Carol smiled at Nyx's approval, staring at the photo and nodding. "Yeah. We were. Only two women who made it all the way through our program." She was proud of that, clearly. She sighed and took another long drink before standing up to start digging back around the box.
Nyx's words were kind. She nodded a bit at them as she looked through the box, absentmindedly running her hands over fabric and then coming to something else. A small pile of drawings. She stared, biting her lip and pulling gout a picture of a little girl sitting on a younger Carol's shoulders. Carol was grinning and the little girl was laughing, holding an ice cream cone and dressed i an old flying cap.
"So this is Monica." Carol actually sounded proud as she shared the photo, grinning despite the tears still threatening in her eyes. "Maria's daughter. Um...kind of my daughter." Definitely her daughter as far as Maria had been concerned. "I helped raise her since she was born. Maria got knocked up by some asshole right out of basic- it was a complicated start fo us." Carol didn't want to explain how or why it happened. She and Maria didn't talk about it, mostly because Maria had been worried Carol might try to kill the guy if she knew too much... Maria had been right.
"Anyway, she wanted to be a pilot Lt. Trouble was fierce. Last time I saw her was when she was a teenager..." There was a moment of silence and Carol took another drink, putting the photo away and digging through the box again.