A/N: Hello awesome nerds! I've been working on this for a while now and I really hope you guys like it. Just as a little disclaimer, I'm not in the army or know anything about guns and stuff. This was all based on research and I'm really sorry if it's not accurate. Also just so nobody gets confused, a Humvee is a vehicle used in the army so yeah. I hope you guys enjoy this and let me know what you think :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, but I really wouldn't mind if I owned Anna Kendrick ;)

Kabul, Afghanistan - March 2013

I sighed as we hit another pothole while driving towards our destination. I was exhausted because I barely got any sleep the night before and it was hot as hell and all I wanted was to be able to go back to sleep. I knew I couldn't, though, because we had work to do. We had recently gotten hold of an address belonging to al-Qaeda members who used it as a hideout. We had plans to infiltrate the hideout and hopefully capture some al-Qaeda members if we were lucky.

When I say we, I mean all of us in the Special Forces unit. We had spent months with absolutely no leads on al-Qaeda, and now we finally got a lead. Basically, what we do is try to stop terrorists. I've been in Special Forces for seven years. I joined when I was eighteen.

I could feel Bumper Allen staring at me, and it was obviously because he noticed how tense I was. I had a bad feeling about our mission today, and usually my gut instinct was always right.

"You alright, Captain?" He asked. "You look a bit... tense."

"I'm fine, Sergeant," I muttered, trying to shake off the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I absolutely hated Bumper when he first enlisted. He was an arrogant asshole who thought he was better than everybody, but within the first two weeks of his training, his attitude changed drastically. He was no longer the vain, egotistical child he was when he first enlisted, but now he was a kind and considerate man, and I no longer hated his guts.

"Don't worry, we're almost there," Bumper smiled. "If everything goes according to plan it shouldn't take long."

Just as Bumper finished his sentence the lead vehicle, which was about 150 feet away from the vehicle we were in, exploded and burst into flames. There was another explosion off in the distance and I looked behind me to see the vehicle behind ours being engulfed in flames. Almost immediately, shots were being fired and hitting the side of our vehicle.

"There's been an ambush!" The gunner at the top of the vehicle shouted to all of us.

"No fucking shit!" I shouted back at him. I grabbed my M4 Carbine and looked at Bumper, who was also grabbing his weapon. The shots were hitting the left side of the Humvee, so I pushed Bumper towards the right side of the vehicle. "Everybody get out and take cover wherever you can find it! And somebody call for backup!"

I looked around and noticed there were only a couple of us left. Tom, who was the driver of the Humvee, was next to me leaning against the passenger door of the Humvee as bullets were rapidly shot at us.

"Tom, I need you to get into the car and call for help using the radio," I said. We needed backup and we needed it fast. There were five of us and about twenty of them. I didn't even think we'd make it until backup arrived. "Just keep your head down to avoid shots, and hurry up. I'll cover you."

I noticed a boulder near the front of the Humvee and hid behind it. I looked over the boulder and saw two men close by who weren't paying attention to me. I aimed my M4 Carbine and pulled the trigger. Three bullets hit one of the men in the lower back, his left shoulder, and his neck. I aimed at the other man and pulled the trigger again. A bullet went right through his head and I watched as his lifeless body fell to the ground. After shooting the men, I went back to the Humvee and leaned against the front tire to avoid shots being fired.

"Captain, what do I do?!" The gunner, who went by Unicycle, asked me. I rolled my eyes because this guy was an idiot and I had no idea how he even made it out of basic training.

"Shoot the bastards, what else would you do?!" I shouted back at him.

"There are too many of them!"

"Well try your best! Stop acting like a little bitch and be a part of this team!" I growled. It might have been harsh but we didn't have the time to play games. I looked over to the back end of the vehicle and saw that Bumper and a Corporal, Josh, seemed to be doing a good job at holding off the al-Qaeda members. I looked into the Humvee and saw Tom talking into the radio. "How long will it take for backup to be here?"

"They're sending a helicopter. They should be here in a few minutes."

I heard a grunt of pain and then a body was laying by my feet. I glanced down and saw Unicycle's body at my feet. A bullet hit him from the left side and went right through his neck, causing him to fall off the top of the vehicle and onto the ground.

