A/N~ This chapter had no intention of ending... but bed. So I hope you enjoy. Thank you to all those who have reviewed. Reviews mean the world to me.
"Vegetable lo mein." Trent handed him the container.
"I wanted to tell you." Brock took his food and looked away.
"It's complicated." Trent reached for chopsticks.
"Yeah." Brock poked at his food. "I've never felt more complete or more alone."
Trent watched his brother and for the first time saw that the avoidance had hurt Brock more than anyone. "So what now?"
"Not sure. Should probably talk to her." Brock continued to play with his food.
"Eat." Trent stood. "I'm going to see if Clay is hungry."
"Serena?" Brock slurped noodles into his mouth.
"I sedated her. She'll be out for hours." Trent looked tired.
"She'll be okay, Trent." Brock messed with his food more. "Mandy and Davis are coming with the guys later to update everyone on the situation."
"Yeah. This year has felt longer than it has been." Trent cracked the door open to Clay's current room. "Hey Kid, how long you been awake?"
"Thought I smelled food. Just couldn't quite sit up by myself." Clay really had been struggling to sit but he had also heard his brother's conversation and chosen not to interupt.
Trent moved into the room and stopped beside Clay. Gently he took ahold of him and slowly lifted him. "You doing okay?"
Clay was exhaling slowly and trying not to pant as he adjusted to sitting. "Yeah just need a minute." He winced as he moved his legs off the bed and the room began to spin. "Honestly this sucks. At least with my leg there was so much nerve damage I didn't feel it at first, you know?"
Trent's left hand went to his scars as he looked down. "Yeah." Trent looked back up at him. "Let's go eat."
By the time Mandy arrived later in the evening the entirety of Bravo was assembled in various locations around Trent's kitchen and living room. Davis was unpacking groceries and guessing at the organization of the team's medic. Jason was handing out drinks to everyone while Ray ordered pizzas. Brock was changing the sheets on the guest bed. Clay was half sitting and half laying on Trent's couch. Sonny had taken it upon himself to sweep the kitchen floor for the sake of usefulness or to annoy Davis, no one quite knew which. Trent was sitting on his recliner trying to stay awake amid the chaos.
Mandy stepped into the guest room where Brock was straightening up. "About to start." She smiled at him.
"Be right out." He didn't look to her.
"You okay?" She shut the door behind her.
"Yeah, no? I'm not sure." Brock turned to face her. "I don't like lying to them."
"Me either. Especially when they all seem to know anyway." Mandy stepped to his back and ran her hand in circular motions across his tense shoulders.
"So maybe we just stop trying to hide." Brock turned to her standing closely.
Trent didn't think before he opened the door and instantly regretted it. Both his friends instantly tensed but neither moved from the other. "Sorry. Guys are getting antsy."
"Be right out." Mandy spoke with her back to him as Brock smiled at him over her shoulder.
Mandy stepped from the bedroom a minute later. Trent thought she looked like Emma when she had been caught kissing a boy at 15 years old after school. Cheeks flushed and smile sly, he wanted to laugh but didn't have the energy. Brock stepped out behind her.
"Blackburn coming?" She looked around the room.
"He said he'd catch up later." Jason nodded for her to start.
"The pictures that Serena took were very helpful in identifying a man we only thought might exist. There has been chatter and rumors for a couple years that an American was training forces for Al-qaeda and it's subsidiaries. Apparently he has been training them in interrogation and well basically SERE. Her photos not only confirmed the rumors but also identified the man as Will Adams. Adams was at one point CIA but hasn't been with the agency for an undisclosed amount of time. I actually went through the farm with him." Mandy watched the group react.
"That's why they wanted her eliminated." Sonny spoke. "So once he is dealt with... what does that mean for her?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure. Alpha has been tasked with dealing with him." Mandy turned to Trent.
"Mandy." Serena stepped from the bedroom. "I'll never do my job again will I?" There was acceptance in her voice.
"I'm sorry. I don't think so." Mandy looked down. "At least not internationally."
"Okay." Serena turned and shut the bedroom door behind her.
Trent opened the door and stepped inside. The bedroom was empty but the bathroom door had been left open. Serena was standing staring at herself in the mirror.
"Hey." Trent entered the small space. She continued to blankly gaze at herself. Reaching out he tried to tuck her hair behind her ear. Instead she flinched away from his touch.
She cowered against the shower door with her arms wrapped around herself as he froze in place with his hand still in the air. "I'm sorry." She whispered.
"No. You didn't do anything wrong." Trent leaned against the sink away from the doorway he had been blocking. He suddenly wanted to vomit.
He stood in the small room trying not to cry. Trying not to think of the reality of being a female hostage. He could feel his hands shaking as he held the porcelain sink. The pain and rage filling him made him want to join Alpha team and destroy the man he was suddenly sure had violated her in ways he never wanted to know but knew he would have to know.
Trent lowered himself to the cold tile floor while she watched him moving deliberately. He didn't move closer. He didn't speak. He tried to make himself look smaller, look less threatening, tried not to block the door. Tried anything he could think to not see the panic in her eyes.
"I should have realized why you refused the full medical exam." Trent kept his voice soft.
"What?" Her voice trembled.
