Author's Notes: The word leth-aon, which will be used in this and subsequent chapters without translation, means "twin" in Gaelic. Italics in this chapter are also in Gaelic. However, the translation is rough, so please forgive any mistakes if you happen to know Gaelic.
The five men just stared, mouths open in shock as the new arrival explained himself, oblivious to their surprise.
"Sorry about the secrecy and all that, but I can't risk being seen or recognized by any Germans as long as my brother's lost somewhere in this godforsaken country. And as for the change in plans, I apologize profusely, but there have been some new developments that have come up, and the sooner we find my brother, the better. I must say, Colonel Hogan, that I have been studying what the Allied High Command knows about your operation extensively, and I never expected… What?" He had finally looked up to see five pairs of eyes starting at him in surprise. "What is it?"
Hogan was the first to react; he shook his head slightly and apologized. "Sorry, Lieutenant, it's just that…" he trailed off, then decided on a better course of action. "Will you come up to my office, Lieutenant? There are some things we have to discuss." Turning to his men, he signaled them all to say nothing until he had explained this 'interesting' situation to the Falcon. "If you'll follow me?" he said as he headed up the ladder. "It isn't much, but sometimes it almost feels like home."
"Whaddya mean 'e's here?!" Kier couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was just too good to be true.
"I mean he's here. In this camp. I'm sure that if he'd known about our operation here, he would have said something, but things have become a little… complicated, to say the least."
Kier's face went pale. "How so, complicated? He's alright, isn't he?" But he sounded as if he already knew the answer to that.
"Well, he was recently injured quite severely, I'm afraid, but he has been recovering…"
"Broken collarbone, cracked ribs, broken ankle, and deaf in both ears, right?" Kier interjected.
"Huh!?!" How the hell… Hogan stared at him. "How did you know that?" he asked, stunned.
Kier gazed at him, a cryptic, unreadable expression on his face. "I just knew."
Hogan was baffled. These two really were exactly alike! And equally evasive, much to Hogan's annoyance. "Well, yes," he continued, "those were the worst of his injuries. However, he was under good medical care until several days ago, when the Gestapo came into camp and threw him into solitary confinement for interrogation purposes. They haven't resorted to extreme methods… yet, but there's no doubt in my mind that they will as soon as he has recovered enough to survive it."
"That's what I was afraid of," Kier replied, and Hogan looked up to see the eyes of a much older man staring out of the serious expression on the young spy's face. "Colonel Hogan, sir, I am going to assume from the extent of your operation here that you have at least some influence over the German officers and guards in this camp. Is there any chance, any chance at all, that I could see Liam? I gotta let him know I'm here, I gotta talk to him and let him know where he really is. I'm probably the only person he'll listen to at this point, considering the position he's in right now." He paused and a small grin ghosted across his face. "I'm betting you had a pretty hard time getting any information out of him, didn't you, Colonel?"
Hogan confirmed this, exasperation clear in his voice. "He's been so tight-lipped it's a wonder he gave us any at all. I realize that in your line of work you have to have a certain amount of suspicion for everyone, but your twin brother takes it to the extreme, even with his fellow soldiers. He's good, though, very good. I probably wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't spent the past year playing just as evasive to the Germans."
Kier seemed to understand where Hogan was coming from; he nodded sadly as he explained, "My brother's suspicion comes from personal experience, sir. He's trusted unconditionally in the past, and that trust nearly proved fatal. I would guess that his natural suspicions were amplified by the conditions that he saw around your camp, and he assumed the most logical explanation rather than the most fantastical. As anyone would, I'm sure."
"What conditions are you talking about exactly?" Hogan was intrigued that this Lieutenant Kincaid could make that assumption before even having seen the camp.
"When Liam first arrived here, how was he treated? You mentioned something about medical care?"
