Day 2: 1000 Hours

A small greeting party rushed over and assisted the group, taking any gear that they didn't need and leading them to the one place that they were all excited to see. The mess hall.

"Oh sweet mother of all that is holy thank you," Haze cried as he filled his tray with all he could eat. Since it was still early there was still stuff for breakfast, eggs, bacon, pancakes, all sorts of different foods that made the entire mess smell like breakfast, and maple syrup.

"It's been so long since I've had a good meal," Blackjack said as he sat down at a table with the others.

"You had this same breakfast two days ago," Midnight said with a laugh.

"When you think about it thats a long time, that two days is 48 hours, which is 2,880 minutes, which is 172,800 seconds, which is-"

"Alright Ricoh I get it it's a long time," Midnight interrupted. They all laughed except for Humphrey who noticed Kate sitting at a table all by herself, making a poor attempt to eat.

"Humphrey, you should go talk to her," Blackjack whispered. Humphreys ears perked up and he looked at Blackjack like he had insulted him.

"Are you crazy," Humphrey asked almost a little loudly. Blackjack smiled and shook his head.

"The last time I checked they said I wasn't, and remember," Blackjack reached into his jacket and discretely pulled out the necklace with the shotgun shells on it, "it's better to take the chance than to never know."

Humphrey thought for a second then nodded reluctantly. He picked up his tray and walked over to the table Kate was sitting at, with his mind racing a million miles an hour. The walk couldn't have been any shorter, he wished that it would have been longer so that he could have time to figure out what to say.

"Mind if I sit with you," he asked nervously. Kate's ears perked up and she looked back to see him and semi-smiled.

"Go ahead," she said a little cheerfully, but the way she wasn't eating him told him she wasn't cheery.

"Why are you sitting down here by yourself," he asked. She sighed and shook her head.

"I don't know, I guess I'm just going through a lot," she replied half-heartedly. His heart fell into his stomach as he watched the depression creep over her. Humphrey didn't like to see her like this, he wished there was something he could do to make her feel better.

"I'm really sorry about what happened to your dad," he said. She just shook her head and sighed.

"It's fine, I mean, he knew the risks when he signed up I guess," she said as a small tear rolled down her cheek. Humphrey pulled off his glove and sweetly wiped away her tear, much to her surprise. She smiled and a slight blush shot across her cheecks, causing her to look away quickly to hide her expression.

"Thank you Humphrey," she said as another tear rolled down her cheek, which she wiped away on her own.

"Don't mention it," he said modestly. She turned to face him with a smile still bright on her face.

"Humphrey, you are such a sweet guy. I don't see how you can be so nice to me after I have been so mean to you," she said as she slowly leaned over and layed her head on his shoulder. Humphrey's heart pounded wildly as she leaned onto him and he shuddered as he held back the urge to wrap his arms around her.

"Forgive and forget I guess," he said with a nervouse laugh. Kate giggled at his nervousness and only cuddled closer to him. Much to Humphrey's relief the door of the room swung open and in stepped an older wolf with a kind yet observant and tough appearance.

"Hey what's up Tony," Ricoh shouted out. Tony didn't keep his blank expression long as he broke out with a wide smile.

"That's general to you Ricoh, but it's good to see you boys made it back in one piece,"

"And girls," Lilly said with her unphasable cheery attitude.

"And girls," Tony laughed as he sat down with the group. Humphrey and Kate, realizing the importance of the upcomming conversation, rejoined the others.

"Well I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news is, the Russians have secured several oil fields across the country and have reinforcements comming in litterally by the boatload. The good news is, they have their units spread so thinly that even the most short numbered of Ranger battallions could puch a good dent in the defenses. And on top of that you guys get a break today. You have the day off to rest, but tomorrow you'll be moving out with the Strykers of the 2nd Cavalry," Tony stretched as he stood up and sighed. "Oh and you have a new team member, his name is Axel, here he comes now,"

The doors flew open and a dark looking figure walked in. He was unlike any wolf they had ever seen. His fur was brown patched with black, patricularly around his muzzle, right eye, and left ear. His expression was completely blank, no sign of a smile, frown, or cringe nor was there evidense of him ever showing emotion. It was an abnormal experssion, one that didn't seem real. Midnight was the first to walk over and greet him.

