"Doc, please don't quarantine me," Gale begged, sniffling miserably in the confines of her wretched oxygen mask. "If this virus doesn't kill me, boredom will. What'm'I s'pos'to do? Twiddle me thumbs and stare at the ceiling 'til I ain't infectious? Can't I just suit up, or everybody else?"
"Unfortunately, we don't have enough hazmat suits in supply for everybody." There was a slight sly smile quirking the corner of Chakwas' lips, even if they couldn't be seen behind the thin sliver of her own hazmat's visor. The vanguard just knew it. "Perhaps this will be a lesson for you to not charge at a velocity your equipment is not manufactured to withstand."
"Still not hearin' the part where I could just suit up."
"From the readings Dr. T'Soni's sent over from her analysis, the viral spores will re-infect you, and they're highly resistant to ordinary decontamination measures. It would be safest to destroy the suit, and we cannot exactly afford to be destroying an entire supply of suits, Commander."
Upon hearing of the archaeologist, Gale perked up on her plinth bed and fidgeted with her oxygen mask. She glanced over at the adjacent lab. "She's a workhorse, that one."
"She too needed something to occupy her so that boredom wouldn't kill her," Karin chuckled softly. "I do hope she'll listen to my advice and not overdo it."
"Yeah right, you know she's gonna get carried away and do exactly the opposite of that." Gale leaned forward with a grin, though frustration soon pinched her the way the oxygen mask did when it dug into her cheeks. "Help me not die of boredom then, at least lemme quarantine with her. I can sleep on the floor. Won't touch your machines."
"I'll be doing a thorough decontamination of that room once you're all past your infectious stage," Karin hummed thoughtfully as she glanced over the room. "What I am worried about is that neither of you will be able to utilize the bathroom, and I don't yet possess enough data to analyze as to when you're safe to roam the Normandy without spreading the virus to the crew. The issue with suits remain..."
Hope really had a hard time not to be insufferably smug all over Gale's face, and she struggled not to betray the true nature of her intentions as she leaned forward on the plinth with her eager suggestion. "T'Soni and I can quarantine in my quarters. We got a bathroom there - so long as y'don't need her for your fancy tests."
"I'll be fine on my own, if I need an extra pair of hands then I'll enlist the aid of one of the crew members." Karin glanced over at the other body passed out on the plinth and walked over, monitoring Ashley's vitals as the soldier slept away in sickly slumber. "It'll be best to decontaminate that area as soon as possible and keep you all contained in a singular room."
"Yep!" Gale was already working her oxygen mask off, though the doctor briskly strode over with a chuckle and warded her hands away. There was a fire in the vanguard's veins and she was already itching to head into the lab to drag Liara off, up until the good doctor extinguished that flame before it grew too wild with fantasies.
"Very well, I'll wake up Chief Williams and head to the hangar bay to check in on Wrex's situation. It'll be best if we can move all four of you to the quarters at once to clear the floors of any crew members, then disinfect immediately."
"What."
Gale deflated, staring slack-jawed at the doctor's back as Karin went off to wake up Ashley. The vanguard's heart plummeted to her stomach and her head fell with a groan.
"Doc, Wrex is gonna box up me room and gas us to death."
"Hopefully it'll kill the virus as well, then," Karin quipped wryly.
Never before was it evermore tempting to throw a pillow at that cheeky woman.
Quarantine would never be spoken of ever again, of that it was agreed upon collectively. Thank the stars they were allowed to be out and about, but could the lingering sniffles and coughs piss the fuck off already?
Everything Gale touched, she burned down to ash. She couldn't change her reckless ways, in love with the thrill of trouble - and even now she chased it. She burrowed in the comfort of the couch, her blanket wrapped tightly around her as she held her steaming mug of tea, sniffling incessantly across from the archaeologist who had done the same. They were both so miserable, recovering excruciatingly slow from their infectious exposure from the viral agents in Feros, and yet still T'Soni sought the importance of continuing her informational sessions. It seemed to be the only thing that helped her feel less yucky and permanently fatigued, the light of her passion sometimes reaching her eyes before she'd be forced to tumble in a chair for a break.
Never before had Gale felt so guilty. If only she had changed her reckless ways... Then Liara, Ashley, and Wrex wouldn't have been cross-contaminated from being near her, with the potential for more havoc to be wrecked on the Normandy had the archaeologist not acted swiftly and alarmed Dr. Chakwas. Guilt was new to Gale.
