Present
Lee looked up when Travis came down for breakfast. He was wearing a dark grey t-shirt with navy cargo pants. He looked like he had slept like hell. Lee recognized that look because he saw it in his own face every morning.
"G'day," Travis said in a friendly tone.
"Morning," Lee responded. Travis went into the kitchen and came back out a few moments later, coffee mug in hand.
"So, what goes on around here that's interesting?" Travis asked, sitting down at the table and taking a sip of his coffee. Lee gave a snort.
"Too much to cover," he answered. "But I will say this: don't touch Caesar's food without permission."
"Oh yea?"
"Yea."
The door to the kitchen banged open with force at this moment, and Gunner came flying out with a piece of toast in his mouth and what looked like bacon rolled up in a pancake in his right hand. Both Lee and Travis watched as he flew past, a fork coming flying through the air right behind him. It smacked into Gunner's upper arm and bounced off. He made a noise that sounded like "ow" in his throat, his mouth still full from the toast. He grabbed his keys with his free hand and crammed his boots on hurriedly before opening the main door. Street noise could be heard on the other side.
"You owe me ten bucks, ya fat bastard!" Caesar yelled after him, standing in the doorway now and shaking his fist at Gunner's receding back.
"I'm not fat!" Gunner called back, having removed the toast from his mouth now. In response, Caesar threw the knife in his hand, and it landed in the door just as Gunner pulled it shut.
"You weren't kidding," Travis said to Lee, his brows slightly raised.
"Nope," Lee chuckled.
"What?" Caesar asked, looking at them both. "Are you talking about me?"
"No, sir," Travis answered.
"You might be new, but I'll still tune you if you talk smack about me," Caesar warned him, jabbing his finger in Travis's direction.
"I understand."
Caesar gave him one last suspicious look before going back into the kitchen. Travis looked at Lee, and they both started to laugh.
"He reminds me of my mother," Travis said after they calmed down. "She was very touchy with food too."
"Morning all," Barney said, coming in at that moment.
"Morning," Lee and Travis replied together.
"Did Gunner dine and dash again?" Barney asked, giving the kitchen door a slight glance.
"Yep," Lee answered.
"He's gonna lose a finger one day."
"I don't think he cares," Lee commented.
"Where are we on Vilain?" Barney asked Travis, changing the subject.
"Still waiting on my contact. I'm going to reach out to them later today if they don't call me," Travis promised.
"Good."
"I have to say," Lee said, looking at Barney, "I expected you to be halfway to Budapest right now, getting ready to do a search of the entire place by yourself."
"I'm not stupid, Christmas," Barney retorted.
"Well, that depends."
"On what?" Barney challenged.
"I've heard stories," Lee said with a shrug.
"From who? Trench?"
"No, but I'm certainly gonna ask him now."
"Like hell you are..."
"You two are like an old married couple," Travis noted, a smirk on his lips.
"Lee likes to think he wears the pants in this relationship," Barney replied on cue. "But we all know that ain't true."
"Hey," Lee said grumpily.
"Billy told me about Vilena," Travis went on. "He said Lee saved your ass from Munroe."
"It was a tie," Barney said, a little disgruntled. When he looked over his shoulder at Tool arriving, Lee looked at Travis and mouthed, "It wasn't" to him with a shake of his head. Travis chuckled, and he finished his coffee as Tool joined in on the conversation. Then he stood up and excused himself.
Lee could see the sadness in the man's eyes despite the smile on his face. He hoped they would find Vilain soon and end this once and for all. Maybe it would finally eliminate the sadness in all of them, but the realization that they were feeling this way anyway after thinking Vilain had been killed was sobering. Perhaps revenge wasn't the way to get closure and start the recovery process.
But Lee didn't know how else to do it.
...
Travis was standing with his hands behind his back and looking at the photograph of his brother standing amongst the Expendable team. He was grinning proudly, sniper rifle in hand. Billy always had a good shot on him. Travis recalled one time his brother had thrown a golf ball from the middle of the lake and clocked their father right in the head with it. He'd been eight years old. His left calf ached slightly, and he resisted reaching to rub it. He could still feel that arrow going in if he concentrated hard enough. Why Travis had thought his nine year old brother could handle a bow and arrow, he'd never know. It had been his own fault, really. He should have stayed behind Billy, not off to the side ahead of him.
"Billy never mentioned you," Toll said, coming up behind him. Travis turned his head slightly to the left.
"I asked him not to," Travis replied.
"Why?"
"I never wanted anything he got into coming back on me and my family," Travis explained. "When the wrong kind of people learn there's family to be held hostage or used as blackmail, things get messy."
"I get it," Toll said with a nod. "Makes sense."
"Ava adored him," Travis went on. "Whenever her Uncle Billy came around, she'd practically vibrate with excitement." It hurt him to recall Ava's face the moment she learned she was never going to see her beloved uncle again. He'd spent a lot of nights laying next to her to help her fall asleep. She'd been so terrified he was going to disappear too.
"How many kids?" Toll asked.
"Just her."
"How old?"
"Six."
"She sounds like a sweetheart," Toll said.
"She is. She gets that from her mother," Travis told him with a small laugh. "Carmen is very afraid that Ava is going to walk in my shoes for a career, though."
