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CHAPTER 17

Five days since the destruction of the Haratar.

1000 HOURS

4-21-2186

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Olasie set her duffel down at the foot of her bed and sighed. It came out faster than the time she had to catch it.

Juel couldn't tell if it was a regular sigh or one that should've made him worried.

"What's wrong?" He asked from their workbench.

"Sorry. Nothing actually." She answered, giving him a smile that he didn't see while she went up next to him, "What're you up to?"

"Oh, you know. Dicking around with my newest toy. Got my optic on it. See?" He showed her, "Now I'm just playing around with the trigger group." He grabbed for his pull gauge and gave it a tug to show her the reading. "What do you think?"

She was supposed to look at the gun, but she leaned in a little closer so she could get a better look of his face. She could see just the faintest bits of his nose and eye. "Looks good to me."

"Thinking I should put an angled foregrip on it." Juel said, mostly to himself, resting his chin on the nook of his metal thumb and pointer. "Or maybe that's too tacti-cool."

She put a hand on his shoulder to get the rest of his attention on her.

"The showers are set up by the way." She said, "Don't know about you, but I think we're long overdue for them."

He finally faced her, gun long forgotten. "No way. That's today? That's the best thing I've heard since boarding the ship."

She smirked. "Ha."

"Who gets to go first?"

Olasie bit her lip and webbed her fingers together.

"Well. That's the thing. We're going in two at a time. There's a divider setup for us though in the women's restroom."

"Couldn't spare the extra resources for us, huh?" Juel said, a glint in his eye.

"It'd take all day otherwise." She said, shrugging, "Can't hog it forever."

"So...?"

"What?"

"Who gets to go first?" He asked again.

Olasie gave him an innocent looking shrug. "Oh. You and I."

Juel felt his heart toss up into his throat while his mind raced to piece together something smart to say.

"Oh." Was all that came out. He felt flustered, but he forced it to pass. He turned around and went to his cubby for his new set of toiletries, "Well. Shit. I ain't waiting any longer than I need to for a hot shower."

"Don't blame you." She opened up her bag and stuffed some things inside it, "Can't wait to put on our new suits."

Juel agreed, shouldered his pack, and went to the door to wait for her.

"What kinda soap you buy?" Olasie asked, reading the label on a bottle of hers, "I got 'sandy beach'."

Juel furrowed his brow and pilfered through his own things until he found the stuff he'd purchased himself. "Some… thessian rose scent." He dug a little deeper into his bag and squeezed his green loofa, "You gotta a loofa thing?"

"Hell yeah I gotta loofa thing." She let the string dangle from her fingers and bounced it to show him.

She followed him out the door and they took the elevator up to crew deck.

"What's the rest of the team doing?"

"Kylie's cast is getting put on today. She'll finally gets to join us for dinner."

"Oh, good."

"Teri and Lukh are with Tali in engineering. Darehk's cleaning his gear up in the armory."

They arrived and immediately took a left. They both stopped at the door's breadth, staring at the plastic curtain they'd draped over the door. A taped sign warned anyone that wasn't quarian to keep out.

"Beautiful." Juel whispered. He bent down to lift the curtain and rose it up for Olasie to enter first.

"After you." He said kindly.

"Why, thank you."

They both entered and the door closed behind them. To actually enter the bathroom, they had to pass through a small, clear plastic, suite. Inside it, a single handheld anti-septic spray bottle.

"How high-tech." Juel rasped with a smile, picking up the mister. "Alright. Do a t-pose."

She rose her arms and he began spraying her down from the top of her head to the bottoms of her feet. She did the same for Juel. Finally, they unzipped the separator to access the showers.

Juel was already unclasping the seals on his helmet walking to the take the left divider.

"How's your day been so far?" Olasie decided to ask, taking the right and removing her mask.

"Not much to do around here. Been pretty lazy, actually. Still have to zero the sight in."

"Same here." Came her unfettered voice.

Juel's hands went limp just as he was about to hang up his loofa. Wow. Her sound was beautiful.

"You know what we're eating today?" He said so he could hear her again.

"Don't know. Turian eggs." She joked.

He laughed and set his own visor down before splitting the seals around his neck.

"Sounds good." He said.

He could hear the realk she wore drop to the floor.

Juel ran a hand through his hair and couldn't quite express how good that felt. "They tell you how long it takes the hot water to heat up?"

"Instantly." She replied, slipping her arms from out her prison and peeling it down to her waist, "They said to turn the knob at 260 degrees for the sweet spot."

"Awesome. Thanks for the tip."

