Hey everyone! :) I know it's been forever and a day I'm so sorry. :'( I've been having massive writer's block and hugely distracted by life and work. I'm trying to keep writing but it's been more and more difficult to manage it all. Hopefully I will bang out some more work in the next little bit though. So without further ado here's the newest chapter.

Chapter 10

Recovery

The next two weeks were spent running down missions given by Alliance command as we had no other priority missions at the moment. Shepard found the nuclear satellite and rescued the scientist who were drugged by the biotic radicals. I spent most of my time working on our guns and armour as I was still restricted to light duty. One morning I was feeling pretty good and went to the cargo bay and started working out again by practicing my martial arts to keep myself limber.

As I go through the motions of the different forms I suddenly realize I have an audience. Turning I see Shepard standing there watching me. "What's up Shep?" I say as I grab a drink of water.

"Nothing much. Are you feeling good enough to be doing exercises yet?"

Sitting on a nearby crate I respond "Ya Chakwas says I'm pretty much right as rain. I just need to loosen up all my muscles after having to take it easy for long."

"Well then care to spar?" she asks giving me a evil grin.

"Sure why not, just don't blame me when Chakwas gets mad at you for breaking me again." I say getting a chuckle out of her.

I turn to throw of my sweater and stretch when I turn around Shepard is in a basic marine hand to hand combat stance with her hands up and bobbing on the heels of her feet. I go into a postion meant to transfer from attack to defense with a slight change of my stance.

"Hmm you had commando training right? Guess I'll have to be careful." She says giving me a wink of what I'm assuming is a little bit of condescension.

She can probably beat me hands down with all her N7 training my only hope is to catch her by surprise with a few quick moves before she takes me seriously.

Shepard bobs around me and suddenly lunges with a straight up right hook. Ducking slightly and moving left outside of her left arms reach I grab her by the shoulder as I do a leg sweep knocking her to the ground. As she goes down she squeaks in surprise. I back away as she jumps up and gives me a scowl. "Lucky shot." She grumbles as she gets into another fighting stance this time switching to a martial arts stance.

"Probably but still….. nananana" I say sticking my tongue out at her.

Growling she lunges and start a couple of quick jabs and elbow slams just missing me as I deflect with my own jabs. She backs up calming down a bit making her attacks more precise and less wild. As she started speeding up her attacks I start backing up as she pushes me towards a corner. I suddenly cramp up and miss a shot at my head and take it full on in the temple. As I see stars I reflexively fire out my leg and nail her in the ankle causing her to fall as well.

'Thump' she falls on top of me as we crack our heads and I black out.

"Dammit Commander, I just finished putting him back together and you broke him on his first day off light duty." I hear Chakwas admonishing Shepard as I come too and open my eyes.

"Told you." I say groggily towards Shepard who just looks meek but sticks out her tongue at me when Chakwas comes over to check on me as I sit up straight. "That hurt like hell, how did you not get affected?"

Shepard just shakes her head and says "I wasn't the one recovering from serious injuries. Plus I have a thick skull. Also I did get you with the head shot as well."

"Well at least you can admit you're thick headed." I say with a weak smile. Chakwas snickers slightly at my joke.

"Well mister Talon you should be fine, it seems like you only blacked out because you were still recovering. You can still spar but only light sparring no full contact."

"Alrighty Doc I'll tell you if Shepard decides to pick on the poor injured people again."Getting up and heading out the door Shepard follows and punches me in the shoulder lightly. "Doc she's picking on me already!" I fake cry.

Doctor Chakwas just sighs and glares at Shepard who just looks meek and continues on her way.

Going to the cafeteria Shepard and I see Kaiden and Liara sitting having breakfast.

"Hey kid you still recovering?" Kaiden indicates the fact that we had just come out of the med bay.

"No Shepard decided she wanted to pick on me since I'm not quite up to 100% and tried to give me a concussion."

'Smack' Shepard wacks me across the shoulder just as Chakwas comes out of the med bay making her give Chakwas another meek look like a child being caught doing something they aren't supposed to. She shakes her head and grumbles something about people acting like kids.

I point to Shepard and say "See picking on me."

Kaiden and Liara laugh at the look of embarrassment her face as she starts to walk to her quarters.

Chuckling I grab a plate and some food and coffee and sit down with the others as we discuss where we think we will be going next.

Kaiden comments that he heard Joker saying that they were going to Feros but it would take two days. "Well I need to get to the bridge got a shift on the weapons array. You working in the cargo bay today?"

"No it's my day off." I say over my cup of coffee.

