Operation: smoking trap

Decompressing

Tina's pov
I felt a weight on my left shoulder causing me to look over and see Kerry leaning against me, I asked with a small smile "comfortable?" He nodded as I saw him still, I looked out through the open door of the Venom admiring the gorgeousness of the Aegean as we passed over it. I heard Mark "you two seem really close" I looked over as Apha asked "Are you two in love?" I felt my brow scrunch as I asked "why would we be in love?" Apha replied like it was obvious "he's sleeping on you, you two are almost always together and you talk like you've been friends since you were kids" I sighed as Thorn spoke "leave 'em alone, they're just friends and whatever they are or their feelings are it's none of our business" the other two seemed content with thorns order as I nodded my appreciation to him. He smiled kindly as he looked over the scene before snorting and shaking his head, I looked at Kerry's sleeping form and silently wondered about what they had said, do I love him? I used to but do I still? I looked through the open door and decided I'd deal with it later.
An hour later we were over mainland Europe I sighed in relief I couldn't wait to get back to base and get some sleep, I yawned and closed my eyes figuring I'd take a small cat nap before making it back to base. I heard Mark tease "Couples that nap together stay together" I didn't dignify it with a response as I faded off to the kind embrace of sleep. Time flew and next thing I knew I was being woken up by Thorn, "we're almost at base, wake him up" I gently shook Kerry watching as he jerked and almost hit his head on the wall behind him. He tiredly looked around and asked "are we there yet?" I replied "almost" he nodded and tried blinking the sleep away. He pulled his straw into his mouth and looked around like a kid trying to figure out where we were. "I know that tree, that's George so we're like 3 minutes out" I gave him a weird look as Thorn replied "he's not wrong we are indeed 3 minutes out" I asked incredulously "what the fuck are you Kerry?" He replied victoriously "a badass"
I replied "Kerry, everyday you amaze and horrify me" he replied simply "heh" as I saw the base come into view. I looked and saw teams running pt and prepping to go run the kill house, they all looked so small from up here. I saw Kerry's back arch as his arms extended, he looked like he was on cloud 9 as he slumped back against me. Mark spoke "oi lad, we're almost at base no going back to sleep." Kerry lifted his middle finger causing Mark to chuckle as the air warmed and I felt the soft jolt of the helicopter touching down. We climbed out and walked away only for us to stop and look back as Kerry talked with some of the marine corps aviators before snapping off a salute and holding it as the helicopter lifted off. We watched him walk over as Apha asked "what'd you say to them?" Kerry replied "just to be safe and keep getting some" I pointed out "you talked a lot longer than just saying that" he replied "that was the cliff notes version" we chuckled as Thorn said "alright, let's go get this debrief over with and then relax."
We walked into the room and sat down as the debrief started, Ash's team got lucky since they didn't see any combat they got to skip it. 2 hours, it took 2 hours for the debrief to end and even then Harry said "come back after 18:00 chow to finish out the last few things" we stood and walked to the dorm. Once we arrived Kerry stripped off his combat kit and headed to the showers, I followed shortly after and walked into a stall. After the shower I walked into the dorm and saw Kerry fast asleep on the ground, I looked at Mark and Apha and asked "No one was gonna move him onto his bunk?" Apha jokingly replied "he's your boyfriend" I sighed but got my arms under his and dragged him to his bed, the entire time he's fast asleep. I muttered "how deep of a sleeper are you?" As I looked up at Mark "come help me." He climbed down and grabbed Kerry's ankles lifting the very heavy man into his bed before I plopped on mine and laid back "Christ he's big" I heard Apha reply "we don't need to know about your sex life" I groaned and rolled over falling asleep quickly.
Kerry's pov
I woke up and reached for my gun not knowing where I was, only to feel nothing as the memories from the mission slowly came back to me, I sighed and rubbed my eyes as I stood before I looked to my right and saw Tina sleeping peacefully, she looked content, like there wasn't any worry on her mind. I felt my face contort into a smile as I slowly walked out careful not to wake up my other teammates, when I got in the hallway and carefully closed the door I heard "Kerry? Is that you?" I looked to my right and saw Craig Jensen one of the other US operators from Task Force Dagger. I smiled "hey Craig, been a while" he walked forward and shook my hand "when did you get here?" I replied thinking about it "about 2 weeks ago now" he asked "and we haven't seen each other in that time?" I shrugged and replied "I guess we just missed each other" he smiled and asked "care for some food?" I replied "oh for sure, I'm starving" as we made our way through the corridors.
