Let me start with I do not own The Brave, I just play in their world.

Also, I think Call Me Joseph is going to have to officially merge into this story. There is a significant portion of McG/Hannah here, but it is plot-relevant, so if I put it in CMJ anyone not reading that fic (Shameless plug: You totally should) would miss it. I kind of always knew it would come to this, I just thought it would've happened A LOT sooner...but I just wanted to clarify that.

Bottom line, it's just really difficult to keep these stories split now that they are so intertwined. And frankly, the idea of trying to do it is a bit exhausting. So, I hope that you are all okay with that plan. (You're probably all shaking your heads going, yeah we saw this coming you idiot)

Finally, I'm sorry for the roller coaster I'm about to take you on...and the fact that it has no brakes and the restraints don't work... (Go listen to the song referenced here...it's a good one and fitting for a lot of reasons)

You can kill me later... :)

More at the end...

But if only you could see yourself in my eyes
You'd see you shine, you shine
I know you'd never leave me behind
But I am lost this time
Are we destined to burn or will we last the night?
I will hold you 'til I hold you right
But if only you could see yourself in my eyes
You'd see you shine, you shine

Lost - Dermot Kennedy

Dalton and the team settled around the kitchen table after dinner to discuss the next phase of their plan. The team would load the aid package onto a military truck, and travel in a second vehicle with a pair of military escorts who Dalton was certain would be forced to wait at the border.

Once they got to the border, the team would take the truck with the aid package to the hospital where they would hopefully meet with the French nurse, Emme Bissett. If they could, the team would question her there, but they knew there was a chance they'd have to pull her out. It really would depend on how deep her ties went to Boothe and Marquez.

Dalton wasn't comfortable leaving the nurse exposed if there was significant danger posed by the pair. He knew that her presence would only further endanger her patients if Marquez or Boothe decided she was a liability, but he also knew he may not have a choice. The team wasn't in the habit of kidnapping.

Nurse Bissett wouldn't want to leave her patients since there were already so few to care for them to begin with, but they might be forced to make her see she could pose a greater risk than an understaffed hospital if those two found her to be expendable. But, realistically, Dalton knew that might not be enough to make her leave with them.

Dalton was sure Emme held the key to something, but he wasn't sure where the door would lead. Knowing Hoffman, it would be a series of doors rather than a straight-up answer.

"What are we going to do if she won't leave?" Jaz asked.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to force her. All we can do is give her the facts and hope that she'll come willingly, but we're going to draw a lot of attention if we try to shove her in the back of a truck and speed off." Amir said.

Every instinct Dalton had said that they should do just that, but he knew that Amir was right. If Marquez or Boothe did have eyes on her and didn't already know who they were and why they were there, kidnapping the nurse would undoubtedly give up the game. They would almost certainly have to leave her behind if she wouldn't come willingly and let another team extract her or risk exposing themselves before they could formulate a plan and that was a risk they couldn't afford to take.

They discussed the boy who was still an unknown, but perhaps the nurse would be able to shed some light on his identity as well.

Once they'd wrapped up with Patricia, Noah and Preach they'd each headed off to separate corners of the bunker. Amir headed off to call Dani, Jaz and Dalton made their way out to build a fire and McG followed Hannah to her room.

McG was on a knife's edge with his feelings in conflict. He was equal parts elated and uneasy with Hannah on the base with the team.

On the one hand, he was thrilled that he had his girl by his side, but he couldn't help being concerned that she was potentially in very close proximity to a man that once tried and very nearly succeeded in taking her life.

And now, they were pursuing that man, which all but guaranteed a confrontation was coming.

It would be easy to bottle up all the thoughts that were swirling in his head, to pull back, and let those feelings consume him in an effort to downplay the danger and protect Hannah. For most, that was a normal response, but his mom had always touted the importance of sharing your burdens with the people you loved, and he simply couldn't pretend everything was going to be okay.

