Come on Rosenberg don’t fail us now.

Kawalsky watched helplessly as Rosenberg fought for her team. She was doing damn well but she was up against someone who was not only older but also more skilled.

He was beginning to doubt Rosenberg’s chances.

Their girl was good but was she that good? He’d liked to think so. All together, SR-1 had three hundred dollars riding on the redhead kicking Colonel Atkins ass. She had a full house.

God he hoped that was enough.

Rosenberg was fighting for Commissary Poker Champion. Hey! They had to do something! It had been a quiet month for S&R and this daily poker match, held in their lunch hour, broke the monotony. At least Rosenberg was looking better than she had in a long time.

In fact, Rosenberg not only looked better but she seemed to more relaxed.

Since he had known her, Rosenberg carried her past like a shield, using it to keep everyone away. Christ, Kawalsky would probably be the same if he saw as much as she did when she was eighteen. Their girl was reluctant to care about people because she was scared of losing them. Slowly, SR-1 broke through her barrier, now she was letting other people in. It had taken her almost a year to finally let the SGC be her home.

Her family.

The more people she let in, the more relaxed she became. Which was why, Kawalsky thought, the General hadn’t canned their little gambling match. The last month had been quiet for S&R but the previous two had been hell.

Rosenberg had been run to the brink of exhaustion a few times, until Jack finally put an end to her trying to save everyone. His first order, as General, was to tell Rosenberg to get a life. Kawalsky grinned at the memory, Rosenberg hadn’t taken that order to well and now the General affectionately referred to their girl as ‘Lieutenant Pain in the Ass’.

They called her O’Neill Junior for short.

She was a headache for Jack. Rosenberg took more risks than any other person in S&R and was known to defy orders if she thought there was a chance a team could be saved. Not that Jack had anything to bitch about, he had been worse than she had when he was a member of SG-1. When Hammond found out what Rosenberg was doing, he said one word to Jack – Karma.

Every stunt she pulled was another piece of ammunition for Jack to plead his case for her to transfer to SG-1. He had to admit, Rosenberg was perfect for it but she refused to join SG-1, for which Kawalsky was infinitely grateful. For the last three months, Jack had tried everything to get her to go into a field unit but their girl remained firm.

Search and Rescue was her passion.

An extremely stressful, and dangerous, passion. This was a way for her to blow of a little steam… and to make them a little money. Come on, Rosenberg, show them who’s…

"Excuse me, Lieutenant Rosenberg?"

Shit! Not now! Kawalsky caught a glimpse of Atkins hand, Rosenberg was going to cream him. He shot a look to the Airman standing in the doorway of the commissary.

The redhead reluctantly looked away from her hand. "Yes, Airman?"

"You have a telephone call, Ma’am. They said it was an emergency, they’re on line seven."

Emergency?

Rosenberg had gone a whiter shade of pale. "Thank you, Airman. Dismissed." Her voice was full of fear.

Shit.

She was thinking the worst. If this wasn’t a damn emergency, Kawalsky was going to kill whoever the hell said it was. No one should go that pale. On the other hand, he hoped to god it really wasn’t an emergency. Rosenberg was slow in letting people in but once you were in, she was loyal as hell.

"Ah, guys, can you excuse…"

"Go," Atkins pointed towards the telephone located on the wall just behind Willow.

"Lieutenant Rosenberg," Willow stated as soon as she picked up the phone.

Kawalsky couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Rosenberg. She seemed freaked and when Rosenberg freaked out, the team reacted. They were her family, whether she realised it or not.

If she bled, they bled.

If someone hurt her, they hurt someone.

"W…what?" Rosenberg’s voice cracked with emotion. "Is… is he all right?"

Fuck! Kawalsky was out of his seat and at her side in an instant. He hadn’t even realised Hayes and Grogan moved until Grogan was at Rosenberg’s left. They were flanking her from all sides. Not that Rosenberg noticed. Nope, Rosenberg was too busy staring at some spot in the space in front of her looked more freaked than he had ever seen her. He was getting worried. Rosenberg looked like she was about ready to run from the room.

"Oh god…" she closed her eyes, and rested her head against the wall, as she listened to whatever the person on the other end was telling her.

Every second that passed she seemed to get worse.

"Everyone else ok? What? Are you sure? Um, ok. I… I’ll leave tonight… no. It… I… tell Giles… ok. No… I’ll ring with the details."

Leave tonight? Tell Giles? Shit! Giles was the librarian guy Rosenberg talked about all the time. He’d seen his picture in her apartment… something was wrong with Giles? Shit. Giles met Rosenberg in high school – he was a survivor of the massacre.

Damn.

"But… ok… I’ll see you soon. Bye," Rosenberg hung the phone up slowly, staring at it like it had grown legs or something.

"Rosenberg, what is it?" Kawalsky asked as gently as he could.

She shook her head, her eyes searching the room wildly. "I have to see the General, where is he?"

Kawalsky felt fear. Rosenberg was looking around the commissary as though he were here, when she knew full well he was in a briefing with SG-1 and had been since before lunch. "Willow," he used her first name in the hopes of snapping her out of the shock. "What happen? Did something happen to Giles?"

She looked at him with wild eyes. "Giles?" Then she did something he never expected. She ran out of the room.

They ran after her.

Yadda Yadda.

Worst part of being a General was that you had to listen to this crap. Carter had been prattling on for an hour and Jack really thought he was going to fall asleep. She knew he didn’t get it, the second she said words like nanno whatever his mind went off on its own. He really couldn’t help it. It was SO boring. It brought tears to your eyes.

He just bet Daniel was getting a kick out of this. He kept on sending amused looks his way. He was going to kill the archaeologist after this was…

"Ma’am," the voice of one of the SF’s filtered through the door. "You can’t go in there."

Finally! Something to take his mind off this… Rosenberg? Jack blinked in surprise. Lieutenant Rosenberg just burst into the briefing and…well, she looked like crap.

"Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt…"

"It’s all right," he waved the SF’s away. "Rosenberg what’s…" His words trailed off when her team rushed into the room. "Ah… Would someone like to tell me what’s going on?" And why Rosenberg looked like she did? Jack didn’t even have a word to describe what she looked like.

Scared? No. Terrified? Maybe.

"I have to go to LA," Rosenberg told him. "They, um, they need me in LA, Sir. Something happened to… something happened Giles."

Giles? Who the hell… Kawalsky was mouthing a word to him, it looked like he was saying. Sunny? What did the weath…Oh. Crap. Sunnydale. "What happened?"

Rosenberg shook her head. "I’m not sure, he’s in LA memorial. I need… they need me there. I have to go."

"Is he all right?" Daniel asked.

She had to go? Call him crazy but it looked like Rosenberg was begging him NOT to let her go. Nah, he must be imagining things. One of her closest friends had been hurt, she wanted to be there. Damn it, she just didn’t look like someone who wanted to go. Maybe she was scared that her friend was going to die.

Rosenberg looked at Daniel, surprise marked her features, as though she just noticed him. Ok, he was getting a little worried here, so was Kawalsky. "He’s in intensive care but he’ll survive."

"Oh god, Willow I’m so sorry."

