I took a deep breath and slipped my phone back into my vest just as the door opened with Spike coming in to set up the transmitter, he looked at me and I shook his head as I sent information to the other teams as requested by the boss. The boss entered and looked at Spike and me, I nodded to him and got back to sending the information to all the teams regarding their AO stats and floor plans of their targets; Spike shot a look at the boss and then headed out the truck as Parker sat down behind me as he spoke to the GG leader.
"Thirty seconds till final countdown, Fraser will count down the final ten seconds and then it's a joint operation across all four locations. Any information you need contact Winnie and Fraser and they will be ready to assist. You have Scorpio if needed."
I heard all the teams 'copy' and started up the auto-transcript with what had been said so far and that all teams were prepared for entry.
"Start countdown," stated Parker as he left the truck again for the team.
"All teams, final countdown from now," I commanded counting down.
I heard everyone work as the units were meant to, without concerns, without stress and they had all the areas surrounded and neutralised within ten minutes of entry. I sent uniforms down to each location and any EMS needed for injuries to the subjects; thankfully there was none to the team members, any of them. I logged in all the information as it came in and sent information back as I jammed signals going out, located new target points for searches within landmarks and used CCTV to locate hiding subjects within outside buildings. Within the hour the whole operation was over and done with and checked in with Winnie to find out what precincts the most wanted were being dispatched too and that they were ready for incoming subjects to be dealt with; she had already done so and congratulated me on a job well done. I told her the exact same thing and then Parker came on the line.
"If you two have stopped wasting radio time, sort the paperwork out for us at the barn Winnie; and get the truck back to the garage and get it cleaned up onto the drives Fraser!"
"Copied!" we both replied.
I locked up the computers after sending the information onto the drives at the SRU servers and put all the main information printed out into a folder for the boss to choke on later; I got the clear to leave signal and headed back to the driver's seat and cranked up the heating since it was freezing cold in the metal coffin. I leaned my head against the wheel and took some deep breathes, after debrief was going to be painful if we didn't have other things to do first? I looked up and saw the SUVs leave the area and hit the ignition to follow them to the barn, god help me if I kept the almighty Parker waiting, it would probably give him enough ammo to keep going till next Christmas!
Thirty minutes later I had parked up and emptied all the paperwork into the file in the briefing room, Winnie was looking at me sympathetically and I rolled my eyes in her direction. She sent me a quick message on the phone and I frowned.
'Cmdr. Halloran out, team to go on training run while Wordy TPI'
I looked up at her and she pointed to Wordy coming down the corridor with the rest of the team and I nodded as I passed Ed the information and took a seat at the back for debrief with all the teams at one go; One by one they all came in and I nodded to them on a job well done, a few asked why I wasn't involved due to the drug lab, I just said I was placed where I was by the boss and couldn't argue. The Sergeants from all the teams came in and congratulated everyone involved on a job well done and continued on with what had been discovered and how many arrests and charges had been laid out. It was a good haul for a couple of hours work for the SRU and Guns and Gangs were delighted and would probably be kept busy for a couple of weeks with the amount of evidence to go through; but finally, as everyone left, I was told to stay still by Wordy as he went to speak to Parker.
"Boss, I need to speak to you, spare moment?" he asked outside the room.
"Yeah, what's up?" he replied walking back in.
The shutters came down unexpectedly and he turned around to look at Wordy who was walking back up towards where I was in the room; I had gone really pale again and I was half wanting to kick his ass and half wanting to beat whatever was hurting him out of existence – how the hell was I meant to deal with this man breaking apart over something I knew nothing about until a couple of hours ago? He looked up at me and shook his head.
"I can't deal with this right now," he stated.
He made a play for the shutters and saw they had been locked from outside, he turned towards the door and found Ed barricading it shut; he turned to both of us and slammed down his folder on the table and gripped the back of the chair.
"Boss, this can't continue within the team, it's causing a lot of stress fractures and our unit is falling apart – what the hell is going on apart from Mac being head hunted?" Ed hissed.
"You knew she was being head hunted?" Parker hissed back.
"I told Wordy after you ordered me to the truck, he was worried, they are all worried – when the hell have you ordered anyone about in the way you did to me?" I replied.
"I am your Sergeant and I will order you when required," he shouted.
"But you didn't order her, you called her abilities into question in front of her team, you doubted a member of your unit and that put extra pressure onto everyone's shoulders! You treated her like a child in front of her friends and colleagues and that has lasting self-doubt issues attached to it, that's the last thing she needs after this month!" Ed replied.
"Her abilities are in question, her past actions like getting her team blown up, the actions at Victoria and even the actions at the funeral – she can't handle simple gossip and grief then she doesn't qualify to be here!" he replied hotly.
"HOW DARE YOU!" I shouted at him as Wordy dragged me back.
"Its true thought, how can you function being part of the GHN when you barely function here? How can you be trusted with a firearm when you can't be trusted with an event like a wake where people say things during grief? You are a soldier, you're mean to have nerves of steel and be able to deal with your emotions!" Parker yelled.
"Says the man who found himself at the bottom of a bottle with no family!" I shouted back.
We all stood there looking at each other, I was ready to hit something or someone and Wordy pushed me into the corner as Ed did the same to Parker; so much for the TPI intervention – this had just ended my career!
"Make your decision about where you want to be Mackenzie!" Parker called.
I stared at him and ran my hands over my head, Wordy was watching me carefully in case I decided to go ass kicking instead!
"I already told you! I'm staying here, with the SRU; but I don't know if I can work in the same team with a man who I have every respect for, but can't give me the same back. A man who I trust with everything I have, ever broken piece of my spirit and soul – the man I wished was my father – the man who just blamed me for getting my team killed! The man who took a chance on a broken wreck of a girl who knew too much about medicine and not enough about life!" I replied crying.
Parker was looking at me like his heart was breaking again and it just kept breaking mine over and over again, he didn't trust me, he didn't think I could do the job. He thought I was a liability!
"Guys, take a breather for a few minutes and lets cool off!" Wordy called gently.
"No-one is leaving the team, we don't work like this – all arguments outside and we are still the best seven people for team one – lets cool it!" Ed suggested to us all.
I shrugged off Wordy and walked down to the outside door that led to the shoot house range; I opened it up and turned back round.
"I'm not perfect and sure as hell don't pretend to be – I seem to be the whump monkey of the team and for some reason I know I deserve it for my past actions in life – but if that keeps you guys safe, then I accept that I am nothing more to the universe of Greg Parker than a punching bag that needs thrown away. The choice is yours!" I finished as I walked out.
I climbed down the fire escape ladder and along the back of the building towards the shoot house that I knew was empty while the rest of the team did sprints in the training course; I climbed through the window and paced the rooms, blowing out the anger and tears for an hour or so before I headed back to the main building.
The place was quiet minus the phone ringing for Keira and a couple of the others in the gym, I headed directly to my lab to grab some of my research for the GPS TDR idea and headed to the library to get some peace and quiet for a while; the others knew how to get a hold of me if there was a call. The library had become my refuge, the one place I could fully relax at work – the one place I didn't have to apologise for my ideas and issues. I dumped my stuff on the table and logged on to the system using the admin password I had found via Spike and got back to the drawing board.