It was clear to Irene that she had taken Deirdre by surprise with her request and her first instinct was to laugh, instead she managed to hold it back with just an amused smile showing through. She had indeed spoken to her supervisor already, it was him that she went through with her initial request to have Deirdre come see her and to make him prepared for the possible transfer if she was to accept. The man did have a few not-so-nice things to say but Irene was set to follow her instincts rather than some unwarranted advice from a man she had never met before. To her it didn't seem very professional for him to be tossing Deirdre under the bus, so to speak. Besides, his complaints of how headstrong she was only please Irene all the more. As she had already said, she needed someone who could speak their mind and she was perfectly capable of holding her own beyond that.
"Oh I spoke with him." She said, rolling her eyes just a little as she hadn't had a very good first impression with him. "He's a bitter old fool, isn't he?" She smiled then, the gesture meant to be reassuring, "I saw first hand how you work. You were on that mission most likely against your will but you still put everything you had into keeping yourself and every other person on that team safe regardless of the fact that we were strangers. Now I don't expect you to jump in and blindly follow my every order. In fact, I would be very disappointed if you did. How about I make a promise to do my best to earn your trust and respect? As long as you can promise me the same then we'll be fine."