Athena takes a deep breath. Holding it with each step as she goes up to Cyclone’s Gym. Even now she does not feel entirely right about coming back, despite the encouragement Raph gives to at least try talking to everyone. The true fear is Steven; the look on his face still haunts her.

One last deep breath as she opens the door and the looks on everyone’s faces are part of her memory now. Her hand tightened. Never has she been this uncomfortable at Cyclone’s. “What the?! Why are you here?!” and it is about to get worse.

Athena looks over to see Mark standing up from behind the desk. “I just came to talk to Steven and maybe Josh,” she begins to explain.

Mark makes his way around the desk, “You got some nerve coming back after what happened.”

Athena scowls, “Hey! You were in on that idea from the start!” The two begin a screeching match that turns everyone’s face from slight disgust to different levels of annoyance. The two of them would have put alley cats to shame with how loud they are getting. Raph uncovers his ears as he begins to walk over.

“What is going on out here?” another voice shouts over the noise.

Everyone stops.

Steven has a hand on a hip while the other cleaning out an ear, “It sounded like someone broke one of the machines again. Thought something was about to explode.” All noise stops. It is unspoken, but everyone knows it, if Steven ever uses any word relating to explode or pop something must be awful. He realizes people act differently when he says it, so he tries not to do it often but right now it is the most effective way to stop the situation. He glances around. “Right now, it looks like it might be that vein on Mark’s forehead,” his tease causes Mark to rub his head.

“Steven,” Raph begins but stops when caught a look in Steven’s eye.

“We’ll talk next,” he mutters quickly. “Athena, come with me,” Steven motions for her quickly to come to him. “Mark, we’ll be a bit,” Steven declares before turning back, scoping his hand behind a hurrying Athena, glancing at Raph, and heading for his office.

Steven hears Raph begin to say something to Mark when he closes the office door. He releases an exaggerated sigh, “Well that close!” He gives Athena a halfhearted smile as she stands in the center of his office. He releases a real sigh and motions for her to sit on the couch, “Come on. Have a seat.” He begins slowly. Athena strokes her hands as she sits. Her eyes go back and forth between looking at Steven and the rest of the office. He pulls his chair out from behind the desk and sits in front of her. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to come back or not,” he begins.

“I wasn’t either.”

“So, what finally got you through the door?”

Steven always has a soft tone to his voice but sometimes it strikes the right chord. Athena is never sure if he does it on purpose or not, or if he is just the kindest-hearted person she has ever met. She gives him a soft smile as the two begin talking.

They stay in the office so long everyone else begins to wonder. Mark is pacing while Raph tries to watch Steven’s office door for any sign of movement. The door finally opens. Only for Steven to lean out and ask Raph to come in. Mark shouts as the door closes again.

This time it goes much faster. Raph, Steven, and Athena come out of the office. Steven looks around before taking a deep breath and clapping his hands, “Well I guess I don’t have to ask for everyone’s attention. So, let’s just get this out in the open right now. All of you have heard the gossip about what happened or are going to ask someone right after this; the question right now is if anyone has any issue with Athena coming back to the gym and the extra-hours activities?”

Steven barely finishes when Mark slams down his hand, “I do! Viola was really messed up after what she did! How can we just let her back?”

“If that is the case then you and I should leave too,” Raph interjects.

Mark stutters as he points to Raph in confusion. His mouth opens to shout again when Steven interjects, “I told you all to stop trying to initiate Viola on the day that multiple attempts were made but you all kept going. Athena may have been the one to finally push the button but many of you tried. Several of you broke different promises from when you started here. The question right now is how do you feel about having someone back who did? Especially since it is more than one person.” The crowd starts muttering to each other.

Mark shifts. He does not believe people are debating this. “She almost killed Viola!” he screams.

“Did you want to do it instead?” a voice breaks out. Everyone quiets down as they watch the color fade from Mark’s face. He collapses back on the chair behind the welcome desk.

Steven huffs as he rubs his head. “Look, there are going to be a lot of emotions about what happened and what to do next but right now the question is does anyone have any issues with Athena still being a part of the Cyclone family?” He scans the room to see people are avoiding eye contact than deciding anything. “All right, then we will go with the plan that was suggested to me. Everyone who was involved with the concept of what happened will be put on probation and will be monitored. After three months I will either talk to everyone else personally or you can contact me another way to vote if they should be allowed to stay in the gym or not.”

