A/N: Sorry for the delay! Thank you for the nudges and pokes over the last few months asking for this story to be continued.
And as always, thank you to Mossley for once again jumping into the beta role and helping me out with the story.
The alarm woke Flint from a deep sleep. As he automatically reached over to silence the buzzing, he tried to hold on to the pleasant dream he had been in the middle of. The exact details had faded away but he knew it had involved Alison. The first moments of the morning had been the hardest on him the last few days. His subconscious had been on overdrive, providing him with a different happy dream starring Alison each night. And each morning, as he woke up, he had to remind himself of the reality of the situation. However, a movement to his right alerted him to the fact that this morning was different.
Flint rolled over and smiled at Alison. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."
"No, it's okay. I want to catch a ride in with you. I still have a lot of packing to do."
Flint mentally reviewed his schedule. "I have to finalize my mission plan, but that shouldn't take long. So I should have a few hours to come help."
"That will be great. Come by my room when you have a chance. I admit I didn't get much done yesterday."
Flint leaned over and kissed her. "Actually, I think we accomplished quite a bit."
Alison smiled. "We did. And because of that, I think I am now really ready to pack up and move on. So bring boxes with you." She stretched and then got out of bed.
Flint took a moment to watch her. "I will. But don't overdo it." Her back was to him, but he could still see her tense. Flint scolded himself. As he had lain awake after their very passionate reunion the previous night, he had made a mental list of the ways he was going to be a better partner to Alison. One of them was that he was going to stop nagging her about her and the baby's well-being. But he just realized that some of his good intentions were going to be harder to follow through on than others.
Luckily, Alison didn't call him on his comment. But wanting to stay on her good side, he jumped out of bed and came up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, nuzzled his face into her neck and said, "I'm sorry. I know that I annoy you with comments like that. But even though I worry about you and Junior I'm going to try and tone it down."
"Thank you, I appreciate that," Alison replied. She cocked her head towards the shower. "Do you want to join me? We can save some time and water."
Flint enthusiastically agreed. In the end, they saved neither time nor water, but to Flint it was worth it. He briefly debated calling out sick, and if he hadn't had the impending mission he would have given it serious thought. But he did have a job to do, so once their shower escapades were over, he reluctantly got dressed. He made a promise to himself that once he returned from the mission to spend as much time as possible with her before she left for DC.
Luckily he made it to HQ with a few minutes to spare before Officer's Call. As he quickly took his seat he noticed the slight smile on Duke's face which was offset by the look of disapproval on General Bradshaw's. He wondered if they knew of his reconciliation with Alison. He flashed back to the first time he went into OC the morning after spending the night in her room. They had tried to act as inconspicuous as possible, but he had been convinced that Duke and the others knew exactly what had happened.
He turned his attention to the OC once it started and he learned that the timetable to his mission had moved up by twelve hours. He frowned as he considered the repercussions. Carrying out their work under a cover of darkness eliminated some of the risk of alerting the enemy and ending up in a firefight. However, it also made him question the legitimacy of the mission that the Jugglers had insisted they had.
He tuned out the conversation around him as he focused instead on his mission game plan. Flint guessed that if Duke, Beachhead and the other field commanders knew the kind of thoughts he had in the crunch time hours leading up to a mission, they would definitely accuse him of overthinking the situation. But he was a man who didn't like surprises, so he liked to try and anticipate everything and anything that could go wrong. So he considered everything from weather conditions, to terrain, to fatigue level and more.
Flint made a mental list of bullet points he wanted to go over with the three men assigned to his team. He planned on meeting with them once he received the updated dossier from Chuckles. Satisfied that he was mentally prepared he turned his attention to the personal repercussions of the departure time change. On the way in, he and Alison discussed dinner plans which would now have to be canceled. He hoped that she wouldn't be too disappointed in the news. The positive aspect was that he now had a better chance of being home in plenty of time for her ultrasound.
After the meeting wrapped up, Flint followed Chuckles back to his office. "Did you get a chance to update the file?" Flint asked.
With a nod, Chuckles handed him the paperwork. Flint smiled. Usually, if Scarlett or Lady Jaye had been making the report they would have given him a verbal summary. But Chuckles seemed to rely more on the written word.
Taking a seat at what he still considered Alison's desk, Flint scanned through the paperwork. He made notations to jot down some of his earlier thoughts. He was satisfied that he was completely prepared for the mission. However, he still didn't like it. There was some risk involved, but it wasn't inherently dangerous. The Joe team had been asked for a "favor" from the Jugglers. Intelligence had uncovered a very active drug cartel in Central Mexico with an apparent direct shipment line to the southern United States.
