The 24 Hour War
Houston, Dallas
Sam & Finn
18:00 Sunday
Sam had got the call 6pm and by 6.30pm there was a car waiting for him, he was due back at the barracks the next day anyway, Mercy had left for work that morning, she was in real estate and often away for a few days at a time, so with his job in the mix, they rarely got time together, but when they did they made it count. He left a note for Mercy, called his parents and sent his sister a text before calling Finn, and they went off to report for duty.
Finn and he had grown up together, joined the Army together straight out of school before they finally decided to go into special forces, they'd dated and then married a couple of best friends in a double wedding three years ago. They'd been in the army for six years, made special forces after four years, and was fortunate enough to be part of a loyal group of men. Blaine their Commander had Mike his Assistant Commander, Artie and Jessie were hot on Communications, Ryder and Sebastian the medical team, Joe and Rory the engineers, Matt and his assistant Darrell on Operations leaving Sam and Finn to the weapons. The car entered the barracks and found it super busy "What's happening?" Finn asked Ryder
"Feels like war" Ryder replied connecting fists with his friends
"Mercy was out of town I didn't even get to talk to her" Sam told Finn
"You know Rachel's gone to work too" Finn laughed
"Sergeant" they heard standing to attention
"Sir" they saluted as they turned
"At ease" Blaine laughed "Morning guy"
"Blaine" Finn rolled his eyes
"Grab your bags and come with me" he walked off saying "We have several war's going on, some a camouflage for others, but this one we've been assigned to calls for direct action"
"What is it?" Sam asked knowing he wasn't about to get an answer
"Direct Action you signed up for this" Blaine told him "Life and death"
"All war is life and death isn't it?" Finn asked
"Absolutely" Blaine tapped Finn's shoulder smiling "Mike, get out there and prep the men"
"Sir" Mike smiled nodding for Sam and Finn to follow him "Give us one of your songs" he tapped Sam's shoulder
"O...kay" Sam shouted "We're about to provoke a whole lot of shit" he laughed "But before all that apparently we need to have a battle song so.." he stood searched his mind for something appropriate settling for 'No Way' by Bazzi "here goes," he smiled looking at the guys, they'd all heard the song the last time they'd been out with their wives and girlfriends, they'd all had a skin full and somehow it made the night memorable "When I hop up in the wraith..."
"It's a high speed chase.." the guys sang back at him
"Push the pedal to the floor.. " Finn sang laughing
"I won't quit, no way.." they sang back, they were all back in that club having a good time with their now missing partners
"They can't stall us, no matter what they say.." Finn and Sam sang
"I won't quit, no way, fuckin' no way" they all cheered as they finished, ready for what lay ahead
"So what are we waiting for" Sam asked "Lets fucking do this" they all saluted Blaine and Mike before turning to shake each others hands "I need to call my wife" he told Blaine
"Me too" Finn added
"Sorry all communications are down" Blaine told them
"Will it be back before we get there?" Sam asked Artie
"No guarantees" he replied
"Jessie?"
"Sorry dude same" Jessie told him
The guys went about getting ready for the move across the waters to unknown territory, soon it was time to get on the plane, all they'd been told was that they were going to get as close to the target as they could. Of course the journey wasn't all smooth but some 5 hours later they were sitting in trucks, making yet another rocky journey, on their way to somewhere near the front line
Sunday 23:55
North Dallas
"For those of us that can remember the last Trump Administration that kept saying that it doesn't want to go to war with Iran. You'll also remember that the problem was that some top officials were continuing to make statements that could pave a dubiously legal and factually challenged pathway to war" the commentator looked down at her news feed in disbelief before she carried on "That was some 10 years ago only the change in Administration cooled things for a while, Now president Trump is back and high on his priority of things to look into is reigniting the still strained relationships between the two camps" she looked at the screen behind her "Mr Gaetz, you've been behind this since conception, I imagine everyone is alarmed at this being the first thing the President takes up after just a week in office"
"It's not surprising, it was something he was passionate about then and this just proves how serious he was about it"
"But if he persists we could be going to war"
"I'm sure he's aware of that, and I'm confident we're in a good position for that"
"We're talking a full on war here, aren't we?"
"This thing didn't start on the Presidents watch, it started well before that, but someone has to finish it and I guess the President right now is the only one big enough to handle it"
Monday 00:00
"Sorry to interrupt Mr Gaetz" she touched her headphones before looking into the screen "I've just been notified, I believe we are now, at war with Iran" she told the camera "Is that right?" she asked the crew, watching the nodding heads "Sorry Mr Gaetz we have to cut this short" she turned to the screen just about getting those words out before the screen went blank "Grant I have to go" she told the producer "My son's in the army he might be going as we speak I need to speak to him, be with my family"
"Go" he told her, there were others leaving offices, shops, homes, everything the city was in panic
Mary sat in the car, she had the radio on, her tablet plugged in scanning social media sites and her phone on constant dial for home "Pick the fuck up" she hissed at the phone redialling as she drive "Shit" she stopped at the back of a line of traffic, there was no way she was going to make it home driving, no one was
"All wavebands and satellite signals have been blocked for security reasons" she heard over the radio before everything went dead
"What a fucking time to cut everything off" she slammed the phone down, threw everything in her bag and left the car to walk the rest of the way home
There was total panic in the streets, entire families in one car, even sitting in the boot, with all the belongings they could hold, this was really happening, the country was at war, this was what American's had been fighting against for the past 30 years. Mary started running down the road, she could see the future, this was going to get real messy before it got better, she just needed to get home. It took a while but after nearly forty minutes she was on the last leg, she could see her house from where she stood, Dwight was out on the lawn looking up and down the road, she knew something was wrong, she ran faster "Where's Stacy?" she asked frantically
"She hasn't got home yet" Dwight told her "I'm about to go look for her"
"Has Sam or Mercy called home?"
"Not since last night when he said he was being called in, and Mercy wasn't at home"
"Bastards" she hissed "He's gone to war" she cried into Dwight's chest
"Mary, have you heard from Sam?" Carol and Bert ran across the road to them
"No, have you heard from Finn?"
