Gabriel had just stepped through the trasporter when he noticed the cruiser sitting twenty feet away and waved at the two guys leaning against it's side and smiled. God it felt so good to be back on Mars after going home to tie up loose ends.

He'd had to contact his and Ruby's boss and tell him that they'd be gone three more months, stopped by Aunt Charlie's place.

And told her what had happened to her friends then let her know that they were safe and doing much better. The relief on her face had been telling before she had handed him a radio and told him to give it to the guys. That they would know what to do with it.

He'd promised to give the radio to the three then left the garage to go by his place, which had taken him a very long and tiring three hour drive from Chicago just to reach his cozy little cabin style house, located smack dab in the middle of hillbilly central.

Where the rabid opossums ran wild and free and serial killers used the woods as their dumping ground.

He'd gotten out of his car to go grab some stuff for Ruby, thinking that she would be feeling home sick soon and would need something familiar to keep her from feeling too badly and had had to dive for cover when he'd heard someone shoot a gun somewhere close by (no doubt hunting for deer or something) and had throw himself to the ground just to be on the safe side since he had no idea which direction the person shooting, was pointing their damn gun.

And had all but crawled up the front steps to his door before fumbling around while trying to unlock the door and then slipping inside, where he camped out for two days to rest before calling up his parents and talking to them.

As usual since the day that Ruby had come home, they didn't ask about her or even mention her. Leaving him to wonder if he was the only person in the damn world other than their Aunt Charlie who actually cared about the girl.

After that, he'd packed up a few extra things for her. Her favorite three books to read, some bottles of her favorite shampoo and conditioner. A small stuffed animal that she'd had since she was a little girl. Her old MP3 player, which he had fixed for her so that it played her most recent favorite songs.

Some more clothes and that was it. He'd hit the road again on the third day after packing everything into his car then headed back to Chicago wanting to get back to Mars as soon as he could so that he could check up on Ruby.

Sure, he'd asked Stoker to keep an eye on her but the man probably had other things that he had to do. Watching a human, even if it was to keep her out of trouble, would be a little bit of a pain. Especially since Ruby got pretty needy when he wasn't around.

Not that that was her fault. But the degree of how much she suffered when he wasn't around, bothered him greatly.

"Hey guys, been waiting long?" He asked cheerfully as he walked over to the two soldiers that had been sent to pick him up. The two looked at each other, a strange expression crossing their faces before they bothered answering.

"No. Not long. Did you do everything that you had set out to do?"

Gabriel grinned at them. "Yup. Contacted my family. My boss-"

"What did you contact your leader for?" One of the soldiers, a black furred alien with snowy colored hair asked.

"I contacted my boss to tell him that the team and myself would be here for another three months before we would be back." Gabriel said and watched as the two exchanged looks again as a lead weight settled in the pit of his stomach.

Something was going on. But he didn't really have time to speculate about what it was before one of the soldiers said, "Sorry man. We have our orders. The females will be staying and that means that the rest of your team has to go." A second before he drew his gun and pulled the trigger...

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"Shal-la...is a very strong person for a woman." Vinny said as he raised up on his elbow, next to the sleeping woman, and looked over at Throttle who had curled his body around Ruby's so that she wouldn't feel cold since Vinny had more or less stolen all of the covers a little while ago and had yet to return them to the rest of the group.

Throttle made a soft humming sound and wrapped his arms tighter around the small delicate body laying against his front. "Yes. She is." He finally said in a soft tone as he tucked Ruby's head under his chin and closed his eyes as Modo shifted on the mattress behind him.

"She's less sheltered than other human females-"

"Yeah."

"Stronger."

"Yeah."

"Kinder." Vinny said in an almost awed tone.

"Fragile-" Modo said a second or so before sighing. As much as he hated to admit it, he admired the woman. Her strength, her gumption, her conviction, her kindness. Hell he even liked the fact that she was still human enough after going through such horrors to cry and fall apart.

All in all, she was a very admirable person. He supposed that binding himself to her through the oath wouldn't be so bad. "Alright... I"m in."