Clay, Kelsey and the rest of Bravo team boarded the helo that would take them to the target site in Addis Ababa. They would split into pairs, and some odd pairs at that Kelsey thought but she didn't roll with Bravo enough to know any better. Ray and Clay, Trent and Brock, Full Metal and Vic and her and Sonny. Sonny at first raised an eyebrow to Ray about the pairings but Blackburn had given Sonny a look in return that said to shut it.

As the helo touched down, Clay nodded at Kelsey and she nodded back. Dawn was starting to rise in the neighbor the target building they were hitting- horrible, horrible timing but they needed to get the special envoys out and fast so dawn it would be. Kelsey slipped her Oakleys on, one's bigger than the boys were wearing and with the French braid that Davis had done, it gave the bad guys a little bit of a glimpse into the fact that she was a woman.

"Sierra 2 and Bravo 3 at the west side, ready to breach," Kelsey said into comms.

"Bravo 5 ready to breach on the east side on your countdown," Trent said back into comms.

Ray gave the countdown. "3, 2, 1, breach."

Clay had never really been on a real op with his sister before and hearing her voice in his comms told him that but as soon as Ray said breach and Trent breached the door in front of him, all adrenaline and training kicked in and he wasn't worried about his sister. He knew Sonny would be watching her six. At least he better be.

They cleared the first six rooms and killed half a dozen al-Shabaab men. Before they got on the helo, Davis told them that al-Shabaab had taken responsibility for kidnapping Sean Carrey and Pete Zakaria which was surprising as al-Shabaab wasn't known for operating in Ethiopia and taking two special envoys to the State Department after an African Union meeting was a huge escalation in their policy.

And then Clay could hear and briefly see Kelsey scream "GRENADE" as she shoved Sonny out of the window as half of the house came down on them.

"Radio checks," Blackburn immediately said. He must have seen it on ISR.

"Bravo 3 and Sierra 2 are good. Finding another entrance into the house," Sonny said, winded.

"Good here," Brock said.

"We're good," Vic said.

Clay sighed and looked at Ray. "Bravo 1 and I are good. Still need to pass Gretzky and Lemieux."

Davis sigh could be audibly heard over the comms. "Good to hear."

They cleared room after room until they found Zakaria, bound, beaten and left for dead with a guard over him. Thankfully Vic and Full Metal had the foresight to not shoot the remaining guard as the rest of the house had been cleared.

"Where's the other person you took?" Metal asked in broken Arabic.

Ray and Clay came into the room. "What's the hold up?"

"Only Zakaria is here. No sign of Carrey." Trent quickly came into the room and got Zakaria.

Clay took a run at the guard. "Where's Carrey? Where's the other prisoner?" He said in Arabic and then in English as he doubted the guard spoke either of those languages. Instead the guard spat near Clay.

Sonny and Kelsey came into the room next. "What's going on?" Sonny asked.

"Trying to get out of this fucker where Carrey is," Clay said.

Ray waved them away. "You guys go and do overwatch with Bravo 4 and 5."

Kelsey shook her head. "I'm going to pull rank here. I'm the Intel Officer on the ground, I will get it out of him."

Everyone in the room prepared for the showdown between an experienced Senior Chief and an inexperienced Lieutenant, who had a point. Ray finally shrugged. "Vic, go with Sonny."

Ray turned to her after Sonny and Vic left. "Why the fuck are you pulling rank on me."

She took her off her helmet. "Because the only thing this guy hates more than you is me because a I'm a woman."

"You look like you understand English so I'm going to give you two options. Tell me where Sean Carrey is or you spend an entire flight beside me and then get put into Leavenworth and then probably Gitmo," she explained to him.

The al-Shaabab terrorist looked at Clay and then back at Kelsey. "I do not know where Sean Carrey is."

Kelsey then took out her sidearm. "We are going to try this again because I think you know more than you are telling us. I can repeat this in Arabic if you wish." Her Arabic was rudimentary at best but she could probably spit it out.

