Chapter 2: A/N: Hi again! I'm so glad to see so many of you reading parts 1 and 2 of PIAT! I really think you guys are going to like this novel by the end. I hope as this picks up speed that you guys will review a little more. I'll be trying to post once a week so these chapter might a little short. Please R&R! Thanks so much!

Clark's POV: Crowne Plaza Hotel, Minsk, Belarus

We all hear Jules' cry and rush into her room. "What's wrong? Did something happen? Are you hurt?" Dad fires off questions rapidly while all the beautiful woman can do is stand over the nightstand, her finger pointing shakily at the glossy developed picture. I wiggle in between the SRU officers pushing my way through to Jules, placing my hand on her waist, wrapping my arm around her.

"Hey, it's okay." I murmur, brushing the bangs out of her eyes.

Dad gently picks the photograph up as Sargent Parker comes up on the other side of Jules clearly very concerned. I glance over Dad's shoulder to see the picture that is causing such an uproar of terrorish emotions. The glossy photo portrays a young, twenty-year-old Sam, a faint smiling on his lips and deep thoughtful eyes sitting cattycornered in the driver's seat of a Humvee, looking rather exhausted, in the sun's evening glow. Even me being a guy, he looks pretty darn beautiful. I watch Dad flipping the photo upside down, trying to find a timestamp, and fiddling with the corners. Just as I'm thinking, 'Hey, wouldn't it be cool if there was another picture.' There's a knock on the door. Sargent Parker cautiously peers through the peep hole before opening the door. He exchanges a few words with the attendant before closing the door and walking back towards us with a large white envelope in his hand.

"…said complements of Mr. Braddock and good luck with the game." Sargent Parker states, starting to open the envelope. "Either this is all a sick game the General devised, or Sam knew damn well what was going to happen, when."

He opens the package, pulling out many stapled papers as well as an instruction sheet and one more photograph. Team One leaps for the papers while I carefully lift the picture from the floor. He was younger, a lot younger, maybe fifteen or sixteen, and who is that woman and man standing on the sides of him? The General and Mrs. Jacqueline Braddock? Sam's real mother the nun? Whoever they are must've known Sam very well for they are embracing him, the man kissing his cheek and Sam standing in the middle smiling out of pure happiness. I flip it over and read the faded caption, 'Me, Mom and Dad.'

"Hey Dad, do you know who these people are?" I ask showing him the picture. "He calls them Mom and Dad but," I trail off.

"That doesn't look like the General or either of Sam's mothers." He states.

"Hold on guys!" Spike interrupts. "Sam says in here to find the picture of he, Cameron and Lily, that must be it."

"Cameron as in Cam from one of his journals?" I ask.

"Yeah I guess so, and that must be Lily." Dad says pointing to the woman hugging Sam. "Mom and Dad though? How well did he know these people? I mean, I guess the General trusted them enough to pick Sam up and clearly he was pretty close to them but how?"

I shrug, I think we should stop wondering the connection between people and Sam and focus more on who these people are. If they were close enough to be in a photograph like this, then they have to know something, right?

"Dad are there any more pictures?" I ask glancing around.

"Um, none that you need to see." He reaches for a nearby photograph and tries to quickly turn it over. Too late, I already see it.

At first, I think I'm mistaken but by the look on Team One's face, I know that I actually saw that. I don't think I could forget that picture if I tried. Sam and this other guy, both in camouflaged fatigues, Sam's hands on the guy's waist and he had his arms loosely around Sam's neck, their heads falling forward, leaned up against the other. Sam had this thin, loving, sensual smile on his face. I can't tell what the other guy's expression was in the dim light but in the very next picture, standing in the same position, Sam and that other guy were kissing, quite passionately might I add. It looks like they were at some sort of party, maybe homecoming, but I'm thinking not since they're in their fatigues.

Dad reaches to take the photos from my hand. "Clark, I've – I've been meaning to tell you,"

"Sam was gay?" I ask.

"Uh, no, that's-"

"Who's that guy?"

Dad opens his mouth to speak. "Matt." Sargent Parker states, his eyes cast down.

"Sam and Matt were, very close, when Matt was alive." Dad explains cautiously.

"Was?"

"It was a friendly-fire incident." A minute of silence follows Wordy's statement. "Sam pulled the trigger."

"Oh my god." I murmur, taking in the shocking information. "Were – were they dating?"

"I don't know. None of us knew Sam then and none of us ever met Matt before he passed, but I'm assuming not. I think they were more like best friends or brothers." Dad says.

"So about these Cameron and Lily people," Jules starts, should we ask the General how to contact them or someone else?"

