Chapter Twenty-Nine – Scars
It had taken Doctor Chakwas less than half an hour to open up Kurt's shoulder wound and dig out the projectile that had lodged itself in the joint. Local anesthetics were used, and their effectiveness meant that the young man didn't feel a thing under the entire operation. Charles and the others still had to wait outside though. Chakwas wanted her operating room to be as sterile as possible. Jack had told them that the glass separating the med bay from the rest of the crew deck could be turned black and opaque to ensure a measure of privacy, but the doctor had chosen not to do that in this case, which meant that all of Kurt's friends and his instructor was stood in the mess hall, peering in at what was going on inside.
When Doctor Chakwas finally plunged a pair of tongs into Kurt's left shoulder and pulled out a little, bloody piece of metal, Vera made a gagging noise, but kept her worried eyes on her wounded friend all the same. The doctor washed the bullet off in a disinfecting fluid and dropped it in Kurt's right hand. The blond looked down at the thing in his palm which just a few seconds earlier had been inside his shoulder, and Charles would have sworn that his friend was looking at the bullet with both affection and pride. Maybe that was a soldier tradition that Charles had never heard of, keeping the projectiles that claimed your blood. Or maybe it was just because it was the first one. It seemed to be some sort of tradition, because Chakwas, who was a military doctor after all, put her hand over Kurt's and closed his finger securely around the little piece of metal with a solemn look on her face. Then she started stitching Kurt's shoulder back together, and the panel on the med bay door turned from red to green, allowing everyone to come in and see their friend.
"Will I have a scar after this?" Kurt asked the doctor just as Charles, Vera, Prangley, Jack and Sanders filed into the med bay.
"I'm afraid so, Mr. Nielsen. But it's going to be a teeny tiny one, and I'll bet that you won't even remember which shoulder took the hit in a few years."
"I've donated a generous sum to the company that makes the anti-scarring salve used by the Alliance," Shepard said, entering the med bay. "If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have been so damn handsome."
The commander had damp hair and had clearly just stepped out of the shower, and even Charles had to admit, that the commander certainly was equipped with a rather impressive appearance. Vera hiding her blush behind Charles' back was a clear testament to that.
"You're a bit of a prat, Commander," Chakwas huffed, "but I bet Sirta Foundation appreciates the donations all the same."
"Could you not use the anti-scarring stuff?" Kurt asked the doctor, as Chakwas returned her attention to his shoulder.
"You want it to leave a scar?" Chakwas asked. She didn't sound that surprised, and neither were Shepard or Jack. They were both smiling knowingly.
"I want to be able to impress the birds!" Kurt laughed shamelessly.
"With that tiny thing?" Vera said skeptically, but blushed furiously when she realized what she had just said.
Jack, Sanders, Shepard and the students all lost it completely, while Chakwas tried to get Kurt to remain still, but even she had a little smile on her face.
"I meant the scar!" Vera insisted, trying hard not to laugh, but it was impossible when the rest were in tears as a result of her unintended innuendo.
"Sure, you know my knob is massive," Kurt snickered, but his smile was replaced by a wince when Chakwas pinched him in his healthy, unwounded shoulder to get him to stay still.
"The ladies do like them though," Shepard assured the blond, who was back to being stitched up by the good doctor. "The scars I mean."
Charles covertly glanced at Jack to find out if she agreed, and when she caught his eye, she gave him an affirmative but very discrete nod. 'I'm going to have to get me some scars,' Charles thought to himself. What he wouldn't do for that woman…
Just as Kurt jumped off the operating table, sporting a suture on his left shoulder, Lieutenant Vega stepped into the med bay.
"Hola, Jefe," he said to Shepard and bumped fists with his superior. "Esteban and I have dismantled the Cerberus shuttle… Well, Cortez did most of the work, but I like to think that he enjoys my company."
"I'm sure he does," Doctor Chakwas mumbled sarcastically.
"Anyway…" Vega continued, pretending that she hadn't said anything. "We stripped the shuttle of parts that may be of use to us later. Some of them are compatible with our own Kodiak. We also deactivated the Cerberus beacon, so they won't be able to track us down."
"Good work, James," Shepard said, and Charles wondered if the Commander always called his crew members by their first names. So far, he had only heard him address them by their first name, just like he accepted most of them simply calling him 'Shepard'.
