***Author's Note***
Hello :)
This is just a filler chapter with some plot development and character development.
I hope I got everyone down okay, let me know if you think I could do with changing some people :/
It's nice and long, so enjoy :)
Thank you to Gamer072196!
Chapter 9 - Lessons
Marie sat up in her cot and reflected on the two days that she had been on the ship.
Her strength had slowly been returning, her body filling out to the way it used to be. Shepard had told her that once she was back to one hundred percent then she could begin sparring with the rest of them. Until then, however, she had been training in the various weapons aboard the Normandy.
On her first day, in the morning, she had been paired with Jacob Taylor and Miranda Lawson.
"Shepard, do you truly think it wise?" Thane stood with his eyebrow cocked at the commander.
"Yeah, Shepard! What the fuck!?" The psychotic Biotic waved her arms around to enunciate her point.
Shepard palmed his face as he waited for them to finish their outbursts as Marie leaned heavily on Thane's arm. Her legs were doing a good job up to now. She warily watched Garrus who's ice blue eyes never left hers. It's like he's squaring me up...
"Guys! I have my reasons! So just fucking deal with it!" He walked of to the other side of the shuttle bay, whispering his plans to Garrus who had followed quickly.
Marie looked up at Thane as he helped her walk over to the Cerberus representatives. The pink ribbing of his neck had darkened slightly. She patted his arm and he looked down at her to see her smile at him. Then she was handed over to Miranda who sat her onto a mat with a dissembled Heavy Pistol. And thus the day began.
As the morning rushed by, Marie had quickly decided that she was not overly fond of Jacob and Miranda. The rest of the team bustled around the training area, doing what they all did best and now and then Miranda or Jacob would comment on the 'aliens'. Something about Mordin's way of speech or Garrus' arrogant confidence. Grunt's excessive nature, Samara's coldness, and it was during these moments that Marie also learnt that Thane was actually an Assassin. She was more upset that he had lied than that he was a precise killer. Everyone here is a killer, one way or another. But then she had reasoned that he was probably trying to make things a little easier on her. After each comment the two humans made on their alien comrades they would look at Marie as if waiting for her opinion. She would merely shrug, playing it safe.
They taught her how to assemble and dissembled the gun, how it worked and about the different mods she could get for it. She was taught how to aim but they never taught her to shoot, explaining that she would learn later in the day. She had shot a gun before, having been trained during her time with Cerberus on earth, but these guns were nothing like what she was accustomed too. The team then left the shuttle bay to go to the Mess for the midday meal.
She sat at the table, Chakwas hovered over her as she was supplied with a nutritional and weight gaining meal. She had her blood pressure monitored and Mordin would scan her with his Omni-tool now and then. Personally, she couldn't help but watch Tali suck her food through a straw.
"It's an induction port."
Miranda laughed, "It's a straw!" Marie frowned at the Cerberus Operative as Tali bowed her head to finish her food, embarrassed at the attention.
"Miranda," The woman looked up at Shepard who was glaring at her fiercely. "Leave."
"But-"
"Leave!" Her high cheekbones went red as she left the table and entered her room. An awkward silence filled the mess as everyone ate.
"So, Marie." Samara was looking at her with her passive face, "Where is it you are from." Everyone turned to listen.
"I'm from Manchester in England." She had a burning question but she felt it was stupid. If you don't ask you wont know. "Umm, is it still there? Manchester, I mean."
EDI's voice echoed through the room, "Earth is still divided among nation-states, though all are affiliated beneath the overarching banner of the Systems Alliance. England is now one of the leading countries in the European Union. It has remained very much the same since the 21st Century minus its obvious technological advances and influx of alien population. Manchester is still there."
"Thanks EDI." Shepard smiled at her. "Well, there you go. My ancestors are from America, I believe." He stood and helped Gardner clear the plates. "Right team, the afternoon is yours. Marie, you're with me." The squad all turned to look at her. "Guys..." They stood and went about their business. Thane, Kasumi and Garrus remained seated.
After Shepard helped Gardner place the used plates and cups into a dishwasher and the cutlery into the sink, he rejoined them at the table. "Thane, it's fine. I've got her."
Thane nodded and bowed away from the group toward their room. Marie watched him go, uncomfortable at being with others without him.
"I'm glad you passed my little test today."
Her head snapped round to him, "Test, commander?" Kasumi smiled beneath her head and Garrus' mandibles flickered gently.
