Chapter 25: Bonding Time

Jack went down the elevator to the cargo hold wondering how long it would take the Collectors to repair their ship. If the ship had been of a normal class, like something produced out of Elysium, he would've assumed it would be months before it returned. However, given the fact that he was dealing with the Reapers, they would be lucky if the Collectors weren't kidnapping more people by the end of the week. Either way, Jack was running out of time, surely Arnold was getting close to making his move against The Illusive Man. He still hadn't figured out what his next move would be if the Alliance ended Cerberus before he stopped the Collectors.

The door opened to the dark cargo hold and Jack had to wonder why the other Jack would stay down here. If he had just gone through what she had, he would want to surround himself with people to keep him company. Then again, the majority of the crew here were part of the organization responsible for everything she experienced so why would she? He considered maybe talking to Kal about sending her to Grissom Academy, they would be able to take care of her and not in a warzone. The problem was Kai Leng was free, and he had no doubt that The Illusive Man would send the assassin after her the second she left the Normandy.

Kal's patient voice gave him a direction to walk in, "You need to at least be scanned, I'm not a doctor. If you have any internal damage from absorbing that much eezo, we need to know about it."

The girls' angry voice could've probably been heard for miles around if they were outside, "Did you think this was my first time to be hit with too much eezo? I dealt with that shit for years back on Noveria. How could you even ask me to go get a medical scan from them! Huh?!" She tossed a piece of omni paper at him, "Read this and tell me I need a scan from them."

Kal took a deep breath, obviously not wanting to read what she threw at him, "Subject Zero, age ten diary number 60,894. The subject is showing remarkable progress after we started using venom in her food." He sighed before continuing, "She managed to...break the necks of three other subjects without even looking at them. I recommend we begin injecting the venom into her monthly and tell her it's to calm her down..."

She was glaring at his faceplate, "Now, I want you to look me in the eye and tell me I should go upstairs to that little old lady and get looked at! What if she inject me with something like that and I start killing people on this ship?"

The implication of her last question was painfully obvious Jack thought as he walked closer to where he could hear them. She was worried about killing Kal in an outburst of biotic energy. While he hadn't of thought about that up until now, she actually had a point. If Kal didn't have the advanced genetic engineering from his father, she would've snapped his back in two on their first meeting. He should've been worried about a repeat incident but, the fact she was the one bringing it up made Jack feel better. She was starting to care about Kal's well being and that made him smile.

Kal didn't say anything for a few seconds, "Do you not remember I've been through this too? My own father was the one doing the experiments so don't assume I can't understand what your going through right now."

Jack stepped around the corner after knocking on the cargo container she was staying behind, "Doctor Chakwas isn't like that at all, she was part of the Alliance on the original Normandy before it's destruction. She's just a part of Cerberus now because she's dedicated to all of her patients. You should really get yourself scanned, some damage could be permanent."

She couldn't directly argue with him and thus just glared at him, "What do you care Shepard? I'm just an extra piece of furniture to you that you have to keep around so I'm not used against you later."

Jack shook his head quickly and gave her a smile, "That is not true at all, I care about every single member of my crew and I'm worried about you. What you did back on Horizon saved at least half of the colony. Your a hero Jack and I don't want you to forget that today."

She blinked a few times in disbelief, "Don't bullshit me Shepard, did I really save half the colony?"

He didn't know for certain an exact number but he could see it was what she needed to hear right now, "The Alliance is still doing a head count but, that's what early estimates are saying. You should be proud Jack, you did more than I was able to do on my own against the Collectors so far."

She gave him a smirk, "Mind if I get a holo recorder and get you to say that again? I'd love to see the look on the Blue Suns faces if they heard that coming from you. I still don't feel like I need a pointless scan though."

Kal walked up to her to pat her shoulder, "What if Chakwas shows me how to run the scan and I show her the results? That way she's barely involved and you just have to trust me. Do you trust me to do that?"

Jack could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she tried to come up with an answer. It was clear she trusted Kal but, at the same time, still didn't want the scan. He couldn't really blame her either, if his only type of relationship with medical professionals was through horrific experiments, he wouldn't want to see a doctor either. Little by little they would get her to trust again, maybe even convince her to go to college when all this was over. The look she was giving them made it clear that like it or not, she needed someone to actually care about her for something more than her biotics.

She didn't want to seem defeated at all but answered with, "Fine I'll do it, just...make sure Cerberus doesn't try anything ok?"

Kal seemingly let out a breath and the three of them started heading back to the elevator, "You have my word, no one in Cerberus will be able to touch you ever again."

EDI's voice came to them once they were in the elevator, "Shepard, I am detecting an unusual amount of hostility coming from the engineering bay. I would recommend checking in on Vakarian and SPECTRE Arterius when you are able."

Jack thought he was going to start laughing when the teenager responded with, "How the hell do you measure hostility in a room?"

EDI proudly answered, "I am able to monitor hormone levels of everyone on the Normandy and compare it with the galactic average. For example, I am able to determine that Kal and Shepard have had intercou-"

Kal cut her off, "Thank you EDI, Shepard will be right there." He tapped the engineering floor and whispered in Jack's ear, "Thank you for helping me down there."

Jack exited the elevator and turned around to give her a reassuring smile, "I'll be checking up on you both when I'm done here."

