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Kate was in a much better mood than she had been with the recent mess about not!Iron Lad, and wondering how Cassie was dealing. She was currently in the Media library, humming along to some music cheerfully. She wondered how it would sound like on a cello, how to adapt these particular chords to the strings.

She was also smiling contently, casually thinking of a certain recent event with a certain someone. Maybe she'll go play something in the Sensoriums a little later.

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"I did, but he showed me the things he's been fighting," Paco said, holding a hand high over his head. "They're more than twice as tall as I am, and built for that height. Not something you want anyone in arms' reach of, no matter how awesome they are with a stick."

"Lame," he said, shaking his head. "If he keeps acting like a dipstick, point him out and I'll smack him upside the head."

"Ok you got a point there. I have some special arrows that might work. Like when we had those giant bugs."

She gave a small laugh and nod, "Sure, he probably will."

"Master Chief seemed pretty big on the 'deal with it from a distance' sort of fighting, so I think he'll let you get away with arrows," Paco said, winking.

Well, this seemed normal. Nice and back to normal. Of course, they were still standing several feet apart. Less with the normal there.

She smirked back, "He better, or command staff or not, I could still send a shot to his butt to prove my case."

Well she didn't feel as uncomfortable being in the same room with him now. But now there were other complications.

Kate then asked to change the subject, "How's Brenda been? I've only seen her here and there."

Plus it could be another way to gauge his reaction. So she knew she was doing the right thing not to try to get back together. Because kissing Tony just confirmed there was something more, something that could be really good.

"Brenda's good," Paco said with a shrug. "Like I said, she's helping me with the Movie Night, and she's also going to help me make sure that Jaime doesn't embed himself in the ships insides too much. Oh, and she's made friends with Fleshy Brainy."

He'd been keeping what Kate said about Brenda's feelings in mind, but he hadn't been poking at it too much. He didn't want to even think about starting anything with Brenda in the middle of this whole mess.

Although he was thinking about pulling the plug on his and Kate's relationship. He'd ended relationships for reasons less than "horrific mental trauma due to brainslugs".

"Oh, and she yelled at me for trying to avoid doing Allen's school-test thing, so it's almost exactly like being at home.

Kate laughed, "Yeah, I finished some of his problems. I'm still looking over the essay topic he gave me. That's good for her then. Sounds like you need it."

Paco rolled his eyes and smirked.

"You say that now, but while all of you are tearing your hair over midterms, the rest of us will be quietly getting permission from your parents to kidnap you the weekend before and drag you on a camping trip with none of your books."

Well, he'd always asked permission from Jaime's parents and Brenda's mom, at least. He'd usually gotten it, too.

"Parent you mean, and I would have got away anyway. My dad's hardly around."

She added, "I thought the camping trip was going to be boys only?"

"I'm talking about camping trips in general," Paco said. "Jaime and Brenda get all frantic about their school stuff, and I drag them out camping or something so they don't fry their brains. We have a system and it works very well."

Although come to think of it, he really ought to look into that "Boys' Camping Trip" thing. Could be fun.

"Yeah, I used to go to a music camp each summer. Interlochen. Was a lot of fun." Also hard work studying music.

"I think I remember you telling me about that," Paco said. He definitely remembered very manfully preventing himself from making Band Camp jokes. "Ours weren't structured like summer camps. Just 'grab the back packs and the sleeping bags, and I will throw any textbooks I find into the bushes'."

Kate nodded, "Sounds like a good idea. More like some of our get togethers back home."

"Get togethers with your team, or someone else?" Paco teased with a bit of a grin. "'Cause I'm having trouble picturing Jonas wearing hiking boots and pitching a tent."

"With my team. But we never camped together. Not even with Eli."

"Yeah, I guess you'd have to go pretty far to go camping if you live in New York City," Paco said.

Was it just him, or was that an awkward silence on the horizon?

"Well family's got a place in the Catskills, but haven't really been there since my mom died."

There was and she was still trying to hide any signs of guilt as she glanced away for a moment.

Wow, and if that impending awkward silence wasn't enough to kill the conversation, the Dead Parent card Kate had just played would have done it on its own. Brutal.

"Tell you what. After the Boys' Night, we'll do a co-ed camp-out. Bugs, snipe-hunts, and all that."

It was simply a part of her life. She's had a few years to adjust to it, even though it never gets easier.

"Sounds like fun," she agreed.

"Consider it in the plans for Team Have Some Freaking Fun Already," Paco said.

The silence loomed. Paco took a deep breath and considered his next words carefully.

"So, how are you doing? Really doing, not just time-traveling teammates and school work and stuff."

Kate nodded and smiled. His next question made her glanced down again, fidgeting with her fingers.

"Good. It's been good."

She then added, "Ok, better than good. Great even." Ok, trying to play it cool... Just don't show the guilt... or any blushing.

...Crap, her cheeks felt a little warm.

Paco blinked, a little surprised by that admission. It seemed like time really did heal everything, if Kate was already back to "great".

"I'm glad to hear that," he said with a smile. "I was thinking for awhile there that we were going to have a long, hard slog ahead of..."

...Was she blushing? She was blushing. Paco very suddenly had a sinking feeling about what was so "great" about Kate's life right now.

"...Us."

Crap. Crapcrapcrap...

He didn't say 'us.' He didn't.

He did. Oh god.

He still wanted things to work out, and now she felt terrible.

"I.. I..." Dammit just spit it out. Sorry, I kissed someone else? Well Tony did kiss her first. But she did kiss back. A few times even. And she only briefly thought of Paco in passing.

Crap, people were going to be hurt either way. Her cheeks were burning for another reason, and she couldn't hide the guilt this time.

Oh wow, that awkward silence was more awkward than he'd thought it was going to be.

Then again, he didn't know that she'd found someone else. It could be something else. Maybe.

...

Probably not.

He'd at least wait to her her say it. In case he was wrong.

"Yeah?"

"I...I..." She started again, trying to get words out. I kissed him. I'm sorry. I can't get back together with you.

Kate took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, "I can't, sorry. I met someone."

Ouch.

Paco sighed, then dug up a lopsided smile.

"That's cool, don't worry about it. We agreed it was a casual thing, yeah?"

Man, he hadn't been dumped-and-replaced since Terri Vargas back in fifth grade.