Two weeks later…

Sam was doing his training routine on the treadmill. It was his first day back on the job after being cleared for duty a week ago. After being discharge from the hospital he stayed at Ed's place until his TL was satisfied Sam was well enough to live on his own again. It irked Sam a little but he couldn't complain. Team One took care of their own. "Take it easy there, Sam. You only just got back. Last thing we need is to send you home because you taxed your limits." Ed, who was on the x-trainer, warned.

Sam slowed the treadmill down to a jog. "Ed, this is your training session. You put me on here. Not to mention, I've been cleared for duty. I passed my physical and psychological tests."

"Still, it's been a while so just take it down a notch." Greg agreed.

Sam glared at them as he pressed maniacally at the slow button until it came to a stop. "How's that?!"

Wordy had to decency to hold back his laughter but Spike and Lou just let it out, finding the scene quite hilarious. The thing is this has been happening all morning. Jules grinned at Sam. She liked it when Sam got like this. He was extra…hot.

Sam stood there with his hands resting on the bars waiting for his boss and team leader to say something. "Well?"

Ed pointed at the exercise bike. "Jump on that."

Sam rolled his eyes and then pointed at him firmly. "This is the last change." He shook his head as he walked over to the bike Wordy vacated for him. "You guys are ridiculous."

Ed shrugged, "Just taking care of family." He nodded to Spike. Spike grinned and played the ipod on the dock.

Sam looked like he was about to have an aneurism when his voice sounded on the speakers in the gym. This is for my family at SRU. "No, no, no, no, no…" Sam jumped off the bike tried to grabthe remote off Spike. Spike laughed and threw it to Wordy who threw it to Lou. Greg, Boss, you've been like a father to me. You've helped me to understand that saving people's lives doesn't have to involve the use of a gun, that word's are so much more powerful. Spike growled at the game of Piggy-in-the-middle before going for the source instead, but Lou grabbed him in a bear hug.

"I want to hear this part." Lou laughed. Lou, you're always so calm in situations, you've never shown any anger or frustration, just always cool and collected, that's something I still need to learn.

Sam froze. "Wait…you've already heard this."

Spike grinned, "Yep. I love this part." Spike, you're easily the smartest guy I know, what you can do with a computer… laughter it scares me sometimes, but what I'll be missing are your jokes and exchanges with Lou. In a job like this, your ability to make people laugh is a priceless skill. Yeah, I know, I'm so corny. Sam groaned at the smug look at Spike's face but right now that was not what he was worried about. "I'm smarter than you!" Spike laughed.

"Hey, hey, sshhh…this is my part!" Wordy had his finger on his lips. Sam was still struggling with Lou and now Spike as well. Wordy, you always have the best advice and you're always around to give them. You make juggling this life with a family life so easy and I wish the day will come where I'll be asking you for advice when I have a family of my own. "You two better get the hell off me before I show you what I learned from JTF2!" You're a good friend, Wordy.

Spike whispered something in his ear. Ed frowned when Sam calmed a little. Sam looked at Spike. Spike nodded. Sam almost sagged in relief. Ed. You're not the easiest guy to work with and yeah, we got off on the wrong foot, but you're my mentor and the team leader I had hoped I could become. You've made hard shots, but every one of your fatal shots are right and I know how hard it is to make those and not be driven mad by them. Just do me a favour and the next time the Boss asks you if you're okay, after a lethal, don't tell him you're fine. Talk to him and tell him the truth, because one day, it'll be too much and SRU can't lose someone like you. Ed smiled to himself when he heard that. Sam was more insightful than he let on. "Let me go." Sam shrugged off Spike and Lou. He could feel his face going red from embarrassment. "You know this is a breach of privacy." Sam complained as the last part started play. The part that could lose him his job. Jules…wow…Jules, what can I say? Yeah, that first day I saw you I just thought, 'She's sexy,' but after getting to know…well, there's no words that could describe how amazing you are, inside and out. You're sensitive, you're kind, you're considerate and on top of all that, you're beautiful. I have to say, God wasn't very fair, when he was dishing out the good stuff. Sam sighed in relief when he heard the next words. Thank you guys, for everything. SRU is where I belong and there is no place I would rather be. The team smiled at those last words. Sam was right. This is definitely where he belonged.

"Excuse me. I need to go shoot something." Sam nodded his thanks to Spike before walked out of the gym and headed to the weapons cage. If Spike hadn't erased the part to Jules, he and Jules would be a lot of trouble right now.

Jules winced as Sam passed him. "Do you think we went too far?"

"Hey, we never really hazed the guy…" Lou shrugged.

"That's because we decided that hazing someone from Special Forces could be hazardous to our health." Jules stood to go after Sam, but Greg stopped her.

"Let us to check on him. He's probably the most embarrassed about your part." Greg grabbed Ed and Wordy on his way out, "And seeing as you two thought it would be fun, you're coming with me."

"Ahhh…come on, Boss." Ed complained, "It was harmless fun."

