16332/Titans 3023: Donna comforts Caitlin

Titans 3023: Donna comforts Caitlin
Date of Scene:	14 November 2023
Location:	3023: Troia's Time-Ship
Synopsis:	Caitlin and Donna rally after the explosive revelation that Caitlin is Irie's mother. The two retreat and reassure one another that all is well-- but after meeting Future Troia, neither are wholly convinced.
Cast of Characters:	Caitlin Fairchild, Donna Troy

---

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
On the precipice of entering the Time-Ship to travel forward to 3023, Future Caitlin and Present Irie had dropped an absolute bomb on the Titans. It was revealed that Irie's mysterious mother was in fact Caitlin Fairchild, and the redhead's future-self had broken down in happy tears when she and Irie recognized each other.

All Caitlin could do was emit a few strangled noises at the tear-filled revelation. Future Caitlin and Irie had quickly fled into the ship and sequestered themselves. This left Caitlin standing on the loading ramp with an expression of total shock, unable to move. The weight of all the eyes of her teammates fell too heavily on her, and while they exploded into shocked discussion, Caitlin fled before any could address her directly. Into the time ship, and then a hard left turn into the hallways. Whatever the opposite direction was from where her future self and her-- /Irie/-- had gone.

This is where Donna finds Caitlin a few minutes later. The redhead's sitting down in a narrow alcove, elbows on her knees and her forehead pressed into her palms. She's rocking slightly back and forth, and Donna can make out Caitlin near-inaudibly begging Athena for wisdom and God for serenity.

Caitlin has a complicated theology.

Donna Troy has posed:
    For someone who normally is not shy of expressing her emotions, the last few minutes have seen Donna remarkably lacking in any emotional outbursts. Instead she entered the Titan Travel Sphere (not that she knows that's what it is yet) and faced those first few turbulent minutes expressionlessly. Perhaps only Caitlin knows here well enough to understand that when Donna gets like that it's the opposite of what it appears to imply; when nothing is relfected on Donna's features is when the most is going on inside. The chances of Caitlin noticing this are zero though; there's far too much going on in Caitlin's own mind right now.

    Future Troia had remained brusque, warning people not to move too far from where they are in case they get lost, as several of the people entering the ship sought for a little privacy, for one reason or another. This must be a large ship. After that she had concentrated on piloting the ship, a fact that surprised present Donna. Why wouldn't Future Caitlin be doing that? Donna is generally a good pilot and technically competent but she's no technical expert and always defers to Caitlin when Caitlin is around, when it comes to flying vehicles. This is one of many data points that present Donna files away for future consideration. Present Donna is, at least for the present, showing no signs of wishing to ask questions, and seems far from eager to engage with her future self.

    No, there's far more important things to do, so Donna goes looking for Caitlin. When she finds her oldest friend, she has no words. She simply sits next to Caitlin, wrapping her arms around her and pulling her close.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's head raises as Donna approaches. She recognizes her best friend's footfalls and the subtle scent of her preferred perfumes. The redhead looks up at Donna, face wild-eyed and full of consternation.

"I'm not ready to be a mom," she blurts out. When Donna sits down, Caitlin leans heavily against Donna's shoulder, and goes back to steepling her fingers over her face while she processes things.

It takes her a minute or two to start deliberately regulating her breathing. Donna can sense Caitlin's distress lessening, and she stirs a little before sitting upright. Donna's given a little nod-- Caitlin's all-right-- and the redhead scoots a bit, still sitting shoulder to shoulder with the other Amazon.

"I just-- I'm not /ready/ for this. Any of this." She gestures vaguely towards where her future counterpart went. Screw time travel, it's the new familal situation that has Caitlin on edge. "I can't even look at Wally right now. I can't even imagine what he's thinking. Oh my golly, /Wally/," she says with a desperate tone. She starts tugging her braid through both hands, a sure sign of serious distress. "He asked me out and I told him, y'know, maybe, /someday/, but now with-- I mean, I told him, Irie, and-- but now--" she starts stammering, grasping at words that aren't coming.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You don't /have/ to a mom yet, Cait," Donna says. "Because you aren't, yet. If... if... " she gives a shuddering shrug. "Oh gods. If all this is how it's going to be, if there isn't some fluidity in timestreams, or we're not being deceived in some monumentally complicated fashion, you will be one day. But not yet. Just... just let things progress at their own pace."

