Carolina struggles with trying to look after her newfound family but still tries regardless, even if it means she might have to attempt dispensing awkward relationship advice along the way.


Pairings Beyond Grimmons:

~Washalina

~Mentioned Sucker

Other Notes for This Story:

~MASSIVE SPOILERS for Season 16 through Episode 11. SPOILERS, I SAY!

~Carolina and Simmons friendship fic!

~Written in honor of RvB Ladies Week!


Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue or any of the show's characters. They are the rightful properties of Rooster Teeth.

Girl Talk

Agent Carolina stood completely still for a few moments after the door closed shut behind her, waiting for any kind of disturbance that would indicate that her presence was required inside the room that Jax and his film crew had arranged for the Reds and Blues in the present timeline to stay the night in.

She breathed a sigh of relief when nothing happened and all she could hear was the continued excited ramblings of Caboose as he talked on and on about his adventures in time to a distracted Agent Washington, who at least seemed to be putting up a polite front by pretending to listen to the inconsistent prattle.

Washington's listening act only altered slightly the very moment that the female Blue Team member had stepped foot into the room moments earlier. He had locked eyes with her from around Caboose's broad shoulders as the two sat across from one another on their provided cots, and Carolina had seen her former Freelancer associate begin to tense up as if in anticipation of her wanting to discuss how he had reacted to the reenactment of getting shot in the throat earlier.

It was almost as if Washington was already bracing to push past Caboose and herself. Or to brusquely snap that there was no need because he was fine, really, and he didn't need her babying him again like he was still the awkward rookie he had been back at Freelancer. Hadn't they both acknowledged back on that beach together how much things had changed since those days?

The redhead had silently stared back until Caboose turned around and noticed her presence as well, "Agent Carolina! Did you want to hear about the time I helped Lopez with warming his feet up too?" He asked cheerfully.

"¡Quemarlos de esa manera debería haber sido imposible!" {"Setting them on fire like that should have been impossible!"}

Whatever the brown-armored robot sulkily said in response from his corner of the room with his arms crossed grumpily over his chest was drowned out by a rather large snore coming from Sarge on a nearby cot. The old man was still decked out in his armor from head to toe, inexplicably cradling his beloved shotgun close in his sleep. It was a position that Carolina would have even had difficulty with back during the project and most especially now due to what had happened during those torturous days spent in armor-lock, though she knew Sarge had a hard time dozing off any other way.

Carolina shook her head and smiled slightly at the blue-armored younger man, "Maybe later, Caboose. I just came by to drop off my helmet."

She saw Washington visibly relax at her statement, and she tried her hardest to squash down any feelings of hurt that rose up. It wasn't her that Washington was upset with, she knew. Not really. She just needed to give him some more time…

To never possibly fully recover. She didn't want to dwell on that horrible possibility either.

"Oh, okay!" Caboose beamed at her, "I'll keep a lookout over everyone here then!"

"¡La única razón por la que todavía estás vivo es porque no dejaría que esos caníbales te coman!" {"The only reason you're still alive is because I wouldn't let those cannibals eat you!"}

Washington tensed up again, "Caboose, I don't really need everyone looking out for—!"

"We're friends though, and friends look out for each other," Caboose interrupted Washington by reassuring him brightly, "And Agent Carolina would like to know that no one is going to start any fires while she goes to the bathroom."

"El único que inexplicablemente comenzará un incendio eres tú." {"The only one who will inexplicably start a fire is you."}

"That's…" Carolina wasn't sure if explaining that she was just going to go out for a walk to give Washington a chance to relax was worth it or not, especially since she didn't want Washington thinking she was doing so to baby him again, so she simply smiled in response to Caboose's attempt at being thoughtful, "Thanks, Caboose."

Washington remained staunchly silent as she put her cyan helmet down on her own cot and left, whether or not he bought Caboose's comment or didn't never once being revealed by the pointedly blank look he had on his face.

Carolina reminded herself as she started walking down the hallway that, as hard as things were for her currently, they were ten times worse for Washington. She couldn't, wouldn't, take his current animosity personally.

