It was very crowded in the shuttle in the way back to the Normandy, there were 6 people in there, the maximum was 12. Tom hoped that it would never come to that though, because he preferred to have some sort of personal space, the shuttle was crowded enough as it was with two krogan. Fortunately he was only slightly claustrophobic.
It was a very uncomfortable 45 minutes until the shuttle docked inside the Normandy, Tom couldn't be more glad then he was at that moment to see the Normandy again. Well, except until he realized the elevator was going to be even worse.
"Tom, report to the Medbay as soon as you can, I want to check out those bullet wounds." Shepard said.
Tom knew there was no point in arguing. "Yes sir."
...
"Hmm, you're lucky Tom, those bullets didn't pierce any vital organs, and they aren't causing any internal bleeding. But I'm afraid I might have to do some minor surgery to remove them." Dr. Chakwas said.
"How long will that take?" Shepard asked, he was obviously concerned.
"It shouldn't take more then an hour, and I'll be able to use a local anesthetic, but he'll have to rest for a bit after the surgery as to prevent anything else from happening."
"Good to know, I'll see you later Tom, get better soon." Shepard waved as he left the room.
"Are you going to have to use a needle of some sort?" Tom asked.
"Yes I will, but it shouldn't hurt, our technology has advanced us so far up in medicine that I doubt it'll hurt, but you will feel a tiny pinch."
"Okay, so when do we start?"
"We'll do it now since I don't want your wound to get infected, lay down here."
The surgery went pretty well, Tom didn't feel any pain after about 5 minutes, although it was a little unsettling to feel someone poking and prodding tools inside his body, but he dealt with it. It felt way longer then an hour, but that was probably because he was the patient and everything took longer when you were the one the operation was being done on.
"And that should wrap it up, how do you feel?"
"I feel alright, although it was a little unsettling to feel you poking around inside my body with all of your sharp metal instruments."
"That's to be expected, you should get some sleep now, you're body needs to rest a bit to recover from the surgery."
"I think I'll go do that."
Tom exited the room after a long hour and entered the crew bunks were he laid down in bed, he had a peaceful sleep with no dreams and no stress.
Meanwhile
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Shepard sighed, why did these diplomats have to be so annoying? It made his job a thousand times more irritating, why couldn't the bloody Turians and Krogan kiss and make up? He wish someone else could've done this earlier.
"So what is it you need?" Shepard asked Wrex.
"I've heard some troubling reports from the rachni relay, a scouting troop I sent there went missing, I've sent my best Krogan platoon to deal with it, but I was wondering if I could ask you to go investigate with them, you're a fighter Shepard so you shouldn't have any problems."
"I'll see what I can do, but I have some more pressing things to do right now, I'll check it out when I have time, alright?"
"Thanks Shepard, I think you've realized why I wanted to talk about this in private now, right?"
"Yes, I'll be going now." Shepard inwardly sighed, people were laying on missions for him like no tomorrow, he was already busy enough, and he was already worried about Grissom Academy, that fake response seemed like something Cerberus would pull. Shepard had made his decision.
"Joker, set a course for Grissom Academy, I think Cerberus is trying to capture the students there."
"Copy that Commander." Shepard exited the war room and passed the security checkpoint, he needed rest, Dr. Chakwas would be angry if he overworked himself like when he was on the original Normandy. He needed sleep.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
...
Tom woke up pleasantly, he had a very deep and revitalizing sleep. He was even more pleased when he heard that Shepard had gone out and bought premium grade coffee as a treat apparently, at least that's what he heard from other crew members that were there.
"I thought Shepard didn't like coffee." Tom said, confused.
"Yeah, he said to me that he only drinks it to wake up, but he never uses sugar or cream when I see him drinking it, which explains to me why he doesn't like it."
"So he got this brand just to see if it tasted better?"
"I think so, and he also said he got it because the crew deserved it, quite frankly I think he deserves a beach vacation after this is all over."
"I think he does too, but you seem to say that with a little more conviction, why?"