"No, and we can't get hold of Rachel either" Bert told them looking at Dwight both men nervous, but unwilling to show it
"We haven't heard from Sam, Mercy or Stacey" Dwight told them putting Bert in the picture
"We thought we'd camp out together" Bert went back across the road to get their cases with clothes and food
"Sure, com on in" Mary turned and brought everyone into the house
"So why has this just blown up over night?" Dwight looked from Bert to Mary asking as he handed out cold drinks
"Trump's been going on about affirmative action for a while, it's a shock that he's actually gone through with it, but not a surprise"
"The scary thing is this war could be nuclear?" Bert announced, they all sat considering what that actually meant
Al Hofuf, Saudi Arabia
"Okay listen up" Blaine told them as they neared their destination "Our task is top secret, the majority of the troops have gone on to Iran to settle things down but we've been relocated there's someone our President is very interested in"
"Did I miss something?" Sam asked his face puzzled
"Like?" Blaine enquired
"Like what the President's interested in"
"We're on a special mission Sam" Blaine told him, his voice telling him they were in business mode now, Sam and Finn looked at each other "You handle the weapons and give us the songs Evans" he tapped Sam's shoulder smiling at him
"Yeah" Sam was fed up of hearing that shit, he didn't think a songs would be that effective standing in front of people's families explaining why they'd died "Okay" he turned looking around the group
"The war is a distraction, our real target is a villa about four miles away" Blaine stood telling them "I'm not going to lie this is going to be rough. we're being asked to do unethical things down here for the good of our country" Sam and Finn looked at each other again, this was sounding more like their kind of shit street with every word "By now America thinks we're at war" he looked at his watch "So we're ghosts, and as usual nobody can ever know what's about to go down here" he looked at the men "People die every day family, friends and yeah, I guess we might even lose some this time around but..." Blaine shouted at his men
"We won't die in vain" they shouted back at him
"Right; eat, get some rest because in two hours we attack"
"Sir" the men responded doing their usual salute before dispersing
Sam was the worrier, he'd been worried since they got on the plane, he hadn't got a chance to say goodbye properly to any of his family and now to make it worse he wasn't even going to get a chance to say goodbye to his wife "I know" Finn tapped his shoulder as he came close "But wherever they are you know they're being safe"
"Do I?" he asked
"We do, if they're not working, there up on some stage keeping everyone happy with their competitive selves, those two will stay alive just to get one up on each other" he laughed
"I guess" he laughed at how true that was "We just..."
"I know so did we" Finn stopped him "Get some food" he moved away from him as he spoke
Their wives had talked about having a family a short while back, they didn't know it at the time, but they both fobbed them off saying they had a few years before they had to start thinking about all that, and now they were here
North Dallas
02:00
It had been more than two hours and Stacey still hadn't got home, Mary was climbing the walls, their daughter had been doing some voluntary work with the not so local YMCA her long term plan was to have her own health and fitness centre and she was getting in some valuable experience, they'd all encouraged it.
"Something is definitely wrong" Mary threw the dish across the kitchen even more frustrated than she'd been ten minutes ago
"It might have been safer for her to stay where she was, she'll get home when she can" Carol tried to console her
"She should have been home hours ago, anything could have happened to her" Mary shrugged her off telling her
"Don't think like that Mary, she'll be fine , she has to be fine" Dwight walked over to her and hugged her not wanting to show he was just as frightened for their children "She'll come home" he told her looking at Carol and Bert who were just as worried as them about their children
"It's not going to be fine Dwight, the fucking country's at war, our children are missing, how is it going to be fine? she pulled away shouting at him
"I..." he looked at her hurt "I need it to be true Mary"
"We all need it to be true because the alternative is unthinkable" Bert told everyone
"Sorry I'm just so scared, for them, for us.." she walked towards Dwight for a hug "Who is that?" they all looked at the front door as the handle rattled, walking towards it fast "Stacey?" she called as they got near
"Mary wait" Dwight called to her grabbing her arm "Stacey" he called as they stood watching the handle rattle "Is that you?"
"Open the fucking door" a man's voice came back at them
"We're armed" Bert lied "Move away from the door" he shouted listening as footsteps wondered off
"We need to make sure the garage is locked" Dwight and Bert dashed off to the back of the house to check "We need to put the shutters down"
"But what if Stacey wants to get in?"
"She knows the SOS knock Mary, she'll let us know it's her" he told her as he made light work of nailing wooden planks across the doors and shuttering the windows
"It's best to wait inside" Bert told her
Heath, Dallas
03:00
Stacey
Stacey sat in the cold room shaking, she knew she was out of her depth, she shouldn't have lied to Sam, then maybe she wouldn't have been here now, but how was she supposed to have known war was going to break out. Maybe it was the fact that she was so slow to develop but no one actually knew if she was a boy of a girl, or maybe it was because she was a complete geek who was into astrology, math and history she didn't know which, but no one acknowledged her at school. Her family was her best friend and she didn't mind that, they always had fun together until Sam went away and then she felt suffocated by all the attention, but try as she might she was no good at making friends.
Maybe that was why she fell so hard for Jake, he was the first boy to ever pay her any real attention, he complemented her on the way she looked, the way he touched her let her know he meant every word he said to her "If you do you can't tell anyone about us" he'd told her that day he'd left it to her to decide is she was coming back, everything about this relationship was at her pace, he didn't force anything, she fell in love with him gradually
Of course her parents were kept in the dark, she'd developed a friendship with Emma from work, she was an older woman to her but kind, she'd roped her into doing some voluntary work at the YMCA, at the time she thought it was a good move career wise. She'd met Jake when she was leaving Emma's one evening and her love story had started within seconds, by the time she got to visit him at his home she was already invested, the drugs thing didn't seem that serious, he wouldn't let her get involved in it, they trusted each other.
She'd sneaked out again during the night to go be with him to find chaos "I have to leave" he told her as she watched him rushing around picking things up
"Go where?" she asked him already in panic "Are you leaving me?"
