What a healthy marriage looks like

Oh yeah,

It took another week (and a very awkward dinner) but Mick eventually let go of a lot of his resentment towards Miss Pauling. She may have been a bitch, but she was an efficient bitch. That being said, Caroline befriending her did more for his perception than anything else. After a while things settled back into a routine and life continued as it always had. One particular day, Caroline walked into the base calling, "Hello? Anyone home?" She stepped into what looked like a break room of some sort and Demo looked up from his card game with Soldier, "Aye, and who are you then lassie?", "I'm-", "Hello Sniper's girlfriend!" Soldier waved brightly and Demo raised an eyebrow, "Sniper have a girlfriend then?" Caroline flashed the ring, "Wife, actually. Would either of you happen to know where Mick is?", "Who?", "Sniper.", "Ah- Uh, no." Caroline sighed and waved as she walked away, "Thank you anyway.", "And where do you think you're going, lassie?" Demo asked just as the Engineer walked in. He spotted her and smiled, "Mrs. Caroline! How are you doin?", "I'm good, thank you Dell.", "It's the Engineer when I'm at work, speakin' of- what are you doin' here?" He asked as he led her out into the hallway. She responded, "I'm really just picking up some paperwork, but I figured while I'm here I'd say hi." Engie nodded but said, "Well, I think Sniper is out doin some recon, unfortunately." She shrugged, "That's alright. It's not a big deal." Then just as she was saying that, Mick came around the corner at the end of the corridor. Her face lit up and she ran up to him, "Micky! Hi!", "Hello darlin'! What are you doin here?" He caught her in his arms and then she immediately pulled back, coughing out, "Oh geeze, did you get hit over the head with a bottle of cologne or something?" He furrowed his eyebrows and said, "Does it smell that bad?" She gave him a look, "I guess not, you just never wear- cologne..." Walking up behind Mick was another Mick, who saw her talking to this Mick and got the most incredulous look on his face. Caroline grinned and pointed very dramatically to the man in front of her, "Unless you're not the real Mick!" The Mick in front of her raised his eyebrows in surprise, and then he felt the barrel of the real Mick's Remington 700 on the back of his head. The real Mick growled, "You'd best be careful who you do that to, mate." And the fake Mick raised their hands in the air, "Alright, alright I surrender" before his visage disappeared and Spy stood before them. At that, Caroline embraced him, "You know, If you wanted a hug that's all you had to say..." Spy let out a laugh and hugged her back, "Ah, but what's the fun in that?" Behind them, Mick cleared his throat deliberately and Caroline disengaged with the Spy to jump into her husband's arms, "Hello my wonderful husband!" He gave her a kiss before saying, "Not that I'm not thrilled to see ya, but what are you doin here, darlin'?", "I'm just picking up some paperwork from Dr. Ludwig, but I figured while I'm here, might as well say hi.", "Ah," He said, slipping a hand down her back to lead her to the medical bay, "Well, I always appreciate a visit. Next time if you tell me you're coming, I'll make sure that mongrel don't try nothin'." She laughed, waving goodbye to Engie and Spy before saying, "Sorry. I would have told you if I'd known, but it was just spur of the moment.", "I get it... It's always lovely to see you, anyway." They walked around the corner and she gave him a cheeky grin, "Someone else might think we didn't just see each other this morning..." Mick laughed, then he looked around to make sure they were alone in the hall before he dipped her dramatically, "Darlin', every moment I'm away from you is agony!" She burst into giggles and the Medic opened the door to his office, "Did someone say agony?" Mick quickly righted them and said, "I was makin a joke- not a joke, uh-" Carolie pat his chest patiently, "I know what you ment.", "Right." The Medic nodded slowly before asking, "So... Do you need something?" Caroline walked up to him, "Yes, you're Dr. Ludwig, right?" The Medic looked at her for a moment before recognition dawned on him, "Ah! You must be Caroline! Miss Pauling said you'd be by. Come in, come in..." He said, moving back into his office. Caroline looked to Mick, who gestured her forward. Inside it looked like a little clinic, cramped but neat. Over by the desk, Heavy was eating a sandwich and he nodded at them as they walked in. "I've got them all right here! There you go my dear." The medic said, as he handed her a stack of folders. Mick's eyebrows went up and he asked, "What's all this, then?" Caroline grinned, "They're tax returns.", "Tax