The first person to notice her return had been Deunan. She had been standing to the back, spotting her partner while he had been sparring with some of the others of their squad, keeping their combat readiness up to snuff when she noticed the door opening. "Talina! Welcome back." There was mild concern in her green eyes for the other ES.W.A.T. member, but as they weren't on the same tactical squad there wasn't much she could ask right out without coming off as nosy. There was however no doubting the warmth in the welcome and the fact that it was genuine.
Talina froze at the welcome as it halted the sparring and the other activities of the room. There was no getting around it now. They would all see what had happened to her now. "Hi Deunan, its good to be back, I guess." Her posture closed up a little as her uneasiness with her new situation came to the fore. Fortunately most of the squads knew what had happened and sympathized with the software analyst. To be left with your back open in combat was something none of them ever wanted to happen to them so they all wanted to make her return easy on her.
"Well don't just stand there Cracker, get in here." One of her team mates smiled calling her by her nick name. Deunan smiled noting that the woman's team was going to do everything they could to make her reintegration as easy as possible.
"So, which beach did you go to for sun and waves this time Cracker?" Another team mate asked, a playful smirk letting her know that he was teasing.
This finally got a smile from the nervous woman and she finally started talking. "Thanks for the welcome back guys. Let me give you this bit of advice. Don't get shot up like that if at all possible. Getting most of your major organs perforated with out anesthesia is not my idea of a good time."
Those that had gathered around her to reinforce her welcome back to the teams chuckled at her attempt at a joke at her own expense. Deunan, Briarios and Tereus all looked at each other and knew that she was going to need some major support before she'd be ready to go back out into the field. Fortunately it looked like her team was ready to handle that detail. The only question left was who was going to take the place of her partner. It wasn't like the results of that mission was a quiet bit of work with the way news spreads around the ES.W.A.T. headquarters.
They walked away to do a bit of light sparring to cool down before heading to the lockers. When they came out they found Talina waiting for them. "Can I talk to the three of you sometime? I have some questions and you guys may be able to help me answer them."
Tereus and Briarios both looked at Deunan and when she smiled and nodded they all knew what she was thinking even as she said it. "Why not now? We're just headed out to have a couple beers and relax a little."
Talina looked uncertain but she was determined to get these questions answered and agreed. "Alright. Let me get my jacket, its a little cool this evening."
As Talina ran down the hall to her office to get her jacket Deunan looked at her friends and partner. "Is it just me or is she nervous about something?"
It was Briarios that answered, "I didn't see the medical report on the incident that she was caught in, but I think that she wasn't just sewn back together. She may be part or mostly cyborg now and is uncertain as to how her team mates will handle it since they knew her as human before."
"That could be it, but I think we should let her talk on her own. She's nervous enough as it is, I'll push her if she hits a wall." Deunan answered and the other two nodded in agreement. Ever since the Halcon incident just over a year ago, she had been bouncing back and forth between Briarios and Tereus as partners for various missions.
Talina got back to them and they all left for the promise of alcohol and good conversation while not working. The software analyst had been right, it was a little cool that evening and all were glad they had been wearing their jackets for that fall evening. Talina decided to let the members of squad two lead the way and soon found herself in a small pub just off the main shopping district. It was the beginning of the week so it wasn't overly busy and they picked a booth to themselves and ordered a round of drinks and some light snacks to get them started before any real conversation started.
Once the drinks and the food arrived they all looked around and sipped for a moment before letting Tereus start. "What can we try and help you with?" He was still very blunt with most things, he still knew that some situations called for a delicate touch, and could on occasions call forth a softer touch than his normally hard-assed demeanor.
It was all the question that Talina needed to help her get past her speech block. "You all know what happened just over six months ago when I was on that assignment that got me shot up right?" Briarios and Deunan were across from her and Tereus was sitting next to her in the booth but as she looked around she saw them all nod so she continued. "Well there were only two possible conclusions to that situation. I would either survive the operating table and I'd come back seriously scarred but in one piece, or I would "die" and have to basically indenture myself to ES.W.A.T. to afford the necessary robotics to go cyborg. I was fortunate enough that I had signed the necessary paperwork when I had joined the squad that I would allow such a thing to happen, or ES.W.A.T. would be short a software analyst right now."
The reason for her needing to talk to them was starting to come clear, but they were not going to assume anything just yet so Briarios asked. "Are you worried about how your squad will take your change?" He more than the others knew what it was to fear that change and fear the reactions he would get for it.
