Part 10: Quick Detour

Slowly opening her eyes as she awoke from her sleep revealed the dark-covered med-bay of the Normandy SR-2, and even if that wouldn't have been enough to convince her that it wasn't another one of her nightmares, Kelly's warm body pressed against hers, would have. They had remained in almost the same position they had fallen asleep in, entangled in each-others arms, not that the small clinic bed would have allowed either of them to move around much without rolling off it. An uncomfortable position to sleep in, sure, yet she wouldn't have changed it for anything in the world. As long as she could be next to Kelly, she would endure any kind of pains.

Tilting her head to the right, she let her eyes wander the room before they stopped on the clock standing on one of the desks in the room and even though she felt more relaxed and rested than in a long time she had to take a second look as she had a hard time believing her eyes. She'd been sleeping for well over nine hours, without even waking once, if the clock was correct. Not that she was complaining to finally get some sleep, but waking up drenched in sweat after two or three hours had become normal to her, it had become almost like a, although bad one, daily routine. Now she couldn't stop herself from thinking that things might finally start to change to the better, or at-least she hoped so.

The sudden movement of Kelly's body against her own brought her attention away from the clock and back onto the Yeoman, whom were still firmly asleep. Slowly lifting her hand off the small clinic bed she placed one of her fingertips against Kelly's forehead, a smile forming on her lips as she felt the Yeoman's warm skin underneath, bringing her back to last night. Out of all the things that her cooperation with Cerberus could have lead to, she'd never guessed that she would have fallen in love with one of their operatives. Yet, here they both lay next to each-other and she wouldn't change it for anything in the universe. As her finger had reached the end of Kelly's left eyebrow, she let it move down towards her cheek, moving it in wide circles until it brought the other woman out of her sleep.

Worry was the first expression visible across Kelly's face, something which was understandable considering how last time they had spent the night together had ended, but as their eyes met it was quickly replaced by a smile. Jenna let her hand slowly fall back against the bed as Kelly landed a quick kiss on her lips, followed by a moment of silence as the Yeoman's head came to rest against her chest. No matter how much she just wanted to remain there, close to Kelly, for another hour or two, they weren't in the best room of the Normandy to use as they wished.

- "So, you think Chakwas would like her med-bay back?" Jenna slowly pulled her hand through Kelly's hair as she spoke with a calm voice, certain that the doctor would've let them know if she truly had been in need of anything from within the room.

- "I'm certain she would like it back, but, I'm also certain she'd like someone to make sure they didn't miss a wound on your body before signing you out." With one swift move, Kelly placed herself on top of Jenna, locking her eyes onto the Commanders.

- "You know, I think you're right." The feeling of Kelly's warm body pressed against her own once again was to much for Jenna to say no to and she barely had the time to finish the sentence before Kelly connected their lips and she was lost once again.

O O O

- "How could it have ended up this far away?" Bending down to pick up her pants that had somehow landed behind the bed on the opposite side of the room, Kelly turned around to face Jenna whom had remained seated on the edge of the small clinic bed.

- "Well, at-least you have something to put on that doesn't feel like it'll fall off when you walk." Jenna looked down onto the thin piece of cloth that was all she had been able to find in the med-bay since her own armor and cloth had been cut through to get to the wound she'd received on the Collector base.

Luckily for her, the mess hall would be empty by this time of day and from there only a short walk separated the two of them from reaching the elevator which would take them to her cabin.

- "I wouldn't mind seeing you in that all day long before we reach the Citadel." A smile formed on Kelly's lips as she sat down next to Jenna to put her socks and shoes on.

- "Hmm, perhaps you're right, I'd love to see the expression on the councils and Anderson's face when I show up on the Presidium." And she didn't really know what was worse, meeting the council in a Cerberus uniform wasn't exactly the way to convince them she'd left the organization behind her.

- "Well, I'm certain we'll have found something for you to wear by then." Rising from the bed, she turned around and held out her right hand towards Jenna and once she had the Commanders hand in her own she pulled Jenna off the bed and onto her feet.

As they reached the door leading out of the med-bay and Kelly let go off her hand to get the door open, Jenna placed herself on the Yeoman's left side, using her as cover if by any chance they happened to meet someone before they reached the elevator. As the door slid open and revealed a dim lit and empty mess-hall, just as she had expected, the two women stepped out of the med-bay. They had gotten almost halfway to reach their goal when a familiar voice called out for them to their right and turning her head towards the mess-hall she thought had been empty it wasn't hard to spot Jacob coming towards them.

- "So, you're finally awake." The emphasis on the last word in combination with the smile on his lips convinced Jenna he meant something else, or perhaps it was the smile on her own and Kelly's that was the give away? But she didn't get to dwell on it any longer as he quickly continued with the real reason he had been waiting for them. "Councilor Anderson wanted to speak to you a couple of hours earlier, I told him you were, erhm, unable to attend at the moment and he left a message for you."

Jenna moved out from behind Kelly and took the PDA from Jacob's outstretched hand as she let her free hand once again find Kelly's. She was surprised to receive a call from Anderson so soon after leaving the Collector base, they had already agreed before she went trough the Omega-4 relay that their first stop would be at the Citadel, if they returned that was. Something serious must have happened if he needed to get a-hold of her even though it wouldn't be long before they reached the Citadel.

- "I've already told Joker to change course." He could see the confusion across Jenna's face as their eyes met again, not that he had expected anything else. "It'll be clear to you once you read the PDA, come and see me if you have any questions, Commander."

