Eight months and 5 missions had passed since Kenzie and Gunner had begun their relationship. The initial intensity had not faded, had in fact increased, and been joined by a comfortable feeling, a sense of having been together for years, the rookies assuming that Gunner and Kenzie had been lovers for years, such was the depth of their connection.

Even the most cynical among them (Barney), and the most protective of Kenzie (her brother, Lee) had to admit that Kenzie and Gunner were indeed soul mates, two halves of a whole, complementing each other perfectly with an almost spooky understanding of what the other was thinking, feeling or needing at any given time. Gunner was a changed man, having finally found peace. He was no less deadly or effective on the job, but had lost that dangerous, devil-may-care, either-I-live-or-I-die recklessness that by rights should have killed him years ago. He now had a warm body to return to, somebody to live for, and, having spent his whole live without such a thing, had no intentions of wasting it now. He treated Kenzie like a queen, and would have been totally whipped if Kenzie had been the type to demand unreasonably. Kenzie too had had a hard introduction to adult life but had kept it bottled inside for years, revealing her pain first to Gunner, and finally to Lee only at Gunner's gentle prodding some seven months ago. Lee had been devastated to learn of Kenzie's experience, saddened to learn that she had dealt with it by herself out of shame, and had vowed to step up as a brother and never be unavailable for advice or support again. Their relationship had never been better and Lee had privately thanked Gunner one night for helping Kenzie draw out that painful memory.

As a result, Kenzie didn't take her relationship with Gunner for granted either, recognizing that she had won the lottery, having found the one she was meant to be with.

They both had their problems however, and argued at times, but never seriously and never without indulging in hot make-up sex afterwards. In fact, Gunner would often accuse Kenzie of picking a fight just for the pleasure of the make-up sex afterwards.

Soon after Gunner had returned from his first job after meeting Kenzie, she had stepped down from the Remington Gallery, sold her loft in Manhattan for an embarrassing profit and bought a pretty little shotgun house in the Uptown neighbourhood of New Orleans.

With help from the crew when they were home, she was gradually renovating, restoring the house to its original splendour. She was in no real hurry, enjoying it when everyone was all together at the house, arguing good naturedly about tiles, or wall paint or once, memorably, about the proper placement of the claw foot tub in the ensuite. The vote had been split down the middle with half thinking the foot of the tub should face the door, the other half saying the head, and had ended with Lee and Toll in the tub, facing each other, both arguing their point of view, slapping at each other's hands and threatening mayhem.

Kenzie had finally collapsed, laughing, in Gunner's arms, who, overcome himself, had stumbled and slid down the wall just outside the ensuite, tears streaking his cheeks. Barney had just stood there, shaking his head and trying to look stern while Caesar, Doc and Tool had guffawed, egging the two combatants on.

Mars and Thorn, who'd been setting up her stereo, had come upstairs to see what the problem was and Smilee and Luna, who'd just returned from a quick run to the hardware store, poked their heads into the master bedroom as well, eyebrows raised.

"Enough!" Barney had finally growled, shaking his head. "You sure you want our help Kenzie?"

"Of course, I love having my boys around." Kenzie had grinned up from Gunner's lap, still sprawled on the floor. The doorbell rang then and Gunner had grunted loudly as Kenzie leapt to her feet, elbowing his jaw on the way.

"Oh sorry, Baby! I'll be right back!" Kenzie disappeared down the hall.

"Dangerous little wench." Gunner had growled after her, his lips pulled back in a wolf smile.

A few minutes later Kenzie yelled up the stairs, "Come and get it!"

Intrigued, the boys had pushed and fought their way downstairs to find that Kenzie had ordered a dozen pizzas from their favourite place and laid out plates.

"Alright," Gunner had said, grabbing Kenzie around the waist, "you're forgiven for almost breaking my jaw."

"As if I could crack that granite." Kenzie had snorted, standing up on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on the affected jaw line. "Better?"

"I'll take it out of you tonight." Gunner had promised, causing a round of groans from the boys.

"You let him kiss you with that mouth?" Lee had asked, mock-indignant.

"Among other things," Kenzie had replied, laughing.

Having supplemented her scholarship to Yale with working as a body-piercer and eventually apprenticing as a tattoo artist, Kenzie took it up again once she'd moved to New Orleans. Tool had welcomed her with open arms, giving Kenzie her own room in the shop to set up in and, once she'd settled, bringing her on as his own apprentice. She worked part-time only, not needing the money, only the activity and took some medic and first-aid courses on the side to be of help when the team returned from their missions with injuries.

Although Kenzie was eventually filled in completely on what the team did on their missions, she'd not thought any different of them for it, and provided much needed tranquility when they returned. She cooked homemade meals for them both before they left and when they returned, help dress their wounds and even began to tattoo some of them. She checked up on Lacy and Caesar's family while they were gone and even kept Tool company when he was feeling nostalgic about the past.

In short, life was good. The original team had all accepted Kenzie as a sister, with the exception of Barney and Tool, who considered her a daughter; and the rookies thought of her as a quasi-mother, even with her similar in age to them. Gunner, of course, loved her more than anything and was truly contented, for the first time in his life.

The Expendables left that morning for another mission, one that barring complications should be a quick in-and-out.

Gunner had had an unusually difficult time leaving Kenzie that morning. They'd said their goodbyes the night before, numerous times, with one almost frantic round of rough sex followed by slow lovemaking where Gunner had done his best to convey his feelings to Kenzie as well as memorize every pore of her body to carry him through until he returned home. That morning he hadn't wanted to move, had a vague sense of unease, a gut feeling of dread. He remained in bed, holding the sleeping Kenzie in his arms until he was late, then had reluctantly pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder and climbed out. After dressing he'd moved back to the bedside and leaned down, gently tucking a stray lock of Kenzie's hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead, his lips lingering as he closed his eyes and inhaled her dizzying scent. Finally, gritting his teeth, he'd left, needing to speed to make it to the hanger on time.