"Do you want to come with me?" he stopped doing what he was doing to ask her "It's only for a while, hopefully we'll be back by next week"
"Yeah" flew out of her mouth before she could stop it, it was what she wanted, and his lips were on hers before she could think anything different
They'd somehow managed to get across town to Heath, now sat in this dark room eating food off dirty tables, and sleeping on uses sheets. It was early morning by the time they got there and she was too tired to care about where they were she saw a bed and fell in it, less than 24 hours later she was hearing America was at war, there was no communication with her parents and nobody knew where she was, suddenly she was scared
Al Hofuf, Saudi Arabia
04:00
The next thing they knew the whistle was calling everyone to attention, they jumped out of their chairs and made the line, everyone looking at someone as adrenalin started pumping "So this is it the mission" Blaine announced showing them a map
"Where is this?" Sam looked up knowing like everyone else, it wasn't Shiraz in Iran
"It's a little town in Al Hofuf" Blaine told them, they looked at each other, nobody was aware of any wars or arguments going on in those parts
"Isn't that Saudi?" Finn asked, Blaine just gave a look which they understood meant no more questions. They stood listening to instructions, about their target who was known to be the mass killer of innocent people, men women and even children across America with his genocidal distribution of some toxic substance he was selling as recreational drugs
"So get kitted up, we're out of here" Blaine finished
"Sir" the men replied before moving off to get ready, it was like the last day before death, but with an excitement for what was going to happen next, everyone had extra adrenalin running through them.
"Did he just tell us we're going in to kill the king pin of some drug cartel?" Sam asked Finn laughing
"That's what I heard, a fucking drug lord, I feel like Rambo" he laughed
"The place is going to be wide open they'll pick us off like fucking ants"
"I thought we were the experts?" Finn asked
"Just watch your back" he told his friend
"You watch my back, I'll be watching yours" he hugged his friend telling him
"Got that" Sam smiled, his mind was somewhere else
"For the record, I... I don't know why I said no to a family either" Finn told him
"I guess I just realised I'm ready for it, the whole nine yards and soon, that's if I ever get her to stand still long enough now a days to impregnate her" Sam laughed
"Considering we're the ones that work away from home, they're busy ain't they?"
"What are you suggesting seconds before we go get killed?" Sam asked him
"I wouldn't for a second be suggesting they were up to anything" Finn looked at him shocked "Just that they were busy"
"Come on let's go get going" Sam nodded towards the makeshift barracks
"It's just that Rachel's suggested…" Finn followed him saying
"Well Mercy never has" he cut the conversation telling him walking off humming "I'm the same old kid with the high school dreams, got my eye on the prize, get it by any means,..." trying to get into another zone
"Just go, push the pedal to the floor, game up in my hands, and bitch, I'll never let it go" Finn joined in singing with him, they were both laughing again by the time they got back to the others
They were soon ready, they walked for nearing thirty minutes before they came to a bunker "Time" Blaine told them, they'd come in to do a job and get out of there
"Let's do this" Finn nodding at Sam
"Let's do this" Sam told him going forward, they were all professionals they knew their role within the team, everyone waiting for Blaine's order, he lowered his hand and everyone was scampering towards the large villa "Not about to die" he looked at Finn as they shuffled ahead
"Not today anyway" Finn confirmed as they moved forward
Dallas, Texas
Dwight and Mary were frustrated there was still no sign of Stacey and no word from Sam, the President had been radio silent for hours now and they hadn't heard a single bang let alone a bomb go off, and still Stacey hadn't managed to get back home. They weren't speaking much anymore, just watching each other as their behaviour got more and more erratic with the stress of the situation
"I can't stand this anymore" Mary jumped up and walked towards the garage "Maybe she's just too scared to move"
"We could go out there, but do we actually know where she is?"
"She might have gone to Will's she gets on with Emma"
"They went away last week" Carole told them
"We could try her workplace, I can't not do anything" Dwight grabbed his coat and a knife for protection, Bert grabbed one too, grabbed their wives coats went to the garage "Everything seems quiet" he told them as they opened the side door "Should we try taking the car?"
"It's faster" Bert agreed
"Plus we have the knife and I'll use it if I need to" Dwight showed her the knife
"We have four knives" Carol showed them hers and passed one to Mary
"Lets go" Mary put her head round the door to check it was clear before they went back to the car settling in to make the journey
There weren't that many people on the streets they were surprised, household items and clothes abandoned all over the place as well as cars "Do you think we missed an announcement or something?" Dwight asked as they drove along
"Just don't stop" Mary told him as everyone stayed vigilant
Ten minutes later at high speed, they finally reached Stacey's workplace, it looked abandoned, derelict even "What are you thinking?" Dwight asked Mary
"That she must be somewhere else" she sat looking at the building, holding her chest ready to cry again
"Either she's locked herself in some cupboard, like she used to do when she was little, or she went with the crowd, which one?" Carol told her trying to lighten the air
"She went with the crowd" Mary chose
"We'll go in and see if she's in there" Dwight looked at Bert
"What and leave us here?" Mary jumped into action, getting out the car faster than them
"It might be dangerous" Dwight looked at her shocked
"Four fucking knives are better than one" Mary took her knife out watching Carole do the same, before they started walking towards the building, the men didn't even try to stop the two women, whichever way it went there was danger, at least they could protect them this way "Stacey" Mary shouted as soon as the door half shut behind them "Stacey" she shouted every three steps she took
"Mary" Dwight rolled his eyes eventually stopping her "I know you think you're helping, but you're just making anyone in the vicinity aware of us being here"
"I'm sorry" she turned sarcasm in her voice "I thought you were going to come up with some brilliant idea of how to get our fucking daughter back, obviously not so" she held her finger up at him "Don't test me, not now" she stared at him for a few seconds before stepping off "Stacey" she shouted while Dwight rolled his eyes at her not listening to a word he'd said
"Let Mary do what Mary fucking does" he murmured as he followed her, rolling eyes with Bert as Carol became part of the shout posse
