~A~

Sean glanced quickly at Sang's tear stained face as he pulled his jacket on and hurried out of the tent, sure that Owen would be following and he sure did hope there was an explanation coming. He turned and waited for him to close up the tent and join him.

He was mildly surprised to see his shoulders tight and even as he brushed past and motioned for Sean to follow him. "I don't understand." He said softly, studying the tense posture of his best friend as they headed away from the cabins, and the council… and just beyond where a few of the other team leads had chosen to stay in tents.

Owen paused, glancing around for a moment before a soft sigh escaped him and he turned to look at Sean, his eyes glinting darkly as his gaze narrowed for a moment. His jaw was tight in a line and Sean was pretty sure that a warning about grinding teeth would not go over well right now. "I'm an imbecile." He stated, running his hand through his hair, ruffling it up from where it had previously still laid just as it had been all day in perfect placement. "I failed her. We almost …" He shook his head. "God, how could I be so stupid…"

Sean crossed his arms and gave him a long hard stare. "Talk in complete sentences." He said. "Please, for those of us that were sleeping."

Owen huffed a sigh and took his glasses off, pinching the bridge of his nose. "She can't be with girls." He said softly. "I should have realized it before… she was off on Christmas after Erica hugged her." He frowned. "I knew it then but she just shrugged it off."

"I suggested she wasn't ready but you insisted." Sean scowled at him. "Wait… what? Did she essentially solve our problem because she can't be on a girl team?"

"She was convinced they were going to kick her out or force her to be with girls and the thought terrified her."

"But what happened?"

Owen ran his hand through his hair. "Apparently…" His voice held a hint of bewilderment. "Girls hug."

Sean blinked for a moment, uncrossing his arms and running his hand through his hair, messing up the curls even more. "But we hug her." He said in a low tone. "Like, all the time. I can't hardly believe they let her go anywhere by herself."

"Our touch or hugs doesn't affect her." Owen said. "She was quite adamant between the sobs that she welcomes our touch…. Kisses."

Sean smiled slightly. "Good to know." He said lightly. "How in the world did you even find her?"

Owen shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure but I heard footsteps and thought I'd check only for her to run right into my arms in the dark." He sighed. "She was crying so hard. She couldn't hardly talk. She was ready to give up, toss it all aside."

"How did you do with that emotional state?" Sean asked curiously. As far as he knew, none of them had really seen Sang distressed and dissolving in tears. He'd obviously dealt with his fair share through the hospital work but he'd always wondered what the rest of them would do with a crying female on hand.

Kota would handle it, having been there for his sister and mom, of course. But Sean had been waiting and waiting to find out how his best friend would react.

"I wasn't…" Owen shook his head. "It was so wet…" He murmured. "She's probably dehydrated because of all the tears she shed." He frowned. "I wasn't sure what to do." He admitted, gazing at Sean. "I finally hugged her but that's just about when she flat out said she couldn't work with a girls' team and then I made her go tell the council it all, right now."

"That was rather cold and unfeeling of you." Sean frowned as he considered what had happened.

"I apologized." He said softly. "She had to say it now. If she slept on it, she'd say anything she thought they wanted to hear in the morning. She'd compartmentalize it and hide it away."

Sean nodded. "True." He sighed. "She does hate to be a bother. And light of day would convince her that she imagined it all." He winced. "We're not stupid or imbeciles, we've been respectful of her wishes. She hasn't said anything before so we didn't realize. Most of the time she's just around us." He said.

Owen's head inclined ever so slightly in agreement. "Isn't it curious that she seems to honestly only have the issue with girls close to her age and older women." He commented.

"Maybe not so curious." Sean said, forehead furrowed as he thought. "Her step mother and girls her own age are the problem." He said, staring at Owen for a moment.

"Hmm. I hadn't thought of that. Her issues with Jade and even at Victor's house with Muriel make things make sense then."

"But she doesn't have issues with the babies… or little ones." Sean said. "She was perfectly fine with the little girls on Thanksgiving."

Owen nodded. "She's good with Miss Lee." He said. "But she definitely was doing everything she could to tolerate a hug from Erica." He said before stifling a yawn.

"What's next…?" Sean asked, stifling his own yawn.

"I need to go grab Mr. Lee. We have a late night meeting with Dr. Roberts to try and figure out what angle to take tomorrow. It's probably not time to disclose what we know about the Anderson team yet but he was sort of angling earlier in the week that it might be time to reveal her ghost status."

Sean nodded slightly. "Isn't it fortunate too that our brothers unanimously rejected the offer for all of them to graduate immediately? There's absolutely no where else that she could go." His eyes lit up slightly. "She's ours, Owen… there's no way she can go anywhere else."

Owen nodded again. "You should probably get one of the boys to go back to our tent with you. She's been on her own all week, she could probably use something familiar and unfortunately, you and I are still under close scrutiny or I'd just tell you to go back and take good care of our girl."

"I can't wait to go home." Sean sighed. "I just want time with her again." He admitted. "Let's go see who's awake enough to come with me." He rested a palm on Owen's shoulder. "Relax, Owen…" He said softly. "It's going to be fine…"

Owen glanced at him for a long moment. "I hope you're right." He finally said as they turned to the campground again and headed for the tent where the boys were so that they could take care of what was now needed to protect their girl.

(Fade…)