„So Chris, are you excited? " Julia asked Toad as they sat in the plane.

"Yes pretty much." Toad answered and closed his belt.

"It's been almost a year since I last saw my girlfriend." He continued and looked at her.

"That´s a long time. How long are you two together?"

"For five years now." Toad said smiling.

"That´s a long time." Julia returned his smile.

"Yes, I think she´s the one." Toad explained.

"Good to hear. Are you planning to marry her?" Julia got very interested.

Toad looked at her and blushed lightly. "Yes, definitely but first I have to propose to her." He answered.

Julia smiled even wider and closed her eyes as she heard the aviator speak that they were starting now. She didn´t like it to travel by plane and every time she was in one, she closed her eyes at the start, trying not to concentrate on the discomforted feeling in her stomach. Since she joined the military she often flight by plane but the nervous feeling still remained. As she felt the plane took off of the ground her thoughts drifted away to the urn, in which Andrew´s mortal remains where. She had managed to take them with her in the plane and now the urn was with their other luggage stored in the baggage cabin. When they arrived at home, she would immediately go to the cemetery and bury him. Mac had managed to call a priest, which was waiting for her there and would Andrew put into his last home.

Before she and Toad left the base, he told her he would come along and his girlfriend was driving them. Julia was glad that she he offered her to come with her; if she would go alone maybe she wouldn´t have the strength to bury Andrew. Even if he was a criminal, he still was her ex-boyfriend and Julia knew that she would never forget him. Sighing Julia tried to find a comfortable position in her seat, maybe she could rest a bit, even if the flight wasn´t taking too long.


"Do you think she´s coming back?" Roach asked Ghost as they both were jogging around the base.

"I don´t know. She had a hard time." Ghost answered and slowed down.

"True but I would be happy if she would come back." Roach said and slowed down too, to walk next to Ghost.

"We all were. It was a diversion to have her around." Ghost replied.

"You would be more than happy, wouldn´t you?" Gary pumped his shoulder against his friends and smiled aware.

"Why do you think that?" Ghost asked him calmly.

"Come on Ghost. I saw you yesterday as you left her room. It was pretty late to visit a woman without wanting something from her." Gary teased him and winked.

"Says the one who had a woman in his room the whole night." Ghost countered and smiled as Roach stopped smiling and looked away embarrassed.

"I don´t want her with me. She just came into my room and stayed. What should I have done?" Roach replied low voiced.

"Send her away?" Ghost asked and shook his head.

"That´s not so easy. She´s a stubborn girl. She wouldn´t have listened to me."

"Come on Roach. Why don´t you admit that you like her?"

"If I do will you tell me what you and Julia did last night?" Roach asked looking into Ghost´s eyes.

"Maybe." Ghost shortly answered and giggled.

Roach sighted, took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

"When I´m thinking about it, the way she treats me, the way she talks to me and the way she tries to patch me up….Yes, I like her."

Ghost smiled and was about to reply to his friend as they heard a familiar voice.

"Who do you like?" Both turned in the direction the voice came from and saw their Captain coming out of the base. Surprised to see him Roach scratched his head and smiled innocently at him.

"He talked about Anna." Ghost told his Captain and stepped up to him, smiling.

"I see! Does Price know?" Soap asked and watched amused as Roach stared at him with eyes wide open, unsure what to say.

"So he don´t. You should better go and tell him. He surely wants to know that you´re gonna be his son-in-law." Soap added and took a sip from his coffee he was holding.

"Son-In-law? Don´t you think you pushing it a bit. It´s not like I´m going to marry her." Roach asked and waved his hands in defense.

"Oh, I would love to go on a wedding. Don´t you want to think about it?" Soap replied playing offended.

"No I won´t." Roach said as an idea crossed his mind.

"Maybe you have luck Captain and there is a wedding any time soon."

Soap looked at the Sergeant puzzled. What was he talking about? Was one of the Soldiers engaged and he doesn´t know? Confused he knitted his eye brows, thinking about the relationships his soldiers have. As he couldn´t come to any conclusion he asked Roach who he meant.

"Isn´t it obvious Captain? I talk about Ghost and Julia." Roach said and grinned to his best friend who earned an astonished look from their Captain.

"Don´t look at me like that John. I don´t know where the bug got the idea from." Ghost spoke still relaxed.

"Really not? Before Soap interrupted us you said you tell me what you and Julia did last night. I want to know it Ghost." Roach crossed his arms in front of his chest and smiled wide.

Soap just looked from Roach to Ghost. What did Roach mean "last night"? Had they spend the night together? Were both of them lying as they said they weren´t in love with each other? Was that the reason Ghost was unlikely happy today? Would this relationship affect his work? Was Ghost leaving the Task Force to live a normal life with her? Were they already planning to have kids? Soap shook his head, his thoughts drifted too far away. It wasn´t like they have a long relationship. Maybe Julia wouldn´t even come back.

"Earth to John! Hello? Are you still in there?" Ghost asked his superior and waved his hand in front of Soap´s eyes.

"Now you´ve done it bug. He lost it."

"I haven´t done anything wrong. He was the one who teased me. I just told him what we were talking about." Roach said and placed himself in front of his Captain studying his face. It has lost all of his expressions and Roach clicked his fingers in front of Soap´s face, making the Captain come back to reality.

