Finding ELE (ELE Series #2) Written By: Rebecca Gober and Courtney Nuckels (20 page)

I watch his stare harden with that. "Yes,
your mom had us scheduled for training an hour ago."

"Training? I didn't know we had training
today." I really had no clue. My mom had said it was a free
day.

He looks annoyed. "What, do you think, that
just because you've found your friends and your boyfriend that you
no longer need to learn how to protect yourself? Don't be naive
Willow. You know how dangerous it is out there and you are a hot
commodity."

Naive! I stand up and thrust my hands on my
hips. Oh yeah, and they are facing outwards, that's right! "I am
not being naive Tony! Just because I wasn't aware of the training
today doesn't mean I'm naive." Just saying the word pisses me off
more and more. "I only figured that we would have a break today in
light of everything that happened yesterday."

Alec gets up and stands at my side. He looks
at Tony and in a calm voice says, "I don't think naive was the
right word to use."

Tony ignores the fact that Alec said
anything at all. Instead he addresses me again, his face turning
red. "In light of everything yesterday, you should want to train
even more! If you don't care about learning to protect your own
life then you should consider what it would mean to us if a Reaper
got ahold of you. Those powers in one of their hands can be
detrimental and could costs many lives. Is that what you want?"

"Watch it!" Alec starts moving towards Tony
but I grab his hand and yank him back. All the while, I stare at
Tony dumfounded. While I know he's taking this to the extremes
because I hurt him, I can't help feeling wounded by his words. I
never thought of myself as selfish and I certainly don't take this
whole situation lightly. I'm hurt by the fact that he could think
of me as being so low that I wouldn't care what happens to others
or myself. I open my mouth to respond but no words come out. I
blink away the angry tears that threaten to overflow.

In that instant I see Tony's face crumble.
"I'm sorry Willow." He runs his hands through his hair. "I was just
a little freaked out that I couldn't find you and I'm letting those
nerves get the best of me."

I know he's letting something else that
starts with a 'j' get the best of him, but I don't comment.

Alec puts his hand on my shoulder and pulls
me to face him. His expression is serious and his eyes have a
worried and angry glint to them. "Are you okay?"

I can tell that he's trying to let me handle
this situation on my own, but if it were up to him, he'd go off on
Tony for me. I don't need a fight right now. Especially when Alec
doesn't stand much of a chance against Tony's strength. I take a
deep breath and nod. "Yeah. It's all good." I tell him.

He stares at me for a second longer. "If you
need to go train, it's cool." He looks to Tony trying to diffuse
the agitation in the room for my benefit alone. "In fact, I think
it would be good for all of us to get on a training schedule
too."

I look down at his hands, which are crumpled
into fists. I can tell that he's not happy with this whole
situation. I step in front of Alec to try to be a sort of buffer
right now to the testosterone waves that are taking over the
room.

After tiring of their macho-man stare down I
tell Tony, "Let's get on with it then."

He doesn't respond. Instead he turns around
abruptly and stomps out of the room.

I look back at Alec and mouth the word
sorry.

He pulls me into his arms and gives me a
kiss on the bridge of my nose. "You go learn to kick butt." Then he
points towards where Tony stalked off. "And if that guy gives you a
hard time, you come get me."

I smile. If anyone stands a chance against
Tony it wouldn't be Alec. I'm not trying to be rude, but you have
to be realistic when it comes to abilities. Alec is certainly
strong enough to take on a normal man, just not a beefed up
superhuman. Anyhow, I know Tony isn't really a jerk like he just
acted. "He really is a good guy. He's just a bit high strung right
now, that's all."

Alec cocks an eyebrow. "He got to you
Willow. I'm not blind. He hurt your feelings and that's not cool in
my book."

Great, a new animosity has formed now. "Not
that bad. I mean, the words stung a little, but like he said, he's
a bit on edge. He's helped me this whole time and has protected me.
He's a friend, even though he was being a little bit of a capital
'A' back there. I want to make sure you stay cool with him. I don't
need you two fighting." I say earnestly to Alec.