"Rosenberg," he pulled out the chair closest to him. "Sit down, and tell us what’s…"

"No," she refused. "I’m sorry, Sir. I mean no disrespect but I need to go to LA now. If you can’t let me go, I have to resign. I need to be there as soon as possible."

Whoa! Resign? "Lieutenant, calm down. Kawalsky, what the hell is going on?"

"She got a call, Sir, a few minutes ago. She hasn’t told us what happened."

Brilliant. "Rosenberg, I’m going to get Fraiser to call LA memorial, see if she can find out what’s wrong with your…"

"Not necessary, Sir," Rosenberg didn’t seem too impressed with that idea. "I just need to go there, Sir. Immediately, it’s an… he’s in intensive care, Sir. They said he was going to be all right… I have some leave…"

"Permission, granted, Lieutenant. SR-1 is on stand-down for two weeks. Would you like someone to go with you?"

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with a shaking hand. "No, Sir." She looked downright petrified.

Poor kid, she had been though hell and now she was going through it again. "You’re allowed to go on one condition though, you’re to check in with either Kawalsky or Dr Fraiser every second day."

He knew full well how hard Kawalsky had worked to get her to open up. The two of them had a few conversations about it, after Kawalsky found out they knew the truth about Rosenberg. They weren’t going to just let Rosenberg go off to LA without keeping tabs on her.

She was family, after all.

The SGC was a small command, everyone knew everyone and well, hell, ok. He had a soft spot for the kid. She had spunk. They called her O’Neill Junior which, he couldn’t really see, but took as a compliment. He’d get Fraiser to call LA memorial as soon as Rosenberg left and then have her give Rosenberg a call to let her know what the real story was.

"Dismissed."

Strange. Rosenberg didn’t look all that pleased the permission had been granted. Was there something she wasn’t telling them? "Thank you, Sir," she gave him a small smile before starting towards the door.

Kind of like someone walking to their doom.

"Willow!"

Daniel? What the hell was he doing? Why did he want Rosenberg? They hardly knew each other. Rosenberg spun around at the sound of her name. Neither one of them said anything, Rosenberg met his eyes, nodded, then left the room.

Jack watched her go with a frown.

What the hell was that about? He’d work it out later, right now he was more worried about Rosenberg than he was about the look thing she and Daniel did. In a week, he was sending someone from SR-1 to check up on her. If Rosenberg thought they were just letting her go without backing her up, she was kidding herself.

They looked after their own.

And Rosenberg was theirs.

"I told you so."

Her words were whispered so quietly that only creatures with preternatural senses could hear them. That was the way she wanted it. Her comment was directed to one person only.

Angel.

And he’d heard it. Good. Faith wasn’t one to let something like friendship get in the way when she knew she was right. And she was right. So damn right that Fang was practically squeezing the life out of Red in an attempt to atone for his mistake. He knew he had made a mistake by calling her here.

Red didn’t belong here.

For the last three months Fang had been so obsessed about what Red was doing, that he forgot it was still Red he was dealing with. Calling her into the shit they were in… god, was he insane or what? Didn’t matter what was happening in Colorado, it couldn’t be anywhere near as bad as here.

To be honest, Faith didn’t think Red was in any trouble and if she was… well, Red was smart. Come on! She was still Red after all. Put her in a uniform or in a pair of jeans, didn’t make a difference. She was the same, a good person. If she got herself in deep shit, she’d call them. Red wasn’t the type to go against something she believed in. Which was why she wasn’t as worried as the rest of them, when Red’s lies had come to the surface. She always said she worked for a classified program, the fact that ‘Deep Space Telemetry’ was a cover didn’t really surprise her.

Faith lied almost constantly when it came to Slaying.

Yes, it bothered her that Red woke up screaming, and speaking in different languages, but that didn’t mean she was in trouble. As far as Faith knew, she wasn’t in any trouble of the demon or Air Force kind. If she was, Faith would have gone racing into the base and ripped it apart to get her free.

Until the day she died, Faith was going to look after Red.

B asked her to, right before she was killed.

Faith knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, that B only meant for her to make sure Red survived Graduation but Faith took it to mean more than that. B was her sister. Not in blood, but just as meaningful. B asked her to watch over Red, and she would.

She did.

No one knew just how carefully though, and she had no intention of telling them. This was something between her and B, nothing to do with Red, Fang, Giles, or Cordy. She watched Red’s back. Fang and Giles didn’t even know where she went on those long weekends, when she disappeared without a trace. Faith always pretended she was banging some guy, taking the edge off, but she wasn’t.

She was looking after Red.

Faith wasn’t trailing Red or anything. Christ, if she waited to go to Colorado when Red was on downtime she’d never go there. Faith could count the number of times she had seen Red, since she started, on two hands. Hardly ever, but, her going to Colorado wasn’t about actually watching Red. It was about making sure the town was safe. She patrolled Colorado Springs, twice a month, to make sure there were no nasties hanging around for Red.

Hey! Vampires hung out in Colorado too. It didn’t hurt for them to know the Slayer was around.

There was no sign of any trouble as far as she could tell. If Red was in some kind of danger with the Air Force, she couldn’t see it. It just wasn’t there. The rare times she spotted Red in Colorado, the redhead seemed almost happy.

A lot happier than she was whenever she visited LA.

The last time Faith spotted Red was a month ago, coming out of the movies with three guys who were hanging all over her. The four of them looked like the Fang gang. Giles, Cordy, Angel, and herself. Close, tight. As soon as Faith saw them together, she knew Red was safe. She kept an eye on the guys and, well, they were pretty damn protective of her.

They were pretty damn hot too.

And military.

Her Slayer hearing had caught Red calling the oldest guy ‘Sir’.

Which was why Faith hadn’t mentioned them to Fang or Giles. God, she’d tried talking Angel out of this crap. He wouldn’t listen. He was convinced Red was in danger from the military and no one was going to talk him out of it. Faith managed to talk Giles around somewhat, but Fang and Cordy were convinced there was more to Willow’s life than she was telling.

She worked for a classified project – of course there was more to it.

Fang was taking it to heart, though. It bothered him enough when Red wouldn’t talk about her job, but finding out Red had lied to them about it? That was enough to set Fang off. He was still kicking himself for not picking it up earlier. Red had never actually told Angel that the work she did in the Air Force was ‘Deep Space Telemetry’, he hadn’t even realised it until he found out it was a lie. She told the others and they told Angel.

Willow had been careful around him, making sure he never suspected she was lying.

So Fang was taking it to heart and was looking at Red in a new light. If she wasn’t a pencil pusher, then she was combat. If she was combat, she could fight…

That was the reason for calling her – they needed a witch to help them fight.

Fang hadn’t counted on how scared Red would be though.

She was a ‘highly trained Air Force Officer’ as Red liked to say, but take her out of that environment and she was still scared.

Faith didn’t think Red was ever going to get over what happened in Sunnydale. Christ, how long had it been? Six? Seven years? She had only been back in their lives for a year now, and not once had she gone demon hunting with them.

How Fang thought Red being in a combat unit would change this, Faith didn’t know.