The US government had first tried to resolve the situation diplomatically. But the Mexican ambassador swore that they would handle any wrongdoings on their own. So the US watched from afar for a few weeks until they received evidence that not only had the drug trade not been stopped, but it was even more robust than it had been. So they asked the Joes to step in and shut down the operation.
A knock on the door interrupted Flint's thoughts. He looked up and noticed at some point Chuckles had left, leaving him alone in the office. He called out for the knocker to enter. Duke walked in and asked, "Are you ready for this?"
"I guess," Flint answered less than enthusiastically.
Duke grabbed one of the unused chairs and brought it to the desk. "What's the matter? You got a bad feeling about it?"
"Not exactly," Flint said. "I know we can handle it. I just feel like this is something more suited for the DEA than the GI Joe team."
"I hear you. But we have the convenient excuse the government is looking for. Mexico hates Cobra as much as we do, so they didn't hesitate to give us the okay to come in to follow up on a potential Cobra sighting. And if it just so happens that instead of finding Cobra, you run into the cartel the US wants eliminated, well that's just lucky for us."
Flint grumbled in response. "It just seems like a slippery slope. I don't like the idea of making up Cobra sightings every time the government wants us to infiltrate a country. Aren't you afraid this is just the beginning of us being pawns for the Jugglers?"
"Of course I am. But right now we need to play along. If by doing this they hold off on slashing our budget even further, than I consider it a small price to pay."
Flint didn't agree with Duke, but he wasn't going to continue to argue the point. Luckily Duke seemed more than willing to change the subject. "So I noticed you disappeared with Alison last night. I hope it was a much better evening than the previous one."
Flint couldn't help but grin. "It was. We had a good long talk, and finally straightened out our issues. We spent the night at the apartment together, and I think we're going to be okay. I don't know what you said to her, but thank you."
Duke leaned over and patted him on the shoulder. "There was never a question about her devotion to you. She just needed to see that there wasn't a conspiracy against her. I'm happy for you two. Now try not to screw it up."
Flint smiled. "I'm going to do my best." He leaned back into his chair. "I know we still have some things to figure out, and the next few months are going to be a pretty good upheaval, but I'm optimistic."
"So should I pencil in a wedding date?"
"That's one of the things on the figure it out list. I do still want to get married as soon as possible, but we haven't talked dates." Flint was aware that he still needed to give the ring back to Alison, but he wasn't sure exactly what the protocol was. He didn't want to just casually hand it back to her, but he wasn't sure if he needed to officially propose again. Either way, he was going to take care of that as soon as he got back from the mission.
Flint continued to dwell on his plans for the future so when Duke stood up he stopped him. "Con, I need to ask you a favor. If something happens to me, please make sure Alison and the baby are taken care of."
"Dash, of course. Regardless of what happened to her with regards to the Joe team, she's still family to me and I'm sure every other member here. And we protect our own."
"Thank you, I appreciate that."
Duke sat back down and looked at Flint with concern. "What brought this on? Are you sure you aren't having second thoughts about the mission?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary. The risk is always there, but I'm learning that it weighs heavier on you when you know you have a family waiting on you. And you just never know what's going to happen."
Duke rubbed at his chest. "That's the truth."
Flint patted Duke's shoulder. "And one last request. I've been good about not divulging too much about this mission, but I did tell her that it should be a quick one. Since her ultrasound is scheduled for Friday, can you let her know if I get delayed?"
"I'll keep her informed as best I can."
Flint stood up. "That's all I can ask for. I have a lot to do over the next few hours, so I will see you on the tarmac at 1600."
Alison had never handled boredom well, and the previous twelve hours had been no exception. She had returned to the apartment the previous evening after Flint had left on his mission. She was still tired from all of the excitement of the past couple of weeks, and had fallen asleep early. Which meant she had woken up fairly early. Flint had assured her that he was going to be home that night, so at first she thought a day spent lounging around the apartment watching daytime TV and finishing the novel she had started in La Jolla sounded glorious.
But by mid-morning she had realized it was anything but. Nothing on television held her interest and anytime she looked at her book she was reminded of the cold afternoon on the beach when she was convinced her life was falling apart. She should have been happy that she and Flint had reconciled, but she couldn't seem to shake some of the lingering doubts.
