The Deployment Notice

9.

Their legs knocked together uncomfortably as the jet started the landing process. Casey was sitting next to him sans her wig and padded bra, looking decidedly more masculine than Buck had seen her look in a while.

The two of them'd had quite a laugh at the commander's assistant, Raul, who'd been the one to question their assignments.

"Are you sure you'll be able to pass as a guy" the man asked Casey, genuine concern on his face.

He must be new. SEALs or even SEAL adjacents generally made a habit of not letting any genuine emotion cross their face. They also made a habit of not questioning each other's abilities or assignments.

Raul, however, was wearing an expression with nothing but genuine concern, which was kind of sweet, and also probably a confidence boost for Casey. Especially since she'd been concerned about being misgendered and not respected her whole life, especially in the military.

So this guy's, albeit dumb, question was probably a serious morale boost, Buck figured. Plus she definitely thought it was funny, judging by the way her lips quirked for half a second.

"Yeah, man. I think I'll be fine." She finally responded after letting her voice drop an octave.

Raul's eyes damn near bugged all the way out of his head. "Oh right, okay that's good then." He said and then scurried off in embarrassment.

Buck's lips quirked at the memory of how they'd laughed so hard they'd been wheezing as soon as the door shut behind the assistant.

Just then Buck felt the jet's landing gear make contact with the runway and all eleven of the passengers braced themselves as the whole jet shook and slammed into the ground repeatedly.

I see the landings are still as shitty as ever, he thought to himself, some things will never change I guess.

The back of the plane opened and orders were relayed through their comms to go get set up in their barracks and then to meet in the conference room in an hour.

Buck had been to more than his share of bases, but the Shindand Air Base was a new one for him. It wasn't too bad, honestly. He'd definitely stayed at far worse, not to name any names, but most ARMY bases would probably qualify as worse.

It was an easy set up once they got to the barracks, he wasn't even bothering to unpack his pack seeing as he was part of phase one. He probably wouldn't sleep here more than one night at most.

He, Masser, and Gunner met the other half of the team outside the barracks building and they all headed for the conference room. Raul was hanging near the back of their group and Buck nodded to Casey who agreed easily enough. They both swung around to the back to talk to him.

"So, how green are you exactly?" Buck asked as he and Casey fell into step on either side of him.

"I served a year in the National Guard, before I transferred to Navy six weeks ago." He answered easily, almost as if he'd said it a million times before.

"So you're very green." Casey nodded.

"Yes, Ma'am, or uh Sir? I'm a little confused there actually?" He stuttered out, and Buck had to hold back a chuckle and could see Casey struggling too.

"It's still Ma'am, I'm just undercover as a man." She stated, easily, and Buck knew she'd said some variation of those words many times over. She was chosen for undercover ops like this often, after all.

"Then yes Ma'am, I'm still very green." Raul nodded.

"Hmmmmmm, I guess you don't know the number one rule to surviving SEALs then?" Casey hummed, and Buck barely suppressed a grin, he remembered the team doing this same thing to him many, many, years ago.