A few days after the attack on the base and Soap and Price brought Steiner in, Aaron was one step away from being able to locate where Anatoly was hiding from the Intel Steiner provided that Soap and Price "kindly" asked him for. Ben also returned to the base, but wasn't the same since his father died. He barely talked to anyone, including Aaron. He was angry and upset that he didn't get to spend as much time with his dad the past few years and now he was gone. Aaron let him have his space, but really missed her best friend.

Aaron was sitting in the technical building one morning waiting for the system to update and everything to load. At the moment Aaron had her headphones in and sketching in her notebook to pass the time since the computers were taking forever today. She was in the middle of sketching out a woodland scene with all sorts of trees when someone pulled her headphones out. "How loud do you have that playing?" A familiar Scottish voice asked. Aaron chuckled and turned around in her chair. "Well I like to be undisturbed when I am working and these tune everything out." She told Soap.

"It looks like you are drawing more than working." Soap pointed out with a smile. Aaron chuckled. "I have to wait for these computers to update and load all the information. And once that is done I will know where Anatoly is so you and Price can go put a bullet in his head." she told Soap as he pulled up another chair to sit next to her. "Have I ever told you how smart you are?" Soap questioned.

"On a daily basis." Aaron replied. Soap's eyes wandered down to her notebook and noticed the sketch she was working on. "Hey you're really good." He complimented, reaching for the notebook. Aaron shook her head. "They aren't that good." She replied. Soap looked at her sketch and flipped through the pages to see more and more sketches. "How come you never showed me these?" he asked.

"It's just how I pass time." Aaron told him. "It's not a big deal."

As Soap got to her earlier sketches she grabbed the notebook from him. "That's enough for now." She told him as she put it in her desk. Soap looked at her and smiled. "What don't you want me to see?" he questioned.

"What? Nothing. Oh look the computers are almost done." Aaron said changing the subject and turning towards the monitors. Soap watched her as she typed on the keyboard and moved some things around on the screen before she brought it up on the big screen. Then two locations popped up on the screen. "Alright it looks like he is in one of two places." Aaron began. "Location one would be in Azerbaijan which is below Russia and above Iran. And then the second place is in the Altai Mountains which is where Russia, China, and Kazakhstan all come together…looks like it was an old launch facility that Anatoly reequipped not too long after Makarov was killed."

Soap stood up his stomach dropped to the floor when he saw the screen. He's been to both of them before. A long time ago…when he was first brought into the 22nd Regiment and put on Price's team. He was in Azerbaijan where they found Al-Asad and found out about Imran Zakhaev and the second location was where Soap killed the Russian bastard on that bridge. It was also where he watched Griggs and Gaz die right in front of him. All the memories came back to him in a matter of five seconds. All the pain, all the suffering…all the things he tried to forget because he felt guilty that Griggs and Gaz died and that he lived. The only comfort he got out of the situation was that he killed Zakhaev.

"Soap?" Aaron's British voice sounded. He turned towards her. "Are you okay?" she asked. Soap swallowed the lump in his throat and shook his head as he stepped back. "I…I have to go." He told her and got out of the room like it was on fire, leaving Aaron in confusion. He never talked to her about her or told her about what happened all those years ago so he wasn't reminded of the events so Aaron was at a loss of what was wrong.

OOOOO

Aaron called in Price and MacMillan into the technical building to inform them about the news and Price had the near same reaction as Soap. "Price are you alright?" Aaron asked. Price looked at her. "When I showed these to Soap he ran out of here like his life depended on it." she explained.

"You don't know, do you?" Price questioned.

"Know what?" Aaron replied.

Price took a step closer to her and let out a breath. "Six years ago was when Soap was first brought onto my Bravo Team in the beginning of the Russian Civil War. Azerbaijan is where we captured Al-Asad and found out about Imran Zakhaev and that exact location in the Altai Mountains is where Soap killed him. Only it came with a cost. He watched the other two of our team members get killed and suffered from pretty bad PTSD."

