After a night of counting the hours and struggling to force his mind to ease, Soap found himself exhausted in the morning. Despite it, he continued to work on the laptop, and didn't stray from keeping an eye on Makarov like he had last night. To say the least, his curiousity would eventually get the better of him, it was only a matter of time.

Until then, he stared at the words on the screen with half open eyes, hardly even reading them as he turned a yawn into a heavy sigh. With his mind hardly on the task, he found himself reading the same sentence over and over again for ten minutes, unable to get past it. At some point he got frustrated and closed the laptop a little more roughly than he intended, opening it a second later to make sure he hadn't broken the damn thing. Satisfied with knowing the device wasn't damaged, he once against closed it, and laid it on the nightstand before letting his head fall back to the pillow. Now he yawned, almost silently, as he closed his eyes to try and catch just a little sleep.

But, just his luck, the moment he actually managed to catch himself in a light sleep, Price had knocked on the door and entered. He rubbed his eyes and grunted in response to it. For once, just once, could he just get at least a few hours of uninterrupted sleep?

Price had easily picked up on the irritated mood the younger was in and stayed a good meter from the bed, and out of striking range. "You hungry at all? You didn't eat anything for a day."

He nodded. "I know." Then shrugged, pretending that he didn't care when in truth he would have liked to just get up and get himself something. He'd rather not bother anyone to do anything.

This would have gone on without notice, had his stomach not growled loud enough for Price to hear. While the older merely chuckled, Soap just waved it off and tried to act like he didn't hear anything.

"You sure I can't get you anything?" Price asked.

Soap sighed, about to grab the laptop off the nightstand to distract himself and get some work done. "If you're so concerned, then feel free to get me anything. But I don't care what you do."

With a sigh, Price left, but not before saying, "Maybe when I get back you could tell me what's got you so defensive." With the door closed again, Soap was secluded to his room once more, wishing he had told Price about his looking up the news near home. Maybe he'd understand. Thankfully he still had a chance. He could tell him as soon as Price returned.

Luckily, Soap's former captain didn't take too long. He returned to the bedroom in about five minutes with a bottle of orange juice and a couple of english muffins. Soap showed that he was aware of his presence by closing the laptop again, along with the news reports he had just started to read. The older of the two just put the plate and plastic bottle on the nightstand and sat on the edge.

"Now about your behavour..."

Soap answered before he even cared to finish. "I found something last night while reading reports, and I hadn't been expecting what it told me."

Price knitted his eyebrows, a wordless sign that he wanted him to continue.

"I had been looking at the news around home," Soap told him hesitantly, "And I found a single report about a murder. I knew something was a little weird at first, but people get killed so I didn't really think about it. It turned out the man had a wife and a couple of kids. I knew the wife, very well... But that wasn't exactly the only thing that was startling."

"Then what is it?" Price questioned.

"That man was killed by a knife that I think we both would recognise." Soap sighed, his hand covering his stab wound.

To that, the older just stared in shock. "But how, in bloody hell, could someone have gotten the damn thing? It was in enemy territory, far away from the U.K. and someone managed to get to Shepard's body, take the damn thing, and kill a guy? What's the point?"

Soap shrugged to this. "How should I know of their motive? They found mine, and Shepherd's blood dried up on the thing though. And they guessed that I probably died since my blood is there." Now he pinched the bridge of his nose to sooth his headache that formed. "It only gets stranger..."

"How?" Price casted him a shocked look. "You'd think finding that knife in Scotland is odd enough. How does it get more baffling?"

Now he couldn't think of an easier way to put the next half of the information, so he was just as blunt as a wooden paddle. "That woman I knew, she was once my girlfriend. We broke up five years ago. And the kids of hers are around five years old."

"Bloody hell..." Price murmered, unable to come up with any other words. "So not only does everyone think you're dead, and that knife managed to wind up thousands of miles away, but your also telling me that you're apparently a father to a couple of kids you never met?"

"Exactly..." Soap sighed heavily, then buried his face in his hands. "What do I do?"

"A better question is what can you do?" Price told him. "We're wanted men, Soap. They even believe you died when you're very much alive. Neither one of us can go home, not until we can clear our names and make sure it's safe to return. It's best if we don't do anything about this. It's not a priority."

