I do not own anybody that you recognize
Jay Halstead
(Omega)
Being an omega in the army is difficult. Constantly being put aside and passed up for alphas. Being hit on and bullied. The only thing that helps is having you best friends of seven years by your side throughout it. 3 alphas, 3 omegas and 1 beta. One alone we are hard to beat, but when we are together we are unstoppable. We were in the Rangers, and were treated and ranked based on skill not orientation. It was nice because we were dynamics, able to command omegas, betas and even alphas. Being an omega is not a weakness as so many people see it. At first I saw it as a weakness, my father instilled a fear of alphas and told me that I was to take care of my alpha and our kids. Ever since the day that I left his house for the Army, I made it my goal to prove him wrong. And I have. But I still thought of being an omega as a weakness, until we started saving kids in Afghanistan. Me and the other three omegas, were the only ones that the kids would let near them. I realized then that being an omega was not a weakness.
There were still times when soldiers form other military branches would bully, hit on, and pass us up, but the other Rangers would put a quick stop to it. We fought to get our message across the the other branches, that even though we are omegas does not mean that you are better than us and can command us. There are only four people that we allow to treat us like omegas. They are Mouse and the two other alphas in our Ranger Unit. Even though we haven't bonded yet, me and mouse are pretty close. I became a detective for the Chicago Police Department Intelligences Unit, Mouse being our tech guy. Nobody knows the full extent of what we did in the military. And we would like to keep it that way. We made ourselves a lot of enemies while we were overseas, the less people knew about our past together, the safer they were.
When we first got back to Chicago, we stayed in a military safe house for a couple of months to make sure that we were safe. Over 15 years in the Rangers makes you a lot of enemies. Almost everyone on the other side of the war knows our code names and what we do, and since you never knew where the enemy might be hiding, we laid low for awhile. After that we went to work (already mention). Voight reminds me of some of the alphas in my ranger unit. Willing to do anything for family, but not the traditional alpha, who like to treat omegas as second class. Intelligence unit is one of the few police units in the country that have omegas among their ranks. And not just one, but two. Me and Antonio. I love the unit. Its like a big dysfunctional family, but we love each other regardless. We would do anything for each other, but if I had to choose between my unit here and my ranger unit, I would have to go with the people who have been by my side since I was 7 years old. But I hope it never comes to that, it would break my heart. My partner, Erin Linsey, is more mysterious then the rest of the unit combined, apart from Voight and Alvin, but those two are like the definition of mystery. Anyway, back to my partner. She won't let me drive my own truck. She won't even tell me why either. And because of who I am, I will not drop it, no matter how many times she tells me to. Eventually she got used to it and gave up on telling me to shut up. But she still won't tell me why. Anyway, not my biggest problem. My biggest problem was Voight thinking I wanted to sleep with Erin. Two reasons that he has a problem with that. One: he does not tolerate in house romance, two: Erin is basically like his adopted daughter. But I don't want to sleep with Erin. As I already told you, the only alpha I want to be with is Mouse, though we hide our relationship well.
The unit does not know that I am an omega, and I hope that it stays that way. I don't want them to act like I cant do my job just because of who I am. And I don't know why they all think that Mouse is beta. I guess they haven't seen his protective side. It only really comes out when me or someone in our unit is in danger or when another alpha starts to eye me up. But that almost never happens, because most alphas in the military knew me and my team's reputation and didn't want to mess with us. Even now I am always surrounded by my pack of alphas, so nobody crosses me.
