In the deadly silence of the sick bay, the SEAL family could hear their thoughts echoing in their heads.
The entire Bravo Team was waiting there, whole again, but still fighting to control their nerves.
Davis was also there, needing to check on her boys, as commander Blackburn was. The whole Alfa Team was beside them because every frogman is family, and even Mandy stayed there for a while, but since the fighting had not stopped, she had to go back to work.
The humid air penetrated in the soldier's nostrils, bringing with it a persistent smell of sweat. The sterile atmosphere was contaminated by the dust spreading around from their dirty uniforms, and maybe it was the strange odor, or maybe the suggestion, but they could feel the taste of blood in their mouths.
Occupying the bunks, a single soldier who sleeped quietly like the commotion surrounding him never existed. All around him, beside every empty bed, IV poles and off monitors were methodically placed.
Bravo members shivered at the thought that one of those uncomfortable cribs was ready to embrace Clay once he would be out of surgery.
If he would be out of surgery.
And then, there was the door, closed and impenetrable.
Their foreheads covered in cold sweat at the image of the young soldier laying helplessly on the operating table with the doctors playing with his guts.
No one could emit a sound, or had the strength to watch the other in the eye. The pain was too strong to share.
"Commander," a soldier entered, breaking the nerve-wracking wait. "There's a phone call for you, sir."
"Whoever it is can wait, tell them I'll call back," Blackburn cut short. He had no intention to move until his man's fate was clear.
"It's Captain Harrington, sir. He wants an update on Bravo Six's condition."
Blackburn sighed and got out to take the call. He knew all too well what it meant to be the one monitoring from the distance, and he could not let the Captain hanging like that.
Sonny kept aimlessly moving around. "What the hell are they doing in there?"
"It's not that easy. Clay was in a pretty bad shape when he got here," Trent said, inhaling deeply to maintain his cool.
Ray closed his eyes, and the image of the litter pushed in there with his pale friend on it appeared before him. He felt his throat closing at the thought of the plastic tube forced in Clay's mouth and he could still feel the sound of the little machine releasing electricity in his friend's lifeless body.
Bad shape is underestimating, he thought, helplessly shaking his head.
Suddenly, Blackburn got back in, calling for the SEALs' attention. "Alright guys, our job is not done yet."
"What? No," Jason protested. "We are not moving from here."
All the Team members jumped to their feet, arms crossed, defending the door.
"I know," the Commander nodded. "I'm not going to risk you going out there with your heads stuck here with the kid."
Bravo members all sighed, turning their full attention back to the sealed OR door.
"I would avoid this if I only could, but we just got some intels we can't ignore." Blackburn turned to Alfa Team, "Derek, take your men, you are going for a ride."
Alfa One nodded, making a sign to his teammates to prepare for the action.
Getting out, they all watched Bravo members and silently greeted them. No words were needed, every soldier knew exactly what the other's look meant.
... ... ...
More than an hour had already passed since Clay disappeared behind the damn door, and the atmosphere outside it was getting hard to stand.
The pack was still there; dark circles underlined their reddened eyes, their muscles were cramping and their stomach ached.
"What are you doing here?" Davis said, drawing the Team's attention to the three missioners just entered in the building. "Something's wrong?"
"We just wanted to see if you- " the black American spoke first, "if you found Abby."
Jason looked at them hesitant then turned to Davis, talking in a low voice. "I thought you already told them."
"She did," Jake, the blond missioner, intervened. "We know that Abby is-" he breathed deeply.
"Dead." Jake swallowed. "What Aaron meant was if you found her remains. For... the funeral."
"We are very sorry," Ray said, quickly glancing at his boss and silently asking the permission to talk.
"We could do nothing for her, we barely got out our man alive," Jason resumed.
The female missioner started heavily sobbing, so her blond friend hugged her tight. "It's okay Leah, it's okay," he comforted her.
"I assure you we all did our best out there," Blackburn intervened. "I promise you that our man did all he could to protect Abigail; he would have never abandoned her if he had another choice."
To Sonny's hears those words sounded like excuses; like the commander had to justify Clay's actions to those civilians.
Like Clay did something wrong.
"We-" Aaron cleared his throat. "We understand."
