It was the last day of Nathalie's vacation and she arrived to the military base at Hereford. She was carrying her bags with clean clothes just walking towards the barracks. Lieutenant was wearing her uniform and Blue walking beside her was wearing his winter gear. He remained by her side at all times even when he noticed soldiers he sometimes played with. They weren't necessarily soldiers that Nathalie knew personally or worked with. Most of them she knew by seeing but Nathalie ignored everything around her. She seemed a little irritated from the last meeting of her friend and wanted to avoid any unnecessary interaction. The thought of letting Makarov build his power even more, probably creating worldwide war, maybe even destroying the country she lived in was devastating because she knew there was nothing she could do prevent it. Whatever things she could attempt would have resulted in her death and dying in vain wasn't in her future plans. She promised herself that she wouldn't die unless she witnessed Makarov's death. That and finally facing her other fears, she wasn't done with life just yet.

For the moment being Nathalie decided to leave the fighting to MacTavish's task force. They were so eager to recruit new people Silver thought that it would make more sense if they dug up all the dirt. She had her lesson and didn't want to get involved. In addition, she also had a bunch of terrorists that wanted to follow her and fight Makarov which meant that her relation to him could be uncovered easier. And what's even worse she had to look after them so they don't do anything stupid to reveal their betrayal.
Nathalie sighed at the thoughts that were constantly going through the back of her mind. She didn't feel too bad about them since there always were a lot of various things trying to ruin her life but she kept going forward anyway. Silver managed to lighten up and continued her trip to the barracks. While looking around Nathalie noticed John talking with some soldiers by the training grounds. She kept staring at him from the distance that separated them. Even though she was walking to her it felt like time stopped and she was staring at him for eternity.

Time quickly got back to its regular pace when MacTavish turned around and glanced in her direction. Nathalie turned her head and continued walking trying to keep her composure and not reveal the shock. He saw her, he definitely saw her, and at that moment the question was whether he recognised her or not. Without wondering about it too much, Nathalie managed to reach the barracks where Sanderson and couple of other tf141 members gathered. He noticed her and immediately wanted to talk with her but she walked past him saying 'Not now' and entered the barracks. She walked straight to her room and slammed the door behind her. Silver walked up to the bed that Blue was standing on and put her bags on next to him. Her companion was happily wagging his tail unable to understand why she wasn't as happy as him to be back. Usually she would be in far greater mood and so Blue took a step closer and started licking her hand. Slowly a smile crept on her face and she scratched his ear feeling a little bit more relaxed.

"I'm so glad to have you, buddy." She said and sat down on the bed close to her friend. Nathalie gently pulled him into her lap and after he laid down she started to pet Blue. "You are my little treasure, my little baby." She cooed her dog making the shock wear off fairly quickly. Knowing that Sanderson was leaving soon she didn't have time to stress about her relationship with John. Despite the facade she put on, Gary did grew quite close to her and she would consider him a friend. She had a little monologue and convinced herself to go outside to spend some time with her young trainee.

She left the barracks and stood by the door watching him interact with others for a second. It was quite obvious he was at the bottom of the pack, the FNG. Nathalie took a step forward and caught their attention. Sanderson looked so happy to see her he almost started screaming but stopped himself remembering that she disliked him being loud and that his new teammates would never stop making fun of him.

"Lieutenant, happy to see you back." he said calmly but she saw he could hardly contain himself.

"Glad to see you too, Sergeant." She said and moved a little closer to them. "Also nice to see that all the training was worth it. Congratulations. Have fun dealing with these nice gentlemen."

"No worries, we will take good care of your baby." Said one of the guys sitting by the barracks and right in front of Sanderson. "He does cry a lot though."

"Get used to it." She laughed and walked closer to Sanderson. Nathalie put her elbow on his shoulder and leaned on him. "Just so you know he never shuts up. Ever."

"Figures." Said the other soldier.

"Say, you didn't mention your name..." He trailed off looking at her name tag on her uniform. Both of Sanderson's new teammates seemed uneasy and didn't know what to say afterwards. The lingering quiet was broken by one of the supervisors showing up.

