"It's a foreign language."

There was a transmission flickering across the screen in the war room. There were a few of them in the room. Amongst them were Kimball, North, York, Carolina, Wash, and Mac.

It had been Kimball who had made that statement, looking around the room as she did so, "Does anyone know that language?"

It wasn't long before Mac sighed, "Tucker."

Everyone turned around to look at her, surprised.

"Why Tucker?"

She could especially feel North and Wash's glances on her, but Mac decided to ignore them in favor of answering Kimball's question.

"It's Sangheili. Tucker speaks it fluently due to his kid, Junior. He was an ambassador for a while when the Blood Gulch Crew had all been relocated before meeting up again." She explained quickly, leaving out the details.

Kimball and the others could ask the aqua-clad soldier about them soon enough.

Kimball nodded at that, "I take it that you understand some of it too?"

Mac nodded reluctantly, "Only a few words. Not enough to translate." Which wasn't exactly a lie: she understood enough to know what the content of the message was and, most importantly, who transmitted the message.

"I would recommend getting Tucker for this message. He's a lot better with Sangheili than I am." She explained.

Kimball nodded, "Okay, then please go and get him."

Mac was out of the door in the next second and breaking into a run the moment the door to the war room had closed. She didn't stop until she reached Tucker, who was training the lieutenants.

Stepping into the training area, she decided to pull her higher rank than Tucker to get them to go, "Lieutenant's, another five laps and then you're dismissed!"

Tucker's head snapped around at that, "What the fuck, Mac?!"

Said person didn't let him rant anymore. She shot the lieutenants a pointed glare to make them leave and grabbed Tucker's arm to pull him out of earshot. That didn't actually stop Tucker from ranting, however.

When they were around a corner, she turned around and laid both of her hands on his shoulders.

Tucker shut up immediately, knowing that something was up.

"We got a distress signal. It's Sangheili." Albeit not able to see his eyes, she knew that Tucker's eyes went wide at the implication. The woman tilted her head a bit, "My Sangheili isn't the best, but ..."

Tucker's posture went rigid.

"It's Junior, and he's in trouble."

That was all that was needed for Tucker to break out of her gentle grip and all but run to the war room, with Mac on his heels. Upon entering the room, he tore off his helmet.

"What's this about a transmission?!"

Everyone looked over at Tucker's outburst, but the aqua-clad soldier didn't pay them much mind. Wash looked over to Mac with a curious gleam in his eyes and she shook her head lightly in response. Nobody seemed to notice that since everyone was focused on the young, dark-skinned man.

"Show me the transmission!" Tucker demanded.

Kimball nodded for once and pressed a button on her desk to replay the message. It was silent for a moment, then a cacophony of guttural noises and syllables echoed through the room again. Tucker listened to it, throwing the blue and white-clad soldier a fearful glance. The tilt to her helmet was meant to be comforting.

When the transmission ended, he exhaled.

"Is this Sangheili as Mac explained?" Kimball asked, her eyes trained on the aqua-clad soldier who sorrow was rolling off of just then in waves.

"Yes." Tucker said in a tone that was a mix of defeated and tense, "It's Sangheili. It's an emergency call from the Temple of Asteroid's Orbit."

Wash beside him pulled up the map with the Temple of Asteroid's orbit. The temple was able to influence the asteroids floating around their planet for the better or the worse.

Tucker continued, "It said that he's in trouble and that he needs help."

"He?" Kimball asked simply, listening to the soldier. The Freelancers kept quiet, since Tucker seemed to be in such turmoil.

"Yes. He!" Tucker snapped, slamming his flat hand on the table.

"It's a male's voice!" he insisted, with Kimball only lifting an eyebrow at him.

"You're quite sure about that? To me, the males and females all sound the same." York then decided to jump in, causing Mac to sigh heavily.

Idiot. It wasn't hard to pick up on Tucker's obvious distress.

