Summary – Shauna's in for a shock. Several.
Disclaimer – Much to my extreme disgust, I don't own Dark Angel. Don't sue, last time I checked my account it had –15 cents so you won't get a lot from me. It was, however, my twisted brain that came up with Shauna and Christopher.
Notes – What can I say? Except reviewing makes me happy. I live for your feedback. You want a happy Kazzy. Unhappy Kazzys are bad. Please read and review.

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Tapping on Lydecker's door that evening, she entered following the example of their first meeting. She was here at his request. He needed her, not the other way around.

Inside was one of the doctors. What was her name? Adriana something or other. She glared at Shauna, as did Lydecker. Shauna ignored Adriana and returned Lydecker's gaze. Part of his problem with her was that she refused to show him the deference he thought he should get from her. He was used to either being shown respect or showing it, whether the emotion was genuine or not, and she knew he found it difficult to deal with someone who operated outside those boundaries.

Part of her problem with him was that he refused to give her the freedom she thought she should have. The young woman felt ill-equipped and uninformed. Bureaucracy was not something she was used to, and to her mind all the red tape that seemed to bind everything kept getting tied up in knots, making her life difficult.

The fundamental differences in their lives made it so that without a major concession on each of their sides, they'd probably never see eye to eye. It was only unfortunate that co-operation on both their parts was required to do their respective jobs.

"You wanted to see me," the young woman said, still not recognising the doctor's presence. Her words were not an apology, to either of them. She was telling him she was not leaving until he told her what he wanted.

Lydecker nodded to the doctor who left without a further word, but the expression on her face made Shauna wonder what she had interrupted.

"I have reviewed your request to see the X4s," he told her once Adriana was gone. "And have decided there may be some validity to it. You can do so tomorrow night after you return the surrogates to their rooms. The X4s will be on the grounds outside the training rooms. An escape and evade exercise."

"With all due respect, sir—" what respect?— "why is this suddenly happening?" She kept her voice deliberately even. Antagonising Lydecker was all well and good, but right now there was more at stake than her personal enjoyment.

He regarded her coolly for several minutes and Shauna could feel him assessing what he was going to tell her, why he was going to tell her, and what her possible responses were going to be.

"A good soldier should always know their base," he said.

"I am not a soldier!" she snapped and regretted it at the look of annoyance on his face. Oh boy, didn't mean to do that.

"You fight other people's wars for them, doesn't that make you a soldier?" Well, when he put it like that.

"A mercenary."

Lydecker inclined his head, but didn't respond for a long moment. If he found it strange she appeared to consider herself a mercenary, he didn't react. "Tomorrow," he said at last, in reference to her granted request, "that is all."

"Thank you," she said, finding herself surprised that she meant it.

The Colonel's concession left her speechless, as she had not expected him to relent after his first emphatic refusal. She had carried on the argument out of principle. Finally gathering her wits, the bodyguard nodded and left the Colonel's office deep in thought – this certainly was an interesting change of events. Outside the doctor was waiting, and shooting a glare at Shauna, she went back in.

Stunned, Shauna, for the first time in ten years, forgot about doing her workout and wandered back to her room, only to stop warily outside the door when she realized someone was inside.

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Shauna listened to the faint sounds from inside her room. Someone was definitely in there, moving around. As they did not appear to be aware of her presence, and unless it was one of the supposedly fantastic X-series, she could probably take them. She flung the door open to take advantage of surprise.

It was Chris. Cooking dinner. Again.

What the hell? "What are you doing here? Is your own stove broken or something?" she bit out, from surprise more than anything. She had to give him credit for being persistent.

"Nope. How was your 'meeting' with Lydecker?"

"I'm allowed to see the X4s in action. How did you get in?"

"My key card." Not for the first time she wondered exactly where he had access to that she did not. It was infuriating that she did not have access to places that she thought she should have access to and that he had that access to those places. And her rooms apparently. Of course, that meant she did not have official access. So far she had played by the rules, but if the need ever arose, she could probably bypass most of the security systems.

"How come it lets you into my rooms?" This better be good, I'm really not in the mood to find out I have a stalker. Still, a stalker would be infinitely preferable to some of the other twisted reasons Manticore might have for giving access to persons unknown to her rooms.

