Emma had a new appreciation for single moms. Or rather; her appreciation for military moms had increased by like a million. She had no idea how her mom, aunt Naima, aunt Victoria and aunt Cindy managed to stay sane when their significant others were totally incommunicado because honestly? All Emma wanted to do was to curl up in bed and maybe even cry a little.

Clay had recovered from his stabbing faster than anyone had thought he would and he had been back at work in full capacity in just under a week and for the last 3 weeks the team had been spun up on different ops 5 times. With deployment on the horizon Emma knew that this was about to become the new normal for a couple of months – her alone with all the responsibilities that came with it - , but at least Clay and her dad would be in contact on somewhat regular intervals while on deployment, which wasn't the case at the moment.

Two days ago her dad, Clay and her two favorite uncles had been spun up just the four of them and all they had told her was that they would be going totally dark and if she needed anything uncle Trent and uncle Brock would still be around and so would aunt Lisa.

Since everything had been going well during the past few ops and with grandma Linda scheduled to come down in a few days, Emma hadn't really thought twice about the four of them going off the grid. Naturally that's when and why shit went FUBAR.

First grandma Linda called and said she wouldn't be coming because she had the flu. Then the thermostat broke, the kitchen faucet sprang a leak, her car decided it didn't want to run anymore, all the teachers seemingly decided to put all their deadlines on the SAME DAY and now, now she was sitting next to Mikey who was on a hospital bed waiting to get a cast on his arm.

"Emmy?" Mikey asked, voice still a bit gravely from the tears he'd spilled earlier.

"Yeah, Bug?" she answered, looking up from the phone she was using to distract herself with while they waited.

"I wish dad was here."

Emma blew out a deep breath.

"Me too. And I wish I could call him so that you at least could talk to him right now, but unfortunately dad, Clay, uncle Ray and uncle Sonny are off the grid."

Mikey suddenly giggled, which made Emma look at her brother with a grin.

"What's so funny Mikey Mouse?"

Mikey snorted. "All the Y's!" he burst out, still giggling.

"All the Y's…?" Emma asked slowly, wondering just how much of the 'good stuff' the nurse had given him.

"ClaY, RaY, SonnY and they call dad JaY. And I'm MikeY! All the Y's!"

Emma covered her mouth to hold back her laugh. That was actually way funnier than it had any reason to be.

As Mikey stopped his giggling the door to the room opened and the doctor stepped back in to the room together with a nurse.

"Alright, let's get your arm plastered so that you can get out of here, you man. How does that sound?" the doctor asked with a smile.

Mikey nodded his head eagerly and Emma smiled as she looked down to her phone again and finally finished the text she'd been typing up.

Emma Hayes
Thursday, 19.43
Mikey broke his arm during hockey practice. Apparently it's a hairline fracture of the distal head of the radius(?). He's mostly fine and is getting a cast right this moment. I know dad said he would be incommunicado but if you do get the chance, will you inform him?

Lisa Davis
Thursday, 19.47
Oh, no! Hug him for me, ok? And consider it done. Blackburn will tell him when he can. Do you guys need anything?

Emma smiled at the answer. It was nice to know that their aunts and uncles always had their backs.

Emma Hayes
Thursday, 19.48
Thank you! And I will! And no, we're fine. As soon as the doc is done with the cast we're gonna go home, eat and then go to bed. TTYL!

After pressing send, Emma put her phone back in the pocket of her (well, Clay's) hoodie and focused back on her baby (well…) brother who looked on with fascination as the doctor put the cast on his broken arm. Hopefully this wouldn't take long because Emma really wanted to go home, have dinner and go to bed because she was exhausted and life had been kicking her butt lately.

"Ah." Jason groaned as he heaved himself out of the torpedo tube. "Remind me to never do this again, huh?"

Blackburn snorted. "I'll let Captain Edwards know you don't approve of his damage lock-out chamber. I'm sure all the COs of nuclear submarines have complaint boxes posted outside their staterooms."

"Yeah. A lock-out chamber it's like a five-star hotel compared to being in that thing, that's for sure." Jason said as he checked his weapon over before putting it down next to the rest of his discarded gear.

