"What do you mean you're her fiance, how come we've never heard of you, your CO said that you have EOD experience, Jess, wake up, is he a bubble head" Jason said abruptly pointing his finger at Luca
"Luca, he was" Jess said still half asleep
"That's all I need to hear" Sonny said frustrated
"What's that supposed to mean, that's all you need to hear, you're not even going to let Jess explain" Luca asked
"No because what you are going to do is keep your grubby mitts away from her" Jason said angrily
"What, are you kidding me Jason, last time I checked you aren't my father" Jess said in protest to the hostile behaviour being shown towards Luca
"And you're telling me that after everything that this lot put you through, that your dad would be okay with you being around people like him" Jason yelled at her
"Unbelievable, if dad, no actually forget it, if you're not going to listen to me anyway then how about you ask him yourself about Luca, and whether dad's okay with it, go on, ask him" Jess said frustrated at the lack of ability to see reason, she pulled out her phone and dialed in a number
"Jess, is everything okay" came Jay's voice through the phone
"Jason just wanted to ask you a question about Luca and I, that considering what happened to me when I was with Team 4, that you're okay with Luca and I being together" Jess said frustratedly to her dad
"Jess, let me speak to Jason in private" Jay said as he let out a sigh
"Go on, unbelievable" Jess said handing her phone over to Jason, annoyed that she had had to resort to this level as Jason took her phone and stepped away from the group
"What's the verdict Jase" Ray asked as he noticed Jason was of the phone and walking back to the group
"Stand down, he's legit" Jason said his tone indicating he was sorry for his actions
"So Bookworm is actually getting married" Sonny asked
"Jay said that they took a break from being engaged when everything went bad for her with the clearance divers, started having anxiety and panic attacks being alone in a room with a man, turns out as time progressed she had a couple of friends she could handle" Jason said filling the group in
"Critter and Dede" Jess said
"Being in the room with them, but she couldn't push past the fear of her being in a room on her own with Luca" Jason said
"When we spoke to the psychologist about it, we discovered that it was the thoughts Jess had of allowing another man in that position around her, and that the fact we were still labelled as a couple left her feeling more stressed and pressure being around me than she did around Critter and Dede, so we put a halt on the engagement so Jess could recover from it all, she kept the ring and everything with the promise that when she was ready then we would give it another shot, we still remained close friends that whole time" Luca said filling in the missing part of the story
"That's exactly what Jay said, they started talking again after Djibouti, Jess was still in hospital, Luca is resigning from the Royal Australian Navy in a month then is relocating to the states, he's even got a job lined up with Jay's company, they're setting up a warehouse and offices in Virginia Beach. Luca will be running that facility" Jason said, first thing the rest of the team would be concerned about was the possibility of Jess leaving them
"Look, if Jay don't have a problem with Bookworm being with this bloke then who are we to judge, Sonny Quinn, nice to meet ya, I'll be organising your bucks" Sonny said introducing himself
"I'm putting a limit on the amount of strippers you're having there Sonny" Jess said immediately, as the rest of Bravo introduced themselves, Sonny's idea of a bucks night, would have to be strippers
"Was he the one you said that if you were in Sydney and wanted to be sure he would stay put" Luca asked Jess curiously
"Take him to the strip in Kings Cross, he wouldn't venture far" Jess said remembering the whole conversation
"When you say that he wouldn't venture far" Trent asked
"He wouldn't leave the strip, we would have to drag him to the plane kicking and screaming" Jess responded
"That good huh" Sonny asked, this place had certainly peaked his interest
"Maybe for your birthday Sonny, if you're really good" Clay said patting the Texan on his shoulder
"I'm always good" Sonny said in response to Clay's behaviour
"Jay said you left the program before he did, injury" Jason asked, Jay may have said he was okay but Jason wanted to make sure
"Broke my back pretty badly, I was out of that program 2 years before Jess went to selection, was never involved with any of it, Jess said you met the Ash Spenser wannabe in Djibouti" Luca said
"Yeah, Jess even broke his nose" Brock said with a chuckle
"One of my finer moments" Jess said in response looking at Luca
"Bet that didn't go down to well with Samuels" Luca asked looking at her
