Instant Crush

Callie has been closer lately, along with her wife and they rarely left my side. The rest of the org saw me as family and treated me as such which was a nice break from asylum.

However they wouldn't let me run ops anymore. If a medical rescue popped up I wasn't allowed to go alone, and I wasn't allowed to carry weapons.

I get it. I do. This life of violence is what cost Calliope her arm and so much more to happen.

//Open Call from Founder Calliope: We need somebody with psychiatric experience, combat not needed, will train but will be relocated to Castra free of charge!//

And then that goes out across the entire organization. Applications started flying in but Callie's hiring stipulations are insane because I swear this is for me...

C: Hey, Minerva. Wanna come screen people with me?

M: Maybe. I'm home staring at spectrum anyways trying to figure out what I wanna do.

C: There's a LOT of people feeding through so I wanted to make quadruple sure we got the right ones.

M: Is this about me?

C: Yeah...I won't lie it is. You're cooped up in the house all day and could use some time away.

The house. It's literally a house. Everyting before was a modular neighborhood of boxes but our new home is a multi-bedroom house resting at the foot of the mountain Sherman sits on. Nice wood floors, walls, it's probably too cozy and this is clearly where Callie plans on retiring.

M: I...guess I could. Where are you?

C: Helene Memorial, I can send Ivy to pick you up if you need.

M: Maybe. Do you trust me with flying?

A: Solid point, be there in half an hour!

Ever since I got out of the crazy house I've been sitting at home bored out of my mind. Can't go outside alone, go into the kitchen alone, I get they're scared but like...I'm not a toddler.

"Hey, wake up!" Arcantha says and I realize I fell asleep on the couch.

"Mmrrgh, I uh...shit were you waiting?" I say as I look at the fifty-something messages I missed.

"We got worried when you stopped responding. C'mon, Callie put the interviews on hold, she's only got like ten left for the day"

"Out of how many?!" I say as I stumble to my feet.

"The organization is well over 2500 people, only eighty of them applied." Arcantha says as she stands at the door to the pad.

I subconsciously grumble something, and wipe the sleep from my eyes as we head for the platform.

"Yeah she was conked out on the couch, she's fine!" Arcantha says to Callie over a call. "We'll be headed home in a minute."

Her big purple baby, the Zeus MK2 CL is sitting on the pad and we ascend the ramp to medical beds and a few crates of loot.

"You can ride up front with me if you want. I wanna keep an eye on you but if you wanna rest in the cabins you're more than welcome to." She says sweetly.

Big sis-in-law. Love her to death and before I could tell her how much I appreciate her I'm being woken up in the co-pilot's seat.

"You okay? You're sleeping more than usual!" She says gently. "Meds kicking your ass?"

I silently nod and she leads me to the PTV parked at the hallway.

"Keep your head up, honey." She says as she gently shakes my shoulder after sitting in the seats. My head hurts, my eyes burn, I need a solid year of sleeping to fight this.

We pass medical wards, people chatting amongst doctors, nurses, surgeons and paramedics.

Our medivac teams have become our bread-and-butter, there wasn't a single failed contract in our history since the expansion and with the failing regen systems we'd shot to the top of the medical world. UEE, criminal, everybody knew they could rely on us to be rescued properly.

We took the elevator up several floors and reached the boardroom at the top, where there was a handful of people left.

We walked down the hallway, looking at all the smiling faces and people politely greeting us. Except one.

I didn't get a solid look at them but they dipped back into the crowd and hid.

Something in the cosmic fiber pulled me to them, but Arcantha pulled me even harder to the boardroom.

Callie sat at the table with Ravi, Athena, Stone and now me at the far end of the table with Arcantha obviously back at Callie's side.

"Love you, big sis. Ivy, Ravi, all of you." The words slipping out of my mouth subconsciously.

They all smile warmly and there's tingles in my spine.

"Love you too, Min!" Callie says and I want her to hold me.

"Shall we continue?" She says and I reflexively curl up when Verdi leans over to wrap an arm around me.

"There's a lot of people out there...do...do we have time?" I ask with a shake in my voice.

"Are you okay? You could have stayed home!" Callie's voice full of fear and concern but I shake my head.

