Hawk and Dove

"Emotional Constipation"

Dan crossed his arms and looked at Phil. He was looking away pointedly, his hands in his pockets. Dan looked back. "Okay. Well, neither of you answered my question," he said.

"Louise and I will be in headquarters," PJ said.

"And I'll be here, waiting so see how the heroes handle the situation. Because I won't be much help," Chris added, averting his gaze as well.

Dan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Fine," he muttered, "Good job on the bus, PJ. And to Chris, who probably helped." And he turned and left the room before anyone else could say anything. He heard Phil's footsteps behind him.

They were silent as they walked. After a bit, Phil piped up. "Dan-"

"Did you know they felt that way?" he asked sharply, whirling on his friend.

Phil stopped, his expression slightly pained. "Yes," he said finally.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Dan demanded.

The other pursed his lips and looked down. Dan hadn't seen him in a mood like this since he got out of the labs. "I knew you would react badly. And Peej is right," he added quickly when Dan opened his mouth to interrupt, "The attack plan does leave out a lot of the team, and they're frustrated."

Dan threw his hands in the air, exasperated. "What are we supposed to do, Phil? We were born with powers that we can use to hurt people-" he ignored when Phil winced, "-should we need to, and others weren't! Alfie can lift a car and Marcus can read minds. Physical versus mental is not something we can change, and I'm not going to allow people on the mission who can't defend themselves past was Chapman has taught us. It would be suicide and they would just-"

"Get in the way?" Phil offered, as if he himself were reading Dan's mind.

Dan swallowed. "Without a nicer way to put it, yes. You, me, Alfie, Carrie, Caspar, even Troye. Those are the kind of people who can go into combat. PJ, Chris, Zoe, while they are all important members of the team, their powers won't help them in the field. And it's not my fault, or yours, or Louise's, or whoever it is that they're blaming," he finished.

"Then we need to find something for them to do," Phil said, his voice firmer than Dan had ever heard it, "PJ can build the gadgets, yes. But Chris is bored, so are Emma, and Charlie. The same thing every day would drive anyone crazy."

Dan looked away and ran a hand over his face. On top of planning the invasion, getting in shape, learning to fight, and keeping the heat under control (although now that was like second nature), he hadn't been thinking about those who had their own abilities down but were not being sent on the mission. That alone was a very confusing thought. "I don't know what to do," he admitted, turning back to Phil, "I thought you and I had everything down. Everything was going according to plan. And now we have bored teammates to deal with?"

"It's fair of them to think that way, Dan," said Phil, his tone resilient.

"I understand that. But we're not running a spy agency here, or really running anything that comes with an influx of assignments. We're trying to survive and come out of hiding. We're trying to keep the government from experimenting on children. And we are on our way to doing that permanently," he retorted, with a little more attitude than he intended to use.

Phil pinched the bridge of his nose, and then started to walk again. Dan followed, and if smoke could come out of his ears like it did his lungs it probably would be. "You have a good point," Phil said finally as he walked, "But I just hate the idea that there are some of our own that don't understand, you know? We're trying our best, like you said, but I'm really afraid that's not good enough. If this mission goes well... we could have something monumental on our hands."