Chapter Nine: Shore Leave & Graduation

Friday was finally upon us, which meant that the shore leave we had won at the beginning of the week had finally started. Zeke had already arranged to spend the weekend with his family in California, what with shuttles taking less time than the planes of my time, something I still needed to remind myself of every now and then.

As for me, well I didn't have many friends outside the Alliance, even then most of them were still in training with me and they didn't have the weekend off and with no family I was left with pretty much nothing to do and I didn't particularly want to spend it on base.

"So what have you got planned for the weekend?" Zeke asked as he stepped out of the bathroom dressed in what he called his 'going out clothes' which pretty much translated to a black silk shirt, black jeans and black sneakers.

"I don't know to be honest with you." I replied "I was going to meet up with a friend of mine but she had to cancel."

"This that Kaitlin girl you mentioned?"

"Yeah but she called and said that there was a complication with her mission and she wasn't going to be able to make it."

"That sucks."

I could only nod in reply "I'll figure something out though don't worry."

"You can always come with me and visit my family, I'm sure they wouldn't mind and I'd love for you to meet them." Zeke replied.

"Thanks but I think I'll skip the pity invite this time." I replied with a grin "Besides I don't want to impose, you go and have fun with the folks I'll be fine." I watched as Zeke just looked at me "Seriously man I appreciate the offer but I'm good."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah I'm sure."

Almost reluctantly Zeke nodded "Okay then, but that's tomorrow, but tonight you and I will be hitting the town." He grinned as he wrapped one of his tree trunk arms around my shoulders and I could help but laugh.

"Just remember I'm nowhere near big enough or strong enough to carry your ass so if you pass out that's where you're sleeping." I said.

"Whatever you say short stuff, besides when it comes to the ladies I can go all night." Zeke laughed.

"Oh really?" I asked with a grin "Just like said when you were studying for the tactics exam last month, you remember that right?" and watched as Zeke turned to look at me, frowning when I did an impression of his deep voice "Yo Rob, don't worry about me man, I can pull all-nighters any time I want." I switched back to my normal voice "You remember that, what happened after that hmm? Oh that's right you fell asleep what was it…ten minutes later?"

"…Shut up."

I let out a loud chuckle as I stood up and shook my head as I walked past him to have my own shower and get ready. I decided to go in a dark blue shirt, light blue denim jeans and a pair of white sneakers.

We decided to head to a local club called the Orchid Lounge; they had good dance music, good drinks and everything else you would expect from a nightclub. Zeke and I wound up being pulled into a group of Alliance officers who brought us a few rounds and told us about some of their missions with me adding my story about the Batarians and Commander Adley's group which earned me a little respect.

Zeke disappeared a little while later and I lost track of him, although I did see him on the dance floor with a girl at one point before I lost him again. Several hours, and more than a few drinks later I decided to head home with a headache the size of New York pounding away in my skull. I staggered into our place and collapsed on the couch before hearing loud moaning coming from Zeke's room and glanced over towards it with a groan of my own before hauling myself off of it and out the door, no way was I going to listen to that all night.

I slowly made my way down the corridors, not really thinking about where I was going when I heard someone calling my name and turned around the see Alyssa heading towards.

"Hey Alyssa." I smiled with something slightly louder than a whisper.

"Hi, are you alright?"

"Oh yeah, just came back from the Orchid Lounge, combination of one too many drinks and loud music." I answered, seeing a smile spread over her face.

"Ah well you do know you missed your room right?"

"I'm not that far gone." I grinned "Zeke's a little busy right now and my head couldn't take the moaning."

Alyssa laughed "So what are you going to do, hang around the halls until they finish?"

I shrugged "I have no idea, maybe."

"Well I can't let that happen, you can stay at my place tonight." She replied.

"Thanks Alyssa I appreciate it." I replied as we made our way down the hall.

"Wow this place is nice." I said as we entered her room, it looked far from a dorm room in a military academy despite its drab grey colouring. There were a load of painting hanging on the walls of various themes, some flowers and cityscapes, including New York, Paris, London and Vancouver.

"Thanks but then again I am a girl so it would look nice wouldn't it." She laughed.

"I feel like that was an insult to my gender." I grinned as Alyssa made her way into the bathroom and returned a few seconds later with a small box in her hand and made her way into the kitchen.

"Just stating a fact, why what does your room look like?"

I paused for a moment "Uh…well it looks like…" I paused when I saw her looking at me with an almost knowing smile on her face, complete with an arched eyebrow to boot and sighed "It looks like a bomb went off in it, which was then inhabited by a large family of pigs."

Alyssa laughed as she poured a glass of water and dropped two tablets into it before walking out of the small kitchen area and over to me.

"Here you go; this should help with your headache."

"Thank you very much." I replied as I gulped down the Aspirin.

We made small talk while Alyssa fetched a blanket and a pillow from one of her cupboards before wishing me a goodnight and heading off to bed, with me following shortly after.

