CHAPTER 73

THE SCARE

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Dianna almost ran inside Camp Larkin, while many soldiers were running out of it, to their busses. But no one she knew, so far.

"Sonny" Dianna finally saw someone she knew, and Sonny looked at her while combing his beard.

"Dianna. Jeez. What are you doing here? Came to watch the show?" he asked, joyfully.

"Yeah. I found out there was a plane coming from Guam to here, so I took it. I finished there a couple of days ago already" she explained, smiling.

Ray appeared with Clay and Brock there, and she greeted them too.

"Where's Jason?" she asked, but at that instant Jason was walking to them. It was chaos, many soldiers were walking fast around them, focused and ready for the most important op of the last years, probably.

"Dianna" Jason said, smiling, as soon as he saw her. She walked to him and kissed his lips, not caring much for PDA right now. They were only apart for ten days, but she was relieved to see him before he left for the op. "I thought you'd go straight to the States" he frowned, confused.

"I was. But I found out about this plane coming here, so" she raised a shoulder, a little playful. "Are you guys going right now?" she asked, anxious.

"Yeah" Jason nodded, then looked at the guys loudly laughing and saying playful things. "Hey. Flip the switch. Focus up, guys. This isn't a game. Eye on the target" he grumbled, and the guys raised their eyebrows and shut up.

"You okay?" she asked, a little worried about Jason's grumpiness.

"I'm good. Just focused on the op" he said with a monotone voice. "Time to roll, guys" he told them when he saw the other special team passing by them, geared up. "We gotta go" he quickly explained himself to Dianna.

"Yeah, sure. Hey" she pulled him from the gear and kissed his cheek real quick. "Don't forget what you promised. Please be careful out there" she said, very worried.

"I always am" he said, stern, walking backwards. Dianna nodded, serious too, and Jason finally turned and continued walking with Bravo to the main gate.

"Yeah" Dianna sighed, watching Jason walk away.

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"Oh God" Dianna said as soon as she heard on the comm that the team lost contact with Jason. He went after Cerby, who ran away, scared with the bombs, but now they were both missing on that mountain. Dianna's mind went blank.

"But do they know that he's not wounded?" she asked Blackburn, not sure what to do or think.

"They don't know. His helmet is off, so we can't track him. But hey need to guarantee the high ground, or else they'll lose the battle and they won't be able to rescue him, at all" Blackburn explained, trying to calm Dianna down. Of course, it didn't help her at all.

"Ok" Dianna quietly said, feeling a wave of nausea pass by her.

She was having shivers and a bad feeling lately, and although she didn't really believe in bad luck, she also couldn't just shake off that feeling while she was in Guam. So, that was the main reason why she couldn't just go to the States after her work was done there, and wait for Jason to come back. He wasn't sure if he'd need to stay for another week after this op, and she thought it would be best if she was in J-Bad while they were hunting Junior. But she wasn't so sure of that anymore.

What she was pretty sure, though, is that she was starting to have a panic attack. She didn't want to alarm anyone and she definitely wanted to follow up with the op, she needed to know if and when Jason was safe, so she found a chair on the corner of the Command Center and sat there, discreetly holding herself and trying to breathe in.

"They'll get him" Davis told Dianna when she noticed her pale and quiet in that corner.

"You don't know that" Dianna reminded her, staring blankly ahead. "Please, go help them, don't mind me" she said, very anxious.

"We're just waiting now" Davis explained, affectionately. Dianna looked at her with wide eyes and nodded, then continued to stare blankly ahead for many minutes.

Until finally Ray said on the comm that they got to Bravo One and Cerberus. They were both alive. Cerby had a stabbing wound but it wasn't serious, and One didn't have any serious injuries.

Dianna breathed, finally. But her heart just couldn't beat normal again during the entire duration of the op.

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Jason walked to his cabin, still sweaty and dirty, with blood all over his face, holding the white cover of his uniform in his hand. He came back from the op and Blackburn, Davis and even the crew were there to receive and congratulate them for accomplishing the mission. Clay shot Al-Hazred Junior and wrote his name in the History books. Right there with Jason's, when he shot Al-Hazred Senior, thirteen years earlier.

