When Brad's ex-wife dies and Brad and Nate find themselves in charge of Brad's three sons, things get complicated.

In which Brad is a desperately self-sacrificing HRH, Nate is not happy about being blind-sided, Ray wants to kill the Swedish press corps, and Walt is present in the background like a good bodyguard.

"We're not going to talk about this."

Brad Colbert and Nate Fick had met on the set of a now cancelled sci-fi show, years ago. Now, Hollywood turns out to be a small town after all, and it’s hard to avoid someone you broke up with. Especially when you both sign up for the same movie.

Nine months after the end of events in Half Past the Point of Oblivion, Brad gets word he's being deployed. Arrangements must be made and goodbyes said, when a warrior goes off to war.

Nate is a vampire, but this war is making him feel more human than ever.

Brad is in his hallway, leaning against the wall.

Brad is in England. Brad is in his hallway.

The man didn't make idle threats.

Nate Fick wasn’t always a Marine and he won’t always be one.

Great. Rudy poisoned us with his Zen health crap and now we're all going to go crazy, vomit rainbows, and die. Thanks Rudy!

“You know we can’t be friends. None of us are friends, sir. Brothers, yes. But we’re not friends. Friends get you killed.”

Bravo platoon as a fraternity.

"I'm leaving, Brad."

"People on the Internet are writing porn about us..."

Nate's half-tempted, sometimes, to call up Mike and ask if he’s created his and Brad’s easy vibe out of thin air and memory, because they’re stilted and full of awkward silence on the phone; post-series.

It starts with a pair of skates (they have toe picks). It doesn’t end there. A story of two skaters featuring a cat, a gender-specific couch and a lot of ice.

Nate spares a thought for his parents down the hall, but there are his sisters' two empty bedrooms, a guest room and a bathroom between them and him; everybody's used to Brad being in Nate's room anyway.

Did everybody else see this but him?

What happens after.

Nate's pretty sure that most Marine Corps recruitment drives don't include lusting after your potential Marine brothers, but it's not Nate's fault.

"That," he says, "is how you know it was close." - Sebastian Junger, War