Chapter Three: "Sniffles"
Summary: Grunt can handle bullets, biotics, and bad-mannered mercs, but what's a krogan to do when his kitten isn't feeling well? Panic, of course! Chakwas and Grunt end up having an interesting heart to heart while C.O. suffers from the Sniffles.
The doctor turned around in her chair, eyes darting over the empty medical lab, a sigh falling from her lips. The engines quietly hummed, flying through space without a care. The medical equipment sat untouched, gathering dust.
Dr. Chakwas was bored out of her mind.
The older woman groaned as she stretched in her chair, back stiff from not moving in a long time. "We are on a dangerous suicide mission, traveling back and forth at the edge of the Terminus Systems! You take your ground squad with you almost every day, dealing with mercenaries or creatures in kill all or be killed scenarios, and despite all that, you manage to make me useless! Damn you, Shepard! How in the hell have you managed to keep me bored?!"
Despite her obvious irritation, there was a level of awe. Except for some scrapes, no one had been horrifically injured in any of Shepard's adventures save Garrus, and he was healing up exceptionally well.
Chakwas knew the doctor in her was supposed to be glad for the lack of excitement, but the poor woman was a workaholic. She hated having to sit on idle hands, and this mission should have been giving her plenty of people to work on.
Instead, I'm sitting in an empty medical lab, feeling bored, tired, and old...
She hadn't even finished the thought when heavy footsteps shook the floor underneath her, and the door to the lab whooshed open to Grunt standing there, looking…well, panicked, for lack of a better word. He was cradling something in his hands.
"Chakwas! CHAKWAS!" he roared, and strode up to her. He shoved his hands toward her, and she saw his kitten, C.O. lying limp in his hands. "Something's wrong with C.O.! Fix him!"
Grunt paced back and forth, unable to keep still as he watched Chakwas tap away on her omni-tool. C.O. was lying on a table, looking almost dead, his breath shallow.
"So?" Grunt asked. "What's wrong with him?"
Chakwas didn't answer immediately. She wasn't a veterinarian so she was out of her field, but she was determined to try and help. It figures, doesn't it? I desperately want a patient, and I get one that's way out of my league.
Grunt's foot stomps were not helping matters; it was making her a little jumpy. Krogans could make her a bit nervous, but normally she was able to push that fear aside.
She gently prodded C.O. throat, and he let loose with a little gargled mew.
"Don't hurt him!" Grunt said.
"I'm not hurting him," she said through clenched teeth. Something about Grunt was rubbing her the wrong way, making her lose her doctor's patience.
C.O. tried to get to his feet, but fell back down onto the table with an exhausted sigh. A little "choo!" seemed to be ripped from his tiny body.
Chakwas stayed silent for several moments as she read the readout from her omni-tool.
"Chakwas, start talking already!" Grunt barked, not able to stand her stoic silence. "Is he…is he going to….argh!" He stopped, unable to continue his thought.
His inability to voice his concern turned into venting his anger. "Dammit, start talking female!"
"Don't call me that! I'm not your inferior," Chakwas snarled, whipping around to the stunned krogan. He wasn't used to people actually snapping on him.
"C.O. is suffering from a cat's version of a cold," Chakwas explained with a venomous undertone. "It's a common Earth disease. There's nothing I can do about it, you just have to let it run its course. Just keep him warm, give him plenty of fluid, and let him sleep it off. He'll bounce back in a few days' time."
Grunt stared at the doctor with icy eyes. Without a word he shouldered past her, almost knocking her to the ground with the force of his shove. He gently picked up the sick kitten and started stomping towards the door. Just before he left he turned back to her. The hurt in his eye was unmistakable.
"Sorry to be a bother, doctor," he snapped. "I'll go bother the Salarian next time. Don't want to distract you from your work."
With that, the doors shut behind him, and the older woman collapsed on the floor suddenly exhausted, anger and adrenaline vanishing from her body. She hadn't realized the amount of adrenaline that had been pumped into her body when she snapped on Grunt. Chakwas actually pinched her arm to make sure she was still alive.
She remembered the way she had snarled at the krogan, for no apparent reason, and pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation and sadness.
Grunt and Chakwas didn't exactly have a stellar relationship to begin with. After all, she was the one who had to administer many of the boosters and shots when he had first been "born" to keep him from getting sick or spreading any diseases on the ship. Grunt was a tough krogan, but he still treated her warily, a boogieman he had to visit if he got hurt on a mission.