After the emotionally draining roller coaster she had been on during the days after her firing, she promised herself that she would put any further soul searching on hold. So for the first day of her reconciliation with Flint she let herself just enjoy their time together without analyzing every moment.
Thanks to the mission schedule being moved up, they hadn't spent a lot of time together but she had to admit, what time they did have had been very enjoyable. It should have been proof that their reconciliation was the right call. But Alison was afraid that it happened too quick and too easily. Both had made a point of not speaking specifically about what the future may bring. Of course they talked about Junior but neither one brought up the idea of trying to co-parent the baby while thousands of miles apart. And Alison was afraid that once that conversation started they were going to go right back into the same version of the fight they had had many times the last couple of weeks.
To distract herself from her thoughts and Flint's mission she turned her attention to the DC housing hunt. She assumed that they were going to fly to Washington at some point over the Christmas holiday to look at houses, but they hadn't made any hard and fast plans.
She had placed a call to the realtor that Hawk had recommended after she had formally accepted the job offer. Once that was done, she then decided to treat herself to lunch and yet another trip to the mall. Her previous trips were baby item browsing, but she finally bit the bullet on the one activity she'd been trying to avoid – maternity clothes shopping.
She had returned home a few hours later, relatively satisfied with her purchases. She had found a couple of cute outfits, and a few more that were tolerable. She was also happy that she had received no calls from HQ. She assumed no news was good news.
Thinking she only had a couple more hours to kill before Flint returned, she picked a movie, reheated her leftovers and then settled into the couch. She had expected to be interrupted by a phone call from Flint letting her know that he had returned, but she finished it with no word from him. She turned off the television and found herself alone with her thoughts yet again. But this time instead of worrying about her future with Flint, she began to worry about his current well-being.
Not having the exact details of where the mission was located or official return time was not helping her frame of mind. When eight PM hit, she was officially worried. Having a mission last longer than estimated wasn't unusual, but Flint told her that Duke would let her know if it did. She tried to convince herself that despite all that there was probably a very reasonable explanation as to why she hadn't heard from him. But she didn't buy it. She had a bad feeling that something had gone wrong.
She waited a few more minutes before she decided she couldn't take the unknown any more. She dialed Duke's number. "I was just debating calling you," he said once he answered.
Alison's heart seized. "Why? What happened?"
Duke sighed. "Al, I need you to stay calm."
"Why?" She asked again.
Duke was doing his best to ignore her question. "I just want you to know that we don't have any concrete evidence that Flint or his team are in any danger."
Alison exhaled sharply. "And I assume that also means that you don't have any proof that they are safe. So where are they? What happened?"
"I'm sorry, but you know I can't give you that information, especially over the phone. I'm sure they're fine, but if by morning…"
Alison cut him off. "Duke, please don't give me the hiding behind the rule book bullshit. You can't expect me to go all night without knowing anything."
"I have to follow protocol. You're on an unsecured line, do you really want to put the mission any more at risk?"
Alison knew Duke was right. "Fine. I'll be there in fifteen minutes. You can tell me as many details as you can first hand."
"Whoa, no you're not. Flint would never forgive me if something happened while I let you drive like a lunatic here. Stay there, I'll come to you and we'll talk."
Alison reluctantly agreed. The minutes passed by excruciatingly slow, but finally she saw headlights reflected in the living room window. Once Duke was settled at the dining room table he handed her a folder. "I debated long and hard on the ride over how much information to give you. Since you are still waiting on your clearances to be reinstated I could be court-martialed for giving you classified information. But since I suspect I'm going to need your help on this, I'm taking the risk. Everything about the mission is in that folder."
Alison flipped the file open. She began to read, but quickly stopped as she could not believe what she was seeing. She went back and reread the first few sentences before she looked up at Duke. "You're kidding about this, right?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Who the hell thought this was a good idea?"
Duke looked flustered. "Actually, none of us."
Alison fumed. "Fine, if semantics are going to be important in this conversation, let me ask it another way. Who approved this mission?"
"The order came down from the Jugglers. And they weren't exactly looking for our thoughts on the matter."
Alison pushed back from the table and stood up. "That's ridiculous. I can see General Bradshaw rolling over when the Jugglers order him to, but Duke, I thought you and Flint had more integrity than that."
"Flint argued quite a bit against it, and even though I agreed it was a shitty mission I convinced him it had to be done for the good of the Joe team."
