Nolan was squished inside a police car, but thankfully he wasn't heading to prison this time. The ambulance had taken Tracy to the nearest hospital in Thessaloniki once they found out she had a father who was on a business trip in Athens.

Nolan, Toby, and Grace had waited along the highway for a string of police cars to come by and pick them up.

Now Toby was completely invading Nolan's personal space by nearly sitting on top of him.

"Scoot over, man." Nolan mumbled. "Grace doesn't bite."

"I wouldn't be so sure." He replied, shifting half an inch away. "All she did was yell at me the whole time when we were attacked at the school."

"He kept breaking apart the FMG we took from the terrorists." Grace defended. "He didn't even know it stood for folding machine-gun."

"Those things are cool." Nolan said. "How did terrorists get a hold of them, though?"

"No idea." Toby shrugged. "It looked like it had a nice sized clip."

"30 rounds." Grace nodded.

"Pretty good for taking out a lot of people." Nolan happened to look up and saw that the police officer driving the car was staring at them intently.

He decided not to further the conversation anymore.

He assumed they were heading to the nearest city with power, but who knew how far the EMP had spread? It had taken the authorities over three hours to get to the scene.

They drove on in silence for a while. Exhaustion weakened Nolan's muscles. Who in their right mind would issue a missile strike? It wasn't the terrorists, to be sure. Then a thought occurred to him.

Had Egor made it out? If that was actually the idea behind the missile launch...

Nolan shook his head. Something like that would hurt a lot more people than it was worth. He wondered if other EMPs had gone off.

Grace sat up in her seat and leaned forward. "Pou páme?"

The driver glanced up in the rearview mirror. "Lamia. Eínai dýo óres makriá."

Grace frowned. "He's taking us to Lamia; it's four hours away."

"Better get comfortable."

They all reclined in the leather seats wordlessly. What else was there to say? The missile strike just added to their problems...to their questions.

They were three agents who'd stepped into a war bigger than anything they were prepared for. Nolan reminisced about his original plans. A nice, isolated cabin in the mountains. Was that too much to ask? A little over a week ago he was enjoying pancakes at Denny's. Now he harnessed information that could bring the destruction of society itself. He'd had to face every ghost that had haunted his dreams, his thoughts...his life.

He remembered the endless days sitting in jail wishing he could end it all. Wishing he could change it. That night on the cargo ship altered everything. Sure, it had landed him in jail for the best years of his life, but it had done far more than that. He'd watched the life leave his friend's eyes.

