Chapter 3

Eight Years Ago

Tess couldn't decide if she was tired or wired.

It'd been almost eighteen hours since she'd last slept, she always tried to on the plane but for some reason she could never quite doze all the way off, but after their debrief she hadn't wanted to stay at Langley any longer than she had to. She'd wanted to get here, get home, get to Jay.

And she was so fucking close.

She didn't come to his precinct often, they tried to keep their work lives as separate from their personal as they could but after almost five months apart she hadn't been able to wait. And clearly she'd been here enough because one of his patrol buddies recognized her as she was walking up and after a brief explanation and a few batted eyelashes at their Sergeant the two had been eager and willing, respectively, to help her out; Jay was off any moment, he'd picked up a graveyard shift last night on top of his eight-hour before that so he was likely just as run down as she was, which hopefully wouldn't put too much of a damper on the surprise. His friend, Peterson, went to find him with the excuse that their Desk Sergeant needed to speak with him and she was now straining her ears trying to hear him coming, keeping her back to the desk so he wouldn't spot her right away. Hopefully. Even after six years the strength of his sense of her still surprised her.

But considering she could recognize him by just his footsteps maybe it shouldn't.

It felt like torture to keep her back to him, though a far more pleasurable kind than she usually experienced, and it took all her willpower to stop from fidgeting, something that would surely draw his attention. But then she heard his voice and all that went out the window, the desperate need to see him overwhelming the desire for surprise.

Goodness he was handsome.

Tess had thought he looked good in Army green, and damn did he, but he pulled off his patrol uniform just as well.

"Sarge, I might be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal to make someone work over twenty-four hours."

"Good luck arresting him." Peterson mumbled, shooting her a wink when Jay shook his head.

He hadn't noticed her yet, too busy focused on his Sergeant, and though she could see the tiredness in his body he was already pushing it away, straightening his back as he addressed his superior- whether a cop or a Ranger Jay was a soldier through and through.

Always ready and willing to throw himself into the line of fire.

"Funny." Their Sergeant replied, in a tone that implied he did not, in fact, find it funny. "A civilian came in to file a complaint."

"A complaint about what?"

"You look too damn sexy in that uniform."

Jay whirled around so fast he almost did a 360 and she only got the briefest glimpse of his face breaking out into that big, dopey grin before he was rushing over and lifting her up, much to the delight of Peterson and the other officers present who started clapping and whistling. Their applause went wild when he then dipped her low and took her mouth, so deeply the room was still spinning a full minute later when he brought her back up.

"Halstead. This is still a police station."

"Yes sir."

At least he panted just as hard as her, though he didn't seem the least bit chagrined as he nodded to his Sergeant. The man stared hard at both of them but she swore his lips twitched with a smile before he covered it with a scowl and waved them off, Peterson giving her a wink and Jay a little two finger salute before he turned to quiet down the other patrolmen, which was just telling them to shut up and get back to work. Not that she paid them much attention, not when there were gentle fingers brushing her hair out of her face and trailing over her hip, soft, subconscious little caresses that zapped away any trace of her own exhaustion.

"All clear?" He asked quietly, a visible tension lifting from his shoulders when she nodded. It usually only took him a single look to know how any op had gone but he still always asked, that deep-seated need to know she was alright, to see it for himself. And sure enough he was looking, his eyes roving over her intently before his lips tilted up in a half-smile/half-smirk as he tugged at the material of her dress. "You go shopping?"

"Yup. Got it in Paris."

His brow rose and he gave her another once over, chuckling when she swished her hips to make the skirt flare out; pink wasn't normally her colour but when she'd seen the flowy, button-down dress in the store window she'd fallen in love, and it hadn't taken much convincing for her to get it. Actually, Jay was the reason why she had. She'd started doing it a few years ago, buying a piece of clothing or jewelry from wherever she went after he'd mentioned how much he'd liked seeing her in another dress she'd picked up, that time from Greece. He'd said that if he couldn't go with her all over the world then he would like to see all of the world on her, a cheesy ass line but his delivery had her cheeks aching from smiling.

