"Where's Reynolds?" Trent yelled above the gunfire as Clay threw himself from the top bunk to the floor. "Everyone good?"
"Not sure I like the wake up call but I'm good." Sonny was crouched on the other side of the room. "We gotta get to ops and figure out what the fuck is going on."
"I'm good. Four, you're bleeding." Clay crawled on his stomach to Trent.
"Got winged. It's nothing." Trent glanced down at his left bisep.
"Let me look." Clay pushed Trent's short sleeve up to his shoulder.
"Fine. Where the fuck is Brock?" Trent looked around the small space as if the man would magically appear.
"He sneaks out every night." Clay applied a bandage to Trent's arm. "Don't know where he goes."
"Fucking great." Trent winced at the sting in his arm.
The window above Sonny shattered. "We gotta move." The Texan held his sidearm in front of him.
The three men frog hopped from their location across the base moving as one until Trent reached the door to the Ops center and flung it opened. They basically tumbled into the secure location with Sonny being last and pulled in by Clay and Blackburn. Sonny's eyes instantly locked on Davis as she moved around with a satellite phone to her ear.
"One, two, five?" Blackburn asked.
"Haven't seen them. What the hell is going on?" Clay moved to the live images of the base and city under siege.
Sonny moved to the weapons and handed Trent an HK416. "We going?"
"Hold up, Sonny. We need a plan." Blackburn moved to grab a gun as well.
"Plan is... they're out there... we go get 'em." Sonny stated.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Serena woke curled on the couch and for a brief moment she thought that maybe Naima never came. Maybe it was nothing more than a vivid nightmare. And then she heard the other woman moving around her kitchen. She fixated for a moment on the fact that she now thought of it as her kitchen not just Trent's before she sat more upright. Her stomach rolled and she quickly made her way to the bathroom.
The gentle knock on the bathroom door told her Naima knew exactly what was happening. The petite woman quietly opened the door and knelt beside her holding a glass of water. She sipped at the offered water waiting for her stomach to settle a bit.
"Thank you." Serena turned slightly.
"Of course." Naima smiled.
"Not just for the water."
"I know."
"Does it ever get easier?" Serena put her hand on her small bump.
"Pregnancy or waiting to see if a casualty assistance officer is about to knock in your door?" Naima sat beside her on the bathroom floor.
"Both, either?" She sipped at the water.
"Yes and no to the first and the second. You starting to feel better? You should try to eat something."
"Yeah. An apple. Seems to be the only thing that stays down." Serena stood up on shaking legs.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
They put comms in their ears, gathered what weapons they thought they might need and headed back out into the mayhem. The four men including Blackburn moved throughout the base before happening upon Jason.
"Move, move, move." Bravo 1 yelled to the young sailors he had assumed command of as they defended the front gate of the base.
"Davis is running the Ops center. I'll stay here. Jace, where's Ray? Have you seen Brock? Mandy?" Blackburn spoke rapidly.
"Negative. You guys alright? Four?" Jason looked at each of them noting the bandage on Trent's arm.
"Good, boss." He spoke quickly and passed Jason an extra earpiece.
An explosion rocked the other side of the base and the men immediately started moving into the chaos desperately searching for their missing brothers. "Anything?" Sonny called out.
"No." Clay's voice sounded broken through the comms.
"Keep moving." Jason yelled.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
"I wish I could reach out to people I know. People like Parker. But what do I say? 'Hey Parker I know we haven't spoken in a year or so but I'm married to a tier one special forces operator on deployment in J-bad and was wondering if you can get some info, his name is...' It's asinine and I know it is but somehow it's harder knowing people there." Serena turned to Naima as she ate an apple slice.
"You definitely don't make that call." Naima sipped at water.
"This sucks. What time is it?" She turned toward the clock. "The initial attack started what six hours ago? Eighteen to go unless they are still in the fight, then who knows."
"It's better not to do that. Not to give yourself a timeline. They are fine unless the phone rings." Naima took her hand.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
They split into two groups with Clay and Trent on one side of the driveway alley and Sonny and Jason on the other as they moved further. The pace was slower than any of them wanted but they moved with purpose and skill. Wreckage and distraction surrounded as they approached a burning humvee.
