SC - Fugitives

[Keira Kelly]

Nick watched Ava disappear off into the bathroom, making sure she actually did go.. even if he was pretty sure she had gotten the hint to comply, before turning his attention back to what Miranda was saying. As she spoke, he began to get the plates and cutlery out to place for the upcoming dinner as he listened. He slowed in his task a bit at hearing that it still would take some time for Ava to finish healing. She... wasn't going to like that, he knew. He nodded slowly in response to Miranda's reasons for getting them all working again though, especially Ava and he could understand the truth to her words.

"I can understand the... outbursts though.." he began, casting a glance towards the closed bathroom door, wondering if Ava was picking up any of this telepathically. Probably. Quickly, he elaborated on that, both in his mind and out loud. "I've been injured before too. I can understand the frustration at feeling helpless... and it's probably even worse with what she encountered out there... being worried that she isn't at her best what with the Queen of Blades having shown such.. interest in her.." he explained. Ava had told him about the encounter in detail and even if she didn't say how she felt about it and even if he wasn't a psionic himself, he could read her fairly well by now. In addition, he knew that through Ava's life at the Academy, she had been left alone, locked in a room... a lot. Her frustrations now whenever she had nothing to do, now that she actually had the freedom to do what she wanted to do, was understandable too.

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Ava took a big breath of the wonderful aroma of the food, smiling a bit smile. She was still sore from the fall on the ice but the hot shower had helped at least somewhat. Still, she knew that she'd be black and blue in some areas by tomorrow. She tried to roll one shoulder though, feeling it not quite responding like it should. A bit of a muscle pull from the fall, nothing more serious than that. She caught the thought from Miranda before the words were even spoken and she glanced over with a arched eyebrow, her lips just slightly parted as the verbal part of the admonition began. "I was going to ask Nick if he could help me dry my hair quickly," she objected, "I think I pulled something in my shoulder a bit." She made a show of trying to raise her right arm above shoulder level and wincing. It did hurt but truth be told, she could have ignored the pain. She knew that Miranda knew yet she stuck to her story... trying to hide the smile.

She glanced over at Nick, who in turned glanced over at Miranda for a moment before moving to help Ava with her hair. She put a hand on one of his arms, whispering her genuine thanks. Though it had really been a pretext, she didn't take Nick's willingness to help her however he could or be there for her for granted. She knew he had given up a lot to be here with her and that was something she wouldn't forget.

Her hair as dry as it could get from a towel, she smiled at hearing that dinner was indeed ready. She cocked her head at Miranda's statement that it wouldn't run away. "With as good as it smells, I wanted to be sure that you two didn't eat it all before I could get out here." she joked. Her smile grew at hearing there were movies scheduled for tonight as well. She had seen countless training vids back at the Academy, of course, but only since escaping with Miranda had Ava seen fictional stories in movie format and had found she very much enjoyed the fantastic stories. She grabbed Nick's arm, pulling him towards the dinner table, eager to get to the food and then to the movies.

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ABOUT A WEEK LATER
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Ava was excited to get back to doing something.. useful again, even if she was distressed. She felt the dropship touch down inside the landing bay of the Irregulars' battlecruiser but, rather than being in the cockpit, she was in the cargo area, double checking that everything they needed was ready to go, including a few items that Cid had asked them to obtain along the way. The bruising and soreness from her fall had pretty much all healed but she still felt winded easily. Apparently exposure to space took a fair bit longer to get over.

She had snapped a few times during the flight out, including the latest one not long ago. The cabin fever at being essentially an infantryman on a ship flight, stacked with the frustration at dealing with her injuries and the limitations in incurred had not been the best of combinations. Ava had done her best to curb the irritation at all of it but.. she had slipped a couple of times, lashing out when she hadn't really meant to. The shame she felt over it was what had her checking all the gear rather than simply enjoying watching the landing from up front where Nick and Miranda were.

After a couple of minutes, probably shutting the ship's systems down and whatnot, Nick and Miranda joined her in the cargo area. With a apologetic frown, Ava moved over to Nick, wringing her hands. "I'm sorry." she said in a hushed voice to him, staring down at the deck. "I didn't mean it, what I said..." she began, almost sounding near tears now. "I really didn't.. I just..." she trailed off, unsure of how to explain. It had been him she had lashed out at earlier. They had been carrying some of the gear to get it ready and he had offered to carry a particularly heavy bit for her which she had taken as him calling her weak.

Nick put a hand on her shoulder, using his other hand to raise her chin up until she was looking at him. He sighed. "I get it. I do. But just keep reminding yourself that you will be back to feeling normal again in no time, like Miranda keeps telling you." he answered back. He smiled. "You'll be outdoing me in push-ups and beating me soundly in running in no time." he added, giving Ava a quick kiss.

