He had half-composed a reasonable sounding explanation when Sarah's gigglefit erupted and shivered it to pieces. Then it was all Cooper could do to keep himself from snorting aloud as he joined in, clamping down on his laughter until his eyes were nearly welling up. With a mighty effort he pulled himself together enough to take a pull from his water glass without sputtering it back out over the table.<br/><br/>"Hrm," he said finally. "So, yeah. Still a probie."<br/><br/>Oh. Oh dear god, had he actually said that? The more persistently curious of the other diners looked back in a mixture of shock and bafflement at the rifle crack of Coop's palm meeting his forehead.<br/><br/>"Um. Lemme rephrase that..." He dragged his fingers through his close-cropped hair, then knit his fingers to get himself under some semblance of control. "It's been a new experience all the way around."