I do not own The Brave...but I do own any mistakes that have been made :)

"People like us don't do powerless very well."

It was still early when Jaz started to wake up, the sun was starting to creep over the horizon, but it wasn't quite beating down on her back from the window behind her yet. So, why did she feel like she had a furnace blazing against her skin?

Dalton was almost instantly aware of his surroundings when he woke. Part of it was a hazard of the job, the other part was that he was 100% aware of the woman currently stretching like a cat in the sun against him. And it was in that moment of full stretch that said woman realized their current predicament.

Dalton was firmly pressed up against her back and she had just raised a very real and prominent issue with just enough direct contact. It was unintentional on both their parts, or at least that's what their body language screamed as they both froze and waited for someone to respond.

"Top,"

"Jaz, I'm..."

They both sputtered out at the same time.

Dalton held up a hand and she turned carefully so as not to make the situation any more awkward, but the low groan emanating from her CO told her that she was failing at said mission.

"Sorry." She stated with a sleepy smile as a light flush colored her cheeks.

Dalton cleared his throat and said, "No, I'm sorry. I didn't intend to stay here all night. You were having a nightmare. I was just going to see if you wanted to talk, but..."

There was no explanation he could give. Spending five seconds in her bed would have been inappropriate and yet he'd spent the whole night.

"Top, thank you. It's the best night of sleep I've had in weeks." Jaz replied as she tried to ease his mind.

In the light of day, she could almost hear the gears turning in his big, messy, complicated head.

He was already calling himself names and berating himself for crossing a line with a subordinate. And maybe he was...or they were. Whatever, in their line of work there is little comfort to be had and she damn sure wasn't going to apologize for a good night of sleep. They would all be better for it in the long run.

"You know it's not like anything happened." Jaz added.

"No, but clearly it crossed my mind, or...something." Dalton said as he waved a hand towards his lower body which was blessedly still being camouflaged by the sheet on her bed.

"Oh come on. Like that doesn't happen when you're alone in your own bed." She laughed.

Now a faint blush rose up on Dalton's cheeks as he laughed.

"It's not like I'm some teenager. I do have some self control." Dalton grumbled as he sat up and turned his back to her.

"I know that you idiot. I'm just saying I know it wasn't me. You're off the hook." Jaz said as she tried to diffuse the situation.

Dalton stood up abruptly trying to put some distance between them and started to walk towards the door. He stopped and took a breath before he looked back at her and smiled.

"I never said it wasn't you."

He left her dumbfounded as he stepped out into the hall and softly closed the door behind him to make his way back to his own bed. He was hoping that the rest of the team had not been aware of his absence.

"Morning Top."

No such luck...

Preach's greeting came from the kitchen as Dalton halted in his tracks and glanced in his direction. There was a knowing look in his eye, but he refrained from broaching the subject for which he was thankful. He was still trying to wrap his head around what he had been thinking the night before. Fortunately, Preach was the only one awake, Dalton wasn't sure the others would have been so quick to let it go if they had known.

"Morning." Dalton said as he rubbed his beard and started back on his path toward a hot shower.

He didn't see the smile on Preach's face as he watched him walk back to his quarters.

Neither Dalton nor Jaz had a lot of time to evaluate what happened that morning, or how they came to find themselves in that situation, because they got called out to the Ukraine for a new mission just hours later.

They were tasked with locating Cassie Connors and bringing her back to safety after her entire team was executed by the Russians, who were clearly determined to find the young agent first.

To say it didn't go as planned was an understatement, but the woman was a force. Dalton couldn't help but admire her determination and quick thinking.

Not unlike a certain raven haired sniper ninja who seemed to have invaded every corner of his psyche in the last few months. He wasn't sure when things started to change exactly, but he knew that they were changing.

He also knew that it was wrong.

He was her CO, and any lines crossed could put them all in danger, but with every rationalization he made in his mind there was another thought that entered into the fray. That was the first real nights sleep he'd had in he didn't know when. Months? Years?

Was that bad for the team? The answer was no.

He also knew that was exactly how more lines got crossed.

Jaz spent a good portion of the trip back to Turkey thinking about that morning she'd woken up blissfully warm wrapped up in Adam Dalton's arms.

