North walked immediately up to Emma when he, York and Wash had gotten back. "Everything ok?"
"I'm fine if that's what you're asking. We're just waiting on Carolina," Emma answered who she heard her arguing in the hall with Ally as they walked into the room.
"Sorry," Carolina apologized. "I was trying to see if York's parents were home, but they weren't and then someone started throwing a fit because she wanted to come along."
"Cody, could you run through Program Sonic with Ally while we go over this?" Emma asked looking at him.
"Sure thing," Cody nodded standing up.
"Ally?"
"I never get to stay for the fun meetings," Ally whined.
"This isn't fun. Fun is what you will be doing with Cody out on the Floor," Emma countered. "Be a big girl and do what you're asked, please."
"Ugh, fine," Ally huffed stomping over to Cody who was waiting for her. "Is your name really Cody?"
"That's my last name," Cody chuckled. "You can call me that or Ed which is my first name."
"Ok Eddie!" Ally replied as the two walked out on to the floor.
Emma waited for the door to close and the program to start before turning to everyone. York apparently was impatient as he cut her off before she could start talking.
"Why are you pulling us all in here on our day off?" he huffed.
"If you would've waited two seconds, you would know by now," Emma growled back. She looked at Trevor who pulled up a screen on the wall. "This is the original scan that Trevor and Cody were able to pull from the piece of armor."
"And here is what the coding on all your old Freelancer armor looks like," Church continued. "Notice anything?"
"They match," Carolina answered. She looked at Emma.
"Are you saying that's Freelancer armor?" Wash asked.
"Would appear so," Emma nodded.
"Yea, but we're the only ones left. The rest was confiscated," York added.
"And who do we all know that was collecting Freelancer armor?" Church asked.
"Hargrove," Wash answered.
"But this is old," Carolina motioned. "He was upgrading everything we ever used. Why would he still be using old equipment if he was giving Felix, Locus and the rest of the guns for hire updated armor?"
"I think the more important question is who the armor belonged to," North commented.
"Why does it matter? We're the only ones left," York reiterated.
"Church?" Emma looked at the hologram.
"From what I can tell," Church answered, "It's Agent South's old armor."
"I blew that up!" Wash screeched before quieting almost immediately when North gave him a look. Emma stood up and walked over to put a hand on North's arm.
"Sorry North," Carolina sighed, "But Wash makes a good point."
"Yea, I mean, he blew up both of ours," York continued. "He was just doing his job."
"Yea well somehow someone got their hands on it," Church scoffed. "And I'm pretty sure we know who that someone was."
"Hargrove," York and Wash both said.
"It still makes no sense why he would give South's old armor to someone to use when he had the updated stuff at his disposal," Carolina objected.
"What about the fact that it was seared off with an energy sword or are we forgetting that bit?" York asked.
"Hopefully Grey and the team can find out more information when they go back out," Carolina sighed.
"I'm going," North said. Emma looked up at him. "If someone is using my sister's old armor, then I want to be there to show them what I think about that."
"You are not going," Emma replied through gritted teeth. "I need you here and in one piece."
"We'll talk about it later," North huffed. He looked at Carolina, "When's the team leaving?"
"Um, after Ally's birthday if Kimball approves it," Carolina answered. "But we don't need you going. I know it's something close to you, but Emma's not the only one who needs you here. You have other duties that I need you for as well. If anyone is going, Wash or York can go."
"Why do they get to go and I have to stay here?" North snapped. "Wash blew it up last time he saw that armor-"
"North, enough," Carolina sighed. "I know you're upset about this. The rest of us are too."
"Then let me go out and do something about it," North growled.
Emma grabbed his hand and held it down near her stomach and gave him a pointed look and lowered her voice, "Remember when you told me you wanted me to stay calm? This is not helping me stay calm right now."
"There's time to discuss it yet, North," Carolina added. She looked at Emma, "Thank you for taking the time to look in to this."
"Just doing my job," Emma shrugged. "Besides, Trevor and Cody did a lot of it. I just pieced it together."
Carolina nodded, "Well they did good work."
"Thank ya ma'am," Trevor nodded.
"Can I have that written in a report so I can send it to Kimball in the morning?" Carolina asked looking at Emma.
"Certainly," Emma nodded.
"Thanks. Let's put a pin in this for now and we'll come back to it once I talk to Kimball," Carolina ordered. She turned to head out on to the floor to get Ally, grabbing York on the way. Wash gave a heavy sigh before following them as well leaving North and Emma in the room with Trevor.