"Yeah…How'd it go out there?" Blackburn asked, glancing up at Jason while still continuing to pack up his things.

"It went swimmingly. Iranian cargo ship exactly where Mandy said it was supposed to be."

"Ah, a successful special reconnaissance in North Korea." the Lieutenant Commander said with a smirk which died as he got ready to tell Jason about what Lisa had informed him off a few hours earlier.

Before he could get to it, he was interrupted.

"Sir, tube four is depressurized and ready to unlock."

"Very well, Petty Officer Takahashi. Let's get Senior Chief Perry the hell out of there."

"Aye, sir. Stand by." the Petty Officer answered and turned towards the tube.

Eric got to his feet next to Jason and turned to face him.

"So, Davis contacted me while you guys were out there. Emma texted her."

Jason's head snapped around to look at his commanding officer.

"What happened?"

Blackburn sighed.

"Michael broke his arm during hockey practice. He's ok!" he hurriedly said when Jason looked as if he was about to interrupt. "But he'll be in a cast for a few weeks."

"But he's ok?"

"He's fine. Davis said that Emma texted her while Mikey was getting the cast and that they were fine and was going to head home to eat and sleep once the doctor was done."

Jason blew out a breath and ran a hand through his wet hair. He really wanted to call his kids and hear that they were ok first hand but they would still be incommunicado until they left the sub and if Emma had told Davis that they were fine, he just had to believe that they were.

"Thanks for telling me, Eric." Jason said, clapping the shorter man on the shoulder before greeting Ray who had just finished climbing out of the tube.

"Hi, Ray."

"That was unpleasant." Bravo 2 said as he picked up his gear from the ground.

"I don't know about that. I mean, swimming against current? That was unpleasant. How you holding up?"

"I burned up my air consumption. Was down to 35 bar of O2 before I locked back in." Ray said, as Jason whistled.

"Lucky for us," Blackburn put in, "this sub's gonna give us a lift back to our exfil boat."

"Can't be soon enough." Jason answered. "Being in a sub's cramped quarters, too many dudes, it's like living in an underwater Y."

Both Blackburn and Ray snorted.

"Yeah…I'm gonna leave you in the capable hands of Petty Officer Takahashi here while I transfer these photos over to Havoc." Blackburn said, pointing to the Petty Officer. "How long till we get our last man out?"

"Five minutes, sir"

"All right. Let's get Quinn and Spenser out and stand by." he said and then he left to head on up to the control room.

Five minutes later Ray opened the hatch to let their youngest brother out of his confined quarters.

"Let's go, Ponyboy. Get on out of there." Jason said with a smirk as he grabbed the pack Clay handed out.

A rifle and fins followed next and then Clay heaved himself out.

"Oh, boy. I feel like I just relived my own birth. That was really just awful." he said, as he ruffled his extremely slicked back hair into a more natural state.

"Yeah." Jason answered as his smirk widened. "I bet Sonny's miserable."

"Oh, he's got to be losing his claustrophobic mind right about now." Ray added, a smirk appearing on his face as well.

"Right?"

"How much longer until he comes out?" Clay asked as he made his way over to the towels.

"Uh, two minutes." Petty Officer Takahashi answered with a glance on his watch.

"Two minutes?" Jason asked before turning to Clay. "Give him a call, Clay. See how he's holding up."

Clay tossed the towel to the side and pushed the button on his com.

"Bravo 3, this is Bravo 6, uh, we're requesting an update of your current position." he said, trying to cover the smile that wanted to make an appearance.

All three of them waited for Sonny's (probably) snarky answer but as none came, Ray grabbed the radio that was lying next to the towels.

"Bravo 3, this is Bravo 2. Radio check. Over." he said and paused before continuing. "You change locations?"

When Bravo 3 still didn't answer Jason stole the radio form Ray.

"Hey, Sonny, this is Jason. I bet right about now you're regretting doing all those squats, huh? All, uh, snug as a bug in there?" he asked while smirking as he looked at the rest of his team.

"Kiss my waterlogged Texas ass." Sonny finally replied, making them all chuckle.

