For the next few weeks, Kate's life became a blur of physical training, field training with her group, undercover ops. lessons with instructors, and, of course, her early morning meetings with TL in the shooting barn. Since their latest semi-akward, semi-romantic encounter, Kate and TL had kept their meetings strictly business.
Kate and Rae also grew closer to each other and to their group of Specialists over time. They were like a big family, with the exception of a couple, like Greg.
One day, after a particularly violent game of Specialists vs. Agents capture the flag, Kate walked across the field to the infirmary, nursing her newly bruised face. She had a dark bruise across one cheekbone, and her jawbore a cut that was bleeding down her neck. The adult Agents were amore than a littlebitter about the much younger specialists, a lot of which were better than them, and the gamescould get pretty violent. She heard a call behind her, and slowly turned her sore neck to see TL jogging up to her.
"Hey." she said a little sourly, since he had been on the Agents' team.
"What's up with you? You all right?" Being on her left side, he couldn't see the injuries on the right side of her stopped and turned, gesturing at the bruises and the blood. TL winced when he saw, and Kate snorted and kept walking.
"Who did that to you?" TL seemed genuinely concerned and clueless.
"You really don''t get it, do you? They hate us! It's not right to put a bunch of high school seniors against fully trained agents, and expect them not to get mad when we beat them!" Kate glared at the ground, not wanting to meet TL's eyes. Suddenly, she felt his fingers against her chin. He gripped her face gently, and turned her face to the side to he could inspect her injuries better. She gritted her teeth as her neck protested the turn, and gasped at an unexpected pain in her collarbone.
"What's wrong?" TL released her at her gasp.
"Ow. God, that hurt like hell. I think something's wrong with my collarbone, too." Kate pulled her t-shirt collar to the side to inspect her collarbone, but she couldn't see whether it was bruised without turning her neck painfully. She sighed in frustration.
TL reached over and replaced her hands with his, and gently tugged her shirt to the side to inspect her collarbone. Seeing no bruising, he gently poked her skin, and she gasped in pain.
"Sorry," he murmered, removing his hands.
"It's fine." Kate turned and resumed walking towards the infirmary.
"You're right about this, you know." Kate heard TL call behind her.
"Right about what?" Kate stopped again and turned.
TL walked up to her and once again inspected her bruises. He reached out and brushed his fingers lightly against her cheekbone, across the dark shadow.
"I shouldn't put you all against the regular Agents. You're right that they don't like you. You know why? They're intimidated by you. Just imagine it. You're an agent who's trained for almost seven years here, struggled all your adult life to get where you are, and now these...well, kids come in here and threaten your position. They haven't worked for what they have, they just have it. You guys all have talent, you haven't worked for this."
Kate cut him off. "Don't act like we wanted it this way. Weeks ago, I didn't even want to be here."
"That's not what I'm saying, Kate. I just want you to understand how they feel. Hell, how I feel. I look at you, and I see a woman who has an uncanny talent for what she does. I've been here for years, and in one summer of training and just weeks of being here, you're approaching my level of skill. Can you imagine how that feels?"
Kate stared into TL's eyes, shocked at his words. TL stared back, and finally Kate whispered, "I had no idea you felt that way..."
TL sighed heavily. "It's not that bad, I was being melodramatic. Forget I said anything."
"Not likely," Kate replied. She looked up at TL again, turned, and walked off.
"Tomorrow morning?" TL called.
Kate kept walking.