Looking around the truck, she locked her gaze with Cole's and she tensed slightly. He stared at her but in contrast from before, he was actually looking at her. They held each other's gaze for a few moments until Cole smiled and inclined his head towards her.

Now it was Issy's turn to blink owlishly.

It took a few days for their colleagues to stop tiptoeing around Issy and hector regarding Crystal's death but they were all thankfully back to the easy smiles and teasing comments as things went back to normal… Or as normal as a large group of Dauntless living in Amity could be.

It was very late on Friday night and there were still a few squaddies up, but most of them had only just woken up for the next shift haul. Issy had been awake for only a few hours not really doing anything and already prepared for her late shift. She had run out of books to read just the other day and she wasn't in the mood to draw, so instead Issy sat in one of the comfy chairs in the living room with a thick blanket wrapped around her and a mug of coffee on the high table next to her. After sitting down in the chair, it hadn't been long until Artemis jumped up onto Issy's lap and curled deeply into the alcove made from Issy's body and the blanket.

Artemis had grown slightly since they had first come to the cabin, but she was still very much a kitten. She hadn't seemed to have taken a hatred to anyone although it appears that little Artemis takes great joy in making Uriah jump out of his skin. One moment the room would be kitten free and the next Artemis would suddenly appear right next to Uriah, sometimes making him scream. Oh, she couldn't wait to tell Zeke his little brother was afraid of cats. Artemis always tends to sleep in the same room for a long period of time and hilariously, that happened to be Uriah's room. Though, many of them had guessed that Uriah had the unfortunate luck of picking the room that happened to belong to the idiot that fed the kitten until she stayed.

For the few hours Issy was awake for, she watched the squaddies come into the kitchen for something to eat or for coffee and watched some of them go to bed after staying up late. She lightly stroked a hand down Artemis' coat, lost in thought until the clock caught her eye. 22:38. Issy sighed, knowing that both Dorian and Bulldozer would still be asleep like the lazy bastards they are. She turned her gaze to the kitten on her lap and she immediately felt guilty. She didn't want to move her but, dammit, Issy needed to get up.

Issy slowly slipped a hand underneath the small cat and she could feel the grumble of a whine crawl through Artemis. A green eye popped open and stared at Issy. "I'm sorry okay? You've gotta move." The eye closed as if she didn't understand Issy but the prominent sharp claws that hooked into Issy's jeans told her differently. "Oh, c'mon!" She heard a deep chuckle and looked up to find Duncan watching her from another chair across the room.

"Havin' fun there lass?" He wore a pair of half-moon glasses with a small A5 notebook in his hands.

Issy smiled fondly to the cat on her lap even while her tone became sarcastic. "Oh yeah, tonnes of – OW!" Artemis had dug her claws in deeper and Issy had have sworn the little feline pierced her skin. "Little minx!" Issy scooped up Artemis before she could even latch on tighter and held her up so that Issy could stare into those green eyes that emitted nothing but innocence. Nice try. "That wasn't funny little one. Next time you do that and I'm putting you outside." Artemis meowed quietly back and yet both Issy and Artemis knew that wouldn't ever happen. She had wormed her way into Issy's heart. Issy looked up and noticed that Duncan was still watching her. "Wanna Cat?"

Duncan shrugged and put down his book. "Sure, why not?" Issy stood up, striding across the room with Artemis in her arms and placed Artemis in his lap. Even as Artemis got comfy, she stared Issy down like Issy had betrayed her. Issy probably had… You never know with cats.

Walking into the next room to place her mug in the sink, Issy was pleasantly surprised to see her crew mates for tonight's shift already up. Well, kinda… Bulldozer was sat with his head on the table, his coffee probably long been cold. Issy picked up his mug as she passed and walked towards the kitchen area where Dorian was stood. Dorian was absent-mindedly stirring his own coffee as he started into the abyss. Dark circles were sunk low into his skin below his tired eyes and he didn't even register when Issy took the spoon from his hands. Her fingers curled around his mug and it too was just as cold as Bulldozer's.

Sighing, she told his mug from him and rinsed all three mugs out and leaned over to flick the kettle on. Issy guided Dorian to the table and made him sit in front of BD. As she was walking away, she heard a soft thump and with a glance behind her, she saw that Dorian's head had joined BD's against the table. Shaking her head with a quiet laugh, she busied herself in the kitchen. Soon enough there was a mug placed in front of BD and Dorian: one black with no sugar, the other two sugars and a dash of milk. Issy shook them both awake and they stopped groaning in protest when they saw the mugs in front of them. She got a simultaneous sighed thanks as she sat down with her own mug of coffee.

Issy felt eyes on her and she could confidently bet her bike that she knew who it was. From the corner of her eye, Issy saw Captain watching her. He'd been doing that for a while now and even when Issy glanced back at him, he didn't look away.

"Something up Captain?"

He shook his head with a small smile. "Just thinking."

"About what?" Issy turned to him and then added: "If you don't mind me asking."

"Just something I've suggested to Harrison. He hasn't given me his answer yet but either way, it's not his decision to make." He smirked to himself. "I would still like his opinion on it though."

Issy nodded her head slowly like she understood what Captain meant and turned back to her coffee, waiting for it to kick in and time to speed up.

xXx

At Sector E, Issy jumped out of the truck, followed by BD and Dorian. Darkness surrounded them but someone had enough sense to place reflective blocks along the floor so that they could see where the route was.

With flashlights attached to their rifles and walking in the same small v formation that she had all of her crew take when she was temporary captain, it seemed they had enough light to find their way… Issy had spoken too soon.

"Fuck me!" Dorian hissed as he tripped over something else for the millionth time during the two hours they'd been walking.

Unimpressed, she glanced over to Bulldozer and even in the low lighting, she could see him silently laughing as he watched Dorian fumble over his feet. Dorian didn't need to know that half of the things he tripped over had been Bulldozer's foot. BD smirked in Issy's direction and sent a wink her way. In response she rolled her eyes even as a smirk crawled onto her own face.