Catcalls and whoops had greeted him when he'd finally arrived, the last one.

"Christ man, if it takes you that long to get some in the morning, you'd better start earlier!" Caesar called, laughing and fist bumping Toll.

Gunner curled his lip and flipped them off.

"Quit it! Get in the plane!" Barney bellowed.

Takeoff was uneventful, the crew settling into their accustomed spots, pulling out various items or tasks to occupy themselves until landing. Gunner sharpened his knife uneasily, still feeling a small knot of dread in his stomach.

"Hey Gunner, you alright?" Toll asked, serious now. Since Kenzie, Gunner had never been in such a dark mood, usually smiling, eager to get 'this shit' done so he could get back to 'his baby'.

"Just got this feeling." Gunner muttered.

"What?"

Gunner stopped sharpening and looked up, but Caesar interrupted his reply.

"I was just bugging you man, quit looking like that. Kenzie's a fine woman, you're lucky to go home to her."

"Yeah, damn right you're lucky! When you going to hurry up and make an honest woman outta my sister?" Lee bellowed from the cockpit.

This was an old argument, but this time Gunner answered with more than a middle finger or grunt.

Reaching into his vest pocket, he pulled out a small box and tossed it to Toll.

"As soon as we get home from this one, I'm going to ask her."

Gently, Toll opened the box, Caesar scooting closer for a better look. The whole crew fell silent, stunned by Gunner's revelation. Even Barney and Lee turned to look back thru the cockpit doorway.

"Holy shit man!" Caesar cried. "This must have set you back!"

The crew craned for a better look, smiling and calling out congratulations.

"She ain't said yes yet," Gunner growled, some good humour returning, then "hold it up to the light and look closer."

Obeying, Toll narrowed his eyes a moment. "Oh shit. Man, there's a dragonfly in there! How'd they get that in the damn diamond?"

"I've heard of those!" Caesar grabbed Toll's wrist, angling the ring to see for himself. "It's a laser imprint inside the diamond, right? It's this new thing!"

"Yeah" Thorn entered the conversation, "the waiting list on these is crazy, and only one lab is able to do it so far. They aren't cheap man!"

"No," Gunner agreed, "and the wait was insane, I ordered it six months ago."

"Good for you man, seriously." Toll said, returning the ring carefully.

"Can I see?" Luna asked shyly, moving to Gunner's side.

Smiling, Gunner held out the box and Luna took it, tilting it and squinting.

"Oh wow, yeah! There it is! Does Kenzie like dragonflies?"

"Yeah, practically obsessed." Gunner replied. "She just finished this new dragonfly tattoo design with Tool." He didn't tell, and never would, that the reason Kenzie was so obsessed with dragonflies was because she had a cafe-au-lait birthmark just under her left nipple in the shape of one. It was one of Gunner's favourite places to kiss and one of Kenzie's favourite places to be kissed. Gunner's heart sped up remembering touching his lips and tongue to that mark last night, feeling Kenzie curl her fingers into his hair and sigh his name.

"You hear that?" Barney asked Lee, turning back to look out the windshield again.

"Yeah, to be expected I guess." Lee replied.

"And you're okay with that?"

Lee paused, thinking. "Yeah, I am. Gunner's clean, he's told Kenzie about his past and she's good with it. It's obvious they fuckin' adore each other. Christ, if anything happens to one of them... I've never seen the big jerk so happy, have you?"

"No. "Barney admitted.

"He'd never hurt her, ever, or go back to that crank shit as long as she's around." Lee added.

"Yeah," Barney agreed. "He's going to be your brother, you know, for real."

"S'alright." Lee replied easily. "Big bastard kinda grows on you when he's not being an asshole."

Barney laughed, holding out his forearm for Lee to bump. In truth, Barney was happy for Gunner too. He'd always felt bad that the big Swede was alone, had attributed half of the giant's problems to his solitary life. Since Kenzie had arrived, he'd done a total 180 and Barney, who'd known Gunner half his life, had never seen that spark in his eyes before, that eagerness to just be alive. Christ, like Lee said, if anything ever happened to Kenzie, they'd have to put Gunner down like a rabid dog; he'd lose all semblance of sanity or control.

The mission went well. All the stars aligned and the crew was finished almost a full two days earlier than expected. The team was in high spirits as they returned to the plane, checking their weapons, repacking crates and getting ready to fly home early.

Then the phone rang.

Years earlier, when satellite phone technology was new, Barney and Tool had set up a special phone. It had its own number and ring tone, and was charged and maintained along with the other phones.

It was the emergency only, defcon one, call-this-only-if-the-world's-ending phone and today it rang.

As its unique ring tone filled the air the original crew stopped in their tracks, heads snapping to stare as Barney sprinted to answer it.

"What? What is it?" Smilee asked, confused, as he nearly tripped over a crate that Toll had dropped.

"It's the Fan phone." Lee answered.

"Fan phone?" Smilee shot back, his confusion growing.

"As in 'The Shit's Hit the Fan' phone." Gunner replied.

"Never heard it ring before." Lee added.

They could hear Barney, pacing in the shadows of the wing.

"Tool?... What? When?... Do you know who?... Fuck! Alright, we'll be there in twelve hours. Let me know the second anything changes!"

Barney reappeared, the phone gripped tightly in his hand.

"Listen up! I want wheels up in ten! Move it! Lee, Gunner, come over here!"

Glancing at each other, Lee and Gunner hustled over to Barney who had retreated into the shadows again.

"What's up?" Lee asked, dead serious.

Barney took a deep breath, meeting both men's eyes before he spoke. "Something's happened to Kenzie."