I'll still never be as good as you, but at least one of us doesn't doubt me, Jennifer thought, but she felt that to be an increbly negative thing to say aloud. So instead, she smiled sadly.

"It does know how to hit right where it hurts, apparently. As if I didn't have enough self-esteem problems already..."

Still not uncurling herself, she blew a hard sigh out of her nose.

"I know, looking at it logically, that they never would have kept me around after that if it really was my incompetence that almost killed him. The others understood why I wanted to keep him for treatment, even Jeannie, and even if they did disagree with me about trying to go to that shrine. Logically, I know all of that. Emotionally, though, it hurts. It hurts a lot, thinking I almost killed him, and made Jeannie have to go through seeing her brother like that, and made the others go through seeing someone they care about in that state."

She bowed her head, but quickly raised it again rather than speak into her knees.

"Your confidence in me means a lot. I truly mean that. But it's still going to take me some time to get over, and for this project, we can't exactly wait around for me to feel better about myself. As long as you trust me to not royally screw things up, I can at least work with you on it."