"Yes, one of the doctors in Hammelburg who runs a private practice occasionally comes out to tend to sick and injured POWs. He's also a member of the Underground, so he doesn't mind as much as he lets on to Colonel Klink, the camp kommandant. Kincaid was bordering on hypothermic when he arrived, so our gracious Kommandant gave the doctor use of the camp's guest quarters in order to treat him. It wasn't an unusual thing to do, considering the circumstances."
"So your Kommandant is a relatively compassionate man?"
"I guess you could say that. Some fast-talking on my part helped a bit. I just let him think that it was his idea in the end."
"And did Li know that you had helped secure him a more comfortable infirmary for his recovery?"
Hogan was curious as to where these questions were leading. "I think our medic, Sergeant Wilson, mentioned something about Liam being curious about my demeanor around the Germans, and Wilson explained how I had helped persuade Klink to take him in. I'm not sure on the details, though."
"Your demeanor around the Germans? As in, how you act around them?"
"I suppose that's what he meant. See, my men and I try to act friendly and comfortable around the guards in order to keep them friendly and civil to us. It's really nothing, though, and it also helps us keep them all off balance enough that we can get away with pretty much anything."
Kier's eyes suddenly registered a shocked revelation. "Well, geeze, Colonel, no wonder Liam didn't trust you!"
"Excuse me?" He didn't particularly like the young lieutenant's tone of voice. "What exactly do you mean by that, Lieutenant?"
"Sorry sir, but I would have thought it was obvious. This place isn't at all what my twin would have expected from a prison camp. Tell me, as a spy, what would you think if you landed in an enemy country, were captured and interrogated, then you were sent to a prison camp where your injuries were taken care of, you were treated well by the Germans, and the prisoners seemed friendly and comfortable around the guards? Remember, of course, that you can only see what's going on; you cannot hear it. The prisoners try to befriend you, ask you a lot of questions about yourself that you don't answer because you're not sure you can trust them, and then as soon as you are recovering, you are suddenly turned over to the Gestapo with no warning and no explanation. Tell me, Colonel, if you were in my brother's place, would you have trusted anyone?"
He had never even thought of it that way. "Well… no, most certainly not. I would have seen the POWs as possible collaborators with the Germans, and I would have kept my mouth shut. I can't believe I didn't see that possibility before." He paused, thinking again for a minute. "Of course, I also thought he was just a pilot, and a pilot would have an entirely different perspective on the situation than a spy would."
"Got it in one there, sir." Kier sat back against the bedpost and sighed. "It seems like this whole thing's become a lot more complicated than I ever expected it to be. Which is funny, because we're currently in a position where it should have been easier."
Hogan's heart went out to the young man who had risked so much for his brother. "We will get both of you out of here, Lieutenant. I promise you that." Then, he paused as something occurred to him. "What am I supposed to call you, Lieutenant? I can't very well have two Kincaids running around here and expect to tell them apart, and unless you want to be addressed by your rank all the time…?"
Kier smiled. "You could just call me Kieran, sir, if you don't mind addressing me by my given name. Liam and I always ran into this problem with our squadron commanders, because we refused to be posted in separate squads, so they just called us Lieutenant Kieran and Lieutenant Kincaid. It's the best way we've found to tell us apart."
"Are there any other ways? Well… besides the fact that your brother has a cast on his arm and a nasty scar across his forehead?"
At that, Kier let a mischievous grin brighten his face. "There are always ways, Colonel, but you'll just have to figure them out for yourself. Sort of a test of perception, if you will."
"And if I fail, I have permission to mix you up as often as I choose, right?" Hogan replied with a mischievous grin of his own and the two men laughed together for a moment, cares forgotten. It was fleeting, however, and Kier sobered after a final halfhearted grin and asked in a pleading voice, "When can I see my brother, Colonel?"
"I'll arrange to sneak you in there tomorrow night after roll-call. We've got a tunnel that leads to the cooler, so it shouldn't be too hard to sneak you in when Schultz's back is turned. He's our sergeant of the guard, and he has a heart of gold and eyes that 'see nooothing!'" Kier laughed at Hogan's imitation of the German sergeant's voice. "It should be pretty easy to distract him, and he'll never even know you were there."