Anyway back to how I got here. The eight of us, Blue, Echo, Trip, Falcon, Delta, Tiger, Red and me, formed an unbeatable team. One day after three years of training and field work, we were walking back to the base we were stationed at, when we heard a faint whimper. We stop and a few seconds later we heard a whine. We walk towards it and find a hole in the ground. We shine a flashlight down into it and see four puppies. We reached down and grabbed them and took them back to the base. Once we got them clean and checked for any injuries, we saw that they were four different breeds, a German Shepard, a golden retriever, a Labrador, and a husky. To this day, we have no idea how they got there. Anyway, we decided to keep them and train them to be our K9 team. I mean, we were looking at getting a dog anyway, so why not four. I know what you're thinking, we're crazy. Anyway, I chose to train the German Shepherd, Zuma chose to train the golden retriever, Trip chose the Labrador, and Jessie chose the husky. It was weird that the four omegas were the ones that wanted to train the puppies, but who cares about that, not me. I named my puppy Kopa. Blue named his Echo. Trip named his Kovu. Red named his Jasiri. They turned out to be very good additions to our team, aside from preventing our deaths almost everyday, they kept our morale up with their antics. We love them to death. Anyway, Kopa turned out to be a King German Shepard, so he grew to be the alpha of our mini puppy pack, being the biggest. All four of them love to play fetch, especially with a frisbee. All four of them are strong, obedient and loyal, among many other skills and talents. They have saved our lives more times than I can count and more often than I care to admit. They are some of the best, just like their handlers.
The eight of us, well 12 of us including the pups, are the core of what the entire military calls the Tier One team. We are the best in tracking, defense, offense, and everything else. Tier One is also known as the First Battalion to outside forces. We were the best because we had nothing else beside the military to give ourselves to or distract us. But we love it, it gave our lives a purpose. We love suicide missions, the harder the better is our motto for the most part. We tend to get hurt a lot, but since we hate hospitals, Red patches us up every time, so the stuff in our medical history is only 1 or 2 of over a thousand injuries that we have sustained in the Rangers, but nobody needs to know that but us. We are respected by most and feared by some. We are loyal to each other and trust each other with our lives, literally putting our lives into the hands of the others on our team. We don't work well with others besides our own team, the only ones that we do work with from time to time are Rangers outside of Tier One. Because of our difficult pasts, we trust no one outside of our team. But trust is different from loyalty.
Loyalty is hard to explain, but when you are all fighting for the same cause, for the same reasons, it makes you think what you would do for them if need be, and what they would do for you if the time came. Every single one of us is loyal to the cause, willing to do anything to help the people trapped in a war zone. And because of that, we are loyal to each other. You don't have to help someone, but you do because you know that they would do the same for you if you needed them to. Like when I was kidnapped by hajis during a raid, I kept my mouth shut as they tortured me because of two reasons. One, because if I gave them what they wanted, the location of one of our bases, I knew that soldiers would die, soldiers that I didn't even know but was loyal towards because we were fighting for the same cause. Reason two, I knew that my team would not stop until they found me, dead or alive, because I would do the same for them, even for a random soldier I didn't know. That's what loyalty is, the willingness to do something for someone because they would do the same for you.
Trust is different. Trust is when you know that someone will be there for you when you need them the most. You can let down your walls and you can trust them to catch you. Trust is when you know someone will have your back at all times. Trust cannot be demanded, it has to be earned, like respect. It is hard to build up and is easily broken beyond repair. If someone breaches another's trust, it could take years before that person will trust the other again, and it will never be as strong as before. Pure trust is hard to come by, a lot of people search for it, but it is found by stumbling on it, not actively looking for it. It has to come as a complete surprise, but it's worth it in the end. Me and my teammates have a bond that cannot be broken. We would do anything for each other, and are there for each other through thick and thin. While most people say that we are unlucky because of the horrid details of our past, I consider myself lucky because it's the connection to each other because of our past that makes our bond so strong.
While we all fight for the same cause, we do it in different ways. Red keeps soldiers alive and therefore more to fight the hajis with. Echo and Trip are the technical geniuses of the team, we would not be able to do anything without them. Tiger and Delta are the ones that made sure that the rest of us were eating and sleeping regularly because we tend to forget about ourselves when we are working. Blue and Falcon are the ones who hold me back when my anger and impatience is two steps away from getting me killed, and for that I am grateful. Me, I'm the one that keeps the team focused on the task at hand, otherwise they would be all over the place. All of us together is the only way that our team would work. You take one of us out of the equation and the whole team falls apart.