"The first thing you've said worth listening to all damn day" Mary turned smiling at him "Sorry, I'm pissed"
"I got that" Dwight laughed "Stacey" he joined in shouting their daughters name
"Stacey" Bert joined in laughing, they'd walked through the building and no sign, so they unwillingly made their way back to the car
Al Hofuf, Saudi Arabia
Blaine had ordered the charge, the squad moved forward, the adrenaline running through his body as they neared their target putting them in fight mode, suddenly shots started to be heard, everyone hit the ground and went into crawling position, they were open targets. "Move" Sam told Ryder and Artie next to him
"Get closer, see if we can see the mark" Finn nodded at the villa "I've got your back"
"Moving" Sam told him crawling to get closer
The shots quickly ceased as they got to the door, Sam stood with his back on the wall and his hand on the front door handle waiting for everyone to get in place, nodding as Finn gave the go, he nodded and pushed the door open a barrage of gun fire came back at them everyone jumped into action. Four guys came at them from behind deflecting their attention from the front door "Clear" Finn called seconds before the grenade exploded leaving its splashes of blood, guts and limbs scattered all over the hall "Now" he ordered while the thick smoke and chaos still created confusion for those inside
Shots were fired, cries of pain where heard and then silence "Sweep" Sam requested watching as the men systematically scanned the rooms as they went along shouting "Clear" as they finished "Upstairs" Blaine ordered, Finn nodding the go and Sam moved off
"That was too easy" Sam looked at Finn when Blaine was out of ear shot "There should have been more people here"
"No shit, I think they knew we were coming"
"I really don't like where this is going"
"Let's see what they've found upstairs" Finn looked up the stairs
The men were opening door after door and finding nothing "Sam" Joe called watching them come upstairs "There's nothing up here"
"Yeah we got that" Sam told him walking through the room ahead of them to look out the window
"They're long gone" Blaine stated the obvious "Back to your posts" he ordered
Sam turned and saw a gap in the wall "Hold up, what's this?" he looked at Finn before looking back at the gap "I think this might be where they got out"
"They'll be long gone, but lets go check it out anyway" Blaine led Sam and Finn down the tunnel "You guys stay here just in case" he told the others
The three men walked through the narrow passage minutes later entering an open space "We've been waiting for you" a voice laughed at them, they lifted their guns ready to attack "I wouldn't if I were you" the man stood holding two children in his left arm and a gun in the other. They quickly established that another five men stood around the walls holding guns at them along with women and children being used as human shields "Put your guns down or these people die"
They were outnumbered, plus there were children involved, they put their guns down and held their hands up, looking at each other
"What are you doing here?" the guy in the middle of the room asked
"We were told we could find Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini here" Blaine told them
"You want the revolutionist?" the guy laughed
"Get your boss in here"
"I'm the boss" the guy replied
"This isn't you" Blaine took a picture of the wanted man out of his breast pocket, Sam and Finn stood looking around the room, looking at each other when they saw the faces of the terrified children and women, knowing there were going to be casualties
The guy stared at Blaine for a while before he responded "Come with me" he ordered, they stepped off to follow Blaine "Not you guys, watch them" he turned to one of his guys telling him, they stepped back when Blaine signalled for them to take this guys orders
"Get their weapons" the guy instructed
Sam and Finn stood looking at each other, Blaine had just gone into a room with a known Lord for a private conversation, he didn't even look scared for his life, and protocol was he should have insisted that at least one of them go in with him. Minutes later the door opened again and Baine came walking out, everyone looked serious, Sam had different ideas about what had just happened, Finn's look telling him he also thought Blaine was rotten to the core. Finn's eyes suddenly widened as he looked into the room they'd come out of, Sam's head turned quickly and his heart dropped to his feet, he couldn't help but let out a gasp
"It's fine" Blaine told them "Come on, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini isn't here" he walked past them and back out through the hole they'd come through "The bastard was using children as human bombs" he hissed when they got outside
It was a long time before Sam and Finn could get to talk about what they'd seen in that room, their heads had already gone to a different place on this "Did you see who I thought I saw?" Finn asked him
"She was dressed like a fucking nun or something with black hair but I'd know your wife anywhere" Sam told him "And if Rachel's there you can bet everything Mercy's in there too, so fucking much for real estate, what the fuck are we going to do?"
"Wait for them to come home?" Finn suggested
"If you noticed her, it's guaranteed she saw you too"
"They'll have us like fucking mad men seeing things when they get home, you know how they are"
"Mercy's got me fucking mad alright" Sam threw his protective jacket on the bench before he sat down "I was already stressed out with where the fuck she could be with all this going on, and now this"
"Hey" Finn grabbed him "Keep calm, if what we think is true Blaine might be mixed up in that shit, we don't need him finding out who they are"
Sam's nervous humming started again "Die for this shit, I would, no matter what they say, always knew that I could..."
Finn joined in as usual, he was just as nervous as Sam but scared his unpredictable friend would kick off big time if he showed him anything but confidence "There are things that I won't let them take from me, there are dreams that I won't let them take from me, Oh, yeah"
Al Hofuf - The Villa
Rachel & Mercy
06:00
Rachel and Mercy had met in the orphanage when they were 6 years old, Mercy had stood up for Rachel when some of the other kids tried to bully her, and from that day to this they did everything together, they'd left school proud of being true nerds, they'd jumped straight into an Advanced Degree in Criminology and Psychology by the end of their first year they'd already decided they wanted to apply for the FBI Training, they did that the beginning of their second year and got their interviews the last week of University. They'd just got their positive results the day they met Sam and Finn, it wasn't something that was supposed to have been serious for any of them, they had their lives mapped out, but when you don't expect it, shit happens, they fell in love. They got married three years ago just after they'd finished all their training. life threatened to get complicated just then but Rachel came up with this real estate thing, they didn't like lying but they'd made an oath.