She and Giles had warned them. When the shit started hitting the fan a few weeks ago, she and Giles had been dead against calling Red in. End of the freaking world or not, Red was more of a hindrance, to them, than a help.

Military training meant nothing when you froze in fear.

Like now.

Red was frozen in Angel’s arms.

Terrified.

"How is he?" Red asked, pulling away from Angel and reaching for Cordy with shaking hands.

"He’s going to be fine," Cordy assured her, taking the redhead into her arms. "They’re letting him out of intensive care either tomorrow or the next day."

She pulled away from Cordy and turned to face Faith.

Slayer reflexes sure had their advantages. No sooner had Red reached out, Faith was there in her arms hugging the hell out of her. Not that Red was complaining though, she was giving as good as she was getting.

The witch had some serious muscle on her.

Finally, they pulled apart.

"Did you have much trouble getting away?" Angel asked as they made their way to the baggage area.

"None," Willow told them. "I had more trouble getting the flight here."

Yeah, she bet Red just loved flying into LA at night. "How long are you here for?"

"Two weeks," she replied.

Two weeks? That was seven days more than they needed. Angel relaxed noticeably at her reply. What was the bet Fang had them pegged as giving her next to no time off? Actually, Faith wished they did give her no time off.

Red didn’t have what it took to fight demons anymore.

Calling her here had been a mistake and Angel was realizing that too. She just wasn’t strong enough, she was too scared.

Red’s time as a hero ended the second high school did.

They weren’t telling her something.

Her entire life was secret so Willow knew how to read people. Being a part of a top secret project gave you skills that really came in handy, instincts.

The three people in the car with her weren’t telling her something.

Which meant she correctly heard the unspoken message in Cordelia’s phone call earlier today; something big was happening.

That was why they called her. The second Willow heard Cordy’s voice, she knew. How could she not know? No one had ever called her at the base before. Her friends were still a little hesitant when it came to the Air Force. They didn’t trust the military, a fact Willow had long ago resigned to. Ringing the base risked exposure.

Something none of them wanted.

Willow rarely spoke of her friends, or her past, to protect them all. Willow never called them from the base, and when they spoke on the phone from her apartment – they never spoke about anything that demony.

If she exposed her friends, Willow would never forgive herself.

So when Cordy rang, Willow knew.

She didn’t know what she knew, but she knew the reason she was here had very little to do with Giles. What had gone wrong? Was it a demon? An apocalypse?

Why did they call her?

What kind of help would she be?

She was still so scared of everything supernatural. Willow would love to say she wasn’t, that her years with the Air Force had help her past that fear, but it would be a lie. She was scared, downright terrified actually. The entire flight to LA, Willow had tried to convince herself that everything was going to be all right. She thought if she convinced herself that demons were the same as aliens, then the mind numbing horror would fade.

It didn’t.

Fact was, as much as she liked to pretend aliens and demons were the same in principle, they weren’t. The Goa’uld had wormed their way into Willow’s heart as a mortal enemy, but she didn’t fear them like demons.

The Goa’uld were strong, powerful, and evil, but they weren’t demons. Willow knew they could die, she knew what they were like. She made it her mission to know her enemy. She studied them, hell, she was on her way to knowing their entire language. It was only in the last couple of months, since she and Daniel became closer, that she had begun to learn more about them.

Kawalsky was giving her tactical pointers on them, while Daniel was teaching her the language and culture.

She feared the Goa’uld. Anyone in their right mind would, but it was a different fear than demons. Willow feared them as you would anything with such large numbers and technology. They were oppressors. If Earth wasn’t apart of the Protected Planets Treaty, with the Asgard, they would be slaves right now.

There was no such treaty with demons.

And there never would be.

It was different. Not just emotionally, but… it felt different too. The second Willow stepped off the plane, she felt the supernatural charge of the city. Now that Sunnydale was a ghost town, most of the supernatural creatures had moved to LA, and made it their home.

Willow could feel that.

And she hated it. She hated everything about this city. The only reason she came here was because of her friends. The times she was here, Willow tried to help and pretend everything was all right but it wasn’t. Nothing was ever all right here.

It had been a full year since she first stepped back into her friend’s lives and she wasn’t over her fear.

Would she ever get over it?

Maybe it was because she didn’t help fight demons anymore? That thought had occurred to her on the flight over. Willow had nightmares about the Goa’uld, the Jaffa. The dreams, memories, always left her screaming, shaking, and drenched in sweat.

But she still fought them.

If the Goa’uld tried to attack Earth tomorrow, Willow would be the first in line to fly against them in defense of the Earth.

So why weren’t demons the same?

Because Buffy, Xander, and Oz had died right in front of her. People she had gone to school with from kindergarten died and Willow had seen it. She had seen all the blood and she couldn’t forget that.

She couldn’t forget anything about Sunnydale, or her part in Graduation… THAT was why she couldn’t think of this as another mission. It was personal… and painful.

She didn’t belong here.

Willow was a soldier.

Not a champion for the Powers that Be.

"Hey Red, you ok?" Faith asked gently.

Great, how long had Faith been watching her? "Oh yeah, I’m fine."

Could she sound any more scared? Shit. Her voice was trembling, not to mention her hands, and Willow so didn’t want to look in a mirror.

She already knew her face was pale and haunted.

"He really is all right, you know," Faith reached over the squeezed her hand. "He’s in bad shape, but he’s ok. The doc thinks he should wake up soon."

"Will they let me see him?" she asked in a small voice. "You said he was in ICU, don’t they usually only let immediate family in."

Willow did and didn’t want to see Giles. She wanted to see with her own eyes that he was alive and all right, but she didn’t want to see him. She was scared to.

"Yeah," Faith assured her. "We’ve got some connections at LA memorial, the doctor who works nights knows about us. I rescued him from a vamp and he’s helped us out ever since. We know a couple of nurses there too, they don’t even ask us questions anymore. So, we’re cool. In fact… hey Angel, didn’t you say Doc was going to be there tonight when Willow arrived? To fill her in on G-Man’s condition?"

Angel glanced over his shoulder, taking his eyes off the road for only a second. "He’ll be there. I called him before we left to pick Willow up from the Airport."

Quite the little network they had going here.

Inwardly, Willow was impressed. Now that LA was demon central, it made sense for them to have connections… and it didn’t even surprise her that she didn’t know anything about this. Why would she? Angel and the other tried to keep her protected from the night life whenever she was here.

All she did was research… and sleep.

Most of her downtime in LA, she spent asleep.

Not this time, though.

Nope, Willow had the distinct feeling that she would be sleeping very little.

"Oh god!" Willow cried out at the sight of her former mentor.

She had been right to be scared, to not want to come here. Oh god! Nothing… nothing could have prepared her for the sight in front of her. She wanted to get out of here, she didn’t want to be seeing this anymore.

Oh god, she was going to be sick!

She tried to find something to hold onto, but she couldn’t… she couldn’t see anything except the unconscious man on the bed. No… no… no. Was he alive? How was he alive? How could he survive that… he was… he was…

He looked dead, his face was so lifeless.

It was too much.