Or rather: her caring enough to drown in this guilt was new to her.
"Broken all sorts of laws, committed all sorts of crimes, killed more people than I know the proper numbers to count up to. And I'm sittin' here whinging, wishing I'd be a wee bit more careful so she wouldn't be sniffling with me."
At the very least Liara wasn't upset or blaming Gale for her carelessness, when her of all people should have known better to not take such a stupid risk after they'd learned how the colonists were affected by breathing in the spores. Maybe T'Soni was worried about getting evicted by the captain of the ship, or something. But Gale didn't quite get that sense that that was the ulterior motive here. Little by little, she was learning that the galaxy harboured genuine kindness, just like other lads and lasses that she had struck gold with in passing.
"Wouldn't be here if it weren't for folks like her. And still she's standing here, bein' all sweet, just excited to share what she's learned in the past. What'm I doing for her? Fuck all. Not even swappin' germs in the way we'd enjoy."
"Commander? Do you need a break?" Liara sounded so incredibly stuffy, that it was almost adorable - if it weren't for the bloody guilt chasing it. She was all huddled like the damn old hag that used to hound Shepard whenever she was caught stealing raspberries in the garden.
Gale shook her head and smiled. "Sorry, love, mind's running off on me sometimes, but I'm listening. Swear I ain't bored. It's pretty neat how cutting edge mapping technology was able to help you discover lost cities hidden deep in forests among planets that a lot of species have explored. Something like that might come in handy for us. Think you can still get your hands on that tech, pass it on to Tali? If she can figure out a way with the mako techs on how to implement that in the radar, it'll make reading the terrain geography a lot better for me if I've got 3-D animations to work with."
"Yes," Liara chuckled throatily, accompanied with a cute little sniffle as she hugged her tea close to her. "I've finally come to understand why you tend to fly off the cliffs. It was hard to make any sense of the radar with just motion sensors to work with. I can see what I can do in order to secure that resource - if I remember correctly, the engineer that allowed me to test their technology may be in need of a secure occupation as well."
"They'll have one aboard the Normandy for the duration of our mission, but after that...? Well, if their technology is as good as you say, it won't be hard at all for me to make a pitch to the right ears and get them in the Alliance without all the tests and hassles." Gale sipped at her tea, closing her eyes as she swished the liquid in her mouth to test whether she got her sense of taste back. Nothing. She tried not to sigh, to not be the party pooper of an otherwise fantastic mood - as fantastic as they could make it, anyhow, and that was largely due to Liara's persistent efforts. Gale opened her eyes when the couch dipped beside her, their shoulders faintly brushing. She tried not to let her excitement press forth too much, having learned the hard way that pressure seemed to make the doctor shy father away instead. She settled for as calm of a smile as she could force and drew her legs up to criss-cross them, inwardly chastising her burning need to jump just because Liara was drinking beside her. She forced herself to look off at a wall. "Break time?"
"Mm hm. That, and I have forgotten where I was going with my point."
Gale laughed. "I can relate to that all too much." She stared into her tea, her thumb slothfully tracing the rim of her mug. She leaned to the side to gently bump shoulders before she straightened and risked composure as she looked over. "Thanks, love. Y'make this not as awful as it is. Sorry I got y'sick with me hard head."
"Oh, it's not your fault. None of us could truly know the severity and the swiftness of such viral spores. Let us just be grateful that Dr. Chakwas was able to act just as swiftly to contain the situation before it truly got out of hand." Liara leaned to bump shoulders herself, albeit more carefully since she had more tea in her mug. "We're lucky not to have suffered more adverse effects, like the colonists. Perhaps we would have, with extended exposure." She shuddered, her eyes glassing up as they traversed far away. "I hope we never have to see something like that ever again. It was horrible what the Thorian did to them."
"And now it'll never get the chance to continue."
Gale kept her true spiteful comments to herself, however, trying to hang onto the gratitude that Liara encouraged and wanted. The true evil of that entire nightmare was ExoGeni, humans subjecting others through all of that just to study them - likely seeking to weaponize it someday.
"Heaven forbid if any of the employees at ExoGeni were part of their little experiment. Oh, wait, nope. Then that would be unethical and dangerous." Gale inwardly rolled her eyes. "Eye for an eye, best justice you can doll out to punish and teach a lesson. What I'd give to wrap my hands around that one weasel's throat..."
