The day after leg day

a snippet taken from one of the chapters in the final draft of Guardian Angels - the story, set to release in fall 2021

“Foxtrot to the office. I will repeat Foxtrot to the office.” When Jack heard Hawks' voice come over the intercom she groaned. She had just managed to get upstairs to the Pew when the call came in. Now she would have to traverse down three flights of stairs to get to Foxtrot's office, and yesterday's leg workout was going to make that almost impossible to do without looking like a life alert patient.

“Chances are he's gonna want to hit the gym again.” she said, sucking in her breath. “Too. many. Squats.” When she finally arrived at the office, she collapsed next to Hetz on his bed, all controlled descent gone.

“Thank you for finally joining us Jack.” As Hawk greeted her, she sat up, purposefully using Hetzes leg to push herself up, making him actually squeak. She knew his legs were equally as sore if not more than hers and it made her feel better about her painful trek down stairs. “If were ready to move on.” Hawk said forcefully. “The Star has been on our radar for a few months now as one of the leading gangs in north america. But today it has been reported that they are behind the recent hits on the overground churches, meaning they have now fallen directly into our laps, and subsequently into Foxtrot's jurisdiction. Meaning?” Hawk asked, praying all the hours of training he had invested into his team hadn't gone to waste.

“We aren't getting sleep anytime soon?”

“We get to go pew pew ing?”

“We get to go into the up soon?” His team mates responded in quick rapid succession, almost like they scripted it out. And half of him was unsure that they hadn't.

“How About - I'm gonna go and do some technical research because I'm a TEC.” Hawk said imitating Hetz “Or I'm gonna go and assist you in planning Hawk, because you're the best and I want to learn from you.” Hawk raised his voice for Jack and then proceeded to make fun of his partner. “Hawk i'm gonna go and make sure our gear is ready for anything and because you told me that it's a gang, centered in north america im going to go ahead and rely heavily on our more Technical gear meaning I'll stick with Hetz.” He met each of their expressions in turn before saying “Well?” His team jumped up - well not jumped more like fell up, to get to their various tasks.

“Hawk, why are you so concerned about this?” Jack asked as they reviewed footage from the church bombing.

“What?”

“Well I can tell you're a little uptight, It's just another mission, just a few more lives to save. We do this every day. What's the big deal?” Hawk looked at her with a fatherly love in his eyes.

“It feels different Jack. It- well part of the report says that-”

“What?” she urged him on.

“Umm, it's your dad.”

“What about him?” Her heart started racing involuntarily, she tried to calm it and wondered about the crying sensation rising in her throat. “What about him?”

“This is the gang believed to be responsible for his… death.”