Chapter Twenty-Five - Empty
Orion Hall was unusually quiet now that more than half of Grissom Academy's students had been evacuated. All the artistic students, the painters, musicians and other young humans with extraordinary creative talent were already gone, and the Alliance had begun evacuating other departments. This morning, it was the students of interstellar economy along with those studying social studies.
Charles had to give it to the Alliance; the evacuation of the space station was progressing surprisingly smoothly. The advanced level students of the Ascension Project were eating their breakfast with their head director, Jack and Sophia. Around them, at the other tables, students of the remaining departments, mainly the scientific departments, were scattered. Even this early in the morning, Orion Hall was usually teeming with life, but this morning it was uncomfortably quiet and the faces of the students were either blank and expressionless or red and puffy from all the crying that had gone on.
With heavy steps, the students whose departments had been called to the shuttle docks for evacuation walked through Orion Hall. All of them were carrying bags with their most treasured belongings. Some of them would make a quick stop at one of the tables to say an emotional goodbye to their friends from other departments that had yet to be evacuated.
"I'll see you guys at the Citadel," a young man around Charles' age solemnly said to the Bellarmines and gave them a quick hug before leaving in direction of the shuttle dock.
"Yeah, see you, Bobby," Reiley said and waved.
Charles knew that the both he and Seanne had agreed to stay at Grissom Academy instead of going to the Citadel, which meant that they probably wouldn't be seeing their friend Bobby again anytime soon, but Prangley hadn't told Sophia about his decision to stay yet, and he had asked all of them to please keep it a secret until he could tell her himself.
"The basic level students have been moved up the list," Lieutenant Sanders told them. "They'll be leaving as soon as they can get a shuttle."
"Some of them are so scared," Vera sighed. "And the newest ones only just arrived."
"We should go and check on them," Kurt said, "and you know… say goodbye."
"Right," Charles agreed and stood up, "I'm not hungry anyway."
"Oh, you guys!" Sanders sobbed and stroked Vera's cheek in a loving motherly fashion. "I am so proud of you all. Taking care of the kids…"
The head director had tears streaming down her cheeks, but her eyes were burning with pride. Jack patted her on the back as the two of the rose from the table as well.
"I'll go to my own department," Sophia said, leaning against Prangley who had his arm around her. "Lichelle and I should see if there's anything we can do for the younger engineers as well."
"I'll see you in a bit, babe," Prangley said and kissed her temple before she left towards a table of other green-clad students.
"Still haven't told her we're staying?" Seanne quietly asked.
"No," Prangley said and hung his head. "I just don't know how to… how to say it, you know."
"You should tell her, Jason," Sanders said. "Soon."
"I know," Prangley muttered. "I'm just so… so scared. What if she'll hate me for staying?"
"She won't!" Vera said confidently. "She loves you more than you know."
"Really?" a sad smile was starting to form on his lips.
"I'm not saying she won't be upset," Vera said. "But she will not stop loving you."
"I'll tell her when we've helped the kids then," Prangley said.
"Good," Sanders said and started leading them towards the Ascension Hall, where the basic level students were gathered for breakfast and baggage checking in the gym.
When Charles entered the gym, he was immediately jumped by Sarah and Yaroslav, two of the youngest biotics. They were both crying their eyes out and squeezing him around his thighs and his waist, begging for him and the other advanced level students to come with them to the Citadel. Apparently, they had been informed about their decision to stay. Charles honestly didn't know how to respond to that. He hadn't expected them to feel that strongly about him or any of his classmates. Panicking slightly, he looked to Vera, silently pleading for her to do something.
Luckily, Vera was a natural in dealing with children, and she calmly got down on one knee. "Hey there," she said happily.
Immediately, the two children turned their attention to Vera and started hugging her instead.
Not feeling qualified to dealing with the children, Charles followed Prangley past the youngest to the back where some of the older basic level students were taking their frustrations out on the punching bags.
"You need to focus a bit more if you want to punch a hole in that thing, Solberg," Prangley told a red-faced young man who was angrily pounding his fists against the giant bag.
"It's not fair!" Solberg groaned as he jabbed the bag again, not even trying to put his biotic powers into the punches. "Why do you get to stay and fight while the rest of us are being hidden away at the Citadel."
"I guess you're too young," Prangley shrugged.
"Too young?!" Solberg angrily hissed and spun around to face Prangley and Charles. He was obviously upset. "I'm just one year younger than you two, aren't I?"
"Yes," Prangley said patiently. "But we don't make the rules. You can't stay if you're under eightee.."
"And he," Solberg interrupted and pointed to Charles. "…He doesn't even have any powers, but he gets to fucking stay! How is that fair?"
Charles and Prangley both glared at him.
Solberg breathed a sigh. "I'm sorry," he said, making eye contact with Charles. "That was completely uncalled for."
"Don't worry about it," Charles said. He could easily understand, that Solberg was only saying those things because he wanted to continue his training as well. Charles could sympathize with that. "I'm sorry that you have to leave with the rest of the department, but Prangley is right; we don't make the rules."
"I know," Solberg said and hung his head in shame. "I just want to feel like I'm doing something. Many of the others feel the same way. You know, we were going to sign up for advanced class in a few months' time anyway."
A redheaded girl, presumably one of Solberg's classmates, nodded eagerly.
"You're preaching to the choir, Solberg," Prangley said patiently. "Personally, I don't see why you guys shouldn't be allowed to stay. But again, it's not my decision."
"Lieutenant Sanders already told us no," the ginger girl said in a defeated tone.
"There you go," Prangley said with a wry smile. "If mommy says no, you shouldn't go and ask daddy! Mommy has the power anyway."
Charles laughed. "Yeah! Certainly in this case where mommy is the head director of the department, whilst 'daddy' is just another student."
Solberg and his classmates' moods lightened a bit and they didn't bother them with complaints of unfair treatment after that. Instead, Prangley offered to show them how to perform a powerful biotic punch. Whilst Prangley was teaching, or rather showing off his powers to the oldest of the basic level students, Charles decided to head back to the younger students to help them structure their luggage.
"Wait, Magnus!" a small voice called after him, just as he was about to offer his assistance to a couple of young boys who were obviously struggling with fitting all their belongings into their bags.
Charles turned around to see a girl running up to him. She was very pretty, but she didn't look much older than fifteen or sixteen. "Hey," he said and gave her a reassuring smile, expecting her to be just another scared student. He did wonder how she knew his name though. He certainly didn't know hers.
"I need to talk to you," the girl said and pointed to a corner of the gym where they would be able to talk undisturbed.
"Okay…" Charles hesitantly said and followed her to the area where all the treadmills were.
He took a seat on one of the treadmills and motioned for her to sit on the one across from him. She did.
When the girl didn't start speaking, Charles figured that she was probably either to nervous or scared, so he decided to get the conversation going.
"What's your name?" he asked, trying to get her to open up. He didn't want to offer her a therapy session, but he still felt some responsibility for the mental wellbeing of the younger students in his department.
"Sabrina van der Westhuizen," she answered.
"Hi Sabrina, I'm Charles."
"I know," Sabrina said and planted her hand on Charles' thigh, which he thought was somewhat strange.
Thinking that Sabrina was just a little special or maybe stressed out by the evacuation, Charles decided not to pay attention to her hand, which was squeezing his thigh. It was hard though.
"How come you know who I am?" he asked.
"Honestly?" Sabrina said and moved her hand further up his thigh, "I think I'm in love with you, Charles."
Suddenly the pieces came together in his head. Just in time to stop Sabrina from putting her hand on his groin. Politely but firmly he removed her hand from his privates. He knew how jealous Jack could get, and if she saw him being fondled by this girl, Grissom Academy could very well be experiencing a double homicide committed by a teacher in its closing days.
