Chapter 41
Hope everyone is still enjoying this story. Something about episode 4x07 really got me running wild with emotions. I already didn't like Nat and she just made me mad beyond belief in how she pressured Jason to just up and leave. Don't get me started on all other changes as well. I'm not sure who has or hasn't watched so I won't spoil too much here. I will say I have some one-shots floating in my head. I really don't know or understand the show writers at the moment. Again, I apologize for the delay as work is going full speed at the moment. I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations. Enjoy!
Jason was lying on his stomach in bed slowly coming out of sleep. He buried his head into his pillow and let out a small groan. As he started to wake up, his arm that was stretched out across the bed felt the bed empty. He lifted his head and saw Mandy wasn't in bed with him anymore. As he sat up the sheets pooled around his waist as his bare chest felt the slightly cool morning. It was six in the morning and he could hear the shower running. Mandy was up and getting ready to go in for her meeting. Jason stretched and decided he'd get up to start coffee and some sort of breakfast for Mandy.
He lifted his feet over to the side of the bed and looked around for something to wear. He saw his boxers and grabbed them. As he walked towards the kitchen, he picked up his shirt that Mandy had worn last night. He put it on and could smell hints of Mandy, which made him smile. As he looked back at the bed, he saw that somehow Mandy had professional suit to wear. He got to the kitchen and searched the cupboards for some coffee. After getting the coffee started, he saw take out containers on the kitchen table that smelled like breakfast.
Jason heard the shower turn off and decided to take the food and start heating it up. As he grabbed plates, Mandy came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her. She walked past the bed towards the small living room area looking for something.
"You go out and get breakfast?" Jason asked as he organized breakfast with his back turned to Mandy.
"My mom stopped by half an hour ago. She brought breakfast and fresh clothes for me," Mandy replied as she went through the bag her Mom brought.
"That was nice of-," Jason replied as he turned around just as Mandy dropped her towel.
Mandy stood naked in his living room for a moment before she smirked and grabbed her undergarments to put on. She knew she was playing with fire tempting him.
"See something nice?" Mandy teased.
"More than nice," Jason replied as he walked over after she put on her bra and panties. He pulled her in for a deep kiss. "Good morning," he mumbled against her lips.
"Morning," Mandy replied back. "No fooling around. I have to get to my briefing," Mandy said pointing a finger at him as she tried to walk back towards the bed.
"I can be quick," Jason said putting his hands on her hips from behind as she stood at the foot of the bed. He started kiss her neck as well.
"As much as I want to, I can't. The sooner I get to the meeting the sooner I get out of the briefing. Don't forget you're picking up Mikey from the airport around one," Mandy said as she turned around to put her hands around his neck. He leaned up to kiss him once more.
"Maybe if you're out by then, the three of us can do lunch," Jason suggested.
"Sounds like a plan. My mom wants all three of us over for dinner and I need to grab some of my things for the trip," Mandy said.
"Now I see where you get your spy skills from," Jason joked as he walked back to the kitchen to grab breakfast.
"Between my Mom and Dad, I picked up a lot. Not to mention my con-artist mother too, if you really think about it," Mandy replied.
"Are you in contact with you mother?" Jason asked as he brought breakfast to the table and Mandy buttoned up her shirt walking over.
"Once in a while, she shows up like a hurricane in my life. She's been in and out of prison because she gets caught and then strikes a plea deal to give up some bigger players. She's basically become a confidential informant in a way. Typically, if she shows up, she wants money or a favor. I gave up expecting anything more from her a while ago," Mandy sighed as she went to sit down to eat. Jason had other plans and pulled her into his lap.
"I'm sorry about your mother," Jason commented as he rubbed her back. "My Dad passed away a while ago. Couple years before we met. We kind of had our differences over me serving. Speaking of parents, we could stop by my Mom's while we're in Philly."
"Sorry about your Dad and it's only fair I meet your Mom since you've met my parents," Mandy smiled as she ate a piece of bacon. "Mmm, I love bacon. Something about the food back stateside tastes so much better after deployment. What are you going to do today? You should've stayed in bed."
