Emma took a deep breath before opening the door and walking into the house. It was dark out and all she wanted was to sleep in her bed. She paused when she walked in to see North asleep on the couch, the television on. There were fresh flowers sitting on the vanity table near the staircase. She walked over, a smile on her lips as she walked over to smell them.
"There's chocolate covered strawberries in the fridge as well as leftovers from next door," North spoke up behind her. She straightened up and turned to look at him. "I'll sleep down here. Bed's all yours."
Emma took a deep breath before putting her bag down and walking over to him. He watched her as she waited for him to move his arms before sitting on his lap and laying down sideways on his chest, her back against the back of the couch. He wrapped a hesitant arm around her side.
"I really want to ask if this means you're not mad anymore, but I also don't want to bring it up," North sighed.
Emma looked up at him and kissed him on the chin, "Don't do it again."
"Wouldn't dream of it," North sighted. "Course, I wasn't trying to do it the first time."
"How was dinner?"
"Dull without you there." Emma raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, not really, but would've been better had you been there. What'd you do today?"
"Got another version of Wash's skate-park programmed as well as some research for something," Emma shrugged.
"What kind of research?"
"I'm not that forgiving to tell you at the moment," Emma replied coolly.
"Well alright then," North sighed.
Emma snuggled against him, "You can sleep in bed though."
"I'll take it," he chuckled. "Want to head up?"
"In a bit."
"How'd you feel today?" he asked.
"Better once the extremely early morning sickness decided to go away," Emma replied. North clenched his jaw in guilt. "Course it also took an entire pack of crackers."
"Hope that wasn't all you ate today."
"No, I ate later in the afternoon as well," she sighed.
"Good," he replied moving a hand to her stomach. "Did I say sorry yet?"
"Nope."
"I'm sorry for waking you up and making you sick. I am also sorry that we haven't gotten to spend much time together the last few days. It's been a bit crazy."
"Yes it has." She looked up at him. "I'm glad you got your sister back."
"Me too, but this changes nothing between the two of us," he said giving her a serious look. "South may be back, but you are still my number one priority."
"Don't you go forgetting it," Emma chuckled reaching up to kiss him.
"Never. Got my number one and my number two right here," he grinned.
"Now if only number two would stop making number one sick constantly," Emma sighed putting a hand over North's.
"Well if they don't, then I'm just going to have to have a talk with them then."
"And how do you plan on doing that? Baby won't be able to hear you for a few more weeks yet."
"I know, but it's the thought that counts," he shrugged adjusting himself slightly underneath her. He gave a content sigh. "I love you, Em."
Emma lifted her head to look at him, "Love you too. Though I could go for one of those strawberries right now."
"If you let me get up, I can go get you one."
"Or three," she smiled moving a bit so he could get off the couch.
"Or three," he chuckled. "I could just bring you the whole box."
"That works too." He nodded at her and turned to head towards the kitchen. "A sleeve of crackers too."
"Crackers and strawberries. Anything else?"
"Nope."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Alright, coming up," he leaned down to kiss her forehead.
Wash checked the time before looking around at the recruits. He was still waiting on a few of them and was glad to see the ones there already were stretching. As the last few stragglers joined the rest, he noticed an extra body with them and held his breath when he recognized who it was.
"Hope you don't mind," South said when she joined him, "North said you run drill in the morning and I figured I could probably use it to get back in to shape."
"By all means," Wash motioned, trying to get his jaw to unclench. She nodded her head in acknowledgement to him and walked off towards the edge of the group. He let them finish warming up for a few more minutes before calling them to attention. "Alright, upping the laps to ten, alternating between the regular course and the obstacle. I want fifty push-ups in between. Jensen, you have your inhaler this time?"
"Yes sir!" Jensen held it up before shoving it back in her pocket.
"Alright and we all have sufficient water with us?" They all nodded in agreement. "Alright. Let's move it people."
"So what's your basis here for what you have them doing?" South inquired as the recruits jogged off.
"One lap for each week we're here to help build up endurance, interspersing strength between them as they go," Wash answered. "It's Monday and a new week, so they get a new lap added on and more push-ups or sit-ups added. Tomorrow they get sit-ups." South nodded. "Do what you can, I wouldn't expect you to keep up with them."
"You'd be surprised," South smirked before jogging after them.