returns?", "Yes! and thank you for getting rid of them for me!" Medic said, relieved, "I've been stuck with them since I started, and now look- it cleared up a whole shelf!" He pointed to the space in the cabinet and Caroline nodded, "Thank you for holding onto them.", "Oh, it was not by choice, but still. Danke.", "Bitte." Caroline replied and the Medic smiled at her. Mick and Caroline left, and Mick grabbed the stack of folders for her before asking, "I thought you did bookwork?", "I do, but this is for a pet project I started.", "Oh yeah?", "Yeah, It's kind of in between accounting and an archival system. It's been really fun so far and Miss Pauling suggested I take these off Dr. Ludwig's hands." That kind of stuff went over Mick's head, but he nodded anyway as they moved outside to Caroline's Vauxhall. He put the stack of folders in the car before pulling her in for a kiss. When they broke, Caroline said, "I'm probably gonna stay late tonight, so don't wait up.", "Alright, I might go home early. Just don't wear yourself out- and make sure to eat something." She pressed a kiss to his cheek and said, "I will. See you tonight?" He nodded and kissed her one more time, "See ya tonight, love." and with that she left, going back to the office where Miss Pauling had set aside a room for her to work in, or to keep her out of trouble, either way Caroline was grateful. With this new stack of documents she had a lot more to do, so she grabbed some coffee and dug right in. By the time she was halfway through it was getting really late, so she decided to call it a night. She didn't realize how tired she was until she was driving home, struggling to stay awake. She made it back to her apartment all right and stumbled up the stairs to her door. Then she put the key in and tried to unlock it, but it was already unlocked. Adrenaline chased away the drowsiness as her entire body went on red alert. Looking back at the parking lot, she could see Mick's Landrover, so he probably just left the door unlocked again. It wasn't a big deal. She went for the handle, then hesitated- But what if he didn't? She went back to her car and grabbed her Remington Parker, before moving back up the stairs and bracing herself by the door. Maybe she was being dramatic, but everything that went down last year never really got out of her head. She took a breath then quickly opened the door, swinging her shotgun around. Caroline's stomach dropped. No one was there, but the apartment was a mess. It looked the exact same as the house did when her father- Caroline took a breath and announced her presence, "Who's there?" Nobody answered. She walked in far enough to turn on the light. Her eyes found blood on the floor and she started panicking. Not again, not again, not again- She ripped herself out of her mental spiral because she didn't know if she might still be in danger. The living room and kitchen were empty, so she breached her bedroom and while there had clearly been a struggle, there was no one left. The bathroom was empty, the closets hadn't been touched and after that, there was nothing left to check. She moved back to the living room and her eyes were drawn again to the bloodstain on the carpet. Not again, not again, please, please, please, please, not again. It wasn't big enough to assume that anyone had- that anyone had died, but it wasn't just a few drops either. Caroline sat down at the table as her breathing quickened and she tried desperately to hold herself together. Someone grabbed him, someone hurt him. Memories of her father kept running through her head and her heavy breathing turned ragged. He's dead! He's dead and I could have saved him- No! he was grabbed. He's not dead until we find a body- I can't do this! I can't lose him too, not my Micky... Calm down. I need to stay calm. There might be a chance for him, but only if I stay calm... She took in another shaky breath and sat up. She could be strong for him. As she did, she noticed that on the table was a folded piece of paper with a weird design that hadn't been there before. She opened it up and the weird design turned out to be a black and white photograph. It was a far away photo of her and Miss Pauling pulling the teeth out of corpses from a week ago and in red crayon someone had scrawled, 'We have your husband- ' . Ice shot through her veins and she booked it to her Vauxhall, peeling out of the parking lot and speeding down the road to the base. She parked quickly and ran in, gripping the photo in one hand and her keys in the other. Despite the late hour, it seemed like the place was buzzing with activity. The mercenaries were all running around and shouting, and no one seemed to notice her. No one that is, except Spy. He moved over