Several sheets of paper were slowly making their way out of a large industrial photocopier as James glanced at the clock. It was 5 pm and the winter sun had already set about an hour ago, leaving the campus dark and gloomy. He hastily examined the mission briefings before pacing back to his office and setting them down on top of the mass of papers strewn across his desk. As he turned around to leave for the day, he noticed Lauren peeking into his office from the corridor.

'Good god James,' Lauren gasped examining the mound of papers littering her brother's office, 'You'd better get this place in order before Kerry sees this mess.' James moaned, 'Lauren, I love you and all but you and Kerry drive me up the wall with your need for everything to be just right. Besides, I know where everything is... more or less.'

Lauren sighed, she'd had a long day and didn't want to get in a row with her brother right now. 'Bruce should be leaving the training compound soonish, we may as well head off now,' she said, while slowly backing out of the office and trying not to trip over the various binders that lay on the floor. James grabbed his overcoat from around his chair and followed Lauren out of the mission preparation building. They walked at a slow pace, following the dimly lit winding path towards the small training office outside the basic training compound.

'Remember when we used to just walk around, go to the lake and just talk?,' James said while looking across at Lauren. She nodded, 'It's a shame we don't get to do that anymore. Sometimes I feel like this job is too much for me to handle, there's just so much riding on me,' she said, sniffling slightly. James stopped dead in his tracks, it wasn't often that Lauren opened up to him in such a way. She had a habit of bottling all her feelings up and putting on a brave front for everyone around her. Lauren noticed that James had stopped and turned around. 'Lauren, you're always so hard on yourself. There's not a single person in this organization who'd be able to do your job better than you, everyone knows that. You care about these kids as if they were your own and they respect you for it,' James said before pulling her into a hug. Lauren laughed a bit before rubbing her eyes, 'You always know just what to say, don't you?' she replied meekly before turning back around to continue on their walk.

'I take it this is not a social visit,' Bruce said with a grim expression when he saw Lauren and James enter. As they approached his desk, Bruce reached over to a filing cabinet and pulled out a stack of folders bustling with paperwork. He beckoned them to take a seat before placing the folders down on the desk between them. James found the whole situation very awkward and was hoping that Lauren would start the conversation. When she remained silent, James stammered, 'About Hannah, we'd just like to uhh know what led to her quitting and uhh what you thought about the whole thing.'

'Right, I suppose the chairwoman wants to know whether I'm too hard on her trainees,' Bruce said dejectedly. James shook his head as he sensed that Bruce was hurt. 'We all have complete faith in you Bruce, you've turned up some of the best agents I've ever seen. This is strictly about Hannah, Kerry's worried that she might not be cut out for Cherub,' James blurted. Bruce nodded, 'Sorry mate, it's been a rough day. We're down to just four trainees after Hannah left this morning and I was expecting Kerry to be up my ass about it,' Bruce said.

'As far as Hannah goes, I don't think you should be too concerned,' Bruce continued, 'In my experience, kids with parents tend not to do so well the first time around because they have something to fall back on. Orphans on the other hand have the grim prospect of being put in a boarding school and receive foster care over the holidays so they'd do anything to get through basic training.'

James nodded. 'That makes a tonne of sense, Bruce, but have you any idea why Hannah would just walk out all of a sudden?' Lauren asked with a puzzled expression. 'She didn't tell you?' Bruce asked wearily. James and Lauren both shook their heads.

Bruce gulped, 'James there was an accident during combat practice yesterday, I scolded Hannah for going easy on her partner and spent the rest of the session watching the pair so that they wouldn't slack off.' Bruce looked uncertainly at James before continuing, 'Hannah performed a textbook roundhouse kick to knock Sophie backwards but unfortunately Sophie hadn't told anyone about her sprained ankle and when she lost her balance, she put her foot down awkwardly and fractured it.'

James shook his head disbelievingly but allowed Bruce to continue. 'As you know, the two girls are best mates and Hannah felt extremely guilty about what had happened to her friend. She all but begged me to punish her for it but I refused since it was an accident and I was angrier with Sophie for not telling anyone about her ankle,' Bruce said.