I awoke the next morning with only the slightest throbbing in my head which was a relief and stood up with a stretch and put the sheets away before heading to the bathroom to wash and making breakfast for Alyssa as a thank you.

"Mmm something smells good." Alyssa said as she staggered out of her bedroom and waved at me and I had to admit even with bedhead and still half asleep she looked pretty good, unlike me who looked like a zombie every morning.

"Just a little bacon, eggs and pancakes." I answered as she headed into the bathroom, hearing the shower turning on. She emerged a little while later fully dressed in dark green dress just in time for me to serve breakfast.

I'd found some maple syrup in a cupboard and had poured it over the pancakes after sprinkling some sugar on them along with the bacon and eggs on separate plate.

"I could get used to this." Alyssa grinned as she sat down "But you didn't have to do this."

"Please it's the least I could do after letting me crash here last night." I replied as she took a bite.

"This is fantastic!" Alyssa said as she started on the pancakes "If this the payment I can expect you can crash here as often as you like." She added with a grin as we ate.

"I'll remember that for future reference." I replied as I remembered the paintings I had seen last night and commented on them.

"Thanks, my girlfriend did them."

"She's got quite the talent." I replied

"Yeah she does, how about you? Are there any artistic talents hidden away somewhere in there?" Alyssa asked.

"Do stick figures count?" I replied.

"No." Alyssa chuckled.

"Then no, at least not in an art sense I do play the guitar though."

"Really, are you any good?"

"I like to think so." I countered with a smile.

"I'd love the hear you play sometime."

I grinned as I finished the last of my pancakes "I'm sure that could be arranged."

The conversation soon turned to our plans for the weekend, with Alyssa spending it with her girlfriend and I was still not sure, maybe I would head to New York and see what it was like now compared to back in my day.

I left Alyssa soon after that and made my way back to my dorm room, thankful that whoever Zeke had been with last night wasn't there, neither was Zeke who had already left. I headed over to my desk and turned on my terminal.

"Good morning Delta." I greeted the AI when he flickered into existence on the table.

Good morning Robert, how are you this morning?

"Fine thanks." I replied "So I've been thinking, what do you think it will take to get the Prothean outpost up and running again?"

Delta remained silent for a moment as he considered the task A large supply of Element Zero to use as a power supply, materials to rebuild the damaged and destroyed architecture as well as materials for the production facilities to use in the fabrication of items.

I nodded in agreement "Yeah that's what I was thinking too. It's going to cost a lot of credits to gather all of that, which I certainly won't earn on an Alliance engineer's salary. Let's start looking for those supplies though just in case, at least we'll know where to look and how much it'll cost."

I will begin the search now and will store all information for use at a later date in a secure file.

I spent the rest of the morning on the Extranet not really doing much since I couldn't think of anything to do and the afternoon tweaking my Omni-Tool some more to better its performance both in and out of battle.

When night fell I decided to hit the Orchid Lounge again. I'd been there about half an hour when someone bumped into me.

"Watch it, idiot." A male voice said from behind me.

"I'm sitting at the bar, on a chair not moving, how is that my fault?" I replied as I took a sip of my beer.

"What'd you say?" The guy countered, causing me to turn around. Standing in front of me was a clearly drunk 20 year old with a shaved head, being flanked by two of his buddies and I could tell they were looking for a fight and as much as I love a good bar brawl every now and then 3 on 1 are odds I don't particularly fancy.

Before I could try and talk my way out of it the guy must have seen parts of my Alliance tags dangling around my neck and chuckled "Well look at this boys, we've got a wannabe soldier here. You don't look so tough."

I smirked "And you don't look like a jackass and yet clearly you are one so I guess looks can be deceiving can't they?"

His two friends laughed at the insult "Oh dude he got you!" they said.

"You son of a…" the guy replied as he took a swing at me, which I ducked easily before grabbing the back of the guys shirt and used his momentum to drive him further forwards and face first into the bar with a thump.

I managed to right myself just in time for one of his buddies fists to connect with my jaw, which staggered me back, where I clipped the bar stool behind me and wound up on the floor. His second friend was already on me and I knew that his fist would connect before I could get a hand up to block it but saw another arm grab his.

"3 on 1 isn't exactly a far fight, how about we even this up?" A voice said as he pushed the boy back. Even from my spot on the floor I could see that this guy was built like a damn tank. I moved my jaw from side to side to loosen it up as I got to my feet and noticed that by this time the three friends were holding fight stances while my new ally and I exchanged a look and nodded in agreement, then all hell broke loose.

The big dude took on the two friends while the jackass came after me, we exchanged punches back and forth not noticing that other people had either tried to join in our fight or started ones of their own.

A punch connected with my nose and I felt warmth start trickling down and over my lip as I ducked another punch and connect with a punch of my own to his gut, hearing him wheeze and the air was driven out of him which I followed up with a leg sweep which dropped him to the floor.

I was so focussed on the guy I was fighting that I didn't realised that one of his friends had gotten away from the bug guy and charged at me and tackled me onto the bar. I brought my hands up to block the shots that he rained down on me before they stopped, only to be replaced with his hands wrapping around by throat.