Kier's entire body seemed to relax, as if a great weight had suddenly been lifted from his shoulders. "Thank you a thousand times over, Colonel Hogan. You don't know what this will mean to me. Or to Liam, for that matter."
"I wouldn't ask anything less if it were one of my brothers, Kieran; of course I understand." Then, he stood up. "You look exhausted, Lieutenant. Feel free to make yourself at home in here; we weren't expecting your arrival or we would have set a bed up for you in the tunnel. Until then, you can have the bottom bunk in here; I don't mind sharing for a night."
"I want to apologize again for inconveniencing you and your men with my change in plans, sir. I just couldn't wait; there were circumstances that I can't really explain yet, but I had to find my brother right away, and I am very sorry if I put your operation in any danger."
Hogan had almost forgotten his anger at the spy's surprise arrival. "Don't worry, Lieutenant. I can understand where this mission would require some urgency, and since we seem to have found your brother sooner than expected, it doesn't really jeopardize anything. Now, I had better go and explain all this to my men. I kinda left them hanging, and they're probably a bit confused. Sleep well, Lieutenant, and I'll see you in the morning."
To say that his men were confused would have been an understatement, and Hogan was sorry to have left them in the dark for so long, but he soon sorted everything out.
"So you say we've been worryin' this whole time about finding this spy, and it turns out to be Kincaid? Why didn't 'e just bloody tell us?!"
"Because it's supposed to be a secret, Newkirk. No one knows he's the Falcon. Besides, he doesn't know us from Adam; how's he supposed to know that we're actually a sabotage and espionage team and not just a bunch of normal POWs? I never got a chance to tell him about our operation because I was going to wait until he moved into the barracks. Also, if he had told us, and we had been just normal POWs, it wouldn't have meant anything to us. Only a few select people even know that the Falcons exist."
"So what are we going to do now, Colonel?"
"That's where I'm at a bit of a loss. It would be easy enough to get him out of the Gestapo's interest, but he's still a registered POW here at Stalag 13, and so he can't just escape unless he's transferred elsewhere. I'm beginning to be glad the Falcon dropped in early. Gives us more time to plan before Hochstetter gets back. In the meantime, I promised Lieutenant Kieran he could see his twin tomorrow night after Schultz goes 'off duty'." The men all grinned at that, knowing Schultz was just too predictable.
"Lieutenant Kieran?"
"That's what he wants us to call him, so that we can distinguish between the two of them. I'm sure that as we get to know them better, it will be easier to tell them apart, but I should warn you right now that they both seem to go to great lengths to be indistinguishable from one another. They look alike, talk alike, and act alike, all as part of their training, I suppose." Hogan shook his head, amazed at the opportunities being able to pose as a single person would open up in this business. "I wish we had them on our team. With their talents and ability to be the same person, who knows what kind of stunts we could pull off!"
"Oui, mon colonél. It's a shame they are needed elsewhere, though I am glad their talents are going to help the liberation of France. Maybe they can share some of their secrets before they leave, eh?"
"Oh I plan on milking them for all they're worth, LeBeau. How often do we get a chance to get espionage advice from two of the Secret Service's top agents? This is not an opportunity I'm going to pass up."
Kier spent the day in Colonel Hogan's quarters, sleeping or thinking about his brother. What had happened to Liam that would have injured him so badly and caused him to be dropped into the arms of the German Underground without knowing it?
Kier thought back to the day he first suspected that Li was in trouble. Three days after they had parted ways at the safehouse in Paris, the day after Liam's mission, Kier had been on an early morning patrol with the SS unit the Falcons had infiltrated six months ago. All of a sudden, without warning, his right leg simply buckled under him. He collapsed to the ground, and as his fellow soldiers helped him up, he was struck with an intense headache that made the world spin around him. He made his way to the hospital, but the doctors could find nothing wrong with him, even though he couldn't put any weight on his right leg. There had been several other instances in his life in which injuries like this had happened, and it made him fear for his twin's safety.
