[Book Two] Chapter 20: Time off, confession and secret dealings

[Book Two] Chapter 20: Time off, confession and secret dealingsChapter 20: Time off, confession and secret dealings

Two days after their departure from Omega to the Citadel, Rick had woken up and was breathing roughly though not with difficulty. Not unexpected for someone with a recovering lung. He didn’t even bother asking for his helmet, he knew Karin would not allow him to wear it despite the fact that he could breath perfectly well with it.

Speaking of Karin she had been surprised that Rick was such a pleasant patient to have. Well pleasant in the way that he did as he was told for once and only after complaining and doing the tough act. She just gave him access to extranet and the real world was dead to him. No one was allowed to see him but her. Not even Tali or Samara. Mordin could have, but his job was done so the salarian stayed in his lab and textually conversed with Rick. Or rather Mordin talked and Rick wrote back. Tali came every morning to get some news from her despite the fact that she was communicating with him the same way Mordin did. Shepard was the one who came thrice a day to her surprise. To Karin something was going on between the two of them and it came from Shepard’s side. She didn’t know what but after the first girls night she had some ideas.

“Doc, how long before I can hide my face?”

“When we arrived at the citadel in... two days.” she said as she looked at her terminal for confirmation.

“What’s going to happen?”

“For reasons above my pay grade, Admiral Anderson is the one taking charge of you.”

“Really?” Rick asked a brow raised.

“Yes.”

Rick wondered about why. Every thought he had was discarded as he didn’t have enough data to get to a proper answer. He’d to ask the man himself.

____________________________________________________________

“Shepard, I don’t suppose you’ll let me stay with him?” Tali asked as the redhead invited her to come inside her cabin.

“I thought I asked you to call me Jane?”

“I know! It’s just... I’ve been calling you Shepard for so long, it’s weird to call you anything else. I’ll try though.”

“Thanks and no you can’t stay with him, I need you too much for the next big mission, Tali. With Rick on medical leave you’re the only tech expert on the team.”

“What is the mission about?”

“Infiltrating a dead reaper.”

“What?!”

“From EDI’s analysis of the data we took from the Collectors, they are using an IFF for the Omega 4 relay.”

“That would explain why no one ever came back... And you think that dead reaper has one? To begin with, how come there is a dead reaper still drifting around? I thought they erased their existence? And how did it die in the first place?”

“Good questions, EDI?”

“From the reports of the Cerberus team, it seems that one of the space faring species that the reapers exterminated did it in a last act of defiance. The blow was so powerful that he scarred the planet behind the reaper deeply.”

“One of... not the protheans then?”

“No. The study of the reaper’s wounds suggests that they are at least 37 million years old.”

“Keelah... No chance to ever recover anything about their technology. It would have been nice.”

“As for why it was not found... I do not know. Its location is rather remote; the reapers may have missed it.”

“Just like they did the leviathan of Dis.” commented Shepard.

“Yes.”

“Are we sure that it’s dead?”

“Yes, though there is still some power signature going off, but nothing significant for a ship that size.”

“That doesn’t reassure me one bit.” replied the quarian.

“Me neither, but we have time to prepare ourselves, first we need to help Kasumi and Zaheed and then we’re onto that reaper.”

____________________________________________________________

Rick was resting in a bed from a clinic he was familiar with along with the doctor running it. Familiar, was stretching it a lot though. He had only been here once and that was to find some information on Tali. Rick ended up killing two thugs, saving the doc, Doctor Michel, an acquaintance of Garrus, in the process.

He didn’t have much to complain about. He had his helmet back on its head, the bed was nice so was the doc.

Garrus must be even more dense than I if he can’t see Michel is crushing on him hard.

He was just bored and it only has been two days. While he had access to the extranet he didn’t have access to a terminal to work on something and that was driving him a bit mad. Whatever he was currently thinking was interrupted by Anderson.

“How are you doing?”

“Fine, bored to hell but fine. In fact your visit is the most exciting thing that has happened since my arrival. I would have preferred Gorgeous instead of you but beggar can’t be chooser.” he replied monotony making the Admiral laugh. “What do I owe the visit to?”

“Just a friendly visit, to escape work a bit and Udina. Especially Udina.”

“Still a pompous ass?”

“Yes. He does have his usefulness though, I won’t deny him that.”

“I wonder though, why am I here? Why all the secrecy? I’m not known in the Citadel. How come you know Doctor Michel?”

“I got to know doctor Michel after you and Shepard saved her from Fist’s men. Since I was stuck on the Citadel with my new affectation, I tried to make some connections who would have been beneficial to Shepard. Doctor Michel was a perfect candidate. Private clinic in a good location, she wasn’t afraid to do some deal under the table to help people. I had her at the ready during our preparation for the geths. Afterwards, I sent her way any member of the alliance who needed both help and discretion.”

“While I’m in need of the former, I’m not of the latter.”

“That was more for the Alliance’s protection than yours. Can’t have your DNA lying around unsupervised.”

Rick looked at the man in silence for a moment, trying to understand the meaning behind those words. It didn't take him much time.

“You know.”

“Yes.”

“Who else?”

“Doctor Michel as she was the one to perform the DNA test for me after the battle, Hackett obviously and Helena Müller.”

“Akimbo? How come?”

“She joined the boat so to speak when we approached her after our last meeting. We had to share your official file with her which does not actually exist outside the safe in my office and does not contain your identity. She found it fishy, rightfully so, and immediately pressured Steven to know what we had omitted from the file. Too smart for her own good he keeps saying.”

“She pressured him?”

“Helena is his niece.” explained Anderson.

"I see. Let’s put it on hold then.”

He rose to his feet and walked in the door’s direction when Shepard called out to him.

“About the use of your biotics...”