Without any real destination in mind, her footsteps carried her down the hallway to the open door leading to the staff break and kitchen room. The light in the kitchen was still on, so she figured one of the actors or film crew must be getting a late night snack. Not in the mood for small talk (when was she ever, really, save for with the mismatched members of her odd, new family?), Carolina started to quietly move past…

Until there was a loud bang from inside the room, followed by something clattering.

"Ow!" A familiar voice cried out not a second later, "Fuck!"

The former Freelancer paused before taking the three steps backwards that she needed in order to face the room once more. As the redheaded female peered inside the kitchen, she saw another red-haired figure with his back towards her, rubbing gingerly at a spot on the top of his head from where he had apparently bumped it on a low-hanging cupboard.

There was a fallen mug on its side on the counter next to the maroon-armored man, with a rather hastily constructed sandwich on a plate. Fortunately, the coffee pot was still full nearby so that the snack (meal? She hadn't actually seen him eat earlier, now that she thought about it) wasn't a soggy mess.

"Simmons?" Carolina cautiously asked as she stepped into the space, hoping to avoid a complete surprise.

However, her attempt apparently failed as Simmons spun around in complete, startled bewilderment at her presence, "A—Agent Carolina!" He let out in an embarrassed, high-pitched squeak, the pale and freckled portions of his face turning a deep red to match, "Wha—what are you still doing up?"

Right. It was late enough at night now that most people would be in bed like Sarge. If Caboose hadn't wanted to catch up and was simply positively giddy to see Washington in particular again, and if Washington wasn't so lost in his own troubling thoughts, the rest of their human teammates at least would probably be sleeping too.

Carolina raised an eyebrow in response, "I could ask you the same thing." She said.

The cyborg flushed even more. Like her, he was still decked out in full armor save for his missing helmet, a cursory glance of the room revealed it to be in plain sight on the nearby table, "Oh! Um…couldn't sleep and I…didn't really eat earlier." Simmons nervously admitted, "The vegetarian options here are horrendous."

"I can see that." Carolina mentioned out loud, feeling a slight pang of sympathy when she saw that his sandwich consisted of nothing but peanut butter and lettuce between the bread.

"Y—yeah," Simmons said as he picked up his mug and hastily poured coffee into it, "I figured I should at least eat something before trying to get to bed."

"Good strategy." She awkwardly shifted on her feet before glancing at the still half-full coffee pot, "But is having coffee a good idea?"

He scoffed slightly as he sat down at the table, "It takes about eight cups to really keep me awake now." Simmons told her, an oddly hesitant look crossing over his features as he added, "Grif said it was a sign of how addicted to caffeine I've become."

Distantly, Carolina recalled York and C.T. both teasing her along similar lines while Washington watched nervously off to the side, as if afraid that the good-natured ribbing would suddenly cause her to snap, "Huh. Same here." She admitted before quickly striding over to the pot herself to find another clean mug and pour herself some coffee too.

With the steaming beverage in hand, she turned to leave and continue her aimless meandering. Her green eyes landed briefly back on Simmons once more before she left, and she noticed that he wasn't really touching his food or drink. Instead, he simply continued to stare down at his maroon helmet, a contemplative frown falling over his features.

Carolina wasn't anywhere near as observant or "Team Mom"-like as Washington tended to be, and she wasn't as close to Red Team, save her inexplicable new friendship with Grif thanks to his relaxation training, but they were her family all the same and she still cared about them.

With a heavy sigh and a squaring of her shoulders, Carolina awkwardly got out, "Everything all right?"

Simmons blanched at her question, looking once again completely flustered, as if he had already assumed that she had left him to his thoughts, "Um," he flinched and laughed nervously in that obviously fake way he did when attempting to poorly deflect something, "Yeah! Everything is totally, completely fine. Absolutely."

She shot him a dubious look as she plopped down onto the chair across from him at the table, "Simmons…" Carolina said, trailing off in the hopes he'd start fessing up.

The cyborg laughed again, the upset note to his voice very much apparent this time since there was no effort made to ineffectively conceal it, "I mean, this sort of thing happens to us all the time, right? Getting caught up in craziness, I mean, not time travel, really, because actual time travel is pretty new."

"Right?" Carolina prompted, not quite sure where he was going with this.

