AUTHOR'S NOTE: I don't know if Brock has a wife in the series or what her name is and I haven't watched season 2 (so, no spoilers please). But in my book he does. Her name is Elena Reynolds, but she won't make an apprearance for a while.
Chapter Seven : Trigger Happy Nut
Leaning forward, gravity does it job within a split seconds as it sucks Theresa from the plane. Ice cold air nips at her cheeks, but dispite the cold an exhilarated smile was followed by the burst of adrenaline and excitement she felt. It didn't matter that she has parashooted out of a plane dozens of times before, it just felt as good as the first time.
Theresa pulled her shoot open, bracing herself for the abrupt pull upwards when the shoot was filled with air. Looking through the green haze that her night vision goggles provided, she quickly focused her mind to her mission.
When they unhooked their shoots as they dropped down on the ground, they took off their oxygen masks and Theresa was glad to be breathing normal air again - even if is was a little more poluted than the air back home. Even thought she was used to it, the oxygen mask still made her feel uncomfortable and she prefered to use it only when neccesary.
Bravo quickly and quietly made their way to the hospital. In the silence of the night, the only thing that could be heard - if you searched for it - was the rapid breathing of the team and Cerberus' soft whines everytime he smelt something he didn't like.
The team stopped behind a piece of what was once part of a building as they all took a quick breather. Jason walked up to the doctor as Theresa eyed him, "Hey, I think making these things breathable defeats the purpose. You okay? If I'm a little nervous about walking into a building full of spilled nerve agent, I guess I'm in the wrong line of work, right?"
"You're gonna be okay." Jason tried to assure him but the terrified look on his eyes remained.
Theresa rolled her eyes and stepped forward, gesturing with her head for Jason to move away when she lifted her night vision goggles from her eyes. As much as she loves him, as much as she trusts him and is loyal to him and as fantastic of a job he - Alana helped, but it was mostly Jason - did with raising her through the hardest part of her life, he didn't exactly know how to be touchy-feely with people he didn't know.
The female Seal didn't know either, if she was being honest. It was hard for her to open up to people outside of Jason - even to Alana, Brock and the rest of Bravo and her first shrink said something about forming a life long bond with Jason because she saw him as her savior, which didn't make a lick of sense because she's never been a damsel, but whatever. Point is, Theresa figured that she can't make the doctor any worse than he already was.
"Hey doc," She gave him a smile, flipping Brock off behind her back - making sure Lucien didn't see her - when she heard his poor effort to disguise his laughter, obviously knowing what she was about to attempt.
"Miss Kane." He nodded at her, letting out a shakey breath.
She hid a smile at that, no one ever called her Miss. "Do you think that I'm brave? At any of us are?" Theresa gestured around them to point to Bravo.
"Yeah, I-i guess." He frowned at her, not understanding what she was trying to do. Maybe she was going to gloat about the fact that he's a scared loser.
"You know where bravery comes from?" Theresa asked, raising her eyebrow and tilting her head at him. Brows furrowing even futher, but clearly intrigued when she didn't make fun of him for being scared, Doctor Lucien shook his head no. "It comes when you are afriad but there is no other way but to do the task infront of you and no other person that can do it."
"Is that your twisted way of telling me that you're scared too?" The doctor asked, clearly relaxing somewhat.
"Well, no, not me personally, but, uh, Sonny over there-" She jabbed a gloved thumb in the Texan's direction, hiding the smile that threatened to bloom on her lips. "-he's afraid of a lot of things, still he's right besides us when we walk into battle."
"Hey." Came Sonny's indignant and objecting voice from a few away. She shot him a innocent look to which he only responded with a glahre of his own.
"All right, cut the chatter." Jason ordered them. Sobering up, Theresa nodded to the doc before moving back to Brock's side, petting Cerberus softly. Looking down at the dog, she realised that Cerberus had one of the most adventurous lives that a dog can have. The canine parashooted out of a plane tonight. "TOC, this is Bravo 1. We've reached our target. We're about to engage. Got two guards outside the hospital."
"Good copy, Bravo 1." Eric responded, voice coming through the radio.