“What?! What kind of idea is that?” Mark screams.

“One that is meant to encourage safety, something WE strive for here. To make sure everyone is safe and taken care of in order to grow the best you can. Did you forget that?” Steven glares at his front desk clerk.

Mark sinks back into his seat.

“Any other protests?” Steven asks. No one makes a sound. “All right, back to your workouts. Sorry for the disturbance. Both of you, one more time if you don’t mind,” Steven finishes before motioning them into his office.

Steven closes the door behind them. “Whoo. That was rougher than I thought,” he teases immediately.

“Way to jump on it though,” Raph tries to encourage.

“Thank you for owing up like that. I think it helped,” Steven begins before taking his seat. Athena and Raph move to two ends of his desk. “They seem more on-edge than I realized though,” Steven observes.

“No one wanted to bother you after her visit,” Raph explains.

“Her visit? Viola came here?! She’s alive!” Athena could run laps around the room at that moment. She covers her face in her hands as she tries to breathe. The guys just smile as they watch. She smacks Raph, “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

The two men chuckle.

“Because Doc took her. We haven’t seen her since the visit and we can’t get any updates on what’s happening,” Steven explains fidgeting with the edge of his computer.

Athena sighs as she watches Steven’s movements. She leans on the side of his desk, “Between that and those two new people in town things seem really weird right now.”

“New people?”

“People come and go all the time. Why are these two so weird?” Raph wonders.

Athena begins waving her hands as she talks, “Well it’s odd. I just thought maybe they were visiting someone because of the hospital but then they showed up where I eat breakfast. I saw them looking around town while I was on my jog. And then I started seeing them outside my job.”

“You work downtown, Athena. A lot of people are there,” Raph says knowing that her job is normally in the office buildings while Cyclone’s Gym is on the edge of town.

“That is a lot of places though,” Steven acknowledges leaning back.

Athena points to him, “Right?! Plus, it isn’t like they look average either.”

“Really? You’re going to judge that?” Raph teases. Athena smacks his arm.

“Go on,” Steven encourages.

“It is a guy and some chick. He’s huge but built more like a brick than you are,” Athena motions to Raph. “But I swear he answers to her. She’s a little thing that barely comes past his gut. It’s just when I look at her… I swear she looks like she is waiting to rip apart an injured deer or something.” Athena glances at the two men. “I’m not joking. That little lady wants a fight!”

The men glance at each other. “Huh. That does sound strange,” Raph finally acknowledges.

Steven leans back in his chair, “Doc taking Vi, Mr. Marrigold ‘handling’ things, the members keeping secrets from me, and now these two,” Steven lists out loud. ‘I don’t know what’s going on at the library but something else is up there too. I wonder if the Pit has something or am I just other thinking things,’ he wonders to himself.

“You say it like that and it all sounds really spooky,” Raph shivers.

“Welcome to my world,” Athena says indicating how her time is going.

Steven stands up, “Regardless we have a plan for things here. So, let’s show them that we all agree when it comes to taking care of each other.”

“Yeah,” the other two cheer.

They start to head out of the office. Raph welcomes Athena back with a hug before he leaves. Steven pats her shoulder and shakes her hand but she steps closer. “I! … I wanted to tell you I started a program,” Athena begins.

Steven blinks, “I’ve never been your trainer but ok.”

Athena smirks. “No, not that. For my drinking.”

“Oh. Right,” Steven stands up straighter and closes the door. “That’s good. Right?” he wonders when he notices Athena is fidgeting.

“Yeah,” Athena barely says. Steven never makes her drinking an issue as long as it never brings a problem to the gym. But now Athena is not ignoring what happens. “I never meant to hurt her! Steven, I’m so sorry! I never meant to hurt her,” she cries as it pours out.

He immediately wraps his arms around her. She grasps onto his back while he tries to calm her down. “Hey, hey now. I know you didn’t. We can talk about it later. Hopefully with her,” he suggests with a smirk.

Athena gives a soft smile, “That would be nice.”

The two agree that she should come to the gym when either he or Raph is there for a while. Steven walks her out to several people staring, many watching, and Mark still glaring. When he closes the door behind her everyone goes back to what they are doing and a slow mutter grows. Steven exchange glances with Raph before they both sigh. ‘Yeah, things are strange now,’ Steven silently accepts before he realizes he still has to tell Josh. ‘That is going to be a tough conversation.’