And in his time of need, when he was actually panicking, he had raced to her—and she had yelled at him. If she had been dealing with a child, they might have started to cry with the stress. Here he was, a child worrying that his pet might be dying, and she had the nerve to snap on him.
She reached over to the comm by her computer. "Shepard? Would you mind coming to the medical lab for a few minutes? I have something I need to talk to you about."
Chakwas didn't want to look up. She didn't want to see the expression Shepard might be wearing after hearing what Chakwas had just said to Grunt.
She had told the story staring at the tiled floor, but she knew she couldn't avoid the Commander's gaze forever. It was very rare for anyone to make the doctor feel intimidated, but the Commander could do that to anyone she met. With a breath to steady herself, the doctor looked up to Shepard.
Shepard was leaning against a table, arms crossed, but one hand brushing her short red hair out of her face. "Why?" was all she asked.
"I don't know, Shepard. I was irritated and he just….pushed my buttons, I guess," Chakwas said. It sounded lame even to her.
"Grunt does that to everyone he meets," Shepard said matter-of-factly. "That doesn't mean you can snap on him like that."
"I know. It was unprofessional. I'm so sorry, Shepard. It won't happen again."
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to, Dr. Chakwas."
Chakwas looked at her, a look of surprise on her face. "You want me to go down there and apologize?"
Shepard raised an eyebrow at the question. "Let me ask you this: if I had done to Grunt what you did, would you let me get away with that?"
"No, I wouldn't. I'd tell you to get your backside downstairs and apologize immediately."
Shepard gestured to the doctor. "There you go."
"But…shouldn't someone go with me? Garrus or yourself? To at least keep him from killing me on sight?"
"I'm sure he won't kill you. Maim you, maybe, but not kill you."
Chakwas sighed. "That's surprisingly uncomforting, Commander."
Shepard shrugged. "He won't kill you because if he does, he'll have to cross me, and I'm his Battlemaster. Close as I can tell a krogan doesn't challenge his clan leader or Battlemaster unless he's looking for a fight to the death."
The red-haired woman sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm pretty sure you hurt Grunt's feelings, and betrayed him in a way. He trusted you with C.O.—that says something considering he'd rather be looked at by Mordin after missions than come to you."
"Thank you, Commander. It's good to know that I can frighten away grown krogan with hardly any effort on my part. Just my very presence can apparently send them scurrying."
Shepard looked at the doctor without a hint of humor in her young face.
"If this were any other 'normal' mission I'd say to let it go, and leave him alone and let him cool down. But with the Collectors able to show up any time, I need my team united, ready to fight and maybe even die together. I can't afford to let these little arguments hang in the air; it'll just make it impossible for anyone to breathe before long. There's too much riding on this."
Shepard sobered Chakwas' mood. "Of course, Commander. I'll head down there and give him my most sincere apologies."
"Thanks, doc. By the way, why did you snap on him?"
"It's nothing," the doctor said, trying to wave away Shepard's inquiry.
The Commander simply looked at her. "Seriously, Chakwas; what's the problem?"
It's not like I can do anything to further embarrass myself, Chakwas thought.
"I've just been a bit…antsy, Commander. Bored, actually."
"You're bored." Shepard deadpanned. "That's what's been bothering you?"
Chakwas threw her hands up. "Yes, Commander, I'm bored! Except for some scrapes and bruises no one ever gets hurt on your ground missions, not matter how hairy they are. This entire mission should be a suicide mission and I have nothing to do for the most part. I'm a doctor; my job is to help people. But you've managed to keep me twiddling my thumbs!"
Chakwas waited for Shepard to stare at her, to call her a monster or a freak. That would be a normal response to a doctor saying "There's not enough injured people! I'm bored!"
Instead, Shepard actually gained a little grin on her face. "That's pretty understandable. All you do, your job and your passion, is to get your hands dirty and help injured soldiers. Guess I haven't been giving you many of them to work on, have I?"
"I…actually didn't think you'd understand, Commander."
"I've known you for years, Chakwas. You're a great doctor and an even better human being. You're also a workaholic. Until you find a hobby, healing is all you know."
"Maybe I should take up knitting?" the doctor suggested with a smile.