"Any word on our Syrian friends?" Jason asked and for a moment, Theresa held her breath.
"Negative." Blackburn replied and Theresa let the air out of her lungs. "Still engaged with the FSA 20 klicks out."
"Copy that." Jason radioed before letting go.
"Hey Jace?" Theresa called out to him, mischievous smirk on her lips.
"Yeah?" Jason answered, groaning internally when he saw the look on her face. He should have known by the tone of her voice that she was going to say something.
"You might want to look up the definition of friends when we get back home." She quipped, getting snorts and snickers of amusement from her teammates. Bravo one rolled his eyes at Bravo six, looking at the doc.
"All right?" Jason asked Lucien and the doctor nodded. The Master Chief turned to Ray and Theresa, nodding once at them.
Taking their que, they kneeled by the half down down wall. While she hadn't lied to Clay on the roof in Liberia about not being Bravo's sniper - that was unofficially Ray's job - Theresa knows that because of her scary accuracy with a knife, she is also a better than average shot with a gun.
"Up right." Theresa said, her voice soft but clearly heard by her team, as she aimed her laser between the guard's eyes.
"Up left." Ray locked on his target as well.
"Three, two, one." Jason counted down and in perfect unison, Two and Six took down the guards armed with machine guns.
Bravo team - and the straps - made their way to the hospital past the dilapidated and half-destroyed buildings, guns aimed and ready to shoot down any hostiles that might come their way. Using bolt cutters to open the lock, they breached the hospital.
Jason and Ray, Sonny and Trent, Brock and Theresa were the pairs that went together to clear the building. Rounding into a room, male-female best friend duo shot down two more guards before moving onto the next room, seeing in a passing room that the last two guards laid dead.
The plan was for Doctor Lucien to go with Jason and Ray, while the two remaining pairs of the team each got an EOD to clear the rest of the building. Bravo split and started executing their mission plan. The were on the second deck when a noise hit Theresa's ears.
Apparently, she wasn't the only one who heard it because Cerberus let out an almost inaudible whine while Sonny gestured for them to go in the direction where the noise came from. Theresa tensed, gripped her gun tighter and held it up a little higher as they walked to the room. And if it wasn't for all of her training, then the female Seal was sure that she would have dropped her rifle to the floor from shock.
"Holy Mary, mother of Jesus." Theresa breathed with wide, shocked eyes as she looked around the clearly dying people, dying kids. The sound she heard was coughing, because everyone in the room was coughing. Her anger started to flare up in her chest. Why would the Syrian's leave their own country men and woman to die here?
"What kind of person leaves people alone to rot and die?" Brock asked, the disgust in his tone clear as he voiced what Theresa was thinking.
"Monsters, that's who." Sonny answered, trying to shake his feelings when he looked at the kids. He turned to the straps. "Start the decon."
"Chief Hayes is the one-" The one started, only to get cut of immediately.
"Chief Hayes isn't here," Theresa glared harshly at him, her fuse blowing as she took a step to the strap with an absolutely furious expression on her face. "And when Chief Hayes isn't here, you listen to Ray. And when Ray isn't here, you listen to Sonny." She gestured to Quinn and got even more into the straps face. "Which means, you are going to do what he says, when he says and without objecting or, so help me God, you're gonna be seeing stars."
"You can't tell me what to do." He retorted and Cerberus let out a warning growl at the strap, not liking the way this unknown man was raising his voice at Theresa. Brock scratched behind his dog's ears to calm him down, already what was coming next.
Theresa fist went flying before the EOD could so much as blink, making the strap stagger backwards before the weight of his backpack combinded with the force of her swing pulled him down to the floor. Theresa glared darkly down at him, "We clear?"
The strap clenched his jaw, wincing slightly, nodding tensely. "Clear."
"So, who's gonna tell Jason?" Trent asked, looking between his three teammates. Techically, Sonny was their 3IC and was supposed to do it, but this? Dying woman and children, that wasn't something anyone wanted to tell someone else about.
"I'll do it." Theresa said, walking away to get away from the aggrivating strap. When she was sure that she wasn't in danger of snapping at Jason or throwing a punch at the nearest person, Theresa pressed her radio, "This is Bravo 6. Boss, we need you up on second deck."