"Dianna? Davis said you were waiting for me here" Jason said as soon as he walked into his cabin, with a suspicion of why Dianna wasn't with the 'welcome committee'. He was mentally preparing himself for the lecture.

Dianna was sitting on the edge of the bed and immediately stood up, with a serious look on her face.

She never saw Jason with so much blood. Even when he was almost blown up, he didn't have those deep cuts on his face. His hair and the collar of his uniform were covered in blood, dry blood by now. And dust over all of that.

"Oh my God" she whispered, with both hands covering her mouth. It was worse than she thought. He continued the op, so she thought he only had some scratches.

"It's not as bad as it looks. I carried Cerby, he was bleeding" he quickly explained when he saw her reaction, raising his hands and walking closer to her. Then she saw the white cover he had in his hand, and she opened it a little before Jason could stop her.

"Jason" her voice came out shaky when she saw that the white cover, the one Jason wore while he made love to her weeks ago, was red and pink. Covered in blood. And definitely it wasn't only Cerberus'.

"Yes, I hurt my arm" he explained quickly, again, and lowered the hand that was holding the white cover, just in case. "Nothing serious too, but I need to clean it up and get stitches. Trent said I need stitches on my face, too" he said, taking a step backwards. It wasn't a good idea to let Dianna see him all dirty and covered in blood, for sure.

"Sure. Sorry" Dianna said, with her eyes filled with tears. She didn't want to see him with the others because she didn't want him to feel guilty in front of the others. And she didn't want the others to see how shaken she was with what happened. She didn't even want Jason to see how shaken she was, but she couldn't avoid some tears from rolling down her face.

"I had a bad feeling. That's also why I came back to J-Bad for the op, Jason" she explained, trying to not look at his cute face covered in blood.

He hesitated, and then nodded.

"Well, it all turned out ok, huh?" he slightly smiled, opening his arms. Dianna barely nodded, deviating her stare. Jason swallowed. "Blackburn said we'll go back to the States in three days" he reminded her, of course she knew that by now. Dianna just nodded again, looking down. "Ok. So… I'll go get cleaned up, ok?" he walked backwards, because Dianna seemed a little in shock yet, silent and not looking at him.

"Was this, huh, the closest you got? This and the time with the suicide bomber in Serbia?" Dianna finally said something, and although her question was a weird one, she hoped his answer calmed her down a bit.

Jason shifted the weight on his legs, thinking. For a while. Dianna didn't like his hesitation.

"Huh… I was surrounded by enemies many times, and in a couple of those times we thought we wouldn't make it out, but my team was with me" Jason decided to answer with sincerity. Also because he knew he'd never get away with lying to an interrogator like Dianna. "And I was in a helicopter crash, I got concussed that time" he continued, when Dianna thought she had heard all of it.

Dianna nodded, quickly glancing at Jason.

"I shouldn't have asked" she quietly said, serious, and sat back on the edge of the bed, looking down. "We'll talk later" she murmured while Jason was leaving the cabin. He stopped for a second, then walked out.

He knew he wouldn't like that conversation. He had those a few times before.

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For the next hours, Jason avoided being alone with Dianna the most he could, but he wasn't in the mood to celebrate the 'success' of the op either, so a few minutes after Dianna left the fire pit area, Jason finally made his way to his cabin, still holding the bottle of beer.

He got inside the cabin and Dianna was sitting on the bed, under the cover, wearing one of Jason's training t-shirts. He sighed when he came in, feeling very tired.

"Look, I heard many of these lectures from Alana already. And we usually ended up arguing" he decided to warn her, standing in front of the bed. Dianna blinked, but didn't say anything, so he sat on the edge of the bed and continued. "AndIamfeeling a little…" he sighed, looking for the word, because he wasn't sure how he was feeling, "...pissed. I mean, it feels like all the time, the effort, it didn't change much of anything. A broken body, broken head, broken marriage. All for what? Hunting down the son of a guy that I killed more than a decade ago?" he admitted, upset, and drank his beer. Dianna nodded, quiet, she was gently caressing and pulling the cover of the bed. "I just wish we received a sign of when what we've done is enough, you know?" he murmured, looking at the bottle.

