Lake tried to scramble from the bed to follow, but the sudden motion filled him with vertigo after days of limited activity. He clutched the rail at the side of the bed, knuckles white with the effort. He heard Reilly's retreating footsteps and cursed his injuries. Lake pushed himself off the edge of the bed, threw the door open, and crashed into Doc in the hall.

"Holy hellfire, Lake," Doc exclaims. "Where's the fire?"

"I wasn't done talking to her," Lake groans in reply, trying to pass Doc.

"Belay that," Doc says, grabbing Lake's good shoulder. "Are you cleared to leave the med bay yet? If the LT or Rhodes catch you outside without permission, they'll cuff you to that hospital bed."

"They can take me before the Captain's mast," Lake promises. "But I need to finish talking to her before they take her!"

"Easy! Easy! I'll help you," Doc offers. "I'll help you, but you have to be careful to not hurt yourself more. LT will freak if you put yourself out of commission by being reckless. So will the rest of us. This team has lost enough."

Lake stops struggling against Doc's hold at that. Lake recalls Doc's unflagging loyalty and compassionate nature. Sees just how worried Doc has been and what the last few weeks have done to him.

"I'm sorry, Doc," Lake sighs. "Please help me to the brig?"

"Carefully," Doc warns, bracing Lake.

Doc helps Lake toward the brig. Halfway there, Red rushes up behind them, stopping them.

"Lake," Red starts tensely. "I have bad news. Time's up for Reilly. Whoever is looking for her, is coming to get her now!"

"How did they get permission so fast," Lake questions. "How do you know?"

"I may have been discreetly attached to Rhodes, as a professional courtesy," Red shares. "LT thought you would want to know as soon as anything came up regarding your 'angel.' Rhodes took the call quite loudly. Someone in command will be getting an earful."

"I need to be there," Lake declares. "Please help me."

"Is that even a question worthy of asking," Red grumbles.

"We owe her as well, for bringing you and the fallen home to us," Doc remarks. "We have a debt to pay as well."

Red and Doc brace Lake on both sides and hurry for the flight deck. As the trio clear the hatch to the flight deck, they see Reilly with a guard holding each of her arms, hands cuffed in front of her. He noticed two tears at the collar of her shirt, wondering if the guards had manhandled her to the flight deck. Lake saw Jin Soon being held back by a flightline crewmen, muzzled, snarling, and straining to join his mistress. Rhodes stood under the tower talking to someone on his satellite phone. LT saw the trio and crossed to them.

"News travels fast apparently," Waters mutters. He hangs his head and sighs, "Lake, you are allowed to say goodbye but we are not allowed to interfere. I'm sorry."

Reilly turns around and calls to the LT, "You don't have to be sorry, Lieutenant. I'm grateful to you."

Doc and Red help Lake to limp to Reilly, then back off.

"I'm sorry, angel," Lake says. "If you hadn't saved me, you would have been safe."

"Saving you was worth it. You are worth it," Reilly promises, taking his hand. "Remember what I told you about letting things go."

Lake nods, squeezing her hand.

Reilly leans in and whispers in his ear.

Before Lake has a chance to say more, the guards pull her forward and hand her off to her new jailers. Lake's last sight of her is her being loaded into a helicopter. Lake's team step up beside him as he watches the helicopter lift off. Lake can't stop following the helo's flight with his eyes. At a half a mile out, Lake notices its flight becoming erratic, then it starts to bank back towards the carrier and lose altitude. A quarter of a mile from the deck, he watches the door open and someone jumps out! Everyone on the flightline watches in shock as the the person falls toward the sea. The helicopter crashes into the water.

All of a sudden, something dark unfurls from the person's back. They rise over the waters, heading towards the ship. The figure came close enough to wave and then turned and headed northwest towards land.

After the figure disappears, Lake turns and collects Jin Soon from the crewman. Jin allows himself to be led toward the hatch and the team head back inside the carrier as the flight crew start scrambling rescue craft to head to the wreck. Red breaks the silence first.

"Am I crazy or did that look like Reilly waving at us," he asks incredulously. "My eyes are as good as Lake's, and I would swear those were wings."

Lieutenant Waters clears his throat and suggests they take the conversation back to the med bay.

Silence has always been Lake's preference as a scout, but now it smothers him as the head to the med bay, broken only by the clicking of Jin's nails on the floor. He would swear it was Reilly who leapt from the helo. His mind races as he tries to process all he has seen, needs to know that his team saw what he saw.

Once they reach the med bay, the tension is palpable and the team is unsure where to start. Jin crawls under the bed and stares at the team from underneath.

"So…what did we just see," Red asks hesitantly.

"It definitely looked like Reilly," Doc confirms. "And I agree that those looked like wings."

"So Lake really was rescued by an angel," Red jokes.

"She's a flesh and blood human, Red," Waters interjects. "And a verified member of the military. Commander Rhodes confirmed with her unit, and her story checks out. We couldn't find any warrants for either of her names."

"What," Red questions incredulously, blue eyes wide with shock.

"You mean we still turned her over, with no warrants," Lake asks horrified. "Why? She told us the truth! She was innocent!"

A part of Lake's consciousness registered that he was shouting at his commanding officer, but he couldn't find it in himself to check his temper. For his part, LT Waters didn't even protest or stop him, just waited for him to finish. Lake was seething, but recognized that he wasn't actually mad at the LT. Before Lake could say anything else that might get him labeled insubordinate, the LT spoke.

"Commander Rhodes received a call from the Admiralty and the Secretary of the Navy saying that we were to turn her over without question. It was intimated that if she was turned over without incident on our part, none of us would be court-martialed for deviating from mission parameters. And the families of our fallen would still receive their appropriate death benefits"

Doc, Red, and Lake sit in stunned silence, staring at their commander.

"Sir," Red begins. "Are you saying that we were used as blackmail? That Rhodes was…"

"Someone threatened our team, even the families of our fallen," Doc asks.

"That is about the size of it," Waters says resolutely.

"She was right, this sounds unbelievable, downright crazy, but she was telling the truth," Lake states. "Someone high up the chain is in on this. This is conspiracy theory crazy."

"Sounds like she told you a lot more than she let on to the rest of us," Red remarks. "Did she mention her ability to fly?"

"Reilly told me about being used for genetic experimentation, but not what it had done to her besides being painful," Lake admits.

"What did she say to you on the flight deck," Lieutenant Waters questions Lake. "It must have been something outrageous, judging from your body language, even more outrageous than the genetic experimentation confession."

"She said she'd meet us in Germany," Lake confesses quietly.