I'm back! Now, I'm working on a couple of different writing projects right now, but this is something I've been sitting on for a couple of months because I thought it might actually make a half-way decent movie idea...so I ran with it. For those of you familiar with the movies, this begins after the end of Expendables 3 and picks up on a couple of little things that happened/were said during the film. I've got a softspot for these movies, so please forgive me for taking liberties. But isn't that half the point of fanfiction? Please leave me a review when you're finished reading if you can, because I'd love to hear what you guys think!

Chapter One

Another successful mission had come to an end. The tension that had once existed between the newer and older members of the team was no longer an issue as they sat around the bar together in their more casual clothes, each with their own drink in hand to toast their good fortune. Together they recounted some of the encounters that they had shared over the last several months, laughing as if they had all the time in the world to just sit and drink. There was the occasional punch in the arm or clap on the back, but it was all good-natured fun as far as he could see.

There had been only a few injuries this time around, a few cuts and bruises that would heal if they were given a little time. Christmas sported a bandage around his left bicep from the blade of a knife that he had not been able to avoid in the fray, while Barney did his best to rest the hand that bore a few broken bones at the knuckles. Despite Doc's advice that he seek professional medical attention for it the old man had stubbornly refused to spend any more time in a hospital than he recently had, waving off the concern with his good hand. It had been wrapped tightly in a tensor bandage to serve as a reminder that he shouldn't be using it and rested now against the top of the bar, where his right hand wrapped itself firmly around the bottle of beer that the bartender placed in front of him.

Dark eyes scanned the length of the bar as he took in the faces of everyone on his team, noting the changes that he was beginning to see in all of their bodies. While the younger ones still maintained their vigor and youthfulness, some of the older guys seemed to have shed a few years from their own bodies as well. There was a glow throughout the room that Barney hadn't seen in years, for the hardships of the job and the feeling of having blood on their hands had not yet sunk into the minds of Smilee, Luna and the others. They did not yet have the regrets that he wore upon his soul when he awoke each morning, and he prayed that it would still be a long while before they were forced to carry that burden with them.

"What's on your mind?"

Barney cast his glance over at Lee as he sat himself down on the bar stool beside him, having felt the familiar hand on his shoulder that always caught his attention before Lee even spoke. "Just thinkin'," he said with a bit of a shrug, turning his attention back to the rest of the team again. "Wonderin' if maybe they'll come to regret becoming Expendable."

Lee Christmas took a swig of his beer and studied Barney carefully. "Sounds more like you're regretting something."

He pulled his head away, turning instead to look directly at the kids who had gathered together around a microphone at the side of the bar to sing in a rather off-key fashion. The smiles on their faces were so bright and free of stress that he couldn't help but envy the youth he saw radiate from each of them. There were a great many things that Barney truly regretted in his life, with the loss of Billy still dangerously close to the top of his list. He'd been a good kid, Barney thought to himself as he watched the younger crowd so closely gathered together. They'd have liked him, and he would have fit in with them just fine.

Barney heard Lee sigh beside him, knowing that his friend had just come to understand the very thing that he was currently regretting as he observed their younger counterparts. "Barn, don't do this to yourself."

"I could have made a different call."

"No," Lee said firmly. "You chose this lifestyle. You chose it long before anything else came along, and you know that it would have been selfish of you to tried keeping both of them. You did what you had to do."

Though there was a sense of conviction ringing strongly in the words that Lee spoke, they did little to comfort Barney right now. All he could think about was the past and the mistakes that he had made, the choices that had lead him down the path of becoming an Expendable and remaining with the group. Stonebanks was no longer a threat to anyone, he had seen to that – but that didn't mean that things were going to go back to the way they were. How could they? Now that these old wounds had been re-opened again they were all that Barney could think about. It was like staring at an old movie screen while the images of your past began to haunt you, clouding over the reality of your situation with the constant question of "what if?" What if he had chosen to settle down all those years ago? What if he had left and allowed Lee to take control of the group while he enjoyed a much more leisurely pace of life?

