This is an AU fic where I explore what might have happened if John and Joss had met in Iraq during the war. The first few chapter focus on how they met and the case they worked on together. Later chapters will take scenes from the show, rework those scenes to reflect the fact that they already knew and cared for each other.

As usual, I don't own the characters, I just borrow them.

Shout out goes to my peeps, Bug Evans, carolinagirl919 and ReeseisLAVAhot for their all their wonderful suggestions and listening to me whine.

Chapter 1: Iraq - Meeting

Lieutenant Jocelyn Carter followed her commander down the dusty path. "Captain, I know I can find that Al Qaida cell, just give me a chance."

Her captain shook his head. "It's too dangerous, Carter. I can't send you into that area. The rebels have attacked seven convoys this month alone."

Carter moved to block the captain's path. "See what I mean? I have to go! They're killing our guys! I have to find them!"

The captain glared and stepped around her. "Send Daniels and his team; that's what they're for."

Carter rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, that worked out so well last time."

The captain stopped and glared at her again. "You're never going to get over Yusuf, are you?"

Carter stood her ground and glared back. "Would you? If we keep killing the locals we might as well pull up stakes and leave. You know that."

The captain groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. She was right. Carter was always right and that's why he couldn't risk her by sending her into an area contolled by a terrorist cell. She was too damn good to risk. But she was like a pit bull and she going to harass him day and night until he let her go.

"OK, how about this; if you don't want to send me alone, send me with a guy with combat experience, someone to watch my back," Carter proposed.

Her captain paused. "There is that unit of Rangers that just arrived. They're supposed to have seen a lot of combat." The captain scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what, if I can get one of those guys to act as body guard, you can go. If none of them are willing to follow you around and cover your ass then you stay here, got it?"

Carter knew it was the best she was going to get from him so she nodded. "Deal."

The captain sighed and went off to find the find the commander of the Ranger unit.

The captain looked up when he heard the tap on his door. "Come in," he barked.

A Ranger, Sergeant First Class, entered. "Sergeant Davis reporting as ordered, sir."

Captain Jose Hernandez looked over the man standing at attention on the other side of the desk. He looked like he could handle himself, but could he handle the combative Carter?

"At ease, soldier. I have a mission for you, but it's strictly voluntary, got that?"

Davis's face remained an unreadable mask. "Yes, sir."

Hernandez leaned back in his seat. "Your commander was quite complimentary of you. He says you're the best he's got."

The sergeant gave him a little half smile. "Thank you. I do my best sir."

"The mission consists of following one of my best people around and keeping her alive. There is a prisoner at the forward base who may know the location of an Al Qaida cell. They have killed a lot of our men and she wants to find the cell, badly."

Davis raised an eyebrow. "May I ask, sir, can she find it?"

Smart man, Jose thought. Don't go rushing off on a fool's errand. He nodded emphatically. "If anyone can, it's her." He meant it.

Davis then simply said, "I'm in."

Hernandez eyed the man. "I'm not done. The area you will be going into is extremely dangerous. Four out of five convoys got hit last week and seven men died. That's why she needs a bodyguard. I won't think any less of you if you decided not to do it. As a matter of fact, I might think more of you for not throwing your life away."

Davis shrugged. "I'm still in. If we can save lives, I'm willing to take the risk. It sounds like she is, too."

Hernandez sighed and rubbed his hand over his face again. He did that a lot when it came to Carter. "Yeah she's committed, make no mistake about that. She is fearless to the point of recklessness.

"I'm not afraid to tell you that I'm not a big fan of this mission. Carter is one of my best. Hell, she is my best. I do not consider her expendable, but she is stubborn and argumentative. When she knows she's right, she will not back down and she knows she's right most of the time. She doesn't see a lot of shades of grey, if you get my meaning.

"If you for any reason feel like she is getting you into a situation that will get one or both of you killed, you have my express permission to disregard her orders. Your take your orders from me and my orders are to bring her back alive and intact. If you have to tie her up and throw her over your shoulder, so be it. Got that?"

Davis barked out a "Yes sir!" but he was smiling. This Carter sounded like a real firecracker. He could hardly wait to meet her.

Hernandez picked up his phone. "Carter, get your ass in here."

A minute later, the door opened behind Davis and he stepped over to allow the newcomer entrance. He looked over for his first glimpse of Carter and was surprised when he had to look down so far.

Carter was approximately ten full inches shorter than Davis, and even in her bulky fatigues, she looked slight. This was the top interrogator at Camp Liberty? Really?

She looked up at him and their eyes met. She had enormous brown eyes that shone with intelligence and purpose. Davis felt a connection to her almost instantly. He blinked in surprise. What could he possibly have in common with this tiny woman?

