Fire on the Horizon

Chapter 29: Taking Fire

Joker threw his com set off and onto the console. The sound of a helmet being thrown across the shuttle bay nearly defeaned him. He winced and shook it off as he put the earbud back in. He could hear cussing and words he hadn't heard since flight school. Once Tali calmed down he could hear Garrus and Shepard.

"Did you crack it?" Shepard asked Garrus about the helmet he had damn near ripped off and chunked down the hallway of the shuttle area. The anger in her voice, not directed at the hulkinly mad turian, was evident.

"Hated it anyway." Was the only response she heard as she watched him fume and pace between two shuttles. He kept clenching his fists and letting them go. He finally turned suddenly and punched Vega's punching bag so hard the chain broke and the bag flew a few feet.

Jane stood up and walked over to him. James began to run up and Shepard held her hand up to him for him to stop. She heard Cortez talking to him and caught the words "shot at the dreadnaught" and "they were on it."

Tali looked at Shepard and Garrus and simply said she was sorry. "I'm going to speak with Raan. I'm, I'm sorry."

Garrus called after her. "Tali! It wasn't your fault. Remember, they shot at you too. Think about that."

Tali nodded and stepped into the elevator as Jane put her hand on Garrus' chest. She turned to him and he started to calm down a bit. She waited for him to speak.

"They..."

She interrupted. "Shot at us. I know big guy."

He shook his head and broke free of her to start pacing again. "No! They shot at YOU. Fuck me okay. Fuck me. Fuck Tali. Fuck that dreadnaught. Fuck their war. Fuck the geth. They shot at YOU!!!" He turned and balled up his fist and began to aim it at a crate.

Jane took three strides and put her hand in front his fist. "Hey! Stop busting up my ship you big angry asshole. I get it. They shot at me. I'm not dead. I'm fine."

He glared at her. "What if they got you? What if Legion hadn't been there? What if.."

He cut himself off. He grit his teeth, which Jane thought must have been painful, and looked to the side at the ground. Jane reached her hand up and cupped his cheek.

"Hey? Hey. I'm good. We're good. Right?" She waited and he nodded. She leaned up on her tiptoes to touch her forehead to his. He met her halfway, placing his hand on her hip. He nuzzled her a second and whispered to her.

"Go kick their ass. I have to fix Vega's punching bag." He shook his head and smiled a bit at the last part, bringing his hands up to rub her upper arms.

She nodded. "You got it big guy."

Shepard left to the sounds of Vega approaching Garrus and asking him if he wanted to spare and get it out of his system. She heard Garrus say yes and caught him taking off his armor as she rode the lift to the CIC and war room.

Tali was still in a meeting with the admiralty board when Jane reached the war room. She took the moment to speak to Hackett, who was equally unpleased at the firing on the dreadnaught maneuver Gerrel had done.

"I'm going to make the choice that's right for this mission and will lead to us getting more support Admiral. Tell me if you want me to hold off." Jane stood at ease and waited.

Hackett looked like he was thinking it over for a moment. "Gerrel has been causing problems for years. Do what you have to do Shepard. Hackett out."

Shepard turned around and made her way out of the vidcom room. She made it down the steps and overheard the argument between Raan and Gerrel. Gerrel looked up at Shepard as she came in view.

"The parameters of the mission changed. You understand that Shepard."

Shepard moved quickly to him and stood in front of him. "You endangered your people and the mission Gerrel."

He went to respond and frankly Jane didn't wait. She punched him dead in the stomach. "Admiral, get off my ship!"

Raan stepped in to try and calm Shepard down. It didn't go far or well. Jane pushed the conversation forward, with some help from Legion. Within a few minutes they had decided that Shepard would help Koris and finish the geth in one way or another, freeing Rannoch for the quarians.

Within a few hours they had rescued Koris, though his team was lost to the geth. As Tali said, at least they died on their homeworld.

Shepard had taken James and Tali with her for the rescue mission. It was rough on Tali, but Shepard couldn't help but agree with James. Tali had walked off when they got back to the Normandy and as she exited the room James looked a little upset.

"What's up?"

James turned and leaned on the table. "Lola, it's... can I speak openly?" Jane nodded and James shook his head.

"We come out here to get help from the fleet. We walk in and they have started a war, broken a treaty, and gotten in way over their heads. All they seem concerned with though is using Legion as a science experiment and getting their asses out of yet another fire they created. Sparks is all but shut down if they are around. She's not herself. Now, she's getting a planet back while we are losing our own more and more each day. It's like it hasn't touched the quarians."

Jane nodded. "Yeah, I know it's tough, but..."

James cut her off. "Look Jane, we hang out when we aren't all uniformed up. We've drank together. We've partied together. You know that isn't my only issue. What really burns me up is that we keep being reminded that they lost Rannoch 200 years ago. No! They left it. They didn't have it ripped from them in a blink of an eye. They didn't watch friends get killed. They didn't....They just didn't Jane."

Jane reached out and patted James' shoulder. "I know. I know it's hard to grasp. Believe me if this war weren't going on and if we didn't need them I would be damned if we would help with this. I care about Tali. Tali is a friend. Tali doesn't agree with this war. Please keep that in mind."

He nodded and looked at her. "Garrus headed up for a shower about an hour ago. Thought you'd wanna know."

Jane nodded and left him to it. She stopped by to talk to Cortez, convincing him to take a break and go to the Citadel the next time they were docked.

She made a quick stop by the crew deck. As she came around the corner, she saw something she never expected. Sitting in the mess area were Kaidan and Tali. They were talking in hushed voices. From what Jane could tell, Kaidan was comforting Tali about the loss of her friends and the war she never wanted to fight. Jane nodded as she saw Kaidan reach out for Tali's hand. Good deal.

She turned to go up to her quarters. She needed a shower and to take in a few moments before they went off to rescue the mess that the quarians had gotten themselves into. She also needed to check on Garrus. There was a joke that he had taken the stick out of his ass and started beating people to death with it. Unfortunately, that meant that he was likely beating himself up too.