What You Don't Know
It had been a routine day until Pressly had been walking back to the elevator on the lower deck, having gone down to check in with Adams in engineering.
"I'm telling you Pressly, that girl is one of the best engineers I've ever seen." Adams had said, they'd been discussing the alien crew members again.
"Don't you think you're exaggerating a bit Adams." Pressly countered. "Captain Anderson put together the best in every field for the Normandy."
"Pressly, you aren't getting it." Adams said. "She's brilliant by quarian standards, were getting so much done down here we've actually had spare time to do extra planet surveys are recoveries as well."
He was still convinced their head engineer needed to take a break from his terminal more often.
Pressly was brought out of his thoughts as he felt a change in the ships movement, knowing that Joker was probably taking them down to pick up Shepard and her ground team in the mako. The cargo bays door descended, himself and the other members of the crew moving themselves out of the way as the fast approaching mako landed and sped up into the bay, halting with a screech.
''Someone call the lift!'' the young quarian yelled to them as she jumped out of the vehicle, quickly throwing open the back doors to the mako.
Pressley ran forward, hitting the button as Garrus and Kaidan moved quickly towards him from the mako, carrying a half conscious Commander between them.
''What the hell happened?'' Pressly asked, following them into the lift and hitting the button again as the two set Shepard down on the floor. The turian moved her head to the side as she heaved up another mouthful of blood, the wound on her abdomen starting to bleed through their temporary dressing.
''Fucking rachni.'' Shepard groaned as Kaidan worked on finding the source of the bleed.
"Commander, I need you to stop. Talking." Kaidan said to her sternly, trying to talk down their spaced out CO. "God, two direct injections of medi-gel – you shouldn't even be awake."
"-Talk if I want. Jus try 'n tranq' me." Shepard half mumbled back. "You gonna let him talk to me li' that Garrus?"
"Please, Commander." The turian pleaded with her. "Settle down, Kaidan's trying to make sure you don't bleed out in this stupid, slow elevator."
"Slow is exactly right." Kaidan said back with a shake of his head. ''It's stopped clotting again, you remember how to apply pressure Garrus?''
"Yes.'' Garrus replied shakily, but Pressly watched as he took over, replacing Kaidans hands with his own down into her wound as they switched places, the blood flow visibly slowing to a stop as the turian leant forward, pushing downwards. The biotic pulled off the last tube of medi-gel from his suit, injecting it straight into Shepard's thigh, clotting the blood and finally knocking the Commander unconscious. He quickly moved, ripping open another dressing as Garrus removed his hand and pulled off the old one.
''Go help Chakwas, I've got her.'' Garrus quickly said to Kaidan as the door opened. The human gave a nod, bolting from the elevator, Garrus picking Shepard up from the floor in one quick movement before following right after him, leaving Pressly in a stunned silence, a pool of blood at his feet.
It wasn't until hours later, after Doctor Chakwas had assured him that Shepard would make a full recovery that Pressly finally had the ship in order, and made is way down to the mess for well needed cup of coffee (or what passed for it on the Normandy).
''Calm down, Tali. It's not your fault.''
He raised an eyebrow at the familiar flanging sound of the turians voice over the quarians... sobs? Was she crying? He couldn't tell with those damn masks.
''If I had been paying more attention Shepard wouldn't have been hit by that stupid insect.'' She cried back to the turian as Pressley quietly made his way over to their small coffee maker, tying not to interrupt the conversation.
''Those rachni surprised all of us, even Shepard.'' The turian reasoned. ''At least we got out of there.''
The quarian still couldn't stop sobbing though.
''I know you haven't worked with aliens before Pressley.'' Shepard had said to him when they had first left the Citadel under her Command. ''But give them a chance, for me. They're a good bunch.''
God damn it.
''What was distracting you?'' Pressly asked, approaching the table. ''Adams says you're probably the most focused down in engineering.''
He could hear her sniff back tears a few times before she answered. ''Shepard called it being 'homesick?' I don't know. The Normandy is just very quiet compared to the ships in the flotilla. It makes it hard to sleep.''