"No Arabic."

"Then you understand just fine."

"What are you doing with that gun?" Clay warned.

She glared at him. "Stay out of it."

"Don't do this," Ray said.

"I'm not going to kill him," Kelsey said, making sure the terrorist knew that. "But I might blow his balls off."

Every man in the room cringed at the thought, including the terrorist. "I do not know where Sean Carrey is."

"But you were privy to them beating up the man that was in here?"

"No."

Kelsey shook her head and too the safety off her gun and made sure he could see that. "That's how I know you are lying to us. Because Pete Zakaria was a bloody, half to death mess when we walked in here five minutes ago. Last chance buddy. Where's the other man?"

He didn't respond so Kelsey opened his legs and fired one round very close to his groin. Clay had turned away, expecting her to actually fire one into his body. Even Ray and Metal had somewhat expected her to do that.

She still had her gun in her hand and looked at the terrorist expectantly. "Next one goes in your balls. And if you think I'm joking, just see the look on their faces. I'm not. Where the fuck in Sean Carrey?"

To his credit, the terrorist looked scared enough finally that she may follow through with the bullet in this balls. But he still didn't look at her. He looked at Clay. "I believe the man you are referring to as Mr. Carrey in in the building two doors down, to the east."

Ray looked at Kelsey and shook his head. "Bravo 3,4 and 5 please be advised that the combative here says that Carrey is in a building two doors down to the east. Vic, remain on overwatch."

"He fucking better be there or I'm telling Blackburn about this little stunt," Ray told her.

She shrugged as she holstered her CZ in her drop leg holster. "Gotta do what you gotta do."

Not more than two minutes passed by when Trent came on comms. "Jackpot. Passing Lemieux." They had found Carrey. "He's in even worse shape than Zakaria though."

"We've been here way too long," Clay said. "We need to get out of here."

Blackburn must have been reading his mind as he spoke into comms. "Helo will be at the LZ in 2 minutes."

Ray looked over at Kelsey again as he lifted the hostage off the floor. "I have no idea if we are taking this joker into custody with us or turning him over into Ethiopian hands but let's go."

"I didn't touch him," Kelsey held out her hands in surrender before picking up her rifle and providing cover for Ray.

Clay shook his head. "We got Carrey, let's go."

As they got onto the plane, Metal sat beside her. "Surprised you were willing to torture someone so quickly after you were tortured."

She looked at Metal as Sonny and Vic piled into the helo. "Still working through it."

As the C-130 touched down at NAS Oceana, the air base on the same grounds that DEVGRU was held on, Clay looked at his sister and sighed. She looked beat. Instead of sleeping, she got all of her AAR's done from Rotterdam/Antwerp and Addis Ababa and in more depth than any of the guys would ever provide and handed into Blackburn. Clay noticed she left out her pretty much torture to get the information on Sean Carrey's location. He didn't know if he approved of that or not because he didn't know what Ray or Metal would write in theirs.

Captain Lindell was waiting on the airfield for them, which was not a good sign. "Briefing in 20 mins," was all he said as the cargo door opened.

Kelsey shrugged. "In that case, I'll find my own ride home. See ya boys."

"Not so fast, Lieutenant. This concerns you as well."

She raised an eyebrow at the Navy Captain. "Understood, sir."

20 minutes later on the dot, Bravo plus Kelsey, plus Charlie and Delta teams were sandwiched into the briefing room. Even the almighty Jason Hayes was in attendance, in uniform, which got an eyebrow raise from all of Bravo. They thought they were being called onto the carpet for the civilian casualty loss in Antwerp. It was clearly not that.

"You brought your girlfriend to a briefing?" one of the Delta guys teased Clay when he saw Kelsey, mainly because Kelsey sometimes was a regular fixture at Bulkhead with Bravo or Matt Parker. Delta had been spun up at Kelsey's promotion ceremony though so he really didn't know who exactly she was.