"I was there on the original Normandy, and he overworked himself down to the bone, Dr. Chakwas had to pull rank to get him to rest, he was really driven back then, I miss the old days when the only thing we had to worry about was if we were all going to be discharged from the Alliance for mutiny."
"Sounds like a tale that would be best told over coffee, but I have some things I need to do, thanks for the chat."
"Any time, you guys are the best, I kinda wish we all got paid more though."
Tom laughed. "We all deserve more then we get don't we? Be seeing you later." He left on the elevator after that small chat with one of the navigators. It was neat talking to some of the more behind the scenes crew, mainly because they were just kind of there in the games, it was nice to know there were good people making sure Shepard's ship was safe while he was out saving the galaxy.
He entered the elevator and it went up towards the CIC, he needed to know where Joker was currently flying to as he had no idea what Shepard was going to be doing next yet. He was slightly surprised when he saw EDI in his chair, he mentally chided himself for not expecting this, what was he going to do?
"Uhh, hi Tom." Joker said sheepishly.
"Hello Tom." EDI was obviously unaware of what his facial expression meant because if looks could kill Joker would be dead where he sat.
"EDI, why are you sitting in my chair?"
"Joker suggested it, I'm sorry if it has caused you any inconvenience."
"Oh, no it hasn't but if you'll excuse me and Joker I need to have a small chat with him outside of the cockpit if you won't mind."
"That is fine, Tom."
"Thank you, EDI." Tom said as he swiftly turned Joker's chair around and pulled him by the neck of his Alliance uniform out of the cockpit, fortunately EDI didn't seem to notice.
"Hello Joker would you care to explain why you suggested to EDI to sit in MY chair." Tom said, his voice was dangerously low.
Joker looked like a naughty boy who had just gotten caught cheating on a test. "I kinda, well forgot that you sat there and since EDI was just standing there I decided it would be nicer for her if she sat down I uh..." His voice trailed off.
Ah it was fun to watch Joker squirm under his icy stare, but he'd gone too far, he'd have to stop now. "Relax Joker, I wasn't going to break your crippled body out of anger, it's actually okay, I could care less about sitting in that seat since there are plenty of other terminals that grant just as much access to the Normandy's systems, I wasn't actually angry at you, I may have just wanted to watch your squirm.
"Have I ever mentioned that you're such a mean person sometimes?" Joker asked as he wiped a tiny bead of sweat from his brow.
"I don't know, but would you mind if I told Shepard about your fornax col-"
"I'm shutting up now Tom!" Joker said as he rolled his eyes.
"I think I'll be in the war room now so if Shepard wants to see me just tell him I'm in there if he asks alright?"
"Yeah, it was nice having you in the cockpit for a couple months."
"You too Joker, see you later."
In truth the war room had way better seats, plus it Tom felt way safer in there knowing he was pretty much smack dab in the middle of the ship, plus he had two alliance soldiers camping out at the door so he would feel doubly safe.
Shepard happened to be in the war room at that time. "Hey Tom." He said.
"Hey Shepard, what are you doing right now? Just curious."
"I'm just thinking about our war assets, the reapers are an incredibly powerful fighting force, can we ever truly fight them and win in a conventional fight?"
"We will Shepard, with your leadership I don't doubt it, that also reminds me, where are we going right now?"
"We're going to a school that a fake distress call responded to, it seemed like the kind of shady tactics the Illusive man would pull so that's why I decided to check it out, will you be alright after that surgery?"
"I'll be fine, the surgery was pretty small scale so I shouldn't have any problems since I've pretty much recovered from it at this point."
"Good to know, I-" Shepard was inturrupted by Joker. "Hey Commander we're pretty close to Grissom Academy, you might want to come see this."
"That's my cue, see you later." Tom nodded at this.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXx
Shepard entered the cockpit, and just like he expected, Cerberus vessels were docked at multiple ports.
"Shepard we're recieving an emergency signal from someone on the ship."
"Patch them through."
