Awww...thanks you guys! You're all the best!

"This is dinner?" Ray asked Sonny, pushing sweet potato fries to the side of his plate. They were soggy, fries should not be soggy, they should be crisp. "The cook sucks."

Brock plopped his plate onto the table, straddled the bench, sat down and swung his other leg under the table. "So, you think the kid has driven Beau nuts yet? Any word from them?" He moved food around with his fork, settled on the mashed potatoes. "What, no garlic?"

"Eric said Beau called into command. They're set up for the night, were gonna eat then get eyes on the camp." Trent answered. "He hasn't heard from Clay."

"Eat first?" Sonny stabbed a chunk of well, something. "This is green." He studied his fork. "You think this is supposed to be green?" he twisted the fork to look at all sides; up, down and around. "Eh," he shrugged and took a bite. "Bleh, veggie." He chewed and swallowed, took another bite. "Who eats first on an op?"

"Who sets up camp this early?" Brock added. "Hour drive to the hills, six hour hike, okay, yeah, you're hungry, but you get eyes on your target first."

"Oh, he's on Beau's last nerve." Ray laughed. "Bet they didn't even get off transport before Beau wanted to put him through the window."

"How well do you know Beau?" Trent asked avoiding the green chunk of veggie. Sonny reached with his fork, stabbed it, took it, ate it.

Ray shrugged. "By the book."

"We got anything to worry about?" Brock asked.

"With Clay? Don't we always?" Ray joked. "Beau's an ass, but Jason never would have let Clay go with them if he felt Beau wouldn't look out for him."

"Yeah," Trent agreed. "Sure, all rules and protocol and regulation 'look out for him', not the way we look out for him."

"Kid isn't going to be with us his entire career." Ray pointed out. "He's gonna hafta learn to be out there on his own."

"Yeah, well, while he is with us, he's ours to look out for and we'll do it our way." Brock said. "Train him so when he leads his own team, he does it right." he fist bumped Sonny and Trent who held fists out in agreement. "He call in?"

"He won't unless there's trouble." Trent said.

They were all quiet. Clay wouldn't use the sat phone just to call and say hi.

"Eric told him to." Brock said, offering Sonny his green chunk of veggie. "What kind of trouble do you think there'll be?"

"Now, you see," Sonny took the offering. "Been thinking about that…."

Jason sat down with a cup of coffee, Cerberus padded over to sit next to Brock, who scratched his ears.

"Talking about the kid?" Jason asked, seeing the looks his men exchanged with one another.

"Just wondering what he's up to." Trent shrugged. "How crazy he's driven Beau."

"Mmmm." Jason reached for Ray's soggy fries. "I expect Fuller to deck me when they get back."

"A brawl?" Sonny perked up. "Oh, yeah!" he smacked a fist into his palm. "Ground and pound."

Jason rubbed his eye with the heel of his hand not holding the coffee. It would probably come to that and he was in the mood to let it happen.

"We don't expect the kid to call us and say how the weather is, but wasn't he supposed to call Eric?" Ray asked. "Get your own plate."

"I expect to hear from him before they call it a night." Jason answered. "You're not gonna eat these." He fingered another orange stick. "...not carrots. What are they anyway?"

()

"Here." Karl sat down next to Clay. "Bet you're pretty sore." he held his hand out, two pills on his palm. "Water?"

"They're blue." Clay flicked a glance up from the fire. Oh yeah, his shoulder was throbbing. The blue gel pack had given him some relief but it was no longer cold and he didn't want to use another in case he felt worse tomorrow.

He had been ordered to stay at their campsite with Chase while the rest of Charlie went to scout the area, then get eyes on the camp they'd been sent to investigate. Clay hadn't wanted to remain behind, wanted to scout the area, go back up high, get a firm understanding of their surrounding area. Had offered to do so while Charlie went to spy on the camp, but Beau had had a fit. Clay swore smoke had come out of the man's ears. Eh, whatever.