James sloppily saluted the commander and turned to Kurt. "How are you? Arm staying on?"
"I'm fine," Kurt assured him.
"You should try to keep your arm as still as possible for the next couple of days, Mr. Nielsen," Chakwas reminded him. "If everything goes as planned, I can take out the stitches then, and you might have your itty bitty scar."
"First battle scar, huh?" James grinned, glancing at Kurt's closed palm which contained the bullet.
Kurt nodded proudly.
Without warning, James pulled his grey t-shirt over his head, revealing a torso that appeared to be chiseled in stone. Besides the abundance of muscle, he also revealed the full extent of the tattoo that was visible on his neck and arm even when the shirt was on as well as some rather impressive battle scars all over his massive chest. The badass-factor was definitely upped a bit from what Kurt could display, and the blond looked somewhat envious at the sight of Vega's torso. So did Prangley, but that probably had more to do with the sculpting of the lieutenant's body.
The funniest reaction, not surprisingly, came from Vera. The young woman actually squealed and jumped into the air when James pulled off his t-shirt. They all, James Vega included, stared at her, and her face turned as red as her uniform. The lieutenant gave her a cheeky wink, and turned to Chakwas, while Kurt and Jack teased Vera for her lack of self-control.
"Could you take a look at my collarbone, Doc?" James asked. "I felt a little bit of a pull today. Nothing too bad, but I wanted to be sure that I'm not going to be sitting on the bench for our next op."
The doctor quickly ran her experienced fingers across his collarbone, but apparently, didn't find anything out of the ordinary.
"Looks fine to me," she said. "Are you sure you're not just using every opportunity you get to pop off your shirt every time we meet new people?"
"Or maybe I just like it when you feel me up, Doctor," James teased the older woman, whispering her title in a bedroom voice.
"Get out, you scoundrel!" Chakwas half yelled half laughed.
"Tell Steve to get some rest!" Shepard shouted after James, as he left the med bay with his t-shirt casually thrown over his shoulder. Charles had already met Steve Cortez (or Esteban, as he was lovingly called by James) in the hangar, and the shuttle pilot certainly looked like a guy who could do with a nap.
"I'm sorry," Shepard apologized to the students, particularly Vera. "James can be a little…"
"Prick?" Jack guessed.
"Intimidating," Kurt corrected her.
"He's a handful," Doctor Chakwas sighed.
"That he is," Shepard agreed. "But he brings a certain level of… physique to the battlefield."
"Mmhhmm," Vera hummed.
"Down girl!" Kurt laughed, pretending to have a whip in his hand, like one of them old school circus animal trainers.
Shepard chuckled at their behavior and led them out of the med bay and into the mess hall. After a quick meal with some of the crew, Jack and her students had a shower and their uniforms were turbo-washed, while Lieutenant Sanders went to have a chat with Engineer Adams whom she knew from the past. Charles' and Prangley's uniforms especially needed to be rinsed of clotted Cerberus blood. Luckily, the Normandy had washing facilities that could wash and dry a uniform in less than 30 seconds.
"Gentlemen, the men's bathroom is on the port side of the ship," EDI's pleasant voice had told them, as Charles, Kurt and Prangley tried to make their way into the bathroom located on the starboard side. Luckily, no one was in there, but when they turned around to go to the other side of the ship, Jack and Vera were standing right behind them, both with crossed arms and annoyed facial expressions.
"You guys will never stop perving, will you?" Vera asked, while Jack started to tap her foot in a threatening manner.
Before they could begin their defense EDI came to their aid.
"It was an honest mistake. Commander Shepard goes to the wrong bathroom all the time," the AI informed the two annoyed females.
"All the time?" Jack huffed in disbelief.
"Suspicious, isn't it?" Vera agreed.
The three boys were quick to take advantage of the women's indignation switching to focus on Shepard, and they hurried over to the port side and into the correct bathroom.
Not surprisingly, the three of them were done with their showers before the women, and as they sat back in the mess hall, Shepard walked in with a young, beautiful woman in tow.
"Boys, this is Comm Specialist Samantha Traynor. She is the reason we got to you in time."
They thanked Traynor, but she dismissed their praises, saying that she was only doing her job. She excused herself, saying that she had to talk to Garrus about something, and she kept walking through the mess hall and out the walkway to the main battery. Shepard went over to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water.
