Epilogue
B eing engaged was pretty cool, Leo thought as he grinned. He and Torres were stronger than ever and Gabe was doing so much better with his companions than he had before. They had hit a little snag when Torres' parents had tried to bully him into submission by using Gabe against him, but his mom and dad had put a stop to that and they hadn’t seen them since.
Ram was sitting in the living room with his brother- and sister-in-law watching Danno and Merrick tease each other while Saint egged them on and Leo and Torres snuggled on the couch watching. He grinned. He loved his family and was glad to see them happy.
“Oh, hey hold on. Drax is calling.” Saint said as he answered the video call and set the phone to stream through the TV. “Hey, Drax, what’s up, brother?”
“Not much,” the man grumbled, his deep voice rumbling as he moved around, his tactical gear all they could see.
“Where are you?” Torres asked, arching one thick brow. He didn’t know of a mission that was going on, and Kade hadn’t called.
Drax grunted before the picture became clear, his dark gray eyes cold and flat. “Afghan mountains,” he sighed.
Torres jerked forward. “What?” He demanded they weren’t allowed to be there anymore. Saint had damn near set the entire area ablaze looking for Kade when he went missing. They were banned from returning.
“It’s been liberated so Kade mobilized us.” Drax answered.
“Where is Kade?” Torres demanded.
Drax stepped away from the camera and they could see Kade pacing erratically in the sand, his hands fisted tightly in his hair as Doc watched him closely.
“Where is the pit?” Kade demanded.
“Your 12 o’clock, about twenty feet,” Doc answered as he moved closer to Kade. “You wanna tell us why we’re here?”
Kade sucked in a deep breath as he forced himself to move closer to the pit, which was just a giant hole in the ground that they were thrown into to be starved and battered by the elements. When he’d gotten as close as he could, he shot out his foot to gauge where the top was. “Is it still about fifteen feet deep?”
Doc looked over, confused. “Yes, there are bones down there.”
Kade dropped to his knees and moved himself to the edge. “My men,” He said shakily, as he tried to force himself to breathe. He’d encountered some of the worst abuse and torture he’d received right here in this hole and he wanted to run as fast as he could in the other direction, but his men were down there and he needed to bring them home.
“Fuck,” Saint swore, raking a hand through his hair.
“They deserve to go home. Doc…” Kade grabbed the man’s leg in a tight hold as he felt the man move away. He needed him right here. He couldn’t do this alone, he’d never be able to get himself out of the hole if he went down alone.
Doc leaned over Kade and placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing tight to hold ground him. “What, Kade? I’m right here, man.”
Kade had to suck in a few deep breaths. The smell of the soil, the heat, the smell of death was still so strong it made his stomach roll. “You make sure I get out of this hole.”
Doc closed his eyes, then turned to meet Saint’s. “Yeah, buddy, I promise.”
Without another word Kade flung himself over the edge, making sure to roll when he landed. He gave himself a moment to get a hold of himself before he started to run his hand quickly over the surface of the dirt until his fingers snagged on the polyester cotton jacket. He fought against the tears that threatened as he continued to feel around. “Doc?”
“Right here, Kade.” The man answered immediately, leaning over the hole. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s only two bodies down here.” Kade said, his voice breaking. Where could the others be?
“Hold on, I’m coming down. Drax, take my place please?” Doc asked.
Drax nodded. “I got you.” He helped Doc lower down the hole instead of jumping.
“Yes, only two bodies Kade, are there supposed to be more?” Doc said as he surveyed the ground.
“Yes, who is this?” Kade asked roughly.
“Hold on.” Doc moved closer to the two sets of bones. Both were still wearing their uniforms but they had been ravaged by the elements. He pulled the name tags off both, the noise of the velcro making Kade flinch, making sure to remember who was who and marking the dirt at their feet. “Let’s go back up so I can see better. I got the badges.” He pushed Kade out first, then grabbed Scorp’s hand and let the big man yank him up. “Ok, the one on the left was Cahill, and the other was Lewis. I didn’t see their ranks.”
“Cahill was a sergeant, and Lewis was a corporal.” Kade said shakily. He could feel the anxiety coursing through him. He couldn’t stop shaking, trying desperately to keep the memories at bay. “Which way is North?”
Doc’s brows furrowed in confusion as he studied Kade. “Turn fifteen minutes to your left. You’re facing North now.”
Kade nodded. He stepped heel to toe for twenty steps before he dropped back to the ground to feel.
“What are you looking for, Kade?” Saint asked.
Kade’s fingers brushed against something and he grabbed it and pulled.
“Fuck.” Doc sighed. The skeletal hand hanging from the piece of cloth Kade was holding was gruesome. Thankfully, he had a strong stomach but still…gross.
“One of us?” Kade demanded. “I need you to fucking tell me, guys, I can’t see them.” Kade yelled.
“Yes,” Scorp replied.
“The other three should be here.” Kade said as he continued to dig.
Doc, Scorp, Digger, and Drax looked at each other before looking at Saint and Torres, then dropped their packs and moved to Kade’s side to help him dig up his brothers.
“I’ll call you back, Saint.” Doc said as he grabbed the phone.
“Keep me updated, please.” Saint said before the man could hang up.
Doc nodded. “I will, once we get these guys up we’ll be bringing them home.”
“Which one is this?” Kade asked.
“There’s three starting on the left; McBride, Cho, and Keegan.” Scorp said softly.
Kade moved to Cho’s body and felt around the jacket.
“What are you looking for?” Doc asked abandoning the phone without hanging up.
“He told me he wrote a note for his wife the last time I saw him, I’m trying to see if it’s still here.” Kade pulled a folded piece of paper out of the breast pocket and moved it to his bag and made sure it was set where he could find it before he moved back to helping them un-dig the rest of the bodies.
Doc nodded to Saint. “Talk to you later.”
Saint nodded and hung up.
“Jesus,” Sanem said, roughly.
“Kade’s been trying to go back to get them since he was rescued.” Torres said softly.
“Yeah, we didn’t have a choice but to leave them when we found Kade, they were already gone so we couldn’t justify trying to get them. We’ve been waiting for that area to settle before we went back. Had we tried beforehand they would have destroyed the bones and it would have done nothing but kill Kade.” Saint sighed.
“We need to alert the families.” Torres told Saint.
Saint nodded. “Let’s wait until they get back. Kade may have a plan and I don’t want to mess that up, this is hard enough on him I don’t want to make it worse.”
Torres sighed and leaned back into Leo. While he hadn’t known the men Kade served with well, he had met them and they were all good men, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. He hated to think what this was doing to Kade, he’d never forgiven himself for leaving them behind.
Saint shook his head. “Fuck’en hell,” He grumbled. “This shit is gonna suck.”
Torres grunted his agreement. “I’m more worried about Kade, you know he’s never forgiven himself for leaving them behind.”
“He didn’t, he always knew we would bring them home. Hopefully, this will give him some closure with what happened to him there.” Saint muttered.
“He was tortured and blinded there, I doubt this will offer closure, I guarantee you he’s gonna get worse after this.” Torres sighed.
Saint grimaced. “Son of a bitch,” He had a feeling Torres would be right.
“Did he ever say how he was blinded?” Bram asked.
Saint sighed. “No, but from what the doctors said they used scalding metal on his face and they got too close to his eyes and it fried the connections in his brain to his eyes. He actually regained his vision a couple months after he returned home but after a couple weeks he became blind again, that’s when they were going to do the surgery to see if they could fix the damage.”
Bram grimaced. “Shit.”
“Yeah,” Saint agreed softly.