"How are you feeling?

Metal tried focusing his eyes on Trent, but pretty soon realized it was in vain, "Like they've got me on some hella good stuff."

Trent chuckled a bit, "But you're not in too much pain?"

Metal shook his head a little, "Not at all."

"That's good."

Metal nodded a little.

"The guys wanted to know if you wanted visitors…"

Metal shook his head a little, "Later. Tomorrow."

Trent nodded, "I'll let them know."

Metal nodded again, "But if you want to, you can stay."

"I was planning on that."

123123123

The next day Trent asked the same question, and got a different answer from a more sober-looking Metal.

Before he went to tell the others Metal stopped him.

"Yeah?"

"We should… There's a thing we might have to decide first."

Trent tilted his head sideways as he stepped back beside Metal's bed, "Yeah?"

"Jase knows. Sonny knows." Metal shrugged, "How about we just… Start being open about this?"

"You want that?"

"I'm okay with it." Metal shrugged. "Still not gonna kiss you in public, that's just not me."

Trent chuckled a bit, "Well, except for that one time a few years ago… I would never have assumed that either. You sure about this?"

"Feels dumb to keep it secret any longer. Half of the rest of the team knows. We're obviously not going on deployments or spin ups together, ever again…" Metal cast a glance to where his stump was elevated under the covers, "Someone else has to be Alpha-1, permanently. Things are gonna be easier if we just tell them."

Trent nodded, brushed a hand over Metal's greying hair and leaned down to press a kiss against his forehead.

"Hey, no fair…" Metal chuckled, "I want a real one."

"A real what?"

"You know exactly what…" Metal rolled his eyes a little, "-Jackass…"

Trent chuckled a bit and leaned down to place a kiss on Metal's lips, Metal's right hand hooked around the back of his neck and pulled him closer.

"Marry me?" Metal asked after he let Trent pull away from the kiss.

"What?"

"I didn't stutter." Metal shook his head, "Will you marry me?"

Trent nodded a little, "I want to… But ask me again when you're sober, okay? The answer will be yes."

Metal nodded a little, "So now you're kinda my fiancé?"

"Kinda…" Trent winked, "Unofficially."

"I'm cool with that." Metal grinned, "Dibs on having Jase as my best man."

Trent chuckled, "Okay, I'll let you get to have him…"

Metal smirked, then he took a deep breath, "I think I'm ready for the other guys now."

"I'll go get them, then we'll tell them about us."

Metal nodded, "I love you."

"I know." Trent winked back.

Metal rolled his eyes a little, and chuckled.

123123123

There was a weird feeling in the room when the rest of the team entered. It was like everyone was walking on eggshells. Like most of them expected any wrong move to make Metal start crying or something.

"Hey man, how are you holding up?" Jason bumped his fist against Metal's as he got close enough.

"Don't think it's really hit me yet…" Metal shrugged.

"-Well, it definitely hit your knee…" Sonny shot in, his voice as dry as it would go.

Metal tried to hold it back for about a second and a half, but then he broke out laughing, "Definitely did."

And with that, the uncomfortable tension disappeared.

"How does it feel?" Brock asked nodding at where what was left of Metal's right leg was elevated.

"Right now, it doesn't feel like anything…" Metal shrugged, "Still not sure if I'm just lucky or if they have done something to make sure it doesn't hurt yet…"

"Here's to hoping you're one of the lucky ones…" Trent shrugged.

Metal nodded a little, "It's weird that it doesn't hurt at all right now. I mean, I was almost sure the pain itself would kill me when it happened."

Clay frowned, he was pretty sure it was impossible to imagine that kind of pain correctly.

Trent took a slow, deep, breath. "Hey, bet you're learning how to walk with a temporary prosthetic by the time our deployment is over…"

"Three months?" Metal shrugged, "Bet I'll be able to walk without a walker…"

Sonny chuckled a bit, "So, what's the prize?"

Metal shrugged a bit, "Why don't we really make it interesting, homemade dinner? How about that?"

Trent shrugged, and nodded.

