It had been a long six months in some respects and in others it went by in the blink of an eye. After the team was left devastated by Preach's injuries and uncertainty of his comatose state, they found themselves picking up the pieces. After a grueling 36 hours, the doctors decided to wean Preach off his ventilator. As McG advised the team, the sooner he was breathing on his own the better. Sometimes being on a vent for an extended period could be more detrimental to the healing process.
By the time his wife and daughters arrived in Turkey, Preach's breathing was assisted by only a nasal cannula. Besides a nasty concussion and lung damage, Preach's condition wasn't as severe as the team originally imagined. It would take several months to let his lungs heal properly and a bit of PT before he was released for duty, but it was already looking promising that he could return to the line of duty if he chose to.
After a few days of the team hovering over him at the hospital, he was flown back home to Bethesda where he would remain until he was released from the hospital. Amir, McG, Jaz, and Dalton were left to sift through the quonset hut and pack up whatever was still salvageable. It was a weird sensation for the four to finish a tour of duty in this manner. There was no last BBQ, with horseshoes and BSing around the fire. No shared lists of things they were going to accomplish while on leave. And no talking of plans to get together at some point just because. No, they all felt this goodbye in Turkey would be different. They could feel it in their bones.
The team packed up and headed to DC for their post-tour debriefing. It took 4 full days to run through all the details of the last year. There was the loss of Elijah, the near catastrophe in Afghanistan, Jaz's torture and recue in Tehran which also included the suspension of the Deputy Director, and because that wasn't enough they went over in excruciating detail ever moment of the Hoffman case. From the team sneaking him onto base, Patricia's flight over the Atlantic while keeping the DIA and her Special Ops team in the dark, and the moments that led to a bomb going off on a US base injuring and nearly killing part of their team. Luckily for Dalton the DIA didn't do a deep dive into the murder of Hoffman. They were satisfied that the man they killed nearly a decade ago was truly and actually dead.
By the end of the week the team was physically and emotionally exhausted. A lot of their actions over the last year were called into question. Did they have too long of a leash? Was the Deputy Director fit to lead such a group? Should the five of them be allowed to remain as a team on their next deployment or was it time to split them up? There was so much uncertainty going into this leave, that it left the team a bit rattled.
Amir thought he had finally found himself a home, working with a team instead of being undercover by himself. He enjoyed having others to lean on, instead of running through every scenario by himself. Maybe a few months off, home in Lebanon with his family would put everything into perspective. He had questioned Top on several of his decision throughout the year and after that debriefing he was left with more questions about his team than security.
McG couldn't wait to blow off some steam. Yes, the team made some risky decisions but they got the job done and were the most successful Special Ops team in rotation. He knew it and the DIA knew it. Sometimes being successful meant taking a few liberties. He knew eventually the higher ups would cool off and by the time the team returned to action all the dust would have settled. He just wanted to forget all the things that went wrong on this deployment by spending a little quality time in Vegas. His ticket was booked and he couldn't wait to hop on the plane to Nevada. Eventually he knew he'd end up back in Montana but not before he decompressed and shook off everything that weighed him down from this deployment. This was probably the hardest one he had been through.
Jaz felt defeated after this deployment. As soon as she thought things couldn't get harder they did. Losing her best friend created a hole in her heart that she was sure would never heal. Being a woman in the military she always had to prove herself and after losing Elijah the need to prove she wasn't weak was overwhelming. She needed to get the shot of Jarif and when Top scolded her in front of the team she couldn't help but try and prove she could handle any mission thrown at her. It was her decisions that put her team at risk trying to rescue her, and it was because of her that Hossein was dead. She also couldn't help but feel guilty for Preach's injuries as well. She admitted weakness; she told Captain Martin she was afraid of losing her guys and then she almost lost one. If only she was stronger, if only she would have been a better soldier, maybe, just maybe some of the sh*t that went down wouldn't have. She was determined to use this leave to better herself, not for her own sake but for her team.
Dalton knew every decision rested on his shoulders. He started to wonder if he was playing it a little too loose. Did he let emotions cloud his judgement? Did he rush the team back into action too soon after Elijah's death? He was so angry and hurt that he lost one of his team members that he wanted to seek revenge on all of the bad guys of the world. He not only hurt for his loss but for the fact that his inability to keep his team safe caused Jaz to lose her best friend. He also knew he shouldn't have gone back for Jaz but there was no way his heart would let him leave her behind? And when Patricia asked him to hid a wanted man on base, he didn't even think twice about it. It was his choices that put his team at risk and it was his choices that left them where they were today. He needed to clear his head and realign his thinking to the soldier he was trained to be. This leave wouldn't be so much of a leave as it would be a training ground to get his team back in order when they redeployed. He was going to make things better and he wasn't going to let the same mistakes happen twice.
The team that departed DC was not the same team that would reunite in Turkey. No six months can change a person. And when you've been through the sh*t storm this team has, it can change a lot. They were going to have to learn to depend on each other, not just physically, but also emotionally. The walls that were built on leave would have to be broken down, even if some weren't ready for it. If they wanted to be better than last year they had a few lessons to learn. And sometimes lessons come at a pretty steep cost.