Sorry, sorry, sorry, SORRY! I didn't mean to leave it this long between updates. My six weeks off work didn't go exactly to plan, but I hope that this chapter will make for that. Please read, and hopefully enjoy. You may need to read Ch 30 again to refresh yourself, but this continues on after Jaz and Dalton have spoken to Xander about Elijah.

I don't own The Brave or it's characters... But I wish I did!

Chapter 31

Following Jaz and Dalton's nap, the team gathered at Hannah's place that evening for dinner. They were all appreciative of the invitation and even McG was on his best behaviour.

"Hi Joseph." Hannah cheekily greeted him, making McG chuckle.

"Joseph?" Jaz questioned.

"That's how he introduced himself to me in Colombia." Hannah said.

Jaz looked at McG and scoffed, "You're a dick."

McG just shrugged, "So I've been told."

Other than Amir, the other three didn't know Hannah all that well. They communicated with her regularly of course during every mission and sometimes in between, but they were usually half a world away. But since she was a part of the team, and clearly now very important to Amir, they were looking forward to getting to know her better, and she felt the same way.

Hannah had cooked up a storm and over dinner they traded stories. It felt nice to be in a less pressured situation to what they were usually conversing about. As usual McG kept them entertained, Jaz made sure to take him down a peg or two every now and then, Dalton alternated between laughing and shaking his head and Amir rolled his eyes plenty.

Hannah just sat back and soaked it all up, appreciating how close this team was. It was obvious when they were on missions how in sync they were with each other, and their banter during high pressure situations always amazed her. Seeing them now in person though, she envied what they all had together. Their relationship went much further than friendship and comradeship, and she could only imagine what they were like when Preach was with them too.

She looked forward to getting to know them even better, especially given her new relationship with Amir.

Jaz watched Amir and Hannah. They weren't over the top with the PDA, just a small touch of hands every now and then, and exchanged glances. She was happy for them, but she couldn't help but feel envious.

She and Adam would never be over the top with their PDA in public; even if they were in an ideal situation, it's not who they are. But nights like tonight, where they sat at opposite ends of the table so as not to give in to any temptation, made her wonder if it will ever be different.

Will they ever be able to be themselves, and be with each other in front of the whole world? She knew the answer to that for now, and for now they were willing to keep it that way.

But would it always be like this?

Although Dalton was sitting at the opposite end of the table from Jaz, he could read her face. He saw her quietly watching Amir and Hannah. He had been too. It was great to see Amir happy. Life had been rough to him, and he deserved happiness. But just like he knew what Jaz was thinking, he wondered if they could ever truly be themselves outside of their Omega team, particularly in their current surroundings.

He'd still rather be with Jaz behind closed doors, than without her completely, but he wondered if they would ever have the freedom to be open about their relationship.

They didn't stay too late at Hannah's since she was working all weekend, and even Amir went back to the hotel with the other three. They'd had a great time though, and were going to get together again.

They decided to have a drink in the hotel bar when they got back given that it was a Friday night and none of them had anywhere to be or had any appointments tomorrow.

Jaz and Dalton went to get the drinks, while McG and Amir snagged a booth.

Leaning up against the bar, waiting for their order, Dalton noticed Jaz zoning out a little bit. "You ok?" He asked.

Blinking herself out of her daze, she looked at him with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "Yeah I'm fine."

"Jaz…"

"I'm ok honestly. I just talked about Elijah more today than I have since he passed away. It just has me thinking and reminiscing."

Dalton desperately wanted to touch her right then and offer her some comfort. His fingers itched and his arms ached to wrap around her, and once again he envied Amir and Hannah and their freedom to be relatively open about their relationship.

Their drinks were placed in front of them just then and before Dalton could respond, Jaz had picked up a couple of glasses and headed to the booth. Dalton got the last two drinks and followed her, noticing that McG and Amir had left one side of the booth empty for Jaz and Dalton to sit together.

Dalton was very appreciative of that gesture right then, so when they settled in the booth, he reached his hand over to grasp hers where it was laying on her thigh. Gripping it in his, he hoped that he could get across a silent message of support and a promise to revisit the topic later on.

