Rose for a Lone Wolf

Shar watched as the soldiers moved around the base, just staring down at them from the rooftop. She was up here, trying to keep away from it all. The people who were walking in couples, the exchanging of candies, the flowers that men were giving women. It was all just so…depressing. She stared down at the ODST helmet in her hands. The blue was calming and she relaxed a bit.

Shar's gaze turned out to the open area where she watched a man hand a small red rose to a female soldier. She made some sort of comment. Her stance was aggressive but it was obvious from the look on her face that she wasn't actually angry. The man took a step closer and said something back. There was too much noise around her for her to know what either of them had said. The woman relaxed and pulled the man toward her. Shar looked away as they kissed.

She hated this day so much. All the people of the base seemed to be happy, but it just reminded her that she didn't have anyone here. She had herself, that was it. She had her armor, but her armor couldn't tell her if it cared about her. For all she knew it hated her for all the damage it received protecting her. She preferred to think it was willing to take the damage to protect her, but deep down she didn't believe that. The helmet that was staring up at her seemed accusing, as though she'd abused it by being reckless.

Shar set the helmet to the side, not able to look at it any more. This was why she hated this day. On this day even friends could tell each other that they loved each other, even a group of guys would joke around and spend the day together, spend time together as a sign of their bond. Shar didn't even know any of the ODST on the base. She didn't even know if anyone she'd ever met was still alive.

Shar lay down on the roof and stared up at the sky above. She watched the clouds pass, trying to clear her mind. She wondered if any of the Spartan IIIs from her class were even alive. She pushed that thought aside. She'd seen the reports, she knew about Pegasus Delta, knew that they were all dead. Her mind thought of Jorge, John, Kelly, the Spartan IIs she knew. Jorge would have spent the day with her, just because he was friendly toward everyone, though she didn't believe that she'd want to spend the day with him. There was something about how nice he was that she didn't like. Like it was just a front and something was wrong with the man.

She thought of John, then of Kelly. She remembered her letters to Kelly, how the Petty Officer had laid claim on the Master Chief. She remembered that Kelly had stopped writing her. Neither of them would have wanted to spend the day with her. John would have been spending the day with Kelly, and the female Spartan II had made it clear when she'd stopped writing that she didn't want to talk to Shar anymore.

Shar sat back up and grabbed the helmet, looking down at it. "You don't actually hate me, do you?" The helmet didn't answer back and she hadn't really expected it to. Shar took a deep breath, cursing this day again. She slipped the helmet back on and it oddly felt more confining now that she wasn't sure if her armor actually liked her. She pushed the feeling to the back of her mind. Armor didn't have thoughts or opinions; it was just a ton of metal, circuits, and pain.

Shar climbed down from roof and moved to her private room. She moved to the unit on the side of the wall. It was a series of robotic arms that, when controlled by the bases AI, could remove her armor for her. She stood still as the arms did their work and removed her armor piece by piece. When it was finished she stepped off of the platform and got dressed. She took a step toward her cot and then turned around. She retrieved her helmet from where it was stored when she wasn't wearing it. She then moved over to the bed and lay down, clutching the helmet to her chest as she drifted off.

Kelly stood before the monument, staring up at the five stone figures. She frowned, annoyed that they'd left out the last member of the team. Kelly looked down to the small bunch of roses that she'd brought with her to leave there. It was really just random that she'd only bought half a dozen. She took a deep breath, deciding where to start. She couldn't think of anywhere to start.

"Why are we here?" Kelly recognized the sound of her son's voice. She looked back at Sam who was tugging on John's arm, trying to get his father's attention.

"We're here to pay respects to an old friend." John looked to Kelly and they just looked at each other for a while.

Kelly turned back to the monument and she knelt down, placing the roses. "I don't know why you stopped writing me. It was too long before the battle of Reach for that to be the reason. It doesn't really matter anyway. You were my friend. We got the full report of what happened on Reach, of you and Noble." Kelly smiled a bit. "You know, they said that Cortana wouldn't have been able to understand the Halo systems as well without the information from the copy of her you brought to Captain Keys. I don't think she would have been able to figure out Halo, or stop it from firing without that data."

Kelly stood and looked up at the statues. "You should be up there. Standing with them." Kelly shook her head. "No, actually you should probably have your own statue about five miles away where no one else is. Maybe put it at the shipyard, or where the old castle base was, or maybe where we trained as kids. They would all be suitable places to put it."

Kelly looked down to the roses and then closed her eyes. "Thank you. I fully believe that the only reason that John made it off of the Halos, that he made it through, was with an AI that could help him as he needed it. So, I guess I owe him being alive to you. Thank you, Shar."

Kelly looked to her side as Jacob moved to her side. He reached out and took her hand. "Mom, did you know this person very well?"

Kelly thought about that for a second. "Well, I knew her probably as well as anyone did. She was my friend, and a great soldier." Kelly wasn't sure if anyone really knew the woman at all. When she'd met her she'd told Kelly that she didn't have friends. Though, from the reports she'd died with a team. No, that wasn't true. Noble team was dead by the time that Shar had died. Kelly frowned at that realization. She didn't like the idea of Shar having died alone.

Kelly reached down and picked up her five year old son. He clung to her and Kelly turned, walking back toward John. When she got close enough John put an arm around her shoulder and they both moved away from the monument.