Flash Forward

"Lock this building down, now! Move to the Citadel! Increase to Condition Omicron! Transfer control to Citadel! Confirm?"

"Confirmed. Signal away. Transfer is complete. Lockdown has been initiated. Stations reporting Omicron Status."

"Confirm locations and statuses of all Alpha Whites, Greys and Blacks."

"We have confirmed reports already in, all Alpha Whites confirmed, awaiting on Greys, all Blacks confirmed."

"Who hasn't confirmed?" This was not good.

"Alpha Grey Sierra and Alpha Grey Yankee." Definitely not good.

Tim stood in his kitchen, feeling relaxed for the first time in ten weeks. In the last ten weeks, he had been transferred once, went back to his old job and then got himself a new one. In the same time, he had caught another traitor and fired a former teammate. Somehow, he had found the time to write personal development plans for more than thirty members of the Special Operations in Camp Pendleton, redesign the plans for the CTOC team in Jacksonville before he left, as well as arrange the transfer of belongings of two people into one brand new apartment.

Tim watched as Cassie and his mother set up the second bedroom, having come to an agreement with two out of the four most important women in his personal life. He let them do what they like to the apartment, but no pink, no animal print, and stay away from the kitchen and the den. As this gave them complete control of the bedrooms, bathrooms, living and dining area, the women agreed to this demand.

Sarah, the third woman in his life, had decided to stay away from Tims place, still not having got the keys to her own new apartment. Tims dad had volunteered to help, but looking at his wife, he opted for a round of golf.

"What a marvellous idea, sweetheart. The best idea you have ever had after proposing to me," purred the wife of the highest ranked man in the navy.

This left Tim alone with his mother and his girlfriend. And he couldn't be happier. The kitchen had been completed before they had moved in, Tim having had it redone, removing the spare closet and including a breakfast bar. Tim liked the new arrangement, giving both him and Cassie more room in the mornings for coffee and the gadgets, as his dad referred to the collection of smartphones, tablets and laptops that the two people had between them.

Tim leant against the granite worktop, his legs resting against the cherry finish doors, he looked out into the rest of the apartment. Out of the corner of his eye, Tim could see the open door to the den, or at least, thats what it had been. Tim had transformed the den into the home office, installing the two PCs with extra screens, along with the printer/scanner, additional power outlets, and, of course, Tims bookcases. The computers had all the latest security updates, as well as Tims personal ones. After all, a man in Tims position had to be extra vigilant about his security.

Tim watched as Cassie and his mom stood in the living area, the doors open to the bedrooms, waving their hands, conducting a very bizarre silent orchestra. He couldn't hear them because he had his headphones on, the latest Caro Emerald album keeping him company while he cooked. Tim had the extractor fan on, but the scent of lamb, rosemary and garlic filled the apartment. Twenty minutes earlier, Tim had prepared the shoulders of lamb, coating them in olive oil, spearing them with garlic cloves and rosemary twigs. This had been covered and put in the oven for the next three and half hours. Dinner would be ready by 7, Tim knew. The sweet potatoes and white potatoes were in the pans, while the broccoli, savoy cabbage and curly kale were in the steamer. Tim planned to feed the four of them tonight, with Sarah planning on going out with her new work friends.

Tim turned away from the conductors of "Renovation Symphony" and focused on dessert. Tonight, he was making tiramisu ice cream cake, Martha Stewarts own recipe. This would be his piece de resistance, if he could do this well, he was going to start in on the layered cake recipes. Thank god he and Cassie worked out, otherwise they would fail their physicals with all the dessert making that Tim did. He and Cassie had already checked out the buildings fitness centre, making sure it was well equipped for each of them. Tim was already booked in for PT training with a Marine and a Navy PT instructor, seeing the benefits of combining both. Cassie would continue with her mixture of Federal hand to hand training along with physical takedowns with the Navy instructor.

Tim reached into the fridge, pulling out the bottle of an Oakwood Pinot Grigio, a moving gift from Penny, the fourth woman in his life. She was, as usual, not in the United States, but in Spain, attending a conference on something Tim didn't quite follow. As usual though, she sent a small gift as a welcome gift. This time, it had been several bottles of wine, along with a selection of cheese and crackers. In Jacksonville, it had been a bedding set, along with cushions, at college, it had been hoodies. Tim loved these gifts, holding onto all those that he could.

As Tim poured the wine into three glasses, he looked up to see his mother smiling at him. He took off the headphones while saying, "Mom?". Alice reached for two of the glasses, one for her and one for Cassie, responding to her son,

"Hum, don't sing, Tim. You have many talents, but the ability to sing in tune is not one of them."

Alice turned and headed for the main bedroom, still bonding with her future daughter-in-law. They had only been officially living together for four days, but Alice knew this was the real thing. She had never seen Timothy so relaxed.

Flashforward

"Shock her again."

"No output."

"360."

"Charging, clear?"

WHOOMPF!

"We have an output."

"Rapid infuser, get that blood into her. Tell the OR we are coming down. If we don't go now, she won't come back next time."

"We have more wounded coming in."

Authors note.

Thank you to all the reviews that have come in. I know I left you all with a cliffhanger, but you will have to wait a little longer.