Chapter One

There had been a moment when he'd first seen Georgie sitting there waiting for her lift to the barracks that he'd contemplated sending her straight back home. There was something about the look on her face that reminded him of the look he'd seen at Elvis' funeral as her Mum had held her. The same look of grief she'd worn as he'd pulled her away from Elvis. The same look that had haunted him ever since.

No one had been expecting her to come back. He'd had to ask Major Beck to repeat himself twice because he literally couldn't hear the words he was saying. He'd assumed the same as everyone else- there was no way she could come back from that. But there she was, sitting right in front of him and for a moment it was as though he could pretend none of it had ever happened. Just for a second anyway.

The second she'd spotted him her face had changed, a smile taking the place of the frown she'd worn a moment earlier. She'd jumped to her feet as he'd climbed out of the land rover to greet her, grabbing her bag from the floor. "Alright Lane?" There were hundreds of things he wanted to say, things he'd been wanting to tell her since the funeral where he hadn't been able to find the words. But they were at work and this wasn't the time.

"I never normally get a royal welcome." She teased as she walked towards him.

"Are you calling me royal Lane?" He laughed. She'd taken him by surprise once again. Maybe she was okay after all?

"If the cap fits." She shrugged, swinging her bergen off her back.

He took it from her and threw it into the back of the land rover. "I know I'm posh Lane, but not that posh." He gestured for her to climb in before following her. "How was the flight?"

"Alright."

The conversation had come to a rather uncomfortable end after that. The only sound, the land rover bumping down the rough dirt roads. He'd quickly realised that six months might have passed but he still hadn't got a clue what to say to her. Instead he found himself stealing glances at her out of the corner of his eye and trying to work out what was going on in her head. It was impossible- Elvis had been right, she always did have a good poker face.

"You ready for another tour?" He'd asked eventually, the need to fill the silence somehow overwhelming him.

She rolled her eyes at him, the faintest hint of a smile crossing her lips. "Six months on regimental duties in Preston is enough to cure anyone from anything."

He laughed for a second before the weight of her words sank in a little. "Did you need curing?"

There was another awkward pause and he wondered if he'd crossed the line. "Maybe I needed time to heal?" She offered eventually.

He looked down at his worn combat boots to avoid her eye, not knowing what to say.

"You are allowed to say the Elvis word." She added when he didn't say anything.

He winced. Truth be told his reluctance to talk about it had as much to do with him not wanting to talk about it as not wanting to upset her. "Yeah." He mumbled. "Seeing you at his funeral was…"

"Did I make a tit of myself?" She joked, trying to deflect the conversation from the direction it was headed in. She'd had this conversation a hundred times and the last thing she wanted was to go over it all again.

He shook his head. "Of course you didn't make a tit out of yourself."

"Mum said I was howling." She sighed. "I just felt so…. Hollow. Y'know? I can't even remember the funeral."

"Yeah." He agreed. "I know."

She paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "But anyway… I'm back. And I won't let you down."

He smiled, handing her the information he'd brought for her.

She took it from him and read it out loud. "Training and mentoring a section of nigerians…. Working in a medical outreach project."

"Towards the Boko Haram territories." He added. Written on paper it all sounded so straight forward. He was keeping his fingers crossed that was going to turn out to be true.

"What could possibly go wrong?" She laughed.

He found himself laughing with her, and for a moment it was like she'd never been gone. "It's really good to have you back Lane."

"It's good to be back."

He'd spent the morning watching Kingy putting the nigerians through different training exercises, trying not to get too frustrated as he watched them all make the same mistakes time and time again despite what Kingy was telling them. It was frustrating as hell to watch through the tv screens and he was beginning to wonder quite how Kingy was managing to stay so calm with all of them. He knew without a doubt he would've lost his patience by now if they'd been the other way round.

There was a collective sigh from the group standing in the room as they watched yet another person shoot at the innocent civilian. He shook his head slightly, walking back up towards the screens at the front of the room. "You do not shoot until you are certain." He repeated for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Yeah, it's a waste of bullets if not." Monk cut in.

He shot him a glare that quickly shut him up. "It's a waste of an innocent person's life." He corrected. "And a waste of your own life too, because let me tell you if you kill an innocent person it's going to haunt you forever."

