Caroline
As soon as Ains and I walked into the main part of HQ, Camden, Oscar and Vanessa looked up. Oscar was still fuming and I could see the guilt painted across Camden's face as he looked me over, noticed my bandaged wrist and looked away, hunching his shoulders.
"Are you alright, Care?" Vanessa asked, her accent thickening with concern. I'd noticed that her accent did that when she felt angry or stressed or anxious.
"I'm fine." I told her, crossing the room to where Camden was sitting, sitting beside him and putting my good arm awkwardly around his shoulders; his back was much broader than my arm was long so I just kind of draped it across his shoulders. Camden turned to look at me, his hazel eyes looking at me sadly. "Are you sure you're alright, Caroline?"
That was like a punch in the gut – in the two and half months I'd known him, Camden had never called me Caroline, not even when we first met. He'd always me Care (except for once that one time when he called me cutie and I punched him in the nose), so to hear him call me by my actual name was a shock and wake-up call to how guilty he must be feeling. I squeezed his shoulders as best I could comfortingly and said, "I'm fine, Cam. Ains patched me up."
Camden reached out and touched my bandage, looking up at Ains before looking back at me. "I'm really sorry, Care. I didn't mean for anybody to get hurt."
"I know." I said. "Everyone walked away, so it's okay."
Oscar turned to me, his blue eyes hard. "And as for you, Caroline Morgan – "
"Don't start on her." Ains said, cutting him off. "It wasn't her fault." His tone surprised me – I'd come to associate Ains as an easy-going person and in the short time I'd known him, he'd never raised his voice. Now, his tone was hard and I knew that him yelling was a very real possibility.
Oscar turned on Ains, folding his arms over his chest. "Say that again, Ainsworth Williamson."
"It was her fault." Ains repeated. "She's been trained the way every other MI9 agent has, when she shouldn't have. She's been trained to fight with her fists and feet. She should have been trained to fight with her elbows and knees."
"And Oscar, c'mon." Vanessa added. "That guy was huge."
Oscar sighed, turning to Ains. "So what do you propose we do, then?"
Ains' gaze flitted to me quickly before returning to Oscar. "Take her off active duty and let me re-train her to fight in a way that uses her lack of height as an advantage."
Oscar turned to me. "Would you be okay with that?"
"What's the alternative?" I asked.
"Firing you." Oscar said.
I glanced at Vanessa and looked back at Oscar, squaring my shoulders. "Okay. Let's do it."
"Caroline!"
I turned to see Ains running after me, his feet pounding on the pavement. Before I could even utter a greeting, he had grabbed my bag from me and swung the strap on his shoulder.
"You know, it's just a sprained wrist." I told him. "I can carry my own bag."
"Camden doesn't think so." Ains commented as Camden fell into step beside me. He appeared to have recovered from his brief spot of guilt and self-doubt, giving me a lazy smile as he fell into step with Ains and I.
I gave him an incredulous look as I felt an arm slip through mine and I turned my head to see Vanessa grinning at me, her brown eyes twinkling with mischief. "Hey, Care."
"What is this?" I asked, looking between my friends. "Are we, like, all coming to have a party at my house?"
"That's a great idea!" Vanessa said enthusiastically.
"Yeah, no it's not." I told her.
"And why not?" Ains asked.
"I have four words for you to answer that question." I told him. "My. Brother. Daniel. Morgan."
"Ains'll start fangirling if we go near Dan." Camden commented.
Ains kicked him in the shin as he walked, causing Camden to stumble and Vanessa and I to erupt into a giggles as Ains said, "I believe the politically correct term is fanboy, Camden. And I will not be fanboying over him, thank you very much."
"Whatever." Camden said flippantly as we turned into my street. Ains aimed another kick at him and Camden danced out of his way, laughing as we reached my house and I unlocked the door. I walked straight into the living room, throwing myself onto the couch. The others quickly joined me – Ains and Vanessa on either side of me while Camden lounged on the floor near Vanessa's feet.
"We should – " I started, just as Dan entered the room. I noticed that there was something off about his expression before he quickly masked it by looking around at my friends. "Um . . ."
"Oh, Dan, this is my team. Ains, Vanessa and Camden." I said, gesturing to each of them as I spoke their name. "Guys, this is my brother Dan."
Dan waved almost weakly and I noticed that off look in his eyes and I realised why it didn't look right – Dan had worn a similar expression when he'd told me that Zoe was leaving. Before I could ask him if he was okay, Dan's eyes travelled to the bandage on my wrist and he said, "Care, can I talk to you in the kitchen?"
"Sure." I said, getting up and following. Behind me, Camden yelled out, "Oh, you're in deep shit now, Care!" and I ignored him because no less than two seconds later, I heard the unmistakable slap of skin colliding with skin and Vanessa said, "Shut the fuck up, Camden Augur."
I heard Ains laughing and I bit back a smile as Dan shut the door behind us, suddenly grasping my arm just above the bandage. "What happened, Care?"
"I'm fine." I told him. "It's just a sprain."
Dan nodded, dropping his arm and walking a few steps away. I studied his posture, trying to get a read on his emotions. It had been a month since Zoe had left and I knew that things weren't getting any easier for him. He kept Zoe with him wherever he went, just so he could be close to her in some way, but everything else was just painful reminders. And even though he hadn't told me, I knew what had gone down that last night – I knew that Dan and Zoe had had sex that night. Despite what Dan thought, I wasn't ignorant. I knew my own twin. I knew how to read him.
