She knows what it's like, to smile and laugh and yet feel something aching underneath, a hollow that doesn't quite let happiness sit safe and sound. But the only way she's ever known to cope with such an uncertain state is to push through it, to never let her chin drop or her spirits fall, and eventually the loss begins to wear away until it's skin weathered, protecting them from day to day.

"I know what you mean," she nods with a quirked lip. "I've got a lotta chatty Kathys in my life, too, especially around the workplace. In the family, there wasn't anyone who really talked so much. Jason, maybe— my brother, and he's on the island, actually. But my best friends were all bigger talkers than I was, so I usually had to be the one to sit them down and listen to all their worries. Sometimes without warning. And when you've got a dozen tables to wait, eventually you figure out how to tune some of them out a bit. It's definitely like that. I think." She frowns, smiling through the expression.

"Then again, I guess I don't know all that well."