This is the final chapter of our little shore leave escapade. I hope you have enjoyed it. Please r&r and let me know what you think so far and enjoy the our teams night out at Flux.
Flux was electrified that night with people dancing and music pounding in every room. Claire was at the bar with Mallory and Kaiden having a drink. Though she was feeling a bit like a third wheel. She had checked back in with the Normandy earlier that day and finally convinced her sister and Kaiden to join them at Flux for the crew's night out especially since they had stayed on the ship for the past 24 hours alone. But now that she thought about it, there was probably a reason the Kaiden and Mallory liked having the Normandy to themselves.
Garrus and Tali arrived closely followed by Wrex. Claire could not have been happier to see them. There were finally members of the crew that were not wrapped up with each other. Claire nearly sprinted to the newcomers and leapt up nearly tackling Garrus. The turian caught her more out of surprise than anything as he laughed.
"How many of those have you had, Shepard?" Tali asked. Garrus sat Claire down as she laughed.
"Not enough. Come on!" Claire exclaimed grabbing Tali with one hand and Garrus with the other. "I need people to drink with me. Mal and Kaiden are being spoil sports."
Mallory laughed and raised her glass of gin and tonic. "Only because I want to keep full control of my bodily functions unlike the N-7 graduation party." Mallory visibly shuttered at the memory as Claire laughed.
"I'm sure you will live that down someday." Claire replied.
"For the record, there was no sign that said I had to keep my clothes on."
"That was actually really funny. I think they got mad more about you getting into that fight with the fichus." Kaiden glanced sideways at his girlfriend with a curious look on his face.
"I have not heard about this." The biotic said crossing his arms.
"And you never will." Mallory said kissing him on the cheek. They were becoming more comfortable with displaying their affections in front of the rest of the crew.
"Now, we are only missing Liara, Luke, and Ashley. I wonder where they are." Claire said looking toward the door. However, she did not have to wonder long. Luke and Ashley strolled in less than a minute later and Liara was only ten seconds behind them with Joker.
"Sorry we're late Claire." Luke said nodding to Dorrian. The volus pointed at the human and waved his greetings.
"Yeah, if someone would have drove faster we would have been on time." Joker remarked. Luke rolled his eyes approaching the bar.
"You know the owner?" Claire asked looking at her brother. Garrus turned to look at his former partner. He had not known of any case that Luke would have helped Dorrian.
"One of the first cases I worked as a C-Sec detective was a smuggling ring that was trying to use flux as a distribution center. Dorrian came to me and told me everything and helped me put a lot of really bad guys away. I've been helping him out ever since with navigating the Citadel laws to keep him out of trouble and making more money." Luke explained as the volus brought him a bottle of 21st century whiskey.
"On…the house." The volus said taking a breath. Luke picked up the bottle and smiled.
"I appreciate it. You even have the good stuff." Luke said uncorking the bottle and pouring a glass for himself. "Could we also get a bottle for our dextro friends?" Luke asked glancing over at Garrus and Tali. Garrus nodded and watched as the volus retrieved some of the top shelf brandy and placed it on the bar.
"Anything for…a friend." Dorrian said giving Luke a thumbs up. Luke used his omni-tool and linked into the bar tab system putting his name down.
"We're going to be having quite a bit of fun tonight, so just run me a tab, okay?" Dorrian looked up at him and nodded. Claire whooped lifting her drink joined quickly by as they downed their drinks. Claire immediately grabbed her sister and Ashley heading straight for the dance floor. Kaiden up ended his drink and followed.
"Hey, how did dinner go with Ashley?" Garrus asked nudging Luke.
"Let's see…first I realized I had to clean the apartment since I had not been there in weeks…then I burned the food I had bought to the point that it was unrecognizable. So I had to go to the seafood place that the Pravens owned to get food. But after that, I think it went pretty well." Luke could not stop himself as a smile spread his face and a sigh escaped from between his teeth.
Garrus chuckled. "I figured that the home cooked meal was going to go down in…well…flames…" Luke and the turian laughed before toasting Luke's culinary skill and taking a drink.
Liara came over to them and leaned on the bar, glancing over at Luke. "You know that thing we talked about before Feros." She said softly. Garrus looked at his friend was a curiousity that he knew would drive him crazy. Luke nodded and leaned in so that she could whisper her news, but instead she slid a small box to him. "It is the best for increasing your power or suppressing it. It's an L4."
