Here's the next chapter for you to enjoy. You might need to re-read the last chapter for a bit of a refresher.

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

Chapter 32

Jaz stirred in bed the next morning to the sound of Dalton talking to someone at the door.

Freaking out, she tried to bury herself further into the bed to hide herself from view, but upon hearing Dalton chuckling, she peeked her head out to see what was happening.

"It's ok, you can come out of hiding." He reassured her, and then she noticed him carrying a tray towards the bed.

"Is that breakfast?"

"Well I thought that since it was Sunday, we could skip breakfast with McG and Amir. They can have a man date, while we enjoy room service."

"I like your thinking." Jaz commended him, as she moved herself into a sitting position before noticing how much food Adam had ordered, "How much do you think I eat?"

"I've been living with you for the best part of three years, Jaz. I know how much you eat." He said dryly.

Jaz tilted her head, "Valid… but this is still a lot of food."

"Well… I thought that we could have some fun with some of this…" He drawled, as he removed the covers from the plates.

The tray was laden with eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, pancakes, strawberries, chocolate sauce and cream. Jaz looked it all over before raising her eyes to meet his, seeing the cheeky suggestion in his eyes.

She mentally shook herself. This was her Captain. This was the Commanding Officer of Special Operations Group 7, the Ground Force Commander of an Omega team, suggesting that they have some fun with breakfast. Before this bout of leave, she would have never guessed that this side of him existed.

There was a lot about him that she wouldn't have guessed existed.

Still holding his gaze, she plucked one of the strawberries from a plate and slowly and seductively bit into it, not being able to stop some of its juice running down her chin.

He couldn't tear his eyes away from her right then. She watched his tongue sweep over his lips in anticipation of what was to come.

Still holding each other's gaze, they were both startled when Adam's phone began to ring, and it took a couple of rings for them to realise what the noise was.

Seeing the caller ID soon sobered Dalton up quick smart though, and he reluctantly turned his back on Jaz to answer.

"Deputy Director."

Jaz froze. She's not sure why, no one was watching them, but just the thought of Patricia sensing that she was there made her mildly panic.

"Hi Adam, I hope I haven't woken you up."

"Not at all, just having some breakfast."

Jaz nearly choked on the strawberry still in her mouth, so much so, that Dalton walked into Jaz's room through the adjoining door to escape the current scenario in his room.

Not moving a muscle, literally not changing her position until Dalton walked back through the door only a minute later, Jaz tried to calm herself down. The Deputy Director didn't know that she was there in Dalton's room with him. She didn't know that she was in Dalton's bed, and she definitely didn't know what they had been about to do with breakfast.

Looking up at him as he walked back in, she didn't even need to ask what the call had been about before he began to speak.

"Patricia wants us all to go to her condo for dinner. Noah and Hannah will be there too."

Jaz paled visibly, but just nodded her head. As if they could refuse the deputy director.

Dalton sighed and sat down on the bed, "It's going to be fine, Jaz." Trying to convince himself as much as he was her. But as he looked at all the food laid out on the bed in front of them, he couldn't help but notice that his appetite had disappeared. Completely.

The four members of the Omega team currently in DC, arrived together at Patricia's condo early that evening to find that Hannah and Noah were already there, having gone straight from the office.

After greeting each other, Patricia took it upon herself to make sure everyone had a drink. Everyone was gathered on the balcony and the smell of the meat on the grill cooking was tantalising everyone's tastebuds.

"So, I know you're not here first and foremost in the tourist capacity, but how are you all liking DC?" Patricia asked.

"It's been great so far Ma'am." McG answered for the group.

"Please, we're about to have several drinks together, I think you can call me Patricia."

"Well in that case, he's Joseph." Amir quipped, making the rest of them laugh.

"Ahh, I've heard that story, McGuire. Between that and your loose belt buckle in Seville, you certainly keep us entertained."

"I do what I can Ma'am… uhhh, Patricia."

Patricia gave him one of her trademark smirks before focusing on Dalton, "Adam, give me hand with the grill?"