"You're gonna go mad," Lee warned, taking another swig from his bottle. "Or give yourself an ulcer."

That did it. Despite himself, Barney couldn't help but smile just a little at the thought. Leave it to Christmas to always be cheerful when he was feeling a little down in the dumps. The two had been friends for so long that Barney Ross could barely remember a life that hadn't involved having Lee Christmas by his side, a second in command. Even as other members of the team had come and gone, it was always Christmas who volunteered to get him out of a jam no matter how much he bitched about it later on. He trusted him like no other, as if he were the brother that Barney had never had growing up. He was the only member of the Expendables aside from Doc who knew all about the darker recesses of the past that lurked within his soul.

"That would be just my luck," grumbled the aged Italian.

The pair shared a chuckle and clanged their beer bottles together, redirecting their attention to the stage where the younger crowd had just finished their song and were now responding to the applause of the bar. Of course, they hadn't really been that great, but the other members of the team who sat around the room were more than enthusiastic as they pounded on the top of the bar, hooting and hollering strongly. Even the other patrons were caught up in the merriment and clapped loudly to demonstrate their appreciation for the effort.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a Mr. Barney Ross?"

Hearing his name immediately distracted the older man, who turned his head sharply to look at the smaller figure who approached the bartender with a timid glance about her, clinging tightly to the manila envelope that she pressed to her chest. At first, Barney was just confused. What was a little thing like that doing in a place like this? Her graying hair was pulled back into a sleek bun at the back of her head while her eyes looked through a pair of thick glasses that still forced her to squint a little at the bartender. On her feet she wore a small black heel that he might have expected to see in church on Sunday mornings, lending to the black ensemble of a skirt, scarf and jacket that she wore on the rest of her frame. The only hint of colour came from the white blouse he could see peeking out from the top of her jacket, where a thin rope of pearls decorated her throat.

But more importantly than anything else, how had a little old lady like this known to come into this very bar in order to find him? It wasn't like Barney had too many friends outside of the Expendables who would know of his location…

"I'm Barney Ross."

As the Italian put his beer down on the bar and turned in his chair to face her, the little old lady seemed to freeze for an instant. Blinking up at him with her dark eyes, it was almost as if she were suddenly being confronted by something she wasn't too keen to see. Or perhaps she was just scared of the bar, he reasoned to himself. Most people tended to avoid his place because of the people who frequently moved in and out of the doors, for they weren't generally the best dressed crowd in the city. It wasn't too often that a lady who appeared to be over fifty walked through the door of the establishment and went looking for one of the patrons.

The lady seemed to catch herself and quickly cleared her throat. "I was asked to see that this was delivered to you," she said, taking a small step forward so that she could hand the envelope to him. "I'm very sorry."

He took the manila envelope that was offered to him carefully, noting how quick the old lady was to step back out of his reach once he had taken possession of her package. There was more than a single sheet of paper inside of it. The envelope was thick with paperwork, all of which was stapled together and marked with a few sticky notes that had been bent slightly when placed inside the restrictive container. Dark eyes scanned the front page of the package, frowning slightly until he came to the end of the first sentence and all tension fell away from his face. Several times he blinked down at it, willing the words to rearrange themselves into something else, anything else. They couldn't be true, could they?

As if he sensed that something was wrong, Lee slowly moved to his feet and shifted in behind Barney until he was able to read the letter as well. Almost instantly, his own face began to fall and he quickly looked up again, anxious to demand an explanation of the woman who had delivered the package. But to his surprise, he discovered that the old lady had disappeared without a trace. All that remained was a sheet of lavender coloured paper that had been dropped on the floor where she had previously stood, folded neatly in a way that was too familiar even for Lee to forget.

He quickly knelt down to retrieve the piece of paper, looking between it and Barney for a moment before he finally held it a short distance from his body so that the colour might catch his friend's eye. And it did, for the instant Barney caught sight of it he snatched it unkindly from Lee's offering hand and opened it so that his eyes could absorb the handwriting it contained. For a moment they flickered back and forth across the page as he continued to read to the end.

