Andromeda Tales: As Good as It Gets.

Scott Ryders lungs burned, his muscles ached and his heart hammered so hard in his chest he was sure it might give out altogether. Plasma rounds scorched the air around him, blazing a trail mere inches from his head; he'd never been so thankful that the Kett were lousy shots.

There ahead of him, only twenty feet or so, was the cargo bay ramp. Now peppered with plasma burns and hovering a few feet from the ground, the ramp was being covered by Cora and Liam, both toting assault rifles and laying down a curtain of fire at the pursuing Kett. Scott had never seen anything so beautiful.

Searing pain in his ribs briefly reminded him of the close call he'd suffered two miles back into the desert, he'd have to get that looked at. To his left he noticed Vetra keeping pace, looking just as worse for wear, firing her weapon wildly behind her every few paces. Later he'd surely come up with some whimsical and poetic way of describing just how mind-bendingly awesome she had been, but presently he only cared to get her, and himself, up that ramp.

The cargo bay was at their feet, Scott flung himself up the ramp and onto his back. As he shouldered his sniper rifle and took aim from betwixt his legs, he heard Cora shouting into the comm's. The ship began to ascend and Scott fired off round after round into the approaching horde of Kett, adding steadily to the alarming number of corpses that lay strewn across the sands.

The Kett were now far below and strong arms hooked Scott under his shoulders and pulled him roughly up the ramp and into the cargo bay. Now he felt the flood; the white hot, searing charge of adrenaline that had kept his legs in motion and his brain in gear as near-certain death rained down around him, but now with nothing to do, it all went to his head and filled him with psychotic fury.

He hauled himself to his feet and ripped the helmet from his head, feeling suffocated by it. Hands came to steady him but he batted them away, discarding his weapons entirely and stalking off towards the showers. Once away from prying eyes he slammed his fist into the wall, letting out a primal roar of pent up stress. The fire of battle, the two-mile death defying sprint, the stark truth that had been millimeters from death more times in the last four hours than in his entire life. He knew this was the feeling Krogan warriors lived for, and it was intoxicating, but just then Scott only wanted to calm his heart and be rid of his armour and the blood that was caked to it.

As he tore the armour and undersuit from himself, the door slid open and Vetra stalked in. She looked just as bad as him; a graze to her head, along the soft skin around the right side, and a scorch mark to her upper left leg. Her chest was heaving just as much as his was, they had that in common. She planted a plastic tub of something on the counter and gave him a quick nod.

"Shower now. Lexi later." she said, unzipping her suit and pulling off the armoured components.

Scott turned on the water and felt the soothing waters rain down on him from above. He pressed his forehead to the cool ceramic wall and now tried to calm his heart. Everything was slowing down, the rage subsided and the searing fire in his chest faded to a soothing warmth that spread through him. He turned his face slightly to glance across the divider at Vetra. She too had found comfort in the ceramic tile wall; more for support, he reasoned, than for it's comforting temperature as she wrestled with her suit. He pushed himself from the wall and moved to help her, pulling pieces of armour away and discarding them as she pulled the tight suit from herself. Turian physiology was a mystery to Scott, he just knew that they fought like demons and didn't bother with pretence. That was all fine by him.

"Spirits be fucked!" Vetra hissed as the water cascaded down onto her and over her clotting wounds. For all their natural armoured plates, Turians still had plenty of soft flesh exposed to the elements, or in this case, plasma weaponry.

"I hear that." Scott breathed, moving into his own cubicle.

"Damn, Ryder! We just...shit!" she exclaimed, punching the wall. It was all coming down on her now.

"I know, right?!" Scott laughed, which quickly became a hiss as the wound in his side flared with pain.

"You're hurt. Shit, let me see." Vetra said, moving into his stall. Before he could object, her taloned hands were turning him, prodding and inspecting him. She ran a finger over the split skin along his ribs and the scorched burns surrounding it. Scott groaned a little; he'd need to have that looked at by someone without claws. While she inspected him, he tilted her head with his hands to get a closer look at the near identical wound around the side of her head.

"They got you good…" he muttered, probing the soft flesh around the wound gently. A small gasp of discomfort escaped her. Their inspection of each other had brought them into such close proximity that they were essentially holding each other up, and Scott could feel her breath on his neck, hot through the steam that pervaded the air.