to her, and seeing the distressed look on her face he asked, "What's wrong?" Words stuck in Caroline's throat with the promise of coming out through tears, so she just gave him the photo to save herself the trouble. Spy looked at it then furrowed his brow and looked at her, "They took Sniper?" Hearing him say it was the last straw. She burst into tears and the commotion around them stopped. She covered her face to muffle it, but her cries seemed deafening. "...Caroline?" She couldn't speak as her body was taken over by the racking sobs. "Caroline?!" She didn't want to cry in front of these men, but she couldn't stop. She just kept remembering her apartment and how it looked so much like the house, and how the bloodstain reminded her of her father- "Caroline! It's alright," Arms wrapped around her, and she blinked the tears out of her eyes long enough to see it was Spy. She hugged him back and sobbed into his shoulder, "They took him! They took Micky and it's my fault!", "It's not your fault-", "How could it not be?!" from down the hall Engineer's voice got closer, "What in the Sam Hill is goin on round here, people?! We need to get a hold of Sniper and get on the road! Why are y'all just standin' around... Caroline?" She tried to calm down, but then she just started hyperventilating and Spy smoothed her hair down, "Sh sh sh. It's okay... Engineer, we have a problem." Engie walked over saying, "You're tellin' me, what happened?" Spy handed Engie the photo and he sucked a breath through his teeth, "You think it was Gray?" Spy shrugged, still holding onto Caroline, "How could it not be?" Caroline tried to speak, but just ended up sobbing out, "Wha- What do- What do you-", "Sh sh sh... We- uh, We are having a bit of a crisis ourselves..." Engineer turned to the rest of the mercs and shouted, "Get back to it! We need to roll out at O' one thirty! Go, go, go!" They scattered and Engie turned back to Caroline, "Well... You see-" Suddenly, Miss Pauling burst in, "Caroline! Are you alright?!", "Obviously..." Spy said, rolling his eyes. Caroline finally managed to calm herself enough and she let go of Spy to wipe her eyes, "I'm o-okay..." Engie turned to Pauling and said, "It looks like Gray kidnapped Sniper and is holdin' him hostage. Beyond that, what's the situation with Saxton Hale?" Pauling shrugged, "I can't get a hold of him, It must have only been a couple hours ago, though, he couldn't have gotten that far." Caroline looked between them and asked, "Wha- What's going on?" Pauling turned to her and said bluntly, "Gray Mann's taken Mann Co. from Saxton Hale and now apparently he's kidnapped our Sniper. Fucking- great news all around-!" Spy smacked her upside the head and she glared at him, "Ow! What was that for?!" He inclined his head towards Caroline, who sighed, "I kn-know I'm all-" She gestured to herself, "But you don't need to baby me... You said you needed to get in contact with Saxton Hale?" Pauling blinked at her, "You have a contact for Saxton Hale?", "No, but I know who might. Can I see a phone please?" Pauling handed over her motorola dynatac and Caroline diled, putting it to her ear, "I don't know if she'd be up this late, but we'll see..." It rang, and then the other line picked up, "Hello? Who's this?", "Maggie? It's Caroline." Maggie's voice brightened up as she said, "Oh hey! How are you? How did that honeymoon go?", "Uh- It- It was good, it was really good- Uh..." Caroline tried to keep it together and when she failed, she handed the phone to Pauling and leaned into Spy, who wrapped his arms around her again. Pauling said, "Hi, this is Miss Pauling. Do you know Saxton Hale?" Maggie paused, then asked, "Why?", "Because Mann Co.'s been overrun and we can't find him.", "Oh... Well I wouldn't know. Is that all?" Pauling didn't know what to say. Then she looked at Caroline and said into the phone, "They also took Caroline's husband.", "Oh my God! Why didn't you just start with that? Is she okay?", "No, she's not.", "Here, put her on the phone-", "Can you help us?", "I'll see what I can do, where are you?", "We're at the base outside of Tuefort. We're trying to launch- well I guess it's a rescue mission now, at 1:30.", "Got it. Now let me talk to the poor girl." Satisfied, Pauling handed the phone over to Caroline and walked with Engineer out into the hall. Engie asked, "Do we know where Sniper is?" Pauling shook her head and pointed to the photo still in his hand, "Is there anything on there that could tell us?" Engineer looked at it closely, then flipped it over. There was a message on the back, 'If you want to see him again, bring the Administrator, or her australium to Mann Co. warehouse No. 42. You have 24 hours. ' He showed it to her, "We do now..."