Charles was a little shocked by Sabrina's forwardness, but he didn't want to make a big scene out of it. He was also impressed with her courage; he would certainly never have been able to do what she just did. Declaring your love for a senior student took guts, and he admired that. Also, he couldn't help but feel a little flattered; before coming to the academy, he had never received any female attention of that sort.
"Listen Sabrina," Charles sighed. "I'm flattered. I really am. But I actually have a girlfriend."
"But…" Sabrina said, looking very surprised and a little heartbroken. "I've never seen you with anyone."
"We're sort of keeping it a secret," Charles told her.
"You must be good at keeping secrets then, 'cause I have been watching you closely," Sabrina whispered.
Charles laughed nervously. Sabrina didn't seem like a crazy stalker or anything like that, but she certainly had a massive crush on him, that was for sure. Again, he couldn't help but feeling a little happy about the attention he was receiving.
"You know…" Sabrina thoughtfully said after a little while. "If you've been able to hide this girlfriend of yours from me, then maybe you and I could go out without her finding out."
Charles snorted. "Trust me; you don't want to take that chance. My girlfriend is… hmmm… a little unpredictable. And besides, I love her very much. I would never do that to her."
"Oh, come on, Charles!" Sabrina moaned and moved her hand back to his thigh and started rubbing closer and closer to his groin. "I promise you, it will be worth the risk."
Charles removed her hand again, a little more firmly this time. "I'm sorry, Sabrina. You seem really nice and you are very pretty, but I am spoken for."
Sabrina hung her head as Charles walked away. He didn't feel good about rejecting her, when she had shown the courage to reveal her feelings towards him, but there was just no way he would even think about betraying Jack. Not because he was scared of her, but because he loved her.
"Who was that?" Jack asked as he returned to the others.
"Some girl named Sabrina," Charles said, trying to sound as indifferent as possible. Sabrina would be gone in a couple of hours, and he didn't see any reason for Jack to get worked up over nothing.
"What did she want?" Jack demanded to know, keeping an eye on the girl who was still sat by herself on a treadmill.
"Oh, nothing really," Charles said with a shrug. "She was just a little nervous, so I tried to cheer her up."
"You didn't do a very good job," Jack noted dryly. "She looks a lot sadder now than before you talked to her."
Charles didn't answer that, instead he began helping Yaroslav with the straps on his rucksack.
"It's time!" Mr. Nobb, one of the basic level instructors, announced. "Grab your gear and follow me!"
Charles and his classmates helped the younger students with their bags as they started to move out through the door and out into Ascension Hall. He took a look around and realized that, for the first time in his time at Grissom Academy, the entire Ascension Project was together. Ironically, this would also be the last time.
-X-X-X-
Jack was helping some kids with their luggage when she looked up and saw Prangley teaching biotic punches to some basic level students. She felt a surge of pride and smiled at Magnus who was making his way back to her and the others.
Suddenly, he stopped and turned around to talk to a girl who approached him. She was pretty and unlike most of the other students, she was smiling. She pointed to the far corner of the gym and Charles followed her there and sat down on a treadmill across from her. At this point, Jack had completely forgotten about the kid she was supposed to assist.
"Are you okay, Jack?" Rodriguez asked.
"Yeah," Jack said and took the chance to have a talk with her female student. She had wanted to do that for some time now. In her head, Rodriguez and Magnus were spending far too much time in each other's company. It was time to get the cards on the table.
"What's the deal with you and Magnus?" she hissed, just loud enough for only Rodriguez to hear.
"What?" Rodriguez said. "What do you mean?"
"You want him, don't you?" Jack accused. "You would love to have him for yourself, wouldn't you? Didn't want him before, but now that he's with me, he's interesting all of a sudden!"
"What are you talking about, Jack?" Vera whispered, sounding like she was about to cry. "There's nothing going on between Charles and me."
Jack felt bad for making her student cry, but Rodriguez's closeness to Magnus had been bugging her for quite some time. She knew she was being jealous, but Jack had really opened up to Charles in a way she had never done to anyone before, which meant that she just couldn't stand the thought of him with other women.
Personally, she liked Rodriguez very much, but she was just way too attractive to be as friendly towards Jack's boyfriend as she was.
"I've seen you looking at him!" Jack snarled.
"He's my friend," Rodriguez sobbed. The tears were streaming down her cheeks. "That's all. I swear, Jack."
"You better stay away, Rodriguez!" Jack warned her and turned her attention back to Magnus, who was still in conversation with the bitch from basics.
She kept a very close eye on the two of them, but sadly, she couldn't see much. Behind Jack, Rodriguez had dried her eyes and moved further away from her. She was still helping out the kids though.
Again, Jack felt bad about hurting one of her best students, but she just needed to get her away from Magnus. The younger, pretty biotic was simply too big a threat.
-X-X-X-
Charles and his classmates had been lined up at the shuttle docks and they were shaking hands with all their fellow Ascension Project students, as they slowly filed into the awaiting shuttles.
Shaking Sabrina van der Westhuizen's hand had been a little awkward. She had tried to pull him into a hug, but since Jack had already noticed that something was up with Sabrina, Charles had politely kept his distance.
"Will you be safe?" Yaroslav asked when it was his turn to say goodbye.
"Yes," Charles said and gave him a reassuring smile. "But I need you to look out for Sarah and the others. Can you do that for me?"
Yaroslav nodded with a determined look on his face and ran to his classmates.
"You're great with the kids," Kurt said and clapped Charles on the back.
He shrugged. "I just know that I'd worry less if I felt like I had a purpose."
"Who's that Jack is talking to?" Kurt asked and pointed to the group of Ascension students waiting to board a shuttle.
Charles looked over there and saw Jack in a heated discussion with Sabrina.
"Shit," he said. "That's Sabrina van der Westhuizen."
"Who? And why does Jack look so angry?" Kurt asked in confusion.
"She just told me earlier today that she likes me," Charles sighed.
Kurt laughed. "And now Jack is telling her off?"
Charles however did not laugh. "It's not even funny, mate. She gets really upset about these things."
"Clearly," Kurt said and nodded at Jack and Sabrina. The girl was crying as Jack turned away and stomped out of the room.
Vera came over. Apparently, she too had seen Jack storm off in direction of Ascension Hall.
"You have to talk to her, Charles," Vera said.
"Why?" Charles asked. "Sabrina is leaving now. Everything will be back to normal tomorrow."
Vera breathed a deep sigh. "No, it won't."
"What do you mean?"
"Earlier today, Jack asked me to stay away from you. She would probably kill me if she could see us now," Vera sad in a sad voice.
"What?!" Charles shouted. "Does she think that you… and I?"
"Apparently. She scared me," Vera sobbed and started to cry against Kurt's shoulder.
"You're right," Charles said. "I should talk to her. It's not fair of her to treat you like this."
"Take care," Kurt said worriedly as Charles left them to go and find Jack. They all knew Jack's temper and biotic power, so talking to her while she was upset wasn't without risks.
As he walked towards Jack's office, he tried to calm himself down, but he only managed to upset himself more and more. He had known that she was easily jealous, but he hadn't talked to her about it. Maybe, if he had, this whole thing could have been avoided. Some of it was his own fault, but he could feel within himself, that he was actually angry with Jack. She had no reason to threaten Vera, and even though Sabrina had been a little handsy, Charles didn't think that she deserved Jack's rage. After all, nothing had happened.
He was also disappointed and a little hurt that Jack didn't think more of him. It stung that, apparently, she wasn't convinced that he would stay true to her.
When he finally arrived at Jack's office door, he was fuming with built-up rage, which was very much unlike him. Angrily, he tapped the panel, activating the doorbell. When nothing happened within the first second, he quickly slapped it three more times.
Suddenly, the door opened and there she stood. If he was angry, it was nothing compared to what he found it Jack's dark eyes. She was positively furious.
