This logfile is imported from aitelogs2 and may contain errors or wrong timestamps.
#RedrockAgency – October 6, 2016
Vasquez makes her way up the stairs of the office as Renala and Seriah disappear into the asari's office. She keeps heading down the corridor towards her and Jason's room. Everyone else has, of course, been dropped off, although the shuttle is still out, Victoria and Va'ynna being spared the walk home thanks to a certain kindly mechanic.
Jason follows behind Vasquez. "You have no idea how good it is to be home..." he sighs, the weight of the past few days crashing down on him like a ton of bricks. He had been so worried about getting everyone home in one piece, that it wasn't until right now at this very moment- as he follows behind his fiance and climbs the stairs of his home- that it hits him: He's lucky to be alive. Again. The thought creeps into his head, but
it's quickly replaced with a far more important one. "I wonder if we have any more of those donuts..."
Vasquez shoots Jason a quick glance and then disappears into the rec room as the doors automatically open when they pass. She reappears a moment later, a grin on her face as she hands him the donut box. There's only one left, and it's not the freshest, but hey. She nudges her shoulder against his and continues towards the room.
Jason takes the box and looks down at the lone donut inside of it. He nearly salivates at the sight. "I have never loved you more than I do right now." he jokes as he scoops the donut out and takes a big bite out of it. "Urrrrg...." he moans as he chews loudly, "....sooommhmmm.... goooood..... I'm never eating another bug again..."
Vasquez ' grin remains as they continue down the corridor. She presses the panel to open their door and then stops, furrowing her eyebrows. "...bugs?" she asks as she continues into the room, turning to face him and sitting down on the arm of the couch with a questioning look.
Jason shoves the rest of the donut into his mouth, chomping away as he nods to Vasquez. "Mmmhmmm..." he mutters. He takes a moment to lick some donut residue off the tips of his fingers before elaborating. "Most of our supplies were destroyed early on during the firefight with Zelyner's people. Ended up having to eat this-... this...." he shakes his head, making a disgusted face, "...bug meat. Big-as-fuck chunks of bug meat the
size of your head. Like a steak. Except gross, buggy, and nothing like a steak." He licks his finger and wipes it across the inside of the donut box to get up any donut-dust before licking it off his finger. "Do not recommend."
Vasquez smirks. "I'll... keep that in mind." she says, but her expression soon turns more serious. "Conditions down there seemed... harsh. How bad did it get?" she asks, a small frown on her face as she looks up at him. It wasn't hard to tell he was exhausted.
Jason sighs, giving a shrug of his shoulders as he moves over to the couch and sinks into it. He places the box of donuts onto the table as he looks over to her. "Bad." he says simply. He was certainly not in any rush to relive the experience, but it needed to happen. Papers would need to be filed. Reports written. Might as well get it out of the way now. "We made camp in a tunnel. Some sort of-... I don't know? Military bunker or
something. Kept us out of the heat. Went out every day looking for supplies, but that place-..." he gives a shake of his head, "...There's hardly anything left. Just one big beach without water."
Vasquez slips down from the armrest into the seat next to Jason, studying him as she listens. "I-... I'm sorry we didn't reach you sooner. If I'd know what happened..." she says, aware there was little they could have done to come sooner, but unable to avoid a sudden feeling of guilt at taking so long to get them out of that wasteland world. She places a hand on his knee as she speaks again. "I'm... just glad everyone made
Jason nods, his gaze moving down to Vasquez' hand. He slips his own hand over hers before his gaze moves back to her. "You did what you could. And you saved our lives, Linda. Nothing to be sorry about." He gives her hand a squeeze as he sits back, giving a deep sigh, "But there is something I need to tell you... But I need you to promise me you won't freak the fuck out, alright?"
Vasquez ' frown deepens, her gaze immediately meeting his. She was pretty sure she wasn't going to like whatever came next. "What, Jason?" she says, the fact that she has tensed up a little carrying over to her voice as well.
