(BL) Hunting The Field Guide novel Chapter 35

Chapter 35: The Captain can take care of himself

Maeve was excited to see Kellen when he entered the office, along with the other scientists. Their excitement to see him helped him calm down from the interaction he had with the Captain. The scientists stopped what they were doing and spoke to Kellen when he entered the office, their eyes glowing with their questions. After they had spoken for a few moments, Kellen noticed that there was a snack bowl practically on a pedestal in the middle of the room. Once Kellen had noticed it, he also noticed how everyone watched him, and he knew he was going to have to take from that snack bowl regularly. It wasn't a burden to him, but made his heart warm.

Finally, after Maeve noticed the time, they all went back to what they were working on, leaving Kellen to enter his office and get to work on his own project. The laptop was a big help, not that Kellen minded writing out the program by hand. But having it as a digital copy meant he could easily edit it after sending it to Casper. The sticky note Casper provided was also quite helpful. It turns out that the Guild had it's own system and each person was assigned a code and login. Kellen had to go through about 10 minutes to set up his account but now it meant if there were any papers or files he needed access to, he could through his secure login. It made sense, since Kellen hadn't seen a library or anything for secure documents when Casper showed him the Guild, or maybe Casper hadn't viewed it as important. He also hadn't seen their storage for weapons either, so maybe it had just slipped his mind.

Either way, with the new login, Kellen got to work moving what he'd already worked on into a word document on the laptop, and then worked past that. He was using programs he'd made in the past as a base level, and built on that. He didn't take any breaks and continued to work on the document until he got a knock on his door.

"Guide Kellen? Have you taken lunch yet?" It was Maeve. She poked her head into the room, frowning at the state of his desk.

"Oh, sorry. I completely forgot." Kellen laughed at himself, while she only seemed to grow more concerned as she looked over the Guide.

"Well, I'm planning to head up and grab a bite with some of the other researchers now, did you want to join us?" She asked. Kellen looked past her and saw a few others behind her, maybe three since he couldn't tell from this distance. He glanced down at the work he'd done, and the time, and sighed. He really should eat before guiding the Captain, and given the fact it was past noon now, he needed to rush it. He could only imagine the scolding he would get from Taylor if he didn't eat before their session.

He got to his feet, not even bothering to take his phone with him since he didn't plan to be gone long, and joined Maeve and the other researchers in the main office. There were three of them outside of Maeve. Two were the more secluded researchers who weren't in the main office, while the other one was on the more quiet side. It seemed the Maeve took it upon herself to take care of the really introverted ones, and that made Kellen smile.

"Let's head out then, shall we?" He offered, opening the door for them. Maeve smiled at him and they headed for the elevators as a team.

The first thing Kellen found out about the researchers is that all of them were awkward around large groups, including Maeve. Kellen had to take the lead, becoming the de facto leader as they moved around the cafeteria. He directed the others, made sure they got enough food, talked to the people serving the food, and found them a table. It was a very reminiscent feeling for him since he had led research groups into gates before. In fact, the more he talked about his experiences on the front lines during lunch, the more he found out that all of them were waiting for permission to be on the front lines.

Maeve was the only one who had gone to the front lines, but because she specialised in the flora and fauna around stable gates, she'd never needed to go into one. That wasn't the case for some of the others. But because they were civilians, they had to plead their case more. It didn't matter if they were apart of a guild, without the powers that classified them as either an Esper or a Guide, the front lines were dangerous. For Maeve, she only needed the agreement from the Saturn Guild, where the civilians also needed approval from the D.E.C. Kellen was sympathetic to them, since he'd needed that too when he went as a freelance Field Guide. Getting permission was notoriously hard, and often you had to apply several times. Lots of the researchers he'd spoken to while guiding them had ranted about how the whole system needed an overhaul.

The conversation was so interesting that Kellen had briefly forgotten about what he was supposed to be doing after lunch. That was, until a shadow fell over him and everyone shut up.

"Do you not have your phone on you?" The chill in his voice was something that Kellen also remembered from the front lines, but it wasn't a pleasant one. Swallowing, Kellen tilted his head back to look at the man behind him.

"Oh, uh, hello Captain. I guess I forgot it in my office." He lied easily, knowing if he told him he'd left it behind intentionally things could get stressful. Excuses were not something he was looking for right now. Despite his cold attitude, Kellen took a second to appreciate how dapper he looked in his uniform. His hair slicked back, his hands in his pant pockets. It wasn't until he got to his face, where his eyes were a bright, bright yellow that Kellen began to panic. He glanced back to his tray, noticing he only had a few things left on it, before standing. "We should get going. You don't look well." Kellen told him and the Captain sighed. It wasn't a tone Kellen had heard before, and he froze.

"No, finish eating. I don't want to rush you." Kellen shook himself and continued standing up, grabbing his tray as he went.

"You didn't. I was almost done. Wait there." He ordered the Esper as he rushed over to the drop off station, shoved the last few bites into his mouth and returned to where the Captain was in record time. The Captain had watched him the whole time, not moving an inch. He really was not well. Kellen waved to the researchers and Maeve. "I'll see you guys back in the office." He told them with a smile before grabbing the Captain's arm. He barely moved, and it felt like he was dragging a giant weight behind him. When they got to the elevators, Kellen took a second to check the Captain's levels and tsked. "What the hell were you doing to get this bad?" He demanded of the Esper who chuckled in response.