"Not exactly from what I remember about it anyway" Jess said with a smile
"Look if that's the only experience you've had with the divers I don't blame you for thinking we're all like that, most of them were, but she did have 2 allies to help her survive the process, its just you hadn't met them, they were never exactly favourites of Samuels, they'd hide her personal belongings in their cabin to stop Logan and the rest stealing them, when they tried to drug Jess's canteen Critter and Dede switched it out so she didn't drink it, they'd help her clean up after the rest of the team, even helped her leave the base and take her to the hospital when she needed medical attention, and would contact Jay or I when anything happened, they watched out for her" Luca said
"Which was why as soon as I mentioned to Jess about the inquiry she had me pass on their names as not being involved, they actually helped her and testified at the inquiry as to what they saw Jess put through and how they were threatened with disciplinary action for helping her" Eric said
"You never said they testified sir" Jess asked
"Rick didn't want you to know the full ins and outs of everything going on with the inquiry" Eric said, he knew Jess had wanted to put it behind her, but Eric still received updates on the whole situation
"Whatever happened to our old pal Logan anyway, who graduated second in his class and believes that any person on sight is a legitimate tango" Ray asked
"He ended up with 8 life scentances, even Samuels got away with 5" Luca said with a smile
"Well I certainly feel a lot safer knowing that he's there" Brock said scratching Cerbs behind the ear
"You're not the only one, no longer have to worry about patching one of his legitimate tangos back up because he got trigger happy" Luca said relieved, he had seen Logan's handiwork more than once himself
"Didn't realise that you were a medic" Trent asked, maybe this was a good thing, knowing that Jess would have someone to keep an eye on her when she was of base would certainly help ease some of his worries
"Among my many talents" Luca said, his role involved him taking on a lot of different jobs, but he was ready for a change of pace, wanted to settle down and be a dad, a stay at home one always on hand to help his children out. Doctors had told him originally that he would never pass the fitness tests to return to duty, he'd proven them wrong, but he'd lost his real passion when his cuddle bug left for the states and his back was giving him grief again so he'd decided it was time to call it a day and focus on the next stage of his life. People had tried to introduce him to other girls after Jess had left, but none of them felt the same as she had, even when they first met he'd known that Jess was the only girl for him
"You've got to get back to the Mersey anyway" Jess said the tone in her voice indicating she really didn't want him to leave, but she also knew that he had to
"We chill about everything, not going to make me take a polygraph or anything, and if you think sending Full Metal to talk to me then forget it, I'll give him a bottle of his favourite pain relief and he'll turn into a pussy-cat" Luca said wanting to make sure that the rest of them were okay with the fact that Jess was the love of his life and they weren't going to make it hell for her because of his previous role in the Navy. He'd understood there behaviour, his cuddle bug's safety mattered to Bravo as much as it did to him
"We're cool" Jason said
"You know Metal and what he uses for pain relief" Trent asked, if Metal knew this guy and vouched for him, there's no way anyone in DEVGRU would have a problem with him marrying Jess
"Single malt scotch aged about 30 years" Luca said with a grin
"He knows Metal all right" Sonny said, very few people knew that except the people he trusted
"Tell him when Pitt-bull gets to the states, we'll catch up, and it's his shout" Luca said
"You have got to go or Lieutenant Commander Hamilton will not be impressed" Jess said realising the time, Luca had told his CO he was heading back to the Mersey to do paperwork, not have cuddle time and meet the future inlaws
"See you in 5 weeks" Luca said softly, clearly not wanting to leave, the comment reminded him that it wouldn't be 12 months before they would be able to see each other again
"5 weeks" Jess said, her tone assuring him that she had the same feelings about this moment
"Take good care of her till I get there" Luca said looking at the rest of the team making sure they were aware exactly how much his cuddle bug meant to him
"Will do" Jason said acknowledging the man before he turned and walked away, his feelings had definitely changed towards him, but time would tell for sure, or at least Metal would be able to tell him for sure whether he had anything to worry about with this bloke