"Fuck, Unicycle's dead!" I told Bumper and Josh. "How many of them are left?"

"Ten," Josh replied. He hid behind the back tire to reload his weapon. His face was bright red and he was completely out of breath. "How fucking long is it going to take for backup to come?"

"Shouldn't be long, Josh! We've just gotta hold them off for a few minutes longer."

I peaked over the hood of the Humvee and noticed a guy close to me. I shot at him and hit him in the chest twice, but I wasn't quick enough. A bullet hit me in the ribs and sent me flying backwards. As my back hit the ground my gun fell out of my hands and the wind got knocked out of me. Even though the bullet hit my bulletproof vest, it still hurt like a bitch.

As I was gasping for air, I noticed another guy coming at me. I didn't have enough time to reach my gun so I grabbed the knife strapped to my calf and plunged my knife into his Achilles tendon. He screamed out in pain and fell to the ground and his gun slipped out of his hands. I pulled my knife out of his Achilles tendon and stabbed him in the chest. I looked down at the man's face and noticed that he was fairly young, probably about eighteen.

"You okay, Bec?" Tom asked me when he noticed I'd been shot.

"I'll be fine," I said, trying to get the young man's face out of my mind. I pulled the knife out of his chest and strapped it back to my calf and picked up my gun. That's the thing about war, you may be killing the "bad guys" but it isn't easy to kill somebody and it was even harder killing someone so young. Killing people never gets easier no matter how much time goes by. I still have nightmares about it almost every night.

"Shit!" I heard Bumper yell. "Josh is down!"

I looked down and saw Josh's dead body. A bullet hit him directly in the forehead. There were now three of us and seven of them and backup still hadn't showed up yet. If things kept going the way they were, none of us were going to make it.

"Tom, go cover Bumper at the back end. I'll cover over here," I ordered.

I scanned the area around me and noticed that most of the men were focused on the back end of the vehicle, which was Bumper's and Tom's side. I took this as my opportunity to take a few out. I quickly reloaded my weapon and aimed for the two men closest to me and pulled the trigger. I hit one of the guys in the stomach and the chest. The other guy I hit in the right shoulder, the chest, and the neck. As I took those two guys out, Bumper and Tom took out another guy.

I heard a groan and when I looked back Tom was on the ground bleeding from his chest. A bullet managed to miss his bulletproof vest and got lodged in his chest. I ran over to him and covered his wound with my hand. He whimpered in pain as I applied pressure.

"I'm sorry, I know it hurts but you'll die if I don't apply pressure," I apologized. I tried to fight the tears that were threatening to fall, but it was useless. It was hard seeing someone in your unit dying, especially if you were close with them, and Tom and I had a pretty great friendship.

"Becs, do me a favor," Tom muttered. He coughed and winced in pain.

"What do you need?"

"I need you to go back out there and kick their asses," he weakly smiled at me.

I could hear the helicopter in the distance and knew it wouldn't be long until we got out of there. "Bumper, come here and put pressure to his wound and I'll get the last of them."

We switched places and I grabbed my gun. I took cover behind some nearby rocks, giving me a better aim at the three men left. I focused on the man closest to me and pulled the trigger. After taking out that guy I focused on the next guy. He shot at me a few times, but missed every time. I shot him in the left shoulder and three more times in the chest. I then went to shoot the last man, but couldn't find him anywhere.

I heard a shot being fired and turned towards my men just in time to see Bumper's deceased body fall to the ground. While I was focusing on the other two men, the last al-Qaeda member snuck behind the Humvee to attack us. I watched in horror as the man aimed his gun at me with an evil glint in his eyes. I didn't have much time to react when he shot the first bullet, hitting me in my left shoulder. The next shot came quickly and hit me in the chest, missing my bulletproof vest. The last shot fired hit me in the right thigh. I fell to the ground and watched helplessly as the man ran away.

The last thing I remember before darkness overcame me was seeing the bodies of my men lying on the ground and the helicopter that was sent for backup finally arriving.

I woke up in a helicopter, strapped to a gurney. There were several medics surrounding me, but I couldn't focus on who they were. All I could focus on was the sharp pain from where I was shot.

