Author's Notes: Hey guys, its Katie once more with a new chapter of MoL! I know, I've been really lazy with these updates (due to my MSTs and volleyball practice), but they might be speeding up…due to my dislocated shoulder which puts me out of the team for a month or two. :===( Note that the operative word here is 'might'…anyways, on with the fic!
We were hustling through the streets and alleys of Omega to get to the carport, where the merc recruiter in Afterlife had instructed us to go in order to get to the ward of Omega where Archangel was holed up in. Apparently, the only way to get to Archangel was to pose as a freelancer and take the shuttle like every other wannabe tough guy to the battle zone. From there, it was a typical 'follow the bad guys and try not to get shot by the person you're trying to get to' situation. I hated it, but there wasn't another way. Archangel, who's a turian, was very, very good at covering his back. An old mineshaft that led to his little slice of home had already been blown up, collapsing a good portion of it and taking out a few mercs. Every other approach was either destroyed or booby trapped.
Good for the 'angel', for us. It basically meant that we had to wade through mercs and an unwelcome amount of lead being poured our way just to get to one man. Just peachy.
We approached a batarian who was wearing Blue Suns armor and was idly casually lounging around in an aircar. "We're here for the Archangel job."Russell cleared his throat as the batarian tossed aside his Fornax datapad. "Finally they send me some people who look like they can actually fight. Sweet."He rumbled before his gaze turned to me. "Hey sweet cheeks, you sure look like you're in the wrong place. My dick is right here."He grinned lecherously before it turned into a satisfying grimace when I grabbed and twisted the arm that he extended to grope my buttocks behind his back.
"Listen up, you fucking idiot. One more time you try to grope me or talk to me like that, I'm going to be driving my team there personally. And I'll toss you out of the car and into the streets for the vorcha to snack on. Understand? Now get driving."I hissed as he nodded frantically. Russell, Jacob and Zaeed were all making identical, stupid faces of approval while Kasumi had a 'you go sister' expression.
"Yeah-yeah! I'm sorry!"The batarian croaked as I let go, allowing myself a satisfied smile as he clambered into the aircar and started it up before we followed his lead, zipping off to wherever Archangel was.
About half an hour later, Russell was getting briefed by a batarian by the name of Cathka while the four of us stood behind him, examining the A61 Mantis gunship that had allegedly been taken down singlehandedly by Archangel. "Shit, the bugger up there took this down himself? Not bad at all. Reminds me of the time when I singlehandedly destroyed a Grizzly by rushing it with PE in my socks…"Zaeed began as I tuned him out, choosing to survey the area instead.
On our way to this landing pad, the Commander had questioned the chief of operations of the Eclipse, Blue Suns and Blood Pack. We learned that Zaeed had some dealings with Tarak, the head of the Blue Suns on Omega, and Tarak owed him something. He'd also stolen a datapad from Jaroth, who was the Eclipse head on Omega, on the way out of the room where Jaroth was planning his attack on Archangel's compound. Kasumi had hacked an YMIR heavy mech on the way here, and we stole credits, brand new X15 Vindicators, and several black-market Batarian State Arms W55 subgun recoil compensators from a Blue Suns storeroom. Now all we had to do was…
"Yo Sarge, you need a break. Chill out man."Russell grinned as he plunged an electric soldering torch into Cathka's back and the Blue Suns merc spazzed uncontrollably as he fell to the ground dead while Russell was simply walking away from the corpse nonchalantly, like nothing had happened.
"Like a boss bro! You alright!"Jacob guffawed as both he and Russell fist bumped.
"Aww yeah! All I needed right there was a pair of aviators."Russell grinned, causing Zaeed to guffaw loudly and Kasumi to snigger as I just sighed. This was going to be longer than I anticipated.
"Are you two done referencing law enforcement movies? If so, let's go. Archangel doesn't have much time."I huffed as I gestured at the freelancers rushing the barricades, a clear indicator that the assault was beginning.