Didn't matter, they weren't gone half an hour and they were back. Clay couldn't believe it, what the hell could they have possibly learned in thirty minutes? One thing Clay had learned was the camp they were sent here to observe was not far away.

"Yeah." Karl's eyes narrowed. "Oh, what, you don't trust me?"

Beau had given permission to light a fire. Clay wasn't too sure about that but Beau didn't like him questioning how far away the camp was, nor did Beau respond when Clay asked what they'd seen, and if they knew anything. Clay decided to let it go for now, figuring they'd soon be heading back to watch for night activity.

"I don't know you." Clay retorted. "What are they?"

"Aleve."

"So, Naproxen?" Clay shook his head. "I can't take that."

"Huh?"

"Trent says…." Clay bit his lip. Wow, watching what he said was harder than he thought. "Gives me leg cramps." He explained. "Calf."

Karl nodded. "Haven't heard that before. Not a common side effect."

"Who's Trent?" Bobby asked.

"Teammate," Clay answered, pushing to his feet. "I have gel-caps."

"Isn't Trent your medic?" Mick asked.

"Thought Bravo was a team of all shooters?" Bobby said. "No medic listed, right?"

"We are."

"Team of six snipers," Greg joined in. "Unofficially. On the books, Ray's thee sniper. Rumor has it though, so are you."

"We can all shoot." Clay pulled out the grey medical pack and rooted through it until he found the bottle of Advil liquid gel-caps. He put the pack back in his bag and sat down with a bottle of red Gatorade. "And Trent's not a medic. Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"You're not gonna puke that up, are you?" Mick asked warily. "Go sit over there."

"Do what?" Clay looked around. "What?"

"Quinn said red Gatorade makes you sick." Beau clarified.

Clay cursed. "It doesn't…Jesus Christ, no." He sighed. "I'm never gonna live this down. Sonny's an ass. It doesn't make me sick; hanging me upside down and bouncing me up and down by my feet after drinking a bottle of it - does."

"Why would Quinn do that to you?" Chase asked. "Sounds kinda mean."

"We were back from morning runs." Clay shrugged. Mean? They were horsing around. "Eric's always worried we'll dehydrate. If I have a complaint about Eric, it's that. Always wants us to drink. He's obsessed with it."

"Eric? You mean Blackburn?" Bobby asked. "Your Commander? He was there?"

"You call him Eric?" this from Mick who raised both eyebrows.

"Uh, yeah." Clay was confused. "We were on morning runs."

"He runs with you?" Greg whistled. "Your Commander?"

"Well, yeah." Clay still wasn't getting it. "Why wouldn't he?"

"Hayes is big on making his men run." Beau put in. "Run a lot of hills, don't you?"

"It's exercise." Clay said bewildered. "Yeah, we run. We all run, Jason too. And Eric, Davis, Ellis."

"Who are Davis and Ellis?" Karl asked.

"Quinn hangs you upside down, your Commander was there, and he let it happen?" Mick asked, trying to wrap his head around it all. "Where was Hayes? Didn't he stop it?"

"We were wrestling and…"

"After running?" Chase interrupted. "Why?"

Clay stared at Chase. "Because I beat him and Sonny doesn't like to lose. He'll wrestle, you now, tackle you and he'll tickle when…"

"Wait, what?" Karl waved Clay silent. "Sonny Quinn? Tickle?"

Clay gave up. He returned the bottle of Gatorade Fruit Punch to his backpack and withdrew a bottle of water. "Yeah, red Gatorade makes me sick."

"Time to think about bedding down." Beau said, standing up.

"What?" Clay didn't bother to sit back down. "Go to bed? It's dusk. Who's taking watch on the camp? Who's taking watch on our campsite? Are we doing four or six hour shifts?"

"No one is taking watch." Beau said. "No shifts. Can't see anything at the camp in the dark."

"You have to set watch. It's stupid not to." Clay shook his head in disbelief. "Use night vision binoculars."

"For what?"

"Activity? Arrivals? Departures? Anything!" Did Beau not realize most illegal activity occurred under people's misguided preconception that darkness offered protection? Or did he simply not care?