Her thoughts derailed when a head tilted to the side to lay on her shoulder. She tried not to move, watching from the corner of her eye to see as much as she could. Her entire body was positively thrumming the millisecond she realized that Liara was laying on her shoulder. It was a battle of the ages to stay still, to not throw their mugs on the table so that she could embrace the asari and warm her bones rather than these sorry-arse standard flimsy blankets.
"Liara..." Gale whispered, trying to select her words carefully so as not to scare the archaeologist off. She was done in by the soft throaty hum and she just had to steal a peck, at least on the top of the head. It was still innocent, right? She stilled, held her breath, and waited for a reaction - waited for T'Soni to pull away.
She never did.
"What is it, Shepard?"
"Gale," the vanguard urged with poorly restrained excitement. "Please? If you're comfy, that is."
A small inhale. Liara adjusted how she sat, her head still nuzzling on the shoulder. "What is it, Gale?"
"Such a simple... Buttery putty in her hands just from her sayin' me name, I am. A poor sod who's really done in."
It stumped Gale and disarmed her of a response. She was speechless, having forgotten her point, and she chuckled softly for it. "I forgot."
"Mm," the quiet mirth was shared between them. "I can relate to that all too much."
Recklessly, the vanguard stubbornly stuck to her ways, lowering one of her hands until she was able to wrap it around the asari's mid-back. Liara had finished her tea and leaned to leave her mug on the coffee table, before she settled back and adjusted things so that their blankets had been shared across their laps. She sought her apparent pillow again, sighing with content.
After a brief moment - what felt like years to Gale - the archaeologist confessed ever so quietly, as if passing on a secret.
"This isn't as scary as I thought it'd be."
"Is she trying to make me explode? What do I have to do to get her to shut her hamster brain off an' kiss me the way she did in her lab?"
Discipline wasn't exactly Gale's strongest suit - a miracle she even passed the Alliance boot camp. Here? She couldn't do nothing.
"That's like a cardinal sin or somethin', innit?"
She angled her head and forced herself to settle with just pressing her lips against the top of Liara's head, breathing warmth into skin as the vanguard idly massaged up and down the lithe bicep. There were questions that needed asking, though, answers that she was curious to seek for herself just as much as she wanted to know what this archaeologist saw.
"D'ya like this 'cause you've never done it before?" Gale inquired, massaging down until she'd blindly worked away on the asari's forearm, beneath the blanket.
"I... Suppose. I've never really explored relationships and their intricacies in depth - as you might have gathered already. Too busy exploring the intricacies of mystical wonders instead."
A smile immediately danced upon the vanguard's lips, and she nodded fervently. She chuckled when she felt a pinch just above her hip.
"Are you laughing at me for it? It's-"
"Impolite to tease," Gale parroted along. Her smile burst into a proud grin when the asari huffed. "Not laughing at you, love. Just... To tell y'the truth, I dunno. Just happy right now, yeah? We're both poor sick sodding peas in a pod, we are, and here we are. We're miserable, leakin' snot, and I can't remember th'last time I could think to myself that I'm happy. There are deep roots in this couch already. Can we just stay like this for a few more minutes, if you're comfy?"
Silence, but no movement. Perhaps Liara felt like she'd been lured and caught in a trap? Gale cursed at herself, having believed she might've laid it thick with pressure by confessing a little too much, too soon. With how long asari live, maybe they aren't used to intensity, or maybe the pace humans move at make it way too quickly to progress a relationship, or... Or something.
"Why ain't she sayin' anything? Can't she hurry-"
There didn't seem to be any hesitation when Liara nodded. She sniffled into the human's shoulder, and at this moment Gale didn't even care if there was any snot being left on her - couldn't really complain if she was the cause of their misery right now. She melted and every part of her was screaming inside when the archaeologist burrowed in closer, adjusting their blankets until she'd drawn up her knees to rest upon one of Shepard's thighs. She decided to take a risk as she began to pull on the forearm, laying back on the couch. She never took her eyes off the blue orbs that flickered up to hers, a timid and uncertain smile pulling on Liara's lips.