    "Hades! I wish I know how this worked. I mean if all this is real, aren't they risking a huge paradox? Suppose learning this means you and Wally fight against it, then what? Does it mean Irie never gets born? Then you'd never be in this position, and... or maybe it means Irie would have a different mother, but everything else would happen the same. I mean that part hasn't happened /yet/, right? So it can't be a fixed thing. Gods damn it, you have free will, Cait."

    Donna falls silent a little while. "Look, Irie's doing fine. I mean... now. In the present day. With us. We look after her together. Her family is the Titans. That doesn't change. This doesn't have to... have to change anything. You don't have to suddenly /have/ any extra responsibilities. I mean Irie already had you looking after her. And Wally, and me, and everyone else. I guess.... I guess this means that Irie has always had her mom with her, but just couldn't say anything. But despite that, she /managed/."

    Donna lapses into silence, shaking her head to herself. She looks down at the floor of the strange ship and gives a soft sigh, then looks up again. "I guess... I guess that means I really /am/ her auntie Donna," she says. "And when I look at this all like that, I have to say I'm immensely proud of how /adult/ Irie has been about all of this. You should be too. But don't feel like this whole thing is suddenly all on your shoulders, Cait. I'm here for you. I always will be. Look, we're still friends in a thousand years time, right? That says a lot."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin shifts her head upright and *bonks* it against the bulkhead behind her. Then again, a little harder, with a cross expression on her face and her eyes screwing shut. "Cheese and crackers," she mutters. It's practically an expletive.

"Okay. First-- yes. Paradoxes and time travel. I ... well, /everything/ hasn't collapsed into some kind of quantum foam, so I'm inclined to say, whatever we're doing with Irie probably won't completely corrupt the space-time continuum. Anytime there's travel from the future to the past, it should change the future, except it's not doing that, so ... ....so." She exhales. "That at least is not something I'll lose a lot of sleep over."

Caitlin falls quiet again, thinking. "I don't know if I told you. Wally-- we were at my lab, and he was asking me out, and Irie walked past right then. I panicked. I ran. Wally... Wally is one of my oldest friends, and he says he's had a crush on me, but I just don't see him that way. But now I'm scared I /have/ to do something, not for... us, but for Irie to exists." She grimaces and pinches her brow. "I wonder what Future Me is telling her right now. She looked like she had seen a ghost. If Irie's my ... daughter, then howcome I was so shocked to see her? Didn't this all happen in the future?" she tries, and then groans wearily.

"Nope, I lied. Going in circles again."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna shakes her head. "You don't have to do anything. Yeah you're right, going in circles. I mean... Irie exists. It doesn't make sense to suggest that her existing means you have to do something you wouldn't have done anyway for her to exist, because she needed to exist to make you even consider that possibility. I've told you about Euthemia, right? The Themysciran philosopher who theorized about time travel? Time is functionally a dimension, so you apply thermodynamics to the problem. Time travel is hard, following the arrow of time, having one second happen a second after the last, that's easy. Reality isn't going to rely on time travel having taken place, it'll follow the least energetic path. Irie will be born in the future whatever decisions are taken now, because she existed in our past. "

    It's a theory, perhaps as good as any, but if the future Titans do indeed have a good grasp of the realities of time travel as future Troia had implied, the present Titans do not, and theory is all it is. It's obvious that Donna hopes at least it's a comforting one that may calm Caitlin down a little.

    Donna reaches her hand for Caitlin's, intertwining fingers. A physical echo of her earlier promise, that they would always be close, that they were in this together. "When Irie first came back to us, Wally... Wally did his best, but it was too much for him. He never let on, but that's why he was away so often. Oh... he felt responsible. He'd have stayed if he had to. But I reminded him that Titans are a family. And that meant Irie wasn't just his family, she's family to all of us. If he spent a lot of time away, avoiding Irie, it's because he needed to. But it's also because I made it very clear to him that even if he couldn't manage, Irie would still be well looked-after."

    Donna tilts her head sideways, looking up at Caitlin's face and grinning with a hint of mischief on her features. "Look on the bright side. The way this worked out, you got me covering for you for a bunch of Irie's more awkward teenage PTA meetings when Wally was out of town."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin turns her palm up obligingly at Donna's touch, and squeezes firmly in gratitude. The physical reassurance means the world to the redhead, and she immediately relaxes a hair at Donna's comforting presence. The explanation makes some degree of sense, and more importantly it does exactly what Donna intended: it gives Caitlin some straws to grasp at in the face of overwhelming uncertainty.

