"Captain Lindell sir, message from the infirmary" a unidentified male said interrupting Bravo's briefing
"Thank you Seaman, excuse me for a moment" Captain Lindell said quickly reading the message before leaving the room without further explanation
"Think it's important" Ray asked looking at Eric for his opinion
"Looks like it" Eric said trying to read the situation
"Think it's Jess, shouldn't she have been here by now" Jason asked looking at Trent for his opinion, the briefing had been going on for 2 hours already
"Depends on what Doctor Shah wanted her for" Trent said
"You didn't know about this appointment Trent" Brock asked worried about the fact nothing had been said by Laura that morning, meaning she had no knowledge of what was happening
"No, Blackburn, did you know by chance" Trent asked their CO
"I did, Jay called me this morning from LA, Jess had been running a low grade fever during the night, Luca's also noticed a bruise that can't be explained" Eric said filling the team in on the communication he had earlier that morning
"Why didn't she say something in the team room" Clay asked wondering why nothing had been said that morning
"Jess had planned to say something, maybe she didn't want to say anything till after she'd seen Doctor Shah, didn't want any of you worried unnecessarily" Eric said trying to work out why nothing had been said
"Doesn't want us worried, yet she's probably scared as hell" said Sonny
"That girl needs to stop worrying about scaring us, we can handle this, all of it" Jason said before the team was interrupted by Lindell's return, he was followed by Full Metal and Critter who had recently arrived from Australia
"Senior Chief Carter and Petty Officer Ritter will be joining this mission as a replacement for Petty Officer Turner" Lindell said as Metal and Critter slid into empty seats, this mission called specifically for a EOD, if Jess wasn't going to be available, they'd need another one
"Jess isn't joining us" Ray asked Lindell
"She's been benched on the orders of Doctor Leighton" Lindell said explaining the situation to Bravo
"They say why" Trent asked wondering if anything else had been said
"No" said Lindell before continuing the briefing
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"Pitt Bull, what's going on, heard she's been benched" Metal asked worried as he walked into the room of the infirmary straight from the briefing, the room was darkened and the temperature was dropped slightly, Jess was laying on her side asleep with her back facing the door, Luca was sitting there stroking her forehead as she slept
"So far it's officially just a precaution, but there's a good chance that she's no longer in remission from the cancer" Luca said filling his old friend in on what was happening
"Shit, anyone know from Bravo" Metal asked grabbing another chair to sit with his friend
"Eric, Jay called him, she's forbidden me from telling the others however, she wanted to do it" Luca said looking up from his wife
"Except for me" Metal said with a small smile, the relationship between he and Luca, predated the relationship between Jess and himself
"Yeah, you don't count in this situation, how'd you find out so quick anyway" Luca asked the older operator
"Lindell told me, Critter and I are shipping out with Bravo for a mission, as a replacement for her" Metal said explaining the situation
"At least that will provide her with some relief, knowing her brothers are going to have Critter watching their backs" Luca said with a cheeky grin appearing on his face
"And what about me" Metal said protesting at the comment that Critter watching Bravo's backs was the only relief Jess would see at the moment
"You're big enough and ugly enough to look after yourself" Luca said, the cheeky grin still on his face, clearly enjoying ribbing the older operator
"You know Jay and I could have left you behind that day in Afghanistan" Metal replied deciding that two could play the game
"You were the one that idolized the man enough to disobey direct orders and follow him" Luca said in response, Metal was referring to the time when Luca had broken his back outside the wire and seperated from his teammates, Metal had joined up with the bubble heads as part of a training program to receive some specialist EOD training from Jay himself in the field, something a lot of the guys were eager to receive, but Metal had been the one chosen to join the team
"And you were the one who volunteered to go help evacuate that hospital before we started shelling that area in Helmand province" Metal responded
"To bad the Taliban decided to kick of the party early, and you know there was no way that Jay was going to leave me out there to die without at least trying to do something about it, she wouldn't have forgiven him" Luca said, Jay had been naturally peeved that when the convoy returned to the camp Luca was not with them, when the Taliban had started targeting the evacuation convoy, Luca had gone back to check on some injured civilians when he got hit by another mortar leaving himself severely injured, the convoy left due to the increasing threat from the mortars without looking for Luca to see if he was even still alive. Jay had naturally been quite annoyed at the fact the convoy leader hadn't checked to see if Luca was still alive, then when an officer told Jay that no rescue mission would be launched due to Taliban activity in the area, and that they'd need to wait till after the shelling had stopped, Jay immediately disobeyed the officers orders and grabbed his armour to head out and try and find Luca, Metal had immediately decided to follow the guy on the rescue mission
