A/N: I don't own Glee or The Unit…

I'm a huge fan of Glee and The Unit. This story came to me in a dream. I literally had a Glee and Unit marathon over this week and somehow the two got twisted in my lovely mind and I decided to just go with it. Hopefully this isn't too much of a hot mess. I'm kinda liking this idea. Rachel is definitely OOC in this. I'm not following any particular season of either show. I'm all for odd pairings so if you are die hard canon shippers than this is not the story for you. I know I'm kinda rambling a bit so I'll end this real quick. Please enjoy this and let me know if it's worth continuing. Constructive criticism is always welcome but not flames. This is just for fun, don't take it too seriously. LUV YA ;*

Chapter 1

Rachel Berry groggily opens her eyes and sleepily reaches for her beeping phone. It's times like these that the small brunette wishes she could just ignore the phone and snuggle deep inside her soft covers, but duty calls and she can't ignore her type of job. She tiredly rubs her eyes and glances at her bedside clock to see its 0300 hours and silently curses her two roommates for talking her into drinking more than she should have earlier in the evening. With only two hours of sleep it's going to be a long day.

"Go for Berry." The petite brunette rasps in her phone tiredly. The conversation is quick and to the point like always and Rachel hastily jumps out of bed and dresses herself in a pair of dark black jeans, a small gray V-neck t-shirt and flat black leather boots that reach mid-calf.

She splashes cold water on her face and brushes the bad taste out of her mouth that comes from a long night of drinking beer and eating bar food. The tiny dark haired beauty rushes through her shared apartment and bumps into one of her roommates as he is in a similar state of hurrying to their job.

"Watch were you're going Blue." Rachel snaps playfully while pulling her dark curls into a messy bun atop her head. The short man with close cropped dark curls flashes Rachel a lopsided smirk that affects her more than she is willing to admit. Not since high school has she felt these types of butterflies in her stomach courtesy of the opposite sex.

"Star, you're the one that bumped into me. If you wanted to get up on all of this all you had to do was ask." He says with a sly wink and sexy grin that was very reminiscent of a certain Mohawk boy she once knew from a different life. A life Rachel left behind seven years ago. She rolls her cinnamon eyes and fights to keep the subtle curve of her full lips from spreading into a wide smile while she grabs her tight fitted black leather jacket and car keys.

"Let me guess Hector got the girl tonight." Rachel says with an impish grin, referring to their missing roommate. Charles Grey just smirks at Rachel letting her know that the cute Latina at the bar had in fact opted to spend her evening with Mr. Tall-dark-handsome nice guy instead of the much shorter, scruffier handsome charmer that he is. What he doesn't say is how he had wanted to come home with Rachel instead of hooking up with some random bar girl which was his usual mo.

The two co-workers banter back and forth easily the whole way to the cave. The bickering pair has made this trip more times than they care to know. Its routine and the walk down the long hall along with the flashing of badges and sliding of electronic key cards could be done in their sleep. After tossing her keys and phone down on the well-worn table Rachel grabs her white mug with the huge gold star on the side and fixes herself a strong cup of coffee. She's going to need it if she wants to make it through the day without passing out.

She takes a seat next to Bob Brown and asks the good-looking green eyed man about his wife and kids. Rachel enjoys watching her friend's face light up at the mention of his family and happily listens to him recount a cute story about his young daughter Serena. The last few members of the team come trickling in and the last to arrive is her other roommate Hector Williams. The sly smile he shares with Charlie proves that his night with the pretty Latina went well.

Once everyone is assembled they make their way over to the plain room filled with desks reminiscent of a public school classroom. The six team members, five men and one woman take their seats and wait for Colonel Tom Ryan to brief them on their newest mission. At twenty four Rachel was far from what her sixteen year old self had imagined she would be. No she wasn't the Broadway star she had always hoped would take America by storm with her amazing talents. Instead she was an operator in an elite unit of soldiers that answered only to the President himself.

