Chapter 12

The team woke up and started their day like any other on deployment, with one exception. Liz caved and allowed the boys access to her bathroom, so she finished up and opened the door to meet the boys lying around in their room and was rushed by a stampede of men racing to the bathroom first. Having privacy and now sharing a shower tent with others with only the privacy of a stall and a small curtain if they were lucky was gold on this deployment. Brock won the race to the bathroom, and the others grumbled and were torn to wait for him or head over to the shared tent and suck it up.

Trent and Sonny gather their things to head off to the other tent when all their actions are interrupted by the phones going off in unison, and they have an op. They all headed off to get dressed, and Trent started throwing power bars at them as they headed out towards TOC, grumbling about their showers and saying it was too early. Clay decided to wait for the shower as he wanted to use it as an excuse to talk to Liz and have some privacy when he told her about Rebecca. Liz and Brock walked behind them with huge grins as they relished that they managed to clean up and start their day off better than the rest of the team.

The team was going out to perform recon on a carrier for one of the tribe leaders, intercepting him on his way back from the meeting and bringing him back to base to gather intel for a hit on the tribe leaders. The mission seemed a little too simple for a Tier One team when they had other teams at the base. Still, Mandy insisted, she wanted the best out there to be safe if things went south as this intel could break the tribe pecking order for their known terrorist cell, as there was a rumour of a new member who was known to take things into his own hands and an attack was on the horizon.

….

"Ok, wonder twins, let's get going!" Jason called out from outside TOC as the team headed out to set up their vans alongside the local market to catch the carrier.

As Jason, Ray, Clay and Liz set up in van one and headed out, Trent, Brock, Full Metal and Sonny squished into the second van and followed them.

"Ok, children, you play nice now with mom and pops, don't give them any more grey hairs." Sonny joked over coms as everyone settled in along their set windows within their vans.

"Yes, Smother," Clay responded. "Although I feel sorry for Metal being stuck in the back of your van with your ugly mug and stench."

"Hey, your just jealous you can't be with your best bud here in the party van and stuck with the parents and rules." Sonny chimed in. "And ill have you know this face and my natural musk are winners with the ladies."

"If he gets on my nerves, I have a shovel and lye back on base… no one will know." Full Metal replied as he settled beside Sonny and shot him a grin.

Metal was a different bread of SEAL. He would back his team members to no end, and you could find no fault in his loyalty, but he was always a mystery as no one knew if he was serious or not, as his demeanour never changed no matter his situation.

"Hey, ill have you know I am young, hip, and with it; just ask Jam. She always tells me I'm the cool parent." Ray pipped in through coms.

"The fact that you just used young, hip and with it shows just how much of a mother you are. Where did you get that from? A 90s sitcom?" Clay laughed over coms as Ray shot him the finger from the driver's seat.

Jason could not help but laugh and shake his head. He missed the team banter and jokes as the past few months have been tense with everything that happened with Clay and Liz set the team off on a negative vibe, and he was worried it would take a lot to get everyone out of their slumps and heads back in the game.

Ray looked back from the driver's seat just as Liz reported a visual of the courier crossing the market and pulled out her camera.

"Copy. Bravo 2 to HAVOC; we have eyes on the target, in pursuit," Ray called in as he started the van and slowly followed their target as he got into his car and pulled away.

"Good Copy, Bravo 2," Davis confirmed.

"Ray, stay on him. Trent, get on the other street and stay parallel; I don't want to spook him if we both get caught following." Jason ordered.

"Copy," Trent replied as he started his van and pulled away while coordinating his route with Davis through ISR.

"Hey, wonder twins, did you guys kiss and make up? We can't have an op with your cursed luck and not have your handshake." Sonny commed in jokingly, but everyone on the team agreed internally they did not need the twin's bad luck spilling over on a simple recon.

"Sonny, did you hit your head on the last op? We were not on the outs, and no makeup was needed. Maybe from you, though? For making us suffer in pain and dealing with your antics the whole time we were in bed with no escape." Liz bit back with a joke in her voice.

Sonny fired back, "Ha, you loved all my recovery assistance. Got you both all healed up and back, didn't it?"

"Unfortunately." Clay laughed as they pulled behind their target, following him to their potential HVT location.

The team went quiet at the mention of the last op. Liz and Clay seemed to have pushed it down and pretended nothing happened, but the team still had a moment of guilt and regret when its brought up as they were still not over almost losing two of their members. Yes, in this job, you have to learn to categorize and push things down, but when the children of the team are at risk, it's hard not to become overprotective and push those feelings down and focus.

"We are good, right?" Clay whispered at Liz with a hint of uncertainty as he faced her and held up his fist.

"Of course." Liz looked at his fist and took a split second to get her thoughts in check and remember the detox and just friend's mantra she told herself every night. She smiled back at him and lifted her fist for their lucky handshake, but her smile did not seem to hit her eyes.

Clay noticed this small second of hesitation and the half smile and shifted in his seat, noting to talk to Davis about this later as Liz needed to open up to someone about what was bugging her. He turned his head back out his window and focused on the mission.

…..

The mission was a success, and they managed to follow the courier to their intended future target and gathered intel on the building, security and general geographics they would need for Davis, alongside grabbing the courier for Mandy to question to support their intel and get the green light for the hits on the tribe leaders.

Bravo headed back towards their bunks to rack out a bit and call their families as they were still adjusting to the time difference. Their last op took up most of the daytime, but their evening was still open unless Mandy set records on her interrogation and would send them out tonight.

Liz decided to rack out; she was not overly tired from the time adjustments but more so for her head to stop spinning. She needed to turn off her thoughts and tried to escape and see Davis, but she was still busy with Mandy and Blackburn working on a hunch and helping Delta's intel officer sort through some new intel about one of the tribe leaders.

