Heads up: Minor character death and injuries. There are descriptions of an active mission. It'll be a few sad chapters and then we'll be back to some lighter stuff before diving back in again. It's a rollercoaster.

Onceuponahappilyeverafter: thank you for reading! I'm glad to hear you're liking it! You asked, and you shall receive! I'll be updating several chapters, so you don't have to end on a sad one today. I've been posting over on AO3 as well and am catching up on posting it over here. I'm hoping to update on a fairly regular basis. I plan to make this a long one.

"Are we all clear on this?" "Yes, Sergeant!" Alex got in response. They were nearing their target.

"I want this to be clean, in and out." Alex said to them, briefing the soldiers in the helicopter. "Lewis, you make sure Mr. Davis stays with you." He nodded.

Mr. Davis was a photographer and journalist sent over by CNN to do a story on modern day war. Alex had picked the short straw and had to take him with them. She turned to him, "stay with Lewis. Where he goes, you go. He is your bodyguard. Don't do anything that is going to get you killed." Mr. Davis nodded. "Yes Sergeant. Thank you for allowing me to come with you."

Alex looked at him for a long moment before turning back to Maggie. "Ready for this?" She asked at a volume that only Maggie would be able to hear. "Absolutely. You?" "Always."

Their mission began in silence like always. Alex gave the signal, and they went in.

One thing about war is that no matter how much you prepare, things don't always go to plan… As soon as they had entered the building, all hell had broken loose. Shots were coming from all directions. Alex took out two right off the bat, but it did little to slow the exchange of bullets, the sound deafening. Alex and Maggie both had excellent teams, but this was getting out of hand fast.

One of Alex's soldiers took out two of the enemy shooters and fanned out allowing her to advance farther in. Maggie's team worked in sync with hers and quickly cleared the bottom floor.

Alex came around one of the corners to find one of own laying on the ground sputtering having been shot. "Donovan," Alex said and dropped to his side, putting pressure on the wound right above where his neck met his shoulder. She looked around, and didn't see any more threats. She had barely registered the other teams as they continued sweeping the structure. "No, no, no, no, you're not allowed to die on me. Y-you're not allowed to." There was already a pool around him, there wasn't much time left.

Alex looked into his eyes and saw how terrified he looked. She did her best to compose herself. She had to for him.

"Hey, hey, look right at me." When he looked at her, she smiled tearfully. "You know what's happening, right?" He blinked a few times as a tear slid out. He was aware. There was no confusion in his eyes. He tried to speak but was unsuccessful. Alex shook her head, "no, don't try to talk. It's alright."

He weakly raised a fist and put it up to Alex's left shoulder. It was something she did with her team and her team only. It was their way of saying "all good." Alex choked out a laugh at his smile and gesture. She did the same to him.

"You did good, Donovan, you did good. We'll bring you home, I promise you." He nodded as he took his last few breaths and went silent, arm falling back to the ground.

Alex bowed her head briefly before sniffling and standing up, grabbing her gun. She turned just in time to see the light catch the barrel of a gun pointed right at her from the staircase. One of them had managed to slip by the teams. Alex shot immediately and took him out, but at the same time she had shot, he had too. She took three shots to her chest, absorbed by the vest, and got grazed by one on her arm. She fell backward onto the ground, the wind having been knocked out of her by the bullets before she even hit the ground.

Coughing, trying to force air back into her lungs and ignoring the amount of pain she was now in, Alex tried to squirm her was to cover by the wall. Her instinct to take cover was overriding everything. "Danvers!" Maggie jogged over to her. The woman was deceptively strong and grabbed Alex by the top of her vest and pulled her to the wall sitting upright. Maggie quickly put pressure on Alex's arm, "shit, Danvers. You're not supposed to get shot." Alex was still trying to force air into her lungs or she would've laughed at that. "You okay?" "Yeah," Alex tried to choke out, nodding unconvincingly. She looked over at her arm that was bleeding through her uniform and onto Maggie's hands. "Th-that's gonna n-need stitches." Alex grumbled breathlessly. "Shit m-my chest h-hurts."

Maggie looked over her shoulder and waved someone over. "Matthews, come here." "Yes, Sergeant." He said. "You stay here and make sure no one tries to shoot her again. Makes sure she keeps pressure on that too." He nodded and Maggie put Alex's hand where hers was and took off to make sure the targets had been taken out and there were no more surprises.

Matthews bent down on a knee at Alex's level. He pulled out a white cloth from his pack. "May I?" He asked, pointing to her arm. Alex nodded.

He took the cloth and wrapped it tightly around her arm to slow down the bleeding and tied it off. Alex's uniform sleeve now soaked with her own blood. He pulled his belt off and made a makeshift sling from it.

"Thanks." Alex said to him. "No thanks necessary. You take care of us and we take care of you." Alex nodded. "Can you stand?" He asked her. Alex honestly wasn't sure, but she nodded anyway. As he helped her stand up, Alex swayed and leaned heavily into the wall trying to get her bearings again. The pain from the shots to the chest was nearly blinding. Her arm was nothing compared to that pain. She'd been shot before, but never taken four shots in a matter of a second thanks to a semi-automatic weapon.

