The Soldier and The Spy: Jay Halstead- Episode 7

Chapter 1

Fourteen Years Ago

She was so small.

He didn't think she, Tess, normally was but it was hard to tell; the Taliban didn't feed their prisoners well and she wasn't quite skin and bones yet but she was certainly on the way. She had been. She was safe now. She didn't feel that way yet, she looked very uncomfortable being held but with her injuries she had no choice but to be curled into him like this. He was guessing she'd been with them at least a week because while her whole goddamn body was covered in bruises, and burns, he'd spied a few on her legs, the only part of her visible save her face that stretched under the newest ones which seemed to be about that old.

A week.

She had survived a week with those monsters.

The image of that knife pointed at her heart flashed through his mind again, how close she'd come to not but he pushed it back. She, Tess, was safe now. He looked down to confirm it and found those big blue eyes already on him, not a hard stare or a blank one but very guarded. And why wouldn't it be? God only knew the horrors she'd experienced, the horror men had visited upon her- it was a fucking miracle she was meeting his stare at all. And then he got another flash, the look of utter rage and serenity on her face as she'd sent that knife home and found himself wondering if she was just the kind of woman who couldn't be cowed. The way she'd fought certainly indicated so. It made sense if she was SAD and he had no reason not to believe her, except that she looked around his age, younger even and at twenty-five Jay might be respected by his superiors, and more importantly to him the men he commanded but he still had a ways to go to work his way up the chain of command. And the SAD...

The Special Activities Division was part of the CIA, responsible for covert and paramilitary operations all over the world. It was comprised of two separate groups, Political Action which dealt with political, economic and cyberwarfare and Special Operations which completed the most clandestine operations- it was the most secretive unit in the U.S, with less than a hundred operators. Whichever group she was a part of they were considered the best of the best, which meant she was one of the best.

Tess... Something.

"This is more than-"

Her breath caught and the next thing he knew she was spasming so he quickly crouched down, hating that all he could do was watch as she fought to get it back. He could feel Mouse behind him, his eyes on the treeline but like him focused on every choked gasp until at last she stilled, her face tucked so far into his jacket he had to pull the material back to make sure she was really okay. She wasn't, she was tired and beaten and almost out of hope but she was breathing again.

And she had a sense of humour.

"This... is... more... than over... a hill." She said quietly, and very slowly, but both he and Mouse heard and snorted.

"You know, it is." Jay glanced back at his friend and after a short nod settled her on the softest looking spot he could find, with her back resting against a tree so she didn't slump and hurt her ribs any further. "We'll wait here until my unit arrives, okay? You want some more water?"

When she nodded he shuffled forward and held his canteen to her lips, gently, and then more sternly urging her to drink her fill; there were tons of streams in this valley so they weren't at risk of going thirsty. They were more likely to catch a bullet, this was the most heavily contested area in the region which was why his platoon had been detailed here, to assist the soldiers garrisoned here and try to root out as many insurgents as possible. If they were lucky they'd get the man leading them too.