Hearing 'ma'am' doesn't surprise her - this is a girl who grew up in Texas with parents who expected her manners to be as impeccable as her room and brought her up as such - but it does leave her feeling a bit displaced, causes a grin to stretch across her face that only grows into something she has to press her lips together in order to hide. She's only just come across this person, and regardless of how funny it is to watch a grown man turn in circles like an overgrown puppy, it just doesn't seem polite to go laughing at him in the same breath. The intention might be there, obviously there, but there's something to be said for trying.

"For what?" she asks, once he's done that about-face. "Obviously it's for shielding you from things, but do you make a habit out of getting shot at or something?" Maybe that's a bit forward, too, but she's gotten so used to making conversation with total strangers over the past three years that asking something other than the standard 'how are you?' or 'are you new around here?' just seems weird. Claire gets to those things eventually, but it's her curiosity she pays more attention to.

That, and the helmet that he's tucked under his arm and his presence in general. Most men she's met don't behave this way.