We walked through the line and got our food, I stared at mine hungrily as Craig asked "You still act the same after missions" I asked "how did you know I had a mission?" He replied "you came out of Maverick's team's dorm, I heard the call for Maverick team for a brief" I nodded slowly before asking "have you heard anything from the grom or Sasr guys from Dagger?" He shook his head yes "I talked to hund and Maj yesterday" he asked "how about you? You talked to any of them?" I replied sadly "no, I fell outta contact with almost everyone. I only talked with Seb" Craig spoke "you should send some texts, they'd like to hear from you. I get asked if I've heard anything about you" I nodded and replied "you remember how I was always taking pictures during our time on the TF?" He nodded as I replied "Well Tina has started looking through the book I have that has all those pictures and I saw a picture of us, all of us, on top of that mountain with the camp. We all had our flags, me and you were holding the Us flag with the rest of the Raiders and Seals behind us. Maj and Hund were holding the polish flag with the grom guys, Kiwi and Hunter had the Australian flag and Frost and Buck held the Canadian flag"
       Craig replied "that was the last time we were all there, we lost Hunter the next day didn't we?" I nodded and replied "I don't think we ever got that sniper, then we lost Kiwi and his squad 3 months later" we looked down as we remembered our losses before Craig changed the subject "You and Tina reconnecting?" I looked at Him weirdly before replying "yeah, but why'd you say it like that?" He replied exasperated "come on bro, the whole Task force knew you two were in love. There wasn't any hiding it, I just wanted to know since she'd ask me about you since Seals and Raiders both work with the fleet a lot" I asked "and what'd you tell her?" He replied honestly "I told her I hadn't heard anything about you or your team specifically but I'd ask around the community to try to get some ears" I chuckled and replied "Tina definitely appreciated that"
      He nodded and replied "especially when I got word from one of my friends in first recon that your platoon was moving out to Europe, she was so excited at the chance that you might run into us" I chuckled and replied "that sounds like Tina, she always makes me feel old with her energy" Craig sighed "how do you think i feel I've been on this team going on 4 years and I've had to try to keep up with her that whole time" I asked "did you guys know what part of Europe my team was going to be in?" He replied with a head shake "no, my friend Lt. purshing with recon just said that he had seen orders for your company to return to Europe for counter insurgency operations. No specifics just the company and mission type" I nodded slowly before taking a sip of my Bang only for Craig to say "I bet you and Tina fall in love again" I coughed before asking "what?" As I tried to get air into my lungs. He replied "oh come on, you two were head over heels for each other I don't see how you don't fall in love again"
       I pointed out "we're different people now, Ive changed from the hopeful kid doin his job" he replied "and yet you act the same" I sighed and replied "I've already got seb saying shit like that, I don't need you doing it too" he lifted his hands in surrender "fine fine, but if you two start dating you owe me a meal" I sighed but extended my hand "fine" as he shook it and the deal was sealed. I looked at him before asking "Jordan, Collin and I are having a card night tonight, you wanna come?" He looked at me and smirked "who's room?" I replied "mine, Tina and the others said they're okay with it" he asked "time?" I replied "20:00" he replied "I'll be there" I stood and spoke "I'll see you later tonight then, it's almost time to go finish the debrief" he asked "did your team hit that yacht?" I looked over my shoulder and asked "how'd you know?" He replied "the news, all the stations are covering the story. A mysterious team of soldiers flies to a hostage situation from a British carrier in US helicopters and then a US destroyer extracts them as the yacht blows up? It's perfectly sensational for the news networks"
       I chuckled and replied "fair enough, do let me know what they say." He nodded as I walked back to the dorm and saw the other three just waking up. I asked "ready to go finish this brief?" They nodded groggily as Tina asked "where were you?" I replied "catching up with Craig, we talked about Dagger and then today's mission" she asked "all good things?" I nodded and replied "just talking" she smiled as we started walking back to the debrief room, I checked my watch 17:57. I heard Tina ask "how was you nap?" I replied looking forward "both were simply wonderful" she asked teasingly "am I that soft?" I looked to my left and replied "like sleepin on a cloud" she flushed bright red as Mark laughed and Apha spoke "but you two aren't in love, sure" I chuckled as I opened the door and held it open as the team walked in and we sat down surprised to find we beat both Thorn and Harry back. I leaned back and kicked my feet up before dozing off again just to wake up as Tina smacked my thigh as the door closed and Harry picked up the questions where he left off.