Juel took a seat and took off his boots before undoing his realk. He suddenly frowned. He just realized he should've exercised a little bit of forethought. Because now was the hard part. Removing his prosthesis. Popping it from his suit socket without help was, frankly, a challenging task.

"…Olasie, are you undressed yet?"

"Uh," She kicked off her boots and slid off the last of her clothes. "Kind of. Why?"

"I need help."

Her cheeks blushed and she turned to stare at herself in the mirror. Somewhere in that mind of hers, she knew, that she was wishing for an excuse to see him.

What was supposed to happen at that point was anyone's guess. Olasie had thought up all kinds of scenarios. Romantic scenarios. She didn't want to call it some kind of hushed fantasy of hers because that sounded not at all romantic. Then again, what other word was there for it? Why else would she have booked both of them to use the showers at the same time? She tried to play it off like that wasn't the case, but she knew what she wanted. Admitting it, even to herself, felt embarrassing.

Plainly, Olasie wasn't one to ignore her emotions. She wasn't lying when she told Tali that she was falling in love with the man. Juel was really important to her. And this felt like an opportunity to make something of it and get closer together for whatever time they'd have left if death was really around the corner.

Turning the page in her mind, she brought herself back to the now and bit her lip at what she saw.

Unfortunately, she was not as presentable as she would've liked. She'd been in her suit for a while. She looked kinda dirty. And her hair wasn't exactly groomed to perfection from being in a squashed bun all the time.

"Just a second, Juel. I'll, uhm. I'll be right there." She turned the shower on, let her hair down, and stepped under the water's loving embrace just so she could get a quick rinse.

"Alright." He said, electing to wash his face in the meantime and brush his teeth like a normal person. It didn't take long to gussy himself up to look as best as possible for her.

He took a seat and began to bounce his leg nervously, wondering what he was about to see. Because if he was about to see nothing but Olasie… he'd probably forget how to breathe.

The shower turned off after about a minute.

"Just a few more seconds, Juel. Sorry to make you wait." She wrapped herself in a towel, inhaled sharply, and walked to his side of the partition.

"H—hello." He mumbled, staring at her beautiful face and wet hair. He wanted to look at her legs, but would that be too much? Juel was well aware that his eyes couldn't wander wherever they wanted since they had nothing to hide behind anymore.

She stood over him and smiled. "Remember when you asked when you could see the real me? And I told you that all depended on you?" She squatted down to eye level, holding her towel tightly around her chest, "I meant it."

"I know you did." Came his whisper. His will was strong enough to keep his gaze fixed on those angel eyes of hers, though the compulsion to not keep them averted away from her breasts like the repelling end of a magnet was weakening.

If it hadn't been made apparent already, the level of romantic tension in the air was rising. Both of them knew it. They both felt it.

So emboldened by the moment, Juel read between the lines, seized his chance, and placed a loving hand behind her neck before kissing her.

Olasie's heart felt sparks. Her eyes closed and she lost herself to their locked lips.

He'd forgotten how good it felt to be this close to someone.

It ended sooner than Olasie wanted it to, but she blinked and smiled. "That's what you needed help with?"

Juel gave her a smug look for her smug joke. "No, actually. I need help taking off my fake body part."

Olasie adjusted the towel around her. "I see. And how would we do that?"

"Let me show you. Pull up and out. Pretty impossible without someone else to help."

"Ah." She got to work and he watched her do it.

"How's that tattoo?"

She blushed. "You seem to remember that more often than I do."

"Well. It was a pretty terrible one." Juel said.

The blush grew two shades darker.

"You can always get that removed, you know."

"Yeah. I know." She finally removed the arm and set it down next to him, "I'll get around to it."

Olasie straightened her back and wiped away some of the water cresting her brow.

"You're beautiful." He said without it being a choice.

She looked him in the eye, a smile set on her face.

He pulled his suit down to his waist with his one hand, picked up his arm, and pointed at her with it. "And you planned this, didn't you?"

"Well," She began to pace backward to her side of the showers before giving him another toothy smile, "Yeah."

He scoffed and shook his head, though the smile on his face betrayed him. "I love you, Olasie."

Some caught his throat. Despite how natural it felt to say it, he'd never said it to her before.

"Love you too, Juel." She said without skipping a beat. The grin on her face went gentle and she lingered a little longer at the corner to stare at him before finally disappearing to her side.

He bit his lip and removed the rest of his clothes to shower.

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Two hours later.

