Here we go Thanks for your feedback! This quarantine has left me with some available time so I may update again later today also.
Lisa got her bags together and put her hat on to head towards the plane. There was something going on in Afghanistan and she was going to figure it out. Getting on to the plane there were long faces and quiet grunts. Everyone seemed absolutely…. Miserable. It was always tough to leave home for deployment but the tension in air was unusually thick.
"This is going to be a long plane ride" Blackburn said as if reading Lisa's mind. She looked up from her computer. "Yeah, it is" she shook her head. "You talk to Quinn?" he asked sitting down beside her. "Sir? Um, no" she stammered, "well I did yesterday- he told me he wasn't deploying" she answered. Blackburn nodded. "Yeah, it's ridiculous. I know Sonny has his issues, but this…" he shook his head "and the BBQ was a bomb. Sonny was convinced Clay told Lindell what happened. I stepped between them. It wasn't good." Blackburn explained. "Oh wow" Lisa shook her head. "How did Lindell find out?" she asked "Someone called DOD and reported it. Between you and I, it wouldn't surprise me if Clay's girlfriend had something to do with it" Blackburn explained "from what I understand though, he only pushed the guy, but Lindell didn't investigate it by talking to anyone else. Didn't even give Jason a heads up"
"Why not?" she asked "I don't know. He seems to be looking for a new kinda SEAL and weeding out people. Don't get me wrong Sonny has some anger issues that he needs to deal with but I just don't think this was fair." Blackburn explained shaking his head. "It was kind of pitful at the bbq to be honest, like the world just sort of started crumbling around him." He paused. "Ugh. We'll get through, let's just hope Bravo is in one piece when we do." He got up to check in with the guys.
Lisa felt bad but decided to focus all of her energy and efforts into the data before her. After all, this was all that she felt she had any time of control over. She would be completely prepared for what this deployment would bring no matter what.
The trip was mostly silent as no one was in the mood to discuss any of the current events all of which were too volatile in a confined space. There would be time for that later.
Once in Afghanistan the guys settled in with their gear and putting things in place. Jason stopped by Clay's bunk. "Looks like you got your wish of not having to bunk with Sonny" Jason said standing in the doorway. Clay turned and laughed "Well I didn't mean that I wanted it this way" his laugh faded and he shook his head. Jason nodded, trying to approach this in a level headed manner. "So, have you made a decision about your career change?" Jason asked. Clay continued to put some things away. "I'm just trying to be present where we are right now, I can't go there yet" he explained trying to be as truthful as he could. Jason nodded. "So, this bar thing" Jason began as he leaned against the wall feeling fidgety, "what happened?" he asked. Clay leans on a desk in the room "What do you mean?" he replies. "I'm just asking, cause I got no heads up on it, Lindell went around me and called me in at the same time as Sonny. I didn't even know something went down" Jason explained his annoyance evident. "I was at a bar with Rebecca in DC and then some of the other guys showed up. Full Metal explained there was a fake SEAL running his mouth and I told them he'd been there all night that he was harmless but Sonny asked why I didn't shut him up. I told him the guy was stupid and it didn't matter but you know Sonny he took a drink of his beer and headed over to confront the guy." Clay explained. Jason listened and asked "Ok, so what happened then?"
"Well, Sonny picked up the guys hat and asked if that was a trident, pretending he didn't know and they guy says yes. Sonny asked him about seeing action and the guys said he'd seen his fair share and then Sonny asked what BUDS class he was in and the guy started stammering because he didn't know how to answer." "MMhmm. And then?" Jason asked
"And then Sonny pushed the guy and told him he was stealing valor. The guy tried to come back and Sonny pushed him again into a booth and then the other guys pulled Sonny back and they left" Clay finished and looked at Jason. Jason started to pace, rubbing his chin with his hand. "Ok, so Sonny didn't even punch the guy? Didn't choke the guy? He just… pushed him?" Jason asked now standing both hands on his hips.
"Yeah. I mean, yeah" Clay replied. "It just doesn't make any sense. WHY was it such a big deal to bring this kind of punishment?" Jason pondered out loud. "And how did they know it was him or who to report?" he continued. "I don't know man." Clay replied. "Hmm" Jason grunted. "Are you asking if it was me? Why would I do that? I mean, Sonny is a pain in my ass but I wouldn't do that" Clay said defensively. "I'm just asking. Trying to figure out what happened and why it's such a big deal" Jason said as he shrugged and left the room.