As Dalton and Patricia moved away from the group, Jaz couldn't help but follow them with her eyes.

She was nervous.

She could take on men twice her size and weight, she could put down Iranian terrorists with her bare hands, she could shoot someone with pinpoint accuracy from hundreds of metres away without a second thought and she could hold her own in a boxing ring with just about anyone.

But this one little dinner, made her more nervous than all of that. Give her the terrorists any day!

Sensing her discomfort, McG came and stood beside her, "You all good there Jazzy?" He asked under his breath.

Jaz was bluntly honest, "I need to shoot something."

Nearly choking on his beer, McG tried to reassure her, "It's only a couple of hours. You got this. We can go and shoot shit tomorrow."

She knew he was right. She had decided on the trip over here that she would just stay right away from Dalton on this evening. The further away from him she was, the easier it would be. If she had to stay on the opposite side of the room from him, or in this case the balcony, she would.

"I know it's a sensitive topic, but how is Jaz coping with her appointments with Captain Martin?" Patricia asked Dalton as he turned the meat over on the grill.

"From what I understand, she seems to be coping ok." Dalton answered evenly, not lifting his head from the grill.

"She hasn't said much about them?"

Dalton shrugged, "McG has been the driving force behind all of this, but I expect to get briefed by Xander at some stage."

"Right." Patricia answered, after observing him for a few moments, "Well hopefully she's getting the help she needs."

"I have no doubt she is." Dalton agreed.

"What about you? Are you getting the help you need?"

At that, Dalton finally lifted his head to look at her with a small smirk on his face, "Yeah, all good. You know me."

"I do. And that's why I want to make sure you're ok."

"Honestly, I'm ok. It's helping. Xander is very good at what he does. He's good people."

Patricia looked at him with those eyes that were both trying to get a read on him, but also genuinely cared about his well-being.

"I'm glad. For you and Jaz. You're both invaluable members of this team."

When she saw Dalton's face soften into a smile, she asked him, "Are you ok here if I go and top up drinks?"

"Please, I'm the grill king. This is what I do." Dalton retorted as Patricia just smiled at him and walked back to the others.

As he watched her walk away, he let his gaze continue to where Jaz was standing talking to McG. He was purposely staying away from her this evening, and he knew she was doing the same. They hadn't discussed their game plan at all, other than to just act 'normal'. But it was easy to see they were both approaching this in the same way.

Just a few hours of keeping their distance, and it would be smooth sailing. But he had to admit, he already missed talking to her, teasing her and touching her. He wondered how they had gone all this time just being teammates and friends, when now, in such a short period of time, they had become so much more.

Although she was at the other end of the balcony, Jaz's gaze briefly met his and while she looked measured and at ease, he knew better. She was nervous. And so was he.

He wanted to reassure her somehow, but didn't dare linger too long on her. Instead he gave her a super quick but subtle smile, saw in her eyes that she had seen it, and turned back to the grill as if nothing had happened.

They had this.

Despite Dalton and Jaz's personal conundrum, dinner was a fun affair. There was a lot of food, plenty of drinks and they all enjoyed each other's company.

It was great to get to know Noah a bit more in this setting. Over the Toughbook cam, or through their comms, it was usually a serious or intense situation, so to see him loosen up with a few drinks was fun.

Hannah and Amir's relationship wasn't a secret, but they weren't over the top on their PDA either. They felt a little strange in front of their boss, both of their bosses actually, but they were sitting next to each other and the happiness in their eyes was there for them all to see.

Dalton and Jaz sat at opposite ends of the table. Jaz had purposely sat on the same side of the table as Dalton so that their eyes couldn't meet and it made it easier to fight the temptation to look at him.

Eventually, McG and Jaz stood up and bid their farewells. McG had ordered an Uber for the two of them and just got the notification it had arrived. Jaz thought leaving separately to Dalton would be a good idea.

"We have to be at the DIA in the morning, so I better get Jaz back to the hotel to get her beauty sleep."

"So you can watch Netflix you mean, without the chill."

