The ride south to Melitopol was tense. A lot of the roads were cut up from artillery strikes. There were also a lot of burnt-out vehicles in the roads we had to avoid along with pieces of ruble and debris from buildings being blown out. It was slow going for a while and I was temped to take the trucks off road to avoid some of this stuff but I knew that it would only draw even more attention to ourselves which was the last thing I wanted.

But finally the town came into view. I folded my map over a few different times to take notes and try to find us a place we could hold up for the night. We still had a few hours until sunset but I wanted to be off the road sooner then later so we could all get some sleep. One section of Melitopol looked completely deserted so I thought this should be a good place for us to find shelter for the night. The buildings were a mix of houses and apartment buildings.

I radioed Rob and Monica and told them I wanted to take a few loops around the area to find a location for the night. At first I wanted to take the trucks but then I thought against it as it would probably draw attention to us if people saw the same trucks circle around the neighborhood a few times. So I made the trucks park toward a wooded area before I hopped out with Dexter, Beth and Akito. Once I told them the area I was thinking about settling, we headed out there.

I kept my rifle tightly to me as we started to trot over to the group of houses still standing. They were on the edge of the town towards Mariupol and since they were kind of out of the way, I was hoping they would be empty. Dexter, Beth, Akito and I all surrounded the larger house of the two. There were two entrances, one in the front, one in the back. Dexter and Beth took the front while Akito and I took the back. While we took up our positions, we waited a few minutes to listen to any noises coming from the house. When nothing could be heard I gave the order to breach.

Akito picked the lock on the back door while I kept watch. Once we got the back door unlocked, I waited to hear from the team in the front for there affirmative. After we got it, I gave the final breach order and Akito pushed the door open and we started to clear the house. Dexter and Beth took the upper floor while Akito and I rushed and cleared the first floor. When we came up dry and saw this property didn't have a basement Akito joined the pair upstairs while I went to go investigate the first floor.

It looks like another family house. From the looks of things, it doesn't look like anybody's home. My three teammates came downstairs slowly.

"We're clear boss, it doesn't look like anybody is coming back any time soon." Dexter said as he came down the stairs last. I nodded and clicked on the walkie.

"Truck teams were are clear. Come inbound one at a time to the rear of the building. It looks like there is an overhang for us to tuck the trucks under for the night." I said.

"Copy that, Alpha inbound." Warren said.

While my teammates went around the house to check everything out and shored up the front door, I stayed by the back door. It didn't take long before the first truck came into view. Once Warren was in the yard, I called for the second truck. Morgan helped Warren park the truck so we would have enough room for another truck under the overhang. Once it was in place, the rest of the team got out of the truck and walked inside. The other two trucks came in the same way and once everyone was inside I could breath a little better.

Just as everyone got inside I called for a team meeting in the living room. I wanted this chance to chat with everyone while they were still awake.

"Listen up, once again, this is only a temporary shelter. We aren't staying long so don't get comfortable. Please remember, this is someone's home and they are going to come back to it eventually. Everything is to be left the way we found it, if not better. I know everyone is tried and wants some sleep but we need watches here. The same teams of two as the last time we were on watch is fine. I also don't want anybody going outside once the sun goes down, so if you need anything out of trucks, now is the time to get it. The front door will remain closed and locked. Backdoor exits only. Now is also the time to inventory and condense everything in the trucks. Emmett and Cosima are in charge to overviewing our medical supplies but everything else is to be split amongst the small teams. Write everything out and bring it to me before sundown. Tomorrow we are going to review all the information we have available to us and make a final route to the steel plant. Am I clear?" I asked looking around the room.

"Yes ma'am." The team said and I dismissed everyone. Morgan caught my eye and I nodded towards the backdoor. I wanted to grab my backpack from the truck. We walked outside together and walked over to the trucks.

"Are we going to talk about what you did back at Petro's farm?" Morgan asked as she grabbed her own gear from the truck.

"No, I can't think about him right now. There are to many other things that need my focus. Kuzma is in good hands and will be okay. I know I'll see him again but right now, he can't be my number one priority." I said and grabbed my own bag from the truck.

"So then what is?" Morgan asked as I closed the door behind myself.

"Completing the mission, and getting everyone inside this house home safely." I said.

Morgan just nodded and we went back inside. When I cleared the main level of the house with Akito, I did find what looks like a spare bedroom down here on this floor. So I led Morgan down the hall to the room and claimed it for us. The room small but it was large enough for us to be comfortable together. I quickly undid my body armor and left everything in the room while I went over to the bathroom that happens to be attached to the room. I tried the water and said quick prayer to anyone who was listening to thank them for the clean running water.