"Copy." Jason's voice came through comms not even a second later. She was relieved when he didn't ask anymore. This wasn't something you could discribe, you just needed to see it for yourself to fully comprehend the horror. As a Seal, she had seen plenty of terrible things and had done terrible things herself, but this was one of the worst things she's ever seen.
Theresa walked around the room to count the people as she was trying to assess their conditions. She couldn't tell much, she wasn't even a proper medic. Just knew how to treat open wounds and how to give herself an epinephrine shot if she got peanuts in. But she knew enough to know that all of them looked really bad. A small kid lying on the table made her stop in her tracks and made her heart skip a beat.
When the EOD - the one who she didn't punch - walked up to the kid and gave him a shot of atropine, she took hers out of her pocket and handed it to him. "Give him another."
"What if you get infected?" He asked with raised eyebrows and an expectant look.
"I wasn't asking, I was telling." Theresa glared at him, shoving her Syrette into his hands and turned around and away from him.
Noticing Brock's dark glare immediately - because he didn't do glaring, that was her job in their friendship - she walked over to him with a concerned frown, but raised her eyebrows when she was in hearing distance. "You good?" She asked, even though none of this was good but Brock knew what she meant.
"Fine." He nodded, voice clipped and Theresa blinked in surprise when he walked away from her and to Trent, who was helping the EOD's look over the sick people. She frowned after him, what the hell crawled up his ass and died?
Before she could follow her best friend and ask, Jason and Ray arrived. She could see the horror and disbelief on their faces. Jason looked at each one of his team members, eyes wide as he didn't know how to believe what he was seeing and what to do about it.
Theresa watched him talk to the same kid she gave her Syrette of atropine to and she knew that he saw was she saw when looking at the little boy. People was still coughing all around them, getting closer to death by the second. Casting another glance at her best friend - who still had the dark look on his face - she decided to walk over to Jason.
"Hey, do you know what happened?" Theresa asked her Boss when he stepped away from the boy, because she didn't speak the language. Ray, who had helped a woman to a gurney, walked up to them as well.
"All right, look, as far as I can tell, the kid is saying that the regime took their village from I.S. They rounded them up to work here. All right? Took the military-age guys to join the fight, including his dad." Jason explained, gaze alternating between Theresa and Ray.
"Yeah, well, her husband, too. I mean, she was pretty vague on it. Didn't seem like something I should press on." Ray told them and Theresa shook her head.
"Jesus Christ, how the hell can someone live with themselves after doing this?" Theresa swallowed as her eyes flickered over all of the people again.
"I don't know, Tessa, I really don't." Jason heaved a sigh, turning back to the EOD. "How's he doing?"
"Man, his whole respiratory system's compromised." The strap answered, walking to the three Bravo members. "Plus, if the paralysis of his throat muscles continues, he's gonna drown in his own spit."
"How much atropine you give him?" Jason asked, his hands on his hips.
"Two Syrettes, got one from Captain Stubborn over there." He nodded to Theresa with a slight smile.
"It's Lieutenant Commander." She snapped back with a glare on her face, crossing her arms over her chest. Ray could clearly see in that moment that Theresa Kane was raised by his best friend. He could also see that big heart Jason was always talking about, but no one ever really got to see as she kept it hidden under lock and key.
"Okay, great. Make it three." Jason said, taking out his own Syrette and holding it out to the strap.
"You sure? Might want to hang onto that in case you get exposed." The EOD asked Jason the same thing he did the female Seal.
"Make it three." Jason insisted, pushing the Syrette in his chest.
Jason looked at Theresa, "Got a head count?"
"23 total. Seven kids." She answered, trying to keep her tone even and emotionless.
He turned back to the EOD, "They all exposed?"
"Got to assume so." The strap nodded.
"All right. Can we save them?"
"Some." When all three Bravo members glared at him, he quickly backtracked. "I mean, maybe. But we got to get them fully deconned and to a trauma center, and even then . . ." He trailed off.
