Midnight Flock

Chapter 1: Shooting Lesson

A/N: Shout out to my awesome Beta, Jennifer!! This story wouldn't be half as good as it is without her. Thank-you, thank-you, Thank-you. I hope you enjoy my story. 

North and Owen haven't said a word since we left my condo this morning. It's been about an hour that I've been sitting in the backseat, going crazy from the brooding going on in front of me. North's hands were wrapped tightly around the steering wheel as he drove. I could see the white knuckles from here. His lips were pulled down and his dark eyes were tight in the rear view mirror when I caught glances at him. Owen was equally as tense, though he had different tells. He had an iron grip on his phone and jabbed at it a little harder than necessary when using it. He too was frowning as he played with his phone, but it wasn't as harsh as North. Owen looked more disappointed than angry. It had been like this since we got into the jeep this morning. I curled my legs up on the seat, wrapping my arms around my pink yoga pants, bracing my sneakered feet on the edge of the bench. I rested my head on my knees and tried to block them out for a little while. I was slightly chilly in my black and pink t-shirt, but if the chill of the spring morning got to be too much, I had my black hoodie with me.

I was thrilled when Owen asked me if I'd like to learn to shoot a few days ago. I jumped at the chance to finally get to start the training. Unfortunately, since joining the Academy two and a half years ago, I always seem to have been on assignment, or the training was full before I was even aware it was being offered. However, Owen said he knew a guy from another team who was a weapons expert and all the other guys on our team went through training with him. What I hadn't expected was North's reaction. He was outside the condo as I was leaving to meet Owen. My light pink beetle convertible was in pieces in the parking garage. Not just my car either, but everyone else's vehicles. Most of the boys lived in the building with me. We occupied the entire building, all the units belonging to one of us. North owned a garage in North Charleston, near the Charleston Naval Complex where he restored vintage vehicles, and lived in a converted loft above it with Silas. Silas loved it because it was close to the marina where his boat was docked. Owen and Sean shared a house about fifteen minutes away on a few acres of land with a large pool in West Ashley. We spent a lot of time there during the warmer months. Our building had an indoor pool and gym on the lower level which looked out on the Waterfront Park, which lined the edge of the downtown district.

When I confronted him about it, North just shrugged like it wasn't a big deal and told me it was routine maintenance he'd been planning to do for weeks now. He claimed ignorance of the fact that I was supposed to be meeting Owen at his place across town so I could go to my gun training. North just suggested that I cancel. There wasn't any need for me to handle guns, or know how to use them as one of the guys would be with me all the time and they could handle it for me. That answer was unacceptable at this point and he knew it. The Academy wanted all it's members to go through gun safety training within their first three years of joining. I was running out of time before I'd be benched from any other missions until I completed this safety course. There were very few rules that the Academy had. Most of the rules were dictated by the teams themselves. However, this one was universal. Go through gun safety or don't go on missions until you do. It was like North didn't want me going out on missions with them anymore. Maybe he didn't think I was good enough now that I was part of the team and participating in the missions with them. Maybe the others agreed because no one seemed very upset that I hadn't gone through the class yet. In fact, none of them seemed surprised. Owen was the only one who brought it up on occasion. But, it seemed that by the time he mentioned something to me about the class being offered or coming up, we were already going to be out of town or busy, or the class was full. I hated disappointing him and I had been trying to keep my ears open for another class.