"I mean, when Grif quit before it was because of that too," Simmons continued, a pained expression causing his organic green eye to water as he hastily brushed a hand over it to cover that up, "And I did nothing then too and shit still got weird."

Carolina tensed as the context of this conversation became clear to her. She was definitely not someone who could provide much guidance on relationship issues or doing something when deep feelings were involved at times. She thought of her old team, her old family, thought of York, of Wash…and promptly swallowed down a sudden rising lump in her throat.

"And now things might just be predestined and free will is nothing more than an illusion, and Grif and the others are still stuck somewhere back in time and we're just waiting here because Jax thinks if they're supposed to come back here, they will?" Simmons said in one big rush, as if he had to let it all out.

Carolina pursed her lips, "Well, we could also potentially just further mess up the past and our present if we were to try blindly following them." She said logically, not sure where the issue was.

Caboose with a fucking time machine. They had dodged quite a few bullets already, no doubt largely thanks to Lopez's intervention.

"But, still!" Simmons gripped the sides of the table tightly, closing his eyes, "It feels like I'm doing the same thing all over again, and what if he…they need our help or something?"

She let his correction go unremarked upon. Grif quitting before and everyone leaving him on the moon like they had, it had been something that weighed heavily on all of them since, even if no one really spoke about it. This group sucked when it came to discussing anything emotional. She knew that was especially true for both Grif and Simmons.

"Then we go to them the second we get proof they need our help." Carolina told the redhead succinctly, "No ifs, ands, or buts."

Simmons' frown deepened all the same, not looking at all convinced, "I guess…" He said, letting his thoughts wander off instead of vocalizing them.

She took a sip of her coffee, "So that's what's been keeping you up at night?" Carolina asked, feeling like the mystery was close to being solved.

The maroon-wearing man drew in upon himself, and Carolina worried she had inadvertently stumbled onto a topic that she shouldn't have. Before she could think of some kind of a diversion, however, Simmons' gaze lingered on his uneaten food and coffee, "Grif…" Simmons began before quickly shaking his head and starting up again, "Grif often said that late night eating helped him relax."

Carolina nodded, recognizing Relaxation Rule 22 when she heard it. It was followed by Rule 23, which was incidentally the same rule that always repeated itself every other time on the list: Rules are often meant to be ignored.

"I wanted pizza," Simmons admitted lamely, looking oddly sheepish and shy at the admission for some reason, "But they didn't have any."

"There does seem to be an odd lack of it." Carolina couldn't help but also muse, wondering why all of a sudden everyone was all about calzones.

"You know, Grif told me before all of this happened about a new system he had come up with." Simmons said softly, a distant look clouding both his organic and cybernetic eyes.

"Oh?" Carolina was rather intrigued, especially given her role as Grif's relaxation pupil.

The pale-skinned man nodded, "Yeah, he thought there was a way to circumvent getting dragged into anything else absolutely ridiculous or dangerous by avoiding any signs of it occurring altogether," Simmons grinned, "Using guidelines for story progression and plot development from Jax."

…The irony given how they had listened to Jax's guidelines on time travel recently was not lost on her.

Simmons frowned again, looking oddly lost and deflated, "Only, they didn't work and all of us just got separated again and lost in something even crazier than usual instead." He stated, "I bet…I bet he's having a hard time with it."

Most likely, Carolina thought sympathetically, though she decided to keep quiet on that particular observation and pointed out instead, "It doesn't seem like you're handling it all too well either."

Simmons smiled wistfully and rather self-deprecatingly at her comment, "I gave up science." He said.

Carolina remained silent at the admission, unable to separate that particular love of his from the kiss-up's nerdy tendencies.

"I wonder what Grif would think of that, you know?" Simmons sighed and put his hands against the sides of his face, "I just…I just want to talk to him again."

"I think you should."

Simmons raised his head up, looking over at Carolina in surprise at her rather earnest statement. She smirked somewhat, "You two are at your best dealing with crazy shit when you're both together, even if we all suck at communicating how we really feel."

Simmons blinked at her, his expression unreadable.

Carolina fidgeted under his gaze, oddly self-conscious in this awkward situation and absolutely hating it, "What? Bad advice?" She finally asked to break the silence.