"There it is." Ray said, turning back to his gear with a smile.

Clay shook his head and pushed the button on his com again.

"Hey, at least there's no sharks in there, brother, right?"

"I'll tell you what, man," Sonny said, sounding fed up with the world. "I'd rather take a swim with the man in the gray suit any day over sitting in here. I feel like I'm on the business end of a clogged toilet."

Clay looked from Ray to Jason before pushing the button again.

"Hey, maybe you should've let Trent take your place." Clay said, before once again looking at his teammates, waiting for the answer they all knew was coming. Jason held up the radio as Sonny started his diatribe.

"This op wins the Sonny Quinn nightmare mission award. Swimming? Check. Freezing? Check. Climbing over sharp volcanic rock? That's a check. Didn't get shot at? Check. Now, last but not least, sitting in a tube that's tighter than Shamu's keister? Check."

Ray shook his head as they all chuckled again.

"You got to give it to him, man. He's a world-class complainer." Jason said with a grin.

"Nobody does it better." Ray agreed.

Before anyone could say anything else, Petty Officer Takahashi spoke up.

"Master Chief, we're ready here."

"We're ready?" Jason said before picking up the radio again. "Hey, Sonny, we're ready. But before we open you up, you sure you don't want to spend a little bit more time in there and do a little bit of self-reflecting?"

"I will self-reflect all over your damn face, you don't pull me out of this damn thing." Sonny answered and then… then the sub started to shake and tilt, the light flickered and an alarm started going off.

"What's happening?" Jason asked the Petty Officer as he grabbed hold of a set of chains to keep his balance.

"I don't know, Master Chief."

"What do you mean you don't know? Hey, I got a guy in here!" he said, pointing at the hatch that was still unopened.

"The locking mechanism isn't working." Takahashi said as he tried to open the hatch.

"What do you mean the locking mechanism isn't working? I got a guy stuck in there."

Takahashi pulled and pulled but the lock wouldn't budge.

"What the hell's going on out there?" Sonny asked on the radio.

Jason looked from Takahashi to Clay and then to Ray before lifting up the radio again.

"…Hey, Sonny, I got some bad news. You're stuck."

It was late when they boarded their exfil boat (which was actually a ship but who cared), and Jason looked at the two members of his team that were still standing. Ray was chomping at the bit to go down to the sick bay and check up on Sonny again after his transfer from the sub to the ship and Clay… well Clay looked as if he wasn't even aware of where he was or why he was there.

Jason sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The past few hours had taken years off his life and all he wanted was to crash until they made it back home but he still had things to do, a team to check up on and people he needed to contact.

"Clay, bring our bags down to our cabin, change clothes and then sit tight until I get down there, ok?" he said to the young blonde who simply nodded and grabbed said bags before making his way below deck.

Jason and Ray both looked as their youngest teammate disappeared out of their sight.

"Is he ok?" Ray asked with a furrowed brow as the door closed behind Clay. "He hasn't really said a word since… well since we pulled Sonny out of that tube."

Jason frowned.

"I honestly have no idea." he said with a sigh. "Why don't you locate Blackburn, a sat phone and then meet me in the sick bay?" he asked his 2IC.

Ray looked like he was about to object for a moment before he nodded.

"Yeah." he finally said and turned towards the stern, which was the direction Blackburn had taken as they boarded. "I'll meet you down there." Ray finished before walking away and then Jason was the only Bravo member left on deck.

Jason sighed for the umpteenth time during the past hours. He was going to check up on Sonny, get the sat phone from Ray and then head down to the cabin to check on the kid. After that all he had left was to tie up the loose ends. Would this day ever end?

They had almost lost Sonny. No, scratch that. They HAD lost Sonny. Sonny had died in that torpedo tube and it had taken multiple shocks to bring him back.

Clay leaned his head against the bed behind him and tried to regulate his breathing. He knew he was breathing way to fast and taking way to short breaths but he couldn't stop. He'd almost lost his best friend. He'd almost had to bury another best friend. He'd almost been made best friend-less for the second time in just over a year.

