After hanging up on Moms, I left the three member of my team in the common room and retreated into the women's bunk room. I did prop the door open though so that I could hear what is going on inside to make sure nobody is getting out of line. When I heard a noise inside the bunk room my eyes snapped up and I found Specialist Elizabeth McDonald sitting on her bed reading through some paperwork. Feeling eyes on her, she looked up and gave me a nod before going back to her work.
I unclipped my holster from my leg and started to pull off my camo uniform now that our formal meetings are done for the day. Once the camo came off I pulled on a pair of shorts and a fresh t-shirt before I continued to unload some of my duffle bag into the truck for easy access. I knew I shouldn't get too comfortable because at a moments notice we could have to pack everything up and leave.
So for now I just made myself a little bit at home, grabbed my ID badge and debit card before putting both in the holder and strapping it around my bicep. Next I put my holster back on my leg and grabbed my gun cases from the floor. I put them both on the bed and opened my rifle case and stuck my notebook inside of it before closing it again. Once I had them both in hand, I heading out of the room. Dexter and Grant were sitting around the table when I walked back into the common room. I didn't pay them any mind as I grabbed a marker for the white board and wrote out the team meeting time before I left our barracks.
I walked down the hall to our gear room and unlocked the door. While I have some time now I claimed a locker for myself. It didn't take long to find my gear bag and to put together my gear to make sure everything was in one piece. With my gear assembled, I locked up my sniper rifle and rifle in the small cage each of the lockers are equipped with. Now that both of my gun cases were empty, I brought them back to my bunk and slipped them underneath my bed.
Opening up the base map once I walked out of the building, I started to get familiar with the important building locations. After dinner and before the team meeting I already planned on raiding the store on base to see what they have. But for now, I tucked the map back into my notebook and walked to the mess hall.
The dinner rush didn't hit yet so I got to take in all the choices the mess had. It was nice to get some hot food that actually looked appetizing for once before I looked out at the many tables in the room. A lot of them had people already sitting around them so I just found a table towards the back of the room and took the seat with my back to the wall so I could look out for when Ryan would walk in.
It didn't take long before he showed up with a tray of food in hand looking around the room. I held my hand up and gave him a little wave which he saw and came over to the table. He put down his tray and gave me a smile.
"Has the food always been this good?" I asked and took a bite of the chicken dish I selected.
"Yes, honestly the first we night we were here, the team and I went to town and sampled almost everything they had to offer. The chocolate cake they have here is to die for and I suggest you get a piece now before they run out." Ryan said and started to dig into his food. I took one look at the piece of chocolate cake on his tray and got up from my seat to get in line again.
By the time I got back with the piece of recommended cake, Ryan couldn't stop laughing. I just shook my head and went back to eating my dinner. We keep the conversation light throughout dinner and once we both finished and moved onto dessert Ryan sat back and watched me take the first bite of cake. It was so good, I almost moaned. I was able to keep it in but Ryan did laugh at me again when I took another bite of cake.
After we finished our dessert and gave our trays back to the kitchen staff we returned to the reason why we were meeting in the first place.
"So, before we start I actually wanted to give you something." I said and opened my notebook. Sitting right inside is the picture of Ryan's unit with my dad front and center. When I passed the photo over to him, Ryan's breath hitched and he picked up the photo.
"Thank you for this, I don't, this is only the second photo we have of your dad and the unit all together. This means the world; I can't wait to show them when I see them later." Ryan said after he found his voice.
"You're welcome. When I saw it I knew I had to get it to you. I thought you might like to have it." I said and gave him a sad smile. A somber silence settled between us while we gathered our thoughts.
"So, the reason why we are meeting." Ryan said and opened his own notebook after putting the photo down between us.
"Yes, I might have been able to secure us another gunner on the ground, or possibly an additional team." I started.
"Collins?" Ryan asked.
"Yea, we had a conversation, I pushed her to try and see if we can get another team. If she can't, she said she wants to join us on the ground as an additional member of my team." I said and flipped to a clean page of paper.
"Sounds like something your dad would do, he's done it before actually." Ryan said with a sad smile.
"Can you tell me about it?" I asked.
"Kind of similar to what we were going in to do here, just less expected enemy which only warranted the one team. It was still a big enough number though and your dad spent a few days trying to green light another team. When he kept getting stonewalled, he geared up and joined us. The op was successful, without his extra gun, I don't really like thinking about how our odds would have been." Ryan explained.
"Well, I'll find out some time tomorrow about either the extra team or just the extra member." I said.
From there, Ryan went over what his team has been working on since they arrived here. It was mostly a lot of cardio and weapons training. Command has been making a mock up of the building that is believed to be al-Qurayshi home for us to run through. They are hoping to have it done by next week so we could start training in it sooner rather then later. Ryan did say he also pushed to have our team run through the mock up house as the lead team as well. He wants to have a few back up strategies in place in case the mission goes sidewise.
