Bound by Blood, Forged in Fire

The Stand

The teams waited for three hours after they spotted the surveillance team, ISR showed no activity aside from civilians attempting to evacuate. Militants could easily slip through the crowds and make their way to the Annex. Jace saw a flash of light on the fourth floor of the building north of them, it was supposed to be abandoned. After focusing his scope he could make out three figures, others reported similar circumstances in buildings in the south, east, and west. Out of the blue, an RPG emerged from the west, seconds after the same happened from the other corners.

Everyone fired back, this was met with enemy gunfire. Jace took down a combatant reloading an RPG. He saw four technicals making their way towards them, Rhodes and three other SEALs opened fire on them; this caused one vehicle to ram into another and the other two to rail off track. Vans and trucks full of enemy combatants stopped to unload their passengers. Militants surged out and took cover, firing as they moved.

. . .

Chief Special Warfare Operator Reese looked at the ISR stream, November-Team and others were holding their own, but it would only be a matter of time before they were overcome. They arrived at Cairo thirty minutes ago, the Deltas came in with them.

"Senior Chief," called out Reese. "What's the hold-up? Jace and the others out there."

"The Israeli and Syrian borders are working to contain the riots at the borders and the Lebanese government is trying to regain control," answered Drake. "We can't leave until we get the green light."

Dave looked at the screen again, not bothering to hide his frustration. He didn't like that Jace was surrounded by countless insurgents, the only thing keeping him from highjacking a transport was that his brother was with good people.

. . .

The NCIS agents tried to reach out to other operation commands in the area. They tried to scramble for gunships and air support; no one complied, they simply received excuses or flat-out refusals. Ziva reached out to the Mossad, Israeli Special Operators were contending with the chaos at the Israeli-Lebanon border. She made her way back to the roof, seeing Julian still working on the defense.

Jace transitioned to his HK416, he watched as the tangos retreated. One had attempted to climb the Annex gate wall but was shot before he could go over. One of the militants attempted to fire another RPG, but Ziva eliminated him just as he was going to fire, causing the rocket to hit one of the technicals.

"All stations be advised, ISR shows tangos crossing paths with crowds of uniforms, over."

This wasn't good, reinforcements could be blending in with the crowds of civilians or the militants could start to kill people in the crowd. No one could get a clean shot at the insurgents. Jace went on guard once a very distinctive sound came through the air, he immediately raised the alarm.

"Mortars!"

Everyone took cover at once; the projectile first struck the garage, destroying the section and its contents. The floor beneath Jace collapsed as the second mortar hit the central building, he watched as his father and Ziva struggled for balance in futility. The third struck the garage, sending it to kingdom come.

When he came to the first thing he did was check on his team. So far everyone was accounted for on the comms, however, Ziva was unaccounted for.

"Ziva!" Jace called out, his heart racing to new levels. "Zee!"

"I am here!"

Jace made his way to her and assessed her for injuries, she was bruised, and likely had fractured bones, but nothing terminal that he could see.

"Jace," Ziva got up, taking him to sit down. "Gibbs."

Jace looked behind him, seeing his father getting up from the rubble. He was limping but was otherwise unharmed. Jace went to help them and took them to what was left of the TOC, which seemed to still be intact. The other agents and CIA officers had gathered inside as well, he handed them off to Tony and Tim. Jace handed his battle rifle to his father and reloaded his assault rifle, he had two magazines left. He and Rhodes took overwatch on the roof, civilians had cleared out of the area, and there were no hostiles in sight.

After thirty minutes a fleet of technicals came their way from the north.

"November-One to all stations, I have eyes on thirty to forty technicals with at least twice as many combatants. Maybe more, over."

Jace scanned through the crowd, they had set up a defensive position.

"TOC, are we expecting any friendlies for an extraction?"

"November One, we are unaware of any friendlies in the area."

Jace noticed the leader of the group looking at him and Rhodes, he then got a look at the men next to him.

Dave and Drake.

"TOC, they're with us," Jace did nothing to hide his relief as he relayed the news to the others. "It's Echo-Team and the Deltas, over."

The two operators made their way to the TOC, everyone was packing up intel and preparing to leave. Jace and Rider went to retrieve Margaret Patterson from the Med Bay, Outside they met up with the others.

"Who are these guys?" asked Jace, referring to the extra cavalry. "Locals?"

"Nope, your girl pulled through," answered Reese.

Jace instinctively looked to Ziva, who was lending a hand to her teammates.

"Mossad?"

"Shayetet Thirteen."

"Israeli Naval Special Warfare Operators," Jace smiled at the irony. "Of course."

"I figured the parallels meant for great quality."

Ziva came up next to Jace, smiling, a gesture he reciprocated.

"Time to go home."

Ziva put an arm around him.

"Home."

. . .

Back at his house, Jace was having coffee with Josh; they had just returned from Maggie's funeral. Ziva and his father took the girls out so he and the Major could talk alone.

"I can't thank you enough, Jace," said Josh, his voice was tired and his eyes matched his tone. "You brought my wife home."

"I could've done better."

"Don't go there Jay, I know what you're thinking and I also know that none of this was your fault."

Jace took an envelope out of his coat, handing it to Josh.

"I remembered Maggs applied for Officer Candidate School back when we worked together in Team Three and that she was rejected after she found out she had cancer."

"Yeah, she was turned down because of the physical. Docs wouldn't clear her after she had the tumor removed."

"Well, my dad and I pulled some strings and she's being posthumously commissioned. SECNAV is pushing for her to be bumped up to full Lieutenant."

"Thank you, brother."

The front door opened, and Jace's family and Josh's parents, and sister-in-law entered. The latter was holding a small bundle of blankets.

"Jace, meet Julian Patterson."

The sailor smiled, speechless at the sight in front of him.

These last few chapters are dedicated to the 2012 Benghazi attacks and the passing of Senior Chief Cryptologic Technician Shannon Kent in 2019. Please join me in remembering the fallen and thanking those who served this holiday season.