"Shit, Ryder...we barely made it…" Vetra said between controlled breaths. Her arms encircled his back and pulled him to her chest. His hands fell from her head, down her back to her hips, and pulled her flush to him.

Later, Ryder would wonder what possessed him, or indeed her. Something clicked onto auto-pilot for them both; after moments of clinging together and feeling the odd sense of security from the other, they each let their hands begin exploring the other again. Scott slipped a hand behind her head again and held her close, Vetra for her part opting to lay her head on his shoulder and nuzzle his neck.

While his hand explored the soft skin and smooth, hard plates that dotted it, her own fingers pressed into the taut muscles of his back. She explored the landscape of his spine, moving slowly down to his hips, much as he'd held her. She slipped one hand between them to explore his stomach, now moving her fingers slowly upward to his chest.

Vetra was intoxicated by him; the full fury of his soul exposed to her on the battlefield hours before, and now the feel of his muscles under her hands and the hot, bloodied smell of him, she could only want for but one thing. She cradled his head just as he held hers and traced a long, slow trail with her tongue. Up his neck, over his jaw and ending at his earlobe. She nibbled his ear playfully, enjoying the tensing of his body in response, and the small gasp that stuck in his throat.

Scott, having already abandoned all rational thought, reacted with vigour. He lifter her by one leg, hooking it around his waist and pinned her into the corner of the showers, her long, flexible legs allowing he to stand quite comfortably on one while pulling him closer still with the other. Scott latched onto her neck with his mouth, kissing and biting as his passions took him.

The friction between the two bodies soon found them both gasping for breath, between murmuring unfathomable things into each others skin and clumsy attempts at kissing. Vetra soon grew impatient, and reached down between them, taking his matters into her own hands; she relished the noise it pulled from him, and the expectant stare, the building quiver of anticipation as she slowly tilted her hips against him until, with a desperate sigh, she lowered herself onto him.

Vetra would later admit they made a pretty good team; she had height and flexibility, while he brought strength and stamina to the party.

It didn't take long at all for them both to feel their end drawing close. They rocked against each other with a desperate, impassioned tempo, building to a crescendo which finally, to their vocal approval, broke in violent glory. Expletives were uttered, and all frantic movement subsided to a painfully slow, controlled rhythm. In the final moments, Scott had pressed Vetra hard into the wall, pinning her against it and holding her aloft by her rear, allowing her to lock both her legs around him and squeeze him in as deep as she could. In that moment, every millimeter of him mattered, right up until the point where she stopped thinking altogether.

Just as quickly as the wave had crashed over them, the tides of fog in their minds receded, and reality came back to them. For Vetra it came crashing back to her all too suddenly, and she gingerly untangled herself from Ryder. She slipped passed him, taking advantage of his lingering delirium, and quickly slipped on her bodysuit. Grabbing up her things, she departed the showers with haste, not even pausing to look back. Scott was left to blink dumbly through the fading steam and wonder just what the fuck, beyond the obvious, had just happened.

The question would wait, as presently he staggered, towel held around his waist, out of the showers and into his quarters. He collapsed into his bed and fell easily to sleep.

Scott came too suddenly, finding himself peering up into a bright light and a stern blue face looming over him. He'd only ever seen Lexi pull that face once before, and he suddenly wished he'd stayed asleep.

"What, Mister Ryder, were you fucking thinking? Or did you skip that part entirely as per usual?!" Lexi demanded of him, face swelling from pure outrage.

"Well you know I like to stay true to form…" Scott offered, propping himself up on his elbows.

"Well, you're at the top of your game this time! That graze you mentioned happened to develop complications while you were passed out in your room. You've been in the med-bay for eighteen hours. How in the world did you get Turian blood in an open wound, Scott?"

Scotts previous bout of consciousness, if he could call it that, came flooding back to him in vivid detail. Vetras legs, strong and supple, clenched tightly around him, squeezing him until he popped like warm champagne. The deep gash on her upper leg must have bled into him a little.

"Got caught in a foxhole with Vetra, she was bleeding pretty badly. It was messy out there." He lied quickly. It sounded pretty convincing.

"I see. Well you suffered an acute allergic reaction; I'm sure I don't need to educate you on the biological incompatibility between Humans and Turians. I've treated the damaged tissue and I'm issuing you a bottle of antihistamines, just in case." Lexi said, handing him a small bottle of pills from her cabinet. "These can be used as a remedial treatment, should the same happen again, or they may be taken as a precaution to counter the allergic reaction before it begins. Beyond that, you are fit for duty. Now go eat something, a lot of something, and perhaps take it easy for a few hours."