When Donna mentions PTA, Caitlin lets slip a loud, half-aborted laugh. She claps a hand over her mouth and succeeds only in sniggering through her palm, eyes screwing shut with laughter. "Yes, I can definitely count on /Auntie Donna/ to pick up the slack with Irie," Caitlin agrees. "Golly. And she has a brother. Twins," Caitlin marvels.

She looks over at Donna and gives her hand a little shake. "Future You looks amazing," she bids the princess. "I mean like, awesome in the literal sense. I thought it was Athena for a moment. How cool is that? Though it is pretty cool we're still together in the distant future," she echoes. "A thousand years. I can barely wrap my brain around a decade," she admits. "A century seems like such an insurmountable number."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives an almost imperceptible frown at Caitlin's words about her future self, but does not address them. Instead she leans back, resting her head against the bulkhead, and staring up at the strange shapes and patterns of the ship's interior. She's bothered by an odd sense of deja vu about this ship, but she tries not to let that distract her. "You became an Amazon, Cait. Amazons live a very long time. I guess... that's easier for me to cope with. I mean for me the idea of people living for thousands of years has always just been the way things were. Not to say a century doesn't seem like an insurmountable period just as much for me as it did for you. But the idea that I would be around in a thousand years has just... it's always been a part of my life, I guess. It's funny. When I was a little kid I used to feel like in maybe a thousand years I'd count as an adult. I couldn't wait until my first millennia rolled around. I didn't have any sense of how long that would /feel/, though. I guess in a way though, ten year old Donna feels more distant to me than the idea of thousand year old Donna."

    Donna takes a turn banging her head backwards against the wall, though it lacks the *boink* of Caitlin's previous efforts. Less a vain attempt to make herself wake up from what must seem a little like a dream, more a casual marking of space and the moment.

    "I wasn't going to mention Jai," Donna tells Caitlin with a faint smirk. "I mean learning you're going to have a kid is hard to cope with, remember you're going to have two was an extra pressure I wasn't going to be the one to cause. But I've thought about it you know. I mean Irie has speed. Jai has strength. And both have red hair. This always seemed like a possibility. "

    "Remember when you first met Irie? When we came back to the tower after you first became an Amazon. She asked who you were, if you were an Amazon. That struck me as odd at the time. I mean she knew a lot about us. Even if you'd left the Titans before she came along... she told me once that when she was younger, in the future, I was always telling her stories. There's no way I wouldn't have told stories that included you. It didn't really make sense that she had no idea who you were, but she must have been just doing her best to make us exclude you from the equation."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin stops and turns her head slightly towards Donna. Her brow furrows in concentration and by the time Donna's done explaining things, she's nodding along with a slow, dawning awareness. "Wow," she concludes, brows rising. "I mean, if that's true, Irie's got the world's best poker face," she says. "I'm amazed you remember that so well. But it does make sense," she admits, scratching the nape of her neck. "I mean, the little details, they add up. Jai especially. And it's not like there's a bunch of redheads running around. We can rule Kori out since they're not half-Tamaranean, and we can /probably/ rule Terry out," she says with a smirk.

Caitlin exhales a short breath and pushes smoothly to her feet. Once standing she offers a hand to Donna to help her up too. "Okay. Well... I guess I'll need to have a heart to heart with... me, soon, and see what she'll tell me. And then Irie and I can talk once we're back home, and figure out what the status quo is going to be."

Caitlin shakes her head again, marvelling, and the motion reminds her to pin her braid up so it's out of the way again. "I seriously don't know how I'm going to look Wally in the face," she admits. "I told him 'maybe someday', but now 'maybe' is 'definitely, certainly'. That's a lot of pressure." She shifts uneasily and looks to Donna. "What should I do?" she asks, in a plaintive bid for advice. "I feel like we're going to spend the next ten years staring at each other waiting for me to decide 'hey, he's not so bad'. That's a lot of pressure to put a girl under!" she objects.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I remember it well because I filed it away, " Donna admits. "It struck me as strange, so I took a mental note of it. " She takes Caitlin's hand, scrambling to her feet beside the taller Titan. "I always do that. I think it's the training. It's so drilled into my head to be constantly on the look out for every little detail, of where an opponent's feet are, if they're showing signs of favoring some part of their body, if they appear to be unaware of any detail of the terrain. Now it's just... I'm always watching. I don't know how to switch it off." It sounds like a useful trait for a superhero, but Donna appears not to be exactly enthusiastic about it.