"W-where am I?" I asked the medics surrounding me.

"You're on a helicopter, Captain. We're on our way to the States to get you to a hospital. You've been unconscious for quite some time. We thought we might have lost you," a young man told me. He looked familiar, but I couldn't quite put a name to his face because I was in too much pain to care who he was. I had never been in so much pain in my entire life and it took everything in my power not to scream in agony.

"Where does it hurt, Captain?" Another female medic asked me.

"Are you fucking stupid? Where do you think it fucking hurts?" I growled.

"Glad you didn't lose your charming personality, Captain," she grinned. "We managed to stop the bleeding, but we don't have the proper tools to get the bullets out, so we're going to sedate you so you don't have to be in pain."

"Wait, did Tom make it, or am I the only person who survived?" I asked.

"Tom should be fine. He lost a lot of blood, but he's going to be okay. Your injuries are much more severe than his, so just worry about yourself for now," she replied. "Calm down and rest, it'll do you some good."

I nodded and tried to relax as best I could. The helicopter ride was a bit bumpy and it was difficult to get comfortable, especially with my wounds, but the drugs they pumped into me made it much easier to rest. Within a few minutes I had succumbed to the darkness once more.

The next time I woke up, I was in a hospital and not in as much pain as I was on the helicopter. The lights in the hospital were very bright, and I had to blink several times to get used to them. My throat was dry and I desperately needed a drink.

"Here," a husky voice said and handed me a cup of water. I looked up and saw Colonel Ward. He was an older man with greying hair and green eyes. He was over six feet tall and was pretty muscular for his age.

I drank the cup of water he handed me and instantly felt much better. Ward was watching me closely and it was making me kind of uncomfortable, but I didn't let my discomfort show. Eventually he smiled at me and I didn't feel as awkward.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"I've been better," I replied. My voice was raspy from being asleep for so long. "But I'm better than I was on that helicopter."

"That's good," he said. "You got lucky out there. You and that fellow Tom were the only soldiers who made it. I'm sorry you lost Bumper, I know you two were pretty close."

"I've lost a lot of people I've been close with. I'll get over it eventually." I shrugged and looked down at my hands. "Where am I anyways?"

"You're at a hospital in Washington D.C," he replied. "I understand your father lives here."

"Yeah, he does, but what does my father have to do with anything?" I asked.

"Listen," he sighed. "We've decided to let you go home early. Your tour ends in a week anyways, and with your injuries it'll probably take you longer than that to recover. This is your chance to go out in the world and find a normal job. That's what Sarah always wanted you to do, right?"

"I don't care what Sarah wanted me to do! Yeah, she wanted me to find a normal, safer job, but she was a controlling bitch and we're not even together anymore. Am I being fired?"

Sarah was my ex girlfriend who always tried to control me. She treated me like some kind of trophy and would always brag to her friends that I was in the army. But whenever we were alone she'd always tell me that I needed a normal job and that I needed to move in with her so we could start a family. Before I left for Afghanistan, she told me that if I enlisted again then she'd break up with me, but that didn't stop me from enlisting. I wasn't going to let her make me choose between my job or her.

"No, Beca, you're not being fired," he said. "With your injuries we can't put you on the front line anymore and you'd probably be stuck with a boring desk job doing paperwork. I know that's not what you want. You haven't been happy doing this ever since Shane died anyways, so now you have the opportunity to find a job that you enjoy. I thought you'd be happy to hear this."

I stiffened when he mentioned Shane. Shane was my best friend and we did everything together. We met when we were in basic training and we were in the same unit. Throughout the years we had grown very close and he was like the brother I never had. We were in Iraq when he got shot by a sniper, and ever since he died I didn't allow myself to get close to many people.

"You're right, I'm not happy doing this anymore. It's just the only thing I know. I don't know what else I can offer the world anymore," I muttered.

"Well, you'll have time to think about it. You've got enough money saved up to keep you on your feet for a while, so it's not like you need to rush to find a job." He stood up from his seat and brushed off the dirt on his uniform. "I have to get back to work, but I'll see you later."

"Thanks, Colonel Ward. I'll see you later."

