

(Where did I go when I lost myself?)

(Perfect)

(Where did I go when I lost myself?)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I can't believe you're doing this!"

"Rose…" Chase sighed.

"No! Don't 'Rose' me! You're different, Robbie. You don't eat properly, you don't sleep…. You can't keep doing this! You're not..." She choked on her sob "You're not my brother, anymore, Robbie

"He's right here, Rose." Chase whispered.

"No he's not. .. I want him back."

"Look, Rose!" He said exasperatedly, "What do you want me to do? I'm 22, Lord knows I have no skills, there's no way anyone outside of the ADF will employ me at above minimum wage, and my –our- brother needs to eat! So do I, for that matter."

"So how is this going to solve anything? In four years we'll be having the same conversation, only you'll be 26 and have no skills, then 30. And then what? What happens then, Robbie? What will you do?"

There was silence.

"Goddamnit, answer me! I'm not a child, I deserve to know what's going on!"

"You underestimate me, Rose," Chase said sardonically. "I'm going to go to school-between deployments. The ADF will pay… so in four years we might be having this conversation, but in 8 we won't."

"Wha-what will you go for?"

"Biochem, probably."

"Oh."

There was silence.

"Has Dad called you? He knows you're shipping out on Tuesday, right?"

"Yeah. We were going to have coffee today at Lou's."

"'were'?"

"He never showed."

"Oh, Robbie…" She sighed and put her hand around his shoulder.

"He's proud of you, you know."

A snort.

"He is! Really proud."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"Robbie? What-what do you mean?"

"I'm not proud of me, Rose! It's completely ridiculous… we're so-so- impotent! Israel- we stood and watched as people-kids- were killed because 'we didn' t have the mandate to interfere with a foreign government'. Niger- Sure, we could distribute food, meds- but there was never enough, and we couldn't stop the bombs form going off! We couldn't stop the death! Rwanda-" His voice broke.

"Robbie… that wasn't-"

"We knew, Rose! We knew… We were denied permission to go after those we believed were plotting genocide- We knew! And, a month later- three-hundred-thousand deaths. Bodies lying in the ditches. Babies with bullets in their heads, still in their mothers arms. We had to- had to suit up, put on rubber gloves and pants, to clear out the bodies because there was-so-much blood. It was everywhere- and they didn't want us to contract AIDS. We were powerless, Rose." He stopped to take a breath.

"We could have stopped it- and all we did was clean up after."

The girl stroked the back of his head.

There was silence.

Finally, the girl broke it. "Is it just me, or are we going through a bit of a role reversal here? Remember-" she nudged him in the ribs-"I'm the one who's supposed to rail against the actions of the military."

The young man gave a hollow laugh.

A/N So.... review? C'mon. You didn' call. You *said* you'd call.