The real proof came four days later, early one evening as he was eating in his quarters. He had been unable to make it back to the safehouse for his brother's return two days before, but he was planning on leaving early in the morning on the pretense of going to the doctor in order to meet back up with Liam. The last thing he remembered was hearing someone knock on the door. He woke up the next morning back in the hospital with excruciating pain in his chest and right shoulder, as well as a rather fuzzy feeling to his hearing, as if his ears had been stuffed with cotton. One of his fellow soldiers said that he had entered the room to find him unconscious on the floor, but once again, despite the pain, the doctors could find nothing wrong with him. He knew then that something horrible had happened to his twin.
He deserted the next day, and headed to the safehouse where he found that Liam hadn't ever come back. He immediately called London and told them in no uncertain terms that his mission in France was over and that as soon as he got back to London, he would be making preparations to go into Germany to look for his missing brother. Funny thing was, they didn't even know that Liam was missing. Kier could only assume that Colonel Kincaid hadn't wanted to admit to anyone that he'd 'lost' one of the Allies best spies, his own son, to the Germans as a result of some inconsequential bombing run. But it made Kier's job that much harder, because no one knew exactly which raid he'd been on, or where he'd been shot down. So the best they could offer him was to put him in touch with the German Underground through an operative known as Papa Bear. Kier did the research, found out about Papa Bear's operation, and figured it was the best chance he had, so he took it.
And now, here he was. And Li was sitting just across the compound, less than 500 metres from this very room, cold and frightened in a solitary confinement cell with no idea of what was really going on around him. He didn't even know that Kier was here to rescue him! Well, he'd find out soon enough, and then Hogan would help them work out an escape plan so they could head back to England for their next assignment. France was, obviously, a closed operation now, as a result of Kier's sudden 'desertion' from the German SS. The Secret Service most certainly wasn't going to risk compromising the information they had by sending the Falcons, or anyone else for that matter, back to France. The twins would have to find somewhere else to ply their trade once they returned home.
Not for the first time, Kier found himself marveling at the extent of Papa Bear's operation here. Now that was something he wouldn't mind being a part of! To run an undercover operation out of a German POW camp was as audacious as planting two spies within the German SS posing as the same man. And just as dangerous, both to the men involved and to the integrity of the information they gathered. If either mission were ever discovered… But they seemed pretty safe from that happening. Kier remembered all the times during their interviews with escaped POWs that he and Liam had wondered what it was that kept all the prisoners here at Stalag 13 when there was such an extensive underground operation in t hat area. Although he still wasn't clear on all the details, he was pretty sure now that it was Hogan's way of keeping all the prisoners above suspicion. Or maybe all the prisoners were involved in the operation and had pledged not to escape. Whatever the case, it seemed to be working, and Kier was impressed.
Hogan came back into his quarters around seven that evening to find their new guest sound asleep, and in the throes of a nightmare. He was tossing violently and muttering unintelligibly, and when Hogan reached down to shake him awake, he bolted upright and gasped out, "Liam!"
"You alright, Lieutenant? That must have been some nightmare!"
Kier didn't even seem to hear him. He glanced around wildly, trying to get his bearings, and when he finally recognized the colonel, he grabbed for his arm with panic in his eyes. "Is it my brother? Is my brother all right? I have to see him, now!"
That was rather unexpected. "Calm down for just a second, Kieran. Your brother's still in solitary, remember? But I'm sure he's doing fine. It was just a nightmare."
Kier had started to calm down, but he shook his head vehemently at that last statement. "That wasn't just any nightmare, sir. When can I see my twin?"
Not for a couple of hours yet," Hogan said, but seeing the desperate look on Kier's face, he had to explain. "It's for your safety, Lieutenant. I don't want to run the risk of you being seen, not even by Schultz. He checks in on your brother at lights out, around nine, and then doesn't again until after morning roll call. If we distract him right and get you in there, you'll have the entire night to spend with Liam, but you'll have to be patient until then." He clapped him on the shoulder in a comforting gesture. "Everything's going to work out, Kieran. Now, you want some dinner? We don't have much, but LeBeau is an excellent chef."