Luke accepted the small box and opened it. He could not believe that something so small could focus biotic power. The amp was just what he needed, no he would not have to worry about accidentally summoning his biotic abilities and he could focus on whatever fight was in front of him.
"Thanks Liara. This is great." Luke gave a her a hug and excused himself to the bathroom.
"Where is he going?" Tali asked as she pushed a straw into a port infront of her mouth.
"To take care of something. He'll be right back."
Luke locked the door to the bathroom stall and opened the box again. He slowly attached the amp to the back of his neck just below where his skull met his spine and turned the switch to enable biotic power. He tried summoning a small barrier around his hand but the blue energy poured out of him and engulfed him completely in a biotic barrier that was so strong that it drowned out the music to the point it was nothing but a small pounding from the bass beats.
He quickly dismissed the barrier and switched his amp back to suppression. Luke relaxed and tried to summon every ounce of biotic strength he had, but all he could do was make the end of his index finger glow slightly.
"Perfect. No biotic power. No headaches. No chance of hurting anyone." Luke slipped out of the stall and tossed the box into the trash before making his way back out into the club.
The amp felt awkward and alien on the back of his head but he figured he would get use to it just like any other biotic would.
"Hey, so?" Liara said handing him another drink.
"Works like a charm. I owe you big time." Luke said offering her cheers. The glasses clinked and Luke looked over toward the dance floor. Garrus was dancing with Claire, but he looked extremely uncomfortable. Most likely because of the way Claire was dancing. Luke had to admit, despite the family she came from Claire had some moves. Mallory and him on the other hand…Luke had to try to hold in his laughter as Mallory danced with Kaidan, if you could call it dancing. Even Kaidan looked a little scared of what he was seeing. Then there was Ashley who was dancing alongside Tali. Luke smiled. If a few weeks ago someone had said that Ashley would have been friends with a krogan, a turian, an asari, and a quarian, everyone would have laughed in their face, but now she was out enjoying the evening with them.
Luke made his way out on the dance floor and put his arms around Ashley. He was definitely not much of a dancer but it felt good to have Ashley in his arms. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Claire dancing with Garrus…or maybe the better way to say it was that she was dancing on him. Although the look on the turian's face was priceless.
Everyone one by one excused themselves to the bar for an extra drink, but as Claire was knocking back a shot of whiskey, her omni-tool chimed. Luke knew that sound. There was a mission briefing waiting for them back on the Normandy.
Luke knocked back the last of his whiskey and paid off his tab and waited for Claire to rally everyone up. Of course he expected a look of annoyance at the interruption but the sudden shock that crossed her face was completely unexpected.
"Everyone back to the Normandy! We have a mission and it can't wait. Joker, how fast can you get us into orbit over Terra Nova?" Claire said. Joker raised an eyebrow and considered it for a moment.
"Well, if we really haul ass, we can get there in about 60 hours." Claire nodded and waved everyone to follow.
"If there is any way to shave that, do it. A science team has gone dark on one of the resource asteroids that was being moved into orbit to harvesting. Intel suggests a possible hostage situation, possibly even terrorists. I want everyone locked and loaded as soon as we are in range for a drop. We will be deploying quick and quiet. If there are terrorists holding hostages, I don't want them to know we are coming until my boot is on their throat." Luke smirked. Claire was taking the mission kind of personally.
"Do you think Margie is alright?" Mallory asked falling in step with Claire.
"I hope so." Claire wrung her hands. Luke looked curiously at his sisters.
"Who?" Luke asked. They stopped at the rapid transport station and dialed up several shuttles.
Mallory looked over at her brother with an expression that could have easily burned holes in his flesh. "Margie is our foster mom." Luke lowered his gaze and cursed under his breath.
"Margie looked after us until we were able to enlist in the military." Claire added. "She took care of us and still checks in on us from time to time. She was really excited when I told her that we had met up you." Luke smiled but kept his eyes low.
"Then let's go find whoever is on that asteroid and blow there freaking head off." Luke snarled. The Shepards exchanged looks and nodded their agreement before sliding into their shuttles and heading for the Normandy.