Recovery *Rewritten* (Book 2 - S.S.A Herrmann Series)

Chapter 1

Undisclosed Location: Afghanistan 

It had been months since Nikki left the States for her recovery Op, leading a 4 man unit including herself, Mouse, Corlevouz, and Lennox to the last known coordinates the 10 missing soldiers disappeared. The journey took them months only traveling at night and hiding during the days, The Op was only supposed to take a couple of months but trying to travel the mountain range at night was awful and took them way longer than they expected, due to booby traps, explosives buried along the path and other traps set up. 

Nikki sat in the middle of a cave the unit found around sunrise, they decided to camp there for the day and keep moving after night. Mouse, Corlevouz, and Lennox were catching some sleep while they could, as Nikki sat as a lookout making sure nobody snuck up on them and ambushed them while they were sleeping. 

It was later in the day when Nikki went to wake Mouse up so he could cover watch so she could catch some rest before nightfall when they'd hopefully make it to where the last 2 units were last known to be. Not to mention they had no idea what they'd stumble across and they had to be prepared for anything, and keep their guard up. After all, they were on a recovery mission looking into the disappearance of 2 fully trained Military Units, and 10 fully trained soldiers. 

"Have you eaten anything?" Mouse asked her as she made her way over to her sleeping bag. Truthfully she thought about it but also realized how low on rations they were and decided reserving what she had would be for the best especially if all went to plan and they found the missing soldiers. They would have to carry them back to an evacuation point which from where they currently were was a week trip if they hauled ass the entire time again only traveling at night. Not to mention getting a message back to the nearest base to evacuate them, which could also take a couple of days to arrange. 

Meaning if everything went well they would still have at least 3 weeks to a month of this recovery Op "I'll eat when I get up," Nikki replied sending Mouse a smile before she crawled into her sleeping bag and fell asleep almost instantly falling into the same dream she had every night since she left the States. She and Spencer cuddled up watching movies and just hanging out. 

 "Psst, Captain wake up," Mouse whispered after what felt like seconds causing her to open her eyes and sit up noticing the rest of the unit was awake and the sun that was shining through the beginning of the tunnel was gone. "It's nightfall, grab something to eat I'll pack your stuff up," Mouse suggested as he handed her a meal pack from her bag. "Thanks, mouse," she replied pushing herself up ignoring how achey her entire body felt. 

BAU Office, FBI Academy, Quantico Virginia

Dr. Reid sat at his desk staring at Nikki's empty desk that sat across across the room in front of his. She had been gone for 8 months as of today, 243 days since he last saw her and they last spoke. So much had happened in those months, so much had changed. Hotch left the BAU after one of their unsubs, Mr. Scratch targeted his son, Jack, almost 2 months he was released from prison after being framed by an unsub the BAU encountered a few years prior Kat Williams and Lindsay Vaughn. He spent almost 3 months in prison before the BAU managed to clear his name, get him released, and have the charges dropped against him. 

Even while he was in prison he hoped Nikki would come back, but the longer she was gone the more he began to wonder if she was going to return? what state of mind would she be in after spending so long over there? was she even okay? What was she doing right now? How is her day going?

Spencer remembered that Nikki was only supposed to be gone for a few months. When he pressed Prentiss their new unit chief about it since she was overlooking Nikki's Op before she left. Prentiss hadn't heard anything since Nikki and her Unit got dropped off in Afghanistan. "Hey kid she's gonna be okay," Rossi said walking over from the coffee nook along with JJ and Garcia. 

"How do you know that for sure?" Spencer asked him irritation and worry laced in his voice. "She was only supposed to be gone for a couple of months... It's been 8," Spencer added. "I know you're worried about her Spence, we all are. All we can do is wait and hope she comes back soon. especially so I don't have to deal with... that," Garcia said as Alvez walked into the office. "Aww, it's nice to see you too Garcia," Alvez replied jokingly. "Ick," Garcia replied "Hey, we caught a case," Prentiss said appearing from her office. 

"Emily, have you heard anything from Nikki?" Spencer asked her as he followed her into the round table room along with all the other BAU agents. "I haven't Spencer, but I promise you when I hear from her or her chain of command I'll let you know," Prentiss replied as everyone took a seat including Spencer. 

Undisclosed Location: Afghanistan

Nikki led the unit up the mountain using their night vision glasses, and taking their time as they approached the l known coordinates of the two missing units. Everyone had their guard up as they crept closer to the point, staying off the clear-cut path through the mountains when they came across a cliff that stretched to the peak of the mountaintop. 

Chained to the cliff wall were 10 men in US military uniform, these had to be their missing units. Even through the night vision, Nikki could tell they were all in rough shape, 3 of the men were clearly no longer alive, 1 was barely hanging on while the other 6 were starving, dirty, and covered in dried and fresh blood. 

Nikki paused with her unit staying hidden and started drawing her plan out in the sand in front of the 3 other rangers who nodded agreeing on the plan. Which was Corlevous would keep an eye out while Nikki and Mouse got the troop untied, Lennox was to cover them so they could get as many of the men out of there as possible. 

Nikki and Mouse managed to sneak through the darkness and over to the men, They managed to free half of the men before Corlevous whistled letting them know they had company and Lennox started firing his automatic assault riffle behind them. "Get them to safety, I'll get the others "No- THAT WAS AN ORDER GO," Nikki barked sternly as Mouse led the 5 men back to where they were hiding and Nikki continued freeing the final man that was still alert. "Help me get the others," She told him. The soldier nodded and began helping her free the other 4 men who were no longer alive. 

The soldier managed to carry one of the men while Nikki Carried the other 3 back towards Mouse who met her and the soldier, taking 2 of the 3 men she was carrying off her. Nikki whistled quickly twice telling both Corlevous and Lennox they were clear, the gunfire paused for a moment only to be followed by the sound of two grenades going off before Lennox and Corlevous Appeared helping her and Mouse lead the 6 alert troops down the mountain a ways before pausing in a cave halfway down the mountain stopped as the sun started to rise. 

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Hey, everyone I hope you enjoyed the first rewritten chapter of Recovery, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. I'm hoping to have Chapter 2 written, edited, and posted by this weekend ( April 27th & 28th, 2024). 

-Muskokagirl204