Scott nodded and took the bottle, suspecting that the fair Doctor was implying something he wasn't sure he liked, but he wasn't about to open that can of worms. He was one foot out the door when she called after him.

"Interesting story for you Scott. Once Humans and Turians got on friendly terms with each other, a multi-species pharmaceutical company developed a medication to treat exposure to incompatible DNA. You're holding a bottle of those exact same pills right now. It's funny because, when the medication was made available, they weren't sold as antihistamines. They went on sale as contraceptives. Food for thought."

Oh yes, he was screwed. Well and proper.

oOo

Scott did as he was instructed and went to the mess to fixed himself a huge helping of pasta. They still had a few hours to kill while scans were taken of the local system, then a six hour trip to the Nexus. Normally Scott would make the rounds, tour the ship, and check in with everyone, but something had him bothered. Vetra had been uncharacteristically distracted whenever he was in the same room as her; she didn't even look up when he entered her room off the cargo bay.

"What do you want Ryder?" she asked, taking up a new tool to probe around the guts of the rifle she was working on.

"Uh...just checking in. Everything okay with you?" Scott asked, stepping closer to inspect the weapon. It was his own Widowmaker. His dad had taught him to shoot with that rifle, it dislocated his shoulder when he was seven due to faulty recoil dampeners. It still kicked like a mule.

"Everything apart from the interruption. These weapons won't maintain themselves, so if you don't mind…" Vetra said cooly. It wasn't like her to be curt with him, or anyone for that matter.

"Something's bothering you, and I'm a lot of things but blind isn't one of them." Scott said firmly. "Listen, Vetra...if you want to talk…"

"I don't need to talk about it. I really don't. How about you?" she asked him, finally looking him in the eye. Hers were cold, and entirely contemptuous. Scott could take a hint.

"Don't see that we've got much to talk about. I'll leave you too it."

And so he did. It didn't matter that their encounter in the showers had rocked his world to the foundations, or that watching her hurry away from him had hurt more than he'd care to admit. In his old fashioned ways he'd never had sex with anyone just for the sake of it, it was always deeper than that, it always meant something. Not to her, so it seemed.

oOo

Scott went about the rest of his day waiting for it to end, and contemplating just how long this mistake would be haunting him. Finally, with all his duties performed and the evening his own, he changed into some lounge-wear, put some music on and settle into his quarters for the evening. He was half-way into an interesting article on personal cloaking devices when his doorbell sounded.

"It's open!" Scott yelled from his bed, where the arranging of pillows had made up for the lack of a decent armchair. The door slid open and Vetra stalked in. He could tell right away from her body language, the shit was hitting the fan.

"Okay, I need to talk about it." she announced, sounding fully frustrated.

"Vetra, that rifle has been busted for years, you're wasting your time on…"

"Not the fucking rifle, Scott." Vetra snapped. He did so love to play with people but sense told him now was not the time.

"Oh okay. What's up?" Scott asked, putting aside his magazine and sitting upright.

"We had sex." Vetra stated. No yelling, no inflection of any sort, just a statement.

Scott waited a moment before responding.

"Oh...is that what we were doing? I did wonder, y'know…"

"Aw fuck, Scott can you please just be an adult…"

"...I mean I meant to ask you about it…"

"This was a bad idea."

"...once there was enough blood in my brain to think but you'd already left so…

"Yeah, about that...listen I…"

"I understand, Vetra." Scott said firmly, bringing their growing argument to a sudden halt. "You don't have to explain anything to me. Shower sex make a fine ending to a day of mass murder. I get it, okay? It was just sex."

Vetra stood and processed what Ryder had just said to her, and more importantly, what his body and face had said. He was pissed off, there could be no doubt. He spat his words like they were foul to him, and now he appeared restless, like something was gnawing away at him, and she knew exactly what it was.

"I shouldn't have run out on you like that." She said, moving to the edge of his bed and perching on it. It didn't seem right to discuss this from across the room.

"Yeah, that was a dick move, no pun intended." Scott agreed. "That said, I understand wanting to run away from a mistake."

"What we did wasn't a mistake Scott, and if you say that again I'll shoot you myself." Vetra corrected him swiftly. She could practically see the logic in his head moving from one explanation to another.