The captain made his introductions. "Lieutenant Carter, meet Sergeant Davis, your new bodyguard. His orders are to protect you no matter what. Even if that means keeping you from doing something you want to do. The moment he thinks the situation is too dangerous he is to pull you out and bring you back here."

Carter started to open her mouth to protest but Hernandez cut her off by raising his hand in a stop gesture. "It's either that or you don't go. Period."

Carter shut her mouth, her dark eyes angry. "Yes, SIR!" she snapped.

Hernandez almost smiled. "There is a convoy to the forward base at oh six hundred in the morning. You have seats. Dismissed."

Carter and Davis both saluted and left. "Come on, Sergeant. I'll bring you up to speed on the case."

Davis obediently followed her to a desk in the outer office that she shared with a couple of other interrogators. It seemed the other interrogators were out; they were the only ones in the office.

Carter dragged a chair over to her desk for Davis and he sat next to her while she flipped open the folder that was sitting on top of the pile. "We can talk freely. Phelps is on leave in Kuwait and Thompson and Plinsky are interrogating prisoners."

Carter began pulling photographs out of the folder and briefed Davis on the cell she had been chasing for several weeks. She was convinced that the forward base was holding a young man who was a member of the cell and she was certain she could break him if she could get to the base.

As she talked, Davis watched her carefully. She was articulate, intelligent, and made a convincing argument. Davis focused on her rich, full lips as she spoke and her passion for the job pulled him in. He had to admit, he was a willing victim. There was something about her. Something that just made him believe her, understand her, and want to protect her.

He asked questions and got straight answers until he was satisfied and fully understood what he was getting into. Carter was pleased by his attention to detail and by the end of her briefing, she felt like this was a man she could trust and rely on in the field. In Hernandez's office, when their eyes first met, she had felt something

However, Carter was not given to flights of fancy and she discounted it. She was afraid that her loneliness was making her susceptible to developing feelings she shouldn't have for another man. The letters from home had been infrequent lately. She mostly heard from her mom and the few letters from her husband had been distant and impersonal. She knew things in her marriage were rapidly deteriorating and there was not a damn thing she could do about it from the other side of the planet. This handsome Sergeant could be dangerous for both her marriage and her career.

She snuck a look at him while he wasn't looking. His eyes were the most marvelous shade of blue and they belied a high intelligence behind them. Those eyes were surrounded by dark thick lashes that splayed out on his cheeks when they closed. His cheek bones were sharp enough to cut glass and his profile was nearly perfect. He had a rich tan and a ready smile that made his eyes twinkle with mischief.

Yeah, this guy could be trouble for her lonely heart all right. Thank God for those rules against fraternization between enlisted and officers. She was going to cling to that as long as she could to protect herself.

They agreed to meet at the convoy the next morning and went their separate ways for dinner.

Carter entered the dining hall and spied her roommate Mary Dean sitting at the table by herself. It was still early in the dinner service and their regular crowd had not yet arrived. Carter got her food and went to sit with her best friend.

Mary smiled, showing the deepest dimples Joss had ever seen. "I hear you got yourself one gorgeous hunk of man for a bodyguard," she purred in her soft Savannah accent.

Joss looked startled and then grinned at her friend. She should know better than to be surprised by how fast news could travel on base. It was like living in a small town. "Yeah, he's a Ranger. He's got gorgeous blue eyes and he's got to be at least six two. Jealous?"

Mary moaned. "Oh my god, yes! Does he have a brother?"

Joss shrugged. "The conversation never got that far, but there's a whole Ranger unit out there waiting for you, girl."

Mary laughed. "I'll leave your man for you. Seriously Joss, if he is half as pretty as Stacey in Supply says, you need to blow off some stress with him."

Joss got very somber. She would love nothing more, but there was a big problem. "I'm married, remember?" she said glumly.

Mary got a bit huffy. "And your husband is on the other side of the planet and he hasn't written you or called in weeks! You need a distraction, a six foot two distraction."

Joss pushed her food around on her plate. Yes, she was lonely but Jocelyn Carter wasn't the type to push her marriage vows aside so casually. Besides, she did have hopes of reviving her marriage once she shipped home in a couple of months. If she screwed around, it could doom that plan to failure before it even got off the ground. She had to do the right thing for Taylor, and right now that was to try and keep his parents together.

Across Camp Liberty, John Davis was leaning against a wall in the enlisted men's barracks chatting with Alejandro "Paddy" Padilla, when another Sergeant strolled by. The other man glanced over, saw Davis' name on his uniform and stopped.

"You're Davis? The poor bastard who got assigned to follow Lieutenant Carter around?" he asked.

Davis looked over at the man, somewhat confused by his attitude. He seemed to think there was something wrong with his assignment.

"Yes, I'm Davis and yes I'm assigned to protect Lt. Carter while she's at the forward base," Davis said slowly with a bit of a scowl on his face.