'So she quit training out of loyalty to her friend,' Lauren said smiling. 'Why wouldn't she tell us?' James questioned, while thinking about the best way to approach Hannah about the situation. 'She was probably worried that you'd be cross with her,' Lauren said. 'Thanks Bruce, you made the right call. She needs to learn to live with guilt if she's ever going to be a good agent,' James said, happier than before. 'We're going to the town to grab some dinner with Hannah to raise her spirits up, would you and Gabrielle like to join us?'

Bruce shook his head, 'Sorry James, I'm absolutely knackered and Gabby wants to have a quiet night. Some other time, eh?' James nodded, 'Yeah, no worries, have a good night, mate,' he said before heading outside with Lauren in tow.

'Party of five, under Adams,' Kerry said to the maître d' as she led the group into the restaurant. James admired the elegant decorations around him and couldn't help but wonder how much this was going to cost him. 'Very swish,' Lauren whispered behind him. After a delicious meal and some reminiscing about the good old days the conversation seemed to slow as the group tucked into their desserts . 'So I went and talked to Bruce about Hannah,' James said casually, he'd already told Kerry about everything but wanted to see the look on Hannah's face when she realized that he knew why she'd quit.

Hannah looked like all the blood had run out of her face, she clumsily dropped her spoon into her chocolate mousse and stared up with sorry eyes at her father, as if pleading not to go on. James let out an involuntary chuckle, the statement had the exact effect he'd hoped. 'Your mum already knows, silly, and we're both very proud of what you did,' James said with a grin. Hannah realized that she'd been holding her breath the entire time and exhaled with relief before smiling.

'It was unfortunate what happened, but you can't blame yourself for it dear. I know Sophie means a lot to you and what you did was really rather admirable but you must think about yourself as well. You're getting through basic training next time, understood?' Kerry said, with a touch of kindness in her voice. Hannah simply nodded. 'Have you been to visit her in the medical center yet?' Lauren inquired. Hannah nodded meekly, 'She's really upset about what happened and blames herself for me quitting as well.'

Everyone looked around unsure of what to say. 'She needs you now, more than ever,' Greg said clearing his throat before continuing, 'She's undoubtedly feeling guilty about betraying your trust by not telling you about her injury and you need to reassure her that it's not a big deal. Just being around her should cheer her up.' Hannah nodded, 'I'll take some of her things down to the medical ward when we get back to campus.'

'Right then,' James said while standing up, 'I'll go clear the bill, then we can drop Hannah off at campus before heading home.'

'Thanks for the dinner James, it was fantastic,' Lauren said with Greg nodding in agreement. 'We'll head off now if you don't mind, Greg has to drop off samples of his new listening device prototype at MI6 tomorrow and wants to get an early start.' James nodded, 'Thanks for coming guys, we should really do this more often,' he said pulling Lauren into a hug before shaking Greg's hand and waving them goodbye.

Kerry started shivering and tucked her hands under her armpits as they stepped out of the toasty restaurant into the freezing winter weather with only a thin sweater to keep out the cold. James chuckled as he began unbuttoning his overcoat, 'You really ought to dress for functionality rather than fashion,' he said jokingly as he draped his overcoat gently over Kerry's shoulders. 'Thanks,' Kerry said, still shivering, 'I didn't plan on going anywhere today.' The warmth of the coat and the faint smell of James' aftershave reminded Kerry of all the great times they'd spent together and how much she loved James.

As the trio walked towards their car, Kerry, lost in her thoughts didn't notice James and Hannah slowly dropping behind and crouching down to roll two sloppy snowballs. James and Hannah smiled evilly at each other. Kerry snapped out of her reverie when she heard James should, 'OH MY GOD KERRY!' from behind her. She spun at once and was instantaneously bombarded by the two snowballs. Kerry shrieked as one of the snowballs splattered around her chest while the other barely grazed her arm.

'You two are so dead,' Kerry shouted before laughing out loud. She couldn't help but see the funny side of things and pulled them both into a hug.

Author's Note: I fear I may be taking things a bit slow for many of you. I really loved the interactions between characters when they weren't on missions in the original Cherub series and have tried to recreate some of that here. I promise to speed things up a bit in the next chapter as we follow Hannah through her second stab at basic training.