Colin wasn't surprised when Ed pulled him aside in Cairo. The former hostages were taken care of first, of course. They were hustled into the Medical Research Unit with a kind of tenderness that surprised Colin, given the speed and efficiency that went along with it. He appreciated it, even if the survivors weren't in a position to appreciate much yet.

Ed intercepted him before he could go back to his tiny single bunk. His eyes were wild, and his mouth tight. "Chief wants to see you," he said. "He wants to meet with a bunch of us."

Colin bit down on the inside of his cheek. He had some choice words for Ed and some choice words for Chief too. He held them back. He simply wasn't up to fighting right now. Seeing those missionaries had drained the energy right out of him. If they pushed him, in that meeting, he could probably find plenty to fight about. Right now, though, he just didn't feel up to it.

"Fine," he sighed. "Let's go."

Ed led him toward a low, light-yellow building. It looked just like all of the other buildings in the MRU. "Look," Ed said in a low voice as they walked. "You've been doing okay through all this, you know?" He let his arm brush against Colin’s—an innocent gesture, but one he let go on long enough to prove it wasn’t an accident.

Colin blinked. "Thanks? I think?" Where had that come from, exactly? And what was the correct response? Did a correct response even exist?

Ed snorted. "Well, you know, don't let it go to your head or anything. I know the guys haven't exactly been friendly to you."

"No. You haven't." Colin shrugged. "I'm not exactly expecting to be close buddies, if you know what I mean. I'm just looking to put my time in and get out. Which I expect is exactly what you want from me, so if we can all just let me do that it would be super." He sighed. "I'm disappointed, I guess. I figured you'd all be more, I don't know, adult about it. But whatever."

Ed pursed his lips, and then his shoulders slumped. "I guess you didn't choose this, and we didn't either. We probably shouldn't take it out on you."

"But you will anyway." Colin faked a bright smile. "You're alphas, and I'm an omega out of place."

Ed frowned. "You must have had some pretty shitty experiences with alphas, if that's what you think." He opened his mouth to say more, but they'd gotten to their destination.

It was just as well. Colin did not feel up to discussing his past experiences with Ed. He didn't feel up to judgement and shame right now, thanks very much.

Ed guided him into yet another nondescript meeting room. They all looked the same to Colin at this point. Some guys probably found it comforting. They could go anywhere in the world, from California to Egypt to Korea to Antarctica, and they could sit in the same bland, boring conference room to have a meeting; everything would be familiar. They would be on the same ground they always walked.

Some guys might find that comforting, but Colin wasn't one of them. Something right between his shoulder blades itched as soon as he walked into the room. He liked to know where he was, damn it. He didn't like to get confused.

Chief was in the room, but he'd divested himself of most of his uniform. He sat in fatigue trousers and a tank top. For an older guy, Chief wasn't bad looking. The other SEALs in the room—Kelly, Fitzpatrick, Lupo, and Robson—had all likewise jettisoned the more official trappings of their roles. Was this what was defined as being "at ease?"

Chief looked Colin and Ed up and down. "Adami, this is an unofficial meeting. Strictly unofficial, if you catch my drift. If you want to stay, you've got to ditch the uniform."

"Aye aye Chief." Ed stripped himself out of his fatigue shirt, so he sat only in his undershirt like the others.

Colin couldn't tear his eyes away for a long moment. He pressed his mouth shut to hide the way it watered. "If this is a game of strip poker, I'm out." He held his hands up. "I'm just saying, we already went there when you decided to kidnap me."

Chief curled his lip. "Sit down, Church. You're a civilian, so you don't wear the uniform. You don't have to take it off to have this conversation."

Colin managed to look away from Ed now. On what planet did the clothing people wore at any given moment change who they were or what laws affected them? He was a civilian. He had never understood the military mindset, and he wasn't about to change that now. "Well this sounds like it's going to be good." He tried to keep his tone light. It came out sounding more sarcastic than anything else. He guessed it would do, as long as it didn't sound like he was thinking dirty thoughts about Ed's biceps.

