Well, here I am, back with another chapter for you guys. I am so sorry that it's a week late, but I've had so much stuff going on in my life right now, and I was really overwhelmed. However, before we jump into the chapter, I really just wanna take a moment to thank everyone who's reading this story, following or favoriting it. It means the world to me that you guys are actually interested in reading what I have to write, and I just wanted to say thank you.
I'm planning on having around six or seven chapters, and while most of them are plotted out and even partially written, it's a well known fact that plot bunnies can be slippery little suckers. I'm not entirely sure that I'm happy with this chapter, but I figured I'd made y'all wait more than long enough, so this will have to do.
Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

There was nothing in the world that could have prepared Jane Halden for the sight that would await her on her running trail when she left the house that morning. She and her dog Boone had hit the trail for a run the same way they did everyday, when about a mile and a half in, she saw a man sitting on a large rock, and he was curled in on himself. Afraid that there was something wrong, she slowed to a stop a few yards away from him. She watched as his eyes flickered up to her, and he unfurled himself to sit normally on the rock. He didn't speak, and he wouldn't look her in the eye, and for a few moments all she could do was stare at him. Boone stood beside her looking up at her and waiting for permission to go and greet this stranger.

Apparently Boone was just as interested in him as she was.

She took a deep breath, hoping she wasn't disturbing the strange upset of this strange man, and spoke to him.

"Hey, uh, mister? You like dogs?" she asked. She couldn't figure out another way to try to distract the man, so she found herself using her dog as a diversion, as she so often did. He looked up at her again, seeming to come back to himself. He visibly shook his head, and his eyes seemed to clear. It looked for the first time as though he was actually looking at her, as though he hadn't seen her at all the entire time she'd been standing there. He looked down at Boone and smiled slightly.
"Yeah, I like dogs. Who's this?" he responded. Jane smiled to herself, because at least he seemed more human now.
"This is Boone, he's a real sweet boy. Go on Boone, go say hi," she said. Boone responded immediately, running the length of his leash to go and greet the man before them. The man reached down at the same time as Boone jumped up on the rock, and they smacked their heads together.

Jane tried not to laugh, she really did, but she was only human. She covered her mouth with her hand while she chuckled quietly. She watched as the man laughed, at himself or at Boone she couldn't tell, but it was nice to see this stranger laughing instead or crying as he so obviously had been. Boone stretched up the rock and licked the man's face, and Jane hoped desperately that the man didn't mind dog kisses. For the first time Jane really looked at the man before her. He was quite handsome, curly blonde hair and sharp blue eyes. His eyes were puffy, and his beard was a few days too long for her preference, but she was sure that underneath the rough edges there was a decent looking human being.

If you asked her why exactly she was so drawn to this man, why she was so interested in him, she wouldn't be able to tell you. If you happened to already know, and told her yourself, she wouldn't have believed you.

"What's your name?" she asked him. For a moment all he did was stare at her while he scratched Boone behind the ears. Weird as he was, she couldn't avert her gaze.
"Uh, Clay. My name's Clay. Yours?" he answered.
"Jane. Say, whatcha doin' sitting around out here on a running trail?"
"Just going through some stuff, I guess? Mostly just feeling sorry for myself. Not much of anything, apparently."

Jane knew the feeling. As she stared at this man– Clay, she reminded herself– she found herself becoming more and more enthralled with him. How he looked, how he spoke; she felt like a schoolgirl with a crush and she hadn't even known Clay for… Well, she didn't actually know him at all.

"Well, Clay, I believe that an existential crisis calls for finishing your run, and then grabbing some food. If you wanna? I mean, if you wanna sit here all by your lonesome, well then, don't let me stop you. But, if you want, the offer's there," Jane said.