"You can take anything you want from the kitchen," he told Charles, Kurt and Prangley, who nodded thankfully.
Charles rose from his seat and joined Shepard in the kitchen.
"Can I talk with you for a moment, Commander?"
"Sure. You're Magnus, right?"
"Charles Magnus, sir. Please Just call me Charles."
"Only if you drop the sir crap." Shepard gave him a bright smile and guided him into a large office on the port side of the crew deck. The office apparently belonged to Shepard's asari girlfriend, Liara, who was standing in the middle of the room, simultaneously watching 40 or 50 screens on the wall to the right. They were all broadcasting different news channels from all over the galaxy, and every single one of them showed pictures of burning cities, humans and aliens trapped in overcrowded refugee camps or messages to the public from the different military organizations trying to keep civilians under control. With all the screens on at the same time, it was a horrible mosaic of death and pain, and Charles couldn't understand how the asari could bear to watch it.
On his left was a blue orb. From his experience with the combat engineers, Charles immediately recognized it as some sort of drone.
"Hello, Commander," the orb said, alerting Liara to their presence.
"Hey, babe," Shepard said, as Liara turned the news off.
"Shepard," Liara said happily, "Glyph just told me that Kaidan decided to accept the council's offer to make him a Spectre."
"Good for him," Shepard said. "They had to find another human at some point. At least I can take credit for some of his training."
"Kaidan?" Charles said. "As in Kaidan Alenko?"
"You know of him?" Liara asked.
"I've met him. He came to the academy as a guest instructor once."
"I see," Shepard said. "He's a good man. We haven't always been on the same page, but he has a strong sense of right and wrong, he's a brilliant soldier and he is honest to the core, and I respect that. He will make a fine Spectre."
"I think so too," Liara agreed.
"Could we use your office for a moment, Honey?" Shepard asked. "Charles here wants to talk to me about something."
"Of course."
Liara gave Shepard a quick kiss on the cheek and stepped out of her office.
"So… What's up?" Shepard asked once she was gone.
Now that Charles was completely alone with the hero of the galaxy, he realized who he was actually standing in front of. This was the man who had saved the citadel from the geth attack a few years ago, though everybody was now in agreement about that attack actually being orchestrated by the reapers. He was also the man who had rescued Jack from prison and asked her to help him hunt down the collectors. Knowing all this, it suddenly seemed surrealistic to be standing her with him. How do you speak to a living legend?
He had nowhere else to go though, and he really needed to talk to someone about something that had been on his mind ever since they left the academy.
"Thanks again for saving us," Charles stalled, thinking about how to get to the real issue. "If you guys hadn't shown up when you did…"
Shepard held his hand up to stop him.
"What did you want to talk about, Charles?"
"It's just… Earlier today… We were under attack, there was nothing I could do… I killed some people, Commander."
Charles' voice was low, barely a whisper. Like he was telling a secret that would incriminate him somehow.
"Your first kill?" Shepard guessed.
Charles nodded. It was indeed his first kill. First kills actually - plural. He didn't know how to feel about. It felt like the right thing to do at the time – It still did, but that didn't do anything to remove this weird feeling he had inside.
"I see," Shepard said thoughtfully. "Not that I don't want to help you, but isn't this something that you should be talking with your instructor about?"
"I guess," Charles said with a shrug, "but Jack has this really… bizarre relationship with the act of killing. I don't think she would be able to understand my point of view."
Shepard chuckled softly.
"Yes. Jack does seem to enjoy killing way too much, doesn't she? I remember when I first recruited her. The first couple of missions, I was constantly contemplating if I had done the right thing by taking her out of that prison. Seeing how she's trained you guys, I think I made the right call."
"I'd agree," Charles said, trying to sound like a person who was speaking about a teacher that he liked in nothing more than a usual teacher-student relationship kind of way. "But I still don't think she would understand."
"You're probably right," Shepard agreed with a playful smile, "but I'm going to, very immodestly, assume that you've heard about me?"
"Of course I've heard about you. You're Commander Shepard!"
"Yes, I am," Shepard said. "If you know that, you'd have to know, that I probably won't have an easy job relating to the feelings of a novice life-taker. To be fair, it has been a looong time since my first kill."
