Healing Myself

~A Report~

The whole Blackbourne team had decided to convene at Nathan's immediately after they left the Winston residence. For all his talk about protecting Sang and taking care of her for the duration of this mission, Xander Winston didn't actually seem to want his daughter in their presence any longer than it was necessary.

And that boy, Leo. Once they'd finally managed to explain to Sang and her father the details of the Ashley Waters' mission, he'd literally shooed them away from the residence. Like they were nothing more than stray dogs.

They weren't strays. They were the Academy's one of the biggest, youngest and most successful teams. Yet, they'd been rolled over by one boy. All because none of them had wanted to get in Sang's bad graces by saying anything insulting to her best friend who she clearly cared a great deal about.

With everyone finally settled around Nathan's living room, Mr. Blackbourne asked the question that had been burning in his mind throughout the meeting with the two Winstons.

"Would you like to explain, boys, how Miss Winston and you seemed to already be acquainted to each other?"

Sean jumped at the first chance to ambush his best friend. "That's bold coming from you. She called you Owen." He turned toward the rest of the team. His brothers, not his boys. Owen really needed to let go of the surname thing. It had severely distanced both of the older boys from the rest of them and Sean didn't like it one bit. He resumed with what he was about to say. "Can you believe it?"

"No," came sarcastic murmurs from the younger of them. He talked about all of them knowing her and vice versa, but what about him? Didn't he know her already as well? Didn't she know him?

Mr. Blackbourne straightened out his tie. It was a bad habit, one he wanted to get rid of. He did it whenever he was nervous. Right now, that's exactly what he was, talking about Sang.

"I've only met her once," he said, "if we dismiss the chance encounter I had with her at the Andersons' cabin."

"So she did go to Lily's." Dr. Green mumbled, lost in thought. When everyone looked at him in question, he explained further. "I met her at the Academy hospital. Dr. Roberts mentioned her visit with Lily."

Shouts of worry and concern rang about the room. Questions like, "Why did she go to the hospital?", "Is she sick?" and "Is she okay?" were thrown out with wild abandon. It was clear they all cared for her in the short amount of time they had known the blonde.

Mr. Blackbourne gave them all looks to calm down. An appointment at the hospital wasn't something to get so worked up over. Although, worry didn't elude him either. Especially remembering the painful way she had cried the day before.

When the boys finally came to the smart conclusion that speaking over one another the same questions wasn't getting them anywhere, they evidently stopped trying and focused their attention on Dr. Green in hopes that he could give them more information about her visit to the hospital.

"It was just a routine check up, right?" Nathan questioned and Dr. Green agreed with him. Nathan nodded to himself and then told everyone. "She told me when I met her."

"So it's clear that each one of us has already met her." Kota stated, taking charge like always. "The question is when, where and how. I'll begin. I met her two days ago at the park nearby. I don't know how it happened, but Max jumped on her."

"He what?!" North burst out, worried about the tiny girl's safety. Victor followed his brooding brother's line of thought. "Max did that?"

For as long as all the boys had known the golden retriever, he had never once gone out of line. What could have made him act this way? Perhaps even the dog was aware of just how special Sang was.