She heard shouting and a few last shots before the building was silent. Both teams came to regroup back in the room. "All targets have been eliminated, Sergeant." One of the soldiers spoke up. Alex nodded. The mood was solemn, they had all see their fallen soldier and brother. A loss for one was a loss for all. "Alright, move out. Calvin and Marcus, bring Donovan." Alex said, giving the orders.

They started filling out. Alex turned to follow but stumbled, the slight jostle was enough to bring the pain back to the forefront of her mind. She was really off balance from the pain and blood loss, despite it being relatively minimal. "I got you." Maggie said and put an arm around Alex. Alex in turn put her arm good over Maggie's shoulders leaning in heavily to her for support.

It was quiet on the way back to camp, the only sound coming from the helicopter blades.

…

The chopper carrying Donovan and Alex landed at the MASH unit that was closest to their base. Alex got out to be taken care of while Donovan was confirmed dead by one of the medical personnel. He continued on back to base after being confirmed while Alex was left there.

A guy came in to where Alex was sitting on the medical bed. "I'm Peter Fense, and I'll be checking your injuries." He helped her take off the makeshift sling and bandage. Alex had already taken off her jacket and vest while in the helicopter. Fense looked over to where the vest was sitting, noticing the three bullets lodged into it.

He had Alex lay down and to check her ribs. Two of them turned out to be cracked and there were the beginnings of what will turn out to be severe bruising. He gave her a unit of blood right off the bat to help her out, and he made quick work of stitching up her arm. The bullet graze was larger than Alex originally thought. It was a little more than a scrape but not enough to keep her out for long. The ribs were going to be what really sidelined her. Fense gave her a sling to put on and her instructions.

"Keep that sling on for two weeks to let the wounds heal. The stitches can come out in a week. You can have one of the medics at your base take them out so you don't have to come back out here. Three weeks for the ribs." Alex nodded, "thanks."

He nodded too. "I'll have someone drive you back to base in a few minutes. The pain meds that you've taken should kick in really soon. You need to remember to take deep breaths when you can to prevent any infections in your lungs. The pain medicine should make you a little more comfortable." Alex nodded again, far too exhausted to verbally respond. "Keep it easy with those ribs. Ice them when you can. In three weeks when your ribs are recovered, you can go back to field missions as tolerated. Again, just be careful with the ribs."

…

It was nearing 0500 when Alex got back to base. The MASH unit was close, but was still a thirty minute drive. Her superior was waiting for her when she got back.

Alex saluted him as best she could. "Major McNeil." "Sergeant Danvers," he saluted back. "Have a seat." Alex did as instructed.

"I've already placed a new vest and jacket in your quarters. I heard both are unusable now. Sergeant Sawyer already gave me her account. I wanted to see how you were doing." Alex nodded and the formalities dropped. They had known each other for quite a while now.

"Bruised ribs and two cracked from three bullets to the chest and a sling for two weeks to let the bullet wound on my arm heal. Three weeks without missions for the ribs." He nodded.

"Did you get to see what happened to Donovan?" Alex shook her head, "not directly. I came around the corner and didn't see anyone. Donovan was already on the ground bleeding out. As I'm sure you've seen, he didn't stand a chance of making it where he was shot."

McNeil nodded. "He gets flown out this evening at 1900 hours. If you're up for it, you've got a spot at the front of his casket for you… I'm required to advise you that it's not a good idea to carry him with an arm in a sling and cracked ribs, but I know you won't listen to that."

"I appreciate that, sir, thank you."

He nodded and looked down as Alex took a deep-ish breath. "There's one more thing… After what he saw last night, the CNN guy wants to talk with you." Alex made a move to protest but didn't get to speak before he did.

"I know you don't want to do it, and I will happily pass along that you aren't thrilled, but orders from higher up have said that he gets to talk to who he wants while he's here. You can choose not to answer some of his questions, but be diplomatic about it." Alex nodded, "yes sir." He nodded back. "Go get some rest. You've earned that. I'll make sure you're up in time for Donovan's departure…" He already knew Alex would be feeling entirely responsible for the incident despite it being out of her control. There was no point in saying otherwise, she wouldn't listen to him. Donovan had meant a great deal to Alex.

Alex stood and shook his hand and headed back to her tent. She felt like she could drop down and sleep on the ground outside, the painkillers weighing heavily on her eyes and the strain of breathing was exhausting her. She waved off Maggie's concerned look when she stepped inside. Alex shook her head silently letting Maggie know to drop whatever it was she wanted to say. It could wait until later. Alex had no intention of processing her feelings tonight.

Alex struggled changing out of her bloodied clothing. She couldn't manage getting her shirt off, so Maggie wordlessly got up and helped her. She held back her comment about the bruises and helped Alex finish changing.

Once Alex was in a fresh set of fatigues, she lowered herself down onto her cot with Maggie's help. "Easy, Danvers," Maggie said, helping her lay down. Alex barely noticed Maggie pulling the blanket up around her before she was out to the world.