"Is Miss Chambers still a part of your crew?" Charles asked hopefully, remembering that Jack had told him about this lively redhead who, surprisingly, held a degree in psychology.
"She isn't, no," Shepard said. "How do you know about Kelly?"
"Jack told us about her time on the Normandy."
"Of course she did. Now, I will ask you not to use that name again. Kelly has left Cerberus, and she has a new identity now."
Charles nodded, remembering how Jack had worked on what was, at that time, a Cerberus vessel. It must have been incredibly hard to coexist with members of an organization that she despised to her very core. The events of this morning had certainly lit a roaring fire of hate and disgust within Charles. Cerberus had somehow become the thing he loathed most in the entire galaxy. Much more so than the reapers, and they were planning on destroying all intelligent life forms. Even though the reapers' final solution to the existence of intelligent life seemed worse than anything that Cerberus could come up with, they just didn't have the same sense of betrayal and disloyalty about them as Cerberus. This was a human organization after all, whilst the reapers were, quite literally, beyond his understanding. Also, the reapers hadn't, as far as he knew, been responsible for the lives of any of his closest friends and family, and Cerberus had, very directly, been responsible for the murders of Reiley and Seanne.
"Here's my advice," Shepard finally said, breaking Charles' chain of thought. "Try not to think about it too much. It sounds silly, I know. But give it a few days, and if you still feel weird about it, you could try talking to Liara, who is also relatively new to the killing business. She also seems to dwell on it a lot more than Garrus, James and I."
"Thank you, Commander. I will give it a few days."
"Or even better, speak to your friends about it. I'll bet this was their first real taste of combat as well, right?"
Charles nodded.
Shepard smiled. He seemed genuinely happy about being able to offer some advice.
"I understand that you can't speak to Jack about it, but you should definitely ask your friends. Other than that, the only thing I can tell you is to not feel bad about it. Cerberus came for you and your friends, they killed two of your classmates and they tried to do the same to the rest of you. Self-defense was more than justified, and you did what you had to do to protect yourself and your friends. You shouldn't feel bad about it, actually, I think you all should be proud of yourselves. Cerberus is not a weak enemy to be up against in your first battle."
Shepard's words made a lot of sense to Charles. He did feel justified in his actions, even before his talk with the commander, but there was still something about talking the life of another human being that bothered him. Perhaps Shepard was right, maybe it would feel better after a few days, or maybe he should talk to his friends.
"Thank you, Commander," Charles said, grateful and honored that the legend had taken the time to listen to his immature worries.
"Any time, Charles. I want you guys to treat the Normandy like your home and the crew and myself as your family while you are on board."
Back in the mess hall, Jack and Vera had joined Kurt and Prangley at the table, and Liara was serving them some kind of soup. A completely black kind of soup.
"This is matriarch's milk. It's a soup made purely from vegetables and herbs that grow on my home planet Thessia. It's hard to describe the taste, but most humans seem to like it," Liara said, placing bowls of black liquid in front of Kurt and Vera.
"It's really good," Shepard told them, as he and Charles took their seats at the table. They still looked rather skeptical at the contents of their bowls.
Liara placed bowls in front of Charles and the commander, and Shepard eagerly dug in. Not wanting to seem ungrateful, Charles tasted a spoonful without looking down into his bowl where all sorts of weird-looking chunks of vegetables were floating around in the darkness. To his pleasant surprise, it tasted wonderful. It was like nothing he had ever tasted, but it was definitely sweet. Much sweeter than any soup he had ever had before. In any human cooking book it would probably belong with the desserts.
"It's good," he told the others, who had been waiting to see his reaction, and soon they were all shoveling matriarch's milk into their mouths. It was a big hit with the biotics.
Liara didn't have any soup, claiming that she had to watch her figure, which the boys didn't agree with at all. There was nothing wrong with Liara's figure, and it seemed to have the boys enthralled much like Miranda Lawson's when she had paid the academy a visit. The asari sat on Shepard's lap, making it a little difficult for him to eat his soup, but he didn't complain. The commander must have noticed how the young men were ogling his girlfriend, especially Kurt wasn't making much effort to keep his staring a secret. Incredibly, the blond managed to eat soup with his tongue wagging out of his mouth, which would have impressed Charles if half the soup hadn't gotten stuck in the moustache that Kurt stubbornly kept even though the others had tried their hardest to get him to shave it off. This included Vera stealing his ID card so Charles and Prangley could sneak in to his room at night and hold him down while she tried to shave him. Miraculously, the stache had survived this cowardly ambush.
