The art of keeping it together (open)

"Hmm..." Dalton seemed to be analyzing what Davyn had said. To her, it seemed like he lacked self-discipline, despite their yoga joke. "Inteligence, then?" She suggested as if the idea had just crossed her mind the previous second, which was usually the case with her anyway. "Maybe you can take care of the strategy and planning. You don't seem like the soldier type to me." She didn't mean it as an insult, but sometimes she was too forward.

"Though I think you should probably learn some self-defense if you're going to stick around a place like this." That was her professional opinion.

A side-smile warmed Dalton's features for a moment, but then he continued to talk and she got serious again.

"That's too bad. To be honest, if you were one of my recruits I'd seriously tell you to go home, kid." To sound less rude, she tried to explain. "When things heat up, you need to be able to defend yourself and either find a way to be useful or become a liability"

Then she looked in front of her for a moment, not really seeing what was there. "You seem like a good person. It'd be sad to see your life wasted like that." She had seen many other kids who didn't have soldier material try too hard and get killed in the process. It always pained her to see people die, but it was always worse when it was her responsibility, of course.

Dalton gave him a sympathetic half smile for a moment. Then it got even. "For as long as you don't try to better yourself." That kind of thought had fueled her crazy training sessions, kept her motivated when anyone else would have given up. She didn't want to give up on life and hope just yet, though she'd seen enough to.

An eyebrow raised but she listened to his offer without interrupting. Then shrugged. It beat walking the corridors anytime. "Sure. You need a safe word?" Dalton teased, then shook her head at the voice that said that you had to start wondering what you were walking into when you needed a safe word. Then mentally scolded her dirty head and thought of just how much she missed the very man she was divorcing on her own free will. "Whatever works for you, D." She had to make an effort not to call him 'kid'. It felt natural considering how soft core he seemed. Almost as Dave had been when they met and something about that made her feel hopelessly homesick.

"I do, but you've gotta learn to take things lightly if you're gonna take up this line of work, you know? Otherwise you'll end up a cranky drunk old man." Dalton pretended to be looking at the corridor when she said that. It was too close to her very own 'complicated'.

"And we probably leave the rough play for tomorrow, unless you don't mind that I'm all sweaty from the training." Again, a filter would have been nice, but she didn't come with one. After all the routines she had done that day, both in the shooting range and the gym, she probably smelled or something.

"You mentioned it but, since you're stuck here anyway..." She shrugged. "I bet everyone at SHIELD struggles with their own complications." That reply took her a little longer than usual. It was a touchy subject for her, so she had to make a conscious effort to think before she talked, to put things in a way that didn't sound too personal. Dalton hated to be the one saying 'I've seen too much to take your problems seriously', because she knew that bad things affected each person differently. Yet, a part of her would have yelled that she had lost what was most precious to her in the world and wasn't wining about it, were it not so very personal. She was the kind of person who talked a lot about unimportant stuff or even discuss politics, but rarely talked about her personal life.

"How about tomorrow? Same time, at the training room?"