After the kiss, she leaned her head against Nick's chest for a moment, feeling his arms wrap around her, relieved that he hadn't taken her harsh words to heart, grateful that he was so understanding of her yet again. It was barely ten months now since she had escaped the Academy, just under nine months since she had met Nick and less than that since he had come to live with them. It was such a short amount of time in her twenty two years of life, but the bonds she had formed with both Nick and with Miranda were the strongest, most important ones she had ever had in her life. Though the two bonds were different, she couldn't imagine ever losing either and it had scared her that she might have hurt Nick with her words. She was relieved now knowing without doubt that that wasn't the case.

She pulled away after a moment, wiping quickly at her eyes as she straightened the leather coat she had received as a gift back on Kalisti. The jeans and shorts she wore beneath the coat in turn covered up her ghost skin suit. Taking one last look into Nick's eyes to be sure, she glanced back between Miranda and Nick. "I think it's all ready." she said finally. "Though.. I'll let you guys deal with it." she added putting up her hands in surrender. She picked up her own duffel bag though along with her canister rifle which she had propped up alongside the other gear, slinging both over a shoulder. Her own stuff was more than light enough not to warrant any objections from the other two.. she hoped.

Nick moved to pick up one large crate, looking over at Miranda. "Carry out this stuff for Cid first and then retrieve the CMC's?" he asked. "We are going to be bringing them onto the BC, just in case, right?" he asked as he lugged the box he had grabbed, moving over to stand close to Ava as he waited for the dropship cargo door to open.

[rivaan]

As Nick and Ava were preparing for their disembarkment from the dropship, Miranda was too preparing her things. The doctor had changed ab it over the time on Kalisti. With her starting to train out regularly again and fixing a few things in her lifestyle, it had taken just under a year for the lanky, somewhat frail and sickly looking woman to fill out again. The aftereffects from her addiction and near death experience were nowdays completely gone from her system and a few choice medications had helped deal with some other things. She had also gotten a haircut back on Kalisti to trim her hair, making it a bit neater and was right now wearing it on a big braid that was swung over her left shoulder. It was a hairdo she often had back in the day on her homeworld on the rim. A bit cowboy-ish, but she enjoyed it for it was neat, though she was personally even morre fan fo the double braids. In any case, she had actually taken the time to learn how to make a few more norse like hairstyles in line with their overall theme for the new group after the rebranding.

"Yes, will have some of the engineers later bring the CMCs over to the armory we are going to be using as we are part of the crew now." She replied simply with a nod as she was attaching her holsters to legs, before taking her own duffel bag. Then moved over to a briefcase and picked it up. It was dull gray metal, though clearly new. It was one of the higher class and costly purchases they had gotten along the way. The entire thing was filled with vials of nanites ready to be used, she had spend some time programming them and labeling them herself. Mostly to be used for stopping internal bleedings since those were rather dangerous, especially with little time to treat them." Besides, I gotta oversee them moving the suits, don't want anyone messing with them before I've got time to warn them of the quirks." Miranda added with a huff. Not that she didn't trust the Irregulars' mechanics, but the suits she and Nick nowdays used were customized in more than one ways and some of that required some knoweldge in advance to be known before you even knew what might go wrong. Her suit, easily identifiable because of the black color with golden colored apple logo and inlays was especially altered because of concerns she had voiced with Alexander about the dangers of the future. They still had trouble figuring out how to put the 'toss tech completely to their desires, but just like the now practically fused to her ear Khaydarin crystal that had saved her life from Kerrigan, her suit now carried it's own small Khaydarin crystal. Miranda could swear she felt more in tune with the CMC after the thing was installed.

With everything prepared and secured for the time being. They weren't going to be clearing the dropship entirely. No point, it would still be their mobile home whenever they weren't with the crew anyways. Thus she pressed the button on the hatch and the dropship's ramp lowered, allowing the 3 of them to get off it before it closed again. They were met with the sight of a bustling with activity hangar of a Battlecruiser. There were 2 other parked dropships that were unloading a lot of cargo. Men and women were moving said cargo about, clearly the thing was entering it's final preparations. From the outside when they were nearing the secluded secret station they used as drydock for it's repairs, it looked practically brand new. It wasn't going to stand toe to toe with the newest models, but it was good enough to give them a decent fight and worse comes to shove, Irregulars had the distinct advantage of having a second BC in the reserve. Sure their old mobile base was refurbished from a scuttled outdated class, but they had made the thing work and it could offer some decent fire support if needed. She highly doubted they'd need to bring it out anytime soon though.

"Hey, James!" Miranda greeted a grim looking man with shades under his eyes so dark and big he could be mistaken for a skelleton." Damn, you look like a zombie or something." She told him. This was one of mechanics' crew of the Irregulars. She didn't know him too well, but he was the one whom helped her with her suit last time so they got along enough. What she got in return was a scowl and grumbles.