Talina shook her head with a quizzical look on her face. "It's not that, well not exactly that. I'm stronger now, I don't know how much stronger, and mentally I've changed a lot, I used to be a bit of a mouse I guess. I would let my skills speak for me, if I needed something it always waited till it was a critical need, or I'd just put myself last. How I see myself has changed. I can't exactly say if its a good view or not. I haven't had enough interaction with others to help me forge that viewpoint yet."
"Wait, you let how others see you tell you how you see yourself?" Deunan spoke up, not liking the picture that was starting to present itself.
"Kinda, see my body type has changed, how I do things has had to change as a result. I had to relearn how to walk, swim, everything that you take for granted as a woman I had to relearn how to do because I went from a female body type to a female/cyborg body type which is a little closer to a very fit male body type. Built like a brick. at first I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. I mean how did men cope with it?"
"Honey, I hate to tell you this, but from puberty on, men are bricks, mind and body." Deunan said with a sardonic tone that made Talina laugh and both men cry out in objection.
"Good point." Talina looked at Tereus and Briarios in apology, laughter still in her eyes. Mood considerably lightened she continued. "It's not easy to have a good self image of yourself when you don't know what image you're supposed to have of yourself."
They all quieted down for a moment after that comment thinking, reflecting, drinking, or eating. Talina suddenly remembered, "Hey! I've heard around the gym that you're undefeated in the sparring ring, is that right Briarios?"
"Well, yeah. What about it?" Not knowing where she was going with this he was genuinely curious.
"Well, I'm black fringe first stripe ranked in Tai Chi Chuan, my grand master has told me that with my new body, I am not allowed back into the dojo until I've learned the limitations of the body and learned to harness it. If I were to go into a no holds barred, weaponless sparring session with you I would find those limits and from there I would begin to learn to harness this new body." The shame she felt in not being allowed back into her dojo was easily seen in her face and the others knew that this was something very important to her. The fact that she added weaponless as a condition to the sparring meant that she normally practiced with one or more weapons.
"Why me?" Briarios asked focused now more on why she was asking him in particular, and now Deunan, who was closer to the woman's size, or Tereus, who seemed less threatening.
"Because if I were to go full power and in an uncontrolled punch, kick or redirect disrupt something in your system, you are the most likely candidate to walk away from it. My training would force me to go for openings and weak points. Part cyborgs I'd go for the human points, Humans I'd hurt and I don't want to and same for bioroids. You guys are good, but I just don't know this body well enough yet. You would have the strength, speed and control to keep me from hurting you while I would keep from hurting myself while we tested the limitations of this body. I want Deunan and Tereus to be there just in case the unexpected happens." Serious dark brown eyes closed as Talina bowed her head waiting for the answer.
Tereus, Deunan and Briarios all looked at each other in a silent conference. Basically it was all Briarios's decision, but if the other two didn't want him to do it because they weren't certain as to what this new cyborg could do then he'd follow their lead. Oddly enough, it was Deunan that nodded. Cocking her head towards the tense woman, they suddenly understood that this would be their way of showing their support for her, and subtly boosting her self image.
"Alright, we'll do it. But not tonight. How about this weekend barring any of us getting an assignment?" Briarios offered. Pleased when those dark eyes opened hopeful and smiling.
"That works for me. Have your pressure sensors on line, I will want to take the data from the sparring with me, I'll have mine on line as well so you can have your data as well. I might want to make the sparring a regular occurrence till I can tone things down to sparring with Tereus. If I can manage that I'm sure I'll be let back out on the field. Till then I'm kinda station bound to keep me out of potential combat situations."
As they all stood up to pay their bills they all smiled, it looked like Talina was going to be OK as she was starting to open up, but how much was going to depend on how much she trusted her squad, and that would require watching from the captain.
Later that evening Deunan lay curled up with Briarios "Briarios, do you think she'll be OK?"
"She's a tough girl in her mind. That mentality took a beating when she had to swap bodies. It also sounds like they didn't do a very good job of doing a body match when they set her up with her cyber prosthetic. They may have been thinking about her job at ES.W.A.T. but they didn't do a very good job thinking about her self esteem when they did that. Not all of those squad members are soldiers. In the long run I think she'll be OK, if she got one of the newer body types that I've been reading up on, then there is a certain amount of mutability to the body and eventually she will have a more feminine form. But that will take a lot of time. For now I think she needs to worry more about getting back out into the field and that is what these sparring matches are going to do for her."
Both in agreement they went to sleep and put the situation from their minds as they were called to duty for a situation overseas the next day.