(A/N: Sorry for the slowness in updates guys. This chapter is not all as it seems, keep that in mind as you read it though ;]

Dedicated to: Cherub and Inheritance lover who's brilliant ideas will be used in the next few chapters.
To waterflame, thats just me - i love Kerry though honestly. Yes James does get some romance in this, although it might be unexpected.

Disclaimer: Need i bother?)

Chapter 12:

Questions were flying at her from all corners of the table, accompanied by accusing glares.

"How could this have happened?"

"How do we know you're telling the truth?"

"How could you have let this happen?"

Zara raised her hand, and the noise ceased. They had just finished telling the committee about what had happened on Erin's latest mission and there hadn't been a moment's silence before the words had started flying. She looked over at the girl in question who looked exhausted, both physically and emotionally. But then something unrecognizable flashed across her face – defiance. Her voice rang out clear, in the silenced conference room "Let me make myself very clear, Zara Asker is the only reason I stand before you today. She is possibly the only reason I can even function right now. It is not her fault that what happened to me did, she did not "let" it happen. You may not believe me, or my story but all I can say is it happened. I don't like that it happened, obviously. But it is not your place to question Zara on her judgement, after all – was it not all of you that reviewed this mission? Was it not you who classified it as minimum risk? So no, don't get on your high horse accusing Zara of letting this happen because when it comes down to it, it was that, that animal that did this to me. As much as I would love to be able to blame myself, to blame you, to blame anyone – I can't. And it happened, and there is absolutely nothing that could make it go away. Just think for a minute, if you, that is, if you were lucky enough to be the Chairperson of CHERUB would you have made a different decision? Sending agents on missions around the world is what we do, and we trust that those agents are going to do their jobs – just as well as they have done them before and will continue to do. I will not attempt to play down my 'attack' or to shrug it off, but I will also not find myself sitting there blaming someone who is completely innocent."

And she closed her mouth, and looked at Zara with innocent eyes. Zara who almost felt like hugging her with gratitude, and affection, merely cleared her throat and said "Yes well, thankyou. If you'd like to go outside and sit with Lauren, I need to have a talk with the rest of them."

Erin smirked, grabbed her stuff – nodded at everyone sitting at the table; who'd all been stunned into silence by her outburst and walked out of the conference room.

She found Lauren sitting slumped in a chair, her head against the wall with her eyes closed. She was quite obviously trying to catch up on the sleep she lost last night. Too bad that wasn't going to happen. But before Erin could sneak up on her, her eyes fluttered open of her own accord and she caught sight of her friend coming down the hall. She smiled briefly, "Hey. Are they nearly done?"

Erin grimaced, "Yeah, if by done you mean about to shout their heads off at each other."

The blonde smirked, before straightening up "Aah, the subtle arts of politics."

They both laughed, and Erin sighed as she sat down. "About all of, this" she waved her hands around, "whatever this is, thanks for being here. God knows you could have been at the hospital or anywhere else. It means a lot to me Lauren, thankyou."

Lauren stopped, a bit shocked "Wow. That was a weird apology, but none the less I accept. Anyway, I don't think I could deal with James for much longer without doing something really drastic. And, at the hospital there's also the chance of running into Kerry or Bruce – so helping you with your life is a lot easier than helping my dear brother with his, or my own."

"So you're saying helping me is completely for your own convenience? Gee thanks, its times like these that you make me feel soo loved."

Both of them laughed at that, and Zara gave them a quizzical look as she came walking down the corridor.

"My, my what do we have here? Not having fun I hope. You wouldn't want to do anything against the rules, in the region of those old hags in the conference room."

She winked at them and they followed her out of the building and into the carpark, from which they headed to the hospital. She had, after all, promised James a visit – she'd just have a few tag-a-longs, not that he would

mind.

James sat up in his hospital bed, waiting for his visitor to arrive. He hadn't seen her in a few days now and, as much as he would hate to admit it, he was looking forward to seeing her face again. The door opened and in she walked.

His face broke out into a huge smile "Kerry, you're here."

She looked a bit uncomfortable, "Yeah, I am."

He gestured to the chair next to his bed, "Please take a seat. How are you?"

She shook her head, declining the offer "I only plan on being here a little while James, I just needed to talk to you about something."

"I was planning on telling you something important too, something im really happy about actually."

"Yeah, whatever. Great."

This was when James knew something was wrong, Kerry was never this – uptight. His smile faltered, "Is there something wrong?"

Kerry spoke really hurriedly, looking at her feet. "Yeah, yeah there is. And I don't want to prolong this for longer than I have to so I'm just going to come out and say it. James, I want to break up with you. I don't like the pattern that's occurring in this relationship and so for both of our benefits, I think it should end."

And she fled the room, leaving James speechless, confused and really quite bewildered.

(A/N: Remember, not all as it seems. Reviews are appreciated :)