Trent shifted further away from her. "Did they hurt you?" He couldn't say it, couldn't use the word 'rape', not yet.
Suddenly she understood. She understood why he was sitting, speaking in a tone he had never used with her before, why he was pulling away in a way she didn't even know she needed.
"Trent, they didn't rape me..." Tears filled her eyes as she struggled to continue. "One of them tried. That's when Jack fought back. It's when they... the man in the van. He was guarding us in the back... before the hoods." Tears were streaming down her face mixing with snot. Her breath was rapid and almost desperate. Trent wanted to calm her, to somehow make this all go away but knew she needed to tell him this part of her. "He started speaking but I didn't understand him. Then he... He reached out and started I don't know petting me, stroking my hair. He liked my hair. Jack started yelling at him in Arabic. The man was angry." Her voice was just above a whisper. "He grabbed my hair and yanked it so hard...some came out in his hand. He slammed me into the side of the van... I laid there while he beat Jack almost to death." A sob escaped her loud enough that Trent was sure his brothers were alerted. "I couldn't move and the whole would spun." She crumbled to the floor. "Jack died the next morning."
"Can I hold you?" Trent moved an inch closer. He longed to wrap her in his arms. Her nod finished his movement across the floor. "What do you need right now?"
She crawled into his lap closing her eyes. "Scissors."
"I have medical ones in my kit." Trent spoke into the top of her head.
"They'll work." She gripped his shirt with both of her hands shaking.
"Davis and Mandy could help." Trent ran his hand up and down her spine.
"Will you?" She looked up at him.
"Yeah. I'm not sure what to do but yeah." Trent exhaled.
Inches of red hair fell to the white tile floor as he worked his way around her head. Her once almost hip length hair now hit at her collarbone as Trent tried to make it as even as he could using medical scissors. Once he was satisfied with the job he put the scissors down and turned to face her.
"I think I'm done." Trent suddenly worried she would cringe when she saw what he had accomplished.
She turned to face the mirror running her fingers threw her much shorter hair. "Thank you." The smile that graced her lips filled him with a strange pride at the job he had done. "Can I shower?"
"If I wrap that leg first yes." Trent stepped from the bathroom and moved his medkit that was open on the bed aside. "Sit here."
He carefully wrapped both her leg and added tegaderm to the spot where he had inserted the chest tube. He hoped desperately she didn't see him flinch when she lifted her shirt as he finished wrapping her leg. It wasn't the mark itself that bothered him but the knowledge that his own hands had caused it.
"I'm going to sweep up the hair then go check on Clay. Do you need anything before I go?" Trent spoke through the shower curtain.
"I'm good. Thank you, Trent." She pulled the curtain back slightly to look at him.
Trent shut the bedroom door as he stepped back into the main living space. There were pizza boxes on the table but it was obvious the others had eaten. Mandy and Davis were standing in the kitchen chatting while the rest of Bravo were camped in the living room. Sonny turned at the sound of the door.
"Ginger snaps doing okay?" Sonny's accent told of his exhaustion.
"I don't really know." Trent opened a pizza box and pulled out a slice. He took three bites before his unsettled stomach protested and he gave up instead reaching for water. He sat at the table and sipped slowly.
Mandy glanced to Brock before Jason stood and joined Trent at the table. "You doing okay?"
"I really thought the hard part was going to be bringing her home not having her home." Trent fixated on the grain of the table's wood.
"She needs time, Trent. Hasn't even been 24 hours." Jason leaned back in the chair while the others tried not to overhear their conversation or at least not be obviously eavesdropping.
"Jack Carson died stopping one of them from raping her. That's how he died." Trent said it loud enough for them all to hear.
"Trent." Mandy joined them at the table. "Jack Carson has a 17 year old daughter. I read it in the Intel before the op. She should know."
"I'll talk to Rena." Trent looked around at the group. "I never said thank you. To you all." His voice cracked. "So thank you for bringing her home, for allowing me to come, for being here now."
"Team's family." Clay spoke from the couch as his head lolled to the side.
"And family is there always." Brock stepped closer locking eyes with Trent. "Family also sometimes says what you don't want to hear... Trent you look like shit, maybe go lay down."
Serena walked from the bedroom wearing leggings Davis had bought for her and a Bravo t-shirt. Her much shorter hair loosely hung just below her shoulders. "You do look exhausted." She stood behind him with her hands on his shoulders.
"Ginger Snaps! Your hair looks great!" Sonny smiled broadly at her.
"Thanks, Sonny. Trent is a man of many talents." She glanced down at him as he looked over his shoulder at her smiling.
"You let Trent cut your hair?" Davis chuckled.
"Extenuating circumstances?" Serena reached for pizza as she said it. "I think it turned out pretty good though."
"It did." Mandy laughed. "I guess of all the guys the one with the steadiest hands would be the medic."
"I take offence to that I think snipers." Ray said it without thinking but Serena paled anyway. "Shit. I'm sorry."
Trent shifted slightly watching her place her right hand on the left side of her chest. Guilt washed over him. He wondered if he would ever not hear her screams while he did what he had to do to save her life.
"Bed?" Trent looked to her as she nodded. "Me too. Brock has the couch, recliner is free. Clay in the guest room. Night everyone."