The sergeant snorted contemptuously. "I don't envy you pal, she is one uptight bitch. Bet if she swallowed a lump of coal, she'd shit a diamond."

Davis managed to hide his anger at the man's attitude. Davis was also surprised that he wanted to wring the man's neck for talking about Carter that way. He'd only been on the job for a few hours now and he was already feeling intensely protective towards her.

He kept his voice casual, betraying no anger, since he wanted to get information from this man. "Oh really? She seemed pretty normal enough to me."

The other man, who Davis could see was named Daniels, snorted in contempt again. Davis balled his fist, but gave no other outward sign that he was ready to force feed Daniels his own teeth. "Yeah, that bitch managed to talk some local into showing us where some bomb vests were kept. Things got hairy, there was a firefight, and the local didn't make it." Daniels winked at Davis, and he had a bad feeling the local was hung out to dry.

Daniels continued on with his story. "She was pretty upset." Daniels used a falsetto voice to imitate Carter, "I promised him I would protect him. You can't just play god she said. She was actually upset that one of those terrorists had a face to face with Allah. Can you believe it?"

Davis leveled his most intense stare at Daniels. "Yes I can, actually," he said softly in a menacing near-whisper that signaled to Paddy that Davis was quite angry now.

Daniels sputtered like he could not believe that Davis would take Carter's side. "But it was just another freaking terrorist! Who cares?"

Davis did not break his stare. "She promised him and her promise was broken. That's all you need to know."

Daniels shrugged. "Whatever, you two should make a nice couple," he retorted and walked off shaking his head.

Paddy looked over at his Sergeant. "Wow, what a tool."

Davis looked grim. "You got that right." But he remained surprised that such criticism of Carter made him so angry.

The next morning at 6am sharp, the convoy rolled out of the gates of Camp Liberty, heading for the forward base where the prisoner was being held. Carter and Davis were stuffed into the back of the third Humvee in line along a few dozen boxes of ammo and other supplies.

They were the only passengers and the driver was listening to Armed Forces Radio, so they were able to speak freely as long as they kept their voices down.

Davis was feeling pretty awkward. Because of the cargo, he and Carter were crammed together hip to hip. Davis was forced to rest his right arm on the seat behind her, like they were on some sort of high school date. She pretended not to notice. Davis suspected that as a female soldier, a black one at that, she probably pretended not to notice a lot of things.

To cover his awkwardness he decided to ask about Daniels.

"I met someone last night."

"Was she pretty?" Carter asked with a saucy smile.

Davis laughed. Carter resolved to make him laugh more often. "No, he was ugly as sin. A sergeant named Daniels."

Carter's smile immediately disappeared from her face and she looked down at her hands in her lap. "He's not my number one fan," she said softly.

"I gathered that," Davis said wryly. "Want to tell me what happened? He said you were upset over the death of an Iraqi informant."

"Yusuf. His name was Yusuf," she said softly.

"Tell me about him," Davis prompted.

Carter eyes were still focused on her hands as she picked at a fingernail. She shrugged. "If you really want to hear it."

"We have four more hours before we hit the forward base," Davis told her with a small smile.

Carter sighed; he could tell this was a painful topic for her. "Yusuf was a taxi driver. He was brought in because his taxi was being used to deliver bomb vests for suicide bombers. We knew the vests were being manufactured and stored somewhere in the area, but we hadn't been able to find it. My job was to break Yusuf and make him tell us where the vests were."

She sounded so sad that Davis wanted to wrap her in his arms and hold her. But he doubted that she would welcome it, so he simply said, "Go on."

"I did it. I got him to agree to show us where the vests were. He wasn't a terrorist; he wasn't cooperating with them because he wanted to. He was only doing it because he was scared of them and what they would do this family if he didn't cooperate."

Davis nodded. It was a common tactic of Al Qaida to threaten families of uncooperative locals in order to force them to do the organization's bidding.

Carter sighed and continued. "Yusuf didn't want to tell us anything. He said he would rather die than put his family in danger. I convinced him that I would protect him and his family, so he finally agreed to go with Daniels and show them where the vests were manufactured and stored. He didn't come back... I still don't know why.

"I promised him he would be safe and he still died. All he wanted to do was go home to his family, just like all the rest of us.

"Daniels didn't even care. I'm pretty sure he didn't even try to protect Yusuf. Hell, he might even have put the bullet in Yusuf himself for all I know. Daniels even had the audacity to get mad at me and tell me I had better figure which side I was on, because I was all alone."

Davis seriously wished he had beaten the crap out of Daniels the previous night. "Carter, listen to me. Daniels was wrong; you're not alone. You have every right to be upset over Yusuf's death. Daniels betrayed you both. I won't do that, I swear."

Carter finally took her eyes off her lap and looked up at him. She even managed to give him a small smile for being so understanding. "Thanks, that means a lot to me."