“What about it?”

“Jack would like to learn to do what you do. She asked me but I promised you so...”

“If she asked me.”

“How about the use of the feet? I never saw anyone do that.”

“I'd be surprised if you did.”

“So you really developed it yourself? This fighting style, I mean. Because we studied what you researched and ...”

“Your experiments failed a lot.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll see what I can do but do know that it’s not perfected yet. I just invented it.”

“Thank you. One last thing!” she said as he turned around.

“Yes?”

“Would you be interested in giving lessons? Nothing full time of course.”

“I don’t intend to teach the discoveries I shared with you. Not just to the alliance but to any one related to a government or organization. Teaching everything else... Depends on who I’d teach and how much I’m paid.”

“Either for the project ascension or for the N7 program.”

“Hmm.. I’ll think about it after we’re done with the Collectors.”

“Thank you. And Rick. I meant it when I said I’m glad you’re back.”

He didn’t say anything to that and just nodded slowly at the sincerity he saw on Shepard’s face.

____________________________________________________________

Rick entered Miranda’s quarters and was greeted warmly by the brunette or rather warmly for the brunette.

“Hello Rick. It’s good...”

“You have one chance, Bubble. What did you do with my blood?”

That took her aback a bit. They hadn’t seen each other in six weeks and the first thing he said to her was that? When their last interaction was him drowning in his own blood and her trying to keep him alive? She looked at him as he waited for her answer.

“I washed it away. I admit, I wanted to analyze it and find out who you are. I decided otherwise.”

He leaned forward from across the desk, his face a few inches away from hers. He cupped her cheek with a hand and moved his head forward. The jaw part of his helmet retracted and allowed his lips to meet hers. The kiss was very brief, almost a peck. Almost. Pulling back his helmet set itself back to his natural shape. Without saying another word he turned around and moved to leave. It was a bewildered Miranda that stopped him. First Shepard, now Miranda. He hoped Tali wouldn’t do that.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“The kiss. You kissed me. You’ve never done that before, despite the kind of relationship we have. So, why?”

“You earned it.”

“I earned it for telling you that I got rid of your blood? How do you know I told you the truth?”

“Because you're smart, Bubble and because while you’re a stickler to the rules when it matters to you, you do the right thing.”

“What makes you think you matter to me?”

“You put the collar on.”

He said nothing more and exited the room. Miranda was left speechless. Not because what he said had been absurd but because it was true. He did matter to her. He had been supportive of her when dealing with Oriana and his praise about being a good sister had been the first in her life that she felt proud of herself. Her look, her mind, her skills, everything that she was and is, all perfect because her father made her so. She never took pride in any of it as it was natural for her. Being a good big sister however had not been in the package, had not been in her father's design of her. It was all her. No matter how perfect she was, that was something that didn’t matter much when it came to being a good sister. Yes she had been damn proud of it and it was thanks to him. Then there was the fact that he rang her bell like no man ever did before. Their first night together had been eye opening for her and their second liberating. When he had presented her with a black leathered coller with the word ‘pet’ on it, she had been left speechless. She had thought that he was joking and perhaps under it all he was a bit but without him saying a word she still put it on. From there on she had never felt so free. That thought made her chuckle the next morning at how ironic it was, she was giving up her own body, her mind and freedom to become a slave for the night and she felt freer than she ever did.

For all of that she had been thankful and when she saw his body tainted in his blood she feared for the worst. She didn’t want him to die. A feeling that she never really felt for anyone. Sure there had been the competent agents here and there but it was for work reasons, not emotional reasons.

That’s why, when the idea to analyze his blood and find his identity presented itself she didn’t take it. It felt wrong to her to betray him like that after unknowingly helping in being in tune with herself.

I hope he intends to reward me with more than a kiss later.

____________________________________________________________

After exiting Miranda's quarter, he went to see Samara and freeter her with a kiss on the cheek, after talking a bit he left her to her meditation and left for the engineering deck when he saw the elevator door open and his favorite quarian walking out of it. When she saw him, she gasped and literally jumped on him making fall backward with Tali in his grip.

“You Bosh’tet! You scared the life out of me!”

His only answer was a deep groan and only then did Tali realize that he was just just out of the hospital. She apologized in her usual panicked manner and tried to get up from him but she was brought back down by his powerful arms ending up face to face with him.

“If you think I will let you go after 6 weeks without a pretty woman’s touch, you’re mad.” he said as he gently let his hands move across her lower back, getting as close as it was acceptable for his hands to be before they reached her ass.

“Rick! We’re in public!”

“Whose fault is it?” he said as he moved his body swiftly and reversed their position, pinning her to the ground.

“Rick!”

This time he got up and extended a hand to help her be back on her feet. Once she was, he hugged her tight.

“Hmm... I really miss that. A lot.”

“Me too.” she said in almost a whisper.

He released her and promised her to catch up later, to which Tali agreed and that tonight was movie night even if it originally wasn’t.

“EDI and night skipped movie night, it wasn’t the same without you. “

Rick nodded and left her to her own things. He entered the med-bay, greeted Karin and went into EDI’s server room. He saw the inactive Geth at the far end of the room and resisted the urge to examine and put holes in it. Instead he brought up the terminal that Anderson had gifted him ( and that surprisingly hadn’t been full of spywares) and connected it to the servers.

“Rick, what are you doing?” EDI’s voice came through the coms.

“Something that I should have done long ago.” he said as he was coding away. ”I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone.”

“You’re doing more than just looking at me.”

“I won’t change you if that’s what you think.”

“Then what ...”

“EDI, do you trust me?”

“... Yes.”

“Then don’t worry and just be happy.”

He went silent and kept on doing what he was doing. EDI kept watching her mind full of questions.