United Under Fire

Candor

The SAS had recovered Echo Team everyone was critically injured, and the medics transporting them were particularly worried about Jace. As they removed his helmet they discovered a large crack, likely from an impact trauma. The base doctors were concerned with potential traumatic brain injury; he also had a scapula hairline fracture, fractures at the side of his head, and multiple lacerations. The others weren't doing very well either.

An entire Tier One SEAL Team was rendered undeployable.

They were transported to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for further treatment before being relocated back to the United States. They were recovering in Bethesda Naval Hospital, thankfully none of them needed surgery.

Kara, McGee, and Gibbs were with Jace in the physical therapy department. He was practicing exercises for his shoulder, doctors found no evidence of TBI.

"It was crazy," said Jace. "I've been on operations where we've had UAVs get shot down, crash from mechanical and digital error but that was something else."

"We managed to purge Chen's malware from the entire Pentagon system," said McGee. "But that's only half of our issue."

"Bishop."

"She and Reeves have been hunting Chen on their own against orders," said Gibbs.

"Explains a lot," said Jace. "The intel packet was vague, generic calls from Somalian cells for weapons shipments, nonspecific emails thanking someone for services rendered."

"How did your team get selected?" asked Kara. "Why not another SEAL Team or CAG?"

"Given my history with NCIS, the higher-ups seem to believe that Echo Team is best equipped to be—"

"Our Praetorian Guard?" said the older sniper. "Shock troops?"

Jace sat down, taking a swig of water. "Don't mean anything by that—"

"No, no, I—" Gibbs sighed. "You should've never been in that position."

"How's the manhunt going?" asked Jace.

"We located three cells actually connected to our group," said Kara. "One in Turkey, and two in Belgium."

"Get anything?"

"We recovered sets of custom-made bombs," answered Kara. "NCIS, Navy EODs, and the FBI Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center are working them over now."

"Bishop and Reeves?" asked Jace, looking at his dad and McGee.

"Torres and Quinn found them tracking down Chen on their own, they never reported back to NCIS after they got back," said McGee. "There was an explosion at a Pentagon facility we found a set of human remains, DNA confirms that it was Kai."

"Are they still going to be on your team after all this?"

"We're sending Bishop back to the NSA," said Gibbs. "She'll be working under her old supervisor at a joint intelligence task force indefinitely and Reeves will be working with another one with the CIA."

"They'll be back, though," said McGee.

"You trust them?" asked Jace

"We've all been in their position—"

"But we've never put revenge before our team."

Kara took Jace back to his room, when they got there they found Bishop waiting for them.

"What do you want now?!" demanded Kara.

"I-I wanted to apologize for how things went down," said Bishop. "When we—"

"There is no 'we', Bishop," responded Jace. "You acted despite the dangers to your team and mine."

"You of all people know—"

"I never put my interests above my team and I never went rogue!"

Bishop shrank back, giving up on justifying her actions.

"You made it all about you and your grief doesn't excuse anything."

Jace had no anger, just stone-cold disdain.

"I don't regret what I did," her eyes started to gloss.

"That makes you even worse than I thought."

Bishop left, not saying another word.

Jace laid back, he wanted to sleep in. His kids were coming to visit tomorrow and he didn't want to see how upset he was. Kare let him get his sleep, needing to catch up with the Bureau.

He thought about his team, he had his fair share of reservations whenever NCIS became involved with his operations. But everything that happened then was just the nature of combat and warfare. This was someone he trusted using him and his team to achieve their vendetta.

He contemplated the thought of losing the trust and confidence of his brothers, losing his status as a team leader. If he failed to lead and inspire morale he could get canned.

Julian was snapped out of his thoughts by a knock on his door.

It was Reese and the other members of Echo.

"I—"

"Nobody blames you," stated Dave. "We all saw the intel packets, we were all at the briefings."

"You got us out of that mess," added Miller.

"If you guys feel that you need a new team leader—"

Trevors stepped up, he had been on the team almost as long as he and Dave.

"When you found out about my drinking you helped me sober up," said the Petty Officer. "I was at the end of my contract and when you found me emptying a scotch you told me to sober up  and be an operator or do it on my own time."

Jace looked at everyone, he remembered when Trevors confessed to the team. Some were outraged, others just thought about the signs they missed.

"You drove me to AA," continued Trevors. "You stood by me and pushed me to be better. Anyone else would've given me the boot."

"When you were Three-I-C you were our rock," said Miller. "You still are."

"You're stuck with us, Jay," said Dave.

Julian relented. "If I'm stuck then I'm stuck."

Long live the Brotherhood.

2 Months Later

Echo Team had just completed a hostage rescue simulation, they INFIL'd through the water and made their way through a simulated village. They took out every enemy combatant they came across, retrieved the hostage and EXFIL'd without a hitch in record time.

Just in the knick of time, NCIS had discovered what appeared to be the remains of two UA Navy SEALs in Paraguay. They found that the second SEAL was still alive and being hunted by Revolutionary Armed Council guerillas.

They were to escort Gibbs, Torres, and McGee there and retrieve Petty Officer Matthew Dean.

Jace hated cleaning up after cowboys, but he couldn't let another SEAL at the mercy of RAC militants. Mrs. Dean deserved to see her husband again, especially after the identity mix-up she went through.

They geared up and met the NCIS agents at the airfield.

Jace could only hope that it went better than the last time they were in South America.