Jason bites his lower lip as she immediately tenses up and prepares to go into 'freak the fuck out' mode. His other hand comes up and rests on his midsection, gently brushing back and forth. "I'm pregnant." he deadpans, hoping to break the ice. A short snicker quickly follows up as he looks to her through a grin. "Really, I don't want this to be a big deal or anything, alright? Just... promise me you'll let me handle it, okay?"
Vasquez ' eyes go wide, and a single stuttered syllable escapes her open mouth before she realizes his statement makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. She furrows her eyebrows deeply, her expression confused and a little flustered. She shakes her head with a frustrated sigh. Not quite as amused as him. "Just tell me, Jason. What. Is it?"
Jason gives a sigh and shakes his head. "Fine, fine... It's just-... Steve." he says, giving a glance towards the door, "You saw the condition he was in, right? Like I said... it happened when he, Nathan and Ehanis went to make a trade with Kell and his people. Only-..." he tilts his head to the side, trying to come up with a way of phrasing it. He didn't want to sell his team out or throw them under the bus, but he sure as hell
wasn't going to lie to Vasquez, either. It needed to come out so it could be sorted. "....Only it happened after I directly ordered them not to go to Kell's compound... They were on their way when Seriah told us how Kell operates." He pauses, shifting a bit uncomfortably in his seat, "...So I got them on comms, told them, called them back to our camp and they-..... they said no." He puts a hand up defensively, trying to
cut her off before she can get a word in, "It was stressful. We were low on supplies and running out of options. I don't agree with what they did, and I'm going to talk to each of them individually... I just don't want you to flip your shit and go off on them, okay? It wasn't exactly 'normal circumstances', you know? They thought that what they were doing was best for the team..."
Vasquez stares at him. "What?" she blurts out. "All three of them disobeyed your orders? Went rogue?" Her grip of Jason's knee has tightened unintentionally, and it's not hard to notice rapidly gathering anger in her voice. "What the HELL were they thinking?! What-... wait, what?!" She withdraws her hand, standing up as she finds it hard to remain sitting. "You don't want me to "flip my shit"?! Excuse me? They could've
gotten themselves killed! They could've gotten all of you killed! That's unacceptable!" she snarls, staring him down.
Jason raises his other hand as well, palm towards her. "I'm not defending them!" he chirps, "I'm going to talk to them. I just-..." he sighs, lowering his hands back down, "...I don't want this hanging over them. We get it out of the way, let them know that sort of shit isn't going to be tolerated, and then it's done. I know you have a tendancy to-... to-..." he winces and gestures towards the expression on her face, "You know.
That. Go into MDK mode. Murder. Death. Kill. Murder. Death. Kill." he says, "Like some sort of angry robot or something... Let me handle this. I've already got Ten coming in later this week to discuss it. And this way, if we keep the whole ordeal calm and civil, we can also avoid worrying Ilyna anymore than she already is. Her and Ehanis have a few things they need to work through and the last thing we need to do right
Vasquez ' anger seems to drain just as quickly as it appeared, her shoulders slumping as she looks down at Jason. Something he said clearly hit a sore spot, and she has little luck hiding the hurt look on her face as she walks over to the door where a few hooks line the wall, starting to unbutton the jacket of her Redrock uniform, which conveniently leaves her facing away. "Yeah. Alright. You handle it." she says, gritting
Jason winces as he spots her reaction and rises from the couch. "Oh come on, you know I didn't mean anything by it, Linda..." he sighs, "I was just joking... I just meant-..." he trails off, unsure of any way to put it that isn't hurtful. "You know I love you." he says, a great way to preface the delivery of any hard-to-accept news, "But you have this tendancy to... to........ when you're angry to........ to say things in a
way that......." he swallows hard as he stammers over his words, ".....That..... I mean you're just a passionate person! That's all! It's not a bad thing! It-... I-...... Did I remind you how much I love you?" he asks, hoping it's enough to sidestep finishing his sentence as he approaches Vasquez from behind and wraps his arms around her, leaning in to plant a kiss on her cheek as he interrupts her unbuttoning. "Just let me
take care of this one, okay? I promise, if they do it again I'll take a step back so you can jam their termination notices down their throats with your boot." he teases.