"Call me Shepard. Yeah, I thought I would find out about how you would react to those two." She didn't have to ask him to clarify. "Garrus and Grunt both have excellent hearing. A month or so back they had said how they heard Jacob and Miranda bitching about various members of my squad. It was mostly Miranda until Thane got here, then Jacob really got on board." He leant back and tapped Kasumi on the shoulder. "Kasumi has scoured the ship and found all sorts of listening device and disrupted them. So you can guess that I'm not overly fond of Cerberus."
"I can't say I like them either, Com...umm, Shepard." He grinned.
"I can imagine. We're using their resources...nothing more." Marie nodded. "Garrus! Tell her about Horizon." Shepard pouted at the turian, something Marie wasn't expecting to see him ever do.
"Well," His dual toned voice vibrated around her and caught all her attention, she watched Shepard shiver delicately at it. Oh really? Kasumi shared a small grin with her, "an old friend was on Horizon when we tried to save it from the Collectors. He wasn't very welcoming. Called Shepard a traitor, made out that he had lied about being...dead. Turned his back on us. So, we really need people we can trust."
"Well, like I said, I'm not overly pleased with Cerberus. They took me away from everything I knew, my family and friends. Left them to fend for themselves and left me floating around in space to die." Shepard nodded. "I want to help and honestly I have nowhere else to go."
That afternoon she spent with Kasumi and Shepard learning to shoot Heavy Pistols and cloak herself with her Omni-tool. Kasumi whooped with joy when she got the hang of it as they hid from each other around the shuttle bay.
"So, you're a techie huh?"
"I guess so." Kasumi smiled at her and nodded, cloaking herself and disappearing. Moments later the elevator opened and closed, leaving her and Shepard alone to work on their target practice.
"I could take you back to Earth, you know. Well, Joker would fly the ship but you get the idea." He steadied her hands as she pulled up the Pistol, concentrating hard on hitting the hologram.
"Maybe, one day." She took a breath. "Honestly, Shepard, I don't think I want to go back. I have nothing left there. My brothers and sister are dead, I might have descendants...they won't know who I am."
"Wouldn't you like to meet them?" He pulled up his own pistol and shot the hologram clean through the head.
"I dunno...maybe. Besides, I want to help. I feel like I could, so if you'll have me..."
"Hey, don't get me wrong, we could use all the help we can get. Just, if you need anything, let me know. Okay?"
"Yeah..."
The next day she spent with Mordin, Grunt , Jack and Tali.
Grunt went through shotguns with her. But, with her muscle mass only just getting the hand of walking and lifting smallish things, the shotgun was quite useless to her. So, instead, he showed of. He ploughed through the holographic enemies, blasting them away with his shotgun, all the while shouting "I AM KROGAN!" Marie wasn't sure if it was a warning to those around him that he was coming or if it was simply a death threat to his enemies. She went with the latter.
Mordin taught her a neat trick with her Omni-tool.
"Press that there. Yes yes yes. Now this. Yes, and aim." They both brought up their Omni-tools and aimed them at a target blasting out a small burst of fire that engulfed the enemy. "Well done! Proud." He grinned, his large eyes blinking as he sent a small message to Shepard who read it from across the room and threw a thumbs up at her. The rest of the squad saw and turned to look at what she had done, various cheers and smiles were thrown at her. Thane nodded, a small smirk on his lips.
Her lesson with Tali was fun. She taught her how to create a drone that would fight and distract for her. Tali had even named hers.
"Nothing's faster than Chatika vas Paus. Remember that."
"Ha, I will Tali."
The quarian bobbed her head. "What are you going to name yours?" She looked at the drone that was now laying waste to an enemy with Chatika. Where Chatika was blue a purple, Marie's drone was green and orange.
"I think I'll call him-"
"Him?"
"Yes, him. I'll call him...Michelangelo. Mike for short." Tali laughed, doubling over and attracting all sorts of attention. Garrus trotted over.
"What? What's so funny?" His eyes were sparkling in anticipation. "Ancient human humour?"
"Ancient?" Marie complained.
"She's called her drone, Mike!" Tali squealed between laughs.
That afternoon, her lessons with Jack began.
Jack was volatile and angry. Her tattoos covered her unclothed chest, disappearing for a second underneath the leather straps that provided her with a little modesty.
She was asked to see if any biotic potential resided within Marie which quickly turned out to not be the case.