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John took the elevator down from CIC to engineering. When the doors opened, he was going to step out to go and see what Tali was up to, but saw Kylie, leg in cast with crutches to hold herself up while she watched the people below work in the cargo bay.

Figuring he had some time to see how she was doing, he took a spot next to her and crossed his arms.

"Afternoon, Kylie." He gave her a stiff tap on the shoulder, "Good to see you're up and about."

"Thanks, boss." She said, smiling and adjusting her crutches, "Chakwas said another week or so and I'll be good to go."

"That fast, huh?"

"That fast." She repeated, looking down to her leg and flexing her toes, "Thanks to EDI and a good ol' minimally invasive bone weave surgery."

"It sore?"

"Hell yes, it's sore."

"I figured. Bone weave surgery's supposed to make it stronger than before, I heard." John said.

"Amazingly, right? My shin'll be ready for wacking rebars again in no time."

"Let's not push our luck with you." John said with a laugh.

When the chuckles died down, Kylie's toned turned a bit more serious. "You know, Shepard? I never got to thank you."

When she saw his confused stare, she knew it was time to explain what she meant. "I know. My leg got fucked up and I'm limping around in crutches. I'm giving my thanks for having the opportunity of being with the Normandy. And for everything you've done for me and the squad. Means a lot. And I'm not saying that because Darehk's been an ass about the geth."

He met her stare with a soft one. "Darehk's behavior has barely crossed my mind. But you're welcome, Kylie. You all got my back. I know Darehk does still too. I got yours."

Teri stepped out of their room, a bag in each hand, and set them down next to John and Kylie.

"Hi Commander." Teri greeted, "You ready to go, Kylie?"

"Yes."

"Ah, that's right. The showers are set up for you all." John remembered, picking up Kylie's bag and setting it inside the elevator for her, "Enjoy it. There's plenty of water to go around. Off you go."

"Thanks."

He gave the two women a subtle nod as the doors closed. Then he finally made his way toward Tali's station.

Opening the door revealed Tali sitting cross legged on the floor with a pile of parts around her. He rose a brow.

"Hey you."

"Hey yourself." Tali replied happily.

"It's lunch. Wanna take a break?"

"I would. But if I stop, I'll forget a step." She mumbled and only paused to look at him briefly, "Sorry."

"You should've started after lunch if it was going to take this long, Tals."

"Didn't think it'd take up this much of my time." She sighed, threading on a coupler onto a meter-long piece of conduit before jamming some wire down it. "Happens to everyone, right?"

"Sure does. Need help?"

"Nah," She shook her head, "It's okay. I can handle it."

"Kylie got her cast. Did you see?"

"I did. She looks great. All things considered."

John leaned up against the wall and watched her work. "...You ever break a bone?"

"Funny you ask that, because I was about to ask you the same thing."

John pursed his lips. "I haven't. Isn't that surprising?"

"I'm shocked." She said light-heartedly.

"I've gotten real close though. A lot. Aside from Saren or that geth on Virmire, it was during ICT. Damn near fell off a cliff."

"You usually break more than one bone doing that."

"Yeah. And it would've disqualified me on N6. Who knows where things would've been if fate took that turn."

"Well," She breathed, "We probably wouldn't have met. That and the reapers would've won already."

"Maybe. But not meeting you would've sucked." John said.

"But not the reapers winning, huh?"

"That too."

She grinned.

"Want me to bring you something to eat?"

"Would you?"

"Of course."

"Then you can spend some time with me?"

"It's a date," He bent down and kissed the top of her head, "I'll be back."

"Thanks, huneey."

He took the elevator back up to get her lunch. When he turned the corner to reach the mess, he frowned when he saw Legion standing in a corner, its single eye beset upon anyone crossing its gaze amongst the growing lunchtime congregation.

He shared a stare with Gardner, who only gave him a shrug. Other members of the crew, including Miranda and Jacob only glanced toward his general direction.

John scratched the back of his head and decided to stand next to it. "Legion? What are you doing?"

"We are observing."

"Observing what?"

"Multi-species interaction during scheduled caloric ingestion. Our observations do not correlate with examples provided on the extranet."

"That's because you're here and you're staring." John said, giving him a disbelieving look. Was he giving Legion too much credit when it came to understanding complex social cues? Because he'd been pretty good at it so far.

Legion's eye met his two. "EDI observes everything at all times. Why is this different?"

"Because you have a body."

"Please elaborate."

John motioned with his head. "Follow me."

"Acknowledged."

John walked over to the pantry and began to pick through the quarian's foodstuffs for Tali.