Kier stood up and followed Hogan out into the main barracks. He had just passed the doorway when he suddenly doubled over in pain, clutching his head. Newkirk, who'd been leaning on the bunk just outside of Hogan's quarters, reached out to catch him, and with Hogan's help led him to the table where he sat down heavily, head in his hands.
"What happened, Kieran? What's the matter?" all the men started asking, their voices raised in confusion and concern.
Kier shook his head slowly, trying to think past the pain. "I'll be fine in a moment, but my brother isn't. He's – God, Li, stop panicking! – he suffers from claustrophobia in confined spaces, and when he woke up just now from a severe nightmare, he became disoriented and is now in the middle of a panic attack. They have a tendency to give me headaches."
OK… that was weirder than Kieran knowing Liam's injuries to the letter before seeing him. "How could you possibly know all that, Lieutenant?" Carter was the first to voice everyone's confused curiosity.
Kier shook back another wave of pain and attempted to explain. "It's complicated, but the headaches are pretty good indicators, and I've been getting them on a regular basis for the past few days. Whatever they've been doing to my brother, it's got him scared out of his mind, hence the panic attacks. That's part of the reason I decided to drop in early; that, and the nightmares."
"'Ow do headaches and nightmares tell you wot's wrong with your brother?" Newkirk sounded puzzled.
"Because they're not my nightmares, they're his. He was deep into one of the worst I've had when Colonel Hogan startled me awake. He was pulled out of a deep sleep, and the combination of the dream, the memories, and the disorientation brought on a panic attack. Considering his claustrophobia and the solitary confinement, that doesn't surprise me."
The men just stared at him. "Most of that didn't make a bit of sense," Hogan finally said. "Would you mind repeating all of that in just one tense, Kieran?"
"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, I guess that didn't make one bit a sense, did it?" Kier took a drink from the cup of coffee that LeBeau had set in front of him, rubbed his temples to clear some of the pain, and tried to explain again. "As identical twins, Liam and I have some interesting, unexplainable quirks. We can feel each other's physical pain, which is how I knew what some of his injuries were before I got here. We occasionally share each other's dreams and, which is far more common, each other's nightmares. The ones he's been having the past few days have been extremely intense; so intense, in fact, that they've had a bit of a physical connection as well. When the colonel woke me up, he in effect woke Liam up as well. Li was just as disoriented as I was, but I had people to tell me where I was and bring me back to reality, and it also wasn't my nightmare. Liam reacted as anyone would after being awakened from a deep sleep, but after being immersed in his fear and waking up to find it reality, he panicked. As he has been almost any time he's woken up for the past three days." He turned to Colonel Hogan, who could see the lines of pain and worry that crossed the younger man's face. "Now you see why it is imperative that I see him as soon as possible?"
"And you will, I promise," Hogan was quick to reassure him. "Now, you should definitely have something to eat. You look like some food would do you good." As the rest of the men sat down with Kieran and served up dinner, though, Hogan stood back and just stared at the spy. They could practically read each other's minds? Feel each other's pain? That was definitely one of the strangest things he'd ever heard.
Around nine-thirty that night, three figures emerged from one of the dark cooler cells, taking care to keep to the shadows. Kier watched in silence as Colonel Hogan and Sergeant Wilson went up to the immense guard at the door to one of the cells, He guessed that must be Sergeant Schultz. The man looked like a beardless version of Father Christmas, not at all like a Nazi soldier, except for the uniform.
It had actually been Schultz who had given the men a chance to get into the cooler. He had come to the barracks just before lights out and asked Hogan to get the doctor, that the boy had seemed very ill. The colonel had headed to Wilson's barracks as soon as Schultz had left, and they had met Kier down in the tunnels. Now, Hogan was in the process of distracting Schultz while Wilson held the door open so Kier could slip into the cell unnoticed.
