It was a Friday, five days since he had seen the strange old man. Alex didn't know why he had told the man that Jack had died. There was something in the man's eyes that made him believe that the man needed someone just as much as Alex did. He didn't know if he would go back to that spot on Sunday. Alex had been distracted all week, thinking about what to do. His gut was yelling at him to go but his brain was screaming at him to stay. What do you do when your gut and brain are telling you to do different things?

"You listen what your heart is telling you to do." Said a voice behind Alex. Alex turned around and saw Wolf standing in the doorway of their cabin.

"What?"

"You asked what to do when your gut and brain are telling you to do different things. I answered your question." Wolf was looking at Alex curiously.

"I didn't realize I had spoken out loud." Alex told him truthfully. Then he thought over Wolf's advice. For someone who didn't have a lot of cuddly feelings he gave good advice.

"Thanks Wolf, that helps me a lot." Alex told Wolf with a small smile. Wolf watched as Alex left the cabin with a new energy to his step. For the first time in a long time Wolf stood where he was. The smile Cub had given him had been small but it was real, the first real smile Wolf had seen. That was how K-Unit found Wolf standing by the door with his brow furrowed.

"What are you doing" Asked Fox. The whole unit was staring at wolf, waiting for an answer.

"Cub just smiled at me." Wolf said. There was a moment of silence before Snake started chuckling.

"I thought he had a spring in his step. Maybe Cub is growing on you Wolf. Watch your self; Cub might decide you're a good role model." Eagle said while laughing at Wolf's expense. Eagle decided to play along with Wolf's little joke.

"If that happened then the world would be ending." Snake said, going along with Eagle.

"You know I've always wondered who I would call if the world was about to end." Eagle said thoughtfully.

"I'm not kidding you twats, Cub really did smile at me." Wolf protested.

"It's alright Wolf, we know you're tell the truth." Eagle said, even though his tone spoke differently.

"Eagle! I'm serious. Cub smiled at me, it was small, but it was still a smile."

"Cub hasn't showed a real genuine smile since he's been here. Why would we believe that he smiled at you of all people?" Fox asked, "No offence, of course."

"I don't know, but we can ask him tomorrow. I know what I saw and I'm not going to let this drop." Wolf said, his voice firm.

"Alright wolf, whatever you say." Kudu said in a voice used to placate a child.

"Let's just go to dinner, maybe Cub is still there." Snake interrupted before Wolf said anything to Kudu. Although he doubted Cub would still be there.

Just as Snake had suspected they didn't see Cub at dinner.

"He has his school lessons to do. And he's usually late getting back from them. Should we wait until the morning?" Eagle asked, thinking that he didn't want to stay up half the night waiting for Cub.

"Yeah, I don't want to stay up that late, I'd be dead on my feet if I did that." Snake agreed, with Fox nodding his consent beside him.

"Fine." Said Kudu. He had really wanted to prove Wolf wrong.

"Alright." Wolf said slowly. He had really wanted to prove Kudu that he was right.

"Then it's agreed. When we see Cub tomorrow we ask him about this little development." Eagle bounced away, not waiting to see if the rest of the unit would follow.

By the time Alex was done with his lessons and got back to the cabin, the rest of his unit was asleep. Kudu was half lying down and half sitting up, a position that wouldn't help his back or neck in the morning. After finishing his homework Alex dutifully did his meditations and hoped that he wouldn't have any nightmares that night.

As usual Alex was up before K-Unit. He went off to start the morning run. After his run he went to take a shower instead of going straight to breakfast like he usually did.

"He's still not her!" Eagle complained, the suspense was starting to get to him.

"Well kitchen duty said he hadn't been here yet and his log said that he already did his run so he should be here soon. He usually never misses meals if he can help it." Snake told him.

Well I don't think he's going to come." Eagle said stubbornly just as the door opened and Cub walked in. "Kidding." He added quickly.

"Alright, just act normal and then slowly bring the conversation around to smiling." Wolf instructed them. The rest of them nodded their faces serious but their eyes excited.

"Hello." Cub said while he sat down at the table with a tray in his hand.

"Cub! We haven't seen you in a long time, since our last exercise." Eagle said, earning a long look from Cub and a hard kick in the shin from Fox.

"Yeah, I had to hurry and eat dinner so I could get to my lessons and you guys were sleeping when I came in and still sleeping when I left for the morning exercise." Cub paused, "Just like every other day."

"Er, yeah." Eagle said. That kick was going to leave a bruise.

Kudu cracked his neck and grimaced slightly. Cub smirked; he knew Kudu was paying for his sleeping last night.

Snake changed the subject, talking about a new medical book that was just published.

Hearing you talk about those medical books you love always makes me smile." Kudu said, stressing the last word.

Underneath the table Eagle and Kudu high fived.

"Didn't you tell us one day that you read in your medical book it takes fewer muscles to smile that to frown?" Eagle asked.

Snake looked at him and then his eyes widened, "Oh yeah, I remember that."

"Yes, well, let's all smile!" Kudu said, looking around at everyone with a smile on his face.

Wolf looked at him and rolled his eyes. So much for normal he thought.

Kudu and Eagle started smiling. Eagle turned to look at Fox and smiled wider; when he didn't start smiling Eagle kicked him in the shin. Fox's smile looked more like a grimace. Eagle's smile got bigger, if that was at all possible. While Fox and Eagle were having a moment Kudu and Snake were having their own brotherly fight of wills. Snake gave in easily because he wanted to see where all this smiling was going to lead to. By now everyone except Wolf and Alex were smiling.

"Wolf! Uhh…never mind." Kudu thought better of trying to make Wolf smile. "Come on Cub, smile with us." Kudu encouraged Cub.

"No thanks, I don't feel like smiling." He knew something was going on and he didn't want to be part of it at all.

"But you felt like smiling last night?" Eagle asked and Cub knew that he had walked right into their plan.

"What?" Then Cub remembered he had smiled at Wolf last night. Trying to change the subject he said, "You do realize how perverted that sounded?"

"You know that's not what I meant." Eagle said, "Honestly, you need to get your head out of the gutter."

"He was talking about when you smiled at Wolf last night." Kudu inserted helpfully.

"Oh that, yeah I guess I did feel like smiling then or else I wouldn't have done it." Cub shrugged carelessly.

"So you did smile at him? Wolf wasn't imagining that?" Kudu asked quickly.

"Yeah…?" Cub half said, half asked.

"Damn it!" Fox and Kudu said. They both put money on the table which eagle and Snake split evenly, grinning at each other.

"Wait, you bet money that I didn't smile at Wolf?" Cub asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, you don't smile often Cub, so when Wolf was stupefied about you smiling at him we could barely believe it." Fox informed him.

"I smile though, not often, but I do smile." Cub said.

"No you don't." Wolf finally said something.

The rest of the unit nodded in agreement with what Wolf said. But before Cub could say anything back the siren rang, telling them that they had to get to their next exercise.

The rest of the day passed quickly for everyone but Cub. During Swim Safety the water made him think of rain, which made him think of meeting the old man in the forest. During Medical Training they were learning about the heart and that made him think about Wolf's advice, which made him think about the old man he met in the woods. During the shooting range session it reminded him that Jack was dead, which reminded him of the old man he met in the woods. It seemed that everything went back to the old man. So when Alex went to sleep that night, he dreamt of the old man he met in the woods.

So that's it. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Please review. Thanks and I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. (: