Disclaimer: I own nothing, I make no money.
Author's Note: Done for a tumblr prompt from the lovely wyles77 of "This is, without a doubt, the stupidest idea you've ever had. Of course I'm in.", with a pairing of my choice.
Hold Tight
"There is a momentary pause and then Kenneth's voice is coming over the line again, tight and harsh. 'Get out of there, Gabby.' 'No, I can still – ' 'I don't care, get the hell out of there!'" - Being a Normandy engineer is dangerous work.
Another explosion lights along the protective bulkhead of the Tantalus drivecore, sending a violent shudder through the Normandy.
"Doctor, you've got another one coming your way," Gabby yells over her comm. link, bracing herself on the rail along her console as the sounds of battle rage outside the hull. "Chief Adams is stabilized but he's not making it back into this fight anytime soon."
"I hear you, Lieutenant," Chakwas answers curtly and then the line goes static. The ship rocks again under Reaper fire, the Alliance's fleet taking hell trying to get the Crucible through the line, and Gabby glances over to find Kenneth directing two ensigns out the door with an unconscious Chief Engineer Adams in their arms. The thunderous explosions drown out his orders but Gabby can see his frantic look even from across the room. He stumbles back to her position amidst the rocking.
"Alright," he begins, a brilliant smile breaking across his lips as he grabs for the rail to steady himself, "I'm going in."
Gabby grabs his arm before he can duck down to the shaft at their feet. "Don't be stupid, Kenneth. It's a deathtrap!"
He turns to her, smile still fixed to his face. "No help for it now, girl. EDI's got a busted line and she's flying blind in the A4 section."
EDI's voice floats around them, crackling with static and slightly muffled by the thunder of battle just outside the hull. "Engineer Donnelly is correct. My readings show that main power relays are down and while the secondary relays are holding, they are not meant to sustain current power levels for prolonged periods of time. Auxiliary power must be redirected or my primary targeting protocol and weapons system will overload. I cannot make the necessary repairs while section A4 is powered down."
Gabby groans and braces her footing in the floor after another particularly violent lurch of the ship.
"See?" Kenneth ducks down beneath the railing and poises at the entrance of the shaft. "Got to get hands on for this one. Are you in?"
"This is, without a doubt, the stupidest plan you've ever had," she barks back. Sighing, Gabby crouches down beside him. "Of course I'm in."
He throws her another cocky grin but her hand on his stops him from going further.
"But I'm going in," she demands.
Kenneth opens his mouth but she interrupts. "I'm smaller than you. I can get through faster. And let's face it, you've always sucked at no-emissions interlaced circuitry." She cannot help the smirk that pulls at her lips or the quirk of her brow.
Kenneth shakes his head and lets out an amused snort. "Damn that was harsh, Gabby. No need to bring up tech school."
She laughs, and her hand tightens on his as they rock with another outside explosion. "If you spent less time studying anatomy with Rebecca Lodes and more time studying for Reparative Functions, then maybe you'd be the whiz now."
Letting out a mock scoff , Kenneth raises his free hand to his heart in dramatic injury, quipping, "I take all my subjects seriously."
"Yes," she laughs, "especially the female ones."
"Um, guys?" Joker's voice breaks through the booming rattle of the Normandy and the shouts from other engineers across the deck. "Maybe you could fix now and flirt later? My girl's taking a beating out here."
"Do not worry, Jeff," EDI's voice cuts gracefully through the crackling line, unsurprisingly calm. "I'm sure Engineers Donnelly and Daniels are doing their utmost to get me back online." The expectant tone to her voice brings guilty grimaces to both engineers' faces.
Gabby clears her throat and shifts closer to the shaft entrance.
Kenneth's hand on her shoulder makes her turn back. His mouth hangs open as though there are words on his tongue but nothing comes out. He clamps it shut, his brows knitting together. There is a stunted moment of silence in the unexpected lull of outside explosions.
Her shoulders go slack as she watches him, her mouth forming a determined line. "Just keep an eye on those read-outs and leave your comm. open. You never know when I may need you." She watches him nod, wordlessly, awkwardly, his hand slipping from her shoulder. She misses the warmth instantly.
He lets out a rough grunt of acknowledgment, his eyes shifting away from hers and suddenly, Gabby can think of only one thing. She grabs the collar of his uniform and he whips wide eyes to her.
She licks her lips. "Don't worry. I'm coming back." Her face softens, and her fingers unfurl around his collar, dipping lower until her hand is braced along his chest.
He stares at her, breath hitched in his throat.
She smirks, and the deafening roar of the ship's engines is suddenly silent, the sharp yelling of their fellow crewmen suddenly ceased, everything still and quiet and absent in the wake of her words. "You'd be lost without me, after all," she chuckles, voice cracking at the end. But she covers it with a kiss, her mouth urgent and forceful on his.
Kenneth can do nothing but blink wildly and stiffen at her sudden kiss. The jostling of the ship breaks their connection and she is turning from him without another glance, crawling into the duct before he can whisper a word or exhale a breath.
It is many moments later that he finally moves, when her voice over his comm. link breaks his daze.
"What have you got for me, Kenneth?"
Shaking his head and licking his lips, Kenneth straightens to stand before the console above the shaft and taps several keys before a layout and power gauge appears before him. "Uh," he fumbles, the words catching on his lips, "secondary relays are holding. I'm transferring sub-generative processing over to the hardlines. Do you see a console yet?"
"Not yet but – wait, yes, yes up ahead." Inside the shaft, Gabby is crawling through the relative darkness with only the orange glow of her omni-tool to light her progress. A few feet up the duct is a console and retractable panel on her right. Just before she edges to it, her palm slips along something slick and she loses balance, catching herself on an elbow. Her yelp of pain rings sharply through the narrow passage and she pushes herself back up, inching over to the panel carefully, the knees of her pants now soaked in the same wetness.
"What?" Kenneth cries frantically in her ear. "What is it, Gabby? You okay?"
"Yeah," she affirms in a frustrated huff, rubbing her bruised elbow. "I'm fine. Just a slip up. Can you get me the – " She stops suddenly, her nose catching wind of something. She brings her wet hand up to her nose and takes a whiff. Her eyes widen in recognition and she stills, swallowing tightly.
"Gabby." Kenneth's voice is strained over the line.
"It's fuel," she whispers into the dark.
"What?"
Gabby glances around the small shaft as though her vision will clear any more in the dim light of her omni-tool. There is a thin shimmer of something along the floor, glistening so slightly she might have missed it had she not been looking for it. "It's a cut fuel line, Kenneth. It's leaking into the maintenance shaft."
There is a momentary pause and then Kenneth's voice is coming over the line again, tight and harsh. "Get out of there, Gabby."
"No, I can still – "
"I don't care, get the hell out of there!"
Gabby narrows her eyes at the console and takes a deep, calming breath. A sudden lurch in the ship bangs her along the side of the shaft but she steadies herself quickly, her face sharpening with determination. "EDI", she calls, ignoring Kenneth, "Can you link my omni-tool to your haptic interface?"
"Gabby, what the hell are you – "
"Can it, Kenneth. I'm not leaving 'til I'm finished." A ping sounds on her omni-tool and EDI's "Done" comes through her comm. link.
She can hear Kenneth growl through the radio. "Gabby, listen to me. If a single wire is cut, if even a single wire sparks while you're repairing the line, that shaft is going up in flames. And you with it."
Gabby sighs as she undoes the latches on the panel and pulls it forward, a mess of wires tumbling toward her. "Then I guess I have to be extra careful."
"Damn it, girl, you – "
"Look, Kenneth," she huffs, digging into the control panel to pull a resonant chip from the interface. "You can either help me get out of here a hell of a lot faster, or we can argue about this while I sit in a puddle of quick-death. Your pick. What's it going to be?"
She hears his grumble and exasperated curse over the line before he snaps at her. "Fine. What are you reading?"
She pulls two green wires from the pack and connects them to the resonant chip she detached. Bringing her omni-tool up to scan the connection, she places the linked chip back into the wall and reaches for another set of wires. "I'm seeing low transference pulses from the EPM. Speed's at about 41 percent."
Kenneth curses over the line again. "I can't reconnect the radial couplings until transference speed's at least 70 percent."
"I know," Gabby groans, disconnecting an adapter from the wall and linking it to the resonant chip. "How about now?"
"I'm reading 64 percent. And section A7 just went offline to compensate. Coolant tubes are still coming up dead."
Gabby curses under her breath and bites her lip. "EDI, can you find the source of the fuel leak?"
"Scanning," is her answer, and then, only a handful of seconds later, "The leak originated from Line 3 but cut-off valves have already locked into place. Flushing all other compartments with nutreic foam. Maintenance shaft A12 is the only shaft untreated. Ready to flush on your command, Engineer Daniels."
"Okay, here's the plan," Gabby begins, voice firm as she shuffles her knees closer to the panel. "I have to cut and reconnect the DLR lines or there's no way we're getting the main power relays back. But I need you to flood the shaft with nutreic foam a second before I do, EDI."
"You're daft, woman!" Kenneth calls over the line.
Gabby grunts as the ship jostles once more and she nearly headbutts the open panel. "I can't risk sparking the fuel, Kenneth," she sighs exasperatedly.
"That foam'll eat you up, Gabby! It's toxic stuff."
"Only with prolonged exposure," she answers back quickly. "I can make the connection with time enough to get out. Just have an oxygen mask and a dousing pack ready." After tapping a few keys along the console beside the exposed wires, Gabby closes the window and turns her attention fully to the two thick blue wires she had pulled from the wall in the midst of her explanation. "I've got this, Kenneth."
"And I've got your back," he says lowly through the line, a heavy exhale of breath that Gabby thinks is either defeat or pride, but can't be sure about either. She swallows tightly at his voice in her ear, and the steadiness that comes over her then, the way she knows, inexplicably and unquestionably, that she is safe.
The galaxy can tear itself apart outside their ship but she knows how to hold tight.
She is ready.
Letting out a short chuckle, Gabby sets her omni-tool to a pin-point laser setting from her tool program and holds it just above the blue wires in her hand. "'Hands on' you said. Your idea, remember?"
"And I'll gladly never have another ever again if you just get out of this in one piece."
"I'll hold you to that," she whispers warmly, smile breaking over her face. And then her lips turn into a tight line, her eyes focusing. "On my mark. Ready, EDI?"
"Affirmative."
"Alright," Gabby begins, drawing in a deep breath. "Three, two, one. Now!"
A sharp hiss sounds in the tight space of the shaft and something jets out of the corners along the walls, a cool liquid sloughing over the floor and instantly foaming up. Gabby activates her laser tool and cuts the two wires, a single brilliant spark lighting from the severed cords and landing, now harmlessly, in the slowly rising foam along her calves. She works quickly. One end goes into her modified resonant chip, the other connecting with a power receptor just beneath it. She twists the two remaining pieces of wire together and a shudder travels through the maintenance duct at the link. She can feel the swift kick of the engine and the low hum of the main power relays charging back up.
"All lines are a go," Kenneth sounds through the comm. link, "Reconnecting now."
EDI's voice is suddenly clear and static-free. "I have regained partial control of sections A4 and A7. Weapons suites coming back online. Targeting protocol is active. Thank you, Engineer Daniels."
Gabby shuts the panel quickly but carefully, her legs already tingling from the nutreic foam coating them, her lungs prickling with a distinct tightness.
"Fine, fine," Kenneth urges, "Now get the hell out of that damn tube, Gabby."
"Gladly. Just be ready for me," she answers back, turning awkwardly in the small space to come back out the way she came. The tightness in her lungs increases, and she puts one hand over her mouth to keep from inhaling the fumes. The tingling along her legs turns quickly to a burning sensation, her other palm suddenly searing as she braces her weight along the foam-covered floor of the shaft and pushes herself along. She can see the blaring light of the engineering deck a few feet away, and what looks like Kenneth's alarmed face at the end, but she cannot tell, because the edges of her vision have started to ink black, and a jagged cough rakes through her chest, sending a painful shudder through her whole body. A sudden lurch in the ship, followed by the deafening sound of the Normandy's Thanix canon reverberating through the duct, sends Gabby falling straight to her chest on the hard floor, a wheezing gasp tearing from her.
"For fuck's sake, Joker," she hears Kenneth shout in her earpiece, "try to keep her level for a damn second." He clambers into the entrance of the shaft and reaches for her fallen form. She pushes up to her hands and knees again, feeling Kenneth's touch circle her wrist. "I got you, darlin'," he soothes, voice infinitely softer, hands gentle and coaxing as he backs out the shaft, pulling her struggling form out with him. Gabby coughs violently as soon as clean air hits her lungs and she has to blink back the bright spots that color her vision when she emerges into the light of the engineering deck.
Kenneth moves both hands around her shoulders and drags her up to her feet, wrapping a moist blanket covered in nutreic dowsing fluid around her form, the cool, wet fabric instantly calming her enflamed skin. He moves her over to the rail and lets her lean against it, still keeping her in his hold, and then an ensign is running over to them with an oxygen mask. Gabby's fumbling fingers fix the mask to her face and she breathes deep for several seconds before removing it, her lungs slowly unclenching. She sends the ensign away with a curt nod.
Gabby feels her chin being pulled sharply to the left and finds Kenneth holding her face in one hand, his eyes raking over her features for any signs of nutreic burns. And then he is taking her hands in his and turning them over, inspecting the reddened flesh.
"Only minimal burns," he sighs, shoulders going slack. He turns still-frantic eyes to her face once more.
She tries to laugh but it is a ragged croak that leaves her. "Nothing a couple packs of medi-gel and a good night's rest won't fix."
He stares at her for a single, silent moment, his brows angling down in a sharp line. "You're mental, Gabby."
"Or brilliant, maybe," she quips, head cocking with the retort, her smile shaky and pain-tinged.
Kenneth shakes his head, a low whistle escaping him. "Never doubted the brilliance but damn if you aren't the single most pig-headed woman I've ever known."
Gabby shifts in her blanket, pulling a hand from his to adjust the cover over her shoulder. "Feeling the competition?" she jokes.
Snorting, Kenneth winds his fingers around hers and runs a hand shakily through his hair.
Gabby's eyes narrow in concern. "You okay?"
He sighs. A long, slow exhale that takes his whole body. "Damn but you had me scared, girl." He leans back along the rail beside her, head falling back so that he can stare up at the crisp lights of the Normandy's hull.
Gabby watches him a moment, words festering in her throat where they can't get out. Finally, after a slight rumble in the ship, and the echo of Joker's voice through the deck, Gabby clears her throat and pushes off the rail, stepping fully in front of him. Kenneth drops his gaze to lock with hers, his chest rising steadily with his exhaustion.
"I'm sorry," she gets out, lip caught between her teeth, fingers digging into the blanket covering her soaked form. "I just…it wasn't…"
Kenneth only lets her flounder for a moment longer. Because then he is leaning forward and bracing both hands along her cheeks, pulling her face back toward his and pressing his lips so urgently and so determinedly against her own that all she can do is sigh into his mouth and fall against his chest. His hands wind into her hair to cradle her head, his fingers flexing in barely-controlled need and relief. He does not let her go until they are both panting for breath, until they are both gripping each other in trembling desperation. He rests his forehead against hers and breathes her in. "You'll be the death of me, girl," he sighs against her mouth.
She smiles.
His laugh is tremulous and winded.
The Normandy continues to shake around them but they hold tight.
They hold tight.