Garrus let out a short laugh. "I've had to listen to this turian guy and his asari partner who lived in the apartment next to me argue at all hours of the day and night cycle. I'm finally getting some sleep here."
Tali shook her head. "I don't mean quiet, as in the ships inhabitants are too quiet, I meant the ship itself mostly. It runs quiet."
"Quieter than most of the ships I've served on." Garrus added to her clarification.
"You served before working on the Citadel?" Pressly inquired, he'd been under the impression that the turian was one of the younger members of the crew.
Garrus gave him a nod. "I was in the military for eight years and then I was at C-Sec for four before joining Shepard."
Pressly wrinkled his brow in confusion. "How old are you?"
"Twenty seven." Garrus said. "We start mandatory military service at fifteen, not eighteen like the Allian-." He stopped as his omni-tool gave a flash, pulling it up to check the message. "Damn it, excuse me."
Pressley shifted uncomfortably as the turian left the table, leaving him with the crying girl. "So uh, what are you doing so far from home?" He asked finally.
"I'm on my pilgrimage; it's our rite of passage into adulthood." Tali explained. "We leave the flotilla and find something of value to bring back. We present to the Captain of the ship we wish to join, it proves we will be an asset to the ship-"
The two of them turned their heads as they heard the med-bay door hiss open, Liara walking out, Chakwas right behind her.
"You can see her now." Chakwas told them. "But one at a time."
"You go." Garrus nodded to Tali as he returned, the quarian looking between them before following Chakwas into the med-bay, Liara taking her place at the table.
"She looks sad." Liara said to Garrus once the doors were shut once again.
"How could you tell?" Pressley asked, the asari had only seen her for a few seconds and he didn't think she'd heard their conversation. Did asari have really good hearing?
"I, Um." Liara started looking a little taken aback. "Because their faces are covered, quarians exhibit exaggerated body language. Since we've all been living and working together it's become easier to read."
"And you say you're not a people person." Garrus said, Pressly noticed the amusement in his flanging voice this time.
"I also did some study in anthropology as well as archaeology." Liara explained quietly, looking a little embarrassed now.
"Thank you, for talking with Tali by the way." Garrus said as Liara fiddled with the mug Tali had left on the table. "I've never been very good with the whole crying - thing."
To his own surprise, Pressly snorted a laugh. "Neither have I."
"Garrus!" Ashley interrupted as she walked into the mess, Kaidan close behind. Huh, that's who the turian must have been sending a message to. "How do you feel now you've had your hands inside an alien?"
"The red's a bit off putting." Garrus mused, without missing a beat. "And you're a soft on the inside as you are on the outside." He said, lightly punching the gunnery chief's arm as she took the other seat beside him. Kaidan shaking his head at her as he sat down next to Pressly.
"Yes, it's all very funny now she's not dying." Kaidan said to them, raising an eyebrow.
"Come on LT, you know the Shepard is going to be cracking jokes about it the second she's awake." Ashley said back. "About how she had both you and Garrus inside her in one day-"
"Oh come on Williams." Garrus groaned, nudging her shoulder in annoyance as Kaidan went a little red in the face across the table, Liara trying very hard to hide her laughter.
"She was already trying to crack jokes while bleeding all over the elevator earlier." Pressley commented with a laugh. "You two were quite impressive." He said to Garrus and Kaidan. He only had basic medical training like most of the crewmen, certainly not enough to stop someone from dying on his watch.
"Kaidan's a very good field medic." Garrus remarked.
"I still couldn't have gotten her back here in one piece without you and Tali." Kaidan replied. "Good thing we all did that extra training."
"Extra training?" Pressly inquired.
"Shepard got Chakwas to give her some extra training on alien biology, in case any of us ended up in the situation she was in today." Garrus explained. "So the rest of us did some as well."
"And it paid off." Kaidan added.
"I don't particularly want to use that training again." Garrus said with a shake of his head.
Pressly tuned out a little as the four of them began to chat again, he hadn't realised how little he knew about the ground team, particularly Garrus, Tali, hell even Williams. The krogan mostly kept to himself downstairs and he had thought the asari just hadn't wanted much to do with them. Maybe she wasn't stuck up, just shy?