Alison exhaled sharply. That was the phrase that had haunted her existence the last few months. But this time instead of it costing her career, it could end up costing Flint his life. She shook her head as she looked at Duke. She was so disgusted with him she couldn't form any of the questions that were running through her head.
Duke walked over to her. "Alison, I want you to understand something. Neither one of us liked this mission because of the political and moral ramifications to the Joe team. But we also agreed that despite that, it was a low risk mission. I made sure yesterday that Flint still felt the same way, or I would have pulled the plug on it. I know you're pissed, and you have every right to be, but I want you to help me figure out what went wrong."
Alison knew Duke was right. She could continue to take out her frustrations on him later. But right now, Flint needed her. She sat back at the table and continued to read through the report. She finished the first page. "This seems overly simplified. Let me guess, this is the dossier that Jugglers provided you."
Duke nodded. "And because we're not totally incompetent, the next few pages outline our own research into the mission including a list of potential pitfalls."
Alison continued reading. "Did this come from Chuckles?"
"Mostly, with Falcon overseeing it. The rest was added during our pre-mission briefs."
When Alison finished, she had to give credit to Chuckles. He did an extremely thorough job. Although there was one potential risk that hadn't been identified. "Did anyone think that the Jugglers might be setting the team up?"
Duke went silent for a moment before he slowly nodded. "That was discussed in depth, but we didn't want to have a written record of that possibility."
At least they were smart about that. "Okay, so tell me what happened. I assume they landed okay?"
"Yes. Flint called in as soon as the transport dropped them off at the LZ. He said the area was clear, but they had to use the chopper's radio to boost their signal to us. He assumed the weather was to blame, and he warned us that they may have a problem reaching out to us at the agreed check-in times. So when they missed their first one, I didn't think too much of it. There was an unintelligible garbled message at the second one, and then that was it."
"What kind of time frame are we talking about? How long have they been considered missing?"
"Their targets were about a three-hour hike from where they landed. We guessed that if everything went well it would take eight hours to complete the mission, maybe a few hours more if there were issues."
Something was bothering Alison, but first she still needed to establish the timeline. "What time did they land?"
"About 2030 last night."
Alison's mouth dropped open as she looked at her watch. "So at best case they've been missing for nearly twenty-four hours? And you're just telling me now?"
"It's not like we've been just sitting around with our thumbs up our asses. Once we suspected there was a problem we put the team to work. I didn't know how much Flint told you, so I was waiting until either you called me or I knew for sure there was an issue."
"Well now that I know, I just need a couple of minutes to pack a bag."
"Where are you going?" Duke asked dumbly.
"Back with you to HQ."
"Oh no, that's not a good idea. Trust me when I say that we're working the problem. Stay here tonight, and I'll give you an update first thing tomorrow morning."
"That's funny. You can't really expect me to just stay home and wait for news from you."
While Duke continued to argue the point, Alison tuned him out as she went to the bedroom to pack what she needed. She briefly thought about the irony that after two days of packing things up to move out of her room, she had to now bring a bag back. Once she was done, she walked past Duke towards the front door. "Let's go. Either you take me there, or I'm going to drive myself."
Duke begrudgingly followed her out and led her to his car. Once they were on the road, Alison asked the question that had bothered her earlier. "Isn't two hours an awfully optimistic estimate on how long it would take to take down a cartel?"
Duke kept his eyes on the road. "We had no intention of taking down the cartel. Once we threw out the possibility that the Jugglers were setting us up, we changed the parameters of the mission. We still wanted to disrupt or even destroy the drug trade, so we chose three fairly unprotected targets that would cause a good amount of damage. That too we kept out of the written version."
Alison nodded. At least she felt better that the Joe team hadn't been completely idiotic over the mission. "What assets are we using to help track them down?"
Duke grimaced. "Alison, I'm bringing you to HQ against my better judgment. General Bradshaw is going to have a conniption once he finds out you're involved."
"I can handle General Bradshaw. And besides, you said you're going to need my help."
"That's true. But I had hoped to use you in more of a consultant role."
Alison silently fumed. What Duke meant was that he wanted her to stay on the sideline, waiting for him to come to her with a question. But arguing the point further with Duke was going to be a waste of time, as she knew in the end he would bow to the general's wishes. However, she was not going to let General Bradshaw stop her from trying to help find Flint and his team.
They arrived at HQ a short time later, and went straight to the computer room. It was a bustle of activity and Alison noticed that a few did a double take as they looked at her before they went back to their work.
Falcon waved them over. "Perfect timing. We just got the latest satellite imagery."