He watched for a moment as silence descended over the room. "Go on then Brains, you're up next." He nodded. He turned back to the screens in front of them but found his mind wandering to Lane as he watched Kingy and Brains swap places. He'd left her to go and get herself settled in but he was beginning to wish he'd insisted she come with him. At least then he'd be able to keep an eye on her. He owed it to Elvis to make sure she was okay.

She was sitting on the edge of her bunk staring at the peeling paint on the walls when she heard them, or rather heard fingers as he fell over the end of one of the beds and ruined any attempt they'd had at sneaking up on her. The second she got to her feet they swept her up in a group hug and for a moment she felt the tears threatening to fall again. They had well and truly become a part of her family and she really had missed them all.

"Alright, alright… get off, you're going to crease my uniform!" She scolded them jokingly.

"It's always creased." Fingers shot back.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Shut it you."

"It's really good to have you back." Monk smiled.

"Where's Brains?" She asked, changing the subject as she glanced around and realised he was missing.

"Don't ask." Fingers rolled his eyes. "He's being a right sulky sue."

She didn't get the chance to ask what that meant as Kingy walked in. "It's good to have you back Lane." He smiled.

"Good to be back."

"Good… Well, you can unpack you kit and head to the med centre because you're the medic on duty."

"Oh joy." She rolled her eyes. Straight back to normality it seemed.

"The rest of you- obstacle course fifteen minutes." Kingy called back over his shoulder as he left the room.

"Right you lot." He shouted, standing at the edge of the obstacle course and looking at the men in front of him. Each member of two section had been partnered up with a soldier from the nigerian army. "One full circuit of the course with a sprint to the finish line. The first pair back are obviously the winners…. And for the losers its an eight mile run in full kit so I'd say it's worth your while to make sure you don't leave your partner behind on this one… Understood?"

He watched as Brains turned around, giving some kind of instructions to his partner. They were apparently the only ones taking this seriously.

"Now remember, this is about teamwork!" Kingy shouted. "There is no I in wanker!"

He watched as Monk and Fingers laughed with Rab, whatever it was they were saying Brains obviously wasn't finding it funny but he didn't think anything of it. Afterall it was hardly the first time one of them had said something that crossed a line and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Instead he just blew his whistle to send them off before anyone had a chance to say anything else stupid.

He stood and watched, his hand shielding his eyes from the sun as they raced around the course. Brains and Rab were pretty evenly matched almost stride for stride and the pair of nigerian soldiers behind them weren't much different. It was going to be a close race. Or at least it looked like it was going to up until the point where Brains abandoned his partner at the rope swing and went racing off on his own. "What the hell has got in to him?" He didn't realise he'd said it outloud until Kingy answered him.

"I haven't got a clue." Kingy shrugged.

Neither of them had a chance to dwell on it, their attention diverted by the sprint finish between Rab and Brains that was happening right in front of them. "Ooh, it's going to be close." He found himself holding his breath as Brains crossed the finish line half a step in front of Rab, only for his partner to be a couple of seconds behind Rab's.

"Condolences and everything, but the best team won." Rab teased, taking a bow. "Now that's eight miles, full kit and don't forget to pack your bruised ego!"

"Ungentlemanly conduct Kalil!" Charles called, trying to hide the smile on his face. "And for that, you can join him on the run."

"How's that fair?" Rab argued.

"And technically I beat the jumped up yorkshire gobshite anyway." Brains jabbed a finger in Rab's direction.

"Allright Brains, that's enough." Kingy warned.

"If only he had enough brains." Rab quipped.

"I've got more brains than you'll ever have." Brains spat, taking a step closer to Rab.

It clicked in Charles' head where this was going to end up a couple of seconds too late to stop it. He found himself running after Kingy to split the two of them up as Brains took a swing at Rab. Kingy grabbed hold of Brains and hauled him away before he got there. "The pair of you, that is enough." He growled. "I don't know what is going on here but you will sort your shit out- understood?"

"Yes boss." They both muttered.

"One more little outburst like this and you can square your kit away and spend the rest of your days digging holes for the council. Now get out of my sight." He snapped.

He'd meant to go and find Lane and ask her to have a word with Brains but if he was honest he'd got caught up in other things and forgotten all about it while he was preparing for their briefing. It was only when he'd seen him sitting next to Lane as he stood at the front about to start the briefing he remembered.