She didn’t even fight the nausea that flooded her. Seeing Giles like that… the bruises, the wounds… oh god! Her legs gave out and fell to the floor a second before she threw up her in-flight meal.

She couldn’t handle this.

"Red!" Faith shouted from somewhere behind her.

No! No! Don’t touch her! Get away!

Willow scrambled away from the brunette slayer, moving across the room with surprising caution. She didn’t want to touch anything, and she didn’t want people to touch her. She… she just needed to deal, to process what she had seen.

Giles.

He was going to live. That’s what they told her, she had to remember that. It looked bad but they promised her he was going to be all right. Injuries often looked worse than they really were. She knew that. She had SEEN that, first hand.

Willow had pulled an injured SG-2 out of a fucking Goa’uld Palace bleeding, and close to death. Willow knew wounds looked bad, she had fucking touched them, patched people up enough for them to make it back to the gate.

Not once had she thrown up, at least not during a rescue.

Afterwards, yes. Usually in the comfort of her own home, and once in the comfort of Grogan’s home when the two of them had been so freaked they decided to drink the memories away.

But this… this was something Willow hadn’t been prepared for.

Oh god! This was GILES!

Her Giles. The man who held her when she had lost everything, the man who abused General Kerrigan, at the Academy, for allowing her to join the Air Force. This was the man who loved her even though she was a stupid scared kid who ignored him for six years.

This was the man who was like a father.

He was on that bed… so injured… so hurt… oh god, whatever had done that to him hadn’t wanted him to live.

WHATever, not whoever.

Those wounds were not made by a human. It was a demon. A FUCKING demon. Fuck! FUCK! What the hell was going on? Why did they do this to Giles, dear, sweet –

"Willow," Angel knelt on the floor in front of her.

"Don’t touch me," she yelled, moving away from him, backing herself into a corner.

Oh, if her colleagues at the base could see her now.

Kawalsky would be so proud.

"Ok, no one is going to touch you," Angel told her in a soothing voice. "Faith, could you go get Kyle, I think Willow needs some…"

Kyle? Who the hell was Kyle? "I’m… I’m ok," she told him, struggling to catch her breath. "I don’t… I just need a second to deal… ok?"

A second? Oh god, that was a laugh.

A month ago Willow had been on one of the most difficult rescue missions of her life. Dangerous, bloody, and scary. She hadn’t lost it, she kept her cool… in fact, she impressed everyone with the way she handled herself.

The General was giving her a commendation for the work she had done.

Yet, now she was a mess.

A basket case.

A second wasn’t long enough for her to deal, hell, a LIFE TIME wouldn’t be long enough.

This was that night at Daniel’s all over again. Only this time, she didn’t have the man who had a way of making her less scared, who made her strong.

Daniel, she needed Daniel.

Her friend, the man she was in care with. He would know what to do. Over the last three months, Daniel had perfected the art of knowing how to deal with her. He knew when she wanted comfort, when she wanted to be left alone, he knew when to touch her and when not to touch her.

He knew her.

"Daniel?" Angel repeated.

Great, just fucking great. She was doing that talking out loud thing. Shit… calm… she had to calm down and deal. She had to deal with this, there was no choice here.

Suck it up and deal.

It was just a shock seeing Giles like that.

She hadn’t expected him to be so injured. Even knowing he was in ICU hadn’t prepared her for this, nor had her friends warnings. Giles would heal from this, he’d live to see another sunrise and to see her again.

He was going to live, even though he looked dead.

He was… "Is he going to be all right?" she had to ask.

"He’s going to be fine," Angel promised. "It looks bad but he’s strong, Willow. He’s not going to die."

Tears streamed down her face. "Are you sure? His injuries… what… what did that to him?"

Angel shook his head. "We’ll talk about it back at the hotel."

"Here’s some water," Cordelia sat down next to Angel and handed her the small plastic cup. "Faith’s going to get the doctor. He’ll explain everything to you… god, Willow. I’m so sorry, we should have waited until you were ready before bringing you here."

"Is anyone else hurt?" Willow wanted to know. "You guys look all right but…"

"We’re fine," she assured her. "Gunn was a little bruised up but he didn’t need to be admitted."

Gunn? Oh, Gunn. Willow had only met the vampire hunter once, a fleeting moment, but she knew who they were talking about. He was the leader of a group of local vampire hunters who worked with Angel and Giles.

Willow was about to ask more questions when the door to the room opened, admitting Faith and a man she had never seen before.

The doctor.

"Hi, I’m Dr Kyle Whitwood," he introduced himself in a gentle tone.

This was the doctor who helped them? He was about Daniel’s age, brown hair, dark brown eyes. On his face was a sad sympathetic smile. He was looking at her like he knew her. Did he? How much had Angel and the guys told him? The expression on his face wasn’t what she usually found on doctors outside the SGC. There was none of that coldness that doctors sometimes had.

No, there only sympathy and understanding.

"Lieutenant Rosenberg," she replied instinctively, not really sure why she used her surname and rank instead of her full name. She didn’t take the hand he was holding out in front of her.

She still didn’t want anyone to touch her.

Except Daniel, if he were here – maybe.

"Are you all right, Lieutenant?" he asked using the same tone, retracting his hand when it became obvious she wasn’t going to take it.

Willow opened her mouth to say yes, but the word wouldn’t come out. She wasn’t all right. She had almost lost someone else she loved to a demon. God, did he know what did this to Giles? Did any of them? Was it a demon like the Mayor? Or was it something knew? More than one demon?

Oh god…

Did they know she couldn’t protect them? Any of them? Did the doctor know how useless she was? Did Angel and the others? What kind of officer was she if she couldn’t deal with this? If the demon burst in here, she’d be frozen with fear and would be the first to die.

She couldn’t deal with it, not this.

"Lieutenant," he called to her again.

Willow focused on him again. "Oh, I’m sorry, Sir. I’m fine."

Sir?

Angel and Dr Whitwood exchanged a look.

"What… what happened to Giles?"

The doctor hesitated, regarding her with a strange look. Willow wondered for a minute if he was actually going to tell her, not that she could blame him. She probably looked like hell. Angel, Faith, and Cordy were almost panicked… the doctor probably didn’t think she could handle it.

She probably couldn’t, but she had to know.

And, to her surprise, he told her. Willow tried to listen to what he was saying, but her thoughts were scattered all over the place. She couldn’t get the picture of Giles out of her head, nor could she get the images of graduation out.

So every word the doctor said to her made little sense.

How could they expect her to comprehend medical terms? Doc Fraiser talked in simpler terms than this… well, at least to the General. Why was he talking to her like she was a doctor?

Finally, she cut him off. "I… um, I don’t know understand anything you’re saying."

"You don’t?" he frowned, confused by her statement. "I thought you had already been apprised of Rupert’s condition. I was just going over everything again briefly."

He did? "Um, Cordy gave me a rough outline of what was wrong." Nothing like what he was insinuating though.

Dr Whitwood shook his head. "No, I meant by your base Doctor, Dr Fraiser."

Willow’s heart stopped.

How did he know about Doc?

"Dr Fraiser?"

He nodded. "Yes, she told me that she was going to give you a call and explain everything to you. Didn’t she call you?"

