"You gonna tell me what your problem is?" Clay reluctantly asked Sonny, while spotting him on him bench press. Sonny had been pushing himself harder than normal in the gym today, obviously irritated, but not letting the rest of the team in on his frustrations.

"Nope", Sonny replied, in between rep sets.

"Come on, man. This mood you're in is bad juju for the team. Spill. Maybe I can help." Clay knew not to press too hard, but he could also tell that Sonny needed to get something off of his chest.

Sonny stared up at his buddy through his sunglasses, silently debating if he wanted to open up to Clay.

Another set of reps.

This was uncharted territory for Sonny Quinn and he could use some advice, but was it worth risking the truth getting out? Fraternization was against rules and what the SEAL had been doing recently with another member of his unit was most definitely above and beyond the definition of 'fraternize'.

Another set of reps.

"Fine." Sonny caved as he extended his arms upward, holding the barbell in place above him. He racked the barbell and sat up on the weight bench letting out a deep groan as he stretched out his toned upper body. Sonny continued, "I need some relationship advice".

The younger SEAL let out hearty laugh, "Did you just use the word 'relationship'?"

"Man, I knew this was a bad idea! Just forget ab-".

"No, dude I'm sorry," Clay interjected. "I shouldn't have laughed, it just... caught me off guard. What relationship are you in? With wh-".

Sonny immediately held up a hand towards Clay to put a stop to his inquiry. "Whoa there, pal. Let me do the talkin' for now."

"Yeah, okay. Go for it." Clay sat down on the adjacent weight bench, eager to hear what Sonny had to say.

Sonny ran his hand through sweat soaked hair, "Alright. I started... seeing someone recently. Exclusively." Clay's brows perked at that last word, something else he didn't expect to hear out of his senior team member. "It's going real good, ya know? She's smart, and funny... beautiful...", a slight grin crossed his face, "and she tolerates me, which is still kinda unbelievable. Had a small hiccup early on, but worked it out. The past four weeks or so have been damn near perfect."

"I'm sorry to butt in, but what part of this picture perfect story requires advice? From me, no less?"

"I'm getting there, Spenser." Sonny stood up from his bench and took a few steps, turned around and faced Clay again. "I think she's leaving and I'm not sure what to do about it."

"Leaving?"

"Yeah, like a job transfer sorta thing." Sonny obviously couldn't give Clay the actual details or he would know who the mystery woman is. "She just might not be around much, or at all, soon and, I don't know, do we break up? Cut ties now avoid the drama? Try to make it work and just wait until we drift apart?"

Clay realized the seriousness in Sonny's tone and stood to meet him eye-to-eye. "Damn, man, that's, um, that's a hard situation to handle. Four weeks together isn't necessarily commitment worthy, but it's long enough to have some real feelings. I assume that you do have real feelings for this girl? It's not just a fling?"

"Definitely not a fling," Sonny quickly replied, which seemed to have shocked him just as much as Clay. There was no reason to deny it, what they had was more than a fling. Well, Sonny hoped it was more than a fling, but she was thinking about leaving the team so perhaps she didn't feel the same way about him. Just thinking about it again was causing more confusion to rush through Sonny's head.

"I'm gonna be honest, bro. I was not the best choice for this conversation. My last relationship ended with me getting dumped, followed by meaningless hookups and a lot of hangovers. I'm still very anti-relationships now."

Sonny hung his head in frustration, "Ya got nothin' for me?"

"It's a catch 22. She takes the job and you risk breaking up, or she doesn't take the job and may resent you for not encouraging her to take it. Sorry, man."

"You're good Spence, at least you haven't busted my balls about all this yet. I'll beat you senseless if you tell the other guys, though."

Clay raised both hands in submission, letting Sonny know that he would respect his wishes.

"I have an idea that may help you, though. Give me a sec." Clay took off for the door without another word.

A few moments later Sonny heard Clay's voice from down the hall. When he came through the door to the gym he had someone with him. It was Davis. "Come on," Clay said to her, "Sonny could use your help".

"Sonny?" Davis asked, looking up through entryway. She locked eyes with Sonny across the room, the concern was evident on her face. "Sonny, what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Sonny exclaimed, taking a few quick steps towards Davis and Clay. "'Ain't nothin' wrong. Spenser and I were just shooting the shit. I hit him with a hypothetical question and he wasn't any help. That's all. We're done here." Sonny tried to sidestep the pair to avoid anymore questions, but Clay grabbed hold of his arm.