He studies me for a few seconds then says,
"Fine."

Not wanting to talk about it anymore I kiss
him quickly on the cheek. I look over to my friends who are still
sitting quietly around the Monopoly board. They are acting like
they weren't paying attention, but I know better. "Bye guys." I say
as I head out.

"Willow!" Connor calls before I leave.

I look over my shoulder. "Yes?"

"Can I have your money?" He asks with a big
heaping smile on his face.

I roll my eyes and wave him off with a
laugh. "Sure." Then I head out to find Tony.

I find Tony in the practice room. He's
taking out all of his troubles on a poor beat up punching bag. The
windows are open in the room and interestingly enough, the draft
feels cool. Not cold by any means but there's definitely been a
drop in temperature. That heating the earth plan is now truly an
epic fail. Project ELE should be called Finding ELE since she's
pretty much left the building. I don't foresee it getting any
hotter anytime soon.

I clear my throat to let Tony know I'm
here.

He turns around and takes off the boxing
gloves he was wearing. Heading towards me he says, "I really am
sorry Willow. I realize I was being a jerk back there. I just..."
He stops himself.

I meet him halfway in the room. Part of me
wants him to confess the real reason why he was being so mean, but
the other part of me doesn't want to hear it. If it's admitted
outloud, I don't know what that would mean for any sort of
friendship Tony and I could have. I decide to sidestep the
situation all together. "I forgive you. Let's just get on with
training please." I realize after the fact that my words sound
cold.

Tony does a great job of masking the hurt.
"Fine. Let's start with shooting today." He leads me over towards
the makeshift target range.

I put on the protective gear, pick a pistol
up off the table, load it and ready my stance, holding the gun
towards the target. I don't wait for him to signal me to fire.
Instead I start shooting, unloading all of the rounds into the
target. Who knew that shooting would be a great way to blow off
steam?

"Wow. I didn't expect you to remember how to
do all of that after just one training session." He tells me.

I avoid looking at him. Instead I busy
myself with reloading the magazine. "Yeah, photographic memory
comes in handy sometimes." I look over at the target. Too bad it
doesn't help me with better aim. I did hit the target four times,
but none of the shots are vital organs and they are barely on the
paper.

"I'm sure that helps." Tony says. He doesn't
question me further about my memory. "Take your time this round and
line up your sights. Remember, three in a row, you're ready to
go."

I nod my head, load the gun and try again.
This turn, I take my time. Breathing deeply, I concentrate as I
fire off round after round. All of my shots hit the paper
silhouette. With one bullet left in the chamber I take my time
lining up the sights just right. I fire and hit the target right in
the bull’s eye on the chest. I carefully place my gun down first
and then I do a happy dance. "Yeah!" I say feeling elated and like
a champ. It's amazing how achieving a goal can change a mood so
easily.

"That was awesome!" Tony says excited at my
enthusiasm.

"I know, that was amazing! I can't believe I
actually hit it!" I hug Tony before I realize what I'm doing. He
stiffens up and I back away quickly.

Realizing the awkward situation, he quickly
says, "You're learning quickly. You must have an awesome teacher."
He jokes.

Grateful that the tension was cut I say,
"Yeah, or you can chalk it up to that kick butt photographic memory
of mine."

"Nah, we'll stick with the awesome teacher
story." He laughs and I join him.

"Deal." I smile.

"Because you did so great, you get to choose
what we work on next."

"Oh is that so? What are my choices?" I
raise my eyebrow and smile.

"Knife throwing or hand to hand combat."

"Tough choice. Let's go with hand to hand
combat." I choose.

Tony leads me over to some mats on the other
side of the room. He starts off with showing me some more dodging
maneuvers. Then we move onto punching and kicking using practice
pads. We practice in silence with the only noise coming from our
heavy breathing and the sound of force hitting the kicking pads.
Tony shows me how to flip a person, pin a person to the ground and
how to get out from a pin.