"You have any idea what agent we're dealing with?" asked Jason.
"I don't know for sure till Doc gets it in a lab, but my guess is VX." The EOD replied.
Jason frowned at him, "How long is it gonna take to decon?"
"Figure ten minutes each, little less for the kids, because they got less surface area." The Strap answered.
"Okay, look. Get at it, okay? The sun rises in five hours, and when that happens, I want to be somewhere else." Jason ordered the EOD.
"Roger that." He nodded.
Jason turned to Theresa and she raised her eyebrows at him, indicating that she was listening. "Tessa, you keep watch here, trade look-out shifts with me in an hour."
"Yes, Sir." Theresa nodded and Jason and Ray walked away. She looked at the EOD with a frown. "So, you got a name, or do you prefer EOD or Strap?"
The man chuckled and stuck his gloved hand out to her, "Aaron Hale."
"Theresa Kane." She shook it, then she glanced at the EOD she punched. "That moron your partner?"
"Thankfully enough, no." He answered with a grin before walking over to the next woman that needed to be decontaminated. Theresa stayed by the little boy's side, watching over him.
SEAL TEAM
"Chief Hayes," The strap that Theresa punched called out to Jason, making the man halt in his steps when he was about to go relieve Sonny.
"Yes?" Jason rose his brows.
"You need to keep your attack dog on a leash."
His head turned to the direction he spotted Brock and Cerberus when he entered the room. "He is on a leash."
"I'm not talking about the literal dog," The EOD sighed irritably. "I'm talking about her." He nodded to Theresa, who was kneeling besides the small kid that Jason was sure reminded her of Mikey as much as it did him.
"Excuse me?" Jason asked, both him and Ray raising their eyebrows at the tone the EOD was talking in about their sister.
"She punched me." The strap cried indignantly, pointing to his purple jaw. Jason surpressed a sigh. When he saw the bruise earlier, he was more than a little sure that it was Theresa's handiwork.
"What did you do?" Jason asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Why are you asking me this? I'm the victim here, you should be reprimanding her." He said, pointing a finger to Theresa, and Ray snorted when Jason glared down at the man.
"Tessa loves to throw punches, I know that, and she'd be the first one to admit it right after me. But I also know that she never, never throws a punch without reason. So, I'm going to ask you again, what did you do?" Jason put his hands on his hips, took a threatening step forward.
"That big dude," The EOD pointed to Sonny. "Told me to start the decon and I started to tell him that you weren't here. Then she-" He threw a heated glare in Theresa's direction. "-got in my face and told me that if I didn't shut up and do what he says, she'd punch me."
"I'm gonna guess here and say you didn't do what she said?" Ray asked with raised eyebrows.
"No, I didn't." The man shook his head confidently. "Who does she think she is to tell me what to do?"
At those words, Jason took another a step closer, the look in his eyes deadly. "Her name is Theresa Kane. She is a Navy Seal and a member of Bravo team, just like the rest of us. You? You're a strap. You don't have a place on this team and you don't have a say, but she does. She does have a say. So, when she talks, when she tells you what to do, you damn well listen."
SEAL TEAM
It was daylight. It was daylight and Bravo was supposed to be getting out of Syria, the exfil time was in a few minutes. But they weren't even attempting to exfil because the higher ups gave the order to leave those 23 people behind. After being relieved from look-out by Trent, Theresa made her way back to the floor where the rest of Bravo - minus Trent - was. There, she was told that their Captain refused to send extra transport for the people and that they were supposed to leave them behind. So, Jason called a team meeting.
"So, we completed our mission." Jason said as the whole of Bravo - plus the two EOD's and Doctor Death - was standing in an abandoned hallway. "As your ground commander, the only lawful order I can give right now is for us to make exfil. But I'm not gonna give that order. I'm also not gonna give the order to stay. So anybody who wants to leave can get in those cars downstairs and they can drive straight for the border. I'm sure it'll be a nice Sunday drive by now. The rest of us are gonna stronghold this position against a very large enemy coming our way. I expect, once we're engaged, the Green Berets at Sinjar will respond to our TIC. Otherwise, if they don't, pretty sure we'll be overrun."
