Jason liked to think that he was good at thinking on his feet, it was what made him a great leader - he was good at adapting and overcoming. But he also liked it when he had a plan, when he knew how things would work out and that was why he was sitting at the kitchen table with a notebook in front of him as he ran through what he knew was planned for Bravo in the upcoming month.

Between physicals, training and exercises he'd realized that his rookie was going to need help with his sister long before they were back on rotation. Even with his girlfriend there was no way they would make this work without childcare and Jason, well Jason had a plan.

The sudden opening of the front door had him look up from his notebook and then he smiled as he saw that it was his plan in question coming home.

"Hi, Em." he said with a smile and got to his feet as his daughter made her way into the kitchen.

"Dad! You're home!." Emma shrieked as she ran around the table and threw herself into her fathers arms.

"Yeah, we got back around noon." he said as he gently rocked her back and forth a few times before he let go and sat back down at the table.

"Did everyone make it home okay?" she asked as she sat down in the chair next to him.

"Yep, all 6 members of Bravo Team are back safe and…"

"7, dad." Emma interrupted. "At least I hope you didn't leave Cerb - or one of the guys - behind?"

Jason chuckled and shook his head.

"No, you're right, all 7 members of Bravo are back safe and sound."

"Good. What are you up to?" she asked with a glance at his chicken scratches on the paper in front of him.

Jason glanced down at his notes and then back to his daughter.

"I'm going over some Bravo stuff… Em, are you still planning on taking a year off before going to college?"

Emma narrowed her eyes at his question.

"Why? If you're gonna try and convince me again that I shouldn't…"

"No, no. I know we had that conversation with your mother before and if taking a year off to consider what and where you want to study I'm going to support you." Jason said and held his hands up in a placating gesture.

"Then why do you ask?"

"Well… I was hoping that you would be up for some nannying or babysitting, depending on how the situation develops."

"What? Who's going to need childcare? Uncle Ray and aunt Naima?" Emma asked with a frown because she was pretty sure that Jameelah and RJ were being looked after by the grandma when aunt Naima worked.

Jason shook his head.

"No, actually one of the boys found out they have a much younger sister and she's coming to live with him - tonight."

Emma gaped at her dad. A much younger sibling? As she quickly ran through the members of Bravo in her head she decided that it was either Bravo 3 or 6 he was talking about.

"Please tell me it's Clay and not uncle Sonny. Because as much as I love uncle Sonny I can't picture him as a guardian of anyone." she said with a chuckle as she tried to imagine it and just couldn't.

Jason chuckled as well as he tried to do the same and no, as much as he loved him, Sonny had enough with taking care of himself, adding a toddler felt like a recipe for disaster.

"Yes, it's Clay. He found out he has a 2 year old sister who's mom has just died and their father is a piece of shit who wants nothing to do with the little girl, leaving Clay her only living relative and the only one who can take her in."

"Oh, that's so sad!" Emma said and really had to work to keep her tears at bay.

"It is. So what do you say, Em? Interested?"

"Yeah, sure," she answered with a shrug, "if I'm needed I'm more than happy to help. Do we know how much help he'll need? I mean day-to-day when you guys aren't spun up."

Jason once again shook his head. "No, I have no clue how much help he'll need. He has Stella but who knows how she'll react and how involved she'll be. They don't officially live together either, she has her own place, so it might be that he'll need quite a lot of help."

Emma nodded her head and then started to get up from her chair. Just as she got to her feet she paused.

"Wait, what's her name? I can't believe I almost forgot to ask."

"Clay said she goes by Katie but her actual name is Katherine."

'Katherine' Emma mouthed silently to herself. "Yeah, that's a big name for a toddler. I understand why she's called Katie. I'm gonna go up to my room and finish some homework now if that's all?"

Jason smiled at his girl, waved her away and as she left he turned back to his notebook. He loved it when a plan came together.

After unfolding one last moving box Clay let out a sigh as he looked around the now empty storage closet. If there was one upside to only having lived here for a few months before deployment it was that he hadn't had time to accumulate a bunch of stuff in there. 3 boxes of books, one of old mementos and a few bags of random stuff he hadn't know what to do with was all he'd put in there and now all of it had found new homes (in his bedroom closet, linen closet and under the couch but that was something to deal with another day).

As he stood there looking, Stella moved in beside him and glanced around as well.

"Yeah, this room is going to need some help before it looks inviting to anyone." she said with a frown.

"It does but it'll have to do at least for tonight and really, it isn't like there's enough room in here for it to be a play space, most toy's will probably end up in there." Clay answered and pointed over his shoulder towards the living area.

Stella opened her mouth to say something else but knocking on the door stopped her and they both turned on their heels at the sound.

Clay glanced down at his watch and seeing that it was only 5.36pm he knew it was probably Alana and Naima so he quickly moved to open the door and was greeted by the wives of Bravo 1 and 2.

"Hey Clay," Alana said with a smile, "I hope we're not interrupting but we wanted to make sure we brought everything we put together over before the little one arrived."

"You're not interrupting and I'm so thankful you guys wanted to help out." Clay answered and stepped out of the doorway so that the two women could come in.

"Good to see you Clay, can you please grab that?" Naima asked, pointing to a big black storage box sitting on the floor next to her.

Clay nodded and reached for the box in the hall and as he stood back up his eyes widened as he took in the amount of things the two women had managed to stack outside his door.

Naima chuckled a little at his wide eyes and clapped him gently on the shoulder as she moved past him into the apartment.

"Kids come with a lot of stuff Clay, this is just to start you guys off." she said with a smirk and then she handed off the bag she'd been holding to Alana who in turn had already put down what Clay assumed was some sort of bed.

As Clay went back for another storage box in the hall he wondered for the millionth time, what had he gotten himself into?