"Hey, I have plenty of chill."

Everyone laughed at McG and Jaz and then Patricia stood up to walk them to the door.

They said their goodbyes, Jaz and Dalton stayed on the opposite side of the room from each other to do so and McG made plans to meet the others for breakfast in the morning.

"See you guys tomorrow," Dalton called out as the others waved in response, following Patricia to the front door.

Dalton and Amir stayed for another hour and had a couple more drinks with Noah, Hannah and Patricia. Amir wasn't drinking alcohol of course, but Dalton was enjoying his whiskey.

He wasn't drunk, but the alcohol had helped to take the edge off his trepidation. He was a master of deceit when it came to serving his country, but in front of Patricia was a whole other kettle of fish. At least with Jaz having gone back to the hotel, the pull to look at her was temporarily diverted, but his need for her was as strong as ever.

When Amir suggested heading back to the hotel, Dalton was more than ready to leave. And more than ready to get back to Jaz.

He let Amir say his goodbyes to Hannah, shook Noah's hand and walked to the front door with Patricia.

"I'll check in on you later in the week. There's a couple of things I need to run by you when we get a moment." Patricia said.

"Yeah, no worries. I'm here for a bit longer. We all are."

"See you soon Adam." She said as Amir joined them, bidding his own farewell to the Deputy Director.

As they walked outside to their Uber, Patricia just watched the two of them walk away, squinting her eyes for a long moment, before turning to go back inside with Noah and Hannah.

Sitting down in the car, Dalton let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Amir just looked over at him, "Piece of cake, Top."

Dalton entered his hotel room and sat down on the bed. He leaned over with his elbows resting on his knees and just took a few deep breaths.

He didn't like having to lie. He didn't like lying to Patricia. He didn't like asking his team to lie for him. And he didn't like putting Jaz in this position either.

But as much as he hated all that, he knew that whatever he felt for Jaz trumped that.

And that scared him.

After putting his phone on charge, he stood up to knock tentatively on their adjoining door and checked the handle when he got no answer to find it was unlocked. When he stepped inside, Jaz was nowhere to be seen, but he could hear the shower running in the bathroom.

Without even thinking, he kicked off his shoes, opened the door to the bathroom and walked in.

Jaz sensed his presence immediately and turned around, momentarily freezing while washing shampoo out of her hair.

She watched him walk up to the shower, open up the door and walk straight in, clothes and all.

Not saying a word, he reached for her hair and helped her rinse off the last of the shampoo, watching as the apple scented suds washed down the drain hole. Even after it was all gone, he left his fingers entwined in her hair with his thumbs caressing her cheeks, tilting her face to look up at him.

His crystal blue eyes searched her big brown irises. He wasn't quite sure what he was looking for, but the feeling of solace that they found in each other's gaze washed over them as they held eye contact.

With the water pouring over them and Dalton still fully clothed, he very slowly and deliberately moved his face towards hers until their noses and foreheads rested on each other.

They just breathed each other in, relishing in their closeness, and very slowly, very gently tilted their heads to press their lips together.

Holding each other there for a long time, Dalton felt Jaz grip on to his waist. Their lips didn't move away from each other, but they didn't make a move to deepen or intensify the kiss just yet.

They just breathed and held on tight in acknowledgment of their situation and the enormity of it.

Having dinner with the DIA crew had certainly reminded them of that, not that it was ever far from their minds.

Slowly pulling away and looking up into his eyes, Jaz started to peel Dalton's saturated Henley off of him. She left it in a puddle on the base of the shower as she targeted his jeans next. When she had stripped him of all his clothes, she picked up the body wash and started to soap him all over.

With slow strokes of her soft, but strong hands, she glided them all over his body, watching as his skin goose bumped under her fingers, despite the hot water flowing down on them.

The soap suds washed off his body and down the drain, as did the tension that they had both felt from this evening's soiree. Feeling the comfort and calm that they both provided each other settle over them both, their hands began to explore the other, desperate for each other's touch.