"You don't think we became frogmen and woman because we didn't secretly all want to be Batman and Catwoman?" Sonny asked after a moment of long silence, nobody making an attempt to leave. "Come on now." He said and recieved chuckles from all around the room.
"Actually, I wanted to be Supergirl." Theresa leaned forward and grinned at him, her smile fading when she noticed that her best friend didn't so much as blink at her from where he stood across from her. What the hell was up with him?
Everyone turned to Doctor Lucien, who hasn't given an answer yet. "Well, you guys wouldn't miss me in the fight, let's be honest." Was the first thing he said. "But I also know you wouldn't send me alone, so instead of having eight men here to hold off the descending hordes of bad guys, you'd be down to, what? Six? Maybe five? So, while I don't know if having to go through the rest of my life haunted by your faces not to mention those poor souls behind us is a fate literally worse than death, I also don't want to find out, so I'm staying."
"Good job, Doc." Theresa whispered, holding her hand up for a high five. Lucien slapped his palm against hers and she noticed that his hand shook a little.
"Okay, so let's do this." Jason said, snapping into tactical mode right away. "Three shooters on the roof. Three down below. Let's get everybody away from the windows inside, all right?"
Bravo moved to the room where all of the sick woman and children was lying and moved them to a corridor with no windows. The team split in two - Jason, Ray and Sonny staying downstairs while Theresa, Brock and Trent took the roof. Cerberus was left downstairs to guard the sick.
Brock and Trent each took a corner of the roof while Theresa took place right in the middle. Knowing where their enemy would becoming from, gave them somewhat of an advantage when it came to mission planning.
Casting a glance at the two who has been best friends since the day they met, Trent could feel the tension between them even from all the way on his corner of the roof. He wondered what happened because they were fine on the flight to Syria - playing rock-paper-scissors to keep themselves busy in the silence as the pre-breath oxygen masks prevented them from being able to talk.
"You gonna tell me what's wrong with you?" Theresa asked, eyes not moving from her scope as she kept looking for the first signs of the enemy. He didn't answer her and she lost her patience. "Brock!" She all but shouted, lifting her head from her scope and looking over at him, eyes wide and full of hurt confusion.
"Not now, Tessa." The canine handler snapped at her, not even glancing at her.
"When then?" She shot back, slightly irritated with him as she burried the hurt she was feeling. She didn't even do anything wrong.
"Bravo Four, this is One." Jason's voice crackled through Trent's radio before Brock could answer her.
"Go for Four." Trent answered, warily looking over at his team mates, who listened as well.
"Exfil right now, Green Berets are inbound and enemy is 2 kilometers out." The Master Chief said and relief slammed through the three with the power of a tsunami.
"Roger that, Bravo One." Trent grinned.
"One out."
The three Bravo members shouldered their rifles and ran down to the second deck of the building. Brock whistled for Cerberus and secured the dog to his belt loop. They all started helping hostages to the vehicles, running to and from the building. Theresa was on her third and last run when a loud explosion rocked the building.
Rubble crashed down around her and she quickly picked up the woman and threw her over her shoulder - thankfully she wasn't that heavy - and made a run for it. All those hours of weight lifting and running hills with her equipment bag paid off right now.
Outside, she handed the woman off to one of the Berets and got onto the vehicle that Bravo was on. She sat on the back with Brock and Sonny, gripping on of the handles for dear life, while the latter of the two men was holding the machine gun. Theresa did a quick head count and came up with four. She immediately knew who was missing. Jason. She turned back to the building, ready to jump of the truck and go look for him when she saw him running to them with the small boy in his arms.
Theresa breathed a sigh of relief when he got in and they started driving away.
"Blow it, blow it." Jason ordered in a loud shout, over the roaring gun fire and explosions that was propably from RPG's.
"Fire in the hole." Hale screamed back and detonated the bombs they set in the hospital. Theresa watched as they building collapsed and crumbled into itself, feeling a little satisfied.
Above her head, Sonny was shooting like a mad man at their enemies. The gunfire both to and from their enemies stopped and Theresa was able to relax fully as she sagged against the wall of the vehicle behind her.b
Looking at Sonny's satisfied face, Theresa huffed a chuckle. "Trigger happy nut."
