It had been 2 days and all Emma wants is to go back in time a week or two so that she can spend her days (and nights) with Clay and not here, in class, pretending to actually pay attention to whatever her teachers are saying.

Well, that's not all true. Emma does pay attention - she's not going to get bad grades her final hear of high school thank you very much - but she still wishes she was with Clay instead of in school.

As she feels her phone buzz from an incoming text she's grateful that she remembered to put it on silent. Just a few moments later it buzzes again with a second text and that - well that makes her anxious.

Glancing over at the clock she saw that she only had about 7 minute until the class was over so she curbed her anxiety and need to check her phone and pretended to pay attention for the last few minutes.

The second the class was over Emma shot out of her seat and as she walked out of the room she pulled out her phone and found 2 unread messages, one from her dad and one from Clay.

Dad
Tuesday, 10.22
Caught a spin, hopefully back in a few days.
Mikey has hockey at 4.30, Cindy is taking him but pick up at 6.
Love you, Emmi-star

Bear
Tuesday, 10.21
We're getting spun up. Wheels up in less than 4 so won't get to see you before we leave.
I'll see you when we get back.
Miss you already.

Letting out a sigh of relief – spin ups and hockey practice she could navigate with her eyes closed.

Emmi-Star
Tuesday, 10.33
I'll pick him up in time.
Come home safe.
Love you more.

Birdie
Tuesday, 10.34
Take care and be safe.
Miss you too.
ILY 3

"Did something happen?"

Emma looked up from her phone as she pressed send on her reply to Clay and found both Cathy and Hannah looking at her with a hint of worry in their eyes.

"Nothing bad or out of the ordinary. The team just caught a spin."

Both girls nodded in understanding, being navy brats themselves they knew the implications of that and also how much more responsibility Emma had to shoulder when it happened.

"Is Grandma Linda in town?" Cathy asked.

Emma shook her head. "No, and she won't be back for 3 weeks so until then when dad is away it's just gonna be me and Mikey."

Cathy grimaced at that. "I can't imagine being responsible for not only me but Robby as well… let us know if we can help out, yeah? I'm sure mom would help too if you need it."

"Thanks, babe but it's not that bad. Mikey makes it easy most of the time. And your mom already is because she's taking the boys to practice this afternoon." Emma answered, putting her phone back in her pocket and shouldering her backpack.

"Well, we're still here if you need help." Hannah said before linking arms with both of her friends. "But now we need to go to class because we are about to be late."

Just as Hannah finished her sentence the bell, signaling that classes were about to start, rang and they all took off in a hurry towards the classroom they were supposed to be in.

"Bravo 6, this is 1. I need you to run external security."

Clay looked over at Trent as he reached up to answer Jason.

"Check. External security. We're on it." he said in to the com before nodding at Trent and they split up to cover more ground.

Setting up his rifle, Clay scanned the area while he let out a mental groan. They were in the middle of no-man's-land, a full-blown war zone actually, with zero governing authority and to top it all off? They were working with limited assets, intel and overwatch. All to rescue a 21 year old female who, according to the CIA, made a 'childhood misstake' when she joined ISIS 2 years prior and married one of their leaders.

'Childhood mistake', his ass. Jenna had been a year older than Emma was now when she made her choice and no matter how you twisted and turned it Clay couldn't get over that the higher ups wanted to turn a blind eye to the fact that she had put herself in this position all on her own.

Sweeping his gaze over the ruins of a building his eyes caught a man all dressed in black with a rifle in his hand and with his face fully covered. Yay, the enemy had arrived.

"Bravo 4, I got one fighter moving from the south to our southeast coming toward us." he informed Trent and just moment's later Trent informed them all that the man was down.

From then on, things got moving. Clay asked Havoc for an ISR report and next thing he knew Havoc informed them that enemy cavalry was inbound. That was followed by the arrival of an up-armored VBIED which ended with Trent blowing it to the high heavens and a cloud of smoke which made it impossible for Clay to see anything of value.

"Negative. Uhm, I can't see anything up here for all the smoke." Clay informed Jason when Jason asked them to hold security.

"All right. Check. Get back to the first deck. I'll meet you at the main entrance." Jason replied so Clay retreated back inside and headed for the long corridor that would take him to the staircase.

He had his head on a swivel, he'd been on too many ops not to, but he still found himself surprised with hands wrapped around his throat by a man that came out of nowhere.

It took him a few moments longer than he would've liked to get his gun out and dispose of his attacker but he did it and then he hurried back down to the team while trying to put himself back together because everything, even the NOD's on his helmet, was slightly askew.

As he approached the front entrance he was met by Jason, Brock and Full Metal. Jason glanced over him and frowned.

"Spenser, you good?" he asked, mostly because Clay's gear was still somewhat out of place.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm solid. Got contacted on my way down here. They're coming through the south entrance, must've been when we were shooting that VBIED."

"Yeah, they're coming through like rats." Full Metal agreed, keeping his eyes on the opening behind them.

"All right, look, we'll stronghold our position here until Kairos finishes nerfing those bombs, and then we'll go home." Jason said and then they all took up positions, ready to wait for their friends, their HVT and the QRF.

The C-17 was back in the air just minutes after they all got onboard. The whole team was in need of a shower (or at least some clean up) and a change but with the state of everything it was best to just get air born and deal with everything in-flight.

