Author's Note: Hello lovely halo people, I have been writing for Halo for years now, just not on fanfiction since I had previously given up on it. But I guess I'm back now to join the community. As for this story, it's just a short that I have comprised using characters from Reclaiming His Humanity by the brilliant ByAGhost.

Solitary But Embraced

Sleep. Sleep was beautiful. It was a peacefulness that 013 wouldn't trade for anything. However, as much as she loved it, she still had to slide from her cot and head to the showers eventually. Things had been….awkward since she'd returned to Infinity, having to avoid the spartans and all, but she'd kept her head up. The Chief stared at her during meetings with Lasky and the AI. She knew it despite the fact that he had yet to take his helmet off in her presence. She could imagine the scornful look that was probably all over his face. She hated that it had come to this with him. And her friendship with Fred had been caught in the crossfire too. 013 shook her head with a huff as she trotted down the silent halls of Infinity, heading to the showers for her morning routine. She always showered as early in the morning as possible to avoid an unwanted visit from any ODST's. She was quick to get through the shower before wrapping herself in a grey, standard towel. After dressing herself, she approached the steam clouded mirror and began to braid back her wet hair. She winced upon raising her arms above her head however, having forgotten about wrenching it out of place while sparring with Jeff.

"Damn that hurts like a bitch." she swore, dropping her arm. 'Jeff you ass.' she thought with a tinge of malice towards the other soldier. If he hadn't pulled her arm so far behind her back she wouldn't be so sore now. Granted, she wouldn't be sore if she had listened to him and gone to the medbay, but that's besides the point. A large, warm presence fell atop her good shoulder, and 013 jumped. A steel blue gaze met hers in the mirror, and the hybrid gulped. 'What the hell is he doing here?' she thought.

"Jefferson did a number on you." he mumbled, bending ever so slightly at the waist so he could mumble in her ear.

"You saw that?" she asked, trying to ignore the heavy weight of his hand on her shoulder. He nodded, sliding his fingers through her wet hair as he went about the task she'd been about to perform. A small hitch of breath took place in her chest.

"You were distracted. You weren't focusing on your opponent and you're lucky to be as bruised as you are. Had that been an actual enemy-"

"Had that been an actual enemy I'd be dead and wouldn't have to sit through this damn conversation. I see my mistake now, I picked the wrong opponent." she interrupted, earning herself a sharp tug on her hair. "Ow!" she yelped, and shot him a glare via the mirror.

"My bad." he said calmly. 013 let out a huff as he pulled the hair tie from her wrist and tied off the braid. "What did the doctors give you for this?" he asked, pressing his thumb to her swollen shoulder. She winced and jerked away.

"Pain meds." she mumbled.

"You're lying." he denounced.

"And how would you know?" she argued, whipping around to face him.

"Because you never went to the med-bay." he answered for her. 013 felt her jaw go slack.

"How did you know that? Have you been spying on me?" she asked incredulously. 'Apparently he hasn't just been watching me during meetings.' she thought.

"Contrary actually. You told me. Just now. I had my suspicions." he said. 013 took a step back from him, and winced when her back hit the edge of the sink.

"It doesn't matter if I went to the med-bay or not. I'm off the roster, I won't be seeing action for a while anyway." she shot back. He gave her a look of dry humor, and turned away from her. "What?" she asked as he made deathly quiet footfalls towards the door. He shook his head softly.

"It's none of my business, but you should take better care of yourself. Before someone else has to. I don't see you liking that option very much." 013 watched him leave, completely and utterly confused.

"You're distracted. Bad morning?" Jeff asked, pulling 013 from the memory of that morning as he joined her for breakfast.

"You could say that." she mumbled.

"Sorry about yesterday by the way, I didn't think it would still be bothering you today." he said sheepishly. 013 paused her eating.

'How does he know that…' Her eyes settled on Jeff with a cautious look. "How uhh.. How'd you know it was still giving me trouble?" she asked. Jeff gave her a look of pure, innocent confusion.