"You know it, little lady." He gave her a soft look in return.
SEAL TEAM
A loud, ear deafening squeal left the usually cold and composed female Seal's lips right before she tackled Ray into a hug. Theresa pulled away from him with a sheepish look on her face, glancing around the plane. She saw Bravo looking at her with smiles while the rest looked more than a little startled by the sound that left her mouth. "Are you serious?"
"I take it that's a yes?" Ray laughed happily at the delight on her face.
"Hell yeah, it's a yes." Theresa nodded excitedly. Blackburn, Davis and Ellis walked over to them to share their well wishes for the birth of Ray's baby. When they finished talking, she looked at them and puffed out her chest a little. "Guess what?"
"You punched one of the EOD's?" Lisa asked with a raised eyebrow, mischief shining in her eyes and lips quirking up ever so slightly - giving her amusement away.
"Well, yeah," Theresa nodded, not really bothered or surprised that Lisa knew, the woman knew everything. "-But that's not what." She waved her off with a slight shrug.
"What is it, Tessa?" Eric asked, knowing that that was what the female Seal wanted them to ask her.
"I'm the Godmother of Ray's new baby." Theresa announced proudly.
"Congrats." Amanda smiled at her and Theresa just nodded curtly. She could be professional during missions, but the mission was done and she didn't have to have to play friendly with the CIA Agent anymore.
"I thought you hate kids." Blackburn pointed out with a frown.
"As long as they're not my own and one of my brother's," Theresa nodded in Bravo's direction - who was opening beers. "-I can handle them." Lisa laughed and Eric shook his head while Mandy left the group. The three talked amongst themselves as the plane took of back to America.
When Lisa and Eric excused themselves with the reasoning of paperwork, Theresa made her way over to the cooler of beer and grabbed one for herself. She stood up staight from being crouched next to the cooler and saw Jason motioning her over to him.
"Hey Godmother." Jason grinned at her, although Theresa noticed that his smile was a little tense, as he raised his beer to her.
She snorted when his words registered, "What's up, Godfather?" The Seal retorted as she clinked her bottle against his, knowing that Ray wouldn't have asked anyone but his best friend to be his baby's Godfather.
They both drank, Jason taking a longer pull than he usually would. Theresa rose her eyebrows in question and Jason let out a sigh, running his free hand over his head. "Tessa, you can't go around punching people whenever you feel like it."
"I know that, Jace." She nodded, ducking her head an avoiding his eyes a little.
"Oh, you do? Cause I wasn't all that sure with the flying fists that's been going around lately." Jason commented sarcastically and Theresa rolled her eyes.
"He was being a dick and time was running out." The female Seal defended herself.
"I know that," Jason nodded. "But what are you going to do when he reports you?"
"I'll fight it." Theresa shrugged easily.
"What if you can't? What if they take you off the team?" Jason asked, taking a step closer to her.
She swallowed as doubt began to nag at the back of her mind. "They won't." But her words didn't sound all that confident.
"What if they do?" Jason asked, voice stern and harsh and holy shit. What if they did take her off the team? Theresa's eyes widened and a lump grew in her throat. She didn't want to be taken off Bravo. This was her home and the guys are her family. "I don't want to lose you, Tessa, you are a valuble member of this team, but you are also my family. This team won't work without you anymore than it would work without me."
"That's not true." Theresa protested vigourously, shaking her head and taking a step back from him. "You're our leader, I'm the help."
Jason sighed again, hating her stubborn side now more than ever. "Tessa, listen to me." He set down his beer and put his hands on her shoulders. "You are going to stop punching people, or at the very least change it down to once every month instead of once every mission." He took a brief pause. "You are a member of this team. An invaluble one. And if I ever hear you trash talking again, I'm going to make you run hills and drills for the rest of your life. Got it?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Got it." She smiled at him, some of the weight in her chest lifting.
"Good." Jason nodded with a smile, squeezing her shoulders once before letting her got. "Now go make up with Brock, it's weird when you two aren't joined at the hip."