There was no question he was head over heels in love with Hannah, and that he would do anything he could to protect her. But, no matter how much he wanted that he couldn't protect her from the past, especially when he knew that past wasn't going to stay buried. Plus, he knew Hannah was more than capable of taking care of herself and didn't need him or anyone else coddling her.

So, rather than take his girl to bed which he wanted more than anything, McG decided to dive right in and confront the demons head-on.

Hannah was on edge too, she knew her path was going to cross Marquez's and she knew that her association with him was putting a lot of people she cared for at risk. All she wanted to do was curl herself around Joseph and draw comfort from him, but he was making it clear that he had other things on his mind, too.

"As much as I'd love nothing more than to lay you out on that bed and remind you how far you've come...we've come, I can't."

Hannah looked confused at first, but then she smiled and touched a hand to his cheek, "You're worried."

"How could I not be? We are about to kick a hornet's nest, and as soon as he knows we are onto them and that you are alive, he's going to set his sites back on you. Men like that don't like unfinished business."

"Well, we've got some unfinished business too. And this time, I'll be ready. This time, I have something to fight for." Hannah shared as she ran her thumb over his lower lip before she turned and sat down on the bed cross-legged.

McG took a seat across from her and intertwined his fingers with hers as he said, "I know how strong you are, but that won't stop me from being scared to death that you could be hurt, or that I could lose you. I don't think I could come back from that."

"Joseph, you are not going to lose me. And I'll be safe tomorrow because I will be sitting here in this bunker all by myself while you put your life at risk. Don't think I'm all that happy about that prospect either." Hannah shared.

"I'll have Jaz, Amir, and Top watching my back. That's more than you had back when..." McG started.

"When I last saw Marquez." Hannah finished.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but how did he..."

Hannah interrupted before he could finish, "Marquez ran me off the road. It wasn't until later that I found out Urzua had figured out I was undercover. He'd known for weeks, and we'd had no idea. So, I was headed to a meeting that was never going to occur. It was simply a ruse to get me out in the middle of nowhere."

McG unfolded her legs and slung them over his hips as he pulled her in close enough that he could give her comfort. He'd heard the general story that first night, and bits and pieces when she'd felt like sharing but this was the first time he'd asked for more.

"I was never supposed to make it out of the desert. Marquez was supposed to gut me and put me in a hole in the ground, but he got off on it. He enjoyed listening to me scream, so he took his time." Hannah said as a single tear fell from her lashes.

McG started to wipe it away, but Hannah tilted her chin up and continued before he could.

"The first cut felt almost cold, he'd run me off the road, but he was toying with me. He pulled me out of the car and let me feel like I might be able to run, but then he caught me. It was like a fat cat toying with an injured mouse. The blade opened my skin so effortlessly that all I felt was the mix of cool night air and the blood as it saturated my clothes."

McG didn't interrupt, he simply traced the sliver of pink puckered skin that poked out of her tank just below her shoulder blade eliciting a shiver, and Hannah continued.

"It didn't register as pain until Marquez shoved me against my car, that was when he started to laugh as he cut through the fabric of my shirt exposing what I'm sure he saw as a blank canvas. That was when he told me how he was going to carve apart my flesh and watch me bleed out. He told me he'd leave me with just enough blood coursing through my veins so that I could put up a fight." Hannah said as she pressed her cheek to his shoulder.

She was silent for a moment, and McG thought she was finished, but she wasn't.

"He never said the words, but I knew what he had in mind to do as I slowly bled out. One last indignity before he put my cold, lifeless body in the ground." Hannah finished.

McG could feel her tears soaking into his shirt as she told him how Marquez's plan had been thwarted when a set of headlight appeared on the horizon. Her team had been following, but they'd been too far away to stop much of what she'd endured. But, they'd spared her the horrors of being raped as the last of her blood left her body.

"By the time they'd arrived, I was well on my way to bleeding out. To this day, I don't remember how Marquez escaped, but I do remember how it felt to have the knife jammed into my side in a parting shot before he took off." Hannah said as she rubbed the single scar that stood puckered against her rib cage.