I grabbed some clean clothes from my bag and went into the bathroom to shower. It felt really nice to get the dirt and grim off of me and get cleaned up. After I was out of the shower I found Morgan sitting in a chair next to the bed where she spread out all of the maps we have been using with her laptop. Once she saw me Morgan grabbed her own clothes and went to use the shower while I took her place.

We had some new intel from command in an email that Morgan was reading. I read everything over and started to mark off the updated information from them on the maps. Morgan joined me a few minutes later and I got up from the chair to let her sit down again. I let Morgan work while I left the room to take stock of everything going on in the house. It looks like most of the team is decompressing from the action.

I took the time to check in with my teammates to make sure they were doing okay. I wanted to make sure that they were all present and ready for the next part of the mission. By the time I was done, Emmett and Cosima found me and gave me an update on the supplies we have left. We should be good for a while as long as nothing major comes up. We got lucky that Emmett was able to get supplies from the clinic. Now if things go wrong, I don't know if we'll have the same kind of luck.

Just as I finished up with them, Rob and Monica pulled me over to give me the updated list of supplies. We are pretty okay on everything. MRE's are going to start to run low soon and now that our resupply just got diverted, I don't know how long it will be before we get a new shipment. I took the lists they gave me and two MRE's to our room before closing the door behind me.

Morgan was still working away while I opened up the MRE's on the small night stand I converted to a table. It didn't long before both of them were ready. I wrapped my arms around Morgan's shoulders and pulled her into me.

"Time to eat, this can wait for now." I said quietly not wanting to disturb the quiet in the room.

Morgan nodded and turned her chair around so we could eat together on the table. Our dinner was spent in our own heads. Both of us have too much on our minds to really be overly present in the moment. My thoughts kept drifting back to Kuzma and wanting to see his smiling face again and to Marta, the women we couldn't save.

As we finished off our dinner I took a look outside and saw the sun was starting to set. I collected our garbage and walked out of our room to find the house mostly quiet. The team was either already asleep or eating. Those that were still eating I informed them that watch was starting and they were going to be up first. Morgan and I have a call to make to command to finalize our route and I didn't want to be bothered. Once they got the message I retreated to our room and closed the door behind me again.

I pulled my chair back towards the maps and got a notepad out before picking up the SAT phone off the charger. Morgan and I got our preliminary route together I called command.

"Major Collins." Annabelle said when she picked up the phone.

"It's Donovan and Morgan, wanted to call and check in and go over things with you." I said and sighed before leaning back into the chair and put the phone on speaker.

"Alright, currently, we are in the position you sent us already. We have a final stretch of about 3 hours by truck to our final destination. We have a route drawn up, want to confirm with you and current intelligence to make sure we don't run into any surprises." I said.

"Sounds good, lets break it down then." Major Collins said.

Morgan and I spent the next hour going over the latest intelligence from command and cross checking our information to the route. We had to change it a few times to avoid some badly damaged areas and some that are deep in Russia's control. It didn't take long to find a workaround though. After the route was nailed down Major Collins did tell me that our reinforcements would be back on the road again behind us shortly. I did inform her about our supply levels and things that we could use the most and she was going to make sure it was on there trucks coming to us.

With the route nailed down and her sending over the latest satellite images to get a better overhead picture, our call ended. After the call ended, Morgan and I started to outline the maps for the route we are going to take along with two backup routes. Then we also picked a fallback location if the mission went FUBAR. As we finished up I looked at the time and saw we were already pushing midnight. I couldn't wait to get some sleep but I also wanted to check in with whoever was on watch right now.

I pushed myself out of the chair and heard my back cracked into place. I gave myself a few seconds to stretch it out before I piled up my dirty camo's and some other dirty clothes along with Morgans before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"I'm going to go volunteer us for watch duty and see if I can get these things clean, if you want to join me when you finish wrapping up." I said quietly.

"Give me like 15 minutes to finish and I'll meet you inside." Morgan answered. I nodded and grabbed my rifle, helmet with my night vision goggles and the dirty clothes before opening the door.

The house was quiet when I walked around the main floor. It looked like most of the team was out cold and it made me happy to see that everyone is able to get some sleep. Beth is the only one awake down here, her rifle in hand, sitting by the front window. She has the corner of the curtain pulled back just enough to get a good look outside at the street. I put our camo's into the washing machine and was happy to find some soap to throw in there with them before starting the load.