"So I can steal your underwear and take pictures of you while you sleep." Shauna might have pinned the art of facial-expressions-for-all-occasions down to a fine art, but no one could pull a poker face like Christopher. Sometimes he looked and sounded so serious that it was hard to tell if he were trying to be humorous or not.

Not impressed by his attempt at humour, she gave him a dirty look. "I sleep too lightly for that. How come?"

"It was deemed necessary for security." Which raised the question: who else was allowed into her rooms without her permission? Not a good sign, maybe she should ask Lydecker about it. She was sure he would be only too happy to answer any questions she had.

"I'm the bodyguard, you work in admin, where's the logic?" Her tone crackled with anger. If there was one thing she valued, it was privacy. Chris would never purposely invade her privacy, but there were others, higher up, that would think nothing of poking around if they though it would be beneficial.

Sensing that somewhere a boundary had been crossed Christopher backed down a little. "Don't ask me. I just do what I'm told. I've never used it before. I knew you'd be tense after seeing Lydecker, so I thought I'd cook you dinner. I'll go if you like." Shauna could see that he did not want to go, that he was only offering because he thought that was what she wanted.

"No, don't." Suddenly she did not want him to go, either, and asking him to leave really would not be fair. Even if he did arrive unannounced while she was not there. Earlier, she had been analysing her loneliness. Chasing Christopher away, would really not alleviate this. Even if she was not supposed to get close to anyone. Screw good sense.

He smiled, and the relief showed through. "Good. So you're allowed to see Manticore's finest? What – did you completely brainwash Lydecker and convince him to give you control or something?"

She glared at him. "And to think people say that my mouth will get me in trouble one day. No, he said he had reviewed my request to see them and that it might have some validity. Which, come to think of it, gives him more power over me than I'd like him to have." A sudden thought struck her and she glanced around. Both she and Chris had been unguarded in what they said.

The young bodyguard regularly checked for bugs. She found them too, creating yet another point of contention between her and Lydecker. However, in a place as security tight as Manticore, everyone was watched. As a compromise she lifted any that found their way into her room, and Manticore put them right back in. She had scanned recently, so there should not be any, but it was always good to be cautious. Her words had been a little more anti-Manticore/Lydecker than they should have been.

Christopher sensed her concern, he knew her well enough to be able to read her slightly – which was better than most people ever managed. He knew what she could be worried about. "Don't worry, I checked. There is none. In this room at least." He told her, and she briefly wondered where he had learned to sweep for bugs. But he did work at Manticore, after all.

She nodded, relieved. It was one thing to say something directly to Lydecker, it was quite another to say behind his back that she resented the amount of power he had over her. Ah well, too late to worry now. The good Colonel knew her feelings about him. If he knew anything about her – which as he'd mostly likely seen her file, with all it's blips and whistles – he knew she would never let it interfere with what she was doing.

Dinner was pleasant. Slightly burned from when she had distracted Chris, but tasty nonetheless. They talked idly about this and that, not bringing up Manticore at all. Normalness pervaded the evening and Shauna found herself wondering if this was what life was like for regular people.

Before he left, Chris kissed her. At the door he turned to say goodnight, but instead his mouth settled on her own, and despite her surprise, she tilted her head up to meet him. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she allowed him to slip his tongue past her lips, where she could caress it with her own. When his hands lifted her shirt to brush against her skin she nearly pulled back, but he left them on her waist, massaging the skin slightly, and she let her hands drift up into his hair, playing with the fine strands.

Apparently she was not nearly as close to chasing him away as she thought. Any distance he had given her was to see if she would follow his lead. He hadn't gone far enough that he couldn't come back and drag her along with him.

Pulling back breathless, she saw a soft smile on the lips she'd just kissed. On any other guy, that small smile hovering there would have made her stick his head so far up his arse he'd never pull it out, it was just that close to being smug. Instead, the curve of his mouth made her want to grin back conspiratorially, or just kiss him again.

So much for keeping a distance. Even the chill of fear and warning at becoming attached to him couldn't completely erase the swell of warmth that started low and worked its way up through her. Shauna had enjoyed that kiss, and was perfectly capable of admitting she wanted to kiss him some more.

It really had been a surprising day.

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