"You called him, told him what the doctors suspect" Metal asked
"He knows, he's booking an urgent flight back from LA as we speak, he was out there filming some TV show" said Luca, he never asked specific questions on what Jay was up to at the best of times when it came to new business ventures, Jay would tell Luca everything as soon as he was ready to tell, so far he had not said anything to Luca on the details of the TV show
"Surprised they allow it, considering the privacy situation" Metal said, there was a need for all tier 1 operators to maintain a level of secrecy to their identity, where they lived, their family, having Jay appearing on national television and as rich as he was could put Jess in danger
"They wanted him to do it pretty bad, and it's not as if he's the only one who appears on national television, they let Clay's dad do his stuff, and there's a huge privacy contract in play, they're not to go looking for information on Jess, or her career, or even mention her unless they're willing to be sued" Luca said filling Metal in on the security situation, Jay would not have agreed to do the show without considering Jess and her security
"Luca, I wanted to see what was going on, Metal, you ready to go" Eric asked walking into the room to try and find out what was happening, he'd been surprised to see Metal in the room
"Always sir, regular boy scout" Metal said assuring Eric he was ready to go
"We don't know anything yet for certain, but Doctor Leighton has benched her while we're waiting for more of her test results to come back" Luca said informing Eric of what was going on
"But they think the cancer is back" Metal said, Eric hesitated for a moment, Jess had told him that the cancer would most likely come back, she'd only received the official all clear just under 2 months ago, he hadn't expected it to occur again so soon
"You want me to tell the others" Eric asked trying to comprehend the situation
"They deserve to know Pitt Bull, otherwise scuttle butt will run rampant and that's more dangerous than the truth when you're outside the wire" Metal said looking at Luca, he knew that Jess had wanted to tell them, but he also hadn't seen her body move since he had arrived, she was clearly exhausted or something else was going on, and they were leaving in 2 hours, Jess would probably not be awake before they left
"You can tell them" Luca said to Eric
"Metal, make sure they're out of here on time for wheels up" Eric said looking at the older operator
"Yes sir" yes sir Metal said as Eric left the room to inform the rest of Bravo on what was going on
"Where do you get of calling yourself a boy scout" Eric heard Luca say as he stepped outside the room followed by a small laugh from Metal, he was clearly there more to support Luca at the moment than Jess Eric realised
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"Luca, she's asleep still" Jason asked as soon as Bravo team entered the room in the infirmary
"She's pretty tired, been an emotional few hours, Doctor Shah gave her a light sedative to help settle her down because of how worked up she had become" Luca said, he was still stroking his wife's forehead, that was why Jess hadn't moved since Metal had turned up, she'd been sedated
"You sure it was only a light one" Trent asked, he'd given Jess light sedation before a couple of times, she'd never been in such a deep sleep as a result
"Come on Trent, you know Bookworm can crash anywhere without much help" Sonny said with a chuckle, unfortunately what Sonny didn't realise was that there was always an underlying cause to those deep sleep episodes
"It was 2 mg of lorazepam through injection" Luca said
"So her cancer is back" Ray asked
"They don't know for certain, but her white blood cells are elevated, she's anaemic, low platelets, and her lymph nodes are enlarged throughout her body, her creatine levels are also elevated slightly, along with her birilibum, inflammatory markers" Luca said
"So something is going on, along with the fever and bruise" Trent said
"Exactly, they just aren't sure what it is yet, got to wait for more results to come back" Luca said, it was clear to the whole group this was not going to be a minor thing, Jess clearly was in the best place
"You going through to Bethesda" Brock asked
"In a couple of hours, Doctor Shah wants her a little more awake for the trip, she wasn't planning on her crashing out so hard, just in case there's a complication from the sedative while I'm driving" Luca said, there was nothing more that could be done for at least 6 hours, except for allowing Jess to rest, it didn't matter if she done it here, or on her way to the hospital
"Smart idea" Critter said, his heart was breaking slightly, this was not how he had thought this time here was going to be, he wanted to get at least one chance to work alongside her again, not see her suffering on the sidelines again
"We gotta get going" Metal said, his watch started beeping alerting him to the time, Bravo had to say goodbye and leave one of their own behind to face the unknown, this wasn't an easy feat
"Keep us updated" Jason said looking at Luca firmly, this wasn't a suggestion from the master Chief
"I'm sure someone will let you know what's going on" Luca said trying to put on a warm smile, he hated it with a passion when people kept asking for updates, it distracted him from doing his job when multiple people were relentless in asking for them, he preferred to have one point of contact, and that person would provide the updates, maybe he could convince Jay to handle that task this time, leave him to focus on his wife
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