"Are you freaking serious??" Clare yelled.

    Jonathan had just finished telling them about the conversation with Marrissa, and Clare was cussing him out like a sailor. Mark was suppressing a smile at her yelling. 

      "Are you freaking crazy!?!? She just woke up and was feeling better, and you had to go screw it up! Why the heck did you say that? What the holy freaking heck were you thinking??" Clare hollered, clearly not saying the words Jonathan was nicely replacing in his mind. He waited until she paused to take a breath to speak.

     "Look, don't you think I am asking myself this already? And.....I guess I just said the wrong thing. You know I'm not good with talking! I always end up saying the wrong thing........." 

      "Ugh, never mind! I'm going to talk to her!" Clare said stomping up the stairs. When she reached the top landing she turned and yelled, "And make sure your not home when we get down here! Heck, just go scouting!" Then she turned on the stair and disappeared.

**************************************************************************************************

       Marrissa was sitting on the bed when Clare found her. Her eyes were red and puffy. 

      "Hi." Clare said, sitting down beside her. 

      "Hey."  Marrissa replied. "Where is Jonathan?"

      "Well, after I cussed him out, I sent them off on a little scouting mission together."

Marrissa laughed. "Yeah, I heard what you said to him. I didn't know your vocabulary was so colorful." She sighed, " You know..... I think that he blames himself for my getting hurt. That no matter what I say, he'll always look at me and remember that. He will always object to me coming on missions, thinking that I won't be able to handle them.........no, that he won't always be there to protect me so I don't need to be in danger. Either way, he will always regret bringing me here......"

    "No!!! Don't think like that! Do you know how bad he feels right now? Look, my cousin has never been good with words.... He does love you you know." Clare said. "OK, tell you what. Until you feel comfortable with talking to him, just focus on training and nothing else. You both need a bit of a break."

      Marrissa nodded, sniffing. "Ok."

     "Good girl. Now let's go punch something."

Clare gave her a black tank top, black sweat pants and a ponytail holder before they went to the training room. Clare taught her a few punches and Marrissa started working on them. As her fist connected with the hard punching bag , Marrissa felt her sadness and anger ebbing. Soon, all there was in her world was her fist, the bag, and the sound of her harsh breathing in her ears. For some reason.....it brought her a sense of peace.