"Only if y'want to, love," Gale croaked hoarsely, trying to keep her eyes off the lips and a grimace off her face from how pitiful she sounded. "Just think it'll be more comfy for us if we lay down. Don't need to lay on me. I can lay behind ya and sink into the couch so you got more room."
"Goddess," Liara chuckled quietly, "You certainly want that nap, don't you?"
Gale grinned sheepishly. "Guilty. So...?"
More uncertainty, more hesitance, and it was a slow death for one who just wanted to charge forth and figure out if there was discomfort once they settled in. She was surprised when there was a playful shove of the shoulder until she'd toppled over the couch on her side, and Liara took off the blankets until she squeezed in on the front, then waited with a lifted head.
"Could you have your arm under my head? For a pillow."
"Say no more."
Gale didn't know what it was about this lass, but she was falling hard and fast for every wee little thing the asari did or said. Granted, the vanguard didn't have the greatest track record considering she could fall in and out of love in the span of 5 minutes - but she kept coming back for more, The best part? She kept getting more, but it still never stopped her from wanting more and loving every single bit of each minute she got.
Maybe being sick wasn't so bad. It made bundling up and sharing heat like this so much more... She didn't know how to explain it, really. It was food and comfort for the soul, even with her blood burning. She swore she was going to self-implode as she watched the back of the asari's head get comfy with her arm. Gale curled her other arm over as Liara draped the blankets over them as best as she could with one hand.
"That music you like to play..." T'Soni started, though seemed tentative about it for some reason. "It's your home's culture and tradition, right?"
"Mm hm. Y'want it?"
"Not the pipes," Liara shifted a little. "Do you have anything softer? Calmer?"
"Hm..." Gale pretended to think, even though this was the most bizarre request anybody could ever make of her. It was an easy nope. "Well I like me drums and fiddle, rap too. Not sure I got anything on my omni-tool right now that you'd take a likin' to, but I'll look into getting some songs we can nap to. I'm sure there's lots out there that even I never heard of. Would it help you relax?"
"Yes," Liara breathed with a nervous laugh. "This... Is..."
"Too much, innit? We can get up."
"No, no, I want to try." She scooted backwards and adjusted how her head laid on Gale's arm, as if trying to make soft feathers out of solid muscle.
Instinct compelled the vanguard to just shut her trap and lay in wait, to try to make up her own mind of whether or not to keep indulging her selfishness, or if she should call this quits. She wavered with the amount of shifting Liara did. Then there was a shift upwards, where part of Gale's cheek and jaw were recruited as a pillow, and Liara really burrowed in then as she twisted to lay more on her stomach. Her arms curled up beneath her chest. A slight sniffle was accompanied with a relaxed breath out.
Shock came and went when the realization struck Gale.
"Uh... Is she already asleep? What the fuck? Wasn't she just awake and super nervous?"
Not that she was complaining, but navigating a relationship she was actually thinking and wanting to keep and nurture and... She just wanted to do right by this adorable individual that was so goddamn sweet to her. That sense to protect this innocence had fully cemented it's position and kicked out all traces of thought of corrupting it, and she protectively cradled the asari in her arms as she had twisted her torso a little more to wrap over the side of Liara's back - praying she wasn't putting too much pressure down on the bruised ribs from their recent op.
Maybe that was why she was laying the way she was, right.
Gale immediately backed off, staring at what part of the head she could see as she tried not to move her own head too much. The warmth of the body in her arms and the slender skin pressed against her jawline had seeped into her. She couldn't stop screaming inside. Needless to say, she never got the nap she wanted - and that was more than alright, engraving to memory every intricacy of how the archaeologist's body fit in her arms. Gale smiled blissfully to herself.
"Well, she's definitely got more than bones. Way better than a flattened pillow for sure."
What a sorry sod she was, far deep done in - counting every single breath she heard to make sure she'd never forget this moment.
She fell asleep by the third breath.
Thank the Goddess the Commander wasn't in charge of the music, for once. Liara relaxed on the gym bench, at least as relaxing as she could make it, delving into her datapad as she read old papers she'd published to see what topic to teach about for the next information session. She glanced over and smiled at the restless human who slovenly worked out, grumbling every now and then over the 'music that wasn't music' that the majority of the marines voted to have.
"How she has energy to even think to exercise is beyond me."
Not for lack of appreciating that... Energy. It was very inspirational.
Yes.
That was the story she was going to stick with.