"Damn you woman... you try working around the clock for this nonsense. Most of us haven't had much sleep in the last 2 months. Cid wanted the ship ready for tomorrow... Deadline's a kill." The overly tired mechanic complained to her and pointed a wrench at her direction.

"Yeah, well... gonna have to run your crew through the briefing for our CMCs later, kinda running a custom job on them." She warned with a smile, earning herself mock anger stare." So, jokes aside, how's everything going? We good to fly tomorrow?"

"We are, ship's power conduits required replacement, but pretty much everything else was in working order. Hell, the warpdrive only required to be powered up and we could have warped right away. Anyways... go meet with Cid on the bridge. He's been jumping at the wall for his things." The man shrugged and returned to work.

Miranda smiled and looked at Nick and Ava." Come on, let's go meet with Cid. need to get our room arrangements anyways. Besides, I'm curious how they refurnished the bridge. Did he keep the old Confederate ornate decor or did he scrap it for something more utalitarian."

[Keira Kelly]

As things were patched up again on the home front, as it were, Ava turned her concentration to what she could already feel was on the other side of the dropship bay door. Reaching into her jacket pocked, she pulled out her psi-screen, slipping it on behind one ear but leaving it off for the moment. There was people here... a lot of people, but so far, it wasn't as bad as that one city had been. Here, people had tasks, duties, responsibilities to perform and their minds were often on that, and even when they weren't, the minds were still somewhat more... disciplined than all the civilians. Besides, Ava had been around many of these minds before. They were something she could tolerate. Military minds, even if just a mercenary crew and not all necessarily soldiers, were something she could understand and deal with. And if it got too much, well, she had her screen ready.

She glanced over, watching Miranda push the button to open the ramp. As soon as the door had even cracked open, the smell of solvents and oil washed over them all, making Ava begin to cough. She had never had that sort of reaction before but her lungs were overly sensitive still it seemed. She winced, trying to hold her breath to get the coughing under control, feeling the pain deep inside her chest. She could feel Nick about to put down his load and help her but Ava reached out, putting a hand to his arm and shaking her head. She drew another slow breath. "I'm fine.." she managed to say after a long moment, taking another breath. It was getting easier as she became used to all the chemicals in the air.

As soon as they were down on the hanger deck, the dropship ramp retracted, the door closing up. At least being able to breath without coughing, though not without some pain, Ava turned her attention almost subconsciously to the minds around her, quickly going over the general surface thoughts. Tiredness and fatigue but pride in work done well and... sticking to schedule, mostly, were the prevalent thoughts. Fantasies about getting some decent sleep or washing all the grime off seemed to be pretty common too. She glanced over her shoulder at one particularly frustrated though from the far side of the hanger just in time to see a panel short out in a shower of sparks, followed by an immense bout of cursing, both verbal and mentally. Ava bit her lower lip in a wince for that tech's sake. From his thoughts, he knew he wasn't going to be getting ANY sleep tonight now.

Her focus was drawn back as Miranda began to talk to someone, one of the mechanics. Not one that Ava was familiar with but it seemed that Miranda was. The man was so busy that apparently he didn't even bother to notice the quiet Nick and Ava. Ava, for her part, didn't want to disturb the man any more than necessary and so kept quiet. The strain and stress on everyone here would have been just as apparent even had she not been a psionic. Well, the stress was not something Ava had anticipated and she could feel it was getting to her a little bit. With a quick thought, she turned on her psi-screen. She could use it here and there and hopefully, by tomorrow when the ship was up and running, that stress level would drop sharply and make the mental scape on the ship a bit more tolerable.

Ava forced a smile in return to Miranda, replying with a nod, very pleased that they could get out of the hanger and maybe into areas of the ship with some better air. "Sounds good." she answered, barely able to hold back another cough.

Nick laughed. "Knowing Cid? He probably stripped out anything Confederate there, but probably didn't make it TOO utilitarian either." he added. Near the exit, he called over a nearby technician to take the box he had carried off the dropship. It had some specialized parts that Cid had ordered for the final repairs or maybe backups for them. In any case, he was glad to be rid of that load for now.

Travelling through the ship's corridors did prove easier on the lungs, though Ava was still feeling drained and just a bit winded. Passing through the halls, a number of times, they were stopped when someone wanted to talk with them, most often with Nick. It wasn't really a surprise considering how long he had been with the Irregulars originally and they were happy to see him back among them, even if only for a mission. A few had thanked Miranda for some care she had given in their previous missions with the Irregulars and there had even been one that had thanked Ava for saving their life back on Redstone I. It seemed though that the three of them were somewhat celebrities amongst this crew now though.