Sonny was the first to see. "Fuck. Bravo 2 is down and has no cover."
"RAY!" Jason cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled out. A shot rang out hitting the ground near their brother. "Sniper."
"Gotta get eyes on where that shooting is coming from." Clay's mind flashed back to a time when a sniper had him pinned down and Ray saved his life. The difference was he'd had a gun, a tac vest, a helmet and Ray way laying in the dirt about as defenseless as Simba.
"Six can you go high for eyes?" Jason spoke through their comms as they all watched Ray start to stir. "RAY STAY DOWN!"
"He's gonna get picked off." Trent took a small step forward as their brother moved again. "DOWN BRAVO 2!
Clay felt like his heart might beat out of his chest as he stood watching Ray struggle and Trent take a small step. His mind took him to an LZ watching Brian spiral to the ground. To an alley not that different in Mumbai when an S-Vest took his mentor. It drifted to goodbyes said a foot away as water filled a tube and Sonny's lungs. He closed his eyes for a split second and heard 'Yodo' echoing in his mind.
Trent was contemplating his chances of making it to Ray when the pain in his arm suddenly felt like fire. Reaching to it he found Clay's hand holding it tightly and pulling him backwards. Trent was shoved toward the wall and Clay sprinted out with no cover.
"Shit! Cover fire!" The rapid gunfire was aimed in the general direction of the sniper but not specific.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
"Where are RJ and Jameelah?" Serena leaned into the couch.
"With my Mom. She knows not to turn on the news. How are you feeling?"
"A bit numb." She smiled sadly. "That's normal right?"
"It is." Naima nodded. "Why didn't you tell anyone about the baby?"
Serena's hand instinctively went to her abdomen. "I wanted to tell him first." She smiled at her friend. "When I first got back, when we got married, I told him I wasn't on my birth control. He tried to hide his face but I saw his smile. I watched as he thought about the possibility. I was so... broken, I couldn't talk about it really but in his eyes I saw something I had never seen in all the years of knowing him. I wanted to see that look again when I tell him."
"You will. Although he might take one look at you and just know so tell him quickly!" Naima laughed.
"You might be right. I feel bad because he knows something is going on. Thinks that I have mono or need an antidepressant. I feel like an ass every single time he asks if I'm okay." Serena looked down.
"Oh poor Trent. You got a good one though. I'm sure knowing would make it harder on him in a way though." Naima laughed lightly. "When I was pregnant for RJ I had morning sickness worse than the first time around Jameelah. Ray must have mentioned it to the guys because Trent showed up on a Saturday morning. He brought ginger candies, saltines, real ginger ale. He even brought almond milk in case dairy was making it worse."
"That was sweet of him." Serena smiled at the thought of Trent taking care of Naima.
"He claimed as a medic he was just doing his job. I laughed so hard when Ray asked when the last time Jace or Sonny had morning sickness was." They both laughed at the thought. "Then he played with Jameelah while I napped and Ray did work around the house. He came back every weekend they were home to help out until I was feeling better."
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Trent stumbled backwards before hitting the wall and sliding to his ass in the dirt. "Fucking Spenser." He mumbled it before returning fire and trying to provide cover.
The three remaining members watched Clay sprint across the open expanse. He was ten feet from Ray when his body jerked suddenly to the left. He twisted awkwardly in an unnatural way before he landed on his side and immediately started crawling and dragging himself to the small bit of cover where Ray laid motionless again.
"Six, what is your status?" Jason's voice boomed in their ears as the gunfire died down.
"He's lost a lot of blood. Took a round to his upper chest. No exit. Applying pressure now." Clay gasped into his headset.
"We all know Ray's fucked. One asked about you!" Sonny's clipped tone rang out.
"I'm good." Clay responded.
"Six, where are you hit?" Trent voice was calm as he imagined ringing the kid's neck.
"Right leg. Can't really feel that leg anyway." Clay's response spoke of shock.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
They turned the news back on to listen to another report. Simba was curled in Serena's lap. Her eyes stayed on the background of the shot instead of the reporter speaking.