Whimsical music sailed in the gym, and Liara struggled not to smirk or laugh when she was absolutely certain one of the marines elected this particular song just to rile up the Commander. The look on Gale's heartbroken face - her mouth slackening comically - was too much to handle. She seemed to catch onto the gym's mischief and charged for the terminal to change the tune, accompanied by a crescendo of groans and pleas for it to not be her usual music. It was accompanied by a cheeky gesture flipped with a finger flung over the shoulder.
Blood-thumping music filled the gym soon enough, and Liara cringed in anticipation. It wasn't the 'traditional' music, however, and many marines seemed to melt with relief when it was still to their liking. It was interesting to observe human culture, to listen to the variety of genres they so seemed inclined to express themselves with.
"I wish I paid attention to traditional asari music, perhaps it would be something I could research and share with the Commander?"
All she remembered was the deafening electronic music when her classmates would drag her to the club, and she shuddered from the horror of it all. She had high-pitched ringing in her aurals just remembering it.
As if on queue, the tunes changed again and she barely suppressed her groan when techno pounded and hammered at the very air. She delved into her datapad with renewed vigour, a desperation to carry her mind away from here and focus on her current endeavour. A sudden ominous feeling sparked to life in her stomach and she watched from the corner of her eyes as a blur of red seemed to dance her way.
Try as she might, she could not suppress the smile that tugged on the corner of her lips when she looked over to witness the mischievous smirk coming towards her. She immediately shook her head upon sensing what exact deviousness the Commander had in store for her now. Gale's hearty laughter could still be heard above the music.
"Y'didn't really expect to follow me in here an' get away with not movin' a wee bit, did ya, doc?" Gale held out her hand and bounced her fingers. "At least I'm not runnin' drills."
"I'm positive Dr. Chakwas would classify you as criminally insane if you had."
Laughter danced again, and it served as fuel for the fire ignited in those emerald eyes, lost of their razor sharp edge. The sweat-slick complexion with that thinly veiled exhausted smile beckoned concern, but she had a feeling she would not be heard even if she issued a gentle reminder that they needn't push themselves while still recovering. She stood her ground - or rather burrowed in her seat - when those fingers bounced again, and she shook her head adamantly.
"I absolutely refuse, Commander."
"'Cause there's people around? Would y'dance with me alone?"
Was this a trick question? There needed to be far more contextual information to work with here. What kind of music would be played? Where would they be dancing? In what attire? In what manner?
Welcome darkness shrouded her mind as a corner of her room ebbed to life. It was dim lit with only the screens of the medical equipment to serve as illumination, pressing Gale against the table again while their mugs of tea were left to neglect. Liara shook herself free before a more sinful voice teased her with tawdry ideas. An idea that seemed to be sensed by the way Gale looked at her now, bracing a hand on the wall as she leaned down to leave a scandalous purr in Liara's aural.
"I might as well be undressed with th'way you're lookin' at me right now, love. I know I got a piss-poor record but I wasn't meanin' that kind of dance. Honest."
Searing heat flushed Liara's face and she reeled back with as little space as she had, gaping wide-eyed as she stammered her non-existent defence. It went unheard as Gale rushed back to her weights anyways, starkly missing her mischievous aura and any near eye-contact. Her face was suddenly blank, her movements mechanical.
Liara was positively lost. She didn't know what to yield from these observations. She stared blankly, her gaze almost lagging as it fell back on her datapad. Her brow pinched in bewilderment. The puzzle that's been laid out before her couldn't quite be pieced together so easily. She melted on the bench a little uneasily, cursing herself for being so overtly racy. She prayed nobody else caught on to the exchange and she shrunk in her seat with embarrassment. She didn't last long, soon collecting her strength to slither away and seek a place to hide.
She immediately cursed herself when she had entered her room, dim lit with only the equipment as a source of lighting.
"According to their military history, they usually served for 25 years in their first century. But if we zoom in on this image here, see this? This gravestone implied the high-ranking soldier had served for 44 years, and that the inscription was created by the freed slave - most likely in gratitude for having been granted his freedom as well as inheritance of his owner's property. Judging by the other materials I found in the trash heap that dated to about the turian's fourth century, the stone was most likely re-used as building material. It beckoned me to learn more about the turian structure and cultural importance of-"
"Did I go too far?" Gale blurted.