"Oops! Alrighty then boys and girls, saddle up!"The Commander grinned as we rushed up with the freelancers. It was…rather-I mean, slightly nerve-wracking just seeing how bloody accurate our man was. He was popping freelancers in the head left, right and centre…yet he didn't touch us. Strange.
My team and I, along with a few freelancers, made it into the hideout, and we saw a fulltime Blue Suns mercs setting up a bomb on the ceiling right below where Archangel was. "Miranda, overload the bomb."Russell mumbled as I happily complied, blowing the bomb up and taking the merc and most of the freelancers with it.
"They're with Archangel!"A freelancer yelled before I shut him up with a quick burst from my X8 Avenger which splattered his brains on the floor. Actually, Russell had also shot him in the head with his X15 Vindicator, but I got off the first shot. Neither the Commander nor I had brought along our usual Collector Assault Rifles; they'd be too conspicuous and they were the furthest thing from a typical merc weapon. A few surviving mercs tried to turn around and fire at us, but fire from Jacob's X76, Kasumi's X12 Locust, Mordin's X8 and a shot from Zaeed's X92 Mantis finished them off.
Russell then pounded up the stairs as we followed suit, and he opened fire on a merc, killing him as he tossed a warp bolt at another who was working on getting the door to Archangel's sniper perch, vaporizing the poor, clueless bastard. The last one was treated to an up-close-and-personal show of Jacob's biotic charge before my ex blew apart his sternum with a long burst from his LMG. "Well, I'm glad that I managed to talk that kid out of this."I muttered, shaking my head at the red smears that now painted the walls.
"Yo! Is this where I sign up?"A young man who looked barely eighteen asked us as we were about to leave the room. "Yeah, but you barely look old enough to drink and get laid, let alone rush into combat."Russell remarked, all of us turning to look at the boy as he grumbled something under his breath.
"I'm old enough! I grew up on Omega! I know how to use a gun!"He protested, waving his X8 around, and I noted that his finger was not on the trigger guard and I sighed. "Yeah. You know enough to get yourself killed son."Zaeed grunted as I sighed. "Hey, I'm not a kid anymore! I can't handle my-"I interrupted him in mid-tirade as I snatched his rifle away.
"Hey what do you-" "Trust me kid. Go return this rifle and get a refund. Also, here's 200 creds to get dead drunk."I replied as I slapped a credit chit I took off a dead merc and his now-decommissioned rifle onto his chest.
"Not bad at all!"Russell chuckled as we headed towards the shuttle bay.
Kasumi hacked the door open and we stormed in to see a turian in blue and silver armor standing there and taking aim with an X97 Viper sniper rifle. "Archangel?"The Commander asked him as he gave us a wait signal before firing his rifle once and taking out a merc. Once he was satisfied that the merc was dead, he turned around to face us and he took his helmet off.
"Garrus you dumb bastard! I had a feeling it was you."Russell grinned as he engaged Archangel (or Garrus Vakarian, former C-Sec cop, Spectre dropout and former crewmember of Russell's) in what was colloquially known as a brohug.
"Shepard. You're alive. How is that possible?"Garrus asked as Russell grinned and spread his arms wide. "Well, Miss Super-Unbelievably-Hot-Chick-With-Awesome-And-Oh-So-Real-D-Cup-Breasts-And-With-The-Intellect-Of-A-Genius over there ran a project for Cerberus to revive me so I can stop the Collectors…and by extension the Reapers."The Spectre replied, gesturing at me as I ground my teeth and let out a long, irritated sigh.
"I see…"Garrus murmured as he let his eyes roam over my body, but I shot him one of my icy 'ogle at me and I will castrate you' glares and he immediately looked back to Shepard. "So why are you here?"The turian asked.
"We're here to recruit you for our mission against the Collectors. I'll tell you more later since we seem to have some merc problems here. By the way…what's with the name 'Archangel'?"Russell replied as Garrus grinned in embarrassment.
"Heh…the locals gave me that name after all the good deeds I did with my team. It kind of stuck after awhile…but please, it's just Garrus to you."The turian sniper chuckled as he re-shouldered his sniper rifle.