Finally, Wilson gave him the signal. Schultz's back was turned, the door was open, so Kier quietly crept inside. Wilson closed the door behind him and he crouched down in front of it, hardly daring to breathe as he heard Wilson explaining to Schultz that Kincaid was fine, that he was sleeping now and shouldn't be disturbed for the rest of the night. As Kier listened to their voices receding down the hallway, another voice behind him caused him to jump.
"'Oo's there?" The familiar voice sounded weak and tremulous, like a child afraid of creatures lurking in the dark. Kier turned around slowly, at once elated and frightened of what he might see.
The moonlight and the sweep of the searchlights dimly lit the dark room through a tiny barred window. Liam was huddled in one corner of the room, his knees pulled up to his chest. Kier could see the cast on his right leg, and he glimpsed part of the one covering his right arm through a tear in his shirt. His face was covered with bruises, and his eyes were filled with terror. Kier was horrified. He hadn't seen that look in his brother's eyes since… A stab of pain shot through his skull, and in the next instant he was by Liam's side. "Li? Oh God, Li! Don't panic, please? It's me, Kier. I'm here, twin, I'm here. See? Nothing to worry about now. I'm here. I came to find you. Everything's going to be just fine now."
He reached out to pull his brother into his arms, but Li shied away, his eyes wild as he muttered, "No, no. It's all another Nazi trick. How did they know? I never told them anything! I never will tell them anything! Rather die! Ra-ther… die…" He broke down, sobbing in terror.
Oh God, not again. What had the Gestapo done to him, those bastards? Of course, considering what had happened the last time, maybe they hadn't done all this. Maybe it was all a result of Liam's terror. Kier knew he had to bring Liam back to reality, and there was only one sure way to do it.
"Leth-aon," he said softly, sitting down across from him and taking his left hand. Liam whimpered and tried to pull away, but Kier held on tight and started to rub circles on the back of Li's hand with his thumb, all the time saying softly, in a sing-song voice, "Leth-aon, bráthair, mise an so. Mise an so. Kieran an so. Síocháin leth-aon, síocháin. Sibh an slán, Liam, mise an so. (Translation: Twin, brother, I'm here. I'm here. Kieran is here. Peace, twin, peace. You're safe, Liam, I'm here.)" He kept repeating those words over and over as his brother slowly stopped fighting him. "Síocháin leth-aon, síocháin. There's no one here to hurt you now."
As he talked, Kier slowly moved around to sit next to Liam. Then, he eased his right arm behind Liam's neck and pulled his twin's head down onto his shoulder. As he ran his fingers gently over Liam's hair, he felt his brother's racing heartbeat slow. His breathing became more regular, and gradually his eyes focused again. He listened for a moment to what the figure next to him was saying, then asked in a hoarse whisper, "Kier? Is that you?"
Kier almost cried as he looked down into his twin's eyes and saw awestruck recognition. "Yes, leth-aon, it is," he said as he pulled Liam into a fierce hug.
"Is this a dream?" Li's voice was timid, as if he was afraid to believe it was real.
"No, it's no dream, Li. It's real. I promised you we'd never be separated like this again, so I came to find you. Everything's going to be alright now."
Liam pulled away. "But how? How did you find me? Are you a prisoner too?" Fear was creeping back into his voice, so Kier put a finger to his lips. He looked straight into his twin's eyes and allayed all his fears.
"I'm here because I came looking for you. And as for how I found you… You'll never believe where you ended up, twin."
"But I know where I am. Stalag 13. Toughest POW Camp in Germany. Why?"
"This isn't just Stalag 13, twin. It's… Papa Bear's den." He almost laughed out loud as Liam's mouth dropped open.
