On my fifth lap of the morning, I slowed down enough to run alongside Raine. She refused to stop training, even when she was leaning over, puking into the field every lap. She was much further behind than she usually was, but she was still able to keep up well enough.

When I finally catch her eyes, she rolls them.

"I know what you're about to say." She says, and I let out a little chuckle. Raine and I trained together a lot, I was her mentor. We tried and kept close with each other. It was hard to make friends here, and I found myself lucky to have as many opportunities to have them as I did.

She shoves her short hair into a messy bundle on her head. Her face is reddened and sweaty. She looks ill.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to." I tell her, and she lets out the loudest sound of disagreement.

"I know that, airhead. Why don't you focus on leading the run instead of giving me parenting advice in the back?"

"This is not parenting advice!" I defend myself curtly, and she grabs my wrist to stop us. She's heaving and gasping for breath.

"Are you alright, Raine?" I put a hand to her shoulder, which she pointedly shakes off.

She throws up into the grass.

"Alright, enough running for today. Let's go see Badger."

"Here you go, Raine. This will help with your nausea." Badger hands her some liquid medicine, and Raine rests a hand on her stomach.

"Badger-- is there any way to... Do you guys have the equipment for..."

Badger's eyebrows raise in concern, but Raine just shakes her head. Her hand closes over her stomach hard.

"This was just- a mistake. Never should've happened." Tears bloom in her eyes, and they become darker than usual. I had never seen Raine frown, let alone shed tears.

Raine came here in a similar fashion to me. She was found by Liri, tired, hungry, dirty, and alone. She had no abilities to offer, so I often had chats with her about her purpose. When she first started training here, she was already well-equipped in the fighting department. All that showed me was that this girl had had to fight and defend herself before.

I remember the day she confessed to me her feelings for Carro.

It was before Badger got here. Not too long before it.

"Mitah, have you ever had feelings for someone here?" She asked me one day while we were cleaning up after training. The question took me off guard. Not because the idea of it shocked me, but because it was so uncommon at the time. Nobody felt that they had time for commitment and feelings. I felt the same way.

I turn to her and feel my heart race. I remember thinking she was about to confess her love to me.

"No, no. I haven't." I say honestly.

"Do you think it's dumb? To have feelings for someone here?"

"Dumb, no. Inconvenient, yes."

She falls silent, and I can tell my answer was not the one she wanted.

"I think I have feelings for Carro."

My face scrunches up, and she laughs.

"He's really nice once you get to know him!" She hugs herself, and I give her a smile to show her I was only joking- partially.

Carro was a troublemaker. When I first got here, Liri pointed him out to me, told me to keep an eye on him. Said he got into plenty of fights, plenty of screaming matches. He had gotten there a few weeks before me. Liri wanted us to be friends, but every conversation I had with him, he blew me off. We finally started getting along after a few years of bickering. I went up to him one day, told him he needed to change his fighting style completely, and we laughed about it. It was a very strange day. We stayed in touch until he started messing around at training- making everybody else pick up his slack.

We got into one big fight, and never really made up again.

I didn't know if that was the kind of guy I wanted Raine to have feelings for.

"I used to be his friend. He's a violent guy, Raine. I would be careful if I were you."

"I could try and find the old ultrasound equipment, if you'd like?"

"Yes, that's fine." Raine says, but the words don't really meet her eyes.

She lifts her shirt just to let us see the bump. It's very small- hardly noticeable. Badger gets up and books it for the other side of the room. He opens a lower cabinet and starts rummaging through it.

It's cute to see him so excited about this.

I recline the chair for Raine, and she settles on top of it. I'm about to get my things and leave the two of them, but the door opens. A frantic-looking Carro enters. His eyebrows are drawn up in concern. It's like he doesn't even realize Badger or I are in the room.

"What happened? Saira told me you were in the med bay? Is the baby okay?" He tries to rest a hand on her shoulder, but she smacks it away in frustration.

"The baby is fine. I just got sick at training. You can leave now."

He takes a look at what Badger is doing, and his face lights up in a way I've never seen from Carro.

"Are we going to see the baby? Now?" Carro goes to set his hands on Raine again, but he catches himself and drops them to his side. My heart actually hurts for the guy at this point.

"I guess." Rain shrugs, and her whole body seems to turn away from Carro. Carro notices this and winces.

"I think I'm going to leave now. This seems too intimate for me to be here." I announce to the room, and Badger swings his head around to smile at me. I walk over to him and press a kiss on his cheek.

"No, no! Mitah stays for this." Raine shouts from the other side of the room. It looks like she's about to fall off the bed, as far away as she's trying to get from Carro.

"Carro, you didn't do anything to her, did you?" I quirk a brow, because this behavior from her is starting to get a little much for me. My mind comes up with terrible things he could have done- but it doesn't get far because Raine shuts it down.

"No. It's not like that. I just- I don't know. I can't look at him right now." Carro looks hurt by this, more hurt than I've ever seen him. I'm witnessing a lot of emotions I had never thought Carro could have. It's clear to me that Raine and their baby mean a lot to him.

Carro just looks at her, and she looks at the floor.

Badger hops up from the cabinet.

"Alright, let's get this started."