Duke headed to the computer screens while Alison went to the printers. She had always preferred the hard copy version of the images. Chuckles was also waiting by the printer, and once it finished they both reached for the paper. Chuckles smiled at her and waved at her to continue. She wanted to but she knew she had to take a step back and let Chuckles do his job. So she begrudgingly handed him the printouts.
She followed him back to the table and began to scan through the available images. She wanted to familiarize herself with the terrain Flint was working in, so she focused on the images that had been collected prior to the mission.
"It looks like they never made it to their first target," Falcon remarked.
Alison looked up as Chuckles nodded. He passed her the newest imagery. It only took a quick look at the before and after photos to see that very little was different between the two. She didn't like the idea of the team being ambushed at the beginning of the mission, but she tried to focus on the positive aspects. "That should narrow down the search area." When all of the men frowned at her statement she asked why.
"There had been bad storms in the area in the days leading up to the mission," Duke said. "Flint told us during his initial check-in that during their landing he could see that their main route had basically been washed away. He was pretty confident that they could find another way, but we're not sure what that is. He was supposed to update us once he found a clear path, but that was the garbled message I told you about."
Alison started to ask another question but she was interrupted by the arrival of General Bradshaw. "Ms. Hart-Burnett, care to tell me what you are doing on my base in my communications room?"
She answered the question truthfully. "Duke informed me that Flint's team ran into some trouble, and I thought I could lend a hand."
General Bradshaw folded his arms across his chest and glared at her. "Which would be acceptable if you still worked here, but you don't."
Alison felt her anger level start to rise. And she was sorely tempted to go a couple of rounds with General Bradshaw. But she knew that if she had any hope of not getting thrown off the base she had to reach out to the general's softer side. If he had one. "Sir, I know it is wrong of me to be here. But once I heard the team went missing I had hope that my many years of experience here could prove helpful."
"Ms. Hart-Burnett, even if I was inclined to ignore everything that happened these last few weeks, you don't have the security clearance to be here."
Breaker cleared his throat. "Actually sir, she does. Her reinstated clearances came through late this afternoon."
Alison was surprised by the news. She had heard it was going to take at least a week if not longer to get all of the paperwork done. And she wondered why she hadn't heard of her change in status sooner. Breaker seemed to sense her thoughts. "I meant to let you both know earlier today, but with the news about Flint's team being in trouble and I got sidetracked."
General Bradshaw stared at her a few moments. "Fine. You can stay. But if I catch any hint that you are interfering in any way with the rescue mission, I won't hesitate to have your forcefully removed from my base."
"Yes, sir," Alison replied. "It won't be an issue."
General Bradshaw asked for a sit-rep. Duke began to explain that the newest satellite images had just come in, when the general's phone rang. He looked at it, sighed and apologized. "I have to take this," he said and then walked out of the room.
Alison took the opportunity to go over to Breaker. "Thank you for speaking up. That was great timing that my credentials came in earlier today."
Breaker looked sheepish. "I hope you don't mind, but I kind of fibbed on that. They haven't come in yet."
Alison was shocked. "You lied for me?"
Breaker began to chew harder on the gum he always seemed to have in his mouth. "I don't like what happened to you. And when I heard him giving you a hard time, I just decided to try and help you out. I understand if you're mad, and if you want to come clean I can tell him I made a mistake."
"No, Breaker, I, I'm just, I" Alison couldn't finish the sentence. Instead she hugged him. "Thank you."
Breaker's kindness combined with her worry over Flint combined with the all-around stress of the past few weeks suddenly caught up with her. Her tears started quietly, and despite her efforts to clamp down on them to prevent a scene, a sob escaped her lips.
Breaker's arms tightened around her. "We're going to find him."
Alison felt a hand on her shoulder and she pulled out of Breaker's grasp. "Alison, it's late," Duke said. "How about you get some sleep, and I'll come find you if there's something new to report."
"No, I'm fine," she replied as she wiped at her eyes. She did though need to get a hold of her emotions if she was going to be of any use that night. She eyed her bag that she had brought with her from the apartment. "I just need a few minutes to regroup."
Duke nodded. "Take your time."
The walk to her room helped Alison get control of herself. She used the bathroom to freshen up, and just the simple act of splashing cold water on her face helped her as well. She pushed aside her fears and instead focused on what she needed to do to help find Flint and his team. She made a mental list of questions she had, and persons and locations she wanted to research. She had been a part of many rescue missions in the past, all of them successful. And this time was going to be no different.
