Colin woke up with Ed in his arms. They'd been together for a full week, and spending the night in the same bed was still an unspeakable luxury. That wasn't likely to change when they got back to the States. Even the rare times Ed wasn't deployed to someplace that required a SEAL sniper, there was still a strong probability Colin himself would be sent someplace.

He promised himself he wouldn't think about that. He would only think about the things he could change. One of those was the way he responded to the facts of his relationship. He could fret, worry, and sulk, or he could let himself enjoy the time he had with his beloved.

Ed yawned and sat up. "I love off days."

"You and me both. They're not really off days, though." He sat up too and rested his head against Ed's back.

"Sure they are. I get to sleep in. No one cares if I'm sleeping in with you or off somewhere in Cairo. As long as I make my check-ins, everything's good." Ed leaned back. "They evacuated Miazga yesterday. The Solace was already in the area, so he'll be well taken care of on his way home."

"It's the best thing we could have hoped for." Colin slid out of bed and looked for his shower things. "I know you'd all rather have him and Lupo close by, but they're both better off in Virginia. Lupo needs a real orthopedist. And Miazga's going to be best served by being at home."

"I guess." Ed had brought some clean clothes to change into as well. "I still don't like it. I guess I'm like that old dog Terry Mitchell used to have, who got upset if anyone left the room at all. He wanted his pack together."

Colin dropped a kiss onto Ed's arm. "Yeah. I can see that. Y'all are real close, and that's a good thing. I wish you all could stay together. I hate that these guys got hurt and that you have to send them home. I guess I'm glad they're leaving to go to hospitals and doctors and apartments and clinics, instead of the other way." He headed for the door with Ed close on his heels.

"That's definitely a good thing." It only took a few seconds to cross over to the showers. "What are your plans for the day?"

"I'm not sure. I'm supposed to be shadowing you all around, but it's an off day. I could shadow you all while you sleep, but that's not of much interest to my readers."

"I can't imagine it would be." Ed shrugged. "What do I know, though? This whole thing where they're eating up articles about what we're doing out here is kind of weird."

"To each their own." They slid into separate cubicles, just in case anyone walked into the shower building. It wasn't like they were keeping their relationship a secret, but walking in on two people in one cubicle tended to make most folks uncomfortable. "I mean it pays the bills. And it did give us the kick in the ass to finally get together so there's that."

"True." They finished getting undressed and headed into the communal showers. "I figured I'd go explore Cairo. I could use a guide. Want to come?"

"I'd love to." Colin didn't have to think twice. Oh, sure, he should follow a different SEAL around, preferably one he wasn't sleeping with, but even journalists on assignment got to have a day off sometimes.

They cleaned up quickly and got dressed. Colin couldn't believe how giddy he was feeling. When was the last time he'd been so excited for a simple date? When was the last time he'd had a simple date? They dropped their dopp kits and towels off at their respective bunks, and then they went to find DeWitt and Chief to sign out.

Chief was in the office, but he had a video conference going. Mal was there, with an infant trying to grab at his beard. Given that the baby had Mal’s red hair, Colin had to assume it belonged to him.

"Hang on for a second, Mal." Chief turned around, face grim. "Oh, it's you two. You might as well come in for this."

"We don't have to." Ed put his hands up. "We were just coming in to sign out for our liberty day."

"If Mal's here to tell me what I think he's here to say, I'm pretty sure liberty day is cancelled." His informal tone told Colin exactly what this conversation was meant to be about.

Ed drew himself up to attention. "Chief." No hint of disappointment showed on his face. Colin would have been annoyed by that, if he didn't have the suspicions he did.

Mal flicked his eyes over to Colin. "He's fully on board, then?"

Colin narrowed his eyes at Mal. "He is right here, thanks. And I'm on board enough to know those fuckers need to be stopped." He clenched his jaw.