Said soldier's head whipped around, fixing the tan-wearing soldier with a smoldering glare that made him back down a step, "He's my son, asshole!"

The whole room fell dead silent at that.

"He's… your son." Kimball stated after a while.

Tucker was still being restless. Wash and Mac decided to take their spots beside Tucker, keeping said solder between them in silent comfort.

"Yes, Junior is my son!" Tucker snapped.

Mac laid a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. Seeing Wash's arm moving slightly, she was sure that he had grasped Tucker's hand with the same intention.

"I'm not exactly bragging about him since people tend to react like dicks when you tell them that you got impregnated by a fucking alien." He fumed, Mac intensifying her grip on his shoulder gently.

Tucker growled, "How do you think that I got to be a fucking ambassador in the first place?! I didn't wake up one day and thought 'Oh hey, I am going to learn Sangheili because it's one of the most complicated languages in the universe!'"

Kimball decided not to pry any further into the matter and looked at everyone in the group. Wash had laid an arm around Tucker's shoulders and had pulled him close to him as well as a bit into the background to keep him away from the front. Mac had let go of Tucker's shoulder in the process.

Mac decided to speak up since Tucker was too angry to form a coherent sentence.

"Junior is, as you all know by now, Tucker's son. They are both two of the most important ambassadors Sanghelios ever had and It would be a good idea to start a rescue mission. Not only because he's Tucker's son, but also because rescuing him would put us on more even ground with the Sangheili colonies living close-by."

Kimball's glance wandered over to Tucker, who nodded curtly.

"They live for honor. If you rescue someone of their tribe, you become something like a brother to them. The more important the person you rescue, the more of a brother you are." He explained curtly, Mac throwing him a small smile.

Given that Tucker's stance was relaxing, he had gotten the hint.

"In any case, I would strongly recommend starting a rescue mission soon. Given the odds, I recommend it being us: the members of the Blood Gulch Crew with the Freelancers for backup. We all know Junior and about alien tech."

It was silent for a moment, and Kimball looked to everyone in the room. All nodded.

The leader of Chorus sighed, "Okay, but I will have you take a medic with you. We don't know how heavily injured Junior is. I will hope for the best for him, but we have to be prepared for the worst. We now have…" With that she checked the clock, "Around fifteen hundred. The rescue mission starts tomorrow at six hundred. Make sure to be ready."

Everyone in the room saluted, with even Tucker doing a proper salute, and soon everyone left.

Except for the three figures clad in aqua, blue-white and steel and yellow armor.

It was Tucker who spoke up first, "Hey, Kimball?"

The leader looked up at that.

"Thank you for the mission."

The leader of Chorus, not having worn her helmet this whole time, smiled at him.

"Make sure you all come home safe and sound with Junior. Mac is right about this rescue being a good way to increase our diplomatic relations with the Sangheili tribes. Besides, it's your son and you helped us enough for me to help you when you're in trouble." she explained.

Taking up her tablet, she silently declared the discussion over with.

The three remaining soldiers left the room, Tucker and Wash sealing their helmets in place and opening the already existing private channel between the three of them.

"So Junior is your son that you showed me pictures of?" Wash asked, while all three of them decided to go directly to the mess hall for dinner.

"Yeah." Tucker exhaled, feeling the energy drain from him from his former excitement, "He kept on traveling through space and working as an ambassador after I had been relocated back to Blood Gulch." Tucker explained, all three of them lining up.

Mac settled on a sandwich and explained that she was planning on eating in her room later while preparing her weapons.

"That's why you often said that you didn't know where he is?" Wash was trying not to pry, but he still wanted to get some information out of his boyfriend.

"Yep. He often used to send me a message whenever he could from his travels, but lately I haven't heard from him." Tucker decided on some mashed potatoes along with something that resembled a sausage and some tomato-like looking courgettes.

