I was 28 years old, active duty in the Military, and stationed in Vallejo, California. I had been up there for over 2 years, and enjoyed it immensely....y wife had left me the year before, so I was forced to move back into the barracks. However, I was not comfortable there. I had grown used to my privacy, and I was also running a BBS from my apartment. However, I had made many friends in the local BBS community, and moved into a small "Apartment" behind a friend's computer store.Now I worked at. "I blushed and just said, "thank you sir."We left the classroom and went to our next lesson and didn't have achance to talk to each other until lunch time; which was a bit likefeeding time at the zoo.I could hear the noise coming from the dining room a long time before weactually reached it.As we swung open the doors, the noise level tripled. It was a bit likebeing hit by a wall of sound. At least this first time, I took a stepback as the noise washed over me.Nicola grabbed my arm and we headed. That's what I get for not paying attention of course as my body settled back down beside Mark, his left arm still under my shirt. I had been damn lucky not to have waken him.Mark always was a deep sleeper though, when with me anyway. Memories of childhood, not that long ago, when he would climb into bed with me as we listened to our parents outbursts told me he was not always this way, he just trusted me to look after him, always, as I did of him.I really must be in a dream like state, that or. The confusion he had felt when his father had died had almost overwhelmed him. It felt as if a weight had been lifted off his soul. He was surprised he still had the wits to try and escape the Shields when they came several hours later. He didn’t know what they planned but he wasn’t hanging around to find out.He had ducked into a tavern down on the wharf when he had seen a Shield and one of the tarts, he had been within the recent past had greeted him and kissed him. He had almost stopped to.