New Guy

"If you need a guy who will keep his mouth shut and his kit tight, and who wants to do the work? Well then I might just be your guy." True to his word, Vic Lopez had been just that since being drafted to Bravo. The silent, sturdy, hardworking guy. But sometimes being silent isn't always good. Especially when your leaking blood.

Vic woke to the sound of his phone ringing from his bedside table. He quickly sat up against the headboard and picked it up. Among many other things, BUDS had taught him to be as fully awake and alert as possible at less than a moments notice.

"Hello?"

"Morning newbie, sorry to wake you so early, bosses orders. We're getting spun up." Clay's voice sounded from the other end. Although he sounded alert, Vic could tell he wasn't masking the tiredness in his voice very well. He was surprised though by the friendliness in Spencers voice. After all, he had made it overwhelmingly clear when they met that he was not a fan of Vic. But after the events in Yemen, they seemed to have an understanding. Dare he say it, but maybe they were even growing on each other.

"Sounds good. Be there in ten." Vic answered and hung up. He stood, stretched, and quickly went through his morning routine before leaving for the base.

In Ops…

"Someone wanna explain to me why we're gettin' spun up at the butt crack 'a dawn?" Sonny asked grumpily as the team took their seats around the conference table.

"Well Sonny, when we find whichever bad guy we're chasing down today, I'll be sure to let them know how much they've inconvenienced you." Clay said with a smirk, eliciting laughter from the group.

"Well since you asked so nicely Sonny, I'll tell you." Mandy replied, walking to the front of the room and switching on the screens and causing a few more snickers from the guys.

"The rogue agent returns! What does the CIA need us for this time?" Jason asked after poking fun at Ellis.

"Good to see you guys again too. The agency sent me here to give you this mission. I'm sure you have all heard about the Marine convoy that was ambushed last week."

"Wasn't that the one carrying a bunch of POWs? I thought that Kahn's group claimed responsibility for that?" Ray asked, looking at the images on the screen.

"That's correct. With the leader of the camp dead, the Marines were able to go in and get the prisoners out, but Kahn and his men attacked them, killing them before they could even leave the country." Ellis replied.

"I'm missing something. Are we going to get Kahn? Because we're gonna need a lot more people in this room if we are." Clay questioned.

"I agree. The agency hopes to eventually go after Kahn and his men, but not this time. We have received intel that although Kahn's men ambushed the convoy, it was this man, Sadar Rastam, who gave up their location. He was the second in command of the camp, and the Marines had orders to kill him, but he escaped and got into contact with Kahn. After that, he went into hiding." Mandy explained.

"So he's the reason we're gettin' spun up?" Sonny quipped.

"That's correct Sonny. And we're on a clock. We've found where Rastam is hiding, but we know he won't be there for long. Another convoy that will be bringing the fallen Marines home is set to leave 0300 on Wednesday morning, and we know that Rastam is planning another attack on them. You guys are being sent into this building where he is holed up to execute him, and anyone with him. This mission is strictly to get in, eliminate the target, and gather any information he has on the convoy or our troops in the area so that it can be kept out of the wrong hands." Blackburn said, stepping in. Davis also joined in, and the team began to plan the op.

One flight later…

"Havoc this is One, we're passing Damon." Jason said as the vans drove through the dusty streets of the town.

"Good copy one, passing Damon." came the reply.

"Why would anyone be out this early in the morning?" Vic asked to no one in particular as he looked through the small gap between the curtains in the windows of the van.

"Haven't you ever gone for an early morning run new guy?" Clay answered with a smirk from the seat opposite Vic.

"Yeah sure, but I definitely wasn't carrying an AK with me." he replied, getting laughter from the team.

"That's right, I forgot. Sonny's the one who does that." Clay said, adding to the lightness in the air, despite the seriousness of the op in front of them.

"Don't listen to blondie Vic, it's actually a Glock, and you never know when your gonna run into a rattler!" Sonny answered from the following vehicle.

"Where the heck are you running Sonny, the middle of the mountains? And I thought you hated running?" Ray asked with a laugh.