There was a corrupted batch of drugs on the streets, being traded as called speedball but the stuff was lethal, it was killing people off in droves, they needed to get to it's source and stop it. Mercy just happened to be having a girly chat with Stacey one evening and the girl let it drop that her boyfriend was alright except for the drugs he always left laying around the house. Mercy went into overdrive, she was home but her mind was in work, a few more questions and Stacey was confiding in her, she found out the boyfriends name and had him checked out.
At first it seemed like they were small fry, distributing from just two spots, but once they looked into the deaths they found a name link between the location and distribution, they quickly got a sample of the drugs, tested them and found the offending substance was coming from Stacey's boyfriend Jake and he was related to their main mark Noah Puckerman, forcing them to step up the investigation. This was close to Mercy's heart, Stacey was involved and if anything was going to go down she wanted to be the first to know, she needed to get her out of there safe, so she volunteered for the operation, and whether she agreed or not Rachel was always going to go with her
They'd gone in as missionaries, mingled into the local village, they set about rallying the local children to learn them bible stories while trying to make good the old water system, Noah had learned to ignore them quickly. To the untrained eye it was all good, but while there they'd confirmed the source of the killer shipment and given intelligence to head office about his movements. After two months of surveillance they were waiting for closure on the assignment when just two days ago something happened that changed Noah's activity, the villa was emptied of all it's merchandise, his wife and children were sent away and all the villagers, including them, went to live in his villa, today they found out why, someone had tipped them off
"What the fuck are we going to do now?" Mercy asked Rachel as they sat thinking about their options "Headquarters is on some sort of lock down, I though that idiot was our man and he comes in talking code words and distribution changes, and to top it all Sam's expecting me home this weekend"
"We could just kill the bastard and be done with it" Rachel put on the table "I mean if Intel have abandoned us it's every fucking man for himself isn't it?"
"I haven't told you everything" Mercy smiled sheepishly "Stacey's seeing Noah's brother Jake, I need her safe before we do anything drastic"
"Did they guarantee you that?"
"I didn't tell them"
"Mercy" she frowned at her friend
"I know" she rolled her eyes half smiling "But at least our cover hasn't been compromised"
"What the fuck was that?" Rachel asked at the gunfire they'd just heard, they both jumped up running to the front of the villa "What..." they both stood stunned looking at Noah's lifeless body on the floor, Tariq; one of the locals, stood over him with a gun in his hand
"What have you done?" Mercy walked slowly towards him, he stood staring at the lifeless body, frozen "Tariq" she called slowly teasing the gun out of his hand
"He killed my family" his eyes red with tears
"Okay" Mercy looked at Rachel, a hint of relief on her face, all the work and money America had put into this operation and it took a local, who was pretending to be one of his right hand men, to take this drug lord down, both their heads turning back at the house as gunfire started again "What's happening?" they stooped down lower grabbing their concealed weapons
"People are angry, these bastards all have to die" Tariq told them, stepping off towards the gunfire
"Tariq" Mercy shouted, throwing him his gun
Al Hofuf Saudi Arabia
Sam & Finn
The situation was worrying, they didn't know what their wives were up to, if they were safe, or what Blaine had to do with all of it "Finn" Sam nudged him wondering how the hell the man had managed to fall asleep
"Shit dude" Finn flinched at the poke "I was just getting into that"
"What?"
"Into my wife... dressed as a fucking nun..."
"I thought they were Missionaries?"
"Missionaries, I could do a lot of that with her right now" he laughed "I did a lot of that with her actually"
"What?" Sam frowned at his friend
"In my dreams, come on keep up"
"You need a therapist" he laughed "Our wives could actually die, did you get off on that too?"
"Dude they know what they're fucking doing, they must be secret service or something, which means they're qualified to do that stuff, someone sent them in to deal with that bastard"
"So I'm to just let her do her shit?"
"Yeah something like that, we didn't stress when we didn't know"
"That was before we went in there and fucked up whatever it was they had going on"
"Dude stop stressing, they wouldn't be there if they couldn't handle it"
"Did you know?" Sam asked wondering why Finn was taking this on the chin "Dude?" he asked again when Finn didn't answer
"I found something about a year ago and asked her about it, but I swear she didn't tell me anything about Mercy and I didn't know she was here"
"Bad move dude" Sam got up fucked off with his friend "You know if one's there the other one is, you should have told me I could have stopped this" he walked off
"Shit" Finn threw his cap on the floor, Sam was a loose cannon when it came to Mercy, even he didn't know what he was capable of "Sam" he got up to follow him "What are you going to do?"
"Find out what my wife's involved with" he marched on and walked straight into Blaine's quarters "Sir" he saluted watching Finn do the same thing "I'm curious as to what happened up there earlier" he didn't bother to look back at Finn
"I followed orders" Blaine told him "You guys had your assignment I had mine"
"I thought the orders were to kill him?"
"We weren't prepared, there were women and children in there, there were bombs in that back room"
"But..." Sam wanted to know what was said in that room
"..That's enough" Blaine looked up at him
"Sir" Finn saluted dragging Sam with him "What the fuck are you playing at?" he asked him once they got outside
"Seriously?" Sam looked at him puzzled at the question "What do you know about what they're doing?" he stopped to ask him, something about this whole thing wasn't adding up
"You need to speak to your wife"
"Sounds like you've already been talking to my fucking wife" Sam spat at him
"Come on Dude you know I'm not betraying Rachel's trust"
"Is she in danger, I mean real danger?"
"90 percent no"
"And you're alright with 90 percent?" he rolled his eyes at him and walked away
"Guys" Blaine shouted they both spun round to his voice
"Sir" they walked back towards this man neither of them knew how to take right now
"We ship out at 9:00 back home"
"What that was it?" Finn asked shocked
"There is no war" he laughed "I guess even the people at home might have figured that out already" he turned and walked away
"All that elaborate shit just to have a fucking conversation with a drug lord?" Sam asked Finn as they watched Blaine walk away "Am I supposed to leave my wife with those bastards?"
