"He ever say why he lost faith?" Smoke played with the letter in his hands.

"No." Angel lied. "He would avoid the subject. Maybe it had a lot to do with the attacks." Angel looked at the picture of Zaiba. "Whatever it was that made him lose faith went with him to the grave." Angel stood up and walked out. He made his way to a Humvee and sat in the passenger seat.

"What happened, Tariq, to make you lose faith?" Angel knew he shouldn't push the issue, but he never really did every thing he knew he shouldn't.

Tariq sighed and shrugged. "This place, man. I don't know."

"You have faith in anything?"

"I have faith in breathing." Tariq smiled. "I have faith in you, Angel."

"That's not enough, man." Angel smiled back.

"Sure it is. All I know is that if I'm ever in a situation where I need rescuing, you'd be the one that would do it. I've got all the faith in the world in you."

Dim looked around the hospital. The last thing he remembered was Scream telling him that Tariq had died. He could barely make faces out that passed by him, but he swore he saw Tariq in each of them. He wanted to wake up. This HAS to be a dream. He thought. Tariq's playing a big joke on me for kissing him. That's it. That has to be it. He frantically looked around.

"You okay, Soldier?" The nurse checking on him asked.

"I'm fine. I just can't help but think this is some sort of dream." A pain in Dim's right leg made sure he knew it wasn't a dream.

"Yeah, it'll feel like that, but you'll be fine. You'll be home in a couple weeks and..."

"Home?" Dim looked up at her, shocked.

"Yeah. Home for some rehab." The nurse wrote in his chart.

"I can't go home. They need me. My team needs me." Dim was frantic.

The nurse reached over and calmed him down. "Don't worry, Solider. You're not going home permanently."

"We have two months left there. Tell me that's not permanent." Dim challenged. "They need me. We lost the best guy on our team and you're sending me home, despite that."

"Calm down." The nurse's voice became demanding. "You'll never return to them unless you do."

Dim settled down and looked up at the ceiling. Life without Tariq was going to be tough, but to know that he couldn't finish his time with his team was going to be nearly as tough.

Scream looked at the team, sorrow still very present in his eyes. "You okay, Sarge?" DoubleWide asked.

"Yeah. I was just thinking about the time that Tariq, Angel and Smoke tag teamed Dim." Scream smiled as Angel made his way back in the tent.

Angel and Smoke started laughing. "It really was Tariq's idea, but he needed my video camera and Smoke's brawn." Angel shook his head.

Baron looked at the three men laughing. "What was it?"

Smoke wiped a tear from his eye. "I guess with the story Sarge just said, it must have been Tariq's way of getting Dim back for the kiss. But, we still ain't let Dim live this down."

Tariq watched Dim leave. "You got a video camera, right, Angel?"

Angel nodded. "Yeah, I do."

"Mind if I borrow it?"

"What for?"

"Smoke...mind helping me?" Tariq smiled.

"What'cha doin'?" Smoke lazily asked.

"Getting Dim back." Tariq grinned. He looked outside the tent. "Holy shit! This is going to be better than I thought!" He handed the camera back to Angel. "Can you video tape this?"

Angel stood up. "Not sure what, but why not? I'm bored as hell."

Smoke stood up. "What you need?"

Tariq pointed to a portashit. "Dim just went in. I figure we can really embarrass him."

Smoke and Angel listened as Tariq explained what they were doing. "Shit! That's the funniest thing I've heard!" Smoke laughed. "Let's do it!"

"Ready?" Tariq laughed.

"Ready." Angel said. "Lights. Camera. ACTION!" He yelled.

Tariq and Smoke ran towards the portashit, knocking it over, leaving Dim struggling to pull his pants up. As Dim swore up and down, Tariq and Smoke ran away, laughing.

Mrs. B laughed. "Now I understand why you all said he had a nice ass."

"Those two were way too bored, way too often." Baron commented. "Though it's really not any worse than you and me in Somalia, now is it, Sergeant?" Baron's blue eyes sparkled.

"No, Sir." Scream replied back. "In fact, I think Dim must have listened to one of my stories because I do know that Tariq woke up with a couple camel spiders in his cot."

"Yeah." Angel grinned. "He wasn't scared at all. He just picked them up and put them on the ground and went back to sleep."

"Got the complete opposite reaction from Greenfield." Scream laughed. "He screamed like a little girl and wouldn't go back to sleep in his cot for a long time without checking it out first."

"That was Tariq, though, man." Smoke replied. "He was a lot tougher than most people gave him credit for. He had no fears about things. He was a tough little shit."

"Tougher than you, that's for sure." Angel laughed, remembering the camel spider incident with Tariq and Smoke a couple months earlier.

"Let's not go there, Angel." Smoke's words were tough, but his voice was light and his eyes sparkled. "Otherwise I'll have to tell the story of when Tariq..."

"NO!" Angel laughed. "If you do then I've got several more of when Tariq got you really good." Angel's voice was light and good-natured and his eyes shone.

"Hard to believe he's gone." DoubleWide suddenly spoke. "Think we'll ever get used to it?"

"Well, it's only been barely a day." Scream sniffed as he rolled his head. "Who knows? Maybe one day, we will get used to Tariq not being here."

"Can't imagine it." Angel's eyes looked sorrowful and he held a picture of him, Tariq, and Dim goofing off. "That's something I'm not sure I'll ever do."