Even with all the bits of vegetable and soup dripping from his lip pest, Kurt couldn't keep his eyes from the asari on Shepard's lap, but the commander didn't seem to care, if anything, he seemed rather proud to have pulled a woman that could make the younger men jealous. Jack was a little less relaxed about Charles sitting opposite the beautiful alien, and she kept a close eye on him. Knowing that he was being closely monitored, Charles kept his focus on his food, but avoided asking Liara for more of the delicious soup even though he kind of wanted to.
Liara seemed completely oblivious about the fact that her mere presence was the center of so much silent drama around the table. She just looked thoroughly delighted that everyone seemed to be enjoying her cooking, and Charles noticed that even Jack swallowed every last drop of her soup. She clearly liked it, even though she tried her best to look like she didn't. Charles wondered if he was going to have more problems with Jack's jealousy coming up. But he hoped that Liara being with Shepard would relax her a little bit. Surely Jack wouldn't think that he would try something with Shepard's girl.
Garrus and Specialist Traynor walked past, and the latter sniffed in a couple of times.
"Are you making soup again, Liara?" she asked excitedly.
"Help yourself," Liara giggled, anticipating the specialist's next question.
"Yay!" she happily said and grabbed a bowl and a spoon.
"Too bad I can't eat levo-soup," Garrus said disappointedly. "You humans seem to go crazy for that matriarch's stuff."
"Matriarch's milk," Liara reminded him.
One of Kurt's friends, who was a student of biochemistry back on Grissom Academy, had tried to explain levo- and dextro amino acids to Charles once during breakfast, but it had all gone straight over his head. Now that he was here on the Normandy, which obviously held food of both sorts, he made a mental note to start paying attention to the things he put in his mouth. He didn't remember what the biochemist had said about what would happen if you ate the wrong kind of food, but Charles wasn't willing to put it to the test. At least he knew that the things he could eat were called levo. He just hoped that all the food was clearly labeled.
The comm specialist sat down at the table with the others, while Garrus decided to go and annoy Joker who Charles had yet to meet. When they arrived on the Normandy, they had come straight from the shuttle bay and up to the crew deck, and the pilot was obviously on the bridge one level above them.
Specialist Traynor was clearly a big fan of Thessia's signature dish, and she helped herself to several additional portions. When she was finally done eating, she leant back in her seat with a satisfied smile.
"I love your cooking, T'Soni," she sighed with contempt.
"You should see what I can do with fresh ingredients. These military rations are nothing compared to the real thing," Liara said. "It loses a lot of its sweetness when it's made from these frozen, processed vegetables."
Charles had a hard time imagining the soup being much sweeter than it already was, and he doubted that he would have liked the fresher edition. There's such a thing as too sweet. But apparently, asari liked to consume sweet stuff. He remembered the variety of sweet asari beers and liquors that Jack had introduced him to, and this soup was definitely right up there with the sweetest of them. Traynor was overjoyed to learn that she hadn't even tasted matriarch's milk at its best, and she made Liara promise her to make her a bowl of the real deal when the war was over.
-X-X-X-
Jack secretly enjoyed the soup, but she definitely wasn't going to show that when Liara already had the boys, including her boyfriend, completely under her spell. There was no need to praise her food, which clearly showed that the asari had housewife potential. Jack would have guessed that Liara would be more like some sort of trophy wife to Shepard, but it seemed like this little blue bitch had more to her than good looks. Jack liked her though, except for the way she made the boys stare.
When they had finished the soup, or rather when Traynor had finished their soup, they went to the shuttle bay, where Shepard had asked the entire crew to assemble. He asked everyone to honor the deaths of the Bellarmines and everyone else killed or kidnapped by Cerberus during the attack on Grissom Academy by a minute of silence. Nearly everyone working aboard the Normandy had turned up. Even Joker had been replaced at the helm so he could attend the ceremony.
Jack looked around, while they paid their respects to the lost and fallen. On a neat line behind Shepard stood Liara, James, Garrus, Joker and EDI, and Jack was pleased to see that they all took the time to honor her fallen students. Tears were slowly running down Liara's cheeks, while Shepard, James, Garrus and Joker wore stoic faces. They had all been at their share of military memorials, and they knew just the kind of respectful, sad face to put on at these events. Jack was a little surprised to see the even EDI had the somber grimace down to a tee.