"He didn't know it was my team coming down the road, he just thought it was a driver that happened to be on that road late at night. If he'd known one of them was a medic, he probably would've slit my throat just to be sure, but I think Marquez figured he'd done enough damage and that I'd die slowly and painfully. And that's what he really wanted."

McG didn't say a word as she spoke, he simply held her offering quiet comfort in the warmth of his embrace.

Hannah loved that about him. He didn't prolong the story of that night by asking a lot of questions, he just let her tell it at her own pace and while she was sure he'd had some thoughts about that night he'd remained silent.

"I don't remember much beyond the relief that I felt when I knew for sure it was them. Though that was short-lived as they were jamming a tube into my collapsed lung and screaming at me to stay awake. Something I failed to do as the pain was no longer being dulled by the shock and adrenaline coursing through my veins."

McG was horrified by these new facts. He'd been a medic long enough to see some horrific things, but he'd also learned some level of detachment. He had to, but the idea of someone that he loved going through such a harrowing experience turned his stomach. He hated when the team got hurt, but he could shut that off and compartmentalize pretty well...it had been tested when they found Jaz in Tehran, but he'd still managed to get the job done. He wasn't sure what he would have done if it had been Hannah, which was yet another reason he wasn't going to complain about her staying behind tomorrow.

"The next thing I remember was bright lights being shined in my face and a flurry of doctors and nurses cutting what remained of my clothes from my body and Brody, the medic on my team shouting. I'm sure it was vitals or something, but nothing registered...it all sounded like nails on a chalkboard and I just wanted the silence. I wanted to close my eyes and let the fuzzy feeling that I'm sure was pain meds to pull me under, but apart from the fuzzy feeling I just couldn't escape the pain. It was like scalding bolts of electricity ebbing through every inch of my body and the smell of copper surrounded me. I remember shivering which only made the pain more intense, but I was freezing. My teeth were chattering, my head felt like it was going to split open and every time I closed my eyes, I thought it would be the last time." Hannah shared as she rubbed a fresh torrent of tears from her cheeks.

"Shhh," McG whispered as he pulled her further into his arms and rubbed his hands over her back in soothing motions.

Hannah turned her head toward him and laid her head back on his shoulder, pressing her lips to the pulse point in his neck as she whispered, "Thank you."

"For what?" He wondered.

"For listening and for being you," She stated simply knowing that if he'd interrupted she never would have continued, but it felt good to put everything out there knowing that Joseph wouldn't tuck tail and run.

"Baby girl, I am here for you. Always. For everything you've been through, and most importantly, for everything we have ahead of us. I want it all. I'll carry your burdens, I'll kiss away all of your tears, I'll rub your feet when you carry our children and change diapers...All of it. I'm in this for the long haul. You and me, we're endgame." McG said as he pressed his lips to her brow.

Hannah smiled against his neck and whispered, "how many kids are we talking?"

"Lots," McG said with a laugh.

Hannah started to say something else when McG's phone flashed on the bed beside them. She picked it up and started laughing as she handed it to him and said, "Abbie's grandbaby radar must have gone off."

With a laugh, McG answered her call, he had no idea how long they'd be out, and he knew she'd be climbing the walls if they didn't talk.

Dalton and Jaz settled in front of the fire while soaking in the familiarity of the place they so often called home watching the sun set on the horizon. The bunker was different, but they'd spent many a night under this sky. Both as friends and as so much more.

Now, they did it as husband and wife.

That should be strange, especially since they really couldn't acknowledge that at the moment, but it was also a comfort.

What they had was permanent.

They'd each left indelible marks on one another over the course of their time together.

"I didn't think we'd ever be sitting here together again," Dalton said.

"Me neither, but here we are," Jaz said as she turned his hand over in hers.

