Chapter Text
It was supposed to be an easy assignment. But when was there ever an easy assignment as a tier one operative. The information that Mandy and Davis retrieved was solid and straight forward, they were going in to retrieve a HVT for Mandy to question about a foreign weapons cache that showed up on the black market. Since everything was straight forward and easy it naturally went to hell quickly, leaving all the men cold and longing for a hot shower and home. It was really nobody’s fault but good ole’ Mother Nature; she had a way of being cruel at the most inopportune time. She let heavy chilling rain dump upon the men washing out their trail leaving them to reroute and reroute and reroute, adding on a whole day of misery. The rain led to all their exhaustions, but it was not what did Brock and Clay in. It was their unexpected fall down a hill side into an icy cold river below. It left both the men bruised, battered and chilled to bone. After sometime the team was able to get their brothers out of rivers icy clutches and successful deliver the HVT back to Mandy. They all showered and loaded the plane to head home, but the chill never left Brock.
It had been an unbelievable long 22 hours and 33 minutes since they had deployed back towards US soil when Brock and Cerb finally walked through their front door. In that time they sat on an uncomfortable transport plane, headed back to barracks, unpacked and cleaned their gear, wrote after action reports and debriefed. As he walked through the door the only thing keeping him going was the excitement of finally being able to call his deployed fiancé, Evanlyn, for the first time in what felt like months but had only been two weeks. Hoping the elation of the sound of her voice would help draw out some of the soreness and cold.
The nearly intoxicating excitement of hearing her voice and making arrangements for when she returned home after eight, almost unbearable, months down range only lasted for minutes. His excitement rapidly morphed into disappointment and soul eating loneliness and sorrow when Evan informed him that her assignment was extend by another 6 weeks. It was something they were both used too, being in the military and all; especially when one of you is an amazing doctor in the Surface Warfare Medical Corps, that may have saved your best friend’s life once and the other was a tier one operative on the best damn SEAL team there is. Still it did not make it any easier. His disappointment of the news only added to the cold relentless ache in his body.
By the time he had finished the call, fed Cerb and made sure he was settled, the self-pity of his disappointment had thawed but the bone cold chill and exhaustion were still heavy. Shortly before midnight, completely drained, Brock finally climbed into his glorious bed, praying that the cold would dissipate after he slept; he was out as soon as he covered in his thick down comforter.
At 0330, only four short hours after his head hit the pillow, his phone on his night stand rang. He was rapidly filled with unadulterated fear that a person gets when a love one is deployed and their phone rings at that ghastly hour. The dread was quickly replaced with utter annoyance when he saw it was Blackburn, because that could only mean one thing at this deplorable time; they were getting spun up again. Just great, he thought.
After answering the phone and being informed to be on base in an hour Brock crawled his aching, tired body into the shower; turning the water as hot as it would allow, hoping that the cold ache would leave. As rivulets of scorching water ran over his body, turning his tan skin red, he leaned his head against the wall. The heat encompassing his battered body and allowing him to drift into a peaceful semi-consciousness, until the water ran cool. Realizing he spent way too much time in the shower Brock quickly changed, layering on extra clothes begging for the cold to dissolve. Running through the house one last time making sure everything was off and unplugged, he grabbed his and Cerb’s to go bags and they hopped into the truck and headed for base.