Kelly leaned back. "We should just take away his computer for the duration, Chief. He's not going to listen. He's too full of his own importance to listen."

Ed scowled at him. "That's unfair. It was his information today—yesterday—that saved those hostages. He didn't have to share a damn thing with us, but he did. And he wants to be here about as much as he wants a hole in the head. So maybe we should cut him a break, huh?" Colin just about choked when Ed defended him, but he held it together.

Kelly rolled his eyes. "We're SEALs. We don't cut breaks. And this guy—" He pointed at Colin, who bit down on the inside of his cheek. "This guy isn't here for the mission. He's here to publish stories. About us."

"Yup. It's what I get paid to do, so yeah. That's why I'm here." Colin wasn't sure exactly why they'd dragged him in here, but he knew it was about a story. And since they'd just done a job that would make a pretty fantastic story indeed, it had to be about the hostages. "Why don't you want me to run the story about rescuing the hostages, exactly? It's great press for you. And that's exactly why the Navy decided it would be a good idea to stick me with you charming souls." He chose his words carefully, even if they appeared recklessly hostile. He needed to reinforce that his presence there was not voluntary. "You took out the bad guys and saved the poor defenseless Swedes. It doesn't get better than that, unless you're kissing babies in the street."

Chief rubbed the back of his neck. "It's not that we don't want you to run the story about the hostages. I mean obviously we'd want you to keep any details about what they endured private."

"Have you ever read the Times?" Colin stood up. "I don't expect that you did any kind of extensive homework about me, because regardless of what Chief Petty Officer Kelly seems to think, I'm not that arrogant. I would have thought that before they dropped me into your life that you'd have at least took a glimpse through the paper I work for. We don't publish those details unless the survivor explicitly states they want us to. It's not of value. It just serves to titillate and humiliate. Did you really drag me in here to talk about that?"

"Calm down, Church. Jesus, maybe you should have joined the Navy." Fitzpatrick gestured to Colin's chair. "That's not why you're here. You're here because of the White Dawn complication."

Colin frowned at him. "I don't follow. I have to watch the bunch of you strip down so we can talk about white supremacists?"

Robson snickered. "You know, we spend too much time together." He turned to the others. "I always forget that we look crazy to people who aren't us."

Lupo shot him a side eye. "We look crazy to people who are us too. Believe me, Robson. Some of us more than others." Robson flipped him off while pretending to scratch his nose.

Chief cleared his throat loudly. "As it happens, we've noticed a pattern every time we find ourselves coming into contact with White Dawn. This information is strictly confidential. It cannot be repeated."

Colin leaned forward. "Okay. What's this pattern."

The apparent conspirators exchanged glances. "Every time we go up against White Dawn, and word gets back to headquarters, we wind up getting pulled from the job." Kelly tugged at his collar. "The first time was coincidence. The second was suspicious."

"The third time is conspiracy." Colin nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I can see that pretty clearly, actually." He tapped his fingertips on the table. "That's got to piss you off to no end."

"We're good sailors." Ed stuck his lower lip out. "We're not insubordinate."

Fitzpatrick put a hand on Ed's back. "We're not. Of course we're not. We're just not giving HQ an opportunity to tell us to stop. There's a difference."

Lupo shot Colin a sympathetic smile. "So, I get that Phillip told you White Dawn was involved. But we would take it as a personal favor if you would maybe just…not include that in your story."

Colin opened his mouth to object. "Our country's been going through a real crisis of faith when it comes to white supremacists and neo-Naziism." He licked his lips. "We've had all kinds of people sitting there and thinking that those people are just showing a different viewpoint, that they don't hurt people. It's important that the American people see just how dangerous those people are. White supremacists are just as vile, evil, and dangerous as any other extremist group."

He bit his lip. "But if they're colluding with Daesh, like they apparently were here—that's something bigger."

"They are. They have been, for over a year." Robson stood up too. "We keep finding them. They try to send us to take out some human traffickers and bam. There they are, plain as day. We thought we were going into a little ISIS cell on Corsica, and the next thing we knew we were surrounded by like three hundred White Dawn freaks."

