Emily smelled smoke. She had landed several feet in front of the tank. “Doesn't smell like the good kind of smoke. Smells like someone is burning wires or maybe tires. Emily thought to herself laying in the field. Her whole body was screaming in pain. The back of her head and her left leg hurt the most.

She coughed several times and each time she coughed she felt flashed of sharp pains in her chest. She was laying on her right side. She pushed herself upwards onto her elbows. The grass surrounding her was on fire. Everything else was a burned mess. Behind her was the broken down tank looking like a chimney spewing tons of smoke from the top of it. There was something important that she was not remembering. “What is it?” Emily wondered to herself.

“Wonder!” Emily exclaimed. She tried to stand up but her left leg wasn't working right and it hurt really bad whenever she moved. She staggered over to lean on the tank. Buried in the tank armor was Righteous. Emily smiled and pulled it out. She slid it back into its harness behind her back.

She tried to hobble again but nearly passed out due to the pain. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down and look around for something that she could use as a crutch. She spotted several rifles on the ground left by the men she had killed. They looked long enough to use as a walking cane. With a sigh, Emily hopped over to one of the fallen rifles. She was really dizzy when she got to rifle. She leaned down and got so dizzy everything started to grey out but she was able to grab the rifle. She flipped the rifle so that the stock was on the ground. Holding the muzzle she used it as a cane by lightly putting her foot on the ground.

It still hurt badly but slightly less pain than bouncing it around while she hopped on one foot. Looking up she saw several of her people heading towards her. They were spread out with weapons at the ready. “St Louis Wolves!” Emily calling out the safe word or in this case phrase.

“Albert and Costello!” Came the reply. Not for the first time did Emily think the Colonel had a funny sense of humor. “Never you Okay?”

“My legs messed up pretty bad I think. It hurts to walk.” Emily replied.

“Can you make it back to the compound?”

“Maybe with some help,” Emily said leaning heavily on the rifle.

The walk back was pure agony. The Sergeant who looked at her leg just shook his head and didn't try to bandage it. He helped her walk back to the compound. When they got close to the compound he started to scream for a medic. By that time Emily was really light headed.

Jan ran over to them and had them bring Emily into the compound. When they put her down they accidentally jarred her leg making Emily scream in pain. “I got you, hero.” Jan said smiling as she took out her scissors and started to cut Emily's leg pants away. “What's with the Bonzi crap?” she asked as she pulled Emily's pant leg out of the way.

“You know the British Guy in the Science fiction TV series. His catch line is 'Bonzi' then he closes his eyes and then says 'hope for the best.'” Emily said gritting her teeth in pain. Several people laughed.

Jan cursed when she saw what was hiding under Emily's pants. “What?” Emily asked trying to sit up and look. Several people yelled no at the same time. Confused and in a lot of pain Emily let them push her back down not suddenly not wanting to see what had freaked Jan out.

“Here this is something for the pain,” Jan said holding up what looked like some nasal spray. Jan pushed it lightly into Emily’s nose and pressed the plunger down. “You're going to have a really bad metallic taste in your mouth but you should start to feel better in a couple of seconds.”

Emily screwed up her face as the metallic taste ran down the back of her throat. It tasted awful. A few seconds later Emily felt a liquidity warmth spread throughout her body. “Whoa,” Emily said smiling as the medication hit.

“How are you feeling?” Jan asked looking up at Emily.

Emily smiled at Jan’s brown eyes. She had never really noticed how cool they looked. “Hey, Jan you got the coolest eyes. They look like little chocolate brownies. I could so eat them but I can't because that would hurt you and I would never hurt you.” Emily told her not wanting to hurt her best friend. A wave of dizziness hit her and she shook her head.

“Feeling a little dizzy?” Jan asked smiling.

“Yea but I feel really good though,” Emily said letting her head roll backward. Emily heard several people laugh and she smiled. It felt good to smile. Jan started to mess with her leg for a bit. Emily still felt the pain but it wasn’t important. The pain was still there but it was kind of like background noise. She floated in a drugged haze for a while before she remembered Wonder.

“Hey, Jan how's Wonder?” Emily asked looking around for her other friend. Jan didn’t answer she kept messing with Emily’s leg. Thinking Jan couldn’t hear her Emily sat up and grabbed Jan’s arm gently. “Hey, Jan how's Wonder?”

“Lay back down Never. I need to finish up on your leg.” Jan said not looking at Emily.

“NO dammit. Where is Wonder!” Emily asked fear starting to crawl down her spine. The drugs washed away and Emily became alert.

Jan looked up at Emily with tears in her eyes. It was like someone punched Emily in the gut, “This isn’t right.” Emily thought to herself shaking her head. She let herself fall backward and looked up in the sky.

