Hey! Sorry for the wait, life decided to pummel me.

Anyway, the Song(s) for this Chapter are Take Me Back, by Story of The Year And For You I Will, by Teddy Geiger.

Thanks for reading! -Jaz


The Chief had a headache, and the marines were not helping.

"Listening to anything interesting there, Chief?"

Stevens called out to Chief while was packing his gear; Chief noted that he was a bit clumsy. Occasionally the marine would drop something , earning him a few jeers from his squad. The base they were stationed in for now was temporary, and thus needed a lot of help from Cortana to run. Currently she was off doing something techy with the Captain, leaving Chief to watch the marines while they prepared for a mission in a few hours.

Cortana has found it endlessly amusing that Chief had the job, she kept insisting him that the marines could use better training, or a brain. John just replied that she was too used to seeing himself, the super Spartan, on missions and forgot what being around normal soldiers was like. He was sure that if she had the ability, she would have smacked him upside the head for that.

At least he could listen to the playlist while watching the marines run around. The only marines that seemed to be paying him any attention was Stevens, who was currently carrying a load of grenades to a warthog.

It wasn't until Chief causally threw back a grenade he had dropped that Chief began to seriously doubt the training program the UNSC put their marines through. Stevens had managed to miss the grenade complete, while dropping everything that he was holding, then kicked it into a moving scorpion's treads while chasing after it.

The explosion, the panic after that, the checking for injuries, and the near fight that broke out over whose fault it was left Chief with a even bigger migraine then before, and a healthy case of doubt over who was watching his back in the field.

Stevens jogged over to Chief after the whole fiasco, about to ask Chief his opinion on the whole thing probably. Before the marine could even speak, John raised his hand and pointed to his visor, then made a shooing motion with his hand. Stevens nodded somewhat glumly, and trotted off.

"I'm getting reports of a 'accidental explosion' near you. What did you do this time?"

Pausing the song he hadn't even been paying any mind to, he let out a small groan of annoyance.

"Nothing. The marines just wanted to see what a grenade explosion looks like up close."

"Oh someone's grumpy, didn't get enough sleep?"

He wouldn't admit it to her, but her attitude always put him in a better mood then before. Even if she was the reason he didn't get his sleep.

"You know exactly how much sleep I got, probably the reason my head feels like imploding right now"

"That's not because of the marines? How bad are they today hm?"

"I have never faked a call to get out of talking to one of them before, I'll say that."

"I'll get you out of your death sentence before you cause another explosion."

"That wasn't my fault, but is that a promise?"

His visor pinged, and revealed that he was now 'stationed' in his quarters till the mission.

"Promise."

"I'm not even going to ask what dark magic you just preformed to get me out of babysitting, but I love you for it." John said quickly while nearly running to his temporary quarters. If he had a guardian angel, her name was Cortana.

"Just that? I'll have to try harder then."

Chief could normal tell when Cortana was kidding, but her voice lacked that playful tone that normally accompanied it. That and the fact that she took a little longer to answer then she normally would...

John started walking again, deciding he first needed to get his armor off so he could rest a bit, then think.

Right, objective one, armor, quarters first. Then sleep.. Definitely sleep.

Allowing a single chuckle over how even in his head he sounded like a soldier, John made his was to his quarters with a brisk walk, and allowed himself to lean on the back of the door after he had shut it a moment longer then he needed to.

Pushing off the door, Chief moved to pull his armor off but then thought better of it. Being as he wasn't even supposed to be here, if he had to leave quickly it would be that much harder to do so without his armor on. Sighing to himself chief stretched, brushing his hands on the top of the ceiling.

Observing his quarters, Chief noted that while it was temporary, the quarters looked much like his ones at any other base. Cot, table, Cortana's pedestal, all the necessitates, though he only really had eyes for the bed right now.

John was sure he was the only Spartan who would consider sleeping with his combat armor on for the sake of convenience, but he was probably the only one with a AI who redirected his orders for him too.

Fuck it, not like it's the weirdest thing I've done. And I'm tired. Very tired.

Climbing into the cot, which he noted looked so wrong through the off visor for some reason, John slowly moved onto his back and tried to get comfortable. Maybe if he put his arm under his head...

Sighing, he figured he was comfortable enough, he stretched and settled down for a nice nap.

bringing up the playlist, John scrolled down to the song he had paused earlier, and shut his eyes while the music started.

Cortana had been in John's quarters for about 5 minutes waiting to see if he would wake up. Her glow alone should have woken him, but it seems her Spartan was down for the count. And sleep in his armor, which is NOT what she meant by relax.

Aside from that, he also had a song on repeat, sounding through his speakers and at enough volume that anyone walking by his door would hear it. And yet, he was snoring right through it.

Do you still remember back when, the days were longer? Dreams were bigger then, the weight of the world had not yet landed on the shoulders of a man...

Tilting her head t the music, she wondered if only listened to songs that reminded him of himself, or if he just picked songs at random.

I thought, I thought that time stood still, sheltered, protected. They never told me this would end or that the leaves would fall again...

On second thought, he definitely picked ones relating to him. Tryi9ng to figure out a way to wake him up would be a challenge, she didn't exactly have the ability to do so without putting him into full attack mode. If she's learned anything from working with John, it's don't put him on alert unless he has something to mutilate.

So take me back, back to better days, 'cause this time between is wasting me away. Take me back when we were not afraid 'cause this time between is wasting me away...

