Mass Effect 1. Chapter 1

A dark shadow fell across the ground. Jack glanced up to see a small, dim gray cloud blot out the sun. Pushed along by the wind, it quickly passed, returning the meadow to sunlight. Her two companions didn't take notice. The first, _Normandy's_ Kodiak shuttle, sat idly on its landing gear waiting patiently for the rest of the landing party to return. It was just slightly more fun to have around than her second companion, an adolescent krogan in the midst of recounting, again, his fight with a thresher maw days earlier.

"Shepard didn't even flinch," Grunt said, his eyes sparkling in the sunlight. He smacked a cannonball-sized fist into his other hand. "Two thousand tons of flesh fell at his feet. It was glorious!"

Jack couldn't take any more of it. "Look, suitcase. How about you give it a rest for five minutes, huh? Nobody gives a shit about your little bat mitzvah or whatever you wanna call it."

Grunt was unfazed. "You don't understand. I'm starting to get it. Size doesn't matter."

"What the fuck are you babbling about?"

"When you broke out at Purgatory, I didn't think you'd make it ten seconds. I mean, look at you. Small, frail... Hell I could break your spine in two with one hand."

Jack's teeth clenched tightly, however Grunt continued before she could say anything. "But you tore through them like a phalanx. Your biotics kept them from even getting close."

_That's more like it,_ Jack thought, leaning back against the shuttle. "They got their uses."

"I bet they've brought you victory many times in battle."

Jack was already getting sick of Grunt's flattery. "Obviously not enough. The bastards caught me, didn't they?"

"Yeah," Grunt said, discouraged. "I guess they did."

He regarded her with a strange look. At least it looked strange to Jack, and she was no expert on krogan body language. It made her uncomfortable but she couldn't figure out why.

"We're a lot a like, you know?" Grunt said.

_Oh here it comes,_ Jack thought and sighed. _Why does everyone want to try and bond with me?_

"We're both experiments," Grunt continued. "We don't have families. And everybody's afraid of us... Except maybe Shepard. And we're the most powerful warriors in his clan."

Jack's expression was neutral. "Is that right? Then why are we standing around here watching the grass grow?"

"The battlemaster picks his team based on who will fight the best in the given situation."

Jack pursed her lips. She knew a weak spot when she saw one. "So why did he leave you behind, exactly? Being a genetically engineered super warrior and all."

Grunt shrugged. "Some missions require 'tact'. That's not my specialty."

"Bullshit. Shepard has his favorites and you know it." Jack snorted deeply and hacked a wad of mucous to the ground. The pollen on the planet was unbelievable. "You're just not one of 'em."

Grunt's jaw tightened. "Shepard doesn't play favorites. If he needed me, he'd bring me."

Jack put on a sympathetic expression. "It's OK. It's just because he thinks you'll go berserk and wipe out his entire crew."

"The commander knows I will follow him," Grunt said testily. "I don't always understand his reasoning, but he has always been victorious in battle. He finds the strengths of those who fight with him. He's a worthy leader."

"Bullshit. You're just a bullet stopper to him," Jack said. "You think he gives a shit about you?"

"He does," Grunt said. "He is my krantt and my battlemaster. I am his clan. He's done more for me than any krogan and asks only for my loyalty in return. He has it!"

She crossed her arms and pressed her head back against the shuttle's hull. It was still cool in spite of the glaring sun. "You know, I thought you were the only other person on the ship who wasn't full of shit."

"You're right," Grunt said. His combat shotgun was inches away from his hands. Ordinarily, he would have seized the opportunity to end the conversation. But he knew that's not what Shepard would have wanted... It surprised him that it mattered to him, but it did. He would try to use words, as the Commander always did. "So what about you?" he asked.

"What about me?"

"Powers like yours, and you're on guard duty. Why didn't he take you with him?"

"I'm just a tool to him," Jack said. "Something else we have in common."

"Maybe he's afraid you'd go berserk and wipe out his entire crew." Grunt said. "Like I said, you and I are a lot alike, Jack."