Clay laughed. "Too bad she has a higher security clearance than you."

The Delta guy looked over at Kelsey who was talking to Lisa. "Who exactly is she?"

Clay shook his head. "Lt. Kelsey Vanderhoek. Also known as my sister."

"Holy shit. What is she doing here?"

"Same thing you are."

Captain Lindell stepped to the front. "In about 15 minutes the rest of the world will know that in simultaneous attacks, the United States killed Hezbollah leader Adan Haddad in Lebanon and Mohammad Hassan, a senior member of al-Shaabab in Mogadishu this afternoon. The retribution is going to be swift and fierce."

Clay surveyed the look of the faces in the room. Some in shock, some surprised and some keeping a straight face. He looked at his own sister who had her mouth in a tight line. He knew her thoughts- Hezbollah meant Israel and Israel meant her. She fluently spoke Hebrew and not many officers in the US Military did. And she had a mother that was believed to be Mossad. He barely heard Lindell continue speaking. "This will change our op tempo."

"Alpha Team is already on route to Djibouti from Bagram, awaiting word from AFRICOM on what the next step will be," Blackburn said, reading a brief. He too had been in the dark.

Lindell continued. "The op tempo is going to be quick and dirty deployments and quick turnaround at home, most likely. We do not want you staying in country as some of past deployments for special operators."

Blackburn took a deep breath. "There are some of you who have special language skills that will be called upon as well."

"Until further notice, you are all on two hour recall notice. Dismissed."

Everyone started to file out, somewhat in disbelief at the turn of events. Lindell got Jason's attention. "I need to see you in my office right away, Master Chief."

Jason looked confused as hell. He was still in civilian clothes as he, and other operators, had gotten a text to come in ASAP. "Yes, sir."

Lindell closed the door behind Jason and Blackburn. "As soon as I got the call about the strikes, I've gotten one call from Lt. Vanderhoek's detailer, another from Brigadier General Bennett and a message from Lt. Col McKenzie, who is teaching over at the intel school that he wants to see me."

Jason held up his hand. "I thought the General dropped his papers after he ordered helo's into Pakistan to go rescue Lt. Vanderhoek and her Marines after the Joint Chiefs explicitly told him no action in Pakistan?"

Lindell sighed behind his desk. "I did too but he didn't drop his papers. Which means I have to yes, sir him. "

"Why the calls right this second?" Blackburn asked, although that was more rhetorical than anything.

"First person gets her, gets her language skills and her connection to Mossad," Lindell said. "That's basically what Bennett told me. He was adamant on keeping his promise of 3-3 and Hawaii to her."

Jason groaned. "Why is everyone calling you right now?"

"Because somehow word got out that Naval Intel put her out on the streets, so to speak, with the big boys and now the offers are rolling in. And she's in my chain of command right now for the next 12 hours until she goes back to class. 8 civilians died in that train station in Antwerp though, I don't like that."

Blackburn sighed heavily. "I don't condone what she did at all but I have the intelligence to say that if she didn't open that backpack, a lot more deaths would have happened. The contact is in interrogation with Mandy Ellis and we have a positive facial recognition on the bomber."

"Who?" Lindell asked.

"A Russian woman by the name of Larissa Rostova."

Lindell shook his head. "Back to Spencer, whatever her name is. I don't want her unless she's going through SERE and has her jump wings."

Jason shrugged. "Make that Air Force SERE. You tell her detailer that, her detailer makes sure she goes to those schools right away, she gets assigned to MCIA and then from there MCIA can loan her out to whoever the fuck they want, including the Navy."

Lindell looked at his Master Chief. "Sure you are just a pipe hitter?"

"I know, I just made a great career plan for her."

Lindell leaned back in his seat. "I'll run it up to her detailer. Are you sure you won't mind running with her in the future?"

Jason shrugged. "She's green but I think in the right situations, she'd be useful."

"I agree."

