Sonny waited anxiously in the elevator, his hands shoved deep in his pockets and his eyes tracking the numbers of the floors as they increased. He wasn't sure why he was so nervous. He knew Lisa was okay; Blackburn had sent a quick text in their group thread saying he had just visited her and she was doing better.
He could have been nervous because of the state of their relationship. He had never felt more sure of his love for Lisa than when he was sure he was going to lose her. They had been toeing the line for a long time now. After she had initially broke up with him, they avoided each other like the plague. They dated other people, even. But something had happened during the past few missions - they began to drift back into old habits; grabbing drinks together, bingeing shows, texting frequently. What had felt like their friendship mending became something more quickly. It wasn't long before they tumbled back into old routines and clean sheets.
They'd been happy not putting a name on it; especially after crashing and burning the last time. But now, Sonny couldn't ignore the utter feeling of wrongness in his gut when it came to not committing fully. She was it for him and he now accepted it.
Honestly, he thought, he should be far more worried about the potential disciplinary hearing he may be facing. He knew himself and knew that he would be worried the day of the hearing, but he could successfully compartmentalize until then. He knew one thing for sure; he didn't regret killing Vasyl in the slightest and he would tell the board that with no hesitation.
The door dinged and opened and Sonny walked through, turning towards Lisa's room. He stopped outside her door and looked in the window. All of the nervousness he had felt dissipated. He watched as she scrolled through her phone, oblivious that he was there and he felt sudden utter calm. She was safe. She was alive.
Her door was open so he knocked twice and leaned against the door frame, waiting for her to acknowledge him. She looked up abruptly and her face broke into a slow grin.
"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes, Davis." He said, making her laugh. She winced and laughed again, touching her side. Sonny came further into the room and pulled up the same chair he had slept in the night before.
"Geez Davis, really milking this whole getting shot thing for all it's worth, huh?" She squinted her eyes at him and shook her head.
"I'll tell you, I do not recommend getting shot. It's a total bummer."
He nodded and then asked, "What about breaking your nose? Or tased and a few concussions?"
Lisa rolled her eyes, chuckling again, saying "All in a day's work."
Sonny felt his heart constrict as his eyes took in her bruised face and bandaged body. He was the king of deflecting emotion with humor, but at this moment, nothing felt more serious. Steady panic rose in his throat and he grabbed her hand, startling her at the sudden contact.
"Listen Lisa - this about killed me… this whole shitshow almost put me six feet under. What we've been doing - what we've been trying to hide, God I didn't know how much I wanted it - no, how much I needed it until there was a chance I would never see you again." He exhaled raggedly and continued, "I don't know where your head is. You've been through the ringer and this may be the last thing on your mind -"
Lisa interrupted, squeezing his hand "It's not the last thing on my mind."
Sonny stared at their joined hands and for once he was speechless.
"Listen Sonny, I want to talk about this. We will talk about this. But first we have to talk about Vasyl. This is about your career."
Sonny's fleeting feeling of total peace shattered.
"Blackburn told you?" He took his hand back slowly and fiddled with the brim of his baseball hat. He looked at Lisa, expecting to see disappointment. He saw none.
"Yeah, he told me you are facing a potential disciplinary hearing."
"It's no big thing, Lisa. They'll chalk it up to a misunderstanding. The team has my back." Even as Sonny said it, he didn't believe it. Well, the misunderstanding part. The team would definitely have his back.
"I want to know what happened. After you found me, we were together the whole time. When did you kill Vasyl?"
Sonny exhaled and leaned backwards. "Davis, why we gotta talk about this? It's over, it's done. You're safe. I don't really want to re-live it."
Davis grabbed his hand and his eyes met hers. The steely resolve he was so fond of burned brightly in her eyes.
"Sonny, It matters. It matters because you wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't come looking for me."
"What are you talking about? There was no way in hell we weren't coming to get you. No soldier left behind, you know that."
Sonny was shocked. Lisa had always been the practical one; the reasonable one. She had to know that none of this was her fault.
"It's just hard for me to ignore that your career may be affected because we entered a relationship and the team had to rescue me. Maybe you would have acted more reasonably or listened better or - "
Sonny felt the crush of panic begin to build again. Was she saying that their relationship had put the team at risk unnecessarily?
"What are you saying, Lisa? Whether I love you or not has nothing to do with it. I was coming for you if we were friends, knockin' boots, or didn't know each other from Adam. It was the mission. Yeah, you and the guys are my teammates and that overrides everything but what happened with Vasyl could have happened on any mission. Davis, I've been able to keep my head in the worst situations. I'm not telling you this time it was easy by any means; it was downright hard as hell. But I did it, and any mistake I made was not because you and I love each other. "
Lisa's creased brow softened with some kind of relief. She nodded once and then asked, "Can you still tell me what happened?"
