A/N: This chapter is for who wanted to see "a chapter where it's either Gabriel or Riley's birthday and well, they give each other a gift or a surprise."

A/N 2: Thank you to those who left reviews for the last chapter. I'm sorry to if this isn't what you had in mind when you first gave me the prompt, but this is what ended up coming out. I hope you all like this!

The day had started out great for Gabriel. Today was Riley's birthday and his morning had begun with him diving under the bed sheets and crawling in between his girlfriend's legs in order to wake her up. He had been planning on spending the entire day with her and taking her out to do all of her favorite activities. Then later that night, he was going to take her out to eat at a fancy restaurant, go for a walk in the city park, and then propose to her under the starlit sky.

He'd had all of it carefully thought out and planned for weeks and for the entirety of them, he'd been praying to whatever deity might've listening that they wouldn't be called in to CyberCom. Unfortunately, life had a funny way of screwing up your plans.

Lillian had called them and told them they were needed at CDOC immediately. He'd had to cancel the reservations and store away the ring he'd been studying when she'd called. Riley had been in the shower and had to hurry up so that Gabriel could take one before they went in. There had been chance of him showering with her after the phone call; that would only cause them to be late.

When they had arrived at CyberCom, they were informed of the situation: they were going to be flown out to Iran where their mission was to recover an American family of four that had been imprisoned. Essentially, it was almost identical to the mission where they'd had to fly to Syria, posing as former President Finnegan's Secret Service, and rescue the two American "journalists" who ended up being CIA. Except this time, Lillian was one hundred percent sure that this was a family of innocents.

"Iran wants to start a war with us," she'd told them. "At this point, they're using any feeble excuse they have in order to fan the flames and get the fire going. All this family is guilty of is being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The country's not dumb enough to torture them, but they will die there if we can't reach them. Bring them home," were her instructions. Before they'd left, Lillian made sure to emphasize the "don't get caught" rule.

"If you're caught, just like with Syria a few years back, it means war. If you fail, American lives will be lost." She stared at them with a steely, no-nonsense gaze. "Don't fail."

And so, the two of them, along with a specialized tact team to act as backup, had traveled all the way to the Middle East for their rescue mission.

The pair had arrived and immediately began the operation, scoping out the place with Gabriel using the chip in order to get a look on the inside. The people back at CyberCom were aiding in any way they could, Nelson being the most helpful with his computer skills.

Surprisingly, it was very easy to sneak into the facility. They were able to successfully avoid alerting any guards of their presence. Well…there was one guard, but Gabriel quickly knocked him unconscious, stealing his keys off his belt in order to free the family. Once the family had been extracted from their cell, they'd begun to make their way out of the prison, only to find their journey halted by several guards.

Having had no other option, the two partners had had to open fire on them, alerting the rest of the building that there were intruders. The six Americans had rushed outside, trying in vain to reach the SUV the CyberCom agents had driven to the prison and hidden a couple hundred feet away behind a bunch of shrubbery. As they ran across the expanse, bullets buried themselves in the ground right next to them.

And this was exactly how Gabriel found his day completely and utterly ruined. The six of them had taken cover behind a large wall and while they were shielded from the bullets raining down on them, Gabriel and Riley were unable to get a good angle and shoot back.

"Damn it, Gabriel, I don't have a clear shot," Riley informed him. "And we can't waste any bullets shooting blindly, either." Speaking into her earpiece, she said, "Lillian, where the hell is our backup?! The plane isn't that far away.

"While they were on their way to come help you guys, they got a little tied up with the Iranians," Lillian told her.

"Funny, so are we," Riley laughed dryly. "Now, tell them to hurry their asses up!"

Gabriel surveyed the open area to the left of them, searching for a place that would provide decent cover, but still give them the opportunity to return fire. "There," he pointed to a large, hummer-like vehicle. "If we can get behind that then we'll be in the perfect position to see everything and pick them off."

"What about them?" Riley jerked her head to the terrified family. "We can't just abandon them?"

"Well, we can't just stay here, either. You heard Lillian: backup won't be here for a little bit. We're sitting ducks and you know it!" he replied. "Here," he took out the small gun he'd stashed away in an ankle holster. He tossed it at the man crouching next to his wife and kids. "You know how to use that?"

The man nodded.

"Good. No one should get past Riley and me, but hang onto that just in case. And stay here," he added as an afterthought. "Should anything happen to us out there, run for the SUV parked about a hundred feet away and use the GPS to get you back to the plane. The coordinates are already locked in so all you need to do is drive." Throwing the keys at the man, Gabriel turned back to Riley.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Let's light these fuckers up," he stated. "I'll cover you first."

She nodded. "Let's do this." Gabriel signaled that he was ready and she ran as fast as she possibly could to the vehicle.