"So now you understand? What a consolation!" Sonny stepped up, raising his voice. "If it weren't for you-" he pointed his finger toward the three of them.
"Not another word, Petty Officer Quinn!" Blackburn stopped him before he could say something he would regret, and with a firm gesture of the hand made the SEAL step back.
"That soldier, your friend," Jake said, "is he safe now?"
"He is in surgery this very moment," Blackburn answered him, glancing at the sealed door.
"But he will get off with it?" Leah said almost under her breath.
"We don't know yet," Davis broke the silence. "He's still fighting for his life."
"We'll pray for him," Aaron said, taking his friends' hands.
Sonny rolled his eyes, huffing. He was ready to say something that would get his commander's rage explode when the military doctor opened the damn door, making Bravo Team jump to their toes.
"How is he?" Sonny instantaneously asked.
"We managed to repair the spleen rupture without exporting the organ entirely," he explained, taking the surgical cap off his head. "This will make the recover easier, but-"
"No. No buts doc." Sonny made all his teammates look supportive at him.
"But he still is in critical conditions," the doctor finished. "The next 24 hours will be crucial."
"What is the prognosis exactly?" Trent asked, peering directly in the doctor's eyes with an insistent look.
"If extra complications will not emerge, bed rests for the next two weeks, I would say. A complete recover in another four weeks, and in total, active duty in ten."
"If there are not complications?" Sonny frowned, giving voice to everyone's thoughts.
"The kind of lesions Petty Officer Spenser sustained are easily subjected to infections, this is still a delicate matter. We are doing all we can."
"What about his hearing?" Ray asked, an anxious tone escaping from his mouth.
"He has large lesions in both his tympanic membranes. We cleared and cleaned his ear canals, but we can't do better than that right now. I'm confident they will heal by itself."
"But they will heal?" Ray continued, concerned. "His hearing problem will resolve."
"As I said, we have to wait and see."
"That's all? Wait and see?" Sonny stepped up again, his hands clenched in fists.
"Your teammate's body went through a lot. The internal injuries caused a massive blood loss, and we can't predict how he will react. We are closely monitoring him."
"Can we see him now?" Jason tried to pass him.
"Please, wait here." The doctor put his hand before Jason's chest, stopping him from going farther. "We will bring him out soon enough."
"Thanks, doctor," Blackburn greeted him while the man disappeared through the door again.
"So that spleen thing," Sonny looked up to Trent, "and the hearing thing too... Will Clay be able to work as well, like he did before?"
"We are not talking about his career, Sonny." Trent's dark tone made the Team shiver. "We're talking about his life here."
Sonny let his frustration out with a grunt. "I know, okay? I just don't wanna go there."
"He will pull through. He will," Jason said, putting a hand on Sonny's shoulder. "He is strong."
They all knew Clay was strong, but now, they couldn't help but doubt he was strong enough. And the sight of him exiting the door confirmed that.
The soldiers gasped as the medical personnel brought Clay into the room. They watched paralyzed one of the nurses pulling their teammate's bed to the corner.
Wires connected him to some monitors; thin tubes got out from his nostrils; a needle in his arm connected him to the blood bag on the IV pole and two more bags dripped some clear liquid in the tube connected to his other arm.
The heavy dressings covering Clay's forearms made the SEALs feel the warmth of the flames on their own skin, as if they were there when he got burned.
The unnatural pallor of his skin and the livid color of his lips made their mind go to the worst-case scenario. They could say without lying that they saw corpses looking better than that, and none of them had the courage to approach him.
"He will be asleep for a while," a black-haired nurse interrupted the deep silence while adjusting the last details of her patient's care.
"You should go get some rest too."
"We're not going anywhere," Sonny said in a straight voice, regardless every fiber of his body yelled to him that she was right.
"Actually, guys-" Mandy reached them, "the situation out the base is crazy. We need you out there." Then she turned to Davis and Blackburn, "All of you."
"No way." Ray protested. "We can't leave him like this."
Blackburn sighed, looking Mandy in the eyes. If she was there at that moment was because things just got serious.
"We have a job to do, let's get it done and come back to him later," he ordered.
"No. No! We are not, we can't," Ray repeated again.
"We have to. Come on," Jason reluctantly said, patting Ray on the back. "Clay will be fine here."
