A New Kind of Army

Chapter 22: Wedding Bells

Arrow was shipped out again, this time Junia and Jenette went with her, and they returned a few weeks later. Things had been different with her recently. Ever since the 4th I hadn't been able to stop thinking about what she had done for me. I knew she didn't go to Christin about my...episode...as he seemed completely oblivious to what happened. Don't get me wrong, I was glad she hadn't gone to him, once she found out about my shell shock, or PTSD as she called it. Sure, she had said I wouldn't be sent away for it but it was still humiliating.

And I knew she hadn't forgotten what happened.

Up until she had left, and even when she came back, I could see her watching me out of the corner of my eye. She had been very subtle about it. It actually took me a week to notice. While that was impressive enough, the looks weren't really the problem. It was the expression on her face. I didn't know how to describe it. Her face was an odd mix, of concern-which was understandable-confusion and strangely something that looked similar to fear.

Fear.

Needless to say, that scared me. Why would Arrow be frightened of me? My panic attack hadn't spooked her that much, had it? It shouldn't have, especially considering she had admitted to having gone through it herself. I wanted to ask her about it, but we hadn't really talked since that night. I was busy with Black Sheep and the other kids, and she was usually off training or with Junia.

Summer didn't last much longer, sadly.

August came and went with little issue. The craziest day I had that month was when Snowy took a day off to celebrate her birthday with her family and I was left with 15 little kids to look after. Or it could have been the day I accidentally blew up the toaster (Bread fell to far into the contraption. I didn't want get burned so I stuck my servo inside to rescue said bread. Things exploded.). Other than that, it was peaceful. Peaceful that was a word that only 5 and half months ago I'd thought I'd never get to use. Not with the war going on.

The camp ended, mid-August, and I was sad to say goodbye to all of the kids. We had some fun times. Though, I was grateful that Black Sheep was staying with me, and from now on it was just the two of us. Amira had been coaching me through how to care for a mutant child with mimic abilities. It was all part of the trial period, where the kid was sent to live with a potential family before being officially released into their custody. Now that Summer was over, Amira had to return to her duties on Nexus, so we could finally make it official. The papers were signed (Christin may have been the legal guardian, but I was still the only name on the relative list), and Black Sheep, or Adam S. Barnes, was officially my little brother. There was even a cake to celebrate the little guy's new birthday.

I started to help prepare for the autumn harvest. Christin's land was still a farm after all, and he needed the help as three of his kids had their own jobs and the younger ones spent the day with their tutors. Growing potatoes was much more fun than peeling them, and I learned a lot about agriculture. It was nice, but it didn't feel like something I could do for the rest of my life.

Soon it was the middle of September, everyone was back home. The house was full and it would stay that way until a few weeks into October. We played games, watched movies and just laughed that first week.

It was early one morning, at breakfast, when we got the message about Snowy's wedding.

Snowy's wedding.

I had completely forgotten about it. The vixen girl, had returned to her family's home on Nexus as soon as the camp ended. I hadn't seen her since. Not that I blamed her for that. She was getting married after all. Probably had a few things to get done before the wedding. The message was a last reminder to all of the guests, of the date, dress code, time, and an updated invite list. Which had my and Black Sheep's names on it. I guess she liked us.