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?" both of them shouted at the same time.
"You should go and apologize to Vera!" Charles yelled, "right now!"
"Fuck you!" Jack spat. "You lying, cheating son of a bitch!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Charles screamed, bravely taking a step closer.
"I'm talking about that little whore of yours. Sabrina or whatever the fuck her name is! She said she loves you!"
"How the hell is that my fault?" Charles roared.
"You told me she was nervous about leaving, you lying fuck!" Jack yelled and pushed him in the chest. She put quite a bit of her biotic power into it, and Charles stumbled back into the hallway until his back met the opposite wall.
"Of course I did," Charles shouted and stepped right back up in her face again. "Look at how you're taking it!"
"Oh fuck off, why don't you?" Jack snarled, turned around and marched from her office into her bedroom.
"Will you apologize to Vera?" Charles asked, following her through the office and into the bedroom. "She's not even involved in this, but you really hurt her!"
"No!" Jack shouted. "Fuck off I said!"
Jack's biotic aura sparkled and she pushed him in the chest again, clearly expecting him to be sent flying ass first out of her bedroom. To both her and his surprise, that didn't happen. Instead, Charles' entire body flashed blue and Jack was tossed across the room and landed on her bed.
"What the fuck!" she hissed and jumped to her feet, but Charles just pushed her back down.
Quickly, he bent down over her and locked her arms with his hands. Impulsively, without really realizing what he was doing, he leaned down and gave her a kiss. Not gently and softly as usual, but forcefully and angrily.
Jack looked at him in confusion, but then she started to return his kiss, very aggressively.
Groaning against her lips, Charles let go of her arms, which Jack immediately reacted to by biotically throwing him up into the air and rolling off the bed before he came back down, landing on his back on the bed with a loud gasp.
"Rargh!" Jack roared and jumped on top of him, pinning his arms down with her knees. She gave him a hard slap across the face. It wasn't a full blown punch, but it was enough to make Charles' ears ring, and he had to shake his head to regain his bearings. Meanwhile, Jack had begun unzipping his uniform. As soon as she had removed all the clothes from his torso, she started working on the pants, but as soon as Charles regained control of his arms, he rolled her off of him and literally ripped her clothes off.
Jack tried to slap him once more, but this time he dodged and instead he slapped her ass cheek so hard that it left a red silhouette of his hand between the tattoos.
"Hnngghh," Jack groaned and jumped up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist while kissing him forcefully.
Charles stumbled around the bedroom with Jack clinging to him. Purposely, he slammed her against several walls and bookshelves. He even ran her into a mirror, which cracked and gave Jack a few minor cuts down her backside. In response, she dug her nails into his shoulders, actually drawing blood.
Charles bodily threw her back onto the bed and Jack spread her legs. As she lay there, panting, he saw that she was wetter than he had ever seen her before. In a haze of lust and rage he made quick work of his own pants before jumping on top of her.
Not giving a shit about gentle entrance, he slammed into her with a powerful thrust.
"Shit!" Jack screamed.
Charles continued to thrust his entire length into Jack, and every time he plunged into her wet center she would scream louder.
"Fuck! Fuck! Shit! Ah! Ah! Yeah! You! Cheating! Bastard!"
Charles roared and grabbed her thighs so tightly that his knuckles turned white while the skin beneath Jack's tattoos reddened. "I haven't cheated!" he shouted angrily and squeezed her thighs while fucking her even harder. In a complete trance, he had lost all control of what was happening.
Again and again, Charles pounded her until she was shivering from top to toe, completely lost in her orgasms. Even as he felt her tighten around his cock, Charles didn't stop. Mercilessly, he continued to fuck her, harder and harder, making Jack scream and writhe until the words she was saying stopped making sense. It was like she was speaking in tongues; she was so far gone in her orgasms.
With one final thrust, Charles released his juices inside of her, before collapsing from both mental and physical exhaustion.
For almost an hour, both of them just lay there on linens soaked with all sorts of body fluids: His and her juices, sweat and quite a bit of blood. It was a mess. At first, Charles had to spend the first couple of minutes just to regain his breath. After that he realized what had just happened. It had been such a strange experience. It was like someone had taken control of his body and directed him to do what he had done to Jack. Now she was lying with her head on his chest, softly playing with nipple.
"What the hell was that?"
"That was so fucking hot!" Jack replied, and Charles realized that he had said it out loud.
"But…" Charles said confused. He hadn't actually meant to do any of all those things to Jack, but his body had just sort of done it on its own. "But I was so angry with you."
"And I was pissed off at you," Jack said, squeezing his nipple between her nails.
"Ouch! But why the sex then?"
"You started it," Jack pointed out. "Not that I'm complaining. Angry sex was awesome!"
"It was completely insane," Charles said and looked down at a sore spot on his arm. "Hey, did you bite me at some point during all that?" he asked and pointed to some tooth marks on his bicep.
"Yup," Jack said, "but you shouldn't complain. I won't be able to sit properly in weeks after the spanking you gave me."
"I'm sorry," Charles said and blushed.
"Hah, you were really in a trance, huh?" Jack laughed at how different he was behaving now that he wasn't angry any longer. He was back to his shy old self. "I must really have pissed you off. You even used your biotics at one point. Involuntarily, of course."
"Hmmm," Charles hummed thoughtfully. The sex had been amazing, but they hadn't really reached any sort of conclusion to their fight.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth about Sabrina," Charles whispered in Jack's ear, deciding to take the first step towards peace, well, the second step if you counted the animalistic sex. "She actually wanted to tell me that she was in love with me, and she tried seducing me a little. I should have just told you about it."
"You should," Jack said, "but I still overreacted."
"A bit," Charles said and gave her a little squeeze.
"I'll have to buy Rodriguez a pony, won't I?"
"A pony?" Charles repeated.
"Hell, I don't know what a girly girl like her would accept as an apology gift."
"Just tell her that you're sorry," Charles suggested. "That will be enough. Maybe give her a hug."
"A hug? Really?"
"Yes," Charles sighed. "She'd love that."
"I'd rather just get her the pony then," Jack said. "But, okay…"
For a while, they just stayed in bed. Jack was playing with Charles torso, while he gave her a gentle scalp massage.
"You'll have to start trusting me at some point," Charles whispered in her ear. "You keep telling me that I'm such a boy scout and that I'm actually being too much of a gentleman. Well, boy scouts and gentlemen don't cheat on their girlfriends… So how about a little trust?"
"I'll try," Jack promised and that was all Charles wanted to hear.
Charles rose from the bed and went to find his underpants, behind him he could hear Jack snickering.
"What?" he said and turned to face her. She was still lying in bed.
"Nothing," Jack said with a grin. "It's just… You have scratch marks all over your back."
"And whose fault is that?"
"You should try to get angry with me more often," Jack said and changed the subject. "But only if you decide to 'punish' me like this every time."
"No promises," Charles said and gave her a shy smile. "I'm not angry very often, and besides, I'm not that comfortable with losing control like that."
Jack looked thoughtful. "Though I would love for you to fuck me like this more often, I think I know what you mean. I've been fighting on pure anger ever since I was just a kid, and sometimes when I've lost complete control, I ended up killing pretty much anyone in my path, and when I finally came to my senses, I couldn't remember what I'd done. It wasn't always nice."
Charles nodded and put on the rest of his uniform. "So we're cool now?" he asked. He had never been in a fight like this before and certainly not with a girlfriend (since Jack was his first). He had no idea if he could consider their problem solved or not.
Jack looked up at him, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. "We're cool. I'll apologize to Rodriguez if you promise to stop cheating on me."
"Damn it! I have NOT been cheating on you, Jack!" he yelled, feeling the anger rise once more.