"The Chief, duh. He stopped me in the hall early. Told me to go easy on you if we trained together again today. Said your shoulder wasn't doing too well but you were being too stubborn to admit….it…..Tutes?" he asked. 013's face was a blotchy, angry red.

"That rat bastard. None of his business my ass." she stated firmly as she stood from her seat.

"Where are you going?" Jeff called after her as she marched towards the doors of the mess hall.

"To deal with shit." she said, stomping on her way out. She grabbed the handle of the door and swung it open, right into her nose. Shit.

"Either you kinda suck at card games, or you're really busy thinking about something else." Fred commented. The Chief responded with a despondent hmph, one that left much information to be desired. "What does that mean?" the lieutenant asked.

"013. She's-"

"So you're daydreaming?" he interrupted. John glared at him over his hand of cards.

"No. Something isn't ok. She's not taking care of herself. I'm concerned how far she's going to let that go." he explained. Fred shrugged.

"Then do something about it. Tutes is just stubborn sometimes and needs someone to step in. Sound familiar?" Fred teased. John's brow dipped in confusion.

"Tutes?" he asked.

"Yeah. Tutes. It's what she goes by. I don't really get it, but it's not my name." Frederick said simply. A knock sounded on the door, a slightly vicious knock to be exact, and the Chief set his cards down on the small table he and Fred were seated at.

"I'll get it, I should be heading out anyways." he said. The Spartan opened the sliding door of the Master Chief's private quarters and…..oh hell.

"Tutes? The hell ha-" he began.

"Where is he?" she seethed. Fred cautiously let his eyes rove her bloody nose and the discoloration around her eye.

"He uhhh, he's inside. You...you take care of yourself, ok?" the grey eyed woman ignored him, storming past. Fred took his que to quickly and quietly duck out. As for John, as soon as his eyes settled on her they went wide.

"What the-"

"That's my line! Don't you start with me!" she shrieked before he could even ask what had happened to her face."For something that's none of your business you took quite a liberty in making it just that." she spat. John's eyes narrowed.

"Jefferson." he stated simply.

"Yeah, Jeff. You practically told him to baby me!" she exclaimed, completely enraged. The chief glared softly as he leaned back in his chair.

"If you don't want to be treated like a child, then don't act like one. You barely have the right to be offended when you're standing there with your face looking the way it does." he pointed out.

"Don't you bring my face into this!" she demanded, and the spartan winced at the sheer volume. Deciding he was done wit the argument, he stood from his chair and promptly pushed her into another one. "What are you-"

"Don't. We can have this talk after we do something about….." his eyes roamed over her face and he shook his head. "All that." 013 huffed, but didn't argue.

"I'm fine." she assured pointlessly. The spartan ignored her as he went about pouring a disinfectant onto a cotton round, and pressed it to her face. She didn't jerk from the stinge but John caught a wince.

"Who did this to you? The ODST's again?" he asked, a stern look in his eyes. 013 bit her lip. She couldn't just tell him she hit herself in the face, with the mess door of all things too.

"Sure, something like that." she said, feeling her anger dissipate into embarrassment. He shot her a look of disapproval.

"Be more specific." he ordered simply. 013 groaned.

"The ODSTs didn't actually have anything to do with it." she muttered as he disposed of the bloody cotton rounds.

"Then who did?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"The...the mess hall." she admitted in an uptight, trepidation way. He blinked.

"The entire mess hall jumped you?" he asked in disbelief. 013 shook her head. "I'm not following." he stated.

"The door. I was mad, and I opened the door too hard and….yeah." she muttered, looking away from him. He stared at her for a long moment, letting the awkward silence wash over them.

"You...hit yourself in the face. With a the mess hall door?" he asked for clarification.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't rub it in. I'm retarded, I get it. Can we talk about something else? Like you going behind my back and talking shit to my best friend? Cause that wasn't cool." she mumbled.

