Grace Courtland

Major Grace Courtland is a member of the Department of Military Science. On semi-permanent loan to the DMS from Barrier, the DMS equivalent in the UK. She is the captain of Alpha Team and the love interest for Joe Ledger.

Appearance and Character
Grace is medium height, slender, with short dark hair and brown eyes with gold specks. She has a low throaty voice with a London accent. A combat veteran and professional hard-ass.

History
When Grace was a teenager, she got pregnant from a boy during her first year at university. But her baby was born with a hole in his heart and died a few months after birth. This crushed her, the pain of it ruined her, she got thinner and sicker staying up with him until the end. The boy left, parents were dead, she had nothing, and wound up in a psychiatric medical center for three months. She was recruited in the army, and SAS later, to get some structure; saw combat, caused death, so she could start feeling things again. Became Major SAS, joined Barrier after attacks of 9/11, then came over to the DMS.

She is the captain of Alpha Team and second in charge of the DMS after Church. Grace has been there since the beginning, and yet can only assume things about Church and where he comes from.

Recent Events
Patient Zero


 * When the first zombie outbreak occurred at St. Michael's, Grace and Alpha team, along with Baker and Charlie teams, were there to deal with the situation. But they hesitated, didn't know how to react to this new threat. There were civilians, children, doctors and elderly people attacking. The teams were slaughtered, Grace had not seen or felt anything so horrific since the death of her son.


 * When Ledger was brought in she did not like or approve of him. Thought of him as sloppy, and questioned his history. But while keeping him under surveillance for review, she started feeling attraction build up, and cursed herself for feeling this way. She later found out the loss of tracking one of the trucks wasn't Joe's fault, and immediately apologized to Joe, and asked if they could start over fresh.


 * Grace and Alpha team backed up Joe and Echo in all of their hits on terrorist cells. They grew close as they got into progressively dire situations, and helped each other out. The last one, the ambush at the crab plant, had killed even more of her team, leaving both her and Joe more distraught than ever. She confided in him her past, and Joe consoled her without taking advantage.


 * Grace helped at the Liberty Bell ceremony outbreak by herding the infected away from the uninfected while Joe chased down El Mujahid. She got into a scuffle with the vice presidents wife, made an enemy there, but took charge in keeping the situation under control and out of complete panic.


 * Grace and Joe finally get together, relieved the threat is over and that they will be staying on in the DMS, running the Warehouse as Church leaves for the Hanger.

The Dragon Factory