"99 percent yes, doing anything else could get them killed"
Sam didn't want to admit Finn was right on that but he was, if whoever sent them in thought they were up for the job, anything he did now would put both of them at risk "I have just got to hear the shit she brings when she gets home"
"Come on lets get dinner and settle down" Finn smiled humming as they walked "All my life I knew I could, fantasized 'bout living good, fuck the tens..."
Sam joined in half spirited, his mind wasn't in a good place right now "I want the hundreds, yeah, blue bands, just keep them coming, yeah, tell the family we finally safe, but..." he stopped to look at Finn "are they?"
"I need to keep thinking they are" Finn told him as they reached the mess hall
Mercy & Rachel
This was it, they didn't know if they were coming out of this unscathed these guys were heavily armed, they looked at each other "Remember our night?" Mercy smiled at her friend
"I won't quit, no way, fuckin' no way" they sang to each other
"That was our night wasn't it?" Rachel laughed as they cocked their weapons
"And this is our day" Mercy stepped off following Tariq into the madness, focused and professional, walking as they hit every target with precision "Tariq are you alright?" she asked as the smoke settled following the echo of the last shot
"I'm fine" he shouted "My family is avenged" he stepped out smiling
They got the children and women safely out of the dungeon before spending time to say their goodbyes, it was a sad goodbye for them, but the locals were thankful enough to give them a lift back to Al Alkhan so the 4 hour walk turned into a 2 hour drive, they got back to their meeting point, grabbed their passports, phones, made the call which sent them into panick as they made for the airport
"There's a fucking war on" Mercy gasped at her news alerts "From this morning"
"How the fuck did we not know about that?" Rachel asked just as shocked
"Sam" Mercy held her chest, hearing Rachel say her husbands name, they instinctively grabbed each others hands
"They'll be fine" Rachel assured "If they're not..."
"There'll be hell to pay" Mercy assured her "I guess we need to get home"
Dallas Texas
08:00
"Carol" Mary smiled at her friend standing at their kitchen doorway
"I couldn't sleep either" she walked over to her friend "All this is so worrying"
"It is" Dwight walked into the kitchen closely followed by Bert "And the thing is I haven't heard a single alert, bomb drop, the systems are all still down, somethings not right"
"I said as much to Carol last night" Bert nodded at his wife for confirmation
"It's true" she nodded "He was thinking of going into work today see if anything was happening there"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you guys about" Bert looked at Dwight
"I'm going into the office today too, someone must know something" Mary told them
"I heard whispers about some secret mission, I don't even think there's a war going on, I think its a cover up" Bert told them
"No war?" Dwight asked "I told you it was too quiet to be a war"
"He did actually, so, what the hell are they playing at, that man in the white house thinks everything's a fucking joke" Mary tutted
"Just make sure all mobile phones are charged because as soon as the systems are back up everyone will be trying to get hold of someone, we don't want to miss it" Dwight told everyone, already plugging his in
"I didn't even think to charge it" Mary rolled her eyes going off to find her phone "Sam and Stacey might have been trying to get hold of us"
"It's not our fault, when someone announces a war you don't expect it to be over in a damn day" Dwight told her
"As I said according to Bert's theory there was no war, something else was going on" Carol reminded them
"But Stacey's still missing" Mary stopped to add
Al Hofuf, Saudi Arabia
"That came quick" Finn jumped up hearing the shout "I guess it's time to ship out" he opened his eyes and nudged Sam
"I know" he shook his hand off him and sat up "We're being sent home"
"They'll get back and then you'll have all the answers you need"
"Whatever" Sam got up even more angry than he was when he went to sleep
"She'll be fine Sam, Trust her"
"Trust her?" he spat "Our whole fucking life together has been a lie"
"You don't mean that" Finn jumped up telling him "You two are in love, so she does a job that means she can't tell you everything, that's not lying Bro that's protection"
"Protection?"
"Yeah" Finn pulled him to look at him "What would you have told her about this mission?"
"That it was top secret"
"And that's not lying to her?"
"No" he huffed "She knows what I do"
"But does she, do they?" Finn asked "We've never given them details before, do they even know we're at war?"
"Why are you defending her?"
"Dude all I know for sure is that if I went in on Rachel about her job she'd double that shit up, we'd end up jobless, divorced or both, I have to respect her career choice just like she respects mine" he told him "They were already doing their jobs when we met them anyway"
"What?"
"I've said too much already"
"Sam, Finn" Jessie came into their space "Blaine wants to see us all"
"Thanks" Finn smiled "What the fuck does he want now?" the two of them walked off to go and find out "And keep it under your hat about the girls"
"What about the girls?" he asked sarcastically pushing the door open "Sir" they saluted as they entered the tent, seeing they were the last one's there
"At Ease" Blaine told them "News, good news I guess, we've just heard that Noah's been killed last night by one of his angry flock, the whole group wiped out so plan B's been blasted out the water, so we can leave for home straight away"
"What was plan B?" Finn asked
"They have a couple of their best FBI Agents in there, that's why I didn't do anything yesterday, I was told if we got caught we were to stick to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini story, make friends and get the fuck out of there"
"FBI?" Sam asked
"Yeah I don't know any more than that, apparently they're the best we have" he looked at Sam suspiciously "Why?"
"Nothing I just wonder why they needed us if they already had good men in there"
"Dismissed, get ready to go home"
"Sir" Sam smiled, if the country had that much faith who the fuck was he, he got outside and knocked Finn in the stomach "Did you hear that?" he laughed
"Two of the best" Finn laughed "Mrs Hudson"
"And Mrs Evans" he laughed harder "Suddenly I'm not so mad" they went off to pack their stuff up and get out of there
"Okay" Blaine shouted getting everyone's attention "We're going home guys" he marched off towards where they'd left the flyers some eight hours ago
The men started off the singing "When I hop up in the wraith, it's a high speed chase"
Sam and Finn laughingly following that up with "(It's a high speed chase)"
"Push the pedal to the floor"
"(floor)"
"I won't quit, no way"
"(I won't quit, no way)"
"You can't stall us"
"(You can't stall us)"
"No matter what they say"
"(No matter what they say)"
"I won't quit, no way"
"(I won't quit, no way)"
"Fuckin' no way"
"(No way)"
They had that on repeat keeping pace until they got to Al Jubail to meet the flyer, they were quickly settled and on their way home "I have signal" Sebastian looked at his phone telling everyone, Sam and Finn looked at each other, whatever they had to say to who they needed to speak to right now needed to be done face to face, they didn't even look at their phones
10:00
Heath, Dallas
Stacey & Jake
"Quinn" Jake huffed down the phone as soon as she answered "The Place has been on lock down, have you heard anything from Noah?"