With Clay staring at her like she'd grown another head, her confidence managed to shrivel and soar at the same time. Had she really just asked Clay on a date? Well, maybe not a date, but… Clay might think that she was asking him out. Was she being too forward? Had she overstepped? What would he think of–

"Yeah. Actually, that sounds really nice. How far up the trail are we headed?" Clay answered, chuckling and effectively interrupting her train of thought. Jane smiled as she watched him climb down from the rock and make his way towards her, Boone trailing happily alongside him.

It occurred to her then that she still didn't know Clay. He could be a serial killer, that the past five minutes had been an act to catch her off guard. He could kill her out on this trail, and nobody might find her body for a while. As she was kicking herself for leaving her stun gun in the truck, she looked at Boone, and then at Clay, and her worry left her almost as soon as it came on.

Her dog had always been a really good judge of character.

For a while they walked together in silence, Boone walking between them and back on his leash, but it wasn't long before Clay started trying to make small talk. Asking her questions about herself, like what did she like to do, where was she from, and other similar things. She answered almost all of them honestly, until he got to the subject of family in the area. It was an innocent question but they both flinched when he asked it, and she couldn't tell if he had noticed her discomfort and had reacted to that, or if he hadn't even realized he'd asked the question, and had immediately regretted it when he had.

She chuckled nervously, stuttering out something about her family not really living close by, and that was that. He seemed to take her answer for what it was, and whether or not he knew that she was lying, he didn't let on one way or another. Before long, they come to the end of the trail which leads back into the parking lot, and they stand still near each other for what was probably too long of a time to be considered normal by any sense of the word.

"So, where do you wanna eat? Do you usually go anywhere after a run?" Jane asked. She didn't know what had possessed her to invite Clay out to eat, but whatever the reason was, that only her subconscious seemed to know, she knew that she couldn't have let him sit miserably up on that rock.
"I don't go anywhere in particular. Do you?" he responded.
"Well, I generally just hit up this really good food truck on the way back to my place, but that's mostly because the owner just really likes Boone, and she always gives him a smaller dog friendly breakfast burrito so the feeling's definitely mutual. That sound okay? You don't have to if you don't want to, ya know," she said. Boone perked his ears at the mention of his beloved burrito, and if the vet said it was okay then who was she to take that away from him?
"Sounds good to me, I love a good food truck," he answered, and that was all she needed.
"You wanna follow me there?"
"Seems like the only good way to do it. I'm terrible with directions," he laughed.

There was that laugh again. It sounded like… Well, she didn't know what it sounded like, but she wanted to hear it again and again. Jesus, when did she become such a hopeless romantic? Surely she wasn't that far head over heels for a guy she'd only just met?

"Alright, then. See you there." And with that, she made her way over to her truck and climbed in behind Boone. In her haste to hide her blushing smile, she didn't even notice the same one reflected on the face of the no-longer stranger.

~SEAL Team~

When Clay had first seen Jane from his perch on the rock in the middle of the woods, his first thought had been that this woman before him was batshit crazy. Who else would approach a random man that they didn't know just to strike up a conversation?

Now, pulling his car into a parking lot that he'd only ever seen in passing, he was so thankful that she had.

He knew that he looked like a wreck, eyes no longer puffy and wet but nonetheless bloodshot, and his hair in a state of disarray that he generally tried to avoid, but when he was standing next to her, he found that he actually didn't really care. He didn't really believe in love at first sight, but he couldn't find it in his brain to tell his heart to shut the fuck up every time she smiled in his direction.

They both parked, and in a flash they were standing in the short line in front of the food truck waiting to place their orders. He couldn't stop staring into her eyes. They were his favorite shade of green. When they got to the window, a man popped into view and immediately lit up.