    Donna dusts herself off, though it's an automatic behavior. There's no dust. "I tried not to think about it though. I mean I always approached Irie with the attitude that it's not just her job trying to keep the future secret, we had a responsibility not to probe too hard too, and that includes when she slips up or is imperfect in her subterfuge." There's a wry smile and quick shake of her head. "One thing that didn't occur to me until right now though, Irie came back forewarned about my Truth Sense. If you think she's got the world's best poker face, consider that she did an extremely good job of making things sufficiently ambiguous that nothing she said registered as an outright lie."

    "Well..." Donna tilts her head to the side, shrugs and looks across to Caitlin thoughtfully. "It's not totally true that I didn't try to think about it. I mean from the moment Irie showed up it was obvious that the identity of her mother was going to be a question. I won't pretend it didn't occur to me to wonder whether she was my daughter, but I quickly figured out I was not. As hard as she tried, Irie did slip up on a few things. Once I'd figured out her mom wasn't me I... well I made an effort to not look too hard. Not think too much about the consequences of the slips and anomalies I did notice."

    "But it *could* have been me. It could have been any of us." Donna shrugs again, the briefest twitch of her shoulders. "I didn't see Wally that way, but I couldn't exclude the possibility I would in the future. And I know for a fact that when Wally first joined up he had a major crush on both of us at various times. I mean he was sixteen, we were nineteen, or appeared to be, and our posters were on the walls of half the bedrooms in America. Poor kid." Donna stares down the corridor they'd gone into back in the direction of the central chamber, if that's what it is. "There were years when it didn't cross my mind for a moment to think I'd fall in love with Rae one day either."

    Donna turns back with a smile, and gives Caitlin's arm a squeeze. "So what you do is nothing. Because you're in the same place you always were. Wally's close, and you spend a lot of time with him. Maybe one day you'll fall in love with him, maybe you won't. Don't let this knowledge change the way you see him."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin interlaces her fingers on her head and looks down at Donna while her friend mulls through the situation. As per usual, her insights are spot on, and Caitlin finds herself nodding agreement with Donna's estimations. She manages a smile-- weak, but real-- when Donna gives her arm a squeeze.

Big breath in-- hold it-- and let it out with a trailing raspberry. Caitlin's fingers uncoil and she lets her arms *thump* to her side, and gives Donna a reassuring nod.

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of hard to forget that time the foam bomb went off in the living room," she reminds Donna. "Or that time with the noodles." She shudders. It had been a disaster, one best left unspoken.

A thought strikes her and she looks at Donna. "Y'know, I wonder--" she stops, shudders slightly with an unnerved expression. "Golly. I started to think 'I wonder how many kids I'll have in the future', and if I'm alive a thousand years from now, that might be a lot," she says, looking conflicted about that possibility. "I wonder if they're all with... Wally. 'cause that was Future Wally, right? But he looks older, like, he's aged. So if I out--" she swallows. "Okay, yeah, that whole train of thought is going to some dark places. But why was I crying when I saw Irie?" she asks, with a puzzled expression. "That's Future Me. Me should know everything that will happen to I, right?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Don't let time travel make you confuse subject and object Caitlin," Donna teases. "It's confusing enough as it is. But..." she looks back down the corridor to the main chamber again, though her gaze is focused on something further away. "I don't know. There's a lot that's not right about all of this, Cait. You and me being alive in a thousand years, that makes sense. Kian... that's a surprise, but we just didn't know. Jinx is understandable, but what happened that means there's a thousand year old Wally? That doesn't add up. Rae says she can sense her own future self on this vessel, but she didn't come greet us, and that seems strange. And Rae said there was some kind of powerful illusion spell going on which she hasn't been able to penetrate. Which suggests to me that future Raven probably cast the illusion.

    Donna turns back, a frown that hadn't been visible as she looked away quickly fading from her features as she turns back to Caitlin. "There are things they're not telling us. And to be fair that's to be expected, because... well there were things Irie didn't tell us either, and things Irie said that didn't quite add up, like not knowing who you were. They've concocted some approximation of what's really happening to tell us, because they /had/ to, but there's a whole bunch of detail missing. Did you notice that the future version of you seemed /surprised/ to see Irie? While the future me and future Wally did not. I'm not sure they planned this whole thing very well at all. Like the whole thing was done in a huge rush. But if they've got time travel, why should it be? Surely they could have taken the time to plan it out properly and not get any surprises."

    "No... My guess? They're not all from the same time period. Not all from the same timestream or dimensional reality or whatever, maybe. That probably explains this best. Maybe the future you comes from a timeline where Irie died, while the future me and the future Wally did not."

