Chapter 8
Truth Bombs
Diplomacy was a waste of time. People stood at summits and meetings making demands of each other and then bickering amongst themselves until eventually, everyone reached an uneasy compromise. Stood in her Alliance dress blues, Johanna stood at the head of one such meeting, pinching the bridge of her nose to keep herself from delivering a few home truths. The Krogan wanted a cure for the Genophage, the Salarians utterly opposed it - all she wanted was to be done with the summit, this was ridiculous. She was a soldier, not a politician and she lacked the patience for what was playing out before her. Wrex had stated his case, the Salarian Dalatrass has attempted to shoot him down, the Primarch surprisingly sided with Wrex. Was this the point where she was supposed to offer an opinion? Oh hell, she thought, well, here we go.
"If Krogan boots on Palaven is the only way forward with you," Johanna pointed at Victus, "And the only way to get Krogan boots on Palaven is to cure the Genophage," she spoke confidently, trying to keep her frustration out of her words, "Then I'm curing the Genophage. Simple as that." She turned to Wrex, "Look, you know I don't have the patience for these sorts of meetings so why don't you just tell me where your mole wants us to go and we'll go get your females, get this damn ball rolling."
As Wrex laid out the data, Johanna kept a close eye on the Dalatrass, ready to jump down her throat as soon as she opened her mouth to speak. She didn't have to wait long.
"And here's what the Salarian Union can do for me," she turned to look at the Dalatrass through narrowed eyes, "You can authorise me and my team to land at the facility on Sur'Kesh. You can tell the scientists that we're on or way to relieve them of their Krogan. You can tell them that a Spectre will be overseeing the exchange and you can make sure that all of that happens before we arrive." Johanna could hear Wrex trying to conceal a laugh. "On second thought, it doesn't really matter if it gets there before we do, I'm going in anyway. I'm not asking for your blessing to do this, Dalatrass, it's happening with or without it."
"If you do this, Commander, we won't be offering any assistance with your Crucible project," came the Salarian's icy reply.
"What a shame," Johanna growled, "We'll just have to build it without you, then. No problem." She glared at the Dalatrass, almost daring her to speak again but when no reply came, She turned back to Wrex. "You're more than welcome to take a place in the war room," she gestured over her shoulder, "Glad to have you back." Frowning, she undid the topmost button of her jacket. "Joker," she spoke to the comm link, "Jump us to Sur'Kesh as soon as possible. Tell Vega and Garrus to be ready to suit up, we have precious cargo to secure. And Traynor, get me Admiral Hackett. Forward the link to the comm room when you have him and let me know immediately." With her ship orders handed out, she turned back to the meeting. "I think we're done here. Primarch Victus, Dalatrass Linron, Wrex." With nods around the table, everyone left and Johanna, for once, chose to ignore the Dalatrass' parting shot.
"Careful, commander," Shepard scowled at the sound of her voice, "A bully has few friends when he needs them."
"So we're curing the Genophage, huh?" James stood at his workbench in the shuttle bay, modifying his shotgun. "Ballsy move, Lola. Heard you chewed the Salarian out."
"How he hell did you hear that?" Johanna quirked an eyebrow, she hadn't been shouting so nobody could've heard unless they had an ear pressed to the door. The comm link hadn't been on. "Wait," she shook her head, stuck somewhere between being amused and being angry at her own damn ship. "EDI, did you tell the Lieutenant about the Dalatrass?"
"Yes, Commander," came the disembodied reply, "I considered it prudent that the ground team be fully informed especially as you advised you would enter the facility with or without the permission of the Dalatrass. Both Garrus and Lieutenant Vega have been informed, both appeared to be willing to follow you in any ground offensive, even a non-sanctioned one."
"Shit," Johanna cursed softly, "Next time, leave the mission briefings to me. If I want my team to know that I've just torn a councillor or a president or a Primarch or a Dalatrass, a new one, I want the enjoyment of telling them myself. It's one the few perks of being in command, I get to freak everyone out talking about my nuclear truth bombs. You know that, EDI, how many times did I piss Miranda off talking the Illusive Asshole? How long until we orbit Sur'Kesh?"
"Twenty-six hours, Commander," Joker responded, "Fourteen hours to the relay, twelve at the other side."
"Wish I could've seen you in there, Lola," James was still laughing, "I guess the Salarians won't be coming along for the ride this time? I mean, if you had to go all loco on what's-her-name then..." His voice trailed off as Johanna yawned. "Oh come on," he laughed again, in a surprisingly good mood for someone modifying a shotgun. That was tricky business. "Tired? I'm not that boring, am I?" He stepped back from the bench and glanced over his shoulder, Cortez was working on the shuttle, as always, so on the far side of the bay, they had a little privacy. As long as they were quiet about it, of course. "I can think of a few ways to wake you up," James grinned as he took her in his arms.
"Oh really? I'll bet you can," Johanna stifled another yawn, "And no, you're not boring at all. In fact, you're the little bright spot in what has been a total shit storm of a day. More of a shit storm than yesterday, hopefully tomorrow will be less of a shit storm." She snaked her arms around him, too. "I just haven't slept well the past couple of nights, I keep having these bullshit nightmares, all fire and whispers. So last night, I filed all of my reports and cleaned up my armour, not a scratch on it." With her finger hooked in the chain of his dog tags, she pulled him down into a kiss. "The night before, I replied to every single unread message in my extranet account, I sent off a few requisition orders and got very friendly with a pot of coffee. And now here I am, running on no sleep and a lot of coffee, still stuck in this fucking dress uniform because I've not had a free second today. Until now."
"Maybe it's time you got friendly with someone else, huh?" James whispered into her ear, "An encore?" He nipped at her earlobe, "Make a night of it? I'll bring dinner up, watch a vid, maybe even one of Joker's bookma- ow, hey!" Johanna had punched his arm but she couldn't keep from laughing. "I was kidding!"
"Yeah, yeah," she laughed, "Sure you were. And you were so close, you had me until you mentioned Joker. Hint, trying to get me into bed? Don't mention another guy. Rookie mistake." She stepped back from him, "Rookie mistake." She stepped off toward the elevator and then turned back around, "But if you wanna try your luck, bring me dinner in a half hour. I gotta change outta this uniform and shower first and no, I don't need any company in there but if you wanna stay the night, chase the nightmares away. Well, lets just say I won't object." With a wink, she was off toward the elevator again.
"I know you're watching my ass, Vega," this time she spoke loud enough for Cortez to hear, "Not even a dress uniform does it justice."
"Got that right, Lola," James laughed and decided to call her bluff, "Looks much better in the buff."
As the doors closed on her, he could see the split-second of shock on her face dissolve into fits of laughter. Maybe he wouldn't pay for that later but hell. He hoped he would.
A/N :: So I've been toying with a few ideas lately, now that I know what I want to do with James and Johanna over here - they're a ton of fun to write about! I've been considering writing Johanna's Cerberus story, purely because some of those "truth bombs" would be hilarious. Also, I've a list of one-shot prompts (30 of them, actually!), and I've been thinking about using them for these two for a set of one-offs ... good ideas, bad ideas?
As always, thank you to "eboncat," "Aubrey1207," "Katschaba," and "Zee," for the reviews! You guys are all awesome. :) Reviews are always, always appreciated!