"Ooh, you're angry again?" Jack giggled, and Charles realized that she was only joking. "You going to punish me?"
Charles laughed and took off his uniform again. Jack smiled seductively at him, clearly happy that he was up for another go.
"We might as well," Jack said. "These sheets will have to be burned anyway."
The second time was a lot less violent, but equally passionate. Jack was quite sore from the abuse he had given her, which resulted in some very tender and romantic love-making. A huge contrast to their angry fucking.
"I love you," Charles said against her lips as he gently entered her.
-X-X-X-
"Love you too," Jack purred and urged him to penetrate her a little deeper. She might have been sore, but it would take a special kind of pain for her to stop loving the feeling of Magnus' throbbing shaft in her.
To her surprise, Jack found that she was able to enjoy the gentle sex almost as much as the rough and violent sex. Almost.
She had realized that she was in the wrong about the Sabrina bitch and certainly about Rodriguez, and she had decided that she was going to apologize. Well, to Rodriguez at least. She couldn't forget about how incredibly hot it had been while Magnus savagely drilled into her, and she honestly considered finding a way to deliberately make him that angry again. If the sex was as good for him as it was for her, she was sure that she would be forgiven afterwards. It was totally worth it.
Magnus was above her, pushing himself deeper and deeper into her pussy. It all happened slowly and with little force, which Jack was actually thankful for. When she felt her walls clenching around him, she realized how sore she actually was and let out a little whimper.
"I'm sorry," Magnus said, looking terrified at just the thought of hurting her now that he wasn't angry anymore. He pulled out and awaited her reaction. He really was just the sweetest thing.
Jack grabbed the back of his neck and their eyes locked.
"It's okay," she whispered. "Just be gentle with me."
"Are you sure?" he said nervously. "We could stop."
"Magnus," Jack said patiently. "I want this… I want you."
Jack could literally see the happiness in his eyes as they continued to stare into hers. Slowly, he entered her again while rubbing circles around her clit with his thumb.
The two of them maintained eye contact, which made the whole thing infinitely more sensual and romantic. Eventually, Jack was the one to break their visual bond, when she closed her eyes and shivered from yet another orgasm. She had lost count of how many of those she had had that day. Much of the angry sex had felt like one big climax to her.
Seconds later, Magnus groaned, grabbed one of her breasts and shot the last of his sperm out on her stomach.
"Now I'm sore too," he groaned and rolled over to lie on his back beside Jack.
"Seems only fair," Jack whispered and stuck her tongue in his ear, but Magnus pulled away.
"You're going to have to stop teasing me, woman! I've got no control, and I think that one more time would hurt far too much, for both of us."
"Pussy," Jack said, playfully swatting his arm.
Magnus rolled onto his side and pushed himself up on his elbow. For a long time, he just lay there, lovingly staring at Jack. Just the way he looked at her told so much more than words ever could, and she realized how stupid she had been for suspecting him of cheating. Trust had never come easy to her, but her stay aboard the Normandy had helped a lot.
Not trusting Magnus and jealousy were remaining vices from the old Jack, and she suspected that she had felt it even stronger because she was afraid of losing him.
It was scary how addicted to him she had become so quickly. Just the thought of him with another woman made her sick to her stomach, but as she looked down at the tattooed skin of her abdomen, she saw his glistening semen, and she knew that he was hers.
"Want to soak in the tub for a while?" Magnus asked.
"Yeah."
She felt like she really needed a bath, having both of their juices on the inside and outside, sweat all over and bloody scratches on her back from being thrown against the mirror, which now looked like a bloody mosaic. She could imagine Magnus wanting a bath as well. Besides being sweaty and covered in juices, his back had been scratched up pretty good by Jack's nails and he was bleeding from his lip after being slapped.
Jack rolled out of bed and tiptoed around data-pads, broken furniture parts, pieces of glass and clothing on the floor.
She heard a loud gasp from the bed and turned to see Magnus staring at her with horror.
"What?"
"You're bleeding," he stated and pointed to her back. "I'm so sorry." A tear rolled silently down his cheek.
"Don't be," Jack said and continued without exaggeration. "It was the best sex I've ever had. Easily worth a little blood."
He still didn't look comfortable, so Jack flicked her wrist upward and levitated him into the air. Floating him along without having to step around all the debris on the floor, she opened the bathroom door and settled him down on the tile floor.
He still looked nervously at her back, where blood was smeared over her tattoos, but Jack just turned on the valves and filled the large bathtub.
"Get in," she ordered and pushed him towards the water.
He gently lowered himself into the water, wincing as he submerged the scratches on his back. Jack crawled in on top of him, also wincing and hissing as the cuts on her back touched the water. She felt him shift under her, obviously still not comfortable with being the one responsible for her wounds.
To show him that he had done nothing wrong, she reached down, grabbed his wrists and placed his hands on top of her breasts. For a long time, they just stayed like that, and Jack would have thought that he had fallen asleep if he hadn't been softly kneading her breasts, but eventually, the water became too cold and Magnus started to stir beneath her.
"Your room is a mess," he stated.
"I'm not cleaning it today," Jack answered. "Tomorrow…"
"You can sleep in my room then. It's not like there are many people left to be suspicious of us. All my neighbors have already been evacuated. Actually, I think Prangley's might be the closest inhabited room to mine."
"Okay. We'll do that then. How about we find Rodriguez now? I better apologize while I can still feel the pain of how you'll punish me if I don't. Otherwise, I might forget to do it, and you will have to teach me another lesson."
"Are you in a lot of pain?" Magnus nervously asked.
"Nah. I'm just messing with you. Let's really go find Rodriguez though."
-X-X-X-
"Is it too late for lunch?" Magnus asked as they walked down the corridor.
"Hungry?" Jack said.
"Very much," he groaned and grabbed his growling stomach. Jack had to agree; none of them had eaten properly at breakfast, and now she was absolutely famished.
"Let's go then," she said and turned down a hallway that would take them to lunch – if they weren't too late.
Even though the station was almost completely depopulated by now, neither of them wanted to take any chances, so they made sure to keep a reasonable distance between each other. Jack gave Magnus a sidelong glance and noticed that his lip was still a bit swollen and there was a little spot of dried blood at the corner of his mouth. She smiled to herself, imagining how Kahlee would freak if she knew how rough they had been with each other.
As they stepped into Orion Hall, Jack initially thought that they had been too late for lunch, until she noticed a single buffet table at the far end of them room which still held food. Maybe, Jack thought, there were so few students left, that only a single table was needed.
Just a few older students sat in small groups at the round tables near the buffet. Most of them would be leaving the station later that day. This included Prangley's girlfriend Sophia, whom they found at one of the tables in deep conversation with her biotic boyfriend.
"Can we sit?" Jack asked, while Magnus was getting them some sandwiches from the buffet.
Prangley distractedly nodded and returned his attention to Sophia, while Jack took a seat.
"I must admit, I am quite excited about going to the Citadel," Sophia happily said. "I've never been there, you know."
"I know," Prangley said and gave her hand a little squeeze.
Jack watched their conversation, wondering if Prangley had already told her that he would be staying at the academy. She guessed not, since Sophia seemed so happy. The engineer confirmed her suspicion immediately.
"You've been there loads of times. You could show me around!" Sophia gleefully squealed.
'Oh, shit!' Jack thought, regretting that she had chosen that table. She could tell from Prangley's facial expression that he was finally going to tell his girlfriend the truth.
"Yeah…" Prangley stalled. "About that… There's something I have to tell you, hon'. I'm not going to the Citadel."
"What do you mean? Of course you are!" Sophia said, completely in denial.
"I'm sorry, baby. But Jack and Sanders are staying here to form a biotic combat squad. You know I have to stay."
Sophia just stared at him, gaping. Suddenly, she broke down in tears and ran from the table, loudly and painfully crying.
