Haven't you ever felt that way about someone before?

It's only now, with the mission complete and his team safely in the air, that he allows himself to acknowledge Vargas' words. His focus in the moment had been on the job at hand. He was a professional; the best of the best, the tip of the spear. He didn't get distracted. But now, with anything even remotely resembling a threat to his team 12,000 feet below them, the words stuck in his head.

Haven't you ever felt that way about someone before?

He wanted to say no. He wanted to be able to honestly say no. To say that he would never prioritize the life of an individual over the lives of many. That he wouldn't even think about risking the greater good for one person. He wanted to be able to say no. He NEEDED to be able to say no. His job, his team, and the work they did every day, contingent on his ability to prioritize. He needed to be able to say that no, he had never felt that way about someone.

But he couldn't. Not honestly at least, not anymore. Not with her in the copilots seat next to him. He wasn't sure when it had started. They'd been working together for years and it hadn't always been like this. He hadn't always felt like this. But then they'd shipped her best friend home in a body bag and they had watched her heart break. And he thinks it cracked his a little too.

And then there was the beach. He'd seen a truck and he'd done the right thing. He'd done his job. He told them to grab the kids, to get them clear, and they had. But in the seconds right after, before his ears stopped ringing, before the sand settled, his eyes had searched not for injuries or secondary threats, but for her. He didn't mention that he didn't react, couldn't react or think or even breathe until he had seen her pushing herself back onto her feet. Until her eyes had found his, until he knew that she was okay, he forgot everything he had been trained to do. For those few seconds he had of her life and no one else's. And that was dangerous.

Haven't you ever felt that way about someone before?

He needed to be able to say no.