Still breathing hard and fast, Clay didn't notice when the door to the cabin opened and Jason stepped in.

"Clay? Hey, Clay…"

Jason stopped dead inside the door as he found Clay sitting on the floor with his head resting against the bottom bunk, eyes closed and breathing way to fast. The kid was close to hyperventilating.

Getting down on his knees in front of the kid, Jason gently placed his hands on Clay's shoulders.

"Clay. Open your eyes, bud." he said, squeezing his hands as he did.

Clay shook his head but Jason insisted and after a little coxing Clay did as Jason asked.

"Good. That's good. Now try and take a deep breath… that it, good and slowly let it out."

Jason kept talking Clay through his breathing and when he after about five minutes was some-what back to normal, Jason finally let go of the younger man's shoulders and sat down beside him.

"Want to tell me what that was about, kid?" he asked, tilting his head to the side so that he could look at Clay.

Clay shook his head.

"No, not really."

"I figured…" Jason sighed and then grabbed the sat phone that had ended up a few feet away on the floor.

He had called Emma on the walk from the sick bay to the cabin and had, as gently and with as little details as he could, informed her of what had happened to her beloved uncle. Emma had been horrified but knowing that Sonny would be ok had softened the blow of his drowning and she had then told him about Mikey's broken arm. It had been a bad 24 hours for everyone it seemed but hopefully things would feel better once they all where back home in Virginia Beach.

Punching in the number he knew by heart he held the phone to his ear as I started to ring while still glancing at Clay who seemed totally oblivious to what Jason was doing.

"Dad?"

Jason smiled as his daughter's voice filled his ear again.

"Hi again princess. I didn't interrupt you at anything, right?"

"Nope, I'm just making breakfast before I have to wake Mikey up. What's happened in the… oh half an hour since we talked?" she asked, knowing that there was no way her dad would call that soon again unless something had happened. "Did something happen with uncle Sonny?!"

"No, no, no, baby girl. He's still as good as he was half an hour ago. I'm calling because I need you to do me a favor."

"Anything." Emma said hastily.

"Do that thing you always do to calm your boyfriend? He needs it."

"Is he ok? Did something happen to him as well?" she asked, her worry clearly noticeable in her voice.

"I think the fact that his friend almost died freaked him out more than a little. He was hyperventilating when I found him."

"Oh…give him the phone dad, I need to hear his voice."

"Will do. Love you, Emmi-star." Jason said and then he held the phone out to Clay who looked at it as if it was a foreign object.

Jason sighed. "It's for you. I'm gonna step out for a moment and give you two time to talk." he said before pressing the phone into the other man's hand and leaving him too it.

Clay looked at Jason as he slipped out of their cabin and then he looked at the sat phone in his hand.

"Hello?" he asked as he pressed it to his ear.

"Hi, Bear."

"Emma!"

"Yeah. I heard you've had a rough day, babe?"

Clay nodded before his mind caught up and he realized she couldn't see him.

"He died, Em…" he whispered brokenly.

"I know… but they brought him back and he's gonna be just fine, ok? There's no way we'll get rid of Sonny Quinn that easily." she said, trying to make him laugh.

A small chuckle left Clay and he took a shaky breath.

"Clay?" Emma asked gently.

"Hmm?"

"Go lay down on a bed. Close your eyes. Try to relax. Can you do that for me?"

"Yeah…" Clay said and then he heaved himself up from the floor and promptly collapsed on the bunk behind him, head instantly finding the pillow and his eyes closing promptly.

"Done…" he mumbled s he silently wished she was about to do what he wanted her to do.

He could hear Emma steady he voice on the other side of the phone and then her sweet voice filled his ear.

"Call me, baby, if you need a friend.
I just wanna give you love,
Come on, come on, come on.
Reaching out to you, so take a chance.

No matter where you go,
You know you're not alone.

I'm only one call away.
I'll be there to save the day.
Superman got nothing on me.
I'm only one call away.

Come along with me and don't be scared,
I just wanna set you free.
Come on, come on, come on.
You and me can make it anywhere.
For now, we can stay here for a while,
'Cause you know, I just wanna see you smile…"