Her life has taken a turn that no one could have ever imagined and surprisingly the demanding diva has no regrets. The hardened colonel strides purposefully into the small classroom in his usual army fatigues and serious expression. Rachel pulls her attention from Hector and Charlie's conversation and meets the steely gaze of her superior officer. He watches her closely, searching her eyes for a brief moment. Rachel feels uneasy at the flash of concern that is gone just as quickly as it appeared.

"It seems we got ourselves a situation gentlemen, lady." The colonel states in his gravelly tenor. He hands out a manila folder to each member of his Alpha team and watches Rachel closely, as the only female member of his unit she has a special place in the hardened soldier's heart. If he had a daughter he'd think she would be something like the tiny diva.

Rachel opens the folder and is immediately bombarded with images of one Coach Sue Sylvester. It had been almost seven years since she last saw the demented former cheer-leading coach. It was because of her that Rachel's life had turned out much different than she had originally planned.

"Colonel I thought she disappeared for good. She's been completely off the grid for almost seven years." Rachel's voice is filled with some many emotions that she had thought were buried deep down enough never to surface again.

"Well Berry something has drawn her out of hiding. There's been some chatter that she is planning an attack and it's personal." Ryan hates the fear that passes through the tiniest member of his team. Rachel isn't some damsel in distress. Oh no, the petite beauty worked her way through boot camp, ranger school and unit selection with a determination rivaling men three times her size.

He took a personal interest in her all those years ago when he met a seventeen year old Rachel during one of the most terrifying moments of her life. The colonel was impressed that through it all she handled herself in a way that any member of his unit would. She was a born operator and using his clout he helped Rachel push past all the walls that keep women from joining the Special Forces. Normally he didn't allow females in his unit but Rachel was the only exception. With each mission the diva proved herself time and time again that his decision was not a wrong one.

"Hold up colonel…your saying that crazy bitch that had Star and her glee friends held hostage seven years ago, is coming after them again." Charlie voiced what all the members in the room were thinking. The thought that someone was after one of their own did not sit well with the overprotective men.

"That's right Grey. But it's not just Berry she's after. It's all of them. There's going to be a wedding. I think you got the invite in the mail Rachel." Ryan says getting back into boss mode. Rachel vaguely remembers seeing the simply pretty white envelope addressed to her in a familiar delicate scrawl that belonged to Miss Pillsbury. She had just come back from a particularly long mission with Mack and Bob and seen the invitation sitting on her bedside table.

"Yes but I wasn't planning on attending. I haven't been back to Lima since I graduated." Rachel knows she's been avoiding going back home but she just couldn't go back and risk seeing anyone she knew from high school. That part of her life was over and keeping her cover was more important. Too many friends mean too many questions. The 303rd Logistical Studies Group was a thin enough cover as is, she didn't need to add to the suspicion surrounding the unit.

She had cut ties with everyone except her two dads. To them she was a civilian contractor working with the group and neither of them approved of her life choices. Both her father's couldn't understand how one day her dreams were centered on being a famous star, only for her to become a glorified secretary. It was this reason she didn't visit home. Her fathers were the ones to come and visit her at Fort Griffith when she had the time and they always seemed to judge her for giving up her dreams of stardom. They meant well and loved her dearly; Rachel just couldn't take the guilt of lying to their faces.

She couldn't put into words how wrong they were about her life. Ever since the incident as she likes to call it, Rachel discovered that this was her calling. Being one of hundred and fifty elite soldiers and protecting her country along with its people was what she was born to do. She was damn good at her job and surprisingly her talent for acting and singing helped a mission on more than one occasion.

"Oh you will be attending Star and Grey here is going with you as your husband. Your cover will be a happy army wife who met her husband while working on base. I need you two to scope out the wedding venue and Lima. I want all the intel you can gather. Snake doctor and the rest of the team will be providing security discreetly. You and Betty Blue will be on the inside doing what you can to keep everyone safe. Wheels up in thirty." Ryan delegates easily having done this hundreds of times before. He's mastered his ability to keep his personal feelings from interfering with the job.