Having her own words parroted back to her made Jack scowl. "You think you're like me?

Grunt grinned, his white teeth glinting in the sunlight. "Yeah. We were both created to destroy."

It was always the same, people thinking they knew something about her. Jack was suddenly very tired of the krogan child. "Oh, you were force fed a mutagenic metal too? You killed kids your own age as part of your tests? I bet you liked some sleazebag crawling into your bed every night and fucking you in every hole. Did they raise your pain threshold to boost your power, make you better at killing? For thirteen years? Wow, what a coincidence. We're like fuckin' twins."

Grunt stared at Jack, thinking about his Claymore again. He might be able to get a shot off before she turned sparkly blue, but again, that's not what Shepard expected of him. "Not exactly. My life only started a few weeks ago, true. I don't know what you went through to get where you are today. But the power is there, I can see it."

Jack shook her head rapidly from side to side as if to clear it. "Dude, you are seriously fucked in the skull."

Grunt cocked his head. "It's not the same, though."

"What's not the same?"

Grunt stepped beside Jack next to the shuttle. It was cooler in the shade, but she didn't like having him that close. She took several steps into the meadow with her arms crossed, giving him an irritated look over her shoulder.

"Your power," Grunt said, staying in the shade. "I saw you knock out a pair of YMIR's with one blast. Haven't seen those kind of fireworks since."

Jack looked back up at the sky. The little cloud was long gone and no more were in sight. No one knew it, but she was just as surprised as her rescuers at her increase in power back on Purgatory. It was only temporary, though. While she was still a formidable biotic in her own right, she was no longer godlike and it pissed her off to have a taste of it only to have it taken away. Worse, everybody seemed to notice she wasn't as strong as before. "Yeah well, they had me on ice for a long time. Guess my batteries had an extra charge on them."

Grunt nodded. That Jack could admit her shortcoming was the first sign he'd seen that she could change. "Your power is still impressive. I like how you can rupture organs without even touching them."

"Awww, you're sweet," Jack sneered. "You know your problem, though? You don't get I don't want to be friends. So how about that rest we talked about you giving us?"

Grunt frowned again at the refusal of his second attempt to reconcile. How the Commander managed to do this day after day mystified him. He scanned the hills in the distance where the landing party had disappeared. A line of battle crawlers crested the ridge, their main guns firing in a ripple salvo. They were flanked on both sides by turian mounted cavalry, riding on the backs of mammoth war beasts thundering down the the hillside. The drell assassin and the Cerberus female were sprinting ahead of them, and Shepard was nowhere to be seen. He would charge into battle, Jack following behind, eviscerating them with her lightning. The battle would not last long.

Jack heard a soft grumble behind her and turned to see Grunt staring absently into the distance. She looked at the empty hills and tried to picture what he imagined he saw, but then she decided she didn't care. "Fuckin' typical," she muttered. "I get to sit here watching weeds grow while Shepard takes his favorite pets out for a walk, and they leave me with someone crazier than me."

The mention of the Commander's name brought Grunt out of his daydream. "You're free because of him."

"I didn't ask him to do it," Jack replied.

"He deemed you worthy," Grunt pointed a claw at Jack. "He could have just left you. You owe him your life."

"I don't owe anybody anything. What the fuck do you know about me?"

"I know you want to fight. It's what you were made for. Shepard is giving you the chance."

"That again? Holy shit, you actually believe this crap," Jack said with a laugh.

Grunt nodded. "Of course. I was created to be a weapon. Hell, it's all I want to be. But I want to be the best weapon I can, pointed in the right direction. Without direction, we're just bombs. Bombs have no honor. Shepard can give you direction. But you won't let him. You don't want it."

Jack wasn't usually caught off guard but all she could do was turn back towards the hills. Grunt knew who he was and what he was. He embraced being a dumb brute. She had known dozens like him from all species and looked down on them all because she wasn't like them. It was one thing to charge blindly into battle, but she always kept her head, made her own decisions. She wasn't an animal, even though on occasion she acted like one. But it was out of necessity, not a choice.