Mal chuckled, an easy grin splitting that full red beard. "Okay. I guess I'm not in a position to cast any stones about outsiders and SEAL business, am I?" He moved the hand that wasn't struggling with a baby. Colin heard a few keystrokes in the background. "Okay. I've just sent you the information I've decrypted. I'm not exactly doing what I used to do—"

"Which is good." Chief raised an eyebrow. "You're on American soil now. You can't get away with just stabbing people anymore."

Colin tried not to react, but he couldn't help but blink at that. Stabbing people?

"Sometimes I strangled them." Mal didn't sound fazed. "Anyway, I'm not getting my hands dirty anymore, but I did get this stuff with Baldinotti's help."

Ed frowned. "I thought we weren't trusting Baldinotti for the time being."

Mal licked his lips. "I'm looking into that ambush, but I don't mind telling you she wasn't faking her outrage. She might be a very good actress, but I'm not easily sold. Anyhow, we're getting closer to narrowing down who. The next step is proving it, which is going to be harder to do." His lilt took on a darker turn. "I don't mind telling you, Chief, I'm not exactly accustomed to involving law enforcement."

"Don't remind me," Chief rumbled. Colin had to wonder if there was a story there. Given that the guy had kidnapped him half naked, he had to think there must be. He couldn't let his brain go there, unless things went badly south.

"For now, you're going to find absolutely positive proof that puts White Dawn at the scene of at least one bombing if you follow those leads I sent you. I can provide some cover for you, from here, but it's late and I can't get coverage. If I have to feed or change Danny here, I might be away from the computer at a critical time." Mal stroked his son's cheek. "I don't think you appreciate the seriousness of this situation, wee one."

Ed snickered. "Yeah, good luck with that."

Danny blew a raspberry at the camera.

Colin nudged Ed with his shoulder. "Looks like you've been told."

Chief leaned forward. "All right. I'll let you know if we need you for coverage. Hopefully we won't. Thanks for reaching out." He terminated the connection. "All right. Adami, you reach out to the boys. Church, you reach out to that Mohammed guy. I want a lot of documentation about this, even if I don't want it to hit any papers yet. I'll call DeWitt." He glanced between them. "We're all on the same page about this, right?"

"Yes, Chief." Ed saluted.

Colin pulled out his satellite phone and shook it at Chief. "Already on it, Chief."

Mansur didn't ask why Colin was calling him. He just agreed to head back to to the MRU. "Truth be told, I've gotten a little tired of the scenery around here. I'd like to have something else to look at for a little while."

The line was an odd one, coming from a patriot like Mansur. Colin blinked and tried to parse out what his friend might have meant without endangering him. "Do you want me to send someone for you?"

Chief picked his head up from where he was already talking with DeWitt. He patted his chest.

"I've already had a volunteer."

Colin wiped his free hand off on his pants. What could be going wrong that had Mansur so nervous he needed a driver? "Be outside your building in—" He looked at Chief. "Twenty minutes. They'll be waiting."

"I'll be there. Don't be late."

Colin hung up. "He sounded scared."

Chief nodded and returned to his call with DeWitt. "We've got a situation with Mohammed. Not sure what it is yet, but we might need to requisition some space for him." He paused. "Thanks. See you soon, sir." He hung up and looked back up at Ed and Colin. "All right. DeWitt is on his way in. Did Mohammed say why he was feeling so uptight?"

Colin shook his head. "No. He said he needed a 'change of scenery.'" He rubbed at his temples. "That probably means he caught someone watching him."

Chief nodded, mouth a grim line through his beard. "Egypt is a funny place. Beautiful, wonderful people. The politics can get a little murky sometimes."

Colin grimaced. "And Mansur's a patriot. He's covered a few stories that didn't exactly go over well with the regime at the time. Maybe working on this one's going over about as well, or worse."

Ed snorted. "Well it's going over like a lead balloon at home, so I guess we can't exactly throw stones."

Chief tossed his head at Ed. "You want to come with me to go get this poor guy? It'll look better if it's two of us."