"Shit!"

Without warning he dropped everything onto the bar and bolted for the door, pushing it aside so roughly that the swinging motion caused the hinges to groan as he looked around at the outside of the building in the hopes of seeing anything that might direct him to the woman who had disappeared so quickly. Part of him thought that perhaps he ought to follow and see what the fuss was about, but as soon as Lee picked up the lavender sheet of paper and read the words for himself, his teeth grit together in frustration. Now he understood…but the others were looking at him now in question, wordlessly asking what had just caused the little scene that left Barney running away from them as if his life had depended on it. Well, Lee completely understood. But he wasn't sure that it was something the team needed to know right away.

"Hey! The little old lady, where did she go?"

The biker was rather startled to be addressed so briskly by the man who had come storming so suddenly out of the bar. He'd just been leaning on his bike and talking to a tall, leggy blonde when it had happened, and it took him a moment to register the fact that the older Italian man was indeed addressing him and not anyone else around him. Normally he'd be rather annoyed at being so rudely interrupted…but one look at this guy and he immediately knew who he was. And he wasn't stupid enough to go picking a fight when he knew that half of the people inside the bar were with this guy.

He pointed down the street. "That way."

Barney offered no word of thanks as he turned his body sharply to the left and began to run down the street, his graying head looking about him for any sign of the little old woman who had come and gone so quickly. All the while he mentally cursed himself for not spotting who she really was beneath the disguise that she had fashioned for herself, remembering now of the letter he had once gotten that told all about how she had taken to dressing herself differently to trick people. He'd known about it for years despite never having seen it for himself. Until today, came the bitter reminder. Damn it, how could he be so blind as not to notice?

His frustration grew as he continued down the street and still found nothing that might point him in the right direction. This area of the city was a little rougher, which meant that he didn't need to contend with quite as much street traffic as he might have in another place. The few people that he did pass as he continued his dash along the sidewalk would pause for a moment to turn and look at him, wondering what it was that sent the older man moving in such a hurry, but he didn't stop for any of them. There was no time. All it would take was a few moments more and she could disappear forever before he had a chance to tell her the things that he had been keeping to himself for so many years. She would understand, he reasoned to himself. She had to understand. Especially now that the only world she had ever known had come crashing down and left her in the darkness without a single thing that was now familiar to her.

So caught up was Barney in his thoughts that he didn't register when the sidewalk came to an end and the road began. Before he knew it there was a loud blare of a car horn screaming in his ear and the old man turned his head just in time to see a red car headed straight for him. Instinct kicked in then, prompting him to jump up in the hopes of landing on the hood and being able to roll off without too much injury. But his body was not as young as it had once been and he instantly felt the sharp impact of the car against his thighs, which sent him flying backwards and rolling along the pavement with a groan. As he came to a stop and slowly tried to pick himself up, the car door opened and footsteps could be heard approaching.

"Are you crazy!? Why the hell would you-"

But the question never finished. Turning his head slowly to look up at the figure that loomed over him, Barney was rather struck by the resemblance he saw within her. Though she wore a look of absolute terror on her face and stumbled backward a little to put some distance between them, what he saw now was the exact reason that she hadn't approached him properly in the bar. Gone was the black jacket and scarf that had been part of her disguise, leaving only a short sleeved blouse of white that was tucked neatly into the pencil skirt and now showed a more youthful figure. Her feet instead sported a rather classy pair of black heels that looked far more age appropriate to the ones she had previously been wearing. And the grey hair was gone as well – a wig, he presumed, that was meant to throw him off even further in case he had recognized her beneath everything else. Instead her dark brown locks hung freely down her back with the tell-tale curl that came from her heritage, and her own eyes of deep brown were locked entirely on him as Barney pushed himself back to his feet.

"Get out of my way."

