Second Chances Ch. 2

Calibrations

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It took him a few days to acclimated to the ship, it wasn't the old Normandy that was for sure. There was very little Turian design that went into it; unlike the first. That much was obvious though, considering Cerberus had been behind its construction. It would be wrong to say it wasn't an overall improvement on the old design, humans were nothing if not adaptable. Sure there was room for a few tweaks and changes here and there, but he knew Shepard would be willing to hear his idea's out. 

But there was the problem, Shepard. 

After he got himself settled in and positioned himself for a regular shift in the Main Battery to do calibrations on the ships weaponry, he noticed Shepard came to visit him every day. At first he thought this was a great thing, and he eagerly lent himself to conversation with her. He'd put his work off for a few minutes and would talk about what went wrong with his team on Omega, how Sidonis had betrayed him, and of course changes that would help the Normany with the fight against the Collectors. Then he noticed that he wasn't the only one that Shepard stopped to visit every day. She saw Miranda, Mordin, and Jacob as well, and as they picked up more people the more people she added to the list. 

It soon became apparent that she came to speak with him because she felt duty bound to see how her crew was doing. Not because she actually wanted to speak with him. It hurt, especially since he had been stupid enough to think that she was going out of her way to see him after he'd separated himself from the rest of the people on the ship. It had been wishful thinking, that maybe she had feelings for him too, that maybe she cared and thats why she visited all the time. 

Soon he felt himself saying the same thing day after day when she came to see him. He barely thought about it any more as the words left his mouth "Can it wait for a bit Shepard? I'm in the middle of some Calibrations." It had been true the first time and a few times after that, but usually he had finished all his work and tried to appear busy by surfing the extranet. There was only so much you could calibrate on a ship this size, and it certainly didn't need to be calibrated with the care he went through every day to make sure it was maintained. 

He knew those words just kept himself from speaking with her, and he tried to hide how hurt he was that she spoke with everyone else on the ship as well. It was stupid, and he knew that. He didn't deserve her attentions any more than anyone else, and she still came to visit him even after he put her off so many times. She cared about him, maybe not in the way he hoped she did, but she did care. 

He noticed others on the ship slowly began to ask her favors after the mission on Horizon. They were saying these things just came up, or they'd been bothered by them for a while. He could tell the reason they asked was because they saw how powerful the Collectors were, and they were controlled by a Reaper. There was a very real fear that none of them might make it back to complete these tasks on their own, and it was sort of a "if I'm going to die tomorrow I want to die knowing..." sorta thing.

The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to ask Shepard for something too. He wanted to go after Sidonis, that traitorous bastard, for selling out his team and running away. The next time he saw her he'd ask. Then, maybe after, if she decided it was worth her time, he'd tell her how he really felt.