"Wait a minute," Clay said, "You told me not to involve the other guys, so I did you one better. Besides, Davis already busts your balls, so it'll be nothing new." Clay smiled, showing off his pearly white teeth, thinking that he'd done something good. Little did he know... "Davis has known you for a while and she's a woman, so chances are she'll be able to help with your relationship problem better than me."

Davis looked at Clay with a furrowed brow, then back to Sonny with a mixture of fear and confusion. "Relationship problem?! Sonny, what the hell is he talking about?"

He couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't blink. Training was kicking in; counter interrogation, evasive maneuvers, fight or flight. Sonny panicked. Clay had unintentionally opened the biggest can of worms possible and still just stood there smiling. He had no clue that Davis was the woman that Sonny had been talking about whole time, that the two of them were an item for the past several weeks, or that she may be leaving the team for Officer Candidate School very soon. And the last thing they could do right now is let him find out. It was, unfortunately, illegal for two military personnel on the same team to have a relationship of any kind.

Lisa Davis wasn't quick to defy the UCMJ or risk her career, especially for a guy, but Sonny wasn't just 'some guy'. Sonny was her best friend, her colleague, her confidant, a person that she trusted with her life, literally on several occasions, her family. After nearly nine years, the only thing they hadn't done together, until recently, was date. She knew what they were doing was wrong, but everything about it felt more than right. Davis did make a feeble attempt to tell Sonny that they couldn't cross that line, there were too many risks, but when things started to get real there was no denying that they fit together in way that neither of them could have ever imagined.

Clay finally stopped smiling and chimed in again, "Sonny here is in a potentially serious relationship with a woman that could be leaving him for a new job soon, and he's trying to decide if he should keep her or drop before things ultimately go South."

"That... No... That's not exactly what I said there, Spencer. I um..." Sonny paused, trying to find the right words that wouldn't make this situation any worse. "... What I said was that I wasn't sure what could happen with said girl if she chose to take a job that could interfere with said relationship. See totally different." All Sonny could do was stare at Davis pleadingly, hoping that she didn't leave him right then and there for even mentioning any of this to Clay. There was a long, awkward pause.

Davis was just as unsure about the situation as he was and had to choose her responses carefully, so nothing triggered with Clay. "Well, Sonny, for starters I'm a little hurt, to be honest."

Oh, shit. Sonny went pale, his palms started sweating, anticipating the wrath that could be cast upon him with what she said next. He braced for impact.

"I'm hurt that after all this time...", she glanced at Clay, "... working together... you didn't choose to come to me first."

Sonny peaked up from his cower. She was very serious about him talking not coming to her, but playing along to save face at the same time. "You, Davis," he pointed towards her, "are absolutely right. I should have. It's all you next time. Promise." A real apology was needed, but there's no way that a sincere 'I'm sorry' wouldn't have seemed weird between the two. Clay was smart enough to pick up on that. Sonny made a mental reminder to squeeze that apology into every conversation with Davis from now until she thought he'd graveled enough.

"Yeah, it better be." She grinned in Sonny's directions, being certain not to attract Clay's attention. Sonny's dirty gym shoes suddenly became his main focus as stared down at them intently, trying to cover his own grin and lightly flushed cheeks.

Clay found his moment to step in and he looked at Davis, "Can you help or not?"

Davis cleared her throat, and wiped the smile from her lips, cautiously planning her next move. Being too direct may scare him and not being direct enough could leave room for interpretation. "You really want to make it work with this woman?"

"I do."

"Then make sure you tell her that." The deep gaze between Sonny and Davis across the gym was intense. Neither wanting to be the first to look away. Davis continued, "You don't get to decide her future, Sonny, but I'm sure that she would like to know that you want to be apart of it."

"Roger that, Davis." Sonny's voice was low and raspy. "She'll know."

Davis slowly nodded, still fixated on Sonny's eyes. "Happy to help." She knew that the tension in the room needed to be broken before it got awkward with Clay standing there. She turned toward the door and took a few steps, but turned back to address Sonny one last time. "Sonny, she's very lucky to have you in her life. You should know that." With that Davis left the room leaving Sonny with the answers he was looking for. He knew that no matter Davis' decision on OCS they would find a way to stay together.