"Baby!" Prangley yelled and ran after her.
In that moment, Magnus came back with their food.
"He finally told her?" he guessed. Jack nodded. "Shit…"
"It can't be easy for her," Jack said. "Leaving while he stays here."
"I wouldn't be able to do it," Magnus said in a very sincere tone. "If you were staying and I had to leave… I could never do that."
A warm sensation grew in Jack's stomach as Magnus spoke. Though she sometimes thought of him as a bit too innocent and overly sweet, she had to admit that she loved his affection and devotion. She gave him an appreciative smile and accepted the sandwich he offered her.
When they were almost done with their lunch, Nielsen and Rodriguez stepped into Orion Hall, grabbed a couple of sandwiches and started looking for a table – not that it was hard to find an empty one.
Rodriguez looked at Jack and there was a moment's eye contact before she grabbed her blond friend, pointed to another table and started dragging him away from Jack and Magnus.
Unfortunately, Magnus had seen them as well, and Jack could tell that he was wondering why they didn't want to sit with them.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Ehm… I may have threatened Rodriguez to stay the hell away from you," Jack admitted.
Magnus sighed and shook his head, and Jack was afraid that he might fly off the handle again. It had resulted in some wonderfully crazy sex last time, but she wasn't sure if having a fight in the middle of Orion Hall was a good idea, especially because their relationship was still a secret.
"Let's go," Jack said and stood up. Magnus quickly followed.
"Rodriguez," Jack said firmly as she approached her two students.
Rodriguez jumped in her seat and fear was evident in her eyes, as Jack marched right up to her chair. The pretty, young woman cowered in her seat, clearly fearful of what Jack could do to her.
"I'm sorry!" she shrieked, diving for cover behind Nielsen, who looked both confused and scared. "I didn't even look at him, I swear!"
"Get back in your seat, Rodriguez," Jack commanded and was obeyed immediately.
Jack leaned in closer and continued in a whisper that was only audible to Rodriguez, Nielsen, Magnus and herself. "I wanted to apologize to you. I don't want you to be afraid of me; in fact, I only want to protect you. I know that there's nothing going on with you and Magnus, and it was wrong of me to accuse and threaten you. Can you forgive me?"
Even though she had changed a lot over the last couple of months, apologizing still didn't come easy to Jack. In this case though, she knew that she had to make everything alright again, not just for Rodriguez, but for herself as well. Internally and professionally, she had sworn to protect her students and because she had made that promise to herself, she felt bad that she had now scared this girl shitless. Besides, she really did like Rodriguez. She was pretty, smart, talented, friendly, dutiful and she had a great sense of humor. In many ways, she was like a younger version of Miranda Lawson. She had the hair, the curves and at least a good portion of the brains. Plus, she didn't have the attitude.
"I can forgive you, ma'am," Rodriguez quietly said, as sweetly as ever. "So, I'm allowed to talk to Charles again, yeah?"
"Sure," Jack said and crossed her arms. "You can even give him a hug if you want to."
Rodriguez smiled, and to Jack's great surprise, she stood and gave her a hug instead. Standing there with her student's curvaceous body pressed against her own, Jack awkwardly patted Rodriguez' back. She had to admit that the younger woman had an amazing body, and as they hugged each other, Jack could feel herself getting a little hot. She was actually relieved when Rodriguez let go of her and turned to Magnus to embrace him instead.
"Are you sure it's okay?" Rodriguez asked and turned her head to Jack before hugging him.
Jack nodded, and was relieved to find that she didn't feel particularly uncomfortable when Magnus and Vera hugged each other.
"You have some tomato… here," Rodriguez told Charles and pointed to the corner of her own mouth.
"Thanks," Magnus said and reached for a tissue.
To both his and Jack's surprise, Rodriguez licked her thumb and started rubbing her wet finger in the corner of his mouth.
"Wait," she said and stopped rubbing. Your lip is really swollen. "Hey, is this blood?"
"Uhm…" Magnus froze.
"It IS blood!" Rodriguez shrieked. "Did someone punch you? Was it Snow?"
"That was me," Jack interrupted. "We had a little fight."
"Really?" Nielsen said excitedly. "Who won?"
Magnus and Jack looked at each other. "Draw," they chorused.
"Clearly," Rodriguez said with a dirty smile as she noticed they both had damp hair from the bath.
"Well… Yes," Jack said awkwardly. "A draw."
"On another note," Nielsen said, clearing his throat. "The engineers will be leaving tonight after dinner, which means that after that, we will be here alone. Well, us and Froeberg's geeky crew."
Magnus stepped around Rodriguez, who was still trying to clean the blood from his lip, and sat down at the table. "Yeah, we just saw Prangley tell Sophia that he's staying."
"How did she take it?" Rodriguez curiously asked, returning to the table to finish her sandwich.
"Not well," Jack muttered.
"They'll be alright," Rodriguez said confidently. "She loves him more than he knows and properly more than he deserves, and Prangley doesn't even realize how much he needs Sophia. I wouldn't be surprised if it's going to be harder for him being apart than it will be for her."
Nielsen looked thoughtful. "Maybe he will become just as obnoxious as before. Shame, really. I was starting to like him a lot better."
"Me too," Rodriguez admitted. "But I think that Jack here plays a big part in his transformation as well. Maybe even bigger than Sophia."
"Really?" Jack said. "How so?"
"He respects you, ma'am," Nielsen said. "Unlike some of the instructors we had in basics, he really admires you."
Jack thought about that for a moment. Naturally, she had noticed that Prangley had changed since the first couple of weeks at the academy. She was happy that he was still just as confident and serious about his combat biotics, but was pleased that he was now a lot easier to be around, especially for the other students. He had become less of an asshole, but he had done it without losing the edge that made him special. If she had anything to do with that, she didn't know, but the change was certainly welcome. What a dick he had been when she first met him.
Rodriguez was quick to forgive Jack, which only made the instructor like her even more, and before long all four of them were discussing how they were going to practice fighting, now that they wouldn't have the combat engineers to spar with any longer. As an instructor with limited experience, Jack appreciated the ideas and advice of her students, as long as they knew who had the final say.
After discussing their training for almost two hours, dinner was already being served in Orion Hall. The kitchen personnel had already been evacuated, and the cooking duty had been taken over by the small Alliance security detail who were staying behind to guard the remaining few students and maintain proper functionality aboard the space station. Luckily, that included cooking as well, which meant that Jack and her students wouldn't have to think about that. On the downside, the quality of the food had suffered greatly.
The food was now being cooked by soldiers, which meant that it was going to be suited for humans with high activity levels, probably a high protein diet too. It wasn't really a problem for Jack and her biotic students, who required a shitload of calories after a day of training. She could easily imagine though, how Froeberg and his students would be getting fatter and fatter from eating the soldiers' cooking without really exercising.
Suddenly, she realized that Magnus might be getting fat as well. Of course he would still be working out, but if he ate like his classmates without having his biotics to burn it off, with the new diet, he would surely be getting chubby. Jack didn't particularly like the thought of that, she enjoyed how he had actually become increasingly toned in the time they had been together.
It saddened her that many of his muscles were built on frustration. Every time the rest of the students were doing something with their biotics, he would be happy to help, but afterwards he would go to the gym and punish his body until he collapsed with exhaustion. Perhaps she should try to stop him from destroying himself like that, but she had to admit, she loved the effect it had on his body. Maybe she should just warn him about eating too much of the new food instead.
"Hey," Magnus suddenly said to Nielsen and Rodriguez. "Did the two of you hear from your parents?"
"Yup," Nielsen answered. "My girlfriend and my parents are all still on Terra Nova."
"Mine too," Rodriguez added. "The sixth fleet is there to protect them.
"That's good news then, yeah?" Magnus said.