When he felt Jaz squeeze his hand back in response and smile at him softly, he knew it had.

Lingering just a few moments more, he eventually pulled his hand away, placing it above the table and joined in the conversation of planning what to do over the weekend.

"Surely Mr DC here has some suggestions for us." McG gestured towards Amir.

"Well actually, there's all the monuments here that we could check out."

"That sounds great actually. I've been here a few times, but I've never seen much outside of the DIA." Dalton said.

McG and Jaz nodded in agreement and said in unison, "Let's do it."

Changing the topic, McG decided to rib Amir, "So Hannah's pretty great. What does she see in you?"

"My charm and good looks obviously," Amir replied without a beat.

"Well hopefully your future kids take after her in the height department."

Amir just shook his head, but couldn't help but chuckle at McG's comment, "Your jealousy is entertaining."

"I'm not jealous dude, I'm just genuinely worried about your future offspring."

Jaz giggled at the banter between the two of them. They are just what she needed to keep her mind occupied.

Later that night, Jaz and Dalton sat on the couch in Jaz's hotel room with a movie on the TV that neither of them were watching.

Dalton saw Jaz smiling to herself, and since the movie wasn't a comedy he knew it was about something else.

"What are you smiling at?" He broached quietly.

"I'm actually just thinking about Elijah."

"I'm glad that you're smiling about him."

Jaz nodded, still just staring at nothing in particular, "He always used to tease me."

"He was good at that. He teased all of you, me included sometimes."

"Yeah, he was. But he used to tease me about you." She admitted, turning to look at him.

Dalton looked back into her eyes before asking, "What about me?"

Jaz blushed and paused slightly before saying, "He thought I had a crush on you."

"A crush? What are we, teenagers?" Dalton chuckled softly.

"That's what I used to say to him. He was adamant though. And I guess there was some truth to it, but I never admitted that to him."

Dalton just stared at her, wondering if she would reveal more. He was curious, but he didn't want to push Jaz on the topic of Elijah, especially knowing that she had talked about him with Xander today.

He wanted her to want to talk about Elijah.

The movie continued to play while they still sat there, still not really watching it, but not talking either.

Dalton moved his arm to lay across the back of the couch, behind where she was sitting, and it was as if Jaz drew more strength and gained more confidence from his closeness. She turned towards him, cocooned between his body and his arm, tucked her feet up underneath her, took a deep breath and began to talk.

"Elijah used to think he could read my mind, but it was pretty hit and miss. Sometimes he couldn't be further from the truth and then other times he was right on the money. I never, ever confirmed or denied anything about you, but he thought he was psychic on that front."

Dalton smiled softly at Jaz's words, waiting to see if she continued. When she didn't he teased her gently, "Maybe one day you can fill me in on more of Elijah's mindreading."

Jaz just nodded, staring into space again.

Just when Dalton was about to get up to get them a drink, Jaz started to speak again. She had been sitting there battling with whether to talk more about Elijah.

If she was going to talk to anyone other than Xander, it was always going to be with Adam.

"Elijah was the first person who ever made me feel like I had a family. He was the first person to ever make me laugh when I didn't want to, be affectionate when I didn't know I wanted him to be, tell me his secrets when I didn't want to know them, and tried to coax my secrets out, even when I gave him nothing. And sometimes he just plain pissed me off… but in the best way."

Jaz paused again to take a long deep breath before continuing, "I see him in my nightmares. Sometimes just dead on the floor, or in my arms when I caught him. Sometimes the gun is in my own hand, and sometimes…"

She drifted off at that point, not yet ready to share other components of her nightmares.

Dalton stayed silent, wanting to give her the opportunity to get anything else off her chest.

After another small pause, Jaz continued very softly in her deep, raspy voice, with a small trace of a tremble in it, "Some days I'm angry at him for leaving me. Some days I'm angry that he was killed instead of me."

Dalton felt the blood drain from his face as he listened to her.

"I was right behind him, it could have been me. I thought it should have been me. His family are devastated. They loved him. He had so many people that loved him. My family wouldn't even notice if I was gone."