"You're in an ambulating body." John said, trying to sound more thorough with his explanation, "And it has features similar to us. It makes you much more 'there' as opposed to EDI's pseudo-omnipresence. So standing and staring silently in a corner watching people is weird."

"We believed it to be because we are geth."

"That certainly exacerbates the issue." He finally found what he wanted and tucked it under his arm. "How about this. Why don't you, instead of staring from afar, engage with the crew? Make a joke. Tell them something you've thought about. Show them something that's interesting. Helps build relationships."

"Acknowledged."

Legion turned around and walked up to Hawthorne busily sipping from his spoon.

"Greetings, Crewmember Hawthorne."

Hawthorne had to keep his soup from falling out his mouth. "Uh—"

"What cars do asari drive?" Legion's eye stared into his soul, "Justicars."

The color of a tomato, Hawthorne squeezed out something barely worth calling a smile. Jacob's dodgy eyes glanced in Samara's general direction while Mordin stared ahead and blinked rapidly. Unfortunately for Samara, paronomasia in her native tongue didn't work in that instance, so she remained none the wiser.

Legion turned away from Hawthorne to his next target.

"Greetings, Lieutenant Dan."

Dan couldn't whittle his frozen tongue to say anything.

"We wish to share with you information deemed unclassified by the collective. Do you wish to proceed?"

Legion took the wide-eyed gaze as permission.

"When night befalls the surface of the garden worlds we have visited, this platform would repeatedly withstand abnormal concentrations of insects congesting our exposed catalyst components due to its glow. We believe hundreds of thousands of insects have been vaporized by this behavior."

Dan hadn't been able to keep up with the first six words, mostly because a geth was talking to him. Mordin had been the only one fascinated insofar of the machine's word sandwich.

A new victim.

"Greetings, operative Lawson."

"I'd rather not, Legion."

"Acknowledged." It turned around to Shepard who'd been holding his head in his hands.

"We have developed unit cohesion, commander. We will resume such tasks again tentatively."

"...Good job, Legion." John said after a moment, ever-so-carefully picking his words, "That bug story was... a good start."

"We believed it worth denoting. This unit has observed that insects inhabiting standardized garden worlds with heavy avian predation and atmospheric compositions of a three-to-one ratio of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace gases commonly express a 'transverse orientation' trait. Consistent with convergent evolution theory. This affects us adversely during nighttime operations."

"I'm sure Mordin would have a blast talking to you about that. As for night ops, we should probably look into getting that glow in your chest fixed up for you."

"We will conduct such repairs upon receival of requested supplies from the collective. Shall we consult to Dr. Solus' expertise regarding our other biological findings?"

John gave Legion the sway of a hand. "By all means, Legion. I'll catch you around."

John went to the elevator and blew out a puff of air. It was like teaching a kid how to act in public. Christ.

The lift took him back down. He went back to Tali and sat down next to her.

"Here you go."

She accepted the parcel with both hands. "Thanks."

"Hungry?"

"Kinda." She said, tearing away the packaging to prep the meal, "What about you? Aren't you hungry?"

"Not really. Ate a cereal bar and some rice crackers."

"Mm. Always eating prematurely I see."

"And you're always skipping it entirely."

"Helps keep me skinny."

"Uh-huh."

John watched her prepare her food and waited until she was done taking her first bite.

"How's it taste?"

"Satisfactory." She gobbed.

"Better than paste, right?"

"Oh, definitely." She agreed. She watched him just sit there next to her. "…You sure you don't want anything to eat?"

"Really, I'm good." John placated, "So, Legion had his first chance to interact with the crew."

He always noticed a little tick that showed on her shoulder when he mentioned anything regarding the geth. She did a good job otherwise hiding her displeasure and indecision surrounding the machine.

"And?"

"It's coming around… I think."

"Why do you think that?"

"Don't know. Just a gut feeling, I guess."

"Oh."

John breathed slowly, but deeply. "Never really did get your input about the Haratar."

"Kind of a done deal and no one died. Not much to talk about, don't you agree?"

"Sure, but maybe something you've thought about that you want to share?"

"We did the right thing." She intoned quite succinctly, "They deserved it."

"I agree. And I think Legion does too."

"Maybe."

"You have to give it credit. It didn't second guess us."

Her voice was quiet. "I know."

There was a modicum of silence between them.

"...What do you think we're going to get from this?" She fixed him with a steady stare, "Befriending a geth."

"You know that wasn't my original intention of having it around."

"I understand that."

John, to buy himself some time to give her a reply, turned his head away and stared at the base of her station. He put his arms over his knees and threaded his fingers together before shrugging.

