The high school gymnasium was filled to the brim, and the buzz of conversation was almost deafening. Way more people came than we could have ever anticipated or planned for. Trevor and Nolan were putting out more seats as fast as they could, while I scanned the crowd for the Woodwards. There was no sign of Mr. and Mrs. Woodward – my best friend's parents -- or Elle, his little sister, for that matter.

Checking my watch, I grimaced when I saw that they were running late. A large group of high school-aged boys walked through the doors, their fathers at their back. Another group, this one with a few girls mixed in with them, followed next. With this many people, it's going to be hard to keep them waiting.

Problem was, without the Woodward family, it was kind of hard to get started. They were the reason we were here making this presentation in the first place. They were the main people in charge with speaking today about the legacy and life of their son, Aaron.

Nolan looked up at me, his dark eyes worried as he realized the same thing I did. I nodded, holding up my hand miming that I was using the phone, and stepped out of the gym. I pushed the high school's heavy doors open, and stepped out, only to find Sean – and he wasn't alone. The familiar faces of Tammy and Simon Woodward looked up at me.

Instantly, just by their expressions, I knew something was wrong.

Tammy gave me a faint smile as I approached, but Simon's face looked older and more tired than usual. I hugged Tammy, and she held on tightly to me. She clung to me as a drowning man might cling to a life preserver, reinforcing my belief that something was indeed, very wrong.

I whispered in her ear, “What's wrong?”

“It's Elle,” she said, pulling back.

When I noticed tears in her eyes, and her words registered in my mind, my heart dropped into my stomach. It was like a lead weight tied to my chest, pulling me down. My mind flashed back to the last time I'd seem Tammy Woodward crying. It was the night her son had passed away. It was the very reason we were there today, talking to a bunch of high school seniors about their life choices and what it would mean for them. Because Aaron's life choices led to tragedy, and I swore on his grave that I'd do everything in my power to keep it from happening to anyone else.

I'd also promised to never let anything happen to his sister, Elise. She was all the Woodwards had left now that Aaron was gone.

“What happened?” I asked, looking between both Simon and Tammy, then over at Sean.

Simon cleared his throat. “Nothing happened, we're just worried about her. That's all.”

“Worried? What's going on?” I asked.

“She took a vacation with her boyfriend, Brad,” Simon said. “Up into the mountains. She was supposed to be back today.”

“They're experiencing some pretty bad snowfall up there,” I said, looking over at Sean.

He shook his head gently, a motion only I noticed.

“She called last night,” Tammy said, her voice cracking. “She said that Brad isn't the man she thought he was, and she didn't feel safe. She said she was going to head back home, but we talked her out of it. The roads were too bad, we were afraid she'd get into an accident, but –”

“But what?” I asked.

“But she isn't answering her phone now,” Simon finished for his wife. “Could be the cell towers are down though. The storm may have knocked everything out. We just don't know.”

Tammy looked less convinced. She stared at me with familiar blue eyes. The same blue eyes my best friend inherited from her. Blue eyes that made me feel like he was staring out at me again, and where it should have been comforting, I was slightly unnerved. It was like Aaron was reaching out from the grave, pleading with me to do something.

“Alright,” I said, patting her on the back and answering her silent pleas. “I'll head up to the mountains and check on her.”

“You can't drive up there,” Simon said. “The roads are bad.”

I shrugged. “Not the first time I've driven on treacherous roads before.”

“Yeah, and he won't be going alone,” Sean said.

I looked over at Sean and raised my eyebrows. “You coming with me?” I asked.

“Better to not go alone. Just in case something happens,” he said. “The Boy Scout motto remember?” he said, trying to keep things light.

“Be prepared. Yeah, I remember,” I laughed, running a hand over my face. “Not that we're Boy Scouts anymore.”

“Let me go talk to the others. We'll head out shortly. You got an address where she's staying at?”

“Of course,” Tammy said.

Her tears had dried up, and she seemed to be feeling better, or at least, a little more reassured, anyway. That was all that mattered to me.

“I'm sorry to ask this of you.”

“You didn't have to ask,” I said. “Aaron asked us to look after Elle, and that's what we intend to do.”

“We'll continue with the program as normal,” Simon said.

“Yeah, you guys know what you're doing by now,” I said. “Everything should be set up and ready to go.”

Sean and I shared a look. I knew that once I talked to Nolan and Trevor, they'd insist on coming with us. A dangerous drive into the mountains? Hell yeah, it sounded right up their alley. Besides, if we got stuck up there, the more Rangers, the better. We could always find a way to survive as a group. We've survived worse.

“Let me go get the others,” Sean said, leaving me alone with Tammy and Simon.

“Thank you for everything,” Simon said, as he put an arm around his wife's shoulders. “The four of you have been indispensable since Aaron's passing. To be honest, I'm not sure what we'd do without you.”

“You're family to us now,” I said.

My smile faded. Had Aaron not died, I'm not sure we'd still be as close with the Woodwards. His death had brought us together, and it had helped us start down the path to setting up the organization we ran today. It was a nonprofit, in Aaron's honor, educating the world about the effects of war and how our troops and vets need more support. We'd helped many people over the years, kept people from the same fate as our best friend.

Still, even though it sounded selfish as hell, I'd have given everything I had to have my best friend back.

