We (that's barsonaddict and me, CUtopia) are excited to present you our first collab story. If you happen to be on AO3, you can find this story on barsonaddict's account.

A big thanks to Emily, who betaed this chapter for us! :)

We hope you enjoy this and are looking forwards to your feedback! Also, we both aren't experts on the military, so we tried to do our research ;)

Blossoming In Adversity

The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.

Mulan

The dark grey plane was hurtling through the sky, blending in perfectly against the clouds, the occasional air pocket rocking it harshly. Members of the crew were gripping the freight nets hanging from the walls for support as they walked back and forth, and Lieutenant Sonny Carisi needed to take a few deep breaths of the dry cabin air to calm his stomach. His gaze was wandering, trying to find something that would distract him from his nerves, and ultimately, something drew his attention.

Blinking a few times, he stared at the bench at the other side of the plane, then he leaned towards Lieutenant Amanda Rollins next to him, asking over the noise of the engines: "How the hell is the Colonel able to nap under these conditions?!"

Rollins followed his gaze to their commanding officer, currently strapped to the side of the plane like them; Lieutenant Colonel Olivia Benson had her head resting against the wall and was clearly asleep.

"She's taking the motto 'Sleep whenever you can' to a whole new level. Maybe you should take a page out of her book, sleepyhead." She eyed Carisi's appearance – bags under his eyes and paler than usual complexion indicating his difficulty sleeping before the mission.

An extraordinarily hard turbulence shook the plane, but Olivia didn't even stir while Carisi grimaced at Rollins before running a hand over his face. "If I close my eyes I'm going to throw up."

A chuckle to his right told him that Master Sergeant Odafin Tutuola had somehow managed to catch that, and moments later, a smugly grinning member of the crew held a paper bag towards him, yelling: "If you make a mess, you're cleaning it up!"

"Hungry?" Smirking a little bit too widely, Amanda held an unwrapped energy bar under his nose and Sonny slapped it out of his field of vision, pleading for mercy. "Rollins. Please."

Seeing him grimace, Amanda and Fin laughed heartily until Major Mike Dodds brought their attention to the front of the plane where the warning light had just turned on. "Three minutes to the drop zone, crew!"

"I got this," Fin volunteered, unbuckling his harness and stepping over to sit next to Liv. "Liv, three minutes."

A gentle poke to her shoulder made the Colonel sit up with a start, stretching casually after overcoming a brief moment of disorientation. Yawning while unbuckling her harness, she nodded at Fin before pushing herself into a standing position. "Everyone gear up!" she called, surveying her team. Noticing the pallor of her newest recruit, she questioned, "Hey Carisi, everything alright?"

Carisi nodded faintly at his CO and everyone moved to put on their last pieces of equipment, a little bit of tension hanging in the air, but every single movement was calm and practiced, perfected in hundreds of training hours.

However, after having grabbed his gear, he watched her again with a bit of wonder on his face; catching him staring at her, Liv stepped over to Sonny. "You okay to make this jump, Lieutenant?"

Carisi blushed, returning a little bit of colour to his face. "Of course, Ma'am. Just a little jealous that you were able to sleep on the transport."

Olivia chuckled. "When you've been on as many transports as I have Carisi, you'll be able to sleep like a log too." Liv gave him a brief, encouraging smile before turning to her unit. "Okay crew, last minute checks. We're almost there."

She stepped over to Dodds to confirm the last minute details and check in with the pilot. Only a minute later, a loud warning sign resounded in the plane and the loading ramp was opened after everyone had hooked into the safety ropes. Carisi squinted against the sudden light that flooded the plane while Amanda in front of him was putting her combat helmet on, smiling at him over her shoulder. Olivia was standing at the front of the group with Fin, ready to jump first, and soon the light next to the exit switched to green. Turning to her unit, she let them confirm with a hand signal that they were ready, and a grin appeared on her face.

"See you at the ground," she exclaimed and Fin stretched his arm, bumping his fist against hers with a wide smirk.