That's when Price decided it would be a good time to bail, he stood up and put a hand on Soap's shoulder reassuringly.
"I know it's confusing, but for now, don't try anything stupid that will get us discovered."

And then Price went for the door, not looking back once as he closed it and left Soap to stew in his thoughts. So the Scot sat there for an hour or so, confused and unable to really come up with a good solution to how he would go about the situation.

The problem was, there wasn't... He couldn't just go to his ex and say, "Hey I'm alive, let me see my kids that you never told me about!" That's how you get pepper spray to the eyes and kicked in the crotch, both of which he would rather avoid. And someone can easily change an Email or go to another address; even if they do get the message then they can simply get rid of it. And calling her... well he wasn't even sure she kept the same phone number for five years.
It was at least worth a shot.

He dialed up her number, or at least what he remembered to be hers. And listened for the dial tone. It seemed like a minute later that there was an answer. And he silently thanked god that the number wasn't dead.

"Hello?" A woman's voice came over the phone. One he remembered well. "Who is this and why doesn't your number show up on my caller ID?"

Soap made sure his voice reflected the calm he wanted to show. "Marianna, it's me, John."

There was the sound of a thump, and he guessed she dropped the phone before picking it back up. She was completely flustered. "J-John? But... you- YOU'RE DEAD!" Then she proceeded to threaten, "Look, I don't know why you'd bother a grieving widow, so stop with the prank call before I report you to the police!"

"No! No. Marianna, it's really me." He told her quickly in hopes he could stop her from hanging up. "I read in the news about your husband, and I see how you could think I'm dead. But please, just listen to me."

A sigh. "Fine... I'll listen. But I still don't trust you..."

He tried to think to the lightest way to put it. When he found very little that could lessen the blunt words, he used his tone to tell her he wasn't trying to get in an argument. "I read the news recently, which is how I found out about your husband. And... I also found out you have kids now."

A long pause. He started to wonder if she hung up on him.

"What's your point, John?" She shot back.

"They're about five now, right?" He continued. "You know who you were with five years ago?"

He could imagine her face turning beet red. "I see what you're getting at! And why don't you just hang up now before I report this!"

"Easy now, Lass." He told her lowly. "I didn't call you to pick fights. I just wanted some answers."

"Then what could you possibly want from me, John?" She growled. "And if you're going to ask if you can come see them, then the answer is no."

To that, Soap scoffed. "Not like I can at the moment, believe me. No. Just answer the questions, got it?"

"Fine..." She didn't sound to happy about it, but at least she wasn't tearing his head off as much as he thought she would.

"Alright, seeing as you answered my first question through your outburst, I don't need to ask who the father really is." He stated. "Did you tell them?"

"No." She told him flatly. "They're little children, they wouldn't understand it. I'm not about to ruin their image of their step-dad. The two need someone who they can remember was around."

"And did your husband know they weren't his?" He continued.

"Of course he did!" She snapped. He always did recall her short fuse, maybe he should watch what he said a little better so he didn't upset her anymore. "We were only married for four years! He knew very well that he wasn't the father, but he still loved them like they were his own!"

Soap took this in and went on. "And do you ever plan on telling them?"

There was a second before Marianna spoke, but when she did, her tone was a lot softer, almost as in thought, like she was unsure of her reply. "Maybe... when they're older I could tell them that who they thought was their father wasn't, but I'm not planning on mentioning your name anywhere in it." She admitted.

"And why deprive them of knowing half of their family?" He questioned.

"Because, it's better they don't know that their father is a WANTED CRIMINAL." She had rose her voice as she spoke those last two words. Her temper had flared quickly. "We all saw the news, and no one here would trust you if you came back."

With a heavy sigh, he nodded despite her not being able to see it. "Alright. I get it. Thanks, I suppose, for telling me this. And do expect that someday, when all this shite is straightened out, that I will come and see the kids and let them know."

"Wait? What?" She was now completely shocked, until she gathered her wit and shouted, "GOD DAMMIT, JOHN! STAY THE FU-!"

He hung up. "Sorry, Marianna..."

Yup, next chapter, sorry about the delay here. But it's done now. I think we've just about caught up with the original story.
Big thanks to my Beta Reader and all my reviewers who encouraged me to keep going. Hope you all like the new chapter.