_Or was it,_ she thought. The question nagged at her every time she ended a life. It bothered her Grunt referred to her as a bomb. She didn't start out that way. Cerberus turned her into one. _That's what you tell yourself, _she thought. _But that's what everyone sees. A ticking time bomb. That's why you're on guard duty instead of running off with the hero. It's why everything you touch, everyone you know, turns to shit. What the hell does the lizard know? Or Shepard for that matter? If either of them lived ten percent of your life, they'd give their sidearms a blowjob and suck down the cum._

Then there was Grunt. Born to be a weapon, born to destroy... but choosing to be something more. She had faced that choice many times after escaping from the grasp of Cerberus. But every time, she wound up exactly where she started... fighting everyone, and everything. The feeling was like acid burning away at her soul. She only knew one way of making it stop. "Fuck it. You know what? I'm done with this."

Grunt cocked his head. "Fine. I'm tired of all this talk."

"Not what I meant, dumbass" Jack said, walking to the shuttle door to retrieve her pack from the interior. She bumped into him intentionally but he did not budge. She pushed around him all the same.

Grunt stood up from the hull. "Where are you going?"

"What the fuck do you care?"

"Shepard gave us an order to stand watch." Grunt said.

Jack slung her pack over her shoulder and stalked back out to stand face-to-chest with Grunt. His teeth were very white and sharp, and she tilted her head back so they were only inches away from her nose. "I'm not your boyfriend's bitch. That's your specialty, isn't it?"

"I thought you were smart, Jack," Grunt glowered down at her. "You're disappointing me."

"Funny coming from a science project who calls himself Grunt," Jack sneered and walked back to the meadow. "He's using you. You're just too dumb to see it."

Grunt called after her. "I was wrong. You're not stupid, you're weak."

Jack stopped cold. "What did you say?"

"You're weak," Grunt enunciated clearly. "You've got all that power, but you won't learn to truly harness it. And it's not because you can't."

Jack paced back and forth, energy crackling up and down her arms. "You want to find out how strong I am?"

Grunt walked slowly around Jack, his icy blue eyes aglow in the bright sunlight. The look he gave her now was nothing like before. She rotated to keep him in front of her. He now blocked her path towards the mountains. She could easily walk around him in any other direction, but it was obvious he intended to stop her.

_Waste his ass_, Jack thought. But if she did, then what? When Shepard and the rest came back, she'd have to deal with them unless she ran away. And they'd definitely come after her. Stealing the shuttle was out, what with that pain in the ass AI able to take control. That left apologizing, and damn if she was going to kiss and make up with an overgrown tadpole trying to teach her life's lessons.

On the other hand, If she just knocked Grunt out and split, Shepard might cut his losses and let her go. The rest of them would be happy to see her gone, she knew.

It was decided. Jack slammed the ground in front of her. The earth split before her as if a giant sword sliced through it, sending rocks and plants flying in its wake. The underground biotic blast ripped towards Grunt, launching him backwards five meters. He plowed a short trench with his impact and ground to a halt, his armor charred and exposed skin smoldering in the wind.

Jack smirked at the fallen krogan. "That was half strength 'cause we're so close."

Her smile was short lived as Grunt leapt to his feet faster than something of his bulk should have and charged directly toward her with a roar. He halved the distance to her before she slammed down and the ground erupted with another explosion from her clenched fists.

Grunt flew back once more, knocked again into the dirt. With an even louder roar was on his feet faster than the first time, charging towards her.

Jack screamed and let loose with another bolt, this time aimed square at his chest. Thunder echoed through the hills. Grunt got almost to arm's length this time before the blast sent him back another five meters. He rolled twice and landed on his knees. Blood oozed from a gash in his crest and the front of his armor was now scorched black from neck to waist. He coughed and spat thick, bloody ichor from his mouth.