"No, he said he wouldn't make contact until this was all over"
"Okay so we'll just sit tight until he gets back to us"
"You guys got out just in time then?"
"Yeah" he laughed "How are the children?"
"They're fine, missing their Uncle, when are you coming to visit again?"
"As soon as all this is over and everything's settled again" he laughed
"And baby Bro's still in love?"
"Very much" he laughed "Listen, I got to go get something for her to eat"
"Whipped" Quinn laughed
"No denying that" he laughed "Bye"
"Bye"
He put his phone down and turned to look at a sleeping Stacey, she hadn't been well this past few hours, it seems the Mexican food he'd brought earlier didn't agree with her so she'd been living on water, and she was still bringing everything back up. He stroked her arm smiling at her moving to get closer to him, he sat wondering how he'd ever lived without her, knowing that he'd give everything up in a heartbeat if she asked him to. She'd hit his heart like a brick, he saw her that first day and felt something, his heart literally moved, everything in his head started clicking together, he knew what his life was going to be about, and it wasn't about selling gear. If he hadn't been working for Noah he'd have dropped it like a brick, but he'd given his brother 6 months to set up another operation, they were well on the way to doing that when he got the call, he was that close to getting out of this game he could smell it, just his luck people started dropping like flies.
"Are we going home today?" Stacey pulled him out of his thoughts
"If we don't hear anything by tomorrow we'll go back home I promise, I hate seeing you ill"
"I'll be dead by then" she moaned
"Do you want to try something to eat?"
"No" she cried "I just want to go home"
"Okay, we'll start back today" he knew the dangers, but he was willing to leave Clint and Hunter with the merch and get her home "Just let me make some plans"
"No stay with me" she pulled him back, he sat down waiting for her to drift off again
17:00
Dallas Texas
Mercy & Rachel
Seven hours later they were standing in Dallas Airport waiting to do the last 20 minutes of their journey via army car, finally stopping on Park Bend Drive at their parent-in-laws houses "See you later" Mercy jumped out the car hugging Rachel to go see her family.
"Girls" Carol waved from Mary's house running towards them as Mary's head popped through the door and she was running towards them too
"Carol" Rachel waved walking fast towards her Mother-in-law, stood looking at the car leaving "Is Finn around?"
"Rachel" Carol grabbed hold of her "No he went to war, where have you been?"
"Trying to get home" she told her
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine" Rachel looked across at Mercy getting her hugs still walking
"Mom" Mercy gasped upset with happiness at seeing her parents "Dad" she gasped watching him come towards her
"Thank God you're alright, I don't know what we would have done if anything happened to you" he grabbed his daughter like her life depended on her "What Sam would have done"
"I'm fine honestly Mom" she giggled as her Dad squeeze
"We've worked it out, there's a conspiracy theory about this damn war" Carol started in, Carol always had some conspiracy theory going on, and to be fair it was usually true, but she was never going to know, they all laughed before heading into the house to hear this theory
"Bert" Rachel smiled at the man standing in the doorway
"Haven't we earned Mom and Dad yet?" Carol asked
"I thought you'd never ask" Rachel giggled "Mom" they touched heads endearingly
"Where's Stacey?" Mercy asked when they finally sat in the kitchen, watching Mary make coffee
"We haven't seen her since all this started" Dwight told her "We're waiting for Sam to turn up see what he can find out"
"Talk of the angels" Bert smiled at the guys heads peeped round the door
Finn & Sam
"Rachel" Finn gasped at seeing her "How did you..." he looked at Sam
"Finn" she jumped up and ran towards him "You're safe"
"We didn't really see any action" he hugged her smiling "We need to talk" he whispered in her ear before he let her go to go hug his parents
"Sam" Mary jumped up at seeing her son standing at the door, he was happy to see his parents of course he was, but he was shocked to see Mercy sitting there like butter wouldn't melt, he smiled at her sitting patiently waiting for him to get through his parents to get to her
"Mom" he finally calmed things down "I didn't see much of the war, I'm fine" he stepped past them "Sorry I need to talk to Mercy" he watched Finn and Rachel leaving the room
"Of course" they both stepped aside letting him pass,
Finn and Rachel went off whispering, he told her they'd seen them in Al Hofuf, that he was expecting fireworks, but her response was "She'll be happy it's finally out" as she looked back at them leaving the kitchen
"Coming?" Sam asked, they got in the garden, he spun her round so his parents couldn't see his face "Have you got something to tell me?"
"What?" she asked shocked
"Don't fuck with my head Mercy, I'm breaking protocol here but I've been in Al Bofuf for the past 7 hours going after a certain drug lord and guess..."
"Sam" she stopped him talking "It's a job, I love my job, and I love you, I can do both"
"I didn't say I didn't love you"
"Right now we have bigger fish to fry"
"Bigger than us?" he asked pissed at her trivialising their situation "Like what?"
"Stacey" she told him "She's seeing Jake"
"Who?"
"Jake" she rolled her eyes at him
"Don't even start that shit with me right now" he warned, she was trying to pretend like he'd forgotten something she'd never told him again
"Jake is the drug dealing brother of Noah in Al Bofuf" she stood waiting for his reaction
"Where is she? he looked back into the house asking
"I'm waiting for intel to let me know, we have a tap on her"
"Is that why you did it?"
