Most days, things on the farmstead were slow, lazy even, one day blending together without any rules or protocols, or any pressing issues that needed to be accomplished. Thus, Spartans tended to wake up on the setting of their body clocks, not by the sound of reveille demanding they get up.

One day, though, that was not the case. For on that day, the Spartans were woken up by the screeching bellow of a wild animal.

"OH FUCK!" Halsey had yelled from her room, startling everyone else.

John, ever the worrywart about, well, everyone that wasn't him, shot to his feet first, almost stumbling out of his bed and tripping in his rush as Fred and Sam wordlessly followed him, running down the hall to the Doctor's room.

From the other side was coming Linda, Kelly, and Cortana, the three of them also looking haggard, especially the non-Spartan.

"Doctor?" John approached the door, knocking worriedly. Well, at least she was feeling better… Well, better enough to scream in any event. "Doctor Halsey? Ma'am, I'm going to open the door-"

"Yes, fine, whatever, come in!" Halsey hurriedly replied from the other side before John answered, and he was met with the sight of the scientist in a state he'd never seen. She was dashing about the room, still in pajamas, madly tidying everything up like an obsessive compulsion, only succeeding in knocking more objects over. "Shit! Shit damn hell!"

"Uh… Doc," Fred addressed, befuddled at the sight of Halsey being frantic to the point of clumsiness, "You finally go crazy?"

"Doctor," John gently grabbed her arm as she tried to walk past, gesturing for her to sit down, "Be calm. Breathe. Tell us, what's wrong?"

The scientist took a breath, inhaling. "While I was sick, I sent a message to an old colleague of mine, asking him to come by for a visit."

"Oh, is it Chief Mendez?" Sam inquired. "I miss him."

"It's not." Halsey shook her head. "Jacob Keyes… Reliable, dependable, knows how to keep a secret, a great man." She reflected with a slight expression that could best be described as 'girlhood crush.'

John, though, only crossed his arms, curiously raising an eyebrow. "Why'd you send for him?"

"I don't know, I was sick!" Halsey retorted, "And I can't tell him not to come now because Jerrod just got his response! His ship's already in-system! He's going to be here today!"

"Wait," Linda spoke up, "You sent a message to a guy asking him to come over… while expecting him to be far enough away for him not to?"

"Last time I saw him he was a Lieutenant, but I've been keeping correspondence with him since," Halsey explained with a little sigh, "Now, he's a Lieutenant Commander. And apparently, he's been enjoying shore leave for the past week because the ship he's stationed on is undergoing a slipspace drive upgrade courtesy of our friends in the Covenant." She turned away, gritting her teeth. "I hate coincidences like this. Just when you think you're comfortable, the universe throws a great big coincidence at you to shake things up."

"So…" Cortana frowned, "You don't want him to come over?"

"No, I-" Halsey sighed. "I don't know."

Kelly looked Halsey up and down, blinking. "…he was the man with you when you were assessing us, wasn't he?" Taking the leap in logic.

Halsey's eyes widened, as the others murmured.

"Yeah… I seem to remember being a guy there with you." Fred recalled curiously. "Was that him?"

"…yes, yes he was." Halsey nodded, rubbing her face. "It's… well, I suppose you would ask about him eventually, given that he was the only one not in the training facility after you all were recruited." She sat down in her bed, nibbling on her lip in thought. "He didn't know the full extent of what was planned to be done to you, I want to make that very clear now… But he did help me in your initial selection process. He accompanied me while I evaluated you all… Each and every one of you."

"Spending an extended period of time like that together must've been maddening," Kelly commented.

"Well," Halsey cleared her throat, "While I admit it was only us two, it wasn't… all bad. Lieutenant Keyes was quite the gentlemen."

"Aww," Cortana grinned, "Cat's got a crush!"

"Call me that again young lady, and I'll lock you out of the lab." Halsey retorted.

Cortana huffed, crossing her arms. "You're not my mother." She suddenly blinked, straightening. "Oh, wait a minute, you are… Shit."

"Look, it was a stupid, impulsive decision," Halsey paced around, "I was sick, I had an… emotional episode, so to speak. When he gets here, I can send him back, no harm no foul."

"No." John rumbled quietly, shaking his head. "Ma'am, it sounds like-if you'll pardon me overstepping my bounds-some part of you wants to see him. If you turn him away, you think that part will be put to rest?"

"…no," Halsey sighed after a few moments, "No, I suppose not. But… look at you all, all of you!" She gestured around. "This farmstead is an utter disaster, you know that, right? I can't let him see us all like this, it would be an utter embarrassment."

"We'll get it in order!" Sam offered after a moment.

"Yeah," Linda nodded in agreement, "We'll try to keep the shenanigans on the down-low."

"It won't be perfect," Fred shrugged, "But I mean, hey, seventy-six of us should be able to get everything tidied up no problem, right?"

"You don't have to-" Halsey began.

"Doctor," John gently cut her off, "How long have you been doing things in this place for us instead of yourself? It's no trouble, honestly. Let yourself have this."

"…thank you." Halsey offered them, "All of you. Though I don't expect it will be easy wrangling the others."

"Oh, you just leave them to us."