When I brought up wanting to have my team transition our sleep cycle to be awake all night the week before the op to train, Ryan told me he already told his team they were going to be doing the same. We started to work through a training schedule so our teams will get to work together to see how we each move. It's going to be an adjustment but I have high hopes my team will be able to rise to the occasion.
With a training plan finally taking shape, I felt a bit better about bringing my team out here. I know with some hard training together as a team, we will be able to go up with the best Army Special Operation teams have to offer. Ryan and I finished up our planning before we left the mess hall for the night. We made plans to meet up for dinner every few days to keep track of our teams trainings and when we should start combining them.
When I got back to our barracks, I found a few guys sitting around the table eating dinner. They all gave me a nod as I walked past them into the women's bunk room. I quickly pulled my thigh holster off and placed it on my bed before starting to collect my stuff to shower. Each bunk room has it's own full bathroom and it made me happy not to have to share a shower with the guys for a little while. The bathroom was pretty clean and I hoped it would stay that way while we are here.
I tried not to take too long in the shower and the bathroom in general as I know someone else is probably waiting behind me to use it. After I finished up I got out of bathroom in an old Army sweatshirt and shorts before going over to my bed. I laid down for a few minutes and then looked at my watch. I still have a few minutes before the meeting would start so I used them just to relax. I know this feeling will be hard to come by soon so I wanted to soak it up as much as I can.
My watched started to beep and I knew that I needed to get up and get moving. As I collected the stuff I needed for the meeting, I saw Morgan sitting on her bed working on her laptop.
"You coming?" I asked her and finished collecting my notebooks.
"You want me too?" She asked barely looking up from her paperwork.
"Yes, you're apart of this team. I want you to start working yourself into it and getting to know everyone on a deeper level. I also want you to come train with us a bit to get up to speed on how we operate as a team and to keep up with our physicality." I said and watched as Morgan finally put her papers down to look at me.
"I'll be there in a minute, let me just wrap this stuff up." Morgan answered.
I gave her a nod and walked into the common room to find most of my team already sitting around the table. I just put my notebook down and started to clear off the whiteboard. When it was clear, I wrote out the team question from our last deployment. My team started to get excited when they saw what I was doing and I just rolled my eyes and smiled at the board as I finished writing out the last word.
It took a few more minutes for everyone to assemble in the common room but I was happy to see that by 20:00 hours all of my team members were present, including Morgan.
"Good evening team." I started.
"Good evening ma'am." The team replied.
"Alright, this meeting won't take long. Tomorrow, everyone will have the day off to get adjusted to the time zone change. I will be running a 5k tomorrow afternoon if anyone wants to join just to start to get loose. The day after that we will be starting training. Get ready because this training will be no joke. We are going to be operating with one of the best spec-op teams the Army has to offer, I want everyone to be adequately prepared." I said and turned to write out the time I wanted to go for the run tomorrow on the board.
Next, I wrote down the passcode for the gear room on the white board before turning back around to the team.
"This is the passcode for the team gear room. It is right down the hall, the second door on the left. Inside are 12 lockers. Take tomorrow to select a locker and put together your gear. Inside each locker is a cage, please lock up any additional guns you brought with you on your trip." I said holding the marker to the passcode. I held it there for another few seconds before I put it down, looking around the room.
"Questions?" I asked the room.
"What kind of training did you have in mind?" Specialist Elizabeth McDonald asked.
"Everything. Cardio, weight training, HIIT. The week before the op goes live, we will be changing our sleep pattern to train only at night. I'm hoping to have Lieutenant Alexander join us in some trainings because as of right now, she will be joining us on the ground in Ukraine as Gold team member 13. Yes, you did also hear me right. Unless something drastically changes, we will be going into Ukraine. Our exact mission hasn't been made clear yet as things are still developing. Alpha team will be joining us on the ground as the USs' ambassadors if you will. When I have more information, you guys will know." I said finally laying the worst of the mission on the team.
They all looked pretty disheartened when I broke the news. I knew I needed to do it soon so everyone had time to prepare themselves, mentally and physically before we leave. Once we do get on the ground, everyone's head needs to be in the game, otherwise we'll be coming home in a box. I turned around and wrote a phone number on the whiteboard with a building name and suite number.
"This is the number for the crisis helpline here on base. If you don't feel mentally okay, please call them. They also have in office hours as well. You guys can always come to me if you don't feel comfortable talking to them, but they are way better equipped to help you when you are feeling like this then I am." Before all deployments, I try to always find out the crisis helpline wherever we are stationed for anyone who might need it. A few times, my team mates really needed someone external from the team to help them.
"Moving on. Since our deployment was cut in half by my fathers passing I wanted to answer the team question you had prepared and give you the opportunity to come up with a new one for the rest of this deployment." I said and saw some the excitement return to my team's faces.