There was a mark from his ring that he hadn't removed until they'd walked into the DIA. It was currently tucked into the small pocket of his duffle, but that hadn't stopped him from rubbing over the spot where it should be.

Jaz had reluctantly left hers in a safe at Hannah's house.

"I don't want to hide this anymore. Promise me we won't have to once this op is over no matter the consequences," Jaz said.

"I promise," Dalton said as he kissed her on the forehead and pulled her into his side.

Dalton couldn't wait for that day to come, though if he'd known what the next day would bring he might have been more careful about what he wished for.

The sky was an eerie inky black when they loaded the trucks well before dawn.

Hannah was seated at the computer doing a comms check when Noah pinged her screen and said, "I think we might have a lead on the kid. Don't tell the team yet, but he popped up on facial rec...only it wasn't his face our systems recognized."

Hannah started to ask for more info, but Dalton walked in to let her know they were getting ready to roll out.

"Hey Noah, you got anything for me?" He asked.

"Nope. Nothing yet, we'll be in touch when you get closer to the border."

A moment later, the rest of the team came through the door to say goodbye to Hannah. They were hoping to roll in before it got light out to avoid drawing a lot of unnecessary attention. While they didn't want to alert Boothe or Marquez, other forces in the area didn't necessarily want medical supplies or Americans in the area either, so the quieter this transaction was, the better.

Once they hit the border, their comms went live. They were no longer in friendly territory, so they needed all the eyes they could get.

"All is quiet at the hospital this morning, you should be able to get in quiet, but there is a convoy moving north that might be headed in that direction, so you won't have too much time to spare," Patricia shared.

"So, no coffee. Perfect," McG joked as he let out a yawn.

"Is our nurse there?" Dalton asked.

"From what we can tell, she doesn't leave," Noah answered.

"Good. Anything else we should know?" Dalton asked.

"No. We're looking into a lead on the boy, but nothing to report yet," Noah said.

"Okay, keep us posted," Dalton said before they drove the aid package over the border into Syria.

They had to leave the escort from the base behind since they were posing as a civilian aid group with private security. Dalton didn't like it, but there really was no other option given the time constraints.

They pulled up to the back of the building a little before 6 am, the light was just starting to filter in. The streets were still quiet apart from errant gunfire off in the distance, but no one seemed to notice as it was commonplace in the region.

"Job security," The man at the loading dock said in a heavy accent, but there was no humor in his voice.

"We were told to meet Nurse Emme. Is she here?" McG asked as he read her name off a clipboard pretending to be as out of the loop as the man he was speaking to.

Amir and Dalton stood by silently observing, while Jaz held up a camera and said, "You don't mind if I film, do you?"

The man hesitated before glancing into the back of the truck to see a massive stash of supplies that could keep them running for a couple of months if they rationed properly, so he gave her a terse nod before barking orders over a radio.

A moment later, six men dressed in scrubs came out, "we take, yes?" one of them questioned.

McG stepped aside, letting the men on the truck as they opened the first pallet to find boxes of sterile gauze, gloves, and dressings. Two other men hefted the lid from another pallet to find bags of saline, tubing, and sterile needles. There were also vials of antibiotics, pain medications, and an assortment of anesthetics in a third pallet.

The last three pallets contained cases of MRE's, fresh water, and baby formula and nutritional replacement formulas which elicited happy chatter between the clearly malnourished volunteers.

They grabbed as many boxes as they could carry among them and scurried by uttering, "Thank you."

A steady stream of men and women came and went as the supplies were carried into the hospital. Few made eye contact with the team, but all of them appeared to be relieved.

Dalton couldn't imagine the hardships they must face every day, and yet each of them was still here, tending to the sick and dying with whatever supplies they had.

When the last box was unloaded, a young nurse started to walk past before stopping and turning to the group, "thank you," she said with tears in her eyes.

Dalton started to reach a hand out, but stopped short not knowing how that would be received and said, 'no, thank you."

The girl nodded and moved briskly into the building.

