Hey guys!

Sorry its been a while since I posted. I had A LOT of work to do and finals are coming up so anyways. I'm back now! Thanks for understanding. Hope you enjoy!

As Hill and Reiben fell into step behind the rest of the squad, Harper took Amrita's hand and pulled her closer to her.

"Stay close to me," she said quietly in German.

Amrita nodded but said nothing. Ten minutes later, the squad had reached the other side of town were they were informed that the Private Ryan that was in that city was named James Fredric Ryan, not James Francis Ryan. Reiben rolled his eyes and said, "Well this is fucking great. We lost Carpy for no goddamn-"

"Reiben!" said Harper glaring at him then at the 4 year old by her side.

"Oh I'm sorry," he said with mock embarrassment. "We lost Carpy for no gosh darn reason."

"Cool it," hissed Jackson. "I swear if the Captain doesn't shoot you, I will."

Harper and Reiben stopped arguing for the time being as Miller and Hill talked about were the squad could rest for a few hours. Hill explained about a church back on the other side of town and that's were they headed.

When they got there it seemed to be the only whole building in the town. In fact it was almost completely untouched by bombs. Hill said his goodbys at the door and let the team be alone to mourn Caparzo.

Mellish immediately set to work copying Carpy's letter to his father while the rest settled in for the night. Or what was left of it. It was almost midnight. Reiben, Jackson, and Wade sat against the pulpit on the stairs smoking, Upham sat a little way off in one of the benches, and Miller and Horvath sat away from the rest, reminiscing about their last mission. Harper chose a seat against the desk Mellish was writing on.

She tossed her pack down and sat. Amrita, or Rita as Jackson suggested, sat down next to Harper and absently started playing with Harper's pack.

"How old are you?" Harper asked Rita quietly.

"5," she squeaked turning her big, brown eyes on Harper. Then she surprised her by asking, "How old are you?"

Harper laughed and said, "I'm 19."

"My mommy was 18," said the child shivering.

Harper smiled and pulled her into her lap. Rita immediately curled up against Harper's chest and with it 10 minutes, she was asleep. Harper glanced up as Wade started speaking to the circle a few feet away from her. He was talking bout his mother and how she would only get to see him when she came home early in the morning. Harper tuned out as the story took a turn for a sad ending and looked back at the child in her lap.

Harper had always loved kids, but had never taken care of an orphan. Rita was really a beautiful little girl. She had brown hair that came down past her shoulders in curly ringlets, and her big eyes matched the chocolate color of her hair. Harper was pulled out of her thoughts by someone sitting next to her. She looked up to see Wade's soft features.

"Hey," she said smiling.

"Hey," he answered. "So were you ever going to tell me about your arm?" he asked pointing to Harper's blood soaked shirt.

Harper laughed. "I forgot about it," she said. "But I'm fine. You don't have to look at it."

Wade scoffed. "That's what I'm here for. I'd be out of the job if every soldier who got shot said 'oh I'm fine…' Come on," he said motioning for her arm.

Harper laughed again and surrendered her arm. Wade rolled up her sleeve, careful not to touch the wound. As Wade pulled a needle and thread out of his pocket, Jackson, who was still sitting with Reiben asked, "So are you going to tell us anything about yourself?"

Jackson was asking a common question, but Harper knew he was wondering about the comment she had made in the field.

"Maybe someday," she said in answer.

Jackson started to push, but Wade shot him a warning glance and he stopped. Harper suddenly realized Reiben had not made a smart ass comment in over 10 minutes. She suddenly felt compelled to bring his Brooklyn, bad-ass attitude back, but she didn't know how without getting into an argument, and none of them needed that right then. Then, out of nowhere he spoke.

"This private Ryan better go home and cure some damn disease or something," Reiben said glaring into one of the candles.

"I wouldn't trade 10 Ryan's for one Caparzo," said Harper absently stroking Rita's hair.

Reiben grunted his agreement and muttered, "FUBAR."

"Damn right," said Wade quietly.

Then everyone fell into silence. Wade worked on patching Harper up for a few more minutes until he noticed a little tattoo on Harper's shoulder. It was a little heart with 'Harp and Cj forever.'

"What's this?" asked Wade, a smirk on his face.

"Well it defiantly wasn't forever," Harper scoffed lightly. Even Reiben broke a smile from across the room. Wade smiled, content with that answer, but to his surprise, she continued talking.

"I thought I was in love with my first boyfriend. When I was 15," she said laughing at herself.

"Everyone thinks their first relationship is the one they will be with forever," said Mellish from his desk.