"I see. So, we're heading out tomorrow. We better prepare to bring him home safe and sound." Wash's voice definitely carried a smile in it but also determination.

Tucker's did too when he replied, "Hell yeah!"

Mac took that as her cue to leave, "I'm going to start preparing to get some rest for the night. See you tomorrow, guys."

Wash nodded at that, whereas Tucker asked, "Come on, you can't always run. You have to tell him eventually."

"I will, Tucker. But with the actual developments at hand, it would only cause him to be distracted and this would be more of a danger to us than a help." She explained, grabbing the sandwich and deciding on accompanying the guys to the table.

Tucker wanted to protest, but Wash cut in, "She's right, Tucker. It wouldn't help us in this situation if either of them is distracted."

Tucker's shoulders slumped slightly at that.

"But you're telling him after this is over and done with, okay, sis?" he asked then in a deflated tone.

Mac nodded, "I will. Promise."

"Speaking of promises..." Tucker continued, throwing her a pointed glare, "You didn't forget the other one you gave me, did you?"

Mac snorted at that, "I haven't, dear little brother," She explained with a smile, "But the situation doesn't allow it at the moment. I will do it afterwards, I promise."

Tucker grunted at that, but obviously was okay with her explanation for now.

While the two men sat down at the table, she patted both Wash and then Tucker on their backs and left the mess hall with her sandwich, running into North on her way out. She lifted her hand for a casual wave to greet him silently and left, while North entered the mess hall and got some food.

Sitting down at the table, he took off his helmet and looked over to Tucker and Wash who were silently eating their food.

"So… A kid, huh?" he asked, piercing one of the tomatoes.

"Yeah, you have something to say about that?" Tucker snapped, always becoming protective of his son since many of the people he met tended to react with disgust and rejection of Junior. It took Tucker quite a while to get him to ignore those dickwads.

"Nothing. I just was surprised. You don't look like you have had a child." North explained.

Tucker huffed at that, "Want to see the huge scar on my abdomen? Or the blue lines over my upper back and arms from having him?" he snapped.

North blinked at that response.

"Stop it, both of you." Wash slammed down his fork with an audible clatter.

"Sorry, buddy," The youngest of the Freelancers looked over to North, "That's kind of a sore subject and you honestly don't know enough of us yet to talk about that."

North blinked and nodded, a bit taken aback.

With that, Wash turned around to Tucker. He deliberately grabbed his chin and turned the dark-skinned man's head around to make him look into his steel-grey eyes.

"Nobody here is either judging your or wanting to take Junior away from you. Calm down. We can't use you tomorrow if you're going to be so nervous. You're going to bring us a whole lot trouble if you're that anxious."

Tucker stared at his boyfriend for a moment with fury in his eyes, but closed them eventually and took a shuddering breath in and out, "Yeah, yeah, fucking fine. I'll calm down."

Wash smiled at that and let go of the younger male's face, letting him continue with his food.

Aside from Mac, every member of the crew was sitting around the table and eating happily.

Simmons had calmed down now, although Wash couldn't shake the feeling that him and Grif had finally gotten their act together since Grif and Simmons were acting slightly different than usual. They were still bickering like an old married couple, but there was a new tone of fondness towards one another in both of their voices.

Anyways, North obviously got the point without becoming angry, which would be highly unusual for him besides, and decided to change the subject, "It looks like Mac has become better around us newcomers?"

Tucker wasn't really in the mood for talking so Wash had to take over, "Yeah, as Carolina told you, she'll warm up eventually." He explained, having become better at lying over the years so North wouldn't call bullshit the moment he heard that.

His fellow Freelancer obviously bought the explanation and nodded, "I am glad she's feeling more at ease around me."

If only you could know… Wash thought to himself, answering out loud, "She is, just keep up with what you're doing. She's going to come around completely. She had some trouble accepting me too at first."

He cringed inwardly when he remembered how they had actually met after Mac had gotten her new arm. Ouch.