Colin sighed. "I can't think it's a good idea to hide this stuff from the public. I just can't. That said, I can't in good conscience be the reason you guys get pulled off another case that has you guys fighting White Dawn." His head throbbed, somewhere deep in his temples. He tried to massage it away, but it didn't work. "A journalist is supposed to be impartial, not part of the problem."

"So you'll keep it secret." Chief fixed Colin with his bright eyes.

"Unless you get to a point where you need to shine a light on that mess." Colin nodded. "There might well come a point when you need to tell the world that yeah, you've got someone very high up who's colluding with a bunch of dirtbags like Daesh and White Dawn. My paper has a pretty damn big subscriber base."

Chief's shoulders relaxed. "Well, all right then. DeWitt is over explaining the situation to the missionaries now. I'm pretty sure they won't mind not explaining White Dawn to the Swedish press."

"You think?" Colin snorted. "So did you come here looking for White Dawn, or was it just a happy coincidence?"

"Just a coincidence." Kelly still sat stiffly. Something about all this bothered him. It was probably Colin. His presence here bothered everyone. "Now that we know, of course, we'll be working to track them down. But our official mission—and our very real mission, don't kid yourself—is to fight ISIS and to stop human trafficking."

Colin nodded. "Are you having a lot of luck finding White Dawn around here? I mean if you don't want to draw attention, you can't use Navy resources."

"Don't you worry about that." Fitzpatrick scowled at him. "We have our ways."

Chief scoffed at Fitzpatrick. "Don't be an ass, Fitzpatrick. Why do you ask, Church? Do you personally know White Dawn's priest or something?"

Colin shook his head once. And Chief had the gall to tell Fitzpatrick not to be an ass! "I lived in Egypt for a while. I still have a lot of contacts around here. I can make some discreet calls." He pressed his hands to his chest. "Very discreet. Again, I've done this kind of thing before." A little fire rose inside of him, rebelling at having to state yet again that he was competent at his job. "Why don't I make some calls, see what contacts I can't scare up? It can't hurt."

"Of course it can hurt." Ed scoffed. "This isn't shaking down the mayor for snorting coke thirty years ago. This is life and death, now, and it matters."

Colin gritted his teeth. "Adami, who exactly do you you think got the pictures of the last president and the Mongolian prostitute?"

All of the other men gaped at him. "How did you manage that?" Chief asked. "I mean the source for those pictures—"

"Was a jealous ex. Of the president's." He shook his head. "Again, I do know how to do this. My contacts can get us in with people here who wouldn't give an American serviceman the time of day, you know what I mean?"

"Do it." Chief waved a hand. "Make it happen. I don't care who you have to call. I want these guys dragged out into the fresh air and sunshine."

"Got it." Colin stood up. "Is it all right if I get started right now?"

"Go."

Colin fled to his little room. His bed beckoned, lumpy and creaky but still his. He had to ignore it. If the SEALs could go for twenty-four hours and more without sleep, so could Colin. He hadn't been out of college all that long, right?

He dialed the first number that sprang to his head. Maybe it was foolish, to hope Mansur was still in the area. The guy was on the wrong side of the law more often than not, and he was of sufficient stature in the community that he could flee the country and never look back if he so chose. He could have fled Egypt if he wanted.

When he picked up, Colin almost cried. "Mansur, hello. How are you?"

"Colin? Colin Church?" Mansur laughed, loud and bright and delighted. "It's so good to hear your voice! Where are you?"

"I'm actually in Cairo right now. I got here about a week ago on a job. I've got a little bit of free time. I don't suppose you've got time to get together and hang out a little bit?"

"For you? I've got all the time in the world. Do you remember that little cafe near Tahrir Square?"

"How could I forget?" Colin blushed just thinking about it.

"Meet me there in two hours. I'm dying to hear what brought you back to Egypt."

"I can't wait to hear what's been going on in your life, too!" Colin smiled as he got off the phone. It had been a good long time since he'd seen a friendly face.

