Mika’s Note: What? It’s only been four years since I updated this story.
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. “Afternoon 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 Frappuccino's 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.
~*~
“You’re kidding me, right?” Shana pleaded, wondering just when the world had gone crazy and why she hadn’t noticed. “Please tell me you’re fucking kidding me.”
Ali shook her head slowly and sat in her favorite chair. “’Fraid not, Red. Official orders are to break off any semblance of a relationship. And, I quote, ‘ensure he knows it’s permanent’.” She sighed, frowning up at her best friend. “Not sure it’s him I need to convince.”
Shana growled in frustration. “Just when I thought you and I could get our lives back on track they do this.”
“I’ll live, I always do.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” she retorted angrily, “they do this to you way too much.”
Ali couldn’t deny that. “Yeah, but what can I do? I refuse, they toss me in jail and then I really can’t see him.” She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to her temples. “How am I going to break this to him?” she whispered.
“I don’t know, honey, but I do know that you should do it soon. It’ll be easier for both of you that way.”
She nodded, but she wasn’t sure if this was going to be easy at all. Heaving a sigh, she picked up her cell and left the comfort of her chair for the solace of her bedroom.
~*~
Snapping his cell phone shut, he threw it angrily across the hotel room, denting a small hole in the wall. “Fuck,” he growled, inspecting the damage. Looking without really seeing, he put his back to the wall and rested his face in his hands. “Why?”
But he knew, he just refused to admit it. She’d told him from day one that there couldn’t be anything between them. He wouldn’t listen, in true Blake form, and denied her the option of telling him otherwise. Eventually, she’d given in and he’d taken full advantage.
And now he was screwed.
He should have walked away when he had the chance. He knew better than to chase after her, even knowing Leslie had directed her attentions elsewhere. However, he couldn’t stop seeing her. Calling her. Kissing her. Thinking of her. Pinning her to the wall and…
“Stop thinking things like that!” he admonished himself, angry that he couldn’t, didn’t want to, stop. She’d become such a part of his life, of him, in such a short time. And now she was gone.
Gone.
And he never had a chance to make her understand.
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