"Yes sir." The team answers and quickly gathers around team leader Jonas Blane. The tall solid man with the deep honeyed voice effortlessly strategizes with his team. They are a well-oiled machine and he will be damned if any fool was going to come to his house and hurt one of his own.

"How am I going to explain to my dads that I'm suddenly married to my roommate? They're going to freak out and complicate everything." Rachel huffs wearily while Hector wraps her tiny frame in a brotherly hug. She could only imagine her dads forcing Charlie and her to have a small reception for a wedding that never happened.

"I'm on that Star. I'll have Medawar set up a surprise vacation for your dads courtesy of their loving daughter. That should get them out of Lima for the week." Jonas is always one step ahead. He knew from past conversations with his wife Molly that Rachel was having a hard time with her fathers and knew the diva didn't need to add to an already stressful situation.

Once the preliminary details have been hashed out, Alpha team grabs their go bags and head to the transport plane that will take them to Lima, OH. Rachel tosses her bag down on the floor and flops down on the long bench seat. These planes were not built for comfort but it does the job. The team keeps to themselves and leaves Rachel to her thoughts. When she's quite like this they know to let her have her space. Rachel lets her mind wander back to the day when everything she knew changed forever.

Seven Years Earlier….

It was junior year and a week before nationals. Rachel and the glee club were working double time to make sure that they were prepared for the upcoming competition. What they didn't know was that Coach Sylvester was plotting to have them kidnapped to keep them from making it to nationals. The former cheerios coach was also close to falling over the edge of her insanity.

Instead of hiring local thugs to do her dirty work she contracted a group of former special ops mercenaries to do the deed. From there things had slowly begun to go downhill. The glee club was assembled in the auditorium after school and was diligently rehearing their routine when the five armed mercenaries burst into the auditorium as if they were storming the beaches of Normandy. It had all happened so quickly that most of the initial moments were a blur to Rachel.

There was so much screaming and chaos that it was hard to focus. Once the men had corralled the glee club on stage Rachel was able to regain her composure. Mr. Shue being the protective father type tried to reason with the armed men and begged for the kids to be released and offered himself up as the lone hostage. One of the captors happened to be a little trigger happy and put a bullet in Mr. Shue's side causing the young teacher to fall to the stage in a bloody heap.

The sight of so much blood still gives Rachel nightmares. Brittney surprisingly kept calm enough to take her sweater off and use it to apply pressure to his wound. Thankfully it had been a through and through shot but the amount of blood he was losing was not good. Rachel silently stayed by his side while watching the armed men closely. Every so often the leader would talk on a cell phone with presumably whoever had hired him.

The young ingénue immediately started plotting a way to get out of this situation. Rachel Barbara Berry was never one to sit and be idle. A little known fact about Rachel was that along with singing and dancing lessons that begun at a young age she was also well versed in the art of mixed martial arts and the Israeli Army fighting technique known as Krav Maga. Her fathers had wanted Rachel to be able to take care of herself when she eventually moved to the big apple to pursue her Broadway career.

Yanni, Rachel's Krav Maga teacher had been grooming his star pupil since the age of four and as with anything in her life Rachel Berry excelled beyond his highest expectations. He once told her that she had a hidden killer instinct that would someday save her life, how right he had been on that long ago day.

Rachel had called on all of her training that day to devise a plan that would get them out of there and get Mr. Shue the help he needed. The alternative of watching Mr. Shue slowly bleed to death was not something that Rachel wanted to happen. She had already enough issues to deal with in therapy. Hours had passed and the sounds of sirens and yelling by their captors had indicated that this was now a full-fledged hostage situation. The glee clubbers huddled near their teacher's prone form and had begun to think that none of them would live to see the next day.

Little did they know that Alpha team had been called in to help end the situation as quickly and quietly as possible. The unit specialized in situations like these and never took credit for them. Technically they didn't exist but if something went terribly wrong the full blame would be on their shoulders.