- "Thank you, Jacob." Of all the people she'd befriended on the SR-2, he was the only one who still liked to keep it formal so when she got nothing but a salute in response it didn't come as a surprise to her.

Jenna returned the salute before turning her attention back onto the PDA as Kelly began leading her towards the elevator, she was to curious to even wait until reaching her cabin to see what Anderson so urgently needed her to see. Quickly reading through the short apology from the councilor for dropping this on her so quickly and without warning she began going through the files that seemed to have come from the Alliance intelligence agency. Apparently they had picked up on a distress call from a Cerberus base which conducted research under the codename Overlord and needed someone to check it out before a clean-up team arrived at the facility.

- "So, anything interesting?" As they entered Jenna's cabin and she finally took her eyes of the PDA Kelly could clearly see there was something that had changed, the smile was gone and had been replaced with a more serious expression.

An expression she had seen all to well before, to be more exact, she had seen it every time Jenna had left the Normandy on a mission so she already knew the answer to her own question but hoped she would be wrong. Almost loosing Jenna once had been to painful and it wasn't something she wanted to go through again within such a short time-frame. Still, she understood it would be foolhardy to believe that Jenna would leave it be. Jenna was used to the military and getting things done, her life had been formed by the Alliance since she could walk, but it just didn't seem fair that they would send her out so soon, she had just begun recovering from the wounds she had received from during their escape from the Collector base.

And that wasn't the only concern she had. Jenna's nightmares was what really scared her even though they hadn't talked much about them yet. The difference she had seen in Jenna's eyes last night from the first time they had met in her room was huge, and now Kelly was afraid it would change again, for the worse.

- "Anderson want's us to check up on a Cerberus base before we head back to the Citadel." Placing the PDA on the desk, Jenna quickly got out of the med-bay clothing she was wearing as she walked down towards the drawers that contained the Cerberus uniforms.

- "They want you to go there now? Isn't there any other Alliance vessels nearby that can handle the situation?" There was a moment of silence as Kelly watched Jenna get into the uniform and pulled out the drawer that contained her combat armor.

- "Perhaps, but this will give us the chance to prove we aren't working for Cerberus anymore, to show the council we can be trusted." And there was always the chance, however slim it might be, that they would run into some information regarding the whereabouts of the Illusive Man, and if they did, Jenna wanted to be the one to get her hands on it first.

- "Well, can't Miranda or Jacob take this one, I'm certain they can handle it." It seemed it finally went up for Jenna what was really troubling Kelly as she stopped picking up the different pieces of the armor and placing them on the bed, instead walking back up to her.

- "I'll be fine, and back before you know it." Taking Kelly's hands in her own, Jenna landed a quick kiss on the Yeoman's cheek before turning towards the bed once again. "Now, will you help me get into that or do I have to do it all alone?"

Although it didn't make her feel any better, Kelly followed Jenna back down towards the bed, doing the best she could to pick out the correct piece from the bed as she was asked for it. It wasn't long before the entire armor covered Jenna's body and they shared one last kiss before Kelly watched as the door shut close and she was alone in the room. There wasn't much she could do now but wait.

O O O

Kelly was lying on the large double bed, staring out through the window in the ceiling at the stars above. It had been a long wait but the Normandy had finally begun to move, indicating to her that the ground team had either returned or that the SR-2 was on it's way to pick them up. Either way, it wouldn't be long now before she met Jenna again.

As the sound of the elevator door opening reached her ears, Kelly sat up on the edge of the bed as the door leading into the cabin slid open with an all to familiar sound. Kelly felt relaxed to see Jenna step inside the room, already out of her armor, but even from that distance she could see there was something troubling the Commander. As Jenna began the short walk to reach the bed were she was sitting, Kelly felt her heart pumping faster and faster. And it didn't help that Jenna was smiling at her, what she saw in the Commanders eyes told a different and more troubling story. But she remained still and silent as Jenna sat down next to her and the Commanders head came to rest on her shoulder. Placing her arm around Jenna, Kelly pulled the other woman as close to herself as she could, feeling her worry build up more and more as the silence continued until it was unbearable.

- "You wanna talk about it?" Jenna's hand was cold and sweaty as Kelly took it in her own, whatever had happened down there had obviously made quite an impact on her.

- "No, I'm fine." Jenna had a bad headache, not from any fight or wound, but from what she had seen down at the Atlas station. She had always thought she'd seen the worst already, but she was always proven wrong.

- "It doesn't look like that." If there was one thing Kelly was missing from Cerberus now, then it was the mission reports that Miranda would've sent and that she could have accessed as it was all to obvious it was something that had happened down there.

- "I'm just tired, that's all. I think I'll take a hot shower to relax." Forcing another smile as she rose from the bed and her eyes met that of Kelly's, Jenna turned around and headed back across the room.

As Jenna disappeared into the bathroom, Kelly remained seated on the edge of the bed for another minute, waiting for the sound of the shower to reach her ear before making her way over towards the computer in the room. She needed help if she wanted Jenna to understand she wasn't alone, and there was only one person she could think of that the Commander would trust. The question was if he would trust her, a Cerberus operative, but she needed to at-least try. Typing as quickly as she possibly could the message was far from perfect but it would have to do as she didn't want Jenna to know anything about it before hand. As the message was sent she found her way back to the bed after closing down the screen, waiting for Jenna to reemerge from the other room.