The med bay door caught his eye again as it opened once more with a hiss.
"Come on Chakwas." They heard Shepard call to the woman at the door. "I'm neither dying, nor an invalid - I can talk to more than one person at a time and we need a proper debrief."
Ashley snorted a laugh as the doctor rolled her eyes. "Fine." Chakwas conceded. "Fifteen minutes, go."
"I'll leave you all to it then." Pressly said, excusing himself as Shepard's team also rose from the table.
"You should get some rest Pressly; it can't be easy doing Shepard's job." Garrus said to him, Ashley giving a nod in agreement.
"Just don't take it too seriously; I think I've done enough minor medical procedures for one day." Kaidan added, giving the XO a grin.
Liara gave him a polite nod of her head before following the others to the med bay, Chakwas trying to quell their banter before she left them to their briefing.
"All of you, behave." She said with a raise of her eyebrow. "And do not let her out of that bed."
"Why are you looking at me when you say that?" Garrus questioned. "It's Liara you should be worried about."
"Oh yeah." Ashley agreed. "It's always the quiet ones you've got to watch out for."
"What? I-" Liara started, looking between her grinning team mates.
"I'll explain it later." Kaidan said, patting her shoulder as the door closed behind them.
"Some days, Pressly." Chakwas said to him as she walked towards the mess to get herself something caffeinated as well.
"Some days, indeed." He replied with a sigh. "I didn't know they all got along so well."
"Shepard is a powerful uniting force, Pressly." Chakwas replied with a grin. "We have a habit of thinking that we're so different from aliens, but I don't think that's the case. They've learnt to know and respect each other for who they are, not what they are."
Pressly gave the doctor a smile back as they both parted ways after that. But it wasn't until months later after Noveria, after Virmire – after Saren, that he really thought about that night again.
He'd watched the blank stares over to Ashleys work station from Garrus and Wrex downstairs and listened to the salarian STG members talk in high regard of their former gunnery chief.
Accidently stumbled upon Liara comforting a crying Tali after she'd gone to ask Ashley about a shotgun upgrade she'd been working on - only to remember she was no longer there.
Found Shepard down in the cargo bay, sitting back against the mako with Garrus to one side, and Kaidan to the other grasping a hand each with her own in a silent vigil for their fallen friend.
Pressly had seen them come along without doubt or hesitation when they stole the Normandy, followed Shepard down in the mako to Illos - a trip he was sure they wouldn't survive.
After everything, Pressly had realised he would truly put his life on the line for them, for any of the crew - without hesitation.
Just like they did.
"Pressly." A voice over the intercom interrupted his thoughts. "We're ready to go up here."
"On my way." He replied, setting down his personal datapad in the small compartment under his terminal at the main console in the CIC, taking the datapad of their previous readings as Grenado passed it to him on his way up to the cockpit.
The CIC was still busy, but the ship had felt a bit empty over the past few weeks. They'd lost a few crew members after the battle with Sovereign and Saren, Garrus and Wrex had left, Ashley was gone – Pressly couldn't wait to get back to actually doing something other than scanning open space. Then it might not seem so empty.
"We're heading back down past Alchera today, correct?" Pressly said to Joker as he felt the familiar sensation of the Normandy coming out of FTL travel.
"You got it." Joker said back quickly. "Disengaging FTL drives, emission sinks active – board is green, we are running silent."
"We are wasting our time." Pressly commented. "Four days up and down this sector and we haven't found any sign of geth activity."
Prompt: XO Pressly learns a valuable lesson. - So somewhere between the begining of ME1 and the journal Shepard finds on Alchera, Pressly had a serious change of heart about his alien crewmates.I would love to find out what event changed his outlook.
I would really love to see Garrus and Tali involved in this, after all, he did mention Tali by name in his journal.(and Garrus 'cause he makes my inner fangirl squee =P)
Not really looking for a sexytimes fill. (though if an anon wants to go there thats cool too)Just looking for some fill-in-the-game-blank drama~if anyone is willing. :)