Once it was started I went over to Beth and pulled down my night vision goggles to sit next to her.

"Any movement since you've been up here?" I asked taking a look out at the quiet street.

"A little bit when I first took over about an hour ago, but nothing much since then. Dexter is upstairs if you want to check in with him." Beth said not taking her eyes off the street.

I gave her shoulder a pat before walking up the stairs and found Dexter sitting at a large window that faces the backyard. Since I didn't clear the upstairs when we got here, I took a look around to take in all the rooms and see who is where. After I was done, I checked in with Dexter and he said just about the same as Beth. I relieved the both of them and they told me that Monica and Akito were up next for watch.

As they went to turn in for the night I stayed upstairs for a few more minutes to survey the land. When I mapped out the land enough to have a general idea of where people could hide in the night, I went back downstairs and found Morgan just coming out of our room. She is wearing a sweatshirt and a pair of my sweatpants from home. I couldn't help it, I walked over to her and pushed her back down the hallway towards our room and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.

"I've been wondering where those pants went." I said when I pulled away. Morgan gave me a smile and pressed another kiss to my lips.

"Well, you've always wanted to get in my pants, so I thought I would get into yours instead." Morgan said and pressed another kiss to my cheek before she pushed past me to walk into the living room. I couldn't help but chuckle and followed behind her. Morgan took Beth's seat on the first level of the house while I went back upstairs to claim Dexter's chair.

Watch was quiet. Being the middle of the night, everyone in town was mainly tucked away in what was left of there homes. I only took a break from watch upstairs to switch the load of laundry from the washer to the dryer and to use the bathroom before I went back upstairs. By the time the laundry was done it was pushing 3am and I was getting delirious, so it was time to wake up Monica and Akito to take over.

I brought all of Morgan and I's clean clothes into our room to be folded and dealt with tomorrow and went back upstairs to find which rooms Monica and Akito were in. It didn't take long to wake up the two explosives experts. Once they were both awake and ready to take over I gave them the rundown and went to get Morgan so we could go to bed. Morgan had large bags under her eyes by the time we finally got into bed. Both of us barely had the energy to take off the little bit of gear we put on and crawled into bed.

The next morning when we woke up, the house was pretty quiet still. I figured most of the team was still pretty wiped out from being awake for almost a full day. So quietly I gave Morgan a kiss on the forehead before walking out of our room into the main level of the house. Like I thought, most of the team was still sleeping away. A few people were already awake eating something for breakfast when I walked into the kitchen and found a pot of coffee already brewed. I was able to find a mug and poured myself some and used some of the sugar that was left on the counter before taking a seat at the table.

Felix, Micah and Warren were all in the middle of eating there breakfast when I settled in the chair. Each of them offered me piece's of there MRE's that they don't like and I was able to put together breakfast for myself with their left over pieces. It didn't take long before the rest of the team staggered into the kitchen to fight over the last of the coffee. The only person who didn't make an appearance was Morgan. I let her sleep because I knew how much work she put in last night.

So while everyone was here, I did fill them in on the plan and final route over to Mariupol. Monica and Rob were both going to be given maps to have on them while we drive in, in case we get separated or have to split up to draw less attention to ourselves. There were also the fallback position and I updated everyone on our back up platoons that should be here in the next couple of days with more supplies.

Once everyone was up to speed on the plan, Morgan made an appearance. She didn't interrupt my info dump on the team, just lurked in the background to listen in. I did let everyone know that we were going to be staying in the house all day today and make a dusk entry to Mariupol. I didn't want to storm the place guns blazing because I know that the Russian army is lurking behind every corner of the plant. Stealth is going to have to be on our side for this mission.

With everyone on top of the game plan, I dismissed them but did ask that we remain inside for the day. I didn't want to bring attention to ourselves by going in and out of the house for a nosy neighbor to notice. The team seamed behind it but I did want people on watch still. After the last of my orders were delivered, the team scattered around the house and I did bring up the fact the washer was working, which lead to a crush of people wanting to throw there camo's in.

a/n: i probably could have combined this chapter and the next one because they are both like little pauses in action but then it would have been a chapter over 5000 words. but I'm feeling generous today, so if you guys get this chapter to 10 votes before the day is over, I'll also post chapter thirty-four today. so get to voting and maybe I'll be back later today.