It wouldn't shock her if he told her yes. She was definitely out of her element here. To her utter shock, Simmons adamantly shook his head in response, "N—no, actually…that was really good advice." He informed her, rather awestruck at the notion himself.

It was her turn now to be completely taken aback, "Really?" She questioned bewilderedly.

Simmons nodded, a grateful and still slightly wobbly smile curving the corners of his mouth upwards, "Thank you, Agent Carolina." He managed to get out.

The cyan-armored soldier felt her own face heat up, and Carolina promptly moved her mug to cover that rather embarrassing fact up, "No problem." She stated, thinking back to words she had overheard Caboose saying earlier to Washington, "Friends should look out for one another, right?"

"That's what Caboose says." The cyborg said. They remained in amicable silence for a few moments as Simmons tentatively brought his food up to his mouth, "Um, Agent Carolina?" He cautiously asked after swallowing a tiny bite.

"Hmm?"

"I think…I think you just being there for Agent Washington like you have been is great." Simmons muttered shyly under his breath, looking anywhere but directly at her as he did so, "For all of us."

Carolina smiled slightly, rather touched by the altogether familiar and rather awkward attempt at comfort, "Thank you, Simmons." She stated sincerely, "I'll keep at it."

He looked appreciative and thankful all at once, and Carolina felt herself relaxing just then right along with him. Grif would no doubt have been proud of them both.

"Oh, and Simmons?" Carolina spoke up rather pleasantly once more.

"Y—yes?"

"If you and Grif don't both get your acts together and finally tell one another how you fucking feel, I will kick your asses right into the nearest storage closet I can find myself. Understand?"

Simmons let out a terrified "Eep!" and his face turned completely red all the way to his metallic face plating and suddenly rather matching hairline. Carolina smirked at the reaction and sipped her coffee, doing Simmons the friendly favor of pretending not to notice.


"Hello! It's so nice to finally meet the rest of you on more official terms, and eyeball to light burst too!" The floating ball of light merrily dancing around the maroon-armored man happily exclaimed, "My name is Huggins!"

Richard "Dick" Simmons blinked up at her in complete astonishment, "H—how…?" He asked, flabbergasted.

"You are Simmons, right?" Huggins was only a couple centimeters away from his face, darting up and down in a way that somehow brought to mind someone skipping, he'd seen Donut do it enough to identify the gesture even in beings without a physical form, "Grif talks about you the most." She floated in so close that Simmons had to pretty much cross his eyes to see her and it was starting to give him a bit of a headache, her voice dramatically and rather excitedly lowering to what amounted to a stage whisper, "Especially when he's asleep or he doesn't think I'm listening!"

"Er," Simmons blinked, glancing over at Grif for confirmation as to what she was saying or some kind of staunch denial despite the odd sense of hopefulness that washed over him just then as he felt his face start to feel like it was on fire, "R—really?"

"Huggins!" Grif's voice held a note of fond exasperation, a tone usually only associated with his little sister or Caboose, and he staunchly refused to look at the pair. There was a definite darkening of his tan patches of skin alongside the more pale and freckled portions that started to take on a nearly sunburned-like hue just then, "TMI!" Grif managed to blurt out.

The ball of light quickly pulled back from the bewildered Simmons as if drawing in on herself out of forgetful embarrassment, "Right, I forgot! Sorry!" She let out breathlessly despite having no lungs before flitting back and forth between the two as if taking in something truly curious to her, "Capillaries are fascinating, if still an inefficient part of having a physical body and kind of gross if you think about it too much." Huggins noted, somehow brightening even further as her train of thought picked up speed again, "But now I wonder if I could change to red or some other color too! Or do I, and no one ever tells me about it because they think I already know?"

"Huggins!" Grif cut off the seemingly younger-minded ball of light's rambling thoughts then with an exclamation that he quickly covered over with some rather awkward coughing, "Why don't you go talk to Kai and Carolina again? You thought they were cool, right?"

She bounced happily in the air, and Simmons thought of a literal ray of sunshine in response and couldn't help but smile slightly at the mental description, "Oh, yay! Ladies' week!" Huggins gleefully cheered.