"I'm going," North said looking down at her.
"You really want to do this now?" Emma raised an eyebrow.
"Do what?"
"You, are not going. I need you here. If you go, you will miss my appointment and I thought you wanted to be there for that?" North glanced at Trevor who was trying not to pay them any attention. "Oh he knows. So does Cody. Kinda hard to hide the fact when I wasn't going to make it to the bathroom and used my garbage can with them standing right in front of me."
"Emma, that is South's armor that someone is using," North argued.
"Yea? And is a dead person's armor really that much more important than your wife and unborn child who are actually alive?" Emma asked crossing her arms across her chest and glaring at him. "I am certain that if they manage to find the person wearing it, they will let you have first crack at them. We know nothing other than the fact that it's her armor. We don't know who was fighting or where they are. Wait until we have more information at least. Please? For me?"
North sighed and sat down in the chair he was standing next to, pulling Emma forward and wrapping his arms around her thighs and resting his forehead on her stomach. She ran her fingers through his hair to try and calm him down further.
"Sorry to interrupt, ma'am," Trevor cleared his throat. "Would ya like me to get that report made up for Agent Carolina?"
"That would be excellent, thank you Trevor," Emma smiled at him. "I'll look over it in the morning then."
"Not a problem, ma'am," Trevor nodded.
"Is he calling you ma'am?" North chuckled.
"Yes," Emma huffed. "Apparently it's his southern charm and I can't beat it out of him not that I'm not gonna try."
"I take it I don't have to tell you to let her, right?" North asked turning his head to look at the recruit.
"I won't fight back if that's what your meaning, sir," Trevor smirked.
"Good," North nodded. "And any sign of trouble, you contact me immediately. Got it?"
"Yes sir," Trevor nodded. "Church, Cody, and I already have a system worked out if something happens. You are at the top of the list."
North looked up at Emma who was giving him an annoyed look. "I like your trainees."
"I'm liking them a lot less if they're going to turn into overprotective idiots like you," Emma grumbled.
"I am telling you, there is something going on that they aren't telling us," York complained a few days later as he helped Carolina setting up out on the Floor.
"Will you just let it go already?" Carolina huffed. "They will tell us when they are ready."
"Mum wouldn't even tell me what they talked about at lunch," York continued.
"I'm not surprised. It's not our concern. Now do you want to warm up or don't you?"
"I want to know what's going on," York grumbled picking up one of the pugel sticks from the rack. Carolina rolled her eyes before lunging in, swinging at him. York blocked it easily before swinging in with his own attack. "I remember you hitting harder than that."
"Warm-up, you ass," Carolina chuckled as they continued to exchange hits.
"Shouldn't we maybe have armor on for this?" York grumbled as he rubbed his shoulder where Carolina had managed to get a hit on him.
"It's more fun this way," Carolina shrugged looking over to see her first group walking in. "You sticking around?"
"I suppose," he sighed. "Ally's with Pops for the day so I guess I can help train. And seriously, you must get some sort of kick out of beating me up all the time."
Carolina gave him a wink before turning to the four recruits. "Alright, today we're going to work with pugel sticks. Agent York has so kindly agreed to stick around and help with that. I'd say a little four on two would be interesting."
"You're kidding, right?" York muttered behind her. She raised an eyebrow at him. "I meant for their sakes, not mine."
"Agent York appears to have a big head this afternoon. Feel free to attempt to deflate it a bit," Carolina chuckled. "Remember to communicate with your teammates and watch for body signals. Learn to read each other without speaking. There may come a time out in the field where you need to communicate non-verbally with each other. And bear in mind, Agent York and I have fought together for years so don't expect us to give away anything verbally."
"If he can keep his mouth shut long enough," Morris muttered making the recruits chuckled. Carolina cracked a smile as York narrowed his eyes at the young man.
"Watch yourself Morris," York grumbled. They started squaring off against the recruits who held their own for the most parts against the two freelancers. It wasn't until Weaver managed to flip Carolina after she'd been disarmed that York called for a pause when she didn't get up right away. He stood over her, "You ok?"
"Just catching my breath," Carolina huffed, her eyes closed. "Is my right arm still attached?"
"Looks that way," York chuckled.
"I am so sorry Agent Carolina!" Weaver squeaked as York pulled her up.