"I was fighting with the Captain of the Nemesis Guild for the gate rights." The Captain said calmly. Kellen blinked. What? He glanced at his face to see if he was joking.

"You weren't really fighting, were you?" He asked and he didn't say anything. Kellen grew angry. "Captain Thatcher! If you thought for even a moment that you were going to fight someone else, especially another S Class, you are supposed to let me know! What if you got severely hurt? Or what if you couldn't make it back to me before you erupted? You already fought once today. I let you leave without guiding you this morning because I didn't think you were going to get up to no good. If you had told me who your meeting was with, or what you had expected to happen at your letting, I wouldn't have let you go at the level you were at." Kellen was furious at the Captain for putting himself in danger.

"Mr. Woods, I can more than function at this level. I have and will continue to function at this level. I appreciate your concern, but it isn't needed in this case." Kellen knew with the logical part of his brain that the level of corruption was effecting the Captain's brain and therefore his responses. He knew that. That didn't mean that he was going to let him get away with it. They stepped into the elevator and Kellen had not let go of his grip on his arm.

"As your Guide, it is not okay. You have access to me whenever you want. Are you going to tell me that you are intentionally going to hurt yourself when I can prevent it? When you purposefully moved me into the apartment next door to you so that I could be accessed in an emergency? Are you kidding me?" Kellen could feel the anger welling inside of him at this stupid man.

"Mr. Woods, it isn't as if I didn't have Guides before this. I know how to take care of myself." If that Captain hadn't been so heavily corrupted, he would have noticed the hurt and anger in Kellen's glare.

"You didn't have a personal Guide before, nor a pair." The Captain turned his gaze towards the Guide, his face unmoving and uncomprehending. That alone told Kellen everything he needed to know. He knew that the Captain would remember everything said to him now, so Kellen didn't hold back. "You aren't getting my damn point. I know you're an adult. I also know you are fully capable of taking care of yourself, but I'm here now. I am your pair. Why the fuck am I eating so many fucking calories if you aren't going to use them?" Unable to contain the full force of his rage, Kellen grabbed the Captain by his crisp collar, yanking him closer, surprising the Esper. "We are supposed to be a team, we are supposed to work together. I'll easily admit that I forgot my phone, but you were easily able to find me. If you ever treat your health as yours alone again, I will not be held accountable for how they find your body after I am done with it." He growled as the door opened and a pair of stunned Espers stood outside. Releasing his collar, Kellen excited the elevator while a stunned Captain followed after him.

Kellen was on a war path for Taylor's office, which was how he didn't notice someone else was in the office. Throwing the door open without knocking, Taylor looked up at him, surprised. Kellen stopped in surprise in the doorway, noticing that sitting across from her was Miro, who was hooked up to a strange medical device. Immediately apologetic, he fumbled over his words. "I am so sorry, I didn't even think someone else would be here. I'll leave." Stepping back without checking behind him, he stepped on the Captain who caught him before he could fall.

"Oh, Miro. In for your check up?" He asked cordially, and Miro nodded. In fact, the more Kellen observed him, he seemed to be drowsy. His head was dipping as they spoke. Taylor sighed.

"You're supposed to knock before you come in, Kellen. That's basic manners." She chastised, and he ducked his head.

"I'm sorry. I was thinking about other things. I'll wait outside." He reaffirmed but Miro shook his head.

"It's fine. I'm almost done, right Green?" He asked and Taylor nodded. "Then you can go help them. I'm fine here." He said. Taylor cast him a nervous look, but Miro insisted. She sighed, getting to her feet.

"I shouldn't be gone for more then 20 minutes." She told the lieutenant who nodded with a yawn.

"That's fine. I'll see you soon." He leaned back in the office chair and closed his eyes, falling asleep immediately. Stunned, Kellen watched as Taylor gathered the few things that she needed before leading the way to the guiding room.

Today felt awkward to be hooked up since the Captain was so far gone. Even Taylor could tell something was wrong from the way we were interacting. She hooked the two of us up, the Captain and I sitting across from each other. Kellen didn't offer his hand to the Captain and instead took it. Once he was given the go ahead, he dived inside.

What awful guiding.

Unlike even the first time Kellen had guided him, when he had been sucked into the waves and tossed around, today was even more violent, Kellen couldn't even come up for hair as the dark, deep and vicious powers tossed him around. He didn't have time to mourn all the lost progress and instead focused his attentions on maintaining the same level of guiding for Taylor's charts. It was also a good test for him to measure how much control he had over his new powers. Struggling against the force of the waves, the desire to just fix the man before him, and maintain the time limit, Kellen was soaking wet with sweat when the Captain gently shook his shoulder.

"Do not go out of your way to put yourself in danger to get higher levels of guidance. I can see it behind your eyes. I will be very, very angry if you do that." Kellen warned, but the Captain was back to being the soft version he had started to know. He pressed his face into Kellen's hand. _{freeweɓnøvel.com}