It shuttered Liara's lesson to a sharp halt. She stood, staring, blinking, confused. She absentmindedly shook her head, before clarifying. "I'm sorry, to what do you mean?"
"When I... Shite... Uh, should I actually bring it up, then? If nothin' jumping out at ya, then that's a no, right? I don't wanna jinx it and blow it up now."
Liara frowned a little. She tried not to eyeball around the vanguard's private quarters, where they've taken their lesson to free up the rec room for some marines that occupied already. She resisted the temptation to see what time the terminal displayed, to see how little time they had left before their next mission would be thrust upon them. She felt like she was well out of her depth now, unhinged by Gale's nervous laughter.
"Well, y'know, that time in the gym... Ah, fuck... When I said I might as well be undressed. Me stupid mouth fired off again, yeah? Wanted to say sorry for it but I've been havin' a hard time reading you 'bout it, if it bothered you or not."
Liara flushed with embarrassment, and the vanguard clicked her tongue off the roof of her mouth.
"It's bothering ya. I didn't mean to make y'uncomfy. Got my hopes up, yeah? That you seem to think about me that way." A beat, a treacherous pause that spelled doom for the poor shy asari. "You do, right? You think about me that way?"
"G-Gale, must we talk about this?"
Gale's hand hooked on her neck as she burrowed into the corner of her couch, rubbing away as if sheepish. Her smile didn't seem to be one of lack of confidence. She seemed to contemplate for a moment, weighing her options, and when she had looked guilty - Liara knew she was in trouble.
"It's drivin' me nutty and doin' my head in," the vanguard confessed. "I can't stop thinking about the way y'kissed me, before. Can't stop thinking about our wee little nap too, was the happiest I've ever been - weird to me too, 'cause I never thought a nap would do me in. I like what we have goin', but I can't help but want more. More naps, at least, to start."
Shepard's movements seemed to slow as if she was an elcor with the way she had rocked off the couch, her every step almost dramatically telegraphed in the archaeologist's poor anxiety-gripped mind. Nothing drastic was done. Gale only cupped the shoulders, her thumbs pacing over jutting bones. "I don't wanna make y'nervous. Just curious 'bout what you think of when you think of us. Do I got a chance to have more naps with you or was that somethin' you didn't mean to do just yet?"
Panicked thoughts almost threw Liara in for a loop, until she had noticed something that surprisingly set her at ease: a growing blush striking across Gale's nose. Someone who was so confident, so rock-steady with intimacy, seemed to be experiencing some embarrassment or anxiety herself over... Napping.
Without thought, Liara nodded. She chuckled when the human's face screwed up adorably with confusion and sought courage to unveil the apparent shroud over where she stood on the matter. "I enjoyed our nap as well. Though I admit it was not quite what I had in plan, at the time. But it was not as terrifying as I thought it'd be." And beyond comfortable, with toasty heat embracing her as she'd squished herself in on the couch. However, she wasn't quite ready to relinquish all the details of her thoughts and feelings when she'd later awoke, realizing their precarious situation.
Though, for some reason, Gale just... Stared. Liara's cheeks warmed, an awkwardness settling in over the silence. She reacted instinctively and leaned back when the human suddenly moved, frozen in place when lips pressed to her forehead. A halfhearted chuckle skipped over her brow.
"Sorry, love. Needed a minute, didn't know what to say in it. Still don't, actually. And I forgot."
Gale didn't move away. Her hands tentatively slipped off the shoulders in order to wrap her arms around them instead, embracing with uncertainty dictating strength. She was so cautious with matters between them, it was almost off-putting with how she usually recklessly charged herself at everything else. Muscles gradually slackened, growing heavy over time. She turned her face in and pressed her lips just before the aural.
And sniffled.
Both of them chuckled, wearily reminded of their misery. Liara melted over time and returned the embrace, hiding her face in the vanguard's shoulder. They'd stayed like that until she swore she was dozing in place and waking up in it. From the brief flickers of movement, she wagered the same was happening to Gale.
"You really shouldn't have worked out," Liara teasingly chastised. She smiled when a yawn was muffled in her shoulder, turning halfway into a sleepy grumble.
"I was workin' - and I shan't name names - on being somebody's eye candy," Gale fired back.
It promptly shut the blushing archaeologist down, rushing to derail from the subject.
"Let's go to bed already."
...She groaned and flushed hot even before Gale burst out laughing.