I gasped for breath for a second or two before hiking my leg up and kneeing him in the groin, watching as his eyes went wide in pain. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a beer bottle on the counter and grabbed it before swinging it and smashing it over the top of his head, which knocked him out. With a little effort I tossed him to my right and to the floor before rolling off the counter behind the bar.

It was then I saw that the big dude who had helped me out was taking on the other friend as well as two others and since I owed him for saving my ass climbed up onto the bar and ran along it, dodging the few others who were fighting before leaping off of it and taking down one of the new attackers in the fight.

This guy was even more drunk than the idiot and his friends who had started this whole thing and it didn't take me long to finish him with a well-timed counter punch which left the last friend and the other guy but before I could do anything the cops showed up and broke it up.

We were let go after about half an hour once the bartender had confirmed that we hadn't started the fight.

"Well that was fun." My ally laughed as we left the Orchid.

"Yeah." I replied as I held the back of my hand up to my nose and pulling it not surprised to see blood there "Been a while since I've been in a bar brawl. Thanks for the save by the way."

"I can say the same, nice bar dive by the way." The guy replied as he turned to look at me and I realised he had a cut or two as well, a few to his face and several on his knuckles which I noticed as he extended his hand "Mike Stevens."

"Robert Kincaid." I replied as I shook his hand.

"So you're with the Alliance, a cadet?" Stevens asked

"Yeah, you?"

Stevens nodded "Just transferred here to finishing up the rest of my training."

"That explains why I've never seen you before; well at least you'll be graduating with us by the sounds of it."

Mike and I exchanged stories about our training as we made our way back and during our visit to the infirmary to get patch up, luckily nothing was broken and it would seem as though we got away without any trouble, at least that's what I thought until I saw the Commandant waiting for us just outside.

"My office now." He ordered.

"Do you two care to explain why two Alliance cadets are getting involved in a bar room brawl?" he asked from behind his desk.

"I…wouldn't really call it a bar room brawl sir." I replied.

"Oh really Cadet Kincaid, then what pray tell would you call it then?"

"I would have to classify it as…uh…as a scuffle sir." I answered.

"A scuffle?" he repeated.

"Yes sir a scuffle, not a bar room brawl sir."

"And what is the difference cadet?" The Commandant asked, slightly annoyed.

"Well sir the general rule is that there needs to be at least 20 people involved in a fight for it to be considered a bar room brawl sir and from what I could see there were only 10 people involved in that one…15 at a push."

Despite the fact he was a little angry I could see a small smirk appear on his face "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

"Well sir, I was sitting at the bar, minding my own business when another young man bumped into me from behind and accused me of bumping into him, I informed him that that couldn't have been the case since I was not moving and had my back to him, he then noticed I was a cadet, a few words were exchanged and then he took a swing at me, I ducked it and used his own momentum to send him into the bar at which point one of his friends hit me and I went down."

I paused to glance over at Mike "Cadet Stevens here stepped in to assist and it escalated from there, I don't know about the rest of the participant's sir but we only attacked 5 people and it was in self-defence sir."

The Commandant nodded and turned to look at Mike "Is that true cadet?"

"Yes sir, once cadet Kincaid was on the ground I knew the other two would jump him and I couldn't sit by and let that happen sir, not when they instigated it."

The Commandant looked between the two of us and nodded "Very well, the reports from the police and some witnesses said the same thing so neither of you will be reprimanded…this time, just try to stay out of trouble in the future and remember that you represent the Alliance even when you aren't in uniform."

"Yes sir." Mike and I replied.

"Dismissed."

"Well that was lucky." Mike muttered once we were out of the office.

"Tell me about it." I replied as we headed down the corridor before going our separate ways for the remainder of the evening.

The last day of my shore leave was ruining by Gunny Wilkins who heard about my little scuffle and had forced me to run the 10k course again, there and back lugging a 50 pound sack of god knows what, which was not fun, still overall it was a pretty good time and Stevens seemed like a good guy.

"So what's this I hear about you getting into a bar fight without me?" Zeke asked the second he got back.

"Who told you about that?" I asked.

"Alyssa, I saw her in the hall and she filled me in."

"Some idiot picked a fight, he lost." I answered "Welcome home, have fun?"

Zeke smiled "Oh yeah it was good to see the family again and some old friends too, was nice, still I can't wait to get off Earth and see what's out there."

If only you knew buddy I thought but smiled "It is something special." I said as I remembered my first thoughts of being in that shuttle and flying thought space, it was everything I had imagined it would be when I was a kid…well you know except for the whole getting shot down part, that sucked but overall it was one hell of an awesome experience.

"So other than get into bar fights what else did you do?" Zeke asked.

"Tweaked my Omni-Tool a bit, hung out with Alyssa for a bit and spent my nights at the Orchid Lounge." I replied and watched Zeke smirk "Where I only had the one fight." I added before he could crack a remark.

"Just do me a favour, next time get into a bar fight, make sure I'm there." He added with a grin.