The gun lowered and Persephone looked at the target with a pained expression. She hadn't completely missed, most of the time. Her accuracy was best when the target was closest, but the farther away it got, the more she missed or hit wounding shots. Looking over at Shepard, she saw her expression guarded.
"Honestly, I've seen worse from some Alliance recruits." Shepard said and Persephone set the gun down on the stand littered with thermal clips.
"I know how to use it, take it apart and put it back together, but I can't shoot worth a damn? What kind of training is that?" The question was rhetorical and she ejected the spent thermal clip.
"The Carnifax has a kick, maybe you just need something with less recoil, or maybe a heavy pistol isn't your thing at all despite what you might think. We can try the M8 Avenger? Yeah, it's an assault rifle, but it's a good beginner weapon with low recoil." Shepard suggested and they went over the gun locker, putting the Carnifax back in the case it had been in when they took it from the Normandy. The two women looked over the array of guns before Shepard pulled the assault rifle from the rack, loading a clip into it. She took it from her and went back over to the stand, shouldering the weapon and letting off controlled bursts with squeezes of the trigger. "That's a little better."
"Not by much." Persephone said, ejecting the clip.
"A little practise, and you'll be fine. Besides, there are plenty of biotics who can't shoot their way out of a paper bag and solely use their abilities in combat. We can keep you in a support role on missions."
"I appreciate what you're trying to do, but you should not be taking me out on missions." Persephone said, "I can barely shoot! I'll be a liability!"
"Not the world saving missions, obviously, but the snatch and grab, or raid missions, you'll be just fine on. The Primarch has one I think you'll be good for, a Turian patrol was shot down over Tuchanka and he wants us to locate survivors. Once the Normandy is done getting restocked, we'll be heading there, we should have a good fix on their location by then." Shepard said, "Come on, let's get this cleaned up and go meet Kaidan for lunch." They picked up the spent thermal clips that have since cooled, dumping them in a bin to be recycled.
It was about a 20 minute taxi ride to Zakera Ward from where they were and the trip was relatively easy. "Hey, kiddo, there's something I want to ask you, but I'll spare you the aggravation and embarrassment and not ask you in front of Kaidan."
"Okay." Persephone said apprehensively. "Ask away."
"Is there something going on between you and Lieutenant Vega?"
"No." She answered quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly.
"Are you sure? Because scuttle butt-"
"Scuttle butt?"
"Ship talk for rumors. Anyway, there's some talk about how you guys are getting a little cozy?" Shepard asked.
"Things change." She said, looking out the window and Shepard was quiet for a moment.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be." Persephone said. "Even if he was serious about it, which I doubt he was, like I said, things change."
"As long as you're okay."
"I'm fine, Shepard." Persephone said and the mom-in-training Commander gave a sigh, "You've known you're my mom for twenty-four hours, don't think you have to jump in with the boy talk." She gave her a small smile and Shepard shrugged, her own embarrassed smile pulling at the corners of her lips.
"You know Kaidan is going to pull all kinds of dad moves on you, right?" She asked and Persephone snorted.
"He seemed the type."
"He is absolutely the type." Shepard said, "Real talk, though. Kaidan is a dyed in the wool family man, we were talking about starting a family before the Normandy went down and well…"
"Here I am." Persephone said and Shepard reached over, taking her hand and squeezing it gently.
"Here you are." She said, "He's so happy you exist and he wants to get to know you."
"There's really not much to get to know, honestly." She said with a shrug. "Born and raised in a lab with very little outside interaction, I don't know how I know almost all of the stuff I do and what I can remember doesn't tell me anything about my life in that place, however short it might have been. I'm still learning my likes and dislikes, and I solve my problem of limited social skills by limiting my time around people."
"Yeah, EDI tells me you don't venture out from below Engineering much."
"Avoiding people is easy when no one wants you around." Shepard wasn't able to reply to that seeing as it was at that moment that they landed on the Zakera Ward taxi pad. The doors lifted and Persephone got out, looking around the mill of people as Shepard transferred credits for the trip.