"Oh, come on! You could at least try!" Jack created a swirling blue of energy and sent it into the enemies like a skipping stone. "That's called the Shockwave."
Marie tried but she just couldn't create the energy required. She wasn't a biotic. "Sorry, I guess I'm just not a biotic." She let out a small smile as Jack just scowled.
"Ugh, whatever..." She huffed. "Well, we might as well just sit here and wait for everyone to finish."
The silence was awkward, but eventually Marie relaxed into it, grateful for the break on her regenerating muscles. She watched Jack as she frowned at certain members of the squad, particularly Miranda, and grinned at some of the carnage and noise other's brought, Shepard and Grunt. Then she let her eyes follow the tattoos that flowed along Jack's skin. Intertwined with the tattoos were numerous scars, spreading throughout her body.
"Your tattoos are beautiful, Jack."
Jack's head snapped around to glare at her. "I didn't ask for your fucking opinion and I don't need your fucking acceptance, got it?"
"Okay, jeez." Marie huffed and turned her attentions to the people training. Thane caught her eye as he warmed up in the sparring ring facing Garrus.
"So...how old are you anyway?" She turned and saw Jack looking at her from the corner of her eyes.
"I was twenty-two just over two months ago...well...I was." Jack's face softened slightly and then shifted back into its customary scowl.
"Fucking Cerberus." She turned back to watch the team.
"How old are you?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Just wondering. You asked me so now I'm asking you."
"Ugh, fine. I'm not sure how old I am. Twenty-five ish I think. Shepard's looking into my background and sending me anything he finds." She jerked her chin at their commander.
"Oh. I'm sorry." She placed a small hand on the other womans shoulder, only for it to be shrugged of violently.
"Don't fucking touch me!"
They sat in silence for the rest of the afternoon until Thane came to help her to their room.
"Did you enjoy your time with Jack?"
"I think I offended her." She replied with a small smile, holding onto his leather clad arm.
"That is not very hard from what I have learnt."
She turned to look at the Drell on the other side of the room. His breathing was slow and deep as he slept.
She had read up on most species on the ship and today she intended to learn about the Drell. Thane had told her small amounts about his species history, Rakhana and the Hanar, Kepral's syndrome and the compact. She wanted to know more.
Pulling up her Omni-tool she looked up Drell.
Dense muscular structure. She looked over at Thane, his bare arms visible about his duvet. He's definitely wiry... She carried on reading. He can inflate his throat? Two sets of eyelids. She was amazed. The sheer amount of differences and similarities the Galaxy had produced astounded her.
Her Omni-tool pinged.
Hey, come up to the bridge. got something to show you.
-J
J? Who is J?
She sighed and lowered herself carefully to the floor. Partly because she didn't want her legs to give out and part because she didn't want to wake Thane.
She breathed a sigh of relief when her legs decided that they could walk today and slowly tiptoed toward the door.
"Do you require assistance?"
"Ah! Shit, Thane!" She looked at him. He was sat up straight in the cot, his eyes alert as he looked at her. Whoa. "No thanks. I think I got it." She smiled at him and he smirked back before laying back down. Fucking ears like a bat.
She left the room slowly. Quietly making her way to the elevator and up to the CIC. The skeleton crew were the only people around as it was still too early in the day cycle. She nodded her way around to avoid conversation.
She tapped the hologram on the door and waited for entry, it spun a few times as it scanned her identity and then, finally, she was let into the cockpit. It was dark, except for the glowing orange controls.
"Hey! There she is."
Marie looked around for the disembodied voice.
There was seemingly no one there until the center chair turned and revealed a smiling man with scruff on his cheeks and an old style cap.
"Umm, hey. I was asked to come up here..?"
The man rolled his eyes and gestured to a seat beside him. "Duh, by me."
She took the seat and looked at him. "You're J?"
He grinned and began to laugh. He laughed long and loud and Marie began to wonder what she had done wrong. Was I meant to sit? Is it rude to ask people their names? The future was confusing.
"J! Ha! No, we just put our initial at the end of personal messages because...well I guess it's quicker."
Oh. She grinned at him, glad that she hadn't said anything or done anything to offend. "So you're John?" He shook his head but didn't give her an answer "Joe?" Again, no. "Jack? Jacob? Jake?" No, no, no.
"It's Joker."
"Joker?"
"Well, Jeff 'Joker' Moreau." He air-quoted his nickname as he said it.
"Why do people call you Joker?"