123123123

They had chatted about everything and anything for a while. Then the two of them silently agreed that it was time to tell the rest of the team as well.

"Hey, uhm… Guys…" Metal shifted a bit in his bed, "There's something I, we, should probably have told you years ago…"

Both Metal and Trent caught the smiles of Jason and Sonny.

Brock, Ray and Clay looked utterly confused though.

"We?" Brock repeated with a questioning look on his face.

"We." Trent nodded.

Brock wasn't able to process the miniature clue

Ray frowned in confusion for a second, before a grin spread across his face.

And Clay simply snapped his fingers and let his index finger trace between the two, "I knew it."

"What?" Brock looked over at Clay, confusion painted across his face.

"We should…" Metal swallowed a bit, "Alright, two of you already know… But we should have let the rest of you know as well…"

Trent nodded along.

"Trent and I, we've… We're a couple, alright?"

"You are?" Brock tilted his head, "For real?"

Trent chuckled, "Yeah, been so for a little while…"

"That's the understatement of the year…" Jason chuckled.

Metal chuckled as well, "Yeah, twenty plus years is more than a little while…"

"Wait? That long?" Clay's eyes went wide.

Trent nodded, and looked to Metal, "Yeah, 2002?"

Metal nodded a little, "2002, March."

Trent nodded.

"I'm… I'm happy for you." Ray smiled, "I would have liked to know this secret like a decade ago, but… I'm happy for you."

"Yeah, sorry about that…" Metal shrugged, "My bad, mostly."

Trent shook his head, "I wasn't ready to tell either."

"Does anyone on Alpha know?"

Metal shook his head, "No. Derek might assume something. The others should be completely in the dark. Especially Frankie and Dylan."

"Jackson probably knew." Trent chuckled.

"Yeah." Metal chuckled a bit, "He knew."

"Man, I miss that guy…" Jason sighed.

Metal nodded, "He was a great 2IC. Derek is as well, but…"

"Jackson was Jackson…" Trent shrugged.

"Look, the reason we've kept this to ourselves up until now…" Metal swallowed, "It was never because of you guys. Trent trusts you, I trust you. We know we could have told you and none of you would have looked at us any different."

Jason nodded silently from the corner and winked at Metal who tried to get his message through.

"Reason was always my team, Alpha team." Metal sighed, "Most of the team would probably be cool about it, but…"

"Frankie and Dylan?" Sonny frowned.

Trent nodded a little.

"But, they're on you team…" Brock frowned, "Why didn't you just bump them over to another team?"

"Even though they are narrow-minded, they are still great soldiers, who work well with the rest of Alpha." Metal shrugged, "As a team leader, I valued that over being able to be public about a personal relationship. Besides, we had already been together for years when we finally could step forward about it without potentially being kicked out of the Navy all together."

Trent chuckled, "We were definitely over the 'everything is NEW and exciting' phase."

Metal nodded.

"So, who knew this already?" Brock asked, "On this team."

Jason and Sonny raised their hands a little.

"You knew?" Clay raised his eyebrows questioningly at Sonny, "Really?"

"Only since…" Sonny nodded towards Metal's missing leg, "When I went down to ask for spare ammo."

Ray chuckled, "Yeah, you spent a bit more time doing that than what we had expected."

"You should've heard the words coming out of Ray at one point there…" Brock chuckled, "Didn't sound very Christian in that moment."

"Well, I was WINCHESTER, big ol' capital letters. Everything was empty, I didn't even have a pebble to toss anyone's way." Ray shrugged.

Jason chuckled, "We all got lucky, in one way."

Metal nodded a little. He had imagined the day he had to quit the teams since the start of his career, he guessed most guys did. He had never really figured he'd survive that day, so many others didn't. But there he was, almost 48 hours after, and he felt sorta okay. He didn't look forward to life after SEAL, but he figured he'd be alright.

Maybe it was the knowledge that his brothers would be there for him, maybe it was because he had a challenge to complete. He didn't know.

His entire adult life, he had always been reaching for something. Maybe that was the way to survive a medical discharge? Set goals, reach for them, never quit?