Next to her, her students stood with Kahlee, who was absolutely crying her eyes out, holding on to Rodriguez whose legs looked like they were about to collapse. The three male students tried to stand tall and straight, like the military crew of the Normandy did, but it was obviously a losing battle, and before the full minute of silence was over, all three of them were silently crying. Jack checked her reflection in the mirrored windows of the shuttle she was stood next to, and it didn't surprise her at all, that the Jack that looked back had long black lines running down the cheeks. She knew that she was crying.
"Thank you," Shepard said, when the minute of silence was over, and the person filling in for Joker fired off three bursts of one of the Normandy's secondary weapons – one burst for Reiley, one for Seanne and one for all of the tech students and Professor Froeberg who had also been on the station when Cerberus attacked.
The Alliance personnel made respectful nods towards Jack, Sanders and the young biotics before riding the elevator back up to the upper deck to resume their duties. Jack was glad that the shuttle bay was emptying, because she could feel herself trembling with rage. She was grinding her teeth so hard that her jaws hurt, her legs were shivering and things around her started levitating and floating around the room for no apparent reason.
"Arghhh!" she screamed, and in a flash of light she had disappeared from her position and reappeared in front of the Cerberus shuttle that was parked in the far end of the shuttle bay.
"RARGH!" she roared and slammed her head into the side of the shuttle with an amount of force that would surely have broken her neck if her entire body wasn't completely charged with biotic energy. Then she noticed the Cerberus logo on the hull of the shuttle, and she lost all control. She pulled back her fist and punched straight through the outer armor of the shuttle. When she pulled her arm back out, she had pieces of pipe and wires in her hand.
"Jack!" Shepard shouted, running up to her. "Jack! You have to relax."
"Fuck off!" Jack snarled and continued her slaughter of the Cerberus shuttle. Again and again, she punched the shuttle, but eventually, she couldn't maintain the biotic energy level required to keep her from hurting herself, and when she punched her hand through the outer shell one more time she cut her hand and forearm on the sharp edges.
"Jack! You're hurting yourself!" Shepard shouted. "This is not going to bring back your students!"
"ARGH!" Jack simply shouted and punched the shuttle again. Her biotics were protecting her even less this time, and instead of punching straight through the armor, her knuckles slammed against the metal without the biotics taking any of the blow. She felt a sharp jolt of pain all the way up her arm and realized that she must have broken some bones in her hand. She didn't care at all.
She drew back her fist once more, readying it for another punch, but somebody grabbed her from behind.
"No!" She shouted and writhed to get lose. "Nooo! Let me go!"
The person didn't let her go though, instead, the grip around her tightened, and a slightly familiar voice whispered in her ear.
"Jack. Please stop."
"Grrr!" Jack growled and tried to twist herself out of the hold so she could have another go at the shuttle, but this person was clearly using biotics to keep her in place.
"Please," the voice begged. "I love you, Jack."
Her body went limp.
Everything went dark, and she collapsed in his arms – his strong, familiar arms.
-X-X-X-
"I asked Glyph to do some research into her past."
"Of course you did, what did you find out, Honey?"
"She has had it incredibly hard, Shepard. She must be troubled."
"I think that's a given, Liara."
Jack was listening to Shepard and Liara's conversation. She had just woken up, but she hadn't opened her eyes, and the two of them clearly didn't realize that she was awake. She could tell be the sterile smell, that she was on a bed in the med bay. She must've been taken there after she fainted.
"Did you know that she's wanted for capital offences in more than half of the Terminus systems?" Liara asked, and Jack had to fight hard not to smile. Actually it was 56 % of the Terminus systems. She kept a precise count.
"Hmmm… I'm slightly surprised it's not all of them," Shepard said, and Jack could imagine the smile on his face even with her eyes closed.
"A lot of her history is really well hidden in databases belonging to merc bands or even governmental databases."
"But you were able to dig it out, weren't you?"
"Of course!" Liara said, insulted that he would even ask. "I am the Shadow Broker, you silly, silly man."
"You're the what!?" Jack hissed, opening her eyes and sitting up in her bed.
