South had since stopped eating, too wrapped up in Cal’s story of his sim. [I]“During the simulation I had only two casualties, an Agent whose name escapes me now and Agent South Dakota."[/I] Her breath caught and as he continued to speak it felt as if there was no air in the world. As if she had forgotten how to breathe. As he spoke she wracked her brain trying to figure out if North would kill everyone else if the simulation had been real. She knew he was loyal. Incredibly loyal. But how far did that loyalty run when it was her life at stake?

They’d all seen how harshly he’d reacted when she’d risked her life to save Cal before. “What is with these simulations and killing me?” She blurted out without really thinking about it. Three times now she’d died in these tests. Maybe the project was trying to tell her something and she didn’t like it. Sliding off the bench she walked over to him, kneeling down to look at the man. “I get that it’s hard.” She said gently, resting her hands on his knees. “I get that it messed you up. But I think what you… what we both need to start doing is to learn to separate our emotions from the situation.”

Reaching up the girl gently took hold of Cal’s head, her hands cupping either side of his face, holding it so she could look at him. “I’m here now. I’m not dead and I don’t have any plans on dying any time soon. The important thing is that we can’t let what we saw in there affect our lives now. What you saw wasn’t real, as much as they tried to make you believe so it wasn’t real. Caring is good, but not if it makes you less of a soldier when it really matters. It’s things like that, that will get people killed. Okay?”