Chapter 13

A Dish Best Served Hot...

As James' omnitool pinged to waken him, he sighed heavily as he fumbled to silence the noise. He hadn't had a lot to drink the night before so the clouds in his head weren't alcohol-related but he was definitely foggy on a few details. "Damn," he whispered hoarsely, "What a night." Sure, he may have woken up alone in the cramped crew quarters but it had still been a good night ... right up to the last five minutes. Had she really sent him on his way when only seconds before, she'd been more than a little into him? The memory hit him as he swung his legs out of bed - he'd hatched a plan for revenge as he'd tumbled into bed the night before and as much as it would suck, he'd give Johanna a taste of her own medicine, fight fire with fire. All he had to do was wake her first.

It had become one of their things. On the nights he didn't spend with her up in her cabin, he'd wake her with breakfast and a dose of his irresistible charm. This would be one such morning where the breakfast would be simpler than usual and that dose of charm would be double. After he showered, it took James only five minutes to dress and wander out into the mess. As always, at the start of the morning shift, it was buzzing with activity, ground crew and support staff milled around, all seemingly with one goal in mind. Coffee. He was no different. Grabbing two cups and two of the Alliance standard issue protein bars, he made for the elevator. This would be fun. Wasn't revenge always fun?

At the door to her cabin, he paused for a moment and smirked. Had he really thought that this would be fun? "Don't be a dumbass, Vega," he muttered to himself, "This is gonna suck so much, it's gonna invent its very own scale." He set the two cups of coffee down on the floor as he pressed his hand to the security lock on her door, only to blink at it when it turned red. "What the hell?" Swapping the protein bars from his right hand to his left, he pressed the other hand to the panel, just to see it blinking red again. "EDI," his voice hinted at frustration but mostly, he was confused, "This damn door has always let me in before, what the hell is going on?"

"One moment, Lieutenant," EDI's voice filtered through the speakers in the small hallway and a moment later, he could've sworn that he heard movement from inside the room. Had she locked him out? Seriously? Surely she hadn't had that bad of a time the night before. Or maybe, just maybe, she felt bad for sending him packing back to the crew quarters. Sure, he was appealing to his own ego but a man could only hope, right?

"There you are," Johanna's voice startled him from his thoughts. "I locked the door while I was showering. I forgot I'd told you to come wake me." She stepped aside to let him in, grinning as he paused to pick up their breakfast. "I'll have EDI change the security on this thing so you can get in next time."

"Yeah," James sat the coffee down onto her desk, "Thought you'd locked me out for a second there." He turned to her with a smirk, "Then I thought that maybe, just maybe, you felt a little bad about being a major tease last night." Of course he was kidding with her, but it couldn't hurt to tease her a little. She'd had her fun the night before, after all, hadn't she?

"Hey," Johanna lifted her coffee and her protein bar and quickly crossed the room to the couch, "I only said that a lady didn't put out on the first date. I don't remember saying anything about the morning after the first date." She sipped from the cup and took a seat. "We have some time before we arrive at Tuchanka, we may as well make the most of it."

James could only blink at her for a second as his mind - it had all been one great big tease after all. Now he really had to get her back. "I like how you think, Lola," his own coffee was forgotten about as he followed her lead and took a seat close by her on the couch, "Never know what we might find down there, trying to cure the damn Genophage and all, gotta make every moment count."

"You going all soft on me again?" Johanna smiled, he was just so easy to tease, left himself wide open every damn time. Fast losing interest in her breakfast, she ditched the coffee cup and, looping her fingers into the chain on James' dog tags, pulled him into a kiss. It had been torture for her to send him away but if things had been normal, if theyd been dating during peace time, even if they'd been on Earth - she wouldn't have slept with him on the first date. It was her way of bringing some normality back to the whole thing. Pulling away, she smiled at him. "I missed that last night," she grinned and kissed him again, the chain of his tags still looped through her fingers, "I missed you last night. I think I've gotten used to having you here." She leaned forward to pepper kisses along his jawline, pausing for a moment to nip at his earlobe. "Damn, now I'm the one who's going soft." Her lips trailed lower and she moved to straddle his lap, eager to make up for making him sleep down in the crew quarters. "You're right," Johanna smirked as she felt his hands fall to her hips and she let her own paw at his shirt before she pulled it up over his head, "We should make every moment count."

It was hard for James to concentrate on anything other than the things her lips were doing to him. Sure, this was exactly what he'd wanted, just not at that moment. She enjoyed teasing him, he knew that now, and he couldn't let her keep that upper hand. Now he had to show her that he could give as good as he got and he figured that if she could dish it out, she'd be able to take it back. Even so, there was a nagging little voice in his head telling him that it could wait for a day, maybe even a week. No. Better now and then their little teasing game would be over. In the second it took him to pull away from her, he mentally kicked himself for what he was about to do. It was so hard to focus when all he wanted was to take her right there. "So I was thinking," he paused to clear this throat, trying to forget the feeling of her lips trailing kisses across his chest. "We did the date thing, we dressed up and went out but I don't know you any better now than I did yesterday. Isn't that the whole point of dates?"

