The hut was silent except for the snores of Wolf and Bear, and the light breathing of Snake. There were, of course, two others occupying the hut that night, but each were trying to be as silent as possible to avoid waking the others. It was Eagle that broke the silence, "Cub?" he whispered softly knowing that the teenager was awake, just as he was every night.

"Yeah?" Alex murmured just as softly, raising his head half off of his pillow and looking towards the soldier.

"Do you ever have….you know…nightmares?" The man asked sounding almost broken. "I do. I keep seeing them…they-they won't get out of my head."

Alex looked over at Eagle in shock, he had never seen this side of him before, he had seen the sadistic side, the prankster side, the serious side, but never the lonely frightened one.

"Who won't?" Alex asked softly, feeling way out of his depth talking about this with a man he wasn't even sure he liked.

"The men I've killed, the people I couldn't save, they all stare at me and ask me why I didn't help them. Isn't that why I became a soldier? To help people? I keep trying to apologize and they just stare and stare and stare, I just want it to stop Cub, I just want-" He broke off with a choked sob, staring desperately at Alex like he was the only one who could help him.

Then Alex realized just how alone Eagle really was, Wolf and Bear got along like a house on fire, Snake only really related to Ben and the other Unit's medics, that left Eagle by himself, acting like he was a five year old to hide how lonely he was.

Alex couldn't just leave him alone, so he walked silently over to him and sat down on his bunk.

"Those people, you almost died trying to save them and that definitely counts for something, don't forget that. No matter how much they wanted you to save them you did what you could, if you had made a choice to save them at all cost you probably would have died and more people would have too. Don't worry too much about them; it's the living ones you have to worry about." Alex said with a soft smile. How was he supposed to tell the lost looking man that the nightmares don't stop, that they varied in intensity and sometimes, mercifully, you forgot them, but they never left?

So he just patted him on the back and walked back to his bunk, oblivious to the fact that he had gained a bit of respect, no matter how small that amount was.