A/N: If you don't think there actually is anything between them, you may not want to continue.

' There's something he has for her', Marcus noted.

He was referring to JD and Kait, just in front of him from his position in the rear of the little procession of former Gears of two generations ( and one Outsider ) that had left the Swarm hive an hour ago.

With their Raven helo a mangled heap of smoking scrap metal, steadily trekking up and out of the ravine that led to the Swarm Hive, and on to the nearest Outsider settlement to take the kids home was now their game plan. Any plan won't survive 30 seconds against the enemy, something everybody was all to familiar with, but they sure couldn't stay where they were and wait for Jynn to send them a ride.

Besides, Gears marched as a rule of life. As long as there had been Gears, they'd marched.

Cole, unsurprisingly, was the point man. The old Thrashball MVP was making it clear that age hadn't slowed him an iota, clambering with surprising ease over the large rocks that littered the uneven ground, his Lancer poised over one shoulder. A yard or so behind, Baird, Sam, and Del followed in his bootprints, single file and somehow keeping pace.

Back in the rear, JD was staying close to Kait. So much so, their shoulders nearly touched more than once, and actually did twice.

It did seem he was there to comfort her. And nobody could argue, regardless of what there was between them. Not after what had happened down there in the living nightmare den that was the Hive.

Its effects were apparent with Kait, even more so than the rest of who'd been there and returned. She still had Reyna's necklace clasped firmly in both hands, and had barely stopped glancing down at it, shoulders angled inward and head hung. Even from behind, it was obvious that she was in the grips of soul crushing grief that Marcus had only witnessed in one other person in his memory:

Dom.

Maria.

It all coalesced right then to Marcus, and he had to fight off a powerful wave of anguished grief of his own. What had happened in the Hive was all to similar to what had happened with Dom's wife.

Unbearably similar. Kait had been forced to do exactly what Dom had been forced to do: kill the woman she'd so desperately and determinedly tried to find, through a sea of enemies that didn't seem to stop and though more mortal perils that should be survivable. Reyna may not have been shattered psychically and mentally as Maria had, but something worse; she'd been directly fused into the mental network that linked the Swarm's minions to one another. The beasts had been trying to turn her into not just one of them; they'd been trying to make her into the new Queen of the Swarm.

Leaving Kait decimated to the point of near shock.

A no-other-choice situation. That's what had been on everyone's mind once they'd learned the details. Needless to say, none of them even came close to saying it out loud.

They did the best thing they could instead; nothing.

Of course, wouldn't JD, someone who was one of her closest friends, be there for her now ? That's just what friends did for friends did for each other in moments like these. Marcus and the rest of Delta Squad had done the same for Dom in the wake of Maria's death. It was another pillar of being a Gear.

And the new COG, reprehensible faults and all, had at least done a decent job of making his son into a true Gear, both as a solider, and ( somewhat begrudgingly ) into a man, albeit one who still made the occasional questionable choice, such as running from the new COG. ( Though, ultimately, that had been for the best ) .

Maybe it had been because they'd been preoccupied with their now-failed mission of saving Reyna, or maybe it was because he'd misjudged it before as nothing more than camaraderie, but now, Marcus was certain of it.

Yes, the others had all been right there for her in the moment. Each and every one.

But JD cared for her as more than a friend, and it appeared vice versa. That much , Marcus didn't doubt.

But he couldn't tell her now. How could he ?

That would be the worst mistake he could ever make. He would have to wait.

For now.