Chapter 11
A/N - Long chapter (long being average to every other story on this site but whatever) this time. It's so much more fun writing this when the main characters are both present. Also got a message that sort of went like "wtf where is romance you lying prick?" Just to assure everyone that is wondering the same thing, the romance will be here. It's just that I'm gathering the courage to write that part. I also enjoy tormenting the ones who're begging for it. And come on, you gotta built up towards the romance and not simply throw it in the readers' face, right? RIGHT!?
"Joker." Shepard said to the back of the pilot's chair as she approached. The chair slowly turned around, revealing a bitter pilot with a frown on his face. "What's wrong?" She asked, although she already had a pretty good idea what was bothering the man.
"I was under the impression that I was a pilot, Shepard." He said before going quiet. Shepard was unsure if that had been a question and that she should answer or simply let him take his time. After a few silent moments she decided that it had to be the former.
"You are."
"Could've fooled me!" Joker said while motioning towards the holographic eye silently observing them. The ship's AI, that The Illusive Man had forgot to mention was part of the ship, was not something Joker enjoyed having there. "Bytes for brains here didn't let me take the ship out of port. It didn't even ask me!"
"Such a mundane task-" EDI, which apparently was the AI's name, started before Joker cut it off.
"I don't care if an armless vorcha could do it! I'm the pilot and the ship's mine to pilot!" Shepard suppressed a chuckle as she watched the argument between the two. Most people might've been uncomfortable having an AI with so much power aboard a ship but Shepard highly doubted that The Illusive Man had planted it here to do any harm towards Shepard. It was simply there to spy on her and she would simply ask someone with a bit more technical expertise to limit just how much EDI heard or saw. That line of thought brought her back to why she had approached Joker in the first place.
"Have you seen Holt?" She asked the pilot, breaking up his rant about how a human mind would always do better in combat scenarios. Joker turned towards her with a slightly amused expression.
"His turn to have 'the talk', eh?" He chuckled as Shepard simply shrugged. "I don't know, let me take a-"
"Mr. Holt is currently located in his quarters on the crew deck." EDI suddenly explained, to which Joker loudly cursed out.
"At least she didn't steer the ship this time." Shepard tried with a smile. Joker simply threw his glare towards her instead.
"'Her'? No, no, no... It's a 'it'." Joker began as he was checking a screen. "And Holt isn't in his damn quarters. He's in port observation."
"Mr. Holt got into the system not long after you boarded and changed the name to 'Holt's Quarters'." EDI explained. "When I questioned his actions, he explained to me that he simply called 'dibs'."
"That damn ass..." Joker began muttering. "He better be willing to share the stuff from the bar or I'll..." Was all Shepard heard before she was out of earshot. She didn't particularly care that Holt had done something like that. It simply showed that he was still his old self and able to get into the ship's systems. As long as he, like Joker mumbled about, shared the contents of the bar it was no big deal.
"Commander." A woman said with a salute as Shepard reached the elevator doors. Yeoman Kelly Chambers, another pair of eyes sent by The Illusive Man to keep track of her, no doubt.
"Chambers." Shepard responded with a half-smile and a nod. No point in being hostile towards everyone on this ship that was tasked with keeping an eye on her. As long as they were no direct threat towards her, she would treat them like any other crew.
"Are you off to your quarters?" The other woman asked as she remained by her station that was nearby. "It's been a long day with a lot of stuff to take in." Understatement of the year, right there. Waking up from a two year coma followed by almost non-stop fighting was really tiresome.
"Not just yet, I need to speak with someone in the crew."
"Nathan Holt?" She asked and Shepard must've given it away that she was correct because the yeoman continued. "I guess you have plenty of questions to ask after two years apart." Well, it had not felt like two years for Shepard at least. The more difficult thing that she had to wrap her head around was that the man wasn't dead after all.
"I'm guessing that you've been given a profile over all of the crew members?" Shepard asked in a friendly tone as she stepped into the now open elevator and selected the crew deck. She was sort of curious over exactly what was written in hers, just how much did Cerberus know?
"Correct." Chambers answered with a smile. "Good luck in your talk, Commander." She added before the elevator doors shut tight. Shepard would have to be careful over what she said in that woman's presence. Before long, she was in front of Holt's quarters, previously known as port observation. Taking a deep breath to shake off the nervousness she hated herself for having, she knocked on the door with determination before stepping in. She noticed that Holt must've done some light redecorating as one sofa had been moved so that it was facing the giant glass panel that showed the galaxy outside. A bed, that must've been ragged from another room, was set up in the corner, almost completely hidden by another sofa with a table in front of it.
"Like what I've done with the place?" She heard Holt asked from the sofa in front of the window. She heard on the very slight slur and a very faint smell in the air that he had been drinking. Couldn't have been a lot since she knew how he acted like when he had been drinking heavily. And the only reason she knew that was because she had been equally drunk that evening when the two of them had wobbled back on to the first Normandy. Forcing that embarrassing memory away from her mind, she responded.
