Friday evening

Jason yawned as he stepped off the plane with Ray and his teammates. All of them were worse for the wear, having been injured more than once while looking for the ones responsible for the murders of their brothers in Echo Team. But, they were all excited, too. They had avenged their friends, caught those responsible, and were ending their deployment two weeks earlier than expected. They were going home with their families that night. Everyone, except Jason. He had hoped that Alana would bring their kids to the airport to meet him- it wasn't like it was that late at night- but she was nowhere to be seen, and neither were his children.

Jason put on a smile as his team walked past him to find their families. Clay looked back as he joined Stella, a concerned look on his face, but Jason just shook his head and continued to smile. He watched as Lisa joined Danny and kissed him, watched as Mandy, Sonny and Eric all joined their loved ones. He sighed as they climbed into the waiting cars and left, one by one, leaving Jason and Ray behind.

"Hey, Jase, you okay?" asked Ray as he waved to Naima and their baby.

"Yeah, you go ahead. I'll see you on Monday," answered Jason with a forced smile. "Alana's just running late."

Ray frowned. "Don't lie to me, Jason."

"I'm not."

"You are. We're not leaving until you do."

"Ray..."

"No. If I tell Naima that you are going with Alana, she'll force you to come with us, and you know that."

"Alana and I agreed that she would come and pick me up so I could spend the weekend with my kids, and so we could talk about things. After the weekend, the kids were coming to spend the week with me while their mother was out of town on business in the apartment I found just before we deployed."

"Jason, I think that those plans may have changed," said Ray gently. "Alana isn't here to pick you up."

"She will be here... She has to be."

Ray just shook his head. "I'm going to cuddle Naima. Why don't you try calling Alana?"

Jason waited until Ray was talking to his wife, then stepped away to where he couldn't be seen. He pulled out his cell phone and found Alana's number, then waited as the phone continued to ring. When her voicemail message came on, Jason hung up, feeling hurt that she had decided to do things her way once again.

"Jason? Where are you?" called Ray a couple of minutes later.

Jason sighed. He stepped back into the carpark, phone in hand, and found not only Ray, but Naima looking for him. "Sorry, guys," he said, "I was on the phone."

"She didn't answer, did she?" Ray asked.

"No."

"Naima was telling me that she spoke to Alana this morning, after I called to let her know we were leaving Afghanistan."

"Did she say if she was coming?" Jason asked Naima.

"She said that she wasn't sure," admitted Naima, "she thinks that picking you up would give you the idea that she hasn't decided what to do about your relationship."

Jason didn't know what to say. He was shocked that Alana was acting like that, especially after their conversation before leaving Jalalabad.

"You're welcome to come home with us," said Naima, breaking through his thoughts. "You're always welcome."

"Thanks... Maybe I might just get a cab and go home. You guys need some time to be a family before I intrude again."

"You aren't intruding, Jase. You're my best friend," said Ray.

"Still, I think I just want to go home. I'll see you on Monday, Ray. Good night."

Jason didn't wait around to hear anything else. He walked off, calling a cab as he moved towards the front of the airport. He had no doubt that Ray would be following him, but he had meant it when he said that he wanted to be alone.

The drive to Jason's apartment was quick, since the apartment was closer to his work than the house had been, but it was painfully boring at the same time. He didn't have the distraction of his children wanting hugs and not wanting to leave his side, so his sadness was all he could think of. It was all-consuming, so that by the time the cab had dropped him off, Jason wanted nothing more than to drown his pain with alcohol.

Dropping his backpack by the front door, Jason made a beeline for the kitchen. He grabbed a six pack of beer from the fridge and returned to his couch, planning on staying there until he was numb and, preferably, asleep. He opened the first bottle and drank, feeling the coolness of the liquid burn his throat as it went down.

"You don't want me, Alana," he said to himself, "fine. But, you don't get to stop my kids from seeing me."