Ward tracked his sister for ten minutes down the side of the stream.

He found her skimming stones, a useless skill he had proudly taught her one day when they were on the beach.

"Tilly?"

"Don't. Just don't."

"Still squeamish?"

Tilly looked at him and gently threw the stone she was holding at him.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"If I find myself lost and alone in the woods I'm gonna be the one who starves." Tilly said, sitting down on the bank of the stream and hugged her knees into her chest.

"You're not. You're far too resourceful to starve. And you know your berries." Ward pointed out to her while gently reminding her of the week where they had caught nothing using snares or fishing so Tilly went out and scavenged enough berries for them to survive off. He sat next to her and put his arm around her, pulling her into a hug.

Back at camp everyone was talking about Tilly's outburst and how Toby was now preparing her food. The rest of the class had seen the way she warmed to him and had also noticed how much time they were spending together.

Toby got Tilly's rabbit onto a spit and passed it to Carl before checking on everyone else. There were a couple of pairs that were also struggling with preparing the rabbit, so Toby, having done Tilly's found himself doing theirs too.

He checked on Tilly's rabbit.

"Toby. Is she going to be alright?" Carl asked him, turning his own rabbit. He was certain there was something going on with Tilly and Toby but now he'd seen her with Ward he wasn't as convinced. She seemed unafraid of him, almost like she knew him or was involved with him

"I think so. But she's in good hands."

"Agent Ward's? I've heard that his rookie calls him a robot."

"She'll be fine."

Maybe there was something going on that he didn't know about. Tilly seemed to get away with more than most students would. If she was involved with Agent Ward it would explain it.

"So the girl who isn't scared to tell her old brother off in front of a class of her peers can't handle skinning and roasting?" Ward teased, trying to lighten the mood.

He looked at Tilly and saw she had tears in her eyes.

"What happened?"

"I was never squeamish, but while you were away at school, Chris, well you know what he did to me."

"How could I not know? What did he say to you?" Ward asked her, his blood starting to boil.

"Well he took me into the woods one night and we found a snare that you and me had set up. There was a mole or something swinging from it. Chris, he beat the poor thing up even though it was already dead before skinning it in front of me and forcing me to watch. Before he took me home he told me if I told anyone what he was doing then that's what he would do to me." Tilly sobbed.

"Flashbacks?" Ward asked, suddenly realising that Tilly's squeamishness was more of a terrifying memory.

Tilly nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?"

Tilly looked at her brother through bleary eyes.

"You were scared I was going to do something stupid?" Ward said, understanding.

"It wouldn't have been the first time. Punching Dad really wasn't a good idea."

"Felt good at the time."

"Yeah, but it landed you in military school."

"I know. I still remember you begging me to take you with me." Ward said, pulling her in tighter.

"We should go. They'll start talking about us if we aren't back soon." Tilly said to him pushing him off her.

"Your right. We should" Ward confirmed, getting to his feet before hauling Tilly up too.

"About time! I was starting to thing you had both got lost! We were just going to come and look for you." Toby said as Ward and Tilly walked back into camp.

Everyone turned to stare at them and Tilly slipped away from Ward's side and over to Carl and the fire.

"You ok?" he asked, noticing there were tear tracks down her face and her eyes were slightly bloodshot.

"Yeah. I'm fine."

"Agent Ward didn't hurt you did he?"

"No."

"Tilly. Tell me what happened. Please. We have to work together for the next three years remember!"

"Nothing happened, I'm fine. How's the rabbit?"

Carl looked to Ward and saw that his features were dark and brooding.

Obviously they know each other better than Tilly was letting on, and even more obviously something had happened while they were gone.

"Everything alright?" Toby asked Ward as he joined him for dinner.

"Yeah. It's just."

"You found out something about her that you feel you should have picked up on sooner?"

Ward looked at Toby.

"I know who she is to you. It's a little evident when she fights, even more evident when she throws knives."

"I just found out how much of a monster my older brother really is."

"The senator?"

"That's the one. He forced her into watching him skin something and then threatened to do the same to her if she told anyone about the abuse he was inflicting on her."