"Everything's fine?" Roach asked carefully.

Soap shook his head and showed a smile.

"Yes, I´m fine but now I want to know too what you did last night." Soap said and looked at Ghost.

"You won´t let me life in peace if I don´t tell you huh?" He asked and as his both friends nodded he sighted.

"We just figured out where we are." Ghost simply said and turned around to enter the base.

"What does that means?" Roach asked his Captain but earned just a head shake and a shrug of the Captain´s shoulders.

"I don´t know. Are you now together or what?" Soap asked as he followed Ghost inside of the base.

The Lieutenant Didn´t turn around to response and kept on walking. He smiled as he recognized that Roach and Soap were following him, whispering to each other. His friends were really curious about his relationship with Julia. Ghost knew that they both only wanted to know ´cause they were afraid that he would get hurt. He also knew both of them liked Julia very much and wanted to protect her as well. As Ghost stopped in front of his room he unlocked the door and glanced to the side, to see his friends had stopped next to him and waited for any response from him. Ghost didn´t pay much attention to them as he opened the door. Smirking he stayed in front of his door a second.

"Let´s just say she has soft lips." Ghost said, entered his room and closed his door again. Leaving his two friends in confusion.


"Over here sweetheart!" Julia heard a female voice screaming as she and Toad were outside of the airport. Ten minutes ago they had arrived at their destination and Julia was more than happy to find her feet on earth again. She looked in the direction the voice came from and saw a young woman waving at her and Toad. Toad began to smile bright and approached the woman fast. Julia followed him in some distance; she didn´t want to interrupt their first meeting after such a long time.

Julia smiled as Toad lifted the woman, which had flung her hands around him, in the air and kissed her passionate. Julia recognized the woman was crying tears of joy and even Toad let some tears slip out of his eyes. They must be really in love was all Julia thought as she leered to the both lovers still holding each other. Julia cleared her throat, making the couple look at her questioning. The woman released Toad from her embrace and offered Julia a handshake.

"Hi, I´m Caroline. You must be Julia right?" She asked as Julia took her hand and nodded.

"Chris had told me about you. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Julia replied smiling.

She surveyed the woman in front of her. Caroline had long dark hair, which she had bonded to a ponytail, brown eyes and was at least ten centimeters taller than Julia. She was of slight build and seemed to be really nice. Julia guessed she was in her mid-twenties.

"Where´s your car?" Toad asked his girlfriend and looked around.

"It´s right in front of you." Caroline answered amused and rolled her eyes.

Toad saw her action and playful he imitated her, what caused him a slap on his chest from his girlfriend. Caroline shook her head and headed towards her car and opened it. Toad and Julia put their luggage in the trunk and all three sat down in Caroline´s car. Julia hold the urn in her hands as she took a seat on the back seat. After Caroline had started the engine she asked Julia to what cemetery she wanted to go and as Julia told her the name of it Caroline pulled out of her parking lot and drove the way. Julia didn´t have to explain her the way and after a ten minute ride they arrived at their destination.

Getting out of the car Julia could already see the priest Mac had called. The man walked up to them and welcomed them with a hand shake. After he made sure they were the ones he waited for he asked them to follow him inside the cemetery. Slowly the walked across the huge graveyard, passing a lot of newly dug graves, side-effects of the war. Julia read the names written on them and noticed that she knew some of the people who were buried here. It made her sad that they didn´t have a chance and had to die. Many of them were too young to die; they had their whole lives to life. Julia swallowed hard as they walked pass the children graves, it was sad enough that there even was a need to make a separate space for the kids but the number of the graves made it even harder to handle it.

Soon after the children´s graveyard they arrived at an iron gate, which separated the soldiers' graves from the rest of the cemetery. The priest entered the place followed by Julia, Toad and Caroline and stepped up to a grave, which was dug out newly and the ground they shoved out was arranged in a pile beside it. With a heavy heart Julia handed the urn over to the priest and he put it down into the grave. He said a few words, the standard prayers and with a little shovel he spread some ground on the urn, before he stepped back and let Julia do the same. Caroline and Toad did the same, they thought it would be a sign of decency. Julia prayed once more, slipped her promise ring down her finger and laid it down in the grave. Silently they watched while the priest put the rest of the ground back in the grave and with a nod and a pat on Julia´s shoulder he left them.

Julia stood in front of the grave and stared on the words written on it. It was somehow sad that the only thing written on this stone was his full name and his rank in the military. Julia wondered if every soldier would get such an artless stone when they died. Sure if Andrew has had any family left as they made the stone for him it would be nicer but he had no parents and no siblings and no one had asked Julia back then if she wanted another stone. Sighing Julia closed her eyes and tried to avoid the tears that were building up in her eyes but lost the fight. She wanted to be strong in front of Toad and his girlfriend but she couldn´t hold back the sad feeling that grew up in her. She hasn´t felt so helpless in years.

Julia was about to turn around, away from the sight field of Toad and his girlfriend as suddenly she got pulled into a hug and someone stroke her back. In a Reflex Julia put her arms around the person and cried even more. Toad smiled afflicted but yet happy as he watched Julia and his girlfriend standing there still hugging. He was sure they would get along with each other very well.