"Hello Axel I'm your team leader Midnight," Midnight held out his hand but Axel just looked at it.

"I do not shake hands," he said keeping his arms to his sides. Midnight looked at him semi-irritatedly and raised an eyebrow.

"Fine then, it's nice to meet you, this group right here will be your family for the duration of the war," Midnight said waving his hand to the group. Axel raised an eyebrow and gave a sleek nod of his head to Lilly, but Blackjack shot him a look that said 'Back off,' notciable enough for the others to see it but they didn't say anything.

"The members of Delta Force are my brother, and team medic, Ricoh. The twins, and the best sniper team I've ever seen, Byron and Haze. Combat specialist Blackjack. And heavy weapons expert Lilly," Midnight said introducing the rest of his team. Although everyone raised an eyebrow and dropped their jaws when he mentioned Lilly being the heavy weapons expert. Lilly blushed and shrugged modestly.

"Guess I forgot to tell you guys that," she said with a nervous giggle.

"Anyway, these are the Canadian forces we rescued earlier today. Humphrey, Saltey, Shakey, Mooch, Devin, Hutch, and Kate," Midnight continued. Axel finally gave a self-centered smile as he looked at Kate, who just rolled her eyes irritably.

"Well, we have the rest of the day off so take this time to do whatever the hell you want," Midnight said as he tossed his trash into the garbage can and left the mess hall. Everyone else started to follow him until Axel grabbed Kates hand and pulled her back to him.

"You know, I'm a very exotic guy, I'm a German shephered, Siberian husky, wolf mix," he said suavely, causing Kate to try and wriggle free.

"I'm sorry but you're not my type," she argued but he wouldn't let go.

"Ah come on baby, why not come back to my tent for a while,"

"She already said no, so why don't you be on your way," Humphrey said stepping in. Axel looked up in irritation and growled at him.

"Why don't you do me a favor pipsqueak and scram," he barked. But Humphrey stood his ground and even took a step forward.

"Look buddy back off," Humphrey growled. Axel's short fuze blew and he let go of Kate and crushed his paw into a fist. Humphrey took a step back but continued to stand his ground. Humphrey close his eyes as Axel started to throw a fist but suddenly felt a dull thud in his stomach, shooting his eyes open. In front of him lay Axel who landed square on his back.

"Bad way to start out your first day buddy, I'm going to put you in your place right now. I have no tollerance for sexual deviants," Blackjack growled. Humphrey looked down to see Blackjack knealing down with his left palm against Humphreys stomach and his right arm completely outestretch into an unusual looking fist.

"Thanks Blackjack," Humphrey said completely winded from the thud in his gut.

"Don't mention it, I'll talk to Midnight about this, in the mean time you and Kate should enjoy the day off," Blackjack said with a quick wink. Humphrey smiled and rushed over to Kate to see if she was alright.

"You okay Kate," he asked helping her stand up.

"Yeah I'm fine, let's just get out of here," she said taking Humphrey by the paw and practically pulling him out of the building. They found the others huddled around one of the barracks talking and laughing but they fell dead silent when Blackjack and Lilly stepped forward.

"Come on Humphrey I want to see what's goin on," Kate said quickly, leading Humphrey over to the group. He didn't mind though, she was holding his paw. She could have led them over a cliff and he wouldn't have cared as long as he still had her paw.

"Well, I didn't like to keep this from you guys for so long, but I wanted to save it as a gift for our teams anniversary," Blackjack took Lilly's paw and held it in the air. "Me and Lilly are getting married,"

The cheers rang out all over the camp as the two hugged each other for the first time in front of their friends. Despite the cheery mood however, there was a storm brewing. A storm that was planning to tear the group apart.

"They should not have stood in my way. They took away my pleasure, and so now I will return the favor," Axel laughed wickedly.