A/N: The long-awaited next chapter! This chapter takes place after 1x6. Hope you guys enjoy!
"You rang?" Mandy smirks as she walks up behind Jason sitting on a bar stool at the bulkhead. She sits on the stool next him. She smiles when she sees the GNT already sitting on the bar waiting for her.
"Am I crazy?" Jason asks tilting his head to look at her.
"Um." Mandy stumbles put off by the question. "Define crazy, because I might be included in this."
Jason smiles and chuckles. "That should be all the answer I needed."
Mandy takes a sip of her drink. "What are you trying to ask me Jason?"
"I don't know if you want to hear all of this." Jason warns her.
"Jason, you got me out of bed. You're telling me what's going on." Mandy says turning sideways in her bar stool to look at him.
"Fine, but remember you asked for this." Jason chuckles taking a swig of his whisky.
"Uh-huh." Mandy nods.
"Alright. When Alana was cleaning out Nate and Molly's house, she found a toolbox in the garage." Jason lets out a breath. "She found a burner phone in it."
"And of course she thinks he was cheating." Mandy nods. "Was he?" She inquires.
Jason shakes his head no. "He wasn't."
"Should I take the fact that we are sitting her talking about it to me that you haven't told Alana that." Mandy raises an eyebrow at Jason.
"See, this is where it gets sticky." Jason chuckles as he takes another sip of his whisky.
"Sticky huh?" Mandy shakes her head. "What the hell does that even mean?"
"I may or may not have told Alana that the burner phone was a dead end." Jason says looking up from the bar."
"So you do make it a habit of lying to your wife?" Mandy smirks.
Jason lets out a long breath before answering. "I make it a habit of not telling her about Bravo 1 or what life is like outside the wire. Whether or not you want to call that lying is up to you."
"Interesting take." Mandy says sitting her glass back on the bar.
"You think that is the wrong decision?" Jason asks.
"As someone that lives in the same world, I get where you're coming from. One, you can't say a whole lot because of security clearance. Two, you and I both know it's a lot easier to just burry the memories and feelings deep inside and never talk about it." Mandy tells him.
"I feel a but coming." Jason says watching her.
"But as a woman I wouldn't want my partner to withhold such a huge part of his life from me. No matter how hard you try that is going to create a void between a couple." Mandy says patting him on the forearm. "I mean look at you and Alana. Remember what you told me when we first met, she knew you left her long ago. Jason that is a direct result of you withholding your life as an operator from her."
"That was way too deep." He chuckles.
"You asked and I answered." Mandy says standing her ground. "Back to why you interrupted my lovely evening. Is Nate not cheating the end of this story?"
"No, it's not." Jason watches her smirk. "I did some digging through the nav in Nate's old truck and the number of calls between Nate and the number on the burner phone. Turns out it was a woman living in Norfolk. I took drive to her house and saw her outside."
"Wait." Mandy stops him, confused. "I thought he wasn't cheating."
"Hold your horses, I'm getting there." Jason chuckles. "The next day I was cleaning out Nate's burn box. And I found some pictures of her and a fake passport. After some more investigation, I found out he smuggled her into the country after husband, who was one of our interpreters that was killed."
"Holy shit." Mandy says shocked. "He smuggled an entire human into this country?"
"Well, technically a former team guy that is now a contractor did it, Nate just facilitated it." Jason tells her.
"So now you're questioning if you should actually tell Alana all of that or just continue lying to your wife?" Mandy says bluntly.
"Wow, way to make me feel like crap Mandy."
"I'm sorry the truth hurts so much." Mandy says trying not to laugh at him pretending to be hurt by her assessment of the situation. "Look, I'm not going to tell you what to do."
Jason interrupts her. "But you're going to tell me what I should do?"
"If you would let me finish my damn thought then maybe you would know what I was going to say." Mandy teases.
"You are correct Secret Agent Ellis. Please proceed."
Mandy rolls her eyes at him. "Like I was saying. I know you want to be back with Alana. And you know that the only way that is going to happen is if you open up to her and show her that you are still the Jason Hayes that she fell in love with all those years ago."
"So I should tell her?" Jason asks.
"Jesus Jason, yes. The woman deserves to know that her friend wasn't being cheated on. And that her friend's husband actually did something really nice for another person." Mandy pauses. "Maybe it will even help restore her faith a little."
"See." Jason says pointing at her. "This is why I call you. Ray was zero help on the advice side of this situation."
"I think you called me because you already wanted to tell Alana, but you needed someone to tell you it was a good idea, and you knew I would." Mandy tells him.
"Can you get out of my brain please." Jason laughs.
"Believe me that is a place I don't want to be. Might knock over a grenade and blow the whole place up." She chuckles.
"Yeah, right, that'll happen." Jason counters.
"Stranger things have happened." Mandy smirks. "Now that we have solved this crisis, I am going to go home and go back to bed."
"Good night, Miss Ellis." Jason smiles as she stands from her bar stool.
"Good night, Master Chief Hayes."