I knocked on the familiar door that I hadn't seen in years. I had all of my belongings with me. I had to get everything I owned out of storage. I had gotten out of the hospital after being stuck there for a week, and now I was hoping I had a place to stay. After about a minute, my father answered the door, and looked shocked to see me.

"Beca, what are you doing here?" He asked.

"Dad, I know that you know what I'm doing here. You're still on my emergency contact sheet, so I know you got a letter in the mail explaining what happened," I replied. I tried really hard to be nice to my father, but I still held a little animosity towards him ever since he left my mom and I. "Look, I don't want to be here just as much as you don't want me to be here, but I need a place to stay until I can find a place of my own. I was wondering if I could crash here. I promise I won't bug you and Sheila. You won't even know that I'm here."

"Bec, of course you can stay here. When I got the letter in the mail I was so worried about you, I just assumed you'd be staying with Sarah." He wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug.

"Dad, can you let go of me? I'm still very sore from the incident," I mumbled into his shoulder. "And Sarah and I aren't together anymore, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be welcome at her place."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," he replied. "Here, let me help you with your stuff." He took my gym bag off my shoulder and one of my suitcases and brought it inside. I carried the reset of my bags inside and followed him upstairs and into the guest room. He placed my suitcase and gym bag on the bed and turned to face me. "Sheila is getting groceries, but she should be back any minute. I'll leave you here to unpack."

"Thanks, dad. I'll be down in a little while," I said. I unzipped one of my suitcases and started putting my clothes in the closet and the dresser. I put my combat boots and my converse in the closet. After I put my clothes away I set up my DJ equipment. Music was a passion of mine and I had been making mixes since I was about 13.

After I set up all my things I sat on the bed and thought about the last week. I was incredibly lucky that I survived that ambush, but a part of me felt like I didn't deserve to live. Most of my team died that day, but somehow I managed to survive. I didn't usually believe in miracles or fate, but I couldn't help think that fate had something in store for me.

I was sitting at the kitchen table with my father and Sheila. I had been living with them for a little over two months, and I still hadn't found an apartment or a job that interested me. I thought living with my father and Sheila would be a living hell, but they actually weren't so bad. Sheila was an excellent cook and my dad was actually kind of funny, although I'd never admit that to him. It was a nice change living with them than living with Sarah. Sarah had a tendency to be very obnoxious and loud, but my dad and Sheila were pretty quiet and laid back.

"So, Beca, have you found a job yet?" My father asked me.

"Um, no, I haven't. I've been looking, but I'm not really interested in anything that I've found," I replied.

"Have you thought about going to college to get a degree? I'm sure I can get you into Barden," he said. He looked very excited at the thought of me going to school. He had always wanted me to get a degree and get a real job. He wasn't very supportive of me when I first joined the army. Just like Sarah, my father wanted me to get a "normal" job, but eventually he came around to me joining the army.

"I don't really want to go back to school. High school was enough for me. There's no way I'm going to suffer through college."

I knew my dad was going to start arguing with me, but thankfully Sheila cut him off. "Well, I'm sure you'll find a job that interests you. I bet after being involved in so much action in Afghanistan everything doesn't seem as exciting compared to that."

I wouldn't call the action I saw in Afghanistan "exciting" but I wasn't about to argue with her on the topic. I just smiled at her and nodded. My dad was going to say something, probably involving me going back to school, but luckily my cell phone ringing cut him off. I looked down and saw that it was an unknown number.

"Sorry, guys. I'm just going to take this," I said. I stood up from the kitchen table and went into the living room for some privacy. I answered the phone and said, "hello?"

"Beca Mitchell, I haven't heard from you in a while. How are you doing?" The voice on the other end said. The man sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite figure out who it was. They sounded like someone from my childhood, but no matter how hard I thought about it I couldn't put a face to the voice.

"I'm sorry, sir, but who is this?" I asked.

The man on the other end chuckled. "It's Jason Beale," he said. "You do remember me, don't you?"

My eyes widened in shock when I found out it was Jason Beale. I hadn't heard from him since I was a teenager, and I had no idea why he decided to contact me now. Whatever it was about, it must have been important because Jason was a very busy man.

"Of course I remember you," I said. "What can I do for you, Mr. President?"