Chapter 19

Thank you again for all the support. It's greatly appreciated. Don't have a lot to say lol. Hope you enjoy this chapter and that it's up to par. I encourage everyone to write Mandy and Jason cuz we need some more fanfics out there of these two. Never in a million years did I think I could do this and look how it turned out. Sorry for posting late lol and god I hope this is decent lol.

Mandy stormed into her makeshift office. She looked around at all the intel on the boards and table. She had so many emotions running through her. Memories of being left for dead. Memories of moments they could've caught Roman but he slipped away. Or did she let him slip away because a part of her still had hope that he was still the good person she once knew. She could also feel the anger coursing through her veins of letting Roman get under her skin and betraying her the way he did. Next thing Mandy knew, she was swiping things off the table onto the ground in a rage. She could feel herself losing control and her breaths coming unevenly as she backed away from the table and felt her back hit the wall.

Jason was approaching the room as he heard the noise of things hitting the floor. He reached the door way and saw Mandy breaking down. He quickly walked in and closed the doors and blinds. He went to stand in front of her and try to make eye contact with her while softly putting his hands on her upper arms.

"Hey, Mandy. Mandy? Look at me," Jason said trying to catch her eyes.

"I can't- I," Mandy said trying to catch her breath as she reached out to grab the front of Jason's shirt. She was clawing at him trying to cling onto anything to keep her in reality.

"Breath, okay? With me," Jason encouraged her as he brought her against him. One had at the back of her head running it through her hair trying to calm her down.

Mandy could feel her knees buckling but Jason caught her. They slowly went down to the floor and Jason positioned Mandy to cradle her in his lap as her head was in the crook of her neck. He rocked her slightly while murmuring reassurances to her.

"Shhhhhh, just breath. I'm right here," Jason said softly. His heart was breaking seeing her like this. She'd been there for him when he broke down and it was his turn to be there for her.

The room was quiet and all you could hear was Mandy's breathing slowly going back to normal and soft hitches. Jason ran one had down her arm and the other down her leg. He had his head on top of hers.

He remembered what it was like to find out about Vic's betrayal and could only imagine what Mandy was going through. He couldn't imagine one of his brothers turning around to shoot him and leave him for dead. Jason often forgot what side of the war Mandy was on. In her world of intelligence there was so much betrayal and lying that occurred. Assets developed at whatever the cost may be all for the greater good. He was an operator who had seen his fair share of darkness but Mandy saw the bigger picture. She saw the politics be played at the cost of lives. She saw and sometimes was a part of making the toughest decisions there were to make. Just like how every decision he made with the team weighed on him it occurred the same way for Mandy but with countless and faceless victims.

Roman had called her weak and made Mandy doubt herself. Jason was ready to put this guy in the ground for making Mandy feel the way she felt. He could see the toll of hunting down someone she had trusted with her life did to her. She was the strongest person he knew and he wouldn't let Roman bring her down with him.

"He's wrong," Jason began. "You're not weak. You're the strongest person I know. Because of you my team gets home safely. You're selfless and never back down from a fight."

"We're never out of the fight," Mandy said.

"Yeah," Jason said remembering what she said to him in the hanger when Shaw was going out of his mind after they saved Ray.

"When Lisa and I were going through the footage for anything to help Ray back in Caracas and we saw that Vic lied, it brought back a lot of memories. I knew you guys needed to know the truth but pulling up the footage and watching you guys come to the realization that…" Mandy trailed off. "All I could think about was that day with Roman. We were waiting for a team to rescue us in this abandoned building. We were talking like it was any other day. I was asking if he and Jessica, his fiancée, had set a date yet. I turned around to check out the window and when I turned back he had a gun on me."

Jason's hold tightened on her while the hand full of his shirt did too. He knew what reliving the past was like. He realized she needed this moment to let her emotions go.

"Everything just seemed to stop. All he could say to me was he was sorry," Mandy said bitterly. "I've had a lot of intense moments doing this job but I'd never been so scared in my life. I tried to talk him but I just couldn't seem to get through. Next thing I knew the gun went off and I look down and touch myself only for my hand to come away with my blood on it. Then I'm on the ground just staring at the ceiling as he hovers over me saying sorry over and over."

"I can't imagine what that was like," Jason said softly.

"Next thing I knew I was alone with a pool of my own blood forming. Luckily, before we had ducked into the building we were in I was able to send some rough coordinates of where the black op team could find us. God, it felt like I waited there forever. I thought that was how I was gonna die. Alone and betrayed," Mandy continued on. "I must have passed out because next thing I knew I was in a chopper and could see blurry figures work on me before everything went dark. The next time I woke up I was in a hospital room waking up to my Dad at my bedside."

