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Jensen rakes his fingers through his hair and makes a face at how wet it is from sweat. They all double-timed it to try and reach Aisha in time. Clay's not surprised to see Aisha still standing or to see the dead boy at her feet.
"I have a lot of enemies," is all she says, and shrugs, kicking over the body and putting another bullet in its face.
No one flinches, but Cougar stares at Aisha a second longer, Jensen shakes his head, and Pooch says, "We done here? I'd like to get back to my family."
~*~
Clay fucks Aisha that night. He's sure the team would have something to say about it, but ever since Roque's betrayal, they've all been a little quieter.
"You knew him," Clay says as she's pulling on her shirt.
"A little late to be asking questions." She glances at him over her shoulder and smirks. "Isn't it?"
A sharp dig that means this conversation is over before it even began. Clay lets the verbal jab roll off of him and settles down to get some sleep before they head out at 0600. Aisha doesn't turn off the lights when she leaves.
~*~
"A lot of enemies is an understatement," Jensen mumbles under his breath, turning his head to check their rear.
"No kidding," Pooch says in solidarity.
They're not soldiers anymore, but Clay holds his de facto position of being in charge, so he steps forward and asks, "Anything you wanna tell us?"
"I have—"
"Yeah." Clay nudges the body with his boot. "We noticed."
This guy is younger than the rest, but according to Cougar, they've all been shouting the same thing. Aisha and her family have got a big debt to pay, and there's a whole group coming after it.
~*~
In charge by default or not, Clay knows that Aisha's her own woman. She comes and goes as she pleases, and Clay never tries to stop her or ask her where she's been. The team moves on without her, and she finds them again when she wants to or when she's got another lead on Max.
So it's been a few years since Clay's woken up in the middle of the night with an unsettled feeling and found Aisha in his room with that promise she's been holding onto since the docks.
When Clay wakes up with that feeling again, he flicks on the lamp and isn't surprised to see Aisha sitting in the corner with a gun in her hand.
"We have a debt, too," she says, half of her face hidden in shadows. The gun's clear enough to see, though.
"You finally calling it in?"
When Aisha doesn't say maybe, when she says, "You killed my father," Clay's pretty sure that tonight's the night.
He nods, keyed in on the tiny movement of her finger pulling the trigger. Nothing happens, and he can't deny that something in his chest gets a little shaky.
"Who's after you?" he asks, and it's as good as saying we're a team.
She lowers the gun and asks, "Who isn't?"
~*~
"Did you ever think of them?"
They all hear the question over the comms, and then Cougar says, "Boss." Which means the girl is hostile.
"Fuck," Clay mutters, and it's as good as an order.
"Boss?"
"Keep her in your sights, Cougar. We're moving in."
"Did you?" the girl repeats.
Aisha never asked that question, and Clay figured it didn't matter so much as the fact that he was the one who pulled the trigger on her father. Everyone's debt is different, though, and Clay sprints over the dune to see it — Aisha standing relaxed with her arms at her sides and a young woman with a gun and too much anger.
"Cougar," Clay says, 'cause he knows they're not going to make it in time when Aisha says, "Yes."
"Liar."
The girl's the one who falls, 'cause nothing's faster than Cougar on the end of his rifle. Aisha kneels by the body as Clay, Jensen, and Pooch jog the distance to confirm that the situation's been cleared. She says something in Spanish that Clay mistakes for a prayer, but he never thought of Aisha as the type, so he tunes it out, doing a visual sweep of the area and checking in with Cougar.
Later, while the team is having a beer, getting some food and pretending life is normal, Clay turns to her and asks, "Who was she?" He doesn't expect an answer.
Aisha raises her shot glass, says, "One person in a long list," downs the shot with a bitter face, and then walks away.