"I got your gun a couple days ago," said a voice behind her. Piper turned to see who it could be, stunned. "I didn't intend to give it to you. I can't watch you out there ya know," James continued as he forfeited the pistol. She remained silent but accepted the gun. "You see, I promised Connor if he didn't come home, no matter what, I was gonna watch over you," he explained.

"Stop," Piper demanded meekly.

"But I realized that- here, we're sure gonna die. And you don't even talk anymore here. Maybe you're waiting for it. Maybe [i]there[/i] you can live, ya know?" he continued, despite her request.

She turned back to her bag, packing the last of her things. "So why don't you come?" she asked.

James sort of laughed weakly. He was a southern rebel who drank plenty of beer and always had showed Connor a good time back on base. The only thing left of that James was an accent. "I been fightin' as my job for years now. It's the only thing I know. It wouldn't feel right goin' AWOL," he explained simply.

Piper had nothing left to say. That was it. They were parting ways and she needed to go meet up with the others.

"But look here, you keep your ass outta trouble and don't you ever try playin' hero, understood?" James demanded.

"Promise," she said, holding up her finger to him out of habit. She paused before letting it drop. Whoops. 

James gave her a sympathetic sigh. "You'll be alright," he promised in return.

She gave him a nod and left towards the makeshift hospital where she was to meet with people she knew vaguely to depart for a better opportunity at life. She travelled light, always had, picking up things she needed along the way. She arrived at the meeting seeming to be late so she slipped in quietly behind the others, unsure of what else to do. They had decided to ride horses. How? The only way she'd every rode a horse was in a western saddle with an English bridle and it was fully trained. She basically just climbed on and was carried and that was years ago. Lord knows she couldn't ride bareback. Nonetheless, no one seemed to complain so she sat back silently in the back corner and watched the discussion continue and everyone interact with one another. She realized for the first time just how quiet she had grown.