Some people might think she was crazy, but her favourite part of a mission was the jump. She had ultimate faith in the preparation of everyone around her; she felt comfortable just enjoying the relative calm of the fall through the air before the chaos that was always waiting for them on the ground. After all, one of the most elite units in the United States Army wasn't called into action for routine operations.

This time the stakes were even higher than usual. Another elite unit on a classified mission was unable to meet their scheduled transport and now Liv's crew were tasked with getting them to a new rendezvous point.

After a short sprint down the ramp, Olivia jumped and then there was nothing but air around her; a familiar tingle rose in her stomach and she allowed herself to enjoy it for a moment before she had to concentrate again. The cold wind was rushing around her as she checked her surroundings, spotting all five of her soldiers close to her.

Unfortunately, the free fall was over way too soon for her liking; after a look at her altimeter, she opened her parachute and mentally prepared herself for leading the little group towards their planned landing coordinates. These were the last few moments to breathe through, and all her years of experience had shown her that it was important to take this time.

She closed her eyes briefly, counting to five. When she opened them again the landing site was directly underneath them. 'Just a few more seconds,' she said to herself, positioning her hands to unbuckle the parachute as soon as her boots hit the dirt.

A minute later all six crew members were safely on the ground, unhooked from their parachutes, and busy doing their pre-assigned tasks securing the jump site while Liv and Dodds confirmed their exact location with the GPS unit.

"We're a little bit off from our planned landing zone." Dodds frowned, causing Olivia to cock an eyebrow and take the GPS from her second in command's hand.

"Three hundred meters? Stop being so picky, Major," she replied with a smirk before signalling the others to get into formation. "Two clicks to our target, let's move quickly."

"Copy that," the soldiers behind her mumbled and Dodds took the lead, the unit moving quickly through the high grass, weapons at the ready. Even though they'd been briefed about the situation and knew that they would probably have no problems reaching the other team's position, they were ready for any surprises.

Olivia allowed Dodds to take the reins for navigation, though out of habit she kept checking their course from her position at the back of the group. She needn't have worried; if there was one thing predictable about Major Michael Dodds, it was his attention to detail.

Just over halfway to the target location Tutuola grabbed Dodds' pack, slowing him down. "Major, there's movement in the tree line at two o'clock."

Immediately the group came to a halt, surveying the landscape for any irregularities.

Rollins was the first to pull out her binoculars. "It's Unit Beta, Sir. They must not have reached the meeting point yet."

Benson looked through her own binoculars. "You're right, Rollins. Guess we were just too quick for them, though that's no surprise." The group exchanged cocky smirks. "Dodds, proceed along our route. We'll make contact as planned."

It didn't take long for them to reach the meeting point, their pace having been high. The moment they stepped onto the little meadow, they could see a second group approaching them. One of the soldiers was being carried by his comrades, obviously injured, and Olivia stepped out from behind Dodds, a light frown crossing over her face as she saw a man separating from the group the moment Liv's team paramedic made his way over to the wounded soldier.

"What, you're our cavalry? We're doomed."

She knew this voice all too well, and she could barely keep herself from glaring at the man, his arrogant grin making her want to punch him – a reaction she seemed to have regularly around him.

"Doomed? We're not the ones with an injured soldier, needing to be escorted home from a mission thank you very much," she replied, not impressed with the attitude shown by the commander of Unit Beta. Olivia wasn't sure why she had higher expectations from Lieutenant Colonel Rafael Barba, when he continually showed her how much of a nuisance he could be.

They were now standing practically nose to nose, glaring at each other while the members of their units moved around them not paying any attention to the commanders. This was not the first time the units had crossed paths, and unfortunately, Barba and Benson tended to butt heads at every opportunity.

"If someone had told me beforehand that I'm here to save your ass I would have declined," Olivia hissed, forcing herself to move her finger away from the trigger of her rifle, having a look at what her team was doing from the corner of her eye.

"Oh, now I feel insulted. Many women would die to have something to do with my ass." Rafael looked more smug than she'd thought possible and she rolled her eyes, pushing her way past him so her shoulder bumped against his hard.