Cortana wondered lightly if he ever missed the other Spartans. He had friends before, hadn't he? Felling a pang of sadness over the losses he'd suffered, she brought up the message she was meant to deliver to him. She could tell him this herself on the mission...

There was a day when this world went to war and didn't bat an eye. Real life and the movies felt the same to me and I never questioned why...

For some reason, those words bothered her. Something about them irritated her to no end, and without putting much thought into her actions, she stopped the song.

"Cortana? What is it?"

Damn. That's all she needed to do?

John instinctively reached for his gun, that he had put up against the end of the bed. He was looking around quickly, going from asleep to fully awake in less than ten seconds.

"No need for that John, just came to deliver a message." Cortana said in her most soothing voice, hoping to get him to relax before he started putting holes through the walls.

"What about? Couldn't wait?"

Cortana in turn looked back at the message, opening it for him to see.

"Oh you know, probably something incredibly useless and not helpful in anyway." Cortana said with a smirk, placing her hands behind her back.

"The message or the marines?" John answered just as snarky, while scrolling down the text with flick of his hand.

She continued to stare at him, the same thought bouncing around her matrix as it had been all day.

What exactly are we, John? Cortana wanted to ask, but didn't quite know how to word it.

John glanced over to her after noticing her silence. Even if she was just a hologram, he could see her biting her lip and nearly boring a hole through his head. Raising his eyebrows, John turned from the message and regarded her.

"Something you're not telling me, Cortana?" he question while tapping her pedestal with his foot.

The question shook her out of her thoughts, and she looked back at him without any of the doubt she was currently shifting through. She had thought all of this maybe a second longer then she need to, and now John was looking at her with concern lighting his eyes.

"Just thinking about statistics.." shrugging her holographic shoulders, she gave him a small smile. John seemed to accept this answer, and went back to the message, his eyebrows slightly pinched.

It was odd, what she had been thinking, she didn't normal dwell on how she felt about people. They were easy to categorize after all. Dr. Halsey was her creator... The UNSC was her core, what she had been created to protect and serve...And then there was John.

She didn't miss the concerned looks he was shooting her while he read. Or the way his hand kept hovering near her pedestal, as if wanting to touch it but unsure.

Shaking herself from all the thoughts swirling through her matrix, she couldn't categorize John into anything she knows. It bothered her, but she'd never been one to have a long attention span for her own random thoughts, so she decided to ask him instead.

"What am I to you, John?" She asked suddenly, giving him her most serious look. She couldn't place it, so she wanted to see if he could, worth a shot right?

"You...? Your my Cortana." John looked at her while saying his words slowly, as if she had forgotten who she was.

"Yes, I know that smartass. I meant, are we..?" She didn't have the right words to say anything more, she hoped he would.

"I think we've already established that, with me being your Spartan and all." John said finally, after looking at her for the longest time. He said his words carefully, as if he wasn't sure himself.

"You don't actually know do you?" Cortana let her shoulders drop a fraction, and went back to shifting through the encrypted data on the message. She needed to distracted herself from...whatever this was.

John managed to look surprised even through his helmet, and leaned his arms onto her pedestal so he was right in front of her. She looked at him curious, while pausing what she was doing.

"Hey... I promise I'll figure it out ok? I just don't have the right word...right now. " It sounded like the most sincere thing he had ever said the her, and she was hard pressed not to wish she had arms to hug him with.

Before she could replay, the Captain pinged her. Sighing internally, she gave John a half smile.

"Rain check on that promise, the Captain needs me to save him from the evil forces of security codes." She said while closing his message and un-pausing his music.

So now we're running, we're running blind into the light, and we fall behind. We're running and wasting away with time...

John nodded to her and stood up straight tilting his head at her before she left

"I want a answer from you, too." He said while leaning back against the wall. She gave him one mock salute before she blinked out of his quarters, leaving him alone.

While the Captain was giving orders to his troops and checking with the techs on their status, Cortana was utterly bored.

Leaving John to himself while she sat and did basically nothing with the Captain was right at the top of her list of things that annoyed her endlessly. That and marines blowing up computers, they do that sometimes.

Captain Keyes wanted her on hand for now if case something went wrong, something Cortana had to grudgingly admit was probably going to happen. She would have given anything to stay and piece out a answer with john, but duty calls she supposed. Either way, she hoped he'd gone back to sleep for now. If the answer is half as hard to find as it is for her he'd be thinking for weeks.

Speak of the devil, she thought to herself as her thoughts were interrupted with a message from the Master Chief himself, titled Rain Check.

Reading it, and noticing the sound file attached to it, she put the song to play while muting her speakers, just so only she could hear it. She read along with the lyrics, and happy smile forming on her not-really-there lips.

I'm wandering the streets, in a world underneath it all. But nothing seems to be, nothing tastes as sweet as what I can't have.

Like you and the way that you're twisting your hair, round your finger. Tonight I'm not afraid to tell you what I feel about you.

Oh I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have, and cannon ball into the water. I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have, for you I will, for you I will.

Forgive me if I stutter from all of the clutter in my head, 'cause I could fall asleep in those eyes, like a water bed.

Do I seem familiar, I've crossed you in hallways a thousand times. No more camouflage I want to be exposed, and not be afraid to fall.

Oh I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have, and cannon ball into the water I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have, for you I will.

You always want what you can't have, but I've got to try. I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have, for you I will.

For you I will, for you I will, for you...

It's not every day my Cortana asks me to word what she is to me, right? -John