"It's alright," Carolina chuckled rolling out her shoulder which was now throbbing. "It was a good move and definitely something I would've done."
"Trust me," York drawled, "She's done it to me on several different occasions."
"I can't help you left yourself open so many times," Carolina grinned at him. She rubbed at her shoulder, twinging in pain slightly.
"You ok?" York asked.
"Yea, I'll ice it later," Carolina answered. "Alright, pair up and let's do some one on one work. Agent York and I will observe and correct anything we see that you're doing wrong."
"Are you sure you're ok Agent Carolina?" Weaver asked looking at her with big eyes.
"I am fine," Carolina nodded. "Don't worry about it. You're doing what I want you to be doing."
"She's had worse anyway," York added.
"I'm going to get Ally. I'll see you at home?" York informed Carolina poking his head into her office.
"Yea. I'm waiting on a call from Kimball about whether we'll be good to send that team out next week," Carolina nodded. "And I think I'm gonna have Church run a Bioscan to make sure nothing tore in my shoulder."
"She really did a number there," York chuckled. "Gotta admit, I'm a bit impressed."
"Oh you're just happy because you actually have some people you can beat for once," Carolina rolled her eyes. "I'll see you at home."
York gave her a wink and a wave before leaving, the door closing behind him. Carolina leaned back in her chair. "Hey Church?"
"What's up C?" Church asked appearing on her desk.
"Would you mind running a Bioscan? Weaver wrenched my shoulder during training today. Just want to make sure she didn't tear anything."
"On it," Church nodded. "You must be losing your edge if you let another recruit get one up on you."
"They're learning," Carolina rolled her eyes. "That's what I want them to do. She had an opening, she took it. It's my own fault for not paying attention to her once I disarmed her."
"Yea, keep telling yourself that," Church chuckled. "Alright. Shoulder looks fin - Oh come on!" Carolina gave him a confused look. "You have got to be kidding me! Is there something in the water here? Did someone let Tucker activate that stupid temple without anyone knowing?"
"Church, what the hell are you talking about?" Carolina asked.
"Well, York's going to be over the damn moon," Church sighed. Carolina raised an eyebrow at him. "Congrats, you're pregnant."
Carolina narrowed her eyes at him, "No I'm not."
"Sorry sis, Bioscan doesn't lie," Church scoffed. "Trust me."
"Then run it again because you're wrong," Carolina growled leaning closer to Church. "I don't have time for this right now. There's too much going on that I need to take care of."
"Yea well, now you have one more thing," Church replied. "I ran it three times and I'm getting the same result. Apparently you can add pregnancy test into my job description. Just what I always wanted." Carolina leaned back in her chair and ran her hands through hair. "See, now this was how I was expecting the other one to react."
"What other one?" Carolina paused her own internal freak out to give him a suspicious look.
"D-don't worry about it," Church stammered realizing his slip. "But come on, you and York already talked about this. It's not like it wasn't part of the plan eventually."
"Yes, when things slowed down. Do things seemed slowed down to you?" Carolina snapped. Her video phone started going off. "Son of a bitch…I can't do this right now." She hit the answer button anyway, "Carolina speaking."
"Hello Agent Carolina," Kimball answered. "How are things going?"
"Great," Carolina scoffed.
"Everything ok?" Kimball asked, a concerned look on her face.
"Yea, sorry," Carolina pushed her bangs back. "Caught me at a bad time."
"Well then I'll make this quick," Kimball replied. "I don't see a problem sending a small team out. I didn't tell the UNSC the exact reason why you requested it. I figured that would be something you want to keep to yourself."
"A bit yea. Thank you," Carolina nodded. "I've already talked to Tucker and Junior and they're prepared to head out on Monday. I'll talk to Wash in the morning about who else we're going to send with and let you know by lunch."
"Thank you Carolina. I appreciate everything you're doing," Kimball replied. "The recruits are working hard?"
"They are all fantastic in their own ways," Carolina nodded. "You couldn't have recommended a finer group."
"I'm so glad to hear," Kimball smiled. "If you need anything else, let me know."
"Will do."
They both ended the call. Carolina groaned before leaning forward to rest her head in her hands on her desk. Church waited for her to say something, but after a few minutes couldn't stand the quiet.
"So-"
"Church, just shut up for a minute," Carolina snapped.
"Look, I just want to make sure you don't want me to go get someone or something."
"It's called shock. Let me digest this for a minute. Is that ok with you?"