Jason was the first to de-jock and after a quick change of shirts he did a quick headcount of his guys. Brock was feeding Cerb, Sonny was getting out of his vest while chatting with Davis, Trent and Ray were helping their medical team with the HVT, Full Metal was already in civvies and asleep and the kid… well the kid was still in full gear and looked a little out of it.

Something about the way Clay looked didn't sit right with him but his attention turned to Mandy when she walked passed him with a look of fury on her face as she hissed in to the sat phone.

"Walking my team into a setup with a half-baked intel package just so you could put a notch on your belt? I don't give a damn about seniority, Jeff. Someone is gonna answer for this."

"Okay…well, I hope whoever that was deserved it." Jason said to Mandy as he walked over to her, one eyebrow raised in question.

"More than deserved. Jason, I'm sorry. CIA, We…we missed something on this." she said, looking frazzled and apologetic.

"Well, the intel wasn't totally wrong. I mean, Jenna was there, so…" he said with a shrug. Sure, the whole this hadn't been smooth sailing but on the scale of things? They wrapped it up with a win.

"Yeah, sitting on a bomb." Mandy muttered and crossed her arms in front of her.

"Well, you can never really know what's around every corner, now, can you?"

Mandy sighed. "Well, look, I'm-I'm sorry." she said, making Jason frown again. Mandy didn't susally apologize. Certainly not for something like this when she really hadn't done anything wrong.

"This isn't like you. I know that you were shaky before this whole mission started and all, but look got the job done, right? Everybody's alive. It was a good day. Easy day."

A small smile appeared on Mandy's lips and Jason returned it.

"CLAY!"

Sonny's shout interrupted everyone's actions and Jason turned on his heels to find that Clay had keeled over where he was sitting, looking pale as a sheet.

Rushing over there Jason was immediately joined by Trent and they soon had him lying down on the floor. The kid was still in full gear.

"What's wrong with him?" he asked their medic as he took Clay's pulse and then checked his airways.

"Not sure." Trent muttered. "Help me get this off so we can check him over."

It was a team effort to get Clay out of his tactical vest and shirt but as soon as they had removed them they all knew why the kid was currently passed out.

"What did he do now? Where did he even get that?" Sonny asked as he looked down on Clay over Jason's shoulder, seeing a stab wound on the upper right side of the kid's chest.

"He said he got contact on the way down…" Jason said slowly. "But he looked fine and said he was fine!"

"Yeah well, the kid did clearly get stabbed by something and from the looks of things there's still something in there." Trent replied and then looked up.

"Can someone grab my…" he trailed off when Brock, always one step ahead in time of need, offered him his medical bag.

Trent nodded his thanks and then got to work. He pulled out the essentials (gauze – so much gauze – clamps, blood bags, scalpel, forceps…) and then got himself ready. Gloves, mask, headlamp. Check, check and check. Time to get this show on the road.

Jason stood back and watched as Trent cleaned around the wound and then got to it. It took him a while to extract the object lodged inside but when he pulled it out they all grimaced. Clay had been shivved and whatever his attacker had used, a part of it had gotten stuck in the wound and was now looking like a messed up meat screw.

"Why is he passed out? It can't be blood loss, right?" Ray asked, looking from Trent to Jason and back again.

Trent shook his head. "My guess is an adrenaline crash mixed with the sudden pain. And since he told none of us that he was stabbed I'm gonna guess that he might not have known he was. Or, if he did, how bad."

The others nodded slowly but Jason's eyes narrowed. He'd known something was off and if he had seen it, what were the odds the kid hadn't felt anything? He was going to have a talk with him as soon as he could because hiding an injury was not ok.

"Someone put pressure on here while I get ready to close him up." Trent finally said and Brock was instantly next to him, gloves already on and gauze at the ready.

When Trent pulled back Brock covered the wound with gauze and then put weight on it as to keep pressure to it.

Clay's eyes suddenly flew open wide and he tried to sit up.

"MOTHERF…" he shouted as he did, the pain from Brock putting pressure on the wound pulling him out from his state of passed out.

"Jay, hold him down. If he starts flapping around he'll likely open the wound further. Just give me a second and I'll give him something for the pain."

Jason followed Trent's orders, knowing that in this instant Trent was the one in charge of the situation, Bravo 1 be damned.

As he pushed Clay back down he searched for the younger mans wild eyes and when they finally connected, Clay stilled and let himself be held in place.

"That's right, kid. Nice and easy. Trent will give you something for the pain and then he'll fix your wound."

Clay let out a deep sigh and nodded before closing his eyes. His eyes stayed closed for less than 5 seconds though because they flew back open and he starred back up at Jason again.

"What is it, Spenser?"

"Emma…" Clay said and Jason felt a chill run down his spine. Damn it. Clay was most likely going to spend a night or two in the infirmary and Jason, well he would have to inform Emma of what happened.

"I know kid. I'll call her as soon as we land. You'll see her in no time."

Clay nodded slowly and a moment later Trent gave him a shot of something and soon Clay was as relaxed as can be, ready to get stitched up.

Jason pulled back a little, giving Trent room to work since the need to hold Clay down was lowered, and mentally started to run through what he was going to tell his daughter. Why did she have to fall for a team guy? And one of his at that?