"Like I said, you're a fighter," Jason said.

"We've been playing this game of cat and mouse for years. I could've taken him out the other night but I didn't," Mandy said.

Jason pulled Mandy's face up so he could look her in the eyes, "Because at the end of the day taking a life isn't and shouldn't be easy and you know that. He was once your friend. You want to believe that the good in him is still there even though another part of you screams it isn't. That doesn't make you weak, it makes you human."

Jason leaned in and gave her a soft kiss. Mandy clung to him and his words. He was the only thing keeping her grounded at the moment.

"We're going to find this son of a bitch. All of us will be right there by your side. You're not in this alone Mandy," Jason said.

"I know we have to go back, but can we just…" Mandy trailed off.

"Yeah, we can take all the time you need," Jason replied.

"Mandy seems pretty torn up. Never seen her like that before," Clay said breaking the silence.

"She trusted Roman with her life and he ended up betraying her," Director Thomson said.

"How bad was it?" Ray asked. "Mandy said two bullets."

Director Thomson took a shuddering breath looking around the room, "I knew her job was dangerous at times seeing as I'm technically a boss of hers. From what the rescue team told me it was bad. It's a miracle she's alive. They said she lost a lot of blood and it was touch and go during transport."

"She's a fighter," Sonny said.

"She's been hurt over the years but this, this was the worst. Sure she survived physically but the scars it left on her run deep. She makes it her personal mission to bring every one of you home. I remember when Nate died, she took that pretty hard. I'm pretty sure she has list of just about every person she's lost."

"Sounds like someone else we know," Ray said looking around the room.

"Those two are way too similar yet they seem to be the only ones able to rein each other in," Trent commented.

"So how do we find this guy?" Lisa said. Listening in on everything she started to feel herself with a new purpose to hunt down Roman for hurting one of her best friends.

"It's tricky. He's going to make this personal for Mandy, which means he'll be so focused on playing the game with her hopefully he'll mess up and leave us trails to get to him. My guess is he's got something planned."

"And what about the threat to kill her? What do we do about that?" Brock asked.

"We put him in the ground first," Sonny replied back. "The only person dying will be this Roman bastard."

Director Thomson looked around at everyone glad to see his daughter's make shift family having her back. "Thank you, you guys over the years somehow got through Mandy's barriers and let her be a part of your family. It's nice to know you all have her back. I worry sometimes she'll let her lone wolf ways get her into trouble one day she can't be saved from."

"She's always had our backs even when things got tense," Ray said. "No thanks needed when it's family."

"Not many teams guys get along with their CIA liaison," the director chuckled.

"She's not just any CIA liaison. Can't forget she got Jason in her corner early on so if you have the respect of Bravo 1 then we all respect her too," Ray said.

"Remind me not to get on her bad side. Wouldn't want to be on the other side of her interrogation," Full Metal said.

"The stories I could tell you about Mandy and interrogations," the director laughed.

"Maybe for another time. Back to the original question, how do we get Roman," Lisa stated.

"We finish off this deployment by capturing or killing Al-Hazred once and for all. We talk to Reiss too," Mandy said entering the room again with Jason behind her.

The room all turned around to look at her and it was a little unnerving being the center of attention.

"Okay, we can setup an interrogation for you," Lisa started saying.

"No," Mandy said cutting Lisa off. "You're going to talk to Reiss," Mandy said looking at Lisa.

"What? No! I'm not a trained interrogator like you," Lisa replied.

"He's expecting it to be me. He chose you," Mandy said moving to stand by Lisa.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Lisa said. "Where the hell do I even start?"

"You walk in there and show that you have the control and throw whatever you're feeling at him. You show him that you have the last say in how all this ends," Mandy said looking at Lisa. "I wouldn't send you in there if I didn't think you could do it. So go take a moment and get ready."

Lisa nodded and started walking out to prepare herself for what was to come.

"Is this a good idea?" Sonny asked watching Lisa leave and turning back to Mandy. "I mean she's been through a lot and needs a break probably."

"Trust me, this is exactly what she needs," Mandy said. "Listen, we find Al-hazred again and bring him in alive and maybe we get some more information on Roman. We finish this deployment doing what we've been doing. Roman won't be easy and will play for the long game. It's not going to be easy getting him. He's going to throw everything he's got at me and that can include going after each of you. So if you need to step down from the hunt I'll understand."

The team all looked at each other and then back to Jason. They all communicated their answers silently. Jason looked at all the guys and understood.

He walked over to Mandy and squeezed her hand and said, "We're never out of the fight. You go after one of us then you're going after all of us."

The rest of the team nodded in agreement and vowed to take Roman down and protect Mandy.

"Okay then, let's get to work," Mandy said giving Jason a small smile.