Shepard chuckled. "Hell no. I refuse to have a crazy cat lady on my ship." She started to walk towards the door, but turned before exiting. "So, if I make Miranda trip in front of a charging krogan, you'll be happy?"
"I'll take any work at this point, Shepard."
"Go patch things up with Grunt, and consider your wish granted." Shepard said and left without warning, leaving Chakwas to wonder if she would actually do that to Miranda….
Chakwas found being downstairs on the engineering deck odd, to say the least. She very rarely left the lab to make house calls-her patients usually came to her. And they were usually human. The alien specialists Shepard was enlisting usually went to Mordin if they had any medical issues—not to say that Chakwas wasn't skilled in xenological medicine (she was well versed in it), it was just the way it usually worked out.
The doctor did find Mordin endearing, even if a bit blunt. And his renditions of Gilbert and Sullivan always made her laugh. Maybe she'd go visit the Salarian after this was over….
She froze just before the doors to the cargo hold, Grunt's "quarters."
In her mind, she knew Shepard had only spoken truth. This mission was far too important to be jeopardized by any bad blood between the crew.
In her heart, she knew she had wronged the young krogan earlier, and wanted desperately to fix the situation before it became more awkward or even hostile.
Her body, however, refused to let her walk through the doors to confront a still-angry krogan, even if she was doing it solely to apologize. There were just certain things you did not do if you wished to continue living.
Come on, now, Chakwas thought sternly to herself. You have to make things right. And you heard the Commander—he won't kill you. Maim you, probably, but you'll probably live to see another day.
With a deep breathe, she strode forward and into the cargo hold before her nerves could get the best of her.
The first thing she noticed as she walked into the hold was an exceptionally loud rumbling noise. Not being a native to the deck, Chakwas assumed it was some type of machinery that she was not familiar with. She rounded the corner to see Grunt peering into a battered cardboard box; the rumbling got louder and changed pitch several times. She stopped mid-stride as she realized the rumbling had very words to it.
She realized that Grunt was, in fact, making the odd rumbling noise, a guttural sound that was rhythmic and chant-like.
He was singing to whatever was in the box, C.O. most likely.
Grunt stopped and glanced at the awestruck doctor, who was standing there stupidly, unsure if it was safe to interrupt.
"What do you want, doctor?" the krogan growled.
Chakwas blinked, and stood a little straighter, trying to regain her professional air. "I was coming down to…um…check on the patient." She tried to say something that was fairly innocent. Unfortunately, this had the exact opposite effect on the krogan.
Grunt narrowed his eyes into daggers that seemed to hit every weak part of her body. "What? Think a krogan's too stupid to put something to sleep? You made yourself perfectly clear; I can handle things myself." His voice was level, but loaded with venom.
This was a bad idea, I should've left well enough alone. Or at least given him time to cool down a bit…damn you Shepard! Dammit, dammit….No, I can't give up. I have to fix this.
Most other sentient creatures would have high-tailed it from the deck completely if Grunt had spoken to them with such accusatory venom. However, Chakwas was a woman who had spent her entire career caring for sick and wounded Alliance soldiers—it was almost impossible to scare her away. Especially when she knew she had been in the wrong.
Grunt had turned back to the box, giving Chakwas the opportunity to approach him slowly.
"What are you doing?" she asked as she slowly walked up to him. Grunt only glanced at her, but didn't move or make any threatening gestures as she came closer.
"Making him feel better," the krogan said.
"By….singing?" she couldn't help but inquire.
He shrugged. "Many of the things Okeer taught me in the tank were of battles won and lost, of krogan honor and pride, how to fight and how to win. But he also gave me little pieces of our culture. These pieces held no meaning, nor did they make sense until I was on Tuchanka. Then and there those pieces made sense." Pausing, he looked in the box, and stroked the little kitten inside. "It's a healing chant. The shaman of Clan Urdnot taught me, when I explained my confusion of the thoughts Okeer tried to teach me. It's supposed to help the blood clear, to get the body back into shape."
Chakwas stood a few steps away from him, mouth slightly agape in surprise. Her dealing with Grunt was so rare she had never heard him speak like this. She had always known there was a reason Shepard had taken to krogan for some reason, but she had assumed it was because of his muscle and aggressive nature. But now, she could see there was something to the young krogan….was there a heart of gold under all that armor?
"I, um….I came down here to apologize, Grunt."
Grunt looked up from the box at the doctor, eyes still narrowed, but staying quiet.
