A smile?  Well, sadly, Elliot wasn't watching that carefully, teacup or no.  He was too busy, at that moment, trying to think up new confusing phrases or other signs to write up as fake codes to trip the Viets.  God, if he could manage to get something like that in the hands of someone important, they'd be screwing up for maybe a [i]month[/i].  That'd be funny as hell.  But hey, down to the topic at hand.  He was striking up conversation with the dark-haired woman got information's sake and because he was waiting to see if a beer was coming his way.  Elliot was going to be disappointed on the first part.  Not so much because of the woman in question, but rather due to her circumstances in being new here.  One plus, though: She was apparently a Walker tech, which was certainly a start.  She needed to report in properly and get a bit of orientation.  Well, at least he could help with the latter portion of her problems.  Elliot lowered his 'codebook' now.

[color=0072bc][b]"I mean, yeah.  I could head on over to the Walkers and bother 'em over that.  I had priorities, of course."[/b][/color]

Namely, beer.

[b][color=0072bc]"Anyway, it's not so much [i]who[/i] does what, but [i]where[/i] does what.  People are comin' in and out of here all the time.  New people come in, get their assignments, gone for ours or days, come back and move on, or maybe they get their asses shot.  The who part changes around alot, so it's more about the right tent.  Ya got your mess tent, your dispatch for intel and supplies, your officer tent for reporting in and gettin' shipped out on assignment..."[/color][/b]

He was gesturing to different spots on the base that he'd been around long enough to memorize and, possibly, find his way to with his eyes closed.  After a bit of this, his pointing hand extended a bit more towards the tech lady.

[b][color=0072bc]"Name's Elliot, by the way.  Could probably use a tech.  Could probably use a whole team, to be honest.  But hey, I'm gunning for big guns this time out, so yeah, I'll see if I can get you settled and saddled with a decent Walker."[/color][/b]

Should point out that, while this conversation was going on, Grace had already made progress in lifting a rear spot in the mess tent to have a look around, get her bearings before taking anything.  The basics were still all in the same place.  It was all just a matter of making some quick and quiet grabs while the mess officer was busy.