"Seriously?" Johanna quirked an eyebrow as she pulled her own shirt off, "That's what you're thinking about right now? Getting to know me better?" She leaned in to kiss him again but instead of finding his lips with hers, she found his cheek. "What the hell?" Had he actually gone insane? She was sitting there practically throwing herself at him and he was thinking about getting to know her better. "I'm sitting here in your lap, shirtless, and you're thinking about getting to know me better?" Confusion clouded her mind and for a second, she wondered what she'd done wrong before coming to a conclusion that, actually, he must be insane. "Who are you and what have you done with my James?"

"I'm serious," James bluffed, glad to be able to use those skills for something other than poker, "We've known each other for how long now? Months. And now we're us and all I know is what I read in your personnel file and the stuff from the vids although in sure that most of the vid stuff is bullshit, vids usually are." Maybe, in another life he'd had a career as an actor, he thought he'd pulled that off pretty well. "And I wanna know, Lola. So we are gonna sit here and we're gonna have this talk. No protests."

"The stuff in the vids isn't the only bullshit 'round here," Johanna pulled her shirt back over her head with the smallest hint of a pout. "What the hell, James?" She felt crazy. Was she crazy? Was she about to wake up from this weird dream? "If you've read my file, you already know all the important shit. What else could you possibly want to know?" She was well aware that she was throwing a mini bitch fit, she didn't care. He already knew she was a little crazy and if he could accept that, he could accept a tiny bitch fit. Standing from her place across his lap, she stepped away from him and sat on the edge of the bed. "Fine. Here's the quick fire version: I'm Johanna, hi, I'm a career Marine, I was born and grew up on Mindoir so that makes me a colony brat and yes, I lost my family when the slavers raided so I'm the only one left. I survived the blitz on Elysium, killed more than my fair share of Batarians that day, call it getting my own back for what happened back home. Won my Star of Terra for it." She paused for breath, "Sovereign, Collectors and now Reapers. Done." Smiling, she crossed her arms across her chest in defiance. "Oh yeah, and I died. Can we go back to normalville now? To making moments count? What happened to that? And if we're not going there right now, can you at least put your damn shirt back on? Those pecs are distracting me."

Perfect. James could almost she the wheels turning in her head - she was in the palm of his hand. Of course he already knew all of that, he'd read her file pretty thoroughly, after all, he'd had to. Anderson hadn't wanted anything to come as a surprise to him while he'd been stationed as her guard, her file had been his homework. "I'm comfortable, the shirt can wait," he made no effort to lift his shirt from where it lay on the floor. "What's wrong? You look like a bomb just went off in your head."

"I'm so confused," Johanna spoke before her brain was fully in gear. She still hasn't had a full cup of coffee, she'd have to fix herself another when she finally made for the CIC to start her shift. "What the fuck just happened here?" Better to figure it out now than have it bother her all day. "I mean, shit, shirtless. You. Me, too. Now this! Talking about shit that you already know because you read my god damn file." From bitch fit to sheer crazy in what felt like two seconds flat. "You're gonna have to explain this one to me because I'm drawing blanks. What the hell just happened here?"

This time James couldn't help but laugh - her face was a classic. Confusion was etched across every inch of her face and she still just couldn't figure it out. "Y'know, I thought doing this was gonna suck but y'know what? The look on your face right now makes it all worth it." He picked his shirt up off the floor and pulled it back over his head. In a step, he was beside her, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. "I gotta go, have to be down in the shuttle bay, promised Esteban that I'd help him fix something or other. Didn't catch what it was but whatever, we'll get shit done." Seconds later and he was at the door. "But hey," he turned around briefly, still laughing, "Now you know how I felt last night. See you tonight, Lola."

Stunned into silence, Johanna let everything sink in for a second. "Asshole," She cursed under her breath as the door whooshed closed behind him as he left - he'd taken her on at her own game and damn if he hadn't won. "Total asshole. What the shit?" Now they were even, they could get on with things. "And of course I'm late," she jogged off toward the elevator, "He'll pay for that later."

A/N :: Next up - the next interlude, hopefully! Unless I change my mind again, I'm good at that.

As always, thank you to "KoteDiM," "Katschaba," (Agreed! Thinking of Joker as a relationship guru is hilarious!) "Miss Sara Diane," "Skylark16," and "Zee," for your reviews! Your feedback is always so appreciated. :)