"Probably got caught in the wrong girls' house!" Trent replied, bringing a new burst of laughter. Before Sonny could defend himself, the van pulled up to the front of the target building.

"Alright boys, let's make this quick." Jason said, and Vic readied his weapon and followed the rest of the team out of the van and into the building.

The team split into rows of four on their way towards the building, moving as one. Ray breached the door with ease and excellence, as he had done thousands of times before. They moved down the halls quickly and silently, so much that each time a man walked out of a room, they were dead before they even knew what happened. They were moving closer to the stairs, clearing out the rooms one by one. Vic split off from the team into one of the rooms in the hallway to clear it, caught by surprise when his gun was knocked from his hands. He hardly had time to watch it slide across the floor before there was a man on top of him. He felt cold metal against his skin and felt a twinge of pain from his waist. As the fight ensued, he watched a knife hit the floor, bloody, but his mind was riddled with so much adrenaline, he ignored the obvious. In the next breath, he pulled his sidearm and pulled the trigger. Clay rounded the corner to the room just in time to see the last seconds of the fight and to help him to his feet.

"Havin' fun in here?" Clay quipped, unconsciously giving the new rookie a once over. He noticed the blood on his waist but knew the had to keep moving, telling himself that the kid could handle himself and that he would check on him later.

"Always." Vic said with a smirk, holstering his Glock and then picking up his rifle. His face twisted slightly at the pain that made itself known once again. He pushed it away, remembering the Mandys words from the team meeting Time-sensitive…

"You alright?" Clay asked, noticing the muffled grunt from his teammate.

"Yea. Let's go." Vic replied, doing his best to sound normal, and brush off the pain. Luckily(or unluckily) for him, as soon as he rejoined the team and they were moving again, his adrenaline kicked in once again. They moved up the winding stairs clearing rooms once again until they came to the last in the hallway.

"Set the charges." Jason said, motioning for Sonny, who moved forward and quietly placed the blocks on the door hinges. They all stood back as he set them off, launching the door into the room. The ran overtop of it and quickly filled the room with bullets.

"Havoc this one, we pass Stalone. Moving to exfil." Jason checked in.

"Bag everything in here, I don't care how many holes it's got in it," he said, taking a picture of their target and sending it to command. Within minutes, the team was finished and moving again. Vic stood from grabbing a discarded cell phone off of the floor when suddenly a groan escaped him. A shock wave of pain hit him seemingly all at once, and he pressed a glove against the source, a mixture of fear and annoyance washing over him when it came away bloody. He realized that his adrenaline was finally wearing off and that he wouldn't be able to ignore the pain for much longer. He was hoping the team hadn't heard or didn't notice that he was in pain. He was new, still trying to prove that he was Bravo material. It wasn't that he thought he wasn't cut out for Bravo, he knew he had earned his tier-one status. It was the fact that he loved this job more than anything, and wasn't going to waste the opportunity, or let anything take it from him. Especially not some little cut. With that thought in mind, he stood to his feet, hoping that he didn't look as shaky as he felt. He joined the rest of the team as they swiftly made their exit from the building, throwing smoke grenades into the street before filing into the waiting vans.

Vic could feel the hot fabric of the interior of the van against his arm, and the bouncing of the car as it drove through the rocky, unpaved streets of the town. Somehow the road seemed a lot bumpier now than they had on the ride in. Every time the tire ran over another rock, it felt as though all of his organs were dropping to the soles of his feet, and then shooting back up to his head. He stared at the seat in front of him, trying to find something to focus on. His head was swimming with pain, and his vision was starting to darken at the edges. He could hear Clay and Jason talking around him, and the others replying through his earpiece, but for some reason, they all sounded distant. He looked down and cursed under his breath when he saw red starting to stain his pant leg. Just as he was about to do something about it, the van took an especially hard jolt from a hole in the road. A new fierce wave of pain hit him, and before he could fight it off, his world went completely black.

"See boys, these are the kinds of ops I like! Quick and dirty." Sonny said, causing a slew of eye rolls and laughs.

"I thought that's how you like everything Sonny!" Clay said back. The van erupted with noise as the conversation turned from there.

"Life must really be like that recently huh Sonny? I've seen you prowling around the bar!" Trent added to the light conversation.