"Speaking of your team, what happened here?"Russell asked as he nodded towards a row of 4 body bags.
"It's a long story, I'll tell you more later. But for now, we need to get out of here."
"Let's blow some mercs up. Hang on…got LOKIs…looks like Eclipse property…oops."Russell chuckled as he took them down with his X29 Incisor.
"Nice rifle Shepard. What is that?"Garrus asked as he loaded up his Viper. "This? Oh it's an X29 Incisor. Awesome top of the line shit straight from Cerberus' R&D division. By the way, patch your com into RF Baker223. That's the frequency we're on."Russell grinned as he turned to us.
"Miranda, you take Jacob, Mordin and Kasumi downstairs while Zaeed and I will have a hunting session with Garrus up here."Shepard instructed as I nodded and beckoned for them to follow me downstairs.
Just as we reached the front area of the complex, I heard Russell, Garrus and Zaeed firing their sniper rifles and I zoomed in with my Sentry Interface visor to see what was going on. The Eclipse were beginning their assault, and I motioned for my team to take cover and wait till the mercs came closer to our position. We ended up waiting for nearly ten minutes (yes, that's how brutally effective the three snipers were) before an asari vanguard and three human mercs came to what I judged to be within range. I didn't even have to say a word, all I had to do was to fling a warp bolt to vaporize the vanguard's biotic barriers whilst firing my rifle, and my team automatically followed suit, laying waste to the ragtag little party of mercs.
In all honesty, we didn't have much to do except to kill a few mercs who were lucky enough not to get shot by the sniping trio on the floor above. However, that all changed when the Eclipse sent out the YMIR Kasumi hacked, and at the exact same moment, we heard an almighty boom that shook the ground beneath us.
"What the bloody hell was that?"I asked as Garrus sounded in over the net.
"Damn it! Looks like the Blood Pack have breached the lower levels! Well, it had to happen sooner or later…"Garrus muttered as Russell's voice crackled in my earpiece over the sounds of gunfire.
"Miranda! Take your team downstairs and deal with it! We'll be fine up here, given that the mech is currently killing its own people."The Commander ordered as I complied, taking one last glance back to the bridge to see that the YMIR was mowing down the hapless mercs like blades of grass before a lawnmower.
We hurried downstairs, grabbing some thermal clips out of an ammo locker on the way there. There were three open entrances, and the middle one quickly slammed shut thanks to Jacob biotically charging to the control panel and releasing the emergency shutter close lever before he overloaded the controls with his omnitool, permanently keeping the door shut. There were still two doors to close, and I mentally flipped a coin and picked the left entrance to handle.
"Jacob, Kasumi, you two go right into the garage and get the shutter closed! Mordin, you're with me for the left one!"I hollered as I ran to the left side, which was a service conduit full of pipes and not much else. Mordin faithfully followed behind me as he killed some Blood Pack vorchas with an incinerating plasma jet from his omnitool and some fire from his rifle as I tagged a few myself with both my gunfire and biotics.
We then ran into a trio of flamethrower wielding vorcha and we soon found ourselves pinned behind cover. Just as we dove behind cover, we heard Shepard yell "I got him! Jaroth is down! I repeat, Jaroth is down!" into the radio as I tried to remember where I'd heard that name before. It hit me within a second that Jaroth was the head of ops for Eclipse's branch on Omega, and he was on a Cerberus hitlist of potential candidates for assassination due to his anti-human stance and the fact that he'd stolen a considerable amount of eezo from a Cerberus shipment once. Despite the fact that such a hitlist existed, there was absolutely no intent to make good on that list…yet. We were just waiting to see if any of the few hundred would get out of line and begin to cause problems for both Cerberus and humanity, then we would go in and clean them up.
Mordin blindfired over the stack of sewer pipes that protected us from the flamethrowers of the vorcha as I turned to him. "Professor, can you set up a snake-cam feed from your scope to my visor?"I yelled as he blinked in agreement.