The remainder of their shower was spent melting in to each other. Their actions non-verbally reaffirming their feelings for each other; feelings that were so strong that neither of them knew quite how to express them or deal with them just yet.

The following morning found Jaz once again in Xander's office for their third session.

Xander had been curious as to how Jaz had coped after the last session when she had discussed Elijah at length. Jaz had been honest and admitted that it had brought a lot of the emotion up to the forefront again, but having the weekend to reminisce, remember and find some sort of peace had allowed her to reflect on the many happy memories that she had with Elijah. Being with her team at the War Memorial had been poignant, but it also allowed them to strengthen their bond further as they had reflected together.

Xander was glad to hear what Jaz had to say, "Sounds like sharing some of your thoughts, has been really helping you."

Jaz smirked knowingly at him, "Who would have thought, right?"

"Well I know you have a great team, and a great CO. Not everyone is as lucky to find themselves in a team like yours. You said it yourself to me in Incirlik that you were scared that you could lose them. My advice is make every day with them count; make every moment with them count. In a job like yours, like you have witnessed yourself, you never what the next moment will hold."

Jaz let that sink in and knew Xander was right. What she wouldn't give for more time with her best friend; more time to witness his annoying smile and overly affectionate hugs.

What Xander didn't know was that it had Jaz thinking about Adam too.

How much time did she have with him?

Interrupting her introspection, Xander questioned her quietly, "What would you like to talk about today?"

Before she even responded, he held his hand up to the smirk on her face "Sorry, let me rephrase that. What do you feel you need to talk about today?"

Jaz looked down at her hands quickly, having already thought about this on her way to the appointment today. Everything on the list that they had made during their first appointment left her with a feeling of dread when thinking about discussing them. But the bullet needed to be bitten, none of the topics on the remainder of the list were going to be easy.

"Arthur."

"Ok, let's talk about Arthur." Xander said gently.

"Hoffman."

"Ok, let's talk about Hoffman." Xander nodded in agreement to Adam later that day.

"I killed him." Dalton revealed bluntly.

Again, Xander nodded his head, "I read the report from the Deputy Director."

Dalton let himself gather his thoughts before he spoke again, not wanting to shoot his mouth off unnecessarily. Although he knew that if he needed to, he could do that with Xander.

After another minute or so, with his gaze lowered, he ventured slowly, "When people target my team, my team; people I care about… that doesn't sit well with me. He made it very clear that he would be taking Patricia down with him, not to mention what he did to Preach and the jabs he took at Amir and Jaz too. He had been watching us and spying on us for who knows how long. He shouldn't have been allowed to get away with all of that."

Xander watched Dalton's very measured facial expressions but he would bet on his life that beneath his beard, his jaw was clenched tight.

"Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?" Xander asked evenly.

Dalton's eyes shot up to meet Xander's quickly, before looking away again. He didn't offer an answer just yet.

"Adam, I'm not here to question you, your judgement or your decisions. From what I've heard and read about Hoffman, he was a nasty son of a bitch. I do know though, that you and I have talked before about the darkness that can set in. I want to make sure that it doesn't consume you and I'm guessing that is something you want to prevent too."

Taking a couple of deep breaths to keep the anger he felt towards Hoffman at bay, Dalton raised his eyes to meet Xander's again and just nodded slowly.

"Does it keep you up at night?"

Dalton nodded his head again before answering quietly, "Sometimes."

He had worked on his darkness before, in fact he had worked on it with Xander before. But as much as he hated to admit it, Hoffman had gotten to him. The quips he had directed towards his team, had been one thing, but putting Preach and Patricia's life in danger had sent him dark. And that was a place he needed help getting out of.

"Well you cannot heal what you don't acknowledge, so now that you've done that, let's revisit some of the strategies we've used before, and maybe look at some new ones too. Sound good?" Xander asked gently.

Dalton smirked, "Good? Sure, let's go with that."

Walking back to the hotel after spending the afternoon at the shooting range, just like he had promised, McG looked sideways at Jaz.