Finally they reached the bridge, heading inside. Surprisingly, quite a bit of the Confederate decor was still here, though obviously at least the non-functional aspects of it still bore heavy damage. It seemed that with as hard as the mechanics and techs were being pressed, aesthetics weren't yet important. Ava, looking around at it, felt a shudder go through her. It all just sort of reminded her of where she had come from, all that she had gone through... and it wasn't pleasant thoughts to say the least. She shook the feeling off. It wasn't Confederate anymore, despite the decor. They began to move slowly into the room, trying not to disturb boxes and parts still lying all over the floor.

Cid, standing at the central console noticed them and straightened and began to lumber towards them, a pleased smile on his face. "Good to see you all!" he began as he drew nearer and then slowed and then stopped, his smile slipping away, turning into a bit of a frown as the door opened again behind the small group of visitors. His mouth opened as if to say something but he seemed to think better of it and shut it again. He scratched lightly at the back of his neck as he turned his eyes off to the side, almost in embarrassment.

"Where have you been?" came a distinctly female voice from behind them.

Ava turned to see a woman with almost pitch black hair, chin-length on one side, much shorter on the other, probably in her very early thirties, a handful of years older than Nick and probably slightly under decade older than Ava. The woman grabbed Nick, spun him around and pulled him into a passionate kiss. Ava's jaw dropped in confusion and disbelief. A brief dropping of her psi-screen only netting her the.. intense emotions of that woman and a confusing array of emotions from Nick, though Ava's own shock prevented much in the way of understanding much of what she got. She just didn't want any more of it and the screen went back on.

The woman finally pulled back from Nick, a very pleased look on her face despite the fact that Nick had not really reciprocated the kiss.. much. She slapped a hand lightly against his chest. "They told me you retired or some nonsense... without even letting me know!" she said with a laugh. Finally she noticed the other two women he was with. "So who are your friends? I heard we were getting some consultants or something? Guess you escorted them in? It's been too long, lover..."

During all of this, Ava began to slowly back up, back away from the group. She didn't want to be there right now. She didn't want to be here, didn't want to be around anyone. It had been easier being all alone, back in her cell at the Academy, where she hadn't had to feel... hadn't had to deal with the confusing influx of emotions. She just wanted to be alone more than anything right now. In her retreat, she hit into something solid. Turning around, she saw it was Cid, who made to put a comforting hand on her but she ducked it, darting past him towards the doorway on the other side of the bridge. She took off, running through the corridors, taking turns randomly at intersections, not knowing where she was going through her tear-blurred vision. Finally she had to stop, her lungs burning and aching, sobbing and just terribly confused at the same time.

She had heard Nick call out her name as she had fled the bridge but.. well.. she knew how he felt about her. It was not something he would lie about, not from her. She had also.. sort of known that he had had other relationships in the past. He had admitted that much to her before, but he hadn't gone into any details other than they hadn't carried the same sort of emotion as he had with her. But still, to come face to face with it so unexpectedly... and that that woman still thought she had something with Nick? He obviously hadn't broken whatever relationship that was off. When she really thought about it though, what was Ava compared to someone like that though? She was nothing but a broken ghost, injured and prone to lashing out at those she cared about... Maybe she was holding HIM back... she thought as the sobs grew.

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"Ava!" Nick called out at seeing the red-headed woman run out. He took a step to follow her but a hand grabbed his arm. He turned, angry now. Angry at himself mostly. But not all. "What the hell, Trish?!"

Trish gave him a look: confused and disbelieving that he would respond this way. She glanced quickly at Cid who was still trying to look oblivious to the drama, before looking back at Nick. "I know we were trying to be discreet before.. mostly so Ivana wouldn't go gossiping around the ship but.. it's been nearly a year. I missed you." she objected.

Nick sighed with a grimace. He firmly pulled the hand off his arm, letting it drop. "I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to tell you before but you were on extended furlough, Trish. It's over. Things kind of moved quickly earlier this year... A lot happened. I don't need.. whatever it was we had between us anymore." he explained. He didn't want to be standing here explaining anymore though.

She glanced over his shoulder in the direction the other woman had run. "That young red head?" she asked, again sounding disbelieving. "That child?"

Nick made a frustrated, disgusted sound and turned away forcefully, stalking out the same doors that Ava had run out of. Without any way of tracking her, he had no clue where Ava had gone.. but he would search the whole ship if he had to.

[rivaan]

Well Miranda can say that she DIDN'T expect this turn of events. In fact she threw a questioning eyebrow raise at Cid, who just looked tired about this and by the looks of it Nick was rather shocked and surprised by this turn of events also. However predictably enough, Ava took it hard. Yeah... first love type of thing and first misunderstanding... also first rival? Mostly the first spat and misunderstanding. The doctor had the distinct feeling that she will be getting a girls' night with the other women in their quarters that got along well with Ava last time. Get drunk, rant about men, blame said men for everything and once it was over, get Ava to talk to Nick and clear it all up. It could work actually. Especially since Ava would be a lot more accepting of suggestions with a massive hangover. Or maybe they will just work it out before she could even involve herself. It could happen. Nick and Ava had gotten very close over the months since they started traveling together. Maybe she'd give them about half an hour to see if they sort this out. She looked at her watch in an exegerated manner and set the alarm.

