Jenna sat down on the cold, concrete steps of the White House, staring at her hands in shock. Next to her Barbara was sobbing quietly. Their father had just found the gruesome sight of their sweet pet dog shot to death in his doghouse. Who in God's name could DO such a terrible thing? Near them the White House staff was also sitting quietly, for like the girls, they had loved Hunter. The Head Maid, Maggie, never even looked up from where she sat, just stared at her trembling hands.

They never doubted they knew all, some horrid enemies of the President had tried to assasinate him, and their sweet, brave dog had jumped in the way of the bullet. He had given his life for their Dad!

Jenna stared at the stars until they blurred in the sky. She looked out upon the huge White House Lawn, remembering when she would come to visit her parents from college Hunter would always run out to meet her, licking her face, carrying his ball to her to play. She looked at her sister and knew Barbara felt the same way. It was only yesterday they had both played with him in the afternoon...now he was dead. None of it made sense.

"Does anybody know what happened?" Maggie said in a choked up voice. "All we know was that he was discovered in his doghouse shot."

"That's all we know, too," the Cook said. "They're convinced it was an attempt on the President's life."

Jenna's sobbing grew louder. 'He was only five!!" She said. Barbara turned away. She couldn't watch her own sister break down. She didn't want to see her own horror reflected in everyone else's eyes, it would be too much to handle.

"Are they gonna call the Police?"

"They're already in there, but they have no leads. Whoever did this was very quiet."

"They say dogs can hear better than humans ever can."

Jenna turned back. "It doesn't seem right just to bury him."

"We're not, Dad's gonna cremate him, then put the urn on a small monument. After our time is up, the urn will come with us."

"That's a sweet idea," Maggie said.

"No, I mean, we should do SOMETHING else. I mean, Dad once said Hunter saved the world from total anihalation! He saved Dad's life tonight! We should give him some sort of funeral."

"That's a good idea," Laura said, coming out of the House. "Oh, the poor thing!" She sobbed. Barbara looked down. Hunter had saved the world, now he was dead. She had never felt so useless.

"Hunter had such a great time when the Prime Minister came to visit," Maggie said. "It was so cute how he played and played with her dog."

"I kind of felt like Lady Montague when they had to leave," Laura said quietly. "He had fun today too. I bet he played with all of us at least once." Maggie looked down again. It was so quiet in the yard now. MUCH too quiet. Wet spots appeared on the ground near Maggie, but she didn't know it was her own tears until Laura put her arms around her. Just then Laura's cell phone rang. It was the Prime Minister, who had heared about Hunter's murder on the BBC.

"I'm really very sorry about Hunter," he said sincerely. "God, if anything happened to Colleen, we don't know what we'd do."

Colleen lay on her rumbled bed in Headquarters, staring at the ceiling. She didn't know how long she'd been laying there. it could have been ten minutes, it could have been ten days. Her whole entire body felt numb. She couldn't move, she couldn't even think. The afternoon sun was streaming down, as if this was a normal day- as if her world hadn't ended.

She wished it was gray and storming, the way she was felling inside. With Hunter dead, the weather seemed to be mocking her, laughing at her misery. After the Professor had delivered the tragic news, she had run into the bathroom and threw up all she had, collapsing on the floor and sobbing her heart out. She dashed into her room to be alone.

Only now she was more alone than she had ever been. Of all the Rovers, she had had the most in common with Hunter. Sometime she felt that he, being a stray himself, understood her the most. Despite his corny jokes and his sometimes not getting obvious things, he was a true and devoted Leader. She always knew deep down he was there for her and the whole team and always would be. Now he wasn't. A part of her nightmare rushed back to her, only now it was Colleen falling through the darkness, completely and utterly alone.

A sudden knock at the door made her jump and sit up. Exile poked his head in carefully. "Oh, hi, Exile," she said sadly. Exile moved over and sat near her.

"How are you doing, Comerade?" He asked, unshed tears in his eyes.

She shook her head. "I don't know,' she whispered. 'I honestly don't know." Tears formed again in her eyes. 'I just can't believe he's gone."

Exile nodded. "I know what you mean. I wanted to go into his room just now. Just to..feel him one more time, you know? But...I couldn't. I just couldn't go in there. It seems strange to walk around here and not hear him trying to cheer someone up, or talk to someone, or just to be here and let us all feel good."

"Yeah," Colleen said. 'I keep waiting for that door to open and for Huntie to come in to call me down to Headquarters, or to talk to me, or to ask me to meet him on the beach later. I have to keep reminding myself it's not gonna happen anymore."

"Master feels the same way you do. He said we should wait at least a week before we start going through his things."

"How is Master? I guess I haven't been much help to him today."

"Nobody expects you to be," Exile said. 'This is hard on all of us, but it's probably hurting you more than anyone." As of he was psychic, a voice was heard then- Master's.

"Exile? Colleen? Please come to the Main Room."