Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, not believing what they were seeing. They have all heard of and seen pictures of Clays father, but none have actually met him in person. If they were being honest, none of them wanted to. Especially not now.
"Who are you? Where's Clay at? I need to talk to him now." Ash said as he attempted to step into the apartment only to be block by Jason.
"What are you doing here?" Jason asked, trying his best to keep voice down and not give Ash the beat down he deserved, not only for the things he said in the book, but also for the things he has done to Clay.
Ash took a small step step, surprised that the large man standing in his sons apartment was denying him access. "Ahh... You must be Jason." Ash said with a snarky attitude. "Maybe I should be the one asking YOU what YOUR doing here?"
"Excuse me? What's the hell is that supposed to mean? I'm here cleaning up YOUR mess." Jason was beginning to lose his temper.
"My mess? How is any of this my mess? Whatever is going on with him that's all on Stella and YOU. All of you!" Ash said pointing to the other members of bravo standing around watching the argument happen, hoping Clay wouldn't wake up.
Ash blaming Jason and the rest of Bravo is what sent Jason over the edge. No longer able to control his temper, he balled his right fist and threw a punch right at an unsuspecting Ash.
Ash stumbled backwards until he was braced by the hallway wall opposite of Clays door and gently brought his hand up to his lip, pulling it away to find blood on his fingers. Ash was about to go back at Jason when all of a sudden Clay appeared out of nowhere, early annoyed.
"Can everyone please get the fuck out!" Clay yelled. All he wanted was to sleep and be alone, not have a house full of people, who he didn't even invite over, arguing.
"Clay, just take a se..." Sonny started to say,trying to calm the entire situation down.
"GET OUT!" Clay cut him off and yelled at everyone.
Ash listened right away. The rest of the team paused and then reluctantly listened One by one walked they out the door.
Once he was finally alone, Clay sat down on his couch, not knowing that Bravo was still standing outside his door planning their next move.
Clay was at the bottom of his rope. He no longer knew what to do or how to turn things back around. He wasn't sure if he wanted to stay on Bravo. If the post-Alana Jason that showed up in Mexico was the new Jason he didn't know how he could stay. That Jason was too determined to prove to everyone that he was fine and ready to be back, even if it meant putting the team in extreme danger. On the other hand though, he didn't want to give his father the satisfaction of leaving the team. He could already hear how that conversation would play out in his head.
He was truly at a loss. Frustration, anger, anxiety all boiling over. There was a small, mostly empty glass of water on the coffee table in front of him. He did the only thing he could think of to release some of those feelings and picked up the glass, sending it flying across his living room. Upon impact with the wall, the glass shattered and fell to ground.
Outside the door the entire team heard the glass shatter. Jason was about to head back in when Sonny stopped him. "Hey. Maybe let me and Brock try to handle this. We know he doesn't want us all here so maybe all of us going in is a bad idea. Besides I think there's a conversation that needs to be had between the three of us."
Jason didn't like the idea. Not one bit, but he knew Sonny was right. "Fine but I want to know what happens as soon as possible. Understand?"
Both Sonny and Brock nodded their heads then cautiously and quietly opened the front door, not knowing if Clay has anything else he could send flying in their direction.
Sonny's heart dropped when he saw the kid sitting on the floor with his back against the couch and tears rolling down his face.
Clay looked up as he noticed the two men approaching him. With no fight left he said "I thought I told you guys to leave?" His voice sounding completely broken.
"We were gonna, and then you sent that poor, innocent glass to an early grave." Sonny was trying to lighten up the tension but Clay wouldn't even look at them let alone crack a smile.
Sonny walked around the coffee table and silently sat on the floor next to Clay while Brock took a seat next to his other side on the couch.
Clay could no longer hold any of his emotions in. He completely broke down on Sonny's shoulder and Sonny pulled him in closer. They all sat there for a good 15 minutes without saying word. Brock and Sonny silently supported Clay as he let the tears fall, waiting for Clay to speak first.
As soon as Clay finally calmed down enough to get a sentence out, he broke the silence. "I... I don't know what's wrong with me." He admitted.
"Hey. Look at me." Sonny said, forcing Clay to stare him in the eyes. "NOTHING is wrong with you. NOTHING. You're just in a dark place right now. It happens. We've all been there. Every single one of us has had to crawl our way out of the darkness."
"And every single one of us has, because we have each other to help." Brock added.
"Everything just all hit at once. Stella, Jason, Mexico, my dad. I don't know how to get it all out of my head." Clay admitted. "I can't even sleep at night without being reminded of everything."
"Nightmares?" Brock asked.
"Every time I fall asleep." Clay replied.
"Have you talked about it?" Sonny asked.
Clay was a bit confused. "Have I talked about what?"
"Mexico, what we went through, what you said." Sonny whispered. He knew this conversation was bound to happen, he just wasn't sure if any of them were ready for it to happen so soon.
"It's not just Mexico though. It's everything." Clay explained.
"But Mexico is part of it, correct?" Brock chummed back in.
"Well yeah, but" Clay began to say.
Sonny gently cut him off. "But nothing. Look Clay. What happened there, we need to talk about it. All three of us. I know it's hard, trust me I've been dreading this conversation since the day we were found, but it's step one in moving past it."
The three men sat there again in silence for a few minutes. All replaying the events of those 42 hours they were held captive and tortured.
"We never should have followed Lazo when he left that club. He knew we were following him and Jason led us right into that ambush." Clay was the first to speak up.
"It's not entirely Jason's fault. At the time, we were unaware that the mission was leaked. You know Jason never would have led us into that ambush on purpose." Sonny said, attempting to see both sides.
"Do I? He was so desperate to prove that he was ready to be back. I feel like he would have risked anything to prove that point." Clay bit back.
"Oh come on man. Jason would NEVER intentionally put any of our lives on the line like that. Did he make a questionable call? Absolutely. Did I agree with it? Not entirely. I do understand why he made it though." Sonny explained.
"It was a tough call but it had to be made." Brock added.
Clay slightly nodded his head but didn't say anything else.
"After the RPG hit the van and we jumped, you guys were both unconscious. I watched Jason do whatever he could to get to us before the cartel did. He was hit you know... in the vest, but it knocked the wind out of him pretty good. Martinez was hit trying to help get him back to cover. By that time we were already gone. Jason refused to go to the hospital until we were found. Turns out the impact broke two of his ribs and bruised the hell out of him."
"Why didn't I know any of that?" Clay asked.
"How could you have? The blast and fall from the RPG knocked you out. You were unconscious when he got hit and didn't wake up until we were halfway to that warehouse." Sonny told him
"And then after we were found, he was checked out and released while you and I were still sedated. In the two weeks you were sedated he healed enough to be able to hide the pain from you once the sedation was lifted." Brock added.
"Why? Why did he want to hide that?" Clay didn't understand.
"He didn't want to worry us. I only knew because I watched him go down and asked him about it in the hospital. But enough about Jason, we need to talk about those 42 hours. Sonny sighed, causing them to all go silent again.