Honestly if Miranda's senses were reading this right, even though it sounded bad, it probably was never serious anyways. Not unusual for coworkers of this nature. People got bored and sooner or later one's need for intimacy grew especially in dangerous career like theirs. Well to take her earlier words: It was all Nicky's fault~. Watching the man storm off after his flame, she chuckled, looking at Cid." Kids, what can we do." She said in good nature to the man." They will deal with it before long, don't worry. If they don't I will make them deal with it, didn't spend the better part of a few months nudging them along for nothing. This is good for them, we always remember our first spat and misunderstanding induced anger." She grinned, looking at the woman, Trish.

"Honestly didn't expect this, but what can we do. Yeah you are lucky that child's decent one or you would have been dead already." The doctor smiled at Trish, but it wasn't her mild mannered friendly smile. No, this was her predatory,' I'm going to do some very suspicious and questionable experiments on you', smile. All thigns considered Miranda might fall under the mad scientist label... Or at least a mad doctor?" Also these consultants are part of the group now, we are just under our own team unless me and Cid agree that teaming up for specific missions is the best course of action and for our benefit as a whole. Thus we are rebranding the Irregulars under new name. Who are you anyways? I actively don't remember you from Redstone or the Asteroid belt scuffle." The doctor asked with a raised eyebrow of the woman.

[Keira Kelly]

Trish was dumbfounded, watching Nick race away after the young red-headed woman. "What the hell just happened?" she muttered half under her breath as she was left with Cid and the other woman. While she had been under no illusion that what she and Nick had had going on being anything other than a diversion, some fun, she was surprised she hadn't gotten any sort of heads up. She gave a sideways glance towards Cid, noting by his sheepish expression that he had known something about it. That being said though, she wasn't entirely convinced that the game was lost either. She doubted Nick truly knew what he wanted. Men rarely did at that age.... Perhaps.. she would push on and see what happened... If she lost in the end well.. there were always more fish in the sea.

She arched an eyebrow at the other, slightly older woman's words. This woman had what... set up Nick and that other girl or something? She wasn't sure if she was misunderstanding that or not.. But whatever the case, it sounded like that child had someone watching out for her. She cast a cool glare at the other woman grinning at her. The glare deepened at the words that she was lucky that the child was decent or she would be dead. What did that mean? "That a threat?" she asked heatedly. She sneered. "What is a child like that going to do to a seasoned soldier..." she asked rhetorically, smugly despite this woman's now very unfriendly smile.

She frowned more at the 'we are rebranding the Irregulars' line. We? What did a couple of consultants have to do with the direction and tradition of the whole mercenary unit anyways? It sounded like they thought a hell of a lot of themselves. Odd though that Cid wasn't contradicting any of it. What HAD she missed in the last year and a bit? She gave a facade of a smile for a split second before it faded. "I'm Trish Harper. Maybe you've hear of me around here. Third in command, chief trainer of new blood and recruiting officer." She paused at hearing at hearing about Redstone and the asteroid belt. She HAD heard about those incidents from other crew after she had gotten back. "I've been recruiting for the past fifteen months, going from world to world, trying to find people that fit the bill." she answered. "And you?"

It wasn't too much longer before Nick returned. On his way past, he cast an angry glare at Trish, before stopping near Miranda, the anger fading to almost panicked worry. "I can't find her. She is fast.. you should know and I don't think she ran in a straight line down one corridor." he said in a lowered voice. "She knows how to lose someone following her and.. well.. its a big ship. I don't even know where to start..." he added. He put a couple fingers to his head. "You can try to.. zero in on her right?"

Trish, overhearing this, raised her eyebrows in disbelief and interrupted. "You trying to tell me our new consultant here is a psionic or something?" she asked incredulously.

[rivaan]

"Third in command? Certainly...!" Miranda nodded as if she knew what the woman was talking about. Well she did, she was just messing with her. Miranda had gotten files from Cid about the Irregulars and all things involved since they were joining in after all." Never heard of ya. Nobody really mentioned anything and we did stay with the girls last time we were here." She stated flatly in the end, just hoping to mess with her even further. It was fun to rile people up, especially when they were hurting those she held dear like Ava.

