Russian Medicine

The final dance

Jace's POV
After 35 minutes the tanks arrived, I looked at the remaining team members as I yelled "Everyone, mount up!" As I jumped up on the lead tank and extended my hand "Wendigo, nice to meet you. I need you to get us to these coordinates and set up a defense while we move to kill the HVTs." The tank commander nodded as he shook my hand "King 1-1, we can get you there." I nodded as I yelled "King will get us to the abandoned building, after that we'll be on our own as we move to kill Lion! Everyone pick a partner they're your battle buddy if I see you without your battle buddy and they aren't dead I'll end you." They all nodded and climbed onto the tank as Lera lifted kilo "thanks love" before I helped her up before sitting back and relaxing for a bit as we started moving to the objective. I felt Lera lean against me as I opened my eyes and looked at her before wrapping my arm around her pulling her closer as she burrowed into my chest "get some sleep hun, we'll be there in an hour." She nodded as she yawned petting Kilo a couple of times before her breathing evened out and she stilled. I kissed the top of her head as I heard King behind me "you're lucky" I nodded "yeah, I really am. She keeps me sane during all this mayhem" he laughed "yeah, women have a way of getting us  to persevere through anything." I nodded "it's impressive, really. I mean they drive us crazy sometimes but even when we're mad if we love them we'll run into a minefield for 'em" he patted my shoulder "too true, keep her safe, I doubt you'll find another like her" I shook my head "I know I won't" he replied "why'd you bring her on such a dangerous op? I figure if you love her so much you'd want her back on the Ford where it's safe." I sighed "I wanted to, I really did, but I thought about it. Who's going to watch my back better than her? And if I left her at base she'd be in the control room worrying her ass off. She's a hell of an operator, one of the best in the world I trust she'll be there with me at the end." He sounded sincere "I hope you get your happy ending Wendigo, I really do." I looked up at the night sky as F-18s ripped by high above supporting assaults all over the Middle East "I hope we all do, everyone on this mission should be remembered as a hero and get our hero's ending." He patted my shoulder one more time before lowering into the tank as we road in silence towards the objective. After around 50 minutes, we were coming to the 15 mile mark from our target, I got a radio transmission from Harry "Wendigo, hold position. We're airdropping 3 humvees on your coordinates eta 20 minutes." I sighed and looked at my watch 01:46, "fuck me, King we have to stop. Command wants us to hold here and wait for humvees to be airdropped in for my element so you boys can do your thing" I heard muffled voice before I heard him pop out of the hatch and say "Rog' we're ahead of schedule anyway" I let Lera sleep until the 18 minute mark as I shook her "Come on, wake up love. We're about to transfer to humvees. Come on, Up" as she groaned before pushing deeper into my side as I sighed and calmed my nerves for the punch about to come my way as I started tickling her as she bolted upright and glared at me as I stretched "we're transferring to humvees, we've got a minute before they're supposed to get here. Come on, let's get ready." She sighed as we dropped off the tank and joined the rest of the element. "alright now I know things are changing and we're all getting uncomfortable with the sudden extra support, but we have a job to do. If this mission gets way harder, we have to push through and get it done, all the ones we lost so far, died for a reason, they died so we could get our chance at taking Lion down, yeah?" They all looked at me and nodded, some showing the pain more than others, as I spoke again "Let's not let them down, they're counting on us. We all have our reasons for fighting, take the next 5 minutes remember yours and prepare for a hell of an uphill battle, Hooah?" They all nodded "Hooah, Captain!" I nodded "Fall out." As I hugged Lera "stay safe for me, okay?" She looked at me with a smile "I'll be with you every foot of the way, battle buddy" I chuckled "best battle buddy I've ever had" as kilo barked "I know, you're a pretty good one but Lera's better" Lera laughed softly as kilo whined "yeah, yeah I know." Just then I could heard the C-17s flying over head, I looked up and watched as the humvees slowly descended by parachute.
(A/N I find this oddly satisfying)