With the truck now empty, the older man said, "Come with me."

Dalton followed with Jaz and McG in step behind him and Amir scanning for threats from the back.

When they got inside, the smell of rotting flesh and urine was overwhelming.

At the end of a long hallway, they were led into what had once served as a waiting room, now it was filled with beds. So many, that you had to turn sideways to walk between them.

Most of them were small children who were grossly malnourished, and the men and women from the truck were scurrying about handing each of them tiny cups filled with formula. For some, it had been weeks since they'd eaten, so that was all their tiny bodies could handle.

An emaciated mother reached out to McG, who had a stethoscope around his neck and spoke in broken English, "thank you, doctor, thank you."

McG knelt down and looked over her child knowing that he had been days away from losing the fight, he didn't know if the supplies they'd delivered would be enough to stop that from happening, but at that moment he was thankful for the ruse.

"You're welcome," He answered as he pressed a hand to the child's forehead.

He was warm to the touch, but he was sitting up on his own drinking from the cup. The boy smiled at him as he listened to his lungs.

Dalton noticed the formula was only going to the children and pointed it out to McG who looked to the doctor that was leading them and said, "You're understaffed as it is, their mothers and families can't help you if they are sick too."

With a nod, the man spoke to several of the staff attending to the families in another language, and shortly after another round was brought in for the adults.

The team startled at the sound of a young boy screaming, though none of the patients or their families seemed alarmed as it was a daily occurrence. McG headed towards the screams through a set of double doors with the rest of the group hot on his heels. That was where they finally found Nurse Emme. She was Elbow deep in an IED wound on a boy that couldn't have been more than 12.

"I am sorry that I did not greet you," She said in a thick French accent. "The fighting never stops."

She was patching the young man up with one young nurse who looked like she was going to be sick, so McG dropped his pack and pulled some gloves and a mask out.

"Let me help."

The boy was still screaming, so McG pulled an ampule of morphine from his kit too. The kid was visibly afraid of him, so he asked the older man to explain that he was going to give him medicine that would make him sleepy and help with the pain.

The boy nodded reluctantly, and McG administered the meds.

When it became clear that they were going to have to amputate the young boy's leg, Jaz handed off the camera to Amir because it was more than she could stomach. She was fine when it came to blood and some pretty gruesome injuries, but there was just something about injured kids that got to her on another level.

"Are there no doctors here?" McG asked as he glanced around and saw no one but the young nurse and Emme.

"No, I'm afraid they've all gone to places where they felt they could help. Here, it is just day after day children that we can not help. Wounds we can not heal." Emme said. "Is too much."

Jaz found herself wandering down the hall and into a locker room of sorts and settled on a bench while she tried to get her wits about her. Once the hot swirl of nausea had passed, she glanced around and spotted a bulletin board with pictures, so she got up to investigate.

There were lots of pictures of children she thought might have been patients, but one image stood out. It was a picture of the blonde boy they hadn't been able to find.

Jaz pulled the pin from the board, and a second picture fell to the ground, forgotten as she turned the picture in her hand over. Scrawled in a loopy cursive was the name, Adam.

Jaz snapped a shot of the image with her phone and sent it to the team in DC.

"Did you get that?" She said over her comms line.

"Yeah. Hold on a minute," Preach answered.

A second later, he came back on the line, "Sorry, I had to switch over to a private feed. We found the boy on facial rec last night, well, actually not the boy...his mother, maybe...we aren't certain exactly who she is to the boy. It pinged on an aged up photo of Allie with that little boy."

"Allie?" Jaz asked with confusion coloring her response.

"Allie...Dalton, we don't know what her last name was after..." Preach confirmed.

"Does Adam know?" Jaz asked. "Of course he doesn't, that's why you switched over."

"We didn't think it was a good idea to get his hopes up. Those aged up photos aren't 100% reliable." Noah responded.

"I can't...I'm not keeping this from him," Jaz said.

