Matt has told Nova to meet him at one of the faculty buildings right after her last class. So, trudging through campus with an overstuffed backpack towards admissions didn't seem so out of place at the garrison, a fact that she was grateful for.

"Third floor, room 315." She muttered to herself as she walked past the open doors. "Okay, wrong way." She turned around seeing the numbers grow larger. As she reached the room she lightly knocked on the door, she was met by her smiling best friend as he motioned for her to walk in.

Standing in the center of the room was a middle aged man who looked nothing like Matt.

"Dad, this is Nova. Nova this is dad." Nova shook her head at his humor but smiled as she shook the older mans hand.

"Sam Holt. Pleasure to meet you. Matt's told us a lot about you."

"Nice to meet you too." She replied, looking around the room. Dozens of metallic pieces were on tables and plenty of screws and machines were surrounding the scraps.

"Dad pretty much fixes what's broken." Matt explained. "He's pretty much the reason we've been able to safely travel within our solar system."

"That's so cool." Nova exclaimed. " it's really amazing how far technology has come, even in the past decade."

They lapsed into silence as Matt's dad finished packing up some papers, Matt had told her they were blueprints for a new machine that could reach outside their system.

" So Nova," Sam asked as they started driving. "What made you join the Garrison?"

" Well I guess I've always been interested in space, I used to want to be an astronaut. So this is pretty close."

"Why, that's great that you are paving a path towards your goal. Now I know you're in a team with Matt and Shiro. What is it you do?"

" I'm the engineer. But Shiro lets me pilot a lot since that's what I wanted to do.I just missed the registration for being a pilot. And I had never flown in my life" Nova had been completely alone when she registered for classes and far out of her depth. Since the orientation for pilots occurred before she signed up for the semester, she'd either have to postpone her admission for a year or go into another field.

Matt took this time to pitch in " She's an amazing pilot. And she can fix practically anything that's wrong with the ship." Nova smiled but shook her head at his words.There had been plenty of times when she was at a loss and it was Matt or Shiro who had pitched in to help. But, despite not remembering all the parts of the ship, she was fairly good at managing to fix what was wrong.

"Well I wish I was good at science and math like you. I don't remember the last time I answered a question right in class." Sam chuckled at that and the rest of the way they exchanged stories about their time at the Garrison. Nova found out that Sam had met his wife, Colleen, while they attended school at the Garrison. He then told Nova the story of their first date, which ended in Matt telling Nova that he had heard the story so often he could recite it by memory.

They soon arrived at the Holt's House. The first thing Nova noticed was a large tree with a tire swing attached. The house itself reminded her of a farm house, a small rectangular building with open space surrounding it. A young girl in a headband came running up as soon as the door of the car shut.

"Matt!" She ran up, throwing her arms around him. Nova smiled and stood to the side, noticing how similar the two siblings looked.

"Hey Pidge, this is Nova." Matt turned his sister's attention to the older girl who was in the middle of kicking rocks away. Nova glanced at Pidge, she was a small girl, so small that she reminded Nova of a young bird, especially with her chirp like enthusiasm.

"Hi." Nova held out her hand, which Pidge took eagerly.

They started walking towards the house with Pidge recalling all the times her brother had missed out on a new invention Pidge had thought of.

"It makes peanut butter sandwiches so much easier to make." She gushed as she explained her idea.

"That's really cool Pidge." Matt responded as he patted her hair.

" So," Pidge started as she turned to Nova. "did your parents name you Nova because they knew you'd be a student at the Garrison?"

"It's not her real name."

"Um. No. My uncle started calling me it when I was younger." She turned to Matt. " And you said you wouldn't bring it up." All he did was shrug his shoulders as he led her to an older woman who looked so much like Matt and Pidge that it made Nova stop for a moment.

"Hi. You must be Nova, Matt has told us so much about you." Nova glanced at Matt who was making a face at his mother, but he quickly stopped when he saw Nova look at him. She grabbed Nova's bag after much protesting and showed Nova where she would be staying, which was on an air mattress in Pidge's room.

"Sorry about the mess." Nova raised her eyebrows at the almost spotless room. The only part that was out fo order was Pidge's desk, which was filled with science books and paper.

"No worries. I like your room." Nova pointed at the stick on stars on the ceiling. "I love that."

Matt's mom, Colleen, had given Nova the tour of the house while Matt and his sister caught up by throwing sticks at their dog, who Nova had to admit was very cute. Matt's entire family seemed so kind, something that sort of unnerved Nova. It reminded her of her family before a large fight would breakout. The house itself wasn't super big. It had three bedrooms a family room and kitchen. It was on this giant plot of property and as far out as Nova looked, everything was flat and grassy. It was peaceful.

After dinner that night Colleen and Sam sent Pidge to bed, albeit with her very angrily stomping up the stairs to showcase her frustration. They then left Nova and Matt alone resting near the fire pit.

"I like your family. They seem really great." Nova said as she tucked a brown strand of her her hair behind her ear. " I don't think I have ever met a family that gets along so well."

"Trust me. It comes from a lot of patience. And it's nice knowing that I can easily defeat them in my mind."

Nova laughed and brought her blanket closer to her face. " I like it here. You can see all the stars."

Matt looked at his companion who sat staring at the night sky, to enamored by the vast space to notice his face as a wave of guilt hit his face knowing that he took for granted the life she had wanted.