Theresa rolled her eyes, but did as he said. She walked over to her best friend and Cerberus, taking the ball that the canine offered his master and throwing it. Brock still ignored her and she sighed. Okay, if the bear didn't want to talk to her willingly, then it was time to poke the bear.
"What are you glaring at?" Theresa asked, knowing he was glaring at her. Brock didn't say anything, but the way his jaw clenched told her that he was pissed.
"Don't play dumb, Tessa, it doesn't fit someone as smart as you." Brock snapped at her and she barely concealed a flinch at his harsh tone.
She rolled her eyes, ignoring the pang in her chest which she knew came from her best friend being so short with her. "Okay, what did I do?"
"You gave away your atropine." Brock all but growled out, rounding on her with furious eyes. But beneath the heat of his anger, she saw the fear.
"You're mad because I saved a kid's life?" She asked, clearly gobsmacked as realisation set in her mind. It all made sense now. He started glaring and ignoring her after she handed the Strap her Syrette.
"No, I'm mad because you put yourself in potential danger." Brock retorted, crossing his arms. Cerberus dropped his tennis ball and nudged their legs. They both ignored him for now. Theresa opened her mouth, probably to argue. "What if it was me? What if I gave away the only thing that could save me from a lethal substance?"
"I would have given you mine." Theresa answered without hesitance.
Brock huffed at his best friend. "You're crazy."
"No, I'm not. Crazy would be to give away your cure when you have a wife waiting at home." Theresa retorted with a pointed look. She heaved a deep sigh, taking a pull from her beer. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? But that kid was dying right in front of me. So, what, huh? Was I supposed to just do nothing?"
"Rather him than you." The curly haired man snapped immediately.
Theresa's eyes went wide with shock, "Okay, I think you should stop talking before I punch you in the face."
"You're welcome to try." He said with a smirk, knowing even as he did so that she could kick his ass ten times over - she's done it before. When she leveled him with a glare she reserved for terrorists, Brock dropped the act and heaved a sigh. "Look, Tessa, you are my best friend and the closest thing to a sister I've ever had. And the idea of losing you, is as terrifying now as it was back in Iran."
Theresa's facade broke away at his words as well, giving him a soft smile. "I'm not going anywhere."
"You could have." Brock pointed out, swallowing thickly.
Lunging forward, Theresa wrapped her arms around his waist with an iron-like grip. Brock wrapped his arms around her, the tight feeling in his chest, that has been following him around since he saw her hand her syrette with atropine away, disappeared slowly.
"You're my brother, too." Theresa admitted with a smile when she pulled away, knowing what Brock meant when he called her his sister. Their bond - it was different that the rest of the team. It was like they were the half to make the other whole. Huh. Theresa had never given their friendship this much thought, but that didn't make what she was thinking anyless true. Maybe Jason wasn't that far off when he called them Meredith and Cristina.
Theresa cleared her throat, fiddling with her beer bottle. "So, according to our Boss, I'm not allowed to take a swing at people's, even when they're being idiots."
"No, really?" Brock gasped with eyes wide in mock surprise.
"Shut up. " She laughed lightly, shoving at him.
"Alright, I'm sorry, Tessa." He sobered up, looking over at her with a slight frown. Theresa got angry really quickly and when she was consumed by it, she usually lashed out physically. Not a good combination for someone that is a Seal and with extended combat skills that exceeds even the Navy's training. "What are you going to do?"
"Well, I was thinking," Theresa started, pausing slightly. She wasn't very good at this kind of thing. At asking for help. "You always know when I'm angry, or when I'm starting to get angry, right?"
"Yeah." Brock nodded, not sure where she was going with this.
"So, maybe, you can, I don't know, talk to me about things that calm me down or take me away from the conflict?" Theresa winced at her wording, scratching at the back of her neck. Then she saw her best friend looking at her with wide eyes. "You know what, just forget it."
"Of course I'll help you, Tessa." Brock smiled and Theresa grinned widely in relief.