"What can I say? Ol' Sonny Quinn is back and better than ever! Outta the rut!" Sonny replied, his southern drawl coming through stronger than ever.

"Yea, thanks to the New guy making you look good!" Clay said, finally looking towards Vic's seat for the first time since they'd been back in the vans. He was about to make a jab at the rookie for not joining in on the conversation when he suddenly saw why, and his mood instantly switched.

"Ain't that right Vi…. What the…? Shit!" the light mood was sucked out of the air all at once at the sound of fear in Clay's voice. Everyone turned towards the sound, curious as to what was making Clay waver that much.

"There's blood everywhere! Where's the bleeding from?! Trent?!" Clay said frantically, trying to find the source of the sticky red liquid that was dripping from the seat onto the floor. He called for Trent, but the medic had already started to climb over the seats as soon as he heard the word blood and the fear in his teammates' voice.

"Help me get his kit off. Did anyone see him go down? What happened?!" Trent asked, jumping into action. He and Clay carefully pulled the helmet and vest off, discarding it to the floor. Jason quickly jumped over the seats to join the madness, yelling over his shoulder at the driver ordering him to go faster.

"I heard him clearing one of the rooms when we first got in there. He was a few feet ahead of me, I heard a fight but by the time I got in there he had killed the guy. It must've happened then! Dammit! I should've moved faster!" Clay said, finally putting everything together in his mind.

"This isn't your fault Clay. He killed the guy in the end so he can obviously handle himself." Ray said, trying to comfort his brothers from the other van while also trying to hide the worry they were all feeling. One of their brothers was down and half of them couldn't even see what was going on.

"He's right, we can all blame ourselves as much as we want but that's not gonna do anything right now. What're we looking at Trent?" Jason said, also doing his best to keep everyone calm. Why did his rookie's always have to scare him like this? Didn't they know how old he was?!

"Looks like a stab wound, doesn't seem to deep though, I only see muscle. He's probably lost a good bit of blood already though. I think he's waking up, make sure he holds still." Trent said, and with that, all eyes snapped up towards the kid's face.

Once again, Vic could hear his teammates' voices in the distance, but this time they seemed to be getting closer instead of further away like last time. He picked his head up and began to blink. As his vision cleared, he saw three concerned faces looking back and him, and only then did he realize that he had passed out. He could feel the painful pressure of Trent's hand on the lower part of his stomach and started to squirm against. This action was immediately met by multiple hands reaching towards him, and voice trying to soothe him.

"Easy man, easy. Try not to move ok? Trent's gonna fix you up." Jason said, keeping a hand on the top of Vic's shoulder with a thumb near his neck. He disguised it as a reassuring touch when it also served as a way for him to keep track of the rookie's pulse.

"What the shit man?! You should've told me you were stabbed when I got into the room! What happened?!" Clay asked a bit more forcefully. Vic had finally gotten his bearings again and was now trying to deal with the burning pain along with the hatred he felt from being the center of attention, and the worry he could feel emanating from Clay's voice. When he finally got his thoughts together, he answered.

"Th ... the dude got a jump on me. D...Didn't think it was that bad. Besides… ops said it was t..time sensitive." he answered slowly, biting his lip when Trent popped the cap off of a syringe of morphine and then pushed it into his thigh. Trent then pealed the soiled bandaged off and packed the wound with clean ones.

"So much for him not bein' a cowboy like the rest of us!" Sonny interjected just as the vans pulled up to the airstrip. They had known they would need to be out of the country as soon as possible, so Blackburn, Davis, and Ellis had made the plane their command center so they could head home as soon as they cleared the city. As soon as they came to a stop, the rest of Bravo team that had been in the follow van was there, opening the doors and covering them.

"We don't have time for me to wrap it. I'll clean and stitch it once we're on the plane, let's move!" Trent said. He slowly helped Vic out of the car, draping one arm over his shoulder, holding tightly to his wrist with one hand, and the other holding the bandages securely in place.

"Davis! Get me one of those cots. Ray, grab my bag for me and a bunch of towels. Thanks. Clay, help me get him up here." Trent said, everyone doing as they were told as quickly as possible when the ramp closed and the team was safely on the plane.