"Right." He started, putting it to the back of his mind again for the moment. "You've all had a chance to study the brief by now. We'll be escorting the nigerian army up into the north of the country towards Boko Haram territory. We're delivering and dispensing medical supplies. Lane will be supervising inoculations. This is mainly a training and mentoring exercise with the added benefit of providing reassurance to the locals that they've not been forgotten about. Our final destination is approximately 800 kilometers north of Lagos, now it was this area where the school girls were taken from. It's only about three or four kilometers from the outreach project we're going to so remember to stay alert."

"Yes Boss." They all nodded, turning their attention to the map they were being shown on the screen behind them.

He would've declared Nigeria a bit of a shithole- mainly on the basis of it being swelteringly hot the entire time and the seemingly pointless nature of their task- but that would've meant listening to another lecture from Kingy on his heritage and why he wasn't allowed to say that. So he'd kept his mouth shut and carried on staring out of the window as Richards slowly drove them to their destination. She was wittering away about some crap he didn't care about, he nodded every now and then wondering why she was still talking. Surely she had to know he wasn't actually listening to her?

"Can you imagine having kids and bringing them up here?" He tuned back in just as Richards glanced over at him.

He nodded slowly, despite everything the thought of Sam being in a place like this made him feel sick. "You'd just want to scoop them up and take them somewhere safe, wouldn't you?" He agreed.

"Hang on a minute." He could almost see the light bulb go on above Richards' head as she spoke. "You're not sprogged up are you Boss?"

He'd been keeping deliberately quiet about his family. Questions about Sam would lead to questions about Rebecca and that certainly wasn't something he wanted to be getting into with Richards of all people. "Yes, I've got a little boy." He nodded.

"So there is a Mrs James then?" Richards asked cheekily.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Eyes on the road driver."

"Alright then." She muttered, but much to his relief kept her mouth shut. Maybe she was finally learning something after all.

He could hear the rest of two section chatting in the back of the truck. Much to his relief Georgie seemed to have slotted straight back in with everyone more or less as if nothing had ever happened. It was bittersweet. He'd been worried when he'd seen Georgie at the funeral that she might never be the same again after what had happened with Elvis. On the other hand it seemed more than a little wrong that they were all carrying on with life as normal after what had happened. He'd ended up making a resolution not to think about it. It was the only way to stop it eating him alive.

"Nearly there Boss." Richards pointed at the road sign ahead of them.

He nodded in acknowledgement. That familiar feeling of anxiety had returned to the pit of his stomach. There had been a suicide bombing in the town they were headed to, right in the middle of a packed market, dozens had been killed. It was just another little reminder that it might be a humanitarian mission but it was never going to be safe. Something else for him to worry about, trying to make sure no one did anything stupid and they all got home in one piece.

"It doesn't look like too much of a hotbed of hatred to me." Monk commented as they walked into the marketplace.

Georgie couldn't help but agree with him. If she hadn't been told in advance what had happened there she never would've had a clue. She turned to the young nigerian medic beside her. "So you were the first medic at the scene?"She asked him.

"In the market? Yes Ma'am." He nodded.

"You don't have to call me Ma'am. It's Georgie." She smiled.

"I'm Adewole." He nodded. "I just had basic supplies and tried to keep them alive until help came but… The suicide bomber was a young girl. They don't arouse suspicion. She walked right up to a stall, through all the crowds saying she was looking for her mother."

"It doesn't make sense to us, does it?" Richards chimed in from behind them.

"It doesn't make sense to anyone." Georgie sighed.

"They get brainwashed into thinking they're doing something good." He explained. "Seventeen people died. I did my best but…. There was bodies everywhere and I had no medical supplies."

"The nigerian army are lucky to have you." Georgie smiled kindly. "Are you okay?" She asked, watching as he slowed a little as they approached the marketplace.

"It's the first time I've been back here." He admitted.

"Yeah I know." She sighed. "That's the worst part. Once you've seen something, you can't unsee it."

"Your colleagues have told me, some of the things you have seen."

She hesitated for a moment, the images of Elvis lying there on the floor flashing to the front of her mind again. "The thing is you've just gotta keep going and do what you can."

They were walking through the middle of the market when the red four wheel drive came racing through the middle of the crowd, music blaring and came screeching to a halt. The second it came to a stop the drivers door swung open and much to Georgie's surprise a small dark haired woman jumped out of the driver's seat, a man getting out of the passenger's seat to join her.

