"Are you okay?"

Breathing heavily, I slowed down my pace – reducing my speed to a relaxed walk before stepping down off the treadmill. Grabbing the towel that Catherine offered me, I nodded. "Yeah, that was only two miles," I replied, wiping the sweat from my forehead and the back of my neck. "I could've done another one or two easily."

While the corner of her lips tilted upwards, the concern that had flooded her features didn't disappear. "I'm not saying you couldn't have," she continued, "but I was actually referring to your shoulder. Did you hurt it recently?"

This was only my third physical training session with Catherine, and what I was quick to pick up on was how good she was at noticing the little things – including the fact that my shoulder was currently not up to par. It wasn't a huge injury, but I'd hurt it when I'd been training with Beckett a few nights earlier.

After the night when Finn had showed up and cut my conversation with Beckett short, I waited up later the following night and made my way down to the training barn – once again finding the place deserted, except for Beckett. I think my appearance had confirmed his suspicions as to whether or not I was serious about having him teach me a thing or two about fighting, and though it took a bit of convincing on my part, he'd begrudgingly agreed to help me.

It was an unspoken agreement however, that our late-night training sessions stayed between the two of us. I didn't want anyone trying to stop me from learning what I thought I had a right to know, and I was sure he didn't want it getting back to Catherine, or any other agents, that he was teaching me how to fight.

A few nights a week I was meeting him down in the training barn – when he didn't have other things on his plate, and up until two nights ago, everything had been going smoothly. I was packing a better punch and I was learning to analyze the small tells that helped me land a few hits on Beckett. That was, until I'd aimed a kick at his ribcage only to have him block it, causing me to land hard on my shoulder as I fell to the mat. The pain hadn't been immediate, as it wasn't until the next morning that I'd felt the ache settle in, so deciding not to push my luck, I'd sat out of training last night.

"Just a bit stiff," I said, the lie slipping from my mouth easily as I tried to put Catherine's worries at ease. "I was just trying to stretch it out a bit while running."

She nodded immediately, and while that led me to believe that she didn't suspect anything, I also knew that she was trained to deceive people when necessary.

"If it's still bugging you in a few days, I'd suggest going to the infirmary," Catherine explained. "A few agents developed a healing solution a couple of years back in our labs that fixes a lot of common physical problems our agents seem to have."

My eyes widened. "Seriously?"

She nodded. "It can't fix broken bones or restart your heart, but it does wonders in alleviating tension from your muscles and mending cuts to the skin."

"Good to know," I replied, bringing my left arm up above my head for a moment to stretch out my shoulder. Dropping my arm, I rolled my shoulders as I glanced around at the other machines. "So, what's next?"

Catherine flitted her eyes between my shoulder and my face, her gaze sharp. "Are you sure you want to keep going?"

Even though, like I had expected, she kept me well away from the fighting and sparring in the center of the room the last two training sessions, I wanted to prove to her that I could put in the work. "Of course," I said firmly.

"Okay then," she said, standing up from the bench adjacent to the treadmills and nodded towards the strength equipment, "we'll do some light upper body training and then get you set up to run a few of the training courses."

Nodding, I bent down to grab my water bottle and took a gulp. "Sounds good."

----------

"Good luck tonight," I said, lifting my eyes as Finn stood up from the other side of the table.

We'd met up for a late dinner in the Grand Hall after I'd freshened up from my training session with Catherine, and now, as he smiled back at me, he was setting off to connect with another group of agents who were heading out on assignment. 

"Thanks," he said, his smile shifting into a smirk as he continued, "but I won't need it."

I rolled my eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow – if you're still alive."

"I wouldn't joke about that kind of thing around here," he said quietly, his voice low, though his pupils gleamed with amusement as he picked up his tray and pivoted towards the exit. "See you tomorrow," he threw back over his shoulder before disappearing from view.

Shaking my head at his good-natured personality, I finished up the last of my food before following the path Finn had taken out of the relatively empty Grand Hall. It wasn't that unusual – I'd learned over the three weeks I'd been here – for the more important missions to take place over the weekend, which meant that there were significantly less people milling around the grounds that evening.

Thinking I'd use the free time to get ahead in my French lessons, I turned down the hallway that led to the housing wing, but when I bumped into another person as I rounded the corner, my plans were sidetracked. 

The younger girl I didn't recognize simply mumbled an apology under her breath as she continued on her way, but as a dull pain shot through my shoulder, I clenched my teeth instead of returning the sentiment. Turning on my heel, I brought my right hand up to massage my shoulder lightly as I made my way towards the infirmary.

Clearly toughing it out this afternoon hadn't been the smartest idea.

