Author's Note: I hope everyone has a Happy Easter! Chgrgal had requested some Adam whump so this was supposed to be a short story with that as it's sole focus. However, it quickly took on a life of it's own, and became longer than I had expected. I split it into two portions and will get the second one up soon. I hope you enjoy.

Dalton looked through the scope. Softly calling out wind speed and direction to Jaz so she could hit the difficult target. She was just about to pull the trigger when McG's voice sounded in their ears.

"A team of seven heavily armed hostiles has just entered your building!"

Just great, Dalton thought as Jaz made the tricky shot and took out the target.

He quickly stood and faced the only door down from the roof with his weapon drawn. Behind him Jaz was rapidly disassembling her sniper rifle. She touched his shoulder and they started to move forward toward the stairs back to back. Once they entered the stairway of the apartment building they could hear the footsteps coming up. Rapidly. They hit the stairs themselves, quickly and quietly, and stepped out onto the tenth floor. Pressing their ears against the door they listened to the pounding of feet as the enemy ran past their floor up the stairs. They entered the vacant apartment they had used earlier in the day for staging, grabbed the ropes they had tied to the balcony, and started rappelling down. They were close to the ground when the enemy caught on and started firing from above. Jaz watched in concern as Dalton dropped suddenly but relaxed when he returned to his normal pace.

When they reached the sandy ground they quickly disconnected from the ropes and headed out by foot. Dalton was just about to reach out to McG and Preach when a high pitched squeal came through their earpieces.

He turned to Jaz, "They're jamming us. Secondary plan. We need to use one of those spots we scoped out earlier."

Jaz moved quickly down the street with him while scanning the surrounding area for hostiles. Fortunately there weren't many people on the street which was to be expected considering the late hour. Dalton stopped at a pile of debris concealing a small window partially below the ground level. He continued to scan the alley while Jaz cleared their way and got the window open. The lock was child's play. She stepped back and motioned him to the window.

"It'll take you longer than me, Top."

He knew she wasn't kidding. It was going to be a tight squeeze if he could get his shoulders through at all. He removed his weapons, tactical vest, shirt, and holsters and tossed them inside before squeezing himself in. It was a tight fit that resulted in scrapes up and down his arms but he managed to drop to the floor of the root cellar. He was jealous of Jaz's much easier entry. Once she had a chance to put her weapon down, he picked her up around the waist so she could reach out and reorganize the debris and lock the window.

"Sucess," she said wiping her hands on her cargo pants with a smile.

"At least this has gone our way. We'll hang out here and wait until they either stop jamming our communications or DC breaks it," Dalton said.

It was chilly down in the basement so he put his shirt and vest back on. He was tired and a little dizzy. Maybe he was getting too old to be throwing himself off buildings and dodging bullets? He hoped not because he had no idea what he was going to do next. Get married? Have a family? He didn't feel like he was quite ready for settling down yet. Plus it would take a special woman to tie herself to him and stay there.

He looked around their surroundings and decided it wasn't such a bad place to be holed up. Much better than many of their past hiding spots. A little cold but otherwise clean and chock full of preserved food stuffs.

Jaz continued to stare towards the window as if she expected someone to come through it at any second. The look in her eyes said if they did they would be dead. While she focused her aggressions on potential dangers, he started looking through the supplies to see what they had available. It was always good to know what was at hand in case the mission officially became FUBAR.

"Top, what happened?!"

He turned around quizzically only to see her gaze fixed on fresh blood on the table he had been leaning against. Jaz stopped focusing on the window, or anything else for that matter, and quickly came to his side.

"Turn around."

"I'm fine, Jaz."

"Nothing about that table looks fine. Turn."

He did as instructed and heard the catch in her breathing.

"You were shot and you didn't tell me?!"

"Just a ricochet. I'll be fine until we get back to McG."

"Your "ricochet" has you bleeding like a stuck pig. Take the vest off again."

"I'm fine, Jaz."

"Either you take it off or I'll take it off for you. I know which one you would prefer."

Dalton looked her in the eye, "You do know I'm your CO, right?"

"I know and I'd like you to continue being my CO. Which you won't be if you bleed to death!"

"It's not that bad."

She was silent for a moment and he watched as she opened her mouth but closed it before saying anything. She took a few more seconds to gather her thoughts and dropped her gaze to the floor before finally saying what was on her mind.