Ed nodded once. "Yes, Chief." They went to change into uniforms and leave. Colin was left alone in the office.

He could have a field day in here. He knew, like he knew water was wet and fire was hot, there was enough material for any six Pulitzers in here. It wouldn't take more than a minute to crack the password on Chief's computer. He kept his hands to himself. He wasn't a hacker, and there was something kind of slimy about hacking files. If a source sent him hacked files, that was one thing. Hacking them himself felt gross.

The other SEALs trickled in over the next forty minutes. DeWitt was the first. Apparently, he hadn't gone far from base. The journalist in Colin wanted to know where he'd gone and why. The rest of him was too anxious for Mansur and Ed to worry too much about it. Kelly was next. He didn't seem all that concerned at having missed a call from his husband. Robson and Fitzpatrick were next.

Chief and Ed finally arrived, with Mansur and a small gray cat in tow. The cat shook in Mansur's arms and hissed when Chief tried to take him away from his human. "He's a feisty one, I guess." Chief gave the cat a hard look.

Mansur shrugged. "What could I do? He crawled in my window one night." Then he sighed and bowed his head. "I apologize for the fuss."

"Don't mention it." DeWitt held out a hand to Mansur. "You've given us some invaluable intel and you helped to save Miazga's life. I assume you understand anything you hear in these meetings is strictly confidential."

"Of course." Mansur nodded. "I'll keep your secrets as I would my own."

Colin beamed. He knew all too well just how trustworthy Mansur was. They'd all know it soon, too.

Chief cleared his throat, and they all headed into a conference room. The office was too small for them all to fit into comfortably without getting friendlier than Colin was willing to be, and they had no idea how secure it was. Once they'd found their seats, they all settled in and looked expectantly at Chief. He was, after all, the one who'd called the meeting.

Chief cleared his throat again. "I got a video conference from Mal. According to him, if we go out and raid the building we find at this address, we'll find proof that White Dawn was linked to at least one of the bombings back home."

Robson frowned and leaned forward. "I trust Mal. I do. The guy really came through for us back when we first stumbled across this crap. But 'linked to at least one,' without saying just what it was, seems a little like a setup. He might not even know he's being used, man."

Fitzpatrick nodded. He wouldn't look at Kelly. "Yeah. Don't get me wrong, he's damn good at what he does. I trust him around my husband, and you all know how hard that is for me." His husband, Colin remembered, had been the one attacked by another member of the platoon. "But after what happened with Navy Intel, I'm uncomfortable trusting anyone who isn't us."

Mansur cleared his throat. "I know this place." He made a face. "It's a casino."

DeWitt frowned. "A casino. Isn't gambling forbidden?"

Mansur spread his hands wide. "Lots of things are forbidden, Lieutenant. Few cities in the Islamic world have even one casino. As it happens, yes, gambling is forbidden, but Cairo has several casinos anyway. This one is popular with older, Western tourists. I don't know why."

"Hm." Chief drummed his fingers on the table. "If we fail to act, we'll miss out on seizing evidence. And if we act and there's nothing…"

"So, we won't get caught." A bright light burned in DeWitt's eyes. "This is outside your normal orders, boys. I won't order you to be part of this. If anyone wants to back out of this, I won't hold it against them."

Ed squirmed, but he didn't back out. He was the only one of the men who showed any reluctance.

"And you two? We can't even order you." Chief turned to Colin and Mansur.

"I want in." Colin took a deep breath. "I want to document any evidence you find. After what I've heard, I'm having trouble believing evidence will make it home and be heard." He swallowed. "Having a journalist, or two, along gives you a measure of safety. Even if some authority figure destroys the evidence, I'll have it backed up and set to release if anything happens to me." Ed flinched when Colin mentioned something happening to him, but he didn't say anything.

Mansur nodded. "This is happening in my country. I want those devils out of Egypt. My pen—well, laptop—is the greatest weapon I have to clear them out. And I want to use it."

