Beta: None
Bioware owns all (except Marcus Dylan; unfortunately, he's mine).
A/N: Another darker chapter, but I figured y'all had waited long enough to find out exactly how Z & K met.
Possible trigger warning: implied rape
As the last man fell dead, Zaeed decided he'd more than earned the credits on this particular job, tracking a band of extremely dangerous escaped convicts from Earth all the way to Omega. He had only to find Marcus Dylan, a sadistic sonofabitch who had escaped after fifteen and a half years served on a life sentence for the murders of six people.
Thoroughly searching the base, the bounty hunter found every room unlocked and empty, all except the last one, tucked in a corner near the back. At first glance, this room appeared just as empty as the rest. Then his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting and what he saw nearly made his heart stop, the bounty pushed out of his mind completely.
A girl, no more than sixteen, was shackled at her wrists to the headboard of the small bed in the corner of the room. He watched in horror as the restraints suddenly lit up with a strong electric current and she writhed in pain. Though he didn't want to dwell on it, he wondered what else the men had been doing to her. Only one reason came to mind for a group of men, particularly those who had been imprisoned as long as some of these had been, to have a lone girl with them.
As soon as the current stopped, he made his way over to the bed. He holstered his pistol and held his hands up, hoping to show he meant her no harm. He knelt on the bed and unlocked one of the shackles.
But the moment her hand was free, she hauled back and punched him in the throat. Hard.
He staggered back, coughing and glared at her. "What the fuck did you do that for?" he growled once he'd found his voice again.
"Sorry, I've been waiting to do that for a long time," she drawled, her voice tinted with a hint of an accent Zaeed couldn't place. "Obviously, you weren't my real target, you were just... convenient; otherwise, I would have hit lower, and harder, and probably not with my fist."
He raised an eyebrow. "Should I unlock your other restraint or will that just make you hit me again?"
"I suppose you could always do it and find out," she said with a small smile. "Who the hell are you anyway?"
"Zaeed Massani," he said as he went to work on the second shackle. "You're Jessica Shepard, right?"
She nodded. "How did you know?"
"I'm a bounty hunter. I've been tracking Marcus Dylan since he instigated that prison break back on Earth. Your father contacted me after he hadn't heard from you in a week, figured Marcus must have gotten to you."
She shuddered violently at the mention of Dylan. "I see. Yeah, Marcus is here. Now I'm definitely sorry I hit you."
"Don't worry about." Zaeed stood and held out a hand to her. "Dare I ask, how in God's name did you end up here?"
She put her right hand in his and gripped his shoulder with her left as she slowly stood on shaking legs. "I was in-"
"Oh look, my little whore found the troublemaker," a new voice sneered from the doorway.
Before Zaeed could turn or react at all, Jessica pulled the pistol from his hip holster and fired. A body hit the floor behind them with a dull thud. A moment later, she cried out in pain and slumped against him as the gun fell to the floor.
"Shit!" Zaeed gently set her back on the bed and knelt to pick up his gun, looking back to see who she'd shot. It was Marcus Dylan himself. He lay dead on the floor with a bullet hole where his right eye should have been.
"Bloody hell, girl. Where did you learn to shoot like that?" he asked in amazement as he turned back to Jessica, who was leaning against the headboard, pressing her hands against a blood stain that was rapidly spreading across her abdomen. "And... when did you get shot?"
She looked into his eyes and nodded, giving her consent for him to look at her wounds.
"Well, you know who my dad is. While he was on active duty when I was a kid, I lived with my uncle, an ex-cop, in his bar in Dallas. So I grew up around guns. They taught me to shoot when I was ten." She winced and bit her lip against the pain as Zaeed wrapped a bandage around her stomach. "As for this, it was a couple of days ago. I may have tried to escape, not for the first time, and the men may have taken it rather like an insult, so one of them shot me. Marcus patched me up enough so they wouldn't have to find someone else to fuck, but I guess I reopened the wound just now, moved too fast or something. Punching you probably didn't help," she added ruefully.
Zaeed gave her a tight smile. "No it probably didn't, but given everything you've been through, it was an understandable reaction. Thanks, by the way. You saved both our asses just now."
She shook her head. "No, thank you, for letting me get revenge against that fucking bastard," she said quietly.
"Accidental, but you're definitely welcome," he said as he stood once again and carefully lifted her in his arms. "If anyone deserves revenge, it's you, Jessie."
Zaeed woke with a start. He glanced over at the bed to find Kate sitting up against her pillows, watching him. "Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?" he asked.