“I did all I could. She was…. The bullet wounds …. There was nothing I could do. She just…. She's gone. She died right there.” Jan said staring off into the distance. She cursed and wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. Her hand was covered in blood. “She's gone but I got you Never! You’re going to be fine. I got you” Jan muttered angrily as she went back to fixing Emily’s leg.

In Emily’s mind, she saw Wonders face as Emily left her to die. She still felt Wonder grabbing her arm to stop her from leaving. The fear in Wonder's face as Emily left her was sharp in Emily’s mind. She let the pain crash in on her. The drug haze was long gone. She deserved the pain. Wonder was dead. She deserved to feel the pain. Emily started to cry.

The medivac helicopter arrived showering everyone with its rotor wash and flying debris. It took six people to lift Emily up into the helicopter. For the first time in a very long time, Emily was not embarrassed about her weight. She did feel bad about her fellow Rangers having to lift her but she was not embarrassed. She was loaded next to someone else whose face was completely covered in bloody bandages. Emily turned away from the wounded man. Her chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it.

The flight was a short one. They landed on the roof of the medical clinic back on Warner airfield. Emily was one of the last ones to be taken off the helicopter. They nearly dropped her when they tried to lift her. She didn’t care she felt numb. She was wheeled into a busy ER looking room and a Nurse started asking Emily questions. She answered them mechanically.

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Emily looked away from the Nurse as someone started putting a tourniquet around her arm. “That’s not going to work.” She told the man in scrubs how was trying to put an IV in her arm.

The man cursed when the needle wouldn’t go in. “I need a healer over here she's a superhero called out to the room.

A harried-looking man hurried over to Emily and without introducing himself he touched Emily’s forehead and said “Sleep.”

Emily woke to severe pain in her left leg. Gasping Emily sat up. She was in a hospital bed with several empty hospitals beds surrounding her in an open bay hospital room. She cursed and grabbed her leg through the bed sheets. After a couple of seconds, she tore the covers off and looked down at her leg. Her leg was covered in a white cast from her hip to her toes.

“Hey Private how’s your leg. Hurting? Do you want some pain meds?” A Nurse said from the door.

“Yes please,” Emily said gritting her teeth.

The Nurse disappeared for a few agonizing minutes but returned with a nasal spray contraption. “I’m sorry but our healer is not strong enough for a long term pain block so we have to go with drugs.” The Nurse told Emily as she sprayed the drug into Emily’s nose. Emily felt the warmth of the drug spread through her system and signed. The taste was just as bad as before but the drug was worth it. She felt herself drifting off sleep.

A Nurse woke Emily up during the night and gave her another shot of the nasal spray pain medication. Emily drifted off to sleep soon after. Emily woke up in the morning to her leg hurting less. The Nurse that was on duty told her that she couldn’t have any pain meds until the healer had seen her. Emily told her she understood.

They brought her breakfast which was a bunch of fake eggs that tasted like cardboard and some cold tasteless link sausages with a tiny cup of orange juice. The only thing that was tasted worth wild was fried potatoes squares. They had bits of red pepper in them that made them eatable. Emily sat around bored in constant pain while she waited on the Healer. There was no TV so there was nothing to distract her from her pain.

A little after seven the Healer, the same man who put her to sleep, arrived at her room. “Hey Never, I am Captain Otter. I am your healer. How are you doing this morning?”

“OK. My legs hurts a bit.” Emily told him.

“I’ll see what I can do for your pain after I check you out. Deal?” Captain Otter said with an empty smile.

“Sure,” Emily said nodding.

He lifted the covers off Emily’s and placed his hands on her cast while he closed his eyes. He was quiet for a few minutes before he removed his hands from her cast and smiled. “Well, your powers are amazing. You are healing at a pronominal rate. Anyone else would have died or at the very least lost their leg. We can only heal so much. I am not even sure if we could have regrown a leg that badly damaged like yours.”

“Molten lead burned through your lower leg turning it to Swiss cheese.” The Captain continued. “There were parts where your bone was completely burnt away. The worst part was that a fairly large portion of the lead was still in your leg causing all sort of damage your healing ability was unable to heal before we removed it. You femur broke severing your femoral artery. Your powers were not able to heal the artery because the lower end of the severed artery was encased in lead. Your powers were in a losing battle to keep you from bleeding out. The Medic did an amazing job clamping off the severed artery. He most likely saved your life.” The Captain told her.

“Her,” Emily said to him. “The Medic is a woman.”

“Ah, I am sorry. Anyway, some of the lead got into your bloodstream and caused some damage to your heart. Your healing ability was able to flush out the led and heal the damage but for a while there we thought we might lose you. Those SK rounds are nasty. Your lucky you were not directly hit. All this damage was from a near miss.” The captain said frowning at Emily’s leg.