Clay and Kelsey returned back to the apartment where Sloane was making dinner. All she did was lift her eyebrows in surprise when both of them walked through the door. Clay gave her a quick kiss while Kelsey went straight to her phone. She emerged two seconds later.

"He call you?"

Sloane sighed. "Yeah."

"What did you tell him?"

She shrugged. "The truth. I was at work but considering your personal gun was still in the gun safe, your phone was on your desk and most of your uniforms were still in the closet and Clay was also gone told me you were spun up. I told your husband that you were most likely with Clay."

"Huh."

Sloane looked at Kelsey in the eye. "Call Patrick. He's worried. And Victoria also called wondering why you weren't answering. Her and I had a nice conversation, and that's not sarcasm either."

She looked at her brother and then Sloane. "I'll call my husband later. I'm going to Matt's right now."

"Don't drink yourself into oblivion. It's a school night and we technically are on recall," Clay reminded as Kelsey rolled her eyes and closed the door.

Sloane returned to the stove. "I don't like that look on her."

Clay grabbed his own beer out of the fridge and sent a warning text to Matt Parker about Kelsey's probability to start drinking and not stop. "Neither do I."

"Patrick's coming home within the next two weeks."

Clay stopped drinking his beer. "You neglected to tell her that, why?"

Sloane turned to face him. "He wants to keep it a surprise."

"Oh this is going to go over so well."

Sloane took the frying pan off the burner. "No shit. I hope there's enough for both of us. I didn't think you would be home."

He just looked at her. "I'm just glad to be home, babe."

Sloane was lying on the couch, watching the news when Clay, freshly showered, came back. Into the room. "I thought you didn't watch the news on purpose."

She looked at him. "I try not to, especially when you are spun up but I do like to stay informed, especially since the US just assassinated two major foreign targets."

Clay lifted her head and sat down and she laid her head on his lap and he started playing with her hair. "Yeah."

"When do you leave?" Sloane quietly asked.

"We are on two hour notice."

"Kels too?"

"Yeah."

Sloane continued watching the news. "How long of a spin up?"

"Funny you should ask. Apparently they are changing the op tempo. Quick deployments, quick down time at home."

She turned a little bit. "Kind of makes sense. You have guys like Patrick who are spec ops and have been in country way too damn long and you see why."

At the sound of Patrick's name, Sloane's phone buzzed on the table and Clay picked it up. They didn't keep anything from each other in their relationship, save for state secrets which Sloane pretty much guessed right through, so they knew each other's passwords. Sloane just knew she couldn't read most texts from the guys and especially Davis. "Patrick's in California."

Sloane turned to fully face Clay. "Excuse me."

"This is what the text says. 'Surprise. Just landed at Pendleton. Got told to get the fuck out of wherever I was late last night and it was a quick get out. Doing paperwork tonight because of said quick get out but mom booked me on a flight out of San Diego to Norfolk tomorrow. Should land around 5:12 p.m. Will text you my flight details later. Can you pick me up? Also, how hard would it be to get a Space-A to Beaufort or a flight?'"

Sloane laid there for a minute. "Wow, okay. That's really interesting. Text him back and say. 'I'll pick you up or maybe Matt but someone will for sure be there. No go on the Space-A or Beaufort; I'll book you something for the weekend.'"

Clay typed out the text and pressed send and looked down at Sloane. "Why no Beaufort?"

"She's on a two hour recall notice, you dumbass. I'm not going to tell him that in a text though."

"Right. You have a plan, babe? Virginia Beach isn't exactly romantic for them to be spending a weekend together when they haven't seen each other in eight months, save for Afghanistan which is hardly romantic."

Sloane rolled her eyes. "Funny enough, a girl I went to high school with is a manager of vacation rentals in Corolla, North Carolina. I doubt they are busy at this time of year so I'll shoot her a text. It's two hours away so within recall time if god forbid WWIII starts this weekend."

"You continue to surprise me everyday, Stephanie."