"Of course I can do that Officer Lawson. You are going to overload their fuel tanks, yes?"He rattled rapidly, doing just that as I nodded. A few seconds later, I could see where the vorcha were and after estimating their positions, I raised my left arm above over and zapped one of them, blowing him up and setting off a sympathetic detonation that eliminated the other two. As soon as that happened, both Mordin and I sprung up from behind our cover and cut down the remaining vorcha as we hustled to the entryway. As we did, two Krogan battlemasters, along with a dozen vorcha and four varren appeared at the opposite end of the hallway, and we made even more haste, trying to get to the entryway before they did.
I yanked the emergency shutter close lever hard, cutting the enemy squad off as I overloaded the circuitry with my omnitool just as Jacob reported in to advise us that he had accomplished his task. "Uh, guys, I need y'all to get back up here now. Garm is bringing a shitload of his pals with him, and we couldn't stop him from getting to the front door!"Russell chimed in over the net as Mordin and I sprinted back towards Russell and linked up with Jacob and Kasumi on the way back.
When we came out of the basement, we all saw that Russell wasn't kidding. "Uh-oh, too many mercs! Problematic!"Mordin warned as we began to fire upon the vorcha and krogan that remained as a rearguard on the first floor. Garm and his five krogan companions didn't even notice us as they trundled up the stairs, dead set on facing Garrus and killing him. Unfortunately for them, I was not about to allow that to happen. If that were to happen, it would have to be over my cold, dead and very curvaceous body.
The rearguard on the first floor were relatively easily dispatched with a copious amount of our accurate fire, combined with some of Kasumi's cloaked backstabs, Mordin's incinerating plasma jets, Jacob's shockwaves and my warp bolts. The krogan were tough, but they weren't the smartest mercs in the building as they continually charged my team's positions, allowing either Jacob or I to trap them in a biotic pull field before we finished them off at our leisure. "Hey are you done with the idiots on the ground floor? We need backup here, stat!"Russell roared as the sounds of gunfire raged above us.
"Got it! Backup's on the way!"I yelled back, sprinting up the stairs and into the room, where I saw that two of Garm's goons were lying on the floor, dead and not in a single piece. However, Garm was still going strong, and so were his remaining three friends. Jacob tossed a warp at one of Garm's henchmen, blasting a huge chunk of his armor off so that Mordin and Kasumi could roast the krogan with a plasma jet and some gunfire. Russell was occupied with a krogan, and I flung a warp bolt at him, destroying his armor and letting Russell nail him with a headshot from his X15. I killed the other with another warp bolt and a long burst from my X8.
Garm noticed that he was the only one left, and he went into a blood rage and charged Shepard, who was reloading and could only stare but not get out of the way as Garm was too close... No! Protect Project Lazarus at all costs! I can't lose him and fail the Illusive Man! I thoughtin a panic as I threw myself in his path, readying my biotics for a biotic punch. "Shepard! Get out of the way!"I screamed just as I crashed into the krogan and I punched him. Garm stumbled, and as he did so, he trampled upon my ankle at an angle, effectively shattering it.
I screamed in pain as I landed on the ground hard, and Garm landed some distance away from me as Russell rushed over to my aid while everyone else poured lead on Garm and eventually killed him. "Hey Miranda, thanks for taking that charge for me. You shouldn't have."Russell smiled reassuringly at me while examining my ankle with his omnitool.
"I would do it again, Shepard. He was about to knock you out of that window and into the void below. You would've died, Project Lazarus would've failed, and we'd lose any chance we have of stopping the Collectors."I replied, hissing loudly when Mordin, who was now tending to me, set my ankle with an aluminum rod from his medkit before he injected some medigel into the localized area.
"I have set your ankle Officer Lawson. But will have to return to Normandy for further treatment ASAP. Medigel should numb the pain till then. Stay out of the fight."Mordin informed me as he sat me down in one of the couches in a lounging position.
"With all due respect Professor, that isn't going to happen."I growled as I leaned back against the armrest, my rifle at the ready. Mordin just looked at Russell, who gave me a 'not bad' look.
"Okay then Miranda. Think we should go now Garrus?"Russell asked the turian, who was about to answer when we heard the distinctive hum of an A61 Mantis gunship just outside.