"He is not going to wake up for hours, right?" Trent asked the nurse.
She nodded slowly, as to say, 'if he will wake up at all', and the look she had in her eyes only got things worse. But then she switched to her reassuring tone, "Don't worry, he is in good hands."
"We can stay with him," the lady missioner said. "It's the least we can do."
Sonny huffed, too concerned to even think to something stupid to say.
Blackburn nodded to her, thankful. "Come on, the sooner you go, the sooner you come back," he ordered following Mandy out.
"Hang in there, brother," Ray said, touching his friend's cold hand. "We'll be back soon."
"This is crap. Real crap," Sonny said, as the soldiers forced themselves to get out, leaving Clay all alone with strangers once again.
... ... ...
When Bravo members entered the command center, all the personnel stopped what they were doing to look at them. However, the pause only lasted a few seconds, and the commotion raised again in the room.
"Here is the situation," Mandy explained to Blackburn and the guys as soon as they settled in.
Bravo Team listened carefully.
"So, your intervention will be crucial to decide if those people will live or die," she finished her talking.
"No pressure, uh?" Jason said, working out a plan in his mind.
"Alright guys, I need you to keep your heads in the game," Blackburn said. "You think you can do that?"
"Of course we can," Jason answered. "We are Bravo Team."
"All agreed?" Blackburn insisted, fearing he was risking too much sending them out after what just happened to Clay.
They all nodded, except Sonny, but the commander kept staring at him till he answered positively.
"Okay, what are we waiting for? Let's go," Jason said, with a foot already outside the door.
The van reached the unmapped village in the middle of nowhere, leaving the SEALs with a crescent feeling that something was wrong.
Their objective was an old ruined building, turned into an improvised girls' school. Americans and Canadians run the place and two of them were still in with a large group of minors when the rebels attacked it.
Before getting out of the van, Jason looked carefully at every Bravo member. This time, there was no leaving anyone behind, they were all gonna make it out together and all in one piece.
Going through an assignment with a man down was already bad enough.
Approaching the site, the gunshots echoing in the air quickly reached Bravo's ears. As soon as they were in sight of the source, they saw locals trying to defend the position, preventing the rebels to invade the school.
"Time's up, come on," Jason said, making his men a sign to circumvent the building and get in by the back entrance.
Brock carefully opened the door and let Cerberus leading the way, with the rest of Bravo Team following them.
The dog quickly found the room where the girls were hiding, and the seals promptly made their way in.
"US Navy; US Navy," Ray repeated, letting his rifle hung on his torso and raising his hands, strong from his teammates' cover.
"It's alright, we're here to help," Jason said in a calm tone, seeing the teachers ready to shield the girls with their own body.
The fifty-something aged man stepped up, inspecting their uniforms while the brown-haired young woman tried to keep the girls calm. There were a dozen of them, all between 12 and 16 years old. They were crying and shaking, and the SEALs immediately understood that controlling their nerves and making them obey their orders was not going to be an easy task.
"The situation is getting hot out there, Boss," Sonny said, peeking out the small window.
Jason reached him and saw the rebels rounding up the place, and the locals barely resisting while being forced to retreat inside the walls.
His eyes locked with Ray's, sending a clear message, 'if we don't get out of here now, we'll be blocked all night'.
Ray nodded. They both knew they couldn't afford that. Not with the kid in critical condition at the base camp. Not with him needing them.
"Prepare the girls," Jason said to the teachers, "we're getting you out."
"They are just children," the man tried to object. "You can't throw them out in the fighting. It's too risky."
"What's risky here is you not doing what I say," Jason glared at him, crossed arms and locked lips.
"Come on Ralph, they know what they're doing," the brunette tried to convince his colleague.
"Yeah, come on, Ralph," Sonny echoed her. "Just tell the girls to stick to our asses till we're out of here. There is not coming back for anyone today."
Jason and Sonny were the first to get out of the room, followed by Ray and the young teacher. Behind them the girls with the man and closing the group Trent, Brock and Cerberus.
When they reached the back door, the passage ahead was blocked by several armed guys who immediately started shooting at them, and behind them the walls of the decaying bulling started to collapse.
They were trapped. There was no going back and no going farther.
Jason looked around, his wheels turning, searching for a way out from that damn situation.