"I guess," Rodriguez sighed. "Though I would much prefer it if they just evacuated to the Citadel immediately."
"I'm not so sure about the Citadel," Kurt said thoughtfully. "What makes it so much safer than our colonies? Besides, it's not like every alien race on every single planet can be crammed into one space station, not even the Citadel."
"You're right, Kurt," Rodriguez admitted, leaning her head on his shoulder. "They will probably be fine on Terra Nova."
"What about the twins?" Magnus asked. "Did they manage to get a hold of their parents?"
"No," Kurt solemnly said. "Comm lines were down, but they took it surprisingly well."
"Well, not being able to communicate with their parents doesn't necessarily mean that they're not perfectly healthy," Jack said, remembering that her boyfriend's parents were on Earth, which meant that he was pretty much in the same boat with the Bellarmines.
Magnus gave her an appreciative smile and turned to Rodriguez and Nielsen again. "Plus, they still have each other. They'll gain strength from that."
"Where are they now?" Jack asked curiously.
"Trying out the comms again," Nielsen supplied.
"Ah…"
Agreeing that they might as well eat dinner while they were in Orion Hall, the four of them rose from the table and walked to the buffet. Jack happily noticed that Magnus didn't put a huge pile of food on his plate, and neither did she. Perhaps they could both avoid getting fat.
"When are the engineers leaving?" Magnus asked as they sat back down at their table.
Rodriguez looked all the way to the other end of the almost completely deserted Orion Hall. There was a row of giant numbers several floors up on the wall, showing the local time of certain chosen metropolises on Earth and a few other planets like Elysium, Terra Nova and Bekenstein. The time on the citadel was also visible. Finally, of course, there was the local time of Grissom Academy.
"The engineers are scheduled to evacuate in one hour," Rodriguez answered. "Should we go and see them off?"
"Sure," Nielsen said quietly. "Prangley might need somebody to lean on."
"Oh, Kurt," Rodriguez snuffled. She always got so emotional when people cared for one another. Even more so when it was her male friends taking care of each other. Usually, Jack found it a little weird and annoying that she would react so strongly, but even she had to admit that it was moving how Nielsen, who was always such a joker, now showed sympathy towards Prangley.
-X-X-X-
Charles was back in the shuttle docking area for the second time that day. This time, they were saying goodbye to the engineers. As with the younger biotics, Charles and his classmates had formed a line, so they would be able to shake hands with the engineers as they walked towards their shuttle. Their green-clad rivals, however, were running a little late.
The twins had joined them, but Prangley was missing, and Charles was starting to worry about him. He had looked both sad and afraid as he followed his crying girlfriend out of Orion Hall at lunch. He sure hoped the two of them had been able to patch things up.
Prangley had been the one who was most excited about staying at the academy to continue their training, but now Charles wouldn't blame him if he wanted to leave with Sophia instead. He certainly would have left in a heartbeat if Jack was going.
Lieutenant Sanders rounded the corner and took a place in their line. She wanted to join them in wishing the engineers good luck.
"Where's Prangley?" she asked.
"Dunno," Jack shrugged. "Probably still with his girl. He finally told her about his plans to stay."
Sanders nodded understandingly. "I see."
The door that they were expecting to see the combat engineers emerging from opened and Charles mentally prepared himself for another round of handshakes and probably even a few tears. The man stepping out wasn't an engineer though. In fact, he wasn't even a student. He was wearing Alliance dress blues, and the few medals that were strapped to his chest jingled ceremoniously as he approached the line of biotic students. Sergeant Wolff was leaving too.
Charles had to give it to him. Even Wolff looked pretty decent in dress blues. The soldier stopped in front of Sanders and snapped off a crisp salute to his superior, which the lieutenant immediately recognized with a salute of her own. Wolff then placed himself in front of Jack and her students, who were still standing shoulder to shoulder in a straight line, and saluted them as well. Charles and his classmates immediately and instinctively returned the gesture, remembering all the times they had been punished in the gym for not showing Wolff, Sergeant Wolff that was, the proper amount of respect. Not surprisingly, Jack didn't give a shit about respect and discipline, and she lazily kept her hands in her pockets. By now, it seemed that the sergeant hadn't expected any different. Apparently, he knew a lost cause when he saw one.
"Do any of you like me?" the sergeant asked and began pacing back and forth in front of them.
Charles thought this was a weird question. Obviously, the answer was no, for all of them. Also, he was quite certain that Wolff already knew that he wasn't exactly anybody's favorite uncle. None of the students said anything though. Jack snickered at the silent response from her students, but Wolff ignored her completely.
"No? Excellent!" Wolff said. "Then I've done my job well."
"How so?" Reiley bravely asked. "We all gave you the lowest possible scores on our last instructor evaluations."
Wolff let out a barking laughter. It sounded much more pleasant than any noise Charles had ever heard from the old soldier, though still not exactly friendly. "Maybe I was going for the lowest possible score, Ensign Bellarmine."
"I don't understand," Seanne said.
"The Ascension Project is sponsored almost exclusively by the Alliance, and with the addition of the advanced class it was the hope that at least a few of you would pursue military careers. Military life generally means have superiors screaming at you to do better, so I've doing just that. I've been tough and I've been unfair. At times, I may even have been downright nasty. Hooah?"
"Hooah!" Charles and his clasmates chorused, easily agreeing with Wolff on his nastiness.
"Now that I'm leaving, I can be honest with you…" Wolff paused, adjusting his cuffs. "I am proud of you. You have taken my abuse and worked hard. You're all under the two minute limit on the obstacle course, your shooting has greatly improved and you have shown great team spirit. There's no doubt in my mind that the Alliance would be happy to take you. All of you."
"Not that they can afford being picky right now," Kurt whispered in Charles' ear.
"I don't really care if you all hate me," Wolff continued. "Your hatred for me has made each of you push yourself and each other harder, which, as a military instructor, is all an old sergeant could hope for."
"Why wasn't I told this?" Jack interrupted. "That you were being an asshole on purpose."
"I'm sorry, Jack," Lieutenant Sanders said and turned to the instructor. "But you were an unknown quantity to the Alliance as well, so we had to see how you would cope with Sergeant Wolff as well."
"But I've worked with Commander Shepard," Jack interjected.
"On a Cerberus mission," Sanders reminded her. "And even during his time with the Alliance, I've been led to believe that Shepard does everything very differently."
"I see," Jack conceded.
"You didn't kill me, so I guess you've passed as well," Wolff said, shaking Jack's hand.
"I wanted to a couple of times," Jack muttered.
"Likewise," the sergeant admitted calmly, as he continued to shake the rest of the biotic students' hands.
Finally, he reached Lieutenant Sanders. There was an awkward pause, but then eventually, he held out his hand to her as well.
"Oh, what the hell!" Sanders said, swatted his hand away and gave him a hug instead.
After that, the sergeant walked off to fill his seat on the shuttle. Charles couldn't help but notice the very smug smile on his lips and the increased spring in his step.
"What?" Sanders said, noticing how Jack and her students were all looking at her, smiling. "He's going away. I had to give him something."
Charles laughed to himself, but immediately straightened himself up when the door opened again, and the class of combat engineers started to file into the shuttle docking area. Thomas Snow was in the front, joking and laughing with a couple of his buddies. Charles gritted his teeth and curled up his fists. Even in a situation like this, Snow didn't have the common courtesy to show his own classmates a little consideration as they said goodbye to their home through several years.
"There's one douchebag I'm not gonna miss," Kurt whispered in Charles' ear.
The engineers lined up to shake hands with the Ascension Project students. Thomas Snow did so with an indifferent facial expression until he reached Charles. With an evil smirk he held out his hand to Charles. Not wanting to be the one instigating hostilities, Charles reached out as well, half expecting Snow to remove his hand. The engineer however grabbed his hand and started to shake it.