"Archangel! You're dead, you fucking pain in the ass!"Tarak's voice roared over the gunship's loudspeakers as he fired a salvo of missiles. Most of them hit the reinforced concrete walls of the structure, but one sailed in through the window and detonated very close to Garrus' position, flinging him to the ground in a pool of his own blood.
"Garrus! Shit!"Russell roared as we heard more Blue Suns gunships approach us and they unloaded the mercs inside. The mercs rappelled in through the windows, but didn't stand much of a chance as we fired at them, killing many of them as they tried to unholster their rifles or shotguns. This continued for a good ten minutes before the merc assault slackened due to the fact that my team and I had already killed and/or wounded literally hundreds of them.
I shot a female merc with a ML77 rocket launcher to death and I used my biotics to bring her launcher to me. I grabbed it and checked it to make sure there was ammunition in the launcher before I hefted it to my shoulder and began firing at the Blue Suns gunships, taking out two of them before a burst of fire forced me down. I peered over the backrest of the sofa to see that it was Jentha, the female Blue Suns lieutenant who briefed us when Tarak chased us away, who had fired at me. She was accompanied by a senior turian engineer and two regular mercs with rifles, and my team and I began firing at them, forcing them to dive for cover. One of the mercs didn't make it, thanks to a shot from Zaeed's sniper rifle which cut cleanly through his chest, leaving a gaping hole where his heart was supposed to be.
The turian tried to advance upon me, but a broad-area overload attack from Kasumi which fired his shields convinced him otherwise. That and the fact that I tossed him out of the window like a ragdoll with my biotics, sending him plunging hundreds of stories to his very messy demise.
The last male merc was killed by Russell's rifle fire, and Jentha attempted to retreat, but there was to be no quarter given to the mercs today. I emptied my thermal clip at her, ripping through her shields and hitting her in the back of her head, instantly killing her as she slumped to the floor.
"I don't know who you fuckers are, but you'll die like animals today!"Tarak thundered over the gunship's loudhailer as I checked my 'borrowed' rocket launcher. Five more rockets left…if I didn't miss, I'd take it down. Normally, it would be near impossible to destroy a gunship with five rockets, but given that Russell, Zaeed, Jacob and Kasumi were firing away at it, it was possible now. I propped the launcher against my shoulder and waited for a solid lock before firing at the gunship. The first three rockets hit, but one inexplicably went veering wildly off course and the last one got shot down.
"Dammit!"I hissed in frustration through clenched teeth before I ducked back down due to the gunship exploding. When I tentatively peeked above the backrest of the sofa, I saw a huge fireball below us, and a fading biotic glow around Russell, who was striding towards me purposefully as he inhaled deeply.
"Hey beautiful. Thanks for distracting him with your rocket launcher so that I could take his engines out with a warp."He grinned reassuringly at me as I shrugged. Hell, I was just doing my job after all. Nothing special that I should be thanked for, as a matter of fact.
"While I appreciate the thanks, I don't see the need for you to thank me. I was just doing my job."I replied as I tossed the now empty launcher over the backrest of the couch before I switched to my rifle and popped the spent clip out before slipping a new one back in. Even though it was clear, you can never be too sure about things like whether or not a half-dead merc is going to pull a heroic last stand and gun you down, or if there was someone who'd been hiding in a corner, terrified, but he/she finally grew some bollocks and decided to charge you in a blaze of glory.
"Hey guys, the Kodiak is here on the roof. Let's get to it."Jacob informed us as he helped Mordin ease Garrus onto a hover-stretcher that Mordin brought along with himself.
"Okay. Jacob, you're on point. Kasumi, you guide that stretcher while Mordin and Zaeed are on rearguard duty. I'll be right behind that stretcher carrying Miranda."Russell instructed us as I sat up straight and began to protest.
"Shepard, I don't need to be carried like a little baby!"I protested in indignation as Jacob and Zaeed shared knowing smirks as they took up their positions. If I didn't have this bloody broken ankle, I'd gladly go over to where they were and slap those sickening, lecherous grins off their faces.