She knew it was all kinds of wrong, but the more she thought about it the harder it was for her to just cast it off as a mistake. He hadn't done it with some plot to corrupt her, and let's face it she was corrupted long before Dalton ever became a fixture in her life.

It's not like he crawled into her bed with the intent to seduce her. He'd simply intended to comfort a friend. And that's what they were. Yes, he was her CO, but there was a mutual respect between them that went well beyond rank or experience.

Dalton didn't see her as a woman who happened to be a top notch sniper. He saw a top notch sniper. Period.

In her experience, most of the men she had served with always saw her as a woman first and as a sniper only after she saved their asses.

Usually several times.

And even then, as soon as the hail of enemy fire was over it was back to snide remarks and leering looks. With Dalton, and really the entire team it had never been that way.

Part of that was the team as a whole having a mutual respect for one another, but another bigger part of the picture started at the top. If Dalton had treated her the way her past CO's had that door might have been opened.

But he hadn't.

Not once.

As soon as they landed back at their home base, Jaz took off in search of a hot shower. She was starving, but nothing felt better than washing the mess of a shit day (or several in their case) from your skin. Sure, they'd gotten Cassie out safely, but not without a lot of effort, too many close calls, and a good amount of head butting among them.

She felt bad for going against Dalton. She knew it had been wrong, but sometimes she let her emotions rule when logic says the best thing to do is sit tight.

She doesn't do sitting tight well.

The only time that works for her is when she is in a sniper's nest waiting for a target to step into her site line.

Then it's game on.

But this had been different. There was a woman out there on her own and no matter how capable she was, and Cassie had proven herself a very worthy adversary for a veritable army of Russian mercs on her trail, she was still out there all alone and injured. It was hard for Jaz to just sit back knowing that it was different for women in their situation.

She didn't want the men around her to acknowledge that, but she knew that no matter how skilled she or Cassie were they were never on equal footing if they were captured by a bunch of armed men. All she wanted was to make sure the army hunting for Cassie didn't get that opportunity.

She knew that the guys in her unit wanted the same thing, but she vented her frustrations in a manner that wasn't exactly constructive and Top made sure to call her, and really all of them on it. At least their morning hadn't changed that.

So, once she was showered and had some time to think, she made her way out to find Dalton and make sure he knew that she hadn't meant to question his decision.

She owed him an apology.

She spotted him over by the old dilapidated grill trying...and failing to teach Patton some manners.

"Seems like no one wants to listen to you." She said with a smirk.

"Yeah, I'm sensing a pattern."

She could tell he was going to let her off the hook easy, but she needed to say what she came out there to say. She owed him the words, and she meant them.

"Listen, I was wrong to question you when we were waiting on DC."

"You were frustrated." He corrected, again trying to let her off the hook.

"I was wrong. Doing nothing was the right call. It was your call and I'm sorry."

He heard her, she knew he did, but he still let it play off as a joke.

"What was that? I thought I heard something..." he said as he cast a brilliant smile in her direction.

"I don't think anyone said anything." She said glancing over her shoulder as she laughed with him.

For the second time in the last few days, Preach looked on casting a knowing glance at the pair. They may not be ready to see what was before them, but he saw it.

The moment had passed and Jaz could tell Dalton had something more serious on his mind as he looked back in her direction. He didn't talk about himself much, but for whatever reason, he cracked the door on his past for her in that moment.

His eyes were cast down when he started to talk, but she made sure to keep her eyes focused on him. If he was willing to open up to her, she would damn sure give him her full attention.

"Look when I was a kid, my old man used to get sloppy as hell. Only thing I could do was wait. Just sit there, take whatever he threw at me, let it pass. Sometimes, all you can do is wait."

She smiled at him and said, "People like us don't do powerless very well."

He laughed as he pulled dinner off the grill and started to walk away before he threw back, "Ya think."

They were more alike than either of them had been aware. It was in part why they worked so well together. And it was also what had started to draw them closer together.

Dalton wasn't an open book, and it was a rarity that he opened up about himself to anyone. Jaz knew that, so it was difficult for her to put away the story he'd just shared. She wanted more than anything to put her arms around that little boy that peeked his head through the door he'd opened, she just wasn't sure he would let her.