"Fuck," Shepard sighed.
"I thought you hated the Shadow Broker," Jack said. This was pretty confusing. "On Illium, we helped you track down his observer, your personal assistant, and then you killed her."
"Yes," Liara admitted, "and then I tracked down the broker himself, killed him and now I am the most powerful information broker in the galaxy. I am the Shadow Broker."
"Wow," Jack said, complete stunned. "That's… something."
"It is. I could start a devastating war between two races, literally by the push of a button. It wouldn't take me more than a few minutes," Liara stated offhandedly.
Jack swallowed and Liara continued.
"Or… I could use the tremendous resources at my disposal to try and turn this war in our favor."
"Since you're dating the Boy Scout, I'm going to assume that you're using your powers for good?"
"Mostly," Liara giggled and poked Shepard in the ribs.
"Obviously, you can't tell anyone about this," Shepard said seriously. He clearly didn't want Liara to be in danger, because someone leaked her secret.
"I won't," Jack said honestly.
"Good," Shepard said. His famous grin was back on his face "Now, could you please explain why you kept moaning Ensign Magnus' name in your sleep?"
"Fuck!"
-X-X-X-
Charles knew that Jack was trying to keep their relationship a secret to the Normandy crew, which had made it very hard for him to take proper care of her when she blacked out. He had managed to carry her unconscious form from the shuttle bay and up to the med bay without raising suspicion, but when Chakwas asked everyone to leave, he really didn't want to. He knew though, that Jack would be absolutely livid with him, if she found out that he had given them away by refusing to leave her side.
Because he couldn't demand to stay at Jack's bed without letting everybody know that their relationship was something more than what was normal for a student and his teacher, Charles now stood in front of the memorial wall, looking at the names of some of the brave people that had already been lost in the war against the reapers. His eyes immediately locked on the two newest names on the wall.
Reiley Bellarmine
Seanne Bellarmine
Even though it made him sad to see their names, he still couldn't think of a greater honor for the twins. They were on a memorial wall reserved for the heroes who had served on the Normandy, and he was sure that Reiley and Seanne would have been very excited about getting their names up there. There weren't many humans who didn't dream about seeing the Normandy from the inside, and this seemed like Shepard was granting them their last, untold wish.
Vera had been inconsolable after the ceremony, and Sanders, Kurt and Prangley had taken her to the starboard lounge to talk things over. Charles had offered to go with them, but they insisted that he stayed in the mess hall, so he could keep an eye on Jack, at least from a distance.
Charles stepped away from the memorial wall and back into the dining area. Occasionally, he would steal a glance over at the med bay windows, but Jack looked like she was still asleep. Shepard and Liara were standing in front of her bed, discussing something.
"She's not the average teacher, is she?" James asked from the kitchen. The lieutenant was making some sort of protein shake, and apparently, Charles wasn't being as subtle as he thought about his worry for Jack.
"Not even close," Charles laughed.
"She definitely has a lot of power and aggression," James said, sounding genuinely impressed. "I've never seen anyone punch through a shuttle before. She's kind of hot too, if you're in to that sort of thing…"
"She has a boyfriend though," Charles said, a bit too quickly.
"I thought so," James chuckled. "Relax man, I'm not going to try and steal your girlfriend."
Charles sighed, happy that he didn't have to keep up this game of charades with the lieutenant, but also slightly disappointed that he had been so easily read.
"How did you know?"
"The way you looked at each other. This morning at the school, in the shuttle on our way back, during the ceremony…"
"That easy?"
"Chill, I won't tell anyone about you and Lola."
"Lola?" Charles asked skeptically.
"It's a good name, no?"
"Watch out," Charles warned him. "She doesn't like to be called anything other than Jack."
Shepard stepped out into the mess hall and called Charles over.
"See you later, Carlos," Vega said, as Charles stepped over to the Commander, who was waiting near the entrance to the med bay.
"He's given you a pet name already?" Shepard asked when Charles reached him. "That means he likes you."
"How is she doing?" Charles asked, trying to sound a regular amount of concerned.
"Your girlfriend's fine," Shepard whispered, thoroughly enjoying Charles' jaw drop. For a moment he thought that Shepard had somehow overheard his conversation with James. But how could he?
Shepard just laughed and dragged him into the med bay, where Jack was sitting on her bed with Liara and Doctor Chakwas at her side.
