Immaculate

Spiders and Showers

Ok, so once again, not how I envisioned it originally. I've snookered them with the size of the shower. :o But they'll work something out. :)

I think the real recovery for Sang will happen over weeks when she's back home. It is something that bothers me in the books and I'm waiting to see how C.l.Stone has her dealing with it. She has gone through so much, she's going to pop sooner or later, something has to give. She's not confronting any of it, just refusing to think about it, but it's not going away and is manifesting itself in her nightmares and her fear of the shower. At first I thought her nightmares were from past events that she's repressed, but now I think its PTSD. But I could be wrong. I'm dying to find out what Sang's past is really all about. Who her mother really was.... I read on one of the cheat books, she has 20 odd books planned and I was like :o, I'll be drawing my pensions by the time she gets it done. :)

North may be slightly ahead, but he was just it the right place at the right time. Silas is still stalking her. Not much mention of it yet, but there will be, I think. ;)

Hope you all are ok with this one too.

Part Fifty-Three

Sang's POV

I was at the back again. Kota was in front, with Mr Blackbourne behind him, then it was Dr Green, Silas, North, Luke, Nathan, Victor, Gabriel, then me. Me, bringing up the rear of something the Military would be proud off.

Gabriel kept checking back to make sure I was still with them. They had wanted to put me in the middle of the line but I had fallen back until I was at the end. I kept expecting Kota to break out into the Drill Instructors song for the other to chant it back at him.

This was not fun. I know that I wanted to be part of the Academy, part of their group and in order to that, I had to suck it up and get on with this. Prove to them that I could keep up, but I also wanted to have fun this week. I shifted my pack higher on my back and dared to look around me. So far, with the uphill slog at a rate that covered me in sweat after ten minutes, the only scenery I had taken any note of was the ground at my feet.

"Keep up!" Kota called back and I just resisted the urge to salute and I trudged onwards.

"Oy, Trouble, having fun?" Gabriel asked me, looking back at me as he walked.

He looked pretty happy, a grin tugging at his lips. His hair was tucked behind his ears and in his camouflage cargos and jacket, he looked like he worked for Uncle Sam. Even his pack was camouflage. I grinned back at him and he turned to face front again.

I was concentrating on the ground at my feet, careful to not trip over roots or plants as we once again ignored the paths and tracked through forest. I was slowing down, I knew I was, the gap between Gabriel and me was growing; I just couldn't pick up the pace anymore.

Because we weren't using the tracks which sidewinded uphill, we were going straight up at a sharper angle. The muscles in the backs of my calves were complaining. I stopped at a slightly flatter part and turned to look out over the lake. If it had been summer I don't think you'd even see the lake, but because most of the trees had lost their leaves you could see quite well. The lake sparkled below us and it looked fantastic. I took my phone from my pocket and took a few pictures. I slid my phone away and sighed heavily. Any second now and one of them would be back, telling me to keep up in case I got lost.

I turned and walked forward banging straight into Mr Blackbourne.

"Oh!" I nearly went over backwards, but he caught my upper arms and held me up. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

"No problem, Miss Sorenson. Would you like a break yet?"

I looked up ahead at where they had all stopped and were waiting for us. They were talking, Nathan and Gabriel were laughing at something, not a bead of sweat in sight, not a sign of heavy breathing. I looked back at Mr Blackbourne. He looked as if he'd stepped off the pages of a magazine. I sighed and shook my head. In truth I wanted to go back down, soak in a bath for an hour and then curl up with my kindle. Neither was possible and I looked away from him and back out over the lake.