Dianna continued quiet, and Jason finally looked at her. She was looking down, with her knees bent under the cover, and looked incredibly vulnerable.

"I've been nervous because of that bad feeling I had in Guam, about your op. Then I came here and felt worse, and almost had a panic attack when you disappeared" she said, and Jason frowned, turning to her, still sitting on the edge of the bed. "I took a lot of strong meds when I was shot" she continued, and Jason nodded, now concerned and thinking that maybe she had a stomach issue because of the meds. "And today I thought that maybe the nausea I've been feeling has nothing to do with my concerns" she quietly said, Jason could barely hear her. He nodded, understanding that she might be really sick of her stomach.

"I think those meds cut the effect of the pill, Jason" Dianna simply said, and Jason blinked, feeling his heart skip many, many beats. Dianna shyly put a box of a pregnancy test on the cover of the bed, for him to see. "I didn't have the courage to take it yet" she explained, very shy, and Jason could barely understand her, again. Also because his mind went blank.

Jason opened his mouth, but no sound came out of it.

"I was waiting for you to come to take the test" she said, still shy and feeling incredibly vulnerable.

Dianna barely had the courage to get the test at the infirmary, and at first she wanted to take the test alone and only tell Jason if the result was positive. But she simply didn't have the courage to take the test yet.

"Are you, huh. Late?" Jason's voice came out all wrong, emotionless, and he was still looking at the box.

"I don't know. I take the pill without stopping" she explained, and she wasn't in the mood to explain to Jason that women don't menstruate while they take the pill, anyways. The blood is similar, but not menstruation.

Jason blinked, then looked down at his bottle again. Dianna felt her face warm, and not in a good way. Jason's reaction was telling her a lot about what kind of future he wanted to have with her, if he even wanted any.

"Maybe I should have just taken the test first. It's probably just nervousness" she grumbled and quickly got out of the bed, taking the box with her and finally done with Jason's silence.

"No. I'm glad you told me" Jason said, weakly, and not moving. Not even he was convinced of what he just said. Dianna shut and locked the door of the bathroom behind her and Jason blinked again.

As soon as Dianna got inside the bathroom she felt a lump in her throat and her eyes filled with tears. She quickly opened the box, fortunately she read the instructions earlier, because she could barely see now, her vision was blurred from the tears. This was not how she imagined she would take a pregnancy test with Jason being the possible father, if she ever had to. She was so cautious with her other few boyfriends, wearing condoms and taking the pill, that she never truly had a pregnancy scare. Only once she took a test just in case, because the condom broke and she took the next-day pill. And she was taking the regular pill. So, she just confirmed with the test. She suddenly felt very foolish to not even confirm with the doctor if those meds she took would cut the effect of her pill. She knew they probably did, but she always felt so safe with Jason that it didn't even cross her mind. Until today.

"Dianna" Jason quietly called from the other side of the door, and she finally was able to take out the stick from the box. "I'm sorry. I want to be there for you" he said, hesitant, and Dianna ignored him and sat on the toilet to pee. "I just want you to know-" he stopped talking because Dianna started to pee.

On the other side of the door, Jason held his breath while he heard Dianna peeing. She stopped after a few seconds, and Jason immediately looked at his watch. He had one or two minutes to make Dianna feel safe now.

"I just want you to know that I'll be right here for you, ok? Everything will be ok" he quickly said, anxious and agitated. "I'll…" he hesitated, then closed his eyes to focus. "I'll be with you, Dianna" he said, determined.

Dianna kept quiet.

"Dianna, could you please open the door? I'm sorry for how I reacted earlier. I was just caught off guard. Like, really off guard" he tried to explain, feeling a lump in his throat. "But like I said, you're not alone in this. We'll face this together" he said, very determined now. He had his bad boy face and everything. If only Dianna could see him now.