"Look, you assisted me with Garm," Russell said as he gestured at Garm's still smoldering corpse, courtesy of Jacob's Inferno rounds (which he custom made himself) "so let me help you. You're obviously too badly injured to walk, so I'm carrying you."Russell sighed as I shifted on the couch, trying to avoid his arms and prevent him from carrying me, much like Mr. Skittles, my cat back at my main residence on the Presidium, would whenever I tried to pick him up.
He scooped me up in his arms and lifted me off the couch in one smooth motion despite my protests. "Shepard, let me down! I can bloody well walk dammit!"I cursed as he just looked at me and sighed as we began moving to the shuttle.
"Miranda, I know it's a bit humbling for you to get carried, but now is not the time for blind pride. Your ankle is broken, probably shattered from that damn krogan's stomp, which basically means that you can't walk. So quit protesting and let me help you, okay?"The Commander exhaled as we plodded up the stairs to the roof.
"Fine. Well, I suppose I should thank you then."I huffed in resignation as he just grunted in acknowledgement as he stepped into the shuttle before laying me down gently on a seat before turning around to check on Garrus.
"Hey sister, you all right there? Ego still intact?"Kasumi giggled as she slid into the seat next to me, earning an irritated glare from me as she raised her hands in mock surrender while still giggling. She then bent down and checked my ankle, which was still swathed in a bandage with a splint attached to it, before wincing in pain.
"Damn, that looks really bad. Hey, have one of these, it helps with the pain."Kasumi beamed at me as she offered up a small silver foil wrapped package that contained something round inside.
"What is that? Some painkiller? Looks massive for a painkiller pill."I mumbled as I inspected the object in her hand as she giggled once more.
"No silly, it's a macha mochi I made myself!"The Japanese thief replied, smiling broadly as I tried to recall what a macha was.
"Thanks. It's a Japanese snack made out of rice flour with a sweet green tea filling, right? Not many people know how to make it these days."I asked as I accepted the package and opened it to see that the macha was a dull green in color.
"Yup, got it in one. I actually stole the recipe from one of my aunts, who runs a Japanese sweets shop in Washington D.C. back on Earth."Kasumi whispered conspiratorially as I smiled and rolled my eyes. Well, it was pretty much expected that she'd steal the recipe from her aunt instead of just asking for it.
I bit into it, and the nicely sweet, pleasant taste of the green tea filling filled my senses as I nodded in approval. "Mmm, this is rather delectable. You made a really good decision to steal your aunt's recipe."I praised Kasumi as she smiled shyly.
"Well, I'm glad you like it so much."She replied coyly as she began to ogle at Jacob, a fact which didn't slip my eye. As I silently finished Kasumi's mochi, I noticed Shepard coming over to me with a goofy grin on his face as I mentally sighed at the inevitable stupidity that would follow soon after.
"Hey looks like Miss Lawson's making some friends today."He grinned at me as I swallowed down the last of the dessert before regarding him coldly.
"Not with you though. So mind your own business and your injured friend."I snapped at him as he winced while Jacob mimed a machinegun being fired before Zaeed added in with the sound effect of a very old 21st century plane plummeting to the ground after being severely damaged and the subsequent explosion.
"Shot down!"Jacob chuckled along with Zaeed as Shepard slunk back to Garrus' side in defeat, making me smile thinly at finally being able to beat back his irritating attempts at building a relationship that went beyond superior officer and subordinate.
The shuttle was quiet throughout the whole trip back save for an occasional bout of murmuring between the men or between Mordin and Shepard as the salarian continued his vigil over the badly wounded turian as we headed back to the Normandy. It was fine by me as I began drafting the after-action report which I would send to the Illusive Man later on my omnitool. Just as I was about to enter the third paragraph, Russell sat down beside me and laid his hand on my shoulder as I looked up at him inquisitively.
"Hey Miranda, how's your ankle holding up?"He asked as he examined my ankle for a few seconds before I gently and gingerly reclaimed my foot from his grasp.