I knew Simon and Tammy would do anything to have him back too. It's the one tie that bound us all together and bound us by iron. They could have blamed us for their son's death, but instead chose to see it as a horrible tragedy. Something we never could have predicted happening without the knowledge we had only in hindsight.

In the wake of Aaron's death, all we could do was channel our grief by continuing to the message. I needed to feel like I was doing more than that though, so I vowed to do everything in my power to keep his family safe and happy – especially his little sister.

She had been Aaron’s world, and she was all the Woodwards had left now. The idea of them losing their daughter so soon after losing their son, hit me hard. While I didn't actually think anything had happened to Elle, I would never be able to live with myself if we didn't at least try to check on her. If something had gone bad up there, and I didn't go check it out, I don't even know what I'd do.

“Ready?” Trevor's voice piped up from behind me.

“You're all going?” Tammy asked incredulously. “I don't want ya'll going through that kind of trouble.”

“It's no trouble, I swear,” Trevor said.

While most everyone had a Southern accent here in South Carolina, Trevor's was different. He was from Texas, and his accent was that thick drawl, and his voice deep. He often sounded like a stereotypical cattle farmer, which was exactly what his father did for a living. But, Trevor was a Ranger through and through.

Nolan was standing just behind him, and to the right – quiet as usual. He was the introvert of our little unit. He was also the brains. He was an engineering geek, focused more on mechanics, than on combat during his time in the Army. He was leaner than the rest of us, and not quite the man of action and violence the rest of us were, but he was still a Ranger. His body was pure, lean muscle. Even with his black thick-rimmed glasses and clean cut, dark hair, he still looked like a Ranger. He was also the only one of us without ink, which said a lot about Nolan. He was never one to give in to peer pressure.

Then, of course, there was Sean, who was the exact opposite of Nolan. The two of them couldn't have been any different if they'd tried. While Nolan grew up in an upper middle-class family, Sean had grown up on the streets of Chicago, and it showed. A little rough around the edges, with brown hair that hung down to his shoulders now, Sean never let anything get in his way. Not even poverty.

Today, he was successful, and you wouldn't have guessed that he was once the bad boy of the group. You probably couldn't picture him, out on the corner, selling drugs on the streets back in high school. He’d had to make some pretty unpopular, and sometimes illegal, choices just to keep a roof over his family's head. He was one of the hardest working, most strong-willed men I knew.

I was more than proud to call of these guys my friends. I knew Aaron was as well. We were a band of misfits, the type of guys from totally different backgrounds, who grew up in totally different circumstances and situations, but our love for our country – and later, our friend and his family – brought us together. There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't thank God for bringing us altogether.

If only He hadn't taken Aaron from us, well, I might have been inclined to pray more. Losing him was like losing part of myself; a part of myself that I'd never, ever be able to get back. He was gone, and there was just an empty hole inside of me now because of it.

I'd been so deep in thought, I missed the rest of the conversation. Tammy and Simon were going inside, ready to start their presentation. I'd seen it countless times before, but it always brought a tear to my eye – and I typically didn't tend to cry much. None of us did, really.

Yet, we'd all lived through the same pain Aaron had. We'd all witnessed the tragedies of war, watched those we knew die, and experienced the shock of trying to return back to our normal lives. We'd all managed to bear the pain and endure it somehow.

The only difference though, was that like Aaron, we had come back fully intact. Physically, anyway.

Maybe things would have ended differently had he not lost his leg. Maybe not. He was still damaged when we were discharged and got back stateside. He hurt more than any of us, and he drowned that hurt in a bottle of whiskey and a hell of a lot of sleeping pills.

The real horror of war, however, wasn't the damage it had done to his body. It wasn't that he'd lost his leg necessarily, that was the reason he wasn't with us any longer. No, the real tragedy was that after surviving months on end in some of the bloodiest, most tense days of conflict, days when the bombs were going off everywhere, explosions, bullets, bombs, and missiles all combined to fuck him up totally and completely.

His depression was so bad, and so crippling, and exacted such a heavy toll on him, that not even his four best buds or his baby sister could have saved him from himself. Not there at the end, when he'd decided it was time for him to quiet the noise in his head the only way he knew how.

“Let's get moving,” Sean said. “I'm driving.”

“Your truck have snow tires on it?” Trevor asked, cocking his eyebrows at me.

“No, but you ever drive in the snow, Texas boy?” Sean asked.

“Oh, shut the fuck up. We all know Nolan's the most experienced in the snow,” I said, patting our friend on the back. “Ain't that right?”

“Growing up in Buffalo came with a few advantages, yes,” he said. “But I don't have a truck.”

Trevor tossed him his keys. “Drive mine. But be careful.”

“Wouldn't dare hurt your baby,” Nolan laughed.

“Damn right. She's the love of my life.”

“I've never heard anyone speak about their truck that way, you sick bastard,” Sean said. “Maybe it's time you got a girlfriend.”

“Maybe. Or maybe I'm just fine living the single life,” Trevor said.

We all climbed into the dual cab truck. It was the heftiest truck I'd ever seen, and would be perfect for driving in the mountains, given that it was especially suited for rough terrain and all kinds of weather conditions. I just prayed that Nolan's experience driving in Buffalo would translate well to driving in the Appalachians during one of the worst snowstorms of the century.

Either way, I was sure of one thing – we were in for an adventure, and we'd get to Elle or die trying.

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