"Please tell me you're kidding?" Toby asked him, rabbit halfway to his mouth.

"Wish I was. It explains a lot though."

"Like what?"

"Like how she would be fine getting stuck in one vacation and not able to stomach it the next."

"She needs to tell Carl that she has issue skinning things."

"I think he's worked that out for himself."

The sun started setting and the first years started wondering off to bed. For some of them it had been a very long day. One by one their numbers dwindled until there was just Ward left by the burning fire. He couldn't believe Tilly had kept something like that from him, but he understood why she had.

When he felt the drop of rain land on his hand he doused the fire and retired to the tent he was now sharing with Toby.

Tilly woke up in the middle of the night. She wasn't sure what had woken her up, the sound of the rain or Carl kicking her. While she was awake she heard something else through the rain, something that made her blood run cold.

She pushed Carl until he was semi awake.

"Carl. Wake up. Can you hear that?"

"Hear what Tilly, it's just rain."

"Carl! Wake up. That's not just rain!" Tilly hissed at him as she put her shoes back on.

Tilly scrambled out of the tent, treading on Carl as she did so.

"Dammit Tilly, get back to sleep. It's just rain." Carl told her rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Thats when he heard what had freaked Tilly out so much. He quickly put his shoes back on and followed Tilly out of the tent.

"Tilly?" He whispered.

"Over here." He heard Tilly say as she flashed her torch on the ground.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to wake the staff up."

"We don't even know if it is anything yet."

"I don't want to find out." Tilly told him, unzipping Ward and Toby's tent and climbing in.

She immediately felt something soft and squishy beneath her hands.

"You better have a damn good reason Matilda Grace." Ward growled at her, waking Toby up.

"Shhh. Listen." She said, putting her hand over Wards mouth. He listened.

"Get out. Go take cover under those rocks." Ward instructed, pulling his own shoes on.

"What going on?" Toby asked, confused.

"Helicopter. Come on." Ward told him as he got out of the tent and followed Tilly and another person that he assumed was Carl to the cover of the rocks.

"Why all this fuss over a helicopter?" Toby asked, catching up.

"The last time I was camping and got a helicopter surprise in the middle of the night my wife was kidnapped by a sociopath." Ward told him.

"Wait, what? When did you get married?" Toby asked, missing the point of the story.

"Couple of months ago, but that's not the point."

"No the point being they overpowered you and kidnapped her." Carl reminded him.

"How the hell did they overpower you?"

"They didn't. They froze me using a variation of an icer."

"Ah!"

"So why are we all out in the rain?" Carl asked to clarify.

"Because we aren't expecting company." Ward told him.

The sound of the helicopter came closer and closer through the rain. The four of them crouched as far as they could under the rocks to hide and watched as the helicopter flew low over them before flying off into the night.

"False alarm. Back to bed." Toby said with relief.

"I told you it was nothing to worry about." Carl told Tilly. He still thought she had over reacted by waking Ward. Now the four of them were soaking wet through for nothing.

"It could have been something though." Tilly was protesting as they headed back towards their tent.

The following morning Ward and Toby were up early and were waiting for everyone to wake up. They caught some fish and lit a fire. They roasted the fish and put the tent away before Tilly surfaced.

"Morning" She yawned as she walked over to the fire.

"Morning. There's some fish left if you want it. You'll have to cook it yourself but that shouldn't be a problem for you." Ward told her.

"Awesome, thanks." Tilly said, wrapping the leftover fish in leaves and placing it on the fire.

By the time her fish was cooked the other students were starting to wake up and start preparing their breakfasts.

Carl got up and came over to Tilly.

"I'm impressed. You finally managed to gut something."

"I didn't gut this. Toby did." Tilly replied.

"Ok. I'm going to ask you this once and I don't want you to lie to me."

"Sure." Tilly replied hesitantly.

"Is Toby that brother you told me about?"

"Hmph! No. I'm not related to Toby in any way." Tilly said, almost choking on her fish.

"Alright first years. You have until nine to get breakfast. Then we are going to set off back to Phys Acc." Ward announced.

