Madam President

Chapter Four

"You have to move with me. I promise how I move won't change. You just have to learn the steps, okay?"

Rebecca nodded as she took a moment to catch her breath. She'd gone from being shaken at seeing Freen in sweats instead of a suit to absolutely hating her apparent abundance of stamina.

Freen, for the first time that afternoon, was apparently in a merciful mood. "Get some water. You still haven't shaken the last of that flu. Sorry."

Another thing that had left Rebecca rather shaken. The way Freen was acting, the way she was speaking to her. There were no more 'ma'ams' or awkward fumbles of her actual name.

No, it seemed Freen's top priority right now was teaching her how to...be less of a target than she was.

Only Freen was infuriatingly un-sweaty and un-breathless. Rebecca, on the other hand, had her hair up in a damp, messy bun and was on her third bottle of water.

"One more time." Freen finally said as she walked back to the center of the training mat.

"Okay, but how am I supposed to be able to tell which direction the attack is coming from, again?" Rebecca asked with a slight divot of confusion between her brows.

"You aren't. That's my job, and I'll always know. Alright?"

Rebecca exhaled deeply as she nodded and fell into step just in front of Freen when the other woman began walking.

The sharp, simulated noise came from a different direction this time. Again. Like every time.

Yet, before she could even find it within herself to be startled, Freen had shifted her position and pressed herself to her back. At the same time, she quickened their pace.

For the first time, they made it to the doorway of the room without Rebecca tripping her. For that much, at least, Rebecca was thankful.

She couldn't imagine how many bruises Freen had from turning them while they fell to avoid hurting Rebecca. She didn't need to know that there were no bruises. She didn't need to know that, at all.

"Perfect. That was perfect."

When Freen finally let her go and Rebecca turned around to look at her, she couldn't help but return the grin Freen was wearing.

She couldn't help the warmth in her chest that resulted from the real confident. Because Freen wasn't a yes-man. Not right now, anyway. Rebecca could be absolutely sure of that. It was nice to hear that she'd done a good job at something and know she'd done a good job.

Freen didn't realize, in her excitement, that she was still touching Rebecca's arm. Neither had Rebecca, apparently, because she glanced down when Freen pulled her hand back abruptly.

"One more exercise." Freen recovered quickly enough. At least, she thought she had. In any event, she was already walking back into the workout room.

Rebecca nodded, once again focusing in on Freen completely. She wasn't a fan of wasting anyone's time. And she definitely wasn't a fan of making mistakes.

"In this one, there will be a close-quarters physical attack. Get your knee pads on. You'll be knocked over, and I'll grapple with the assailant to buy you time. It's your job to recover quickly enough to escape to the nearest agent. Okay?"

Rebecca froze for a moment, glancing over at the alarmingly large man that had been overseeing her exercises.

"I...don't want you to get hurt..." Rebecca began apprehensively.

Freen frowned softly and cut her eyes at the other agent in the room. She knew they were both thinking the same thing.

"Rebecca...you have to understand that if it comes down to it--"