"Whose question was this one?" I asked looking around the room.
"Mine ma'am." PFC Micah Allen raised his hand.
"Well you know the rules." I said and took the only empty seat in the room.
"Right so this one was pretty easy to get everyone to vote for once I presented it." Micah said in his distinct Bostonian accent before he continued. "So Daniella, do you have a right person, wrong time?"
It took a lot of willpower not to look in Morgan's direction when he said the question out loud. My eyes left Micah's to roll over the common room and finally I found Morgan's. My eyes rested on hers for an extra second before I returned them to Micah.
"Yes, I do believe in that statement, way to much. Come to think of it, I have two." I said and watched as a few jaws dropped.
"Well, you can't just leave us on that!" PFC Warren Thompson almost yelled. I could only chuckle at him.
"Haven't you ever heard of taking a pause for dramatic effect, shit." I said and couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, two people come to mind. They were and are, the only two people I've ever loved. The first was a girl I went to high school with. We tore each other apart before I left for boot camp. When I went home for my fathers funeral, we finally made amends. She wanted to try and get together now, but I realized my heart belonged to someone else." I said putting everything in general terms to not give away too much about my personal life.
"And the someone else?" Rob asked with his eyebrow raised. I looked over at him and could tell he was asking a silent question. I just gave him a smile and nodded.
"The someone else, we fooled around for years on and off. We both knew about our feelings for each other but we never acted on them. Then my father died and things were put into perspective a bit more for me and I realized I wasted so much time when I could have just been loving her." When I responded to Rob my eyes kept going back and forth from him to Morgan.
"Did you make things right with her before you left?" PFC Cosima Taylor asked.
"I did, yes. I'm very excited to get home to her." I said with a smile on my face.
"Oh I'm sure she will be very happy to have you home." Rob said with a genuine smile.
"Okay, you guys know the drill. 24 hours to come up with the new deployment question. You guys are dismissed for the night. Oh wait before I let you go; this is a closed campus mission. If anybody needs anything that the base store does not have, please let me know and I can get it for you." I said and collected my paperwork from the table.
Most of the team got up from the table and left to the bunk rooms and out into the hallway. I erased the deployment question from the whiteboard and collected my stuff. When I brought everything back into the bunk room, Morgan was hot on my trail. I put my notes away in my cubby and turned to find her almost right behind me.
"Follow me please?" Morgan asked almost sounding desperate. I just nodded and grabbed my ID and cell phone before following her out of the bunk room into the hallway.
Morgan lead us down a few hallways to a door with the number 37 on it. She typed in a passcode for the door lock and pushed the door open. She turned on the lights when she walked in first and I walked in behind her. The door swung shut behind me as I took in the room. There is a desk with a computer sitting on in and two chairs in front of the desk along with a couch sitting on the opposite wall.
"Where are we?" I asked looking around the mostly barren room.
"This is my office for while we are stationed here. There aren't any camera's and I'm the only person who knows the passcode for the lock on the door. I couldn't help myself; I just need to kiss you right now." Morgan said and pushed into my personal space. It didn't take long before the back of my knees hit the edge of the couch and I sat down. Morgan climbed right into my lap and her lips found mine shortly after.
Our kiss was heated and I felt my body finally starting to relax underneath hers. We kept up kissing until neither of us could breath any longer before we pulled apart. I kept Morgan close with my hand on her lower back.
"What happened to not doing this on base because of people lurking around corners?" I asked thinking back to the conversation we had the other day sitting on the couch. Morgan smirked and hid her face in my neck for a few moments.
"I couldn't help myself. Your answer warmed my heart and it took all of my self control not to kiss you in front of everyone in the room. Speaking of everyone, what was up with that question before?" Morgan asked after she pulled her face from my neck. I could only smile at her an held her a bit closer to me.
"When I joined the team, I was very closed off. Everything I did, was always about the job and I never talked about my personal life. When I started to rise in the ranks, I kept it that way until I realized that just being the boss all the time would get me nowhere with my team. So, on a mission that I knew was going to go sideways, I asked the team to come up with a personal question to ask me. When they had it and asked me I told them I would only tell them when we get back home. It worked. They wanted to know the answer to the question badly enough that we were able to fight our way through the mission. There were some injuries but nothing to the level I thought it was going to be. Since then it has kind of become tradition for the team to collective come up with a question to ask before we leave for deployment. Only when we make it home would I give them the answer." I said.
"Are you still so much of a hard ass?" Morgan asked.
"Come train with us for little bit and you'll see." I said and smirked.
Morgan gasped and pushed me down onto the couch and I couldn't help the laugh that escaped me. If only I knew we weren't going to have more moments like this, I would have tried to hold onto the light feeling inside me a bit longer.
a/n: some training details and a little moment between Morgan and Daniella. Training next chapter then the mission.