"I'm not so sure, Tali. You know me." He said, his words an open ended mess, "...Always biting off more than I can chew."

Tali already knew what John was thinking deep down. She'd been over this with herself before. But it was the first time she'd asked him straight up about what his end game was. Him skirting around and avoiding a straight answer was an indication that even he knew how far-fetched his idealism could be.

"Running an experiment, maybe?" She asked in a way to lighten the mood.

He gave her a dry laugh. "No. Why would you think that, huh?"

Tali sighed. "Thane asked me what my opinion was about Legion. I told him I don't know anymore." She shook her head and hung it low. "-Don't know why I'm even telling you that."

"That sounds like progress to me, Tals. Now we just need Darehk to come around."

"Surprised at all that Olasie's entire team isn't pissed about Legion's subsistence on the Normandy?"

John would have laughed at her use of the word subsist, but he was more pressed about reassuring her.

"No. Because I know that people are more faceted in their opinions than racial stereo-types let on."

"Ah." She said to agree, albeit sarcastically.

"I sound smart, huh? I took social studies in grade school."

"I would never have guessed." She said, touching his arm lightly.

"Look, I know you're not happy about Legion. I just... think something can come from this. I don't know what. Just... something."

"Time reveals everything." She said thematically.

"Truest words spoken."

John got to his feet and kissed the top of her head the same way he did the last time he left. "Welp. Back to it. See you hopefully at dinner?"

"Yes."

"And on time for bed?"

"Yes to that too."

"Good." John got a notification on his omni-tool and he looked down to see who it was from.

Admiral Hackett.

Just past John's omni-tool was Tali's face staring up at him. "What is it?" She asked, seeing his face droop into a confused frown.

"I..." He swallowed, "—it's Hackett."

"You're joking."

"Nope. It's him."

"What's he want?"

"I don't know." John said, reading the short message, "Only for me to call him to discuss something privately."

"He never struck me as one to be anything but straightforward." Tali began to worry. "So… it must be serious."

"I'll tell you what's going on when I get word. Love you."

"Love you too."

John breathed in, rubbed the base of his neck, and walked out. Then he took the lift up with some other members of the crew. They stopped at each deck and people exchanged floors. The pit in his stomach grew for every second he wasn't there in his cabin to call the admiral.

He finally reached his room. He took a seat at the desk, clenched his teeth, and called him. It didn't take long to wait for an answer.

John's screen showed the stalwart man in his usual dress blues in what had to be his office.

"Shepard."

"I got your message, sir. I called you as soon as I could."

Hackett closed the distance between his face and monitor so he could get a closer look out of John. "God. It really is you, isn't it?"

"Yes sir. No imposter here. I'm sure Anderson's kept you updated."

"He has. I'm not going to lie, Shepard. Your stories get stranger by the year."

John had to smirk. "Yes sir."

"How have you been?"

"Good, sir. All things withstanding."

"I figured you'd say something like that." Hackett rose a metal manila folder in view of Shepard. "Do you know what this is?"

John already had an idea of what it was. "My file?"

"That's right. It was updated just six weeks ago. You went from MIA to AWOL. Alliance decided to charge you with dereliction of duty and charges for multiple counts of treason among other things. As you might've guessed: for aiding and abetting the Cerberus abettor." The admiral lazily put his reading glasses on and perused through the material as if he really cared about what it had to say. "Quite serious stuff, I think."

"Yes sir." John swallowed hard, "That is serious."

"Well. In light of the extraordinary circumstances surrounding your— I guess I should say your existence—and the work you've been doing out there stopping the collectors, such requests to investigate and pursue these arraignments have been denied. It's no secret that you're behind what's jump-started this level of activism; that final push we've been needing to get things done."

"Thank you, sir." John said as humbly as he could, "I… don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. You're a free man. For how long? I can't say. But with the way the winds blowing, people are more focused on stopping the collectors and the people who matter know it was you who handed in the proof. However. Your relationship with Cerberus has certainly put you under a magnifying glass. It's put you under my magnifying glass."

"I understand. I would do the same in your position."

"Be as that may, I find myself in the unusual position of having to ask for your help. Your connection to Cerberus allows both you agency and denial of you being connected to the Alliance. This also might concern your pursuit in stopping the reapers."

"What is it?"

There was a staggered breath from Hackett and he disappeared from view. To replace the admiral was a planet inside the Bahak system, the Aratoht, held within the empty batarian swathes of the Viper Nebula.

"Someone important to the cause is in trouble."