Sonny sighed and crossed his arms, preparing to tell her what happened before he saw her in the hallway.
The team had breached different sections of the building, hoping to divide and conquer. They were under orders from the higher ups to bring Vasyl back alive; his plan was not fully realized and no one knew why he wanted the harddrive. A terrorist attack was very possible - he might be the only one left with any information and it was very likely his lackeys knew nothing beyond their roles.
They'd been able to identify Vasyl using intelligence Lisa had gathered but not yet fully explored. She hadn't known it but she had a trove of information about her captors on her computer; all she needed was a few missing pieces, like the building she was being held in that was a known former Bratva haunt. Sonny was just thankful that Blackburn had been able to find out so much based on so little with no time left and that Lisa gave them the clue about the building.
Jason and Sonny entered through a basement door towards the Northeast section of the building. One guard was stationed in front of the door, looking utterly unaffected. Jason silently took care of the guard and signaled for Sonny to breach which he did quickly.
They entered a dark hallway, guns drawn. They moved swiftly, clearing each side hallway as they went. A small flight of stairs appeared in front of them which they climbed silently. Sonny heard voices up ahead and he looked at Jason who motioned to move forward. The voices became louder and it was clear the people speaking were around the corner. Sonny knew the deal; they were trying to limit gunfire if possible to maintain their cover. It sounded like there were only two voices which Sonny and Jason could take care of easily; especially under the element of surprise.
"We keep the girl. She will be beneficial later, though she is quite stubborn. I have seen stronger men break, she will be no different."
A voice responded, "Yes, Vasyl." Sonny and Jason exchanged a look and began to creep forward. They turned the corner abruptly and Jason grabbed the man on the left and Sonny grabbed the man on the right. The blurry photo they had seen of Vasyl from the archives before they left was poor quality at best - but Sonny could tell that Jason's opponent was definitely him.
Sonny's target immediately pivoted, ready for a fight. They were both obviously trained as Jason and Sonny squared up. It was always harder to capture alive than take the target out. Jason and Sonny both engaged in hand to hand combat, finding that their opponents were not inexperienced. Sonny's guy pulled out a gun after the first punch and Sonny responded with his own, praying that his silencer was enough. His opponent dropped to the ground with little sound and Sonny turned to help Jason. Vasyl was a large and muscled man - possibly former military. He was not going down easily.
Jason was on the bottom with Vasyl on top, his knife already in trajectory for Jason's neck as Jason prepared to block him. Without thinking, Sonny shot Vasyl and watched him slump forward.
"So much for getting him out of here alive," Jason said, not ungratefully as he rolled Vasyl off. Sonny huffed and pulled Jason up.
"If it's a choice between getting that motherfucker out of here alive and you alive, I'm going to choose you". Sonny said. Jason stared at him briefly before nodding, saying "Let's hope our bosses think the same thing."
"Let's get Davis home and I'll gladly have that conversation." Sonny moved ahead and Jason appeared beside him, nodding and saying "Thanks brother. Let's go".
They continued and turned down a larger hallway. Up ahead they heard gunfire and watched as a man returned shots and collapsed at the mouth of a hallway, obviously shot by someone at the other end. Two more Bratva skidded in behind the man, raising their guns. Neither Jason or Sonny hesitated.
"There goes our silent entry, eh?" Jason said as they shot the two men before they could see them. Suddenly, they watched as a small figure staggered out of the dark side hallway past the three dead bodies. Sonny felt his heart drop as he pushed his gun to the side and sprinted towards her.
—
"..and then we found you and you know the rest." Sonny finished. His eyes dropped to the ground, awaiting her response.
"So you killed him because he was about to harm Jason, not in revenge for me." Lisa confirmed. Sonny looked up and locked eyes with hers. Her face was unreadable.
"Yeah. Was I mad as hell? Sure. Did I want to burn the place to the ground? Also, yes. But did I do my job well? Absolutely. I would have made the same call in any country, in any scenario. My teammate was in danger and to me, that took priority over a HVT."
Lisa nodded. "I knew that Sonny, I just needed to hear you say it." He felt some small bubble of emotion inflate in his throat.
"Enough about that," Sonny said, "Let's talk about when we're busting you out of this joint. I hate these places."
"You and me both, buddy. I've been thinking of tunneling out of here for days."