His eyes met Sonny's and in a single hand gesture Bravo One instructed Three in his next move.
Sonny promptly took off his backpack and extracted his tools. Then he threw a grenade to free the way for them to pass.
The hostages winced at the loud sound, and controlling their fear seemed now impossible.
The walls trembled, the dust raised from the ground and smoke completely covered their visual. But they didn't back off; they had to go back to the base ASAP.
They had to go back to their friend.
Leading the Team, Jason was not sure how they got out, nor was Trent who closed the group, pushing all them to safety. But they managed to get through the block and reach the extraction point. And more importantly, no one, civil or SEAL, child or man, was left behind.
Riding back, the soldier's minds run faster than their bodies. What if the kid needed us and we were not there for him? Again. What if we failed him again?
... ... ...
When Bravo Team returned from the assignment, Blackburn was outside the command center waiting for them.
The look he had on his face did not bode well for any of them.
"Hey! What the hell was that?" He faced them, barely giving them the time to get out of the van.
"We are good, thanks," Jason tried to ignore him, passing by.
"Stop right there Master Chief. All of you. Stop!" the Commander ordered, making them a firm sign to follow him in the building.
"Oh come on, the debriefing can wait. We need to see the kid now."
"There is no change in his conditions and Davis is with him. But you," Blackburn severely pointed at them, "you are discussing your actions with me. And you are doing it right now." He pointed his finger to the ground.
They all grunted, but they had no choice but obey their commander. So, they silently followed him inside while the support personnel got quickly out to give them some privacy.
Any soldier passing by the command center at that moment could clearly hear Blackburn yelling at Bravo Team. For an external eye it would seem like a father reproaching his teenage sons. And like every kid would do, they tried to stick up for themselves, having, at the end, to surrender to the authority of their commanding officer.
After 'the talk', Bravo Team got out of the building and headed to the sick bay, not looking back.
"I don't care what he says, we moved just fine," Sonny said. "We took all them out alive and in one piece. They should not complain!"
At every step the SEALs made, frustration grew in them as the humiliation of the commander's reproach fade.
Their expression grew more concerned, and uncertainty filled their hearts as their destination appeared before their eyes.
They could face terrorist, drug dealers, and any kind of threats, but opening that door and face the sight of their injured teammate made them feel weak in their knees.
When Bravo entered, the first thing they saw was Clay laying in his bed, so pale and so still; that put the light again on the important things.
They quieted down, and the sound of their heavy footsteps echoed in the room while they approached the kid and Davis, who was sat right beside him. Advancing, the smell of dust they still had in their nostrils mixed up with the smell of sanitizer that steamed every inch of the sick bay, forcing them to breathe with their mouths.
"Did he wake up?" Jason asked.
Davis shook her head, not raising her eyes from Clay. "Not yet."
They all sighed, staring at the poor kid. Then cautiously tried to settle in, but their legs were restless and their hands itched. The bags under their eyes were even more pronounced now, but their minds wouldn't shut down even if they tried.
"You risked too much out there," Davis said, her look always down. "That can't happen again." Her voice got all crackly. "This can't happen again."
"We know," Ray said, putting his hand on her shoulder.
"We can not bury another family member." Davis' voice was now broken, and they could clearly feel how hard she was fighting to hold it together.
Fighting hard as they all were.
... ... ...
Awakening on the thin mattress, Clay sniffed, and cool air penetrated his lungs. He instinctively tried to take a deep breath, but a sharp pain in his chest made him wince and left him unable to both continue inhaling or hold his breath. He had to keep his eyes strongly shut to control the pain till he accustomed to the situation.
Finally having the strength to open those blue gems again, he found himself in a place he didn't recognize. He felt sore, and the only part of his body he could move were his eyeballs, but not without worsening his headache.
For a good moment he stood there, listening to his body aching everywhere.
At least I am not in the desert anymore, he thought.
The last thing he recalled was his teammates' worried looks on him, right after Trent unloaded him from his shoulders.
Where he was now and how he got there was a total mystery.
He slightly looked down his dressed arms and followed the tubes coming from them to his left, finding himself attached to IVs and monitors.
Hospital? Sick bay? Clay asked himself. Am I inside the base? Am I still in Africa at all?
