Late Nights
"Karaoke" Night part 1
Commander James Anthony Shepard, groaned as stared at the bare chrome ceiling. He mentally counted down from ten, and then on cue, EDI's time display floated across the ceiling. The feature presented itself every six minutes of EDI's idle time and cycled through the various times of the major races on the ship. First the human time, typical of course of a Cerberus vessel, 04:23am, then came the turian time 00:30, after that salarian 08:00, krogan, 05:23, quarian 05:12, drell 06:12 and asari 04:00.
Shepard rubbed his eyes as EDI's idle function began to flash non-critical ship reports across the ceiling. He had got what he wanted and it was something he already knew. He was up late even by non-human standards. Except for the salarians of course, who were able to function on only an hour's worth of sleep. Mordin even less so it seemed like. Jacob once said that he saw the professor get up after a five minute nap and function like normal.
Still five minutes was better than none at all.
Shepard wasn't sure when it had started, he guessed after Freedom's Progress, but couldn't be sure. Either way it was around then that sleep had begun to elude him. At first he had been sleeping an hour less, then two hours less, after that, three and so on until sleep just seemed to abandon him completely. It had been four nights since he had anything resembling sleep, or by the look of the clock, five nights.
Dr. Chakwas had surmised that stress was the key factor to his insomnia. She had advised that he find a way to lower his stress levels before his condition worsened. Problem was the stress factors came faster than he could lower them. Losing out on two years of his life, being assigned to a suicide mission, rounding up probably the most unorthodox crew the galaxy had ever seen, maintaining that group so he actually had a crew for the mission, seeing how the Collectors worked at Horizon, finding out Ash no longer wanted anything to do with him, and now these loyalty missions. Shepard was amazed that he hadn't suffered from some kind of nervous breakdown. Though knowing his luck it was coming someday soon. He sighed and rose from bed.
"I need milo*," he muttered. He smacked his lips in anticipation of the warm chocolate drink as he made his way to his personal bathroom. The drink was something his mother always gave him when he couldn't sleep. Back then it would never fail to knock him out; maybe its powers still had an effect on him.
He passed a hand over his still scarred face. The red cuts were barely noticeable in the light, but in the dark, the crimson scars made his chocolate brown face more intimidating than he would have liked. If he followed the good doctor's advice and kept his positive mindset the scars would fade completely. He made a mental note to ask her the connection between his scars and his mindset.
He made his way to the elevator and tried to recall one of his mother's lullabies. Maybe a combination of the milo and the lullaby would bring back his ability to sleep. Or at the very least allow him a two hour power nap. The elevator door swished open to reveal the dark and quiet third floor. Or at least that had been Shepard's expectation.
As he had assumed, the lights were mostly off. If not for his familiarity with the ship he would have knocked his leg against one of the chairs of the mess. But the ambient light from the food preserver flooded into the dark room. As Shepard approached, he heard a familiar melody and a female voice singing its lyrics.
"I was beat incomplete
I'd been had, I was sad and blue
But you made me feel
Yeah, you made me feel
Shiny and new,"
The female crew member sang as she gathered bread, peanut butter and jelly from the preserve. She switched on the lights above the preparation table near the stove, her back still to her audience of one when she let out chorus.
"Like a virgin
Touched for the very first time
Like a virgin
When your heart beats
Next to mine."
Her full hips swung out with every beat and continued to do so even as she bent down to pick up a knife, giving Shepard a full view of one his favorite female body parts. His grin touched from ear to ear as she continued.
"Gonna give you all my love, boy
My fear is fading fast
Been saving it all for you
'Cause only love can last."
The light from the counter showed off the singer's sleepwear. A simple white tank-top that stopped short of her lower back and yellow pajama pants with dancing bears running up and down the legs. Her hair was tied into a low ponytail that was over her shoulder giving Shepard a view of her exposed shoulders and back, something her stuffy uniform never allowed. She pulled a glass from the lower cupboards and grabbed some milk while singing out the next verses.
"You're so fine and you're mine
Make me strong, yeah you make me bold
Oh your love thawed out
Yeah, your love thawed out
What was scared and cold."
She returned the supplies to their proper place and picked up her late night snack ready to seat herself. She turned on her feet as the chorus came again.
"Like a virgin, hey-!" She turned around and froze, her icy blue eyes wider than any mass relay Shepard had seen. The music from her omni-tool continued on without its lead singer and Commander Shepard could just barely form a coherent sentence.
"Good evening, Ms. Lawson," he managed between snickers. "A little late for karaoke isn't it?"
Glossary:
Milo: A popular chocolate milk drink in the Caribbean, Malaysia, and Singapore.