"Staying in bed is only worth it if you're around," Jason smirked. "Probably do some laundry and packing. Thinking of heading over to base and organizing my cage too. The guys will probably be there doing the same before we all head off."
They continued to eat and make small talk for a few more minutes before Mandy determined she needed to leave. As she went around the apartment and grabbed her things Jason realized something.
"How exactly are you getting to your briefing?" Jason wondered.
"Car is picking me up," Mandy called out from the bathroom as her phone went off telling her that the driver had arrived.
"I will see you later," Mandy said as she grabbed her bag and headed for the door with Jason behind her.
"See you," Jason said has he turned her around for a final kiss.
The two pulled a part and looked into each other's eyes. They both wanted to say more because they knew what they had was more. Both held back though because things were so new. They'd have time to say those three little words. Mandy leaned in for one more kiss.
"Domestic Jason Hayes is pretty hard to leave," Mandy mumbled against his lips.
"I'd be a home husband for you," Jason joked.
"First you gotta make me a wife though," Mandy joked back. "I gotta go," Mandy said in a rush with one final peck on his lips.
Jason laughed as he watched her walk out and down the stairs of his apartment building. He made sure she got to the awaiting car safely and watched it drive away. He was one lucky guy, and he knew deep down that he wouldn't take this second chance for granted.
Mandy and her Dad had been in the meeting for three hours now. It was coming up to ten in the morning now. The meeting had started with going through the attack on base. Mandy watched once again Roman come on screen and attack her. Inside she shuddered but on the outside, she kept it all together. She saw her Dad glance at her briefly as Mandy's hand shifted slightly to her side where she'd been stabbed.
After going through the attack, they talked about everything they'd found on Reiss. The evidence of his betrayal was piling up. For the most part, Reiss seemed to be cooperating, but they didn't know if there was an alternative motive to it all. Mandy didn't think he was lying. If she knew Roman the way she did, Reiss was probably pretty far down on the totem pole. He probably kept Reiss out of the major stuff and by now probably changed anything Reiss did know. She'd thrown Roman off with freezing a chunk of his money.
"Do we have any solid leads on where Roman currently is?" someone asked.
"Not exactly," Director Thomson answered. "We do think he's somewhere in the European region since most of our tips are coming out that area. However, that doesn't narrow down the search at all."
"Maybe we should take a crack at Al-Hazred Junior. He clearly had contact with Roman to orchestrate a breakout," another person suggested.
"We could, but I don't think he knows much about Roman either," Mandy chimed in from the sideline. Every head turned towards her as she spoke.
"You don't know for sure though," one person argued. "We should have someone else take a crack at him."
"You do that and see how far it gets you. He's not going to talk to anyone but me," Mandy shot back. "It's your call though, sir."
"I agree with Agent Ellis. It's a waste of time to go back to Junior. He will only talk to her and if need be, we go back. It's better to play this close to the vest. We go in there at him again and he'll know we're desperate," Thomson added.
"And if we show we're in the blind, he has no incentive to cooperate. That could lead to him throwing us completely off track and wasting valuable resources as well," Mandy went on to say.
The room was quiet for a few moments as everyone took in what was said. Looking around the room, Mandy could tell who was and wasn't in favor of her and her father. Some of the people in the room were the usual problem makers Mandy had to deal with on a daily basis. Whether it was because she was a woman or simply good at her job, some people felt the need to constantly throw roadblocks in her path. Mandy was used to it at this point though. As far as she knew, most in the room didn't know that Director Thomson was her Dad, which was probably a good thing.
"We'll leave Junior alone for now and continue investigating for now. If nothing comes of it though, I expect we take another crack at him," one of the higher ups finally said.
"Yes, sir," Mandy and her Dad answered together.
"Agent Ellis, you're suspended for the next two weeks, however, we will keep you updated on the situation should anything serious arise," the higher up added with a stern look.
"Understood, sir," Mandy said with a nod of acknowledgement.
