Troy tossed his helmet on his bed and changed into the regular grey naval uniform. He made his way to the mess hall to grab something to sate his terrible hunger. He settled down at an empty table as he usually did. Calsu sat down opposite him. Before he could greet her, she cut him off.

"You did a great job," she congratulated him. Troy raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you were injured?" Calsu blushed.

"Yes. I... er, I suppose I was." Troy noticed something wrong instantly. This wasn't the embarrassed kind of blush you got when your crush found out you liked them; this was the ashamed sort of blush you got when something terrible has happened that's out of your control, and you're too scared to tell people about it. Troy clasped her hands, making her look up, right into his eyes. Troy didn't know when he started caring about how Calsu felt, but something was making him say:

"Calsu, what's wrong?"

'Nothing," she mumbled, trying to look away, but Troy grabbed her chin gently and pulled it back to face him.

"Look me in the eye and tell me that." Calsu looked down as soon as Troy released her. She trembled slightly as she whispered.

"I-I... the injury... there is a... a permanent effect..." Troy squeezed her hand comfortingly. Something was terribly wrong. Sangheili never stutter. Wait... was that a tear in her eye? "I can no longer have children," she babbled, tears flowing freely now. Holy shit! Troy mentally screamed. "My womb was critically damaged!" she sobbed. Troy quickly put an arm around her and led her out of the cafeteria, away from the stares she was attracting. Unable to think of anywhere else private enough, Troy took her to his barracks. He knew Sally was out in her lab, testing some Forerunner tech they had brought back on their other mission. He sat Calsu down on his bed, pulling up a chair so he could sit across from her. Before he could ask, Calsu launched into her explanation, so fast and with such a wavering voice that he could barely make sense of the syllables coming out of her mouth. "I will never get a mate now! They will all reject me as soon as they find out I cannot produce young! I will never find love! I have no purpose, I am dishonouring my bloodline!" She was really worked up. Troy was starting to panic. What if she blames me? What will she do to me then? Troy already knew what her kind was capable of, and did not want to experience it again. Calsu finally calmed down enough to see the distress she was causing him. Unable to produce words anymore, she just fell forward and hugged him, trying to put his fears to rest and comfort herself at the same time. The first half worked.

Sally trotted down the corridor to her barracks. She had been having an easier time sleeping recently because Troy was having his nightmares less. She assumed it was because of his new teammates, and was happy for him. She was surprised to see Troy sitting outside their barracks, leaning against the door with his head lolled back.

"Troy? What are you –"

"Shhh!" Troy silenced her. He grabbed her by the arm and led her away. When they were a few corridors away, he assaulted her with his story. "There is a very distraught Elite in my room and she is crying and shit and she is really really panicking and I have no idea how to deal with it she's a girl and I was wondering if you have any ideas on what I should do she's asleep at the moment and I don't want to wake her up!" Sally's eyes were rather wide at the amount of information he had just given her.

"There's an Elite in our room...?" she repeated slowly. Troy nodded.

"Yes! Her name is Calsu. Please help!" Sally cocked her head at him.

"And... you're not scared of this Elite?"

"Of course I'm scared of her! Why else would I be asking for your help?" Sally frowned at him. "No! I didn't mean it like that!" Sally shook her head.

"No no," she murmured. "You're right; you must be pretty desperate to ask for help from me." She stomped off, quite annoyed at Troy for using that kind of tone with her. He can solve his own problems if he's going to be an ass about it. It was only later, after an hour of reflecting, that she realised that he had stressed the word 'your' because she was the only one he trusted for a matter as serious as the one on his hands.

Troy stood and stared at the spot where Sally had been. He tip-toed back to his barracks and opened the door a crack. Calsu was awake and sitting up on the bed. What's more, she heard the door open and was now staring at him. Troy stepped in awkwardly.

"Hey, uh..." Calsu grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall.

"You will speak of this to no one," she growled. Troy nodded desperately, and Calsu's expression changed to one of pure horror when she saw how frightened she had made him. She was holding him by the throat! She whipped her hand away, trying to apologise, but Troy ducked out of the room and sprinted down the corridor. She punched the wall. All that work... she had broken the trust she had taken so much time to gain. Troy would see her as the monster he had originally seen, and would probably never give her another chance. Now she had fucked up her life even more.