Sergeant Major Jonas Blane had his team in place and was lucky enough to have a smart tech geek hack into the school's security system and use the cameras to stream live video of the hostages in the auditorium. Master Sergeant Mack Gerhardt kept his eyes on the huddled mass of terrified teens as the rest of the team, Sergeants first class Charles Grey, Hector Williams and Bob Brown were going over blueprints of the school and figuring out the best way to take down the five armed men without getting the kids hurt.

On the inside Rachel was becoming more and more concerned at the rate of blood that seemed to be oozing from Mr. Shue's wound. Being who she was Rachel could not just sit back and watch the man die. Rachel was far too selfish to not want to make it out of this situation alive. After all Nationals was still a week away. The tiny brunette was not satisfied with sitting and waiting while the cops were taking their sweet time trying to figure out what to do.

Rachel turned to the group with her determined diva stare and prepared herself to give the best speech of her life. "We can take them down. We beat them out in sheer numbers. There are thirteen of us and only two here inside the auditorium and three on the outside. We can do this." Her voice is barely above a whisper but was filled with the same Berry passion she always has when giving one of her patented rants.

"Have you finally really lost your damn mind? There is no way we can take out five armed men." Santana Lopez snaps as lowly as she can. The fiery latina is in no mood to deal with Rachel's brand of crazy at the moment.

"Satan's right. There's no way Berry that we can do this without getting us all killed. I'm a badass but there is no fucking way I'm going up against some roided out gunmen." Puck runs his hand over his Mohawk head and glares at the tiny diva.

The rest of the club nod in agreement and Rachel silently fumes. Not even Finn her boyfriend and co-captain is on her side. "Fine as co-captain of this glee club I guess…I'll just do it on my own." Rachel snaps while Quinn rolls her eyes at the over dramatic Rachel.

The brunette turns to Tina and asks her to trade clothes with her. "I can't do this while wearing a skirt and knee socks." Tina's eyes widen slightly while Finn tries to reason with his girlfriend. Rachel will have known of it. She's set her mind on this and intends to see it through.

"Please." Rachel uses her best puppy dog eyes and Tina caves and as discretely as she can pulls off her jeans and boots. Rachel thankfully trades her skirt and ballet flats. In a matter of moments the two have changed clothes without drawing any attention to themselves. The gunmen are too preoccupied with the growing law enforcement presence on the outside.

Meanwhile Mack notices the movement on his screen. "Snake Doctor you got to come over here and check this out." Mack isn't sure what's happening but a gut feeling tells him something is about to go down.

"Roger that Dirt Diver. I'm on my way." Jonas leaves the training of the SWAT team and heads over to Mack. "What do we have over here Dirt Diver?" He's curious as to what has Mack on red alert.

Jonas leans closer to the computer screen and notices a small dark haired female hastily pulling on a pair of jeans and trading shoes with another female. "You think this one is planning something?" Mack just shrugs his shoulders as Jonas continues to watch the young girl prepare herself for something. She's pulling her long dark hair back into a bun at the nape of her neck and is tightening the laces on her newly acquired combat boots while the other teens huddle closer together with equal looks of defeat on their faces.

"Betty Blue, Hammerhead, Cool Breeze get your teams in place. You need to get in there now!" Jonas barks out in his deep bass voice as he and Mack watch with a mix of horror and admiration as a small girl leaps from the stage with the feline grace of a black panther and silently dispatches one armed guard.

"GO! GO! GO!" Grey yells into his headset as he expertly leads his team through a side entrance as Brown comes from the other side with Williams close behind. It's like a well-choreographed dance as Alpha team leads the SWAT officers through the abandoned halls. Using only hand signals Brown communicates with Williams to take his team and clear each hallway. With Williams taking his team and securing the halls Grey and Brown silently make their way to the auditorium armed with their 9mm.