"Dodds, how far are you? I don't want to stay here longer than necessary."

"Two more minutes, Ma'am. They're trying to get the bleeding under control."

Olivia acknowledged him with a curt nod, reminding herself to calm down and just breathe – she would only have to deal with Lieutenant Colonel Smartass for a few hours and then he would be out of her hair. At least until the next time she had to save his ass.

Rollins approached her tentatively, likely due to the scowl on her face. Schooling her features, Olivia focused on her subordinate, determined to be a professional.

"Ma'am, Carisi and I have evaualated the terrain and conferred with Unit Beta's field officers, conditions are favourable to continue the rescue mission as scheduled. As soon as Miller is stabilized, that is."

Before Liv could respond Barba interjected. "Unit Beta? As the first unit in the area, I think you will find that my unit should be addressed as Unit Alpha, Lieutenant."

Benson rolled her eyes. "Yes, well since my unit is the one in charge as of now and running this operation, we will be referred to as Unit Alpha. Lieutenant Colonel."

"Do you really have to discuss this now?" Major Rita Calhoun, Barba's second in command, asked with an annoyed undertone in her voice. "There certainly are more important things to take care of right now."

Olivia nodded curtly, keeping her mouth shut, especially as she sensed that Barba felt tempted to say something. This man was one of the most effective soldiers she'd met so far, but he was also so competitive and arrogant that he managed to annoy her constantly; working with him was hard, and she was glad that there were only very few occasions that they had to meet each other.

"We're ready, Ma'am!" Dodds informed her, and she signaled him to take the lead again. Rollins and Carisi moved to the front of the group with Dodds, the two soldiers carrying the stretcher with the wounded man following them.

Olivia decided to walk behind them, silently hoping that Barba would save his breath for the march to their meeting point with the chopper, but the moment the group started moving, she could hear him mumbling something. Completely against her will, the words 'oxygen thief' slipped from her lips, and she regretted saying them a mere second later.

"Oxygen thief? Benson, I thought your insults would be better than that!" Barba muttered, falling into step beside her and sliding his sunglasses onto his face.

"You know Barba, not everyone spends their free time thinking up smart ass comments for every opportunity." She scoffed, keeping watch on him from the corner of her eye, not fooled by his apparent disinterest in their surroundings. He may look like he was taking a leisurely hike in the woods, but like her he was always in tune with his surroundings.

Barba snorted in response and opened his mouth to retort but Liv beat him to it.

"How'd you get into this mess in the first place? Did you know I was on call this week and just couldn't wait to see me?"

A chuckle escaped him and even though he was wearing his sunglasses, she knew that his green eyes were gleaming with amusement. "You highly overestimate my feelings for you, Benson. I don't miss you enough to nearly get caught by the enemy only so you can rescue me."

"My heart is aching," Olivia mumbled with a fake hurt sigh, turning her head to the side only to spot how Calhoun rolled her eyes at them – she'd witnessed their bickering many times before and didn't bother to conceal what she thought about it. Looking over her shoulder, the officer made eye contact with her and her expression seemed to tell her 'Get a room', which confused Olivia highly.

Suddenly, a high whistling sound directed her attention to her surroundings, accompanied by a yell of: "Grenade!"

Chaos seemed to erupt from all around them, small explosions somehow forming a circle around the two units, the soldiers in front of them throwing themselves onto the ground.

"How the hell-?" Liv didn't get a chance to finish her question. Barba dove for cover and grabbed her elbow, pulling her down with him. Not three seconds later, the path they were walking on was nothing but a pile of rubble and a cloud of dust surrounded them, causing them to cough.

"Keep your head down!" he yelled, feeling her shift, correctly assuming she wanted to check the status of their soldiers.

"I just don't understand where the fuck they came from," Olivia said under her breath –

she'd thought they had been alert and careful on their trek. Obviously not.

"To answer your earlier question of how I got into this mess – it started kind of like this."

To Be Continued...