Oh no… oh no… This was bad. "Ah, no. I haven’t turned my cell on since my flight. Dr Fraiser called you?"

Shit! SHIT! God damn it! She should have known she would call. The General had offered when she was back at the base but she had turned him down. God, O’Neill would have ordered her to call anyway.

The man was a perpetual mother hen.

"Wait… Are you saying one of the doctors from Willow’s base called you, Kyle?" Angel demanded.

"Two hours ago," Dr Whitwood told him.

"And you TOLD her about Giles?" Faith asked incredulously. "Are you insane, they’re military, they don’t know about demons. Jesus Christ."

The doctor smiled, somewhat amused by Faith’s outburst. "I told her about the injuries, Faith. Nothing else. As far as Dr Fraiser is concerned, he was mugged."

Willow only half listened.

The doc had called here.

"Why didn’t you tell her to go to hell," the brunette wanted to know. "Isn’t it illegal to give out people’s medical condition?"

He sighed. "The Lieutenant is listed as Giles’ next of kin, like the rest of you, which means she has permission to find out about his medical conditions, especially in a situation like this," he stated. "Dr Fraiser faxed me documentation that proved she had permission to act on Lieutenant Rosenberg’s behalf in cases of emergencies."

All eyes turned to her.

"It’s a standard agreement," Willow told them.

At least at the SGC.

If something bad happened to any of their family while any of them were off-world, the doc had permission to find out what was happening and keep them informed. Willow hadn’t been exactly happy about but she didn’t have a choice.

Angel looked pissed. "They called to check up on her? Willow told us she didn’t have any trouble getting leave from the base."

They were talking about her like she wasn’t there.

To be honest, she really didn’t mind.

She didn’t want to be here.

"She wasn’t checking up on the Lieutenant," the Doctor told him. "At least not in the way you’re implying. Dr Fraiser wanted to know about Rupert’s condition, so she could explain it to her. I got the impression she was extremely concerned Lieutenant Rosenberg’s condition."

He nailed that one.

That’s exactly what she was doing.

Which, considering why she was here, was VERY bad.

She had to make a phone call.

"Did you need a hand to… never mind."

Cordelia winced as Angel stepped away from Willow, giving her space as she tried to stand. She could see him struggling with his emotions. Was he taking Willow’s reaction to them personally? Hell yeah! Cordy could already see the brooding setting in.

Angel was going to brood for days over this one.

It wouldn’t matter to Angel that Willow didn’t want ANYONE to touch her, it would only matter to him that she didn’t let him touch her.

Willow was Angel’s Achilles heel.

The dark haired vampire didn’t even realise it. Whenever Willow was in town, her needs motivated his every action. He hovered around her, watched her when he thought no one was watching, made her laugh when she was down. Cordy even found Angel standing guard outside Wills door one night.

She wasn’t going to mention the collections of books Angel bought so he could understand flying and jets.

Angel still felt guilty for Graduation.

Seven years and he hadn’t let go of his guilt. It was why he was so obsessed with keeping Willow safe, especially from the military; it was why he did everything.

Angel held onto his guilt like Willow held onto her fear.

God, his guilt was going to be tenfold now!

They both made a mistake. Cordy was as guilty as Angel. Both of them had thought that with Willow’s military training, and her fear of the missions she went on for the military, she might have been ready to come back to LA.

They wanted Willow to come home to them, for good.

If Willow was being kept at the military against her will, they were both hoping that maybe this would be the catalyst to get her the hell out of there.

And by helping save the world, Willow would get past the rest of her fear.

Well, what they THOUGHT was the rest of her fear. Cordy was beginning to think she had overestimated how much Willow had recovered from Sunnydale. When Willow showed up a year ago, she thought that the redhead had started to move on.

Now she really didn’t think she had at all.

She should have pushed her. Cordelia bitterly regretted not pushing Willow when she first came back. Why did she listen to the others? Yes, Willow needed space and time to grieve but damn it, not seven years! She should have forced Willow to talk about Sunnydale, to talk about what happened.

That was how the four of them recovered. It hadn’t been easy for anyone, there were some days when she felt a fear similar to Willow’s. God, how many nights did Angel hold her while she slept? How many hours did Giles hold her while she cried? More than Cordelia could count. It had been agony for all of them, but the pain had eased, life went on.

They didn’t forget, never that. There wasn’t a day that went by where she didn’t think of Buffy, Xander, and Oz in some way but it wasn’t all consuming. It didn’t hurt to think of them. In fact, the trio had been their initial driving force to continue the battle against evil.

The four of them fought to honour their friends.

Together, the four of them healed, grieved, and let go.

Willow never did.

Nope, while the four of them were becoming closer than Cordelia ever thought she’d be to another person, Willow had been at the Air Force Academy, working her butt off in an attempt to run away. Wills had done a damn good job.

Not only did she run away physically, she ran away emotionally.

HAD Willow talked about to anyone about Sunnydale? Ever? Wills didn’t even have to mention the words demons, she could say anything… but had she? Did Wills ever talk about her pain?

Cordelia would bet Angel’s life savings that the answer was no.

God, how did Willow live? Looking at Willow now, it was like seeing her for the first time. REALLY seeing her. Willow wasn’t living, she was existing. God damn it! She should have pushed her, forced her to talk. Cordelia should have gone to the Air Force Academy, tied Willow to a chair and MADE her talk about it.

Cordelia watched her friend stand slowly, without any help. Her movements were slow and unsure, her eyes were practically glued to Giles. Then, she stood upright, her shoulders pulled back; kind of what Cordelia thought she would look like on duty.

She was separate from everyone, her face completely closed off.

Cordelia really wished she could read her mind.

"I… I should give the base a call," Willow spoke in a quiet voice. "If the Doc called, they’ll be expecting me to call back."

They?

Was she talking about the doc or was she talking about that other guy? The guy she asked for when she was trying to get away from them.

A guy NONE of them had known about.

Was he a boyfriend? A someone she worked with? How much did they really know Willow anymore? How many secrets did she have?

Why didn’t she trust them enough to share?

He was a dead man.

Daniel fought the desire to slump in defeat when the man he had been steadily avoiding for six hours walked into his office.

Major Charles Kawalsky.

Damn it, he thought Kawalsky had gone home.

Why was it that avoiding Jack had been easier than avoiding Kawalsky? Usually Jack found him in a matter of minutes, their years of friendship made it difficult for Daniel to hide from him, physically or emotionally.

Not this time, though.

The fates really weren’t on his side.

Both Jack and Kawalsky were after the same thing, though for different reasons. Jack was curious as to why he called out to Willow in the briefing room, Kawalsky wasn’t. He was here because of that, but he didn’t need to ask what made Daniel call out like that.

He knew.

Problem was, he knew Willow too, possibly better than Daniel did. Kawalsky was also aware that Daniel once had a crush on Willow.

That one look, between Willow and himself, would have confirmed what he and Willow had been so careful to hide.

That their relationship was more than professional.

Now Kawalsky was here to talk. He was a smart man, he would have worked out everything. Including Willow’s firm stance on SG-1.

Hence his upcoming memorial.