Sam had already shot a round before they arrived. He reloaded his gun and shot again. They grabbed their ear muffs before entering the cage and waited for Sam to finish the round. Wordy stopped Sam before he could reload again. Sam frowned at the hand on his. He raised an eyebrow at Wordy, then put the gun down and pulled off his ear muffs. "You guys are trying to test me psychologically, aren't you? Seeing how far you can push me before I shoot one of you."

Ed laughed, "If we are, how are we doing?"

Sam rolled his eyes, "You guys are jackasses! I made that recording for you guys in case I died!" He patted himself all over, "Last I checked, I'm alive!"

"Spike had your phone on him. He said he accidentally dropped it and it started playing." Sam looked at Wordy sceptically. "That's what he told me."

"So play it when I'm dead!"

Ed turned serious, "That message wouldn't have meant half as much if you were dead. We didn't play it to embarrass you. We played it because we feel the same way."

Sam sighed, he knew Ed was right. "If I wasn't so happy to be back, I would shoot you all right now." But there was no force behind the words.

Greg grinned then nudged his head towards the exit. "Come on. We have something for you."

"Nope." Sam put his hands up as if to surrender, "Don't want anything from anyone."

Ed laughed, "Come on." He took Sam by the arm and pulled him out the door. "I promised this one isn't so bad."

"Isn't so bad!?" Sam let himself be dragged out but he wasn't happy about whatever was coming. "Seriously, don't we have a job to do?"

"Nope, no hot call yet." Wordy slapped him on the back.

As they walked past Winnie Sam begged her to announce a hot call for Team One. Winnie gave him a sympathetic look. "Sorry." She mouthed.

"The briefing room clear, Winnie?" Greg asked her as he past.

"Only essential personnel, Sir, as per your orders." Winnie replied.

"Excellent!" Sam glared at his Boss's grin. "It's going to be good day, Sam!"

"Not so far…" Sam mumbled. He frowned when he saw all the lights off and blinds closed in the briefing room. "This better not be a surprise party."

Spike pressed play on his laptop as soon as Sam stepped into the room. Images came up on the big screen. Photos of Sam and the team. Most of the pictures were of them during training. Goofing around afterwards. He raised his eyebrows when Lou came on screen. "What was my first impression of Sam Braddock? Hmmm…brash…pretty boy straight out of JTF2. He was going to be hard to work with." Sam looked over at Lou and just shrugged. Lou wasn't totally wrong. Jules came up next. "I thought he was going to ask me for my autograph! He was so cocky!" Sam could hear Jules laughing from the back of the room. Rolly and team 3 appeared on the screen. "We were just happy he wasn't on our team!" They laughed and high-fived each other. Team 3 were currently on-call. Sam shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Sam was hitting on Jules like she was only girl alive!" Spike was on screen now. "I swear the guy was all over her!" Sam grabbed a pen from the table and threw it at Spike. Spike laughed and ducked. "Seriously. He just came across as cocky."

"Cocky." Ed said one word. "Cocky." Greg. "Cocky." Wordy.

"You guys need to expand your vocabulary." Sam laughed. He stopped when he heard his boss's next words. "He's come such a long way since then. He saves lives. Anyone should be proud to call him his son and if he doesn't," Greg shrugged, "Well then he's an idiot." Sam gave Greg an embarrassed smiled.

"Sam's smart. He watches our backs. I get to go home to my girls each day after work because I know Sam has a rifle in his hands watching my back." Wordy slapped Sam on the shoulder.

"Sam saved my life. It was a hard shot. One of our own was in the hospital and he had to put that aside and make a hard call. He did it. As much as he was a pain in my ass, he is also one of the best." Sam dipped his head at Ed. It meant more to him than anything to hear those words come from Ed.

A picture of the team came up with the words. "This is where you belong."

The screen faded and the lights came back on. They all turned to Sam whose eyes were suspiciously wet. "Welcome back, Sam." Greg announced.

Sam smiled at them. "Thanks guys."

Greg handed a folder to Sam. "Consider this a welcome back present."

Sam frowned at the folder and opened it. His eyes widened at the files. "That was fast."

"We did all the ground work for the detectives. It didn't take them long to follow the bread crumbs." It was obvious Spike was very pleased with himself.

"So it was the lawyer James Thompson had met with that day?"

"Yep. He set James up to take the fall. Jessica Welsh was his girlfriend. She wanted to break up with him so he set up a fake meeting with James, killed the girl and led James to the body. That part is a little muddy right now, but we can place him at the scene and there is motive."

"He paid off the lawyer and the detective on the case." Sam let out a whistle. "That's a lot of cover up." He closed the file. "You guys did it."

"We did it." Ed squeezed his shoulder. "You never gave up even after everything Thompson put you through."

"I had Team One my back. You wouldn't let me give up even if I wanted to."

"Hot call! Team One." Winnie's professional voice sounded through the floor.

Sam almost jumped up in excitement. "Thank you! Anymore of this and the cleaner won't be able to get the sugar of the windows!" He almost ran out of the building. Team One followed behind him.

"Let's do this, Team!" Greg called out. There were too many grins on the faces of this team for a hot call.

The END