"What about the tents?"

"Take them down and pack your survival packs back up. Leave them in a pile and the van will come back later to collect it." Ward told them indicating where he and Toby had left his pack.

At nine Ward and Toby went around dousing all of the fires with water.

"Hey! my fish wasn't done cooking." One student complained, earning a glare from Toby.

"Alright everyone. Let's go. You two, up front with me." Ward said pointing at Carl and Tilly.

"Why?" Toby asked him.

"Do you want to tell him or do you want me to?" Ward asked Tilly. The top of Tilly's ears blushed as she looked at the floor.

"What happened?" Toby prodded.

"One word. Newt." Ward said, looking at Tilly.

"What?" Toby asked.

"I may have placed a newt on someone's shoulder." Tilly said quietly.

"How did you know it was her?"

"Saw her playing with it." Ward laughed as the first years prepared to leave.

The trek back seemed easier than the trek there. Now they knew they were going to be drinking from streams they took every chance they had to get something to drink. An hour in and Tilly suddenly disappeared from Ward's side with a small scream, grabbing his arm as she went down. She had stood in a hole and turned over on her ankle.

"You ok?" he asked her as she scrabbled to her feet.

"I'm fine." Tilly said, embarrassment over falling clear in her face.

Ward made her demonstrate that she could walk on her ankle before he would allow her to continue.

Within the hour Toby, who was walking at the back of the group hurried up to Ward to tell him Tilly had dropped back.

"Alright everyone. Let's stop for a break here." Ward shouted.

It took Tilly another 10 minutes to get to them.

"You. Sit. Shoe off." Ward demanded.

"I'd rather not if it's all the same." Tilly told him.

"Now." Ward said to her, making his physical presence known.

"Fine!" Tilly huffed as she sat on a fallen tree trunk and pulled her boot off.

"Jesus Tilly!" Toby exclaimed as her ankle swelled rapidly.

"It's fine!" Tilly said.

"No it's not. I'm calling for the bus."

"I can walk." Tilly protested.

Toby looked at Ward who shrugged his shoulders.

"If she's stupid enough to walk, let her."

"All I need is a little strapping."

"You need your head checking" Carl said.

Ward helped Tilly stick strapping to her ankle and put her boot back on.

He nodded to Toby.

"Alright. Everyone up and follow me." Toby called setting off again.

Ward hauled Tilly to her feet and he, Carl and Tilly formed the back of the group.

Tilly hobbled the rest of the way back to Phys Acc, guided by Ward and Carl. Tilly pushed herself through the pain she was feeling and kept up at the back of the group.

"You are insane" Carl told her as they walked through the doors to the Atrium two hours later.

"I'm going to shower and go to bed." Tilly said to Carl and Ward. It was late Sunday afternoon and she still had some work to complete.

Ward headed through a door without saying a word, which left Carl alone in the Atrium.

"Carl. You're back. Did Tilly make it?" Toby asked checking the atrium for stragglers.

"Yeah. She's gone to her room."

"I suggest you do the same." Toby told him indicating that he should go up the stairs.

Tilly had just finished her Russian work and was pulling the plans she had spent most of the summer working on towards her. She was determined that she would get this right at some point.

There was a knock at her door.

Tilly heaved her tired body out of her chair and opened it coming face to face with Ward.

"That was stupid." He told her as she stepped back to let him in.

"It's fine."

Ward gave her a look she knew so well.

"Ok. It hurts like a bitch, but it'll be fine in the morning." Tilly told him.

"Ten minutes on, ten minutes off" Ward told her holding up an ice pack. Tilly took it and sat down on her bed. Ward took the pack off her and placed it on her swollen ankle which made Tilly hiss in pain.

Wards phone buzzed.

"That'll be Skye telling me they're outside."

"Go. I'll see you at Christmas. Give Skye my love and tell her to take it easy." Tilly told him allowing him to kiss her forehead before he left.

"I will. Take care of yourself and do not overdo it." He told her as he closed the door.

Tilly, wanting to get back to her plans, tied the ice to her foot with the cord of her dressing gown and hobbled back to her desk.