SEAL TEAM
After waiting for the all clear from Eric when they arrived back home, the female Seal decided to head home instead of hanging around base. Theresa was walking to her car, dead tired and internally debating about whether she should sleep first or eat first, when a familiar blonde walked up to her side.
"Hey Four." He greeted, eyes flickering over her and unknowingly searching for any sign of injuries.
"Spenser." She gave him a drowsy half smile and Clay's chest felt warm and gooey.
"How'd the mission go?"
"Well, my best friend was pissed at me for most of it because I gave away the only cure that could save me if I got infected, but we made up on the plane home and we saved 23 people, so all in all, I'd say it was a win." Theresa blew out a breath and Clay looked at her with wide eyes.
He didn't even expect an answer and- wait a second, did she just say that she gave away the only thing that could save her?
Spenser rounded on her, looking down at her with fierce blue eyes, "That was really, really, stupid, Theresa. What would you have done if you got infected?"
Theresa didn't have to say that they worked with dangerous substances. Clay was smart enough to figure it out by himself.
"Then I die." She shrugged easily. Clay opened his mouth to start yelling at her because she couldn't just let herself die, but she spoke up again before he could. "It was a kid, a small little boy that has barely begun to live."
"And what about you? Don't you deserve to live?"
"I've done plenty in my life and I've made peace with the fact that everytime I get on a plane, I could die." Theresa told him, steel starting to enter her tone. She was to tired to muster up a full glare but tried anyways, silently telling him that she was done arguing about this with him. She already got shit from her best friend, she wasn't taking it from Spenser as well. "And it's none of your business anyway, so keep your opinion to yourself."
"Right." Clay nodded, voice becoming cold as well. They stood in the parking lot, staring each other down. Neither willing to give in or to break. The blonde looked into the brunette woman's eyes, saw how exhausted she was and gave in with a sigh. "Goodnight, Four."
He was halfway back to the building when she remembered that he looked like he wanted to say something - something other than ask about her mission.
"Yo, Spenser!" She called after him. He stopped and turned to her with raised eyebrows. "What did you wanna tell me?"
"It's nothing." Clay brushed her off.
"Oh, nothing, he says." Theresa mocked with a fake nod of belief. Then she dropped the look an narrowed her eyes. "I'm tired and sore, don't make me beat it out of you, Spenser."
He walked closer to her, shoulders slumping as he did so. "You were right."
"I'm always right." She said dismissively. Theresa eyed him curiously. "But just remind me again, what am I right about this time?"
"About the no-one-wants-to-work-with-a-cocky-knucklehead thing." Clay answered her, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"Ah," Theresa nodded, realisation setting in. "You got bottom five'd, huh?"
He frowned at her, "News travels fast."
She let out a low chuckle. "Actually, I didn't know until a few seconds ago, but I did know about the vote and that most of Green doesn't like you. Partly because of your cocky attitude and partly because of who your dad is." Theresa shrugged.
"So, so, they wanted to vote me out because of my dad? That's bull. And I can't help that I'm better than them." Clay scoffed, hands waving as he talked.
Theresa shook her head, "Right there's your problem, Spenser. You can't think about you being better than everyone else. You need to work with them."
Clay looked penasive for a few seconds, before he tilted his head down at her. "What about you?"
"What about me?" The female Seal rose her eyebrows.
"When you were in Green, did you work with your team?"
"I tried." She shrugged. "They didn't like me all that much."
"Cause you're a girl?" Spenser asked knowingly.
Theresa smirked, "Because I could kick all of their asses."
Clay laughed and the sound made warmth bloom in Theresa belly.
"I can get that. Intimidating and kick ass. Dangerous combination."
"I am not intimidating." The female Seal frowned, looking somewhat offended.
The blonde snorted in amusement, "You are. Very."
"Whatever." Theresa scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Goodnight Spenser." Then she stormed away from him, not even acknowledging his goodnight to her. She didn't care what he said. She is not intimidating.
Author's Note: Yes, yes, the Clay and Tessa scene's for this episode was small, but it will get better, I promise. Also, I've decided to just make Eric a Commander for this story and he is obviously still higher than Tessa and Jason. Again, just roll with my little mistake. This is fanfiction, after all.