"She call you yet?" Kawalsky asked, closing the door to his office.

Was Kawalsky closing the door so no one witnessed his death? Daniel had no illusions about the way Kawalsky, and SR-1, felt about Willow. The premier rescue team was almost as close as the original SG-1 had been. They were family.

Kawalsky was not going to be happy about this.

Why?

Because Willow’s life was the SGC AND she was military. Becoming involved with someone within your command was against regulations. Since he wasn’t military, it wasn’t illegal for them to become involve, but it would be frowned upon.

Yeah… he really had that understatement thing down pat.

Jack would kill him if he found out the real reason Willow refused to join SG-1. Kawalsky, Hayes, and Grogan would kill him on principle.

Willow was their girl, theirs to protect. To those who didn’t know her, she was strong, professional and, to quote Jack, ‘one hell of a pilot’. Only a handful of people actually knew about her past, most people didn’t know Willow was so vulnerable.

Kawalsky, Hayes, and Grogan knew how vulnerable she was… even though Willow rarely showed it. Sometimes it was impossible to see, especially on base, but Daniel had seen the way the three men interacted with Willow. They knew she was more vulnerable emotionally, than most people, and they protected her accordingly.

If anyone wanted to date Willow, they would have to go through them.

If anyone wanted to fight Willow, they’d stand back and take bets.

Willow had confessed as much to him. It was one of the reasons why the two of them worked so hard at keeping their feelings a secret. Not that they wouldn’t approve of Daniel, he knew the three men liked him… it was being in the same command as Willow that was a problem.

Aside from the trouble they would get in, there was another problem with them being involved.

Every time they walked through the gate, there was a chance they weren’t coming back.

They worked in a job where living to see another day was never guaranteed. SR-1 would be worried about how Willow would cope if anything happened to him.

Daniel knew he’d be devastated if anything happened to Willow.

Yet it wasn’t enough for him to stop whatever was happening between them. The second Willow admitted she cared for him it was too late. Um… to be honest, the second she walked into the gateroom for the first time, it was too late for him. That was when he started caring about her.

Care? Again with the understatements. He was in –

"Daniel," Kawalsky’s casual tone was replaced by something Daniel wasn’t sure he liked. "Has Rosenberg called you yet?"

"Ah, no."

Oh yeah, he was pissed.

Daniel couldn’t recall seeing him so angry, but then, he probably had already come to conclusions about him and Willow that would be wrong. While their relationship, or friendship rather, had grown in the past three months, they weren’t together.

Not in the physical, or emotional sense.

They were taking it slow. They hadn’t talked about their feelings since that night, instead, they spent every moment they could getting to know each other out of the SGC. Daniel knew Willow better than he knew anyone and Willow knew him.

Three months after admitting their mutual feelings and neither of them had made a move towards a romantic relationship.

They hadn’t even kissed, not that Daniel minded.

He’d rather wait a year to kiss her, knowing she was ready, than risk scaring her off. Willow was still having difficulties dealing with her feelings for him. It had taken her six weeks to stop calling him ‘Sir’ off duty, even longer for her to truly relax around him.

But that didn’t mean they hadn’t gotten close.

With just a look, he knew what Willow needed; and he cherished that.

Daniel couldn’t honestly say he had ever been closer to any other woman, not even Sha’re. With Willow, there was something different. A connection the two of them shared, that allowed them to find comfort in each other in ways they couldn’t with anyone else.

Willow was still emotionally vulnerable, but when it came to his needs… she gave everything she could.

Their relationship was incredibly intimate and private, and something neither of them were ready to share. Daniel knew the man sitting across from him was plotting his death because he thought he and Willow were in a physical relationship, as well as an emotional one.

They were in something much more intense.

But somehow, Daniel didn’t think Kawalsky was going to listen to him explain the difference.

"You think you’re in shit with the three of us, wait until the General finds out the real reason for Willow turning down SG-1. He’s going to eat the two of you alive," Kawalsky shook his head. "Jesus Christ, Daniel. What the hell are you doing?"

What could he say to that?

"How long has it been going on?" he asked when Daniel didn’t respond. "Before or after 697?"

"Nothing’s going on, Kawalsky. At least, not in the way you’re implying," Daniel confessed. "If you’re asking how long Willow and I have been together as couple, the answer is we haven’t. We’re not together. If you’re asking how long Willow and I have had feelings for each other? A while. I cared for Willow before 697, Willow didn’t realise she cared for me until after."

That was a lie. The two of them had their connection long before 697, but Daniel couldn’t admit that. Admitting they cared for each other now was one thing, saying that Willow’s feelings for him might have been more than professional before 697 would be a mistake; especially when Willow paired them together.

"Damn it. You realise the kind of shit the two of you can get into because of this, don’t you? There are reasons why there are fraternization rules, Daniel. It’s dangerous. Christ, how the hell did we miss this?"

"There’s nothing to miss, Kawalsky," Daniel told him. "We have feelings for each other but neither one of us have acted on it. The SGC is too important for either one of us to take a risk like this without being sure, we wouldn’t risk other people either. We’ve done everything we can to make sure we haven’t compromised anyone. We haven’t done anything wrong."

"No? This command is the first, and only, fucking defense we have against the god damn snake heads. She said no to a position on the top team because of you. How can you tell me the two of you aren’t doing anything wrong?" he argued. "I don’t want Rosenberg to leave us, but she would be a damn asset to SG-1. By giving that up, the SGC is losing out."

"I offered to resign from SG-1," Daniel said in defense of the two of them. "Willow said no. She didn’t say no to SG-1 just because of me… what?"

Why was Kawalsky looking at him like that?

"You offered to resign from SG-1? Because Willow couldn’t work with you?"

Daniel nodded. "I didn’t want to get in the way of her career," he told his friend. "Kawalsky, both Willow and I know what we’re doing… or what we’re not doing. This isn’t just a fling we’re having. She… she means a lot to me. I would never do anything to hurt her, or stand in her way. I’d do anything for her. I’m not lying when I say we’re not together. We care for each other, but that’s as far as it’s going, at least for now. The second I think either Willow and I are compromising the SGC, because of our relationship, I’ll resign from SG-1 and work on base."

Kawalsky closed his eyes, as though in pain. "You know," his voice had lost all its anger. "If it had been anyone other than you, Daniel, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I’d be pounding your head into the wall. What you’re both doing is downright stupid."

Was that supposed to reassure him? Was Kawalsky going to pound his head into the wall AFTER the talk?

"You’re a good guy, Willow could do a lot worse than you, but that’s beside the point. As Rosenberg’s Commanding Officer, I can’t condone this. We’re S&R Daniel, there is going to be a day when SG-1 go missing and Rosenberg is our best man. How the hell will she handle you being missing? You know what she’s lost, Daniel. She lost almost everyone. It took her so fucking long just to let us in, even longer for other people."

Daniel liked it better when he was angry.

He didn’t like this, the guilt.

"By allowing this to happen, you’re compromising her."

Shit.