"Could've been worse, I suppose." She said as she made her away around the sofa to get a better look at him. He looked up towards her for a moment before he turned his attention back towards the thousands of stars outside, his face unreadable. That kind of frustrated Shepard as she often used her skills in reading people to steer her conversations. "Thought it was the Captain's decision to make if a crew member wanted to change rooms?" She asked as she made her way over to the bar. The drink in Holt's hand had convinced her to have one herself. Only one though, she told herself.
"I called dibs first, that overrules the Captain's decision." Holt answered and Shepard could sense the smile on his face. As she returned to the sofa, she sat down next to him and simply enjoyed the moment as she could properly rest for the first time in what felt like decades. She had been busy ever since they boarded the ship with meeting the crew and exploring the ship. Although, she had been stuck down in the med-bay for quite a while as someone she certainly had not expected to meet was there, preparing for the mission ahead. How Dr. Chakwas had ended up in Cerberus she would find out tomorrow. Right now, she needed to hear Holt's story.
"What happened on Virmire?" She asked and could hear the ice lightly hitting each other in Holt's drink. That tiny reaction told her that he was nervous about explaining whatever it was that happened.
"Short or long version?" He inquired.
"I think I deserve the long one." She answered, a bit more harsh than she had intended.
"Yeah, you do." Holt sighed and a few moments of silence followed before he continued. "I'm guessing I don't have to explain the reason why I had been on The Normandy, right?" He asked to which Shepard nodded.
"I was told about your connection to The Shadow Broker." She said before she added a question of her own. "I never got it confirmed though but I'm guessing that he sold you out?" She asked to which Holt simply nodded. "Why did he do it?" She asked, hoping for a specific answer.
"He sort of noticed the lack of information about The Normandy that he was supposed to be getting from me." Holt said with a chuckle before he took a sip of his drink. Shepard felt like her mood brightened considerably upon hearing that. She and Garrus had been theorizing that what Holt just said had been the reason as to why the Shadow Broker suddenly wanted him dead. "I was warned by... a friend that I was about to be 'relocated' after Virmire."
"Relocated?"
"Relocated to a nice little coffin out in the middle of nowhere, no doubt."
"So you decided to go and blow yourself up?" Shepard asked, not believing Holt to be one to go down that road.
"I always wanted to go out with a bang." He faced with a grin which quickly faded as Shepard frowned at him. Sighing, he continued. "It was never my plan to almost die down there. I simply underestimated the power of the bomb, again." He added and Shepard was reminded of another event with Holt. She really shouldn't let him handle explosives ever again.
"Why didn't you simply tell me about... well, everything?"
"To tell the truth? I was scared of your reaction." He quickly answered and Shepard was surprised to hear what she did. "That, and on the off-chance that you would let me remain on the team that you would take a lot of shit for that decision from The Alliance." He added before he finished his drink and went to get another one. Shepard remained sitting while staring blankly out the window. Once Holt returned, she asked him to continue.
"So what happened on Virmire after the explosion?"
"Had a nice little rest for almost two days." Holt said in a low voice. "You remember me talking about my past as a tunnel rat on Omega?" Shepard nodded and Holt took another mouthful of the drink, seemingly preparing to continue. "I'm still not the biggest fan of small places such as vents or having the feeling of being trapped. So the time spent during those hours when I was trapped beneath, what felt like, a whole building wasn't the best time of my life." He said with a bitter chuckle and Shepard felt a pang of guilt. If she had known that Holt had been alive down on Virmire once they were leaving she would've turned the ship around.
"And Cerberus was the first ones to find you?" She guessed to which Holt nodded
"They pretty much told me that I either join them or pray to the nearest deity that someone else comes around before it was too late." Holt said as he sank further down in the sofa. "To be fair, they told me that The Shadow Broker wouldn't be able to locate me if I was with them. That promise lasted almost a whole month."
"And the reason to why you're still with Cerberus?" Shepard asked but she had a pretty good idea why already.
"Kinda don't wanna piss off more powerful organizations, if I can help it." Holt said with a sigh. "And so far, they haven't given me a gun and told me to go on a mindless rampage on some alien planet, so that's a plus." He added with a weary smile and Shepard couldn't help but return it.
"I'm glad that you haven't changed, Nathan." She sort of blurted out and Holt looked at her with a questioning glance. "Easy to get upset with but impossible to stay mad at." She added which made Holt laugh. While small, it was the first genuine laugh since they had met after both their 'deaths'.
"Also good to see that you're still the same old Jane." He said once his laughter died down. "Not counting that almost glowing scar close to your hairline." Shepard raised her hand to touch it.
"Chakwas said it will disappear before long."
"Chakwas is here?" Holt asked, not sounding very surprised.
"You didn't know she had joined Cerberus?"
"I'm not aware of a lot of things concerning Cerberus." Holt muttered, Shepard remembered how much the man hated being left out when it came to knowing things. She was the same, she hated going into things blindly.
"Poor Holt, being left out in the dark." She chuckled teasingly as she took a sip of her drink. It might've been her slight dehydration, but it was the most refreshing drink she'd ever had.
"Oh well, now I have that glowing scar to guide me." Holt responded with a chuckle of his own before they settled into a comfortable silence as they stared out towards the stars. Just like old times, Shepard thought.