Dalton wanted to tread lightly here so he took a couple of breaths before asking her gently, "Do you still think it should have been you?"

Jaz struggled to find the words, "I… I umm – I don't necessarily think it should have been me. But I know it should never have been him." Looking down at her hands, twiddling her fingers around each other, clearly uncomfortable, she tried to continue, "Xander reminded me today that the job we do is not subjective. It doesn't pick and choose its targets, and as bitter a pill that is to swallow, it's what we signed up for. I know that you guys have tried to talk to me about this before, but hearing it from Xander was different. It was completely objective. He didn't know Elijah, and he doesn't really know me either."

Jaz just shrugged, "I don't know if this makes sense, it's hard to explain."

Dalton tilted his head in understanding, and reached out to lay a hand over hers, "Actually, it makes a lot of sense."

Jaz looked up at him questioningly.

Dalton looked down at his hand covering hers and gave them a squeeze, "I talked to Xander today about the guilt I feel over Elijah's death. That he was under my command and followed my orders. That maybe it was my order that got him killed."

"Top, no." Jaz said to him instinctively, neither of them noticing that she addressed him as her CO, "We both know that Elijah could be a little reckless. Sometimes it paid off, other times… well…"

Jaz moved herself so she was facing him directly and moved one of her hands from under his to lay on his chest.

"You can't carry that guilt around. It wasn't your fault he got killed. It was the asshole that shot him, plain and simple."

A ghost of a smile crossed Dalton's face as he moved a hand to intertwine his fingers with hers, still laying on his chest, "That's pretty much what Xander said."

"Huh? He should be a shrink."

After a moments silence, both buried in their own thoughts with their hands still entwined, Dalton said tentatively, "In acknowledgment of our honestly, I also told Xander that I felt awful that you lost your best friend, and how hard it was to see you so devastated."

Jaz felt her heart pound at that, and didn't know what to say straight away. Adam had talked about her to Xander? He had been worried enough to talk about her to Xander? What did that mean exactly?

Pushing those thoughts down for now, she looked him right in the eyes, "We all lost Elijah that day. We all lost something that day. Yeah, I lost my best friend, and I won't ever forget him, but I think it's time to stop blaming ourselves, to stop feeling guilty. I want to remember him as the lovable idiot he was, always making fun of us and himself, always making us laugh. I don't want the last image of him in my head to be him lying in my arms. I want it to be that big, annoying smile of his. His all-knowing smile."

Dalton listened to her incredulously and remembered their talk about Hossein at the lake in front of his cabin. There he had talked her down from her guilt. Here she was doing the same for him.

They both had their own issues where Elijah was concerned, but she was right. They needed to move forward. They needed to honour Elijah's memory and remember the sacrifice he made for his country. It had only been a couple of sessions with Xander, and he knew that miracles weren't going to happen straight away, but he already felt like they were paying off, for both of them.

He lifted her hand off his chest and brought it up to his mouth to kiss it gently. Holding her gaze, seeing the sheen of unshed tears behind them, he gathered her to his chest and held on tight. He lowered his head to press his lips against her forehead and then buried his nose in her hair, just breathing her in.

"He did have an annoying smile." He whispered into her hair, smiling softly at the memory of their fallen teammate.

Jaz didn't respond, but she didn't need to. She lay her head on his chest and listened to the beating of his heart. It was both comforting and hypnotic, lulling her into a sense of security that she was pretty sure only he could provide.

They fell asleep like that, right there on the couch. Comforted by each other and relieved after sharing and expelling their mutual guilt. Not to say it was gone completely, it would never be gone completely.

Touring the monuments the next day was both enjoyable and humbling. There were so many of them that they only got around to half of them, deciding to save the others for another day. The National World War II Memorial was of particular interest to this team. They were silent as they wandered around, this one hitting quite close to home for all of them.

Jaz paused for a long time in front of the Freedom Wall, where 4,048 gold stars pay tribute to American lives lost at war, with each star representing 100 Americans. In front of that wall a stone reads, "Here we mark the price of war."

