Little idea I'll work on during lunch, a crossover between rush and marvel. Josh left Melbourne after the terrorist attack, after going undercover and getting betrayed by his best friend. At first his trip to America was to clear his mind about what he wanted to do after, but soon enough hydra sets eyes in him and he gets recruited. Why not, he thinks, after all why not start over.
So he changes his name to Jack rollins, and leaves everything Josh was behind. For all Lawson and the team knew, Josh died.
(there's guilt creeping in Lawson's heart. First Dom, then Michael, now Josh. Grace wasn't his fault, but he was the leader. It will always be his fault. But Josh, oh Josh is his biggest regret, and he couldn't even make up for that. It takes him so much to come to term with that, and they don't even have a body to bury, a grave to visit. He's just gone and Lawson is left there to pick up the pieces.)
At one point pierce sends strike team to Melbourne. A terrorist used a stolen alien device without knowing of the origin and danger, so they sent the best team in to bring it back and avoid a bigger mess.
Jack is not overly excited, but it's a job like any other, it's been years, people surely forgot about him. (Murray hasnt been back home in even longer, jumping all over the quinjet for the whole travel, like a kid on too much sugar. Which he may even be, on too much sugar.)
When they get there they first meet tactical team, with some new members, to cover for Michael and Josh, and Lawson still in charge. Brock is not keen on accepting the help, but they need it, the and pierce told them to be nice with the locals.
Somehow Lawson still manages to recognize him, despite Jack keeps saying that no, he's mistaking him for someone else.
Still Lawson doesn't want to drop it, he pushes and pushes, following Jack around, trying to get him to stop so they can finally talk, so that Lawson can finally apologize, try to fix what happened, at least have him leave in good terms, at least to tell him how bloody glad he is that Josh isn't really dead. And perhaps he's crying, because that was his best friend, and he lost him twice already. He can't bear it.
But the mission is more important, so they work together to stop the terrorist, they retrieve the alien thing, Murray jokingly hits on Stella while his wife laughs at him because damn, he's still so bad at flirting, good thing they met when they did.
Brock tries to get jack talking, he knew he was from Melbourne, he knew he changed his name when joining hydra, but nothing else. He wants to know about this Lawson guy, about what Jack did when he lived there, he's curious, he want to know what kind of past his husband had, he's not jealous, just curious and Jack promises to explain to him, once they're back home.
But things are never easy, cause that's Melbourne, and tactical is involved and things never run smooth.
Lawson finally get Jack to stop, exasperated, he reminds him of what he said that day, that they were done, that some things simply can't be fixed, Lawson took his trust and destroy it, no matter what Lawson tries to say, how he tries to justify, how he tries to apologize.
It's then, as they have that one confrontation that they're informed of a second bomb, a bit like a dejá-vu. Being that powered by the same alien technology strike team goes first, but soon followed by tactical unit, cause that's their city. (that's their Josh.)
It's then, as Jack sends them away to try and disarm the bomb, strike team still in connection through the comm, Brock repeating over and over that he needs to be careful, that the team needs. Him and he has to come back. That damn, Brock loves him so much that he can't imagine living without him so please, for the love of everything holy come back to me Jackie.
Lawson is the one refusing to leave, and somehow nor Jack nor his team are surprised, it's the first time in years they work together so closely, that they share the same space. And maybe being that close allows them to fix unresolved business, and have talks about loyalty, Lawson reminding him how some loyalties run deeper than everything, something Jack always told Brock and strike team, now they know where he heard it first.
Loyalty runs deeper than everything, even that grudges and hate. And that's why, when the bomb goes off on them, Lawson drags him down, trying to cover him.