* * *

Ed joined the raiding party two days after they came back with the missionaries. They'd gotten intel from home that human traffickers were planning to run a load of cargo up the Red Sea coast to Hurghada. It wasn't necessarily a typical trafficking route, but Ed could see where it made sense. It wasn't like the only people seeking to flee poverty and violence came up from West Africa, after all.

At least the team was allowed to leave Colin behind for this trip. Ed wanted to bridge the gap between them again, but he had no idea how to do it. Colin seemed downright hostile now and completely averse to any kind of reunion. That made it easier for Ed to hide his attraction to Colin, but it made it equally unlikely that they would ever overcome their difficulties.

"So you and Hot Stuff are still fighting." Hopper was driving their small boat at the moment. He looked ridiculous, like a tourist lazily boating with one hand on the wheel. "That's a shame."

"It's probably for the best." Ed shrugged.

"Why?" Hopper yawned and steered to avoid jostling a fishing vessel with their wake. "Why's it for the best, man? You're into him, he's into you. It seems like a done deal to me."

Ed made a face. "I'm that obvious?"

"Duh." Hopper chuckled. "I mean you could just tattoo it on your forehead or something. Want me to talk to him? That might make it easier."

Ed shuddered. "No. No way. You're the hot one. That would make it go six kinds of sideways, and no thank you."

Hopper laughed even harder at the idea of himself as the hot one. "Aw, come on, man. Don't be like that. Seriously, though. Why won't you just be an adult and talk this out?"

"Because he's…well, yeah. I've liked him for a long time. But I'm a traditional kind of guy, you know? I want kids. He doesn't even like kids, never mind wanting kids of his own. And I'm pretty sure only one parent should be off gallivanting around the world. I'm tied down to the Navy. He'd chew off his arm before he gave up his career." Ed rubbed at the back of his neck. "Yeah, I'd love it if he made the choice to be with me and stay with me, but that's not happening."

Hopper sucked in his cheeks. "Don't you think you're kind of putting the cart before the horse?"

"Not really. What do you mean?" Ed sat down on a hard metal bench.

"Well, it's like this." Hopper scratched at his slim beard. "I think you should be more concerned with things like actually getting him to say yes to a night first. Which he hasn't done."

Ed gaped at him for a minute. "Okay, you're not wrong."

"You might start dating and decide you're just not right for one another. You might decide you're better off as friends. Maybe don't start worrying about him ending his career for you—or you for him—before you decide if you're compatible as lovers, you know?"

Ed ducked his head and laughed at himself. "Yeah, you're probably right."

Hopper struck a pose. "It's that old West Virginia wisdom. That's what we're hiding in those hills. We just let you spread rumors about grinding poverty and weird isolationism so you'll leave us to our superior brainpower."

They dropped anchor a short distance from Hurghada and went in underwater. Ed liked diving. It felt like he was doing the job he'd signed up for, for one thing. The surface world seemed so much farther away when he was underwater for another. There wasn't any chatter down here. No machinery could clatter around him, marring his concentration. The only thing there could be was beauty.

The Red Sea had some of the most beautiful reefs in the world, and local coral's adaptations to extremes of heat helped ensure the reefs suffered from less bleaching than other areas. Ed gazed at the beauty below him in wide-eyed wonder. Someday he would return, not as a warrior but as an admirer, and he would take the time to appreciate what he saw now.

For now, he had a job to do.

The boat they were looking to intercept was where they expected it to be. They used suction cups to climb up the outer hull without being detected. Their luck ran out when they got to the deck. A guard saw them and raised the alarm.

Kelly didn't hesitate. He shot the guard in the shoulder. The guard fell to the ground, shouting as he grabbed at the bullet wound. Ed moved to disarm him as fast as he could. The last thing they needed was for a guy they thought was out of the fight to turn around and shoot them in the back.

Ten crewmen jumped up from the cargo hold and from the cabin in response to the wounded man's call. They all looked like they could come from somewhere in the Horn of Africa—Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, or someplace like that. They didn't wear uniforms, but civilian attire appropriate for the work and the season. One of them shouted something in a language Ed didn't understand, and the fight started for real.