Jaz stood in front of that stone for a long while, thinking only of Elijah, and his sacrifice for his country and its freedom. Most people would never even know of Elijah's sacrifice, most people will never be aware of the battles he fought and the enemies he put down and most people will never know how or where he died.

But she did. Her team did. And those that matter did.

It was that thought and this memorial, while not linked directly to Elijah that brought her a sense of comfort. Of knowing that her best friend died for a purpose. And as much as she misses him, and always would, he would want her to move on and be happy.

Xander had said to her yesterday that moving on didn't mean forgetting, it just meant remembering that you have a life to live. Those words had hit her hard. She wanted to live her best life for Elijah and honour the amazing human he had been.

Noticing her lingering in front of the wall, Dalton left her alone for a few minutes before appearing by her side. Seeing the unshed tears in her eyes, but the small smile her lips couldn't hold back, he put his arm around her shoulders, pulled her towards him and pressed his lips softly to her temple.

Jaz couldn't help but briefly bury her head in his chest, drawing the comfort she needed from his familiar scent and the warmth he always emanated. Once again she could hear his heart pounding in his chest and knew that this was emotional for him also.

They stayed like that for a few moments, before pulling away from each other. Still wary of being seen in DC by anyone that mattered, their PDA had to be very brief. But here at this memorial, with the emotion it evoked in the whole team, that PDA had been entirely necessary.

McG appeared by her other side and just as caught up in the emotion as Jaz and Dalton were, he too put his arm around Jaz's shoulder and in turn she put her arm around his waist as they drew comfort from each other.

Amir stood silently, respecting the significance of this moment for the rest of his team, and also silently remembering those he had seen sacrifice their lives.

Jaz wasn't used to needing anyone. She had been so strong and alone for so long, she barely knew of any other way. So this need for Dalton – for Adam, that kept presenting itself, was a strange concept. Every time anything got emotional at all, or even when it didn't these days, her need for him grew exponentially.

She was still shy about her feelings for him, still slightly stumped about them too, and still amazed that he seemed to feel the same right back.

But she was in no way surprised by her physical need for him. That was something she had always been aware of, right back to when she first met him.

She would have had to have been blind not to notice that he was an attractive man. His ruggedness and raw masculinity had been right up her ally. It was only after getting to know him more personally by his actions on and off missions, on the odd occasions he opened up to her, and observing the level of integrity that he lived by, that the steadily increasing attraction had set in.

Even though she had been in denial about it for so long, she knew that it had been building since day one.

This is what was running through her head as they sat in the hotel bar for dinner that evening. She was lost in her thoughts as the three guys carried on a conversation around her, oblivious to her introspection, which was definitely for the best. If McG got wind of what she was thinking about, she would never live it down.

All through dinner though, she couldn't help but look at Adam whenever she could. Sometimes sneakily, other times she was quite blatant, and sometimes he was looking right back at her with the same look of want, need, fire and heat that she knew her own eyes were emitting.

She needed this man like no other before. And that scared her.

Entering their bedrooms separately after dinner, Dalton had seen the looks Jaz had been directing his way all evening. He's pretty sure McG and Amir had seen them too.

He knew that the look in Jaz's eyes; the heat and the want on fire in them, had been reflected in his own. The last day or two had been emotional, but talking things out with her, sharing thoughts with her, made him want her all the more.

As soon as Dalton opened the adjoining door separating their bedrooms, Jaz lunged at him placing her hands on his cheeks and kissing him fervently and impatiently.

Stumbling backwards slightly from her forward momentum, Dalton gripped her around the waist for balance, but didn't hesitate to return her hungry kisses, clutching her even closer as he did so.

Jaz grasped his t-shirt and lifted it over his head, only parting their lips long enough to remove it. Reaching for her own t-shirt, she lifted it over her head, desperate to feel his skin against her own.

As her lips found his once again, she felt his hands running up and down the length of her back. The feel of his strong hands against her smooth skin made her tingle all over, needing to feel his touch all the more.

Pulling back to kiss the length of his neck and down to his chest, she reached her hands down to undo the button and lower the fly of his jeans. Making short work of removing them, she quickly followed with her own jeans, leaving them both in just their underwear, lips pressed back together and panting.