Aaron sighed. "I didn't know…" she breathed out. "I mean I knew Zakhaev was killed, but I was helping out in the Middle East after that nuclear warhead went off so I really didn't know the details at the time…I just dropped that him like it was nothing…"

"It wasn't you're fault lass, you didn't know. It an honest mistake." MacMillan assured her. "Bottom line is you found Anatoly. We'll send a team to each location, but I want you to tell me where you think he is."

Aaron looked at MacMillan for a second before looking at the screen. "Makarov was Zakhaev's second in command…Al-Asad was just a loose end and another contact for them. If Anatoly is going to be anywhere, it's going to be that launch facility." Aaron told MacMillan. MacMillan nodded. "But if Anatoly reequipped that facility and wants to finish what Zakhaev and Makarov couldn't, then he will." Aaron added. "There is a chance that Anatoly has something nuclear in his plans."

"How can we know for sure?" Price asked.

"Ask Steiner. If anyone is going to know it'll be him." Aaron answered.

"Alright. Good work."

With that much said, Price and MacMillan left and Aaron headed out a few minutes later to find Soap. She looked checked the living quarters, the mess hall, and the gym with no luck. Then she headed over to the firing range which was completely empty except for Soap who was sitting in the observing perch looking at something in front of him. Aaron walked over and up the stairs to where he was and saw he was looking at a M911. "Soap…" she began as she sat next to him. "I am so sorry. I had no idea about what happened. Price just told me and I just dropped that on you like it was nothing." She apologized. "Had I known…"

"It's okay." Soap said, picking his head up to look at her. "I don't like to talk about it. The same way you don't like talking about what went on in Russia."

"I understand… But I feel like a bloody idiot." Aaron admitted.

"Don't. You didn't know and it's alright. But just seeing the location brought back some pretty bad memories…"

Soap turned his head back to the gun and Aaron's face fell. She let out a breath before speaking again. "You already know that they killed my own team members in front of me and beat the living crap out of me…" she began. "But they used other attempts to get me to talk like water boarding. I thought to myself every day that I was going to die, but then I remembered I was the only one who knew where all the Intel went so I was going to be the last to die. I realized I'd have to watch my team die before I got the chance to." Soap looked at her and saw the expression on her face. It wasn't sad or depressed… in fact he couldn't place the emotion. "And then one day someone burst through the door and rescued me and was at my bed side when I woke up. And for a while I suffered from some really bad PTSD and locked myself in an office to distract myself. But someone refused to give up on me and made me myself again. And now I wake up to that person in the morning." Soap smiled at her. "You didn't just save me from Russia, Soap. You saved me from a lot more than that."

"Why are you telling me this?" Soap asked her.

"Because I know what it's like to watch my own die and feel guilty about it. I still feel guilty that they died and I didn't. But the comfort I am going to find is when Anatoly is going to get a bullet in his head. Just like I'm sure you got some comfort killing Zakhaev. We all have pasts and ours are particularly not pretty and hard to move one from, but we have to eventually. Those two men you lost, you'll always remember them and what happened just like I will always remember what happened in Russia, but look what you became because of that day. I think you turned out pretty great."

Soap met Aaron's eyes and smiled again. He leaned over and kissed her, placing one hand on the side of her face. She smiled and moved her lips with his as he deepened the kiss. She moved to the edge of her seat to be closer to him and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling him into her lap. Aaron wrapped her arms around his neck as Soap kept his securely around her lower back. Aaron pulled back and looked at him. "What is this for?" She said with a small smile. "You just know what to say and what I need to hear." He told her with an all teeth smile. Aaron kissed him again for a few seconds before pulling away. "I have to go back and do actual work." She told him. "I'll see you later." Aaron stood up and left to go back to the technical building, leaving Soap in the firing range. He turned back to the M911 and his mood instantly went back to what it was before. He still couldn't get over Gaz and Griggs because now he was feeling guilty all over again. He didn't know if he could move on from this…