We are best friends, brothers. We know each other better than we know ourselves. We were always there for each other, through thick and thin, and always will be. We will have each other's backs in every moment. We will have each other's backs in the hot Afghanistan desert, we will have each other's backs through the nightmares and the flashbacks. We will protect each other from the rest of the world that doesn't understand us, and we will protect each other from themselves. That's what best friends are for. That's what brothers are for. And when I say from the world that doesn't understand us, I mean that the don't understand the drive to protect, the drive to be the best that we can be to protect the other units under our command. They don't understand where this drive came from, the drive to work, the drive to keep going even if it kills us. I say from ourselves because sometimes the guilt of the people we couldn't save, or the kids that we have to kill, overwhelmes us and we start hating ourselves. We are the best in the military, but that doesn't mean we are perfect. We make mistakes just like anybody else does. Most people understand that, but some people don't. They get on us for one little mistake, even if in the end the mission was successful. I hate people like that, people that think that just because we are the best means that we are perfect, because nobody's perfect and they should have learned that by now. Uggggg. Anyway, back to me and my brothers. We love each other and would do anything for each other and to be with each other. When one of us is MIA, the other soldiers in the compound know to get out of our way because we will kill anyone that tries to get between us and finding our missing teammate. The only time they would approach us in these times was to give us information regarding trackers and stuff like that. Anyway your get the picture, don't get between us.
The missions that we went on were dangerous and difficult, but we always got them done, because they had to be. Some might call us reckless with our health, the way we acted sometimes, but in reality, we were very careful, because if we weren't, we would fail the mission. Our missions included reconnaissance and scouting out the Kandahar desert. These missions required strength, speed, stealth and smarts, all of which we had. We were in and out before the enemy even knew we were there, and if we did our job right, they would never know that we were there until it was too late. The reconnaissance missions were a little bit harder. We had to infiltrate the enemy base, find where they were keeping our target, retrieve the target, and get out before we were found and killed, but we could still pull them off without a hitch. Sometimes the targets were our soldiers, sometimes they were enemy soldiers, sometimes the targets were not even people but computer drives and such, but it never mattered. The military wanted it, they would get it, what they used it for never mattered to us. We never asked questions that didn't have to do with the mission, for we learned early on that they wouldn't be answered.
Like I said before, we joined the military at age 9. We lived on the streets together for two years before that, and before that we were living in our own versions of hell. We took care of each other on the streets, we take care of each other now. When we first joined the army, nobody wanted to have to train the little kids that didn't know anything about anything. That's when we met the Tier One team, the ones that came before me and my team. They took an instant liking to us and became our mentors. Red learned medicine from Rani while the rest of us learned how to move silently, fight multiple opponents without a weapon and much more. While we had our lessons in combat, there was also the issue of us never having been to school, so we divided our time into combat and regular lessons, until we caught up, which was pretty fast. When we caught up to where we should have been for our age, we dedicated more of our time to our combat lessons, only spending a couple hours a week on regular school lessons. By the time we were thirteen, we were better than most of the soldiers at the base. They hated us for it. We were constantly bullied and picked on. We could fight back, but one of the first lessons that our mentors taught us was to never harm a fellow soldier unless they pose a deadly threat to others. We learned to live by the rules that they taught us and we never strayed from them, or risk punishment. We loved our mentors, they were more parental figures than our own parents ever were. We learned later that they were grooming us to take over the Tier One team when they were gone, but at the time we thought that they were training us to become regular soldiers. We thought they were invincible, but that vision shattered when we were 12. One day they came back from a routine foot patrol of the Korengal Valley covered in blood, bruises and cuts. We finally realized that they were only human and might one day be gone forever.
Me and my team did everything together from age 7. We ate and slept together. When we learned how to have fun, we played together. When I say learned, I mean it. Before, everything that we did was for a purpose. On the streets, we acted like little kids so we could get some money from nice strangers. In training, we played tag to get faster and sharpen our reflexes, never for fun. Until one day, Zach said that we had a day off and to go have fun. We all just cocked our heads and looked at him. He then realized, with wide eyes that we didn't know how to have fun. He called the rest of the team down and told them the problem while we just stood there, not knowing what to do. They led us outside, Parker had a frisbee tucked under his arm. They spread out throughout the grassy area and started throwing it between them. We had not idea what they were doing, we were just standing in a group off to the side watching. After a few minutes, they started to throw the frisbee faster shouting dodge or catch after each throw. We finally understood, and joined in. The game was, if the person who threw it said dodge, you couldn't let it touch you until that person said catch. If it did, you were out, the last one standing wins. They called it Zinner for some reason, no one knows why. We played for hours that day until we were called in for dinner.