The meeting wrapped up some other loose ends and by the time they were done it was just after eleven in the morning. Mandy got up from her seat and started packing up her things. Her Dad lingered around waiting for her as well. Eventually the two of them were the last ones to leave the room.
"This part of the job, I still can't get used to," Mandy's Dad sighed as they walked into the hallway.
"You think a four-hour meeting was too long?" Mandy joked. "Could've been longer."
"Not funny," Thomson said with a sarcastic smile.
"Oh, come on, I get my sense of humor from you. At least that's what Mom says," Mandy laughed.
"Tell me the truth about one thing," Thomson asked seriously and grabbed Mandy's arm to turn her to face him. "I could see a few individuals had it out for you in there. How bad is it?"
"Dad," Mandy sighed looking at him with pleading eyes to drop it.
"Mandy," Thomson said sternly. "Yes, I'm your Dad but I'm asking as your boss as well."
"It's nothing I can't handle," Mandy shrugged.
"I know you can handle it, but you shouldn't have to," Thomson argued.
"Couple of them I've probably pissed off by doing my job and impressing their bosses and others…," Mandy trailed off.
"Others what?" Thomson asked.
"Others just assume that being a woman I don't belong here. Or they think I've just slept my way up the ladder," Mandy confessed.
"Have any of them ever…," Thomson trailed off not knowing if he wanted to know the answer.
"Some hit on you or get a little to close for comfort. Most I've put in place and some I'm sure you have too," Mandy said with a knowing look.
"You tell me if anything ever crosses a line. No one should be treated differently. You deserve to be here, honey. You did the work. Those people in there will never know the sacrifices you've made to be where you're at," Thomson said passionately looking at his daughter. He still wondered sometimes if he should've steered her towards another career.
"Thanks Dad," Mandy said pulling him in for a hug.
"Now, I believe you have a Master Chief to attend to," Thomson said pulling away from her with a smirk. "See you tonight at dinner," he said with a kiss to her cheek.
"See you later," Mandy smiled as they parted ways.
In the cage room, all the guys were organizing their belongings before heading off for two weeks. All the guys were talking and laughing about one thing or another. Everyone was there except for Clay.
"Anyone know where Blondie is at?" Sonny called out looking over at Clay's cage.
"Saw him in the hallway before coming here. Said he had something to take care of," Ray replied.
"Everything okay? Anything we should know about?" Jason asked coming over towards Ray's cage.
"He didn't say," Ray answered looking at Jason in thought. "Seemed like everything was good."
Before anything else could be said, the door to the room buzzed with someone coming in. It was Brock followed by Cerberus. Cerberus came in with a bark and circled around the room while everyone got a pet in. He came towards Jason and circled around him excitedly as Jason played around with him. Cerberus kept sniffing him and barking, almost like he was looking or asking a question. Cerberus went away from Jason and went into his cage to sniff around. He came up to one of Jason's bag and seemed to get excited. He ended up ruffling through the bag only to pull out a scarf.
"Cerberus!" Brock called out sternly. "Sorry Jason."
"It's fine," Jason laughed as he walked back into the cage. "It's just Mandy's scarf," Jason added as he watched Cerberus get comfortable with it on the floor.
"Boss, I think Cerberus really has stolen your girl," Sonny laughed loudly.
"I guess I can share her with you buddy," Jason joked as he scratched behind Cerberus' ears.
"What's Mandy up to?" Ray asked leaning against the doorway to Jason's cage.
"She had an early briefing this morning," Jason replied taking a look at his watch to see it was just after eleven and he hadn't heard anything from her yet. "Her meeting started at seven though."
"Any updates?" Ray asked and the rest of the team stopped what they were doing to listen in.
"She said there has been a lot of chatter of him being somewhere in Europe, but so far nothing has panned out," Jason replied.
"How's Mandy doing?" Ray followed up.
"She's tough but you can tell this is gonna take a toll on her. She's holding herself together for now. Guess we'll see what happens once she gets a solid lead and has to actually go after him," Jason sighed.