"Hiya Jane! The usual?" He said quickly, clearly trying to take care of all of his customers at once and doing an honestly admirable job with it. Jane smiled at him, and her eyes lit up when she did.
"The usual's fine, Rocky, thanks!" She turned to Clay. "Whatcha in the mood for Clay? Rocky makes the best pancakes around, but he makes other stuff too." Clay couldn't really read the menu from where he was standing, so he just went with the pancakes.
"Alright Jane, total's $15.23," Rocky said.
"You got Boone's burrito?"
"Woman, who do you take me for? Of course I did, I had that rung up before you got to my counter," Rocky laughed. Jane laughed with him, but when she pulled out her wallet, Clay reached his card up to the counter.
"Clay, I can't ask you to do that, I got it."
"Well, you're not asking, I'm just doing it. Besides that, it's the least I can do."

Jane relented, and Clay paid for their food, and then Jane asked him if he would be willing to go and pick them out a spot at one of the picnic tables that were spread out in the parking lot in front of the food truck. He did so, and when he'd found one and sat down, he looked back to see her and Rocky laughing at something as he handed her the food.

Why did she have to be so damn beautiful when she laughed?

~SEAL Team~

"I thought we would never get to leave that fucking jungle," Sonny exclaimed, throwing his go bag down beside the jump seats on the plane.
"That's the fourth time you've said that since we got back to base, Sonny. Please, for the love of God, give it a rest," Ray groaned. Sonny looked at him like he wanted to argue with him again, but Ray's threats over the past week must have sunk in because all he did was scowl and flop down on the seats.

Jason was exhausted, and he knew his team had to be the same. When they'd finally reached their destination in the middle of the aforementioned jungle, they discovered that the information given to them had been a farce. The was a base of operations there, but it was a series of shambled buildings that housed an admirably sized distillery. Sonny had been ready to charge down the hill from their overlook point just to see if they'd let him drink his frustration away, but he didn't think they'd be very willing to share with a member of the American military.

When they'd made their hike back the way they came, everyone, but especially Sonny, was in a particularly sour mood. They'd spent all that time and energy, and they had absolutely nothing to show for it. They had their surveillance photos and footage for Lisa to review when they got back, but Jason didn't see how she would be able to turn up anything different than they already had. Jason just wanted to be home. He wanted to sleep in his bed and not on the floor of a forest. He wanted to know how their youngest team member was doing, but nobody from TOC had made contact with them for the entirety of the mission so that meant that there had been no contact of any kind and they had no idea what kind of shape Clay was in after all the time Bravo had been gone.

Making it back to base in one piece was a godsend, especially when none of them had more than a few mosquito bites, and Eric had been waiting for them in the pickup van. It was then that they were greeted with the news that Clay's name had been cleared of any wrongdoing, and that his status had been fully reinstated. Nobody had told Clay that yet, and Bravo was meant to tell him the good news when they returned stateside.

Being on the plane was decidedly more comfortable than being in the jungle, and Jason let the gentle sway of his hammock bring his mind down from the stress of the mission. Lisa chose that moment to make her way over with Bravo's phones, which had been misplaced with the gear that had been loaded onto the plane. Jason was pretty sure that whoever the unlucky bastard that had managed that still had ringing in his ears, because Lisa didn't take kindly to people who didn't do her old job right.

Jason sat up slightly to take his phone from her, as the other guys scrambled to do the same. The notification at the top of his screen was that he had a missed call. From Clay. Clay had his orders, he wouldn't break them unless something was seriously wrong. Something had to be wrong.

He didn't even have to think twice before he hit play on the voicemail, and when they noticed his expression, Bravo gathered around him and fell completely silent.

"Hey, Jase. I uh, I know I'm not supposed to call you or any of the other guys, but I… I didn't know what else to do. I didn't do it Jason. I didn't give any information about our missions to Ash, I swear." It was silent for a moment before he continued. "He uh… He came by just a few minutes ago. I didn't wanna let him in, but I guess after all these years I still don't know how to say no to him. I'm… I'm scared Jason. I'm… I guess I'm just really hoping that you don't think it was me. You know me, at least, I hope you do. I don't know what to do. And I know you probably won't even get this message for a few more days, but I just needed you to know that I'm sorry, that I didn't do it. Please believe me." Clay sniffled on the other side of the phone, and then the voicemail ended.

