Sighing, Tuyen Truong Hawke stopped at the fork in the trail. Beneath her, sapphire blue lake stretched out as far as she could see, bordered by California pines, the mountains in the distance.

Hawke had done well for himself, she thought absently. The place reflected a peace - something that'd been missing sorely in his soul when she'd known him. Something she'd often wondered if he'd found over the years.

She had she realized, idly picking up a stick and pulling the bark off, her dark eyes as fathomless as the waters below.

Losing Scott had been hard, harder perhaps in some ways for Stringfellow Hawke than her.

She'd loved Scott, but had come to realize it'd been with a child's love. Often she'd wondered over the years, if he'd made it back, would their love have survived.

Hawke however, was a different matter. He'd risked his life to save hers and Phuong's; given her his name when Scott couldn't, and promised her far more than she'd ever had any right to expect.

He'd taken the concept of friendship very seriously and Scott had been his friend. It hadn't been a blow he'd taken easily, especially on the heels of the loss of his brother.

The letters they'd exchanged that year had given her a glimpse into the soul of the man he'd been becoming, the man who'd saved her and her son, far more than she was sure he'd ever meant to.

Sometimes, she wondered who had saved who - him for getting her out of Vietnam when she'd surely have died over there, or her for giving him a reason to live despite the odds.

It would've been easy to fall in love with Stringfellow Hawke, the man she called husband.

And maybe, she sorta had, she admitted with a wry smile, remembering their goodbyes in the airport that day and the tears she'd shed filing their divorce papers a year later. She'd shed as many for him and what might've been, as she had for Scott.

It had been for the best, she thought, flinging the stick away, eyes damp. His heart had been no more free to love than hers had been, and he hadn't felt that way about her.

Instead, she found herself absurdly grateful they'd gone their separate ways; him to find his way home to this place and love with Caitlin and her to a new life and a love of her own.

She only hoped her search for happiness, hadn't ruined his.

Seething, Mike Rivers raised angry blue eyes to face Colonel Juarez. Any notion he might've harbored of Cuban hospitality had been dispelled long ago.

"Hey, why don't you find somebody else to play with?" he taunted, eyeing the swarthy-skinned soldier Juarez was snarling at.

Raising his gun, the private slammed it, butt first into Pierson's ribs. The groan that went with it was agonized. Blood dripped onto the concrete below him.

"Hey, he doesn't want to play!" Rivers snapped, struggling against his own bonds. "El no quire jugar!"

A single flick of Juarez's hand brought the soldier's gun down again.

Rivers slammed his weight against the cuffs that held him, struggling to no avail. "Hey, I said he doesn't want to play!" he yelled.

Obsidian hard eyes narrowed at him disdainfully. "And you do?" the man sneered in heavily accented English.

"Try me," Rivers bit back, blue eyes blazing.

Dark brows slashed upward. He shrugged coldly. "Cut him down," he ordered, striding out of the cell. "He's next."

"What're they talking about?" eight year-old Amelia Hawke hissed at her brother Nicky, shoving closer to the loft railing.

"Well, if you'd quit talking, maybe I could tell," he snapped back in irritation, shoving back with his own shoulder.

Together, the two of them sidled closer to the loft railing, unashamedly eavesdropping on the women below.

Caitlin paced the length of the kitchen, temper flaring. "Look," she ranted. "I can't deal with this now, Tuyen! Not on top of Jo and everything else. Hawke said for you to stay here. All things considered that'd probably be a wise idea."

Raising a dark brow, the Vietnamese woman faced her. "Why? We do not exactly get along," she retorted. "I would think you'd be glad for us…to part ways as you say. It is obvious, we are not going to be friends."

Blue-green eyes flashed resentfully. Goaded beyond reason, Caitlin rounded on her. "Surely, you can't expect me to welcome with open arms the woman my husband married in the past! Someone he didn't even bother to tell me about," she snapped. "You're tearing my marriage apart!"

Startled, Nicky snatched back in surprise, blue eyes wide and scared. Just who was this woman anyway?

Beside him, Amelia squirmed, a frown crossing her brow. "What's she mean, Nicky?" she whispered worriedly.

He swallowed, suddenly scared. His friend Sam from school's parents had gotten a divorce. Surely, his parents wouldn't…

"Nicky?" she hissed, her own blue eyes anxious.

He scowled. "Shut up," he muttered, shoving past her, back to the railing, pressing his forehead up against the balustrade, straining to hear. Next to him, he could feel her press up against his body, a curly strand of her hair tickling his nose. He blew it away without comment, focusing his attention below.

Tuyen sighed, crossing her arms in front of her. A flicker of sympathy crossed her features as she glanced at the younger woman. "I am not a threat to you, Caitlin. You know that. Hawke loves you."

Red-rimmed eyes shot up to meet hers. "How would you know?" she whispered angrily, hurt wrapping itself around her like a fist.

Tuyen gave her a wistful half-smile, her own eyes as dark with memories as String's sometimes were. Cait would wonder about it later. "Because you are the other half of his soul," she whispered, turning and heading out of the cabin door.

Closing the door behind her, her final words were so soft Caitlin missed them. "I'm just glad he finally found it."

"Any sign of that refueling tanker?" String rasped to saint John. Six hours in the air with one refuel behind them and three hours ahead, left him with far too much time to think.

Glancing up, he got no answer from his brother. Odds were, if the tanker were there, Sinj would tell him, he thought with a tense, irritated shrug. He wasn't the only one worried - they were talking about his brother's best friend and wife here.

Worry darkened the blue eyes as his gaze dropped back to the instruments. He knew he'd had no choice but to leave Cait behind, but still he worried over whether he'd done the right thing.

She'd been upset with him, worried about Mike. That hadn't been made any easier by Tuyen's presence or the lack of news on Jo.

And he still wasn't so sure Jo's "accident" had been one.

Hawke gave a hefty sigh. The very real possibility remained that Cait and the kids were in danger, and he had left them alone to face it.