Chapter 29

Can't wait until 11/25! SEAL Team will be back and I'm super excited to see what is in store for season 4. I'm dying for some new TV. Hope you all are enjoying this story as well as some of the other one-shots I've been posting. Any suggestions let me know. Enjoy another chapter! Also, just a disclaimer that I know nothing about geography lol.

"So how are you going to get the sister out of here without the mother knowing?" Lisa asked Mandy and her Dad as they discussed how to move forward with the new intel they had.

"Fake her death," Mandy replied looking at Lisa and Blackburn.

"Fake her death?" Blackburn asked. "Won't that raise some eyebrows around here if something happened to her while in our custody?"

"She won't die here," Director Thomson replied. "We let the mother and sister go. They will head to Junior and in the raid or along the way we fake her death. We know Roman is trying to clean up loose ends as well."

"I can accompany the op to make sure we get her out," Mandy chimed in.

"Absolutely not," Thomson said instantly.

"What? Why? She trusts me to get her out," Mandy replied.

"You've been burned," Mandy's Dad said.

"Burned? Are you kidding me?" Mandy replied outraged.

Meanwhile, Lisa and Blackburn stood silently watching the two wondering exactly how this was going to end.

"Burned? Why is Mandy burned?" Lisa interrupted.

"Mandy, you heard her. Your identity here is compromised. She knew who you were. Roman probably went around and compromised you. You go out into the field, not only is a target on you but it's on everyone around you," Director Thomson answered.

"This is hardly the first time or will be the last time I'm compromised. In this job, we know there is a chance for revenge. I can do this," Mandy replied strongly.

"It's not a question of whether you can do this. We send the two of them off and setup a team outside of here to fake her death. We can't risk you, not if you're going to take down Roman once and for all," her Dad replied.

"And what about the risk of the sister deciding we're not going to keep our end of the deal up because she no longer trusts us while we send a team of guys out into enemy territory probably for them not to return?" Mandy replied fiercely.

"She has a point, Jack," Blackburn intervened. "You and I both know that D.C. won't like us taking a risk with American soldiers lives like that. D.C. already has enough public relations issues going on at the moment. We can't afford for Al-Hazred to get tipped off in any way."

Director Thomson sighed, "Okay, but we do this my way, and you follow my orders no questions asked. Is that clear, Mandy?"

"Yes, sir," Mandy replied.

After lunch with Mandy, Jason called the kids to check in with them. The kids were doing great and glad to talk with Jason. He smiled thinking about how one of the first things both asked was where Mandy was. He knew since Alana passed it had not been easy on all three of them. Emma went off to college, Mikey off to a fancy hockey school, and he continued to be on Bravo. He was glad the kids had taken to Mandy. Jason knew Mandy treaded cautiously around the kids. She didn't want to overstep any boundaries and he loved that about her. It wasn't that Mandy had never met the kids before, but she always seemed to keep her distance whenever they or Alana were around. He often wondered why she was so cautious around hanging out with everyone outside the op, but he knew it was her way of trying to protect herself from getting attached. With him though, he always felt it was different. They always let the other have it and never held back from each other. It worked for them.

Once he talked with the kids, Jason grabbed some more of his things from his bunk. He had looked around his bunk and realized he hadn't been there in a while seeing as he had been staying at Mandy's. For a moment he wondered if he had overstayed his welcome at Mandy's but figured if he had Mandy would've kicked him out. It didn't hurt either that she had a personal bathroom that she didn't have to share with the entire base. It also didn't hurt to have a little extra company during the cold nights Jason thought with a smirk.

Now Jason found himself at the shooting range on base. He figured Mandy was busy interrogating the mother and sister. He decided to get some target practice in because it never hurt to practice. The shooting range was somewhere he always felt he could let out his emotions no matter what they were. He was happy with his life at the moment, but there was still that little voice in his head telling him it could all go terribly wrong as well. Focusing down range help him to clear all the voices in his head sometimes.

"Feeling rusty?" Ray asked coming up to where Jason was.

"Nah," Jason replied. "Practice makes perfect."

"Or your girlfriend is too busy for you and you're bored," Ray smirked.

"Maybe a little," Jason chuckled as he re-loaded the gun and Ray loaded his as well.

They both started shooting down range never missing the target.

"You good?" Ray asked as they re-loaded again.

Jason looked up from re-loading his gun, "At the moment, yeah. Things are good."

"But…" Ray trailed off.