Jack was astonished that he was still conscious, let alone alive. Her attack would have shredded a human's innards to the point an autopsy would have been pointless. Even a krogan should have been at least out cold by now. The world started to spin around her. She was almost spent, and needed to put an end to this. "Be a shame to waste all that effort busting me out," she said, breathing heavily. "I'm useless to Shepard dead."

"You're useless to him alive," Grunt growled. As he rose to his feet brought his Claymore shotgun to bear on the tiny human. He pumped shell after shell into Jack's torso and head, advancing and reloading with each shot. Jack's upper body pulsed with bright blue as the white hot shot sparked and ricocheted in all directions. It was her turn to be knocked back.

Grunt fired repeatedly and closed the distance as Jack convulsed and staggered on her feet. The blue glow dancing over her body began to fade. All she could do was focus on repelling the point blank assault, her strength sapped from the show she put on before. All his goading was just to make her waste energy, and it worked. She could barely see the huge form towering over her through the blinding light of her aura and the muzzle blast of the shotgun.

He swung his firing hand free of the Claymore and reared back with a shoulder as thick as Jack's torso. Had her biotic shield not been up, his punch would have shattered her ribcage and ruptured every organ. Instead it knocked her into the hull of the shuttle. She bounced and tried to steady herself against it.

Grunt was on her before she could fall. His clawed hand enveloped her neck and he lifted her high into the air. She was a rag doll in the hands of an angry child. He slammed her into the hull of the shuttle. Each impact wracked her body with pain, but her defenses held. But she could not fight back, she could only hold it off.

The krogan pounded the small human into the hull again and again. Slowly the bright blue glow began to fade. His own strength, however, did not. He would break her magic shell eventually.

Jack's world spun about her. The bright sun, the spiraling horizon, the repeated impact on the hull scrambled her senses. Suddenly she was ten years old again, pushed up against her cell's cold wall, her nightgown pushed up around her waist, her nightly assailant breathing against her neck... powerless to stop him. That little girl screamed inside her head, but outside she didn't make a sound.

Grunt flung Jack face down against the ground and stomped her head with his massive armored boot, smashing her face deep into the soft earth. Her biotic shield could protect her from the crushing weight on her skull, but not allow her to breathe dirt. Her lungs began to burn as he ground her head into the ground with a snarl. The blue glow surrounding Jack was almost gone. Jack would soon follow.

Images of the warden drifted through Jack's consciousness. Even though she had been drugged, beaten and terrified every day of her life in that hellhole, she never went down without a fight. Especially that one time when she puked out her meds without them seeing, and she was only pretending to be in a daze. It was the last handjob that man ever got, and it blew his mind. Reflexively, Jack's right hand tried to push back against the force diving her face into the soil. It found Grunt's ankle. She focused all of her remaining energy into her clenched fingers.

A brilliant spark erupted around Grunt's right calf with a deafening crack. Flesh sizzled inside armor and filled the air with its charred stench. Grunt howled with pain but kept all of his weight on the back of Jack's neck. His entire body convulsed as the charge coursed through his body, but he did not relent. He pushed Jack's face further into the dirt, screaming at the top of his lungs. After several agonizing seconds, the spark died, and the glow around Jack's body dissolved to nothing.

Her grip around his leg weakened, then released. Her arm fell to the ground.

Grunt lifted his foot from Jack's immobile body and inspected the damage. The armor was intact, but the tissue was charred to the bone. It would take some time to heal. He tested his injured leg against the ground and found it almost useless to support his weight, so he shifted it all to the healthy side. Satisfied, he chambered a fresh heatsink into his Claymore and took aim at the back of Jack's head.

Jack stirred slightly on ground. She wasn't able to continue the battle, but her body was still in the fight even if her mind was not. She coughed and breathed heavily.

Grunt watched in astonishment as she tried and failed to push herself up from the ground. He lowered his shotgun and knelt beside her. "Impressive," he said even though Jack's brain was in no condition to process the compliment. He picked up her limp form and walked back to the shuttle. Perhaps she wasn't as useless as he thought...

