Alpha Bravo Team Ch. 07

Mia checked her weapons one more time, and then she rose with the rest of her team, rocking with the turbulence in the plane. The Alphas were blind night jumping into a hot zone. Their orders were to find a group of Americans that had been cut off from escape. They had to find them and get them out of the hot zone.

Mia felt the usual rush of adrenaline that night jumping always had zinging through her system. It was the most dangerous kind of jump, drifting blind with no hope of knowing what was beneath you until you were too close to correct your path. Maybe it was a good thing that this case had come in. It was what the Alphas had been created for.

She sighed and kept her eyes on Demon, not looking around the small plane that held the team. She knew Aidan was watching her, she could feel his eyes and they made her nervous. They hadn't spoken more than ten words to each other since that morning a week ago when she'd lied to Aidan.

Now it felt like her heart was going to break every time she looked at him.

Demon rose from his seat close to the pilot. He said something to the man and then turned to look at his team. "It's time!" He had to shout because even Demon's rough, gravelly voice was drowned out by the vibrating roar of the plane.

The Alphas rose, checking their gear. Mia hitched her chute a bit higher on her back, tightening the straps that ran between her legs and around her thighs. Then she checked her weapons again. She didn't want to jump and find herself suddenly surrounded by the enemy and her weapons not ready to do the most damage possible.

It was one of the hardest part, the thought that she would find herself in the middle of a gun fight. If one of her team members were hurt beyond help, they had to leave them. One person couldn't be allowed to fuck up the entire mission. But it killed her, thinking one of these brave men could someday be hurt and there wouldn't be a damn thing they could do for him. Leaving him, even for the sake of the mission just didn't sit well with her.

But she wasn't afraid to be left behind. If she were injured, she would stay behind and give her team the best possible chance of finishing the mission with all others alive and accounted for. She would take out the enemy, whether it be grenade or hot lead, she had no problem with achieving massive body counts to keep her men safe.

She sighed. It's what they were. All of them, even Demon belonged to her. She would protect them and do whatever it took to get everyone home safe.

The pilot did something on his control board and the side of the plane almost seemed to fall away. Air rushed into the cargo hold, air that felt like a hand pushing at Mia's back. She tried to brace herself, to keep her feet firmly planted but felt herself losing. A second before she would have been sucked out of the plane, she felt arms come around her, holding her until the air pressure in the plane stabilized.

"Thanks." She shouted the word and then turned her head. Seeing Aidan behind her was a shock. She'd sat next to Digger and Aidan had been as far from her as he could actually get in the small plane. Now he was behind her, his golden eyes fixing her to the spot.

He nodded, but his eyes never left hers until she turned away. Even then, she could still feel them. They made her itch; the heat of his gaze sending a wave of need through her that made her miss Demon's next words.

When Aidan reached around her and grabbed the clip on her chute, she jumped. He lifted the clip and hooked it on the line, in front of his.

Mia closed her eyes, willing herself to be able to handle being this close to Aidan without throwing herself into his arms and telling him that she'd lied. That she'd do almost anything to feel the way he'd made her feel that night. It wasn't just the sex even though that had been incredible.

No, he'd made her feel loved, as if the stigma of her father and everything he'd done to her had disappeared under Aidan's hands and she was good and pure again.

It was because of her father that she'd joined the Alphas, because of what he'd done to her that she lived and breathed what Demon said, wanting to learn from the best. Demon was the best and he had the best crew. When he'd chosen her to be a member of that crew she could have floated.

Demon made use of her talents, even some she didn't know she had. She'd do anything for the man, for letting her have this victory. He allowed her to feel good about herself again.

But that wasn't even in the ball park of what she'd felt that night with Aidan. Even now, she could imagine the heat of his body between her spread thighs, the touch of his fingers on her pussy, his tongue lapping at her clit.

A shiver ran through her, a shiver that was a reaction to the memories she savored from that night. She'd held those feeling in check for so long that just knowing he was behind her, his strong thighs brushing against her ass was driving her crazy.

He leaned over her, tipping his head to the side so that he could speak in her ear. "I want you so badly. You're driving me crazy, Mia. I need to have you in my bed again. Please, Mia. I need you."

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore what he was saying but it was impossible. She wanted him too. Before she could change her mind, she nodded her head once, hearing him groan. "Yes, okay. When we get back."

"I'm holding you to that, Mia."

Demon's eyes were on Mia and she heard him shout..."Go, go, go!"

She was the first out the door, taking that step from the safety and stability of the plane and into nothingness. Night jumps were her favorite. They may have been the most dangerous but the feeling of being adrift into the darkness of the night sky was amazing. Looking up, she could see the stars, so close that she felt she could reach out and grab a handful. Then her chute deployed and she was jerked upward.

A sudden pain had her body arching and she felt sick. She reached up to touch her head, feeling the warm stickiness of blood trailing down from her forehead.

Then there was the rush of blackness and she was lost to the deep black night rushing past her ears. She didn't realize that her chute hadn't deployed correctly, that she would have to cut it loose to be able to deploy her back up. She went limp a second later; the metal hasp from the damaged chute had struck her hard. She was free falling.