"Ahh well... nothing much really. Just been traveling around doing chores." She shrugged her shoulders." Blew up the ghost academy above Korhal... raided secret Dominion research lab... made friends with Umoja... raided confederate remnant facility... fought the swarm and the protoss... made friends with some mercs off Deadman's Port... captured a Dominion high value target... shot the Queen of Blades in the head... Ya know... little things. Nothing worth bragging about." The doctor listed the things, counting on her fingers in the most theatrical and dramatic way possible. She earned a few snickers from people around the bridge, but Cid mostly just gave a tired sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, mumbling about being surrounded by children." As for who I am, Dr. Miranda Jade. The new chief of all things medical. Pleasure to meet you."

"Alright, don't worry, Nick. I know where she's at. Not like she can hide from me." She reassured the younger man with a pat on his shoulder, throwing a look at Trish again. Giving her a kind looking smile. The type you gave children when you were trying to pacify them that is." Yeah. I am, not quite as strong as the spooks back at the academy, but I manage. Besides raw power ins't everything as teh academy found out... Hear Mengsk's still rebuilding what I wrecked when I left." She chuckled.

"I can't take it anymore. Enough of this posturing and dick measuring contest between the two of you... and you aren't even men!" Cid growled, snapping finally after listening to them going at it so far." Miranda, stop riling her up, it's partly Nick's fault in this case anyways. Same for you Trish, you are to work together, you need to be briefed in to a lot of things that are going on and will change for the better from now on. The rebranding was a joint idea and on a whole not much changes aside getting a new specialized group with unique specialties. So stop making a scene you two, least I actually get people to lock you in the brig for the time being." The old man ordered, making Miranda look at him for a moment before nodding.

"... My apologies. I do like rilinng people up." Miranda stated, looking at Trish, giving her a nod." And you are absolutely right, Cid. It's Nicky's fault." She shifted the blame on him with a teasing smile right away." Anyways, I'm going to come give you full brief on what happened on the last run with Umoja or rather what went wrong later. Now I've got an emotional girl to wrangle out of hiding." Miranda quipped and walked out of the bridge, leaving a very tired and somewhat annoyed looking Cid that continued to grumble about crazy doctors and being surrounded by children.

[Keira Kelly]

Ava had found an out of the way storeroom deep in the bowels of the ship, at least as far as she could tell. She still wasn't sure which turns she had taken nor did she really care. She had just wanted to get away and get lost. Now she was curled up between large crates in the back of the storeroom, sitting in the dark, the only light coming from the broken, semi-open doorway. The corridor outside seemed to be seldom used, mostly empty. She had only vaguely heard maybe one or two crewmen pass by since she had slipped in here.

The sobs and torrent of tears had just about stopped, but not the sick feeling, the pain and confusion of the encounter... and not the dark thoughts she was having about herself. How could she compare to... anyone? Hell, she had had her emotions suppressed until last year and was only barely coming to terms with.. feeling things like a normal person. Had she even been in a good place to start a relationship? Probably not. But it had been good for her. She knew that much and had to admit it. Nick had helped her grow in some ways that even Miranda couldn't have helped with. The thought of a chance of losing him was.. devastating. What held the grip of fear in her gut right now though was the thought that maybe he didn't feel the same.

But he did, didn't he? She had felt that from him time and again over the months they had been together. That was the one benefit of being a powerful Psionic: there was no lying about emotions. On the other hand, the confusing mix of them she had gotten from him when that other woman showed up and.. and.. kissed him... Ava couldn't figure out how he really felt about her. In that mix there had definitely been thoughts of affection but... beyond that, Ava was completely unsure. For all she knew, maybe he felt the same about that woman too and he would have to choose between them. Probably not a hard decision when it came right down to it... She slumped down further into her corner.

Slowly the urge to lower her psi-screen began to take over. She had half expected Miranda to have found her little hiding spot by now. With a final decision, she turned off the screen. A panoply of minds and thoughts began to flood into her own. There were more than she had expected.. or remembered. But then again, she was deep in the middle of the ship right now, totally surrounded. After a minute, she was able to feel Miranda though, easier to pick up on through the din than the rest because of her psionic nature, even if the doctor was a weak psionic. Ava didn't send anything, merely scanned her friend's mind lightly. Amusement, smugness, some passive aggressiveness.. and and influx of memories of all their accomplishments over the past year.

She struggled a bit more to reach Nick's mind through all the others. It was like trying to hear one person talking in a normal toned voice in a crowd of thousands all talking too. It was difficult at best right now and with the distance. She did manage to pick up confusion and pain though... and almost panicked worry. She wasn't prepared to delve any deeper for the moment though and put the psi-screen back on abruptly. Either Ava was not the one he wanted which terrified her, or she was and she had just caused him such negative emotions. In either case though, she didn't think she was prepared to deal with any of it on her own right now and she couldn't go back and face them all either....

