Eli might have screamed when she saw that the enemy NC was gone. It would have been bad enough wasting a potentially useful source of information, especially considering the enemy clearly knew about them, but now they had [i]escaped[/i]. It was almost enough to make her forget why they'd come out in the first place. At the very least their main objective had been completed.

She spent the entire flight back to base in silence, a mixture of her displeasure with Joe, and the minuscule anxiety forming in the back of her mind. The Captain did not scare her, nobody [i]scared[/i] her, but all signs pointed to trouble and Eli could not for the life of her figure out what she'd done wrong. The mission came first, Smith's Rest came first, that was the whole reason they were out there, surely the Captain understood. Surely. 

During the debriefing, she dutifully gave her recollection when her turn came, and refrained from mentioning any personal decisions or minor altercations that occurred on the field. A small part of her was relieved, even thankful, that she had not been called out while everyone was present. A mercy she was not used to, since she'd always been taught that public humiliation was an effect form of discipline. 

Eli waited until the others had filtered out, and it was merely the Captain and herself that remained within in the debriefing room. When the door shut, she snapped to attention and raised a salute to the Captain, face blank, though the scarf pulled up over half of it helped. 

[color=00aeef]"You requested to speak with me, Captain,"[/color] she said more than asked, likely an unnecessary reminder, but one that was issued all the same.