The chilly tone of voice that she used with him only doubled the blow that he felt when he saw the way that her eyes had narrowed toward him in anger, her body language completely closing him off. He staggered a little unsteadily on his feet for a moment until he regained his balance, pressing his good hand against the shoulder that now ached from the hard contact it made with the pavement of the street. Gingerly rubbing at the muscles, Barney did his best to straighten his shoulders a little more.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"You ran out in front of me," she told him stiffly as the tension continued to move through her body and into the tight fists of her hands. "It's your own fault for running out in front of a moving vehicle."

She gave him no time to retort before she turned on her heel and stormed back toward the car, giving Barney only a few precious seconds in which to stop her before she disappeared again. And this time, he was certain that he would never be able to find her if he went looking. That thought alone spurred him forward until he reached the driver's side door, quickly placing an arm in front of her so that she couldn't climb into the front seat and drive away as she intended. And when he did, he saw the anger flash once more in her eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded hotly.

Barney frowned a little. "I think it's pretty obvious that I'm stopping you."

"You have absolutely no right to do that, Barney," the girl growled at him.

At that, his frown settled in a little deeper. "You don't have the right-"

"I have every right! Just as I have every right to get into my car and drive away with the intention of never coming back. I came only because she asked me to come and make sure you were informed of what had happened, but I don't owe you anything else."

She was right – loathe as he was to admit it, she was right. With all the years that lay behind him, all of the things that he did and did not do throughout his life that might have steered him in another direction, she owed him absolutely nothing. Yet all things considered, he knew that he couldn't allow her to just walk away as she intended. There was something deep down that nagged at him to stall for as long as he could, wracking his brain for any potential excuse that might get her to reconsider for only a moment so that he had that time to think of how to remedy the situation between them. Hell, why did this have to be so damn difficult?

Shaking his head, Barney looked down at her smaller frame with stern eyes. "I'm not asking for me," he began, hoping that this ploy might work. "I'm asking for her. You know she would have wanted us to talk about this, Mickey."

It was the use of her nickname that seemed to register the most with the girl, who looked up at Barney's larger form with a little more softness in her eyes than he had previously seen. Even when she closed her eyes tightly and turned her head away, he could see that his words were creating conflict for her conscience. As much as she wanted to turn and run from him, she couldn't bring herself to do it. The tension in her jaw slowly melted away as her shoulders slumped a little in resignation, a sigh passing through her lips.

At the risk of pushing his luck, Barney spoke again. "Doc and Christmas would love to see you again."

The tiniest perk in the corners of her lips told him that he was still safe. "You haven't gotten them killed yet?"

"Not yet," he grumbled in agreement, a touch of laughter in his words. "They've been keeping me alive, actually."

"I figured as much. You never were very good at keeping yourself out of trouble."

"You oughta know."

She turned her head and made eye contact with him for the very first time with a gaze that was almost void of the hostility she had shown him earlier, giving Barney a sense of ease. Perhaps they were not yet a lost cause, he thought to himself hopefully. Though he knew that a single misstep could put them right back to where they had started, he had to act on the more positive vibes that were showing between them before they vanished. All he could do was slowly lower his arm so that he no longer stood in her way and look down with pleading eyes.

"One day," he began softly, running his fingers through his hair to try and give them something to do aside from fidget at his side. "Just one day for us to look through the paperwork and then you can go if you want. I won't stop you. And this way I won't get my ass kicked for not letting the boys see you."

He could see the hesitation in her face as she chewed on her lower lip in nervous thought, questioning whether or not it was a good idea to agree to a twenty-four hour period in which she would have to sit down and talk to the old man about whatever was on his mind. Regardless of the hopes he might have for their brief meeting, there was still a bitterness rooted deep inside of her that burned at the idea of having to speak to him about anything. She had already made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him after delivering the package…but the idea of seeing Doc and Lee again? It had been so long that she was fairly certain neither of them would recognize her if they ran her over with their bikes…an ironic thought considering what had just happened.

Lifting her eyes once more, Mickey nodded slowly. "One day."