"Wha… huh? How…? But… but…" he stammered, at a loss for words. Then, regaining his composure, he sat and thought about what his brother had just said. "That explains so many things," he said, as if he couldn't believe he hadn't noticed sooner. "I thought there was something odd going on around here. Everyone was too friendly, too easy-going. I got treated well, until the Gestapo arrived, and then Colonel Hogan kept showing up in here at the oddest times… Is it Colonel Hogan?"
"Aye, and there are four other men that help him run the show, but it seems that every man in camp is part of the operation in one way or another. Hence the perfect no-escape record. It's the most amazing thing I ever saw, Li."
"I bet…" Liam murmured distractedly, still trying to take everything in. "Did the colonel know? About me?"
At this, Kier smiled ironically. "Believe it or not, it's been his mission since the day you got here to locate the Falcon and send him home. But he never guessed that it was a 20-year-old RAF lieutenant named Kincaid who was sitting right under his nose. You're too evasive for your own good, Li. They never had a clue." He sat back, taking in his brother's multiple injuries, and his features sobered. "My God, Li, what did those bastards do to you?"
Li looked down, curling and uncurling the fingers of his right hand. "Oddly enough, most of these were accidental, to some extent. The only thing the Germans gave me were these bruises on my face. By the time the Gestapo got ahold of me, I was too injured for them to risk doing anything worse." He then proceeded to explain, in detail, everything that had happened since he'd been shot down. He told Kier about his capture, the general's interrogation, his transfer to Stalag 7, the bombing and the explosion of the truck, his injuries and arrival at Stalag 13, his recovery, his mistrust of the prisoners, and all the odd details that just hadn't seemed to fit.
Then, he got to the part where the Gestapo stormed in and dragged him away for questioning and he stopped, unable to tell his brother any more. "I was so frightened, Kier. I kept thinking that it was going to be the same as before, and how everything I knew now was so much more important. Then, they locked me in here in the dark, and every time I closed my eyes, I felt like the walls were closing in on me. The memories all came back: I could feel the chains again, and I heard Major Krieger's voice, and I could see the knife he…" his voice trailed off; he was shaking like a leaf.
Kier couldn't bear to see his twin like this. Out of everything they'd been through together in their lives, Liam's chance encounter with the Gestapo two years ago while on their first mission to Berlin was the one thing Kier couldn't share to ease the pain and terror he knew his brother was feeling right now. Liam had never talked about those three months; the only information Kier had on what had happened to him were the vivid nightmares and the physical scars that he did his best to hide. The emotional ones ran deep, though, and all Kier could do to calm his terror was hold him, as he'd done so many times before. So he did, wrapping his arms tight around Liam's shaking body and whispering in his ear, "It's alright, leth-aon, I won't let them do anything like that to you ever again. That's why I'm here. I know what you've been going through; I've had the nightmares, I've felt your fear. But there's nothing to be afraid of now. I'm here, and I'm going to take you home."
"Really?" Liam was startled by this. "But what about France? The mission?"
"The mission's over. SS Captain Heinrich Freiberg has officially been declared AWOL, a deserter, and no one suspects that he might have handed over valuable information to the Allies about the German defense of France. Allied High Command was quick to reassure me that pulling out early didn't jeopardize the mission in the slightest. The information is being evaluated as we speak in preparation for an all-out offensive sometime within the next year."
And Kier proceeded to tell Liam all about his 'desertion' from the German army and his search for his missing twin. The two brothers talked long into the night until they were both too exhausted to say anything more.
Hogan and LeBeau both peered around the corner of the open cell door into the hallway. Good! Just as they had expected, Schultz had left for roll call. That gave them about fifteen minutes to get Kier out and get back to the barracks before it was their turn. Hogan went and got the keys from underneath the chair where Schultz had so conveniently 'dropped' them last night while he was escorting Hogan and Wilson back to their barracks. "You know, he really shouldn't leave these just lying around like that," Hogan whispered conspiratorially to LeBeau, who was following him with breakfast for Kincaid, and they both laughed.
The pale glow of pre-dawn barely lit the tiny solitary cell, but it was just enough for the two men to see how the reunited brothers had spent the night, and what they saw caused them both to smile.