Wash sighed and watched her back before looking around the track. The recruits were almost halfway around already, most of them keeping pace with each other pretty well. He had to say he was impressed with them at least. They worked well as a full team and in their smaller groups.
Halfway through, he was surprised to realize South was still apparently keeping up with the group and she let him know it each time she passed. His eyes would follow her as his brain tried to work through the urge to hit her. Ross panting in front of him pulled him up short.
"Yes Ross?"
"You alright, sir?" she panted, her voice low.
"I'm fine Ross. Is there a problem?"
"No sir," she shook her head, wiping her forehead and taking a swig of water. "But you might want to adjust your look a little if you don't want the new Agent to think you're still harboring a grudge."
"Finish your laps, Ross, and keep in your lane," Wash growled. He saw a hint of hurt in her gaze. "Please."
"Yes sir," she nodded ducking her head and following Jensen who had just finished her push-ups.
Wash shifted uncomfortably where he stood observing and crossed his arms across his chest, only unfolding them when the recruits were finally done. He ran them through the rest of the drill before releasing them. He attempted to catch Ross to apologize for being short with her, but got stopped by South.
"Not bad for someone who used to suck," South smirked.
"Thanks," he replied dryly. "Thought you said you needed to get back in to shape?"
"Maybe not," South shrugged. "But it's good to check." Wash nodded. "I get a feeling you've been avoiding me."
"You would probably be correct," Wash replied turning to go. South unfortunately followed him. "Something else?"
"Yea," she replied grabbing his arm to stop him. "I wanted to…to apologize for shooting you in the back."
Wash gave her a weird look, clearly thrown off, "You what?"
"You heard me asshole," she growled rolling her eyes. "I'm not saying it again."
"Oh. Well...then I guess I'm sorry too," he stammered scratching the back of his neck.
"No hard feelings then?" she held out a hand for him to shake. He took it, nodding at her in agreement. "Good. I take it you normally help Carolina in the afternoon?"
"Normally, yes," Wash nodded.
"I'm shocked she needs help," South commented as they stood there. "She was the best at everything, especially martial arts."
"Well, she and I are co-running the program and we want the recruits to be as well-rounded and diverse in their abilities as they can be. So that means having different people rotating in to her class."
"Makes sense I guess," South shrugged. "That or she got soft."
"Far from it," Wash chuckled. "If anything, she's gotten better over the years."
"Sure she has," South scoffed. "Maybe a little sparring match between the two of us for old time's sake."
"Good luck with that," Wash shook his head not wanting to tell South why Carolina herself wasn't fighting at the moment.
"You sound doubtful," South observed giving him an inquisitive look.
"There's some things you aren't aware of, so yea," Wash nodded. "I have to go over some reports she wanted me to look at beforehand."
South nodded, "Nice catching up with you then."
"Yea."
Wash tried to make it look like he wasn't hurrying away from her before running up the steps to Carolina's office. He walked through the open door and closed it, making Carolina look up at him from whatever it was she had been looking at.
"Something wrong?" she asked.
"I don't know, but it's not exactly right either."
"Which logically would mean something's wrong…" She gave him an amused expression as he ran his hands over his face and through his hair a few times. "Wash…?"
"South showed up for drill this morning."
"Ok…and I take it she cornered you afterwards like I told you she was probably going to do?"
He nodded, "She uh…she apologized for shooting me in the back." Carolina leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. He ran his hand over his hair again, "Yea and yes before you asked, I apologized as well."
"Good." She watched him fiddling with things before finally sitting down across from her. "What's with the anxiousness?"
"I don't know," he shook his head. "The whole thing just doesn't seem right. The South we knew wouldn't apologize for something like that."
"Maybe she has changed," Carolina shrugged.
"Just…the way she worded a few things made me uneasy," Wash sighed. "And the fact she wants to fight you."
"She what?" Carolina raised an eyebrow.
"Yea," Wash nodded. "She thinks you went soft and that's why you're not training with the recruits yourself."
"Did you tell her why?"
"No because it's not my business to be telling people," Wash replied.
"Thanks," Carolina smirked. "And she'll have to wait a few months and then I will gladly kick her ass."
"Oh I have no doubt," Wash gave a dry chuckled. He leaned back in the chair and looked up at the ceiling.
"You gonna be ok?" Carolina asked after a few moments.