Chief nodded. "Then let's go. Suit up. Time's wasting."

* * *

Ed slipped into the casino laundry room just behind DeWitt. The scent of detergent was overwhelming. He'd thought the laundry room in his old building at home was bad, but now he just wanted to go back and sit in that old dump for a while. This was that old laundry room to the tenth power, with every machine stuffed to capacity.

No one looked twice at any of them. It turned out Mansur had known someone who'd known someone, and they'd found uniforms for the casino housekeeping staff. It should have bothered him more than it did, to walk around in these weird gray polyester shirts with the cloud collars. Even their foreign looks didn't do more than earn them a sniff or two. Plenty of other faces in that laundry room didn't have their origins in Egypt, either.

Hopefully no one would try to take their cart away from them. Most of their equipment could survive a good dunking, but the spin cycle on most commercial washers was not compatible with an M4.

They walked through the maze of laundry equipment in a bored-looking clump. They yawned here and there. Some middle-aged guy with a scowl handed Ed a stack of towels and yelled at him for five minutes about how the customers on the sixth floor of Tower Two had been complaining for days about the quality of the towels, so he'd better make sure they were fluffy this time or he was out.

Ed promised they would be as fluffy as he could make them, and he tossed the towels into their group's bin. He thought he caught Mansur trying to hide a smirk, but he made a choice not to say anything about it. He refused to blow their cover because he was being a jealous little shit, even if the temptation overwhelmed him right now.

Once they made it through the hell of the laundry sub-basement and into the service elevator, Kelly signaled Mal. They had no idea if Mal received it. If he did, they shouldn't be troubled by the prying eyes of hotel cameras as they progressed through the hotel. If Mal missed the message, they needed to be ready for company.

The service elevator brought them up from the bowels of the hotel and casino to the towers holding guest rooms. They couldn't quite relax. They shared parts of their ride with housekeepers, servers bringing room service to some of the guest rooms, and for a brief while with security staff apparently investigating a death. It couldn't have been that suspicious a death if they were talking about it openly in front of a handful of laundry workers, but then again no one ever saw service staff they considered beneath them. Ed learned that early on.

They got off on the tenth floor of Tower One and wheeled their cart down the hall. Everything felt sharper to Ed as he walked, just as it would before a normal op. The floor had been cleaned recently. The chemicals housekeeping staff used to clean the place mingled with perfume from someone who'd passed through recently to create an odor he wouldn't mind getting away from one bit. He heard the hum of an air conditioner and the squeaky wheel of the laundry cart. His skin pebbled up with goosebumps from the artificially cool air.

They stood in front of the door to Room 1043. All of the men exchanged glances. Was Mal around? Could he get them in, or had he needed to go take care of his son? Had someone gotten to him?

The lights above the key card reader flashed green twice. DeWitt tried the door, and it swung open for him.

No one was in the room, given that it was still comparatively early in the evening. Ed could see that more than two people were staying there. They were probably men, if their wardrobes were anything to go by, and they were all English speakers judging by the few books or magazines in their possession.

Robson closed the door behind them. "All right," he said in a quiet voice. "Let's do this. Did Mal say what we're looking for?"

Kelly opened the closet door. Ed thrust himself between Colin and the door. Couldn't Kelly at least pretend to be careful? That door might be booby trapped or something.

Colin put a hand on his shoulder. Oh, right. Ed was supposed to pretend he didn't care if his omega got blown to smithereens or something. Perfectly reasonable.

Kelly and Chief peered into the closet. "It's a suitcase." Chief looked back out at his men.

"In a hotel room?" Fitzpatrick let out a low whistle. "Who'd have thunk it, huh?" He elbowed Ed. "Will wonders never cease?"

DeWitt snorted. "Just see if there's anything in it, would you?"

Kelly opened the satchel. "Holy shit. Would one of you reporter types come and look at this?"