Liz was about an hr into her sleep after she finally was able to turn her mind off when she broke out in a cold sweat thrashing in her bed.

Clay and Sonny were at the firepit relaxing and in a deep conversation about their plans when they got home from deployment. Sonny knew Clay broke it off with Rebecca and that she was still pining over him and trying to get him to come back to her and go to STAT-21. She kept mentioning how he wanted more; they were the new power couple and could move mountains together, and he couldn't give up on his dreams. No matter what, Clay told her it was her dream, and she was using him when he finally realized he could not do it. He never wanted to leave the teams until he was old and ready. He was a die-hard door kicker like Jason and could move up in class later when he was ready.

Just as Clay was telling him, it was getting overwhelming with the amount she was still texting him and worried she might show up at his house as soon as they were back, and he could not deal with that; they heard sharp cries coming from the bunk room.

"GET OFF. STOP! GET OFF OF ME! HELP."

They both froze.

"CLAY. NOOO."

Sonny glanced at Clay, shocked and both the colour from their faces paled as the person was in distress. They pulled out their side pieces and headed for the area of their bunk room, doing a quick perimeter scan to see if anyone around them needed help. As they heard the screams again, they heard rustling and footsteps barreling around in their bunk room and ran for the door. As they pulled the door open, they caught the tailwind of Brock and Trent running into Liz's attached room and Ray and Jason storming towards them, guns in hand on edge as well. They all stormed into the bunk room and turned straight for her room, ready for the worst. But they calmed down as they did not hear fist-on-skin contact, shots or yelling. Instead, they heard soft cries and cooing voices.

Liz had one of those nightmares Davis warned them about, and she was thrashing so hard and screaming she ended up rolling right out of bed and was now propped up in Brock's arms as he sat beside her, and Trent was leaning in front of her trying to calm her down as she cried and started to hyperventilate. She was in a full-blown panic attack, could not catch her breath, and was trying to white-knuckle her way back to reality as she gripped Brock's shirt. Clay, Jason, Sonny, and Ray all stood there after taking a few steps forward, unsure what they could do to help and did not want to startle anyone as they tried to calm Liz down in the overly small space beside her bed and wall of her room. Nothing they were saying seemed to be helping, and as they all looked into Liz's eyes, they could see she was not fully awake.

"Can't we just wake her up and help her get out of her panic attack when she realizes she is here?" Sonny asked as he twiddled his thumbs together, uneasy and feeling useless.

Trent finally noticed their presence behind him as he focused on Liz, "No, we can't wake her up right now in this state; she may be shocked by the sudden change as she is already so worked up. It would do her more harm. We need to calm her down and let her keep sleeping or have her wake up on her own but not from being startled awake."

Jason moved forward before Clay or Sonny had a chance as he was going to try and see if he could calm Liz down. Throughout the year she has been with them, they have gotten close and had a father-daughter relationship, but Liz was still a wild card to the team at times. She did not always open up much to them, so no one was overly certain what would do the trick to calm her back to sleep. Trent got up and stood back to let Jason kneel in front of Liz as he held her arms and tried to rub soothing circles as he talked to her. After a few moments, she seemed to calm down a bit or tire herself out from being so worked up, but she still was softly crying and tense. Sonny then nudged Clay closer and met eyes with Brock, and nodded his head for him to switch places. Clay was hesitant going in as he knew something was bothering Liz with him, and he was unsure if she wanted him this close or if his presence would help. But he bit his lip and walked over, switching spots with Brock as he sat beside her, grabbed her in his arms as she rested on his chest, and took hold of his shirt in one hand and his harm in the other. Liz instantly melted into his arms and scent and snuggled her head deeper into his chest, just under his chin, as he relaxed and turned his head down towards hers, nuzzling as best he could and whispering to her. Within seconds she calmed down completely, shut her eyes, and let out a low hum as she cuddled into him in contentment.

The team just smirked and grinned at each other as they watched, knowing how they reacted to each other and that they were each other's medicine—their saving graces. Why could they not see this themselves? Jason sat there smiling at them as Clay's eyes closed slightly, rocking and whispering towards her. The team slowly shuffled out the door, and Jason got up and watched them together for a moment, leaving them on the floor together. He then slowly backed out of the room with the rest of the team and headed out to the fire as no one was tried after the events.

Clay stayed there for a few minutes before he opened his eyes and noticed everyone had left, but Liz stayed sleeping. He got up, lifted her in his arms, and leaned down to put her back on her bed, but she was as stubborn as always and had the grip of a little baby when they stole your food. Nothing was releasing his shirt from her grasp, but he did manage to loosen her hand on his arm. But as soon as it was removed, it latched onto his shirt. He huffed, unsure what to do at first, and he came to one possible conclusion: unless he wanted to wake her up to let him go, he was stuck here until she was ready. He did not want to wake her up as he knew from Davis's time with Liz that she was not sleeping and needed all the sleep she could get now. Especially on deployment, as sometimes there are no breaks, they can run into the ground for days, weeks even, nonstop.

Clay shifted Liz in her bed to move her closer to the far edge so he could slip beside her, and as soon as he laid down and got settled, she was right back in his arms and snuggled in under his neck again. He did not know if she pulled herself towards him or if his arms went out, grabbed her petite frame, and brought her in close, aching for contact. He ended up falling asleep in warmth and comfort, and before he knew it, he was waking up by Liz shifting beside him, still in his arms and the morning sun shining in through her window.

They both had the best sleep in a while, and little did they know they would crave each other's arms like their own drug.