Storm Of Pain

Chapter 3

Calleb and I spent the majority of yesterday trying to figure out how we were going to approach this situation and how we were going to get her used to the army again, it shouldn't be hard though, muscle memory and everything,

"Wakey, wakey princess!" Calleb and I yelled as we walked into her room only to be met with a neatly made bed and open shutters. Her room was pretty empty except for the necessary stuff, but there were no photos, no mementos, nothing, all my buddies that I knew and me included, unpacked that first; she's probably still busy,

"Looking for something?" I jumped around at the irritated voice and was met with a pretty similar face in the doorway. The girl was a sweating, panting mess with her hair pulled up into a messy bun with shorts and a jacket,

"Where were you?"

"Went for a run. Now if you don't mind, get the hell out of my room,"

"Watch that tone, princess. You're a lower rank, we could start with some damn respect around here,"

"Right sorry," Did she just...

"Would you please get the hell out of my room," She gave us a sickly sweet smile that was obviously fake. I was about to say something when she rudely cut me off,

"Listen, I just want to have a shower so that the day can begin, please,"

"You have ten minutes,"

"I only need five," was her response as she headed to the bathroom with the stuff she needed. Hearing the water turn on Calleb turned towards me, "How are we going to live with that bitch that can't even be polite for a second,"

"I have no idea, man. But it's General's orders, we can't disobey."

As promised the girl made her way out to us in the living room with a pair of grey sweats and a black tank along with an army jacket,

"Today we're just going to show you around and go over the rules. If we have time Joshua over here will have a training session with you to see where you're standing at with your fitness after evaluating you, if that's okay with you, your highness?"

"That's perfect, peasant," She sneered back at Calleb,

"Okay how about we drop the bloody attitude, Jennifer."

"I-"

"Am I clear?"

"Yes, Sir," She glared at me and made her way out of the door waiting for us in a stiff posture keeping her mouth shut. What the hell is with the posture change now? All I said was to drop her attitude, not... that.

Keeping quiet we showed her the essentials, the training areas, the medical wing, everything that she'll be using. She was quiet the entire time just looking at where we pointed and listened as we talked and explained the rules,

"Here is the track that you'll be using most. I trust you remember how to fly?"

"Yes, Sir,"

"General did request we have a flying trail in the simulator during this week, I'm open tomorrow afternoon and as far as I'm concerned so are you,"

"I am," she nodded respectfully which was a change to her previous behavior which we met her with,

"Good, we'll fly tomorrow. You remember the rules when you fly? Or do we need to go over them again?"'

"No need for that, Sergeant. I remember," Jennifer answered Calleb as she stared up at one of the jets when we kept moving. Calleb and I watched her carefully as she unconsciously touched her right side and rolling her shoulder before looking down at the tar on the ground. Shaking her head she looked back up as we stopped,

"You'll get assigned to a specific jet tomorrow, I'm sure you know how it works right?"

"Yes, Sir,"

"Good. Then you remember all the controls?" Once again she nodded and took the book that Calleb offered her,

"Just in case, go through this tonight when Joshua is done with you,"

"Will do,"

Continuing our tour she kept quiet and rubbed her shoulder every now and then before we made it to the physical evaluation center where Calleb said bye to us and made his way back to our apartment.

I grabbed her file from the drawer in the desk and made my way back over to Jennifer where she took her sweats off revealing her shorts,

"You ready?"

"Yes, Sir,"

"It says here that you had a shoulder injury and had some severe burns as well as an injury to your side and back before you stopped. Is that correct?"

"Yes, Sir." She answered me a little strained and uncomfortable,

"Okay then, could you take our jacket and shirt off for me."

"S-Sir, with all due respect," She started off causing my eyebrow to raise, "Why do I need to do that?"

"Relax. I won't do anything," I answered and went to grab the equipment I needed, "I need to do your BMI and physical evaluation for some stupid reason before we start,"

"I-"

"We don't have all day," I snapped. She instantly tensed even more and wiped her face of any emotion. She turned around and took her jacket off. The one side she did normally but when she came to her right side, she went a little slower, but when she had it off I saw a robotic arm attached to her shoulder. She pulled her top off as well letting me see scars all over the same side of her robotic arm, it was clearly evident that she was burnt and that she was hurt pretty badly, I actually felt bad for her.

By the time Jennifer turned around it was clear she was self-conscious about her injuries so I adverted my eyes to hers and gave a small smile, but all that that caused was a frown,

"Can we just get this over with,"

I nodded and did a few measurements and started with a few simple exercises like sit-ups, pushups, planks, and a few pull-ups. She handled it pretty well, especially with the arm, I haven't seen something like it in person yet, but I was amazed when I did. Technology was a wonderful thing, sometimes,

"Okay, it's pretty late already, the tour took longer than I wanted it to, you passed the physical evaluation, it looks like you'll be fine, so how about we go back to the apartment?" I only received a nod,

"Jennifer-"

"Don't. Please, just don't."

"Okay... Calleb probably made dinner, would you want to join us?"

"I'll see," Was all she said as she pulled her top over her head along with her jacket and walked out,