"Like you said, she's tough," Ray said as Cerberus barked as well. "She's got you and us to lean on when the going gets tough."
"That's what family is all about," Sonny added.
"Thanks guys," Jason said gratefully.
Suddenly the door buzzing could be heard, and Cerberus was up on his feet heading for the person coming in. Mandy had barely made it through the door before Cerberus was on his hind legs and giving her a hug.
"Oh," Mandy said surprised but put her hand around the dog in hug as well. "Hello to you too, Cerb."
"Cerberus!" Brock scolded again.
"He's good, he's good," Mandy replied as Cerberus jumped down. Mandy knelt down to pet him and give him attention. "After hanging out with you all for so many years, I'd welcome an outsider as well."
"Last time I checked, you've hung around us as well," Ray countered back.
"Not by choice but out of a work obligation," Mandy replied. "After that meeting, you are exactly what I need, buddy."
"That bad?" Jason asked as he watched Mandy. It was rare to see her with her guard down with everyone in the room.
"Four hours of higher ups droning on and on about the same thing. Nothing new to update. If anything, serious comes up, they'll let me know," Mandy replied. "Figured I'd come by here and we can pick up Mikey."
"I'm about done here," Jason said as he walked back into his cage.
Cerberus followed and went to grab her scarf and returned it back to Mandy.
"I was wondering where this went. Thanks buddy," Mandy said as Clay came into the room.
"Now where have you been GQ?" Sonny exclaimed.
"Just had some people to talk to," Clay replied.
"Getting ready for you fancy new job at STA-21?" Sonny said.
"You gonna miss me Sonny?" Clay joked back. "Seriously though, I went to Lindell and turned the job down," Clay said looking down and then back up around the room.
"You're not taking STA-21?" Jason asked surprised.
"After everything that happened, I just had some time to think and decided that my true calling was teams," Clay responded while looking up at Mandy.
Mandy had a small smile and looked away. She had told him that he had potential for either job and she truly meant it. Deep down though, Mandy knew teams would win. You didn't become a tier one operator and do the things he'd done just to walk away after a couple years. She saw a lot of potential in him being on the teams and figured he could be the next generation to eventually lead. Maybe he'd set his own example learn to navigate the world of special operators differently.
It didn't go unnoticed by Jason the exchange between Mandy and Clay. He'd seen them talking at the bar. He also knew that when it came time to advice, Mandy was one you could always count on to give it to you straight. She never pushed you to make a decision but laid out all your cards out in front of you to decide. Whatever had been said, Clay had taken it to heart apparently.
"You sure this is what you want?" Jason asked. He didn't want Clay to have any regrets.
"Yeah, this is family. No regrets," Clay said confidently.
"Well, we're glad to be keeping you around then," Jason said offering a handshake and then pulling the kid into a hug. Mandy watched on with a small smile remembering how Jason said he wasn't much of a hugger.
"Alright, enough serious emotional stuff y'all," Sonny said breaking the touching moment.
"Really Sonny?" Trent called out in jest of him breaking the emotional moment.
"What?" Sonny asked. "Y'all acting like we're going away forever. It's just two weeks and then the band will be back together."
"We'll see about that?" Mandy muttered rolling her eyes.
"Oh Ms. Ellis, you'd miss my southern hospitality too much," Sonny joked.
"Texas is great and all Sonny, but Nashville is where it's at," Mandy said from the other side of the table letting out a little drawl in her words.
"Look at that! We got ourselves a country girl in the group," Sonny laughed.
"Watch it Sonny," Jason called out as he locked up his cage and proceeded to pull Mandy out of the room. "See you all."
"What's wrong boss? Worried I'm gonna steal your girl now too?" Sonny laughed.
"You don't stand a chance," Jason said confidently. "We gotta go or we'll be late in picking up Mikey."
The two said their goodbyes to everyone and left to go get Mikey. The team watched as the two walked out bickering about one thing or another. Jason with his hand protectively on Mandy's back. If anyone deserved some time off for themselves, it was those two.