A/N: I was working on the next chapter of Crossing the Divide when I had an idea that kind of came out of left-field...what if Team One had already been somewhat aquaintanted with Sam Braddock before he ever joined the team? What if Rolie's promotion hadn't been soley on his own merit (even though I'm sure he did deserve it)? Once I started thinking along this vein, I had to write something and get some of it out of my head, so here goes!

"Sarge…I'm starting to think we were duped here," Jules remarked, squinting into the sandy horizon that stretched before the transporting Humvee that carried SRU Team One forward. If this assignment were somewhere tropical like Fiji, she was willing to bet they never would have even heard about it until after the fact. Instead, they'd been 'nominated' for the dubious honor of travelling into a civil warzone to extradite a stowaway who got flagged as a murderer…and who managed to land himself in a jail cell in Kandahar. The current field trip into the city was to check on the prisoner and make sure he was being treated properly while he was in the custody of foreign authorities.

Rolie reached across Ed to flick the bill of Jules's baseball cap so it tilted down over her eyes. "Way to state the obvious," he teased.

"Sarge!"

"C'mon, Boss, did you have to let me get stuck sitting between the kids?" Ed lamented, giving Rolie a shove and Jules's ponytail a light tug.

"Play nice over there," Greg ordered from the row opposite of them.

Beside Greg, Wordy smirked. "Are you kidding, Boss? Like that's going to happen. Rolie's bored…"

"That doesn't mean he gets to pick on me," Jules protested.

"You mean like you don't pick on the rest of us any other day of the week?" Lew chimed in, earning himself a booted kick in the shins. "Ow! Boss?"

"All right!"

Looking like she wanted to laugh, Jules turned her attention back to the window and the bland view beyond it. Steve, her fiancé, probably would have found some redeeming quality in it. Maybe the sky was a clear brilliant blue. Too bad that she was wishing for a cloud or two to alleviate some of the dry heat that was going to give her sunburn…

"You know, obvious or not, she has a point. Even if I think the proper term is scapegoated as opposed to duped…duped implies we had a say in the matter," Spike pointed out, slipping his sunglasses on as the wind picked up and blew more sand into their already dusty transport. "Geeze, it feels like I'm sitting in an exfoliation chamber, here!"

Greg scoffed. "If you think this is bad…"

The explosion was so sudden that the split second they had to register it wasn't enough to escape it.

Sam clenched his jaw tight against the need to yawn because he knew opening his mouth right then would have him choking on flying sand. Especially when he was manning the gunner's turret. It was just that time of the day. He was riding in the Humvee behind the transport carrying the SRU team, providing part of the escort. It wasn't the type of task he volunteered for often, but his unit had some downtime and he and a friend had been heading into town anyway, so it wasn't like that errand took them out of their way. Plus he got to sneak a peek or two at the tiny firecracker he'd heard somebody refer to as Jules. She was interesting. Witty as hell. Oh yeah, and pretty. Well, pretty was an understatement. More like hot. But what did he know? It'd been how long since he'd had a chance to enjoy the company of a woman? Too long, was the grim answer to that question. He chalked his interest up to horniness, but that didn't stop him from eyeing her. There was no harm in looking.

"Hey, Braddock?" Matt hollered to be heard from inside.

"Yeah?" Sam hollered back.

"The neurosurgeon on base scored us a TV for the hockey game tonight. You down?"

"Hell, yeah, I'm down!" The two friends might not have been friends all their lives, but out there, virtually cut off from everything they'd ever known, they were each other's best friend. Ever since they'd both found their way into JTF2.

Sam was looking straight ahead when the transport in front of them hit an IED and went half-flying half-tumbling into a half-ruined heap. He braced himself for the sudden stop, then clambered out of the turret and ran to where the transport rested on its side as the other Humvee up ahead pulled to a stop.

A battered-looking Spike stumbled out from under the flap that was obstructing Sam's view of the interior, followed by Lew, both were looking a little dazed. In a hurry to finish evacuation of the vehicle and, if he was honest, check up on the spitfire known as Jules, Sam lifted the flap to peer into the back. Wordy and Rolie were supporting Ed, who seemed to have a broken leg, between them. Greg was trying to coax a response out of Jules, who was unconscious. Sam read the scene in an instant before urging them all to move and get out of the transport. He stooped down, wrapping his arms around the bulky vest the petite brunette wore and lifted, leaving Greg to carry her legs and they all evacuated. He looked at Matt, who confirmed the dead driver and navigator, and shook his head before setting Jules down a safe distance away from the overturned transport, closer to his own transportation.

Now, he took a moment to study her properly under the convenient excuse of checking her over and found himself surprised by how lovely she really was close-up with her features in repose. He was positive she was even prettier when she was awake and smiling. Or, even better, laughing. He'd bet money she had a great, totally infectious, laugh. That was saying something considering he normally wasn't one to bet on speculation. His gaze slid below her neck to her chest…and narrowed until his blue eyes were barely visible slits. "I don't think she's breathing." He said the words even as he started removing her vest.

"What do you mean she's not breathing?" Greg demanded even as he helped.

"What I said," Sam snapped. "Okay, not breathing properly," he amended once he could see her chest hitching slightly. "How long until we get another transport out here?" Sam shouted over to Matt.

"Half an hour at least."

"Too long," Sam decided. "I'm taking her back to base now. You guys want to put your friend in the back?" he asked Rolie and Wordy, both of who looked at Ed, who nodded. That way he could keep an eye on Jules. The three of them got in the Humvee with Sam telling himself he didn't care what happened to the group. It was just his job to make sure that if anything stopped them from leaving Kandahar, it didn't happen on his watch.

Ed had indeed broken his leg and had to get it re-set. Jules's lungs had both collapsed amongst other maladies, the chief of which was swelling in the brain that made the doctors wary of moving her immediately, although they mentioned the possibility of an airlift to Germany as early as the next day.

Unfortunately, that didn't work with the team's timeline. Greg had forced the rest of Team One to soldier on to Kandahar where they discovered things were ahead of schedule and ended up bringing the prisoner back to the base with them. Commander Holleran wanted him on Canadian soil ASAP before he could try filing another appeal to stall the process, but nobody wanted to leave Jules behind.

"I could keep an eye on her, see that she gets home okay," Sam found himself offering.