The sailors were all armed with handguns, but they didn't seem to be experts with their use. The SEALs had bigger guns, better guns, and they were better trained in their use. Ed fired without thinking and without feeling. He just pointed and shot.

The firefight was over in seconds. The enemy had grazed Ed's arm and gotten a good shot in on Kelly's leg, but he'd be okay. Iniguez patched them up, and they headed into the hold.

Ed had a bad feeling about what they would find in the hold, even before the firefight ended. Wouldn't living humans have screamed? He didn't say anything, but he was suspicious. When they got into the hold, he could see how right he'd been.

There were no human trafficking victims in that hold. Instead, there were huge crates. Kelly hopped over to the nearest crate, a scowl on his face, and sniffed at it. "It doesn't smell like people."

"Should we open it?" Iniguez looked at Kelly, and then at everyone else. "I'm a little nervous."

Hopper just frowned and grabbed his multi-tool. He used the pry bar on the device to open one of the crates, and then he let out a long, low whistle. "Found the smoking gun," he said. "I mean it's not literally smoking, but you know."

Ed crept over to his friend's side. "Holy shit." The crate was full of guns. More specifically, it was full of guns produced by Smolak Enterprises.

Iniguez helped Kelly over. "This is a big deal. Think they're all Smolak guns?"

"Hell yeah, I do." Kelly sniffed. "We need to get Chief on the horn."

Chief fell into flabbergasted silence for a moment when they reached him. Then he ordered them to bring the boat, whole and entire, back to Cairo. They'd deal with it then.

The squad had to split up to get the smugglers' boat back. The ride back wasn't as simple as the ride down, either. They had to bring the boats all the way up through the Suez Canal and then back down the Nile. They still got there, though. It took a few days, but they got there.

Chief had a word with Colin about the guns. Chief wanted Colin to avoid any mention of the guns, but Colin knew better. Of course he did. "This story has already broken," he argued. "They've been finding Smolak Enterprises guns at white supremacist sites all over the US. It doesn't necessarily give anything away, telling them that you found this stuff. It doesn't even suggest White Dawn involvement, since you found the guns when you were busting local smugglers for the Egyptian authorities."

Chief's jaw twitched. "Maybe, maybe not. But we can't have anyone connected with the bad guys knowing we found anything, at all, that's been linked to white supremacists. That includes their favorite toys."

"I don't suppose you can just send me home if I tell you I'm publishing it anyway." Colin drummed his fingertips on the table.

Chief glared, and then he smirked. "Who are we kidding, Church? You don't want to go home. Not now. Not now that you've had your little reunion with your ex."

Ed turned to face Colin. "Who's this?"

The look on Colin's face brought Ed up short. Ed didn't have any right to be jealous. Colin turned to Chief and gave a small smile. "It is good to see him again. And he's already giving us plenty of information, so there's that." He lifted his eyebrows. "I'll hold off on mentioning the manufacturer, but I have to give my editors something. Otherwise they're going to think I'm over here on an exotic gay cruise, and they're going to start doing op-eds about where our tax dollars go. That's going to play right into the bad guys' hands."

"You're not kidding." Chief grimaced. "All right. We can agree on that, at least. Thank your sweetie there for the dirt on that ISIS target. We got him yesterday."

"I'll tell him. The guy was a menace. Egypt's well rid of him." Colin stood up. "Anything else?"

"No, thanks. You're dismissed. And based on the fact that Adami looks like he's about to blow a gasket, he is too." Chief snickered.

Ed followed Colin out into the yard. "So. You're hooking up with an ex now? Which ex is this?"

Colin stopped short and turned around. "First of all, I'm not hooking up with anyone. I have met up with an ex, with whom I've stayed good friends. Either way, it wouldn't be any business of yours, Ed." His eyes lost some of their tightness for a moment, but then they firmed right up again.

