Carolina Wren

A Report #3

Mr. Blackbourne stood in Nathan's bathroom, resolutely straightening the tie on his clean suit as he prepared himself for the family meeting that was about to happen. Beads of precipitation still clung to the mirror after the parade of showers had happened this morning. He had planned to do his hours resulting from the incident at the school on Friday on his own but when North Taylor had alerted their brothers to his plan, they had all raised a fuss.

They excelled as a team and they failed as a team. One person's mistake was everyone's mistake. His fear that his team would be so thrown off course by one teenage girl was not a failure they would allow him to bear alone-- it was something the entire team needed to work out. He had already issued his individual apologies to each member of the team and while some had taken it better than others, they had all been accepted. The hour was to recement that bond they had with each other.

Mr. Blackbourne could feel that something was still off, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. A weight within the group that sat silently, waiting like a ticking time bomb to explode. He, of course, had no way of knowing that his brothers were harboring guilt of their own for the secrets they were keeping from their two oldest brothers. He and Sean had neither one been able to make it to the sleepover the night before, so they didn't know that the boys had been up until nearly 2 AM arguing over the necessity of keeping Wren Nelson's secret.

With one last cursory glance over his appearance, Mr. Blackbourne joined his team in the living room. The boys were all freshly showered and eating bagels that Sean had picked up on his way over this morning. He was already counting the minutes until he could go collapse on his bed for some more sleep before his shift started, but his desire to hear more about where they were getting on the investigation into Wren's family was enough to keep him awake with little effort on his part.

He might even be able to stay awake through Mr. Blackbourne's best impersonation of the teacher from Charlie Brown as he went on and on about Ashley Waters mission details that Sean was already familiar with.

North had been oddly relaxed-- for him-- since the night before but as his anxiousness grew, so did the tension in his muscles. They were going to be going over the Nelson family background checks today and Victor's poker face could use some work. Either he was concerned he was going to show too many cards and end up betraying Wren, or something had come up that he didn't like. His fingers hadn't stopped ghosting over an invisible piano since he sat down after his shower.

Silas had his attention on his best friend. He could sense the tension growing and it concerned him that North's focus wasn't on Luke and Gabe, who were whispering conspiratorially together, where it normally would have been. He was worried about Wren and what might come to light, but he was more worried about how North was going to react to whatever it was Victor had to say.

Kota was trying his hardest to not show how fidgety he felt as he eyed the most reluctant member of his team. Nathan was fighting with himself and the rest of the team over what the best course of action for Wren was. He had eventually agreed that for now they could keep her secret, but he wasn't thrilled with the necessity of keeping their mentors in the dark and the risk that it might be to Wren. This manifested by him being quieter than usual, not wanting to meet anyone's eye. Kota wasn't sure how long he could keep this secret going if it was going to be a detriment to his team. They were all on edge and if it started affecting their relationships with each other or their mission at Ashley Waters, he was going to have to intervene.

Kota didn't want to betray Wren's trust, none of them did, but as much as it would hurt him, family came first. He desperately wished there was some way to make Wren family but for the time being, it wasn't an option. Hopefully, this meeting would shed some light on her situation that would allow them to begin considering adopting her. He could work on building her trust in the entire team and then none of this would be an issue anymore.