(continued)


	2. Chapter 2

There weren't too many places on the _Normandy_ where someone as large as Grunt could pace effectively, and the port cargo hold was just such a spot. His armor still bore the scars of his encounter with Jack from two hours before, but the gash on his head had sealed and his wounded leg had at least stopped bleeding. After he dropped Jack off in the infirmary, Dr. Chakwas offered to look at his injuries, but when he refused she didn't try to stop him from leaving. He liked the doctor. She knew when her services were needed and when they weren't.

_Or was she just happy to get him out of her lab?_ Grunt paused in his pacing to consider that. No, she respected his superior metabolism and healing capability. He was sure of it.

But where was Shepard? The ship's computer successfully piloted the shuttle back to the _Normandy_ when he called to explain that he'd nearly dropped Jack into the void, and then sent it back to the planet to retrieve the Commander's team when they completed their mission.

He expected to stay on the shuttle and return to the surface with it, but the human soldier Taylor insisted that Grunt go to his quarters after seeing the doctor and wait for the Commander. Grunt suggested that Taylor make him, but Shepard called the ship and confirmed the order. So instead, Taylor and the turian went back down to act as rearguard... and Grunt returned to the cargo hold to wait. He decided that after the act of conversing, waiting was the thing he was worst at.

The cargo bay's hatch whirled and hissed open. Shepard, still in his combat gear from the mission, stopped in the door and looked around until he saw Grunt.

"Battlemaster!" Grunt stood rigidly at attention, making his ankle throb. He could hardly wait to tell the Commander the tale of his fight, and hear the assessment.

Shepard cast a glance out the hatch before shutting it behind him. His face held a deep scowl and he looked down with a fist held tightly against his mouth. His eyes then followed the trail of bloody footprints that crisscrossed the floor. He looked further to see the deck near Grunt's feet almost completely coated with a fresh, smudgy layer of dried blood. In the middle, Grunt stood ramrod straight, a wide, toothy grin on his face.

Shepard's well rehearsed tirade popped like a balloon in his brain at the sight. He walked silently across the room to stand in front of Grunt. "You all right?" was all he could muster.

"I've got third degree burns and deep trauma on my left ankle and foot," Grunt said. "It'll heal by tomorrow. The head wound is superficial. I am ready for battle now, if you command it!"

Shepard continued to stare at the krogan. "You want to tell me what happened down there?"

"YES! Oh, it was magnificent! First she tried to stun me with a blast through the ground, to knock me down," Grunt pantomimed the fight which made Shepard flinch slightly. "First mistake, not going for the kill right away. But I knew she'd-"

"Grunt. Grunt!" Shepard waved his hands until Grunt stopped talking. "What started it?"

"You don't want to hear about how I beat her?" Grunt slumped.

"In a minute," Shepard said. "First I want to know why two of my crew tried to kill each other."

"Oh," Grunt said. "She was going to abandon her post."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean she was going to desert. She was going to run away." Grunt smiled again. "I stopped her."

"How do you know she was going to desert?"

"She told me," Grunt was growing impatient with this line of questioning, especially when there were more important things he actually wanted to discuss. But if his battlemaster wanted information he would provide it, no matter how long it took.

It was Shepard's turn to pace. "Did she say why?"

Grunt shrugged. "She thinks you're using us. Bulletstoppers, she said. That you'd use us when you didn't want to get one of your favorites killed. Or leave us behind to do the tasks that were below them."

Shepard stopped and stared at Grunt once more.

"I told her she was wrong," Grunt said. "You choose your allies based on their strengths, on who will bring you victory. But she didn't believe me."

"Then what happened?"

"She told me I was full of shit," Grunt's eyes narrowed. "I didn't like that."

"Is that why you attacked her?"

"I wanted to, but that's not what you've been teaching me."

Shepard raised his eyebrows. "Go on."

Grunt's embarrassment was evident when he looked away from the Commander. "I told her that we were a lot alike, and she didn't like that at all. Then I told her she had you all wrong, that following you would lead to glory in battle, if she'd let you teach you like you've taught me."