The nurse was incredibly friendly when I'd walked in clutching my shoulder, and after a few minutes of poking and prodding, she'd administered me a small dose of healing solution. In addition to instructing me not to aggravate the muscles overnight – as that was when the drug would work its magic, she'd also given me a shoulder sling with a built-in cooling pad to wear until I fell asleep.

Thanking her immensely, I made my way back towards the housing wing, though I didn't get far – bumping into Kira as she left the lab for the night. I hadn't seen much of her as of recent, as I'd been busy with my nose stuck in a book and she'd had her own work to focus on. Plus, even when we did find time to grab lunch or sit and talk, it seemed like we barely had a chance to catch up before one of us was rushing off.

"Hey," she said, surprised to see me, and when her eyes landed on my shoulder, they widened with concern. "What happened?"

"It's a long story," I grimaced, suddenly feeling a mixture of dread and guilt, "and it looks worse than it is."

Kira quirked an eyebrow, holding back her response for a moment as her gaze held steady. "Are you busy tonight?"

"No..."

"Because I've got a bottle of wine stored away that I've been saving, and this," she said, motioning to my injury, "sounds like the perfect opportunity to crack it open."

Tension immediately spilled from my shoulders and a light laugh escaped my lips as I sighed. "That," I said, the prospect of having a relaxed evening with a friend too enticing to pass up, "sounds great."

After stopping off at Kira's room to grab the bottle of wine and a pair of comfier clothes, we continued down the halls until we reached my room, and it didn't take long before the two of us had changed into our pajamas and were seated across from one another.

"Now," she said, crossing her legs as she sat at the bottom of my bed and twisted the cap off the bottle of rosé, "I believe you owe me an explanation."

"Wine first," I said. There were no qualms about the two of us drinking from the bottle, as she took a sip before handing the bottle to me. Tilting the bottle to my lips, I took two sips, enjoying the taste as the liquid moved smoothly down my throat as I handed it back to her and fell back against my pillows. "So, what do you want to know?"

"Let's start with how you got that sling."

"The nurse gave it to me after she gave me a bit of the healing solution that you guys use," I explained with a teasing undertone, knowing that that wasn't exactly what she was asking.

As expected, she rolled her eyes as she took another sip of wine. "I figured that much," she said. "What I want to know is how you hurt your shoulder in the first place. Shouldn't Catherine still be taking it relatively easy on you in your training sessions?"

I pulled the corner of my lip between my teeth as an internal war begun inside my head. "I didn't injure it while training with Catherine," I answered carefully, though as soon as her eyebrows creased and confusion flooded her features, I sighed, resigning to the fact that I was going to tell her the truth. "I hurt it when I was training with Beckett."

With the words processing in her head and a silence drawing out between the two of us, I reached forward to grab the bottle of wine from her grasp, taking another generous sip. "Beckett?" I nodded slowly. "As in Beckett Donovan? The guy that, up until now, I haven't heard you ever say one good thing about?"

"That would be the one," I confirmed.

She blinked once, and then again, but as she blinked the third time, she threw her head back and launched herself into a fit of laughter. Her laugh was loud and shook her whole body, and all I did was watch, slightly amused by the spectacle, taking sip after sip of wine until she regained some measure of control. "Please," she said, wiping the tears of amusement that filled the outer rims of her eyes, "tell me how that situation came about."

"Not much to tell really," I said, but before I could continue, she interrupted.

"I disagree," she mused. "I want to know how two people who can't stand each other seem to be able to train together without killing each other."

"We aren't that bad," I pointed out, lifting the corner of my lips, "but it does help that I get to take my anger out on him a couple nights a week."

Laughter left her lips once again. "Of course it does, but seriously, how did you even get him to agree to help train you?"

I let out a deep breath, contemplating my answer. "You can't tell anyone about this," I said seriously. "Nobody else knows."

"I won't," she promised, suddenly looking intrigued as she brought her fingers up to draw an invisible cross over her heart.

"I guess I don't really know how it happened," I admitted, still not sure of the details myself. "I went down to the training barn around midnight over a week ago, thinking it'd be empty, but he was still there training alone. I tried to convince him that I knew what I was doing, and he ended up showing me a few pointers after he saw that I could barely landed a hit. His advice actually helped a lot. The next night I went back, and even though he wasn't sure about it, he kept teaching me a few things – watching me get better."

"So what," she started, a frown slipping onto her lips as her gaze flitted down to my shoulder, "did he start trying to hit you or something?"

I shook my head fiercely. "No," I protested, "not at all. He's only ever blocked my attacks, but when I landed hard on the mat a few nights ago, I ended up hurting my shoulder. It also didn't help that I still trained with Catherine this afternoon, when I probably should've been taking it easy."

Understanding clouded her features. "She doesn't know Beckett is training you to fight, does she?"