Our mentors retired when we were 14. They said that we were old enough to be doing things by ourselves, but if we ever needed them, they were one call away. We were sad to see them leave, but we knew that it was necessary, we needed to start a new chapter in our lives. We had learned everything that we could from them and it was time for us to make our own way, our own team. We were already trusted with missions, so that didn't change. What did change was the way I looked at my team. For the years we were training with the former Tier Ones, I looked at them like equals. I mean we are equals in everything, but when our mentors retired they started looking towards me for leadership and guidance. I don't know when I became the unofficial leader of my team, but I will always protect them with everything that I have. Tier One never has an official, but every team has one member that the rest look up to. That member also stands up for the team in court cases and reporting to the COs.
On the subject of Commanding Officers, one of the many good things about being a part of Tier One, is that we don't have to report to any, technically. We do turn in reports to them only because the American government wants to show other countries that they have control over all of their soldiers, but in reality, we report to no one. It was designed this way, so that Tier One could deal with any conspiracies that might form within the military. One of the biggest conspiracies that my team and I have had to deal with, is the one with Delta Force. I say it is because its still going on, we were never able to prove that they were behind the murders on and off base. Off base they used their signature to cover up murders that have nothing to do with the military. There were over fifty bodies with the Delta Force seal above them at the scene. We knew that it was Delta Force behind the murders, but we could never prove that it wasn't just somebody using the symbol as a cover or trying to frame them. Ever since those few months where we were trying to pin the murders on them, we have been enemies, but we keep our disagreements lowkey.
Even after we left the military, we protected each other from anything. Hurting any one of us is a death wish. Everyone knows that, it's part of our reputation. All of us grew up not having anything or anyone, so when we finally found our family, we will do anything to protect them. We will never turn our backs on each other. They are the few people in this world that I actually feel safe with. Even when we are not together, we will always be by each other's side in spirit.
When I first joined the Intelligence unit, I struggled to fit in. I didn't trust anyone, because in my world, trust without reason only gets hurt. I was partnered up with Lindsey, Antonio with Julie, and Voight with Alvin. The first few days were weird, we didn't have a case so everyone was working on paperwork. When we caught our first case, it reminded me why I joined the police academy after the military, so that I could continue helping people. When Adam and Kevin came along, I still didn't trust any of them. It wasn't until Voight said that to him there is nothing more important than family, that I finally started to trust them, bit by bit. That statement made me trust him because to me, there is nothing more important than loyalty and trust of family and friends.
Once I started to trust people, things got a little easier for me. They would never replace my unit from the Rangers, but they didn't need to. They were something completely different. We all came from different backgrounds and childhoods. Some of us know the struggle of never fitting in, others of having an abusive family. Some of us have seen too much, others are still innocent. We worked on a variety of different cases with many different types of people, which was nice. When I worked with the army, we always worked the same five or so types of cases with few differences. The change is nice.
I still miss my team though. Even though we never officially retired, because we can't, we did go our separate ways after the military. Mouse, Matt, Conner and I moved to Chicago. I joined the police academy and the rest you already know. Matt joined the fire academy and later became Captain of house 51. Conner became an ER surgeon at Chicago Med. And Mouse became a CI for me, and while he did go off the rails for a little bit, it was never as bad as we made it out to be. Andrew and Luke moved to D.C. and became CIA agents, some of the best I might add. Falcon and Trip also moved to D.C, but they became FBI agents, again some of the best, I say proudly. We thought it best if we had at least one of us in every government investigation agency, NSA doesn't count. We have many friends in both the NSA and the military that would alert us if anything went wrong and they need us. We meet whenever we can and call each other frequently. We still have our combat uniforms and all of our weapons just in case any of our enemies resurface and come after us. Our hope is that we never need them, but we have too much experience to actually believe that. We know that one day, one of our enemies will find out who we are and come after us, and we will be ready for when that day comes.
This is the backstory and setup for the rest of my stories that will be coming later. I have Father and Son and Far From Home started on AO3 (named Tier One) if you don't want to wait but they will be posted here under those names. Reviews are welcomed and very helpful.