"I never had kids," Toll offered. There was a wistfulness in his voice that Travis noticed immediately.
"How long have you been with this team?"
"Long enough," Toll answered. "They're my family now."
"You all seem very close."
"Well, we have times where we want to kill each other, but I think that's normal in any family," Toll joked.
"I noticed," Travis laughed. "Caesar and Gunner this morning."
"That's almost a ritual now," Toll said, shaking his head with a smirk. "One of these days, Gunner is gonna trip, and Caesar is gonna slice him up with Sister."
"Sister?"
"His knife."
"Ah."
"You don't ever want to be on the wrong end of that or Omya Kaboom," Toll reasoned.
"Sounds big and expensive and that it would cause a lot of damage," Travis chuckled.
"You'd be right."
"Well, I agree that family sometimes wants to kill each other. Billy and I would go at each other at times for small, petty things." He was quiet as he reflected on their last argument. It still hurt him to think about it.
"Have you...have you talked to Sophia?" Toll asked after a moment.
"A few times," Travis answered. He remembered getting the call from her saying Billy was dead. Her sobs would echo in his mind late at night if he couldn't sleep, which was often. It was how he'd found out his brother was dead. He'd done some investigating after that and found out through the CIA that his brother was indeed deceased. They wouldn't tell him anything else. Travis had to find out through a contact that Jean Vilain had murdered Billy. When this same contact gave him the information Vilain was still alive, he'd gone into a tailspin. He'd called the CIA, and the CIA had put him in touch with the man who handled the case Billy had worked: Church. Now, he was standing in Tool's place and waiting for a phone call to get things in motion.
"How is she?" Toll asked, bringing Travis back to the present moment.
"Taking it one day at a time," Travis replied. His phone vibrated, and he looked at it hopefully.
Carmen.
"I should take this," he said, and Toll nodded before leaving to give him privacy. Travis pressed his phone to his ear and smiled, even though she couldn't see him. "Hello, love."
"Hi," she said back. "How are you?"
"Tired."
"That's cos I wasn't there," she said, her tone teasing.
"Probably," he said with a chuckle. "How's Ava?"
"At a friend's for the night. She misses you."
"I'll be back before she knows it."
"I hope so."
There was silence between them for a moment, and he could hear her breathing.
"I'm coming back," he said.
"Don't make promises you can't keep," she said back quickly.
"I'm not."
"How is the team?" she asked, changing the subject. He could hear her voice wobble slightly, trying not to cry. He felt bad.
"They're interesting," he answered. "Good group of lads, though."
"That's good."
"I love you," Travis said after another pause. He could hear her smile through the phone.
"I love you too," she replied.
"What're you wearing?" he asked, his tone slightly teasing. Then he gripped the phone tightly in his hand as she proceeded to tell him.
...
Barney stood up when Maggie approached him in his hangar. It was good to see her. He'd been surprised that she hadn't changed her phone number.
"Hey," she said, moving to hug him tightly. He held her close, breathing her in.
"Thanks for coming," he told her. He felt her chuckle against him.
"I told you I would."
When she pulled back, he looked into her eyes. There had been a night about a month after the mission where she had come to see him. Barney didn't regret it, but he hadn't known how to move forward with it either. They'd let the geographical distance between them get bigger, using that as the reason why they weren't together instead of facing the fact that Barney was afraid to let her in for fear of losing her.
"You look good," he noted, examining her.
"So do you," she said, a twinkle in her eyes. He felt his face flush a little, and he cleared his throat.
"Thanks," he said almost sheepishly.
"So, what is going on that you need me for?" she asked, getting to it and not embarrassing him any further.
"Jean Vilain," he answered. She gave a start, her face surprised.
"What about him?"
"He's not dead."
"What?!"
Barney filled her in on everything, and by the end of it, her mouth was hanging slightly open in shock. She closed it and blinked a few times.
"What's the plan?"
"Travis is waiting for his contact to call him. Once we have a location, we'll go get 'im," Barney answered.
"I'm going."
"I know," he chuckled. "That's why I called you." She gave a bit of a smile, lowered her head briefly, and looked back at him after a moment. There was determination there.
"It really is good to see you," she said. She reached to touch his hand lightly. He didn't pull it away.
"You too," he agreed. She smiled, making him smile back at her.
It was going to be interesting, having her around again.
...
Gunner dared to come back after a few hours. He slapped down ten bucks into Caesar's outstretched hand, and he got to live to eat another day. Toll was shuffling a deck of cards. Lee was sharpening his knives while Maggie and Barney were catching up. Everyone took turns looking at the two of them. Lee knew something had taken place between them. It was all over their faces.
Travis returned from talking to his wife after a while, and he joined in on the banter with the group. He got into a card game with Toll before too long, and Lee noticed how easily he fit in with them all. The fact that he reminded Lee a lot of Billy was a bit unnerving, but it was also kind of nice. Things hadn't been the same since Billy had been gone.
Travis got a phone call about an hour later, and everyone held their breaths as he went to answer it. Barney was on edge, and even Lee felt anxiety in his chest. When Travis returned, he stood quietly and looked at each and every one of them.
"He's in Rome," he said eventually. "When do we leave?"
"Wheel's up in twenty," Barney answered. The group jumped into action, having been on standby all day.
It was time to avenge Billy again.