"I need you so badly, Adam." She breathed into his mouth.

"Take what you need, Jaz." He breathed back, feeling the same urgency that she was feeling.

Removing the last remnants of their clothing, Jaz lowered them to the carpet, right there in the middle of the room, too impatient to venture any further.

Foregoing any foreplay, her need too strong to hold back any longer, she pushed him down so that he was lying on his back. She straddled his hips and lowered herself down onto his length, groaning as she felt him fill her up.

She let herself enjoy that feeling for a few seconds before she started to move her hips

Dalton was completely mesmerised by her, not able to take his eyes off her as she raised and lowered herself on his cock, riding him so that he filled her to the hilt with each thrust.

In moments like these, she was completely uninhibited with him, and it made her all the more attractive. It had never been like this with anyone else.

Jaz knew she wasn't going to last long. She'd been waiting for this moment for hours. She rode Adam faster, feeling the throbbing ache within her craving more and more attention.

Dalton reached up to cup her breasts, massaging them, paying particular attention to her nipples and listening intently as her moans got louder. Lowering one hand to allow his thumb to rub against her clit, she whimpered in pleasure, knowing that she was about to come.

Within seconds, Jaz's whimpers became cries as she began to convulse on top of him, throwing her head back, her hands laying on his chest for support, allowing her body to seek the solace it had craved. Over and over she shuddered for a long time.

To further assist in her release and his own, Dalton quickly rolled them over so she was lying on her back with him covering her and he pounded into her, fast and hard.

Her body continued to writhe underneath him and he soon joined her in release as he felt himself come hard and fast, buried deep within her.

Thrusting into her, the combination of her inner walls vibrating and his cock pulsating, they both rode out the pleasure they were both feeling, before Dalton collapsed on top of her, both of them feeling spent after their brief, but intense interlude.

Finally making it into bed after a quick shower, Dalton and Jaz lay side by side, fingers entwined just thinking over their last two days.

With a lot of thoughts running through her head, Jaz started to giggle to herself, making Dalton turn over on his side to face her, "Out with it."

She looked hesitant at first to share her thoughts, but decided it wouldn't hurt, they could both have a giggle.

"Well, it's no secret that Elijah enjoyed, umm… perving on McG."

Dalton huffed out a laugh in response. It certainly hadn't been a secret. Elijah made no apologies for his appreciation of a fit and healthy male body, but all of them, including McG, knew it was harmless. McG even played up to it sometimes, purposefully flexing his biceps or his abs, making Elijah both laugh and drool at the same time.

Jaz continued, "He called McG his very own Ken doll. And when he might have, umm – just once - caught me looking at you after you came out of the shower in just a towel, he nicknamed you as my Barbie doll. He would say we had our very own Ken and Barbie, living in our own Quonset dollhouse."

Jaz looked slightly embarrassed revealing this to Dalton, but she couldn't help but continue to smile at the memories that Elijah had left her with.

Dalton watched the pink tinge on her cheeks spread to her neck and he couldn't help but smile with her.

"Ok, two things. Firstly, I can't believe you both objectified me as a blonde doll. And secondly, he only caught you looking at me once? Once?"

"Get over yourself." Jaz admonished, but couldn't help but laugh with him.

Leaning over her to claim her lips, he teased right back, "Because I was definitely looking at you more than once."

"What?" She asked into his mouth as his lips moved on hers.

"We'll save those stories for another time." He promised, as his lips completely took over her own, making her melt into him and forget all remnants of the conversation they were currently having and everything else but the feel of him on top of her.

Ok, I'm hoping that made up for taking so long between chapters... Just a couple of notes:

1. After reading a LOT of FF about this show, it appears to have become canon that Elijah was gay, so I went with that too.

2. I used to watch Under The Dome, and for anyone else who did, you would know that Mike Vogel played a character called Barbie, so it made me giggle to use that as a throwaway in this by Elijah.

Thank you so much for reading and (hopefully) commenting. I am still heavily invested in this story, and I promise it won't be another three weeks until I update again. Much love to you all XXX