"It's very strange being here. Normally I would either already be there or I'd be on a flight there with too much camera equipment in my carry-on." Serena's eyes stayed on the screen as she spoke.
"Sort of like if I just watched a mass casualty incident while wearing my scrubs." Naima glanced to her.
"Yeah it's strange." Serena pulled a throw blanket from the back of the couch wrapping it around herself for comfort not warmth. "How do you stay so calm?"
"I've spent time panicking and honestly it does no good. When he comes home, and I have to always believe he will, I have to be his calm." Naima shook her head slightly.
"I want to be his calm, I do." Serena's eyes filled with tears once more. "I'm just terrified."
"Well that little one doesn't make being calm any easier."
"No, not at all. I feel like crying all the time, even when I have no reason to so having a reason doesn't help."
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
"Bravo One, this is Blackburn. How copy?"
"Good copy." Jason's voice responded.
"I'm high. Need to draw their fire." Blackburn spoke from a rooftop above the corridor.
"Got it boss." Trent put his hat on the end of his gun and held it around the corner. Instantly gunfire sounded and silence followed.
"Move!" Jason yelled it as he ran across the courtyard to his best friend and his baby brother. "I've got him, Clay."
Clay held pressure on the high wound refusing to release his hold on Ray. "I got him."
"Come on Rambo, you're bleeding too." Sonny wrapped his arms around Clay's torso gently pulling him away to allow Jason and Trent access to their more severely injured teammate.
"We need to get him to medical. Both of them" Trent spoke calmly.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Serena woke sometime later to Naima once again moving around her kitchen. She closed her eyes for a moment more trying not to imagine a life here without him. A life where she spent her days telling a child about the father they never knew who never knew of their existence. A life alone with more responsibility than she could possibly imagine.
"He asked me if this was too much and I said no." Serena stood in the threshold of the kitchen. "I need you to tell me how to make this not too much."
"Serena, that's not something I can teach. Because it's not something that's teachable." Naima turned to face her. "I can tell you that the first deployment is the hardest. After the first one you know what it feels like when he comes home again and you hold on to that feeling. That feeling will get you through all of these moments."
"I hope so." Serena opened a package of saltines.
"I'm making chicken and rice. I hope that's okay."
"Yeah it is." Serena sat at the table. She looked at the pictures of Emma and started exiting them again. "Maybe keeping busy will help?"
"It will. I usually bake but your kitchen isn't really stocked." Naima laughed.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Trent and Jason carried Ray into the medical bay as Sonny and Blackburn helped a struggling Clay. The room was filled with chaos. Yelling doctors and nurses traiged and tagged patients according to who they could help and who was beyond help. Who could wait and who was already lost.
Across the room Trent's eyes landed on Mandy as Ray was wheeled away. Her eyes were vacant, her back pushed against the wall as if she was trying to melt away. He was moving before he realized he was doing it. Crossing through the space as patients cried out and morphine was pushed until he was standing in front of her while she stared blankly at him.
"Mandy!" He said her name louder than he meant to. "Mandy are you okay?"
Mandy looked down at herself for the first time. Her khaki pants were covered in sand. Stuck to her in places that would hurt to peel the fabric from. Her eyes traveled to the once white t-shirt that was now smeared with blood, so thick in spots that it had started to clot. She looked up to Bravo's medic whose eyes were filled with worry. "It's not my blood."
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
The T.V. was turned from the news to a Hallmark Christmas movie with acting as bad as the script. So bad in fact that neither were watching for the plot. They were laughing and mocking the actors and lines they were speaking. Naima was curled under an extra blanket on the opposite side of the couch from Serena.
"Do you care if I stay tonight? I might have drank to much to drive." She smiled sheepishly.
"I was hoping you'd stay actually. Being alone tonight doesn't seem very appealing." Serena looked at her as she yawned.
The ringing phone startled Serena awake between two and three in the morning. She fumbled with the blankets wrapped around her and Naima on the couch. Naima didn't stir.
She half tripped on the coffee table before reaching the phone and answering it in a groggy voice. "Hello?"
"Naima?" The man paused. "It's Eric."