And she knew exactly how to get him aching.

"I got a few other things there too."

He paused, his eyes flicking up from their latest inspection, the mossy green slowly darkening. "Yeah?"

"Mmhmm." His throat bobbed and his gaze went glassy but the way his fingers tightened on her waist told Tess that while he was clearly enjoying imagining what she might have gotten he was much more interested in finding out for himself. "Take me home, officer?"

"Fuck. Yes."

She couldn't help laughing at the earnestness in his voice and he grinned, tucking her into his side as he quickly turned for the exit.

"Hey lovebirds! Later tonight-"

"Nope!"

She'd only just started to look back at Peterson when Jay threw up his hand and shook his head, emphatically, and as if to prove his point scooped her up into his arms, causing another loud round of applause.

If this was the kind of reception she got she should come to his work more often.

"Fuck you."

"Cursing me doesn't make you better. You need to practice." Mouse said with a grin as he circled the pool table, eyeing which of the balls he wanted to go for next.

Truth was they were both pretty good but Mouse was just slightly better, a fact he never hesitated to throw in his best friend's face. Which in her mind was fair considering Jay did the same with anything he was better at but she didn't say that, just smothered her smile when her boyfriend shot her a pout. Sometimes she played with them but tonight Tess was content to watch, wanting to just enjoy the sight and be in the presence of their little family; she'd been back almost two weeks and the post-return glow had yet to fade, not that it ever really did. But she was still in the giddy phase, and she wasn't alone there. Jay was a little more territorial than usual, not that she was complaining, and even Mouse was taking any excuse to be around her, both of them needing to quell the remnants of that ever-present fear that she might not have come back.

She understood. She was doing it too, with two fears.

That she might not come back and that something would happen to them while she was gone. All Tess wanted, all she tried to do was help people and there was no one more important to her than her people, but when her phone buzzed in her pocket she was reminded that list was getting bigger.

It was Lucia, a young woman she'd befriended from Cuba. Her mother ran an inn in a little village about an hour from the city of Santiago de Cuba where Tess had stayed for the first time a few years ago, after a solo op on the other end of the island had ended… messily. She'd needed to take a couple days to get her head on straight, and to wait out the men who'd been searching for her, and when she'd driven through the run down yet still vibrant town something about it had called to her. That coupled with the kindness of Lucia and her family had meant she'd reacted… protectively when a unit of rough handed soldiers had decided to try and commandeer the inn. The family had been so grateful for her help that she'd given them her number in case they ever needed it again.

And if Lucia was calling that must mean they did.

"Hey-"

"Theresa please, you have to- I don't know what to do, they took him, they took Mateo, I don't-"

"Lucia, breathe." Panic was clear in the other woman's voice but Tess kept her own steady, even as the same emotion started to run through her. She was used to it now, knew how to turn it into something that focused instead of distracted, that drove her towards her goal instead of away from it. "Tell me exactly what happened, slowly."

Her friend let out a shuddering breath but it was clear by the sound that she was pulling herself together, which Tess had to make sure she continued to do because she was no longer sitting here alone; Jay and Mouse must have noticed something was wrong because they'd abandoned their game and taken up their seats next to her, angled so that she was hidden from the rest of the bar. Their support was sweet, and completely unsurprising, but seeing the tightness on their faces sent a sharp stab right through her heart, which she had to ignore as Lucia began to explain.

"A group of matones came through town, stealing food, causing trouble- we didn't think much of it, men like them are always passing through but then they- they started taking some of our men. Skilled ones, like Mateo."

Mateo was Lucia's younger brother, only twenty years old, though Lucia herself was only twenty-two, and though Tess didn't have siblings of her own she could hear the ache of losing hers in the other woman's voice. The Cuban government didn't release their crime statistics, if they even collected any, so it was hard to get an accurate sense of just how many gangs were on the island but considering their proximity to Columbia, Venezuela and Miami it was prime territory for drug runners. And a skilled mechanic like Mateo would be considered invaluable, so long as they could ensure his cooperation.

"When did this happen?"

"They just left, not an hour ago."