"So, Clay…" Sonny chuckled, "You knew it?"

Clay shrugged, "I had a theory…"

"Yeah?" Brock crossed his arms over his chest, "How? Why?"

"There's lots of small stuff, alright?" Clay shrugged, "Like, Trent's hands… I've seen them shake before, but that's only afterwards. After someone is patched up, or dead. Never when someone is actively bleeding."

Trent chuckled a bit, "Yeah, thanks for helping me…"

"That's all?" Sonny narrowed his eyes a little.

"No, there's a whole list. I probably could have done that entire cork board and red string thing." Clay chuckled, "Ever noticed how… You guys check up on each other CONSTANTLY. Whenever there's a pause in conversation, or when action dies down, you look towards each other."

"I didn't know we did that…" Metal rubbed at his neck, "We probably do, but I hadn't noticed."

Clay chuckled, "And then we have the fact that Trent refuses to let you tough it out with small injuries the way the rest of us can convince him to just overlook a sprained ankle, bruised wrist, etc."

"Yeah, that's a bit annoying…" Metal chuckled and winked at Trent.

"And you're no better…" Clay chuckled, "Remember that time Trent sprained his wrist a year ago?"

"Hey, that was his right wrist." Metal shrugged, "I don't trust that fool when it comes to injuries to his right arm."

"It was just a sprain…" Trent shrugged.

"Yeah, but that arm…" Metal shook his head, "Not sure if you remember this or not, but the doctor said you needed to be careful with it."

"Yeah, cause he couldn't be sure if lymphatic system was damaged or not." Trent shrugged, "Obviously, it's doing quite well. And he cleared me for those mundane things before he let me requalify."

"You weren't even supposed to get a needle stabbed into that arm at one point."

"-Before the doctor figured out that my lymph nodes and vessels were okay." Trent nodded, "Ancient history by now."

Metal shrugged a little, "The doctor was pretty strict about it back then…"

"-But when he figured out that my lymphatic system was working correctly, I didn't have to worry about that any longer…" Trent struggled not to roll his eyes, "It was just in case that was too damaged to do its job, then I would have had to be careful about that sort of stuff. My arm can survive a beating or fifty."

"Just let me worry from time to time, alright?" Metal sighed.

Clay chuckled, "And then there's the coffees. How many times have you brought coffee for each other, but not the whole team, huh?"

"There's… There's no number for that…" Trent admitted.

Metal nodded along.

"Now that I know about it, I see the clues…" Brock shrugged, "Like how they almost always end up on room together if we're split into two-and-two…"

"YEAH!" Clay nodded.

"Actually, that's often on me…" Jason admitted.

Metal smirked, "Yeah, about that… Thanks."

Jason shrugged a little, "Hey, as long as someone actually wants to be around your ripe shoes, or as long as someone doesn't mind Trent's ability to take up more space than you would think he could… I'm not about to mess with what sorts itself out."

Trent chuckled, "Yeah, thanks."

"My favorite Full-Trent'ism is when they're drunk, and try to tell each other the other one is too drunk, and should go home…" Sonny smirked.

"Full-Trent?" Ray frowned, "Like that celebrity thing? Like Brangelina when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were a thing?"

"Ship name…" Sonny shrugged, "So, kinda…"

"Pretty sure that shouldn't be done with our names…" Metal frowned, "Sounds too cheesy…"

"I'm with Metal on that…" Trent nodded.

Clay shrugged a little, "Could be Fent, or Sawyal, or Metawyer… Pretty sure that is more ship-name like than just putting Full and Trent next to each other. Probably a lot of other combinations there as well."

"Guys, no." Metal shook his head,

"Frent?" Brock offered up, "Sawyel?"

Trent chuckled, "No… It sounds horrible. Please stop."

Ray chuckled, "Well, my favorite Full-Trent'ism is the glances. -Now that I know you actually sneak glances at each other."

"We've lost, haven't we?" Metal raised his eyebrows and looked up at Trent.

"Feels like it…" Trent sighed.