Nolan glanced at Toby and Grace, who were both sound asleep. Would he watch them die too?

~~~~

Nolan was rudely awakened by the police officer opening the door he was resting on. He blinked in the dawning sunlight before getting out.

Grace and Toby clamored out dazedly.

They stood in front of a large medical facility, packed with ambulances, police cars, and taxis that had transported Kavala refugees.

"Follow." The officer said with a gesture.

Nolan crossed his arms and walked behind the squatty man. People swarmed around the entrances and large tents were set up around the building.

"You sleep with your mouth open." Grace said, coming up beside him. When Nolan looked at her, he realized she was only one or two inches shorter than he was. He also noticed that her eyes were sad and lifeless, despite her snarky words.

"You were watching me while I was asleep?"

She gave a weak smirk. "I happened to look over when Toby's snoring woke me up."

"I don't snore." Toby defended.

They entered a chaotic hospital filled with people. Not all of them were from the bomb site, most had just gathered there for safety. The air was cool yet stuffy and there were yellow cots lined up in the lobby. At least there was electricity.

People mulled around carrying bowls of soup and water bottles, looking haggard and exhausted.

Grace, Toby, and Nolan were told to wait in a long line to get checked out by a nurse. It was like the Ellis Island of Greece.

Soon they were sorted into a male and female line and Nolan was ushered into a hospital room with five other men, separated from Toby.

A nurse whose face was slick with sweat did a quick examination of Nolan's health. It didn't take her long to find the bullet wound in his shoulder. "What happened here?" She asked, carefully but quickly peeling off the old bandage and unrolling a long strand of gauze.

"Just an accident." Nolan said.

As soon as she had taped the last bandage across his chest, she told him to go wait in the lobby for an attendant to bring him food.

He shoved his chilly hands in his pocket and waded through the mass of people around him. It was amazing how many people had evacuated, and this was only one building. Were they all from Kavala?

Through the sea of people, Nolan caught sight of Grace. He made his way over to her and sat down.

"Did you check out alright?" He asked.

"Yep. Just fine. I think they'll keep Toby for a little while longer with his fresh wound and all..."

They sat quietly for a while watching the swell of people bustling around before Grace asked, "What do you think will happen next?"

"Hopefully we'll go home." Nolan said simply. "This is bigger than us. I'm not an official agent, neither is Toby. You've done way more than overtime, so I'm sure they'll let you go home to your family."

Grace looked startled for a second before her eyes filled with sympathy, "I hadn't even thought about that. I'm sure your wife is worried sick if she thought you were just coming over here to do recon. Now you're in a makeshift refugee camp."

Now it was Nolan's turn to be startled. "Oh, I...I'm not married. I was kind of in jail during my...bachelor years, I guess you could say. Missed out on all the fun stuff."

She laughed and drew her knees to her chest, still scanning the crowd. "I know what you mean. I never got married either. Funny how life works sometimes." Her smile faded as she settled into thought.

"Why not?" Nolan asked, surprising himself. Was that too personal of a question?

Grace didn't seem to mind. She opened her mouth to say something but paused to think about her words.

Nolan waited, curious to see what she had to say.

"My mom got Alzheimer's disease when she was forty. It wasn't bad at first, she just forgot things sometimes or couldn't remember little details. My brother and I didn't really notice much, I was eighteen, he was fifteen. But then, a few months later, it got worse. She was always confused, and she could barely remember stories from her own past." Grace licked her lips nervously, still gazing out at the crowd.

"I remember one time she accused me of stealing a little glass elephant she always kept on her dresser. I hadn't, of course. She'd get lost around the house, forget to wear a sweater when it was snowing outside..."

She hesitated for a moment, a slight dip in her brow. "I'll never forget the day she didn't know who I was. I walked into her room to give her some dinner and she looked at me like I was a complete stranger. I remember her eyes searching mine as if she knew, deep down, that there was something there...but she just couldn't grasp it."

Grace turned to Nolan for the first time, pain etched in her features. "Do you know what that feels like? She taught me everything from my ABC's to calculus. My brother and I spent every day with her...she was smart and funny and...amazing. Now she can't tell the difference between us and the man on the moon. Not even my dad."

She dropped her gaze and shook her head. "Alzheimer's is hereditary, come to find out, and I'm at risk of getting it." A distant smile touched her lips. "It's not that I didn't want to get married. I've always wanted a family; in fact, I told my mom when I was little that I was going to have seven kids and twenty dogs." She laughed sadly. "But living with the thought of not recognizing my own children one day? It's terrifying. I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of all of it and...I just couldn't do that to my family."

Nolan didn't know what to say. "Is she...is she still okay?"

Grace sighed. "Yeah, she's still getting treatment, but it's pretty bad. We had to put her in a nursing home two years ago."

"I'm sorry. Really, Grace, I had no idea..."

"I should be the one apologizing for giving a sappy monologue, but thank you." She took in a deep breath. "You, on the other hand, are still an eligible bachelor. You never know." She said with a wink.

Nolan shook his head. "Trust me, I'm not exactly what you would call "the marrying type". You might have noticed, but I'm not very..."

"Likeable?"

"I was going to say sociable, but whatever." He looked up to see Toby coming towards them, a scowl on his face.

Nolan wasn't sure if something trivial had irked him, or if he was really mad at something reasonable. Unfortunately, the latter was true.

"Howard called while I was in the clinic." He said. "I tried to find you, but he wouldn't wait."

Grace and Nolan stood up.

"What'd he say?" Grace asked, her expression serious.

Toby's light blue eyes were frantic, perhaps even scared. "We did it." He said in a near whisper.

"Did what?" Nolan prompted.

"We issued the missile launch on Kavala. Howard...he..." Toby couldn't seem to form a sentence. He took a deep breathe running a hard through his hair. "They were trying to kill Egor."

Nolan was shocked. "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"Did he know how many people he would kill?" Grace fumed.

Toby shook his head as if he still couldn't believe it either. "I don't know. He was on his way to Austria to meet with the UN." He glanced from Nolan to Grace. "We're invited."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey everyone! Okay, so I know this chapter was WAAAY short and I'm also late in posting. You can openly shame me now. BUT I'm hoping to get a lot of writing done this weekend and as soon as I finish a chapter, I'll post it! Also, I know this wasn't the Grace backstory you were expecting, but there's going to be more about why she was kept on the mission later! Anyway, thank you for your patience, you guys are amazing =)

~What did you think of Grace's story?

~What do you think will happen in this grand world meeting?

Thank you again for reading! {Don't forget to comment, share, and vote!}