Cry Baby
“Officer on deck!” Heim hollered.
Twelve Navy SEALs jumped to attention, with Heim presenting arms, as General Scaparnelli walked into the briefing room at Special Operations Europe Headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Though the SOCEUR handled over fifty-one countries and territories, including Russia, Europe, and Greenland, and not US land, it still belonged to the Department of Defense. The Commander could also receive their evidence and secure them safe passage to the States.
“As you were,” Scaparnelli told them. “I want you to give it to me straight, and without bullshit. Am I understood?”
“Yes sir,” Heim answered.
“Who is responsible for the death of our troops?”
The Army general’s dark eyes met Heim’s squarely. It wasn’t often that the two branches met in this manner, and the tension between them was thick. No one wanted to believe one of their own could be a Bravo Foxtrot—a traitor to their own people, a Blue Falcon.
“Rear Admiral, Upper Half Nathan Mortesson, Commander of the Unites States Naval Special Warfare Command.”
Scaparnelli sucked in a deep breath. “Why?”
“Sir, Mortesson was involved with the illegal exchange of top secret information with rogue nations, terroristic cells, and warlords. He’d earned millions of dollars, traced to foreign bank accounts. When Abd Al Alim bin Abdul hacked into the Domain Name Infrastructure, he stumbled on the secret servers and proxies that Mortesson used. He then began to blackmail Admiral Mortesson for information into maneuvers particular to the War on Terror,” Heim explained.
“And how did you find this?”
“Sir,” Tex began, “after interrogation of Abd in a joint mission with SIS agents Tiffany Cannon and Trace Wellington, we were able to find the threads.”
“And this is conclusive?” the General asked.
Cry Baby nodded. “Yes, sir. We’ve vetted and checked every avenue, and the SIS also went through it. We found five more transactions under their files.”
“I hear that five of you were detained.”
Heim, Hawk, Glitz, Snake, and Welsh stood. “Hooyah, sir.”
“While I hope you enjoyed your accommodations and sleeping on the job, you are hereby reinstated to active duty.”
“Hooyah!”
“Petty Officer First Class Alvarez?”
“Sir,” Cry Baby acknowledged and stood to attention.
“It is your quick action and pursuit of justice that freed your team and assisted you in clearing your names. You are hereby awarded the battlefield promotion to Chief Petty Officer, with all the commendations such is accorded. So is signed by Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, on this date.”
Cry Baby stumbled back and sought Heim’s gaze.
“See? Told you guys marrying the MCPON’s daughter comes with benefits. Congratulations, Chief,” Heim said.
“Thank you, sir,” Cry Baby said, and saluted.
“When you return home your ranks will be appointed to you. For now, I have verified the information that SIS alerted me off on your way here, and I forwarded it to the USSCOM as well. In twelve hours, gentleman, you will be on a flight back home.”
*
She didn’t come with him.
He sat back in the private charter plane and curled his fingers into tight fists. The bitter taste of rage coated his tongue, but he tried to calm himself down. Of course, he understood how thing went. She was an SIS agent, and couldn’t stop her life instantly to come with him. Truth be told, if he’d wanted to leave the Navy to be with her, he would have had to come home and do it through the proper channels, after getting closer to his re-up date. Knowing all of it didn’t change a thing. The scent of her perfume clung to his shirt and he wanted to bury his face in the material and inhale her deep.
“You’re starting to turn into a fucking moper, and I hate those,” Welsh fussed at him.
Cry Baby glanced over at the big SEAL and rolled his eyes. “It’s better than having a scrotum for a face.”
Welsh scoffed at him and then dipped his head, pressing his forehead to Cry Baby’s mouth.
“What the hell are you doing?” Cry Baby asked.
“I’m trying to tea bag you, duh.”
Despite his heavy heart, Cry Baby broke out laughing. Leave it to a guy on his team to pull him out of his funk.
“Something is wrong with you, Welsh.”
“Yeah, you won’t lick my scrotum and it’s pissing me off. I swear you’ll like it. I washed today, so no risk of hypertension.”
Glitz leaned across the aisle with a straight face. “That’s a myth by the way. I haven’t gotten high blood-pressure yet.”
Cry Baby and Welsh lost their shit. It took years for Glitz to open up about his homosexuality, and they all wanted him to feel comfortable. That he’d finally started to make jokes made Cry Baby happy.
“And, no, Welsh, I won’t lick your scrotum. Nothing that ugly is coming near me,” Glitz finished.
“You guys are going to get us kicked off the plane,” Snake hollered.
“It’s just SEALs on a private charter plane, and you’re the one yelling,” Cry Baby tossed back.
“Now that he’s a Chief, he wants to be all observant. Look at him trying to get some more rank,” Heim said.
“You know he could run a team now, on his own?” Snake asked.
“You think he’s trying to ditch us and steal the guys away?”
“Are they really talking about me while I’m sitting right here?” Cry Baby asked Welsh.
“Oh, now you want to talk to me and shit. And all I tried to do was get your mind off Tiffany.”
“You just brought my mind back to her, idiot,” Cry Baby told him.
“Yeah, well since you’re an asshole, I don’t give a shit.” Welsh grinned at him and Cry Baby resisted the urge to punch him.
“But, honestly, you’ve got a good one. She sent you off without a single tear. That’s all you can hope for in our line of work. You’ll see her again soon. There’s got to be a ton of shit she has to deal with before coming stateside.”
Logically, Cry Baby knew all of that, but it didn’t make it easier to not have her beside him. They’d been inseparable since the moment he’d met her, and not having her around felt like a gaping hole.
“I’m just hoping I don’t catch the bug you all have,” Welsh said.
“And what bug is that?” Snake asked.
“This love thing. You meet a woman and then you lose you minds. What is it with that? I’m all for a long-term relationship, but I want a slow burn. Something nice and easier that I can know is right. Your guys met a girl and had lobotomies the same day.”
“You’re just jealous, Welsh. No one is dropping panties over that accent of yours anymore, and now you’re wishing you had somebody. Get over it, discount-Gerard Butler.”
“Did you just—” Welsh couldn’t get the words out as glared at Heim.
“Come at me bro.”
Cry Baby joined Hawk, Snake, and Glitz in laughter as Welsh and Heim shadow boxed in the aisle. It was all games, and jokes flew back and forth. Cry Baby had to admit, it did clear his head of thoughts of Tiffany. Not in the sense that he stopped thinking of her, but that his heart wasn’t so heavy. His team reminded him that they’d been through so much together, from kidnappings, rescues, and false imprisonment. There was no one on earth he’d rather serve his country with, or another woman but Tiffany he’d let inside this world.
Eventually, when things had been smoothed over, and she’d worked her way out of her ongoing missions, she’d come back to him. He’d have to old that close. It was odd, with the shoe on the other foot, and he having to wait for his woman to come back from deployment—because that’s how he’d view their time apart. She was out there, fighting for her country, and serving her Queen. When she could step away she would.
Hell, the fact that she even thought about stepping away, when he knew she loved her country and her work as much as he loved his, was astounding. He looked over at the SEALs no the plane. Welsh had disappeared to sit next to Hawk, who’d slumped over to sleep. He twitched, his fists closed tightly, and Welsh sat stone still. He gave Hawk the honor of vigil, whatever Hawk feared in his sleep, he could be comforted knowing that Welsh was beside him. Hawk’s darkness, right now, was his own. His SEAL brothers would be there to help him, when he was ready. Heim and Snake chatted back and forth, and Glitz dozed off. Wolf and his team congregated together and ribbed each other over poker hands.
I’ll be waiting, T.