"Bravo, the team that never sleeps." Bobby teased.

"Bed down." Beau said again. "Don't worry about it."

"What time are we getting up to go watch the camp?" Clay didn't move. "So, one man on watch here, are you sending two or three of us to observe the camp?"

"Why would we set someone on watch?" Beau asked. "No one knows we're out here, there are no known hostiles in the area, we are not expecting an attack."

"You never leave your back unprotected, someone always has your six." Clay insisted. "And yeah, someone knows we're out here. You weren't gone thirty minutes; we hiked to the perimeter of our destination, so that camp is a five minute walk in that direction." He pointed away from the cliff. "They will smell the smoke from the fire. Hell, they can probably see the light from it."

"It's a farm." Beau said finally. "Now let it go."

"You sure about that?" Clay challenged. "What did you see in the 15-20 minutes you bothered to watch?"

"Yeah, I am." Beau was mighty sick of this kid. "We saw enough. Now it's time to bed down."

"What makes you so sure?" Clay asked. "Cause I'm not and I won't be until I see it for myself."

"And how long would you watch?" Beau demanded, patience at end. "Huh, Spencer? How long would you lie on your belly, in the mud, in the rain and watch people leave a house and milk cows?"

"Until I was sure they were doing their daily routine and not just making it look like they were operating a farm." Clay shot back. "If it takes more than 8 hours for a two-man watch team to be convinced, then it takes 8 hours and the next team relieves them."

"We're going back to base at dawn." Beau said. "We're done here, mission accomplished."

"So what?" Clay sighed. "We don't talk about this decision either?"

"I've had enough of you and your attitude. You may not be mine to discipline because you being here with Charlie isn't official, but so help me Spencer, I will find a way to put you on report and not even the great Jason Hayes will be able to bury that file."

Clay stared, stunned. He'd obeyed orders to remain at camp because his shoulder ached and his hamstrings were tight from his slide down the hill. And truth, he hadn't felt all that great after hanging upside down. But to hike all the way out here and not have each man take a turn watching and then compare what everyone saw and what they thought about it? That was just asinine.

And the threat of being put on report didn't faze him one whit.

"I didn't hike all the way up here just to turn around and go back." Clay faced off with Beau. "How can you report what you saw when we all didn't take a turn watching?"

"What are you going to do about it?" Beau challenged. "Stay up here by yourself?"

"Why not?" He wouldn't have to. Well, only for a couple of hours. He'd get eyes on the camp, decide for himself what was going on down there and then, if he felt he needed back-up, one call and his team would be on their way. If he felt it was indeed just a harmless farm, he'd hike back down, reach the road and call for someone to come pick him up. Hell, depending on what he saw, his team wouldn't have to hike. They'd come via chopper.

"It's not your mission. Not your decision." Beau rubbed his forehead. "I've had enough of this. Discussion over."

"That's not going to happen." Mick said quickly. "No one is staying out here alone."

"Five of us watched that camp." Beau began.

"All at the same time." Clay argued. "Which is stupid." He shook his head. "For what, twenty minutes? A six hour hike for twenty minutes? Wow."

Beau blinked. It was like it was Hayes standing here, going toe-to-toe with him.

"My report will be thorough."

"And if it's wrong?"

"Whoa!" Mick stepped between the two men. "Spenser, dude, you gotta back down." He reached to pat Clay's shoulder but Clay threw his arm out to avoid the touch. "Hey now."

"Let him be." Beau shook his head. "He wants to do this all on his own, let him." What was worse? Going back without Bravo's kid? Or taking him back pissed off and slightly injured?

"What are you saying?" Greg asked slowly. "You can't…you're not….uh Boss, I don't think it's at all a good idea to leave him up here alone. No one in command is going to like that."

"Yeah, okay Spenser, you need to learn when to back off." Mick said. "What time would you like to go and watch the camp? Set your alarm, get up and go. But now, bed down."