"Come on, get off. Get out of here." The woman shouted at the kids that had swarmed around the car. Georgie stood and watched as she took three bottles of water handed to her by one of the locals, throwing one to the man who was stood beside her and passing one through the back window to their passenger.

They spoke for a moment, then Georgie watched in horror as the woman went flying around to the back of the jeep and grabbed a little boy by the back of his t-shirt to haul him off the car. "If I catch you doing that again I'll-" She threatened as she deposited him roughly on the ground. The east end accent sounded weirdly out of place in these surroundings.

"Oi!" Georgie was halfway across the road towards them before her brain had engaged. "What do you think you're playing at?"

"Why don't you run along sweetheart?" The woman squared up to her as she approached, the man she was with standing close behind her as they both glared at Georgie. "Wouldn't want you to break a nail."

"Yeah I would if I were you." He chipped in. "Because you're going to look pretty fucking stupid trying to put your makeup on with a broken arm."

Georgie turned her attention towards him for a second. "If you were a man I'd beat the shit out of you."

"Oh really?" The woman laughed. "Then why don't you fucking try it on me?"

"Corporal Lane." Charles arrived beside her before she could say anything else. "Step away, now." He lingered for just a second, looking at the two people stood in front of him carefully.

Georgie somewhat reluctantly did as she was told, watching as the two of them sauntered back to their car with a satisfied smirk on their faces.

"You alright?" Charles asked as the jeep roared into the distance again.

"Fine." She brushed off his concern, her eyes following the trail of dust the car left in its wake.

He lingered for a second. "Okay, back to work then. Don't go starting any more fights."

"Yes boss." She nodded.

It was late that evening when she found herself lingering outside his tent. The FOB was quiet, most of the lads had gone for an early night. She'd not been able to get to sleep and had been on her way back to get another bottle of water when she saw his light was still on. She stood outside for a couple of minutes trying to decide if she was brave enough to go in and talk to him or not.

"Knock knock." She called, eventually plucking up the courage.

"Who's there?" He answered. There was an edge of suspicion to his voice.

"Lane?" She answered, a little confused. Could he not hear it was her?

"Lane who?"

She had to stifle her laughter when she realised what was going on, ducking into the tent. "It wasn't supposed to be a joke… I just… Well, you can't knock on a tent can you?"

He looked flustered for a second. "Right. Well what can I do for you Lane?"

She froze slightly under his scrutinizing gaze. "Water run." She said slowly, putting the bottle of water down on his desk. She was going to have to double back and get herself another one now but she felt like she needed an excuse to be there.

"Okay… Well, thanks." He smiled, looking up from his desk again when she still made no attempt to leave. "What is it?"

"Okay look." She started hesitantly. "Shouldn't we be doing more? Even if we only saved half a dozen school girls at least-"

He cut in. "No, Georgie. Good night." He should've seen this conversation coming really, he'd worked with her long enough to know she'd never just be able to leave it.

"We are failing in our duty if we don't at least try and protect them." She argued.

The look that crossed her face stopped him in his tracks. "Everything okay Lane?"

"Fine." She snapped. They both knew it wasn't true. "Why shouldn't it be?"

"Well…" He sighed, searching for the words. "Maybe you needed some more time after all?"

"Sitting in Preston isn't going to change anything."

He ran his fingers through his hair, pausing for a moment. "I realise that, but at least in Preston you can't do anything stupid. What I don't need is you out here on tour getting het up about things."

"So me thinking it's wrong that these girls are being taken is me getting het up is it?" She shot back at him. "Excuse me for actually giving a shit."

"Are you finished?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yes boss." She sighed.

"Look, you're doing great work out here. Like today with the kids in the village."

"Thanks." She mumbled.

"Just a shame you nearly decked those dicks in the jeep." He joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"I think it's a shame you stopped me."

The way she'd sprung into action after the nigerian's had shot the child soldier was almost enough to convince him that the old Georgie was back. It wasn't quite enough though. She might have her head in it when she needed to, but there had been a few times he'd looked at her beforehand and she'd looked like she was on another planet. He wondered again briefly if he was doing the right thing by allowing her to stay.

He was still questioning himself as they stood around the table in the ops room that evening, listening to the Nigerian captain as he explained things to them.

