After he gets out of medical, North does his best to keep busy - both for his own sake, and because ever since the fight, Theta's been . . . off. Quiet. So much so that North is starting to worry, especially given that his AI doesn't seem to want to talk about what's tearing him up.

It's something to do with whatever happened with Maine, he guesses. And North tries reassuring Theta for his own part that he'll never let that happen, never let anyone take him.

If anything, that just makes him quieter - burrowed into datafeeds as far as he can curl from touching the synapse between them. He doesn't want North seeing it when he runs the encounter over and over, obsesses over inflections and reflections and shifts in body weight. He can't let that happen again. Even- even if he's not close to being Cortana. He has to try to be better.