* * * *

Aidan's eyes tracked Mia's free fall, seeing her body twisting and becoming entangled in the lines from her chute. He was closest but even if he hadn't been, he would have done the same thing he did now.

He grabbed his own chute release and then sent his body torpedoing through the air to reach her before it was too late for both of them.

Aidan felt as if he were moving in slow motion through thick pea soup as he watched Mia falling. Her arms and legs became entangled in the straps and silk of the chute. As he drew closer, he knew that there was no way to untangle the mess of lines and silk that made her look like a mummy. He would have to find a way to clip her body to his chute so that it would carry the both of them.

Mia groaned, her hand moving toward her head, though she couldn't reach it, not the way she was tied up. She opened her eyes just as Aidan reached her. "W-what...?"

He didn't answer, quickly undoing an o-clasp and hooking it to the main straps of her chute. "Hold on to me, Mia. Hold on and don't let go!" She nodded, grabbing hold of his flight suit and wrapping her legs around him.

"Ready? This is going to be a jolt, sweetheart. You have to have a good grasp." She nodded again and Aidan pulled the release on his back up parachute. It exploded above them and then Aidan wrapped her in his arms. "Don't do that to me again, Mia."

"My head, Aidan. It hurts." She let her helmeted head rest against his chest. "Why does it hurt?"

"I'm not sure, Mia. It looked like one of the metal hasps struck you when your chute deployed. We'll take care of it when we land."

Mia tried to nod but then moaned again. She felt sick, as if her entire insides wanted to find a way out. She swallowed harshly, but kept her eyes closed.

"Mia, you've got to keep talking to me, baby. Open your eyes; look at me."

"It hurts," she argued weakly. Then she lifted her head, opening her eyes to see his face. Above them was the canopy of his chute, filled with air, it had them floating downward. "Are we...falling?"

"No, Mia. We're on a night jump, remember? Your chute deployed wrong and I think a hasp hit you in the head. But you're fine. We'll check out your head when we land, okay?" He tried to keep his voice calm even though her words had him even more worried.

Romeo, is she all right?

Demon's voice was loud in his ear and he cocked his head to the side to operate his communicator. She hit her head, Demon. I won't know how much damage until we land.

Fuck! Keep me apprised.

Aidan heard Demon's reply and had to smile. If he wasn't so worried about Mia, he might have agreed with his boss. "Mia, remember, you've got to stay awake. Come on, baby, answer me. Stay awake. You've got to be awake for when we land." He watched as her eyes opened slowly and then, with relief, saw her recognition of who he was.

"Aidan? Why does my head hurt? C-can we just go back to bed?" Her head was shifting forward, wanting to lean against the warmth of his body and sleep until the pain was gone. "I wanna sleep," she said with a sniff.

"Dammit, Mia. Open your eyes and look at me, baby!" He shook her gently even as he shouted at her. "You've got to be awake, Mia. Please, for me, open your eyes!"

Mia grunted but her eyes opened slowly, the gray/green of them looking cloudy and confused. "Aidan?"

"Yeah, it's me, sweetheart. But you've got to stay awake." He checked the altimeter that was attached to his pack in the front. They didn't have too long for the landing. With the two of them and Mia mostly wrapped up in her chute, it might be a rough one. "Look at me, Mia. Talk to me."

"What?" she asked groggily. "My head hurts." She put her hand to her forehead and gasped as she felt the stickiness of warm blood. "Where are we?"

"The altimeter says we are almost to our landing spot. I'm hoping we aren't going to miss ground zero. You've got to stay awake for the landing, Mia."

She nodded, though it hurt her head and made her groan. "Stay awake for landing." She repeated his words over and over.

"We're going to hit and roll, Mia. I want you to stay loose, let me do all the heavy stuff, okay?" Just as always," he teased. He glanced below them, seeing the dark, waving blackness of the trees. They looked thick and impenetrable. But they had no choice, they were landing there. He closed his eyes and said a quick prayer. "Get ready, Mia."

She nodded, taking a deep breath and letting it out in a hiss. "I'm ready."

He felt his feet breaking through the upper branches of the trees and he wrapped his arms around Mia, trying to protect her from the bigger branches. His arms were scratched, his face receiving one big scratch before he ducked his head against Mia's helmet. He felt his chute being tangled into the branches and looked down. They were some fifteen feet from the ground, hanging in a huge tree that seemed intent upon eating his chute.

"Dammit," he growled. His mind rapidly went through different scenarios, none that he was too keen to act upon. Screaming for help could have the enemy finding them. He wasn't too set upon having them thrown into an enemy's prison and being held as insurgents.

Cutting the chute straps or hitting the release wasn't too great of an idea either. One or both of them would get hurt and he didn't exactly think his chances of carrying her and walking out of here on a broken leg were too great.

"Demon," he growled, cocking his head to the side. "Come in, Demon." They were supposed to be on a communications black out until they completed their mission but he didn't think he had any choice. He reached up to his throat to check his communicator and cursed succinctly. The same branch that had scratched his face had taken care of his chances to get help.