----------------------------

The comforting and pat on his shoulder wasn't helping Nick's mental state and he began to pace behind Miranda, trying to think where Ava could be hiding and how he could find her. Without the mental powers of his two companions though, it would be merely guesswork at finding her and that would be assuming she would be sitting somewhere and not moving or trying to evade him. Cid bringing up his name stopped Nick in his tracks, jaw dropping. That Miranda agreed brought out a sound of objection from Nick.

He gestured sharply at Trish. "I haven't seen her for a year nor really had a way to contact her to end it..." he stuttered, knowing that was just an excuse. He made a frustrated sound, turning towards the door where Ava had run from and ran a hand through his hair. "To be honest I totally forgot.." he said in a very quiet voice, more to himself than anything. Whatever he had had with Trish had been nothing in comparison to what he felt for Ava.

Still staring towards the door, he barely heard Miranda until he realized that she was talking about finding Ava. "I'll come with you.." he began but Miranda quickly dissuaded him of that idea. Dejected, he nodded. "Tell her I'm sorry?" he asked the doctor. Once Miranda had left, he turned back to Trish and Cid, focusing on Trish, swallowing hard to put his pride away for a minute. "I'm sorry I didn't find a way to tell you, that I didn't remember ..."

Trish arched an eyebrow at him, cold fire burning in her eyes. "Didn't remember us, huh." she said flatly. "I'm that forgettable. The first pretty, young thing that walks past catches your attention. I shouldn't have expected more from you...." she began.

"Trish!" Cid said in a rising warning tone.

She glanced at Cid, then back to Nick, with a hint of a sneer. "I'll work with them and be professional about it, Cid. Just don't ask me to like it." she answered, turning and heading to a station at the back of the bridge for the time being.

Cid turned to Nick finally, leading him to the opposite end of the bridge and put a hand on the younger, former mercenary's shoulder. "Nicky, Nicky, Nicky.... what mess have you gotten yourself into?" he asked in a quiet voice to keep it between them. "You were always so good at keeping your life simple. Well, I guess that's the price of growing up in the end." He sighed, his face slipping into a bit of a grimace and a smile at the same time. "We've all been there at one point or another, son. Just.. clean it up with as little trouble as you can? We need all of them working together here.."

Nick gave a weak nod. "I'll do my best, sir."

[rivaan]

Miranda liked to think she had a rather good grasp on Ava's personality and habits by now. Partly because she basically spend years around the girl even back then, despite the inhibitor and partly because they spend a lot of time after it was removed, practically almost constantly being in each other's minds because of the ease of their mental connection formed. So she quickly began just walking about the points she suspected Ava would hide at. With the screen on she couldn't pinpoint the ghost's location, so she had to make educated guesses and so she did. By the time that Ava had actually briefly taken her hiding device, Miranda was just a few bulkheads away from her position.

In her walk about the ship, to find Ava, Miranda had contacted their old roommates and quickly briefed them on the situation. The end result was a rather quick arrangement of a girls' night out or in this case their friends raiding one of the newly refurbished and restocked cantinas of the ship, moving all the booze in their room. They were going to deal with this the capital way. Ava was likely outside of taking explanations and she really needed to vent off some steam. So a party was in order to blame everything on Nick. Which thinking about it, Miranda concluded was quite truly his fault. He really fucked the situation up and his mouth didn't make it any better. Ohh well, not that her own riling up of Trish helped, but it allowed Miranda to get a decent grasp of the woman. She could work with her no problem and in different situation might even be on decently friendly terms. In any case she opened the last bulkhead and made her way to the point Ava had hidden herself in.

"There you are. Gotta admit it to myself, this is just hte 3rd place I expected to find you at." Miranda lightly commented as she walked over to Ava in the store room and leaned on the wall next to her, falling in comfortable silence for a bit." Can't hide here all day, you know. Come on, our roommates told me they already snuck all the alcohol and ice cream we could need from the cantina to our room. No point in hiding here when you could hide in the comfort of our room with company, alcohol and icecream." Miranda smiled at Ava." Come on, they said they found your favorite icecream type." On hte agenda was also mass ranting about men and how useless they can be. That and generally about relationships and how they can suck... a valauble lesson that most people learned early in life, which for obvious reasons didn't happen to Ava. So it was time to do it now. The first relationship problem drinking night!

[Keira Kelly]

Despite it not being the intention in lowering the psi-screen, Ava couldn't help but notice that Miranda was closing in on her. Quickly she turned the screen on again, not in an attempt to hide, but to not subject her friend to her own confusing mental state. She actually welcomed the thought of talking to Miranda right then... Maybe the older woman would have some kind of insight into.. what to feel about the whole situation....

After a minute or two, a shadow crossed over the half-open doorway of the cargo room. Ava noticed but didn't bother to move or call out. Social cues were still something she had a lot of trouble with and she didn't know whether she should be angry, distraught, embarrassed about how she had reacted, or something else. She didn't know what Miranda was going to do with or say to her. So she was going to leave the ball in the doctor's court, so to speak, and let her go first. It wasn't very long before Miranda's voice carried across the dark room.