“Once we stabilized you and remove a large portion of the lead your healing ability was able to do the rest. From what I can see your powers should be able to handle cleaning out the rest of the lead. I am giving you three days bed rest with two weeks light duty. I want to see you before I clear you back to active duty. Anything else?” he asked.

“Can I get something for the pain?” Emily asked.

“Oh sorry. Here let me put a pain blocker in place. Doctor Renford has you on some nasal pain meds so once the pain blocker wears off just ask a nurse.” The Captain said touching her hip. The pain mercifully went away.

Around noon the door to her room opened and Jan peaked in. “Knock knock,” she said peeking from around the door.

“Jan,” Emily said happily. She waved at her friend with a big smile.

“I bring gifts,” Jan said smiling. She pulled out some weeds that were tied together with a rubber band. It made Emily laugh.”Sorry, there is no gift shop and I couldn’t find any flowers. So yea here.”

“Come here crazy,” Emily said smiling. She opened her arms wide and squeezed Jan gently in a hug. They held the hugged for a really long time. It felt good to Emily to hug her friend.

“So are they shipping you out back to the states?” Jan asked.

“Nah I am too awesome. I got two-day bed rest I guess here? Then two weeks light duty.” Emily said shrugging.

Jan nodded and looked away. “You are awesome. You saved us when you charged that tank. I didn’t think you would be coming back. Not from that. And when you came back all shot up and bloody. I thought I would lose you too. I thought I was going to watch both of you die.”

“I am too awesome to die Jan,” Emily said worried about her friend.

“No Never. You almost died. Your body…your body was too strong. I nearly couldn’t clamp off the artery. Your body was fighting me. I had to have three people help me clap off your artery. It was like trying to squeeze a steel rod closed. It was a close thing Never.” Jan said. Her fear was reflected on her face.

Emily didn’t say anything for a long while. She grabbed Jan in a hug and let her cry. Soon after Jan excused herself and left. Emily asked for a cup of water for the weeds Jan had brought and kept them on the little table beside her bed. Soon after Jan left the hospital staff brought lunch. Emily ate without tasting her food. Around three in the afternoon David came by to visit and he brought some greasy hamburgers.

“So at first they were going with friendly fire but OCS took credit for the attack so the Army brass came back with a rogue element within the Afghan Armed forces,” David said eating Emily’s fries.

Emily said nothing and just stared off into the distance. “Friendly fire. Rogue element”

“Army intelligence is pretty sure sergeant Sakhee Odeh was their intended target. He had a really high bounty on his head that was paid out by the OCS. You and your Company were just in the wrong place wrong time kind of thing. The CIA is involved heavily in this mess. Sergeant Odeh was their baby and from what my friends tell me they want payback. They are tracing the money. I wouldn’t be surprised if I got a call soon.” David said sitting back in his chair smiling.

“In the wrong place and in the wrong time?” Emily asked acidly.

David froze for a second then said quietly. “Don’t get mad at me Emily. I am not the one who ambushed your guys out in the field. If you need to be angry be angry at the right people here.”

“If I need to be angry?” Emily said furiously.

“That’s not what I meant,” David said getting frustrated.

“Your happy this happened. You are excited because they are going to call you and you get to play an assassin.” Emily said knowing in the back of her mind that she shouldn’t be angry at David but she couldn’t help it.

“I am not going to defend myself for doing my job Emily. Your hands are just as dirty as mine are.” David said getting angry.

Emily cursed at him. “Get out.” She told him in a quiet furiously tone of voice.

“Look we both need to cool down. Some seriously bad stuff has happened and it's making us emotional.” David said standing up.

“Making us emotional? Us? Don’t you mean me?” Emily said. She was so mad she was shaking.

“Ok Never, I am going. I am sorry your friend died. See you when I see you.” David said at the door with a sad look on his face.

Emily felt a sharp pain in her chest when he called her Never. It was the first time he had not used her first name. She wanted to call him back but she was too mad at him. She looked at the door he where he had left her and cried.

Emily found that she could not get more than three hours of sleep at a time before her nightmares woke her up. She asked for and was granted the use of a laptop to use so that she could continue learning Spanish. Spending most of her waking moments in the hospital on the computer help keep her mind off things. On the second day as she was getting discharged from the hospital she heard through the rumor mill that David had been deployed. He had not told her. Emily told herself she didn’t care.

She spent the two weeks in and around the barracks. Jan was wrapped up with her job in medical and rarely came by to say hi. Emily told herself she didn’t care. The day after the healer cleared her she was deployed to a FOB in southern Afghanistan along the border of Pakistan for a suspected Super in the area.