Trent exhaled slowly as he watched the rear of the building with Ray. Three of his brothers were entering the front. What they found inside would change his life either way.
The quiet of comms echoed inside him. He glanced to Ray who was looking back at him. The expanse of the terrain seemed to be closing in on him as he waited and time stood still.
Trent thought of the final boat ride with Nate. The helplessness of taking him home for the last time knowing his own skills were useless. He thought of Jason wiping Nate's blood on his pants. It had been a quick trip but each moment had stood on it's own making it feel endless like the moment he stood in now.
"Havoc base be have reached Monet." Jason's voice gave nothing away.
"Bravo 1 this is 2. What is the status of our cargo?" Ray didn't wait for Havoc to respond.
"H1 is down. H2 needs medical. Clay is providing assistance."
Trent allowed his mind to travel far from the Somali desert, to a place she was whole and so was he. He could see her now laying beside him.
He was reading a journal article about the latest innovations in combat medicine. He wondered why they had not asked an actual combat medic to review it before publication. It was obvious to him that the doctors who wrote about the innovations had never actually done a procedure while bullets were flying above their heads.
Serena mumbled softly in her sleep. He set the article down on his nightstand and shifted to lay beside her. She smelled like mangos. She always smelled like fruit of some sort which tended to make him hungry.
He laid next to her enjoying the warmth of someone close as she slept in the middle of the day. She snuggled closer to him while pulling the thick comforter higher. Her red hair splashed across a pillow as just the top of her head was visible.
Trent doubted he would wake her with a touch so he reached out and moved closer to her wrapping his arm over her torso in the process. She wiggled closer in her sleep. He rested his head on her pillow breathing in her scent and enjoying her warmth. He could feel her steady heartbeat against his chest.
The image of her safe in his bed evaporated as Ray grabbed both his shoulders and shook him. "Trent. Trent. TRENT." He realized he was in shock at this point but there was not much he could do to stop it's effects. "TRENT she's alive. Serena is Hostage 2!"
Trent wasn't sure how he got from the rear of the building to the front. He didn't recall moving. He didn't hear Davis confirming ISR showed no movement. He didn't feel Brock's hand on his shoulder as he passed his best friend.
When he realized he was at the front of the building he was standing in the doorway. He had heard of out of body experiences and always attributed them to shock but had never actually experienced the phenomenon himself until this moment. He watched himself move forward. Watched as Clay looked back to him while crouched over her. Watched as Sonny motioned quickly with his arm to come.
With a rush of adrenaline reality slammed into him. In an instant he moved across the small room to where Clay was starting an IV. Clay looked up at him with uncertainty in his eyes.
"Can't get this in. Third try now." Clay moved to grab new tubing.
"Give it." Trent spoke in clipped words. He grabbed the supplies from Clay and exhaled slowly to stop the shake in his hands. "We have a line. Start fluids."
Clay nodded at him as he reached for a bag of saline. Trent ran his hands over her head and down her neck checking for injuries. As his hands moved lower he thought of how well he knew this body and shook his head to rid the thought.
She was still, much to still. Her normally pale skin seemed translucent now. He moved to her leg thankful the bleeding had stopped but worried at the angry red that surrounded the wound. A greenish film covered what he could only assume to be a stab wound. "Broad spectrum antibiotics." He watched as Clay grabbed the wrong ones. "No. The other ones." Clay switched the meds in his hands.
Trent focused on injecting the antibiotics while beside him Sonny and Jason moved the body of Jack Carson preparing him for transport. Brock and Ray watched for threats regardless of the eyes in the sky that Davis, Mandy, and Blackburn were continuously monitoring.
"Ready to move in three mikes, Boss." Trent turned to throw things back in the medkit after doing what he could on the dirt floor of a shack.
"Trent." Clay spoke as he packed up. "Trent, I think she's awake."
Serena stared up at the ceiling, at nothing. She remained as still as she had been a moment before. The others in the room watched as Trent moved into her line of sight.