But Dianna, on the other side of the door, was sitting on the floor and leaning her back on the door, holding the stick with some papers and hearing Jason's desperate attempt to tell her that she didn't have to face this terrible problem, this nuisance, alone. He'd be there for her, this burden wouldn't be just hers to carry.

She wasn't naive, she knew what a heavy load a baby, a kid, is. But Jason made it very clear that he wasn't happy with this possibility at all.

She glanced down at the stick, and she didn't know if she was relieved or sad with the result. She checked the box, just to confirm, then stood up and sighed.

Dianna opened the door, and Jason had a lost and serious expression on his face. Cute.

"There's nothing to face. Told you" she said with a monotone voice, giving him the stick wrapped in paper, in case he wanted to confirm, but she continued walking to the bed. She was mentally exhausted and didn't want to talk to Jason right now.

Jason looked at the stick and saw nothing, because he was staring blankly again. He was in shock earlier, and he remained in shock, so he didn't have any reaction about the news, because there weren't any news. All he knew is Dianna was upset with him. And he wanted to reassure to her that he wouldn't go anywhere.

"But like I said. If you were pregnant, Dianna-"

"It doesn't matter. I'm not" she quickly said, lying in bed and turning on her side.

"I just want you to know that I wouldn't go anywhere. I love you, Dianna" he slowly told her, affectionately, while taking off his sneakers and laying down next to her. He was still wearing jeans and sweatshirt.

"I know, Jason. I know you're a good guy, and we're not teenagers anymore. I know you'd never let me face this… issue alone" she said, still upset, and not looking at him.

Jason nodded behind her, even though she couldn't see him, and stood up to put his sweatpants and t-shirt to sleep. He was hating the silence in the cabin and also wanted to check if Dianna was also upset because of what happened in Guam.

"You never told me how Jessica's interrogation went" he reminded her when he laid back in bed, turned to her.

"She'll be an asset" Dianna bluntly said, not turning. She was discreetly drying a tear off her face.

"What? How? Did you tell them what she did?" he asked, in disbelief. Obviously these news made Dianna even more nervous, no wonder she was feeling sick for days.

"She'll never walk out free, if that's what you're implying. But she won't be executed for treason" she explained, with a monotone voice, still not turning.

"Is she really that valuable?" Jason asked, still concerned. She almost killed many people, and probably got a lot of top secret information for Russia or whoever is her boss.

"She'll cooperate" Dianna explained, and finally turned, to lie on her back, looking at the ceiling. She sighed. "They have her son, Jason. Russia" she glanced at him, ad he swallowed. Jessica was working for Russia, then, and not just Venezuela. "Not since the beginning. But when she started to think about stopping, they noticed that and got to him".

Jason's frown slowly disappeared.

"Bravo or one of the special teams will be assigned to capture someone who may know if he's still alive. Maybe they don't know she was captured yet" she said, not looking at him. "If he's alive and can be located, she'll be forever thankful to us. If we find out they killed him, she'll tell all she knows. So, we only have to gain".

"What if she's lying?" Jason asked, suspicious. "What if she doesn't have any son there and just wants to buy herself time, or lead us to an ambush?"

Dianna turned completely to Jason, grazing her finger on the cover. He looked at her finger, then back at her face.

"They used advanced techniques of interrogation before I got there. She's not" Dianna assured him, bitter. Jason swallowed hard, again.

Dianna hated those 'advanced' techniques, but she knew pretty much all countries used them. Especially for a captured CIA agent who ended up being a double agent. They were really angry with her. But Dianna couldn't say more than that, and Jason knew. And she didn't want to, right now. She looked at Jason's face, so close to hers, but she was still heartbroken. He didn't do or say anything wrong, she knew that. On the contrary. He didn't even know if she was pregnant and already promised to be with her. But still, her heart was broken right now.

"You must be tired. Good night, Jason" she murmured, and started to turn to her side again.

But Jason nodded and quickly held her face with his hand, before she turned, surprising her, and softly kissed her lips. They both closed their eyes for a couple of seconds.

"Good night, Dianna" Jason murmured against her lips, and only then he took his hand off her face.

He hoped she wasn't still upset about earlier, but he had a feeling that she was.

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