"Yea. Just…just need to relax a bit. I think I'll feel better once I apologize to Ross."
"Why…why do you need to apologize to Ross?" Carolina asked trying to keep the curiosity out of her voice.
"Apparently I was giving South death glares while she was running with them and Ross noticed and stopped to check on me and I snapped at her to mind her own business…" Wash replied lamely.
"Ok. And it matters why?"
"Because I don't want it to weigh on my conscious that I hurt her feelings for just worrying about me."
"And why do you care if you hurt her feelings?"
"I don't, but she's one of our recruits and I don't want them harboring ill feelings towards us," Wash replied glaring up at her.
"Whatever," Carolina chuckled. The door opened and York walked in, stopping when he saw the slight distress still on Wash's face.
He shrugged and walked over to Carolina, leaning down to kiss her hello. "Kid has been delivered to her first day of school."
"Excellent. How'd it go?" she asked looking up at him.
"About as well as we expected it to," York sighed leaning on her desk. "Threw a quiet hissy fit until someone else her age walked up and introduced themselves. Then once she got over her shyness, it was 'so long dad, dad who?' So we'll see how it went once you go get her. You can still go get her correct?"
"Yes, I should have no problem with it as I have told you," Carolina smiled up at him.
"Good. Teach seems ok," York shrugged. He looked at Wash again, "What's up with you?"
"He got cornered-"
"I wasn't cornered. I could have gotten away, but I figured I might as well face her now than later," Wash huffed.
"Ah, say no more," York chuckled. "I see you made it away and are alive."
"Yea," Wash sighed. "Though she beat me to the apology."
"South doesn't apologize," York squinted at him, confused.
"I know."
"But we're not going to think about that now," Carolina cut across them. "Not until we have all the facts. Wash, go eat lunch. I don't want you passing out on me during class."
Wash huffed before standing up and leaving the room. York looked back at Carolina, "You sure he's ok to just send off like that?"
"He has issues that only he's going to be able to work out. We won't be able to help him there," Carolina answered.
"Whatever you say. Now, did you eat?"
Carolina shook her head, "Not yet. I was nauseous a bit after breakfast so I didn't want to push it too much."
"You should eat lunch at least."
"Go get me something then."
"What do you want?" She shrugged. He laughed softly at her, "Fine. I'll surprise you."
He leaned down to kiss her before leaving her office, only to be replaced by Emma seconds later.
"Apparently my office is a revolving door," Carolina chuckled. "What's up?"
"Just wanted to let you know I got that new program done. Just needs to be tested out a bit," she answered sitting down and making herself comfortable.
"Great. Which one is this?"
"The actual parkour thing you wanted. There's different difficulties and paths. I think it's pretty kickass and look forward to actually being able to do it myself," she sighed.
"Don't want to try it now?"
"I would love nothing more, but with how my stomach's been, I don't want to risk losing my footing," she shrugged. "I can wait."
"Hey Caroli-oh sorry," Tucker stopped in the doorway.
"Quite alright. What's up?" Carolina asked waving him in.
"I thought about it all weekend and it's bugging the shit out of me. I want to take a team to go see about finding the supposed escape pod that mega-bitch showed up in," he huffed standing in front of the desk.
Carolina nodded, "Ok. Who do you want to take?"
"Whoever you want to send. I can totally go myself."
"I'm not sending you alone," Carolina shook her head. "Locus is out there. You're going with backup."
"Fine, but I'm going," Tucker insisted.
Carolina looked at Emma, "Did George manage to get anything done with the suit?"
"I gave him a drive to attach that'll let me look at it from my computer," Emma replied. "I'll check it this afternoon."
"Any luck yet on the Cryogenics lab?"
"There is nothing floating in orbit nearby enough for someone to just pop off and land on by mistake," Emma sighed. "Maybe if Tucker can find the pod, I can get remote access that way."
"Keyword being if cuz I don't think we're going to find one," Tucker continued. "I talked to Caboose. He said he thought he heard her talking to someone."
"It's Caboose."
"I know, I know, but as dumb as he can be, I sorta trust some of the stupid that comes out of his mouth," Tucker shrugged.
"Let me think about who to send. It'll probably be Grif and Sarge again."
"Fine. Just let me know when I can leave," Tucker huffed turning to leave the room.