"Well if they know Sam, they're bound to be associated with some part of the Army. How else would the General know to ask them to watch Sam?" Spike states.

"Yeah but they're all in street clothes. If Sam didn't join the Army until he was eighteen, this had to have been at least two years earlier." Wordy points out.

I shrug. Does it really matter? Team One starts deliberating about how to find these people especially without last names. I start flipping through the paperwork. Most of it is schedules from when the General and Sam stayed here when he was five and when they came back, which was quite frequent and always just the two of them. Man, Sam sure had a weird childhood, an abusive nun mother, a crazy father who was never home, spending nights locked in his house waiting for the General's friends, this Cameron and Lily, to come get him…(in their defense, Sam did say that his dad forgot to call them) and living all over the world it's crazy! It must've been terrible growing up like that. I find a few journal entries on loose leaf paper but it's written in Russian and I only know how to speak a few words.

I hear that Sargent Parker texted a picture of the picture of Sam, Cameron and Lily to the General, asking if he knew who they were and where we could find them.

The General's POV:

These past few days have been hell. Burying my son without even being able to be there was bad enough but I – I couldn't have faced so many people and keep up that terrible lie to his friends in Toronto. Here, it's fine. When you say to other the units that he was blown away by an IED no one asks any questions. It's a terrible thing that the insurgents are known for doing and sadly enough, it happens all the time. Now to his unit and especially that Marcus kid I roomed him with who figured it out, well only half of it but still, that's a little harder. They only know that 'David Ellison' was hit and killed by an IED sometime after they had arrived on base. The majority didn't even know he existed. But the look in his fiances face, she was so desperate, so hurt, so in love with my son, I couldn't bear to see her one more time without falling to pieces and telling her everything. It wasn't up to me. I didn't want this to happen. I loved my little Sammy more than anything in the world and I can't stand it that he's gone. I can't stand what I had to do but I can't change it now, at least he didn't suffer long and I had the decency to knock him out so he wouldn't be in too much pain. He was probably gone the moment the Humvee behind his first tire ran across his chest. I did try to get him out of that camp. That's why I moved his section to the base, to protect him from them, but they sent it to me again, and I had to do it, I had to end my beautiful son's precious life.

My phone jingles, I hope it's not them again. What more could I possibly give to them? I already gave my life! I gave my only son for them! I read the message in confusion and realize it isn't them. It's Sammy's Sargent. They sent me a picture of my beautiful son, a picture I hadn't seen before. I squint at the two other figures standing next to him.

"Cam," I whisper, tears involuntarily welling in my eyes as I stare at the picture of my best friend, his dear, sweet wife and my fifteen and half year old son. It must've been taken only days before I flew him to Iraq. Cam was so angry with me that that was one of the very few arguments we had ever had. It all ended in Iraq. Sammy, Lily, Cam, Malik, and my relationship with my son grew worse than it ever had been but then we became closer than ever before, but it might've just been because from day to day I didn't know if the doctors were going to tell me he didn't make it through the night. And that terrible disease he had, I still think it flared up every now and then. They want to find Cam and Lily to talk to them about Sammy.

"Oh how I wish I could." I say softly remembering Dylan and the worst days of my entire life when Sammy was so sick.

I send a message to my secretary, telling him to find Cam's files and the newspaper articles to email to Sargent Parker. Cam's a good soldier, better than I ever will be. I explain to Sargent Parker that the information will be sent to his email. I look lovingly at the photo Team One sent me and save it to my phone.

"I love all of you." I whisper to them, crawling into the guest bedroom bed where I've been staying and cry myself to sleep yet again. I wish this could all be over. I wish I could go back and change it. I wish I was with them.

Minsk, Belarus, Crowne Plaza Hotel: Clark's POV:

Sargent Parker receives the General's email and Spike rigs it to the TV so we can all see it. As their focusing on the contact numbers, I'm scrolling through the rest of the documents.

"Dad,"

"Not now Clark, we're busy."

"Dad I found something." I try again.

They keep scuttling around, pulling up maps and trying to call the numbers. "Dad!" I try one last time. "Dad, Cameron and Lily Hastings are dead."

A/N: Cliffy? Idk, maybe, I'm really going to try to post once a week and for all you guys reading Out of My Mind, I'm going to try to get that chapter up today or tomorrow. Sorry for the long wait! Oh, before I forget, yes I did delete Over the Edge and for you Outsiders, The Secret Life I deleted also. I wasn't getting much of anything and I didn't know where to go with it so I might repost later, but yeah, they're gone now. Sorry. Thanks so much for reading and please review!