Mika’s Note: This is it for now, more next week sometime. Enjoy!
Back to the Grind
They’d managed to steal four days alone before Ali’s leave time was up. Reluctantly, they said good-bye and went their separate ways. Ali went back to her headquarters in Washington, DC; Blake back to his sometime-home in Nashville before heading back to his real home outside of Tulsa.
Ali sat with her booted feet propped on her desk, thinking on her recent mission to Peru. The situation there had been handled and the rebels, aka terrorists, had been contained. Something still didn’t make sense but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Yet. She leaned back in her chair and tapped her lips with a finger.
“Let it go,” the voice told her.
She looked up and met the soft brown eyes of fellow soldier, Andrew Kash. “Hey Andy, let what go?”
“Whatever it is you’re thinking so hard about. It can’t be good.”
Ali grinned, sitting up in her chair and putting her feet back on the floor. “I was just rehashing our last mission.”
Andrew frowned. “See, I told you it wasn’t good.” He leaned forward and rested his forearms on the edge of her desk. “What has you rethinking that one? We went in, we got out, none of the good guys got hurt.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, “but something’s still not right. We never found their ring leader and that worries me.”
He shrugged, unconcerned. “They all slither back to the same dank hole eventually, so why worry?”
“I dunno,” she admitted, “I just feel like we missed something and it’s annoying me.”
“Better put it out of your mind soon. Just heard General Stone discussing a possible new mission with Caleb and Bryan. I think your office was their next stop.”
“Thanks for the heads up. I can look busy then.”
Laughing, he couldn’t pass up the chance to tease her a little. “Also gives you time to get him off your mind.”
Ali growled and he ran for the door. “Jerk,” she muttered. Approximately three minutes later there was a knock on her door. “Enter.”
General Stone entered followed by her two commanding officers, Bryan and Caleb. “Afteroon Lieutenant, may we have a seat?”
She wasn’t so sure she liked this; for any kind of mission debriefing or discussion she’d have been summoned to them. The fact that they had come to her boded ill for everyone. “Of course, General. Can I get any of you a drink?” She had a mini fridge stocked with bottled water and Frappuccinos for those times when she desperately needed a caffeine fix.
“No thank you, Allyson,” Stone replied, urging her to sit. “We’ve come to,” he looked at his two right hand men, momentarily at a loss for words, “have a bit of a discussion with you.”
“Okay,” she began, slightly afraid. “Any other time, I probably would be aware of what I’d done to deserve a confrontation like this, but for once I’m at a loss. Enlighten me.”
Caleb frowned. “I think you’re pretty sure of what you’ve done.”
“Huh?” Ali looked from face to face trying to find some hint of the crime she’d committed but wasn’t getting any help. “Okay, so call me stupid, but I really don’t know.”
“It’s probably because she doesn’t think it was wrong,” Bryan snorted angrily. “Sleeping with a man committed to another woman doesn’t generally cross her mind as wrong.”
“Fuck me,” she mumbled under her breath. “This is about Blake then, I’m guessing?”
“Yes,” General Stone started, leaning forward in an effort to intimidate her. She’d known him for too many years however, he didn’t intimidate her in the least. “It has been brought to my attention that you’ve had an… interlude… with the man.”
Ali choked on the mouth of water she’d taken. Interlude? She swore they’d performed entire concerts… “Excuse me?”
Bryan opened his mouth, ready with an angry response, but the good General beat him. “I have reason to believe you’ve been intimate with Mr. Matson, Allyson.”
Looking from Bryan to Caleb, she realized that they’d either assumed she would or had found out somehow. Undaunted and unashamed she wasn’t worried that she’d done anything really wrong. “And?”
“And you damn well knew you weren’t allowed!” Bryan managed to get his nasty retort in this time.
“Allowed? Are you my father now? I sure as hell hope not because…”
“Bryan! Allyson!” General Stone bellowed. “Stop it now.”
“Yes sir,” they muttered, glaring at one another.
“What he means is that you knew going in that any sort of fraternization between the two of you was not permitted. You broke that rule.”
“Only after the mission was finished.”
The General squeezed his eyes shut, hoping he really hadn’t heard her correctly. “So they’re right then,” he asked her, slowly opening his eyes to look at her.
“Yes, sir,” she admitted, frightened for the first time since they’d arrived.
“Lieutenant, you do know that that’s not allowed either?”
“If I had known, do you think I would have done it?” Seventeen times.
Stone let out a heavy breath. “When did you last see him?”
“My last visit home, a week or so ago.”
“Make sure that it’s your last.” General Stone stood to leave and motioned to the other two to do the same.
“But General…”
“No buts, Allyson. You know the rules.”
“And this is a new one for me,” she fumed.
Bryan crossed his arms and smirked, waiting for the fireworks to fly.
Stone looked around and frowned. “Bryan, Caleb, wait for me back at my office.”
“But,” they both spluttered, disappointed at missing what was sure to be a real show.
“Now,” he growled.
“Yes, sir,” they muttered and slinked out the door.
Ali glared. “When did the rules change?”
Stone held his hands up. “I’m sorry, but I have no choice. Keeping your identity on the down-low is high priority. If you start dating someone who is so high profile, it will blow your cover. Makes it hard to go unnoticed when everyone knows who you are.”
He had a point there, she had to admit. “I have no intentions of being in the spotlight with him. He even said that he didn’t want to share me with the world. I don’t see…”
“Because you are blind. You know what you have to do, now do it. Understand?”
Ali nodded, unhappy. Blake was going to be pissed. And that’s if she was lucky.
Chapter 4: Coming Clean
The plate of food sat on the table in front of her, untouched. She hadn’t eaten all day and yet, she couldn’t bring herself to eat this, either. Her stomach was in knots.
“Ali?” her brother asked concerned, “Are you okay?”
She shook her head. “No, not really.”
“You’ve been acting weird all week, wanna talk about it?”
She frowned. “Not really, but I suppose I should.” She picked up a tortilla chip and sighed. Crunching on the cheese and sour cream covered bit of chip, she chewed and thought how to break the news to her brother. “I’ve been ordered to break off my relationship with Blake.”
“What?” The shrill response startled both Ali and Albert.
“Hey Shana,” Albie called out once his heart had started beating again.
“Geez, you scared me.”
“Well, you just scared me too, chickie,” the redhead informed her, plopping down next to her and reaching for her roommate’s nachos. “I thought you just said you were dumping Mr. HotStuff Cowboy.”
Ali sighed again. “I have to.”
“What the fuck for?” Albert. Never one to mince words.
“No choice. Stone’s afraid that his um, fame will blow my cover and thus ruin every possible future mission.”
“And thus dooming the free world to a fate worse than death,” Shana finished for her, quoting one of their general’s favorite scenarios.
“Something like that,” she mumbled. “More like ruining any chance I had to be happy for a change, that’s for sure.”
Taking her hand, Albie gave it a squeeze. “Have you talked to him yet?”
She shook her head. “Not yet, I don’t even know what to tell him.”
“How about your C.O. is a dumbass?” Shana looked at her two friends and their frowns. “What? Works for me.”
A smile quirked up one half of Ali’s mouth. “Works for me too, but I doubt Blake will accept that.”
“So, what then?”
“I don’t know, Red, but I do know it won’t be easy. He and Leslie had a big row after the awards show. She admitted to her infidelities and he walked away. I don’t know what to say that’s not going to make him feel just as betrayed.”
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