"I wasn't informed of an injury! When did this happen?" Eric said with shock at the sight that greeted him as his team came in from what he had thought was a successful op without any complications. According to the scene in front of him, he had thought wrong.

"Yea, we weren't informed either! In fact, we didn't know until Spenser saw him unconscious on the seat next to him with blood all over the floor!" Jason said. Within seconds of Vic being lifted onto the cot, Trent had gotten all his supplied from his kit and pulled his patients' shirt off with one swift move. Brock set up a makeshift IV drip for the bag of blood that Vic would be getting for the duration of the flight and stuck him with the needle.

"I was clearing a room. A guy got a jump on me, knocked my gun out of my hand. We fought for a while, but I f...finally got him. It only f...felt like a little cut!" Vic answered as his team, now including command stood close by as Trent set to work.

"That's adrenaline for ya! Misleading, and awful when it wears off!" Brock said. Vic flinched at the sting of the antiseptic Trent was using to clean and irrigate the wound. He had seen how ugly battlefield medicine looked but was only now realizing how much it hurt.

"Well, at least this time you got lucky! The blade didn't get past the muscle, and it should only take about…. Eh.. eight stitches. Do you have pain anywhere else? Did you feel any ribs crack or anything like that?" Trent asked.

"Uh… he got a good shot in on my shoulder, but it's probably just bruised. I think the vest kept my ribs safe." Vic replied. Trent nodded his agreement after feeling around Vic's rib cage and chest and then looking at his shoulder.

"Alright, the morphine should kick in any second now. I'll patch you up, you just relax and we'll be stateside before you know it!" Trent said, the usual calm in his voice eliciting a deep sigh from the new guy. Vic settled back against the pillow and tried to think of something other than the needle poking into his side.

Home base…

Vic signed the release papers, thanked the nurse, and stood from the bed with a hand pressed against his side. He groaned slightly when putting on his rucksack rubbed hard on the black and blue bruise on his shoulder while also pulling on his newly-stitched skin. He couldn't wait to grab a beer out of his fridge - that he hoped wasn't expired, but their schedule had been crazy lately, so he hadn't had much time to clean out the kitchen - and melt into the new memory foam mattress that his sister had bought him as a gift for getting drafted by Bravo.

As soon as he rounded the corner into the waiting room of the base hospital though, he could tell by the commotion that his team had other plans in mind for him.

"There he is! First stay in the base hospital, that's a case of beer" Clay announced as he walked over to join them.

"The rookie hazing stops for nothing, huh?" Vic asked with a smile.

"Absolutely not! It's a right of passage young buck!" Sonny replied.

"And you can expect Clay to lay it on thick! He's been dying for it to be his turn!" Ray said, laughing at the look he got in return. They went on for a few more minutes, adding so many reasons for cases of beer that Lopez had already lost count. Then, Trent interrupted.

"In all seriousness though, Vic, this is the first and last time you hide an injury from us. I know we'd all be lying if any of us said we've never done it ourselves, but that's not what matters. This team? We're brothers. We watch each other six. We've had way too many close calls recently, so I don't care how much it hurts your pride, if get so much as a twisted ankle, you let me know. Got it?". Everyone had gone quiet, hearing the sincerity in the medic's voice.

"Yea. Copy that." Vic said, looking him in the eye, and then scanning around to the rest of them. Trent nodded.

"Alright then! Who else needs a beer?" Jason said, breaking the silence after a few minutes. Everyone answered quickly.

"First rounds on me! I guess it's only fair!" Vic said, getting cheers in reply, and laughed to himself. As the group made their way into the parking lot, Vic says Clay hanging back a little. Just as they were both about to part ways for their vehicles, Clay spoke up.

"I'm glad your ok man."

"Thanks. So uh… no more 'new guy'?" Vic asked, after a firm and sincere handshake.

"Oh no, that's not going away that easy! You gotta earn a different nickname, which I'm sure won't take long!" Clay answered with a smirk and then turned towards his car with a wave. Vic laughed and shook his head, climbing gingerly into his truck.