The Soldier and The Spy: Jay Halstead- Episode 5

Bonus Scene

Twelve Years Ago

She was such a dork.

A big, nerdy dork and he'd fallen in love with her.

Not the way Jay had, although Mouse wouldn't lie and say he looked at Tess entirely like a sister, and he had three so he should know the difference. But where loving his sisters was mandatory, and often a pain in his ass, loving Tess was easy. What wasn't to love? Her kindness, her snark, her skills with a keyboard?

Her right hook?

The girl was wild, pure fucking will Jay had said after they'd found her and he'd had to agree, and that was before they'd realized the full extent of what she'd gone through. How she'd endured things no human should ever have to suffer. He'd never met anyone who could be so rigid one minute and so rebellious the next, so quiet and then so loud, so sweet and then an absolute fucking bitch. As someone who was usually pretty soft-spoken himself he loved it and now that he'd gotten to spend more time with her, time that wasn't spent tracking down terrorists he especially loved the way she brought out that talkativeness in him. It wasn't that Greg didn't have a lot of opinions because he did, on pretty much everything, he just usually kept them to himself. He hadn't had a rough childhood per se, not as much as Jay but whereas his buddy had been active, fuck that a willing participant in most of his fights Mouse hadn't been; he'd always been a bit of a black sheep and the circle of people he felt he comfortable being himself around was pretty small, basically just his family and his team. But with their team gone and his family all back in Michigan, sympathetic to what he'd been through but not understanding in the way that he needed he hadn't realized just how much he'd been keeping to himself.

He had Jay, and he'd spend the rest of his life grateful to that fucker because without him he wouldn't have one but there were some things guys just didn't talk about with each other. Not to mention before Tess had gotten here his friend had spent the last six months as essentially a mute, only communicating via a small selection of grunts, glares and hand gestures. Just for what she'd done for Jay Greg would spend the rest of his life grateful to her but as it turned out she'd saved him too.

She'd first gotten points when he'd realized she was a hacker, more when he'd realized they shared the same kind of codes, digital and ethical and when he'd found out she'd been The Ghost, on top of being an elite government operative he'd practically laid his respect at her feet. Finding out she was a stoner too was just supposed to have been the icing on the cake but somehow it'd become the whole damn thing. Tess had spent just shy of six weeks with them and two weeks after she'd left he already couldn't wait for her to come back. Who was he kidding, twenty minutes after she'd left he'd missed her and that wasn't just because Jay had immediately turned into a sulky bastard, though he was enjoying not having to listen to the man actually moan over her. Listening to her was one thing but he sounded like a dying cat, and Mouse was definitely going to have to start bringing water into his room when he went to bed because he was really tired of seeing his friends bare-ass.

But he would put up with all of that to smoke a bowl with Tess.

To take turns making playlists for their smoke sessions and teasing each other about their taste in music, even though it wasn't really that different, arguing over what snacks made the best munchies or debating the wildest conspiracy theories, which was especially fun considering she worked for the CIA and would 'unofficially' confirm or deny anything she knew. It had surprised him at first, how much he genuinely enjoyed talking to her, how he looked forward to hearing her opinions and to sharing his, even if they disagreed; he'd been worried about that at first, opening up to people wasn't easy for him but Tess had been insistent, and kind, and no matter how often he made himself feel like an idiot she never did. Well, actually she did, often, but in that best-friend-I-don't-really-mean-it kind of way.

Son of a bitch.

At some point over those six weeks, without him even noticing, the little dork had become one of his best friends.

Shit.

Don't get him wrong, he was glad, he didn't have many and he couldn't have picked anyone better, but it made missing her a lot harder. But just like Jay he was going to have to get used to it. They might not be soldiers any more but she still was- and no matter how far she traveled or how rough her journey Greg was determined she would always have them to come home to.