Colin and Mansur both walked over to the closet and peered over Kelly's shoulders. Ed followed and craned his neck to see what they saw. "It's a blueprint."

"Of Orlando." Colin flicked his pink tongue over his lips. Mansur was already taking pictures. "It's a blueprint of the Orlando stadium. The one they bombed."

Chief pulled it out. "There you go. The gas pipes are all marked. With a name next to it."

"Name?" DeWitt frowned.

"Yeah. Bogdanović. And the room is registered to Anastas Bogdanović." Kelly stood up. "How do we handle this, sir?"

DeWitt closed his eyes and exhaled. "It could be a setup. I need to learn more about this guy. It seems a little too pat, to have the evidence in his hotel room just out in almost plain sight like that. I'm not sure who he is, but I can't believe he'd be so stupid as to leave evidence like this behind himself. Someone who blows up eight thousand human lives has to think he'll get caught."

"Sometimes that doesn't matter. It's like a trophy. There are little souvenirs from other bombings here too." Chief made a face. "And sometimes they don't care if they get caught because they know no one's going to do anything about it anyway." He met Mansur's eyes. "Aren't you having some trouble in that vein?"

Mansur curled his lip. "Now that you mention it, yes. I've had some exciting messages from a few people within the government telling me to leave the human trafficking angle alone, and to leave White Dawn alone." He ran a hand through his dark hair. "Someone this unconcerned would probably have to have a fix in with the local government."

"Take it." DeWitt waved a hand. "Take it, and put everything else back the way you found it. Put the viruses onto their computers, and let's get out of here."

"Won't this guy know we're onto him if we take his stuff?" Kelly glanced at DeWitt. "Sir?" he added, almost as an afterthought.

"Maybe. My bet is he won't notice until he takes it out to relive the crime, and I'm just going to have to hope that whatever he's got going on here is just too important for him to take time to jack off over past glories."

Kelly dropped the blueprint and wiped his hand on his pants.

Chief rolled his eyes and put the offending evidence into an evidence bag. "Grow up, Kelly. Robson, Fitzpatrick, you guys getting those viruses onto those machines yet?"

Robson and Fitzpatrick moved. They each had memory sticks, each of which had special viruses written by Mal loaded onto them. The owners of the laptops in the room proved their affiliations by apparently having famous white supremacist slogans as passwords, which the guys cracked in seconds to get the malware onto the computers. Then, they put the computers back to sleep. The weapons went back into the laundry cart, along with the map. Ed cleaned up the room behind them, and no one would ever know they were there.

They didn't leave the hotel the way they'd come in. Instead, they headed out through the back alley that held the hotel's dumpsters. That was where they'd hidden their van. They loaded the whole laundry cart inside. They secured it, seated themselves around it, and headed back to the MRU.

Ed couldn't relax until he had regular clothes on again. "That collar felt like a noose," he said, rubbing at his neck. "I know it's stupid. I know it wasn't really a noose, it wasn't really cutting off my airway or anything. It's just—ugh. I love my uniform, not all uniforms."

Kelly laughed and patted him on the back. "The sacrifices we make for the cause, right?"

The rest of the guys filtered back after dark. No one said anything to them about their raid on the casino, and no one asked why some of the guys had come back early. Some of them probably knew a few of the guys had more information than others. They trusted the others enough not to ask. Ed was grateful for that trust. He wouldn't have minded being on the other side of that divide again.

DeWitt had found Mansur a solo bunk, much like Colin's. How he swung it with the base commander Ed didn't want to know. It was a nice gesture, he guessed. He wasn't sure Mansur deserved it, but it was still a nice gesture. He walked by it on his way back to his own bunk that evening, only to find Mansur beckoning him inside.

Ed groaned. Mansur was the last person he wanted to talk with. Mansur was the last person he wanted to think about. All he wanted to do was to go to sleep and pretend they were following someone's orders, instead of sneaking around behind the backs of the chain of command. Still, he didn't want to cause a scene.