He knew by the small smirk on her face that she was pretty happy with herself after schooling him at the range. He was no slouch himself, you didn't get to be in an Omega team otherwise, but Jaz could outshoot anyone, anywhere.

A lesser man might feel inferior to a woman being better than him. But not him; not anyone on their team. It wasn't about gender, it was about who was best for the job. And he was glad to see Jaz looking happy after a rough weekend reminiscing about Elijah and then a tense dinner on her behalf, hiding from Patricia.

But McG needed to ask her something, and he did it in the only way Jaz would expect him to – directly.

"Have you and Top tried sleeping apart yet to see if the nightmares have lessened?"

Jaz stopped dead still on the sidewalk and it took a couple of steps for McG to realise.

The look she gave him when he turned around had him putting his hands up and asking, "What?"

"I don't think they quite heard you in Australia." She retorted sarcastically.

"G'day mate."

"Your accents suck."

"Yeah, not my strong point," he admitted, "But back to my question…"

Jaz exhaled, "None of your business."

"When it comes to your happiness Jazzy, it's always my business." McG surmised.

Rolling her eyes at him, but falling into step with him once again, she admitted quietly, "Not yet."

"Well no pressure from me, and I'm assuming that Xander doesn't know your… sit-u-ation with Top," McG overly enunciated, "but sooner or later he's going to ask you about your sleeping and the nightmares…" He drifted off.

Jaz knew he was right, even if she hated admitting that McG was right. Despite that though, McG had helped her to get to this point, had helped her get the appointments with Xander, and was being super supportive of whatever was happening between her and Adam.

"You're right." She said very quietly.

Putting his arm around her shoulder he smirked, "I'm sorry, can you say that again, I don't think they quite heard you in Australia…"

She punched him in the stomach and laughed when he groaned and doubled over in pain.

He might be a dick, but he had a heart of gold.

Dalton could see that Jaz wasn't quite herself over dinner. He locked eyes with McG a couple of times, who shrugged when he saw the question in Dalton's eyes.

Jaz was never a loud or extroverted person, but she was unusually quieter.

Amir was at Hannah's, but they were all meeting for breakfast in the morning before spending another day exploring together.

After dinner, McG excused himself early to get in a few more episodes of his latest Netflix binge watch.

When Jaz and Dalton got in the elevator to head to their rooms, Jaz lifted her hand to the buttons and hesitated before hitting the level to the rooftop pool.

Dalton raised his eyebrows slightly and asked softly, "Need a swim?"

Jaz met his gaze, but didn't offer any further explanation just yet.

When they arrived at the rooftop floor, Jaz strode out in front of Dalton and settled herself in one of the loungers by the pool. Laying her head back and looking skyward, she took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly.

Dalton sat on the lounger next to hers and said knowingly, "You need the stars."

Jaz just nodded, her gaze remaining skyward. Talking about Arthur with Xander today had her craving the outdoors. She needed to feel fresh air entering her lungs and the breeze on her cheeks, all underneath the night sky's giant canvas.

The stars helped her feel calm, reminding her that the big wide world out there still kept spinning and moving forward.

As if reading her mind, Dalton reached his hand out to grasp Jaz's and let their joined palms hang between them, inconspicuously. His thumb rubbed against her hand, instantly flooding her with a feeling of calmness.

Looking over at him with a soft smile she whispered, "Tell me about the stars."

He smiled back at her and his gaze lingered on hers for a few seconds. His crystal blue eyes, as deep as the ocean bore right into her own chocolate coloured eyes, and she felt like he was looking right into her soul.

They managed to tear their gaze away from each other and turn their heads back skyward. With their fingers still entwined, he began to tell her stories about the stars; the stars that were light years away but still twinkling, reminding them both that the world and the universe are so much bigger than themselves.

Hehehe... I had to get Australia in there somehow! I have more plans for that topic too ;)

The next chapter delves more into the topics of Arthur and Hoffman, and of course Jalton's sleeping habits.

What did you think? I would love to hear from you.

Have a great week everyone XXX