The two seasoned soldiers easily and quickly put two bullets in each of the three armed men as they approach the auditorium doors. Brown using hand signals once again communicates with Grey letting him know that he will open the door and cover him as he makes his way into the auditorium. Grey nods his head in acknowledgement and readies himself to take out the next captor. What Grey wasn't anticipating when entering the large room was finding a tiny brunette that could make him look tall in comparison standing over an unconscious man with an automatic rifle grasped in her small hands.

She's slightly disheveled and her chest is heaving with each shaky breath as she lowers the weapon to the ground. From the corner of his eye Grey catches movement and in a flash grabs the young girl and pulls her close to his chest as he just as quickly fires off three rounds into the charging figure. The terrified girl lets out a muffled sob into his chest as Brown rushes the stage to check on the condition of the injured teacher.

"Snake Doctor this is Cool Breeze…the area is secure and we have the precious cargo. Repeat we have the precious cargo but one package has been damaged and we need immediate assistance." Brown scans the group of kids and takes note that no one else is hurt.

"Cool Breeze this is Snake Doctor assistance is on the way. Have Hammerhead bring the precious cargo out the front entrance and have Betty Blue bring his prize straight to me." Jonas delegates orders to the local authorities while still slightly shocked at the footage of the tiny girl disarming two men twice her size.

Rachel readied herself and in a flash with all the grace her ballet training had given she had managed to leap from the stage and onto the back of the closest of the gunmen. Wrapping her small arm around his thick neck and using all her weight she bore down with all her might and after a few moments managed to render him unconscious. Rachel was pretty sure the amount of adrenalin pumping through her veins is what was helping her get the better of these men.

Just as quickly Rachel bum rushed the other guard with the unconscious man's weapon in hand. Rachel was shocked to find out how heavy the rifle was but soldiering on she used her advantage of surprise and slammed the man in the back of the head with the butt of the rifle. He fell to his knees and before he could reach for his gun Rachel bashed him once more as hard and she could muster. The sickening crunch of breaking bone almost had her vomiting on his bleeding head. What had felt like hours to her had only taken a few minutes to accomplish.

Before she could figure out how to get everyone out of the auditorium safely the doors fly open and in come the SWAT team armed to a tee and ready for action. Rachel locks eyes with the shortest of the men and his reassuring gaze let's her know that everything will be ok. She slowly drops the rifle to the ground and tries desperately to keep herself from hyperventilating.

With her eyes still locked on the stranger she feels herself begin to calm down. His eyes move quickly to the side and in a split second Rachel feels herself being pulled into his arms and then a loud pop, pop, pop lets her know that the first gunmen she attacked had waken and was gunning for her. All the adrenalin leaves her body and the crazy emotions of the ordeal catches up to her. Rachel lets out a sob into her savior's chest and cries out all her feelings. The man holds her a little tighter with one arm while holstering his firearm. Rachel takes a deep breath and his masculine scent of soap and sandalwood calms her frayed nerves.

Present time…

Rachel jolts awake as the familiar scent of soap and sandalwood she associates with Charlie invades her senses. She opens her large brown eyes and sees Charlie's concerned face hovering over her. She hadn't even realized she'd fallen asleep. Rachel puts a hand to her racing heart and tries to calm herself down. She hadn't had a nightmare about that day in a long time. It was probably her trip back that was stirring up all those old memories she would like to keep locked away.

"You ok Rach?" Grey asks trying not to sound too overly concerned. He knows how much she hates being seen as helpless. Rachel gives him a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes and tells him she'll be fine. Charlie doesn't push her. He's learned the hard way that when Rachel is ready to talk she'll do it on her own terms.

Rachel leans her head on his shoulder and enjoys the safe and protected feeling she has when she's near Charlie. The two sit in companionable silence and just enjoy the company of the other. It's not awkward because neither of them need to fill the silence with useless chatter. If only it were possible for Rachel to hold on to this feeling when she arrives in Lima. She knows the moment she steps off this plane her life was going to get a hell of a lot more complicated than she was ready to deal with.

A/N: Please Review. Next up Rachel and Charlie play house and some of the gleeks make an appearance.