Vasquez shrugs Jason's arms away with a grunt, continuing to unbutton her jacket. "Don't you think I know-..." she snaps, before letting out a heavy sigh. "It's fine. If you'd rather handle it yourself, go ahead." she says, tugging the uniform jacket off and hanging it on one of the hooks. In a white tanktop now, she walks over to the bed, sitting down on her side and starting to pull at one of her boots.
Jason lets out a sigh as he follows her over towards the bed. "Come on, Linda, give me a break. I just spent the last week in a desert trying not to die. I'm exhausted and I didn't mean anything by it... You know that." he says, plopping down right beside her, "What's wrong?"
Vasquez nods slightly. "Yeah... I know." she says, not sounding too convincing as she pulls the boot off and moves on to the other one, gaze focused on her foot. When the second boot comes off, she's silent for a while before letting out a sigh, looking at him. "You're right. You were there. It was your orders. It's better you handle it." She sounds sincere this time, but there's a hint of sadness in her eyes as she leans
Jason nods softly as he puts an arm around Vasquez' shoulder. "I'll take care of it..." he says. "What's up?" he quickly leaves the topic of work behind as it becomes apparent that there's something wrong, "....Is everything alright?" he asks, hoping his comments didn't actually hurt her feelings.
Vasquez stares down at the floor as she nods faintly. "Yeah, I-... I'm fine. I was just-..." she closes her eyes for a moment, takin a deep breath. "I know... a lot of people see me that way. I... don't care about that. But... I don't want the... people I love, to look at me that way." she says with a small shrug, the gesture a little awkward with Jason's arm around her shoulder.
Jason furrows his brow as he studies her for a moment. "Wha-...? No, of course I don't see you like that, Linda! I was just joking.... Honestly. I mean-..." he gives her a squeeze, something of a one-armed shoulder hug, "...yeah, you are a bit of a hardass. And, sure, you've got... a little bit of a temper." he says, putting it lightly, "But that's just you. And I wouldn't trade it for anything." he gives her a lopsided smirk.
"Because at the end of the day? You come and drag my ass out of whatever shit I manage to get myself into and give me donuts. What more could I ask for?"
Vasquez lets out a half-chuckle, half-hum, a faint smile forming. She reaches for his free hand, slipping her fingers between his synthetic ones and giving the hand a squeeze. "Urgh... I'm sorry. I know you've had a rough week. I don't want to add to it." she says as she sits up again. "Just... relax. You've earned it."
Jason gives Vasquez' hand a squeeze in turn as he looks down to their fingers intertwined. Sure, they aren't his real fingers, but if giving up his arms was the cost to have her back at her side, then it wasn't much of a sacrifice. It was the only choice. "It's fine." he says, offering her a tired, but sincere grin. "We've got a long couple of weeks ahead of us, too." he reminds her, "We've got Halloween to plan for Li... Reports
to write about the job. Should probably try and get that footage to someone official so they know we didn't just knock Zelyner and his crew off. And at some point we'll need to interview the drell, Seriah..." he lists off. He furrows his brow, giving her a sidelong glance. "I-... I feel like I'm forgetting something..." he says, a confused look crossing his face, but it soon gives way to a big bright smile.
Vasquez ' mirrors Jason's smile, the thought of the wedding quick to bring her mood up, but she can't help but get stuck on one of the other things he mentions. "The drell... what are we doing with her? Seems like we've been bringing in a new stray every other mission... how much communication have you been able to establish?"
Jason gives a shrug of his shoulders. "Korio can speak to her." he says, his smile slowly fading at the idea of all he hoops they still need to jump through to put this job behind them, "And by 'speak', I mean they understand a few of the same words." He waves the entire question off with a shake of his head, "How about we just-.... ignore that little wrinkle for now, yeah? We can worry about all of that when I'm done scooping