"Silver, long time no see." Sound of Ghost's voice broke the silence.

Nathalie turned around to see him walking closer to the group. He was wearing his usual face mask covering any emotion his face could show. She wasn't sure how to react to his presence despite the somewhat cheerful sound to his voice.

"Riley. Yeah, it has been some time." She said taking a step sideways from Sanderson to let Ghost into their circle. Her voice sounded clear but slightly unsure, the last time she saw him, she was pointing a gun at him.

"Want to give a hug to your old teammate?" Said Ghost extending his arms.

For a second she hesitated but she took a step forward and put her arms around him. It felt like her heart was about to jump out of her chest. Her mind was racing, what in the hell was she doing, she has to keep distance for her own safety.

"No bad blood between us, I hope." whispered Ghost and she knew she was right for throwing all of the rationale and any self preservation instinct out at that moment.

Leaning back from the hug she smiled and shook her head. "Never."

"That's quite the reunion." Said one of the tf141 soldiers. "The way everyone knows you from all of the rumours, we thought Ghost would stab you on first sight."

"Rumours?" Nathalie looked back to the guy a bit confused. She quickly brushed it off with new found confidence. "Whatever they are I doubt you would want to test their legitimacy."

Ghost laughed and patted Sanderson on the shoulder. "I bet you two want to spend a few more moments together before we leave, I'll take these two off your hands." He said and pointed towards training grounds. "Move it." He said to them and when the two soldiers began walking away he waved to Silver and Sanderson and then jogged off after them.

Nathalie smiled a little bit more and sat down on the sandbags that were previously occupied by two soldiers that Ghost took to training grounds. She patted a sandbag left from her and young Sergeant sat down next to her. Nathalie didn't even glance at him, she sat there looking straight ahead deep in her own thought. After a minute she relaxed completely and felt a new wave of happiness spread over her body. That moment was perfect indication how past shouldn't affect her. It was there as a reminder of past mistakes and not an image of who she was. It wasn't an easy task to forget the ghosts of her past that haunted her so much but then she knew that it was worth fighting them. If someone who has seen the worst of the worst wasn't holding it against her perhaps she was worthy of the redemption in her own eyes.

"I guess I taught you really well." Said Silver breaking the silence between her and her former subordinate.

"Ma'am?" He said a little confused about what exactly her words meant.

"You learnt to keep your mouth shut very well, Sanderson." Said Nathalie and smiled at him. "You will soon understand how valuable silence is."

Sanderson nodded and listened to his heart beat fastening. He knew why she taught him the things she did. He had the raw basic skills he needed to be a soldier like proper movement, using weapons, analysing the situation, etc., and all of those can be chiselled into perfection with all the daily training. But those skills don't mean a thing when inexperience in battlefield comes in play. He was never in a serious battle; nothing close to the things she or his new leader lived through, but somehow Silver managed to give some of the experience to him from her own self. As if she just gave a piece of herself and he was very grateful. Hesitantly he began to speak despite her recent praising.

"I know that my mindless input won't matter in the battle. And I'm grateful that you taught me that."

She looked at him for a second and smiled even wider. "Well, I wouldn't have used mindless as the description. You are very capable of worthy talk but it usually is at a wrong time. Words hold a lot in them, they can make all the difference in the world." Silver gently patted him on a shoulder and then gave a small reassuring squeeze. "However silence will provide the relief after a long battle. When you can't hear the gunshots and teammate shouts you'll know it is all over."

"Thank you for taking me in for training. Those were some best months of my life." Said Gary and put his hand on top of her. He didn't know which words to use to express his gratitude.

"I guess I should also thank you." Said Nathalie and leaned back. "You have been a good influence on me. Your presence pushed me to get over some of my issues."
Sanderson smiled at her and let go of her hand. His heart had calmed down and he felt happy. At that moment he knew that everything was going just excellent. His dream to be part of international task force came true, his superior was happy and wished him the best, and he didn't nag her to death with constant speaking.

"I guess it's time for our last supper." Said Nathalie and stood up from her seat. She moved her hand from his shoulder and waved to Blue to follow her.

