Danny watched the XO fire one last round, it hit it's target square on, the submarine listed, incapacitated and powerless to fight back. There still floating was the USS Nathan James, looking broken and limping slowly away but still floating. Danny closed his eyes for a moment and sent thanks to whatever higher power was looking out for them. Around him he could hear the XO and Tex cheer, it's like he was having some out of body experience and could observe them from above. Danny radioed Vulture team with the good news, it was good to give good news. He could only imagine what it would've been like to see the Nathan James sink from this prime viewing spot, it was a dark thought and one that need not be thought of again.
"Glad you could join us when it mattered, Lt Green," the XO said with a smile, dropping the control box to the ground. Danny wasn't sure if he'd lost consciousness, he must have done because there was gap between feeling the full force of something hit his chest, to opening his eyes and putting a round into one of the bad guys. He breathed in deeply, noticing the dull ache that radiated out from point of impact in the middle of his chest. Tex made his way over and peered at his combat body armour. He whistled through his teeth.
"There's a bullet in there alright." He scratched at the CBA and then picked a bit harder, something working it's way into his fingers. He held it up and Danny could see the bullet, misshapen but definitely a bullet. Tex held it close for him to see.
"You want to keep that, y'know why? That's a bullet that had your name on it and it didn't kill you." Tex said sagely, "You should probably give it to Kara."
"I don't know if I want Kara to know."
"In that case then you should probably avoid telling her you also volunteered to draw their fire too." Mike chipped in with his own wisdom. "Women were funny, you'd think they'd be all impressed by that kind of thing, turns out it just pisses them off, something about being reckless."
Danny hadn't even thought about what he'd done, he'd just gone into combat mode. Danny pointed the XO's arm.
"You're injured Sir."
Mike scowled at his arm, as if it was more an inconvenience than anything else.
"It's not even hit the bone." He said dismissively. He looked out with satisfaction at the bay.
"That is a beautiful sight, seeing the old girl still upright and sailing." He voice full of fondness, then he grinned gleefully. "And I got to kill a sub. I thought Tom was going to get all the fun jobs today. Turned out, it was a big game day and I got the prize." He thought back to his earlier conversation with the Capt. "I definitely want a souvenir of this day." Mike wandered over to the rocket launcher and pulling out his knife he removed the licence plate from the back of the truck. He waved it at Tex and Danny, "This will look great on my wall." He called over.
Tex nodded in amused agreement. "Yeah. Just to check but that thing is completely used up now, right? There's no more missiles in the tubes?"
Slattery grinned proudly, "Nope, there's none left. Nothing left in theses tubes that can hurt us."
"So, do we think that life might settle down a bit now?" Tex asked hopefully.
Mike Slattery pulled out a cigar and lit it, he chomped thoughtfully on it, "I think we might have earnt some r'n'r. Ge the ship alongside, do some fixing, get the President established. She might have survived but the Nathan James is in need of some love right now, we're not going to get far with her like that."
Tex nudged Danny, "You hear that?" he said, "Your boss said there's going to be some down time. You'd best start planning. Where's the box, Danny?"
Danny knew where the ring was, it was in his locker, along with a goodbye letter to Kara and his ipod with a playlist entitled "With love from Dad." He was thankful Kara was not going to be clearing out his locker that evening.
Mike looked over with curiosity. "What's he planning?" he looked at the two of them and smirked knowingly. "You know, I hear Bacon makes great wedding cakes."
"Thanks Sir, I'll bear it in mind." Danny said dryly, he loved Mike Slattery but the less people that knew about his plan to propose the better. He'd like to think Kara would say yes but what if she decided after all of this had happened it didn't matter anymore, that being married wasn't important, after all you can spend the rest of your life with someone and not be married.
Mike set off walking and as he passed Danny he slapped him on the back, causing him to wince as his ribs sang in pain, "Don't worry, she'll say yes. Come on, time to get back." And Danny fell in behind.