"Going after Junior is just bringing up a lot of the past and wondering what the future holds," Jason replied.

"And Mandy?" Ray asked.

"She's the one thing I'm sure of," Jason replied honestly.

"You two have always been close," Ray commented.

"We never crossed the line," Jason replied seriously. "I wouldn't and neither would she."

"I believe you," Ray replied.

"People think she's this cold-hearted person who would cross whatever line to get the job done," Jason said as he started shooting off another round. "But she's not that person."

"I know. So does the team. She has saved our asses more times than I can count. I'll never forget her saving my life a couple years back and taking the fall. We know who she is and that's all that matters," Ray replied.

"I'm worried about her and this Roman guy. He was her partner and left her die, that leaves a mark on someone," Jason said.

"Yeah, a betrayal like that does. We'll be there for her just like she is always there for us. We'll remind her everyday that we're in her corner. We all heard that phone call between her and Roman. The only person dying will be him if it comes to it," Ray replied. "We all got scars being in this line of work but we're all survivors."

"Damn straight," Jason said as he re-loaded his gun. "Wanna make this fun?" Jason asked looking at Ray and then down range.

"Oh, you're on brother," Ray laughed as they set a wager.

"You think this is gonna work?" Lisa asked Blackburn as they went to get the team to brief them on the up coming op they had just planned out.

"They know what they're doing," Blackburn replied.

"I know that," Lisa sighed. "What about Jason though?"

"Oh, he's going to blow a gasket when he hears this one," Blackburn chuckled as he spotted the team by the makeshift bar.

"Well let's hope she can reign him in," Lisa sighed as they got closer to the team.

"Let's go guys, got an op for you all," Blackburn announced.

"Alright, time for some action," Thirty yelled out.

"It's been a quiet deployment this round. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing," Clay commented as the team started to follow Blackburn and Lisa to command.

"Finally going after Al-Hazred?" Ray asked.

"This time we take the bastard down for good," Sonny commented.

"We'd prefer him alive or you'll have to deal with Mandy," Lisa said. "I mean if you want to tell her you killed a lead on taking down Roman then be my guest."

"Mandy can be scary when she wants to be," Sonny thought out loud. "I don't think being on her bad side is a wise decision."

"Look at that, Sonny making a wise decision," Jason joked as the team laughed. "From personal experience, you don't want to be on Mandy's bad side."

"When have you ever been on Mandy's bad side," Full Metal asked with a smirk.

"Back when she first became our liaison, I questioned her every move. I made things pretty hard for her," Jason shook his head remembering. "She took a lot of it until she finally broke and challenged me to one on one combat. I thought she was joking at first, but you should've seen the look on her face. She was drop dead serious."

(Flashback)

"What? Think a woman is going to beat you?" Mandy challenged with her hands on her hips and a smirk on lips. "Big team guy like you isn't afraid of little old me," Mandy said walking towards him.

They were still getting used to working with each other. Jason was pushing her limits and she knew a guy like him would, but a person could only take so much. What did a person have to do to get within the good graces of Jason Hayes? She wasn't someone who'd sit around and take it either. If he wanted to dish it at her then she'd dish right back.

"You want me to fight you," Jason choked out.

"Yeah, come on. Don't tell me you haven't wanted to take a swing or two at me because I know I have wanted to do it to you," Mandy replied.

"I would never hit a woman," Jason said seriously.

"I know," Mandy replied softly. "So? What's it gonna be? You and me, one on one. Now," Mandy stated walking towards the gym. "Meet you at the floor mats."

Jason couldn't even begin to put his thoughts together before she left the room and headed for the gym apparently. Never one to back down from a challenge, he decided to head towards the gym and give in to her request. He'd go easy on her and it'd all be over. What Jason didn't realize was Mandy wasn't going for an easy win.

Before they knew it, both stood across from each other ready to go at it.

"Ground rules don't hold back," Mandy said.

"Yeah, sure. Tap if you need to get out," Jason replied.

"Sounds good," Mandy replied as the two started to circle each other.

Mandy was the first to make a move at Jason and he just barely missed it before Mandy got him on the side. He went to defend himself and half attempted to get back at her. She wasn't a big person, and he was much bigger than her. He was afraid he'd break her. The two continued to dance around each other and Mandy was getting irritated. She could tell he wasn't giving it his all. The next thing Jason knew Mandy swept him off his feet and flat on his back.

"I told her no holding back," Mandy said sternly. "I'm not some fragile piece of porcelain."