"This one yes, but it's my job"
"We need to go find her" he took his phone out to call Finn, watching as she called Rachel "Dad we need the car" he told him before starting his conversation with Finn
Less than five minutes and all four were in a car on their way to Jake's last known address, as Mercy told them as much as she knew, surprised Sam didn't snap her head off "Okay so they went off radar for 24 hours, but Jake made a call in Heath at 10am and he's called for pizza from this address we're going to about 30 minutes ago" Rachel told them
"So she's here?" Sam asked
"Just the two of them" Rachel replied
"What we need to be mindful of is that Stacey loves this guy, she might shield him so no guns" Mercy told everyone
"Unless he shoots first" Sam told them
"If that happens I'll take the shot" Mercy told him
"I'll back you" Rachel added while Finn and Sam looked at each other wondering who the hell they were, they got out the car and walked the few yards down the road towards the house, Rachel literally walked up to the door and knocked it "Jake?" she asked
"Yeah" he looked out the door surprised to see so many people
"We're looking for Stacey"
"She's inside, she's not well" he recognised Sam from a picture she had on her phone "Sam right?"
Sam just looked at him and walked past him into the house "Stacey" he gasped at seeing his sister sick "What's wrong?"
"Dodgy Mexican" she smiled "Am I glad to see you" she giggled crying ""We went for a romantic night never again"
"Lets get you to a doctor" he picked her up and walked towards the door
"Stacey" Jake called after her as he watched Sam carrying her out
"He's coming with us" she grabbed his arm telling Sam, right now his only concern was his sister, he let it ride, he'd deal with him later
Mercy called their parents and everyone met up at the hospital, Stacey lay telling her story, everyone except for her parents knew it was a lie, but they let it ride. Sam spoke to Jake, the conversation was more civil than either of them had expected, the guy actually had good intentions, Sam felt sad he couldn't tell him about his brother's demise
21:00
Home
Everyone finally made it back home, Stacey included, Jake was finally getting to know his girlfriends parents, dinner happened and everyone finally retired to bed "I guess you want an explanation or something?" Mercy sat on the bed asking her husband
"I wish you'd have trusted me enough to tell me"
"I trust you Sam, that's not even being questioned"
"I don't want to talk right now Mercy, I'm tired, I miss my wife and..."
".. That's a shame because I wanted to talk about having a baby"
"We don't have to talk to have that conversation" he laughed, walking towards her "Wait, have you two planned this?" he stopped to ask
"No, I just thought you might have had time to think about it, I know I did when I heard there was war"
"I must admit" he sat next to her "That was one of the first things I thought too"
"So why are we waiting?" she grabbed his chin to look into his eyes "I want our baby Sam"
"My answer very much relies on how this practice session goes" he laughed his face moving in to take her lips
"I can work with that" she pulled him to lay on the bed with her, she was more than ready for this mission
23:00
"Couldn't sleep" Sam wondered into the kitchen to find Mercy and Rachel in there talking
"No I needed a drink" Mercy stood at the kettle telling him
"Do me one too" Finn walked in and sat at the table "I should have known you were going to be here" he grabbed Rachel around her waist pulling her to sit on his lap
"We were just saying" Rachel said laughing as Mercy came to the table with a tray of hot drinks
"What?" Sam looked at Mercy suspiciously
"We're going to need to work as a team on this one" Mercy told him bending to kiss his lips as she handed him the drink
"On what one?" Finn asked looking at Rachel
"Well we all know our babies are going to have to be born on the same day and the same place don't we" Mercy laughed
"Joke right?" Sam asked laughing
"Joke wrong" Mercy told him
"I guess this is going to be our hardest mission to date" Sam laughed knocking fist with Finn sat nodding in agreement
"Well we're fully trained" Mercy hugged her husband smiling
"And I'm guessing you guys are fully loaded" Rachel added
"I'll drink to that" Sam held his mug up hitting it with everyone else's as they cheered "Come on bed, there's fall out tomorrow the streets are a mess" he slapped Mercy's butt and watched her get up "Later" he smiled at Finn and Rachel, pushing Mercy out the door
"What's up?" she turned to ask him
"I want to talk"
"Now?"
"Yeah now" he pushed her up the stairs and into their bedroom
"Sup?" she sat on the bed watching him walk around the room
"It's been less than 24 hours ago I found out my wife was a fucking FBI agent and I think that's just sinking in with everything that's gone on, I'm calm enough to talk about it now and I guess I need to. I'm not happy as I've said before about you keeping this away from me, but I understand, there are things I do in my job that I can't talk about too" he stopped walking to look at her "I love you Mercy and I don't know how I'd cope without you, I need you to promise me you'll never take a chance you know you haven't got, especially if we're serious about starting a family"
"I..."
"I'm not asking you to give anything up I wouldn't do that" he laughed "Although that was the first thing that came to mind when I found out"
"Sam" she got up and walked towards him "For reference this face, these hands" she grabbed him hands "Touching me, wanting me, needing me and this body" she rested her back against his chest and wrapped his arms around her "Makes me refuse to die anywhere else but here, this is where I want to be when that happens, right here" she turned and kissed his lips "I plan on getting an office job once we get pregnant" she held his face telling him
"This sounds and feels like heaven" he pulled her into him for a deeper kiss
"And that feels like heaven" she smiled "I have our baby making song" she smiled, running off to her phone to play 'Heaven' By Kiandra Richardson - Empire as they stood getting lost in themselves
"What is that?" Sam suddenly stopped asking "Something's going on" he jumped off the bed, watching Mercy do the same as they made their way to the main room "It's the damn TV, the stations come back on" he laughed
"This one will go down in history" Bert laughed
"What as the shortest war in history?" Mercy asked
"I'm calling it the 24 hour war" Sam laughed watching as everyone else came into the room, hoping to at least get an explanation of the past 24 hours from the man himself
"Typical" Finn laughed seeing the Vice President's face fill the screen
"Told you, bogus war" Dwight sat down with his snacks telling everyone, Sam, Mercy, Rachel and Finn could only look at each other and smile
The End