"What's not 'cool' is watching you beat yourself to death, literally in this case, and not take care of it." he bantered.

"I don't really see how that's your concern." she argued. The Chief pressed his lips together firmly.

"Because you're one of my spartans." he stated before he could think better of it. 013's head shot in his direction, jaw slack and grey eyes wide.

"No. Fred is one of your Spartans. Kelly and Linda are your spartans. You care about them." she argued. Her eyes were becoming watery now. The Chief gave her a look that seemed almost flabbergasted.

"I care about you." time seemed to stop when those words reached her ears. HE cared about her? Her? "I care about you just as much as them. Why would you think differently?" he asked, as if he truly didn't understand.

"Because you don't have to." she said, as if it were obvious. His eyes seemed to grow warmer at the declaration.

"Yes, that's true." he said with a nod. "But that doesn't change the fact that I- we care about you." he added.

"We? We who? You mean Blue Team? What business do they have caring about someone like me? I've been nothing but trouble since the beginning. Hell I've been a problem as long as I can remember!" she argued again.

"If I sat here and told you-in detail- about all the times Fred, Kelly, or even Linda have caused me trouble, we'd be here an awful long time." he chuckled. The sound was warm, and caused 013's shoulders to relax. Did he really care about her? Was such a thing really possible.

"You barely know anything about me, hell I've even kept things from you about me, why would you-" she had to pause to take in a deep breath. John set one of his heavy hands on her shoulder in attempt to reason with her, but regretted the decision as soon as a wince crossed her face. Shit.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to-"

"It's fine, I'm fine. Everything is fine." she interrupted. "I need to leave." she said, standing quickly from her chair. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for her. The toe of her boot caught on the horizontal bar connecting the legs, and 013 found herself sprawling on the floor like the mess she was. She was certain there must have been bruising on her face from a dive like that. She went to attempt the motion of standing once more, but she was all to quickly being lifted from the floor by another, stronger force. She was placed on her feet as gently as possible, and she bit her lip as her face flushed.

"Please just...sit. Before you find other ways to injure yourself." he grumbled, having officially had enough of her shenanigans, his hands locked firmly on her biceps. His eyes briefly flicked to her lips. "You're bleeding again." he informed her as he retrieved a more extensively packed med-kit.

"You don't need to do tha-"

"No, you don't get to argue with me after that. Have you seen a medic about that shoulder yet or not?" he asked, briefly pausing as he sifted through the contents of his kit. There was this underlying attitude of finality, as if he'd been on the edge about his position on her predicament until now, and he had just made up his mind.

"Not." she admitted, biting at her lip, only to wince when it stung. He visibly huffed at her, before approaching her with a jar of salve and bottle of blue gel-like substance. In one fluid motion the lid was off the jar and he had scooped some of its contents onto his thumb, before applying it to her lips without so much as a warning about the sting. 'He could use a few Damn classes on bedside manner.' she thought briefly. The rough texture of his calloused thumb against the smooth surface of her bottom lip felt similar to running sandpaper over an open wound, but maybe it was just the burn of the salve that made the contact so uncomfortable. She considered telling him that she could do it herself, but then again he probably already knew that. So why was he doing it anyway?

"Are you wearing anything under that?" he asked, jesutring to her shirt. The question caused her mind to momentarily blank.

"I ah, yes." she stumbled. She'd put on a black spaghetti strap undershirt after her shower that morning. It was a spare that had been sitting in her locker for some time. 'You never know what Jeff is going to steal when you're in the shower.' she had thought, and for good reason too.

"Take the shirt off." 013 had to physically restrain her jaw from dropping. She was in the Master Chief's room, and he had just asked her to take off her shirt? The look on her face must have screamed that she looked ready to bolt for he quickly added an explanation. "This'll help your shoulder. It's either this, or I take you to the med-bay." he stated in finality. 013 nodded dumbly as she rid herself of her thick outer layer. She watched as he prepared to apply some of that odd blue gel to her swollen shoulder, and jumped when it touched her skin.

