"Ohhh, I feel sick." Jennie laid her head down on the card table. "Seriously, I'm going to puke. I can't bear it."

She hadn't realized how light her trainer had been going on her until now. He had obviously not wanted to upset her brother by beating her into the ground. She'd developed a fair estimate of her own skill.

That estimate had taken a brutal beating today. By the end of her first sparring match, every deficiency had been made apparent… and the grudging approval she'd finally gotten from the veteran Hunter teaching them had made it all worth it. Just thinking about it gave her the warm fuzzies. She'd EARNED that compliment.

Dagger was slumped beside her, ears folded back. She was just as exhausted. Sebastian didn't look tired, but he didn't look pleased either. He had discovered that he was strong and powerful, but far too slow. The more agile rookies had run rings around him.

"Actually, you all did pretty good." They all looked over at Axl in disbelief. "Seriously, I talked with X and he thought you all had a lot of potential."

"X was watching us?" Dagger squeaked, looking appalled. Jennie swallowed hard, sure she must look like she had just swallowed a bug. Even Sebastian was looking a little horrified. Axl snickered at them.

"Oh sure, the unit commanders watch all the rookies a bit. I mean, their scoping you out for their units." Jennie swallowed even harder. She'd had some vague notion that rookies would end up in a "newbie unit", but, thinking about it, none of the seven units sounded like that.

The seven units included the 17'th, X's unit, and the 0th, Zero's unit. Less well known, but basically the same, were the 13'th and 5'th. There was the 18'th, which tended to be full of animal style Reploids. The 16'th was the heavy weapon unit, and tended to hold the highest percentage of humans of all the units. It wasn't any easier a unit than the others, though… the problem with heavy weapons was the lack of mobility. If the battle rapidly turned against the Hunters, the 16'th would always fare the worst. Last but not least was the 14'th. Not really a unit in the sense of the others, it was all the medical specialists, technicians and repair crews. It also included some oddball specialties like the bomb squad. Members from that squad were often detached to other squads, and wore both insignias when on detachment.

If anything, she had assumed that rookies would be sent into the 13'th and 5'th, then taken on by other units when they had more experience. But she could see how that would be hard on the 13'th and 5'th… it might make more sense for each unit to take it's own share of the rookies. And each unit commander would want to get the best they could.

"Could we get the 17'th?" Jennie finally asked, slightly awed by the idea. Axl gave her a quick grin.

"I hope so." Jennie blushed as she met his eyes, then looked down, feeling very shy. It was odd… she'd never felt this self conscious about a boy before…

A little while later, Jennie was lying in her recharger, the lid open, reading a book. It wasn't bad… a suspense/horror novel about a serial killer stalking a young woman from beyond the grave. But right now, the book wasn't keeping her attention. She sighed, closing her eyes and letting the book rest on her chest for a moment.

Then she glanced over at Axl through her eyelashes. He seemed to be doing a crossword puzzle… he was tapping his bottom lip with a pencil, and obviously thinking. Jennie smiled, watching him for a moment. He was just adorable like that.

"Axl?" She said softly, not wanting to disturb Dagger. She was hard at work on the card table, trying to assemble a three dimensional puzzle and occasionally swearing at it.

"Hmm?" Axl chewed on the end of his pencil. "Do you know what a four letter word for syndicate is?"

"Gang?" She hazarded, then shrugged. "I'm not so good at those… Axl, would you like to come to church with me tomorrow?" That got his attention, and he glanced over, startled.

"Church? You're religious?" He sounded surprised, and she scanned his face carefully.

"Well, somewhat. I don't always go in on Sunday, but I do tithe to the church. First Catholic church." She said, a little uncomfortably. Too many boys at University had seemed to think that religion was retrograde and foolish. But Axl just looked interested.

"Catholic? Weren't they the first church to accept Reploids?"

"Oh, yes!" Jennie said with some enthusiasm. She knew this subject very well. "It was soon after mass production started and a few years before the first war. The Pope was thinking really hard about the ethical issues involved, so he had some very long talks with Reploid designers. Then he talked to Reploids, and just couldn't decide, so he finally had a talk with Rockman X!"

"Really?" Axl was impressed, although it was hard to say who he thought had gotten the bigger favor, the Pope or X.

"Mmm hmm. They talked all day. It was a big philosophical discussion about all kinds of things… only X would know exactly what was said. Anyway, the Pope decided that since God created man and man created Reploids, man was the agent of God and so God also created Reploids. And since Reploids could think and make their own decisions, they must have souls, and so they would have to be admitted equally to the church."

"Ohhh. Can Reploids become priests then?" Axl asked teasingly, and Jennie blinked.

"Well, of course. What do you think Duhallan is? He's the HQ Chaplain."

"Chaplain?" Axl blinked. "I thought he was a Councilor!" Jennie giggled at his expression.

"Well, of course silly! What do you think priests do most of the time? Sit in their office and polish the brasswork?" She teased him gently, smiling. "A good priest IS a Councilor for his flock. He has to give faith-based advice." Then she made a small grimace. "And… well, Reploid priests get more training in that than humans do. Most go to help units like ours, to help people deal with casualties and combat fatigue."

"Ouch. Well… sure, I'll go. I'm not doing anything, and I've never seen a church."

"Wonderful!" Jennie reached to him, and Axl took her hand. They looked into each other's eyes for a long moment-

"AHHH SHIT!" Dagger cursed, breaking the moment. Both of them glanced at her, then let go, blushing. "Stupid puzzle! I hate it. Hey, where's Sebastian? We could play Euchre!" She beamed at them both… she had completely missed the earlier conversation.

"I think he said something about hitting the Full Moon café." Jennie offered. That was a small, intimate coffee shop not too far from the Hunter HQ. "He should be back in an hour at least."

"Okay then!" Dagger darted into the closet, getting out a book of her own. "I'll read with you then until he gets back." Jennie glanced at the book, trying to spot the cover, and giggled. It was a bodice ripper romance novel.

Jennie picked up her book and started to read again. But deep inside, she was feeling warm and fuzzy again.