Clay wanted to sit by the fire, enjoy the sounds of crickets and tree frogs, hear the snap and crackle of the flames, but the misty rain returned and the company wasn't all that great, so after swallowing the gel-caps, he took his backpack and sleeping bag off to spread out beneath low hanging pine branches that protected him from most of the drizzle and hid the view of his present company.

"I don't like him so far away from the fire." Mick commented.

"Guess he doesn't like to get wet." Beau scoffed. "Pansy-ass, it's just a bit of rain."

"What do you think of him?" Mick asked Beau with a sigh when it was obvious Beau wasn't going to order Clay to return and find a place by the fire. "Bit head strong, don't you think? Fights the bit."

"He's a pain in the ass." Beau returned. "Doesn't do as he's told, doesn't listen, questions my authority, doubts my decisions, argues about everything. He's a cocky, arrogant, Hayes-fucking-junior." He looked around, but the only protection from the rain was where Clay had bedded down.

"You know Hayes better than I do. I only know him by reputation." Mick yawned. "Do you think Hayes would put up with that from the kid? Maybe you just aren't used to someone so young?"

"Oh, it ain't that." Beau snorted. "I don't know the men on Bravo too well, Ray's pretty easy-going, Sonny's a hot-head, Brock would rather sic that dog on you than talk to you and Trent never talks to anyone. Their support team….." and didn't that just piss off Beau and every other team leader out there. "…..just falls in behind without a word."

"Now, now." Mick chuckled. "That support team runs with Alpha, Echo, when needed. You'd get them you ever asked. You know that."

"They're Hayes's men. Wouldn't want them."

"Kid's in excellent shape. Helped pull him up from the edge." Mick changed the subject. "Can't pinch an inch on him."

"Everyone knows that about Bravo." Beau shrugged. "Doesn't make them better.

()

Clay woke at midnight tired, sore, stiff, damp, miserable. He hadn't slept well. Oh he was warm enough, even comfortable in his sleeping bag, but he hadn't been able to soak in a hot bath with Epsom salts and he was feeling both his descent down the hill and his body grab off the cliff.

He went upstream, washed up, brushed his teeth, gargled mouthwash. He chuckled as he pulled on dry socks, thought fondly of Lisa, got dressed again and went to pour a cup of coffee from the pot nestled in the embers of the died down fire.

"Hey." Chase joined him. "You, uh, washed up?"

"Gonna be up all night." Clay said, because to him, that explained his actions. "What are you doing up?"

"Heard you get up, move off." Chase watched him pour coffee into a thermos, add beans to the percolator urn and return it to the embers. "Coffee this late?"

"If your boss isn't worried about the smell of smoke or the light of a fire, I'm not worried about the smell of coffee."

That wasn't what Chase had meant, but he let it go. Who drank coffee at midnight? "You feeling okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Yeah, uh, hey, thanks." Chase said awkwardly. "For doing what you did."

Clay extended his fist for a bump, Chase left him hanging, not sure what he was supposed to do. Clay sighed, dropping his arm. "Sure, not a problem." He hoisted a backpack, smaller than the one he'd carried up the hill, slung it over his shoulder. "See you at dawn."

"You guys are pretty tight, aren't you?" Chase asked.

Clay shrugged. He guessed they were. No, no, no guessing. They were. He'd called Eric under the privacy of his pine tree haven, crawling out of his cozy sleeping bag and sticking his head out from beneath the branches to get and maintain a signal, reported that Charlie had spent twenty minutes, if that, observing the camp and were due to return in the morning. He'd asked for permission to ignore Beau's command to leave 'well enough alone' and get eyes on the target over night. Of course, Eric had said yes. But Eric had also said if Charlie was coming off that mountain in the morning, regardless of how much sleep Clay had managed to get, his ass had damn well better be with them when they hit transport.

Had in fact stated that someone would be there to greet Charlie, so Clay better not pull any stupid stunt and stay behind, because they would know he hadn't return as ordered.

"Yeah," Clay nodded. "Yeah, we are."

"Hey, wait for me, Beau said if you were determined to go off all half-cocked on your own, I should go with you."