"No, and I doubt she wants me learning to fight at all, but I want to be prepared." My words had a rougher edge to them as I continued – my determination seeping through. "If the Gemini Clan comes after me again, I want to be able to fight."

When Kira didn't respond right away, I had a moment of doubt – thinking that maybe she'd adhere to the rules and tell Catherine what was going on. It would be her choice after all, and there was nothing I could do to take back the conversation we'd just had.

"I won't say anything," she said slowly, and I released a breath of relief, "but I think that you should." I saw her eyes momentarily glint with despair, but it was gone in the blink of an eye – masked as if it hadn't been there in the first place. "Keeping secrets in a place like this is never a good idea."

The way she said it made me believe that there was a reason she seemed so conflicted, but I didn't want to push her to explain. I knew it was probably a smarter decision to tell Catherine the truth, to explain why I wanted to learn how to fight, but the nagging voice in the back of my head kept telling me that she wouldn't understand.

"Can we just agree to disagree?" I asked, willing her to concede and let the subject drop.

A soft smile pulled at her lips as she nodded. "For now," she said, her eyes dropping to the grip I still had on the wine, "if you pass me the bottle."

Laughing, I did so willingly. As the night went on, the conversation between the two of us slipped into one that was much less serious – ranging from how she got recruited into S.I.C.O to funny stories about customers I'd dealt with while waitressing. It was stress-free, and after twenty days of constant uncertainty and skepticism, a chance to unwind that I desperately needed.

"Seriously?" I snorted, hours later as Kira finished explaining a lab mishap that had happened the first month she'd worked there.

"Unfortunately," she admitted with a grimace. Apparently, she'd added the wrong chemical into a medicine the team had been working on for a few months, and even though she'd only contaminated one vial, it had caused a mini explosion within the lab and destroyed the rest of samples. "But in my defence, the two chemicals were the exact same colour and weren't labeled, so how was I supposed to know which one they wanted me to use?"

"You could've just asked," I mused, "but seriously, they still let you work with them?"

She nodded. "They had all the work they'd done up to that point well-documented, so it wasn't hard to start over after everything was cleaned up, but they definitely kept a close eye on me. I actually think it was another month before they let me do anything on my own."

"Well it all worked out in the end, right?"

"Yeah," she replied, "it did."

"And is that the only thing that's gone wrong in the lab?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow.

A smirk grew on her lips as she shook her head. "No, but you'd need a lot more wine to get another story out of me tonight," she teased as she nodded at the empty bottle that rested beside me.

"I'm sure that – "

A series of knocks cut my bantering short.

"Who is that?" Kira asked glancing over her shoulder at the closed door before turning back to me with confusion creasing her forehead.

"I have no clue," I said slowly, pushing myself up from the bed and looking at the clock to see that it was just past midnight. Reaching the door, I pulled it open just enough to catch a glimpse of who was standing there. My eyes grew in surprise as I saw Beckett, his hands tucked into his pockets and a blank expression on his face, and I stepped aside to let him in. "What are you doing here?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but as I let the door close behind him, his eyes fell to my injured shoulder. "What happened?" he asked quietly, and as he raised his gaze to meet mine, I saw the smallest glimpse of concern.

"Oh, um," I stammered, "nothing really."

"She hurt it a few nights ago training with you."

Kira's voice caused the both of us to turn her way – me with narrowed eyes and Beckett with tense shoulders, as up until that moment, he believed the two of us were alone. She raised an eyebrow at us, though she kept quiet, completely content with watching the conversation play out between Beckett and I.

"Is that true?"

"I'm fine," I stressed, giving Kira a pointed look before turning back to Beckett. "I went to the nurse and she gave me some of the healing solution you guys use, so I'll be good as new in no time."

"And that's why you didn't show up yesterday, or tonight?" he asked, his voice low. I nodded. "Why didn't you say something?"

I ducked my head as a mixture of guilt and embarrassment clouded my mind. "I didn't want you to think that I couldn't handle learning how to fight," I admitted apologetically. "This isn't your fault. I wanted to learn how to fight, so I have to deal with the injuries that come with that."

A conflicted set of emotions crossed his face as he raised his right hand and dragged it stressfully through his jet-black hair. It was as though he wanted to say something – the words on the tip of his tongue, but something was holding him back. I waited for him to respond, and as the seconds ticked by with nothing but silence, I began to get antsy.

Beckett's reply never came however, because the moment I thought he'd finally speak up, he took a step away from me. Turning on his heel, he pulled open the door and left, letting it fall shut behind him with a loud thud.

Left staring at the door with an open mouth and disbelief etched into my features, I felt a strong wave of confusion wash over me.

"Well," Kira started, and I turned back to face her, "that was interesting."

"Yeah," I trailed in agreement, wondering what the hell had just happened, "it was."