He pulled the chute that was so tightly wrapped around Mia, reaching for the button on her communications system. With a growl of rage he realized that hers had been destroyed as well, the hasp that had ripped from her chute dangled near the destruction at her hips. They were on their own.

Their chutes held a beacon in case of a missing Alpha, the other would, if they could, look for them starting at that location. He hated the thought of sitting up here until Demon sent someone to rescue their dumb asses. And that would be one of the nicest things he said.

He sighed and checked around them, searching for some kind of inspiration, and kind. He checked out the tree they were hanging from. There was a branch about five feet from them.

It looked strong enough to take both their weight without breaking. But he would need Mia's help so that he could reach it.

"Okay, baby, look. We're pretty high up here and I don't want to hurt one or both of us by just hitting the release. I need you to help me here. Think you can?"

She nodded but he wasn't too sure if she really had heard him. Her eyes were unfocused and her brows furled in pain. Her head wound was still bleeding but it had slowed so a sticky trail of it bisected her face. He badly wanted to cuddle her against him and tell her everything would be fine, but his Mia would take off his head and put it on backwards if he dared treat her like a girl.

"We're going to swing, Mia. I'm going to need your help. Remember how you use to swing when you were a kid in school. We're going to swing like that now, baby."

"Swing? How?"

"Can you kick your legs? We'll kick one way and then the other and when we get close enough, I'll grab that branch, then we'll be home free." He stared down into her hazy gaze. "Just stay with me, Mia. You can't leave me here alone. Please."

She nodded and groaned again before chuckling. "Yeah, who would do the heavy lifting if that happened."

"Okay, smart ass. You ready?"

Mia nodded and then groaned. "Tell the mule that kicked me in the head I'm eating him for breakfast. A big ole rump of sheep."

"Okay, now I know you're okay. You're pulling the stupid jokes. On three, baby. One, two, three!" Aidan kicked his feet out, aiming for the branch he wanted and then felt Mia kick hers the other way to start them swinging. After about a minute of that, Aidan grabbed for the branch, crowing his success. He used the branch to haul them closer to the tree. "Wrap your arms around me, Mia. I'm going to cut the chute loose."

She did, holding on as well as she could while still wrapped in her own chute. Aidan pulled the chute release, hearing the branch under them groan under their combined weight. "Now, I need you to be like a monkey, Mia." He cut away as much of her chute as necessary for her to hang on to him. "I need you to cling to me. I'm going to get us down and out of this tree." Mia nodded and wrapped her legs around Aidan's slim hips.

"O-okay. But no big jolts, Aidan. My stomach..."

"I'll do my best, baby. He lifted her chin, staring into her pain clouded eyes. He didn't say out loud what he was thinking but inside, worry for her swirled through him, scaring him worse than anything had ever before. She was so incredibly precious to him. He couldn't think of her being injured but she was showing all the signs of a concussion.

And while it wouldn't be life threatening if they had a hospital nearby, getting her out of this mess safely was going to take some time and care. Time he really didn't have if he was going to meet the team at the drop zone. If it had been just him, he would have dropped the fifteen feet and taken his chances, but he refused to take any chances when it came to Mia. Pressing a quick kiss and a promise to the top of her head still strapped into her camouflage helmet, he began the long climb down. The last branch was only five feet to the ground and he jumped it, cuddling her against him to try to ease the jolt.

Then he sank down to the ground, reaching between them to loosen the 'o' ring. He laid her on the ground, drawing his knife to slice through the rest of the lines of her chute, finding the clasp that had slammed into her head. It had hair and blood on it, which worried Aidan even more. Then he reached for the buckle to her helmet only stopping when she grabbed his hands. "We don't have time now, Aidan. We've got to join up with the team. Help me up."

"Mia, now isn't the time to be stubborn. You're bleeding, badly. I need to check that head wound."

"No, it's fine. Head wounds bleed a lot. You know that. Just get me to my feet so we can figure out how far from ground zero we are."

"Stubborn bit..."

"I'd watch the name calling, Aidan."

He bit his lip but lifted her up so that she could stand. She was unsteady on her feet, weaving just a bit. But there was determination in her eyes and he had to admire that. "Where are we?"

"Um..." Aidan pulled the map from the pack at his waist. The pack was waterproof and had been with him during most of their missions. He pulled out his GPS as well, trying to link both. His finger moving over the map until he figured out where they were. "Shit," he whispered.

"What?"

"We're almost a mile from the landing site. We're going to have to hoof it, Mia. Are you up to that?"

"Just point me in the right direction." She bit her lip as another strong, debilitating slash of pain had the trees around her dancing and shimming, and the ground feeling like sloshing waves under her feet. "I'll make it, Aidan."

"You'll have to, even if I have to carry your stubborn ass the entire distance, you'll make it." Aidan lifted her chin. "I love you, baby. Whether you'll have me or not, it's there. I'll do whatever I have to do to get you out of this mess."

Mia stared up at him. With a heavy sigh, she nodded. "I know, Aidan. It's part of your DNA. Let's just get out of here."

He went to wrap his arm around her waist to help her steady herself with but she pushed him away and began the long trek.