7:30 A.M.
Commander Shepard made her way toward the mess hall, the scent of fresh coffee practically luring her in. James was busy making his famous eggs, and nodded a greeting to the Commander when he saw her.
"Managed to tear yourself away from Traynor?" he taunted, and Shepard smirked. Had it been up to her, she'd still be in bed with the specialist.
"Alas, duty calls," Shepard responded, and James chuckled. As he reached for the spices, his fingers stumbled upon a glass jar.
"What's this?" he wondered out loud as he studied the jar curiously, turning it to be able to read the label.
"Vega, whatever you do, do not read it out loud."
"What, the label? Why? Is it like some urban horror story, if I read the label aloud three times, an evil spirit will appear to drag me to hell?" he laughed.
"If you wanna tempt fate, be my guest, but don't say I didn't warn you," Shepard shrugged, innocently sipping her coffee, now secretly kind of hoping he would do it just so she'd see what would happen. James accepted the challenge, and held up the jar high above his head before proclaiming loudly, "Lemon curd... Lemon curd... Lemon curd!"
He'd barely managed to finish his mantra when Samantha Traynor emerged from the elevator, her eyes widening in shock, then narrowing in anger when she saw Vega holding her jar of lemon curd.
"See? Nothing happened," James shrugged, but his bravado was quickly replaced by a cold lance of panic ripping through him when he saw Shepard's expression change. Whatever it was, it had to be pretty scary, for it seemed to be enough to frighten even the Commander.
Before he even knew it, James had been tackled to the floor by Traynor, the woman frantically reaching for the jar as she screamed, "MINE!", her voice so loud and rising to a pitch that would've made a banshee pale in comparison.
James was still on the floor, trying to comprehend what had happened, when Shepard crouched down, leaning to hover over him. She sucked on her front teeth to make a smacking sound as she shook her head and inhaled a hissing breath between her teeth.
"I'm not going to say 'I told you so'... I'll just suggest you look at this as a learning experience," she smiled sweetly and sipped her coffee.