"...Because, I'm such fun to be around, obviously. Anyway, I asked you here because I want to show you something." His hands began to fly over the orange controls of the ship.
"What do you-"
Slowly, the windows of the bridge began to clear. The darkness began to lift and Marie got her first proper look at space.
"Shepard has sort of stopped you from seeing out the windows since you woke up. He sent me a message saying otherwise last night."
It was true, since she had awakened she had been kept away from rooms with windows. EDI had been ordered to darken any windows that Marie could not avoid. "Too ease you in." Shepard had said.
And now she was faced with the daunting expanse of it. All the years of looking up when she was growing up were nothing compared to looking in to it.
"We've just entered the Sharabarik system. We'll be at Omega in the morning I should guess, this evening at the earliest...depends on how we go."
Marie wasn't listening. In the distance she could see the pinpoint of a star, the sun of this amazing and unique system, beautiful and so far away. Above her was the endless Galaxy cradling within its blackness the lights of trillions of suns, all supporting their own life.
"It's amazing..."
"Yeah...I doubt you'll be saying that when we get to Omega."
"Why?"
He smiled at her and swiveled his chair around to see her. "Well let's just say-"
Her Omni-tool pinged again.
Marie,
Our lesson starts today. Meet me in five minutes.
-T
"I have to go. Thanks Joker, it really is amazing." She placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him as she got up to leave.
"Anytime."
"So, let's see what she can do." Garrus' dual toned voice flanged around the shuttle bay. He held a sniper rifle in his taloned hands and gestured with it to Thane.
Thane quirked his lips at her. "What did Joker want?"
"He showed me outside." She stepped toward the aliens. "It was pretty amazing." She smiled lightly.
Garrus chuckled. "I bet it is." She watched him position himself on the floor, rifle pressed into his shoulder as his arms cradled it. He looked down the scope with his free eye and squeezed the trigger. A resounding boom filled the room and an orange point, that seemed impossibly far away, flickered into non-existence.
It was then she realized this was a demonstration and she moved to copy him. Thane passed her a rifle, holding its weight until she got comfortable with it. She lay on her stomach beside Garrus and allowed him to move her hands and fingers along the rifle so it was secure. Thane moved the rest of her, positioning her body in minute ways until he was satisfied. His hands were warm as they brushed her legs or pressed into her back. The soft scales on his fingers brushing against her cheek as he tilted her head to the side. What am I thinking!?
She blushed when he brought his face close to hers to look down the scope. Garrus rumbled out a quiet laugh ad she flickered her eyes to him. He was watching the interaction between the two, registering her increased body temperature and heart rate.
This went on for hours as the two taught her to shoot sniper rifles and assault rifles. Garrus showing of and expecting her to copy him and Thane quietly instructing her in her faults or ways she could improve.
She was having fun until Thane's Omni-tool pinged. She watched him read the message, his eyes narrowing as he let out a aggravated sigh.
"I must leave. Continue without me and I'll see you later, Marie."
The two left behind nodded and watched him enter the elevator.
"Where is he going?" She looked up at her companion as a strange trill escaped him. He scratched the back of his head with his sharp finger tips.
"Ah. The Doc and Shepard like to keep an eye on his condition. See how he's doing and stuff." He looked down the scope and tapped the trigger.
She couldn't believe it. She had almost forgotten that Thane was terminally ill. She bit her lip and let her mind wander on the subject. He just didn't seem ill.
Garrus watched her and was surprised at her progress. Her cheeks were filling out and her eyes were bright. Her arms were rounding out around her muscles and her collar-bone was slowly becoming less prominent. He had been told that humans being too bony was not a good thing so he presumed she was making good speed with her recovery. He watched her think about the drell, biting her lip gently, sniper rifle seemingly forgotten.
"So, you and Thane hmm?" His voice caught her attention and she turned to him with wide eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you both seem very close, and you share a room, and-"
"You and Shepard, hmm?" She laughed as Garrus spluttered and sat back on his haunches, the flesh on his neck flush navy.
"What do you mean?"
Sophie sat back with him. "Well, you both seem very close, and you're always together, and-"
He put a hand up to stop her. "I'd rather not talk about it." His thoughts wandered to the morning he had woke up with Shepard beside him. He couldn't remember how his commander had ending up there and he was surprised that it didn't really bother him.
"Uh huh." They sat together and talked of smaller things as they cleaned their rifles.
:)
I hope everyone enjoyed it :)
Action in the next chapter!
-Sophus xx