    Donna smirks slightly. "Maybe future Rae comes from an alternative dimension where she's got ears growing out of her forehead, and doesn't want to be seen."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"What, us? Rush into danger with half a sloppy plan and trying to wing it by the seat of our pants?" Caitlin slaps her palms to her cheeks and pretends to look shocked. "Color me purple, I'd have never guessed!"

"Actually, I find that totally reassuring," she admits a beat later, letting her hands fall again. "It means things are pretty much going as they've always gone, which is to fake it until we make it. That's pretty constant."

There's a few beats where she looks back towards the bridge (conn? deck?) and furrows her brow, trying to think through things for a few seconds. "I guess in all the commotion I wasn't watching Rae too closely. Either of them," she clarifies. "I trust your gut though, if you think she's acting weird. ...Weird-er," the redhead amends.

"You know what's really trippy?" she asks and looks back at Donna. "Irie's almost the same age as me. Right now, I mean. She was born in '36, travelled back to us in 2021, so she's biologically... eight," Caitlin says, counting on her fingers. "And I'm only twelve. Is it weird that I'm slightly relieved knowing I'm not younger than my daughter?" Caitlin asks Donna, and laughs helplessly.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna snorts. "Yeah, that would be awkward. I mean when she started aging and spent a few weeks looking like she was the oldest member of the Titans, that was awkward, but at least that was just a physical thing, she wasn't actually older than us. We weren't actually feeding a forty-year-old ice cream and telling her to go to bed because she had school in the morning. Flip that around and think how difficulty that could get. Can you imagine being grounded by your own daughter?"

    Donna joins in laughing and anyone who knows the pair knows that it never ends there. "Mom! Behave or you'll be sent to your room. Don't make me say it twice, young lady!" Before long the pair are leaning against each other for support and losing the fight against a fit of giggling. "Can you imagine if I tried that with /Hippolyta/?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Oh, how hard Caitlin is laughing. Laughing so much she starts crying. The two of them try to shush each other to little avail, because yes, the laugh train has left the station and it stops for nothing.

"Ohhh, golly," Caitlin sighs, wiping tears from her eyes. "I bet everyone is going 'what on Earth are those two laughing about'," she tells Donna. Caitlin roots around in her light armor and pulls out a little piece of clean cloth, offering it first to Donna to wipe her face before doing the same for herself.

"Hippolyta--" she giggle-snorts, quells it quickly, and starts again. "/Queen/ Hippolyta, she'd have tanned your hide," Caitlin informs Donna. "But, then again, I don't think a time-displaced version of you washed up at home when she was still in swaddling clothes."

There's a beat, then a sudden gasp, and Caitlin grabs Donna's arm rather dramatically. "Maybe Diana isn't your sister! Maybe Diana.... is yoOuOoUUouu," she says, drawing the word out as if it's some dire fortelling of a time yet to come.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Caitlin's words are prophetic. The laughter does indeed attract the attention of another person about the time ship, and one time Donna and Caitlin come up for air long enough to pay attention to their surroundings, they see the Donna of a thousand years hence leaning against a bulkhead with her arms folded across her chest, watching them.

    The two are quick to get themselves under control when they see they are being watched. What expression might you expect to see on the face of your future self, watching you laugh with a friend? Wistful nostalgia? Nothing like that is visible. The future Donna is rather inscrutable, but if you had to place a bet, you might put it down as suppressed impatience. There's something of the guilty sense of being discovered doing something you shouldn't when someone sees you laughing hysterically with a friend, but when that someone is one of you from the future, it just makes it worse.

    Once Donna and Caitlin have gathered themselves and settled down, future Donna straightens up. "Right, "she says, firmly but not unfriendlily. "If you've finished for now, can I ask you two to try keeping things a little more orderly? This ship is psychically controlled, and the sheer amount of emotion flooding around the place is making it a little difficult to steer, so please try not to add any more to that then necessary. If you two can't keep a bit of a lid on it there's a chance we're going to end up in the middle of the Boxer Rebellion or something."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
For all her knowledge, for all her intellect and reasoning faculties, there is an element to the redhead that runs on gut-level instinct. She can't help it. She can rationalize it afterwards; processing data sub-consciously, instinctual pattern analysis, autonomous behavioral protocols. There's a word and a term for all of it, but it boils suddenly down to a distressingly familiar sensation in her gut.

Caitlin does /not/ trust Future Donna.

"I'm sorry-- we're sorry," she amends, holding her palms aloft apologetically. "We're just-- you know, we're shaking off some stress," she says, and moves her shoulders and hips a little to illustrate the Stress-Free Shuffle. "I just found out I'm a mom, Donna's apparently... you," she says, gesturing at Troia, "and it's-- it's just a lot to take in."

