Elletta had stared at the jacket on the back of the chair in the main room of her tiny little home. The witch hadn't meant to take it with her when she'd left in the aftermath of the ball, hadn't realized it until she got home. Well, she built up her courage, draped the jacket over her arm and headed out. It was a two birds, one stone situation since she needed to meet with her new CO at some point for her new training schedule, or at least to discuss it later. But that was after she returned the jacket to Abbott.

Eventually, she made her way to Abbott's office and knocked on his door. She'd been told he was in his office but she wasn't going to just walk in. He was still an officer, even if she wasn't directly in his chain of command with the new shake-up they were told about the previous day.

"Come in", he said when someone knocked on the door. He'd look up to see Elletta. "Haider." He was surprised to see her here. The lieutenant had completely forgotten about his jacket. "Please sit. What can I help you with?"

Elletta felt a little awkward. After a rather shitty commanding officer over in Coheed, she hadn't often interact with officers until she returned back to Skia after witnessing that yes, the one that she'd had to deal with was not a normal occurrence and that the ones she had here were relatively decent.

Shutting the door after her, she took the offered seat before she offered up the jacket. "Sorry, I uh, accidentally took it home after the ball. And also, thank you for letting me borrow it."

His features softened and he laughed a bit while looking at the jacket. It had become absolutely useless over the span of the evening, and it had been trampled by all the people trying to leave the room, so he didn't necessarily need it back, but it was nice that Elletta brought it over anyway. "Thank you, Haider", he said with a smile. He accepted the jacket and put it over the back of his chair. "How have you been since the ball?" He looked at her. She was a medic now, and she had gotten a hectic start with the whole situation that had went down.

Even with the closed door, Elletta wasn't as concerned about being in the same space as the officer. Mostly because that for all the talk about the man hitting on women, she hadn't heard a single word about him being anything less than respectful at least. And nothing about him using his position. Plus, she'd seen for herself that he wasn't a bad guy.

"No problem, sir." The question caught her a little off guard but she gave him a tired half-smile. "Honestly, tired sir with the new training added to the schedule. Don' think I've ever had such a long list of books to go through before."

He didn't know about her previous superior that had tried to pull his rank as a reason to get close to her, but if he knew, he would have despised the man. A military rank was something to be proud of, and not a way to get women to sleep with you. Even though Aldrich did his fair share of sleeping around, all of it was accomplished by charm and not by using his rank.

The tiredness in her smile answered his question before she did it by using words. He nodded slightly. "Once you get through the books, you'll make a fine medic though." He got up from his chair and opened the door, looking left and right before closing it again and sitting down. "If you're not on duty and need to rest, you can take a nap on the couch for a bit, if you want", he proposed. He had started caring more for the soldiers.

It was a slightly tempting officer considering the only peace she really had to read was in her own residence. But honestly there were still some words she struggled with in books, especially the medical ones, so she usually had to end up asking for some help on occasion. Which meant barracks reading.

Even with him checking the door, she wasn't going to take the offer. Mainly because she knew how much talk happened when the officers weren't around and she would rather not have to deal with false rumors like that.

"I'll probably grab a strong coffee later. I'm not on the roster today, so I'll end up passing out early tonight more'n likely. But thank you, sir. I really appreciate it."

She declined his offer, but in a very kind way, so Aldrich nodded. He understood that she would rather get some coffee in her system. "No need to thank me", he said, almost smiling, but it was more just the corner of his mouth that lifted slightly. "How is the studying going?" the Lieutenant then asked.

She groaned as she leaned back in the chair. "Healer Riesen gave me so many books to read. Ain't seen that many books on a list before."

However, even though it was a complaint, there was a gleam of excitement in her eyes. Then she snickered. "And apparently, soldiers come in with some of the stupidest injuries so I've already been told that they expect me to keep any of us military folk in line if they come in."

Aldrich chuckled, which was quite unusual for him. Elletta brought a nice person out in him, one he wasn't very familiar with. She was just kind and understanding, straight to the point and clear in her communication.

He had been going over paperwork, but did have some time, and Elletta said she wasn't on the roster today, so he could definitely talk some more. And he was curious about her training. "Really? What kind of injuries?" he asked. He had only ever sent to the infirmary when he really needed to. He hadn't even went to get the burn marks on his chest, caused by Regan, out.

The stories (well, gossip) about some of the stupid soldier shenanigans had been a warning about watching her own self but they were entertaining and groan worthy for sure.

"A kid dropped his sword and tried to catch it and grabbed the blade, apparently. One of the other healers mentioned someone shooting themselves in the calf in the archery range a few months back, which that still doesn't make sense since it was in the back back o' his leg somehow!"

Aldrich chuckled some more, especially at the kid grabbing his sword. "Yeah, I'd never let them live that done if I were a medic", he said. "But I'm glad at least your training seems to be going good, even though there are so many books. I know how you feel." He gestured at the paperwork in front of him.

Elletta wrinkled her nose in sympathy. "I don't have to worry about that part just yet, thank the goddess." But then she smiled a little. "Little me never thought I'd never learn to read but I made it this far so I guess I'll survive all the books."