Mr. Blackbourne's Mistake

Chapter 1 - The Mistake

Quick Note: I love the Ghost Bird series dearly . . . but I'm not a fan of swearing, so that won't be in this fic. I'll try to have the guys talk like themselves as much as possible other than that!

Mr. Blackbourne

Regret was a hard thing to bear. But hindsight was always 20/20. When Mr. Blackbourne proposed the plan to bring Miss Sorenson onto his team, he knew there was a concern of hero worship from her, of her wanting them because they'd saved her. And he'd known she'd never experienced anything else, never had any other type of romantic relationship. He also knew at least half his team had never had a serious girlfriend before Miss Sorenson.

He'd been wrong to rush them all into a relationship with her. Not because he felt like it was wrong and not because he felt that it wouldn't work. But because it wasn't fair to all those who hadn't experienced other types of dating, who didn't know what it was like to be in a one-on-one relationship. How could Miss Sorenson know she really wanted to be with nine men if she'd never been with just one? How could everyone on the team really understand if they would be satisfied sharing Miss Sorenson with eight other men if they didn't know what it was like to be with a woman where they were the only man she cared for romantically?

He was the head of this team. It was his job to make sure everyone was taken care of-which included making sure they understood every aspect possible of their major life decisions before they made a choice. This worry had been growing in the back of his mind for some time now. After some of the boys told him they were having discussions with Miss Sorenson about taking their relationships further, now that Miss Sorenson was eighteen, his worry had nearly grown to panic. He didn't want Miss Sorenson or any of the others to look around at other families one day and wish they'd made other decisions.

He wanted everyone to be sure-which meant experiencing what it was like to be in a one-on-one relationship. Or, at least, having the chance to experience it. He certainly wouldn't force such a thing on anyone.

And . . . his desire to push this, to at least provide the opportunity for everyone, might also be related to their latest mission. The Academy usually had them work at the local level, but multiple divisions of the Academy had started tracking major bribery corruption within members of congress and government going all the way up to a presidential candidate for that year's election. Due to that, several teams were working together to expose or remove these men and women from public office, hopefully before the election at the end of the year.

Miss Sorenson would certainly be useful for a job like that, especially with her ghost status. And the Academy would want her there. In fact, her being a member of his team might have been one of the many factors why they were approached for this job. But . . . the easiest way for Miss Sorenson to get information from their targets and their associates would be for her to get close to them, which often led Academy members into situations of sleeping with their targets. It was, of course, never required, but there would be some pressure for her to do so. Which was utterly unacceptable to him.

This job helped bring home for Mr. Blackbourne why Kota was so opposed to Miss Sorenson joining the Academy. She was just capable of so very much . . . but he didn't want her in situations where sleeping with someone outside the team even came up as a potential tactic for accomplishing their goals. Or for her to wind up in a situation where she wasn't sure how to get out of sleeping with someone who expected it due to how she'd drawn close to them.

He could have refused the job, but it was so perfect for his team in every other way, and he wanted them to do their part to help weed out this corruption. While corruption in government was, unfortunately, unavoidable, taking down a major operation like this would be a big blow and likely make other corrupt factions quiet for a bit due to a fear of being rooted out and exposed as well.