Chakwas rubbed her hands together in a slightly nervous manner. "I was exceptionally rude, and I came down here to say I'm sorry."
The kogran waved away her apology. "You have no reason to be sorry. I displayed weakness, a useless trait among strong krogan. Clan leader Wrex wouldn't have acted like that. Neither would the shaman." His voice dropped until almost inaudible, but Chakwas still heard him. "Neither would have Shepard."
"Nonsense," Chakwas said, wanting to pat his arm or shoulder to comfort him, but restraining herself. Grunt looked at her with unbelieving eyes. "No, really. To care for another creature is not foolish or weak. In fact, in takes a certain degree of strength to be willing to put another being's health and wellness before one's own self."
Grunt looked unconvinced, so Chakwas tried another tactic. "When you're on a ground mission with Shepard, you take hits for her, don't you? And she for you?"
"Yeah, but that's different. We are krantt. We watch each other's' backs and kill our enemies together."
She gestured towards the box. "Exactly. And C.O. is part of your krantt, isn't he?"
There was a silence for a few moments as Grunt thought the question through. His mood seemed to lighten some and he nodded. "Yes, he is."
"You weren't weak earlier, Grunt. You were worried, that's all. Perfectly normal for someone who's got a sick animal and doesn't know what to do about it."
"It's just….this is the first time I can prove myself to Shepard," he said quietly. He looked at the doctor, and for the first time there didn't seem to be any hostility in those baby blues. "I came from the tank ready to fight, but had no reason to. Shepard took me to Tuchanka, and fought alongside me in my Rite of Passage. But this…" he looked back down into the box and cleared his throat "he, he's my first real responsibility. Shepard wanted me to watch out for him and make him a real warrior. If something happened to him…I can't let my Battlemaster down. I can't let myself down."
"Asking for help is not a letdown. If you didn't do anything and C.O. died, then yes, that would be a letdown. But you doing your damnedest to make sure he stays healthy is not a weakness. It's admirable."
Grunt shrugged, the odd wall he had let down for the past few minutes already going back up. Chakwas wondered if he ever spoke to Shepard so candidly. The older doctor felt a little prideful that the krogan had told her as much as he had.
"So, Grunt, do you accept my apology?"
He looked at her for a long moment and then nodded. "Just make sure it doesn't happen again," he said. She saluted to him.
"Now, then, may I please see C.O.?" Chakwas asked in a nice but professional way. "I want to check his vitals since I'm down here."
The krogan stepped aside, and as Chakwas peered inside the box she paused for a moment, a confused grin spreading across her face.
"Grunt, is C.O. sleeping in the cup of a bra?"
The krogan shrugged. "I dunno. I get rid of them but he keeps bringing them back. Looks like the one he snatched from Miranda a while back."
"I remember hearing about that. Wish I'd actually seen it. Had to set some of Joker's ribs back in place because he had been laughing so hard after watching the episode on the video feed," the doctor said fondly. C.O. was asleep, but fidgeting a bit, and a whimpered mew came from him.
Chakwas stepped back, and found Grunt watching her carefully.
"He's stable for now," she told him. "Make sure he drinks and sleeps plenty, and he should be ok."
Grunt nodded, and Chakwas waved her goodbye, feeling exceptionally light-hearted, a smile creeping over her face. Even if he was never that candid with her again, just knowing that they could be friendly made the doctor happy. It'll make Shepard happy too, knowing we were able to set aside our differences.
Just before the doors closed, she could hear a guttural rumbling sound coming from the hold. It was loud, and rhythmic, and sounded almost like chanting….
A/N: So yeah, not a lot of kitten-created chaos in this chapter, sorry! (There will be plenty of that in the later chapters, I promise!)
I really enjoyed writing the dialogue between Chakwas and Grunt—I like writing dialogue between characters that we don't see interact too much. (That was one of the many things I loved about ME3: the fact that the different crew members actually moved around and talked to each other like people in reality would! Very confusing at first, I will admit though )
Grunt has really started to become a true favorite of mine because even though he loves a good fight, he's still really intelligent. I really wanted to show there were different sides to our lovable krogan teenager, and for the doctor as well.
But don't worry, everyone! C.O. will be back on his feet soon enough, and then there chaos will commence with a vengeance! Until then please read and review!
(And if you didn't read the original story this fic is based off of, go and read it now! It's called "Resonsibility")