Last spark from the ashes

"Jesse's right," Ghost says. "There's no reason to assume something terrible happened. You're still a soldier, just like you wanted. And whatever happened, they wouldn't have... changed you if you hadn't agreed to it. Would they?"

Bryn shakes her head a little. No, she doesn't believe anyone could. They are right, both of them. That's the thing. But for a young woman who is - was - so dead set on what she wanted to do with her life, it's a hard shock to be faced with a future where she becomes something - well, someone she couldn't have imagined on her own.

And it's already happened. She's aware of that, too. The way she is now, the way she's always known herself with her own voice and face and body...

It's temporary.

She sucks in a sharp breath, trying not to look as shaky as she feels. Looks up at Jesse instead with a guilty expression. "I'm sorry I called you... you know. We, um. Definitely don't have... dead people?" Is that term okay? Light this is awkward, but it's at least something she can wrap her head around here and now. "Who're still up and talking."

It's a good thing she can't read Ghost well enough to see how shifty he looks at that.