In the background, he spotted a blurred figure. He could not clearly distinguish his -or her- features, but he could tell for sure that he -or she- was wearing an uniform.
He sighed, but the pain in his chest hit him acutely again, and again, he had to shut his eyes strong to control it.
Then he turned his head to his right, and his blue gems sparkled, finding before him Bravo Team in full force.
They're here! He thought, feeling the relive filling every inch of his beaten body.
He could not help but smile.
His teammates were talking to each other, without acknowledging he was awake.
Are they... arguing? He concentrated to hear their voices, but he couldn't.
Yes, the explosion. He remembered. My ears were not working. That thought hit him like a lightening, and for a little second that blew him off.
But he was still smiling.
Despite the pain, despite the fear, despite everything, he could not wipe off that smile: his friends were there. They were there for him. And that was enough.
He opened his mouth to draw their attention, but instead, he quickly drifted unconscious, and his brief moment of lucidity passed unnoticed by the rest of Bravo Team.
... ... ...
An hour later, the soldiers were still all there, waiting.
They would get up and sat back, exercising their cramping muscles.
They would stare at the kid, then glance out the window, then observe some nurse checking on him.
They would now avoid to look at each other, then search a teammate's looks to gain some much needed support.
All that in a loop, as the clock ticked inexorably, and Clay still didn't opened his eyes to them.
Trent was staring helplessly at the beeping monitors, synchronizing his own heartbeat to Clay's, like when before a mission they had to synchronize their watches.
"I think he would be a great therapy dog when he retires," Davis said to Brock who was laid in the next bed, petting Cerberus.
"What? He is never going to retire! He is gonna do this forever, right my good boy?" Brock said, trying to keep the dog busy, and not let him go near Clay's bed. The risk of infections with the kind of lesions the kid sustained was really high, the doctor made that well clear.
"Would you please stop that, Sonny?" Ray said, distracted from his thoughts by his teammate wandering around the room, restless.
"I can't help, okay?" Sonny stopped, but only for a single second. "I can't stay here doing nothing! It's not my nature."
"We all feel the same here, guys," Jason said, stopping his two teammates before they could start arguing again like they were doing from all day.
"Hey! Guys," Davis suddenly called for Bravo's attention. "He's awake," she said while smiling kindly to Clay.
The Team members rushed to him and found his baby blue eyes wide open, staring at them.
"Hey..." Clay whispered.
Relive filled the soldier's heart while big smiles cracked on their faces.
"There he is!" Sonny said. "Oh, Boy, you made us worry for real this time!"
Clay's confused look made them all remember he still couldn't hear their voices, and the heavy sound of his short breath made them realize how difficult it was for him to force his voice out.
Immediately, Jason wrote something on a paper note.
Clay's look sharpened, his expression growing even more confused.
"Ah! Give it to me!" Davis said, tearing the pen and the paper block from Jason's hands.
-You will be fine, give your body the time to heal- she wrote clean and clear.
Clay nodded, and they spotted a little grimace of pain hiding under his smile.
Seeing him struggling like that made their own smiles fade, but just a little and just for a split second. They knew they had to continue cheering for him, no matter how they were feeling.
"Thanks for coming back for me..." Clay's voice was feeble, his forehead was now covered in sweat, and they could see him fighting hard to keep his eyes open.
"Of course brother, of course," Ray said, forgetting once again he could not hear his voice.
But the words weren't needed there. They could see it from Clay's expression. The only thing that mattered to him in that moment where their supportive looks.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble I gave you..." Clay's voice full of distress.
"Hey, don't even mention it, Kid," Jason tried once again to communicate with him.
"I'm..." Clay could not finish his phrase that he rapidly drifted unconscious again.
"Clay? Clay!" They all jumped to their toes and moved toward him in unison.
"It's okay, guys. Let him sleep," Trent calmly said, seeing the monitors did not signal any anomalies in Clay's body functions. "He'll be alright, he only needs to get his strength back."
Bravo members all sighed soundly, trying to relax while keeping their eyes on the kid's white and sweaty skin.
But this time Trent was wrong.
... ... ...
Author's Note: This chapter gave me big troubles. Balancing action and emotions, making the guys hanging while tension rose, then having communicating with Clay being hard... it was a lot to deal with. I just hope I could give justice to all that.