[ARCHIVE]

“A crunch you make yourself almost always has the perfect amount of crunch on the first try,” is her reasoning, paired with a shrug. Disappointed at the obvious lack of cookie dough chunks in her future, she pouts. As much as she dislikes it, being kicked out for pulling off something like that made perfect sense.

An idea crops up, and she’s straightening up, blinking at Jessie with wide, hopeful eyes. “So…shave ice tasting date, but with all the flavorings?” 

Her head tilts, a thoughtful expression on her face. She had never really thought about that idea. Mainly because… “It’s liable to be expensive but I can’t see why not. So long as we stay under a set amount per and go in Dutch, then it’s a date,” she admits. Sampling, of course, was far easier with a full liquid or ice cream. But she could find nothing wrong with the idea. 

Her smile is brief, a mere twitch of her lips as she stares straight ahead. The ’my earliest memory is the fact I’m a fully grown adult but remember nothing of my life before waking up one morning’ case, despite how terrifying it is to imagine, is highly plausible and one that would have undoubtedly brought some chaos. But it is something she finds herself unwilling to put more thought into.

“It’d be worrying if you didn’t.” Kelly murmurs wryly, doling out both her professional and personal opinion. Despite there being no reported cases of resurrections outside of the holy book, Kelly points out, “you don’t die and come back to life the way you did without realizing that something isn’t right.”

“I think we’d be woefully unprepared for the reapers,” she answers honestly, somberly. “Doubt we’d even have a fighting chance; doubt we’d even have met or that you’d have even met Jack.” Another brief smile as she blinks at Shane. “Akuze, for you, was the starting point for a series of really unfortunate events.” A small frown mars her face as she reconsiders her words. “But with the unfortunate events, there have been fortunate ones–first human Spectre, defeating the Collectors, making TIM’s life miserable…” 

“I dunno, I think if it wasn’t me it would’ve been somebody else learning about the Reapers. I mean, it was sheer happenstance any of it happened to me. It could’ve easily happened to Kaidan,” she muses aloud, her voice softening at the mention of the deceased Marine from the SR-1 days. 

An evil little smirk crosses her face then. “Imagine, ‘Dr.’ Miranda ‘Frankenstein’ having to deal with Ash, though. She thinks I’m hard to deal with,” Shane chuckles. It was good natured and not a slight against Ash, really. It was just well known Ash stuck to rules and regs far more often than Shane did. And was Alliance born and bred which was the whole reason Ash wouldn’t leave her post on Horizon. Shane may hate Cerberus based on Akuze (and Jack, can’t forget Jack), but Ash hated them twice fold and now, of course, threefold given certain revelations.

Those thoughts never slip past her lips though.

"A combination of your stubbornness tenacity and Anderson backing you up makes you an unstoppable force. I can't imagine, but I am curious to see, what Spectre Williams would do with both you and the Admiral backing her up."

The fond feeling quickly fades when Isabela's words, and Kelly is left befuddled. We--Kelly and Isabela, Isabela and Kelly--was an entity that hadn't existed for a while. Their last movie night and the last time they shared a bed were things that happened just as far back.

There hasn't been a we in years, and Isabela's drunk mumblings are a neon sign of potential trouble.

She's loathe to do so, but she withdraws her hand, tucks it under her thigh so she's not tempted to touch again.  She's unsure of what to do; every possible scenario she thinks up ends with Isabela becoming even more withdrawn, which...fair, even though Kelly is hurt. Cerberus and the Alliance were far from friends. Cerberus and Isabela Shepard on the other hand...

Yeah.

“Yeah, they’re quite noisy, aren’t they?” She asked in turn, gently bumping her shoulder against Gunny’s with a snicker.

Unfortunately, the noise was something they couldn’t get away from. The chaos had been stewing for weeks, and it was going to last for many more months, but that isn’t something she wants to reveal or even discuss with the kid. Not so soon anyway.

“You get used to it after a while, kinda like white noise.”

Humor immediately gave way to concern the moment she spied the hand venturing towards the cast. “Any pain? Or just itchiness?”

“Guess I’m lucky being able to turn off the noise, then.” She tabbed the side that wasn’t gifted with hearing aids, giving Felicia a brave little smile. Gunny tried to make fun of it to keep the memories of being unable to hear the nearing danger in time at bay.

“I’d say you’re ridiculous and in need of better pick-up lines,” Kelly retorted immediately, playfully smacking Frank’s hands away. So fussy, this one! While she tucked the blanket around her form to her own satisfaction, Kelly shook her head at the suggestion. Mother hen.

“No, no need for that.” Dr. Michel, like nearly every physician on the Citadel, was likely busy with the influx of wounded soldiers and refugees, and ill Citadel residents. Kelly wasn’t going to have to call the woman out for a home visit for what might not be serious. “Not now, at least.” She’d wait, see how she felt after her nap, then let Mr. Fussy do as he wished.

Frank’s concern, a bit out of proportion for Kelly, reminded her of the plague on Omega only a year before–a far cry from the worst-case scenario she’d actually been thinking about. “Or,” she stressed with a small assuring smile, “it could just be a cold. A sneeze here, a sniffle there… Throw in a cough or two for variety–easily taken care of.”

“Let’s hope you’re right then.” Frank got back on his feet after checking her forehead one last time. Was he really overprotective? Maybe. But he’d lost too much to not become skeptical when things had been going well for too long, even if it were just a cold in the end.