Good. They wouldn't have much of a head start.

"How many of their men did you see? And how many men did they take?"

"There were over a dozen of them, maybe fifteen, eighteen? And they took half a dozen of our men, Mateo plus five others. They might have missed him but he- he tried to stop them."

Tess hadn't realized she'd shut her eyes until she was opening them in response to the soft pressure on her knee, Jay's hand squeezing gently even as he gazed at her with barely concealed anguish.

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

The boys waited until they got back to the apartment to bombard her with questions, a mighty feat in itself, but the second the door was shut behind them the floodgates opened.

"What happened?

"What's going on?"

"That was a friend of mine from Cuba." She explained, doing her best to stay still even as she itched to get going. Realistically she knew it was going to take at least eight hours until she got there and could start her search but a quiet voice in the back of her mind kept whispering that every second she delayed was a second Mateo was scared and alone and more than likely hurt and she couldn't let him endure that any longer than he had to. "Her brother and a few other men from their village were just taken, I'm pretty sure by drug smugglers. They only took skilled labourers so they clearly have plans for them, most likely working on their equipment, which means I'll have a good window to work with."

"And if they're set up somewhere then they won't be hard to find." Jay concluded, his mouth tightening as she nodded.

"Sweet. I've always wanted to go to Cuba."

Tess couldn't explain why but Mouse's offer made her blood run cold, burning ice in her veins that fed right into the deep, dark pit that opened in her stomach. "You're not coming."

"Why not?" He challenged and she had to fight to keep herself in check, to not start listing all the reasons why he shouldn't, instead focusing on why he wanted to.

That was an argument she knew she would win.

"Why would you?"

"Because-"

"Because-"

Both men stopped themselves, not an explanation they wanted to try to give, but it rippled through the room anyway.

Because she was a woman.

They knew she didn't need their help, knew that she was perfectly capable of kicking both their asses, not to mention she outranked them, but at the end of the day that didn't matter. She was still a woman about to walk into a dangerous situation and all their manly instincts were just screaming at them to jump in and protect her. A part of that was sweet and kind and made her feel warm inside and Tess made herself focus on that rather than the violent urge to scream back- it wasn't their fault they'd been born into a patriarchal society that devalued women, and both of them actively worked to decondition that kind of thinking in themselves. Admittedly they couldn't not with her around but they still never complained about it.

They wanted to respect her, they just wanted her to be safe too.

How could she fault them for that?

"I appreciate the offer but this isn't any different from any other op-"

"It's unsanctioned." Mouse commented but he took a seat on the arm of the couch with a smirk, already looking more accepting, and properly chastised, and that helped ease any lingering resentment.

It took Jay a second longer to fight those protective instincts off and though he didn't quite win the proud look he gave her meant even more. "She can handle it."

"For the record, I would like to go, but I will accept being technical support."

"I'll take that."

Now that got Jay to calm and after a quick glance between the two men the hacker stood, pecking her on the cheek before he ambled into the kitchen, by the sounds of it making himself a snack. Actually more likely he was making her a snack- they might call her a mother hen but he was just as bad. With him gone Jay came closer, not that the three of them had many boundaries but this was a still vulnerable moment because… because they were right to be worried. This may not be the first time she'd been called away suddenly or the first time she'd worked by herself and it definitely wasn't the first time she'd acted without approval but it was the first time she'd done all three at once. It was the first time Jay was having to let her go under those circumstances and she couldn't dismiss how difficult that was for him. They didn't talk about it often but she knew it was still hard for him when she left, hard to accept that his fight was here, as much as he wanted it to be.

She had to find a way to make this easier for him.

But of course he was thinking the same thing and he acted first, pulling her in until she could rest her head on his chest and tuck it beneath his, drinking in the feel of his fingers running through her hair and his lips brushing kisses atop it.

At first neither said anything but after a long minute he tilted her chin up to meet his stare, his voice rough but his eyes soft, and still very full of pride. "I can't wait to see what you bring back this time."

Tess smiled, even as a slow but fierce longing rose inside her. "I'm sure I can find something special."

"I can't wait to see it."