"You got what you need?"

Chase shrugged. "I'm dressed."

You don't have a rain poncho, no knife, no flashlight, no night vision, no extra ammo clips – hell, no gun, no binoculars, no coffee, no water, nothing t eat….but woot, you're dressed.

"Hey, that's a sniper rifle." Chase said in awe.

Clay nodded. "Uh, yeah, I'm a sniper." Good grief, not very observant, this Charlie team. "Didn't you see me carry it up here?"

"What are you going to do with that?"

"Set it up, watch through the scope, how do you observe and watch?"

"There's no one to shoot."

"I don't intend to shoot." Clay sighed. "You have water? Something to eat?"

"How long do you intend to watch?"

"Past dawn." Clay sighed again.

"That's like six hours away."

Clay rubbed his forehead.

"Three minutes." Mick said, coming out of a shadow. "Or we go without you." He too, like Clay, was dressed in black, gun over his shoulder, backpack slung over opposite shoulder. Unlike Clay, his night goggles were atop his helmet. "Gear up Chase and let's go."

(three hours later)

Mick was miserable. Sprawled on his belly, elbows propped up in wet grass and cold mud to support the binoculars he was trying to view through with night vision goggles on, he was stiff, sore and pissed off.

The kid had night vision/infrared binoculars! What the hell? No on Charlie had them! Hadn't even thought to request them to bring with them on this mission. Beau would never have thought to observe the camp from over-view at night, or ordered it to be done. Yet, this kid had all the necessary equipment to do so. Mick could easily tell Clay was well used to these stake-outs. He was warm, dry, comfortable and well prepared.

When Clay had led them from camp, he'd started in the same direction Beau and the men had taken earlier, but veered off the path and instead of making a path over flat ground, had headed to that fucking hill and began to climb. Again.

Chase had looked at him like he thought Clay was crazy, but Mick had shrugged and started climbing after Clay, so Chase had fallen in without complaint.

And here they were. On their bellies, in a line, watching for any sign of activity within the camp below them. A camp that remained quiet and dark.

Mick had thought, eh, an hour. Maybe two and Clay would grow bored and restless, need to move, but nope, he set up his rifle, sighted the scope, laid down next to it, sipped coffee, munched on granola bars and watched through his binoculars.

"Do you guys do this all the time?" Chase whispered.

"Do what?"

"Watch dark buildings all night long?"

"Yup."

"Hayes makes you?" Mick asked.

"He takes his turn. He was out the night we went to the bar and made the bet. That's why he wasn't with us, he was tired…and…." He pushed up on his knees, the crickets had gone silent. Not even a tree frog chirped. Something or someone was on the move. "Anyone see anything?"

"No, why?" Chase asked. "Like what? Possum maybe? Raccoon?"

"It's quiet." Clay slowly, quietly, carefully moved to get another view, this one of the campsite where Charlie was bedded down. "Beau set anyone on watch?"

"No." Mick felt unease creep into his bones. Clay was tense, focused on something that had nothing to do with the camp below. "What is it?"

"Someone's moving on our campsite." Clay let the binoculars fall to hang on their strap around his neck, picked up his rifle and moved to a new location. He quickly stripped the suppressor off and sighted in.

"A silencer on a sniper rifle?" Mick wondered. "Really? You, uh…..wow."

"Depends on the mission, and this is not all that high powered a rifle." he cursed. "I can't see anyone, can't pick them up." He picked up his binoculars, scanned the area. "Anyone?"

"But you're sure someone is out there?" Mick questioned.

"Yeah, and they're not milking cows." Clay responded. "Gotcha." He again dropped the binoculars. "On my shot, you run like hell for our camp. Shot should wake everyone up."

"You can't just shoot someone in the dark!" Chase objected. "You don't even know if they mean to do us harm."

"Not going to wait and find out." Clay retorted. "They reach our campsite, catch the guys unaware, it's a blood bath."

Of all the stupid things to say…..yeah, men sneaking around quietly in the dark meant to do them harm. No doubt about it.