"Well have fun then." He says waving as he walks to the elevator leaving me and Liara alone at the table.

"So what are you going to do with your day off?" Liara asks me while sipping at her drink.

Leaning back in my chair and also drinking from my own cup I respond "Well I was just going to work on loosening up my body so I'm good to go for the next mission. Other than that I didn't have anything planned."

"Well that sounds more interesting than my day, I'm going through old research on the Protheans trying to track down any old legends or stories that might pertain to the Reapers. Only problem is that most of it is very old Asari writing and thus very boring and bland."

I wince in sympathy, "Sounds like reading some of my planets classical writing, full of good stories and useful info but oh man is it every boring and difficult to read through."

"Yes and unfortunately I'm behind on it already. I promised Shepard that I would see if I could find anything useful, but so far all it's given me is a serious case of naps in the morning it's so dull." she pulls a face as she says this. "Well I'm going to drink lots of caffeine and try and power through some. I'll see you later. Try not to get picked on anymore for today." she says winking at me as I stick my tongue out at her for the cheek at my expense.

After I finished my food and drink I wonder back down to the cargo bay, I wave at Ashley and Wrex as I walk across the bay. I notice a pair of Turian feet sticking out from under the Mako. As I walk by I brush the bottom of Garrus's foot with a wisp of biotic's causing a loud bang from underneath the tank and a string of curses in Turian. Laughing I dash away from the tank and the grasping talon of the flailing Garrus as he scrambles to grab me. Across the way I see Ashley laughing her ass off and Wrex hiding a smile.

"Talon youf lousiey sonafabitch! Stopffing douwing thagth" Garrus growls holding his face which was bleeding a bit from his nose slits.

Giggling like an idiot and probably looking like one too I run around out pacing him easily since he cant see very well with his talons in front of his face.

"Oh come on you barely felt that with your carapace." I say as he finally gives up chasing me.

Growling he gives up and turns to leave and walks smack into the open door on the back of the Mako.

Now even Wrex is flat out laughing at Garrus . Now he just stomps out of the bay heading to his quarters.

Laughing I walk over to the work-out area and start stretching out on the mats. I start hitting the punching bag. After awhile Ash walks over and leans against the bench press. I try to ignore her as I finish a set on one of the bags. "Uh can I help you? Or you are you just admiring the view." I say striking an over exaggerated pose.

Snorting she shakes her head. "No just finished my work and wondered if you wanted a spotter. I never have someone to work out with."

"Meh sure." she nods and goes and quickly changes into a pair of shorts and a standard issue marine tank top.

This turned out to be a huge help for me as she had worked with marines who had been injured in the past so she was good at spotting when I would hit a physical limit that could be detrimental. After I finish she starts her own work out. As we work out we start chatting about our time in boot camp and our various different types of combat training. She moves to the bench press and starts hitting out reps.

"So... what did... you do... after... you left... the Alliance?" she puffs out in between presses.

"Not much wasn't out long before my wife died. After that I left Earth didn't have anything to tie me down and wanted to see the galaxy."

"I heard about your wife I'm sorry." she says pausing for a breath.

"Don't worry about it. That was quite awhile ago now."

"So you left Earth then what?"

"Well I ended up on the Citadel after drifting around for a year or so. I still wanted to do something good with my time so I applied at C-Sec. I got paired up with Garrus and I did that for the last few years before I joined up with you guys."

"So did you see much of the galaxy before ending up at the Citadel?" she asked hitting the bench press again after moving the back position up a bit.

"Well I saw a few different things not as much as what we're seeing now."

She paused for a second looking up at me then suddenly looks down then back up. "Seeing some planets now are you?" she says while noticing how much of a view I had down her shirt.

"Planets or moons?" I say jokingly. She swings at me playfully.

"Bastard." she laughs and gets up. "Well I'm gonna hit the shower. I'll see you at later."

"Sure thing."

Once she leaves I move over to some of the free weights and set them out to practice my biotic control. As I start practicing I notice that now Wrex showed up and was watching me.

"Mind if I work on my biotics with you?" he asks me "I wanted to see if any of your human moves might be worth incorporating into my arsenal."

"Ya no problem, I wouldn't mind seeing some more of what Krogan biotics are like."

After a few exercises Wrex starts talking more casually with me. We talk about his people and other things.

For the next two days I got a routine of working out, working my shifts in the arms dept and getting checked out by Chakwas who said I was good to go for the next mission.

During the afternoon of the second day Joker suddenly crackles over the intercom "Heads up everyone we are 2 hours from Feros. The Commander wants all ground team to the conference room."