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CT's assurance has Carolina giving a faint, forced smile, hopefully conveying some gratitude for that even if the words aren't there. It's not like she hasn't told others about the Project, after all, but some things don't need to be shared

And it's easier to follow the shift in conversation anyway, now that the worst of it seems to be over.

"Command definitely should have seen that coming. I don't think I'll ever understand how taking a bunch of soldiers half a step from being court martialed and letting Price at them was a good idea."

Carolina smiles again then, but teasing instead of uncomfortably grateful as she adds, "You were all bound to be trouble at some point."

A mischievous little glint flashes across CT's eyes, corner of her lips pulling into a smirk. It's not an unfamiliar expression on her face, but it's one that is more Connie than CT in a lot of ways. Though there's the slightest edge of danger to it now, it's much more like the cheeky look she used to get when she was being a little shit than the sharper, bitterer thing that it morphed into as CT became more closed off.

"They thought it would buy them loyalty. What they didn't count on is the loyalty of a bunch of troublemakers being harder to keep than they thought," she says, light and full of trouble in itself. "My loyalty's hard won and kept, and they put everything I cared about at risk. That's where they really went wrong, boss."

For a while, she did let it blind her. She tried to turn away, to pretend she didn't see the glaring flaws in the Project. But as soon as she let herself see, that was it; her team (her friends) and humanity's survival came well above any fear of prison time that they'd hoped would keep her in line.

That look on CT's face is endearing, something that speaks both to the attitude that helped her fit in with Carolina's squad and the fact that she's managed to find some peace here. And that's good, that's the least the universe owes CT when Carolina is never going to be able to fix her mistakes.

Carolina's about to respond, point out the fact that the Project was full of people whose loyalty she had to win over because they were every bit as stubborn as she was, when CT's last word registers. Boss, casually tossed onto the end of a sentence, the way she used to hear it when her squad was confirming orders or it just fit the flow of a conversation easier than Carolina did.

Except she's not used to hearing it anymore; Wash had used it less and less the closer they got over the years, Maine never said anything he didn't have to, and if the Reds and Blues ever used it, it was only to sarcastically point out that she wasn't actually the boss of them. CT should have no reason to use it now, after her very valid reasons for leaving, after Carolina dropped her end of the unspoken bargain of loyalty she'd always had with her teammates by letting Tex kill her. If her loyalty really was that hard to keep, CT wouldn't have used it, Carolina's sure.

Or maybe it was a mistake, a slip of the tongue. Carolina tells herself that must be it and takes a deep breath before she tries to figure out just what it was she wanted to say, even if it comes a few seconds too slow.

"I... don't think the Director ever realized he didn't actually know what loyalty was supposed to look like, so that's on him. You were all too stubborn for how he thought it worked."

The delay in her response, that deep breath, isn't entirely lost on CT, but she's got enough tact to not ask or point it out. There's just the slightest raise of a brow, before her expression settles again.

If she knew what Carolina was thinking, CT might have said something—because it wasn't a mistake. Because Carolina is the CO she respects the most, out of all of those she's served under in her time in the military. Because for all her faults, for all the way things went wrong, CT means what she said: she's not angry anymore, and she doesn't blame Carolina anymore than she blames herself.

Carolina's changed. Carolina's apologised. That alone says a lot, in CT's book, and if CT wasn't willing to move on from the past, she wouldn't be sitting here talking to Carolina at all.

But she doesn't know, so all she says is, "The things that made us good at what we did were the same things that made us royal pains in the asses when we wanted to be."

Carolina's grateful that CT doesn't say anything about her reaction, about the fact that no matter how hard she tries to keep her feelings suppressed, she's softened over the years. She's too easy to read, now.

"They sure were," Carolina agrees, at least okay with sounding a little fond there, even if she's looking away again.

"You were all just as capable of pissing me off as you were clearing your objectives and I always liked that, about all of you. Even when I was annoyed."

“We certainly knew how to keep things interesting, didn’t we?” CT giggles—just slightly, but it’s another glimpse at the mischief that once defined Connie in a lot of ways. “I like to think I, at least, learned to read when it was worth it to push my luck a little. Now, the rest of the motley crew on the other hand...”

She shakes her head. In a lot of ways talking about the squad like this is bittersweet, but she’s focusing on the sweet part, not the sharp aftertaste right now. Because it’s good to talk about them in a context that isn’t just all the ways things went wrong, the ways either of them feel like they failed the people they cared about.

Even if they were, herself definitely included, total pains in the ass sometimes.

"It was always worth it to push their luck, as far as some of them were concerned."

Which made sense, that they'd all be just as intense as she was but in different ways. It's one of the reasons they worked so well, even if it was one of the reasons things were always going to end in disaster, too.

"At least Maine was quiet about it," Carolina continues, letting her lips twitch into a fond smile. "Which is a lot more than I can say for the rest of the squad."

"No kidding. I don't think 'quiet' was even in a lot of our vocabularies," CT says, lips quirked in an amused little smile. South and York come to mind, for different reasons. Herself for another, she'd always been outspoken in words and action even before she started acting deliberately inflammatory.

Man, she really does miss them all. At least some of them are here—which is a funny thing to think, when a few months ago she'd been scared of the idea of others turning up. How things have changed.

"We had to have someone who balanced that out a little, clearly."

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