A/N: I'm back! This chapter is set after Mexico. Let me know what you think!
"You rang." Jason says leaning against the door frame of Mandy's apartment.
A small smirk plays across her lips. "I did ring."
"Am I going to stand outside your door all night?" Jason asks.
"Maybe." Mandy jokes as she moves to the side to let him in. "Happy?"
"I'll be much happier when you tell me why you called me in the middle of the night." He watches her plop onto the sofa without answering. "Ah." He nods. "The demons get bigger in the dark."
She wraps her arms tightly around herself. "Something like that."
Jason sits next to her on the sofa and drapes a protective arm over her shoulders. "I'm glad you called." He plants a soft kiss on the top of her head. "I meant it when I told you, you don't have to hurt alone."
"I feel like such an idiot Jason."
"What? Because you made one mistake in the whole time I have known you?" Jason asks.
"And that one mistake almost cost me the entire team." Mandy defends.
Jason holds her a little tighter. "But we are okay."
"You guys were so close to not coming out alive." Mandy says softly.
"Mandy, I'm the one that made call to go outside our twenty-minute radius. I'm the one that almost got the team killed. I led us straight into an ambush." Jason tells her.
"But I put you in the position to make that call." Mandy huffs. "And I challenged you about having your head back in Virgina Beach."
"I'm sorry, but are we arguing about who is more to blame for the mess the team got into." Jason chuckles.
"Only us." Mandy laughs. "How are you doing?"
"Little ol' me?" Jason laughs. "You're asking about me?"
"Don't act so shocked." Mandy swats him on the thigh. "I check on you, from time to time."
"We have had the checking up the chain of command conversation before." Jason reminds her.
She shifts and looks up at him. "In the time you have known me; now think really hard, do I like to follow the chain of command?"
"No." Jason shakes his head and laughs. "You do what you think best."
"Thank you for making my point for me." Mandy smiles.
"Are you saying I should expect more of this checking on my wellbeing?" Jason asks with a cocked eyebrow.
"Don't act like you don't like it." Mandy tells him matter-of-factly.
"So, let me get this clear, you are now telling me what I like?" Jason's tone subconsciously becoming deeper.
Mandy's thumb stroking his knee. "Even through that wall you build, you're not as difficult to figure out as you like to think."
"Uh huh." Jason scuffs. "I honestly don't know how to feel about this." He looks her up and down. "I'm feeling pretty exposed here, Secret Agent Ellis."
"Look at that, even the great Bravo One isn't immune to my interrogation skills." Mandy says, an evil smile spreading across her face.
"Oh, so that's how it is?" Jason shakes his head. "I thought we were past the games?"
"Hmm." Mandy shrugs. "I felt like we needed a restart after the tension in Mexico."
"Interesting." Jason nods. "Can I be honest?"
"Jason, I always want you to be honest with me."
"Good... I don't get mad." He pauses.
"What? You wanted to hand me over to the cartel yourself?" Mandy jokes.
"Ha. No." He smirks at her. "I lost count of how many times I wanted to push you against a wall and fuck you until we got out whatever the hell was between us."
"I felt that a time or two." Mandy smirks at him. "I wouldn't have disagreed if you had just kissed me."
"See you say that now." Jason laughs. "But would few days ago Mandy have said that?"
Mandy thinks for a moment before answering. "It would have taken a few seconds for my brain to figure out what was going on, but after that."
"After that what?" Jason pushes.
"After that we would have had, arguably the best sex of our lives." Mandy feels him shift, turning more towards her.
"You think, Miss Ellis?" Jason's arm slips from around her shoulders, down her back to grip her hip.
"I do think." Mandy nods. "We both needed it in that moment."
"What about now?" Jason asks.
"We are home, and our dynamic is back to normal." Mandy swallows hard.
"Are you seriously telling me you aren't thinking about how good my hands feel all over your body?" Jason asks stroking her hip. "Or my lips." He brushes her hair off her neck and attaches his lips.
Damn he was right, Mandy thinks. "Ja-Jace, Jason."
Jason detaches his lips from her neck and looks her in the eyes. "I'm sorry, did I miss read this situation? I thought you wanted this."
Mandy pulls out of his hands and runs her hands down her face. "Jason... This is compilated."
"How?" Jason asks. "We work well together."
"How Jace? Your wife has only been dead a couple of months." Mandy shakes her head. "We work together, and I never want our personal lives to interfere with our professional lives and I feel like that happened in Mexico."
"You know where Alana and I stood." Jason huffs. "Hell, we were divorced after all, and I was looking for a place to live."
"I know that Jason." Mandy nods.
"Then what's the problem Mandy?"
"God, how do I say this?" Mandy mumbles. "I don't, you, um, we mean too much to each other."
Jason pauses, pondering what she had just said. "Are you worried about being my rebound?"
"I guess, yeah." Mandy nods slowly. "We have great chemistry, but don't you worry that it will burn out and we are left with a lifetime of Mexico's?"
Jason lets out a long breath. "That is a big gamble, isn't?"
"It is." Mandy agrees.
"We can still have late-night chats, right?" Jason playfully asks.
"Maybe even a late-night drink or two to go along with those chats." Mandy smiles.
"I can work with that." Jason smiles.
"And who never knows what the future holds." Mandy smirks.
"So, it's not that you don't want to?" Jason says with his signature grin.
"You already know that answer to that Master Chief."
"That I do Secret Agent Ellis."