"But… as Rosenberg’s friend, I can’t NOT condone this. It’s a hell of a position you’ve put me in, Daniel. I’m not just her friend, I’m YOUR friend," he went on. "Christ, I want you both to be happy, but I want you both to be safe. You’ve lost just as much as Rosenberg, which means getting involved with someone who works at the SGC is stupid for you. She could die, Daniel. S&R is more dangerous than combat teams, we’re walking into fire fights to bring people back. You’ve seen an S&R mission first hand, Rosenberg could have easily died against the weathermen."

He really didn’t want to hear this.

Kawalsky sighed. "If there are two people who SHOULDN’T get involved it’s the two of you. You’ve both lost too much, and losing more could kill either one of you," he shook his head. "I know you said you’re not involved in an actual relationship, but I find that hard to believe. I saw the way Rosenberg looked at you, we all did. Grogan and Hayes picked up what you two felt for each other immediately. That wasn’t a look that people who cared for each other shared."

It wasn’t?

"You’re in love with her, aren’t you?"

Daniel looked away from his friend. "She doesn’t know, she thinks I just care for her."

There. He admitted it.

He didn’t actually say the words, but he didn’t need to.

He was in love with Lieutenant Willow Rosenberg.

"It’s too late for either one of you to walk away," he said it as more of a statement than a question. "I knew you liked her, I didn’t realise how serious it was though. How did the two of you meet? You said you cared for her before 697, I didn’t think Rosenberg knew you before that."

Um… um… oh god. The conversation was turning into dangerous territory. There was no way he was going to tell Kawalsky about their first meeting, or how their friendship, connection, began.

Willow would lose her position at the SGC.

"Ah, well you – "

The door to his office burst open, saving him from answering the impossible question.

"Sorry to interrupt, Sirs," Grogan stepped into his office, his face red and his breath coming out in pants. "The General asked me to find you, Rosenberg is on the phone."

Thank god!

Willow was on the phone. It meant she was all right… at least until Jack spoke to her. Janet had informed all of them about Mr Giles’ injuries, and the probable cause of them.

The confrontation with Kawalsky allowed him to forget about that.

Mr Giles had been badly beaten, almost to death, and the probable cause were muggers or maybe someone who had a grudge against the investigation company he worked for. The injuries suggested they wanted Mr Giles dead.

Jack was a little worried Willow was going to hunt down whoever was responsible.

Well, well, well, wasn’t this interesting?

Dr Daniel Jackson was really beginning to set off alarm bells.

Jack wasn’t usually this slow on the uptake, not when it came to Daniel, but since he had taken over the top spot at the SGC he had been a little off his game. Aside from the boring as hell briefings, there were the ‘boring as hell and completely confusing’ mission reports.

Not the combat mission reports, they were a breeze. The S&R reports were all right as well, providing his favorite ‘Pain In The Ass’ wasn’t writing them. It was the Scientific reports, the reports written by the Daniel’s and Carter’s of the SGC.

Jack had to get Carter to translate half of the crap in them.

It made getting his job done that little bit harder, and his spare time a little more allusive. He didn’t get to hound Daniel nearly as much as he used to. He missed that. It used to be the highlight of his day. There really wasn’t anything like bugging Daniel, until he exploded, to make a boring day something special.

But he didn’t have time anymore.

If he did, the penny might have dropped sooner.

Daniel really had to work on his poker face. Christ, the second Daniel and Kawalsky walked into his office, his suspicion level shot through the roof. Daniel being with Kawalsky on its own was a little strange, but nothing too out of character. Danny was one of those guys who went the extra mile for his friends. Kawalsky was worried as hell about Rosenberg, the entire Search and Rescue team were, so Daniel coming along for moral support was something Jack could have accepted without too much difficulty.

It was the look on Daniel’s face that had Jack’s mind going a mile a minute.

He looked as, if not more, worried than Kawalsky.

Add in his little shout out to Rosenberg as she left the briefing room… and you had trouble.

"General," Kawalsky greeted him. "Grogan said Rosenberg was on the phone."

"Yeah, the Doc is talking to her in the briefing room," he nodded to the briefing room adjoining his office. "Fraiser said she was going to be a little while, so I had Grogan bring the team in."

"Is she all right?" Daniel asked, trying his damnedest not to show any emotion.

There was only one thing worse than Daniel with no poker face, and that was Daniel TRYING to put on a poker face. Danny couldn’t bullshit him, not after being friends for so long. Along with Kawalsky, Daniel was his best friend. They had been through too much together for them to get away with this sort of crap.

They had fought, lived, and died together.

Too many times for Jack’s liking, but it made their friendship something he never expected. Danny wasn’t the type of friend he usually had. Jack was a flyboy, military through and through. Daniel was, well, a geek, a pacifist, a scientist… a freaking genius. The two of them were so different, it wasn’t funny, yet it was their differences that made their friendship so… strong.

Daniel was his conscience, his voice of reason.

Even now, as a General, Jack found himself going to Daniel for a different view on things. Daniel was more than just his conscience, he was the conscience of the entire SGC.

How many times had Daniel defied orders to help some alien race or even SG-1? Daniel’s function at the SGC was more than simply scientist and base geek. Daniel saw things other people didn’t, he said things others couldn’t because of their military status.

Jack valued Daniel’s opinion and friendship.

A lot of people did.

Was Rosenberg amongst them?

"She’s fine," Jack schooled his features to hide his sudden interest in Daniel’s behaviour. "I haven’t had a chance to talk to her yet, I didn’t want to get Rosenberg on the defensive before the Doc told her about her friend."

Daniel’s expression went from worried to alarmed. "You really don’t think she’ll do anything, do you Jack? Will… Lieutenant Rosenberg isn’t… doesn’t seem like the type who would go after someone like that."

How the hell didn’t he notice this before? Truthfully, Jack had noticed something between Rosenberg and Daniel back on 697, but, well, the thought of it seemed a little out there at the time. Daniel called almost everyone by their first name, and it HAD been cold that night in the forest. Not to mention Rosenberg – she was more military than Sam.

Sometimes Jack wondered if the kid was born saluting.

Still, waking up to find Daniel with his arms around Rosenberg had been a little surprising, but Daniel had explained it. Rosenberg had been cold. Was there more to it than Daniel said? Jack hadn’t really worried about it too much, his knees had been killing him, and he had been distracted by Carter’s MIA status. Daniel could have told him anything and Jack would have accepted it – he had been in too much pain to care about anything except helping Carter.

That mission hadn’t been one of Jack’s best.

"I’m not sure, Daniel," Jack stood from his seat, and motioned for them to follow him to the briefing room. "If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t even be entertaining the thought. It was a mugging, a brutal one, but most people would leave it at that. Even if they didn’t want to, they would have to. Rosenberg is more talented than most, I don’t know if her instincts could lead her to the s.o.b’s responsible."

Kawalsky and Daniel froze.

What, didn’t they think that Rosenberg could use her psychic abilities to track down the bastards that did this? Of course she could. Hell, if Jack were in her shoes, he’d probably do that very thing. Not only was Rosenberg psychic, she was Special Forces.

Thugs weren’t. Rosenberg could track them down without them even realizing it and take them out without anyone ever finding out.