"Not the expression, but okay. Have fun, kiddo." Grif sent her off with a slight wave and a nod of his head, sighing softly as he watched her fly off before turning his attention back to his maroon-armored teammate, "Sorry, Simmons, she gets excited a lot of the time." He smiled slightly, "She's pretty cool though, all things considered."

Simmons remembered how he had thought of her earlier and nodded in response to Grif's statement, "No problem." He couldn't help but grin somewhat as he added, "She seems like a ball to have around. She's positively glowing."

Grif blinked at Simmons for a moment, his mouth hanging open before it curved into a grin, "Dude, did you just make a fucking pun? I know she'll light up all your nerd talk when you two get to it later. You won't believe her opinions on Die Hard!"

"Sounds like we'll have a blast." Simmons joked back, though he was pretty sure he probably stretched that one a bit too much.

Grif let out a weary sigh, "Man, you have no idea how long I've waited for someone who can appreciate some good pun discussion. No one got any of my sword ones, and I thought they were all pretty sharp."

"Sword ones?" Simmons blinked in confusion, turning his head slightly to see where Tucker was. The teal-armored man was regaling Caboose, Washington, Sarge, a thoroughly uninterested Lopez, and an excited Jax about his no doubt quite overexaggerated exploits, all while curiously avoiding looking in Kai's direction, which seemed to be serving the younger Grif sibling just fine at the moment as she pantomimed something suggestive that Simmons felt his face heating up again upon seeing to both Carolina and Huggins. Tucker's sword hilt was still hanging at his side, "Did Tucker do something stupid with his sword again?" Simmons asked curiously.

"Uh, when does he not do something stupid with his sword? Both the actual one and the metaphorical one." Grif scoffed, glancing down at his own side just then. Simmons followed his gaze, his confusion only growing when he saw what looked like…

"You have a sword now too?" Simmons asked, bewildered. How many of those ancient, only the chosen can wield them, weapons did the aliens leave scattered around in the first place? It seemed like they had a very inefficient storage policy.

Grif was grinning practically from ear to ear when he looked up at the redhead again, apparently quite pleased by his stunned reaction, "Simmons, you are not going to believe all of the crazy shit we've been though." The heavyset man said.

"Yeah?" Simmons asked before hesitatingly glancing over at Carolina, remembering their earlier conversation about time travel.

The cyan-wearing woman was talking to an ecstatic Huggins and Kai with a rather amused expression on her face, standing nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with Washington as though she was quietly conveying her support to him (Simmons could oddly relate to that in a way) while the blond stood with Caboose.

Carolina tilted her head slightly in Simmons' direction when she noticed his questioning regard, briefly giving him a thumbs-up before pretending as if she had never done so the second Huggins exuberantly circled around her and Kai again.

Simmons smiled softly at her obvious sign of encouragement before grinning over towards Grif again, pleased to see that the chubby man still seemed to be just as happily buzzing at their current reunion, "Oh, yeah, Grif?" He focused on the sense of growing warmth flowing from his chest to the rest of his body just then, "Tell me everything."


Author's Notes: I wanted to do something to help celebrate the awesomeness that is RvB Ladies Week, and a Carolina-centric friendship story was just what the doctor ordered. I loved the chance to write her POV some more here and, as I was pondering over some of the recent developments in Season 16, I really got it in my head to write a friendship story with her and a member of Red Team for some reason. Which led to Simmons because I have a huge bias when it comes to him and Grif, and a current Season 16 response fic made more sense to do with Simmons and Carolina given everyone's current Season 16 plot locations.

At the last minute, I got the urge to also include a look at what the (hopefully soon! *crosses fingers*) reunion between Grif and Simmons might look like, mainly because I so desperately wanted to try my hand at writing for Huggins because I love her and Grif's friendship, and I am kind of hoping that Grif and Simmons will sort-of unofficially adopt her as the little ball of light they haven't had the chance to have yet in their lives. :D IT WOULD BE CUTE AND ADORABLE, AND I SO WANT IT TO HAPPEN! :)

I went overboard with the puns though, and I apologize. XD

So yay, this was my first response fic to Season 16 AND also a friendship fic that probably no one was waiting around for because I am awesome like that. XD Happy RvB Ladies Week, everyone, and I hope I did the awesomeness that is Carolina at least a little justice here. :D

As always, thanks for reading!