"Goodbye, Austin No-Powers," he hissed.
"Really?" Charles sighed. "Please just leave, Snow."
Snow didn't leave though; instead he tightened his grip around Charles' hand and leaned in closer, whispering. "Say hi to my old friend Prangley from me." He pointed to the back of the line of engineers where Prangley was standing, holding hands with his girlfriend. "He's been with Sophia, crying all afternoon. It's pathetic! You can tell him that I'll take care of his hot-ass girlfriend while they're apart."
"She would never allow you to take care of her," Charles replied, growling.
"Maybe I don't care about her giving me permission. Maybe I'll just do what I want to her. Like I did to your friend Rodriguez."
That was it! Charles had really been restraining himself while Snow insulted Prangley, who had once protected Charles' honor from the engineer's taunts, but still he decided that he just wanted Snow to leave as quickly as possible. As soon as the asshole, who was still clenching his fist, mentioned his attempt at rape on Vera though, letting Snow go unpunished was out of the question.
Charles violently yanked Snow towards him by the hand, bringing the surprised engineer's face straight into his awaiting elbow. With a horrible crunch the engineer's nose collided with Charles' elbow, breaking it and spraying blood on both young men's uniforms. Satisfied with himself, Charles pushed Snow away, but continued to glare at the bastard who was now holding his broken nose.
"Charles!" Vera screamed in shock, while Jack cheered, encouraging him to hurt the engineer even more.
Thomas Snow's two buddies started cracking their knuckles and moved threateningly towards Charles, but they were suddenly lifted into the air by Kurt and Reiley.
"Forget it, lads," Kurt said calmly, flipping the engineer he was levitating upside down.
"Yeah," Reiley said and guided his own engineer towards the awaiting shuttle. "Don't risk your own health for that asshole."
The two engineers conceded their defeat and Kurt and Reiley gently floated them back down to the floor. With bowed heads, they followed the still bleeding Snow into the shuttle.
"Oh, that was glorious," Jack laughed and gave Charles, Kurt and Reiley approving shoulder claps.
"It wasn't!" Sanders said in a very stern voice, her hands on her hips. "Why are you constantly antagonizing Engineer Snow?"
"He started it," Charles said lamely, feeling incredibly childish. He gave Vera a quick glance, and she must have realized that Snow had said something about her, because she gave him an appreciative smile. If it was for hurting Snow or for not telling everybody why he had done it, he didn't know. It was probably both.
"We'll talk about this later," Sanders sighed.
Luckily, the rest of the engineers all pretty much knew how much of a bastard Thomas Snow was, and they certainly knew that he deserved every ounce of pain delivered to him by any of the biotic students. The rest of the goodbye scene was actually quite moving and tear-filled.
The two classes had competed against each other many times, and even though they had been rivals so often, most of the students had managed to form healthy, friendly, but competitive relationships with the members of the opposing team, and Charles happily shook hands with the remaining engineers.
"Hi," said a dark-skinned, long-legged girl quietly as she reached Charles. It was Lichelle. She was very pretty, and Charles thought that under different circumstances, she could have become his girlfriend. Maybe if he had accepted Prangley and Sophia's offer of setting up a blind date? Maybe if she hadn't started dating that other guy? Maybe if he hadn't started dating Jack?
Even though Lichelle was very attractive, he still didn't regret anything. He was happy with Jack.
He was surprised when she pulled him into a hug. They had never really talked to each other, except for a few times at the interdepartmental competitions. "I hope I'll see you again," she whispered in his ear.
"Goodbye," Charles neutrally replied and let her go quickly so Jack wouldn't throw a fit. Even though she had promised not to fly off the handle every time Charles talked to a woman, he still didn't completely trust Jack to keep that promise if she saw him hugging a pretty girl like Lichelle.
In the end, Sophia was the only remaining engineer.
She and Vera had become very good friends, and their farewell was both teary and lengthy.
"Why can't you come with me?" Sophia sobbed, turning to her boyfriend, who looked uncharacteristically depressed.
"Baby, we've talked about this already," Prangley simply said.
"Fuck your stupid reasons, Jason. I want to stay with you then!" Sophia angrily cried.
"Honey…" Prangley sighed.
"I'm starting to think you don't love me!" Sophia interrupted.
Prangley froze. His face showed sorrow and hurt.
"I'm sorry," Sophia started, but was quieted when Prangley fell to his knee.
"Baby," he said, tears streaming down his face. "You have to go to the Citadel. I… I have to know that you're safe. I want you to wait for me there. I will come for you, Honey! You hear me? I WILL come for you!"
Charles could feel the tears softly rolling down his own cheeks, and he could hear both Reiley and Kurt sniffling as well. Obviously, Vera, Seanne and Lieutenant Sanders were outright crying. Surprisingly, even Jack's mascara had started to run. Their emotional responses were nothing compared to what happened next though.
The still kneeling Prangley looked up at Sophia, nothing but tears and love in his eyes. "I love you, Sophia. Will you marry me?" he asked, presenting a ring from his pocket.
That was too much for Vera, who fainted. Luckily, Reiley and Seanne were able to catch her before she hit the floor.
Charles' jaw had dropped. The same was true for Jack, Kurt, both Bellarmines and Sanders.
Sophia just stared at the ring, then at Prangley, and then back at the ring.
"Are you fucking crazy?" she finally screamed. "What the hell is wrong with your timing, you god damn idiot?"
Prangley bowed his head in defeat. "I understand," he sighed. "I can recognize a rejection when I see one."
"No, you can't!" Sophia squealed and snatched the engagement ring from between his fingers. "Yes, I'll marry you!"
"You will?" Prangley said, sounding extremely surprised.
"Of course," Sophia said and pulled him back to his feet. "I still think you're a big stupid idiot with horrible timing. But you're my idiot!"
"I am," Prangley said and they shared a passionate kiss while the biotic students, minus the still unconscious Vera, started clapping and cheering.
The shuttle pilot interrupted the celebrations by reminding Sophia that he was only waiting for her.
"Will you wait for me?" Prangley asked his fiancée.
"I will," Sophia said and kissed him again. "But please hurry."
Sophia said quick goodbyes and received congratulations from Charles and his classmates. She even got to show off her ring to Vera, who had come back to life. Seeing the ring and hearing that Sophia had said yes nearly caused her to faint again though.
"I will come for you," Prangley said, tears again rolling from his eyes as he held Sophia one last time before lifting her onto the shuttle's passenger deck. "I love you!"
"I love you too," Sophia softly said before the shuttle door closed and she disappeared from view.
Charles silently watched, as the shuttle lifted off the platform and carried Sophia away. Prangley stood in place, crying softly and starring off into nothingness.
Not knowing what to do, Charles looked to Jack, but she looked even more confused than he felt. Quickly, he turned to his other side. Vera was crying even harder than Prangley, which was bad, because she was probably his best hope for some advice in a situation like this. Kurt shrugged; clearly he didn't know what to do either. The twins were busy trying to comfort the head director, who was crying uncontrollably.
Realizing that everybody else didn't know what to do either, he slowly walked towards Prangley.
When Charles had almost reached him, a blue wall appeared around Prangley, keeping him at a distance.
"Come on," Charles said softly, putting his palms on Prangley's barrier. "Don't shut us out."
Prangley sat down on the cold floor and wrapped his arms around his knees. A few seconds later, the biotic wall flickered and disappeared.
"Hey," Charles said and sat down beside his classmate.
"Hey," Prangley said in a rough voice.
"Congratulations on the engagement," Charles said.
"Hmm…" Prangley sadly hummed. "Thanks, I guess. It doesn't feel like I had hoped though."
"But are you glad that you did it?"
Prangley quietly thought for a few seconds. "Yes," he finally decided. "I love her, you know."
