Spark

Montana

21 years old

Steve stands at Everlee's bedside with his head bowed. "I've accepted a position in Hawaii which means the teams disbanding. You can be reassigned after your medical leave or be honorably discharged."

"Come on Smooth Dog, you know whatever team I'd be shoved into wouldn't be the same. We were more than a team, we were a family."

"Or," he begins hesitantly.

"Or?"

"You can join me in Hawaii. It's just me and three other people on this task force right now, but I know you'll love them."

Everlee clenches her fist in her sheets, "Smooth Dog."

"Kono reminds me of you so much, and Chin could be Smokey's long-lost twin I swear."

"Smooth Dog."

"Danno wears a tie and everything. I mean he's a detective, but it's Hawaii."

"Steve!" Everlee shouts causing Steve to look at her for the first time since he entered the room. Everle sits in her hospital bed pale and thin. "I'm done."

Steve sits in the chair next to her bed. "What are you going to do next?"

"I don't really know. Becoming a Seal was supposed to answer everything for me, but." Everlee trails off. She grabs Steve's hand and smiles at him, "You and the team have become my brothers, my family, but I've lost something I didn't even know I wanted until it was taken from me."

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After she's well enough to leave the hospital Everlee picks a direction and drives. She doesn't really know what she's doing picking up odd jobs and volunteering at shelters, but she's healing physically. 

Eventually, she arrives in Montanna where an elderly couple put up an ad for a ranch hand, food and board included. The second she pulled up Bruce, the husband immediately pegged her as a Vet and she was hired.

Some days he would tell her stories from his time in the Vietnam War. He taught her how to ride a horse, handle the ranch's finances, and everything he knew about cars, and how to fix them.  Charlotte taught her how to cook all their family recipes, and how to sew and knit, and they would care for the animals and garden together. 

The couple would stay up and watch the stars with her after her nightmares became too bad. They were more like parents to her than Everlee's own. "I can't have kids. They had to remove my uterus after I was injured in my last mission."

Charlotte squeezes Everlee's hand in her own and doesn't say a word. 

"I never had much of a biological family. My sister was too busy starting her own life to stick around for me and my parents didn't care for me unless they were parading me around for their business partners. I had to form my own family out of the friends I made and honestly the thought of starting my own never even crossed my mind, I mean, I'm only 21 years old." Everlee cries as she finally allows herself to grieve.

"Kid, you may never be able to carry your baby, but you have so much love to give it radiates off of you like the sun."

In all of her travels, Everlee stays in Montanna with Bruce and Charlotte for the longest