"Hey, we got you. You're gonna be okay." His voice was strong as a gentle smile graced his lips.
She shuddered and coughed. "I... didn't..." She gasped slightly. "want it to be... you." She let her eyes slip closed.
"Hey open your eyes." Trent took her hand.
She obeyed the command but only briefly. "I'm so cold, Trent."
"Hey Rena, open your damn eyes." Trent roughly rubbed her sternum. "You keep your eyes open, got it?"
"Got it. And Sawyer they were right." She winced as another cough ripped through her.
"Who?" He threw the last of the supplies in his bag.
"Your team when they said you weren't gentle." She coughed again as he reached back to his bag to grab his stethoscope.
"I like her." Sonny chuckled.
"Shut it, Sonny." Trent listened as she struggled to breathe. "Shit." He pulled his bag closer.
"Trent?" Jason stepped closer.
"Diminished breath sounds on the left. Gonna need a chest tube." Trent's hands were visibly shaking as he put on sterile gloves.
"Trent, I can do it." Clay moved forward.
"I know you could... but I'm the one that has." Trent picked up the disposable scalpel and turned back to her. "Serena Grace, this is going to hurt like hell but you'll breath better after. I can't give you anything for the pain yet but I will soon."
Trent looked up to Clay and then to Jason. "Hold her down."
Clay pulled her arms above her head and held tightly with a knee on each side of her head. Looking down at her trembling he whispered. "It's okay to scream. You don't have to pretend this is okay."
Jason sat on her feet on his knees careful of the stab wound but steady. She gasped slightly. "Wait." Her eyes were frantic.
"Rena, I need you to fight now like I know you can." Trent held the scalpel to her skin.
"My bag... The flash drive. Find it." The blade found her skin and the tube was shoved viciously into position as a scream Trent didn't think he could bear ripped through her and she went limp.
As Trent taped the tubing in place Jason stood. "Bravo 1 to Havoc." The reply was quick before he continued. "We need to search the remaining buildings before we exfil."
"Jase we don't have that time." Trent looked up pleading.
"Trent she has something on that flash drive important enough to tell us with no breath. We are searching the buildings." Jason turned without another word.
Trent's eyes rose to the ceiling where she had been staring. A small crack ran across the tin roof and just beyond he could see some of the stars. Slowly he let his eyes drop back to her limp form.
"You aren't fucking listening to me!" She spun around to face him.
"No Serena, I'm not because what you are saying isn't logical. In fact it's damn stupid!" He volume increased until he was yelling.
"STUPID? Honestly Trent? Who the hell do you think you are?" She spit back.
"I think I'm someone who knows what the fuck he's talking about. You don't embed with rebel factions!" Trent's voice boomed.
"It's my fucking job! Not to mention the opportunity of a lifetime!" She wasn't backing down.
"And it's my job to retrieve dumbass reporters when they get in over their damn heads doing stupid shit like this!" Trent immediately regretted saying it.
"Dumbass reporters?" Her face fell.
"I'm sorry, Rena. I shouldn't have..." He stepped toward her but she held up her hands to stop him.
"I'm gonna go." She grabbed her coat as she walked to the door.
"Rena wait. I didn't mean that." Trent followed her to the door.
"It sounded like you did." She closed the door behind her in his face.
"Fuck."
"I have the bag and flash drive." Brock's voice in his ear brought him back to the present.
"Good work 5. Let's move." Jason's words spurned them all into action.
Clay lifted one side of the liter while Sonny grabbed the other. Trent held the fluids pouring into her veins higher as they made their way to the border. Jason with Brock and Cerberus led the group while Ray brought up the rear.
Running while carrying a liter is never easy so halfway to the border Brock and Ray switched out with Clay and Sonny to maintain their progress. As they crossed into Kenya support pulled up it two vans that would carry them to the C-17. The plane could land in Greece or Germany if need be Trent reminded himself as they traversed the dirt road to the airfield and he held two fingers to her neck.