"I know," Charles said. That was what made Sophia's goodbye and her engagement to Prangley that much more emotional for the rest of them. It had always been difficult to get Prangley to admit that he was actually in love with Sophia. But today, they had witnessed him declare his love for her, in front of everybody, in the strongest way possible.
"Would you mind going to the gym with me?" Prangley asked, rising to his feet.
For once, Charles didn't comment on his friend's excessive use of the gym. He knew that Prangley needed to distract himself in a place where he could feel safe. There was only one place he could go and only one answer Charles could give:
"Sure. Let's go."
-X-X-X-
When Prangley had finally worn himself completely out, it had become very late, and Charles was relieved that his friend had finally stopped punishing both the equipment and himself.
Jack was waiting for them at the door, leaning against the wall.
"Goodnight, ma'am," Prangley said and walked out of the gym.
"Goodnight," Jack quietly answered.
Charles stepped up to Jack as well, placing his hands on his knees while panting.
"I thought he would never quit. I'm completely smashed!"
"Pussy," Jack sympathized.
"Hah," Charles laughed, still out of breath. "I just hope this was good for him."
"We'll see. Ready to go to bed?"
"Very much," Charles said and followed her out into Ascension Hall.
"We can't use my room, remember?" Jack reminded him, as he started to walk towards her office door.
"Right," Charles said, remembering the destruction they had caused that morning.
"Do you think he will be alright?" Jack asked as they stepped out of Ascension Hall and into the public corridors. "Prangley, I mean."
"Yes," Charles said, feeling fairly confident in his answer. "He knows that Sophia loves him and he knows that she is safe on the Citadel. I think he'll be alright as soon as the initial shock wears off."
"Let's hope so," Jack said. "You should shower by the way. You don't exactly smell like roses."
"I can imagine," Charles laughed, but quickly stopped again as his abs were already getting sore from the extreme workout.
He dropped Jack off at his room and grabbed a towel before heading to the bathroom down the hallway.
He quickly stopped at Prangley's door, listening carefully, trying to determine if he had made it back. He could hear the sounds of soft crying from behind the door and quickly moved on down the corridor. At least his friend had made it back to his room, and Charles couldn't blame him at all for crying.
After a quick shower, he wrapped the towel around himself and walked back to his room. He hadn't bothered to bring spare clothes to the bathroom like he usually would. With fewer than twenty students left on the station and Prangley as his closest neighbor, he wasn't likely to run into anyone in the hallway between the bathroom and his own room.
Jack hadn't gone to sleep yet when he arrived. She was lying on his bed, holding up the blanket, inviting him to join her. He quickly got rid of the towel and lay down behind her.
From his position, he could see the cuts on her back, and realized that he felt bad for hurting her.
"I'm sorry about these," he said and started kissing her wounded shoulders.
"Go to sleep," Jack ordered. "I've told you already. I liked it."
"You scare me sometimes," Charles whispered, wincing as the scratches on his own shoulders grazed the bed sheets.
"Pussy!" was the last thing he registered before falling asleep with Jack in his arms.
-X-X-X-
Charles woke up, as usual he was freezing like hell because Jack had snatched every single inch of blanket he had. He checked his alarm clock and realized that it was still way too early to safely wake up Jack. He couldn't sleep any longer though and decided to go for a walk.
He stretched but quickly regretted, realizing that every muscle in his body was hurting. Careful not to wake up Jack, he got out of bed and put on briefs, socks and a pair of uniform pants. He tried slipping on a t-shirt, but the scratches on his back were even worse today. After a few tries of gently putting on the shirt, he gave up and chose the cold of being shirtless over the pain of clothing. At least he could put on his boots.
As silently as possible, he snuck out of the door and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. As expected, he didn't meet a single soul as he walked around the station. It was early, but under normal circumstances, he would surely have met a few other insomniacs.
Orion Hall was, not surprisingly, completely empty, and for the first time ever, Charles realized, he was completely alone in the biggest room he could imagine. It was too tempting. Charles couldn't resist the urge to test out the echo.
"Woo!" he shouted and smiled as his own voice came back to him many, many times, resonating of the walls of Orion Hall.
"Wow," he said quietly and grinned as that echoed as well.
For a long time, Charles just walked around, not really paying attention to where he was. He reached many places where he was certain he had never been before, and it wasn't long before he had lost his bearings completely. He honestly had no idea where he was.
He chose a direction and started walking that way, reckoning that eventually he would stumble upon something familiar. Before long, he found the concert hall, which had housed the academy's symphony orchestra. Charles knew how to get back from here, but he didn't want to go back just yet.
He pushed the button of the door to the concert hall and realized that it was locked. He tried swiping his ID card and was pleasantly surprised when the doors unlocked. Luckily, few departments were as secretive as the Ascension Project, where no one without the proper ID could get access.
Seeing the many shiny instruments left behind by the evacuated musicians, Charles knew he had to try them out.
His mother had taught him to play the piano, and he was actually pretty decent at it, but that wasn't the first instrument he decided to play with. After having little luck with the brass, he tried the string instruments instead. He quickly gave that up as well, having nearly deafened himself by butchering Antonio Vivaldi on a violin.
After playing around a bit with the various drums, he finally settled at the grand piano, home turf.
It was a majestic instrument, a masterpiece in itself, and even though he was completely alone and didn't have to worry about it, he didn't know if he could do it justice.
Holding his breath, he pressed a key at random and enjoyed the cleanest note he had ever heard as it filled the concert hall. The acoustic was perfect, and Charles thought that with this piano in this room, anyone could be star. With enforced confidence he started to play, and even though his voice in no way could accompany the piano, he couldn't stop himself from singing along. As he sang Charles thought about his own and Prangley's situation, and he decided, that the song was somehow fitting.
"She packed my bags last night, pre-flight
Zero hour, nine a.m.
And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then"
"I miss the Earth so much, I miss my wife
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight"
"And I think it's gonna be a long, long time
'til touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no, no, no, I'm a rocket man
Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone"
As soon as he finished his song someone started clapping, and Charles looked up to see Jack standing in the doorway.
"Thank you," he shyly said, only now realizing that he had had an audience.
"That was great," Jack happily said and joined him on the piano bench. "I never knew you could play."
"I can't… Not really."
"Stop," Jack said, putting a finger on his lips. "You're always selling yourself short. Don't do that."
"Okay," he whispered.
"Can you play another?"
"Anything in particular?"
"I seem to remember us both liking Queen," Jack said, scooting a little closer. "How about 'Don't stop me now'?"
"You'll have to sing along then," Charles laughed.
"Oh, you don't want that," Jack said. "I suck!"
"Talk about selling yourself short," Charles snickered, giving her a gentle nudge.
"Touché," Jack sighed. "So… You're not the man they think you are at home?"
Charles laughed and kissed her deeply as her hand slid between his thighs. "Most definitely not," he huskily whispered before starting to play.
A/N:
I'm back!
Exams are over (for now) and I was hoping to have some more writing time, but then we were thrown right into a great big project at school. I wanted to post this chapter in this week though, and I'm happy that I've made it.
I want to avoid telling the story in these notes, but if there's anything that you want to know/any mistakes you think I made. Please review or send me a PM and I will try to defend my decisions :) I may even write your suggestions into one of the future chapters.
This chapter doesn't contain a lot of action, so if that's your thing: Stay with me! It'll come! (though this chapter had the angry sex scene and Charles finally getting to inflict some real damage on Thomas Snow)
This chapter was all about the emotion, so there wasn't that much humor either, but don't worry. The story is not going to be dark from now on.
As I said. Throw me a few lines if you feel like it.
Thanks for waiting patiently.
PS: The song near the end is "Rocket Man" by Elton John. (great song that have actually been used at the NASA launch of Discovery in 1998)
- Simon