Ed bit his lip. His conversation with Hopper sprang to his mind. It was all well and good to say there wasn't any harm to admitting his feelings for Colin when they were on a boat out in the middle of the Red Sea. It was something entirely different to get up in front of Colin and spill the beans. Hopper might say it was obvious, but Hopper also thought Colin was into him. "Look. I know we've never had a thing or anything, but I do worry about you. Okay? And you don't want the guys to take you any less seriously."

Colin met his eyes, unsmiling and cold. "Wow. Do you honestly think it's possible for the guys to take me any less seriously? For real, though. There hasn't been a day that's gone by when I haven't had to remind any of you—and yeah, that includes you—that I'm an adult human being who's competent at his job. So you'll have to excuse me if I'm scoffing a little bit."

Ed bit the inside of his cheek. "Look," he said after a second. "I know it's not fair to you, but you're an omega. People have expectations, okay? And they have them for a reason. You're already starting out with one strike against you, because you're a journalist. And now you're just…"

Colin tilted his head to the side. "What, showing you up by getting better information than your own intelligence service?" He smiled, tight and angry. "That can't sit well."

Ed let out an aggravated sigh. "Dude. Can you stop thinking about it as us and them? We're all on the same team here. If we go down, you're right here with us. You'll get toasted with us, right?"

Colin narrowed his eyes at Ed. "Funny how I'm on the team when you want me to cooperate, but the only person who's voluntarily spoke to me since I got stuck with this assignment is Mansur."

Rage erupted in Ed's chest. "Mansur? That prick? What the hell is he doing here?" He balled his hands into fists. "I hate that guy."

Colin didn't flinch. "What in the hell can you possibly have to be jealous of, Ed? He's here because here is Cairo, which is the capital of his country. Remember? We met in the Olympics?"

"Oh, I remember all right." Ed made a face. "I remember those unnecessarily short running pants he wore, too. I don't know who the hell he thought he was. Why did you call him, of all people? Are American guys really not good enough for you anymore?"

Colin's face lost all color. His eyes got tight. "I called a local reporter because he has contacts I don't. And what is your obsession with my sex life, anyway? You've never been part of it, so what's it matter to you? My sex life has never been of concern to you until this assignment. Do you have some kind of weird image of me in your mind as some kind of virgin, Ed? Do you think I'm some kind of omega Madonna, waiting for the hand of God to come down and make me pregnant like you seem convinced I want to be? Because I've got to tell you, that's weird and creepy. And your obsession with my sex life is weird and creepy too."

This would be a perfect time to confess to Colin, but the words wouldn't force their way out. Instead, all he could say was, "Look, I'm just trying to look out for you. If the guy cared about you, he'd have married you."

"He offered." Colin shrugged. Ed clutched at his stomach, but Colin pressed on. "We're too alike. We're both already married—to our careers. Neither one of us wanted kids, so there didn't seem to be a point as far as I was concerned. I didn't want either of us to be held back."

"But you loved him enough to say yes if not for the career thing." Ed stuffed his shaking hands into his pocket. "My God. Why didn't you tell me?"

Colin threw his hands out to his sides. "You're mad I didn't tell you I prioritized my career over starting a family, even though I've told you my career was more important than starting a family a thousand times since we were ten. I can't do anything right with you, can I?"

Ed bowed his head. "I'm sorry. You're right. That's an unreasonable expectation." He tugged on his own hair. "When did it get to be so hard to talk to one another, man? We're best friends. We used to be able to spend hours just talking. Now we're just sitting around being hostile. "

"It changed when you decided you had input into my sex life." Colin sighed, head down. "I think it changed when you stopped listening about it, too. When being an alpha meant more than being my friend. And I should probably have expected it would, eventually, but it still hurts."

Ed stepped forward to put a hand out on Colin's shoulder. This would be a great time to kiss Colin. That would make everything better, wouldn't it? Ed had always been more of an action guy anyway.

Colin leaned into the touch for a second, but then he sprang back. "Ed, no. This isn't okay. I've got to go." He walked toward his bunk, moving as fast as he could.

Ed watched him go. It had been a long time since he'd cried, but the hot feeling behind his eye told him his streak was ending.