A/N: This chapter is set between 1x7 and 1x8. Let me know what you think!
Jason leans against the door frame of Mandy's apartment while waiting for her to open the door. "You know, I'm normally the one who is in need of late night attention." Jason smirks when she opens the door.
"Don't start." Mandy shakes her head. "I haven't really slept since the Jane Cole op."
"Playing to many what ifs it was you in your dark and twisty mind?" Jason asks leaning in. "Am I going to stand out here all night?"
A small smile pulls at the corners of mouth. "No, smartass." Mandy steps aside and lets him in.
"Thank you for the invitation, Miss Ellis." Jason walks into her apartment.
Mandy walks over to the bar cart she kept in the corner of the dining room. "Whisky?"
"Only if you're drinking." Jason tells her from the sofa.
"Of course, I'm drinking." Mandy huff. "What little sleep I have been able to get has come from alcohol. Super healthy, I know."
Mandy finishes pouring the drinks and makes her way over to the sofa. "I'd be lying if I told you I didn't have to do the same a lot of the time." Jason tells her as he takes the glass from her.
Mandy sits next to him on the sofa. "I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have sat at cafes having a few drinks with assets into the wee hours of the morning."
"That's because it's your job Mandy."
"I know that. But that could have been me, Jason. I have had a few sketchy moments in foreign countries." Mandy leans back and puts her feet up on the coffee table. "I don't know why Jane getting kidnaped is bothering me so much."
"Mandy, you just said why." Jason rubs her knee. "It's hard to be faced with how easily our lives could change in an instant."
"She's talking about leaving the agency." Mandy tells him.
"Do you blame her?" Jason chuckles. "The agency is the reason she was almost tortured and executed by terrorists on the internet."
"Yeah, I don't know how to help her." Mandy lets out a long sigh. "I feel responsible for helping to heal her since I was there when she was rescued, but I don't know where to start."
"You're not responsible for fixing what she went through." Jason offers.
"But I was there Jason, I saw a large piece of what she went through. I was the first to interview her. I'm fully aware of what hell she was headed to." Mandy defends.
"You're right, but you're missing one major component, you have never been in that position before." Jason watches her as he talks. "If you feel like you can help her, help her. But don't feel like you have to try and fix her just because you were present for her rescue."
"Jason." Mandy huffs. "What if that was me?"
"Have you reached out to her?" Jason asks.
"I have." Mandy nods.
"And." Jason waits for an answer.
"And... she has just given me very generic and general answers. You know, like she doesn't really want to talk." Mandy tells him.
"Listen, I feel like this is kind of the same as an injury." Jason's eyes meet hers. "We always say their injury, their recovery."
"So, I should leave her alone unless she reaches out?" Mandy asks.
Jason nods. "I would. The agency has people trained to help her get through this. Be a friend if she needs one."
"Look at you giving good advice instead of asking for it." Mandy chuckles at the face he makes.
"Secret Agent Ellis, I am almost offended." Jason pretends to be shocked.
"No, you're not." Mandy laughs playfully slapping him. "Thank you."
"Anytime." Jason takes a sip of his drink. "Wanna hear some good news for a change?"
"That would be a nice change of pace." Mandy smiles.
"Alana and I had dinner after we got back from the op. I told her about a mission for the first time in a very long time." Jason tells her.
Mandy cocks her head at Jason. "Is that so?"
"It is so." Jason chuckles. "I honestly think you have helped with that."
Mandy clasped her hand over her mouth in disbelief. "I'm sorry, did Jason Hayes just admit that little old me helped him?"
"Don't be an asshole, Miss Ellis." Jason laughs.
"Well, I'm glad you're talking to her some." Mandy takes a sip of her whisky. "Since that is you're only hope of getting you marriage back."
Jason raises an eyebrow at her. "Do you really think it will work?"
"I don't know." Mandy shrugs. "But it can't hurt."
"Mmhm." Jason nods. "She told me that the problem with being married to guy whose job it is to save the world, is she feels selfish if she wants to come first."
"That's tough." Mandy agrees. "She's a smart lady. I see why you fell in love with her."
"Very smart." Jason smile. "Very strong and independent."
"I feel like, minus the fact that we have slept together, her and I could get along well." Mandy chuckles.
"Yeah, I don't think she would like that very much." Jason shakes his head. "Have I ever told you how we met?"
"No." Mandy shakes her head. "Where you her knight in shining armor? Or did she let you think you were?"
Jason narrows his eyes at her. "Um, no. She actually saved me. We were teenagers."
"Oo high school sweethearts." Mandy smirks.
"Even before that." Jason points at her. "We were swimming at a quarry when, I of course jumped from as high as I could get, the way I landed I knocked the air out of me, and I was going down fast." Jason chuckles. "Then I felt hands grabbing me and pulling me towards the surface."
"Damn, she was saving your ass even back there." Mandy chuckles.
"Yeah." Jason smirks. "I remember thinking how badass she was. She saved my life."
"So, one could say she swept you off your feet." Mandy smiles.
"One could say that." Jason laughs.
Mandy takes the last sip of her drink and stands up. "You want another?"
"That'd be great Secret Agent."