"I've been thinking," Logan said. "About coming down there again. Maybe in a few weeks when I get cleared. Spend a long weekend. See you in person instead of through a screen."
"I'd like that." Mara smiled. "I could actually plan this time. Show you the parts of Louisiana that aren't New Orleans."
"The bayou?"
"The real bayou. Where the alligators live and the trees grow out of the water and you can't hear anything but nature for miles."
"Sounds perfect." His voice softened. "I miss you, Mara."
"I miss you too."
They talked for another hour before Logan had to go to a team meeting. Mara went to the ops center where Quinn had pulled up three new potential targets. Dallas, Phoenix, and Seattle. The work never stopped. The need never ended.
Two weeks later, Logan got cleared for full duty. He called Mara from the doctor's office, excitement clear in his voice. "I'm back. Officially. Full operational status."
"Congratulations." Mara was in the middle of planning an op in Phoenix but she pushed the files aside to focus on him. "How does it feel?"
"Like I can finally breathe again. Like I'm myself again instead of this broken version sitting on the sidelines." He paused. "Hawk wants to do a shakedown deployment. Make sure I'm actually ready. Nothing major, just two weeks in Eastern Europe doing some joint training with local forces."
"When do you leave?"
"Four days."
Four days. Mara felt the familiar twist in her stomach that came with knowing he'd be gone. "Okay. We'll make the most of the time we have."
They talked every night for those four days. Long conversations that stretched past midnight. Making up for the time they'd lose when he deployed. On the last night before he left, they video chatted for three hours. Logan was already packed, his gear staged by the door, ready for the early morning departure.
"I won't have my phone where I'm going," he said. "Probably no communication for the full two weeks. Maybe longer depending on how things go."
"I know how it works." Mara had done enough operations to understand operational security. No phones. No personal communication. No way to reach him if something went wrong. "Just come back safe."
"Always do." He looked at her through the screen, his expression serious. "Hey. This thing we're doing. It's working, right? You're not having second thoughts?"
"No second thoughts. Are you?"
"Not even a little bit. But it's hard. Being apart. Not knowing when I'll see you next." Logan ran a hand through his hair. "I just need to know you're in this with me. That we're doing this for real."
"I'm in this, Logan. For real. Distance and deployments and all the complications that come with what we do." Mara leaned closer to the screen. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Good. Neither am I."
They said goodbye that night knowing it would be weeks before they talked again. Mara went to bed trying not to think about all the things that could go wrong on a deployment, even a training one. Trying to trust that Logan knew what he was doing and that his team would keep him safe.
Three days after Logan deployed, Mara's team got actionable intelligence on a trafficking ring operating out of Seattle. High-confidence target. Eight women confirmed. Window of opportunity closing fast. They were wheels up within twelve hours.
The Seattle operation was more complex than Atlanta had been. The women were being held in multiple locations across the city. Quinn's intelligence was solid but incomplete. They spent three days doing surveillance, mapping patterns, identifying security weak points. Mara worked eighteen-hour days, coordinating with Nadia on tactical planning while Kira prepared medical supplies for women who'd likely been abused.
When they finally moved, it was a coordinated strike across four locations simultaneously. Mara led the team hitting the main house while Winter and Reese covered two satellite locations. Everything had to happen at once or they'd lose someone. The traffickers would scatter, take the women with them, and months of intelligence work would be wasted.
The operation took six days from start to finish. Surveillance, planning, execution, extraction, and handoff to local resources. Eight women out. Clean operation. No casualties. But the toll it took was real. Mara came back to L'Abri Sûr exhausted and satisfied in the way she always was when the work went well, but also keenly aware of how much she'd missed during those six days.
Missed Logan's calls. Missed his voice. Missed the easy back-and-forth that had become part of her daily routine. She'd sent the "working" text before they'd gone in and hadn't been able to check her phone until it was over. When she finally could,there were a dozen messages from him. Checking in. Saying he understood. Telling her about the small things in his day. Saying he missed her.
But coming back also meant silence. No messages from Logan. No updates. No way to know if he was okay or when he'd be back. Just the waiting and the trust that he'd call when he could.
She threw herself into work. Helped Quinn with intelligence analysis. Trained with Winter on new hand-to-hand techniques. Spent time with the women at L'Abri Sûr who were rebuilding their lives. Kept busy so she didn't drive herself crazy wondering.
Two weeks became three. Then four. Mara started checking her phone obsessively. Jumped every time it buzzed. Told herself that no news was good news, that if something had happened she'd have heard through official channels. But the not knowing was its own kind of torture.