"Fine!" Jason exclaimed reaching for one of her legs and pinning her down to the mats.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Mandy smirked as she maneuvered him off her and the two were rolling around before Mandy's elbow knocked Jason in the eye.

"Ow!" Jason yelled holding his face.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Mandy asked feeling a little bad and walking towards him.

Before she knew it, Jason pulled a move on her and had her in a hold, "Never assume your opponent is out for the count."

"That's good advice you should follow," Mandy replied as she flipped Jason on to his back and put her legs around his neck in a choke hold.

"Okay, okay. You win," Jason said tapping her legs and Mandy let go.

The two both were both laying on the mat trying to catch their breaths.

"Not bad. You been out in the field?" Jason said.

"Yeah, never know what the situation will be if experience has taught me anything," Mandy replied. She then got up at grabbed her things from the sidelines and started head towards the locker room, "You're forgiven."

"What?" Jason asked confused as he sat up and watched her walk away.

"For being as ass. See you around," Mandy called over her shoulder.

"What the hell just happened?" Jason muttered to himself.

(Flashback end)

"So, she kicked your ass and then walked away?" Trent chuckled along with the rest of the guys.

"Pretty much. I was a little nicer to her after that. Cut to a few months later and she saved the team but got chewed out for doing it," Jason smiled. "Never underestimate Mandy. Pretty sure if she wanted to get rid of any us, she could and would get away with it," Jason chuckled as they walked into HAVOC.

"Get away with what," Mandy asked appearing out of nowhere causing them all to jump. "You guys okay," Mandy said eyeing how jumpy they had been.

"You don't happen to have video of kicking boss's ass on the mats, do you?" Full Metal asked.

Mandy paused tilting her head in confusion for a second before a smirk appeared, "I'm sure I can pull some of those up for you."

"There's more than one?" Trent cackled sitting down.

"Now wait one second," Jason started.

"Don't worry, I won't show them the ones where I completely wiped you out," Mandy said patting his shoulder as he went to sit down as well. Mandy headed towards the head of the table by the screens, ready to start the briefing.

"Alright, down to business. We got a location on Al-Hazred from the sister," Director Thomson started.

"What'd you have to promise to get that," Jason asked eyeing Mandy.

"New identity and life," Mandy replied looking back at him and the team.

"We'll be going deep into enemy territory to get Junior," Blackburn stated.

"Nothing new about that," Clay chimed in.

"It's pretty mountainous and snowy where we're going. You won't have much back up with you should things go south," Lisa stated.

They continued to go over the details of how they'd get to their Al-Hazred's hide out. They had decided that they'd get dropped off by helicopter just outside the danger zone and have to do the rest by foot through the hills. They'd have ISR available and HAVOC would be able to give them an overview of the area as best as they could.

"Alright, this is great an all, but you how exactly are you getting the sister out?" Jason asked looking at Blackburn, Lisa, Director Thomson, and Mandy.

"We'll fake her death during the attack," Mandy answered looking at her Dad.

"We planning to take the mother and daughter with us?" Ray asked confused.

"No, we'll be letting them go. The mother's loyalty is to her son but so far, she has no idea her daughter has turned against them. So, we'll let them go under the guise of we got nothing to hold them on and we're down on resources here," Director Thomson replied.

"Putting a tracker on them then?" Clay asked. "Once we get the target's location, we grab the sister and fake her death somehow?"

"Not exactly," Mandy answered. "I'll be going out with them."

"You'll be what?" Jason asked sitting up straighter.

"They'll be let go from here and I'll be following them. We have transportation for them set up and I'll be hiding away for the ride. Once we get to the target's location there's a place to hide and once you guys show up, the sister will make a run for it. We stage an explosion while going out the back and I'll get her out," Mandy explained.

"And where will your back up be? How far behind will be?" Jason asked not quite believing what he was hearing.

"I'll have ISR but no immediate back up per say. We can't spook anyone. After I get the sister to her exfil point and we'll all meet back here at base," Mandy said.

"So, what you're saying is that you're going to be going into enemy territory with no back up of any sorts should anything go sideways," Jason stated clenching his hand into a fist.

"The sister trusts me," Mandy replied softly. "If there was any other way, we'd take it, but we can't risk Al-Hazred getting alerted to us coming. It's the right call," Mandy said looking deep into his eyes conveying that conversation at the bar about making tough calls.

"Even if it has a price," Jason muttered staring right back at her.