SPT; The Anchor to Betweenness (being rewritten)

TBI: Chapter 12

New groups.

Christian, whom I'd somewhat dragged along, gently squeezed my hand as I tensed over Usui's announcement. While I knew he wouldn't pull me away from everyone in my group, it still was a stab in the back.

"It's been a week already? Christ." I grumbled. Christian smiled, gently squeezing my shoulder. He was the one who insisted on me staying in the hospital a few more days; I didn't wanna hear his shit.

"It'll be okay, Hart. I heard you can choose the group's medics. And if you don't like your team I'm sure you can talk to audio and get them fixed, as a new captain."

And I felt better already.

Usui was currently walking through the room, passing out papers to each captain. Everyone else was left in suspense, waiting for Uganda as she passed out little note cards with a number on them. Nothing more, nothing less, just a number and their name. Medics were sat off to the side, all except Christian; he decided to sit with me.

Uganda Ukata was a fiery woman of 25; with a huge resemblance of Erza, her red hair reached down to her shoulder blades and framed emerald green eyes. She was shorter than me at 5'1", but without MVL, she could beat me to a crisp.

Even with MVL, it was a struggle to spar against her. She just knew how to take advantage of situations, which I hated and loved her for.

If my father hadn't gone to jail and she never found out about what happened to us, she would be married to my dad. Her daughter, Isabelle, was my half sister; she'd just turned 9 on January 1st.

She didn't want me to come. In fact, she'd wanted that as my birthday present to her.

It was another reason why Mark was skittish with me lately. Usually, he had no problem mothering me around. He just didn't want to hurt my feelings.

I blinked as Christian shook me back to reality, his hand settled on my knee. I realized a paper was in front of my face, and I looked up at Usui.

We stared at each other for a while, Uganda waiting patiently behind him. She looked proud but wary. Perhaps she knew I didn't want to do this.

With a quiet sigh, I took the paper, frowning as applause erupted around me. I nudged Usui ahead with my foot, trying to get them to stop.

Christian patted my wrist, fingers lingering for a moment before he pulled his hand away. As a rich kid, I'm sure he wanted to keep up with appearances.

Wow. I'm a fucking hypocrite.

I looked down at the paper, my blood running cold after a moment. I reread it several times, eyes widening.

Not only was I fourth in command and new captain... I was leading the top 5 in our division, and the other tops of other jobs.

Shit.

This is way too much responsibility.

The only person that I was friends with (I knew of all the others, but never met them) was Montague. A couple others from Usui's old group were also there--but I'd never met them.

Fucking hell.

Mark hugged me from behind, pressing a kiss to my ear. "It's okay, Hart. We're still here."

My throat cleared up, allowing me to breathe once more. I reached up and gripped his hand, lifting it and kissing his fingers. He squeezed my hand before letting go, probably to let Usui and Uganda through.

A minute later, Ming abruptly stopped whispering to Lucie and Ellis, two rows behind me and a little to the left. I turned around to see and nearly choked on air at the sight.