"I'm fine thank you. Is he going to make it?"I asked, gesturing at the turian on the stretcher as I saved and closed my report, knowing full well that I wasn't going to be getting back to it anytime soon.
"He is, but we don't know if he'll still have his vision intact. We've got to get him to medbay stat. Oh and by the way, we're heading over to Alchera next. Joker says that we'll be there in two and a half days."Russell replied as I just nodded.
"Of course Commander. Take all the time you need to mourn your fallen crew."I replied as I caught a flicker of something…dangerous (?) in his eyes. I have no idea why, but I felt fully compelled to go down to the crash site of the SSV Normandy with him. Perhaps it was because I was constantly frustrated that I couldn't get a read on him, which has never happened to me before, and I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the real Commander Russell Patrick Shepard when he was at his weakest moment. But the only thing I knew then was that I wanted to go with him.
We felt a familiarly welcome jolt as we docked inside the Normandy's cargo and shuttle bay. The doors swung open to reveal Doctor Chakwas and the four Cerberus medical interns waiting there with a gurney and a wheelchair. We waited for the interns and Mordin to transfer Garrus off the stretcher and onto the gurney before we began disembarking. Kasumi got off alongside Zaeed, and Jacob followed closely behind. I stood up, but I was suddenly swept off my feet and into someone's arms as a gasp of both surprise and indignation escaped my lips.
I turned my head back to see that Russell was carrying me in his arms and my scowl immediately returned in full force. "Shepard, let me down this instant! I can bloody walk to that wheelchair!"I fumed as he just glanced down at me with a mildly amused expression. The cheek of that bastard! Smiling at me with an amused expression. Oh the things I was going to do to him when my ankle healed, which would probably be no later than a fortnight…
"Um, no you can't. Why is it so bloody hard for you to accept help? Can't you just stow your ego away and let someone help you for once?"He sighed as he carried me into the elevator, attracting the curious stare of Crewman Rolston, the primary shuttle pilot on the Normandy. I glared right back at him, and he quickly diverted his glance away from me and pretended to be working on something. Small consolation for what the big idiot who was cradling me in him arms like a baby was putting me through.
"It's not my ego Shepard! There is a proper code of behavior for the XO of a ship, and being carried like a baby is definitely not the proper code of behavior! Now let me down!"I hissed back in exasperation as he stepped into the lift with me still in his arms.
"No. What a load of bullshit that was, hiding the fact that I was damaging your ego behind formalities."He snorted as I opened my mouth to retort and chew him out for his complete douchebaggery, but he just shook his head and said "Uh-uh, you will not retort and you will just enjoy the ride."
Son of a bitch…I swear, I am going to kill this bastard in the most painful ways imaginable once the Collectors were eliminated…
So we stepped out of the elevator on the third deck in complete silence, but with me stewing with barely restrained rage. He then walked me into the medbay, where one of the interns, Parkinson, was waiting. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of me being carried, but she soon averted her eyes once I glared at her.
"Hey there Parkinson. I'll leave Miss Lawson in your care."Russell said as he gingerly laid me on one of the beds before turning to leave, getting an "Aye-aye sir" from the chestnut-haired intern.
"Shepard, wait! Is it okay if I went with you to Alchera? …You know, just to pay my respects."I lied lamely as he turned around and considered my request for a few seconds.
"Of course Miranda, you're welcome to visit Alchera with me. By the way, I know you want to try and see if there's another side of me you missed, but I don't give a damn. I'd like for you to come with me to see the original Normandy."The Commander replied, leaving the medbay as I just stared at him with my mouth slightly agape. How in hell did he know? He knew almost fucking everything about me and my motives, yet I didn't know him and his motives beyond what was already publicized in at least six different places.
Hopefully, I could find something to use to read him, or at the very least, use against him down on Alchera. Oh, revenge would be so sweet.
A/N: If you think Russell is a total douche here, wait till you see the next chapter! Once again, please review. It satisfies my insatiable lust for reviews and makes me somewhat less of a review whore…for about three hours. :P Bye guys and see you soon!
XOXOKatherineXOXO