"The windows, Doc," Jack said as soon as Charles entered the room.
Chakwas smiled and pushed a button on the wall which made the windows between the mess hall and the med bay dark and opaque. The moment the windows lost their transparency, Jack grabbed the collar of Charles' uniform and pulled him into a searing kiss, right in front of Shepard, Liara and Chakwas. At first, Charles was hesitant, thinking that Jack was suffering from her blackout, but the hunger of her lips made him forget that they were even in the room.
When Jack finally released him, he didn't quite know what to do with himself. Jack was still sat on the side of her bed, looking like she couldn't wait to rip his clothes off. Shepard was grinning like a mad man and giving him a discrete thumbs-up. Liara looked like a little girl who had just seen the most adorable puppy, and the doctor just smiled pleasantly.
Charles could feel himself getting red-faced, so he lamely tried to move things along.
"How are you?" he asked, like nothing had happened.
Jack looked questioningly at Chakwas, who shook her head and was once again the very image of medical professionalism.
"Jack will be fine. Her body was just overwhelmed by the biotic output combined with the psychological stress."
Jack looked at Shepard.
"Psychological problems… Who would have guessed, huh?"
Shepard gave her a sad and compassionate smile.
"You've had a rough morning, Jack. Your reaction wasn't uncommon, it was just a little more violent, because you are… well, you. Most people can't punch holes in armor designed to withstand atmospheric entries and anti-aircraft fire, even when they're upset."
"How do you deal with it?" Jack asked.
"Losing people?"
"Yes."
"There's no right way or wrong way. You have to do what works for you, but I don't think you can ever get used to it. It's horrible," Shepard quietly said. "You just have to remember what you're fighting for. Use the anger. Make the enemy pay for what they've done. But you can never lose your head, or you'll only lose more people."
Jack took a deep breath and stood from the bed.
"Can I go, Doctor?"
Chakwas nodded. "Give your hand some rest for a couple of days."
Jack made for the door, but stopped and turned. "Don't tell anyone about us."
Liara, Shepard and Chakwas promised not to reveal their relationship to anyone.
"James already knows," Charles told her, and in that very moment Chakwas pushed the button, making the windows to the mess hall transparent again. Lieutenant Vega was outside with his face pressed up against the glass. He had obviously tried to find a way to peek through. When the glass turned transparent again, and he realized that he was busted, he winked at Charles and Jack, gave the glass a big wet kiss and walked away in triumph.
Shepard laughed, but Jack looked like she wanted to run after him and kick his ass.
"Maybe we could keep this between the five of us," Charles said.
"Make that six," a robotic female voice said. "I already know."
"Damn it, EDI!" Jack growled.
"I'm sorry, Jack," EDI said. "But unless you specifically ask me not to, I constantly monitor all areas of the ship. Nothing is a secret to me."
"Much like Liara, apparently," Jack said bitterly and received a look from Liara that clearly said 'keep your mouth shut'.
"I'm very good at keeping secrets," EDI said. She sounded proud in her ability to keep secrets, even though she apparently knew about almost everything that happened on the ship, making Charles wonder if an AI could actually feel pride.
"And we won't tell anyone either," Shepard promised. Liara and Chakwas both nodded.
Jack grabbed Magnus' hand in hers and used her other hand to gesture between them.
"If Joker hears about the two of us, I swear I'll kill you."
"Hears about who?" Joker said, limping into the medbay for his routine appointment with Doctor Chakwas. "Hey, why are you holding hands with your student? Is that your lipstick all over his face?"
"FUCK ME!"
A/N:
So. Mix of emotions, good bit of fluff, getting to know the Normandy Crew. The next couple of chapters will take place on the Normandy, that much I can tell you.
Not doing a good job of keeping their relationship a secret.
I'm back from my holiday, and I'll probably get the next chapter out some time next week. I'm trying to make the chapters longer than I did in the beginning, because I think it works better with the pacing of my story (relatively slow).
Hope you're all doing well, enjoying summer (or winter if you're on the Southern hemisphere).
- Simon
PS: I've been mapping out some of the major future chapters, and this reminded me that I used some of the early author's notes to invite my readers to send me ideas. This of course still stands, and I'll be more than happy to discuss Biotic Beginnings with you in private messages.