"Keeping what from me?" Dalton said as he came up behind her giving her a start.

Jaz cut off her comms and looked at him, "Sit down with me for a minute."

Dalton smiled at her and started to do as she asked when he saw a picture lying on the floor. It was a picture he recognized. As he picked it up off the floor. He quickly reached into his vest, thinking he'd dropped it, but it was right where it always was. A picture of Dalton and his middle two sisters sitting on the front steps as he cradled his brand new baby sister, Allie.

Jaz gasped as she looked over his shoulder, "Is that..."

"My family." Dalton said with a hint of confusion lacing his words.

Dalton brushed the dust from the floor from their faces, "how could this picture wind up here of all places?"

"Allie, we think, we're not sure yet," Jaz said.

"What do you mean? How the fuck did this get here?" Dalton shouted.

"They found her. Preach, and Noah found her." Jaz said as she tried to calm him down.

"Here?" Dalton questioned as he started to get up to go looking.

"No. She's in Turkey." Noah responded.

"What is she doing in Turkey, and why is this picture here?" Dalton asked as a combination of joy and panic swirled in his belly.

"We don't know yet, haven't got a last name, but she popped up three times in the last 24 hours near a refugee camp in Mardin." Preach said. "Best guess she's with an aid group or maybe a medic but we haven't been able to get any background on her yet."

Dalton smiled at that, "That's six hours from us."

"Her last name is Monroe." Hannah interjected. "I've got her passport pulled up now. In recent years, she's been to Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey..."

"Top, either she's a spy or she's been following you," Jaz said. "And I doubt she's a spy."

"She's been looking for you." Hannah said with a hint of hope in her voice. "She's in legal aid. Works in refugee resettlement."

Before Dalton had a chance to ask any more questions, they heard a loud blast. Both Jaz and Dalton sprang into action as they sprinted towards the area of the building where they'd last seen McG and Amir. The problem was that was exactly where the blast originated, so the air was clogged with debris and dust.

Jaz got out ahead of Dalton as she held a hand over her mouth to keep from breathing in the cloud of concrete and who knows what else, but it was making it hard to see where they were going. So much so that neither of them saw the shadow of a boy lurking in the adjacent hallway, he couldn't have been more than 14 or 15. The kid stepped out into the hallway in front of Jaz as Dalton screamed her name.

It didn't matter, both of them were already in the line of fire.

Jaz turned her head and glanced back towards Dalton before sidestepping in front of the boy a moment before he heard the sickening pop-pop and saw the muzzle flashes that propelled Jaz backward landing in a heap about ten feet in front of him. A second later there was another pop and Dalton was certain it was directed at him, but he was consumed by the sight in front of him as he fell to his knees and shook Jaz. If the boy ended him, he didn't care he just needed to make sure Jaz was okay.

She'd had a vest on, but Dalton could see the deep burgundy flare of blood as it spread out around her.

"Jaz? Jaz!" He shouted as he started to do a physical inventory of her injuries. "Oh god, stay with me, baby!"

"Dalton, we have to go." Amir shouted as he rounded the corner stopping short when his eyes landed on them.

The second set of shots had come from him Dalton realized as he saw McG reaching down to check the lifeless boy's pulse before giving a shake of his head. He was dragging the nurse behind him, clearly injured in the blast herself. McG was hindered by her weight on his shoulder but still moving briskly as he surveyed Jaz's still form from afar.

"Is she breathing," McG shouted as he neared them.

Dalton couldn't form the words to answer.

"Top...Top...Is she breathing?" He shouted again.

Oh yeah, you are all totally looking at me with a murderous glare aren't you?

But, rest assured the next chapter is already well under way. I had to split them...this one was already at 5k words and no end in sight. Now, excuse me while I slink away to finish this chapter and write a one-shot to ease my stress as I wait for you all to shade me for the cliffhanger ; )

Also, still taking suggestions for the lighter one-shots (On A03) which you all might be needing now that I gave you a gut shot.