"It needs to be done. Can't put this off." My voice nearly a whisper and the social anxiety is catching me hard.

We spent hours watching people come in, sit, talk qualifications and why they joined, where they've been, track record, proficiencies along with weaknesses.

I feel so useless.

And then the fabric of existence pulls at me.

In the door walks a shorter, slender woman. Shoulder-length curly hair, near-black brown eyes, freckles and...

and...

Zero hesitation in me, I stand up and watch as she comes in the door and stares right at me for a few seconds.

She blushes and looks away from me but Callie immediately goes in for the kill.

"Do you know Minerva? Never seen somebody react to her like that yet...and..."

She looks at me with a smile and I nervously sit and hide my face.

"Have a seat, Miss...?" Callie says as she extends a hand to shake with the woman.

Her arms are nervously folded and she doesn't shake.

"You're okay, sweetie! You're fine here!" Callie says warmly and the woman shakes her hand.

"M-my name is um...my uh..." Her voice shaking and nervous.

"Take your ti-" Callie says before the woman speaks again.

"My n-name is Ophelia."

The butterflies in my stomach, rapid heartbeat...

"Lovely to meet you, is that your callsign or?" Callie says and Ophelia confirms it's her name.

"So if you don't mind, can we get to your certifications, proficiencies, everything?" Callie says and Ophelia nods.

They both sit and go down the list.

PHD in behavioral health, years as an intern for a psychiatric ward, zero combat training, written two papers about schizophrenia and personality disorders.

Can't pilot for shit and never fired a gun.

"Well these are lovely qualities you have, but what we need is somebody to keep an eye on Minerva as she's recently been released from asylum and needs round-the-clock monitoring until we can establish she's fine to fly free on her own."

"W-who is Minerva?" She says looking at everybody and I can't help but smile.

"Minerva is my little sister, extremely highly-trained in combat, medical, long and-" Callie says and I'm so sorry.

"close range, hand-to-hand, and one helluva pilot." I finish but Callie is all smiles.

Ophelia blushes and I see a small smile develop on her face.

"Records are clean, everything is verified, pretty quiet life for this one." Ravi says looking over her mobi display.

"Says she joined recently, became a citizen because of the Terra incident to become a medic but blood makes her squeamish."

Callie's smile fades and Athena steps in.

"Zero combat and military training, adversity to hurting people, let alone in the name of life preservation. She should stay on this station."

In a blur I stand at my seat and see the recruit's face and gaze locked to the floor. I swear I saw a tear.

"I want her, take her. She has good energy and willingness to learn, I CAN train her!" I unwillingly blurt out.

She jumps and turns away from me.

"She's not combat efficient, she's better off up here-" Callie is once again shut off.

"I FEEL SAFE WITH HER IN THE ROOM!" I shriek and she jumps again.

"Minerva, this is my org. We're all equal here but as your sister I can't allow this to go on."

"Fuck you, Callie. I'll just start my own org!"

"It's...it's fine, Miss Minerva. I promise..." Ophelia sounds ready to cry and I walk around to take her hand.

"It's fine, you make me feel safe and cozy, I want you to be my keeper!"

Athena stands up from her seat before Callie raises a hand signalling her to stop.

"Let this happen, I can't stop her. WE can't stop her. Minerva, look at me."

Rage is setting in and my view snaps to meet her gaze, face dead serious.

"She is your responsibility, as you are hers. We'll support this but remember that regen isn't a thing anymore so you're expected to help each other out. If she's incapped, YOU get her up. If you're incapped, SHE needs to get you up. If both of you go down, pray that the attacker doesn't finish you off. Call us."

My heart stops and Ophelia takes my hand.

"Are. We. Clear?"

I look at Ophie who looks ready to cry her soul out and she nods, I return the gesture.

"Yeah, we get it. I'll train her if you let me have armory access back. Deal?"

Callie squints at me and I feel harshly judged.

"We're trusting you. I'M trusting you. Train her but don't push her out of her comfort zone, Moira. That's a fucking order."

I nod and clench my free hand into a fist.

She then taps the table twice to her left where Ravi is sitting, tap tap and my mobi buzzes.

"I'm not worth this, I promise you." Ophelia whispers while gently squeezing my hand."

"Everybody is worth it, just not everybody sees it."