The next morning...

Sally yawned and got up from her bed. She was usually first up, and was surprised to find that Troy wasn't in his bed. He hadn't been in bed when she had gone to sleep either. She felt a pang of worry as she walked to the cafeteria. There was no way he could have finished breakfast. She scanned all the tables, and was still unable to find him. Maybe he had skipped breakfast? A group of marines marched past on their routine morning march that the ODSTs didn't have to do. They were in charge of their own training. Nor did the civilian or Sangheili personal have to do this, as the UNSC did not have direct control over them. Sally searched for a while before returning to the cafeteria. There were no missions involving Fireteam Cobalt. She checked the ODST bay anyway, and finally found him asleep in an ODST pod. She kicked him awake.

"What the hell are you doing? I've been looking everywhere for you!" Troy rubbed his eyes.

"I-I was h-hiding from h-her," he stammered. Sally groaned. They had been through this before, on the first day the Sangheili arrived.

"It's okay they're not going to hurt..." she gasped. "Oh my god!" There was a rather large red mark on Troy's neck in the distinct shape of a Sangheili's hand. "Did she do this to you?" Sally already knew the answer. She turned to storm off, but Troy grabbed her arm.

"D-don't tell! She'll k-k-k-kill me!" Sally slapped his arm away.

"This is serious. I am going to give this 'Calsu' a piece of my mind." Sally knew exactly what she looked like, she had seen her and Troy eating together the first time round. She kicked open the door to the cafeteria. "Calsu!" she yelled. A purple-armoured Sangheili stood and walked over to her.

"What seems to be the problem?"

"The problem is that you are being a stupid bitch!" The cafeteria fell silent apart from the murmurs of interest at the events unfolding. Calsu looked taken aback. "You disgusting worm! You think you have the right to abuse our soldiers? What if you broke his neck? Would you have even cared? Don't you think he has suffered enough at the hands of your kind? You have to set back all his progress, all his healing, just because you have issues? Well you can go fuck yourself you split-lip, innocent-murdering, shit-eating, mother f–"

"What is going on here?" General Derz demanded. Sally turned around to find him standing in the doorway, the doors themselves hanging askew slightly because she had bent the hinges in her rage.

"This –" Sally didn't get to start up her string of insults again because Calsu cut her off.

"I have wronged one of your marines greatly."

"Which one?" Derz asked cautiously.

"Corporal Collins." Derz closed his eyes in frustration.

"My office. Now. Both of you."

General Derz massaged his temples and sighed.

"So let me get this straight. You were injured, and didn't want Troy to say anything, so you decided it would be a good idea to aggravate his phobia of Sangheili to make sure he didn't. And you decided it would be a good idea to pick a fight with the species that we are barely hanging onto an alliance with, in front of hundreds of spectators." He got nods from Sally and Calsu respectively. "Are you two retarded or stupid?!" he yelled, making them both cringe. He tapped his fingers on his desk for a while, thinking. "Okay, you're off the hook for now. Any more of this and you won't be so lucky. Where's the Corporal now?" Sally told him. "Do you think he'll be ready for another mission?"

"What?" Sally and Calsu asked simultaneously.

"We're going to be arriving at Earth in two hours. We need our best Fireteam to be transferred to the Shadow of Intent. It just so happens that Fireteam Cobalt is the best Fireteam we have on board."

"And the Demon? He will be coming too I suppose?" Calsu growled.

"Actually, Eugene's dead." Calsu apologised for what must have been very insensitive to the human. "Yeah, he stayed with the bomb when he took the Super Carrier down. Funny, you saw him going down." Calsu didn't find that funny, but humans had an odd way of using certain words for multiple meanings. Sally sighed, still pondering the original question.

"I don't know how bad he is," she told Derz. "He looks pretty freaked out, and probably won't be too happy going on a mission with her." Calsu grimaced.

"I will try to talk to him. I believe I can earn his trust again." She didn't actually, but there was no point in telling the General that. She made her way down to the ODST bay.