"I thought I was in love at 15…" said Harper staring at him.

Mellish continued to look defensive about his answer.

"And I got a tattoo to prove it," said Harper driving her point home.

Mellish nodded finally agreeing it was a stupid idea. Harper continued.

"He was 19, and I thought he loved me too, but it turned out I was the other girl. His girlfriend found out that he was seeing me on the side, but I didn't know. One day when he and I were at the movies, she came up to us and tired to kill me. When I realized he had a girlfriend, and she had the same tattoo as me, in the same spot and everything, I ran out of the theater. I bummed around in Chicago for two weeks until I got enough money together to go back to live with my… dad in Manhattan." Harper hesitated ever so slightly on the word 'dad,' but every Ranger in the room noticed.

"It was a bad few weeks… but I made it. And now I'm here in this hell hole with all of you," she said adding a bit of humor to the end so there would be no awkward silence to follow. It didn't work. The silence that ensued was not only silent. It was heavy. The room was so quiet that when Miller sneezed, everyone jumped a foot. Reiben even started to go for his B.A.R.

They all looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing. Harper didn't remember the last time she had laughed that hard, and she missed it. When the joy finally subsided, Harper was in tears. Miller, who was smiling, came into the group and said, "alright you crazy soldiers. We have a little over two hours. Shut up and get some sleep."

He walked back over to Horvath and sat down. Reiben blew out the candles around him, and Wade did the same over near Harper. As Wade blew out the last candle and a shroud of darkness fell over the squad, Rita woke up.

"Mommy…" she whined.

"Shhh. It's ok Rita," soothed Harper.

In the darkness, Rita crawled off Harper's lap and made her way to the cold ground next to Wade.

"You smell like mommy…" she whispered taking in a big lungful of air near Wade.

"Really?" asked Wade picking the little girl up.

She snuggled against his chest. Wade glanced up only able to see Harper's outline, but he got the feeling she was smiling, which she was.

"You're going to make a great dad someday," she whispered.

She heard him scoff.

"Yeah, when I get out of this war right?"

"Well your making a pretty go one right now, and we are still in the war," Harper shot back.

When he didn't say anything she grinned.

"Go to sleep," said Miller from across the room.

Harper stopped speaking, but knew she wouldn't ever be able to sleep that night. They had just lost Caparzo, and she still needed time to think that over. She listened to her squad fall asleep one by one. Reiben went first, followed by Horvath, Wade, Mellish, Upham, and the Captain. But she never heard Jackson's breathing change, which meant he was still awake. He seemed to be listening for her breath sounds to change too. Maybe it was their sniper training, or just their curiosity about each other, but for some reason, neither one of them could sleep.

In a few minutes Harper heard movement across the room from her and in a few more seconds, Jackson gently sat down next to her.

"Hey," he said. Though she couldn't see his face, Harper could hear the smile in his voice.

"How's it going?" she asked also smiling.

"Can't sleep. Too quiet," he whispered. "I'm used to sleeping with bombs going off, and gunfire in the distance. Or at least with someone snoring, but tonight there is nothing."

"I know what you mean," said Harper as she scooted closer to him so they wouldn't have to talk as loud. "I don't think I have gotten a decent sleep since I have been here."

"What's your excuse?" asked Jackson.

Harper was suddenly self-conscious and Jackson could tell.

"What? Just tell me," he said, the smile returning to his voice.

"Well, I'm…"

"Yes?" Jackson pushed.

"I'm just used to sleeping next to someone is all. I had an apartment with my cousin before I left, and we only had one bed. I haven't been that close to someone when I am sleeping since almost 9 months ago."

Harper felt Jackson nod, (that's how close their heads were)

"I could probably help you with that," he said, his tone slightly more devilish.

"Would you?" Harper asked excitedly before she realized he was kidding.

"Oh, never mind," she said embarrassed.

Jackson snickered and gently took hold of her shoulders and lay down on his side pulling Harper along with him. They were lying so close to each other, they could feel the other's breath on their face. Harper smiled at Jackson's sweet breath in her face, and hoped her breath smelled as good. She turned over so her back was to him, and felt him snuggle against her. She laughed quietly, as he settled in. She smiled as his breath warmed the back of her neck and she felt the rise and fall of his chest on her lower back. He then gently laid his arm over her waist. Its weight was the most comforting thing she had felt in the last 9 months. Harper let her arm fall across his, only to have his fingers find hers and lace together. She smiled wider at the roughness of his palms against hers.

At that moment, she didn't care who might see them in the morning, just that tonight, even if it never happened again, she felt safe and comfortable.