"Did Patrick have knowledge of the strike beforehand and where exactly was he that he had to get the hell out of Dodge?"

Clay looked at her. "Those are both two very good questions that you and I both do not want the answers to." It was ones that he was wondering himself ever since he read that text. He knew Patrick had been on a Recon mission to Turkmenistan but as far as he thought, his 'home base' was Kandahar and with the strikes, he should have been safe. If he was operating in Iraqi or Syrian borders, well, that could be cause for concern.

"What do you think Kels' reaction will be? She has no idea he's coming home."

Clay shrugged. "She'll be happy, I think but it's going to be a huge shock. I'm not sure I entirely agree with Patrick keeping it a secret but here goes nothing tomorrow."

"Here goes nothing."

"Speaking of here goes nothing, why don't you fully move in. Like give up your place with Rachel and Melissa and move in?"

To her credit Sloane didn't really move. "Nice pre-deployment talk, Mr. Spencer."

He rolled his eyes. "It doesn't make sense to be paying two rents when you spend more time here than not."

"What if I want if I need an emotional support system when you're deployed?"

That's when he knew she was joking. "Give my sister a call. It will be a hoot."

"I already told Rachel last month I was moving out on the 1st."

Clay looked at her. "That's in ten days. When were you going to tell me?"

"Tell you what? That I was going to move a tiny bit more clothes in here and I wasn't going to go home every tenth night? You've been gone for most of this month. Wasn't exactly a conversation I wanted to have over the phone, even if we could talk. Plus you already asked me to move in six months ago and I pretty much already live here, cook for you and do your laundry when you're home."

"I guess I did."

"You did. Still, nice pre-emptive deployment talk though. Gotta give credit where credit is due."

"I thought it was great timing."

She nodded, still watching the news. "Impeccable, giving what's transpiring."

"I do love you, Stephanie Mae." Clay fell in love with her, a large part to due with the fact of how she handled his job. She never once complained about spin ups, deployments, she knew how the military worked, she got the fact that she couldn't know about his job or his sister's job and again never complained about it. He fell in love with her because on the things they could talk about, she challenged him more than anyone had, including Mandy or Jason or his sister. She had well thought out arguments. He fell in love with her on the fact that away from the job, they had the same hobbies like going to the gym or playing video games but she wasn't afraid to go out on the town with her friends or his sister. He fell in love with her because even when she absolutely hated mornings, she would get herself out of bed to cook him breakfast some mornings.

She looked at him. "Still don't know why I fell in love with a sailor."

Kelsey couldn't really believe her eyes the next night when she parked her truck at the apartment complex. She was exhausted, pissed off and very hungover. She was still a little jet lagged and the instructor, Lt. Col McKenzie had told her she had the weekend to get the homework done that she had missed while on a legitimate assignment for the Marine Corps. Wasn't like she was sick or on leave, she was working for the Corps and still got the shit end of the stick.

And then she saw Sloane, Clay and what really looked like her husband in civilian clothes near the entrance. Leaving her purse in her truck, she went to go see if her eyes really were playing her. And they weren't. Her husband really was home, on US soil, in Virginia Beach.

She ran so fast and jumped into his arms. A little funny given the fact that she was in uniform jumping into his arms and he was the one coming home but she didn't care. "What the fuck," was all she said.

Patrick put her down and gave her a long kiss, even though it hadn't been super long since he had kissed her goodbye in the aid station at FOB Salerno in Afghanistan. "Got mad skills."

Clay heard that. "More like the Corps has mad skills at getting you home in under 24 hours."

Kelsey looked at Sloane, Clay and then back at her husband. "How the hell did you keep this a surprise."

He pointed to Sloane. "Turns out she can keep a good one."

"I am still a little in shock," Kelsey replied. "You guys did good. One important question though. How long is your leave?"

"16 days."

She smiled at her husband, Clay and Sloane. "Well we have 16 days to have the most fun we can possibly have. Before WWIII starts and all that."