Shepard felt a tiny pang of pride in Grunt, even if he wasn't sure if he believed what he was hearing.

"For some reason, that made her mad," Grunt continued. "If that's how all human females think, I feel sorry for your species."

"Jack's a special case," Shepard said. "But the rest aren't any easier. Then what happened?"

"She picked up her gear and walked off. I told her you gave us an order, and I wasn't going to let her disobey. So I got in her way."

"Wait... She attacked _you," _Shepard said with a sudden realization.

"HAHAHA," Grunt bellowed mightily, becoming animated once again. "She tried! But instead of hitting me directly she tried to knock me out from underground. The look on her face when I got up..."

Shepard waved a hand again to reign Grunt in. "In a minute, in a minute. So she hit first, and you didn't kill her?"

"Oh, after that I was going to," Grunt said. "I was thinking about ripping her skull out by the spine, but I already had my shotgun in hand and I've never seen what it can do at point blank range. But then... Commander, can I say something?"

"Of course."

Grunt looked down at the floor. "It's your ship, we're your crew and you are my battlemaster. I would never think to question your judgment. Jack deserves to die for her disloyalty and executing her is your decision alone. And if you want, I will finish the job I started and bring you her head. You just give the order. But..."

Much like he had misunderstood who attacked who, Shepard puzzled over exactly when he had made the decision to punish anybody for the fight. If anything, Grunt didn't realize how backwards his own assumptions were.

Grunt's eyes locked with Shepard. "Jack is one of the strongest enemies I've ever fought. Not just her biotics, but in spirit. Not once did she back down or beg for mercy. She fought to the very end. Most aliens would rather die on their knees begging for mercy. But not her. She faced me until the end. She will fight to the death, and fight well."

Grunt once again stood at attention. "If you could teach her like you taught me, she would be a powerful ally. I know you could do it, battlemaster!"

Shepard ran his hand over his head and stopped when he reached the back of his neck. After a moment he nodded. "Good thinking, Grunt. I'll see what I can do."

Grunt seemed to grow a few inches taller with the compliment. _Good thinking. Don't hear that very often, _he thought. But he liked it. _Maybe strength is strength, regardless of where it comes from._

Shepard pointed to Grunt's gnarled leg. "In the mean time, take care of that. I need my heavy hitter at a hundred percent."

"Healed by tomorrow," Grunt said, "I promise."

"Good." Shepard eyeballed the blood soaked floor. It could wait until later, he decided and headed towards the door. "I've got to go check on Jack. I'll come back later and you can fill me in on how you took her out."

Grunt laughed with glee. He had been sure the day could not have gotten better...

Back in the corridor, the door closed behind Shepard.. Jacob and Zaeed warily lowered their rifles. Behind them, blue and white sparks dissipated from around Samara and Miranda who wore similar concerned expressions. Garrus and Thane, fresh from their positions in the windows in the starboard hold approached from the opposite end of the corridor. Shepard glanced up to see Tali squatting in a conduit as Kasumi replaced the panel covering the ventilation system into the port cargo hold. They jumped down and joined their crewmates in staring at their commander with amazement.

Shepard looked at them all and let out a sigh of relief. The all-out assault he'd planned wasn't needed. "Krogan logic," he muttered, and headed for the infirmary.


	3. Chapter 3

Jack couldn't breathe. With fire burning in her lungs, she bolted upright, but a giant suffocating hand held her flat on her back. She coughed mightily, her torso wracked with pain as if filled with broken glass. Then suddenly, cool, dry air filled her and the pressure was gone. She opened her eyes but could only see a bright halo of light above her.

"Relax, Jack," said a female voice. She recognized the accent immediately. It was the _Normandy's_ doctor from somewhere close by. "You're in a stasis field. Try not to move."

Ordinarily Jack wasn't in the mood to take orders from anyone, ever, but the pain in her chest was worse than anything she'd ever experienced. She took a deep, less painful breath, closed her eyes and lay still.

"Do you know where you are?"

"Yeah," Jack croaked. "Back on the _Normandy."_

"Do you remember what happened?" said a second voice. Shepard was in the room.