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Normandy, I'm here to help."
"Thank the lord you're here, I'm Kahlee Sanders and Cerberus has been trying to take the remainder of my students, they've locked all communication to the outside and have shut down all remaining ports."
"How are we going to get into the school then?"
"There's a very small cargo bay near me that I barely have access to, but Cerberus has several fighters guarding it so we'll have to think of something else."
"Negative, Joker will distract Cerberus while my shuttle docks unnoticed, from there I'll come to you alright?"
"Yes Commander."
"Garrus, Kaiden and Tom please report to the shuttle bay with full combat gear."
...
XXXXXXXXXXXxx
"Wait so we're raiding a Cerberus controlled base?" Kaiden asked in the shuttle.
"It was originally an Alliance school, but now it got taken over by Cerberus, we have to rescue the remaining students and teachers while taking out and Cerberus troops in our path, am I clear?"
"Yes Commander."
"Okay, the Normandy will distract the Cerberus fighters while we sneak on, our first objective is to find Kahlee Sanders and then to find out where all the students are. We should be landing in 3 minutes so be ready."
The shuttle ride was uneventful, which was a good thing since it meant that Joker was doing his job distracting Cerberus, they landed in a relatively small shuttle bay, but being the pilot Cortez was he managed to easily squeezed the shuttle in there.
"Keep the shuttle in position!" Shepard ordered Cortez
"I'm holed up in the server room around the corner, be careful as Cerberus troops are trying to get into it right now."
"Copy that Sanders, we'll engage them immediately." Shepard said.
The next hallway had four Cerberus troops who were all killed easily as they were taken by surprised and didn't get into cover fast enough.
"Sanders, we're clear, it's me."
"Thank you for coming, I don't think I would've been able to take those troops for much longer with out your help."
"Where are the rest of your students? And how many students are still here?"
"There's fewer then 20 students, and most of them are in various locations around the school. They're probably in groups so finding them will be easy, it's just getting them out the tight spots their at with Cerberus will be the main issue, although I believe that most or all of my biotic students are stuck in Orion hall, you might need to find them before anyone else."
"No problem, my team will deal with it, just point us in the right direction."
"You should be able to find them by continuing down that hallway, it'll eventually lead you to them, I'll unlock the door, just keep in touch with me."
"Ok, see if you can regain control of some of your systems while we're gone."
"Alright, and thanks Shepard."
"Don't mention it."
The inside the next hallway there was a nice view of a student getting dragged by his legs, Cerberus troops were carrying him to a shuttle, Shepard watched grimly before moving on. Inside the next main area there was one biotic student.
"Reiley Bellermine, drop the barrier, now!"
Shepard nodded towards Tom and Garrus, who both pulled out their sniper rifles.
"I can't do this! You'll hurt me!"
"Mark!" Shepard shouted, right at that moment, three out of the four Cerberus troops heads just exploded, and the last one was tossed by a pull and then shot.
Reiley dropped the barrier as soon as he realized that Shepard was part of the Alliance.
"Hey, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I am, but my sister is a littler further ahead, can you please rescue her too?"
"That's the point of me being here, you should get back to Kahlee Sanders, she's in the server room down that hallway."
"Thank you for helping us, I don't know what I would've done without your help." Reiley said as he started walking towards the hallway Shepard had pointed to.
"Cerberus really wants to indoctrinate these guys don't they?" Kaiden said, it was a statement, not a question.
"Their good people, I'm not surprised they've caught the attention of Cerberus, let's make sure they don't get anyone." Garrus said, his voice had a hint of conviction.
"It doesn't matter why Cerberus is here, we have one mission, stop them from taking the students." Shepard said.
A/N: Sorry for mixing up the last chapter with the first one, I really wasn't paying attention there, sorry about that! This chapter was mainly filler, besides the last part with the Grissom Academy. Every story has at least one of these, I guess this one was mine. My thanks goes out to the four people who pointed it out in reviews as I would never have noticed without them, see you next chapter!