Kate shrugged. "I got lonely being in this big bed all by myself. Can I assume you have a good reason for being all the way over there instead of right here with me?" she asked innocently as she carefully scooted over and patted the spot next to her.
Zaeed was sitting in a chair beside the bed with one foot propped up at the end of it. Now he knew what had woken him up: his other foot hitting the floor. He suspected Kate had kicked him.
He smirked. "I have a very good reason actually. Didn't want anyone to think I might be taking advantage of you while you were incapacitated. That, and if I'm lying in bed with you, it's harder to kick people out of here without resorting to shooting them. I figured excessive gunfire might disturb your sleep."
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Get your sexy ass over here."
"As you wish, kitten." He climbed in next to her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in close.
She laid her head on his shoulder and traced the tattoos on his chest with her thumb. "So what were you dreaming about?"
He ran his fingers through her hair, tucking a stray curl behind her ear, and held her closer. "The same thing I've been dreaming about the last few days: the day we met."
She raised her head and looked into his eyes. "Christ. I'm sorry, Z."
He leaned in and kissed her. "I'll gladly relive that day every time I close my eyes for the rest of my life in exchange for having you safe in my arms when I wake up."
She smiled. "Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that. The dreaming, anyway. Can I ask you a question?"
"I think you already did, kitten," Zaeed teased, "but go ahead."
"How did I end up here?"
He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I mean how did I end up in the Loft instead of down in the med-bay? The Karin Chakwas I know does not easily give up control of her patients to others."
"Ah. Charm and reasoning," Zaeed said with a sly smile. Kate snorted with laughter. "Alright, mostly reasoning. After she fixed your leg and wrapped your wrists, she said you needed rest, and lots of it. I just told her that you would sleep much better up here than down there."
"That alone wouldn't convince her," Kate persisted. "She'd just claim that's what sleeping pills are for."
Zaeed sighed. "I also may have told her that a similar event in the past induced panic attacks and that you wouldn't want to have one in front of the crew. She was reluctant but Vakarian backed me up on both points and she wasn't going to say no to him."
"I see. Well, remind me to thank both of them later." She shifted and carefully straddled his hips. "As for you, hot shot, I can thank you properly right now," she purred with a devious smile as she kissed his jawline and ran her hands down his chest and stomach, inching toward the top of his jeans.
He groaned and gently caught her wandering hands in one of his. "Sorry, kitten. I promised the doc we'd be good for a couple of days 'til your leg heals."
Kate pouted. "Fine. Then can I have visitors or is that off-limits too? Having to follow somebody else's rules on my own fucking ship," she muttered.
Zaeed laughed. "I see. So now I'm completely boring and useless."
She rolled her eyes.
He kissed her nose. "Yes, kitten, you can have visitors. Who do you want to see?"
"Garrus," Kate said promptly.
He nodded. "I thought that's what you'd say. EDI?"
The blue orb popped up. "Yes, Mr. Massani?"
"Is Vakarian still on the ship?"
"Yes. Shall I send him up?"
"Yes, thank you EDI," Kate said.
"Very good. Logging you both out."
Zaeed was gone and Kate was sitting on one end of the couch, her left leg propped on the coffee table, when Garrus stepped into the room.
"Hey big guy. How ya doing?"
Garrus laughed. "Me? You're the one who got kidnapped and shot and you're asking how I'm doing?"
Kate smiled. "Well no point in my asking myself how I'm doing. I already know how I'm doing. So?"
He sat next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. "I'm OK. I was worried about you, Kate. Still am. You say you're OK, but-"
She rested her head on his chest. "It'll come. I don't know when but yeah. With Marcus, it was three or four days after and I just snapped; ask Zaeed, it wasn't pretty. But that was so much bigger than this."
"That doesn't mean it wasn't traumatic, Kate. You have to process it eventually," Garrus said gently.
She nodded. "I know. And I will. After Harkin's dead." She looked up at him. "Have you found Sidonis yet?"
"No, I haven't talked to Harkin yet. I wanted to make sure you were OK first."
"Can I still come with you? After all the trouble I went through to catch Harkin for you," Garrus rolled his eyes at her, "I want to help you see this through."
Garrus' mandibles twitched into a smile. "If you think you'd be up to it, and you can shake off your overprotective bodyguard."
"No, I'm sure he'll be tagging along, in the shadows of course," Kate said with a smirk. "But yes, I absolutely want to be there. I think it'll be good for both of us."