Lisa was unsure what she expected when she opened her eyes, but three large men splayed out on a hard arm chair, couch, and the foot of her bed was definitely not it.
She watched as Jason snored softly from the arm chair, reclined as far as it would go, his hat pulled over his eyes. Her eyes moved to Clay, noticing his hand twitch as he lay on the couch as if he was still fighting in his dreams. She felt her eyes well with tears as they landed on the solid man, sitting in a chair pulled close to the bed, bent over and head resting on his arms like a child sleeping on a desk at school.
What did she do to deserve them? They'd gone through hell to get her back, against all common sense. She felt luckier than she had in a long time.
The door started to open and she looked up to see Ray start to enter as quietly as he could. Lisa put a finger to her lips and Ray smiled knowingly. He took one look at his team, smiled, and nodded at Lisa. He slipped silently back through the door.
Lisa closed her eyes, thankful to feel so safe and loved in this cruel world.
—
She awoke with a start, hearing someone beside her pushing some type of button. A kindly woman in her fifties smiled at her, saying "About time, my dear". Lisa bit down the retort that she had already been awake earlier that day. Her room was empty now, her friends gone. The nurse watched as Lisa's face fell.
"I'm Clare, your nurse. I sent your guard dogs to go shower and get something to eat. Didn't give them much of a choice. Got that Texan man all hot and bothered. But I told him he was the smelliest one and he finally left." The nurse winked and Lisa laughed, grabbing her side as she felt a stitch.
The nurse noticed and said, "You'll feel that pain for a while. Luckily, it was a through and through wound. Didn't seem to do any internal damage. If you were going to get shot -"
"That was the place to do it. I know, I know. I've been told." Lisa smiled tiredly at Clare and began to sit up. Clare helped her scoot up in the bed and raised it so that Lisa felt more like herself. She wasn't used to feeling weak; let alone needing an entire rescue mission, being shot, and hospitalized. Her head was spinning. Clare told her to call her if she needed anything and left the room.
Her thoughts drifted to her captors. What happened to Jane and Vasyl? She had killed Sergei, but the swiftness of the Bravo rescue didn't allow any kind of vengeance on Lisa's part for the masterminds behind her capture - not that vengeance was something that Lisa wanted or came naturally to her. Still, she would have enjoyed some kind of retribution for the pain they had caused her team, not to mention Halston, the team member they killed. Lisa was happy to be safe but it definitely bothered her that they were still at large.
She was broken out of her thoughts by a gentle knock on the door. She looked up and saw Blackburn and smiled. He threw up the hand that was not in a sling in a motionless wave and Lisa did the same.
"Hey Davis." He came closer and pulled a chair to sit next to her. "Gave us a real scare there."
"I guess it was my turn to scare you guys, huh?" Lisa said, hoping that teasing him would restore the easygoing bond they usually enjoyed. Lisa could practically feel the guilt radiating off her friend.
"Lisa, I want to apologize -" Lisa stopped him by grabbing his good hand.
"Stop. You were shot. If anyones to blame, it should be me. I had no idea Jane was a traitor. I should have known. But this isn't on you, I promise." He squeezed her hand and she saw some relief flood his face.
"She fooled us all." He said, shaking his head. Lisa nodded and watched as his eyes drifted to where she knew her bullet wound was and then to her face where she was certain was bruised from her possibly broken nose and head laceration.
"I'm fine." She said, jerking him from this thoughts. "I think, anyway. No one has told me anything really. But this morphine feels pretty great, and my nurse didn't seem to think I was on death's door, so I'm feeling pretty positive."
Blackburn chuckled and let go of her hand, shaking his head. "You're one tough sailor, Lisa."
"You know what? I am." She smiled at Blackburn and he laughed again.
Lisa knew that she had been through a traumatic event. She knew that she would suffer emotionally from her ordeal. But right now, more than anything, she was grateful to be alive.
"But you know, there is one thing that's bothering me." She said, wanting to capitalize on Blackburn's thankfulness she was alive.
"Vasyl and Jane are still out there. What are we going to do about them? They may have access to state secrets from Jane working with us. " Blackburn hesitated, visibly wrestling with whether or not to share information.
"What?" She asked.
"I'll let Sonny tell you." Blackburn said, starting to get up. "They're only letting in one visitor at a time. Apparently you were over the limit this morning and we all got in trouble. Nobody was here yet when I got here so I came ahead in."
"What does Sonny need to tell me?" She asked, her heart racing. She told herself that everything was fine - that the last time she saw everyone, they were all alive.
"Just let - " Blackburn began. Lisa cut him off, uncharacteristically speaking out of turn to her superior and friend, "Please just tell me. I can handle it."
Blackburn shifted his weight in his legs and then sighed, "You've been in and out for three days. Vasyl was killed in the raid to find you. Bravo went on another mission after they dropped you off on base to find Jane. She's dead too. "
Lisa felt relief, unsure why Blackburn wanted to hold this information back from her.
"That's great news." Lisa said, hearing her voice crack. It was truly over, wasn't it?
"There's one more thing," Blackburn said. Lisa felt her heart drop into her stomach. "Sonny might be facing disciplinary actions for insubordination."
"What?" Lisa asked, stunned.
"He killed Vasyl after direct orders not to. They're doing an investigation. I'm sorry Lisa." Blackburn dropped his eyes and left, closing the door gently behind him.
"Well shit." Lisa said, panicked tears threatening to spill over.