Remember... She remembered the muzzle flash of Grunt's shotgun exploding in her face, his scaly hand around her neck, as he pounded her into the hull of the shuttle. The musty smell of the earth filled her nose once again as he smashed her face into the ground with his boot. A loud beeping from some nearby instruments recorded her quickening pulse and rising blood pressure. She heard movement from somewhere on her right, the hiss of a hypo being readied, a sound she was intimate with from her time as subject zero. She inhaled deeply and tensed every muscle in her body, then relaxed and all at once the beeping ceased. "I don't need it, doc. Put it away."

She couldn't see, but there was a pause and then the sound of plastic rattling on a hard surface. She tried to open her eyes but could still only see white light.

"How do you feel?" Shepard asked.

_Let the dumbass questions begin_, Jack thought. "Like I've had the shit kicked out of me by a krogan."

"To hear him tell, he was trying to beat some sense into you."

"Guess you don't need to hear my side of the story then, huh?"

Shepard sounded irritated. She didn't need to see his face to tell. "What _is _your side of the story?"

Jack looked back up at the ceiling, or at least where she imagined where the ceiling would be. She knew the big brute hadn't embellished the events on the planet because he didn't have to. She'd dared him to fight and he called her on it. Anything she could say would be a lame excuse at best. She just didn't have the fight in her anymore. "I'd go with whatever he said."

"He actually said a lot of things." Shepard sounded like he was taking a seat next to her, his voice closer to her ear. "Like you think that I'm using you for cannon fodder."

Jack didn't respond. Knowing that Grunt told Shepard what she said only made her feel worse, especially since she knew it wasn't true the moment she said it.

"And you were going to abandon your post and take off. Jack?"

"Sounds like you and I have the same problem," Jack said. "A krogan who can't shut up."

"Is that what you really think?" Shepard asked. "That I'm using you?"

Jack closed her eyes and said nothing. Just like she recognized the sound of a sedative being prepared, she always knew when someone was conning her, getting ready to fuck her over. But in spite of every opportunity Shepard had so far, he'd kept his word. He gave her access to all of the Cerberus files, defended her against that Cerberus bitch and the other members of the crew who saw nothing more in her than a psycho. He was the only person who ever treated her with respect... and meant it. That she wanted to trust him scared her more than anything else she'd faced in the universe.

She inhaled deeply. "I'm tired. Can we do this later, Doc?"

"That might be best," Dr. Chakwas said. "She needs her rest, Commander."

She heard Shepard get up, but he did not walk away. She waited for the inevitable question.

"You gonna try to even the score when you get out of here?" he asked.

Jack sighed again. As much as she'd like to skin the krogan alive for the hurt he put on her, she couldn't deny she'd asked for it. "No."

"That's not your style, Jack."

Jack stared into the white nothingness above her. "He's the only one on this ship who isn't full of shit."

* * *

Jack awoke to a pounding headache, but this time without the feeling of a crushing weight on her body. Whatever the doctor had done to her was working. The pain was still there, but she could at least move. She looked around the infirmary and found she was alone. The only activity was on the biofeedback display next to her bed. She recalled the conversation she had with Shepard. Did it really happen? Her whole mind was in a fog. She propped her head up with her hands behind her neck and tried to think back. The entire episode, the fight outside the shuttle, her awakening in the med lab all seemed to have happened in another life with her watching from a distance.

She looked out the window. It always struck Jack as odd how the med bay had a view of the crew's mess. She watched as a handful of the crew ate their meals, their heads bobbing in time to each others' conversation, punctuated occasionally with a smile or laugh at some unheard joke. She wondered if they could see her as well? If so, they paid her no attention. It was just as well. They never had anything to say to her, nor she to them so what did it matter?

Grunt's huge frame lumbered into view. He ambled across the galley, favoring one leg slightly. The other had been neatly cleaned and dressed with bright white bandages over medigel. He looked over each of the _Normandy's_ crew as he limped by their tables. The humans in the room all studiously avoided eye contact until he passed, then gave each other silent looks of varying levels of disapproval and disgust. A pair of them got up and quickly left the room.