Exposing himself so that he could giver her adequate cover, her partner shot at any person he saw, killing three in the process before ducking back behind the wall. Riley had made it so now it was his turn. He locked eyes with her and nodded, signaling that he was about to make a break for it.

Taking a steadying breath, Riley shouted, "Go!" before leaning out from behind the vehicle and firing at he Iranian soldiers. She'd fired seven shots and killed two men before Gabriel finally reached cover.

"Jesus Christ, what took you so long?" she asked. Glancing down at what he held in his hands, she added, "And when the hell did you get that?"

Depositing the gun on the ground, he said, "Well, that's what took me so long; I picked it up off a dead guy on the way over." He smiled, charm oozing off him.

"One day you're gonna get yourself killed," she said, rolling her eyes in the process.

"Hopefully not today, though."

"Yes," she agreed. "Hopefully not today."

"We are just too damn pretty to die," he commented.

Shooting him a look and checking how many rounds she had left in her clip, Riley said, "Alright, I spotted eight on the left and ten on the right, with more coming to back them up."

"Then let's get started, shall we?" Gabriel moved to the right, indicating that he'd take that side. "One, two, three!"

Both partners leaned out from behind safe cover, took aim, and fired. Shot after shot brought down more soldiers, but there were just too many of them. In the time that they'd begun shooting, at least a dozen more men came flooding out. Forced to duck behind the vehicle again, Riley reloaded her gun as Gabriel grabbed a hold of the rifle he'd taken off the dead Iranian. Switching it to semi-automatic, they waited for their next opportunity.

Riley hated gun fights. They seemed so back and forth with no one gaining the upper hand. It always took that one brave soul to leap out into the open and either die or kill all the others. She had always thought of gun fights as a waiting game. You had to wait to see who would either retreat or run out of ammo first. In this particular struggle, it seemed to her like it would be the latter, and they would be the ones on the losing side. Unless backup got there within the next couple minutes, they were completely fucked.

"You know, this isn't exactly how I planned on spending my birthday," Riley told her partner.

He looked at her amused. "You think I wanted this either? Hell no, I had it all planned out. Spend the day together—" seizing the chance, they turned back to the fight and quickly shot off a few rounds. Coming back together, he continued. "—Reservations and then a birthday surprise. Guess that's ruined now, huh?"

"What was the surprise?" she wanted to know.

"Not telling," he teased.

"You're insufferable," she complained. Leaning over, she took aim and sent a bullet flying straight through the middle of a man's forehead. Another soldier, she ended up shooting in the crotch and then again in the chest.

"Ouch," she heard her boyfriend remark. "Remind me never to make you mad."

"Oh please, like you haven't—" she was cut off by the crack of a gunshot and a loud thud. Looking over, she spotted Gabriel lying on the ground and out in the open.

"Gabriel!" she shouted. Hurriedly, she rushed over to his side and dragged him back behind the vehicle. He had a gaping hole in his right shoulder out of which ribbons of blood flowed. It was just his luck that the bullet would hit less than an inch from the edge of his bulletproof vest.

"Gabriel, look at me," she ordered, kneeling by his side and hovering over him. All he did in response was groan.

"Damn it," she cursed. Ejecting her clip, she saw that she only had a few shots left. Remembering the rifle that Gabriel had stolen, she saw it lying several feet beyond the safety of the vehicle. There was no way she'd be able to recover it without getting shot herself.

"Lillian," she said into her earpiece. "Gabriel's down. Where the fuck is our backup?!" She was in no mood to mess around and they were running out of time. She had four more bullets left and after those were used up, they were stuck.

"Lillian?!" she screamed, receiving no answer. Riley figured something must've happened to their connection.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Halfway across the world in Angel's Bluff, Virginia, the team at CyberCom were working furiously to get communication back between them and their agents.

"What happened?" Lillian demanded to know.

"I don't know," Nelson said. "Somehow we lost part of the connection. We can still hear them, but they can't hear us."

"Well, get it back," she ordered.

"I'm trying, but it's no use. We're not gonna be able to."

Lillian was ready to have a heart attack. The team she'd sent with Gabriel and Riley were en route and less than a minute away, but when you're left without ammo in the middle of a gun fight, a minute could feel like an eternity.

"Hold on, guys. Just hold on," she whispered to no one in particular.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

"This is so not how I wanted to spend my birthday, Gabriel," Riley told him. His head was in her lap, her gun still in her hand at the ready for anyone who came too close to their cover. There was nothing for her to stem the flow of his blood as it kept streaming from his shoulder.

"Me either," he said. "I was gonna take you out and we were gonna have an awesome night."

"You know, you never told me what that planned birthday surprise was," she reminded him.

"What's it matter? We're gonna die before backup gets here." His pessimism made her frown.

"Don't say that. And if you keep talking like that, I'll personally kill you."

