Twenty-six days now, Jonde noted, from the blinking clock. Barely any time left, especially given how much of it was still taken up by exams. Still, twenty-six days was something like two million seconds. A lot could happen in twenty-six days. If Jonde had his way, it would. He might be leaving, but he'd have an impact before he was.

The light seemed far, far brighter than it probably really was. Still, it was 0600, Jonde had gotten less than five hours of sleep, and there was a full spectrum yellow light four feet above his head. He really wanted to get back to sleep. Sadly, there was twenty minutes until the mess hall opened, and fifty until it closed. Getting up now was probably wise. Fun, not so much.

"Morning, Serivelia." Jonde called as he walked down the hall to the stairs. If he got there early, maybe he'd be able to finish quick and actually talk to Elle. Whatever idiot designed the mess didn't seem to place speed or comfort very high on the list.

Six flights of stairs below him, and no other working way to head down now that the lifts were broken. Again. Par for the course from the station, of course. There were already a few people working their way down stairs, even though the mess hall wouldn't open another couple minutes. Jonde began walking quickly down. There was a group of people ahead of him, none of whom he recognized. Honestly, at times he felt like he was in a world filled with strangers. He hadn't even bothered to learn the names of half the people on his floor this year. He walked around, and pushed out the door to the mess hall. A squat, stocky, building, classic brutalist architecture, it wasn't exactly high art. The view behind it, with the station rising up and away from him, was a lot better. He'd seen some of the paintings Jukson had made of it.

The doors were closed still, and there was a slowly growing crowd outside of them, most still yawning. He looked above people's heads, easy at 6'2, but didn't see Elle. Olynn was over to the left, standing alone and looking at a data pad, though.

Olynn Tanau was a very unique person. Short, feisty, confrontational, brilliant and well aware of it, she was broadly disliked by the population of the station. Jonde was friends with her, mostly through Elle. Speaking of who,

"Olynn, have you seen Elle this morning?" Jonde asked. Olynn grunted a no. She really wasn't a morning person. Jonde walked around the outside of the mess hall. He needed to talk to her, desperately.

Jonde glanced again at the door to her dorm, and suddenly there she was. For a second, he was struck again by her. Elle was tall, gorgeous, utterly brilliant, the most interesting person Jonde had ever met, and, half of him thought, the girl he would, well-.

"Jonde?" Elle asked, liltingly. "Olynn said you needed to talk to me."

"Yes." Jonde replied. "Well, sort of. I'm not quite sure how to say this, but I think I need to."

"If I'm guessing right, you already have. Twice." Elle replied, smiling.

"Well…"

"Jonde, we've had this conversation before. It was a bad idea then, and it's a worse idea now." Elle said. "I don't think anything has changed."

"Look, we're only here for twenty-six more days before we leave."

"Yes, and then we'll be deployed to different places, for three more years, and then I'm leaving the force. You're not. Us being together would be great, but it can't last, and I don't think either of us wants the heartbreak, especially now."

"Elle, up until about six hours ago, I would have agreed with you. Not now. We're leaving soon, let's make it count. I'd much rather have memories than regrets."

Elle smiled at him.

"Jonde-" Jonde could tell what the next words from her lips would be.

She moved to kiss him. That was not it. Shock, surprise, a thousand things raced through his mind. But above them all was one word. Finally. Elle pulled away, slowly.

"Twenty-six days, and no hard feelings. Why not?" Elle grinned.