"That sounds very depressing but let's go." Said Sanderson and got up on his feet. They walked next to each other in silence both smiling and enjoying those last moments of being together. No matter how annoying he seemed at the beginning he had grown on her and his presence was really dear to her.

Mess hall was buzzing with soldiers that had just completed their training and those who were just hanging out with their teammates. It wasn't full and they soon had their trays with food. When the two of them were walking towards the table Bravo Six favoured a few soldiers from another table waved and invited Sanderson to join. Nathalie noticed John sitting among them. He was looking straight at her which made her swallow really hard. "You can go eat with them if you want to." She said to her ex subordinate.

"They can wait. It is our last supper. I also want to hear Burns and Griffen complain how you ditched their party for your birthday." Chuckled Gary and turned towards Bravo Six table with his superior.

They sat down among the rest of Bravo Six team and placed the trays on the table. Blue immediately laid down under the chair that Nathalie sat on. She quietly ate her food waiting for Marcus to start a conversation but it just didn't happen. Silver looked around the table and didn't see him around it.

"Wallcroft, where is Burns?" She asked.

"Training." Answered Wallcroft casually picking at his food with a fork.

"Why is he training? I didn't think he was too interested in that so much. At least he created the illusion that he'd rather do anything else." Nathalie seemed a little confused by the situation where Burns wasn't the first at the dinner table.

"He didn't pass selection. Marcus said he felt a little bit bad about it but I didn't think he would just go at the training like mad." Said Sanderson feeling a little down himself.

"Marcus wanted you to train him but MacMillan got you this lad so he just backed away and trained on his own." Explained Griffen.

"He didn't mention anything to me..." mumbled Nathalie and continued to eat as silence fell over their table while the rest of mess hall was drowning in the sounds of others chatting.

"Would it be okay if I cut this short?" Asked Nat looking at Gary. "I would like to check up on him. Seems only fair."

Sanderson nodded and she quickly finished eating. Nathalie stood up from her seat and Blue rose to his feet from underneath her chair following her to the exit. Nathalie put her tray onto the pile of other dirty trays and left the mess hall in sort of a hurry. She walked straight towards the training grounds. On her way she saw some familiar soldiers and waved to them. As soon as she reached the training grounds her sight fell right onto Marcus sweating off doing physical exercises.

"Why didn't you tell me you wanted to pass the selection?" Said Nathalie and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Marcus stopped doing his push ups and looked at her. He sat down and breathed deeply trying to catch his breath. He eyed her for a little with regretful face before he began to speak. "I didn't want you to worry about it more than you already did."

"Oh, that is very nice of you. It means so much that you cared to shield me from responsibility."

"Don't. I know you're angry and I know that I should have told you about it before you left for vacation." He took a deep breath and stood up his feet. Burns walked closer to them and started petting Blue who seemed happy to see him.

"I am glad that you didn't pass though. Saved your own life." She said and looked at him for a long moment. "You know what happens when those missions go South."

"I know." He said a bit too sternly than he was going for. "I know the details you mentioned. And it still doesn't stop me from wanting to be part of it."

Nathalie nodded at his words. "Understandable. Just be more open with me next time, alright."

"Yea, as long as you are more open with me too." Marcus joked knowing very well he was pushing the limits with someone that was higher rank than him.

She rolled her eyes and said "You can go for a run with Blue just don't push yourself too far. Your training starts tomorrow at 6. Don't be late." Nathalie waved to two of her subordinates as they ran off. Marcus seemed to be relieved that she wasn't that angry with him.

After watching him and Blue disappear further in the distance of the base she went back to the barracks and as she was reaching for the handle the door opened from inside. Man who exited the barracks almost crashed into her. He stood there for a second looking at her and as she looked up at him his lips trembled.

"Nathalie..." He said quieter than usually with a little disbelief in his voice. He thought he was going crazy when he saw her from afar. She didn't really look like herself.

"John." She said to him and smiled a little. Nathalie took a step back and brushed her hair to the side with her fingertips.
MacTavish stood there looking at her for a little longer just trying to take in all of the changes in her appearance.

"Would you like to go out for a walk?" He asked.