Despite herself, Ava couldn't help but smiling just a little at the first comment. "Only the third? Thought you would have found me faster.." she attempted to tease back, her voice still strained from her earlier tears. She wiped at her face with the back of her hand, trying to dry some of the remaining wetness off as Miranda joined her in the corner of the room. There was silence for a time, which Ava began to find very uncomfortable. Was Miranda judging her? Quickly, she switched off the screen again, wanting her normal capacity of being able to read the people around her, to have access to that flow of information. She was relieved to feel that Miranda was just supportive of her and wanting her to feel better.

She looked over hesitantly at her friend at hearing that something of a party had been gathered together apparently. She wasn't at all keen on the alcohol idea but ice cream. A bit of a smile grew on Ava's face at hearing that they had her favourite flavour of ice cream. While she had had ice cream a few times since her liberation from the Academy, it was still a rare occasion. There wasn't much call for ice cream down on Kalisti; people living on an ice ball generally did not want a lot in the way of frozen snacks. "They found mint chocolate chip?" she asked, her mood improving... a bit.

She stood up slowly, hesitating, unsure if she wanted to leave her little hideout just yet and go back into the world. But she knew she had to, one way or another. She was rubbing one arm with her opposite hand in a very almost defensive, un-confident gesture as she stared towards the doorway. She was sort of picking up hints of what Miranda was planning for her for the night, though she didn't understand a lot of the context really.. But she would trust in Miranda.

She took a deep breath before speaking. "Where... where is.. he?" she asked slowly. She could dimly feel Nick at the far edges of her ability, just barely feel that he was deeply troubled about.. her... but she didn't feel she could try to sit down and deal with emotions like that right now.. from either him or herself. She looked back at Miranda, almost with pleading eyes. "I... could use some distraction right now..." she said.

[rivaan]

"Yeah what can I say, I got distracted by the blinking lights on the way. You know how I am with flashing things." She joked in turn at Ava's attempt to tease and joke. The ghost was often a lot more mature beyond even her apparent age, but at times she was also way more vulnerable and innocent. Thousands of years of torture wouldn't be enough for the monsters that created the Academy and kept it running... granted she knew she was counted in into that number all things considered. Miranda herself wasn't completely innocent of the atrocities commited in the academy, having performed many of them herself. Ohh no, the doctor knew full well that she deserved a terrible ending to her tale. She just hoped that by the time it arrived, Ava would be well able to stand completely on her own, having grown into the woman she was always meant to be.

"Did they! We've got boxes upon boxes of the stuff. Apparently somebody ordered like... 50 industrial boxes of the type." The doctor honestly repliead in dead serious voice." Wouldn't know who was this brave and calculating woman with devilishly handsome looks and great foresight, but it comes in handy now." Miranda chuckled, noting Ava's preparing to get up and stop hiding here. This was good!" He's busy... will be busy for a while. He's fine though. As long as you wish him fine anyways. I got a bottle of very amusing pills that could keep him confined to a latirine if you so chose. Alright, let's go. The girls are going to start the party without us if we waste too much time meandering across the ship. Gotta protect the icecream." The older woman smiled and opened the bulkhead, waiting for Ava.

Once they were ready to move, it didn't take long to reach their assigned barracks. With more than enough avaible space and the incredible amount of spare empty rooms and barracks across this massive ship, there was little difficulty assigning smaller number of people to room together. It allowed the Irregulars more personal space right now and that was good for morale. In this case, Miranda and Ava shared the barracks with only 2 other women, but another 2 were coming in for the party so that would be a total of 6, iwth Ava and Miranda included. It was a full blown party crew, one that quickly became apparent when they reached teh quarters and entered, only to find the quartet already setting up the glasses, the alcohol bottles, the foodstuffs and the icecream. There was also a rather big holo projector set in one side of the room with some movie or other prepared to play.

"Everything ready?" Miranda asked as she tossed her coat to the side on one of the beds.

"Sure is!" A chorus of voices replied as Ava was handed over a big bucket of ice cream. The booze was already avaible and free to pour. But to start they could begin with icecream!" Hey did you decided on the movie already?" The woman handing icecream called to the others who just returned into a chorus of non confirmation.

"We've got action, horror, romance, cartoos, you name it, we've got something to do with it!" A brown haired woman replied and looked at Ava." Hey, Ava, just pick the one with the most appealing thumbnail. Night's long, we are likely go go through a number anyways, still gotta start from somewhere though!"

Meanwhile Miranda rather quickly mixed a beer with ice cream forming some unholy alchemical concoction... and had pulled some cocktail umbrellas from somewhere.