"I can't do this again, Top," she said quietly.

He flashed back to seeing her covered in Elijah's blood and took the vest off for her without another word. It was a traumatic memory for the whole team and he knew she still had nightmares about it. They had spent many early morning hours awake processing their shared loss. If she needed to look at the wound he'd let her.

"Okay. Go ahead."

She raised his shirt and her small hands touched his side both above and below the entry wound. Blood was slowly draining out.

"We need to take care of this now."

"It's fine, Jaz."

"Stop saying "it's fine". Look closer."

He looked down and was surprised to see so much blood. Except for the original sting he hadn't had much pain. Now that he thought about it, he knew that wasn't a good sign.

"Are you cold, Jaz?"

"In Africa? No. Why? Are you cold?"

"A little."

"Top, it must be close to 80 degrees in here."

Her wounds confirmed that he must be in shock. It was a great thing when you needed to push through a mission but it was risky too. He'd seen too many buddies drop dead from severe injuries they didn't even know they had.

"Okay, Jaz. You win. What's going on down there?"

"I see an entry but no exit. The area is swollen and warm to the touch."

She walked around to face him, "I think I need to take the bullet out."

Doesn't that sound like fun, he thought to himself. She didn't look much happier about the prospect.

"Okay, get it done."

They all carried basic medical gear with them on a mission but unfortunately McG had all the good stuff. He watched as Jaz unpacked a small knife, tweezers, and a small head lamp so she could see what she was doing. She also gave him a piece of leather she carried. He knew it was to clamp his teeth down on because, as he anticipated, this was going to be fun. He turned to face the table gripping the edge of it so he wouldn't be tempted to push her away. Jaz crouched down between him and the table.

"Ready, Top?"

He nodded. Sweat broke out on his face as she began probing and nausea wasn't far behind. He used every trick he could think of to block the pain and had run out just as she announced her victory.

"I got it."

All he could do was be thankful it was over. He felt her wiping the area down and then she stepped away to get additional gauze.

"I'm going to bandage it tightly but leave it open for McG to look at, okay?"

He was more than agreeable to any plan that prevented her from poking into his skin more. He stepped back from the table to give her additional room to work. She got down on her knees in front of him and started wrapping the rolled gauze around him to keep the sponges in place over the wound. His thoughts wandered to inappropriate places as her hands touched his skin. This was more skin to skin contact than they had ever shared with one another. It made him think of other things they could be doing together.

She finally stood up to put away her supplies and encouraged him to take a seat on the floor. He was more than grateful to do so. Now that he knew about the severity of the injury it was affecting him much more. Jaz noticed he still looked cold and moved to sit next to him to share her warmth.

". . . hear us?"

It sounded like Noah's voice.

Jaz responded, "Limited signal. Please repeat."

They both waited but there was no response. Clearly getting communications up and running was a work in progress. She looked over at Top and realized he had paled and was sweating. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and urged him to put his head in her lap and stretch out on his back. He didn't even kick up a fuss about it which worried her plenty.

Now that his head was pillowed in her lap she wasn't sure what to do with her hands. Finally she placed one on his forehead to check his temperature and then moved it to check his pulse from the side of his neck. She didn't like the result of either.

McG, please come and save our bacon, she thought.

Top rested quietly with his eyes closed but the tension in his body reflected pain.

". . . hear us now?"

"Yes, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Sergeant. We have a fix on your location. You are underground, correct?"

"Yes. Top's been shot. We need McG."

"Current status?"

"I removed the bullet and bandaged the area so McG could look it over and stitch it. He lost a lot of blood before we realized he was injured and now he is warm to the touch and pale."

"Understood. Your team should be there in 15."

"Copy."

She broke the connection and looked down at Top placing her hand on his cheek.

"We should have help here soon," she told him.

He nodded his head in acknowledgement but kept his eyes closed. Jaz got lost in thought not realizing that she had started running her hand through his hair. He found it incredibly soothing. He sure wasn't going to tell her to stop.

"Jaz, we're just around the corner. We're waiting for the current searchers to dissipate. McG is coming to you while we secure egress," Preach's voice reassured.

"Copy."

She looked down and realized that Top had drifted off to sleep. She took the opportunity to run her hand down his face. His beard was so much softer than she had expected.