"Okay...not a mistake just...what, really bad? I mean, I know I'm sorta out of practice but…" Scott mumbled, looking even more put out. It took Vetra a moment to figure out what he meant.

"What? No, Scott, you weren't bad at all. Quite the opposite in fact."

"Say what?" Scott asked dumbfounded. Vetra sighed, inwardly despairing the male ego.

"What we did...what you did...it was the best I've ever had." Vetra simply stated. Scott, for his part, was bowled over.

"Gotta love that Turian honesty. Are you serious?"

Vetra scooted closer to him on the bed and shrugged her shoulders.

"Of course. That was the best sex I've ever had, no shame in admitting it."

"And you cut and run so fast because…?" Scott pressed.

"Because, you idiot, I'd just had the most mind-blowing sex of my life with a Human, not a Turian, and I didn't know what to do with that. I freaked. I ran away. I'm really sorry."

Scott took a deep breath and tried to process. Honestly, at times he envied SAM his near limitless processing power.

"So it's a...species thing. I get it. I'm sorry I can't be more bumpy for you." he said with a sad smile.

"Scott...I need you to understand me, okay?" Vetra asked, moving closer to him and taking his hands into her lap. "What you...did...what you made me feel...no man, Turian or otherwise, has ever come close. I was...moved. I ran because I didn't know what that said about me, and I've been trying to work it out. In the most literal sense, it's not a you thing. It's a me thing. I have no regrets, and I'm sorry I've taken my problems out on you."

Scott nodded in understanding, and he did, really. He remembered the state his sister had been in, so many years ago, sneaking into the house at four in the morning. Scott had stayed up just to catch her in the act, asked her through the darkness of the house what his name was. She'd replied "Jasmine" before silently sprinting to her room, leaving Scott to pick up his jaw. Then three weeks of trouble for them both while she tried to come to terms with her sexuality and he came to terms with the prospect his sister bringing home more beautiful women than him. This was much the same.

"I accept your apology. I um...it was great for me too, by the way. You were...Human women can't bend like that, at least, not many. Just saying...I was right there with you." Scott mumbled. He was never great with meaningful words, especially when discussing matters close to his heart. Vetra cocked her head slightly and gave him a quizzical look. Before he could utter another word she reached to his bedside table and tapped the controls there, locking the door with one, and dimming the lights with another. With privacy secured, she pushed him gently down onto his bed and crawled over him, resting her forehead against his gently.

Scott was going to say something, but she covered his mouth with her hand and spoke first.

"I'm reliably informed that you're not the type of man who gives himself to others as...freely...as some might. A gentleman, I think you call it. Or a romantic. Either way, I just wanted you to know, while we're circling around the topic...working with you, fighting alongside you and...being with you, if just the once, it means more to me than I can say. You mean more…"

"So, you're spending the night then, right?" Scott interrupted her with a cheeky grin. Vetra sighed in response

"I was trying to open up there, you get that right? I'm not exactly good at this…"

"Oh no! No, no, no I get that, I do!" Scott scrambled to explain, taking the opportunity to slide one hand around her waist and the other behind her neck. "And really, you should know I'm crazy about you, Vetra. I seriously am. It's just I'm really tired now and if I have the option to fall asleep with you here then...I'll take it. Is that an option?"

Vetra smiled, in the way that Turians did that apparently no Human ever recognised, and gently nipped at his jaw by way of an answer.

"You know I'm not exactly built for comfort, right?" she asked, sitting up and looking down at his strange, fleshy and oddly attractive body. She liked Humans, the universe would learn to deal with it.

"I'll get by. Now be a good girl; hop off, strip off and snuggle in." Scott said, climbing under his duvet and holding it open for her. He made no effort to turn away while she took off her clothes, and the moment she was beside him he pulled her body flush to his. True, Turians were hard and lumpy and downright sharp in places, but oddly, never Vetra. She was just right.

Vetra delighted in feeling his arms around her again, and could hardly wait to experience waking up beside this funny, short alien she was so attached too.

"So...we'll have more life changing sex in the morning, right?" Vetra teased, licking the tip of Scott's nose playfully.

"Oh yeah, that's a given. Can I sleep now?" He replied with a chuckle.

"Whatever you need, Scott." Vetra said, settling down for the night.

Scott lay still for a few moments, then tightened his hold on her ever so slightly, and tangled his legs up in hers.

"I've already got that."

oOo