"Uhh, is that supposed to burn like that?" she asked warily.

"It's an icy-hot. Yes it's supposed to feel like that." he informed her in a very deadpanned tone as his other arm braced in front of her chest, giving her something to lean on as he pressed gently into the aggravated tissues. If he wasn't careful he could push her right out of the chair. She jerked when he seemingly found the most sensitive spot, and he mumbled an apology in her ear. She didn't realize until after the fact that her hands had come up to grip his other wrist at the surge of pain, and he also didn't ask her to let go. Eventually, 013 closed her eyes and let herself come to terms with the fact that he was very much determined to take care of her for some reason. Or at least, a reason she hadn't fully accepted yet.

"Can I ask you a question?" he rumbled softly in her ear. It was an effort not to tense.

"If it's 'does this shit happen to me often' the answer is yes, it does." she ground out as he pressed another sensitive area of muscle near her shoulder blade.

"Not quite." he began. "Why...why Tutes?" he asked carefully. She went completely silent for a moment, and John was almost sure he felt her body go limp. 'so she doesn't like to talk about that then.'

"What? Something wrong with it?" she asked, daring him to say anything controversial. He shook his head.

"No, that's not what I meant. I just hadn't heard it before. It's uncommon." he supplied, applying another glob of the gel that 013 was quickly coming to despise. Then again he himself had the most normal name on any planet, so it wasn't as if he could really judge

"Doesn't surpri- Ow! The hell are you pressing on?!" she exclaimed.

"The problem." he answered bluntly. The space between her neck and shoulder blade was unnaturally sensitive.

"Well stop!" she demanded.

"Go see a doctor."

"I don't need one!" she argued in frustration.

"Then I see no reason that you can't put up with it." his voice held an authoritative tone that she could only agree with, but that didn't settle well with her pride.

"I didn't ask you to do this." she stated vhenemently.

"Of course you didn't. You're too stubborn to. I told you someone else would have to step in if you didn't start taking care of yourself." he chided.

"Maybe you should just stop caring then, give us both a break." she snarled. He paused, and 013 knew she had made a mistake. The hand that lay across her front tightened on her good shoulder as he leaned her backwards enough to make eye contact.

"You are unnaturally violent when it comes to verbalization. I suggest you get a handle on that before someone who outranks you decides to take it seriously." It sounded like a threat more than a warning to 013. His icy blue eyes caused her to gulp as they stared into her own.

"I...didn't mean..to." she stumbled.

"To what?" he asked, calling her out even more than before.

"I..I don't." why was she so stuttery?

"Do I make you uncomfortable?" he asked, leaning even closer to her.

"No!" she defended immediately. He raised a brow as his face came another inch near.

"Then why can't you get out anything but insults when I'm around? Hmmm?" he goaded. His mouth was very close to hers now. "Or is there something else I don't know about?" he muttered with soft breath against her face. There was a sliver of anticipation in his eyes, maybe even hopefulness if 013 was willing to let herself mistake it for that.

He watched her grey eyes closely, intent on catching every emotion that played across her face. She didn't say a word, but the silence spoke for her.

"huh." he mumbled, pulling his hands back and crossing his arms. He could have been wrong, but he was convinced he saw something in the surge of panic swirling in her eyes. "Well, you're free to go." he stated simply. Tutes stared dumbly at him.

'What?' She had come in here to let loose on him, and now she wasn't sure what to do.

"Thats… that's it?" 013 mumbled almost dazed from the full 180. He simply nodded, packing away the medical supplies that had resided on the small coffee table. She stood carefully from the chair and walked mindlessly to his door, unsure of how to handle what had just transpired. The Chief watched her leave, waiting until she was fully out the door to let a full fledged smirk reside on his face.