Taking a deep breath, I step behind Jake and tap him on his shoulder. He spins around and stares at me. For a second, I thought he wouldn't recognize me, but he smiled like a Cheshire cat and hugged me.

"Ella. It's good to see you again little sister."

"It's so good to see you too Jake." I could the guys behind me, so I take a step backwards and motion for them to come forward. "Jake, I'd like for you to meet my best friends: Sam, Jason, John and Luke. Guys meet my brother Jake." They shook hands slowly. Sam accidently bumped against my left arm, bringing a hiss from me.

"Sorry Ace." I just smile it off. "Don't worry about it Flint, its fine." Jake looks down at my arm and I watched as he pales a little. "What happened Ella?"

"I stepped in front of a sniper's bullet on our last mission." Concern and worry flashed through his eyes. "I swear Jake, if you treat me like I'm made of porcelain, I'll kick your butt." The guys chuckle softly as Jake laughs. "You couldn't take me lil' sis."

"Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that." John speaks up. "Yeah," Sam pipes up, "She could take you with one arm tied behind her back." A deep chuckle erupts from my throat, and Sam looks at me confused. "What's so funny Ace?"

I just wait until it dawned on him what he just said. Everyone was laughing by the time he got it. Jason laid his hand on Sam's shoulder. "She could still take you with no hands Jake." A smile slide across my lips: I was glad that they were getting along.

Luke lays his arm around my shoulders and I lay my head on his chest. "There's something you should know Jake. Luke and I are engaged." He blinked a few times and slowly smiled. "It's nice to meet you Luke."

"Likewise Jake." They move to the back porch to talk, leaving me with Dad. "Are you here to stay?"

"I am Dad. The guys will be leaving soon on another mission and I wanted them to meet you and Mom. I have a feeling that something bad will happen. And I won't be there to stop it." I add quietly, looking out the back door.

"I'm sure they'll be fine Ella. They seem like a group of guys who can handle themselves rather well."

"That they are Dad. But we've had each other's backs for years. It'll be hard for me to sit back and watch them go without me."

"I know baby girl, I know." Mom walks out of the kitchen. "Dinner's ready Ella. Why don't you go get the guys?" I nod and head to the porch. Poking my head out the door, I speak. "Mom says dinner's ready. Come eat." I laugh as they jump up and follow me back into the house. We stayed up late that night, talking and laughing. It was good to be home with those I loved.

Jake left a little after ten. It was just before midnight when I crawled into bed. Within seconds I was out and I found myself in a nightmare.

Spark Plug and I were hiding in some thick bushes while Powder and Flint were laying charges. Tech was keeping a look out as S.P. and I looked for the objective. I spot him coming out of a small house to the west of us. Nudging S.P. and then nodding towards him, he motions to Tech.

They slipped off into the town. I was thankfully for the cover of darkness. Powder and Flint place the final charge and the three of us head towards Tech and S.P. Once we grab the objective, Flint blows the charges and everything breaks loose. His men coming running out of houses looking for the cause of the explosion, panicking when they see their leader's car in flames.

We were almost in the clear when everything goes wrong. Somehow, he manages to get free. He starts yelling and one of his men sees him so he starts shooting at us. The guy accidently kills our objective and his leader. Knowing we had no other option but to get out of Dodge, we turn and start to run. By now, others are firing at us.

Tech gets hit in the leg and falls. The others were ahead of us, so they didn't notice. I always made sure that I was the last one just in case something like this happened. I loop his arm around my neck and shift some of his weight onto me. The wound was starting to bleed pretty bad, but we had to keep running.

I bite my lip as I felt a few stings in my back and instantly I knew that I had been shot as well. As much as I wanted to cry out from the pain, I focused on Tech. My team came before my needs. Once we reached safety, they guys noticed that Tech was hurt. Due to the darkness, they didn't know that I was shot as well.

We slowly cleaned the bullet hole in his leg. The bullet had gone straight through and I was glad it did. Keeping our pace slow for Tech, we made our way towards the beach. The closer we came, the more I got to feeling that something wasn't quite right.

The full moon lent us enough light to see. And it made the sand look white. Just as we stepped out of the woods, I noticed a small flash of white to our left and I felt my heart sink. Without thinking, I threw myself in front of Powder and Flint just a bullet bit my chest.

I woke up with my heart pounding and a yell slipping through my lips. I had just swung my legs off the bed when everyone came running through my door. I rubbed my face before standing up. "Nightmare?" Luke asked. I nod once before I start looking for my running shoes.

"Where are you going sweetheart?" My mom asked softly as they watched me. Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was 4:30 in the morning. "I'm going for a run. It's the only thing that can clear my mind after one of those nightmares."

"We'll go with you." They guys chime in as I grab my brush. I nod once and they head to their rooms. By the time the tangles are out of my hair, the guys are waiting for me in the den. "We'll be back soon Mom."

"Breakfast will be waiting on you when you get back." We smile at her as we make our way out of the house. We stretched for five minutes before I sprinted out of the yard. I heard the guys fall in step with me as we ran down the sidewalk. By the time we reached the high school, we weren't even out of breath.

I stood facing the rising sun, trying to compose my thoughts. They knew something was up, so they just waited patiently for me to speak. Slowly I started to speak, my eyes never leaving the colored clouds. "I'm sorry for my behavior these past few weeks. I knew I've been a little withdrawn, but I've had a reason to be.

"Ever since I woke up in the hospital, I've had a million things on my mind. When I was out, I had the strangest dream. When I spoke about your next mission, I was hoping that it was just part of the dream. But when y'all confirmed it, I thought I was going to go crazy. It meant that everything, everything I saw in that dream would happen. And I knew that I had to stop it from coming about."

I take a deep breath and continued speaking. "During the next mission, things went horribly wrong. The new team leader led y'all through an ambush while y'all were looking for three pilots and two other Seal teams that had been sent in before y'all. Y'all managed to get everyone out, but suffered heavy losses.

"The captain was killed, and the four of you ended up in ICU at the hospital. After two weeks from not hearing a word from any of you, I called Luke, only to have his father answer. He told me that the four of you were in the hospital in a coma. But he said that Luke...Luke wasn't expected to pull through. So I raced down to D.C. and made it just in time for the two of us to get married." I could feel tears running down my face, but I didn't stop.

"When I got back home, everyone was acting very strange towards me. I was out for a run when a sniper shot me. After spending weeks in the hospital, I was discharged. I went home, packed and went to a cabin where I spent most of my childhood hiding. It was there that I came face to face with one Carlos Caballero. We had to take his father out several years ago, and we found him trying to kill his son.

"Carlos told me that someone had placed a $4million dollar bounty on my head and he wanted to collect it for his people. But he couldn't bring himself to kill me due to the fact that we saved his life. So, he faked my death and gave me a new life in Texas while we spent every day trying to find who placed the bounty on me.

"It took us several years to track the man down, but Carlo kept me informed on y'all. He would bring me updates regularly, but it still killed me to let y'all believe I was gone. After we found out who it was, I contacted John and asked if he would fly me to D.C. On the flight there, he called the others and my brother and they met him there.

"And though I tried my best to keep y'all from following me, y'all still found out where I was headed. I found the person behind the bounty and was just about to take him out when y'all showed up. In order to keep y'all safe, I killed him but at the cost of my own life." I finally looked at them and found them staring at me shocked.

I started walking back towards the house with them following me. The entire was back they were silent. When we reached the house, they went and sat down at the table where Mom had homemade pancakes waiting. I headed to my room, striped and stepped into the shower. They needed some time alone to mull over what I told them.