_Something else we have in common_, Jack thought. The difference was that Grunt didn't bring it on himself like she did. Watching the others react the way they did behind his back should have made her angry, but instead now it made her feel sorry for the Krogan who seemed oblivious to their scorn.

She continued to watch as the Grunt approached the kitchen. Surprisingly, the mess hall guy, Gardner or whoever his name was, didn't shy away from the big lizard. Instead, he nodded as Grunt motioned towards the counter and grinned as Grunt picked up an entire serving pan of food and carried it back to an empty table away from the others. Gardner followed with another tray of food and set it down in front of the krogan, who proceeded to wolf down what appeared to be some kind of brisket by the kilo. Gardner and Grunt exchanged a few words and the human laughed and gave Grunt pat on the shoulder before returning to the galley. The remaining crew all watched from the corners of their eyes and continued their whispered conversations.

At that point, the pity she felt towards Grunt landed squarely on herself. The entire crew thought he was dangerous and unstable, but in spite of that he had made a friend. Grunt had been telling the truth when they had talked before their fight. He was more than just a weapon, even if only one person recognized it.

_Two people,_ Jack thought. There was always someone else who gave them both the chance to prove they were more than dangerous savages.

She took a deep breath, pulled herself upright and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. The medical monitor beeped in protest. Undoubtedly, the ship's computer would rat her out and the doctor would come back with that hypo spray or worse, so she had to act quickly. Using all of her strength, she slid down from the bed and staggered toward the door.

* * *

Grunt drained the last drop of gravy from the serving tray by upending it into his open maw. The human cook always seemed to have plenty of leftovers to fill even his massive appetite. How the rest of the crew subsisted on so little food was a mystery. Maybe Shepard had them all on some restrictive diet to keep them from getting fat and complacent? Whatever the reason, he found most of what Gardner offered delicious even if he didn't have the joy of killing his food on his own. Such were the rigors of life aboard a human starship.

"Hey," said a voice he was not expecting to hear.

Grunt lowered the serving tray to see Jack standing before him, wrapped in a loose white gown that hid her otherwise impressive muscular structure. Her frame was hunched over and she was breathing heavily, and it was obvious that she was using all of her strength just to stand. The look in her eye, though, showed she still had plenty of fight in her. He set the serving tray down and placed his hands on the edge of the table, his legs curled beneath the bench. He could easily push himself to his feet or launch the table into the air from this position. He waited for her next move.

Jack got an uneasy feeling that coming in here was a mistake, but stood her ground. "I just wanted to say thanks for bringing me back."

Grunt sniffed the air and looked her over from head to toe. He let go of the table and leaned back, slightly unsure. "You're welcome."

Jack had lied. She wanted to tell him so much more... that he had been right about how similar they were, about how she also had nowhere to focus her anger, and that she admired the fact that somehow he had managed to do so. But most of all that she was sorry for picking a fight when he pressed her on it. She was an expert in pushing people away, and didn't know how to handle it when someone pushed back, at least not with words.

But none of that would come out. It was too much of a stretch for her. She stepped forward and thumped Grunt lightly on his shoulder before turning to walk away. "Cool. See you around."

Grunt sat motionless and watched her go. There were no blue sparks this time from her, no sharp words and it surprised him. It surprised him even more that for once, he was happy not to have to kill someone. He felt like he should say something. What would Shepard say? Something strong, but wise.

"Good fight, Jack," he called after her.

Jack stopped and a half smile crept across her face. She looked over her shoulder and nodded back at him. "You too. Later." Amidst the frozen stares of the remaining crew in the mess, Jack staggered slowly out of the room.

Grunt went noisily back to work on the next pile of leftover brisket. He'd had a good fight, a good talk with his battlemaster, and a good meal all in one day. He was already excited thinking how tomorrow could be better.

* * *

_The End_


End file.

Mass Effect, Drama, Friendship