"So, Halsey's got a date." Serin commented as she and Alice sealed the room containing Fred's car. Just for the day. It's not like they were saying Fred didn't have self control when it came to the muscle car, but…

Actually, wait, that's exactly what they were saying. It's like Fred flipped a switch in his head when he saw the boxy vehicle, becoming an avatar for a force of nature whose only imperatives were fixing his car and then proceeding to use that car to make trouble.

"Hmph," Alice grunted, "We'll see how he turns out."

"…are you doing that thing where single parents' kids scrutinize their dates?" Serin asked in response.

"Yep." Alice nodded.

"…are you going to try and make trouble to see how he reacts to gauge if he's a good match for Halsey?"

"Yep."

"…are you going to let me take part?"

"Yep."

"Hell yes."

"This 'Key-ees' must be a venerable man," Rtas began, "To command the respect of a Kaidon as difficult as Halsey."

"Nah, dude." Jai shook his head, laying down a card on the table. "He's probably just some dumb jarhead who's built good. All these military types are."

"In response to that, I would like to point out Chief Mendez." Naomi replied, pointing. "Who's not just some dumb jarhead, and secondly, have you actually read Keyes's file?"

Jai shook his head, "Of course I fuckin' didn't. Wait, did you?"

"It's easy to hack into ONI these days." Adrianna shrugged from her spot. "They have files on everyone. He's an officer, his career is quite boring really. The only thing to note really is that he scored in the ninety-ninth percentile for tenacity. Only people I can really think of that also have that in their psych profiles are us, and the likes of Admiral Cole."

"Cole also turned out to be a dirty Innie-"

"His wife turned out to be a dirty Innie." Naomi corrected as she rolled her eyes.

"…you humans have the strangest sense of priorities." Rtas commented. "Typically, when two enemy commanders meet each other in the throes of passion, we- Oh, that's right. We don't do that. You are trailblazers!"

"Eat shit half-jaw." Jai poked in response.

"We don't do that either." Rtas replied, before the sound of jet engines on high-power echoed into the room. They looked out to see a Pelican dropship coming over the farmstead, hovering down to land. "Ah, that would be him now, yes?"

"Oh Jesus Christ, that's him." Halsey breathed, as she saw the Pelican land outside, allowing Keyes to step off. The man was in casual enough clothes, looking around curiously. "Please tell me everything is nice and tidied up."

"Reasonably?" Cortana replied. "Look, Catherine, I think you're giving this a lot more thinking than it needs. You'll do fine."

"Perhaps," Halsey granted, "It's just… Well, we were rather close, I'm still unsure if it was merely due to proximity or if there was actual chemistry. And there's the question of all of you…"

"We'll be fine." Cortana replied, practically having to push her outside. "And so will you. We'll finish dinner, you just go talk to him."

"Right." Halsey cleared her throat, walking across the yard to Keyes. "Hello soldier, how goes the day?"

The Lt. Commander turned around, looking at her. "Catherine. It's been some time." He nodded at her.

"Too long." Halsey cleared her throat, putting her hands in her pockets. "I believe some… explanations are in order."

"About the children?" Keyes assumed, remembering the last time they'd spent an extended amount of time together.

"Well…" Halsey swallowed. "You were always an astute one." She turned, gesturing. "Seventy-five children were chosen in the end… Taken to a training facility to be molded into the perfect soldiers. That's what I was doing."

Keyes stopped, looking horrified. "Catherine, that's… horrible! It's immoral, unethical-"

"I know," She cut him off with a nod, "Trust me, Jacob, whatever you say, it's nothing I haven't told myself, or heard from everyone else involved in the program." She continued, leading him up to the main building. "We weren't doing it to see if it could be done. What we were doing… we fancied ourselves a version of the Manhattan Project. We knew it had to be done, that the alternatives were loss of life on a colossal scale, and there was no other choice." She reached the door, and smiled. "Fortunately enough, that proved unnecessary, thanks to our friends in the Covenant."

"Terrific." Keyes replied. "So if the program's defunct, what happened to the children?"

Halsey paused, looking down. "We replaced them with flash clones at the beginning. They died off… The children's parents don't know they're alive. They've been put into my care, now. And I'm doing what I can to give them a semblance of normality."

"Wait, you mean-"

The door to the dining "hall" (which was just several rooms that had walls knocked down to make sure everyone could fit inside at once) opened, and showing the Spartans on the other side, waiting for them.

"…Good God." Keyes looked at them all. "Does ONI know about this?"

"They sanctioned it."

"Jesus." Keyes muttered, looking them around.

"Ahem," John appeared, clearing his throat. "Lieutenant Commander Keyes. Spartan-117." He respectfully saluted.

"Um… there's no need for that." The older man awkwardly replied after a moment.

John nodded, but continued. "Sir, I'll be frank: What are your intentions with our mother?"

Halsey's jaw unhinged as she covered her mouth, though whether she was mortified or glee-stricken by John's question, even she herself was uncertain.

Keyes's eyebrows shot up, as he took a quick glance around. "To have a stiff drink?"

Everyone blinking could practically be heard, before Fred piped up from the back.

"Heh, I like this guy!"