All of his guys, even Lisa, were standing around him in shock. Ash had gone to Clay? They all knew that Clay had no relationship, no contact with the man that had the audacity to call himself Clay's father. The fact that he'd gone to Clay's apartment was scary in and of itself, but that Clay had let him in? Or been bullied into letting him in? It almost made Jason's head explode. They were going to be on this plane for another sixteen hours, and that just left them sixteen hours away from their younger brother who was clearly hurting, who needed them.

Jason tried not to make a habit out of worrying about things that were completely out of his control, but after three times of trying to dial Clay's number and it going straight to voicemail, he couldn't help it. After laying in his hammock for a few more minutes, he grew restless and decided to get up and sit with Eric for a while. On paper, Blackburn was nothing more than their commander, the man directly in charge of everything Jason and the rest of Bravo did. In reality, he was one of Jason's best friends and highest secret keepers, second only to Ray when it came down to it. He made his way closer to the middle of the plane where Blackburn was leaning over a small table full of filing folders and assorted documents. Jason leaned against the other side, and tried to make sense of what Eric was looking at, and when he couldn't, he asked for clarification.

"Why are we interested in these? I thought we got all the information that was needed," he asked quietly, understanding of everyone's exhaustion and trying to keep his voice down.
"Ya know, I've been asking myself the same question for thirty minutes, and I haven't figured out the answer to that yet. Something doesn't feel right about what you guys saw, but I can't figure out why. It should have been run-of-the-mill, and it was, but something is off," Eric responded.

Jason continued staring at the pages, hopeful that he would get some insight into Blackburn's gut feeling, but nothing came to him. Eventually, Blackburn sighed quietly and stepped away from the table, turning off the light that was illuminating the papers and photographs as he did. Jason followed him to the seats that lined the wall of the plane, and sat down next to him, both of them just existing in the silence while their minds were running a million miles a minute.

"Did you overhear any of Clay's voicemail?" Jason asked finally.
"I did." Came the response.
"He's hurting."
"He is."
"Dammit, Eric," Jason sighed, burying his face in his hands. "He thinks we abandoned him. He won't say it, but we all know that that's where his mind would have led him. He believes that he's never gonna get his name cleared, and he doesn't know that it already has been, because he won't answer the damn phone."

Eric, for all of his hardass exterior, gently placed his hand on the Master Chief's knee. Jason looked him in the eye, and took a deep breath. Yes, he was probably over-reacting, and there was nothing he could do about what Clay did or didn't believe while they were in the air, still fifteen hours from VA beach. Fuck, when would this god-forsaken mission finally end?

"Alright, alright, I get it. Ya know, one of these days, you're gonna run out of expressions that tell me what to do without you ever opening your mouth, and then what, huh? We'll both be outta luck," Jason groaned.

He got up and made his way back to his hammock, picking up his phone from the crate he'd left it on. He got comfortable again, swaying gently back and forth with the plane. His mind wouldn't shut up, so he turned on his phone and pulled up Clay's contact. 'One more time, and then I'll leave it,' he thought. This time, it rang four times before the call connected.

"Hello?" answered a voice that was definitely feminine, and decidedly not Clay's. Great.
"This is Clay Spenser's phone, who are you?" he demanded, unknowingly loud enough to wake up Ray and Brock, whose hammocks were strung up nearest to his.
"Yeah, this is his phone. Who are you?" the woman asked.
"What, you can't read an incoming call's contact name? I need to speak with Clay, now. Where is he?" Jason was fed up with games. The call finally goes through, and now he can't even talk to Clay? Bullshit.
"Listen, I still don't know your name, but his phone says that you're Clay's boss. He's in the hospital, something happened. Are you nearby?" she spoke frantically, a far cry from the strong voice coming through the speaker just a moment earlier.