He walked up to Mansur. "What's up?"

Mansur smirked. He wasn't a dumb guy, except for that part where he'd let Colin get away. He had to know how much Ed hated him. "I was hoping we could talk. Privately."

Ed leaned against the wall. "I'm here, aren't I?"

Mansur glanced at the open door and then shrugged. "We both care about Colin, in different ways of course. We both want what's best for him. I think if we can clear the air between us, we can probably make life much happier for him."

Ed glared. "Look. It's not so easy as holding hands and singing 'Kum-by-ya.'"

"I don't know that song. You're jealous of Colin. Rather, you're jealous of my relationship with Colin."

Ed gritted his teeth. "It's not like I thought he was a virgin."

Mansur chuckled and sat down on the bed. The cat hopped up beside him. There wasn't much room anywhere else. "Look. We did have a sexual relationship. And it was a good one. But there was someone else."

Ed scoffed. "You're not going to convince me he cheated on you. No way. Not him." He turned to leave. "I'm out of here."

"Ed!" Mansur barked the word, cutting through the night air like a gunshot. The cat hissed at Ed, as though backing up his human.

Ed turned around. "What?"

"He didn't cheat on me. But he was in love with someone else. And we both knew it." Mansur sighed and looked at him. "He admitted it when I called him on it. He told me he dated other people, because you'd never want someone like him."

"That's ridiculous." Ed stepped further into the tiny room. "I've loved him since we were young."

"Yet he never thought you would even think about it." Mansur spread his hands wide. "I'm not saying either of you was wrong. I want to see Colin happy, so I want to see you succeed with him. I just want to make sure you understand what you're up against. He doesn't think you could want someone who is the way he is—career minded, not child friendly. You need to figure out if you can live with him, as he is, or if you need to back away. Because you can't change people, Ed."

Ed suppressed a growl. Getting mad at Mansur wouldn't do any good. Mansur was just the messenger. It wasn't like Ed didn't know most of those things about his lover. "I don't know what tomorrow brings," he said instead. "I know I'm in love with an incredible man. And I know he's in love with me. I know we're going to try our damnedest to make it work. That's all anyone can ask, right?"

Mansur's smile looked more genuine now, and less like a smirk. "Yes. Just please—take good care of him."

"You didn't."

"I tried." Mansur shrugged. "Like I said, he was in love with someone else. Good night, Ed."

Ed headed off to bed at last. What could Mansur have meant by I tried? He tried to force his mind away from that idea. Whatever it was, it was in the past. Colin loved him, and there wasn't anything anyone could do to change that.

The issue of the future, though, that was a bigger concern. Out here, when they were out on assignment and danger lurked around every corner, choices were simpler. They could enjoy the love the other had to offer, or they could be miserable. When they got back to the States, things would be different. Colin would keep flying all over the place, poking his nose into dangerous things.

Ed knew journalism could be dangerous. He hadn't grasped just how dangerous until he and Chief had to go to Mansur's house to rescue him and his cat. Mansur, who seemed like a pretty wealthy guy, had fled his home with nothing but his cat and what he could fit into his duffel. What if they hadn't gotten there in time? What if some shady governmental group got to Mansur first? What if they went after Colin?

What about kids? Ed had always wanted children. Could he give them up to make Colin happy? He'd always envisioned life spilling out before him the old fashioned way. Eventually he'd have to leave the SEALs, either because he couldn't do the job physically or because the mental toll became too great. He'd settle down, become the father to a couple of kids or more. He'd maybe run a gun range or something, and help the kids with their homework.

Could he surrender all of that for Colin? Colin had never been a child-friendly kind of guy, not even when they were kids. Other omegas gravitated toward learning how to care for babies and that kind of thing, but not Colin. Anyone who loved Colin would have to do so without expecting their family name to continue.

Could Ed face that?

For any other guy, the answer would be no. For Colin, though—Ed still hated the thought, but he didn't think he could force anything of the sort on

his beloved.