At Bree's comments, Ash had finally had enough of the 'bonding' and tried to intervene. The look of horror was more than apparent on his face. "They do not say that about me!" He paused and couldn't help glancing down at his phone. "Do they?" He really hoped not. He didn't want to think they were his friends because he was pretty. That would just be awkward. How did women put up with that?
"And I wasn't keeping anything from you," Ash tried to make himself act professional instead of the idiot he was now feeling like. "You just didn't give me a good opportunity to explain."
He looked over at Bree, wishing for her honesty didn't make him feel so inadequate now. He could feel all his hopes slipping through his fingers and he didn't know how to salvage it.
But then Tanith did the most unexpected thing. She started laughing at him. His mouth hung open, utterly baffled by this. The senior officer handed him the blaster and he felt a slight shock at the touch of the cool plastic-like material it was made from. "Close your mouth and holster your new weapon, Agent Ashley. I'm sure your partner can find you one. The blaster is now encoded to your DNA only. Three standard settings, stun, kill, and nice setting that can cause instant pain to most life forms." She shook her head and sauntered away from them both. "Honestly, you humans can be so easy to rile up."
Ash looked at his new weapon, confused, and then at Bree. What had just happened? And had several of those toys in the shelf disappeared? With a sigh he did the only thing he could think of. "I don't suppose you have a holster I could use," he asked Bree.