The team met for dinner, their day officially started tomorrow. "Anybody talk to Sonny?" Full Metal asked. "No" was heard around the table. "Think he's ok?" Trent asked looking around. "I mean, the team is what he has and now he's without it." The table was silent for a few seconds. "Look, Sonny is a big boy and I'm sure he will be fine" Jason stated pushing his food around on the plate. "Except that he feels like his brothers turned their back on him" Full Metal interjected looking at Clay and Jason. Ray spoke up, "Nobody turned their back on Sonny. He made his decision and he has to pay the consequences."
"Dude, he pushed a guy" Full Metal commented. "Yeah, I'm not sure I understand what the big deal was" Trent chimed in. "The big deal is, he shouldn't have done it" Jason said annoyed. "Look, he'll be back in 6 weeks and everything will be fine" Jason told all of them. "Yeah, we all though Swanny would be fine too when we left on our last deployment" Full Metal continued to push buttons frustrated that no one was dealing with this. "Hey, hey what's that about? Stop. Just stop. Sonny is going to be fine" Ray told him sternly. Full Metal got up from the table to leave shortly after followed by Trent and Brock. "You know what? I'm done too" Jason said angrily as he got up to leave. Clay and Ray were left sitting in silence. "You decide what you're gonna do?" Ray asked. Clay just stared down. "Does everyone thing that this is my fault that Sonny isn't here? Because I didn't go to Lindell" he asked finally looking up. "No, nobody thinks you did it" Ray assured. "Lindell has a specific type he is looking for and I think he's trying to weed out some of those who have stayed stagnant." Ray tried to explain. "So do you think he'll approve your promotion or do you think he'll push to you have your own team instead? Clay inquired. "I don't know. I think I'm on track for warrant officer but, I don't know" Ray replied his brain now over analyzing this process while being weighed down with what Naima is dealing with at home.
Clay walked into the makeshift briefing room seeing Ray and the rest of the team sitting in chairs. Lisa walked in afterwards. Jason and Blackburn weren't there yet. "I thought our meeting wasn't for an hour" Ray asked. "I don't know. I was called in here like all of you" Lisa said. "It's not mission related I don't believe" she looked around. Jason and Blackburn entered the room. Blackburn's eyes were glassy and Jason's face was red and tear stained.
"What's going on?" Ray asked standing. Jason clenched his fist, leaning on the table. "It's" he tried to say something but brought his fist to his lips trying to stop the emotion. Blackburn put his hand on Jason's back. "Petty Officer Quinn was found dead, in an apparent suicide" Blackburn told them his voice cracking. "What?" Clay asked shocked. "No, someone has got to be wrong" Ray said looking around. Lisa stared straight ahead not saying a word.
"As difficult as this is, we have to move forward with our mission. Get yourselves together and meet back here in an hour" Blackburn said turning to leave. There was nothing he could do to fix or console this right now. He had to push them forward. Lisa pushed back her seat and started to head out. Clay grabbed her arm, "You ok?" he asked his eyes red and throat burning from trying to control his emotions. "I'm fine. We've got a job to do and we have to focus and get it done" she replied taking a deep breath.
"I tried to call him yesterday" Trent said resting his hands on his head. "He didn't answer"
Clay punched the table. "Calm down Spenser" Jason yelled "If you had defended the trident this wouldn't have happened" Jason yelling standing almost toe to toe with Clay. "Yeah Clay, it was your girlfriend who called and reported the incident- if it weren't for that this would have never happened" Full Metal chimed in.
Suddenly Clay woke up, his entire body sweating. "God, it was a dream" he got up and took a sip of water pacing back and forth. "It was a dream, right?" He tried to shake the feeling. He picked up his phone and tried to send a text to Sonny. "Hey man, you doing ok?" he typed and hit send. Nothing. He waited a few more minutes before he changed and went into the workout area. Jason was already in there lifting weights. "Hey man" Clay greeted. "Hey. What are you doing in here?" Jason asked "Couldn't sleep." Clay replied "what about you?" he asked. "Same thing. You ok? You look like you saw a ghost" Jason asked concerned. "I'm fine." Clay replied picking up weights and putting his earbuds in.
He felt his phone buzz about an hour later in his pocket. Taking it out he sees a text from Sonny. It's a middle finger emoji. Clay laughs, having never been so relieved to get a middle finger emoji. There's still a couple hours he has to sleep so he decides to give it a try knowing now that it was a bad dream. In the back of his mind though, he wonders if it was Rebecca that reported what happened.