Gabriel's eyelids started falling shut. He was fighting to stay awake. Riley was on the verge of panicking. "Gabriel, hey. Fight it off, okay? Stay awake for me."

"Riley," he muttered. "I don't know how much longer I can. Listen, in case I—"

"No, you listen," she told him sternly. "You have been shot before. I have been shot before. Both of us have had our fair number of injuries and wounds and we've always come out fine on the other side. I am telling you this, Gabriel, not as your colleague, not as your partner, but as your girlfriend who loves you and wants to marry you: you are not dying."

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Back in CyberCom, the entire room fell silent. All movement was brought to a halt and all talking ceased.

"Did she just say what I think she said?" Nelson asked out loud.

No one responded.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Gabriel narrowed his eyes at Riley. "Is it the blood loss affecting me or did you just say that you wanted to marry me?"

"Of course I want to marry you, you idiot," she said with a smile.

Her boyfriend was about to respond when a fresh wave of bullets rained down on their shelter. Riley bent over and covered his head and torso with her body, the instinctual action of protecting him going into overdrive. She could hear the Iranian soldiers advancing closer and closer. It would only be a matter of seconds before they were on them.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of tires crunching on the dirt as a giant SUV rolled onto the scene. It ground to a halt as the tact team poured out of the car, their rifles coming up to fire at the enemy. Their backup was finally there!

"Over here!" Riley yelled, waving her arm in order to get their attention.

Two men hurried over, one hoisting Gabriel onto his shoulders, the other grabbing Riley's arm and pushing her along while he continued shooting.

When they were at the safety of the car, Riley told the men, "The family we were sent to rescue, they're hiding over there." She pointed at their previous cover spot and warned, "Identify yourself first. Agent Vaughn gave the dad a gun in case someone came over to them."

One of the men said, "Agent Neal, you and Agent Vaughn will ride in this vehicle seeing as Agent Vaughn needs medical attention. I'll have two of my men escort the family back to the plane."

Riley nodded and climbed into the car, moving out of the way as the others on the tact team followed quickly behind. She knew the two men who'd gone over to the family would get them out of there. In the backseat, Gabriel was being looked at by one of the men.

As they arrived at their destination, Gabriel was carried out of the car and onto the plane. Riley stayed back and waited a grand total of ten seconds before the other SUV, carrying the American family, showed up. They abandoned the vehicles and herded the family onto the plane. As soon as they were all safely on board, the pilot started up the engine and took off.

Riley was fighting off the temptation to hover over the man that was working on Gabriel. She knew that these guys had far more medical experience than she did; after all it was a part of their required learning curriculum in case they needed to treat injuries in the field. Settling into her chair, she did all she could: wait.

The time passed painstakingly slow, but the man had finally finished after about thirty minutes or so. Immediately, she stood up and went to Gabriel's side. He was unconscious.

Not know what else to do, she simply talked. "I can't believe you thought I didn't want to marry you," she murmured. "Why else would I still be with you right now?" It was obvious that the tact team and the family they'd rescued were trying so hard to make it look like they weren't listening.

"I mean, I know this is kind of backwards—the guy's usually the one that does this—but I do. I want you to marry me, Gabriel. You keep me smiling when it all goes wrong; you keep me laughing when I'm feeling down; you keep me hopeful when everything seems hopeless. And if you were awake right now, I have no idea what you'd say. Your girlfriend asking you to marry her. Ridiculous, right?" Riley chuckled at herself then got serious. "But I'm asking. Marry me, Gabriel. Just marry me." When there was no reply she shook her head at her own foolishness. He was passed out; of course he wouldn't give her an answer. He hadn't even heard anything she'd just said.

"Yes," came a soft voice.

Riley looked sharply at the man before her. "What?"

"Yes," he repeated, opening his eyes slightly and gazing at her. "I'll marry you." The grin she gave him was so bright that it nearly blinded him.

Well, that's one way to get engaged, Gabriel thought to himself. So his plans had fallen through earlier. So he'd been shot on Riley's birthday. So he hadn't been the one to propose. So what? He honestly didn't care. There was one thing he needed to clear up, though.

"You're not gonna buy me an engagement ring, right?" he asked.

"Wasn't really planning on it, so no," she replied, amusement adorning her face.

Relieved, Gabriel reached for his fiancée's hand. "Good. 'Cause I already got one for you at home." At her shocked expression, he added, "What do you think your giant birthday surprise was?"

Riley shook her head in disbelief. "I guess great minds think alike then, huh?"

"Always." Then, he closed his eyes and let sleep overtake him. He knew that when he woke up, his fiancée would be right there beside him.

Guess it wasn't that bad a birthday after all, both partners thought at the same time.

A/N: I really hope that you all enjoyed this. I think this was my longest chapter yet, so it took quite a bit of time to write. Thank you so much and keep the support coming in the form of reviews!