Trent swung helplessly in his hammock while his brothers whispered nearby. He caught bits and pieces of their concern. Heard Ray question Jason for allowing him to come. Heard Blackburn side with Jason. Heard Sonny agree. He listened as they asked Clay to explain further who Serena was to him. His youngest brother who he had wanted to strangle an hour before explained that he didn't have details. Clay told them he had stopped by to ask about a strained muscle and she had answered the door. He would almost have believed the lie if he didn't vividly remember what had brought Clay to his door in the early morning.
He laid in his hammock recalling every hostage rescue operation he had been a part of. He recalled injury, trauma, and losses. He thought of every worst case scenario he could imagine while mentally preparing to bring her home for burial.
Trent still felt like he could vomit at any moment. His chest held an ache that felt like a deep bruise throbbing with every beat of his heart. His mind wandered and jumped from place to place.
She entered his apartment as he was stepping from the shower and made herself at home on his couch. The sunburn she had gotten in East Asia was starting to peel and itch a bit but the red of her skin still rivaled the red in her hair. Leaning back into the cushions carefully she turned as he entered the room.
"I'll grab the aloe." Trent smiled at her with sympathy.
"No jokes? No calling me Clifford or anything?" She shrugged and winced.
"Nope. Firstly that looks painful and secondly you're not a dog." Trent called back as he walked into the bathroom to look for the aloe. "Found it." He came back into the room to her eyes closed. "When did your flight land?"
"An hour ago. I came here instead of home." She flinched as he carefully guided her shirt off her sore skin.
"I'm glad. Hey relax, I promise I'll be gentle." Trent tipped her chin up to look in her eyes.
"I'm sorry. It just hurts." She tried not to pull away as he delicately rubbed the aloe into her burns.
"I'm sure it does but contrary to what my teammates would tell you I can be gentle." Trent smiled at her.
"You aren't with them?"
Trent laughed. "Field medicine is about getting them back home, to someone who can do a better job patching them up than me."
"I think you're doing just fine Mr. Sawyer." She leaned into his touch.
"You're probably dehydrated from the burn. Pedialyte or an IV?" Trent pinched the skin on her hand.
"Ouch. Pedialyte. You'd start an IV here?" Serena raised an eyebrow at him.
Trent laughed again. "I've done them in much worse conditions than on my couch."
"I'm sure you have but I'd prefer if you don't ever give me an IV." She laughed with him.
Trent swayed back and forth in his hammock thinking of her burned skin covered in aloe while she sipped grape flavored Pedialyte. He pictured himself pinching her skin to determine if the Pedialyte would be enough. Remembered her hope for him to never give her an IV and flinched at the thought of not making it there in time to do anything for her.
It was four hours into a sixteen hour flight and as much as he had longed for his bed earlier sleep wouldn't come. Slowly he crawled from his hammock and made his way to the front of the plane where Mandy, Jason, Davis, and Blackburn were planning the mission. He stopped at a cooler on the way and grabbed a sandwich he doubted he would keep down but knew he had to try to eat.
Davis nodded to the others as he approached. Mandy looked away to Blackburn while Jason took a step closer to him. "Working the problem now, Trent."
"Yeah. The guys are sleeping. Figured I should eat." Trent lifted the sandwich. "Boss, can I talk to you for a minute?"
Jason nodded as he walked further from the group. Sitting on a net seat that lined the plane he motioned to Trent who had yet to unwrap the sandwich he'd been carrying to sit. "You gonna eat that or just hold it?"
"Afraid it'll come right back up." Trent tossed it into the seat beside him. "Jase, I'm sorry I didn't say anything."
"No you aren't and I wouldn't be either if I were you." Jason tilted his head as he spike the truth.
"Yeah... I need to be there but the thing is though... if it isn't good. If she doesn't make..." Trent stopped briefly trying to find the words.
"Trent she's gonna be fine. We'll get there in time." Jason stopped him.
"We both know that isn't always the case. And I don't know what I'll do." Trent looked up at him.
"Yeah." Jason put a hand on his on Trent's shoulder. "We've got you."
"Jase, I almost, I would have.. but she answered the phone." Trent whispered the admission.
"We've got you, but maybe be a bit more discrete about the sobriety in front of support." Jason glanced around the plane.
"You're right. I just needed you to understand." He exhaled slowly.
"Why didn't you tell us about her before?" Jason looked toward their sleeping brothers.
"Rena is, well, she is... I don't know." Trent looked at the sandwich he had discarded.
"Trent does she know? Does she know who she is to you?" Jason shifted.
"No. Now I wonder if I'll ever get to tell her." He closed his eyes and tipped his head back into the netting.
"You'll tell her." Jason stood and with his hands in his pockets and head low walked back to plan the operation.
Trent sat unmoving thinking back to all the times he should have told her and had remained silent. Guilt washed over him for not telling her and a tear slipped down his cheek as he struggled to compartmentalize. He looked around the plane to avoid the images of her kept in his mind.
"Hey there Sailor!" She called to him from a swingset as she swayed side to side.
"Rena, what are you doing here?" He smiled at the sight of her at the park outside his apartment complex.
"Well you see a little birdie told me that a certain group of men just got home from deployment and I had to check for myself." She pushed against the ground and pumped her legs.
"Is that so? Seems to me that might border on something I'd have to report." He stepped toward her.
"Well that might be the case if it wasn't the bartender at The Bulkhead excited about tips." She laughed.
"Sonny." He sat on the swing beside her.
"Or all of you." She continued to laugh.
"Might be some truth to that. You hungry?" Trent watched as she swung higher and higher.
"I can always eat."
"And that's why I.." Trent stopped himself from finishing his sentence as he watched her laugh.
"That's why you?" She raised an eyebrow at him and grinned.
"Let's go eat." Trent stood.
She slowed herself by putting her feet to the ground before jumping off the swing. "Deal."
Trent shuffled his feet as they walked toward his truck. The realization of what he had almost said washed over him. In the driver's seat her reached over and took her hand grateful not to be sitting alone tonight.
"Trent, time to wake up." Ray bumped his shoulder. "We land in twenty."
Clay lingered nearby as Trent sat up and realized he had slept in the net seating for long enough to be sore. Sonny walked passed and stopped briefly to nod at him. Brock fed Cerb and steadied his jaw.
"Hey." Clay tentatively approached.
"Hey." Trent picked up the warm uneaten tuna sandwich.
"I'm sorry about earlier."
"You did what you thought was right." Trent nodded at the seat. "It's not entirely different than what I do."
"Meaning?" Clay sat beside him.
"Meaning if you are bleeding out I don't care how much I hurt you if it saves you." Trent held the sandwich.
"Yeah, but all the same, I'm sorry." Clay looked up at him. "I didn't tell them that she knows your kitchen like she lives with you. Didn't mention she can read your looks or that she takes care of you without you even realizing it."
"I'm scared." Trent stood and walked away dropping the sandwich in a garbage before finding a seat away from his brothers.