The door closed again and Jack had to wonder what Garrus and Saren could possibly be fighting about now. Even though there was a little tension over Garrus' more risky maneuvers, the two of them seemed to get along. Jack doubted Garrus could've seriously done anything dangerous in engineering so what did they have to fight about? His only guess was that Garrus had been blocked from attending his mother's funeral. It had appeared as though Garrus was over it when he saw the brothers talk but, could you ever really completely move past it?

When he entered the engineering bay, Jack realized he had misunderstood the problem. At one end of the room, Garrus and Saren were sharing a single monitor and at the other end, two Humans were doing the same. It felt like he was watching a recreation of the immediate aftermath of the First Contact War. Both sides knew they had to work together and yet, wanted to kill each other deep down. It had been easy to forget that Miranda and Jacob's tolerance for the alien crew members didn't translate down the entire Cerberus chain of command. They were still an organization that promoted Humanity first.

The Human female turned around and saluted, "Commander Shepard, I'm Gabby and this is Ken, we're part of the engineering team."

Ken glared at her, "Now your just pulling my leg to get me to turn around, no way does the Commander Shepard come to see us."

Jack coughed with a slight smile, "I think you'd probably be surprised."

Ken looked as though he was about to jump a few feet off the ground before spinning around to salute him, "I am so sorry sir, you see, Gabby tends to pull my leg and often."

Jack kept a light tone making sure they knew he wasn't offended, "Easy, just relax. I get that most Commanders don't actually visit they're crews." He spoke with a slightly louder voice so the Turians had an excuse to jump in if they wanted, "I just like to make sure everyone's ok and comfortable."

Ken was the first to speak, "Well, to be honest Commander, it's kind of hard to be comfortable when the deranged, pyschopathic, murderer that helped the Reapers take the Citadel is working right next to me."

Gabby's cheeks immediately turned a rosey red, "Kenneth!"

Before Jack could come up with the right answer, Garrus' voice grunted with an almost predatory rumble, "Say that again." It wasn't a request because he hadn't heard him but a demand.

Jack gave Garrus a warning glance, "Let me handle this. Now Ke-"

To his horror, Ken cut him off and started to repeat, "I said I would feel more comfortable without the pyscho murde-"

Garrus moved in one single fluid motion and punched Ken in the face before Jack could stop him. Jack could understand both ends of this argument pretty well unfortunately. On the one hand, Garrus was just protecting his brother from harassment, knowing indoctrination played a huge role in Saren's actions. On the other hand though, Ken was going off the information available about Saren from the news, it wasn't good news. It was hard to convince someone that you were only mildly racist against they're species, especially when Saren was famous for hating Humans since he entered public life.

Jack moved to grab Garrus' wrist when instead, a biotic warp grabbed it, "Garrus! That is enough!" Saren's head looked at Gabby, "Please forgive me for my brother's outburst. You should take Kenneth to the medbay."

They waited until Gabby dragged Ken out of the room before Jack looked sternly at Garrus, "Did I not say I would handle it? Jesus, now he'll think your both crazy."

Garrus yanked his hand free from the loose biotic grip and looked furious, "It wasn't right that he would just say that Shepard. Saren isn't the man that he thinks he is."

Saren had a gentle tone looking at the back of Garrus' head, "For him I am all of those things Garrus. You can't erase everything I've done to the galaxy because you personally forgave me."

Jack gave him a sympathetic smile and added, "Punching people to show that you aren't violent doesn't really work either."

Garrus tightened his hand into a fist, "It's not fair you should have to put up with that crap. It wasn't really you that did anything, the galaxy should know that."

Jack gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder, "When we find undeniable proof that the Reapers exist, we'll be able to tell everyone about indoctrination. Until then let me do the talking with skeptical people."

Garrus seemed to relax just a little, "Yeah your both right... Thanks Jack, I'll be sure to apologize when they get back."

Saren shut down his terminal and stretched, "I'm going to go get us some food from the mess hall and give you both time to talk. Shepard, come find me before we reach Illium, we need to talk."

Jack watched Saren leave the room wondering what Saren wanted to talk to him about alone. Given the fact that Saren wasn't the friendly type, it had to be related to the mission. Maybe he remembered something about Sovereign that he didn't want to worry Garrus with. The Cerberus scientists had claimed memory loss was a side effect of indoctrination, however, as far as he knew Saren was the only man alive after experiencing it. He just couldn't think of another explanation as to why Saren would want to talk.

Garrus' mandibles twitched, "Well that didn't sound creepy at all... How are you doing Jack? I mean how are you really doing after finding out the Reaper we thought we killed is still running around?"

Jack rubbed the back of his neck, "Honestly, a little worried we're back to square one all over again. Just with a few extras this time. What about you? I'm sure talking with Saren has been hard."

Garrus shrugged going back to his terminal, "We're kind of just pretending it never happened. Not the healthiest answer I know but, it's a lot easier than emotions right now. We'll get there, just after this is all over. And Shepard? We beat Sovereign once already, we'll just do it again."

Jack chuckled wishing he had that kind of confidence, "If you say so, I'm not so sure myself.. I better go find Saren, whatever he wanted sounded important."

Garrus agreed with a slight nod, "Yeah, Saren doesn't like to talk.. Hey, before you go, is Kal ok? He's been avoiding my messages checking up on him since Omega."

Jack wondered what that could be about but quickly made an excuse, "We've just been busy and now he's taking care of Zero. I'll tell him to reach out."

He left the room quickly with a million things to do before they reach Illium.