"The plan was always to go to the outreach project boss." She nodded towards the map as she spoke. "It's only a mile or two from Lampese and that's why we're here. I think while we're here we go up there and make some enquiries about the school girls."

He had to bite his tongue and remind himself to cut her some slack. "We are here to work with the outreach project, not to try and locate the missing school girls."

"But if we left at first light then we could go there first and still be at the outreach project on time." She countered. "Surely if we can get any kind of intel about the girls then it'll help?"

He shook his head. "We're not going off piste and risking everyone's lives Lane."

"It's not even off piste! It's literally the town right next to the outreach project. We can go and hand out some flyers about the inoculations."

He glanced up at the Nigerian captain standing opposite him, taking a deep breath. "Fine." He said slowly. "We can go and do the leaflet drop but then we're going straight back to the outreach project. Understood?"

"Yes Boss." She nodded. "Thank you."

He nodded. "Go on."

To say he'd breathed a sigh of relief when the leaflet drop was done and they all headed back to the outreach project was probably an understatement. It had sounded okay in principle, but once they'd actually got there he'd had this horrible sickening feeling in his stomach that they'd made a mistake. It was an unnecessary risk and he should never have let her talk him into it.

He was still mulling it over in his head, stood outside the outreach project when Fingers had approached him. "What do you think boss?"

He stared at Fingers blankly. "What?'

"Troops vs. Locals." Fingers nodded towards a roughly marked football pitch. "Bit of a PR exercise, show them we care."

He couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes. "May I remind you, you massive cockwomble, that you're on duty."

"Cheers Boss, you haven't called me that in a very long time." Fingers laughed.

He laughed with him in spite of himself. Truth be told he wished things could go back to the way they had been that first tour in Afghanistan. "One game." He agreed. "And please, don't completely disgrace us."

"Yes boys!" Fingers cheered, running back to Monk and Rab. "It's on!"

He was standing watching two section get their asses kicked by a group of kids when Lane appeared beside him. "Boss, I need to go and pick some kids up that couldn't get here. They're orphans."

"What are you talking about?" He turned away from the football to look at her.

"It'll only take five minutes."

"Well… why can't the NGO's go and pick them up?" He asked.

"I need to see which ones we need to bring back. It'll be quicker like this." She reasoned.

"Okay." That uncomfortable feeling in his stomach was back again. "Kingy, Richards, Rab… You're escorting Lane to pick up some infants." He waved them over.

"Thanks Boss." She smiled, already turning and walking away.

He turned his attention back to the remainder of two section, shouting some words of encouragement at them in the hope it might help them recover at least some of their dignity.

"What if we went back to the town while we're out?" Georgie suggested as Richards started driving. "We could try again, see if anyone knows anything about the girls."

Richards glanced over at her, as if doing a double take. "You do know that no one there is going to tell you anything?"

"How will we know if we don't try?"

"If we don't try then we won't go getting ourselves in any bother." Richards pointed out. "God, how did I end up being the grown up?"

Georgie laughed. "We're not going to be getting in to any bother. We're trying to help. We're going to the town, having a quick look around and then straight back to pick the kids up."

Richards didn't say anything, her attention diverted by the red jeep that pulled out infront of them and headed off in the opposite direction. "Aint that those tossers from the market?"

Georgie craned her neck, her eyes following the jeep as it raced off down the road. "Yeah… I think so. God knows what they're up to."

"What's that up there?" Richards pointed straight up ahead of them where a car was stopped in the middle of the road.

Georgie squinted in the sunlight. There was someone laying on the floor in front of the car, someone else crouched beside him and waving for help. "Kingy, there's an RTC up ahead." She shouted back over her shoulder, Richards started to slow the truck as they approached.

They all jumped out and ran towards them as Richards parked the truck. She didn't realise her mistake until a second too late. The boy who had been laying on the floor suddenly sitting bolt upright and she found herself on the wrong end of a gun. As the rest of them ran out of the bushes, weapons raised and surrounded her she found herself wondering why she hadn't seen them there in the first place. She slowly raised her hands up in surrender, the others following suit. "Alright, alright."

There was nothing left to do but watch in horror as they took all of their weapons from them and bundled them into the back of a truck.

"What the hell do we do now?" Richards hissed as the doors closed behind them.

"It's going to be okay." Georgie attempted to reassure them. Rab had gone as white as a sheet. "They'll find us."