Somewhere in the middle of our training a
new tension floats in. I don't know if it's all of the physical
contact or the aggressive fighting that's causing it but it's
definitely there. While sparring with each other, our maneuvers and
punches start getting a little harder, which causes us to duck and
dodge quicker. If the dodging isn't enough to give me whiplash, the
hot and the cold between the two of us is.

When we take a second to grab a drink of
water Tony makes the stupid decision to break the silence we've
kept for the past forty-five minutes. "So, are you happy to have
your boyfriend back?"

Of all of the questions he could bring up,
he has to go for the most inept one. I try to avoid looking at him.
Instead I stare at my water bottle like it's the most interesting
piece of plastic ever and wishing that the silence had never been
broken. "It feels good to have everyone back together again. I feel
complete now."

He steps in front of me so I have to look
into his neon yellow eyes. He runs his hand through his copper hair
that's wet from exertion. "Are you happy with him Willow?"

I gulp. The lack of space between us is so
obvious that my stomach turns on its side. I am very happy, but I
know that this response will only hurt Tony and I don't want that.
I can tell that's not what he's asking anyway. He's really asking
'what about me?' I start by saying, "Tony..."

He cuts me off before I can complete my
thought by turning away from me abruptly and heading back over to
the mat. "Never mind. I mean, it's obvious you are happy. I have
eyes. I don't know why I asked you that."

"Tony..." I try to speak up again not
totally sure what to say.

He wave's me off. "Let's get back to
work."

I set my water bottle down and meet him back
at the mats. We start sparring again. I get in a few good punches
before he flips me over onto my back. The air whooshes out of my
lungs in one fail swoop. Feeling like my chest has been hallowed
out, I gasp for air.

"Oh man, I'm so sorry Willow." He kneels at
my side with worry etched across his forehead.

I don't say anything as I finally start to
catch my breath again. That hurt like hell!

"I didn't mean to..." Tony starts to say,
but I quickly sit up and knock him over, pinning him to the ground.
I give him my best don't mess with me kind of look as I pin his
hands to his sides. Feeling elated at having gotten the best of him
and making up for his knocking me down I smirk.

He gives me a dangerous glare and in one
quick maneuver he reverses our roles. I struggle to get free as he
moves on top of me, pinning my hands above my head. "Fighting tip:
don't ever get cocky."

Fury rips through me and I thrash about
trying to get out from the pin like he taught me to do. Nothing's
working. I'm just exhausting myself as I struggle beneath him. I
huff and puff and refuse to cry uncle.

Tony laughs at my efforts and moves closer
to my face.

I stop struggling and look up into his eyes.
My heart stops and my breath catches at the passion in his
gaze.

"Get off her!"

Tony and I both turn in unison towards the
door to see Alec coming at us like he's on a warpath. Tony does the
smart thing and moves off of me quickly.

I sit up, "It's okay, we were just
training."

Alec looks so pissed that I expect to see
smoke come out of his ears at any second. "That did not look like
just training!"

I stand up in time to block Alec from going
after Tony. I push at Alec's chest with both my hands and he
doesn't budge. He looks at me and through the reflection in his
dark blue eyes, I can see my neon ones staring right back.

"Let me by, Willow." He says through his
teeth.

"Chill out man. We were practicing hand to
hand combat and pins." Tony says coolly from behind me.

Alec looks from him, then back to me, then
back at him. His eye's narrow, "You need to watch it." He points at
Tony. Then he looks down at me. It takes a second before his
expression turns gentler again. "Are you done here?" He asks.

I exhale heavily, not realizing I had been
holding my breath. I nod and say, "Yes, we are done for today." I
grab his elbow and hold onto him all the way out of the room,
afraid to let him go.

When we make it out and turn down an empty
hallway, Alec stops me. He turns to look at me and succeeds in
backing me into a wall. "I don't like this training."

I raise my chin and say, "I need to learn
how to defend myself Alec."

"Not with him!" He says loudly, getting in
my face, pointing at the general direction of Tony.

I've not seen him this forceful, other than
back when Zack had used compulsion to tell him to be mad at me. A
shiver runs up my spine with that memory. I shake it off. "Tony is
a good trainer."