The twins were both sound asleep, evidence of a rather exhausting night. At first glance, it was impossible to tell them apart, but the cast and the bruises soon gave away their separate identities. Kieran was leaning up against the wall, his head back and his eyes closed. His right hand was resting on his brother's head, his fingers tangled in Liam's black curls. Liam was lying down on his left side, his head resting in Kier's lap, and his face held a calm, peaceful expression that Hogan hadn't seen since this whole fiasco started.
"You'd never guess these two are the British Secret Service's top spies," Hogan whispered. "They look so young and innocent."
"Oui, and so peaceful," LeBeau agreed. "It seems a shame to wake them, mon colonél."
"Yeah, I know, but we'll have much bigger problems on our hands if we don't." He knelt down next to them and gently shook Kier awake. "Hey there, Kieran. It's time to go. Don't want the Krauts seeing double just yet."
Kier opened his eyes, yawned, and stretched. "Mmm… aah… huh? Oh, good morning ta ye, Colonel, Corporal. Is it time to go already?" Hogan nodded, so he turned to Liam, still sound asleep in his lap, and woke him gently. "Hey, Li, it's time to wake up, twin. I gotta go before the Krauts find me here."
Liam shifted slightly and turned to look into his brother's face. "Do ya hafta?" he asked sleepily, sounding like a petulant child.
"Yes, I hafta, leth-aon, "Kier said with a smile as he ruffled his twin's hair. "Now let me help you up so you can get into bed. You can get some more sleep then, and it's probably more comfortable than the floor."
"No, it's not," Liam said truthfully, but he allowed himself to be helped off the floor and led to the bed, where he immediately lay down again. As LeBeau set the food down next to him for later, he turned to his twin and pleaded, "Kier, don't go. I don't want this to be just a dream."
Kier smiled sadly at this and sat down on the bed. "It's no dream, Li. This is real. And here's proof." He reached under his shirt and pulled something from around his neck, which he pressed into Liam's hand. "If this is still here when you wake up again, you'll know that I was really here." Then, he bent down and gave him a brotherly kiss on the forehead. "Sweet dreams, leth-aon. Everything will be brighter when you wake."
Once the men were back in the tunnels, Hogan and LeBeau climbed back into Barracks 2 for roll call and Kier lay down on the small cot they'd set up for him. Staring at the dirt ceiling, he sighed, thinking about his brother and everything that had happened since they parted ways a mere three weeks ago. He pulled out the onyx-and-gold rosary that he'd snuck from the inside pocket of Liam's jacket after he'd given his twin his onyx-and-silver one. Clutching it tightly in his hand, he whispered to no one in particular, "It wasn't a dream, leth-aon, but I'm going to have just as hard a time convincing myself of that as you are."
He didn't have any concept of how long he lay there, staring at the ceiling and clutching Liam's rosary in his hand, but he was pulled from his revere by Kinch, who showed up in the tunnel on his way to the radio room.
"Hey, kid, you alright?"
Kier sat up slowly. "Aye. Just doing some thinking."
"Well, hey, if you're hungry, there's probably still some breakfast left up in the barracks, and the coast should be clear for now. I think the Colonel wants to talk to you again also."
"Thank you, Sergeant… Kinchloe, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but call me Kinch."
"Thanks, Kinch."
He climbed out of the tunnel a few minutes later and snagged a cup of coffee from the stove. Newkirk, LeBeau, and Carter all sat down at the table with him and started asking him questions. Newkirk wanted to know how Liam was doing, Carter wanted to know what it was like to be a 'real' spy, and LeBeau wanted to know all about the Falcons' mission in France. Kier tried to answer as many questions as he could, and the four men were engaged in quite the riotous discussion when Hogan came into the barracks.
"Oh good, Lieutenant. I'm glad you decided to join us," he said when he noticed who the focus of the conversation was. "Would you step into my office, please? We have escape plans to discuss."