She had been freaked when she left the base, which had Jack a little worried. Mr Giles was one of the survivors of Sunnydale, which meant she was going to be even more upset about this.

More protective.

Jack was NOT going to let her do anything stupid, no matter how much she wanted to.

"She wouldn’t," Kawalsky told him.

"He’s right Jack, she wouldn’t," Daniel agreed with Kawalsky in a tone that Jack had heard many times.

Daniel was talking with absolute certainty.

Interesting. How would Daniel know anything about Rosenberg? As far as Jack knew, the two hadn’t talked since 697. Well, he had seen them together once, but that was when she was asking questions about the Goa’uld.

As far as Jack knew, the two didn’t see each other off base, hell, they didn’t have the time!

"General O’Neill," the Doc called to him, holding out the phone.

As if on cue, Grogan and Hayes walked into the briefing room. Right, everyone was here. Good, Jack wanted to say his piece then have SR-1 talk to Rosenberg. If she was pissed with him for doing this, they would cool her down.

Or maybe Daniel could too?

Jack couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something.

The look Daniel had given Willow in the briefing room had been shared. It went two ways. Rosenberg didn’t look confused by Daniel calling out her name. She nodded to him, in acknowledgement…

Just like she did when she went through the gate for the very first time, in her last phase of training. Jack had forgotten about it until now. Rosenberg had been looking up into the control room towards Daniel. At the time, Jack thought she was a little nervous about gate travel.

So, he pushed her through the gate.

But that had been a year ago.

No, Daniel and Rosenberg didn’t have any real association until the mission to 697. He gave a mental shrug, then reached for the phone.

"General O’Neill!" Willow unthinkingly snapped to attention.

Which was the worst thing Willow could have done. Faith, Cordelia, and Angel were watching her from a short distance away, giving her space and the illusion of privacy.

Illusion because Willow was well aware they could hear everything she was saying.

They could clearly see everything too.

Which was kind of ok. She understood their worry, Giles had been hurt by something not human, the military calling put all of them at risk.

Especially herself.

What if the doctor who had been assigned to Giles wasn’t one of Angel’s people? Then what? Then, she and her friends would be in deep shit. Lucky for them, the doc hadn’t been suspicious about Giles at all. Fraiser had been all business, going through everything wrong with Giles, but focusing on what Willow wanted to hear the most.

Giles was going to be all right.

Now General O’Neill was on the phone and she was standing at attention.

Faith, Angel, and Cordy had given up pretending not to listen and had moved closer to her, looking downright worried.

"Lieutenant, how are you?" the General’s voice came over the line.

"I’m fine, Sir."

Silence, then, "Fine? Ok, let’s try this again. Lieutenant, how are you?"

And he called HER a pain in the ass. "I’m doing better, Sir," she told him honestly. "Now that I’ve spoken to Dr Fraiser. Thank you."

"No problem, I figured things would sound better coming from Janet," the General told her.

Which was true. Willow did feel better about things now that Dr Fraiser had spoken about her. Why? Because Willow trusted the doc with her life, and the life of her friends. She was the best. Hearing that Giles was going to be all right was worth more coming from Fraiser.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Dr Whitwood, she just didn’t know him.

Or maybe it was because he wasn’t military – she wasn’t really sure.

"He’s going to be ok?" he asked.

"Yes, Sir. Dr Fraiser said it might be a while before he recovers completely, but she thinks he should regain consciousness soon," Willow’s eyes strayed to the three people standing next to her.

They didn’t look happy.

Especially, Angel.

"That’s good news," he agreed. "Are your friends ok? The doctor who spoke to Janet said it was a mugging, was anyone else hurt?"

Uh-oh. "One, Sir, but he only had a few bruises."

"That’s good," General O’Neill hesitated for a moment. "Have they caught the guys who did it yet?"

Double uh-oh. "Um, no, Sir. I don’t know what happened. My flight only landed an hour ago, and we came straight here. I wanted to see Giles first."

"You don’t have any idea what went on?" he sounded surprised.

"No, Sir," Willow avoided looking at her friends. "Why, Sir, do you know what happened?"

"He knows?!" Angel exclaimed.

Brilliant.

"No, we were just going off what the doctor said," the General replied. "I’m a little worried about you, actually."

Why did she get the feeling he was talking about something else here? "M… me Sir?"

"Yes, Lieutenant," he sighed. "Listen, there really isn’t a good way to bring this up, so I’m just going to say it. I know what happened in to you Sunnydale, I know you lost a lot of people. Your friend that was hurt, he was one of the survivors from Sunnydale, right?"

Oh shit. "Yes, Sir."

"That explains why you were so upset this morning. It’s completely understandable… so is wanting whoever is responsible to pay," the General spoke in a gentle tone. "It’s natural."

Um… where was he going with this? "Yes, Sir."

"I’m sure the Los Angeles Police Department are doing everything they can to catch whoever is behind this, so Rosenberg, you don’t have to get involved."

What? Wait! What the hell was he going on… oh, OH! The General was worried that she was going to go after whoever did this to Giles.

Which, if her instinct was right about why she was really here, she would be.

Shit.

"Rosenberg?"

"Yes, Sir."

"I’m serious, Lieutenant. You’re trained to track down, hunt the enemy, I don’t want you using that to get revenge, not to mention your other talents. I know you can find anyone you want, so I’m making it a direct order," the General warned her. "You can not hunt down the people involved and get revenge. Let the police handle this. I know you want to keep your friend safe, but you’re not going to help anyone by either taking matters into your own hands or interfering in a police investigation. Am I clear? "

Willow closed her eyes. "Crystal."

The General sighed once again. "Listen, I’m sorry. I just… we’re worried about you. You threatened to quit the SGC… so I’m guessing you’re not really of sound mind here and since you didn’t let anyone from your team go along with you, we’re concerned."

"I understand, Sir. You have my word."

"I can have someone on the first plane to LA, just give the word, Lieutenant," the General repeated the offer he made back at the base. "I have a couple of volunteers right in front of me. Kawalsky, Hayes, Grogan, and Daniel are with me.."

Willow heart skipped at beat at the sound of one name. "Daniel?" the whisper escaped her before she could stop herself.

Shit!

"I’m sorry, Lieutenant, what did you say?"

"Nothing, Sir," she covered quickly. "I appreciate the offer, but I don’t need anyone to come to LA."

Angel stiffened.

"I have friends here, Sir, I’ll be fine."

Would he accept this refusal like he did when she told him she didn’t want the Doc calling about Giles?

Fuck, things just got a lot more complicated.

"All right, Lieutenant. Just remember your orders and keep us posted on your friend’s progress."

"Yes, Sir."

"So, who did you want to speak to first, Kawalsky, Hayes, or Grogan?"

"Kawalsky, Sir."

The next instant Kawalsky was on the phone. Willow only half listened to what her CO was saying, her mind was too busy going over what had just transpired.

They thought she was going to take matters in her own hands, go all pay-backy. Oh god. This was bad, not because that was what she intended to do, it wasn’t. Willow had no plans to go all pay-backy – at least not technically.

What was so bad about it was what it meant.

Willow would bet a million dollars that, before the week was out, someone from SR-1 would be here.

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