With a flashing smile back at Donna-- HER Donna-- Caitlin looks back at Troia. "C'mon, though," she entreats. "It's me! I'm so happy we're still best friends a thousand years in the future," she tells Troia. "Granted, I wasn't sure I'd live this long," she admits, "but I think it's great that we're still, y'know--" she bumps her knuckles together. "Together. What am I like in the future?"

For all her effusiveness and enthusiasm, Caitlin is about a half step ahead of Donna and in front of her. Not enough for her to be conscious of it, and barely enough to be noticeable.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The Troia of 3023 watches the pair in studied silence for a few moments. One thing that's readily apparent is that a thousand years have left Troia more able to control her emotions than the Troia of 2023 is.

    "Time travel makes things unnecessarily complicated," she says. "If you view time as a river delta, splitting and splitting again as it flows out to the sea, then whichever branch you find yourself on, you know that you came from the same point downstream. When time travel is introduced you redirect some of the current to an earlier point in the flow. That doesn't change where you find yourself now, but it may mean new branches are introduced prior to where you find yourself in your personal 'now' point of the river."

    Relevant, but highly abstract. What's she getting at?

    "This is... complicated. Things may not be as fragile as you currently believe them to be where time travel is concerned, but there are still things we have to be very cautious about. As you will find in the... if I remember correctly /very near/ future, there are people who don't take kindly to people damming the time stream, and they are people powerful enough that even the Titans need to be cautious about drawing their attention. We... have to be very careful about what we say and do here."

    Future Troia takes a couple of steps back in the direction of the main chamber (or is she increasing the space between herself and Caitlin?), and smiles at the two young Titans. "I know this is a lot, I really do. And I'm sorry, I really am. We wouldn't do this if it wasn't absolutely necessarily. But I wasn't joking about all the stray emotion interfering with the piloting of the ship. I get that it's unavoidable to a degree, but just please... try not to let it go too far."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
With some mumbled some apologies Caitlin waves Troia farewell, watching the Titan retreat. When Donna comes up next to her, Caitlin puts a hand out to stop her be.st friend, and turns her head slightly to give Donna A Look.

All she does is make eye contact, then shake her head slightly. Just a little. There's no commentary, no discussion. That single look says it all, and she lets her arm drop once Donna acknowledges it just a little bit.

"I'm ... gonna go check in on myself," she says, her tone a little wary. "I imagine... /she/ and Irie have a lot to talk about, but I've got questions, too," she declares. "Irie obviously most important, but there's some other things I want to sort out also."

Shoulders rise and fall in an exhalation and she looks at Donna once more. "Reconvene later, share notes?" she suggests. It's a pleasant tone, but Caitlin's green eyes be.tray a worried suspicion that maybe. things aren't what they're cracked up to be.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna stares after her opposite number as she returns to the piloting of the ship, leaving the pair alone and their questions unanswered. She keeps staring a little while after Caitlin's arm comes out to attract her attention, and she meets Caitlin's eyes only slowly.

    "You and me both, Cait," Donna replies. Though it's not a direct reply to anything Caitlin had said, she feels sure that she and her old friend are on the same wavelength here, and it'll be understood that she's simply reassuring Caitlin of that fact.

    Donna rests her hands on Caitlin's shoulders and gives her a reassuring smile. The future Donna had seemed easy enough with her smiles too, but they're not really exactly the same. Donna's seem more natural. "Don't... I mean keep in mind that this isn't... we're not looking in a mirror here, Cait. It's going to be easy to forget that because... because it looks so much like we are. But we're not."

    "And don't forget the Irie rule I talked about earlier. I mean... no trying to probe the future. As tempting as it is. We all agreed that Irie was right to not tell us things she knew about the future. That means we shouldn't be asking her questions that we wouldn't want her to answer. And that has to apply to our future selves as well. Don't ask the future version of you too much, okay? Because there's a danger she might answer. Let's trust our instincts on this one, okay Cait?"

    Donna takes her hands from Caitlin's shoulders, and her smile falls a little. "I'm not sure I'm going to have notes to compare when we reconvene," she says, glancing in the direction her future self went. "I don't think I want to know. There are enough things about my present I've been trying to ignore without looking too far into the future, you know? Maybe I'll just go find Rae... /our/ Rae I mean, not the future one with ears on her face. Share observations with her, see what she's figured out."

    "I think that might be more comforting than talking to my self."