In her room, Mac had just finished her sandwich and started cleaning her weapons. She did the same as she taught her pupils: clean your weapons, keep them in shape, and they will save your ass out there.

The movements were so used to her by now that her nimble fingers worked their way fast and effectively through the cleansing of each of her weapons. She started with the sniper rifles, then the SMGs, followed by her katanas and her knife.

After having cleaned each of the weapons, she checked the magazines—stating contentedly that the clips were full and that she had some extra clips in addition to put in her storage units.

When done with restocking her weapons, she put the surplus clips in her storage units in her armor.

Having prepared everything, she sat down in front of the pile of her armor, opening the compartment on the left side and taking out the pictures she had taken with her after rejoining the army thanks to Hollaway helping her.

Rest in peace…

Hollaway had been her first and best CO she ever had, aside from Wash. Wash was an awesome CO, even if a bit crazy, but they all were… so she couldn't hold it against him.

In any way, Hollaway was great and had also been accepting of her as a woman and had always treated her equal to the other soldiers in her Platoon. Although it wasn't so uncommon for females to join the army, there still were those assholes who treated you like you're somehow worth less because you're a woman.

Hollaway not doing that had been like a blessing for her.

By the time she had to fend for herself after joining Tucker, she could keep her ground. Although that wasn't really necessary anymore given the group she was tagging along with: the Blood Gulch Crew didn't give a shit if she was a woman or a man.

She had been adopted by them at some point during the fight against Wash back then, and after having saved some of the guys' asses and given all of the other shit they had gone through together, she had become a member of the crew.

Besides that, having known Tucker beforehand and being friends with him for a short period of time before meeting the rest of them had made it easier to decide on which team she would end up on. It was easier for the other guys to trust her given her friendship with Tucker as well.

Sighing, she put away the picture of all the crew members, including her and Wash, at Crash Site Bravo. She could also see Carolina in it, so the picture had been taken before she had disappeared.

In the next picture, she saw Tucker, Junior, and her… all of them smiling into the camera.

She had hated the Sangheili back then.

Hell, she had almost shot Junior the first time they met. But thanks to Junior and Tucker, she had learned to respect the Elite and eventually had learned more about their culture.

When fighting a war, you like to think that your opponent is a monster. It makes it easier to fight them and put a bullet in their bodies when you see them as bloodthirsty monsters instead of individuals with emotions, possibly with a family of their and who might even have someone they want to return to as you do.

What makes them… Human. No matter if they're actual humans themselves or members of another race.

Putting this picture away, she could see the pictures of her and North. Most of them were with Theta, but there were some where they were outside and Theta had not been allowed to show himself.

In any case, she smiled sadly.

Tucker was right: she had to tell North and she had to go to Grey eventually. She not only promised it, but she couldn't put it off much longer. It was already starting to draw people's attention. It was starting to make people talk since she had changed her behavior so much.

She had to come clean eventually.

Okay!

With new determination, she exhaled and opened her eyes to put away the pictures.

She would do the mission tomorrow and she would see how it turned out. If both herself and North weren't injured, she would tell him in the same night that they would return. He had the fucking right to know and she couldn't play the hard-to-get high school girl any longer than she already had.

She was able to sort out her thoughts already: what was left to do could only be sorted out together with North. She needed his opinion too before she would be able to get remotely close to getting over whatever she was carrying around with her. And given the numbers of injuries she had sustained and how bad they were, she would go to Doctor Grey within the next few days and get the old problem of her miscarriage checked out.

Tucker was right: it was causing her pain still and she needed to get that checked out.

Standing up, she decided on a third thing as well.

She would sleep now and decide after the mission on how to do it. She didn't know how it would play out and she had to spontaneously decide on how to approach it. But one thing was sure: she had to do it soon after coming back with the others and informing the necessary people.

Closing her eyes, she let the muscles in her body relax and soon after she fell into the dark abyss of sleep.