This got Ray's attention, who immediately hopped out of his hammock to walk over to Sonny and Trent's hammocks, shaking them awake and beckoning them over to hear the phone call. Gathering around Jason, who was now out of his own hammock once again and sitting on the crate next to it.

"Alright, I need details, and let's start with who you are? How do you know Clay and why do you have his phone?" Jason asked. He was tired of playing twenty questions and the stupid plane could not possibly move as fast as he needed to at the moment.
"Look mister, my name is Jane, and I've only known Clay for a few days, but that gives you no right to demand anything from me. We're at the military hospital here in Virginia beach. There was a fight at the bar, the police said that it looked like they attacked him, but it was made to look like a regular bar fight. I don't know where you are right now, but you have to know more about this kinda stuff than I do, and I'm in way the fuck over my head right now. So quit yelling at me!" The strong voice was back, and Jason had a feeling he'd made Jane angry, but with the worry for their boy overwhelming almost all of his senses, he couldn't really find it in himself to care.

"Okay, alright, I get it. My name is Jason, and you read that right, I am Clay's boss. I don't know how much Clay may have told you about himself—" he said, sighing internally about Clay's past luck, or lack thereof, with women, and hoping this wouldn't turn out the same way, with their little brother hurt in more ways than one. "But we're military, Navy to be exact. We'll be back in-state in about fifteen hours, and I need constant updates, about even the slightest things, until then." Trent caught his eye, and he added, "And I also need pictures of his chart."

How was this happening? They leave for a week and everything back home goes to shit? Jason couldn't shake the awful feeling that this was something bigger than a simple bar fight, something far more sinister.

"Alright, I'll get some pictures of his chart. Navy, huh? Well, that tracks, even if I am a little disappointed that he didn't tell me. Listen, he's waking up again, doctor says he's got a massive concussion. At least now I know you're Jason. He's been asking for you. I'll send those pictures," Jane said, mostly all in one breath, and with a dial tone that wasn't usually as foreboding as this one, she was gone.

Bravo all looked around at one another, the worry evident in every single one of their gazes. Jason looked around, but Lisa had disappeared somewhere in the conversation, and Jason hadn't even seen her go. A concussion. Clay didn't need anymore trauma to the head, his job pretty much checked that square on his injury bingo card. He should've been safe. He's at home. None of this should have ever fucking happened.

Lisa broke the uncomfortable silence when she returned to them, telling them that the pilot was going as fast as he could, and they'd still be about ten hours, but if the wind was good, then it was still better than the previous answer. Jason took a moment to thank whoever was listening for Lisa Davis.

All of the guys were now too wound up to get any real rest, even while in their hammocks, so they all migrated to the jump seats nearest to where Jason was sitting. They sat together in silence, even Sonny not attempting to break it, and Jason found himself wishing that he had a better emotional response than that of a jar of fucking peanut butter. He knew that his team needed him to say something inspiring, something comforting, but words were failing him, and he couldn't.

So that's where everyone stayed. Silent, sitting in a mostly darkened plane on their way back to their little brother who needed them. They could only hope that he knew how much they needed him as well.

I realize that I tend to bounce around when it comes to the point of view for the character, but I'll be honest, I feel like that keeps the story a little more interesting. I threw in an OC for this chapter, and I really have no idea if she'll make a comeback in the general storyline in my head, but I think she fits for this part or the story. I skip some time periods around in the pov as well, but I'm scatter-brained and my writing shows that. Also, I have no idea if there's anything such as a dog-friendly breakfast burrito, but this is fanfiction so just let me have my moment, okay?
This chapter seemed to me like it was just dragging on and on, and it took forever to find the plot again once it ran away from me, but if nothing else, at least this one's a little longer than the others. I guess I'll take a win where I can get one.
As always, I love reviews and comments about my writing, and thank you again to everyone who has left me one so far. I'm always taking ideas into consideration, and if you see something that I missed, or that obviously needs to be changed, just let me know.