The next morning found Aubrey trying to avoid her room at all costs. She had woken up before everyone else after a restless night and slipped out. An hour later the XO caught her looking over her Hellcat and promptly banished her from the hangar, standing with her hands on her hips watching to make sure Aubrey left. Feeling out of sorts now that she wasn't able to lose herself in the maintenance routines on her jet Aubrey wandered the halls. A little while later she found herself on one of the lower decks outside of one of their "Ready Rooms." The Ready Rooms were scattered around the interior of the ship. A few were adjacent to the hangars, but centuries ago World War II had shown the error of that layout after a carrier was crippled with their pilots lost when their Ready Rooms were hit by Kamikazes. Now the rooms were strategically located and each squadron was assigned a few for different purposes.

The one Aubrey was standing outside now was seldom used even though it was in a prime location because this had been where Kaz and Lion had made their second home. All that was left of the two Majors were their dog tags, flight patches and a few personal effects arranged on a makeshift shrine to the squadron's fallen. Aubrey stood outside a moment, resting a hand against the hatch at shoulder height, contemplating whether or not she wanted to enter the space. Then she heard someone moving inside and pushed through the hatch intent on reaming out whoever was trespassing.

Bursting through the door she stopped cold at seeing Beca in front of the table where various personal effects were scattered across the surface. Pictures of smiling pilots adorned the wall above the table with patches stapled next to them. Below on the table rested a baseball glove, ping pong paddle, decoder ring and other mementos that were haphazardly arranged. Beca had turned with a startled yelp upon hearing Aubrey's entrance. The young pilot had a dozen or so dog tags dangling from her hand. Aubrey remembered Sophia dropping them on the Huggy. They were scrubbed clean from the blood that had liberally coated them on the station. The two women stood frozen in place for a moment, staring at each other in surprise. Beca broke eye contact first, her eyes skittering to the tags in her hand and over to the table where a few sets were already draped over a flight helmet with the distinctive Banshees logo on its side.

Aubrey stepped forward and Beca instinctively backed up a pace, stammering out, "Uh, Chloe said um…"

The blonde stopped for a second, sadness marring her features before bailing out the faltering woman, "Beca, it's okay." Aubrey paused a moment, waiting for Beca to meet her gaze. When Beca continued staring at the dogtags in her hand and refused to meet her gaze, Aubrey spoke again, gently, "We'd be honored Beca."

Beca looked up then, eyes holding back tears. She used her free hand to wipe them away swiftly before they could fall. Aubrey turned to the table and fingered Kaz's dogtag, giving the brunette time to collect herself. Sensing that Beca needed more than just her platitudes, the blonde pilot took a chance and spoke softly, almost to herself as if afraid to disturb the memories lying on the table.

"These belonged to Paul Anders. Or Kaz. He and Molly "Lion" Nesse," here Aubrey paused, pulling another set of dogtags and resting them on the table in her hands before she continued, "were the Majors in charge of our squadron when Chloe and I got here. They were legends." Aubrey turned slightly to look at Beca, the small woman was still for a second before closing the distance to stand awkwardly next to her, waiting for Aubrey to continue.

"Kaz and Lion were tough, but fair, the kind of leaders who didn't have to throw their weight around to get people to follow. They died," Aubrey paused forcing the lump that had risen in her throat back down and turned back to the dogtags in her hand, running her thumb reverently across the surface. She forced herself to continue, not knowing why she was talking to Beca like this when she and Chloe had barely spoken about it. Chloe had wanted to but Aubrey always changed the subject. Shaking her head, she forced herself to get this out. "They died, saving Chloe and I." A single tear wound its way down Aubrey's cheek.

"They could have saved themselves. We were rigging the mine we were in to blow, intending to trap the Gaks. Chloe and I were on point on our way back to the rendezvous from setting the last charge and we walked right into an ambush. Kaz and Lion were with us. The Gaks flanked us, Chloe and Lion were shot and we were pinned down. Lion wasn't bad but Chloe…I tried dragging her out and…" Aubrey looked away, clutching the dogtag in her hand so hard that her knuckles whitened. Beca shifted, uneasy and unsure how to handle an unguarded Aubrey but feeling her own pain at losing her friends echoed in the grief she could hear in the other woman's voice. Beca reached out and covered Aubrey's hand with her own while telling the voice in her head that said this was dangerous to shut up. As soon as Beca's delicate hand grasped Aubrey's, the blonde turned to look at it with a thousand yard stare, lost in the memory of that battle.

A soft noise behind them startled them both, Beca pulling away from Aubrey as if on fire. Chloe was peeking into the room from the door. Seeing the surprised looks on both women's faces she frowned and hesitantly approached.

"Sorry guys. I just wanted to make sure Beca found…" Chloe waved her hand to indicate the space and its contents, unwilling to give voice or name to the sacred contents within. Beca's eyes skittered over Chloe before she turned to face the table, dogtags clinking softly in her hand. The redhead glanced at Beca's back with an unreadable expression then closed the distance between her and Aubrey, placing her hand on the blonde pilot's shoulder. Aubrey cursed inwardly, upset at allowing Beca and Chloe to see her being weak like this. She needed to be strong, to be the leader they could rely on. Not sniveling in front of Beca who barely respected her authority to begin with. Her instinct was to brush this off, push Chloe away and walk out. Still she had promised Chloe that she would be better about not shutting the redhead out so she fought down her base instinct to run and stayed.

While Chloe's attention was focused on Aubrey, Beca draped the dogtags on the table, pausing a moment to remember the people they represented. Chloe looked at Aubrey, questioning softly, "Bree?"

Aubrey shook her head quickly turning away from Chloe's touch. She reached up brushing her eyes with the back of her hand. Chloe backed off giving Aubrey some space and turning worried blue eyes to where Beca was standing quietly lost in thought. As if sensing Chloe's eyes, Beca shook the distant look from her eyes, crossing her arms and turning to Chloe and Aubrey, not quite meeting Chloe's expectant gaze.

Suddenly remembering the other reason she was searching for the two women and wanting to diffuse the tension, Chloe tugged on Aubrey's sleeve, "Stacie and the others are waiting for us up in the Romper Room."

Beca did a double-take, "The what?"

Aubrey for her part looked uneasy at occupying the same space as Stacie.

Chloe smiled at Beca, "The Romper Room, you'll just have to see it."

Beca and Aubrey looked at Chloe with almost identical skeptical looks, each with an eyebrow perfectly raised. Chloe fought the urge to smile brightly in amusement but lost the battle. Aubrey snorted at Chloe's amusement and pushed past the redhead, happy at least to escape without further discussion. Beca gave a start at seeing Aubrey retreat and unwilling to be left alone in the space with her memories and Chloe she quickly followed after the blonde. She wouldn't let herself think about which scared her more, her memories or Chloe.

Chloe paused a moment, kissing her fingers and laying them on the Banshees helmet before following after the two women.